Friday, June 11, 2010

From The Earth To Our Table



Gardening has become my latest passion and shall I say down right love affair! I was introduced to gardening in bits and pieces over the past few years, but last year I was asked to join in a co-operative garden with two other fabulous women (who, lucky me have been gardening for over 30 years!). It has been a growing experience and has revealed to me my absolute love of preparing the earth, planting the seeds, watching those sweet sprouts peek their heads out and of course nibbling on the bounty... still warm from the sun.
This year homeschooling took a new turn as our days more often than not became garden days. We began the spring by learning about plants and the whole process and it quickly turned into ~ let's just do it and watch nature in all her glory!   Feeling that all knowledge is rooted in wonder,  what better place to cultivate wonder than in a garden.
Many times a week we trek (3 minutes) over to our fellow gardener's space and get out hands dirty...

with the help of my girls we tend to the earth and await her gifts...



Our days often consist  of weeding, planting, watering and checking on the progress of all of our babes (as we call them). This flow works for awhile for the girls, until a new adventure catches their fancy...

 like jumping in the rain barrel on a hot day and proceeding to put on plays...

 ...taking a moment out to absorb the lush beauty...



 ...admiring our visitors to the butterfly garden.

The garden has become my sanctuary. On days when life feels unbalanced or challenging, taking time out to be in the garden has become my place to regain some stability in the midst of beauty and new life. The experience calms me, grounds me and fills my cup to be able to return back into the fullness of life.




To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. ~
William Blake
In early April when we joined up over tea to discuss our garden for the year. My fellow gardener shared that since a garden should always be a joy and full of play...we would start all of our meetings and all of our ventures in the garden with the mantra fuuunnnn....
I used to have the tendency to get overwhelmed when I would take in all that needed my attention in the garden and now i keep the fun mantra flowing and  it keeps me in that space of joy. It works....


and to these two it seems to be innate! 

If you are in a place in your life where summoning up a garden seems like too much or if you simply don't have the space, I highly recommend searching out a soul that would benefit from an extra pair of hands.  The communal gardening experience has given me so much new gardening knowledge, confidence and inspiration. I am so grateful to have these green thumb goddess's to dig in the dirt with!

 Last year, after we had "put the gardens to sleep for the winter" we all sat down to a candle light feast prepared with love, by all of us using only our bounty from the garden.  My children received a deeper  understanding of from the earth to our table...

Celebrate the earth with your child,  taking the time out to garden together. Remember always that your child's knowledge will spring from the roots you planted so deeply in the fertile soil of wonder. 

A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement.

diggin' in the dirt
~ Shanti~ 



16 comments:

  1. The joy in your girls' faces is precious. This post makes me REALLY miss our gardens. Next year we should be back on track.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is lovely. My son goes and tends to the garden and I don't hear a peep out of him for ages. It can be so absorbing. x

    ReplyDelete
  3. These photos are full of such sweet joy. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. lovely,peaceful, inspiring post ... and gorgeous pictures, heaven xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful pictures and lovely words.
    Happy weekend....in the garden?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This year I have a newly formed passion for gardening. I have always liked it... but lately I rally love it. I wish so much that I had someone with more gardening experience to serve as a mentor for me. Unfortunately I do not, so I have to do lots of research and keep my fingers crossed that things grow well. I have 10 organic intensive garden beds that we double dug by hand last year, so it is nice to have my own spot, and I do know the type of back work it can be. But I couldn't agree more that exposing your child to gardening is far more rewarding than anything. It is a great lesson on patience. My daughter is patiently waiting for her own sunflower house to grow tall enough so she can have a spot of shadiness pleasure in the garden area. :) I always enjoy your gardening posts and your kids are so sweet looking!

    ReplyDelete
  8. We have been enjoying much time in our small garden space with our little ones this season, and it feels nice to know that part of their childhood will be wrapped up in working the earth.
    Gorgeous photos tat you captured here, and it certainly looks like your little ones enjoy gardening as much as you do

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful post, Shanti! It is such a pleasure to be doing this together. I also LOVE the Fuuuunnnnn mantra. It changes everything. See you amidst the rutabagas (do we have any of those? We should!)Fran

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks so much for sharing this awesome info! I am looking forward to see more postsby you!สล็อตวอเลท

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Extremely helpful information specially the last part I care for such info a lot. I was seeking this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.สล็อตแตกง่าย

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow, excellent post. I'd like to draft like this too - taking time and real hard work to make a great article. This post has encouraged me to write some posts that I am going to write soon.บา คา ร่า วอ เลท

    ReplyDelete
  13. Today, I was just browsing along and came upon your blog. Just wanted to say good blog and this article helped me a lot, due to which I have found exactly I was looking.บาคาร่าวอเลท

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your content is nothing short of brilliant in many ways. I think this is engaging and eye-opening material. Thank you so much for caring about your content and your readers.สล็อตทรูวอเลท

    ReplyDelete
  15. howdy, your websites are really good. I appreciate your work.สล็อต เว็บ ตรง

    ReplyDelete
  16. I would like to say that this blog really convinced me to do it! Thanks, very good post.สล็อตวอลเลท

    ReplyDelete

We ((LOVE)) your comments!!! Thank you with all our hearts for visiting us here at Twig and Toadstool. xo

ShareThis

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails