Gone Gardening!

All pics copyright of Meady's Musings Production.


I've been talking about it for sometime and today I've finally Gone Gardening! It wasn't like how I all had it planned out. Yep! I got my seeds in courtesy Amazon...I was planting things originally from Italy and India right in my Trini backyard soil with my hands that were a genetic expression of genes cooked up somewhere in the North of India in the 19th century. To try to put it simpler I was planting the seeds of plants whose origin were from Italy and India and I myself am of India origin. And all these seeds like me are going to be grown up on Trini sunshine, water and soil so all are going to be Trini in the end just like me! However my plans didn't unfold exactly as I had planned. I figured my mum would help...



...but didn't realize I'd have this many helpers! Why it could have been called a community garden project in the end really! So I didn't get to plant exactly what I had planned or to even label where I put everything but I feel in the end it was best for the plants cause like with prayers it is always better when done together and more souls gather pouring their energies into these plants. And I will let the pictures tell the story but you will see I got more than just human help! :) So truly universal energy flowing in those plants you see! :) I also said the Gayatri Mantra just before I planted the first set of seeds and you know that's all about soaking in the Morning's Energy! And my plants were planted in a spot such that they will catch the morning sunrise full blast yet be able to catch the bask of the sunset too!

In the end I got to plant not all of my cadre of seeds so there are plenty more stock in my fridge to deal with after these lives unfold...but here is what I've planted so far again no real controls so these are approximate numbers:

I kicked things off by throwing in these 50 seeds or so of a variety of hot peppers at the bottom of my mum's already flourishing habanero pepper batch (a very hot pepper of South American origin)and it is then I said the Gayatri mantra so I figure these peppers will turn out extra hot!



-About 50 seeds of tomatoes- 25 gold currant cherry and 25 costoluto genovese (not sure if I got the Italian right by the way!)
-About 70 seeds of eggplant or baigan as we call it here in Trini- 35 seeds of (Italian)Aubergine Viserba and 35 seeds of an (Indian) Eggplant Ratna.
-30 seeds of CalWonder Bell Sweet Pepper (Heirloom)

They were all put into these little seedling pots my uncle showed up with! One of the helpers that showed up to make the project grander. Along with my nieces and nephew who wanted to each be part of planting the Ratna seeds! Everyone was so excited to do it my aunt's German Shepherd even sniffed a seed or two!Here the pics to prove it!:






Then I finished off mostly on my own planting two sets of herbs in a long tray pot 3 pots in all six variety of herbs last I counted and the last pack of herbs- coriander/cilantro I threw in with them hot peppers so I tell you one hot bed that is gonna be! But although I cannot tell you which pot has which I ended up planting these herbs:

-Basil (Genovese Italian)
-French Rosemary
-True Greek Oregano
-Common English Thyme
-Parsley (Italian Dark Green Flat)
-Sage (Garden Broadleaf)
-Cilantro/Coriander (Slow Bolting)

Hmmm....so some other Europeans jumping up in my Trini hot bed I see! :) I also planted those Sunflowers!-Titans, Mongolian, Earthwalkers and a blend set...

But what's in a name I say as I learnt from the teachings of J.Krishnamurti when I was about 14 when we humans name plants and trees and things we fail to see the beauty inherent in them! So what does it matter where the seeds come from...What my hope for my little ones are is that they will grow well and bear as best they can and nourish the bodies of those who grew them! I hope that they will also be a springboard for me to consider the road raw again! :)

So I hope all my readers on Blogger, Intent, Copperstrings and Maythil will all good tidings bring and my little kitchen garden will bear many a wondrous and nourishing thing!

And I say this mantra to my little seeds as published by DK Matai on the Intent community!

'This feeling is reflected in the Gayatri chant in Sanskrit from The Rig Veda, 1500 BCE:

Om bhur bhuvah suvah
Pronunciation: Om boor boo-vah-ha soo-vah-ha
Translation: Truth, earth, atmosphere, heaven

Tat savitur varenyam
Pronunciation: Tut sah-vee-toor vah-rain-yum
Translation: May we meditate on the radiant light

Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Pronunciation: Bar-go day-vass-yuh dee-ma-hee
Translation: Of that brilliant creator

Dhiyo yo nah pracodayat
Pronunciation: Dee-yo yo na-ha prah-cho-die-yot
Translation: Who may guide our thoughts

Called the Gayatri Mantra (gayatri comes from the root "sing"), it's considered among the most powerful of the yogic incantations. In the yogic tradition, light equals knowledge. This particular chant is about linking the sun with our thoughts and enlightening ourselves by means of higher knowledge.

First recorded in the Rig-Veda, the ancient Hindu scripture dating back more than 3,500 years.'
And here is a YouTube clip of the chant so that my seeds might hear it on the blogosphere in the Universal vibes that makes all things in this Universe one! :)

My Sunflowers Story!- Do Things Just Manifest When We Truly Follow Our Hearts?

By Bruce Fritz and thanks for the free non-commercial use.

I have not shared it so far on my blogs but late last year one of the Questions of the Day on Intent.com posed by Dave Traeger went like this:

What is you Dream Job?

and it really made me think so I'm glad Dave asked it. One of things I realised I wanted to do was gardening. Although when I was a bit younger I thought it was something only older, bored people do...but in recent years (dunno it could just be I am slowly but surely falling into that category!)I've felt like it must be the most loveliest of things to do...to feel your hands in the soil...to be at the center or what will eventually nourish you in the form of food. I've for about five years now really wanted to have an elaborate home garden set up at least for starters and who knows from there...At first my mum was interested in planting but she mostly liked to do the flowers and I kept urging her to do vegetables too or mostly instead cause they had pretty colours too and they were sustenance as well not just decorations! Of course you can have the one or two flowers here and there for good cheer too no doubt! Anyway my mum kinda listened on and off but just isnt strong enough to keep up with gardening full time at her age anyway. So...we've on and off had things...But then I started to think I can do it too! But never have...but here was my response to Dave's question:

What is you Dream Job?

'I also want to be a vegetable farmer of course it just means I can start my own garden cause where I currently live I do have the space for it...but I dont have the physical strength/stamina or where with all etc...I think I just like the idea of the finished product like picking fruit digging in the earth and pulling up your own food etc....but I'm not game for all the additional work it would take to be your own gardener from scratch...so perhaps what I need is to hire someone to assist me and then do the polished part of the gardening...hmm...there's a thought...but good help so hard to find...hmm I'm also thinking that if I start off slowly it could be good exercise and eventually I just might build the stamina too...'

So guess what a few weeks ago I decided I was going to do some organic farming and when I tried to find out about organic farming in the tropics I found this blog run by a Trinidadian woman - A Caribbean Garden it really inspired me further and she gave me all this good advice! She is quickly becoming The Oracle of Gardening for me! She gave me all this advice on 'to what in my garden grow!:)' and I decided on vegetables and herbs which I will let you know more about it subsequent blogs but I also got Sunflower seeds to have those around to cheer me up! :)

So this was my first time thinking about Sunflowers in a long time cause I really like them they are my favourite flowers and as we all know so useful too as a flower as it is not just decorative but can be used for its oils! But even if it were just decorative it would be my fav! So was my first thought about it in years! Although a few years ago I had bought some seeds and my mum had planted some of them for me but she didnt plant them deep enough or anchor them in any other way so the wind blew them down easily...a point I will have to note on this new planting expedition. But yep then shortly after I bought the seeds online which are yet to be shipped I go on to Elspeth Duncan's post on her blog and I see flowers! Immediately I think of Sunflowers cause she didnt plant sunflowers but she called her post Sunny side up. Here are my comments there:
'That's nice... I personally like sunflowers but once my mummy planted up some seeds I bought and they blew down when they grew up...I've gotten some more in the batch I bought two days ago so looking forward to getting the seeds and seeing them bloom soon...will need to find a way to keep them more grounded than how my mum did in the past...

I got the sunflowers to brighten up the whole planting fest but I'm really going to try the kitchen gardening kinda thing...tomato, sweet peppers, hot peppers, herbs and baigan. I've even found a trini blogger tropical organic farming guru! She is like the oracle of gardening! She is from Trini but now lives on another island her blog won the best gardening award for latin american or something.

You can check her out at
http://caribbeangarden.blogspot.com'

'oh I know these in the pic werent sunflowers just meant I like sunflowers as in these are flowers and they made me think of other flowers as in sunflowers and how much i like sunflowers...you know now that just made we realise that even one of my favourite perfumes are Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden'

And then just around the time of that post in work someone smelt my perfume and commented on it! Sunflowers that is...I've been wearing it for at least ten years as one of the perfumes I wear and yes I've gotten comments before but this is the first time in a long while my scent has been discussed and the person went:

"You wearing Sunflowers?"

Then I go onto Intent and they are featuring a cover story since Fri about Happiness and they choose to use pics of Sunflowers!:) and to top it off last night I went to an event and they have minimal decorations but behind the speakers there are you guessed it Sunflowers! And you have to note that Sunflowers aren't a very common used flowers here in Trinidad especially not for something like that so...!Here is the pic of those sunflowers below kind droopy as they dont do well in the tropical heat. However a field of sunflowers in North America can sometimes be intimidating like if they plan to take over the world!:

And that's it my Sunflower Story perhaps totally meaningless and just me describing a chain of coincidences that happened to me over the last two weeks or so or it is true- 'Whatever me truly love and think about manifests itself in our lives literally! or If we go with the flow which is when we find our true passions it just naturally unfolds with little or no effort on our parts?!:)' You be the judge to be honest I don't know and would love to hear what you think about this! :) So please share your thoughts...

Early Close of My Advent Calendar...by My Definition at Least!

This is just a post to let all my readers know that I closed off my Advent Calendar earlier than planned...well by my definition of it at least...cause I had defined it as ending after the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' which would have been on Tue 6 Jan 09. However let's face it in the modern world when people hit New Year's day it's all bout the resolutions for many and really Christmas and Advent ends once people go fully back out to work. And like this year cause Mon is the first Monday in January and clearing New Year's day and the day after (usually a recovery day for some)everyone is going to hit the pavement hard stomping off to conquer the world supposedly? So for all intents and purposes I need to come to the reality that Christmas is through...but on Universal Collective Prayer I will continue to speak about the 'Three Wise Men' and trumpet them off on Tue 6 Jan 09 especially since Epiphany celebrations still today is a big event in many cultures and celebrated worldwide in Christianity.

Also I am ending it early cause on a personal level I was all tired out...and really on New Year's Day I was re-borned so was tough for me too to go back! :) However the Three Wise Men followed me into this life and so I will have a longer departure time with them and only say goodbye to them on the 6th of Jan! :)

Best Wishes and hope you all had a lovely Christmas/Advent season and look forward to celebrating it again with you next year and to other festivals and seasons as they come along in this 'Great Big Blue Marble' called Planet Earth!:)

And I leave you with a You Tube clip I've shared in the past that was the introduction to a children's TV show when I was growing up that was aimed at kid's understanding cultures globally. I remember it being on Saturdays here in Trinidad. It was an American TV show but showcased kids from all over the world. You can read more about the show on wikipedia at this link.And I share it in the hope that in this New Year, 2009, me and readers from all over the world will get closer...and perhaps I will even start to hear more from them on here too...comments welcomed! :)

Advent Calendar:HAPPY NEW YEAR! = Rebirth!-Morning Has Broken...

To me on this New Year's morning all I keep visualizing is like you know how in those docu-dramas they show you the re-birth of everything say after Nostradamus' prediction comes true and then the world starts afresh again and they show you all the flora and fauna blooming and they speed up the footage so it grows from start to maturity in a few secs? Well that is how I keep feeling this morning like I'm seeing before me white roses blooming in fast forward mode so I'm seeing them budding and then opening and mostly I'm seeing white roses with dew drops and then I'm hearing this song that was made popular by Cat Stevens before he became Yusuf when he was still into his roots I guess...because as part of my exploration into Universal Collective Prayer on my blog of that nature I've found out that song which I always associated with Cat Stevens is actually a Christian hymn of British origins...On the prayers I will talk more about that...But on this blog I want to let you know that I guess New Year's Day's first dawn does instill in all of us that feeling of freshly waking up to a new dawning to a new beginning like if it is symbolically our first day on earth! :)

And so I wish all of you this to live from now on like you were never hurt...you were never torn...you are rebirthed today and 'Morning has Broken like the first morning...'