Sweet re-leaf

Marcus Bridgewater is a wellness educator and motivational speaker who shares personal-growth insights through plant metaphors. In previous his book, How to Grow: Nurture Your Garden, Nurture Yourself (HarperOne, 2022), Bridgewater explored the ways in which plants, gardens, community and the environment connect us and help us to grow.

Now, in his newest book, Seasons of Growth: A Journal for Well-Being Inspired by Trees (HarperOne, 2024), Bridgewater invites us to think of ourselves as trees growing through the different seasons. He notes that “a tree’s leaves, trunk and roots adapt to the different seasons and our minds, body and spirit must do the same.”

By observing the lessons of nature, cultivating purposeful practices and writing down our thoughts, says Bridgewater, we can learn how to slow down and find peace, balance and harmony. But like trees in a forest, Bridgewater emphasizes that we do not grow alone. “We affect and are affected by whom we grow with and where we grow — our community and environment,” he says.

“A huge proponent of what I talk about is where community meets environment and how important community is to growth. Every one of us as a member of that community has to be that much more conscious of ourselves and our contributions. Kindness, patience and positivity starts with us and builds out from there. I have seen a direct correlation to how impactful gardening is to both helping us to rebuild ourselves but also helping us to create quality communities.”

Bridgewater is the soft-spoken personality behind Garden Marcus on social media who has often been compared to Fred Rogers, host of iconic kids’ television show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, which aired from 1968 to 2001 on U.S. and Canadian public TV. He is founder and CEO of Choice Forward which offers a range of services including workshops, presentations, retreats and seminars. Through his unique approach to nurturing plants and his belief that nature inspires powerful healing practices, Bridgewater has engaged with people in countries all around the world. Prior to turning his attention full-time to writing, speaking and his online channel, Bridgewater lived in a monastery during his 20s and was also an administrator at a private preparatory school.

Bridgewater, 37, makes his home in Spring, Texas, where he grows hundreds of plants in his indoor and outdoor gardens. He does all the things that a gardener likes to do: growing and nurturing plants, propagating plants and nursing plants back to health.

When I met Bridgewater, I was impressed by his relaxed demeanour. But with all the busy demands of teaching, writing, travelling and speaking engagements, can he really be all that relaxed? He admits he is always doing something, and no second is wasted, but says he is busy in a way that has come naturally. “I’m uniquely disciplined in the way that there is nothing that I do that is not for some purpose. And I say uniquely, because I know that a lot of people don’t apply the same level of conscious thought to every choice they make.”

Take the simple act of watering a houseplant.

“There is something energizing about watching a plant perk up,” says Bridgewater. “There is scientific data that shows we are affected by watching a plant grow and change. So, any time I am watering my plants, I am also engaging in a type of conscious thought and observation by thinking about what that one plant needs but also stepping back and seeing that plant in relation to the other plants. Suddenly, watering a plant and a series of plants translates into your ability to see the correlation between yourself and whatever you are going to do next. A lot of times that is happening subconsciously, but by making it conscious and articulating it, you start to engage in the moment. And what that does is alleviate stress, which is invaluable.”

Bridgewater is motivated to help heal the anxiety and despair he has seen in young people. “I’m watching the youth give up, left and right,” he says. “It’s like there is no hope for their future. We are so disconnected from nature and from the principles of growth. We really have to go out and see how nature has weathered through storms, so we remind ourselves of resilience.”

Bridgewater is no stranger to challenges. Over a period of nine days in February 2021, a polar vortex weather event that came to be known as the Great Texas Freeze engulfed the entire state and damaged or destroyed countless plants. Exactly one year later, a severe arctic blast with ice accumulation killed more plants including some that had just begun to recover. “The back-to-back frosts really wiped out my outdoor garden,” says Bridgewater, “but plants are starting to come back.”

As a young child growing up in a small community with few resources, he was bullied at school for having a speech impediment. “I fit in nowhere, everyone made fun of me and I was always the kid on the outside of the circle.” He began writing down his thoughts and dreams in a journal at the age of eight. Journaling became a lifeline and helped him to foster his inner growth.

“If I was not writing down those thoughts,” says Bridgewater, “I might not be with you today. I might have been consumed by the negativity, consumed by the drama and made poor choices and not had enough reflection to see what I was seeing. A lot of people from my elementary school are not living now. I grew up in that kind of an area.”

Gardening came into his life when a friend’s mother closed her nursery and gave him several plants. “I killed half of them, but in the pursuit of trying to learn how to keep the rest of them alive, I found more joy, self fulfillment and more encouragement than I could have found anywhere. It was the perfect therapy for me.”

Bridgewater’s new book, Seasons of Growth, is comprised of four sections: Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. Each part features thought-provoking journal prompts, activities and mindfulness practices — even a stretching sequence to ease stress in your body. The Winter section invites readers to rest, reflect and prepare for spring. “The book is heavily centred on the wisdom of trees, because the tree is older and so much more structured than we are,” says Bridgewater.

Today Bridgewater refers to his indoor garden as his plant temple. “I take so much time and effort to curate this space, it is designed to elicit a type of energy — calm and peaceful.” This year he lost several plants to a pest infestation which reduced his indoor collection from 300 to 245 plants. “A lot of people would not think an infestation is a great learning experience, but I’ve learned a ton. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, and I don’t want it to happen again, but much like the other parts of my life, it has led to a space where I now have a great deal of information I can share with others to hopefully make their lives better.”

Bridgewater insists he does not have a favourite plant in his indoor garden, but says he loves philodendrons, pothos, bromeliads, orchids and Rex begonias.

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