Jagabandhu das: Today some good friends from Suburban California mentioned how they bought this eBook ($12) from http://standeyo.com/Our_Books/GG.html and were going to try a few small garden boxes to start…
Stan & Holly Deyo at The Millenium Ark website do seem to have lots of helpful stuff about growing your own food and urban gardening (which really seems to be taking off as the economy continues to crash).
Finally at long last we got our garden started. For soil additives we bought 36 pound bags of Jungle Growth Flower & Vegetable Professional mix and 40 pound bags of sterilized cow manure from Lowe’s. I also recommend aspirant gardeners to check out the Farmer’s Almanac online. You can type in your zip code and it’ll tell you what to plant when according to seasonal geographic temperature variances and the moon cycles. For old time farmers in America it’s their “grow scripture.”
We’re planting things a little late for this part of Florida (literally the place of flowers) but we still got squash, eggplant, cantelope, watermelon, bell peppers, habenero peppers, cucumbers & tomato plants in for now. Another grow season starts in September (which means germinate seedlings in August of turnips, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, winter squash & brussel sprouts). For now we’re going to buy some more tomato & pepper plants (it’s already too late for growing from seed). I saw a place selling tomato plants by the side of the road near where we live. “Ten plants for a Dollar.”
Had to get some two foot tall chicken wire too to fence out them pesky rabbits. They were just waiting in the woods to come out as soon I was finished planting what they thought was their dinner. Be afwaid. Be vewwy afwaid. Pesky wabbits.
We plan to grow chayote squash and we already have some spots in mind for our future blackberry patch which will be a hundred foot hedge along one side of our driveway. Next year we’ll plant corn and are going to look into growing chanterelle mushrooms in our woods year around. Curiously, I read an article recently on AOLHealth that said mushrooms did more to bolster our immune systems (flu etc.) than any other vegetable. And we have all kinds of spots to do our hanging herb garden.
Fortunately, the food supply hasn’t collapsed quite yet (in spite of our being way behind schedule on growing our own food). That’s lucky because we’re really just experimenting with our sunlit spots this year along with trying to discover what grows best where and when. Thankfully we can still afford to buy food at the store. For now. Along with being allowed by God’s Grace the subsequent luxury of unencumbered thought about simple living and high thinking. Putting in a garden can be backbreaking hard work starting with turning/tilling the soil. It’s a nice reminder that simple living doesn’t necessarily mean “easy living.” But I like dirt. Makes me feel right at home. Happy as a pig in …well, you know.
Where we’ve lived previously in Florida and in California we’ve been able to offer every flower off of tulip and gardenia trees in our yards.
As I was working in the garden this afternoon putting in more marigolds for puspanjali I was remembering Krishna telling Arjuna what He likes to have offered to Him with Love (putram puspam palam toyam…).
I thought that if I could grow only one thing it would be flowers for offering to Guru and Krishna. So for this summer at least we’ll be growing lots of flowers to offer and make into garlands for all the sacred pictures within our home. If God and His Saints become somehow pleased by our meager puspanjali from plants grown only for that purpose—then maybe our life might hope to become successful after all. In spite of me and my many embarrassing transgressions against them throughout my poor excuse for a so-called human life.
I’m sorry it took the shape of things for me to feel compelled to grow a garden. Especially when re-discovering that gardening is such a good meditation combined with healthy exercise which is actually productive. It’s so amazing to know that each plant is inhabitated by an eternal soul temporarily clothed thusly. The soul can’t be killed, but without it’s presence the plant could not live. So I sing soft acapella kirtan to them as they grow. And to Guru and Krishna when offering flowers to Them while repeating Srila Rupa Goswami’s prayer of extreme self-abnegation (mat tulyo nasti papatma, naparadhi ca kascana…). As if I were just the aspirant servant of the flowers who are more pure-hearted than me…