Meg Buerkel Hunn, Advisory Council Chair: May Your Gardens Flourish
“Everything in nature – and we’re a part of nature – was planted here to grow. And not only to feel alive, but to beget and [to] generate and [to] give life to other things.” * These words stayed with me well after sociologist Corey Keyes said them to Shankar Vendantam in his interview on a recent episode of the podcast, Hidden Brain. Keyes was talking about human flourishing and languishing, but gardeners have access to this truth on a regular basis!
I think it doesn’t get much better in the garden when there is a successful harvest. This summer, our garlic flourished (yay!). You may recall that I wrote about planting garlic cloves in the garden – then forgetting where they were. These, I’m sorry to say, were not the ones I planted, but the ones my beloved planted – and he planted them in a good spot where they were very happy and prolific.
I don’t know about you, but our garden both flourishes and languishes…we celebrated all eight of the cherries two of our young trees finally bore this year. The tomato seeds I started (including those “Fred’s Toms”) are only about a foot tall, meanwhile I’ve already eaten some tomatoes from the plants my friend gave me and those I brought at the SEMG Plant Sale fundraiser.
Our garden consistently teaches us in both its flourishing and its languishing.
I’m excited about the garlic – and all that it will become, “beget…generate…give life” to. After pulling the plants, I let them ‘cure’ on a screen in our dry and dark garage, as my research taught me. Then, once the green stalks were completely dry, I cut the bulbs free and rubbed off the dirt. The bulbs are gorgeous, white and purple. The largest will be used for cooking delicious meals to feed family and friends. I’ve saved some bulbs for the coming season. Here in NM, there’s lore that says plant garlic at Halloween and harvest around the Fourth of July. That is easy for me to remember. I also learned that the dried stalks and leaves can be cut up into mulch and placed around plants to deter other pests! I think it’s so amazing and remarkable that one plant can do – “beget, generate, give” so much – with just a little input from me.
May your gardens flourish…”beget, generate, give life” to you and the community of which we are all a part.
