Garden Center

It's summer! And a great time to start and enjoy the beauty of a garden. Isn't it just adorable to see little buds and new sprigs popping out all the time? I love it. Plants definitely have a special place in my heart.
I'm lucky enough to have small garden this summer, mostly herbs. It's a good thing, too, because it really comes in handy when I'm feeling a little stressed or out of sorts. It grounds me. It puts life in perspective. My plants motivate me toward the life I'm trying to live, and they remind me of everything I treasure on this planet. Seeing a plant grow and change, and being able to help that process, reminds me where I fit on this earth. It reminds me of the processes the natural world goes through, and ultimately, its beauty in duality. The balance is superb, nearly ineffable. It's Divine.
Those are the sort of things I think about when I'm in my garden. The past couple of weeks have been very hectic in my little world. I've been spending more and more time musing in my garden lately. I thought I would share my little bit of bliss.
Hmm... where to begin...?

Clary Sage

This is my clary sage. The big velvety leaves remind me of bunny ears; so cute! This guy smells really good, and he's super fuzzy! Check out the close up...

Ultimate Fluff

At the moment, this guy is around more for aesthetics than anything else. I'm fairly certain it's pot bound, since it hasn't grown too much in the past few months. I just don't have anywhere big enough to put him. So I just trim it when it needs it and water it. It still produces new leaves, but I'm not sure how to work with sage. I'm figuring it out!

Here we have little onion chives. I love how they spike straight up into the air with such thin little leaves. True strength.

My gentle onion chives

I'm actually quite amazed at the comeback the chives have made in the past year. When I first started gardening, chives were some of my first guinea pigs. Lets just say I was a less than nurturing mother. I don't even want to think about how long it went without getting watered (months, probably). Then one day I started thinking, "Wow, that guy is still sort of green... I bet I could bring him back." So I started watering him and gave him more light, and he's more than quadrupled in size! He tastes good on salads. And I've since become much more attentive to the plants, I promise!

Calendulas; my only flowers at the moment. Look how cute they are. There's no way seeing them couldn't cheer me up.

Mini sun rays

Apparently, dried calendula flowers can be used for medicinal purposes. I haven't tried it yet, however, because I'm a bit uncertain about what variety these are. The medicinal calendulas are a specific variety, otherwise they are just marigolds.

My field of flowers

These are lemon balm seedlings, and one of the two youngest plants I have. I actually need to repot them soon, so they can start spreading and bulking up. Dried lemon balm leaves add an incredible flavor to tea! 

I love lemon fragrance

I'm really proud of these because it took me two seasons to finally get the seeds to germinate and sprout! Now I have four or five little sprouts. Sweet!

No herb garden would be complete without basil. I put fresh leaves in nearly everything! My favorite is home-made bruschetta, mmm mmm!

My favorite smell! I wish my house smelled like basil.

Right now I have about 20 small basil plants in one pot. This is how it happened: When my first, and very large, basil plant matured and started to flower, I let it go nuts. Bumblebees and honeybees LOVE basil flowers, so I thought it might be nice to give them lots of pollen and nectar to stuff their cute faces in. The flowers attracted the bees, the bees did their thing, and all of my flowers went to seed. At the time, that large, flowering basil plant was in my boyfriend's garden. Everything was in containers because the soil at his old house was pitiful. So we had all these different plants in pots, and once my basil started seeding, the seeds went everywhere! Plants are really phenomenal at spreading their seeds and starting new life. There was an onion plant close to the flowering basil and it became covered with little basil leaves. I wish I had taken a picture then, because it was one of the most adorable things I've seen. The onion was ready to harvest, and when my boyfriend pulled it up he left the basil sprouts in there. Now the little guys, although lanky, are about 4-5 inches tall and since there are so many I literally have a basil bush. It rocks.

As much as I love my basil, I think I love my oregano even more. Oregano has been one of my favorite flavors since I was a little kid. I don't know many kids that go nuts over oregano, but I did, and still do. 

I love the leaf formation. Adorable!

Again, I put this in nearly everything I make. Sauteed veggies and couscous with fresh oregano makes me feel like I'm in heaven. I can use as much as I want, too; the more I take some for cooking, the more new leaves it pops out. The oregano grows pretty low and close to the soil, but as you can see he's spilling over the sides of the pot. It's wonderful. I hug him almost every day (I hug most of the plants every day actually....)

Not an herb: BLUEBERRIES! Oh, the joy I felt when my friend handed this guy over to me two summers ago. Blueberries have been my favorite since I was little, too. I remember my dad making me blueberry waffles when I was a kid. I'd eat two, just for the double dose of blueberries.

Almost ready to eat!

Too bad I almost killed this guy, too! It wasn't out of neglect, like with the chives, it was out of sheer ignorance to what blueberries like to grow in. They like very acidic soil. I had no idea when I first got him. When his leaves started to get floppy and soft, and turn a sickly reddish-pink color, I had my boyfriend help me with him. My boyfriend has two magical green thumbs. Really, the man can grow anything! So he did some research and fixed this little guy up in a matter of a few weeks. Now I know what to do if the soil pH is off, and I have the right kind of food for acidic plants; he's much happier now.

A gardener's snack

I pick the blueberries off and eat them as they get ready. Most don't ever make it inside the house! It's a competition between the birds and myself, to see who can get the most ripe berries first. I usually win.

The last of my little herbs is one of the newest, planted around the same time as my lemon balm. This guy we like to call lavender.

Baby lavender

It looks a lot like rosemary or thyme, but one sniff will tell you otherwise. I used to have two, but one didn't make it. This guy is doing really well, though. Every day he looks a little bigger. I can't wait until it flowers! I'm still figuring out how much sun it likes. I'm being really cautious because I don't want him to get scorched. That happens a lot in the middle of the summer in Florida; the sun is so powerful and hot it tends to hurt gardens quite a bit.

My little set-up is on a table in the back patio, mostly covered by the house. The plants get a couple of hours of direct sun during the day, but most of the time it's indirect. This works for me, because I'm usually gone during the days and weekends. If they were in full sun all day they would dry and fry... no good.

A garden is something I hope to have for the rest of my life. Especially an herb garden. I love the variety of flavors, shapes, colors and flowers. Plus their infinite uses; from medicinal, to culinary, aesthetic, teas, tonics, baths... Yes, herbs are wonderful!

Prefatory

I'm a product of 20th century, consumerist-America. I grew up in suburban areas, never learning to grow a single tomato, or produce anything of use. Growing up, things weren't mended in my house; we did without or they were replaced. I had a typical childhood, and probably would have been content to keep leading the gluttonous life of material possessions surrounding me had it not been for one thing: my exposure to a third world country (along with its struggles and glories) at a young age.
My mother hails from Costa Rica; land of rich soil, green embraced mountains, and serene landscapes. I had to opportunity to live some short years of my young life there, and was exposed to the "simple life" by my grandfather. Now, this man grew up in rural Costa Rica without the luxuries taken for granted in this country. He tilled his lands with a horse and plow, he built his house, he crossed raging river rapids, he searched in the country for medicinal plants for days, he did it all. My grandfather worked hard for everything he has. (Which isn't a little either: one small house in the city, two country properties, acres of virgin land, vegetables, rice, beans, cows...) The man never learned to drive ("What's the need?" he'd say), and still chooses to walk the three miles to the post office at the ripe age of 76! He's my living proof that a life lived outside is infinitely more rewarding and healthy than trying to attain the latest fashions.
He planted a seed in me at a young age. It lay germinating for years... To my surprise, tender cotyledons appeared as I realized this rat-race, fast-paced, two-faced life isn't for me. I'd rather take the earth between my hands and cultivate my own survival. As such, I'm moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle (and eventually, a wholly self-sufficient one). I'm moving toward what so many have turned away from in recent decades: a connection to the earth that grants us beautiful breath.
Which brings me to the purpose behind this blog! First, it's a commitment to the earth: to lead a life with little impact; seeking out alternatives to the norm and adopting them into my life; spreading what I've learned and discovered with as many people as I can reach. Secondly, it's a commitment to myself: to pursue a holistic spirituality of my mind, body and spirit, centering around the earth and her laws; to honor the life my grandfather lives and loves, and the teachings he tried so hard to pass on to his grandchildren; to feed and expand my interests and goals; to develop my writing.
In short, this is an experiment. Most of what will be posted in this blog will be first-time attempts at the alternatives; as well as my meditations on life, love, humanity, my spiritual growth. Keep in mind, I'm no expert-- most of the projects will be realized through trial and error. I'll write and share what I do in my daily life to make a difference in trying to preserve what remains of the earth, and preserve the habits of man that brought us to this point (which were so quickly tossed aside and lost, I might add!). This is my catalyst for change, my reminder of where I'm going and what I'm trying to do.
Comments and suggestions are always welcome, I'd love to hear feedback!

peace&love