Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries

Ep 263 - Doing Nothing and Everything: Wisdom from Nature & Gardens

• Mary Stone • Episode 263

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On a cool, humid summer morning from her screened porch, Mary Stone reflects on the richness of slowing down. 

From a modest vegetable harvest and the gift of one perfectly ripe cherry tomato to birdwatching, fledgling birds, wandering goats, and the hidden life beneath our gardens, she discovers that doing nothing is often far from doing nothing at all.

Join Mary as she explores gratitude, presence, the wisdom found in simply noticing, and the many ways nature and gardens continue to nurture us—even when they don't produce as we'd hoped.

In this episode:

  • Why a tiny garden harvest brought unexpected joy
  • The hidden purpose of voles and poison ivy
  • Birdwatching as a practice of presence
  • Dennis Briede's inspiring "sit" tradition
  • Garlic scapes, beet greens, and a little garden humor
  • What nature and gardens teach us about patience, hope, and letting life unfold

Sometimes the greatest discoveries aren't found by doing more, but by slowing down long enough to notice what nature has been offering all along.

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Thank you for listening and for sharing the Garden of Life.🌻


More about the Podcast and Column:

 Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

 It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in, in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone 
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
Direct Link to Podcast Page

Ep 263 - Doing Nothing and Everything: Wisdom from Nature & Gardens

Sat, Aug 01, 2026 4:03PM • 11:44

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Garden Dilemmas, nature inspirations, vegetable garden, harvest challenges, morning pages, Julia Cameron, deer damage, green beans, gratitude, bird watching, Namaste, stress reduction, natural world, garden lessons, screen porch.

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone

 

Mary Stone  00:00

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other; we have lots to talk about. 

 

Mary Stone  00:26

Hello there, it's Mary Stone on the screen porch, and it's humid as it can be. We had three and a half inches of rain just a little bit ago, but it's a cool morning, and it feels kind of refreshing out here. Although I see the steaming mist of the morning, I'm getting out here before the cicadas start to sing that late summer song that we are so familiar with. But before we begin, I want to thank those of you who reached back after our last episode, "Beneath the Surface: The Mystery of the Missing Roots." When I sent the story to my newspaper editor, I apologized that I didn't have a photograph of a vole. After all, they spend most of their lives underground. I've seen them from time to time along the road, perfectly intact, as if meeting an unfortunate end. But somehow, taking a photograph of the little critter always felt a bit strange. Melissa, my editor at the press, replied with a smile. Voles are so soft. My one cat likes to gift them to me quite often. Probably not photo worthy, though. That made me laugh. 

 

Mary Stone  01:30

As I reflected on last week's story, I found myself thinking about something we've talked about before. We can't change critters, and we can't change people. I'm learning that more and more through our conversations that we share. Nature keeps reminding us that so much of life isn't ours to control. 

 

Mary Stone  01:50

One of the greatest gifts nature and gardens offer is teaching us to do Nothing. Well, perhaps not in my vegetable garden. That could almost become a case study in what happens when you don't do anything or don't do enough. Its harvest certainly isn't abundant, but the fruits it does give me bring enormous joy. I thought I'd share a little from my morning pages, a practice I learned through Julia Cameron's wonderful book, *The Artist's Way*:

 

Mary Stone  02:19

 The morning after a particularly long work day, I wrote that yesterday was a marathon. The landscaper who was supposed to meet me never showed up. It was an hour and a half drive each way, followed by eight hours of pruning and weeding and hauling debris. The heavy rains had thrown him off his schedule, and no one thought to let me know. So fortunately, my clients were wonderfully gracious and even offered to help pile up the branches. By the time I got home and tended to Jolie, we walked to the mailbox, and I caught my breath. I should tell you my mailbox is like a third of a mile away, so it's a nice little jaunt. I wandered into my vegetable garden. It honestly is a bit of a mess. The zucchini plants are sprawling everywhere, flowering beautifully but not producing anything. Nearly three inches of rain flattened much of the foliage. While my beets are not really ready to harvest, I harvest them anyway because I love the greens, and I picked a few carrots as well. They were very tiny, but the greens are supposed to be good. Although I sampled them and they seemed a bit bitter, so therefore I didn't include them in my stir fry of beet greens and beets, garlic, and oil, by the way, salt and pepper- delicious. 

 

Mary Stone  03:36

Earlier in the season, deer nibbled my first planting of green beans before I staked them and put up the deer netting; only one plant survived-just one. I planted more seeds, though, so I have more beans growing. But hanging from that one plant, the lone survivor, were 10 perfect green beans dangling like tiny ornaments. I absolutely loved harvesting them. They were delicious, and I included them in my stir fry. But just as enjoyable was washing them, photographing them, preparing them, and finally eating them. I happened to be talking with my singing partner, Ken Roberts, through the whole process. Afterward, I told him I needed to veg out. He laughed and asked, "So, what vegetable would you be, without missing a beat? I answered, "A beet, of course. I'm beet, and I hate beets. I still smile every time I think about it. 

 

Mary Stone  04:29

I was not disappointed by my little harvest, given Everything happening in my personal life. This especially busy season added to that. I simply haven't been able to give the vegetable garden the attention I had hoped, yet so many fruitful things are growing elsewhere in my life, and you know what? The fruits in my garden are extra special because they are nominal and small. 

 

Mary Stone  04:53

My birder buddy Dennis Briede has generously offered his cucumbers and wax beans and something entirely new to me, garlic scapes. If you've never heard of them either, they're the curling flower stalks that grow from the hard neck garlic. Gardeners remove them so that the plant puts energy into developing larger bulbs. See that I'm always learning something. They have a wonderful mild garlic flavor and are delicious sautéed or grilled or blended into pesto — another unexpected gift from a garden, even though it wasn't mine. Thank you, Dennis. 

 

Mary Stone  05:28

There was one cherry tomato in my garden. It was perfectly ripe, and it dropped onto the ground. It was absolutely a stunning little tomato. I loved it. I picked it up, and I brought it inside with such appreciation, and I relished it. There are more tomatoes growing now, but there was something about that one tomato that just-I don't know-was extra special. I guess it's because it's the first one, and maybe that's the lesson. Perhaps we could receive everything life gives us with that same gratitude, whether it's one tomato or 10 green beans or the kindness of a friend. 

 

Mary Stone  06:08

Doing Nothing doesn't necessarily mean we're accomplishing Nothing. Sometimes the most important work is simply noticing. Earlier the same day, Jolie flushed what I believe were several young birds from a shrub along the back walkway. I think they were fledging. I immediately said, "Leave it," and she did. The little birds fluttered nervously while their mother protested loudly from the nearby branches. I mentioned it to Dennis, and he smiled and explained they likely were fledging indeed-not ground-nesting birds at all, but youngsters just learning the next stage of life. 

 

Mary Stone  06:45

Dennis has another practice I admire. He calls it doing a sit. He'll spend as much as six hours on his deck with binoculars and a notebook in hand, recording every bird species he sees. Six hours? Can you imagine? He's invited me more than once; I don't know that I can manage six hours, but perhaps I can begin with one. Maybe that's exactly what we all need right now-to simply sit, watch, and listen, and witness nature unfolding, life unfolding.

 

Mary Stone  07:16

Someone might come along and say, "Hey, what are you doing?" And you could honestly answer, "Nothing," but you're really doing quite a lot. You're allowing yourself to witness the extraordinary hidden within the ordinary. Have you ever looked at a spider weaving in an intricate web with astonishing symmetry? And how do they know how to do it? And birds building nests- how do they know too? Does somebody teach them? Even the tiny cellar spiders in my bathroom that I let remain until well, the family became a little too large. Let's just say I had to move them into the barn. They didn't seem to mind. 

 

Mary Stone  07:57

There's a word that people say after a yoga practice, and that is Namaste. While often translated as "I bow to you," it has a deeper meaning. The divine light in me honors the divine light in you. There's something beautiful about approaching nature that way too. 

 

Mary Stone  08:17

Bird watching has become increasingly popular, and I understand why. Studies suggest it reduces stress and it sharpens our attention. It lifts our mood, and it helps us feel more connected to the natural world. It may appear we're doing Nothing, yet we're nourishing something deep inside ourselves. We are restoring our souls. 

 

Mary Stone  08:38

Yesterday, while working with another client in her garden, I pulled countless thistles from a ground cover bed. I happily left the poison ivy alone. One case this year was quite enough. Thank you very much. As troublesome as poison ivy can be for us, its berries feed birds. Deer browse it. Even bears eat it. Every living thing has a place in the cycle of life. Just as we discovered with voles, they may chew roots. We'd rather they didn't, but they also aerate the soil, and they disperse seeds and provide food for the owls and foxes, snakes, hawks, and countless other creatures. Life below the surface supports life above it.

 

Mary Stone  09:21

 In that same garden I was working in, I discovered that the weigelia was struggling for the same reasons. Their roots were becoming another vole buffet. We pruned away the dead branches. A few small living shoots remained, and they looked kind of goofy. But I left them in the garden, hidden by all the other plants. What do you have to lose, right? And they may surprise us, and maybe they won't. But the hope itself is worth preserving, don't you think? 

 

Mary Stone  09:53

I've shared before that I often make notes to you as I'm walking Jolie, and I wrote this—as I finish walking my route this morning, I hear the farmer across Cobblewood calling his goats. He's carrying feed over his shoulder, speaking to them as though they are dogs, and maybe they are in a way. Most of them happily following, but there were two other determined souls who had other ideas. I admire farmers, although I don't think it could ever be one, but I deeply respect those who farm with integrity and kindness and gratitude and care, for both the land and the creatures entrusted to them. They understand something gardens teach us over and over again: that we don't control life; we participate in it by working hard, sometimes patiently waiting, and other times we do Nothing at all but observe and watch and notice and restore ourselves in care and kindness to ourselves. So until next time, I hope you spend a little time in your own garden or among nature, or with somebody else's garden if you're not a gardener. Enjoy just looking at it and discover the many lessons that wait there. They're always speaking to us, gardens in nature. Our role is to slow down long enough to listen. Thanks so much. See you next time on the screen porch. 

 

Mary Stone  11:14

You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at garden dilemmas.com, and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas, delights, and discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch. And always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.