What's Working for Me Lately?
Plus a short Granny birthday tribute
Less bloviating and postulating…more acclimating, germinating, and propagating.
The warmth of the sun on my back and the rich fertile smell of the soil I am working with, instantly brings me to a zen state. I pay attention to the slow breaths in of oxygen provided by the kin of the seeds I’m about to plant and the gentle release of carbon dioxide I breathe out that provides life for all the plants and trees. The ultimate reciprocal relationship is between humans and plants. I’m listening to Robin Wall Kimmerer as she explains this in more detail in her book The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.
“In the Anishinaabe worldview, it’s not just fruits that are understood as gifts, rather all of the sustenance that the land provides, from fish to firewood. Everything that makes our lives possible—the splints for baskets, roots for medicines, the trees whose bodies make our homes, and the pages of our books—is provided by the lives of more-than-human beings. This is always true whether it’s harvested directly from the forest or whether it’s mediated by commerce and harvested from the shelves of a store—it all comes from the Earth. When we speak of these not as things or natural resources or commodities, but as gifts, our whole relationship to the natural world changes.”
I fill the spring-green colored seed trays with dark brown soil, smooth it out and divide it into quadrants placing the label for each type of pepper above or below it. I sprinkle each seed type in each quadrant, then innoculate with mycorrhizal fungi who add another layer of reciprocity to the scene as they will help the new seedlings absorb nutrients better.
Outside of the high tunnel, the temperature is still in the low 50’s and the wind is blowing but inside the temperature is a toasty 80 degrees F since we pulled back the shade cloth on one side. It’s mid-February and time to get the seeds started for the plants we’ll add to the garden in May. According to the biodynamic planting calendar, today was a “fruit day” so we’re starting peppers and heirloom tomatoes with names such as Big Jim, Tabasco, Cubanelle, Doux d’espagne, Dr. Wyche’s, Paul Robeson, etc.
As I’m working, I’m thinking of the question that was proposed to our little Georgia Writer’s Cohort, “What’s working for you lately?” and the discussion we will have later in the week. Three main themes come to mind: 1) Rekindling my love of gardening, 2) A new plan for bee-centric bee-tending, 3) Reducing my social media presence.
Rekindling my love of gardening.
My 2024 no-till garden. It always starts so tame. We’ve been gardening for thirty years, but the last couple of years, I was pre-occupied with familial and physical limitations. 2025 seems primed for THE GREAT GARDEN COMEBACK. Most of my focus will be on revamping my 100’x50’ in-ground no-till garden. It’s a fenced in naturalized area where I have a small frog pond, lemon grass, an elderberry forest, paw paw trees, moringa trees and I grow vegetables in amongst it all. In early May, you may be greeted by Granny’s Rambling Red Rose as you walk in the front gate and Daddy’s Perfect Pink Evening Primrose waving all around underneath in the early morning light. By June, the garden is taken over by the reseeded rudbeckia with big brown eyes and yellow petals who look like waist-high sunflowers buoyant across the garden. I allow it to grow EVERYWHERE because it is impossible not to smile when you see it swaying with the breeze. My plan is to document in writing (and maybe drawing) the cycles of my no-till garden. I’ve always documented it in pictures and video, but it’s time to write down the details of what I’ve learned in that space since its inception in late 2016. Janisse Ray has an upcoming garden journaling course which I hope will help me with this.
A new plan for bee-centric bee-tending.
Our bee journey here on the farm began in 2017 with a top bar hive and a mail order package of bees. We’ve learned so much since then but bees remain a mystery to us and always will. This will be the first spring since then that I will start with no bees under my care. Hurricane Helene wrecked the bee yard and took down half of the preternatural black cherry that soared above it. The energy emanating from the hives, always caused that tree to bloom at least two weeks earlier than any of the others around. This year we’re going back to our horizontal roots with a different type of hive and mindset for tending to the bees.
I’ve always been a bee-centric bee person. (I just cannot refer to myself as a beekeeper…they’re not livestock who can be fenced in and kept.) We raise treatment-free hives allowing the bees to build out their own comb to the cell size of their liking or needs. The bees have a complex society which I’ve always wanted to learn from, not bend to my will. The first question you’re always asked when folks find out you have bees is “Do you sell honey?” Honey has never been our driving force for having bees. Much of what the bees give to the farm cannot be explained but it can be seen in the amount of crabapples, persimmons, and peaches on our trees. They bring a mystical life force to this place. If the bees are happy and seasonal conditions are right, they may have a surplus of honey that we consider a blessing from them.
We are switching to Layens Hives and will attempt to build our bee yard from wild bee colonies that we will set swarm traps for. Ken, my husband, has been hard at work building these things the past month. We may get a late start this year, but we’re hopeful nonetheless. I plan to write more about our adventures with bees and what we’ve learned and continue to learn from these fascinating insects.
Reducing my social media presence.
I’ve been pulling back from social media for awhile now for many reasons. I took all social media apps off my phone first but that still didn’t seem like enough, so a month ago, I deleted my Instagram account and YouTube channel. The amount of time and brain space I have freed up has been an amazing benefit. I have more time for reading and writing. I feel like thoughts that bubble up are my own and not something fed to me subconsciously. My anxiety levels are lower because I’m not constantly bombarded by all the negativity and divisiveness out there. I’m able to focus better on what is in front of me that needs doing. At first I thought I would just take a break and go back but now I don’t want to. I’m enjoying my social media-free time.
A Granny Tribute
Today would’ve been my Granny’s 96th birthday.
She would be so tickled by all the great and great-great grands she has.
She LOVED babies and all of us cousins were mothered by her.
She gave the best advice, “Do the best you can, honey.”
She passed along her love of nature to us including flowers, birds, and insects.
She kept an old refrigerator of red wigglers in the back yard and a bucket of black soldier fly larvae in her bathtub (she called them mealworms). Both of these were used in her addiction to fishing.
She taught me how to bait my hook with both of those baits.
She would fish in anybody’s pond if they’d give her permission and she’d drive her gray Subaru all over the sand ridge to get to her favorite fishing spots in the ‘Hoopee river. Fishing off the bank of the river with her was a true adventure.
She mostly fished with a cane pole but in later years she was all about the bream busters. If the first tiny fish she caught wasn’t too injured, she’d use it as a live bait and put it on her rod and reel she had rigged up for bigger fish and sling it way across the run so he’d swim around in the eddies until a bass or jackfish was on the line.
She made the BEST baked jackfish and biscuits.
She loved her flowers including night blooming jasmine, lantana, confederate rose, old timey petunias, four o’clocks (marvel-of-peru), zinnias, and hanging baskets of impatiens. This time of year she would start potting up “volunteers” that she would give to us grand daughters starting our own flower beds at our new homes.
She was an all around wonderful Granny who provided me a lifetime of memories that I never want to forget so that she is not forgotten.
She’s been whispering in my ear all week and I even met a man the other day who remembered her as “a mighty fine woman.” That’s good to hear, because she didn’t hold back if she had to give you a piece of her mind. I get that from my Granny too. 😉
Now, I know I’ve mentioned most of the above in other essays, but did you know she was an expert penny poker player? Well, she was and the following pictures are the proof. Before social media, we all got together and played cards. Those were the days!
I hope you enjoyed this small offering. What is working for you lately in whatever endeavors you are attempting? I’d love to hear.
Thanks for being here!
Blessings,
💜B💜
This just reminded my none of my primrose ever came up last year! I believe I scattered like a thousand seeds!! As always, love reading anything you write. I would adore a high tunnel! Love and hugs.
What a delightful offering! Thank you for sharing.
Lambing season and garden season have arrived simultaneously this year. I am capturing most pictures with my focused mind, rather than my phone. Less social media, more real-life presence. Barn checks in the wee hours of the night reveal the shivery beauty of stars and the sweet, damp fragrance of sleeping earth. Life is good.