A Day In My Life .. Walk Through Mum's Garden With Me! Auckland, NZ ...

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." Gertrude Jekyll, British Horticulturist and Garden Designer.

At 89 years of age, my mum has sown a lot of seeds and reaped a lot of harvests, in her garden and her life, and one of the greatest gifts that she has given her family is the love of a garden, and being outside in nature. A gift that, personally, I can't thank her enough for.

As well as selling plants and flowers, Mum's won many awards with her floral arrangements, orchids and bromeliads.

A family of gardeners in Auckland, New Zealand ...

In truth, it didn't start with my mum. For her, it started with her grandmother, and then for me, with my mum and my grandparents, and so it has continued on, to this day. And here she is now, with all of those plants behind her, her own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchild all loving nature, and herself, still going strong; still seen bent over, like a staple, as she digs more dirt, plants new crops, and pulls more weeds.

There is never a shortage of bathers in the water feature in mum's garden .. a New Zealand native Tui having a fun time!

"Cut Flowers For Sale", Browns Bay, Auckland, New Zealand

Leslie and Mabel, my grandparents, where they often were ... amongst the plants.

For years my grandparents sold cut flowers from their garage at the small beachside town called Browns Bay, on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. They had planted out their backyard with all sorts of flower plants, and I would go with my grandfather to pick greenery from the Macrocarpa trees in Albany, to add to the bunches that my grandmother would put together on a little, silver, metal table in the middle of their garage. The busy weekends would see all hands on deck as my mum and aunties would gather together in that little garage to help out with the selling and the floral arrangements. We would all gather around their dining table for lunch, with the hope of managing to get a word in amongst the gaggle of voices that were competing with each other to have their say; this was no place for the fainthearted! They weren't just planting seeds, but memories. They weren't just harvesting flowers, but a love of family and nature and life.

Plant your own seeds ...

And so, what's it all about? Flowers? Seeds? Plants? Yes, all of those things, and so much more. We all have our own 'gardens', those places that we get lost in, and treasure more than anything else; those places where we plant our precious seeds, and wait patiently for the harvest. Make sure to treasure them, nourish them, and water them. Your seeds, you, your life, and all that it means to you. You are a unique seed, and your nourishment is coming from the Source of Life itself, so take the time to sit quietly and nourish yourself, nurture your inner seed and grow. Grow as strong and as beautiful as the 'lilies in the fields', and the plants in my mum's garden; you just don't know who you are inspiring in the mere act of simply being the garden called You!