Garden fun 2026, 1: no peat and seed snails

Yesss. It’s on your mind, too, isn’t it?! A new season: its fun, creativity, beauty, bounty, and Life buzzing, bursting, sprouting, singing. Can’t wait! And, so, I’m not; that is to say, now is the time to:

  • Think about seed starting and NO Peat potting mix. Below is all things no peat and why. So important.
  • If any seeds have to be ordered, do it now from organic growers. Some of the most popular flowers or delicious veggies are already selling out. I use Annies Heirloom Seeds or Renees Garden for new varieties or fun experiments. High Mowing Seeds is my go-to for larger quantity (1/4 lb. for example) for cover crop.
  • Review what seeds to start when, which seeds are slow germinators (21 days or so), which are direct seed to soil and therefore which seeds and plants are best begun indoors if possible and which don’t need that or would be adversely affected. I’m trying seed snails this season. See below.
  • Think about color, height, full sun and partial sun or shade for the plants -veggie, herb, and flower. Reviewing this allows one to paint your garden into being.
  • Reflect on how irrigation went last season. Climate disruption is changing everything. Are adjustments needed for this season?

NO PEAT  and why, plus your options

Peat is unfortunately the primary ingredient in almost all potting soils, organic and non, and has been since plastic bags of these have been commercialized. I was ignorant for too long on this issue, and each season I ask the Peat Bog Mother for forgiveness for my past sins.

A peat bog, also known as a moor or moorland, is a specific, wondrous, and extremely fragile ecosystem that literally has taken many hundreds of years to form. The peat in a bag of potting soil -almost any brand- could be 1000 years old, not mere hundreds. This means that extracting peat, now done with bulldozers and front-loaders, is akin to burning down the Amazon or Indonesian rainforest; and you wouldn’t knowingly participate in that, right? No, not as a lover of Mother Nature. Here are a couple of videos on the wonders of a moorland or peat bog, like the sundew plant.

For the last decade or so the only alternative for peat-based potting soil was coconut coir. These ingredients are used because potting soil is best if fluffier or lighter in texture than compost or soil. Even if one makes a home mix, you will need something to lighten it along with vermiculite. A small business in Taos had such items, but sadly they seem not to be opening this year. Bummer for them and everyone.

So, I am super excited to try a line of products from Home Depot: Back to the Roots. In my area, they are online purchase only and delivered. I ordered four bags of potting soil and four of raised bed -for topping here and there. They arrived unscathed, each bag packed in its fitted cardboard box (compost material). Kept in the shed, that’s two years of potting soil.

Now, before you click to Home Depot, pause and think of how priceless and irreplaceable a peat ecosystem is. This no-peat alternative, or a coconut coir one, will be more expensive than Miracle Grow or such. But, expense to a human being and expense to an entire critically endangered habitat -endangered only because of uninformed gardeners and nurseries- are not equal. Personally, my choice is clear regarding peat use as well as organic or other choices that one can make in harmony and in support of Life and Mother Earth.

Seed snails

Somebody sent me a video last week on seed snails. Thank you!!! I had not heard of this way of starting seeds. But, in watching a few videos on the matter, it seems ingenious! Less potting soil is used. Less space is required. All the while, more seeds per less-ness are germinated and establish healthy and vibrant root systems. At least, that’s what several master gardeners have found and showed in their videos. Here’s a few.

Paint Your Garden into Being

Below is possibly TMI, but might provide assistance with visioning a garden rather than row planting which leaves as much space unused as used. Remember to mulch everything! This woman uses her space really well. This man does, too.

  • Flowers and herbs are the best natural deterrents to common garden pests plus they offer pizzaz, beauty, delightful smells and tastes. Each bed or pot is a blank canvas. Arrange it!
    • tall goes in the back: tallest are pole beans or climbing cucumbers, a stand of corn, and most tomatoes except determinate/container varieties, like Husky Cherry
    • tall varieties of marigolds or cosmos will get about 3 ft. tall
    • kales will grow to about 2 ft.
    • So, you envision that in one bed pole beans are at the back end, in another bed tomatoes are, in another amaranth or corn, with tall flowers such as cosmos or tall marigold varieties nearby for superb pollination, beauty and pest mitigation.
    • bush growing, or trailing, or drooping go around the edges: bush or trailing cukes, bush beans -so many varieties, nasturtiums, chamomile, and some peas trail over the side of a bed also. A tomato will if trained to do so in a raised bed with a tall enough side.
    • now envision the entire middle:
      • lettuces need shade; put them between other plants
      • greens, like dwarf bok choy or hon tsai tai, need some shade too. Same treatment.
      • small marigolds, like Lemon Gem or Red Gem (6-10″) sprinkle in just behind the edging plants. They prefer dappled sun to partial. The smell is amazing and the color quite vibrant.
      • medium marigolds, red, yellow, or orange, are 12″. I will put these at the base of a tomato cage along with a basil or two.
      • cabbage will need space but only gets about 20″ tall; whereas zucchini will get almost 3 ft. wide plus almost 2 ft. tall. Where to put it is always the question. Mine usually goes in a ground bed, not a raised one.
    • Winter squashes also need a lot of room. Corn need quantity of plants due to being wind-pollinated from each other, plus need adequate space for each plant. So, this is where methods like Three Sister planting are invaluable in ground beds.
    • One more consideration is harvest-time. Example, garlic. It is planted in November and harvested mid-July (in my zone). Replanting  that bed will be with crops that will grow into October, which is mostly brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, chard and kale. Lettuces, Japanese greens, dward bok choy, and cilantro, too.

Lastly, when to start

If using a seed packet’s information, take note that Days to Maturity refers to after planting out a start or after a direct seeded seedling is established with mature leaves. Organize your seed starting accordingly. Add the fact that some plants are slow germinators, like parsley, chard, and cilantro.

Here is a great video on Do’s and Don’ts for seed starting. Seed Starting Mistakes Pros Never Make

Happy Visioning!

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Meditation: mindfulness 3, deeply reflecting

Contemplation is a skill that, dependent upon what one “puts into it”, can emanate powerful energies into the world and catalyze transformation within one’s self. There are two key points that foster accomplishment: what one contemplates and how one contemplates.

Anything in any moment can be a focus of contemplation. An itch. A sensation arises; and -as if automated- one will scratch it. What if one breathed with it instead? What if one just let the sensation be a sensation? It’s an experiment.

In addition to “what”, there is “how.” In the case of a sensation, how is often a type of pause. The idea is to change thought-less robotic reaction to a conscious choice of action.

When the contemplative focus is others and empathic prayer, for example, what and how can actually contribute positive or beneficent energy to collective human consciousness while, at the same time, foster personal transformation.

Take for example the prayer being used this week: one can mouth it, chant it, or sing it -all good; additionally, one can actually contemplate it. “May the broken be healed.” How many ways can “broken” be understood?

  • broken families
  • broken spirits, broken hearts, broken minds
  • broken ideologies
  • broken systems
  • broken bodies, buildings, cultures
  • what breaks you? What is a breaking point for you?

Empathy, understanding, listening, and presence are fostered in one through contemplation on the hardship of a broken family, for instance. How did it get that way? Is it my place to offer help? What help might actually be helpful?

Contemplating broken systems, like economic or social systems or ideologies, can provide inner space to review one’s own beliefs, ideas, or habits. Such reflections might elicit action and/or activism, or the laying aside and no longer harboring certain ideas or beliefs.

Then, there is ‘may the broken be healed’. What does healing mean in any of these contexts? When is ‘broken’ a feature of timeless change? Necessary transformation? When is “broken’ a result of blatant malevolence or greed? These considerations encourage one to investigate the sources of what one buys, uses, or invests in.

As one more deeply contemplates, the depth of Being responds. Beingness contributes wide peace, precious clarity, openness and oneness. Then these emanate out, contributing to the transformation of collective human consciousness.

“May the sick be restored.”

  • sick minds, sick ethics, the sicknesses of greed, avarice, envy, self-loathing, and such
  • sick children from what adults around them do or foster
  • sick soil, rivers, oceans
  • plus sick people, sick because other people cause conditions that only bring disease

When we contemplate the truths of being human, we recognize that we human beings are capable of amazing and far-reaching empathy and warmheartedness; and that members of our species are capable of great malevolence and harm. Contemplation is a personal invitation to pause, look deeply at something, and to deeply look within. What a skill!

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Play with your food 7: empty and seeding bounty

The last Kabocha squash was made into soup in mid-February. Last week the remainder of the frozen peas and last jar of canned roasted tomatoes were put into a soup. This week the remaining small bag of frozen tomatoes went into black-eyed pea soup with portobello mushrooms. And, yesterday, the last bag of frozen kale was given to a neighbor-friend.

As the winter stores from a season’s fun and beauty in the garden are used up, I smile with gratitude and sense of celebration. Mother Earth is amazing! Her bounty is unbounded, including the seeds gathered from my own produce which will grow into this year’s abundance; all to be eaten fresh picked and shared during season, plus put up for winter. Mother Nature does not create starvation or poverty. Human’s do. Curious thing. So, as I type this set of recipes with added photos, it is with seeds on my mind, new garden blog posts, and with you and the world in my heart. Healthy eating should not be a chore or a privilege. Grow something to eat this year, friends! It’s easy. Children love having their hands in soil or a pot of potting soil. You will, too.

Below are two yummy meals!

Indian Marsala with Great Northern Beans -or chicken -makes 6 servings (If chicken it is a Tiki Masala.)

Ingredients

  • butter for sauté
  • 1 can of Great Northern or Butter Beans or 1 C diced cooked chicken (use the leftovers from a rotisserie chicken)
  • 1 pint jar of home-canned roasted tomatoes OR 1 12-16 oz. can of organic tomato sauce
  • 1/2 – 3/4 C of whole milk or plant-milk (if you can get raw milk from happy cows, it’s the best!)
  • 1/4-1/3 C coconut milk
  • 1 sweet onion – chopped
  • 3 stalks of celery- chopped
  • 3-5 baby portobello mushrooms – chopped
  • 1 C frozen mixed vegetables (Best for this meal is to not use a broccoli-cauliflower mix. Use a green bean, corn, carrot type of mix.)
  • Optional: Half of a frozen flavor bomb, if you have it; i.e. spinach and parsley or such.
  • Spices:
    • the 3-C’s: cumin, curry (yellow), coriander. Equal amount (1 t.) of curry and coriander. Slightly less cumin.
    • 1 t. garam masala
    • 2 t. (heaping) dried basil or 1/4 C of fresh
    • 1 t. dried cilantro
    • 2 heaping t. garlic powder or 3-4 cloves of garlic depending on size (my left hand often can’t hold the clove, so organic garlic powder purchased in bulk is the go-to. Ah, but yes, I still grow it!!)
    • 1/4 C limeade or juice of lime. Start with half. Don’t overpower the masala.
    • himalayan salt and ground pepper, just enough
    • optional: half a veggie bouillon cube. It often rounds out the flavor palette.

Method

  • Rinse the can of beans in a colander or sieve.
  • Use a small soup pot.
  • Chop onions first and get the sauté going. Medium heat.
  • Chop celery, mushrooms, and garlic -if using cloves; add them to the sauté.
  • Cook to slightly soft and flavorful.
  • Add the 3 C’s and garam masala, stir and let the heat begin to release their oils and flavors.
  • Add the beans; stir in and coat with the flavors in the pot. Let be for a minute or so; long enough to get the frozen items from the freezer.
  • Add the tomato sauce. Stir in.
  • Chop the flavor bomb, if you have it and add.
  • Add all the rest of the herbs and spices including s & p.
  • Bring to a low boil. Stir frequently. Watch the heat. Don’t burn  the bottom of the pot.
  • Add the frozen veggies, milk plus coconut milk, and limeade or juice. If using plant-milk oat is better than rice milk. It’s a little thicker. The coconut milk adds flavor and texture.  Stir in. Cover. Leave on simmer for 1o minutes. Then turn off the heat, let it sit for 10 minutes before tasting.
  • Adjust according to your taste. S & P, lime, milk (any of them) might be desired. The medium-spice-heat quality will come out as it sits.

Serve with rice, or naan, or a quesadilla.

 

Black-eyed Pea and Portobello Mushroom Soup – makes 6 servings

Ingredients (to a certain extent, use whatever you have on hand. Play!)

  • 1/2 C of dried black-eyed peas soaked overnight in 4X the water.
  • 2 T butter or whatever you sauté in
  • 5-7 baby portobello mushrooms or 2 full size – chopped
  • 1 sweet onion -chopped
  • 1 C of stewed tomatoes or equivalent of home-frozen or home-canned -not necessary for home-done to be stewed
  • 1-2 carrots – diced
  • frozen or fresh spinach (or chard). I had a frozen flavor bomb of 1/2 a bunch of spinach plus parsley together. Loosely chop.
  • 1/2 C rice. I used a rice medley.
  • spices:
    • 2 t. Thai spice
    • 1/2 t. chili powder
    • some fresh-ground black pepper
    • 2 t. garlic powder or 4 cloves of fresh garlic, chopped
    • 1/4 t. himalayan salt
    • 2 t. herbs de province or a combination of basil and thyme is adequate (H d P is a great herb combination to have on hand!)
    • I added extra thyme from my thyme plant, just cuz.
    • 1 t. dried cilantro
    • 1 t. coriander
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 1 vegetable bouillon cube
    • 1/4 C limeade or juice of one lime
  • 4 C water

Method

  • In a small soup pot, put the butter to melt.
  • Add chopped onion and mushrooms. Sauté on medium-low temp until soft. Add more butter if the mushrooms absorb it all.
  • Add all the spices, except bouillon and limeade. Stir in. Let the heat start to activate their oils and flavors.
  • Add the black-eyed peas, tomatoes, chopped carrots, and rice. Stir. For 30 seconds or so, let the ingredients share flavors with each other.
  • Add the water. Stir, cover, and bring to low boil.
  • Add chopped spinach (and parsley, if you have it).
  • Stir in, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir occassionally.
  • Around 45 min. taste-test. It should taste a slightly tangy from the tomatoes.
  • Add the limeade or lime juice and bouillon; both will tamp down the acidity.
  • Simmer a few more minutes, then let it sit for 15 minutes before tasting again.

The peas and the rice that I use do not 100% soften, which I like. This soup has a chew-factor which is part of its yum!

  • any light colored bean could replace the Black-eyed Peas, including canned. Chicken could, too.
  • organic ingredients, please; for you, your family, the pollinator insects, the waters of the world, and the organic  farmers who don’t get the same government subsidies that polluting farms do. Curious again.
  • forgot to take a photo! Boy, is it yummy!

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Meditation: thoughtfulness – sing for peace

It is activism; it is something anyone can do. Pray, chant meaningful statements or mantra, and sing peace into the world. Doing so is not a lesser action; not if done with heartfelt empathy for those tossed about by violence and malevolence. If one cares about others –all others– then, every word, thought, and action that is antidote to the insanity of separateness is needed and necessary now. Be warmheartedness incarnate. Be the song of peace.

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Meditation: thoughtfulness 1

Working with the personal practice of conscientiousness, we add thoughtfulness. Of course, these two are a unity; either one is impossible without the other. How marvelous! Once again, the Path of being human reveals that we can use any moment or circumstance, any thought or emotion and work it for self-transformation. Doing so benefits oneself, those one interacts with, and the world.

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