The Philosopher's Garden
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Thoughts on life while gardening
Two hands, some soil, and seeds
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Contents
- Ten - Bursting
- Nine - Simplicity
- Eight - Connectedness
- Seven - A little bit at a time
- Six - The Real value of things
- Five - Human being
- Four - On Weeding
- Three - Squirrel and me
- Two - seeds
- One - beginning
Resisting the Pull
I did some more work in the garden today and I had to examine the way I think about a garden; this is in effect, the way we all think about gardens and about lots of things. What do you do when you start a garden? Well, you run off to the garden shop or the home improvement store and you buy a bunch of stuff. You have to have a lot of stuff right? Isn't this the way to success? Here is a common list:
- top soil
- rake
- hoe
- shovel
- weed killer
- fertilizer
- starter pots
- even better: plants already started
- ph test - then of course whatever chemical will get the ph right
- a book
- wood chips
- colorful stones
- a variety of plants and flowers
- wheelbarrow
- gloves
You get the idea. Why did this become what we need to do when we do anything? What has taken hold of us to make us think in these terms. Don't get me wrong, I have done these kinds of things all my life. It's like everything you do requires a recipe and of course you have to buy all the ingredients.
Here's what I bought for my garden:
- some seeds
No starter plants, no set up, no fertilizer etc. etc. etc. And the seeds were a bit begruding. Being a city dweller it's hard for me to get seeds. But, I do have some seeds I have been saving since last year.
Last year I planted sunflowers and whoa, they sprouted so beautifully. As they matured I cut and dried them then saved the seeds, of course I split my harvest with the creatures of the neighborhood. For several days I left the cut suflowers on the porch and all the birds and squirrels just had a real ball with them.
Because I didn't do all those things that make your garden better will my garden be bad? Nope, It will be beautiful. You should do this too - REsist the pull to buy things and just let your garden develop in the way it was meant to develop.
Here is what I did today. I put in the bird bath and a little green fence. It is in this small area that i planted hundreds of flower seeds (and all the sunflower seeds from last year). It should sprout in a wonderful, crazy explosion of life and color.