My mind tells me to go out to the garden to plant onions. My body walks out the back door and starts filling up my new Vegogarden. The instructions recommend Hugelkultur–a fast way to build a raised bed. The bottom layer is cardboard–starting with the box the kit arrived in. Next, I walk in the woods,Read more about The Body Knows[…]
Snowdrops began blooming the day before we left for Puerto Rico. Oh, no. I was going to miss them. They, of course, like cold weather, but mid-March had been warmish. The snow had mostly melted. It seemed spring was going to arrive while we were in the tropics. Oh, the mischievous mind. It makes aRead more about Snowdrops Still[…]
Winter and Spring are dancing with each other. Yesterday, Winter led the dance with gusting winds and frigid temperatures, but Sunday, Spring will lead the dance with sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s. The tug of war goes back and forth. Winter, Winter, Spring. The real tug of war is in our minds. WeRead more about The Dance of Winter-Spring[…]
I’m taking cuttings of my houseplants–begonias, geraniums, purple-leaved wandering jew–to root in jars of water. Leggy begonias and leggy geraniums don’t root that easily. But roots sprout very easily from a place on the stem where a new offshoot of growth is just beginning. The Buddha gave us several lists of skillful qualities, and it’sRead more about Rooting Cuttings[…]
“Stress is caused by being here and wanting to be there.” Eckhart Tolle Mindfulness, as we know, is tethering the mind to the body and being in the present moment. But the mind wants to go elsewhere. The mind has a lot of good ideas–places to go, people to see, things to do. Oh, aRead more about Not Wanting to be Here[…]
A mat of watercress is floating on my fishpond. I have pounds of watercress. Scads of watercress. A mattress of watercress. I love the taste of the peppery leaves of watercress, but this 4’x4′ patch is more than i can eat. Besides, just think of the cleaning–the rinsing, the sorting. With mindfulness, I sort throughRead more about Watercress Gone Crazy[…]
Today i picked my first red raspberries and purple peapods. Here comes summer! Fresh off the bush, fresh off the vine. Summer tastes great. I planted peas in mid-April. I staked them up in June, adding a picket of bamboo stakes to support the vines growing up, up, up. I defended them from voles, andRead more about Summer Harvest Begins[…]
The Garden Club is having a plant sale on Saturday, so i’m dividing perennials and potting them up with compost. What a great opportunity to thin out some of the spreaders, such as bee balm. What are some of the spreaders in your life? Too much stuff in the house? Too much irritation in theRead more about White Bee Balm[…]
Violets are blooming in my yard–white violets and violet violets. The person in my family who mows the lawn is ecstatic. “They’re so beautiful!” I do not remind him that in previous years he preferred the clean-cut look of new-mown grass, while i cried, “But the violets!” This May, we are both in love withRead more about Violets[…]
A couple of years ago, i saw my artist friend, Dawn, at the Swap Program at the landfill–the place where people bring their usable junk. My trash is someone else’s treasure. I told Dawn i needed a new gate for my garden. She pointed out a few items that might serve. I finally figured outRead more about Pea Fence[…]