Spring Gardens

The earth is you. You are the earth. When you realize there is no separation you fall completely in love with this beautiful planet.Thich Nhat Hanh, Love Letter to Earth

I love gardens. The a co-creation with the creator. With plans and seed packets and starts you can imagine a scene that will take whatever form it chooses. Some plants thriving, others failing. But over time, you come to know each other and work together. Some are peaceful, other's opulent and some a blend of wild and tame. This time of year gardens are on parade. Here are some of our favorite places to visit.

At Green Gulch Zen Center you can attend a meditation and dharma talk, a traditional tea ceremony or workshop. You can follow these up with a visit to their gardens, which are gobsmacking right now. You can head out on a hike from here, and either get into the hills or down to Muir Beach.

Golden Gate Park is in full glory. Their gardens include the show stopping Conservatory of Flowers,the cool, elegant Japanese Tea Garden and the multi-facted wonderland of the San Francisco Botanical Gardens.

The Berkeley Rose Garden has 1,500 rose bushes with 250 different varieties of roses. Do your sniffer a favor and go smell the roses! Not far from there is the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley that has everything from carnivorous plants to native redwood groves.

The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Arts in Napa has glorious grounds full of funky sculptures by Nor Cal artists. Western Hill Gardens in Occidental is now open to the public as a botanical garden.

The filoli gardens in Woodside offers high tea amongst the blooms and Villa Montalvo in Saratoga offers a combination of hiking in wilderness and carefully curated gardens.

Even if you can just take a walk around your block and admire the clouds during sunset, take the time to cultivate this love affair. Falling in love with planet earth is one of the biggest loves of your life.