Ode to My Garden:

One Small Piece of a Much Larger Puzzle.

So, I took a picture of my garden today. Just a small section of the farm here, but in it there is so much. So many more intricacies working together than what is visible to the eye. In nature, we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else, which is before it, beside it, under it and over it. In this little piece of heaven ( .15 acres, or 6500 square feet) We can see the following:

1 prayer circle with hundreds of intentional rocks dedicated to loved people and things

1 large shade tree

1 pear tree planted on the day my brother passed 5/22/2017

3 small sugar maple trees - volunteers (plants that sprouted by themselves)

60 raspberry plants - a gift of 10 plants from my mom's sister Margie 20 years ago.

Asparagus - planted by my niece Izzy in the first CSA here, four years ago in 2016

135 hemp plants - all saved seeds from the previous grow

25 cucumber plants

60 tomato plants

Mint

Kale

Dill

Parsley

Ferns and Lily of the Valley plants - from my great aunt Maryanne Jones. She passed away last year at the age of 93, still living on her own and sharp as a tack.

4 thriving bee hives

2 very healthy rhubarb plants - a gift from one of my mom's many many childhood friends

1 garden post - from a dear friend Mary Sue's family rose garden, both of her parents have passed on

Bamboo plants

Compost pile

Worm bed

Working garden table - gift from an old neighbor

Water barrel - found on the side of the road

Buckwheat and red clover - planted for bees last year

Stinging nettles - volunteer plants (thank you horses)

Burdock - volunteer plants (thank you horses)

4 large mosaic posts - handmade by myself

4 small mosaic posts - made by my beautiful nieces

2 painted post

Four birdhouses

Two bright green garden gates - installed by my son Shane

7 truckloads of aged horse manure - pooped out on this property

4 dump truck loads of wood chips and dirt - one entire load was from the Buckthorn we removed and chipped on the property last year

Leaves from our property - after they spent the winter in one of our many flower beds

Table scraps - coffee grounds and eggshells from the

house for one year minimum

4 wheel barrows of chicken coop manure and straw

1 bale of old hay - that my Dad and I bought at a hay auction together one month before he passed away.

Biodynamic preps sprayed this year

Watered with rain water and well water

Saged, prayed over and blessed with love and intent

And this is what I do. It's why I don’t till, and move everything with a wheel barrow. It's why I do not use chemicals or synthetic fertilizer.  Because THIS little piece of earth also contains the remnants of my childhood basement, millions of organisms in the soil and every living thing growing out of it is contributing in the orchestra that is sequestrating carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the soil.