Sydney Eddison: Gardening with a New Perspective

There are a lot of things that change as one ages. And if you are a gardener, that’s no exception.

On Monday, author, speaker and gardening expert Sydney Eddison spoke at the as part of a program sponsored by the Simsbury Garden Club. Eddison, from Newtown, is passionately educating her fans about gardening as you get older.

The club’s vice president and co-program chair, Becky Latimer Kreczko introduced Eddison by listing her accolades, awards, published books and numerous magazine titles. She also talked about Eddison’s garden as it was in the summer of 1961 and how it’s changed over the decades.

“I can’t believe I have lived anywhere for fifty years. Fifty years in a garden is a really, really long time. A new young forest has grown up,” said Eddison.

The title of her lecture was appropriately named “Change: The Passage of Time in the Garden” and it coincides with her seventh book called Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser As You Grow Older.

She explained that as one ages one’s attitude toward the garden must change, just as nature changes. It is never stagnant, never staying still for a minute.

“That’s not the way nature works. It is ebb and flow, give and take,” she said, as she conveyed her message about pragmatic gardening that comes from her experience of having to let go of earlier ambitious gardening efforts.

As Eddison experienced her life changing with each decade, her garden also went through an evolution. 

“My garden really is my life and it has changed enormously, but so have I. That is what makes gardening fascinating,” she said.

Her guidelines for planting at this stage: her garden has to be vertical or horizontal — she has to either be able to stand or crawl.

“If someone tells you, you [physically] can’t bend, lift, or twist … I am still trying to make it simpler, simpler, and simpler,” she said.

She has no intention, however, of making her garden smaller or less enjoyable.

Her experience with becoming an aging gardener led her to the idea that she wasn’t alone, and so she wrote her the book Gardening for a Lifetime, which was published in 2010 and will be available in paperback April 13.

Dominique Browning described the usefulness of the book best in the New York Times Book Review (June 4, 2010) when she said, “I found it liberating to be given an excuse to ditch some of my backbreaking chores. Who’s waiting to grow old! I’m preparing for the future right now.”

“Even getting old is a creative effort. You really have to think about your time and energy. It is more finite, and that is a part of the gardening equation,” said Eddison.

“She is right,” said Peggy Hutton a club member who attended the lecture said. “Not many have written about this … I love the subject because I certainly can’t sit in a garden anymore.”

One example Eddison gave of her newfound attitude was when she described her garden in June. There is purposefully nothing in flower.

“It’s like a sigh. It is peaceful. I look out there and I don’t think, ‘oh my, two hours of deadheading.’ There is something to be said for that,” she said.

But don’t think Eddison hasn’t orchestrated flowers to bloom at all.

“It takes years,” she said, while showing slides of her synchronized blooming flower beds in her garden, “little by little you begin to get it. This was a triumph of greed for flowers.”

All the same, Eddison’s main message was acceptance of change as she shared experience after experience.

“I’ve learned one little trick, once you pull out something, do not panic. Do not rush to the garden center. Wait. It just plain looks better,” she said.

“She is so down to earth, and I am finding that her approach to gardening and change is a great lesson for life,” said Kreczko. “You are trying to extract beauty, extract something, but you can’t control all of the conditions which is exactly like raising a child.”

Kreczko joined the Simsbury Garden Club two years ago and isn’t really a gardener, but loves the group.

“It is a neat mix of people who love to get dirt under their nails and people who don’t love to do that. People will bend over backwards to help you. There is a sweet energy to the club,” she said.

Club members seemed to appreciate the program.

“You’re an inspiration,” Lenore Davis told Eddison.

“Wonderful program,” said Ginny McVicar.

Lyn Fierri liked her wit, and Andi Jepson said it was encouraging to listen to her. Carol Stoeke agreed adding, “My garden just grows.”

What is the most frequently asked question of Eddison?

“Unfortunately it usually is about deer,” she said. “There is no such thing as a deer proof plant. There are deer resistant plants, but no matter what I say about daylilies or design, it’s always deer.”

Eddison ended her program with the truth she has gleaned over the years about why has she spent so much time in her garden.

“It was about Martin (her now deceased husband), the garden, and me. The garden was an expression of being happy, and I am still happy. It is still there,” she said.