The Bountiful Cold Frame

Where Are Worms When I Need Them?

Plants in the cold frame

Checked the cold frame. Things are looking good since two weeks ago when the seeds were planted!

So, I forgot to take out the trash today. I also forgot to take out the trash last Friday. Which  means, our house is going to be forced to make a worm bin or compost this week!

Something else equally as cool, I found some eggs while I was weeding out the raspberry bushes and brussel sprouts. I'm almost positive our landlord said the hen we have doesn't lay eggs, but this is wonderful. Like an Easter egg hunt! I brought them inside and washed them off.

Eggs I found!

Raspberry Bushes

Brussel Sprouts

We are hoping to buy another chicken soon. And maybe two baby goats too. I hear goat milk is delicious :)

Simplicity is Special

"The Earth is not only our home, it is our mother. In fact, our relationship is even more intimate, because we can never cut the umbilical cord. The air in my lungs, like the water and food that pass through my mouth, is part of a great system that does not stop with me, but continually circulates through me. My life is a dissipative process that depends upon and contributes to that never-ending circulation. Eventually, I too will be food for worms."-David Loy

The Slow Movement

Taking time to savor.

It's the process, not the sudden transformation, that matters. Build a little, dig a bit, plant a little, harvest often.

 Nature works with you. 

Last Night's Leftovers are the Universe

Another 9am-3:30pm day on the farm. This morning I spent most of my time in the greenhouses. I worked in greenhouse 2 in the north field, putting row covers over lettuce. Then, I went over to greenhouse 5 in the south field, and put row covers over the radishes. Row covers are thin blankets of polyester that protect the plants from pests, cold and wind. It's a fairly easy process. You dig trenches on either side of the plants, lay the row cover and use dirt to hold the edges down, making sure it is not too tight.

Before I put on the row covers, I weeded and thinned the radishes out-which is a bit of difficult thing to do. I feel like I am burdened with the responsibility of choosing which plant will live and which will die! Thinning prevents the radishes from "fighting" with each other for space though. (I was a little thrown off by the word "fighting." Why not because they will thrive their little hearts out?)

Sometimes when your weeding and thinning out plants in beds, you come across chunks of vegetables and other food in the dirt because it's been mixed with compost. Today I pulled a couple of garlic cloves out, as well as a rotting onion (oh, did it smell.) It got me thinking what a cyclic and natural place a garden is. I like how our "waste" is so nutritious and beneficial for the soil, but tend to view it as useless remnants taking up space. 

It reminded me of a quote,

 "If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow, and without trees we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either...

    If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the tree cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger's father and mother are in it too...

    You cannot point out one thing that is not here -- time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper... As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it."- David Loy

This garden bed of radishes contains everything. Radishes and universe and all!

Sweat of the Earth in the Agricultural Gym

Today was spent weeding out a garden bed in my backyeard to make room for some planting. I don't really know what I'd like to put in there yet, the possibilities are so limitless....

Before the weeding.

A whole day spent in nature feels so easy on the mind. Something is happening to me an I'm not quite sure how to explain it. Hours and hours with your hands in the dirt feels so good. I am exactly where I need to be. This couldn't be more perfect. 

Hours after weeding.

Many stubborn beliefs I've been holding onto are being shook out of their places lately. Like the weeds in my garden, I'm starting to pull them out of their comfortable places in exchange for something else to grow.

Let's get our hands and feet in the dirt!

Welcome to my blog friends! I hope you can join me as I document my experience working within the horticulture community of Olympia, Washington. Let me explain to you what I'm up to...

Currently, I am a student at The Evergreen State College participating in a program called, Dance of Consciousness. This quarter, I have chosen to study community based learning and literacy with Sarah Williams. She has provided me the opportunity to complete an individual learning contract regarding any subject of my interest. For ten weeks, I have decided to study Pacific Northwest Horticulture in regards to physical well-being, self-expression and creative interplay with the natural world. 

I am completing an internship with Left Foot Organics, a small organic farm in Olympia dedicated to providing  a place for rural youth and handicapped to learn work skills. I also am going to practice farming in my own personal garden. Did I mention I live in a cottage on a farm? Yup! I have a few empty beds I plan on growing in this season. I am very excited.

By learning basic organic farming skills I plan to develop an authentic sense of how to care for the environment, and more specifically, how that care correlates with how I care for myself (the "holistic health" part). Successful agricultural requires not so much arduous labor, as awareness, observation, connection and persistence. I hope through this blog, I will be able to articulate how organic farming affects the quality of my life. I'll literally and physically will be sowing seeds of inscription! 

See you on the farm!