Gardening

Growing vegetables, herbs, etc. in a small urban space

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    State of the Garden (and Samtulana)

    ByElizabeth

    The grapes are not nearly as bountiful as last year.  The first 90F week was too early and sudden, which blasted dozens of newly formed grapes.  And then it was too wet and cool.  The few figs dried before ripening.  But it was a great spring for kale and chard, and the cherry tomatoes are pretty happy.  That the weather makes some things happier and some less happy is a tangible reminder why mono-cultures are so risky a venture.  One of the greatest gifts I get from the “failures” in my edible garden is gratitude.  I am reminded of how fortunate I am that the only repercussions of something not growing or producing well is that I have to buy more produce at the farm market or the grocery store.

    The rains and now the heat are  wondrous lovely for the mosquitoes.  Here’s me dressing for a morning’s work in the garden. You might laugh, but I only got two bites in over three hours in the garden, which included watering.  It likely would have been at least a dozen in loose trousers or shorts and a t-shirt.  This is also the outfit of choice when hiking in the woods filled with deer and mice and lyme-disease bearing ticks.

    garden 1a

    garden 1b

     

     

     

     

    I picked the marigolds yesterday to put on the altar.  The puja card of the day was “balance” or “samtulana.”  It was a perfect concept to meditate on for the day because little brings me back into balance better than spending a few hours gardening, and I’ve been feeling off-kilter.

    garden 1c

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Uma, of course, was there to lend moral support.

    garden 1d

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The “before” picture gives some idea of how simultaneously overgrown from the rains and heat-blasted from the past week everything was.

    garden 1e

     

     

     

    The “after” picture doesn’t reflect as much as I would like how much of a difference three and a half hours of weeding, deadheading, clipping, rearranging, harvesting, feeding, and watering made.  When I got hungry, I just picked sun-warmed, just ripened grapes and then got back to work.  Lunch, of course, emphasized contributions from the garden.

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    State of the Garden

    ByElizabeth

    I went out into the garden right after I sat for meditation this morning.  Even at 7 a.m., the air was hot summer thick.  I harvested cherry tomatoes, a handful of green beans, a cucumber, a red onion, and some garlic greens, basil, and a jalapeno pepper.  Then I went back inside and practiced some asana and cleaned house in anticipation of a guest arriving for lunch.  I weeded a little, but did not fully plunge into all that could be done.

    I have lots of  epazote.  Anybody need some for planting or for cooking?  I let only a little go to seed  many years ago, and it comes back in force every year.  I let it grow wild between the bricks of my patio, but keep it out of beds and containers.  It could be a real challenge in a more open garden, but in my constricted, urban setting, inviting the useful, invasive plants to grow where nothing else will grow is a  good use of  space.

    garden 1a garden 1b garden 1c garden 1d garden 1e garden 1f garden 1g garden 1h

     

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    Yes, I Knew Him (and the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra)

    ByElizabeth

    When my students arrived at William Penn House last night for class, I said, “yes, I knew him; they are both my co-workers.”  I didn’t need to say anything else.  All of them read the Washington Post and know that I work for the Department of Labor in the area of pension benefits.  I said that I was shaken by the news, and I would offer the best practice I could.  At my invitation, we worked on grounding, being heavy in the best meaning of heavy so that we would feel the stability to rise and to stay graceful and open as we practiced some challenging standing poses and backbends, leading to a modified version of natarajasana (dancing in the cosmic fire).

    One co-worker is dead (either suicide or murder in his jail cell) after having severely injured another.  Yes, we all worked in the same office for three years when I first started at the Department in 1991 and episodically have worked on common projects for almost 22 years, most recently just three weeks ago. Had it been a fatal accident or a heart attack, a few dozen of us would have been at the funeral and spoken of what we liked about him.  It wouldn’t have been the horrified questioning ourselves and each other of what possibly could have gone so terribly, shockingly wrong.  The grieving and sense of loss are no less present and real, though, for the recoiling from his last acts and the salacious and rapacious local media coverage.

    Quaker practice has me holding those affected in the light–he and his family and she and hers, and our co-workers.  On hearing yesterday that he had died in jail, I was moved to chant the maha mrityunjaya mantra.  I was taught that chanting this mantra every day for 30 days can help a spirit cross-over.  What is spirit and to where it might be crossing was not really explained because how could it be?  But I do think chanting with such an intention can be a useful tool to help focus one’s own emotional process and healing in connection with a death.

    For some background on the mantra, you might want to start with this overview with useful links published by the Himalayan Institute (be advised that though citing to the YI because of the breadth of coverage, to get to the basic details, I needed to ignore the cheesy graphics and the use of the term “Lord” before Shiva in the linked article on what the author says are appropriate uses of the mantra).

    oakleaf hydrangeaMy co-worker gave me this oakleaf hydrangea about 10-12 years ago; his brother had pulled an extra seedling that was an offshoot  from a larger plant in his yard.  It did not start thriving until two seasons ago when I moved it to a different corner of my front garden.

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    Found Exhortation

    ByElizabeth

    By all means, wish. But then contemplate, evaluate, explore, and act. For as we know, merely wishing won’t make it so and many of our wishes are not what we really want when we think about the work to effectuate and the consequences of realizing them.

    What do you truly wish for? For what are you truly willing to focus your energy and attention?

    Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.