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Imagination Farmers & Celestial Observers
For a complete novice, a beginner
10 Things to do to get started no matter where you live or what you do:
1. Today, really, buy yourself a small houseplant that is suitable to the environment you live in and relative to your experience with plants. This should be simple, no matter where you are or how busy you are. Any chain grocery store, big box home improvement store, local independent florist, and many more places offer a variety of plants for sale and usually have at least some information about care of your selection. It does not matter, start with a Chia pet if that is all you can find.
2. Take it home and take care of it, incorporate its care into your morning routine, maybe while having a cup of coffee or whatever other times you have. Make it important to your day, a project of sorts. Look closely at the plant, they change all the time: the leaves, the structure, and the base of the plant. Pay attention to the seasonal changes in the plant; nurture it in your own way.
3. When you can do this one little thing, then get another. Maybe another variety, broaden your scope is what we are saying. Make this project a peaceful thing in your heart, in your daily routine; get to know another life form that exists with us all.
4. Take a few moments of your time spent on the computer just checking your friend’s page, shopping for stuff on websites, wandering around on the internet, etc. Try looking up your plant and learning a bit about it, why is it suitable to where you live for example. Perhaps what other plants may be suitable for other reasons, or there may be plants that produce food that can be grown on small scale inside your particular home, apartment, condo, townhouse, mobile home, houseboat, or wherever you reside. This always adds an element of simple sustainability to your world. One little, homegrown vegetable, pepper or whatever your choice will make a major difference in your understanding of the process we are talking about.
5. Think about what you have learned and done in your personal life by undertaking this plant. You have not only cared for something that is totally dependant on you, you have learned to be aware of how things grow, something about the life cycle of another organism in our world.
6. Be aware, consciously, of the fact that this life form has contributed back to you also. It has helped clean the air around you; it has provided clean, fresh, Oxygen to you and those around you. It has removed CO2 from your world, the primary green house gas that we as a people are trying to limit. Perhaps it has offered itself as food to you, an interconnected process that plants are vital to. We will discuss more about what we mean by this process in detail a bit later.
7. Think about these things for a moment or two every day. Maybe when you are commuting, having lunch, taking a break from what ever it is you do. This is how things change, one little step at a time, one person at a time, in whatever way she or he is capable of.
8. Talk to people you encounter in your world about your plant. You may be really surprised to find a lot of them are doing the same things, for what ever their own reasons. People in general share an instinctive desire to grow plants on all sorts of scales. I have a friend that is a Philosophy Professor at a local small university; he is a fanatic about growing totally organic food in his small, suburban back yard. He produces a respectable amount of it. It is our pleasure to know people from all walks of life, literally from CEOs of corporations, construction workers, teachers, meter readers, first responders and retail clerks, artists, waitresses, librarians, just plain old hustlers to ditch diggers that are doing the same. Ask around, you may be surprised.
9. Now, how can this be done, expanded a bit, in your day-to-day world? What else can you do to sustain this activity in your life? Maybe look around and see if there is a community garden program or garden club, possibly a public garden in your location? These are GREAT spots to learn more, meet people that are doing the same things that we are learning about. There is always someone who is knowledgeable about your area and what is possible. This brings up the last step here, volunteer a little of your time, even if you can only do it once, or sporadically, there is always a need for help in these projects.
10. Monthly, on our website sbafarmscollectve.org we will offer small day to day projects that will include step by step instructions, lots of help and suggestions about where to find more help. We are also very easy to contact if you have a question or a comment. Simply email, write or call, if we don’t know we promise we will find out. On the website we offer space to share your experiences with us; we are all on the same path.
Peace and Light,
michael and friends
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[...] For a complete novice, a beginner [...]
I love this post. I have a few plants at home that I have moved with me wherever I have gone. My mothers backyard is amazing btw..She has different plants, flowers, trees planted every other season. She grew up with a lot of vegetation around her so she carries that on to her adult life.
I feel like going out and buying some seeds!
Thank you Sara for the beautiful comment, It is deeply appreciated. Best of luck in all you do this week, Namaste,
Michael
Oh. I had to print this post, Michael. I have to do what you suggested. I am helping my friend plant her landscaping around her new home in the woods, and I love getting into the dirt… but yes… I need to make more personal contact with one. Just one. Thank you so much.
BTW. You might want to consider moderating your comments. Sorry you are getting so spammed.
Best wishes to your community. I am also in East Texas, BTW.