Saturday, August 1, 2009

IMMA FARMBER!

I'm officially in love with being on the work crew at Seattle Tilth. It was so freakin' fun. I spent my time: harvesting carrots and onions, weeding, harvesting plums, cleaning up the fallen plums, washing and packing up produce for Centro De La Raza's soup kitchen, chopping up plants with a machete for the compost pile.

I also discovered that I know a whole lot more than I thought I knew. That was really a surprise. I actually felt competent and able (which I was terrified I was over my head).

I'm ridiculously in love with the garden there. Envious of the space and produce. I learn so much just walking through the place and poking around in the beds.

I finally figured out what it is about gardening that pleases me so much. It's having all my attention and focus on basically 1 foot square of space at a time. I get to really look at inches of ground and discover what is going on. The harder I look, the more there is to see--whether it is a weed just starting to pop up that must come out, discovering bugs and deciding if they are going to be friendly or not, and simply watching each plant on a daily basis to see how it changes and grows. I'm not thinking about anything except what is right in front of me. I'm fully present in a way that I'm not at my job or even around the house. I'm right in the center of Now and completely delighting in it.

I vaguely remember an old Nova program that thrilled me to no end when I was a kid. It was all about different bugs and plants and it felt like you were in an exotic jungle bursting with life and then they pulled the cameras back and the entire thing was shot from someone's backyard or some little patch of grass. It blew my mind back then and now that I have my own little plot, continues to blow my mind.

In my own garden, I sprayed everything down with kelp again. Once again, by this evening I am stunned by Molly the Eggplant. This plant is so freakin' happy that I can't breathe when I look at it. She is definitely flowering now and getting ready to explode with a ton of eggplants. It's simply a waiting game. There are at least 12 clusters of 5-6 buds each of soon-to-be-fruit.

And my zucchini? The one I gave up on and almost pulled 2 weeks ago? In about a week or so, we'll have our first harvest of 2-3 zucchini. With more and more on the way. They are about 2-3 inches now.

Hiding underneath some leaves, I found my first ripe paste tomato. Unfortunately, it is over-ripe at this point and has a mushy area. :/ I hadn't been looking too closely because we just don't get tomatoes in July/early August really. The hot weather is definitely working it's magic.

Tomorrow is all about re-trellising the tomatoes that are now out of control, making a tee-pee for the beans, and putting in the trellesing for the peas. All which I forgot to do BEFORE I freakin' planted them. ooops. I've also got to either pot up or put out the pocy choi and chinese cabbage. They are outgrowing their digs. And I think I see the brussel sprouts actually sprouting. (yippie!!!)

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