Plant your love and let it grow

When a plant is ailing, it usually involves the roots. Blossom end rot on tomatoes and peppers comes from insufficient uptake of calcium. Even if there's plenty of calcium in the soil, the roots can still have trouble getting it to the rest of the plant if you've over watered or watering has been too sporadic. Foliar applications of calcium just don't work. The different kinds of wilt come from a soil-born disease that is transmitted by the roots. All you can do is not compost the plants and not plant the same thing in that place again - and plant wilt resistant varieties next time. I'm now trying to determine why my 5-year old morning glory suddenly died after gloriously returning each spring. It did so this year and then passed on. I suspect a gopher. There's so much going on beneath the surface that affects the garden's health. Most problems require you address the root cause.

My good friend Bill is big on working for fundamental change - the only kind that will prevent annihilation and, in his words, "create a civilization in which all people have the opportunity to live happy, fulfilled, empowered, and actualized lives." Count me in. We need to change where we're heading or we're likely to end up there. His blog is Mutual Empowerment for Fundamental Change. Making this kind of change is a tall order, but it's within our reach, Bill says, if we use what we now know about behavior change.

Bill also told me about a network of researchers, thinkers, and doers who want to eliminate humiliating practices in the world. I've often thought humiliation to be a form of violence. If you experience humiliation in your formative years, it's hard to grow into a healthy and whole human being. Not impossible, but harder than if you experienced an abundance of love, nurturing, kindness, and encouragement. This group says, "Our work is inspired by universal values such as humility, mutual respect, caring and compassion, and a sense of shared planetary rights and responsibilities." Their site is called "Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies."

In the garden today

There's an organization in my town, the Grey Bears, that delivers bags of fresh produce each week to seniors. My neighbor -- the one who know the history of my inherited plants - gets more green onions than she can use from the Bears. She tried planting them to grow mature onions and it seems to be working. When she got more than she could plant, she gave me a few bunches. I planted them today - I'll let you know how it goes.

I also planted even more peppers and then put some out front as give aways. Two out of seven went to new homes. There are still Fresno and Jalapeno seedlings in pots that I have to squeeze in somewhere. Harvested more snow peas and a magnificent head of lettuce. I am aching to plant carrots, but I need to gopher proof first.