For all the gardeners...

[Welles]

Green Gulch is a very well known Zen Center and retreat north of San Francisco. It is known for the beauty of the gardens among other sterling qualities. This article by Wendy Johnson is about principles of gardening and a very worthwhile (fairly short) excerpt from her book, Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World (2008, the Bantam, Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.).

In the Tangle

http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/tangle


Welles

[Sandy]

This article stirred my gardener's heart and I have this urge to go out and talk to my bean plants which will picked a little later this evening. I will wear sturdy shoes this time instead of my eternal flip flops as George saw a black snake slithering that direction. Funny thing, I thought of snakes the last time I was picking. Perhaps a gentle warning from somewhere to be cautious. I think I might send some courteous happy vibes to anything living in that "planted much too close" tangle.
Thanks for sharing this lovely excerpt.

Sandy

[I-AM]

Hi Welles!

Thanks for the article. I haven't read it yet, but I bookmarked it!

Recently, I've been increasingly called Mr. Michurin by my friends and family.

It may be winter outside, but behind me window it's the spring!



Yes, winter has finally arrived here, dumping some snow.

Robert

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vladi ... h_Michurin

[Welles]

Recently, I've been increasingly called Mr. Michurin by my friends and family.

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vladi ... h_Michurin

Wow! I live in a part of the world where Luther Burbank had a trememdous impact on fruit, flower and plant selection and modification. Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin was his equal in Russia it seems to me. Those men changed our world for the better. Thanks for the reference, Robert.


Welles

[Sandy]

That is a great photo, Robert! I love the snow in the background and the stunningly perfect peppers in the foreground. You are well on your way to becoming a master gardener I think. You know, one nice thing about gardening in this way. (inside) You don't have the bug pests plaguing your every effort. I am trying to be sympathetic to the hingry beasts but I am beginning to look like a crazy woman out in the yard flailing my arms around warning off prolific white butterflies on my Cole crops!

I knew I had heard of Luther Burbank before, Welles, and found a whole chapter of him in Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography.
Thanks for posting the information on Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin. Seems these two men have done a lot for all of us.

XX sandy