Today is my birthday I am 62) and I decided to do a diary on Gardening, Survival and Hope to celebrate…Please join me in my diary today…
Why Plant a garden:
- Save Money: This may be one of the prime reasons to plant a garden. With just a small garden you can expect to save hundreds of dollars a year. The bigger your garden, the more productive and the more that you preserve from your garden, the more you can save.
- Safe Food: When you grow your own food you know exactly what in it and on it. You can make your garden entirely organic relying on safe methods for growing,fertilizing and insect control.
- Enjoyment: There is nothing quite as wonderful as spending time working in your own garden. Adults and children alike can have many wonderful memories about garden life. My daughter who was present when we had our first big garden remember those days as some of the most peaceful and best memories of her childhood.
- Preserve Your own food: Not only can you eat fresh safe food from your garden, but you can have quality food all year long by preserving food by canning, freezing or drying.
- Survival: With the condition in the world at large, the weather changes, the economic situation, a garden just might be means of survival for many people around the world. Why not get started now,so that you will be prepared.
6. As so well stated by Sven downthread I forgot this one most important item,/There is no such thing as an ugly plant. Everything that grows is beautiful./
All in all I think a garden satisfies many needs in people. It gets you in touch with Mother Earth, allows you to share with others it’s bountiful harvest and brings many hours of joy working and walking in gardens. It also gives you some respite from the ongoing political firestorm.
If you don’t have room or the desire for a formal garden, consider container planting. You can grow many fruits and vegs. in containers and they can fit almost anywhere.
Gardens also fill you with a sense of hope, hope for the future, hope for the world, hope for yourself.
Please share with us your garden and your stories and most of join with me in my Birthday Celebration on the blogs. Please share your pictures and stories with us today.
Happy birthday! (Mine was yesterday…)
I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank you and a belated Happy Birthday to you fellow Taurus. How did you spend your birthday?
I am going to be blogging as usual and then later on today I am going to spend time with my family.
I will also be working a bit in my garden and enjoying all of my plants and my dog Lady and thinking of you all, my friends on this site.
Any others with the same birthdate out there?
Opps, where are my manners, Happy Birthday to you, I am also a Taurean, 4/29, the big 51, almost half way to where I want to be. I hope that you have a wonderful and delightful birthday and experience all the joys and pleasures you so richly deserve.
Also happy belated birthday to Cabin Girl and may you also experience the same blessing.
Happy birthday!
Good timing!
Unfortunately, I have no garden to work.
But you have given great reasons to aspire for one.
Happy birthday, Diane. Your diary is a pleasure to read and to look at.
I worked my way through college, remembering that it took me 30 yrs to get my BS degree, in the early years on golf courses. I love gardening, I love the feel of the earth under my nails and on my hands. I have planted tomatoes and onions this year. A relatively small plot, 4 Beefsteak tomato plants, 4 medium sized plants and 2 cherry tomato plants, and of course 50 onions. I have begun some landscaping projects on our property, planted two flowering cherry trees, 5 lilac bushes, 2 burning bushes, more than 1 lb of perennial seed in various flower beds. Gardening is my time for reflection, meditation and relaxation. I have begun to build my medicine wheel and have been walking down dirt roads in my area picking up rocks and other necessary ingredients to build this most sacred of sites. I am working toward being able to set up my sweat lodge again to enhance my spiritual path and help me regain some of my lost focus. I have great faith in Great Spirit and know that I will have a splendid journey in this life and in my spiritual journey.
And fellow Taurus, thanks for the story about your garden. I am curious about the medicine wheel, could you tell me more,is it a good thing for gardens and can anyone do one.
I am growing tomatoes, 3 varieties, strawberries, garlic, rosemary, dill, peppers, lettuce, lavender and raspberries. I only have a small area to plant in the ground so that is mostly used for my strawberries, and 2 tomato plants. The rest I grow in containers.
Oh how I wish I could have a lilac bush, one of the things I miss most about living in Pa.
I have planted morning glories everywhere I could find and today I was blessed with three beautiful purple flowers; the plants are just young so this was the first bloom.
Bless you Ghostdancer for your connection with this Earth.
diane,
Here is a link to learn how to create a medicine wheel, it can be any size, I am also giving you a link to another wonderful site. I am sure you will enjoy it.
http://www.spiritualnetwork.net/native/medicine_wheel.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/bighorn.html
Enjoy and be well, I use my medicine wheel to pray and meditate.
What a wonderful birthday gift from you, I already checked out the site and printed the instructions. I will begin my planning today.
Thank you so much and enjoy your garden and your life as I know you are.
May the Great Spirit continue to be with you and guide you.
Diane101….I hope you have a terrific birthday….I haven’t been around lately, but just wanted to wish you the best.
Thank chamonix, I have been wondering where you were, I have seen your name on DK a time or two, but missed you here. I hope you will come back and post more here.
Here I sit between gardens with only my potted Peace Lily to nurture. Gardening, to me, is spiritual. It’s about being a part of the Earth, not just sitting on Her. I serve plants and animals and they serve me. It’s not a master/slave linear arrangement. I’m not conquering the Earth. I’m rotating the Wheel of Life and riding on it at the same time.
PLUS: Growing-your-own provides treats you never see in grocery stores.
Have you ever eaten batter-dipped, tempura fried squash blossoms? Quite simply divine!
Or how about very early potatoes, so early that they are the size of grapes, boil ’em and cream ’em and it’s the sweetest, bestest dessert outside of ice cream.
Scarlet runner beans! First, there’s this astounding display of red flowers that summon hummingbirds in droves. Then, there are baby string beans to toss raw into salads. Finally, there are big, fat beans, purple/red-marbled and flavored like nothing you could ever get out of a can.
And let me not forget the challenges of abundance: One year I had so many zucchini I learned how to make zucchini bread. I discovered that I could make cold zucchini soup and cold carrot soup and if I carefully poured them both into a bowl from opposite sides at the same time they made a perfect ying/yang sign! I’d add the “eyes” with a dollop of sour cream on the zucch side and a sprig of dill on the carrot side. My dinner guests went wild!!!
Last year I had to snatch up armfuls of baby lettuces because the temperature suddenly lept into the 90’s. What to do? Can’t exactly freeze or can lettuce, can you? I had an inspiration and created Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Soup in a creamy base! Talk about comfort food! And that was freezable.
I love gardening and all the cooking and crafts that go with it.
Peace lilies are so pretty!
We are holding off on the garden this year; still haven’t gotten over the drought disappointments of a few years ago. We did the local community (co-op) farm instead, in part for the community it provides. We’re really looking forward to picking strawberries and making jam in a few weeks!
and to you Sjct for that really lovely comment. You just make gardens sound so wonderful, with you way with words. I wish I could write the way you do.
Ah yes gardens, they do so connect us to Mother Earth and the Spiritual World. Evidence of the renewal of life is at our feet and all around us. The eternal rotation of life can be found in a garden. Indeed our first home on this planet was in a Garden, when we left that place we have forever after searched for it and there it was all the time. We only had to make it so.
About zuchinni, which is the all time abundant plant, maybe, I used my abundance in that vegetable by combining it with my 2 other abundant plants, tomatoes and onions, and canned them together. In the winter I would open a jar, cook a little meat, throw in the canned vegs. and have a delicious soup for a cold winter day.
BTW, sjct, the next gardening diary will be on planning a garden, followed by plant selection, then companion planting. If you would like to help me with this by doing one of the diaries I would most appreciate it since you are certainly my gardening buddy. Perhaps Ghostdancer will do one as well.
Kinda reminds me of the 60’s and 70’s now with the way things are and I think now, like then, will benefit from all of us getting in touch with Nature. Soothes the soul in ways nothing else can.
Great idea for lettuce, BTW, I never thought of that.
Again thanks to you for the wonderful comment and BD wishes, and thanks to all members of this site who have made this home here so warm and welcoming for me.
I am having a very emotional day so far, as I usually do on my BD, don’t know why, but these comments from all of you are making it truly a wonderful day for me.
and all you fellow taurus folks. I am the Libra who is more tarus than Diane. Yep, It’s true, 4 planets in Taurus. Down to earth with my head in the clouds. . Heh!
Good thing I am very tall. . .
Diane, you are such a sweet and speial soul. Enjoy your birthday in whatever ways bring you joy.
Gardening of any type is such a wonder to me. Have always had gardens and containers everywhere I’ve lived. This year is a first of no garden since I am contemplating a move. I am going to plant my whiskey barrels with flowers, one for sure will be chock full of pansies. Something so sweet about pansies that I feel especially blessed when I have them blooming near my front door. I am also a seed saver. I replant flowers and veggies that I save seeds from year to year.
There is nothing like working in and with Mother Earth, it is a very spiritual connection. And there is no comparision to the utter JOY I experience when the seed has opened and poked its tender beginnings up through the soil. It is such an amazing miracle to me! I never get over it and I never cease to be grateful for such wonder and bounty.
Does it remind you of that childhood song? “Little purple pansies touched with yellow gold. . . “
Lets have a singa along. . .
I just came in from a walk in my garden, found a beautiful ripe red strawberry there and found myself once again at the computer and decided to put in this diary the following poem I wrote in 1990, it fits my mood for today.
I am now going to play a video PC game called Empire Earth, where I am now fighting a battle in the future with Russia and China. See you in a bit….
My Prayer
Gentle Rains fall upon my life,
Kissing me with their drops of truth and strife,
Teasing me with reflections of tomorrow;
Cushioning me through endless times of sorrow.
As I catch the drops in my dry parched mouth,
I must remember the winds blowing from the south,
For those are the winds that tomorrow carry,
Those are the winds of infinity so firey.
The steps along the path may be filled with obstacles so great,
But I must remind myself, I alone chose this fate.
Remember my dear that mysteries do indeed unfold,
In myriads of ways universally untold.
Let me not stand in judgement or choice.
Allow me to open to hear the voice,
For then I shall be and therefore become,
That which I know has already been done.
July 18, 1990
My gardening tends to be hit or miss… I miss watering things frequently enough and then they hit the ground…
We used to plant tomatos every year and got some good results years ago, but we are near tobacco fields, and it seems like no matter what we do over the last three years, the plants always get nailed by a virus or something…
is a real nasty little bugger and almost impossible to eradicate if you live anywhere near a tobacco field.
I had a similar situation in Iowa. Someone planted a bunch of pine trees to act as a windbreak and our apple trees quickly became infested with White Pine Blister. Tried everything to keep the trees going but it didn’t work.
can be seed as a sign of a good sense of humus.
Hope you have a splendiferous day Diane! I had to vote no which always saddens me. Living in an apartment doesn’t afford one the joy of having a garden. I do have many flowering plans and large potted trees on my balacony though. My rose bush formed a bud today. I am anxious for it to bloom.
I used to grow all types of vegetables and herbs when I had my gardens. I grew up in Illinois and we always had a vegetable garden and I would love eating tomatoes fresh and warm off the vine. Juice running down chin…ah the memory. I have a poem that I will share on this thread when I get home tonight that I have already instructed my son to read at my memorial service when I pass. Again, the happiest of birthdays to you. I am tall too 5’9″. How tall are you?
That Aloha was meant as a greeting.
I am so sorry that you don’t have a garden area and happy that you do have some plants to surround your life. I had quite a few years where I was not able to have a garden and it was hard for me.
I am not tall, that may have been someone else like Shirl who spoke of being tall. I am only 5’6″ and apparently shrinking, that is height not girth, unfortunately.
I tried to grow tomatoes last year and the plants grew just fine but the few tomatoes I got were eaten by something before I could pick them. Hope this year I have better luck.
Same with raspberries, last year I got about a dozen berries so I am hoping for more this year.
I hope you have a glorious day by the beach in Del Mar, Ca.It is a little overcast here and not too warm as it has been.
Post Humus
by Patti Tana
(to be read at my passing by my son)
Scatter my ashes in my garden
so I can be near my loves.
Say a few honest words, sing a gentle song,
join hands in a circle of flesh.
Please tell some stories about me
making you laugh. I love to make you laugh.
When I’ve had time to settle, and green gathers into buds, remember i love blossoms
bursting in spring. As the season ripens
remember my persistant passion.
And if you come in my garden
on an August afternoon
pluck a bright red globe,
let juice run down your chin and the seeds
stick to your cheek. When I am dead
I want folks to smile and say That Leezy,
she sure is some tomato!
And that my friends is how I feel about gardening!
Oh the mournful cry of the loon,
is heard far and wide.
Shall we not look up at the moon,
oh where shall I ride.
Can you tell me where you are,
oh how shall I know thee.
When shall I know that you care,
how will I know you, from me.
The joys of life, the happiness I feel,
these are life’s gifts I seek.
The shout of laughters peal,
the cries of loves first peek.
The blessings I know I shall find,
Great Spirit shines love over my life.
Knowing that life is not eating up time,
I shall know that living is not about strife.
I will feel the warmth of a sunny day,
the chill of a spring rain shower.
I will know true loves call today,
as I know the Great Spirit’s power.
copyright Ghostdancers Way (MLM)
Just some thoughts that crossed my heart today, I thought I would share them with you. I write poetry, some good, some not so good, some just so I can put thoughts to paper. I have enjoyed writing for many years, and I feel like I can begin to write again. Thank you all for helping me find that joyful feeling of putting words to paper (err) computer blog and .docs. lol I also do bead work, though with two under age three children, I rarely have the time to spend more than 5 or 10 minutes on any given project. I hope to have a lanyard done soon for my wife. I will make every effort to take a picture of it and post it here, again thank each and everyone of you who have made me feel so welcome here.
Happy Birthday Diane – and may you enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Happy Birthday – you beat me by 3 months.
Every day I find I look more and more to analogies from Nature to explain what is going on (Oh dear I’ve become Mr Chance)
We are fortunate here in Finland to be surrounded by Nature at its toughest. And its most rewarding.
Life clings to hope, and when you see here the burst of new life each Spring – with trees exoloding in green splendour in the short space of a few days – it reminds one of the struggle for survival.
Then comes the Sleep of Ruskaaika – or the Brown period – in the autumn. Vermont writ large.
Here on the edge, we remember that life is about good investments and living in balance. Just a hundred years ago you had to stock up on wood, root vegetables, salt and vinegar to survive the winter. Because here on the edge, if you expend more energy looking for food than the food you find provides, you will soon die.
It reminds us that we are only stewards – we own nothing. We only preserve for the future.
You forgot point 6 of reasons for havnig a garden.
There is no such thing as an ugly plant. Everything that grows is beautiful.
Happy Birthday Diane! Thanks for always being a great contributor to the site and helping to bring the newbies into the fold. Now get ready….
<dons mariachi traje and serenades>
Diane!! Sorry, it took me so long to get here and wish you a happy day.
May you enjoy many more birthdays and many more gardens!
Don’t deceive yourself about knowing what’s on your vegetables, though. You have no idea who or what hops over and pipis on your tomatoes while you are asleep. 😉
Duckie: that’s apart from the molecular madness carriesd by the winds from hundreds of miles away whihc may include heavy metals, toxics and acids.
But I’m a party-pooper. (with a greenhouse)
A very happy birthday to you among your blooms and edibles.
Myself, I am an “accidental gardener” whose greenery must thrive on neglect. Since I live in the sub-tropics, most of my active “gardening” is beating back the jungle since anything put in the ground, and sometimes just thrown on the ground, grows, and GROWS, and G R O W S!
Happily, mango season is just around the corner, so juicy chins at lunchtime are coming up. We’re still picking tangerines and squeezing them for breakfast juice. Doesn’t look like the lychees are going to deliver — temperamental trees! — this year. Taking a rest after 2 years’ worth of bumper crops. Don’t want to think of the longans — let the birds have ’em.
My orchid plants are hanging in the water oak outside the computer room window and just last week the catlya had fat velvety maroon blooms. We had a fantastic spring with pink and yellow tabebulia trees burdened with clouds of flowers. Now it’s Royal Poinciana (scarlet) and jacaranda (purple) season. All the mimosa family blooms (yellow) now through June to be succeeded by fragrant franjipani (pinkish).
As I said on another thread — my private hell.
Hope your garden grows like Miss Muffett’s all through the year!
Happy birthday Diane.
Sounds as if you mean “eating” garden by the nature of your description and questions. The entire yard is my garden, which lacks sun because of many mature trees, and a postage-stamp sized lot. The most I can do is plant herbs, radicchio, arugola in pots in spring and chase the sun, and hope for warm weather in the fog belt. (They don’t bolt, but they never quite grow strongly either.)
I decided on planting to attract hummingbirds, as my way of trying to give back. Abutilon, tree fuchsias, salvia (shade tolerant of course!), buddleia, iochroma, verbena bonariense, even tillandsia blossoms. The hummers never fail to cheer me. As do grubby hands, dirty fingernails, and muddied clothes after hours of gardening.
may your harvest be rich and your next year be joyful
For me there are few things as calming and hopeful as planting and few things as good as a meal fresh from the garden.
Karin
You might enjoy the book
“Life After Sixty: The Last Gift of Time” by Carolyn Heilbrun
Today is my birthday, as well. Sadly, my gardening at this point consists of seed packets, seedlings in a small ‘greenhouse’ in my laundry room, and the garden space.
I live in north western Wisconsin, and it has been FRIGID well, forever. Today, rainy, again, though it did manage to get up to 64. A heat wave, for sure. Am hoping the sun will shine for a few days, the temp will stay above freezing, and I can plant something. Have lurked in the local nurseries, but haven’t had the heart to buy anything yet.
I am posting the links to two great sites. You probably have been to the Square Foot Gardening site. It is a wonderful idea for anybody, but esp. for those with limited space. The other site is Journey to Forever, a site filled with great information.
cheers!
Well another May 17th birthday, I hope you birthday was happy for you as well.
Thanks for the links I will check them tomorrow.
Good luck on your garden…
Just planted my tomatoes, other plants to follow shortly. I agree with all your reasons for having a garden. Another reason in my case: education for young children. (most notably my 6 year old) Good luck with your garden!
Oh, and Happy Birthday!!!
Greetings from France….
I am one day too late, but I wish you the best!
.
In the Garden …
and in your Personal Life.
Rich as in Plentiful - sorry DianeOui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Happy birthday to Diane and the Taureans from a Virgo/Cancer rising with a very small garden.
I am developing a small flower garden outside the door with the intention that it be all “weeds” and zero maintenance. So far, columbine, violets, lupine, daisies, some bulbs, johnny-jump-ups. Just got a couple of lilac suckers from a friend’s field today and some more lupine, will plant them tomorrow.
On the window sill, I am germinating seeds for red lupine harvested several years ago. Tiny, tiny green shoots beginning to show. I’m surprised, as I thought the seeds wouldn’t take, but there they are.
No room here for vegetables, unfortunately, but I get mine from local farm stands and farmers markets, then freeze what I can. I still have a delicata squash from last fall.
What a lovely garden it sounds like you have, and such a peaceful spot too.
I look with envy on people who can make things grow. I don’t even buy houseplants anymore because I kill them all.
A friend of mine who well knew of my gardening deficiencies once gave me a cactus, boldly stating that at least this I couldn’t kill.
Only, in order to make up for my prior plant assassinations, I determined to take special care of this particular one… talked to it, (didn’t pet it, pulling out all those tiny spines from my fingers was a bit tedious), put it in the sun and … watered it at least twice a week, or whenever the soil felt dry (as per prior instructions for previous growing efforts). And when the tips started to turn black and curl up, I doubled up on my watering in a panic, sure that it was because of my neglect.
By the time my friend returned to see how I was doing with the “plant that even you can’t kill” well… we held a nice service for it, and thereafter, if she gave me a plant, the only reason I couldn’t kill it is because, being silk or plastic, it was never alive in the first place.
Ah well, some people at least still let me visit their gardens, as long as I promise to keep my hands to myself.