A Garden Plot

FROM SPA TO FARM

So I'm thumbing through the pages of a spa magazine between massages. It's a typical Sunday in Aspen, Colorado at O2 Aspen. Lately, I had come upon a new artist named Edgar Allen Isokov. I don't really know how I came upon his music, but lately it has inspired me. I found him late one evening a couple months back as I'm hunkered in my room and the darkness outside is making me feel the Colorado winter blues that can occasionally present themselves between skiing on occasion. His song "San Louis" comes up on my Youtube feed. I click the link and immediately the anxiety is lifted. He instantly became a big inspiration after that and a cover that my band had to learn. Rewind back to the spa and as I'm flipping through the pages I come upon his picture in the spa magazine! The article will soon reveal to me that the artist is in between touring is and has been an organic farmer for many years and now practices his green thumb for about four months of the year between tours. The article goes onto interview him and I take away that his music has been very much influenced by the soil and the growth of all things plant like. Later that year I would discover the band "Khrungbing" and find how their music is influenced by cows, but that's another story for another time, although life progression would have it that my grandma is currently moving out to Texas with a lot of my Dad's side of the family to live on a farm there. It's then that the wheels in my mind start turning as I've learned that coincidences are equivocally always miracles.

THE STORY THICKENS AND GROWS

Winter gives way to spring. We all get plunged into a new reality, and suddenly we're all working on ourselves in the myriad number of ways that people have been working on themselves during this time. Yet, I feel a certain sense of peace in the meadows behind my house. Exotic birds that I've never seen before start to show up and I get the feeling that nature is loving our worldly apocalypse. Conveniently located next to my apartment complex is a community garden and one day on the way to one of my many jaunts up the mountain, I convince myself to open the gate and walk in. The garden has some spaces. I execute my usual spontaneous decision making powers and four hours later I have worked up a sweat, cleared a significant plot of land and am well on my way of diving head first into greens. There's a quote somewhere that says that "Many hands must come together in order to create a true and positive change." I really am in gratitude to the kind farming community that helped get my plot underway. Specifically, two individuals, though I won't list their names here. It was decided that if I was going to do this then I would do it right and so it was advised by them that I build two above ground garden boxes to help keep the gophers from making tomato plants disappear, cue Caddy Shack music and Bill Murray. After about a week or so of hard hard work and increasingly hot and dry Colorado afternoons the plot was constructed and then the planting could begin. Compost was found at the local dump for a steal of a price and it really brought the family together. Dirt continues to not hurt. Slowly I found too I was creating a green monster as my sister was soon calling from Denver with green envy too. Therefore one weekend was spent driving down to Denver and building a plot for her as well. We plan to return there soon and build her another one in her yard. Three weeks in and both her and I had everything planted and nature it seemed had been waiting for us to capitalize on this action as the fruits of our labor soon yielded lovely baby greens and buzzing bumblebees to boot!

A PLANTIFUL CAMEO

The garden has been a giant success in my opinion. The garden community has continued to give wonderful aid and it would seem I have been given a free gardening 101 class on making things grow. There is always more to know and part of that is not knowing always, basking in the mystery as life would have it. Life is journey not a destination. I remind myself of that frequently at this time as well. The picture above is a recent afternoon in my lush garden plot. Swiss Chard, and Baby Green Spinach are the prime cameo's, looking calm as a cucumber as another tranquil evening descends upon the Glenwood Community Gardens.

NATURE TO NURTURE

Colorado is lush in nature and I feel very grateful to head out into the wild blue yonder to gather secrets from animals and wildlife at this time and in the span of the moments in which I've been able to call Colorado home, which has really been my upbringing really! There's some beautiful shots of a deer, still in Aspen groves hoping not to step on a twig, or a Moose at dawn high up on woody ridge. In the cool morning it's memorizing to see their breath piercing into the Colorado high mountain air, fog floating there, pausing before moving on, giving the wild animal an almost ghostly appearance. Yet, I felt the wildlife was telling me to build a garden and so I did and that's the shot.

CONCLUSIONS TO CONTEMPLATE

Green plants popping into existence and an abundance of evening fresh salads are only some of things growing because of this garden. Additionally, I've found the plants have their own secret lessons that they've revealed to me. They're lessons that I'm still learning. The observation of slow growth and the adherence of "striving not to strive" a proponent central in the foundation of Kung Fu for instance to name a few. I continue to learn things in silence as a water source pours forth and lightly sprinkles life on what is growing and what will grow. I can see why Edgar Allen Isokov gets into his garden. It definitely has inspired my band and our latest creations. And so I encourage you to "Go build a garden and get yourself to work." as my bandmate Natalie so eloquently puts it in one of the new songs she's just written. Nature seems to be calling and we are to grow on and follow I do believe.