However, she admits the likelihood that her grief and distraction had prevented her from tending with the proper attention to her garden. She denotes that though she is not entirely certain that she believes the superstition applies in practical reality, she tends to communicate her feelings to her plants on a regular basis now. She feels a greater emotional connection to them now as she strives to keep her garden vibrant. From my discussion with my neighbor, I actually found that the superstition had rendered an interesting condition in her. Namely, she has chosen to perpetuate the superstition not just based on an experience which suggested only a specious connection between death and her garden but perhaps based on the unconscious connection between the memory of her husband and the vibrancy of her garden. In this regard, it must be seen as a positive condition of belief for my neighbor, who offsets both her loneliness and her grief over the loss of her husband by establishing the level of emotional...

Ultimately, the ebb and flow of life in a garden makes this context ripe for analogy to the human experience. That we also invest so much physical and emotional energy into maintaining these elements of life that beautify our space and ornament our surroundings suggests that we are, beyond superstition, inherently connected to nature. Any desire to retain this human connection to nature, often rendered so remote by the conditions of modernity, should be seen as emotionally, culturally and psychologically valuable.
Works Cited:

Phipps, N. (2007). Superstitions in the Garden Realm. Associated Content.

Somerville, C.A. (2009). Farming Superstitions and Superstitions About Plants. Associated Content.