Suzanne Askham

Wellbeing notes: Creating room for the wild

One spring, a cowslip appeared in the garden. We studied it carefully. Soft, velvety green sepals cupped yellow heart-shaped petals. Their fragrance seemed like the essence of the season. Year after year, more cowslips grew. We began to add the edible flowers to green salads, and to herbal teas. We agreed they were pretty, and a little citrusy, and they added a subtle freshness to our meals. 

I believe that every garden benefits from some wildness. Perhaps every person does too. In a world where people try hard to control outcomes, the touch of wildness that arrives uninvited can be just what people need, by way of respite from all their striving and hard work. It’s a special gift when a flower is brought by the wind, though helping nature along with a packet of native seeds is also a lovely thing to do. Native flowers will never be the biggest or showiest in the garden, but they bring a grace and lightness – maybe, a reminder to take ourselves lightly too. 

So, while tending our gardens and our lives, it can make sense to leave a little corner, here and there, just to see what starts growing in it. If nothing else, this policy can create idyllic landscapes, vibrant with bees and butterflies. As Robert Burns writes, “And wild-scatter’d cowslips bedeck the green dale.”

May cowslips bedeck all those places that might need a little extra love and beauty at this time.