Gardening

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

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    urban gardening, sprouts, healthy breakfast

    ByElizabeth

    Grapes just picked from the garden. Concord grapes are a native, so they thrive really well. Crostini with beluga lentil sprouts and “Russian Mix” sprouts from the “Sprout People” (includes onion and caraway); almond butter, avocado; and a dash of fine balsamic vinegar.

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

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    Clouds

    ByElizabeth

    Amazing cloud formations tonight–play of sun and shade–before settling into a juicy thunderstorm. The garden and the trees are drinking up.

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

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    Gratitude

    ByElizabeth

    Sometimes at the top of the list of that for which I am grateful are the problems that I have. I fully appreciate my good fortune in only having problems I can handle in one way or another. Not every one is so blessed.

    I was thinking this about “problems” and how to address them in the most graceful way as I read the Supreme Court’s decision. Heavy going reading, but absolutely fascinating from so many perspectives. Awe-inspiring in fact to think of the collective behavior and engagement of so many millions (yes millions by active involvement to greater or lesser degree or by apathy and inaction in this democracy of ours) of people that contributed to this writing. One aspect of it is how much of people tend to think, both individually and collectively, as life endlessly posing problems to be solved (I include myself in this) and not as offering opportunities to engage, shift, nurture, and grow. How we approach the Supreme Court’s decision collectively and individually will most certainly contribute to its impact.

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

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    Afternoon Walk

    ByElizabeth

    After eating homemade popsicles.  This week’s variation:  lemon, lime, with white nectarine.  The liquid was an chilled tisane with herbs from the garden; the sweetener, local honey.  The farmers at the market were packing to go home.  Tomatoes and peaches only $1 a pound.  Tonight–cucumber and tomato salad with the second cucumber of the year from my own garden.  The salad to accompany whole wheat pasta tossed with garden greens, herb pesto (basil, parsley, arugula; garlic in the pesto from a friend’s garden), and white beans.  Later in the week when it gets cooler, slow-cooked tomato sauce and white peaches poached in wine (perhaps turned into popsicles).

  • Garlic Mosquito Repellant

    ByElizabeth

    I’d heard that concentrated garlic spray worked to keep mosquitoes out of the yard.  I admit that I was skeptical.  I’m one of those people who will get a mosquito bite on the 5th floor of a building with windows that don’t open.  My little garden is unbearable come June, and I dress to weed and water as if I were trekking in the Amazon.  I’ve tried various dunks and pellets (the ok for an organic garden kind) to no avail.  This year I finally got my act together and ordered garlic spray for the yard.

    I am hoping if I spray every 3-4 weeks I will be able to garden in peace (from mosquitoes at least), but I won’t be able to report until later in the summer.  I can tell you that while I was out doing the initial spraying, which raised clouds of mosquitoes, I did not get a single bite.  Then, when I was out (albeit rather briefly because of the heat) this morning, I similarly was left bite-free though I was not covered up.  It may be stinky, but I’m prepared to give a high five for concentrated garlic instead of DEET (not that I have ever sprayed DEET on my garden) or chronically being covered with angry, itchy welts.

     

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    Unexpected Rain (and Opening to Grace)

    ByElizabeth

    I thought perhaps that I was still dreaming when I heard the soft patter of early morning rain. It has been so unfortunately dry. There was no rain in the forecast–only impending blistering heat–for days to come. But a cool rain it was indeed, nourishing the garden and giving temporary relied to my soul, anxious about drought.

    As I enjoyed the unexpected rain, I thought about the practice of opening to grace. We cannot make it rain, though we might pray or dance for it. We can, though, make the ground and garden ready to receive it, even as we simultaneously plan and prepare to live as mindfully as we can with drought.

    When we simultaneously open to the gifts of grace and work in recognition of challenges and limitations, we can experience and offer the most joy and fullness of being for ourselves and others.

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

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    State of the Garden — Close Up (and Anticipation)

    ByElizabeth

    To deny or ignore the future is not the same as living in the present.  To live perfectly in the present as a responsible and engaged part of the collective being, one must still plan for the future that will become a present.  It is the perilous attachment to a particular outcome that can make bitter the present, not the engaged expectation of the future that is an inevitable part of living in the present.

    As I worked in the garden this morning, I thought how much presence I find in the enjoyable anticipation of what will ripen in the future.  And while anticipating cucumbers and tomatoes (and taking note of the damage caused by the birds), I set myself to enjoying fully the greens and herbs–the current abundance.

    Blueberries, purple Cherokee tomato, grape tomato, echinacea, burpless cucumber, Italian eggplant, red Concord grapes,  snow pea, green bean (Kentucky wonder)–June 10