Tag Archives: garden

Kai Discovers Spring – and Dirt!

10 Apr

I love the changing of the seasons.  And I really love the two transitional seasons – Spring and Fall.  This time last year Kai was just one month old.  While I have no doubt that he loved everything about Spring, I also realize that he wasn’t ready to discover what spring time is all about.  What a difference a year makes!  This is by far the most “fun” Spring I can remember since my childhood, I hardly know where to begin.

This past Sunday we rolled up our sleeves and worked on our garden.  We had been looking forward to this for well over a month since winter had decided to stick around a few extra weeks this year.  The first day in the garden is one of my favorite days of the year.  I love the smell of the Earth, the way it feels in my fingers.  I love spring planting.  Digging holes and finding all sorts of earth worms and other natural “treasures”.  Even though my patch of paradise is in the midst of a concrete jungle, I feel connected to Earth when I work in the garden.

This year was better than all those past because we were able to introduce Kai to all this Spring and the Earth.  We brought him outside with us for the day while we worked and pretty much let him do his thing, it was awesome!  He took the garden completely naturally.  He started out by playing with the grass and leaves.  Then he crawled off of the blanket and started to pick blades of grass and put them in his bucket.  He watched us on and off as we did him.  We were busy planting flowers, herbs, and vegetables.  Next thing I know he had the garden spade in his hand and he was digging in the dirt, filling-up his bucket and dumping it out. t was at this point that we brought him over to big bed and let him play in all the dirt.  He loved it! He laughed and played, putting his hand in the Earth and lifting them up so he could feel the fresh dirt between his fingers.  It was magical. It is Spring!

Enjoy the Spring photo journey.

Fountain Cherry in DC

 

Cherry Blossom

 

Spring Gardening

 

Discovering Spring and the Earth

 

Spring in Washington DC

 

Spring Serenity in a Concrete Jungle

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Simple Earthly Pleasures in a Concrete Jungle

6 May

For those of you that have been reading this blog since it started may remember some of the posts about my little urban oasis – simply known as the garden in my postage stamp size front yard. A year later its a miniature garden of Eden, producing all sorts of tasty treats.

This morning we picked a whole bunch of fresh organic truly ripe strawberries…

Fresh organic ripe strawberries

And made strawberry pancakes for breakfast…

Sunday strawberry pancake breakfast


“Agriculture is our wisest purist, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness” – Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (1787)

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Finding Eden

18 Apr

Hands holding a fern about to be planted.

Bringing nature to our doorstep represented in planting this Oyster Fern. (Photo: Rebecca Harned - Washington DC - April 2011)

I’ve always found internal peace when in nature.  I look at a walk in the woods as time to be with God, or mother earth, or pachamama, or whatever other way you characterize a higher power.   Quite simply, I see God (or pachamama as I prefer to refer to her) in the fern heads popping-up from the earth, in the little brook trout, and in the bromeliad that coexists on the branch of a strangling fig in the rainforest.  And when I feel any of these intricacies of nature a sense of peace comes over me.  It is kind of hard to explain but I think many of you know this feeling.

Over the past few years I have come to see how important it is to help bring nature out in all of us and in our communities – even if we live in the concrete jungles that define our urban landscapes.  I’ve been trying to find ways that I can spend more time with pachamama as I live each day in the bustling city of Washington, DC.  I could take a day trip to the National Arboretum or bike up Rock Creek Park, all are just a few miles from my house.  But finding the balance in my life is really about how to bring nature to my door step and make it a part of daily life – and a part of the daily life of the community I define as my neighborhood.

A small cement slab serves as my back patio area.  No real potential for nature there until its time for major patio renovations.  But I do have a small, postage stamp size, front yard that faces a busy artery leading to the downtown area. That is where the transformation occurred.  It was nothing more than a wasteland of crab grass and a few sink holes.  Now its exploding with life.  Colors, flavors, aromas, and textures.  I found Eden right here in Washington, DC – and right at my doorstep.

Today there are a variety of herbs growing among arugula, praying mantis, lettuce, eggplant, earth worms, daffodils, broccoli, sparrows, ferns, roses, bumble bees, and raspberries.  Its kind of like an urban permaculture that serves many purposes: 1) it provides organic fresh clean foods, 2) it nurtures an ecosystem, 3) its my personal sanctuary, and most importantly 4) it inspires our community to nurture nature.  The woman a couple of houses down, Gloria, planted cabbage and collard greens this spring.  Another man on the block over planted two blackberry bushes for the first time after living here for over 25 years.  We all plan to share our small little harvests with one another, and this has become the primary topic of our weekly conversations.

I’ve found Eden in my little patch of earth amid a sea of concrete, brick, and asphalt.  We’ve nurtured a little sanctuary for pachamama that is a part of daily life.  And we’ve started to inspire our neighbors to bring this urban ecosystem back to life.  I hope our community finds gratification in the peace that comes from nurturing nature.

Baby broccoli plant emerges from the earth in an urban oasis.

This baby broccoli plant is exploding with life from the nutrients in the earth, sun, and rain. It embodies the beauty of my urban Eden. (Photo: Rebecca Harned - Washington DC - April 2011)

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