Ripe vegetables must be picked off of plants to encourage more growth. The more you pick, the more the plant produces. Knowing that fact made me quite eager to pick this very "round bottomed" Early Summer Squash shown above.
There is nothing like GROWING YOUR OWN…
There are so many levels to this but I will pick just one life changing opportunity that I have seen to encourage you to plant a seed.
I have learned true patience while tending to this garden. There is no way to speed up the plants. The plant has a mission and the human being can only do so much with lights and fertilizers to accelerate that process.
A person who is used to "instant" everything is highly challenged when tending to an urban farm. The chickens alone have to be cared for for many months before they produce eggs, and they don't produce eggs forever either.
Plants have the fight of their life from the moment they enter the soil or growing media. A farmer plants three seeds and then chooses only ONE of the three to grow to harvest, picking the strongest of them. It is all about who is strongest in the plant world. It is not about who you know or how much money you have.
The only thing that matters in the plant world is tenacity and strength. What is most important is a strong will to survive and produce good fruit. That is the life of a plant. And all it needs to be able to do this is water, sun, exercise (wind) and food.
There is one other thing that the plant depends on though, and I haven't read about it in any of the many books I have here on plants. The plants are completely dependent on the Creator for survival. That might sound strange initially, because it appears that it is the farmer that is actually growing the plant and who is in charge of everything.
From personal experience I can say that the farmer is not truly in charge. It is the Creator 100%. Because the Creator gives life to the farmer, then the farmer can be the agent for the Creator and help to give life to the plant.
None of what happens in the garden is instant and all is completed in due time. The plants grow according to their unique cycle and everything happens exactly when it is supposed to, and not when I want it.
Yes, the urban farm is teaching me great patience right now. The lessons of simple life are all around me and I can see them very clearly. It is a most beautiful and blissful thing.
