Organic Gardening with Mother Nature
by Ellen Vande Visse

 

Imagine stepping into your garden, eager to inspect progress on your maturing vegetables. Instead, you discover ravenous maggots devouring your broccoli crop. Where are your lettuces? You gasp to find only stumps. Slugs have stripped all leaves overnight. A quack grass surge has smothered your herb plot. You’re tempted to wage chemical warfare, but wait…what if you could actually talk to these creepy-crawlies? You wonder: Is there a diplomatic way to strike a deal with these pests so that they will back off?

Did you know that people at the Findhorn and Perelandra Gardens somehow consulted with an angelic consciousness of plants and pests to find non-toxic defense strategies? They directly communicated with the energetic essence of the insects, weeds, and vegetables. They called these angelic spirits Devas. They also met Nature Spirits, who were eager to coach humans about how to grow consciously, heal the Earth, and reap luscious harvest.

So, how would you make contact with your slimy slugs? You have no mystical skills, yet you feel determined to garden without battles and poisons. If you can imagine yourself plunging through doubts, actually conversing with other life forms, and finding them ready to help you, then you’ve captured the essence of this column! 

We gardeners have so much to learn from Mother Nature, both scientifically and spiritually. Yes, there’s an angel behind every crop and pest, and each can instruct us.  In following issues, I’ll be providing some instruction I have received from my novice encounters with this divine realm. I’ll be telling you about the unusual strategies Devas and Nature Spirits recommend to achieve wonders with soil, compost, flowers, herbs, and vegetables. I’ll share stories about the Deva of Slugs, who  generously revealed specific ways to curtail a slug population explosion. I’ll pass on the recommendations I received from the Angel of Turnip Root Maggots that were destroying my broccoli. And, I’ll convey a request from the Deva of Carrots—something you might want to consider before you pull up root crops during harvest.

I hope this column will inspire you to dig deeper and discover ever more joyful ways to garden. Now is a perfect time to begin, as you select and sow your first seeds. 

Ready to start? Let’s begin with a small experiment.  As you drool over your favorite seed catalog, deliberating over which variety of lettuce to grow, quiet your mind. Ask to be in conscious connection with the Deva of Lettuce. Feel into “lettuce-ness”. Notice if you sense a presence or a subtle shift in energy. If so, try saying hello and introducing yourself to this loving consciousness. Explain that you seek counsel from this Being.  Ask with heartfelt intent: “Of all the varieties of lettuce shown in this catalog, which ones do you most strongly recommend for my garden soil and my particular growing conditions?” Then, slowly put your finger on the first variety on the page, and feel/listen for a yes or no response.  Write “Yes: or “No” by it.

Breathe deeply and move your finger to the second variety. Focus in on this one, then  wait and feel.  Write “Y” or “N”.  Repeat as you move on down the list. There! You have  successfully plunged into your first consultation with Nature! 

If you are not sure ‘what’ you feel or sense, shake off your doubt and go with your best impressions. These are good enough. Remember that you can’t make a bad lettuce choice; this is not life-threatening!

Finally, congratulate yourself. You are on your way to communication, cooperation, and co-creation with Mother Nature!

I would love to hear from you as we go along.  Please feel free to send questions or share your stories with me.

Ellen Vande Visse is the author of Ask Mother Nature: A Conscious Gardener’s Guide.

See her website for more information and for a schedule of classes at her school: www.goodearthgardenschool.com

Gardener’s Feast or Famine
by Ellen Vande Visse

 

Doctor Green here, popping in for your mid-season Garden Checkup. Walk out there and show me what’s happening in your lettuce patch right now. Do I see that you are lavishing in lettuce and gorging upon bibb, leaf, and Romaine varieties? Do I also note that you are pressured and panicky as your lettuces multiply faster than you can eat them all? Or, is that you skulking right on past your salad resources altogether?

Aha! My virtual diagnosis is that you may have come down with a case of Gardener’s Feast or Famine. The first sign is the Feast, a most pleasant symptom. This is caused by catching the Compulsive Bug also known as Plant Every Glorious Seed in Every Seed Packet on the first warm day. You soon turn giddy with the green flush of seedlings as they burst forth. Those beds of salad greens (as well as those early radishes, pak choi, turnip, and spinach crops) miraculously grow into bountiful ready-picked feasts. All goes well as you harvest and luxuriate in the bonanza.

Then you notice a new symptom—shortness of breath—as you make heroic attempts to keep up with the exponential growth. Completely inconsiderate of your limited stomach size, these persistent crops keep growing—right past their peak tenderness. Your lettuces stealthily turn tough and bitter, and look like a row of rocket ships with their seed stalks jutting skyward. Your harvesting declines until suddenly all edible crop is gone, though you can find residue suitable for chain-saw removal. These diagnostic signs tell me you’ve fallen into Famine stage. You have no more lettuce feasts for the rest of the growing season! Oops!

Do not fear. Dr. Green has a cure for this common gardener’s malady.

I’m going to prescribe that you do these four things in the morning, then call me next spring: 1) Even when your seedlings are small, you must regularly, vigorously, ruthlessly thin, pick, and eat every other plant in your patch; 2) Thin others by digging up whole plants and give them to friends as transplants; 3) Merrily give away excess harvest; and 4) Start succession—NOW!

Succession cropping means that you plant new rounds of seed for those fast-growing vegetables listed above. Where crops have finished, use the space. Quickly clear and prepare the soil, then replant those little areas of the garden back into production. You’ll likely get some new and tender harvest, even though you are starting it mid-way through your growing season.

Dr. Green’s remedy for next spring: become obsessive. That’s right! Be more obsessive about cropping succession. Start by choosing the kinds of vegetables with short maturation times that you love. Think about how often you want to eat these kinds. The list below will help you choose. Then, deliberately plan your timing for your favorites. Set down a progression of planting dates on your calendar. Why? Because succession means you’ll be planting seed or transplants every 10 to 14 days for several crops. During Alaska’s short season, do this from late May through mid-July. Muster all your resolve to stick to your schedule and you’ll reap an enviable variety of prime vegetables in continuous supply.

Remember that the later in the season you plant, the slower your vegetables will grow due to declining daylight hours and soil warmth. Anything you plant after August 1st will probably not mature. Still, the best guide is your personal experience with your location and timing. Don’t wait for your current crop to finish before seeding or transplanting in replacements. Instead, plan and leave space in your garden for this crop succession.

Here is a preliminary list. With experience, you learn which vegetables need an entire season to mature for your area.

Plant successively, either from transplants or direct seeding:
Asian greens
Beets for greens
Broccoli raab
Green onions
Kohlrabi
Lettuces
Mustard greens
Pak choi
Radish
Spinach
Summer savory

Plant only once in spring. Continually harvest as these mature:
*Broccoli & *kale (You can either continually pick all season, or succession-crop; just be sure to get transplants in by July 1st .)
*Brussels sprouts
*Cabbage (Plant early and late varieties at the same time.)
Carrots
Cucumbers
Fava beans
Green beans
Leeks
Parsley
Parsnips
Peas and edible pod peas
Potatoes
*Swiss chard (You can harvest outside stalks all season, or do a second planting to avoid those flowering stalks as they mature.)
*Tomatoes
*Zucchini squash
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* Apply fish emulsion or fish hydrolysate (liquid fertilizer according to container directions) once in mid-June, July, and August.

Dr. Green (a.k.a. Ellen Vande Visse) is the author of Ask Mother Nature: A Conscious Gardener’s Guide. For more information, including classes, please see www.goodearthgardenschool.com