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When creating a garden, it is important to realize that many factors influence your success, and that they're not all within your control! The key is to set things up to maximize results, while minimizing effort and problems.
One of the first things to do when creating a garden is to select the space you're going to use. There are many factors to consider when choosing a site location, for example: it's not too rocky, the area gets the right amount of sun, and that it's not too wet. You may find that your choices are limited based on the land you have access to. Sometimes you have to work with what you've got, even though it isn't optimal. You have to make judgments and tradeoffs.
When considering our creative gardens, the first aspect of space to consider is the physical space needed to create. This may be as small as a place we can sit with our laptop and write, or as big as a studio where we can set out our clay, kiln, and glazes. The size of the space matters less than its "feel." Do you feel creative while you are in the space? A large space may actually be more overwhelming than a cozy creative space. You may feel you can never live up to a grand studio, but feel a cozy space next to the washer is just right.
The "space" also includes where our creativity belongs within our lives. It is easier to establish a creative practice with an abundance of time and space in your life. If you are in that situation now, take advantage of it by protecting your creative time into the future. Many of us have lives that are well-established, with other people, jobs, and many responsibilities, and we may feel a bit overwhelmed trying to find space to create! Yes, the land we have available to cultivate is somewhat rocky! That's just what we've got to work with. It doesn't mean that we must jettison the people and things that are important to us. We just have to learn to deal with rocks!
The most important part of creative space is not a physical space at all. The biggest challenge about creative space is whether you have a mindset that allows room for your creativity in your life. In a recent blog entry I explored the idea of viewing the world through your creativity, even if you are not actively creating on a specific project. This is part of it.
Beliefs about your creativity form another part of it. Do you have beliefs that enlarge your creative space, or that squeeze it down so that there is no room for creating at all? Believing that there is time for creating, that it is a priority in your life, that it has value to you, that it is part of your authentic self -- these are all beliefs that make more room in your life for creativity. If your beliefs surrounding creativity are expansive, creative space will start showing up in your life. | 
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