Have you ever noticed that it’s sometimes hard to feel motivated? It can feel like life in general requires more effort. It’s almost as though you’re covered in barnacles and progress is difficult. You feel sluggish. That feeling is common among all of us. At times we all need to refresh.
When boats are in seawater, it doesn’t take long for barnacles to build up—sometimes within just a few days. Once they’ve attached to a boat’s hull, they can grow up to several centimeters in height within just weeks. Barnacles create drag on your boat, slowing it down, causing the engine to work harder and consume more fuel. They can even affect your ability to steer.
The solution often requires you to hoist your boat into the air with a crane, pressure wash the barnacles away, use a strong chemical cleaner, and then apply a special coating that will slow the growth and attachment of unwanted organisms.
Barnacles don’t only grow on ships. They’re often found on whales, turtles, and even lobsters! Sometimes, it even feels like they’re growing on our brains or within our souls. The more time we spend immersed in any one thing, the more likely we are to find it hard to perform. We burn out. We need variety—a change of scenery. But not all scenery is equal. Some changes are far better than others. The best way to clear our minds is by stepping away and spending time in nature. Like a boat that’s lifted away from the water for cleaning, we need to get away and refresh.
This is why we grow plants. We want to fill yards and parks with living breathing flora. We want to line roads and sidewalks with trees, shrubs, and perennials that will enrich our lives. We want to reduce the costs of heating and cooling your home by placing trees in just the right places. We want to make your outdoor living space refreshing and reviving—and plants are the answer. They’re the solution to the doldrums we sometimes feel—or at least a significant part of it.
If you're looking for inspiring ways to bring energy into your landscape, browse our online catalog, visit us here at the farm and drive the grounds in a golf cart, or meet with one of our gifted designers. We'd love to share our expertise with you and introduce you to some amazing cultivars that will thrive in your yard!
We’re sure you’ve noticed that, as communities grow, open space is swallowed up by roads, parking lots and other structures. Development is necessary to accommodate growth, but it can leave us lacking an essential connection to the earth and the energy of living things. With each generation, we’re further removed from the anchors that revive us. We’re losing our connection to nature and the power that enlivens it. We’re suffering the effects of that absence in our day-to-day lives in the form of increased stress, anxiety, and burnout. We’re sluggish.
Not only are we spending more time indoors, but the world just outside our doors is being overrun with asphalt, cement, and gravel. These hardscape elements definitely have their appropriate place in your landscape, but if you want to feel refreshed through nature, you need to surround yourself with the beauty and energy of plants and the wildlife that they attract. We aren’t saying that stress and anxiety would be completely removed from our lives simply by reconnecting with nature, but there have been decades of studies that show that being outdoors in the sunlight, among the plants, has a rejuvenative effect on our heart, mind, and spirit.
Plants are essential for your physical and mental health. Medical journals are filled with articles focused on the positive effects of meditation and breathing exercises. Those benefits are magnified when you are surrounded by living, breathing plant life. Resting in the shade of a tree, feeling the breeze on your cheeks, and listening to the song of birds and the hum of bees actually improves your health. Add to that the activities associated with simple garden maintenance or recreation with family and friends, and your mental and physical health grows even stronger.
In fact, several decades of research has shown that plant life benefits individuals and communities in countless ways. Spending time in green spaces improves concentration and memory retention, enhances learning capacity, reduces stress and depression, accelerates healing, improves performance and energy. All of these benefits result in lower healthcare expenses.
Plants make stronger communities. Improving a neighborhood with plants and trees has been shown to reduce crime and increase community pride. Plants improve air quality and trap carbon dioxide. Plant life will offset the effects of heat islands that are caused by paved parking lots and cement construction. Plants help reduce flooding and erosion by slowing rainwater runoff.
There are economic benefits as well. Businesses that enhance their property with beautiful plant life attract more customers and those customers tend to spend a little extra because they enjoy the ambiance and feel less stress while shopping. Hotels and apartments enjoy increased occupancy rates when their grounds are filled with thriving plants. These plants need to be maintained, creating new jobs for the community. When one area demonstrates that they care enough to beautify their grounds, it has a ripple effect on the surrounding areas. Before long, new businesses and homeowners are attracted to those neighborhoods. Progress is more fluid and movement is more free. The same thing can happen in your neighborhood. When you improve your landscape, it won't be long before some of your neighbors follow suit; improving curb appeal throughout the area and raising property values.
In reality, barnacles don’t just live in warm salt water. There are invisible barnacles all around us, growing in our communities, our neighborhoods, our backyards, and even inside our bodies and minds. If we aren’t careful, we can become sluggish, clouded, stressed, and burned out. These invisible barnacles can lead to dilapidation in our communities, heat islands, poor air quality, and even crime. But plants are the answer.
As we reconnect with the soil and create gardens, plant trees, and improve the beauty around us, the barnacles fall away and we become free. Free to move. Free to dream. Free to breathe. Free from stress and burnout. The answer is waiting for you just outside your door. Together, we can create your idyllic escape—your new favorite place to refresh. We know that as people find their way back to the earth, one garden at a time, eventually the whole community will be stronger, healthier, and more grounded.
