Hello Dear Readers,
Physical limitations brought forth new teachings and positive changes in how I tend to God's Gardens this year.
One of the biggest changes was to bring the food growing areas closer to where they could be accessed with ease, and with an intention to allow the rest of the gardens to grow in service mostly to insect life. Also, this year, the work of making compost began to bring forth more growing possibilities and less interventions with the growing process.
In the last few years we have been experiencing drought like conditions. During these times, intuition informed me of the importance of feeding the soil (using nutrients such as kelp meal, neem meal, bone meal, alfalfa meal, stinging nettles and other natural bio-feeds. This was before my first harvest of compost). This year, we had more rain and the years of feeding during the years of drought with the addition of compost brought forth a robust garden attracting all sorts of insect life, salamanders, frogs, garden snakes, worms galore, dragon flies, birds, and my favorite - hummingbirds. Three individual families of house wrens moved in this year and were busy in the gardens. Two new sets of robins built nests in the front of the Temple as well as the back. There have been yellow finches, blue jays, cardinals, chickadee’s, wood peckers, and many other birds whose identities I am not familiar with.When I sit on the porch and look into the garden areas it brings joy and great peace to watch the insects flying about from flower to flower, and flying in the air above the gardens.
This year, again due to physical limitations, in areas which were difficult to access, I planted ground cover plants. The bees went wild, I needed to do little in these areas, the insects, especially the slugs, tended to stay away from the cultivated plants and enjoyed the greens and flowers in the ground cover areas. The greens from these areas also serve to feed the compost pile as well as providing nitrogen to the soil. The cover crop helped to anchor CO2 in the Earth’s body. It has been a win-win situation for the soil, the beings who live in the soil and insect life.2:
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Volunteers are plants which come from seeds which did not completely compost themselves. Whilst I spent much time in the spring and early summer pulling out tomato’s, I left the lovely squash plants grow and fed them. To my surprise, not only has the garden brought forth many butternut squashes (the secret is to feed them until mid-summer), but pumpkins also came forth. If I was able to lift more compost buckets throughout the summer, I would have been able to grow many more, but as it is, ten pumpkins are enough for myself and to share. These volunteers came about as I used compost that was from the winter after making many butternut squash soups the seeds of which had not yet fully broken down thru composting. The beauty of their growing in the garden, is that butternut squash is about $1.99 to $2.99 a pound for organic and there will be plenty for the winter soup season and for sharing.Composting - Feeding the Earth
Feeding the soil starts in the kitchen here at the Temple. When placing scraps in the compost bucket, thoughts are focused on what nutrients will be feeding the worms who will do most of the work in the compost pile.
Discarded scraps are kept small, oft times, taking a moment to cut them up. Egg shells are crushed. With a manageable BPA free 2.5 gallon bucket which is lined with a double paper bag, I add a sprinkling of organic compost accelerator to the bottom, then scraps, paper, especially brown, paper egg cartons, layering like one is making a compost lasagna. Halfway through, I might add some more compost accelerator, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, or even yeast. I press down the components with brown paper, and continue layering. When the compost bucket is full, the four sides of the paper bag are folded over, brought to the compost pile, emptied and layered heavily with leaves. That is it. Due to physical limitations, I do not turn the pile. Even so, this formulation of feeding brings forth beautiful compost by the spring. More than half of Earth’s species live in the soil, study findshttps://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -finds-aoeThe paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found it is home to 90% of fungi, 85% of plants and more than 50% of bacteria. At 3%, mammals are the group least associated with soils.
“Here, we show that soil is likely home to 59% of life including everything from microbes to mammals, making it the singular most biodiverse habitat on Earth,” researchers write in the paper, which is a review of existing literature. The actual figure could be even higher as soils are so understudied, they say.
…He added: “Organisms in soil play an outweighed impact on the balance of our planet. Their biodiversity matters because soil life affects climate change feedbacks, global food security, and even human health.” It is also worth noting, that it is best to create a separate composting pile for weeds which have a lot of seeds. These take longer to break down. I will add an occasional kitchen compost bucket to the weed composting pile as well as brown paper bags to give the worms some extra delicious food.
My heart recognizes that this year has been unique at the Temple gardens as we had plenty of rain to water the gardens. In a drought season, the butternut squashes and pumpkins would have required a lot of water to grow. The plants thrived because they were in harmony with the natural conditions. This is part of the changes which are needed to be in harmony with changing growing conditions and climate changes. 0:
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Herbs have been harvested twice, and if I it were not for the intensity of physical limitations earlier in the year, there would have been plenty of blueberries and raspberries - this year the birds enjoyed them.
This year there was less mowing, allowing for more wild grasses and flowers to grow which kept the bunnies in the wild grass areas and the insects dancing.
I give thanks for the one of the greatest pleasures of being alive - taking a seed and watching it mature into food and flowers, not only for myself, but to share with others and most of all, to share with all the insect and wildlife who bring forth the miracles of growth through pollination.Giving Thanks For Additional Assitance
A shout out to my four legged friend Mr. LUM who was great helper in the garden this year, chasing away the chipmunks who usually feed on the food grown and keeping the rabbit population at bay. Blessings and thanks to those who bring their organic compost. Much gratitude to Mother Earth’s mountains for the the bio-resin Shilajit which is helping to strengthen my body and the limitations incurred in the presence of incoming cosmic energies of Light and the oppositional energies of darkness/separation being released. Tips From The Temple GardensWhen growing lettuce in pots, add eggshells crushed into small pieces, put a pot with mum's growing between the pots to keep chewers at bay and a geranium. Do the same with pots of basil. With all the rain, there have been no slugs - a miracle in a rainy season. Most of the slugs were busy in the ground cover gardens.
Grow a cosmos plant with your vining zucchini’s to attract more bee’s.
Add Borage plants near your cucumbers to keep caterpillars at bay. Add Neem meal twice a season to the added compost feedings. Also, add some Epsom salts to enhance flowering and keeping the leaves green. Grow your onions, chives, garlic nearby the cucumbers. Make sure to add a marigold plant and a nasturtium nearby.
Take lots of photos, as you would friends, of the plants growing in your garden. Spend time giving thanks for their beauty and nourishment. Love your garden and your garden will love you back.
Update: 9/10/23- Alas, not everything is copacetic in God's garden this year. Last year I noticed worm holes with large piles of worm droppings, the grass dying out as well in these areas. It came to me that something was moving from the forest into the meadow yet I had no idea what it was.
This year, I learned what was causing the imbalance. Asian jumping worms. These worms are very large, squiggle like snakes when you pick them up. I learned that their bodies contain heavy metals, so I will continue to broadcast kelp meal, grow sunflowers to offset the heavy metals. At first, my consciousness was thinking "how do I stop them and the damage they are causing?" Then someone in the Light Omega community shared GurujiMa's thoughts on 'invasive' species and I resonated deeply with these teachings. Also, there is no way to contain a worm population this advanced and underground. So I will allow for Nature Herself to bring the gardens into balance, perhaps this is why I am noticing more snakes in the gardens this year?
with love,
Johanna
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Holy Soil The wealth of the Earth is in her soil,
that rich, crumbly mixture that we have
fften referred to as ‘dirt’
“dirt” is what many have desired to free
themselves from.
Soil is the richness of the Earth
creating the substructure that supports
all of life.
We need to bless the soil
that is the Earth’s gift to her children.
We need to bless and revere it
and contribute to its life through our
prayers and our practices.
We need to thank it for providing us
with food, and with all that sustains life.
Holy soil, out of which all things may
grow in abundance,
we have not respected your richness.
we have used you and abused you
as if you were a thing to be tossed aside
or filled with toxins that poisoned
your very being.
Now, we come to a new place within ourselves,
a place of valuing what we have not valued before,
of knowing what we did not know before,
of loving you, blessed Earth.
We have come to ask for your forgiveness
and to treat you with the new respect that
grows in our hearts —
the wish to live with you in harmony,
to no longer force you to take in toxins,
which not only poison you but poison
us as well.
We, who are the Earth’s children,
come to you in all humility to be shown
how we may best nourish you and feed you,
that you may nourish and feed us
with the food that is your sacred bounty.
Poems For The New EarthGurujiMahttps://lightomega.org/book/poems-for-the-new-earth/
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