Green organisms respond quickly to small changes in soil, water, sun, and wind. They also respond to other plants and insects by changing their own chemistry. Often this is instantaneous. It is hard to imagine what it would look like for a plant to not show up or be present. They don’t have … Read more
Hawthorne berries(1) are brightening up my back yard at a time when many other plants have faded away. The tiny apple like berries all all about heart healing and so have provided inspiration for this week’s mindfulness focus…heart centered awareness. Western herbalists have used Hawthorne as a heart tonic for centuries. The … Read more
75 degrees is the high today in Denver, but it will change to cold and snow overnight. I’ve pulled in all the green tomatoes, green beans, and basil, and covered hardier plants with frost cloth. Gardeners constantly have their eyes on the weather and know that it can be unpredictable, with quick … Read more
Hope in Action is the mindfulness focus this week, inspired by seeds forming on fading garden plants. I think there are more seed heads than flowers in the garden right now. Cosmos, calendula, echinecea, marigolds, sunflowers, and zinnias…seeds are everywhere. Seeds always seem hopeful to me. They represent new life even as the plant … Read more
Praying Mantis as Garden Helper Praying mantises are elusive insects and quite carnivorous. They are a boon in a garden that is overrun with insect pests. But they are indiscriminate and will eat anything that crosses their paths, including other beneficial insects and their mates. I’ve been in Denver nine years and have never seen … Read more
Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? My usual “pumpkinpalooza”, as my grand-daughter Amanda calls it, did not materialize this summer. My time spent in Pennsylvania and my distracted-ness upon returning certainly impacted the pumpkins. The okra were also a bust this year. My white currants were prolific, but life got in … Read more
Cosmos flowers, blooming everywhere in my yard, are the inspiration for this week’s mindfulness focus – dependability. Cosmos are annual flowers that blooms in mid to late summer. They grow easily and are at home in a wide range of soils.(1) They self seed, meaning they will plant themselves again for the next … Read more
Mindful Action I’m writing this on Thursday instead of my usual Sunday because I have felt fuzzy about the mindfulness focus for the week and its connection to the gardening world. I woke up on Sunday morning to find that a young woman had been killed by Nazis on American soil and … Read more
Return to Center – this week’s mindfulness focus was inspired by my tiny goji berry plant that is not actually dead. Denver was brutally hot the weeks I was away. And when I returned all the leaves had shriveled and fallen off. I chalked it up to one more sad thing. But this … Read more
I returned home from Pennsylvania to find my gardens very much alive, in spite of the blazing Denver sun. Thank you to all my wonderful friends and family who were watering. As I wandered through the gardens, I discovered three tiny pears on my pear tree. And that is a small miracle. … Read more
