Life in the Garden

“Growth is the only evidence of life.”

John Henry Newman

Last night brought about the dreaded “Spring Forward” time warp that we all just love so much and the panic that sets in when you wake up on a lazy Sunday morning to be greeted by the realization that it’s actually an hour later than you think it is! Hopefully one of these days our elected “leaders” will actually listen to their constituents and eliminate this unnecessary and ridiculous tradition. Remember when we all had to pull out the ‘ole VCR owner’s manual so we could set the time otherwise our recordings would be an hour off? What a beating! Thank you Tivo! Other than this minor inconvenience, Spring is such an amazing time of year in the garden. At this point, everything is possible and hope springs eternal. We’re all joyfully optimistic about how much harvest we’ll have this season, so much in fact that our friends and neighbors won’t know what to do with all this free delicious bounty! Daydreaming of homemade salsas & jams, canned tomatoes, pickled everything! Fresh peas off the vine, cantaloupe & watermelon, peaches, cucumbers, and peppers, oh my! Although, not everything always goes as planned. Many years the weather simply does not cooperate or you are the subject of a spider mite infestation that takes over all 40 of your tomato plants! Not that I am speaking from experience or anything. No no, never never! But this season I do anticipate better results because I have narrowed my vision a bit, focusing my attention on a smaller scale to try and hone my skills a bit more and not take on so much. I was just so excited to have a garden at all that I thought planting anything & everything was the best course of action. I could not have been more wrong! I was not able to focus on anything and the garden definitely suffered through no fault of its own. My watering was sporadic, the fertilizing schedule was way off, pest management wasn’t even a consideration (hence the spider mite invasion) and the harvest was sub-par at best. Completely my doing because of the lack of focus and attention. A plant’s purpose is not to produce the most beautiful and delicious fruit, the purpose is to create seeds and drop these seeds in order to reproduce and continue the lineage, which did actually happen on many occasions. Thanks is no small part to the Luby’s Cafeteria style buffet line that was formed almost daily by what appeared to be every squirrel family within a 5 mile radius! They definitely enjoyed the spoils of my labor because they paid attention, something I was not able to do. They knew when the perfect time to bite into that peach was. And the cantaloupes. And the watermelons. And the tomatoes that actually survived. They have no choice if they want to survive, they absolutely must pay attention and harvest the fruit at the peak of ripeness. And they are darn good at it! So this year I decided to rethink my planting strategy and move everything that produces a fruit to the backyard where we have a small army of loud barkers and the fastest sprinters on Earth to patrol the garden area for would-be thievery! Not in this back yard, no maam! The front yard will focus on root veggies and edible flowers, things the little genius squirrels, so far, have shown little interest in. Of course the peach trees are pretty stationary so I’ll have to be more diligent with these beauties.

I say it every time I write one of these, but we are a part of Nature, we are not separate, and it’s so sad to me that we have disconnected so much of our lives from Nature. So many of the lessons I learn from the garden directly translate to everyday life. When I actually slow down and focus my attention on the task at hand, the work shows this. A favorite quote of mine from a book I cannot say enough good things about, “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer says that “ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention”. This is so true for so many aspects of life. If I am thoughtful, engaged, and intentional about my practice, no matter what that practice happens to be, the results speak volumes. When my head is clear and my motivation is pure, the Universe knows this and rewards me accordingly. If I tend to my internal garden then the harvest is perpetual and nutritious. My relationships are deeper. My soul is nourished. My energy is bright and vibrant. But, to the contrary, if I allow too much noise in and don’t focus on what matters most, then the negative downward spiral is strong and can grow out of control. The pull is almost unstoppable, just like the spider mite take-over of the tomatoes. I addressed the problem too late and there was nothing I could do about it, the damage was already done. If I had focused my attention accordingly then I would have been aware of the problem at hand and would have been able to correct the issue to ensure a much more positive outcome. So this season my number one goal is to focus, to recognize, and to appreciate what I have in front of me. To confront any hurdle that may stand in my way for a beautiful harvest. To ensure I water & feed my garden at the appropriate times. Remember, what is true in the garden is true in life. Happy growing my friends! 💚