Meditating on Terminology

I was working on my first "open-ended" gardening project at my good friend jcmg's in the bay area about 10 years ago when i started wondering what the term "gardening" actually referred to...

when an activity is called one thing, that means it isn't being called other things...
the term "plant growing", for instance seems to be referring to a discrete set of skills
while the term "gardening" seems distinctly to refer to an art
the art of what?
making garden(s)

hypothesis: gardening is the art of raising the energy level of the entire spatial area in and around the garden, including anything which can be influenced by the garden/gardener

i found this hypothesis to be instantly clarifying and very inspirational, and still do
and understanding of the implications of the principle can develop...indefinitely!

if the art is to be appreciated by other humans (who may not want to crawl around under brush) then one also (part B) needs to integrate some places-to-be and some ways-to-get-there, a la patios/clearings and paths

in what ways and to what extent this 'raising of the energy level' happens in this or that spot have a lot to do with the 'art of any particular garden.

the gardener makes the choices and the efforts she can make at the time, and then -- what's so fascinating and thrilling about this artform -- "Nature" (for lack of a more evocative term) "happens", everywhere, on every scale, within and without the garden: a strong current of Life and energy flowing in and in-between everything

"time" goes by, and then the gardener enters the scene again and makes a few more alterations, additions or subtractions or rearrangements, the "tide" of Life comes in again, and ...one can experience the results!

Thankfully there's a lot of good help out there for us newby gardeners, and more and more each year. 40 years ago one really could get the impression (like even from Sunset magazine) that a "garden" should actually be a static and lifeless collection of plants , practically a trompe l'oeil prettying up the borders of a house lot
that was a dark time, actually

Now we know that our gardens are actually an opportunity to experience our connection to the vastness of all Life, most of which is, thankfully, non-human...