As you pull up carrots and potatoes in
the last harvest frenzy, do you wonder how those plants feel about
being uprooted? How do the cauliflower and cabbage react when they
get yanked abruptly, without a word of warning? Do Devas and Nature
Spirits agree with the human horticultural experts about cleaning
all debris from the garden before freeze up?
I confess I had not wondered…until I got figuratively tapped on the
shoulder. I was in full throttle to clean the garden at the end of
September. With virtuous zeal, I wheeled my shredding machine to the
broccoli patch to make a whopping final compost heap. As I started
tearing out the first broccoli to shred, I got a peculiar feeling.
Something nagged inside me. I forced myself to stop and ask Mother
Nature. Here’s how the conversation went:
Ellen: Overlighting Angel or Deva of this garden, is there a problem
with my cleanup procedure?
Deva of Soil: Yes! Those plants have been building and holding
energy during the entire growing season.
Ellen: You mean that I should not rip them up immediately?
Deva of Soil: That is correct. Avoid shocking them with harvest
or removal. Ask before you rip!
Ellen: Why?
Deva of Soil: Because those plants need time to pull their energy
back into the soil. The green plants are still alive and have an
energy field. The energy needs to return to the soil, from whence it
came.
Ellen: Into the soil?
Deva of Soil: Where do you think their energy came from?
Ellen: I guess I assumed that greenery is the combined result of the
sun, air, rain, soil, and chlorophyll. Plants just grow and die.
Wow, I never thought about soil as the main source of energy. You
make it sound like the ground is an energy bank, as if the earth
loans energy during the growing season, and then re-deposits that
energy afterwards.
Deva of Soil: Yes, exactly.
Ellen: Your angelic guidance is a complete surprise. I thought dead
was dead. I thought "soil depletion" meant loss of minerals. I
thought "energy conservation" only applied to wise use of fossil
fuels. This is a new way of thinking!
Deva of Soil: Well, of course!
Ellen: How do I proceed?
Deva of Soil: If a plant is still green, tell it what you plan to
do before pulling it up. Or speak to the whole row, when you have
great quantities. Ask the plants to pull their above-ground energy
down into the soil. Then give them time to do this. Finally,
rototill in these green plants right there.
Ellen: Really? I was going to shred them and merrily cart them off
to the compost pile. You are telling me something very different.
You are saying that I should ask the above-ground vegetables to pull
down their energies. Then do not take residue to the compost pile. I
am to turn the plant material under that soil, in that bed. This
means I will have less raw material for the compost pile. How long
do I wait before yanking and rototilling?
Deva of Soil: The timing varies. It depends on the vegetable and
the phase of the growing season. That is why it’s good to tune in
and ask each time. Right now, your broccoli need five days of
warning, and you can plow on the sixth day. The head lettuce plot
needs three days, and rototill them under on the fourth day. They
are further gone, and won't take as long to pull down their
energies. Your cabbage stumps need only one day after you ask them.
The squashes and pea vines have been blackened by frost, so you can
pull them up immediately. Cultivate your weeds into the soil with
your rototiller any time, of course. This accomplishes green
manuring without carting as much compost to the plot next spring.
Most importantly, remember that everything likes to be told when
it's going to be harvested, moved, or uprooted. The later in the
fall, especially after frost, the less warning is needed. Each
gardener needs to ask about his/her particular situation. Or wait
until spring to clean up and gather stumps.
Ellen: So much for my composting enthusiasm. Are you are saying that
some vegetables actually prefer staying rooted until frost kills
them?
Deva of Soil: Yes.
Ellen: Are root crops a different matter?
Deva of Soil: Yes. Your carrots, beets, potatoes, and turnips
would appreciate a warning too. They are different because you eat
the root part. So you do not want them to do anything with their
energy. The energy that is in the roots needs to stay in the roots
because that's the portion you eat. If you are about to harvest a
root crop, first ask the plants to consolidate and stabilize their
energies in their main root or tuber. Then as you trim the carrot
tops or remove the potato stalks, leave the trimmings right there in
the row. These green parts will decay and go back into the soil.
Ellen: So we humans are actually existing on the energy of the
plants, not just calories and vitamins. That must mean that quality
food is really about the quality of the energy of those crops,
right?
Deva of Soil: That’s right. This is what your quantum physicists
are telling you.
Well, gardeners, it sounds like we’d all have more energy if we
start applying this new information from Mother Nature.
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
