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

Snails: My Enemy

So, after a few weeks of seeing absolutely nothing come up, out of my whole crop of basil, tomatoes, squash, and beet-root, I talked with a permaculture friend and he knew exactly what it was. He said that it had nothing to do with my soil or me doing anything wrong, but that what was happening was that as soon as my plants sprouted up, probably in the night sometime, snails would come and eat them up. So by the time I got there it looked like nothing had happened at all.

I'm debating over methods of warfare to use. I don't think I have it in me to use salt. And I can't use snail pellets because my friend's cat could eat them. I've found some homemade recipes, but haven't picked one yet. So far my first step is to gather a bunch of plastic bottles that I'll use as walls around my plants. I started with my new sunflowers that I transplanted yesterday.

I think that these snails might be symbolic of things in my life like procrastination, which I can see, but think that it won't be a problem. And it eats away at all these things that would've been sprouting in my life, but get's killed before I even know it's there.  Hmmm, I don't think I'll expand much more than that, because it could bore you, but as usual I'm finding parallels.

There have been even more big openings through some generous friends who are want to support and who even have extra supplies that they want to give me. One friend is going to be giving me more seeds (including corn) as well as a worm farm, which will be really good for my garden as well as for learning. I've been offered so much that I'm just about at the point of having to turn some of it down. I start gardening for that handicap organization on Thursday, so I'm getting excited for that. Looks like I'll be able to do it for 2 to 3 different homes, but one at a time of course. We'll see how that goes.

Sunflower sprouts

My sunflowers have sprouted overnight, from nothing to an inch high. I was stoked because this is my first plant to pop up.

My other seeds have yet to arise, which is making things difficult, because a weed is taking over the garden, and as soon as my plants pop up I want to cover the ground with a thick mulch, but can't yet.

Other than that, the best part of the week is that I get to work with an organization that takes care of severely disabled people, and I get to garden their houses, and I will have a government grant that will supply everything I need for it. So it's basically the best thing I could dream of. I get to hang out with them while I garden. I also get to play music for them, which will be fun. I'll have pictures of all that once I get started. Also, my friends have asked me if I would be willing to plant a tree in their backyard, so I'll be jumping into that new field as well, which will be fun. Have to find a tree that will grow fast, thick, but not too high because of power lines. We'll see how that goes.

Day 6-7: Aesthetics

I'm losing track of how many days I've been working so I think this will be my last "day #" post.

This morning felt great, not just because of the weather, but also because I got to rest my legs yesterday and found I was able ride my bike in my highest gears the whole way, even on the hills, which means that riding 5 days a week is actually getting me in shape. I love that I can do both biking and gardening together.

I was hoping to see my veggies starting to peek out of the soil, but it's not quite time yet. It's been seven days since I planted them, so at some point by the end of this week they will be appearing. So with that as the reality of the day, that meant I wouldn't get to lay down my new bag of sugarcane mulch that my friends gave me. So I watered the plot, and then I decided it was time to tackle all the weeds and grass that was covering the other parts of the garden.

I cleared one whole side of the yard that had not bee weeded in a long time and was really starting to feel some fatigue in my fingers as well as my arms and back. I decided once again to try and find a metaphor that would help me stay motivated to be diligent in weeding that area. The first thing that stood out to me was that these weeds I was pulling, had absolutely no effect on the health of my vegetables and was really not needing to be done. The second thing that came to mind was that it really didn't look good at all with the weeds there. These both came together for me and showed me that if I want my garden to be a blessing to others, I would need to to make it as inviting as possible for them, so that they want to go and eat from it. Weird I know, but I say it that way so that I can make the metaphor clear. I realized that many people would look at the garden and not see past the weeds that surround it to see that the vegetables and herbs were great, and that might keep them from being able to experience the blessing inside.

So with this I was seeing how if my life was a garden, I have a lot of great things deep inside of it that would be good and would feed others, but if I don't pay attention to the weeds and trash on the outsides of my life, people will never enter to find what's really inside. One weed that came to mind that I've been able to clear out is swearing, which I used to do all the time in high school. I don't have a moral conviction against it and I would say that it doesn't affect the core fruits and veggies I have to offer, but I know that for some they would see it as a weed and would have no desire to enter. I don't want to focus on my aesthetics than my garden, but I do want to be applying time when I have it, to make myself as inviting as I can. It sounds cheesy, but it helped my weed that whole section of the yard.

The other side of it of course, is to not judge someone else by the weeds that you first see when you meet them. I'm finding that everyone has weeds surrounding their garden/life, but everyone also has amazing exotic fruit trees, and vegetables that I need, and am not able to grow in my garden/life. It's a challenge to look past the weeds, and also maybe help them with the weeds.

Okay, I think that's enough of that analogy. All in all I'm loving each morning, and get excited just thinking about seeing the seedlings pop up, laying out some mulch, adding to the compost, weeding the other sections that need it, and whatever else I'll need to do.

Oh, planted two sunflower seeds in separate newpaper pots for an intercession time that we had last week, and I've been taking good care of them. Once they are a good size I'll be transplanting them somewhere. So when they pop up as well, I'll try and get some photos. Hope you're enjoying this blog as much as I am. It's a bit long I know. At least you don't have to hear my talk about it, because I say a lot more than I write.

Day 5-6: Compost

First off, I'm really excited and thankful about how this garden has been a way for all these people to jump in and support me in it. I've been given everything that I've used, planted, worked with, etc. It's been really encouraging to have everyone pitching in what they have. Thanks everyone.

Compost has stolen my heart so far. I can't believe that I didn't even know what it was or that it was possible until a couple months ago. I will briefly explain composting for all the people who don't know what it is. It's normally done in some sort of covered container, inside of which you put different layers of green organic material, brown dead organic material, newspaper, food scraps, (pretty much anything that was once alive and hasn't been cooked) etc. You maintain it by keeping it wet, and by turning it over every once and awhile. The whole time it's sitting, it's actually got bacteria inside that are slowly eating away at the materials and turning it into a fresh nutrient rich soil like mixture. Then when you have enough of that you can take it and mix it back into your soil in the garden.

My love for compost isn't completely based on it's physical job, but more on it's similarities for my life, and what I want my life to be for myself and others. My journey over the last few years has been aimed personally at being "real" in my life and my relationship with God, but the only way to do that is to take all the "death" that has happened, or been apart of my life and others I care about, and bring it to God to walk me through it and give real answers and healing to those situations and wounds I have. As I've done this I've grown a love and longing for Truth to be what dictates my life and decisions. It's been amazing and has been a source of true healing, strengthened and reconciled relationships, and begun to open my eyes to what real "Life" is. But it requires some very hard yards in dealing with death. And I see all that in composting, where you take all the death from the garden and the kitchen, and focus it in one place, and then wait as the bacteria (God) slowly works its way through the death and turns it into the best soil mixture you could ever want.

I want my life to be composting as I go and get it with tragedies, wounds, sickness, etc. And I want to be able to help others compost their garden's death and waste. This is the first time I've found a clear example of what's been on my heart for the last year or so, and I'm sure I'll be talking more about it for many more years to come.