“I always wanted to live in Vermont, and because I always get my own way, this is where I settled.  The first thing I did was plant daffodils ~ over a thousand.  The road was impassable, so I carried them in by backpack.  And my rhododendrons I brought in through a foot of snow in a wheelbarrow.”

~ Tasha Tudor

 

What makes a woman carry a thousand bulbs on her back up a snowy cliff to plant a dreamy field of daffodils? And what makes her wheelbarrow loads of rhododendrons through a foot of snow?  

The idea of it takes my breath away, because the vision that inspired her to do so must have been so grant, wild and almost otherworldly.

Delicate flowers and the wildness of Nature clearly resonated deeply with Tasha Tudor, so much so that she gave them centre stage in her life. Her profound passion strongly influenced her home, the way that she lived and her work as an illustrator. As it turns out the magnificent garden that Tasha Tudor nurtured into being was something quite extraordinary – vast expanses of flowering beauty like a picture straight out of a fairy tale world – and she, the hands and heart behind the master creation was just as extraordinary a person too.

When I see the pictures of Tasha Tudor’s garden and read about her life, it reminds me just how the wild essence within propels us towards extraordinary things. There are seeds and visions in our hearts so full the big things that are possible. There are yearnings and whispers that pull us towards so many things deemed unimaginable. Too often we dismiss them because they don’t fit the mould of what we’re told is reasonable or acceptable in modern day terms. But is there really any real reason why you cannot allow the pull of your wild soul to propel you towards extraordinary things?

What would happen if you said yes to planting a thousand hope-filled bulbs in the wild flowering meadow of your own heart soil? How much would be possible if we gave the brave stirrings within even half the chance that we give the voices of doubt?