Hello Lisa.

Welcome back to another edition of THE PENCIL CASE! Each issue explores a fresh theme to inspire new ways of thinking about garden design and graphics.

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This week, we're turning our attention to something I'm needing right now (and maybe some of you too): PRODUCTIVE STILLNESS in our gardens. We'll explore why our gardens feel like a sanctuary when the world feels loud. That urge to just go outside. I don't think it's an accident. I think our gardens are doing something essential for us right now, and it's worth pausing to understand what that is.

THE GARDEN DOESN'T KNOW

I walked outside the other morning with my coffee and the garden just…continued. The hellebores were nodding, a handful of squill had pushed through where the snow had only just melted, and somewhere above me a robin was singing. The soil smelled alive again. The light was soft and tentative. And I felt something loosen in my chest.

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Because the garden had no idea…no idea about any of the loudness outside its boundaries. It was just quietly, faithfully doing what it has always done. And standing there, I realized the best thing I could do was pick up my pruners and join it.

THE PARADOX OF PRODUCTIVE STILLNESS

There's a moment in early spring when the garden starts asking things of you. There are leaves to rake away from the paths, edges to redefine, the first tentative weeds to pull before they get any ideas. And here is the thing I have come to count on: the moment I pick up my pruners or grab my rake, something shifts.

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It's not magic. It's actually quite simple. Repetitive physical tasks like cutting back, weeding and raking occupy your hands just enough to quiet your mind. The work is absorbing without being demanding. Your body knows what to do, and so your thoughts, deprived of their usual urgency, begin to settle.

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Psychologists call this embodied cognition…the idea that what our bodies are doing directly shapes our mental state. It's the same reason people find calm in knitting, or bread baking, or throwing pots on a wheel. The hands are busy. The mind is finally, gratefully, free.

IT'S HONEST

And there is something else. In the garden, the work is honest. You can see exactly what you've done. That corner that was woven with last year's debris is now clear, and waiting, full of possibility. That border is defined again. In a world where so much feels unresolved and out of our hands, there is profound satisfaction in a task that has a beginning, a middle, and a visible end.

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This is the paradox of productive stillness: you come to the garden to find quiet, and you find it…not by doing nothing, but by doing something simple, and real, and good.

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This week, go find one small task your garden is asking of you. Cut back the ornamental grasses before their new growth gets tangled in last year's. Edge a border that has lost its definition over winter. Rake the gravel smooth in your walkways. Notice what happens to your mind when your hands get busy. That's the gift.

LET'S DO THIS! 

Spring is a busy time in the garden, plus for learning and listening. Check out some fun bits below:

>>10x10 Garden Design Tips Email Series: A small dose of inspiration delivered over 100 days.

>>Drafting Supply Club: An introduction to some of our favorite hand-drawing tools. Our evergreen course will be open soon. Please join our waiting list for updates.

>>Plan + Elevation: The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks: Tommy shared this lovely garden-inspired music composition by Caroline Shaw with me and it instantly calmed my soul.

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If you know someone that needs design inspiration, please feel free to share this newsletter. Anyone can subscribe right here. I also keep a VAULT of past issues in this secret location.

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May your hands find good work this spring, and may your mind be all the quieter for it.

From the studio + garden, 

Lisa 

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PAPER GARDEN WORKSHOP

Thank you to Mandy Orgler for designing the lovely graphics in all these newsletters.