Pics of Maddo and I

Pushing through Spring

I've put off posting on here because I've been waiting for some pictures from 2 different friend's cameras, but decided I should just write now, and do the pictures later.

I've continued to base all of my gardening decisions on what people either give me or what I find along the way. With that I've come across some really healthy limitations, as well as some fun collisions of my desires and friend's generosity. The garden is still on the rough road to bringing life, and hasn't really done much improving on the death to life ratio, but right when it get's knocked back someone who is oblivious to the current situation sparks more inspiration into me.

One of those inspirations came from my friend's 4 year old Madison, who told me that she wanted to grow something in a pot. So I got a pot, soil, and seeds for her. When I asked her what she wanted to plant she said "Tomatoes and Squash" (I don't know why she chose squash). The tomato has already sprouted, but the squash is still germinating. That was really encouraging for me and reminded me of the life you can get out of not just gardening, but also just how fun it is to hang out with kids and teach them a bit of how things work (I feel like I'm a kid when it comes to garden knowledge, though.).

Two other cool things were that I had a friend who decided to give me 6 packets of seeds which were amazing...Cucumbers, Oregano, Thyme, Peppermint, Okra, and Sweet Corn. Once again the timing was great for encouraging me, and so I push on through Spring as I now start to see things popping up throughout my garden. The other cool thing is that I found a plant at the store called Chocolate Mint, and it completely lives up to it's name. It smells exactly like a chocolate mint candy, and I'm told that the leaves taste similar too, which means I'll be making some awesome teas.

As far as life metaphors go, I've changed my approach to the garden and tried to remove the rows I had created, based on the advice of a knowledgeable friend. He said you can get three times as much out of a garden if you grow it the way it would in nature. What he meant was to let the climbing beans climb, and let the tomato plants sit under the climbers, and then have the root based plants be under those. So that you have layers as well as a full garden. It's not as pretty, but I like the idea a lot, and it's taken some of the structure out of my approach. This wasn't just for the sake of that idea, but also because my friends said my rows were actually probably worse than to have it flat (for the terrain I'm working with). In that I've also started just sowing much more generously and in almost any place that's reasonable. With that as my approach, I'm left to waiting, and to be surprised by what comes up and what doesn't. This has lead me to a question about God, that I heard, and I really like. "Is God ever surprised by what good things sprout up and takes root in our lives?" I really like to see God working hard, and sowing all these good things into me, but then being surprised when some of it pops up in a random creative way in my life. If he's not, then I am at times. There are many more metaphors... far too many about death at the moment, but I don't want this to be a labor to read for you. Things on the horizon include Aloe Vera, Pomegranate, possibly a Venus Fly Trap, pineapple again, and hopefully some corn. For now I've got lot's of new things growing, which hopefully will be a accurate reflection of my daily life, relationships, activities, etc.

Underestimated my enemy

You really can use statistics to say whatever you want. It turned out that right after my last post I visited my garden to find that my two capsicum, two cucumbers, and two squash seedlings, were brought from about a foot height down to one inch nubs of stems. This brought me to a different, but just as valid, perspective of my gardening thus far. The last post was more of a celebration, but those statistics were all about the success I've seen, but didn't mention the death and failure that has come as well. I realized out of my 40 (now 34 or less) plants that are growing now, I had already lost right around 40 plants as well. Mostly to snails, but some others have failed just due to conditions. This led me into a mourning period where I had to do some reflecting on what I had learned as well as why I was doing all this. It didn't help that the first thing God had told me was that my garden would be a direct reflection of my life.

So I had to start looking at the metaphors, at the same time that I regrouped with a new plan for what to plant and how to do it. I talked with my friend who is knowledgeable in anything having to do with plants, and he told me, to my disbelief, that it was snails, and said that I must have A LOT of them. So with that news, I finally decided to pull out the snail pellets, and today when I went back found around 100 dead snails scattered around my plants and garden. I think there are more as well. So all in all, I have deeply underestimated my enemy, and it's cost my garden a lot. But I've learned a lot as well, and as usual it's bringing fresh perspective to my life and how to go about each day. 

Once again it's all about the process, as far as my gardening goes, so it takes a bit of the pain out bad results. On a lighter note, right as each set back has occurred, there has been a friend who randomly decides they want to donate to my garden. The day after seeing my plants destroyed, my friend Chris gave me 90 sunflower seeds. Which was really encouraging as well as fun to think about all the crazy options for guerrilla gardening. I've just been given a bunch of pots and soil, which is also very timely.  My garlic, red beans, and cherry tomatoes are looking really good right now. One thing to look forward to is my avocado seed, which I'm hoping will sprout this week as well. Unfortunately the pineapple didn't take root, so I'll have to try another one.

I'll have some pictures on here as well in the next day or two.

14 different plant types, 40 total plants

I don't know how it happened, because it's felt like such a slow easy natural pace for me in getting into gardening, but now I've just counted the plants I have and realized that I have 14 different types of plants, and 40 total plants growing. That's ridiculous! I've got 4 or 5 more that I'm about to plant once I prepare the soil as well. And it hardly takes up much of my lifestyle or time. It's just been laid back easy going gardening. I've been learning a lot, as usual, from it as well as finding it very life-giving (pun intended). I decided last week that I wanted to try out growing a pineapple by cutting off the crown of a pineapple. It's not the right climate here so I have to raise it indoors for most of it's early stages of life. It will take 2 years before it starts producing it's first pineapple. Which is one thing I love about it. I like how gardening seems to slow down my perception of life and time.

I did my first guerrilla gardening adventure by planting 2 sunflowers in my friends' backyard as a gift, because they just had twins. I had to do it during heavy rain, lightning, and hail, which made it pretty memorable. I'm thinking it will be awhile before they notice, because they'll be busy with the babies.

My seeds are becoming seedlings and now my garden has a nice covering of mulch. I don't have pictures of it at the moment, but I'll try and get some. Hope you're enjoying the journey. Here is my list so far of what I'm growing at the moment.

Italian tomatoes x5  
Cherry tomatoes x5
Basil x6
Rosemary 1
Beet-root x4
squash x3
capsicum (bell pepers) x2
cucumbers x2

garlicx2
shallots x3
lettuce x3
eggplant 1
sunflowers x4
pineapple 1