Plants need water. Duh! Being from Massachusetts, 50 years of gardening there made its imprints, for instance, what vegetables and flowers are a must every year, that each season is a fresh experiment on many levels, and how and when to water. Now I live in the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado at 7800 ft. elevation. It is a semi-arid region where precipitation is irregular; quantities irregular, too. Donna, you’re not in Massachusetts anymore!
A flight home from teaching somewhere out of state would bring the delight of seeing natural water features glimmering everywhere on the ground. Streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands. Growing up, friends and I would play in the Shawsheen River, a walk from home. We would ice skate on a frog pond deep in the woods that we’d have to clear off first. Cooling off in summer was a few miles in any of three directions in a lake. And less than an hour away was a beach on the Atlantic. Six years here, four full seasons of gardening, and I’m still screwing up the watering at the crucial front-end of the season. Gratefully (truly grateful!), Mother Nature is resilient and forgiving.
Two amazing strawberries and one Bumble Bee grape tomato blessed the garden walk the other day. The currants are for the birds, plenty of both. Brought a full bin of collards and chard, a little kale, a walking onion, dill and cilantro to my acupuncturist; and the neighbor has received greens for two weeks. Not to mention the greens harvested for my plate!
We had rain multiple times – long and slow- over two weeks time. As a local says, “Rain makes plants thrive; irrigation keeps them alive.” So, yes, more watering would have made for fuller garden plants but rain is mother’s milk for them, Mother Earth’s milk, that is.
So, here we are. (the photos below) Our season doesn’t really begin until early June. That full planting time. Friends in other locations have enjoyed bounty from their gardens for more than a month already. What a celebration: that we can be nourished, along with birds and insects, microbes and Planet almost everywhere!
We circle back to the first of three contemplations on Love that we did last week. The first is from the Great Mahayana Aspiration Prayer of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra: “May I realize the ten powers: the power of all beneficial activity, (and) the power of all pervading love.”
The second is from the Indigenous traditions of the world, phrased here from a Native American language: “All my relations.” or “We are all related.”
The third is from St. Francis.
We will be with each of the three for a week or more each.
“May me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hate, let me sow love. Where there is injury, let me bring pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. And, where there despair, let me bring hope. Where there is fear, let me bring trust. For it is in giving that we receive. And, it is in dying that we know life.”
