Our Earliest Garden Start Ever

This year's garden got off to an unexpected early start. It began with an enthusiastic and unrelenting knock at our door that didn't stop until we opened it.

As we approached the door we could see the top of a little head popping up at the bottom of the window. It was our next door neighbour's 4 year old, Andre, that I like to call Andre The Giant. 

On this day it was his heart that was giant, not just his enthusiasm. When we opened the door he was standing there with a container loaded with three tiny planters identified with what seeds had been carefully placed in each one. 

"These are for you", he said. "Me and my mom planted them." There was cauliflower, sweet pepper, cherry tomato, supplemented by a large amount of cuteness.

Linda and I don't usually start our garden early. We have never had the indoor space, not to mention a cold frame or greenhouse. All our gardens have been direct sown, and sometimes we buy seedlings from local greenhouses. 

Therefore, our gardening season doesn't usually get started until mid-May. But not this year. 

Thanks to the generosity of little Andre The Giant, and his mom, our garden is off to its earliest start ever. Our excitement is growing over the coming garden season.

Plant Seeds

I am looking at seeds we have saved from our garden. Left to right - marigold, radish, summer savoury, and cilantro.

Whether you are planting seeds in the garden, or planting seeds of change in your life and community, prepare yourself for a bountiful harvest. Be a loving caretaker, and success is assured. It is the way in a creative universe that delights in both life, and change.

“Plant your tiny seeds and keep watering them every day. Soon, they’ll grow.” 

- Israelmore Ayivor

“Seeds have the power to preserve species, to enhance cultural as well as genetic diversity, to counter economic monopoly and to check the advance of conformity on all its many fronts.” 

- Michael Pollan

“Every morning has a unique story. There are always some seeds of possibilities waiting to sprout.” 

- Amit Ray

"Plant seeds of kindness, love and peace 

And your harvest will be abundant living.” 

- Sanjo Jendayi

And remember, today's ashes are tomorrow's fertilizer.

Seedy Saturday

Old buckets found in a midden on our property, holding radish seed pods.

This weekend has traditionally been the time to plant a garden in most of Canada. Climate change is altering that a bit, with spring weather often coming one or two weeks earlier than usual. Our garden was planted a week ago, so this weekend we are sitting back and watching it germinate. 

While we wait for that magical moment when sprouts reaching for the sun break out of the soil, we are enjoying watching the green and growing garlic sway and play in the wind. We also have a couple of last years kale plants that we are growing for a second season in order to harvest some seeds this fall. 

Mmmm. Seeds. Magical packages of potential. Food for stomach and soul.

A carton of seeds, anyone? Left to right - marigold, radish, summer savoury, cilantro.

Last fall I collected a bunch of different seeds beyond what we needed to save for this year. I kept them around because they were so beautiful that I didn't want to compost them right away. It doesn't seem right to dispose of seeds. 

Any seeds. Ever. 

Today's seed hoarders are tomorrow's seed stores. Plus seeds are all so unique and beautiful in their own right. And many can be eaten - beans, and peas, and squash seeds (lightly salted, and baked with a bit of olive oil) for example.

Come on seeds, we're cheering for you. 

Note: I shouldn't joke about seed hoarding since it could be a potentially harmful situation, like any other hoarding behaviour. See here for a Seed Hoarders Anonymous thread on a gardening website. 

When I visited there, I noticed there was an advertisement for seeds at the top of the page... probably not a good idea. But there are some amazing stories there if you want to quell the urge to buy a bunch of seeds you don't need or can't afford. Free seeds? Well, that's a different story. 

Happy New Year

These are not hopeful times, but it is when it is most dark that we need to light the candle of hope. So I started looking for candles.

There is nothing more hopeful than seeds. Linda and I spent some beautiful moments sorting seeds today. As we did, we talked about what the garden of 2017 will look like. An eagle flew by outside our window, a nice reminder of our connection to the Divine.

Another trip around our life-sustaining star, another garden, rebirth just around the corner. Cycles upon cycles upon cycles, an endless flow. What a joy to prepare packets of potential that will become food for both stomach and soul.

Awakening to our own potential is the greatest joy of all. Like tending a garden, it is hard work. As has been noted by many, "the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off". First awareness. Then transformation.

Maintaining Not Buying Anything has been transformational. It is heartening to discover that people around the world are living smaller, feeling happier, and reducing their environmental footprint. We thank you for being part of the new growth in our own practice of simple living.

Together, in our blog garden, we are planting and nurturing seeds that will grow into new and better ways of living with Mother Nature. We can see that increasing numbers of people are coming to the understanding that life infuses everything. It's a big party, and everyone is invited. BYOS.

Here is to a hopeful 2017 bursting with growth on both a personal and global scale.

Gardening and Other Acts of Defiance

I would argue that simple living is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do,
and gardening can be a big part of living a simpler, more sustainable life. 

In an act of total defiance I went to my first Seedy Saturday this spring. Our community hall was packed full of fans of all things gardening and agricultural. I haven't seen so many wonderful, non-conforming rebels gathered in one spot since attending a Renaissance Fair.

And nary a Monsanto representative to be seen... unless they had undercover Pinkerton agents infiltrate the event dressed as hippy organic back-to-the-landers.

It seems perfectly natural for neighbours to collect and share seeds among themselves. After all, humanity has been doing this since plants were first domesticated 10,000 years ago. Until now.

Today the trend is toward making the ancient practice of seed saving illegal in order to protect the profits of the modern makers of genetically altered seeds and associated products.

"Monsanto is big. You can’t win. We will get you. 

You will pay."

Many people have heard about Monsanto's all out war against seed-saving farmers, but may not know they are pressuring governments to create "seed police" to stop profit-threatening seed saving wherever it occurs.

"A new and restrictive law, put before the European Commission on May 6, creates new powers to classify and regulate all plant life anywhere in Europe. The law would make it illegal to grow, reproduce, or trade any vegetable seed not “tested, approved, and accepted” by the new “EU Plant Variety Agency.” The new agency would maintain a list of approved plants, requiring payment of annual fees to keep those plants on the list; otherwise, they cannot be grown. 

Several last-minute changes were made to the law following public outcry – mostly to allow home gardeners and small organizations with fewer than 10 employees to save/swap/sell unapproved vegetable seed – but nearly all varieties of heirloom vegetable seeds will be criminalized under the proposed law. This means the act of saving seeds from one generation to the next – a cornerstone of sustainable living – would become a criminal act." - source

Now is the time for defiance as we continue what will soon be labeled "guerrilla gardening". It is our right, it is sustainable, and it must be protected as a basic freedom.

Plus you get strawberries.

Consider joining the March Against Monsanto May 25th - everywhere. We can and will change the world together. Get more information here.

No Doubts Monday

I have no doubt that the seeds of hope being sown today will reap the changes contained within. The world we envision can be nurtured into something completely new. What we believe is what we will become - think good thoughts.

The scattering of seeds has begun in earnest. The people are sowing row upon row of love, cooperation, equality, fairness, sustainability, peace, justice, and freedom. This garden will thrive, and all will benefit from the ample harvest. 

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”      - Franklin D. Roosevelt