How my garden is growing

There is a hymn that starts out like this: “A grateful heart a garden is, where there is always room for every lovely Godlike grace to come to perfect bloom.” CS Hymnal.

This morning, early, as I went into my backyard vegetable garden, outside of Tallahassee, Florida, I thought about the words of that spiritual song. I had a big, grateful heart. My heart was filled with gratitud for the beauty, and productivity of my garden, which has been blessing us with an abundant crop of pumpkin squash, which does not seem to have an end in sight. Other plants have given us an abundance of good as well, such as basil, peppers, mint, and so much more. My heart is filled with so much gratitude, which I have shared with others in the form of the results of my work in the garden, or rather, the rich soil of the garden allowing the element of abundance to occur.

What added to this grateful heart was the harmony of this autumn day, here in Tallahassee, Florida, with a crisp, coolness, in the air, and the purity of the blue in the sky. It was a day for walking, and admiring the beauty of surroundings. I did just that.

Now, I have prepared part of the garden soil for a new garden, a winter garden. Plants have come forth, and already, we have more results of the work done, and the gratitude expressed. Gratitude breeds more gratitude, and like a fountain, it keeps flowing forth. It is all good. A garden is a symbol of good. I feel that good when I am in my garden. It is a penetrating, inspiring good.

I have found the way. It is the way of the gardener. What a grateful heart the gardener has from season to season. Think of that grateful heart next time someone offers you some produce from a garden, or you walk or drive by someone’s home garden. The earth is filled with goodness, and blessings. I am grateful for the land that I live on here in north Florida, close to Tallahassee.

From one grateful heart to another! The kingdom is already here. We can say, “Thy kingdom come,” and mean it. That kingdom is in our heart of gratitude. I love the unfolding creation and the children of God who occupy it. It is heaven on earth, and I am reminded that the Guarani Indians of Paraguay have always believed that heaven on earth is a realistic possibility. The “land without evil” here on earth was a central element of their religious, moral, thought system.

My land without evil is right here, near Tallahassee, Florida, in a green spot in back of my home.

Will you tell me about your heaven on earth, as I would be very grateful to listen to other ideas.

Kenneth’s Composting Tips

Composting is the practice of giving back to the earth valuable substance, with the desired result of having a healthy, rich display of plant growth, and an abundant harvest of vegetables, or fruits.

That valuable substance in good compost is a balanced amount of carbon and nitrogen. The carbon is the dried leaves, pine needles, weeds, topsoil, coffee grinds. We call this the “browns.” The nitrogen is what is called the “greens.” Remember when mom said to eat your greens? My mom always fed us string beans, and brocoli. Those two vegetables come to mind when I think of “greens.” However, the nitrogen material consists of all kitchen vegetable or fruit food waste.

Below are my tips for a good conditioning of the compost to get it right and ripe for spreading on the soil, whether it is a vegetable bed, rows, or container gardens. For any successful growth of plants the soil has to be right. Composting adds to the soil food for the microorganisms, which in turn strengthen the soil quality for the tomatos and other vegetable, fruit, and flower plants.

COMPOSTING TIPS

Tip 1
Find a suitable place close to the kitchen to set up the compost bin, or compost pile. This is to prevent having to travel any distance to add to and work the compost.

Tip 2
Soften the earth before throwing any waste into the compost. This will open up the connection between the compost and the microorganisms in the topsoil.

Tip 3
Continuously add nitrogen and carbon to the compost. Put the nitrogen material down first, and cover with the carbons. This will reduce odors.

Tip 4
Add some water to keep the compost moist, and therefore allowing for better heating to occur. Just don’t over water. Consider the weather.

Tip 5
Turn the compost vigorously every other day to keep the heating process moving. The action of microorganisms digesting the compost substances, and the breaking down into good garden compost require energy, and energy is heat.

Tip 6
When using a compost bin, keep the bin covered, but allow for oxygen to pass through the sides.

Tip 7
Work the compost (feeding it, watering it, turning it) for several months before spreading on the garden beds. It needs to turn into sandy, dark soil.

Tip 8
When time to spread the compost onto the garden bed, it is not necessary to bury it or mix it with the soil. Simply spread it on the earth, and let it sit and settle.

In the garden my dad loved so much

My dad loved putting his hand to work in the garden, and had a natural “green thumb,” but more on the artistic, aesthetic side. When I as a child of seven, living in Orange County, in southern California, dad built an awesome Japanese Garden. I remember that garden as if I was in it now: the two waterfalls he build of stone and cement, one about 10 feet tall, and the other smaller, the stream that flowed from the two waterfalls into two ponds stocked with goldfish. The red, wooden, arched walking bridge to walk over the stream, the field of pebbles, and gravel that sat between the pond and the waterfalls, the sitting bench for quiet retreat, the Japanese light ornament, the green plants that provided a border, and forest display around the garden, and the attraction of the birds. I can never forget going with dad to look for rocks for the garden. We traveled out into the desert, and picked out many rocks. This dad liked so much, and most of his life, he was interested in rocks, and what rocks can do in a garden, with their shapes, sizes, and relationship to other elements of nature. 

Like dad, I also am interested in rock gardens, zen gardens, Japanese gardens, and look for opportunities to find them to view and gather ideas. I do plan on making an delightful garden that dad would be pleased to view and pray in. Yes, dad spend many moments praying in the garden, reading the bible, and getting close to the Creator. When we think about it, a garden is a pure representation of the Creator’s love. I see divine Love manifested in so many forms and colors in a garden. 

Currently, my wife and I have an organic garden, and we have organically grown most of our tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsely, lettuce, and other vegetables, for years now. We share with family and friends. We would like to see more people out cultivating a vegetable garden. We strongly support the idea of community gardens, and know of folks in Indian Head neighborhood in Tallahassee that do just that. They have a community garden and neighbors come over to their yard to contribute their plot of organic produce.

Gardening is one of the most rewarding, and self-satisfying activities we can participate in, whether it is a meditative garden, such as a zen garden, or a garden of vegetables. Get out into the garden, and make those individual garden discoveries. I have, and so can you.

My egalitarian fascination

Years ago, as a student at the University of West Florida, in Pensacola, I became interested in visiting the many self-sufficient, egalitarian communities in the United States. These are communities separated from the mainstream, in which each member contributes towards a sel-sufficient, or partly self-sufficient society.  These community types are about doing fro themselves, and not expecting the world, or the government to do for them. These are working groups of anywhere from 5 to several hundred individuals.The concept of egalitarian, where everyone is equal, is as ancient as the ancient of days, but so unique in our often unequal, capitalistic American society, where there are those who have and those who have not.

In my busy university experience and the jobs I had, I never did visit any such autonomous community, and the interest did fade away eventually, especially as I became involved in the professional world of the status quo, and also because  I became very busy working as an anti-nuclear activist going around organizIng people to take a stand opposing the build up of nuclear energy plants, that at the time were almost daily a news topic in this country.  (Today, I see nuclear energy as a reasonable energy alternative)

There is one idea that I have always supported and continue to support, and that is that the United States can be a stronger, more cohesive, and united land if we were self-sufficient from the rest of the world and somewhat isolationist. For much of American history, we were quite isolationist, and a people who built our own products and industries. Today, so much is build in China and elsewhere that we are no longer the big producers that we had been, but rather, are debt-ridden consumers,eating up the cheese until there is no more.

The Bible honors self-sufficiency, liberty and independence. Our nation was built on those principles.

I have made my contribution towards a production mentality by growing organic tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables for the past 10 plus years. In fact, we have not had to buy much vegetable produce from the markets that we did before. We have taken the garden, the old symbol of self-sufficiency, and worked it successfully. No government involvement has. Been necessary, and no dealing with foreign nations or communities beyond our property lines.

Although I do not live in an egalitarian community, I have my own community. I know how to grow my own food. For that I am most grateful. “A grateful heart, a garden is, where there is always room, for every lovely God like grace to come to perfect bloom.” A hymn

Lawns Big Enough for a Garden

I have seen so many homes, and so many yards here in Tallahassee, and elsewhere. What I do not see in the yards, some big, some small, are organic gardens, or any kind of vegetable or fruit garden. What a shame, I would say, since food grown at home, using organics, is fresher, healthy, and richer, than produce bought in the supermarkets. Would it not be nice to follow Thomas Jefferson’s idea for America back in the 1800’s, which was that America would be dotted with organic farms, and most of us would be working in our organic gardens/farms? Many of us did before Big Oil came along. Much of America’s prosperity, and moral development, came as an effect of our simple, small farm, small town, entrepreneurship lifestyle before oil changed all that.

What comes to thought, when thinking about “organic” or “organics?” For me, I think about nature, naturalness, back to basics, home grown, putting the garden to work, not using synthetics, chemicals. An organic garden is a chemical-free garden, if by chemical is meant synthetic chemical, not natural chemicals freely found in nature.

An organic garden is a healthy garden. The soil is not unnaturally tampered with through the introduction of contaminents, pesticides, or chemicals that in nature do not belong there. Before the emergence of the petroleum industry along with our petroleum based agricultural system, everything grown was organic. Prior to the 30’s America was filled with organic gardens, and agricultural models based on sustainable, organic operations.

An organic garden is a location in which vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, bushes, are grown using nature’s elements of controlling bugs, and other garden critters. It is an open, but controlled ecosystem. Substancially, Organic gardening is about controlling the bug population, so that healthy plants can emerge. In addition to this, and in support of this, organic gardening uses a system of plant rotation, so that the same bugs do not infect the same plants year after year. Compost, and mulch which can include pine needle straw, especially here in Tallahassee, Florida, but also, bark chips, small twigs, paper, and more compost, play a big part in a healthy garden, and healthy soil.  Compost is the garden’s best friend, so it does not hurt to use it in abundance, with the proper balance of nitrogen and carbon inputs. A healthy soil, thanks to nutruient rich compost, and proper working of the soil, along with water, and sunlight inputs, will reduce the unwanted bugs, and insects. Healthy plants keep many of the critters away. Mulch will control water evaporation and absorption, and protect the soil from the hot sun’s rays. Also, attracting birds by putting up bird baths, and bird feeds helps control bug population too. However, some bugs are good, and attack the ones that eat our plants. We want to attract those as well, such as the ladybugs.

I am now about to go back to work in my organic garden, as I always have a rich population of tomatos, peppers, squash, basil, and others. In fact, we have not bought any of this vegetables for over two years. Not one, except for an event we participated in in which we needed a bigger amount of produce than what we had. Overall, we are getting better at organic gardening here in Tallahassee, and hope to be 80 percent vegetable independent within the next three years. Much of that will have to do with how successful we are at composting, and controlling the bugs. Yes, that is the essential task: getting rid of the hungry pests.

Turning the Compost

I was out in my Tallahassee, Florida, garden today, working my compost bin: feeding it more nitrogen and carbon materials, dampening it, and thoroughly turning everything in it. The turning is quite intensive as this has to do with the hot temperatures at work in the compost bin. I want to make sure all the microorganisms get to it and do their work of breaking it down, and excreting nutrients, so that in when the compost is ready, I can spread it over my garden beds.

As I was turning and working the compost, I was thinking of the turning and working that goes on in the cycles of nature, such as the movement of the seasons, winter, spring, summer, and fall. I was thinking of the cycles in a day, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night. I was thinking of the cycles in the the seven days of creation in Genesis 1 in the bible. There is a lot of good expressed in that biblical story. I was also thinking of the cycles in the economy in general, and  the mortgage industry, specifically. In a relatively short amount of time, I was thinking of all the good that goes on in cycles, natural or expressed by man. Each day of creation is an expression of good, whether it be the light of the first day, the firmament dividing the sky from the earth in the second day, or the land and the seas of the third day, and so forth. There is good in all these cycles, that constitute the universe, the earth, our environment.  The media, however, would have us believe that all is doom, and bad. It reports only  what is wrong, or discordant, and leaves out good. In my contemplation in the garden, I was able to see only good, and not see, hear, think, feel, or consider one bad thought, one bad image from any source. I only felt the good that is all over the place.

Thinking, hearing, seeing, witnessing, expressing, loving, contemplating good, is very healthy, and inspiring. I do this everyday. I sit quietly, and for about 30 minutes minimum, I fill my consciousness with only good. Call this prayer, rejoicing, giving gratitude, quietly listening to angel messages. The result of this thought process is goodness reflected. When I am through thinking good thoughts, seeing good images, and surrounding myself with only good, I then, really feel good, and I can go forward with any project, or task, with that sense of ever-present good. This is a good exercise for all to practice, and fulfill each day, or perhaps, throughout the day. You start to feel that good is alive and well, amidst all the evil and negativity that seems to fill the air and world we live in. Good is so natural.

Anyway, I have a very good feeling about my new garden projects I am just now starting since the summer crops are almost gone. Still have some tomatoes, and peppers, but most of the plants have withered away. I will be constructing a brick outlined island to expand the garden, but doing that instead of making more rows. Gardenting is also a cycle, a good cycle. Everying about gardening is good. Can’t think of one bad thing. Not even a problem with pests, because we have never had a serious problem with bugs, or pests. We always have had a healthy, successful garden. Maybe it is because we keep out thoughts focused on the good around us. I can make a list of hundreds of things that are good in my life, and in the life of those around me. I can probably find hundreds of things good in the mortgage industry, the real estate industry, the retail business, education, economy, and people. If you want good, you will experience it. “What goes around comes around.” Let us make good go around. Don’t forget to thoroughly turn your compost material every several days, for a healthy, rich compost spread. You soil will love you for it.