I hadn't been to my garden in about 2 to 3 weeks and was prepared for it all to be a death zone, but when I got there I found that my squash plants were huge, and had new ones growing. My tomatoes had finally started showing up. My cucumber had survived the transplant and neglect. And my rosemary was doing great. I'm not sure which analogy to run with in all of that.
One would be just learning to trust that life is possible without me. Ha. Maybe more possible even. It was great in terms of the continued analogy of it representing my long-distance relationships that I don't always get to. I've been continually seeing new fruit rise up in my friends and family around the world, that had nothing to do with me.
Another thing I could pull out of it, is that squash are very encouraging and I should plant more of them, just to give me something to smile about when other things are dying. You need to have at least some sort of "squash" to in your life that might not be your favorite food, but good none the less. That's so relevant to so many areas of my life, where I need to celebrate the life that is in front of me, and not always aim for the high risk, hard to maintain, dream plants.
Another would be that life has a way of surprising you. Especially in what survives, and what doesn't. It's so amazing to me that anything grows sometimes. Let alone the tomatoes and cucumbers that seem to have beat the odds in my garden. I've got so many amazing friendships and experiences in my life that I did not see coming, but now can't stop enjoying.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Thursday, December 17, 2009
It's been awhile
There has been a long pause in my blog entries, the reasons for which are health, weather, laziness, and me wanting to have my thoughts fully processed in my mind before I write it. I have had some extended breaks from my garden that have caused me to see different perspectives on what my garden could represent in my life. As usual, I've also lost a bunch of plants. And with all that, I still find the encouragement I need to keep working the land and celebrate the life that does come.
The first thing I learned, from my health not being good and the weather holding me back from biking, was that the garden was a pretty accurate description of my long-distant relationships (family/friends). The fact that I couldn't get to the garden everyday and that I had to ride a good distance to get there, as well as the fact that sometimes I just couldn't get there to tend it, showed me insights into the fact that I really am limited in being able to consistently communicate and be with the people I care about around the world. (No, I'm not using that as an excuse to not try, because just like with my garden I try and do as much as I can.). The significant side of all this isn't me realizing that, but the fact that out of around 100 plants, of over 20 varieties, the only things that grew were squash and beans. That really opened my eyes to the fact that at home as well as around the world, I've seen certain seemingly random relationships ending up producing fruit, where as some of the other plants that I might have longed to flourish, didn't seem to hold up in the distance. So I've learned to celebrate the squash and beans in my life, and be satisfied with reality. I've been loving eating the squash each day as well.
The second thing I've learned over this extended break is once again, how amazing composting is. Instead of me getting disheartened over the lack of "success" in my last 3 months of gardening, I've been spurred on knowing that with the death from this season, I'll be able to turn into compost for the next. And it will continue to build from there. Maybe by next year, or the year after, the garden (and my life) will be better soil for new seeds to flourish.
As for my laziness... well... still got a little ways to go. I've grown a lot, but long-distance gardening at 6am is still a bit out of my reach. 6am surfing on the other hand, is a little closer. Ha.
Plant update:
The first thing I learned, from my health not being good and the weather holding me back from biking, was that the garden was a pretty accurate description of my long-distant relationships (family/friends). The fact that I couldn't get to the garden everyday and that I had to ride a good distance to get there, as well as the fact that sometimes I just couldn't get there to tend it, showed me insights into the fact that I really am limited in being able to consistently communicate and be with the people I care about around the world. (No, I'm not using that as an excuse to not try, because just like with my garden I try and do as much as I can.). The significant side of all this isn't me realizing that, but the fact that out of around 100 plants, of over 20 varieties, the only things that grew were squash and beans. That really opened my eyes to the fact that at home as well as around the world, I've seen certain seemingly random relationships ending up producing fruit, where as some of the other plants that I might have longed to flourish, didn't seem to hold up in the distance. So I've learned to celebrate the squash and beans in my life, and be satisfied with reality. I've been loving eating the squash each day as well.
The second thing I've learned over this extended break is once again, how amazing composting is. Instead of me getting disheartened over the lack of "success" in my last 3 months of gardening, I've been spurred on knowing that with the death from this season, I'll be able to turn into compost for the next. And it will continue to build from there. Maybe by next year, or the year after, the garden (and my life) will be better soil for new seeds to flourish.
As for my laziness... well... still got a little ways to go. I've grown a lot, but long-distance gardening at 6am is still a bit out of my reach. 6am surfing on the other hand, is a little closer. Ha.
Plant update:
- The girl Madison's plants are the best growing plant I've had so far (maybe it's because of her innocence. Ha). Her Squash is great, as well as her Tomatoes.
- My herbs: are growing great. I had my first fresh peppermint leaf tea a few days ago. I've got Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, and possibly Oregano.
- In the Garden: I've got the Squash growing great. There are 4 big squash plants. The beans are done. 9 Garlic cloves. And I have some really late transplanted tomatoes that I'm praying will survive and produce fruit. A cucumber plant.
- In Pots I've got the herbs, as well as some corn that is growing fast.
- The Sunflowers have now bloomed and are struggling to stand on their own so I've supported them.
Monday, November 2, 2009
More Pics
Here are a few pictures from a week or 2 ago. Hopefully I'll have some current ones up soon. This is just my red bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, and garlic.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
14 different plant types, 40 total plants
Cherry tomatoes x5
Basil x6
Rosemary 1
Beet-root x4
squash x3
capsicum (bell pepers) x2
cucumbers x2
shallots x3
lettuce x3
eggplant 1
sunflowers x4
pineapple 1
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