For many gardeners, gardening is a moving meditation that brings peace and deep relaxation. At times, however, repetitive chores can feel more stressful than soothing. The authors of The Sanctuary Garden remind us that being in the garden (as opposed to active gardening) is a way to honor the intrinsic relatedness of people and plants. To help us get beyond our busyness, they identify seven key design elements that can turn a garden into a living retreat or sanctuary. A special entrance marks our departure from the mundane world. Water, the symbol of life, brings flow and reflection to the garden. The thoughtful use of color and the play of light can be contrived to deliberately evoke emotions--peace, comfort, awe, and respect. Natural features like sculptural rocks, wind song, and fragrance can become focal points for our attention. Artwork that supports the desired feelings can be integrated into our plantings. Finally, we can create attractive habitat for birds, pollinators, and animals. Sharing the garden with nature--not just plants--broadens our sense of connectedness to the natural world in a wholesome, healing way. The book creates a challenge: where is your sanctuary? Answering that may expand both your garden and your spirit. --Ann Lovejoy


Book Description
Use the power of nature to find peace in your own backyard and enrich your life.A garden can be far more than a place to plant a row of zinnias or tomatoes -- it can be a place of sanctuary. With the help of The Sanctuary Garden you can make your own yard or garden a place of serenity, peacefulness, and beauty. No matter how large or small your garden is, it can provide a sense of safety and comfort. And through a deep relationship with nature based on intention, reflection, and contemplation, each of us can gather strength, and our spirits may be renewed.Ask most gardeners what gardening is and they are likely to tell you that it is primarily about plants -- which ones to select, grow, propagate, and nurture. But as you will discover in this book, the seven design elements of a sanctuary garden speak less about vegetation than they do about other often overlooked considerations such as:Creating a special entrance that invites the visitor into a sense of sanctuaryEffectively using water for its psychological, spiritual, and physical effectsCreatively using color and lighting to elicit emotion, comfort, and awe in the visitorCreating sitting areas that enfold the visitor into the sanctuary experience by providing a place of rest for body and soulHighlighting natural features as anchor points, including the use of rocks, wood, natural fences, screens, trellises, wind, and sound to evoke emotionIntegrating art that enhances the overall moodProviding habitat and features to attract a diversity of wildlife to share your sanctuaryIllustrated with eight radiant full-page watercolors and hand-drawn illustrations, The Sanctuary Garden: Creating a Place of Refuge in Your Yard or Garden offers a unique guide to living your life and designing your garden with purpose, contemplation, and, above all, harmony.


About the Author
Christopher Forrest McDowell and Tricia Clark-McDowell founded the world-renowned Cortesia Sanctuary and Center for Natural Gardening and Healing, a 22-acre sanctuary near Eugene, Oregon, where they teach, write, and make their home.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1The Garden as Sacred PlaceWe may have to learn again the mystery of the garden: how its external characteristics model the heart itself, and how the soul is a garden enclosed, our own perpetual paradise where we can be refreshed and restored.Thomas MooreThe Re-enchantment of Everyday LifeThere is a theology is a theology to gardening that few of us consider, but to understand this theology means relinquishing much control -- our arsenal of books, techniques, tools, chemicals, fertilizers, fancy hybrids, and expectations. Yet, that is exactly what we must do if we are to fully embrace a more spiritual form of gardening. As a part of Nature we must learn to enter our garden as if it were truly sacred, we must learn to enter with humility.The garden itself is not fully Nature, for Nature is much more untamed and powerful. Nature is for the most part indifferent to our human will, and a gardens walls are just not high enough to keep out the will of Nature.I have seen Nature fly over our garden fence as a seed to unexpectedly plant itself next to the maple tree. Each spring I notice when She journeys from another part of the Earth as a swallow to nest within the fir next to my writing studio. Her rain crosses oceans, mountains, and plains to pour mineral-rich nourishment into the soil. As a mole, She burrows beneath the gate from the adjacent field, to make a summer home by the strawberries. And, late in the day, I have seen Her cast an orange sunset glow from the horizon onto the wisteria arbor. These faces of Nature do not depend upon a garden to conduct their daily or seasonal ritual, nor do they acknowledge human boundaries.As gardeners, however, we do enclose Nature. And we do call it our garden, but in so doing how many of us realize the opportunity we have to create an extraordinary partnership between ourselves and the Earth?One of the most powerful examples of our relationship to the land came to me when witnessing the end of the war in Bosnia. I was touched to learn that the first act of many of the citizens of Sarajevo after the war was to till and plant their gardens. This in itself was a brave gesture, one full of trust that, after many previously short-lived truces, the war could now truly be called over. Imagine the value of that little plot of Nature in each householder's life, and the sense of safety they must have felt despite recent horrors. Elevated to a critical symbol of survival for body and spirit, we could even say the garden was a sacred place worth fighting for. To be sure, the gardens of the citizens of Sarajevo signified hope, security, peace. And, in this sense, each garden was a sanctuary.When Tricia and I began gardening we were, in a way, reclaiming a spiritual relationship with the Earth. It is not by accident that about the time we began our efforts we were deeply affected by the philosophy of Saint Francis. Francis's Canticle for Brother Sun and Sister Moon reflected our love and passion for Nature and God, but it was the ancient French word, cortese, that best exemplified our intentions. Cortese literally means manners, or specifically the behavior and etiquette expected of one who serves at a noble court. The most obvious English translation is "courtesy," but courtesy today has a more superficial meaning than it did long ago. The original use of the word cortese was to describe nobility of character and conduct, that is, the recognition of rights, duties, gifts, and privileges as they exist in a reciprocal relationship.Standing amidst our garden, the breath of long-forgotten spirits calling out through the surrounding towering firs, Tricia and I were transported to a whole other way of living on Earth. Not just in our garden, we discovered, but in our marriage, family, friendships, service to others, and our relationship to the Divine. Each day became a journey into the garden of our soul, and this Cortesian philosophy reacquainted us with an old philosophy of oneness with all of life on Earth. It is quite significant that the first ornament we brought to our land was a statue of St. Francis, where to this day in our meadow it has weathered the many seasons of our actions and the rhythmic flow of Nature.Clearly, the creation of a Sanctuary Garden is just one step toward honoring a different vision of the world. A Cortesian philosophy, expressed through the concept of sanctuary, reconnects us with something very soulful about life on Earth. It asks us to consciously consider establishing a covenant that helps to answer this key question: "How can I live on Earth today so that my life and all other life is served well?"We believe the answer to this question lies in embracing love and goodwill. Love in its Earthly manifest form must surely be the Nature which enfolds our total beingness both inwardly and outwardly. Love is the garden we grow in and the garden that grows within our soul. If we forget Nature, we forget how to love, and in forgetting how to love, we forget how to garden.THE SANCTUARY GARDEN AS A SACRED STORYThe story of gardening is not too different from that of sanctuary. Almost every culture on Earth has a creation myth that embodies a paradise or safe haven. Many cultures describe this paradise in terms of a garden wherein dwells peace and harmony among all creatures and vegetation. In fact, the word paradise comes from the 2400 year old Persian word pairi-daeza, meaning "beautiful fenced-in garden."Theologian Matthew Fox speaks of the "original blessing" of creation, as it is characterized in the mythical Garden of Eden. Part of the mystique of this blessing of creation is the idea of sacred enclosure, suggesting the safety of a Divine Matrix. This sense of sacred containment is just as valid when describing our garden as it is in describing our human body, planet Earth, or even the form of a tree, rock, or animal. Each form of life, therefore, can be seen as a type of sanctuary, a haven into which the energy of Nature and God is poured as an act of love.When you create a garden with deep intent, you are creating a sacred place in which, like the Divine, you can pour out your love, creativity and compassion. You are, in a sense, creating a small sanctuary in which your soul and the soul of the world may dwell. This sanctuary garden becomes your own creation story to nurture within the body of this Earth -- your form of Eden. And, as this paradise grows outside, so it grows as well within your heart.In many respects, sanctuary cannot be defined adequately in plain physical terms, for it resides both within the soul and in the world. We find it sometimes as grace during the day -- a special place or relationship that comforts us, regenerates our spirit, and deepens our connection to life. But we also find sanctuary outside of time and place. In sanctuary we can re-experience a natural religion removed from human dogma, conflict, or argument. Benches become pews, trees become preachers, and the choir of flowers sing in great joy to the wind's organ voice. Mountain gardens -- those intimate and expansive wild-flower meadows, boulder-strewn amphitheaters, brooks, and lakeside waysides -- are ancient sanctuaries. But even in our backyard we can hear and witness God naturally outside our backdoor -- between our toes, warm on our skin, abuzz.If you create a Sanctuary Garden in your life, remember why you are doing so. It has something to do with nurturing peace within and without, with fostering a relationship in a special place, even if it is simply a chair sitting on your porch or balcony with a few potted plants. Let that be your Sanctuary Garden. The purity of your devotion and intention is what matters, and not what other people think. When you practice reverence for life, nonjudgement, and compassion, you are giving of yourself to bring more joy, beauty, hope, and peace into the world. By embracing your sacredness you are prepared to embrace the sacredness of the world. Do these things and you become the Keeper of your garden, and the Keeper of your soul.The beginning, for each of us, of our spiritual reconstruction is a reverential treatment of life. Reverence, in and of itself, emerges as a deeper understanding of the ecology of place, of Earth, and of ourselves. It is not only a principle of understanding and receiving the beauty of the world. It is a principle of appropriate behavior. Reverence for life means re-enchantment with the world and celebration of the miracle of its creation.THE SANCTUARY GARDEN AS A SACRED HEARTHThe concept of the hearth is sorely missing in modern culture, commonly replaced by the blue glow of television and its mute observers. Although the idea of a hearth is often attached to a fireplace, it is probably the feeling a hearth evokes that gives it great value. The hearth is a place where interaction, communication, and sharing is alive: the telling of stories, the teaching and construction of handicrafts between generations, the sense of communion and safety. It is a sacred place where the feeling of family, home, land, friends, thoughts, and God renews hope.Hearth is a powerful symbol. Now, imagine a place where beings, species, vegetation, and natural elements such as water, wind, light, and sound are honored. Your Sanctuary Garden, whether you realize it or not, is like a home, and can become a welcome hearth.In this one word -- hearth -- we see several words that remind us of a more noble way of living and being of service on Earth. First, there is the very word earth, to remind us that this Earth and the soil out of which everything seems to grow is a sanctuary itself worthy of honoring. We also see in hearth the words ear and hear, to remind us of our human duty as Keepers to listen and be aware of the needs of all beings, species, and spirits. The word art is also there to remind us of that which seizes and arrests our soul -- the artistry, craft, beauty, and thrift that is Nature and the creative expression of humans. And finally, there is heart, as in heartfelt. It is truly the feeling and thinking heart that can remind and lead us continuously to a higher self that is hopeful, reverent, gracious, humble, honoring, courteous, and respectful.When you ponder the creation of your Sanctuary Garden, you are setting in motion spiritual energy. This is the natural outcome of defining a boundary or location with reverent intent, and creating what the ancient Greeks called temenos, or "sacred enclosure." Like a hearth or shrine, it becomes empowered by repeated visits, by good deeds, by the desire to honor the nature of spirit and the spirit of Nature in their most simple or complex forms.Your garden, therefore, as simple or complex as you desire it to be, contains a spirit reflective of the marriage between human and Nature. Created as a sanctuary, it is a safe haven between you, the Earth, and the Divine. It is of Nature. It is of Spirit. It is of body and soul that creates a spiritual bond between human and Nature.We have found that one of the first and most important gestures in establishing a Sanctuary Garden is defining its place and honoring it with a name. The simplicity or extravagance of a garden is not important in its naming, although the mere mention of the White Garden at Sissinghurst Castle in England conjures up images of one of the most revered and imitated gardens in the world. Let your garden's name represent your fondness for Nature. Consider having a sign made with your garden's name on it to hang near the entrance.We named our sanctuary and gardens Cortesia to reflect our reverence for life. After you give your garden a name, we encourage you to create a ceremony that gives birth to its setting. You may even wish to create a journal in your sanctuary's name, and to chronicle the history of your relationship to it. On a stormy winter day, your garden stories can make wonderful reading by the warmth of a fire, and they can serve to rekindle fond memories.

FROM THE PUBLISHER