Occupy Blogosphere – Thursday, March 29, 2012

By souldipper

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

asks Regina Dugan.

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“Grow a garden!” shouts Soul Dipper –

– host of rabbits, raccoons and deer

– daughter of a talented gardener who may be watching in spirit

and wondering if anything he taught is perennial.

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Who’s Regina Dugan?

A brilliant woman who entices the world to go beyond itself.

Here’s her TED video:

“Let Me Help You Believe“

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How does her message fit Occupy Blogosphere?

We don’t have to be a scientist, a wizard, a farmer or live rurally

to grow a GARDEN!

We can just be Garden Nerds who are not afraid to fail!

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Pallets piled waiting to be thrown out? Plant them! NO FAIL!

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Start the seed in egg shells. When the seedlings are ready, plant the entire shell. It will nourish the soil as it composts. NO FAIL!

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Recycled Plastic Bottles...an apartment in L.A. NO FAIL!

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Plastic bottle planters let the Outside hang out Inside. NO FAIL!

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More plastic bottles growing herbs. NO FAIL!

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Rosemary - Indoors in Winter & Outdoors in Spring.

Incredible nutrition in herbs!
We have no excuse for not growing some aspect of our own food.
Think of what it teaches children.

Let’s start small and easy – what about Kale?

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Kale is overflowing with essential nutrients such as calcium, lutein, iron, and Vitamins A, C, and K. Kale has seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times more lutein. Kale is rich in chlorophyll and provides much needed fiber.

***

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Every Thursday

we OCCUPY this space.

We give this planet a shot of

fun, support and positive energy.

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Share something you’ve been wanting to tell the world.

or

Do an Occupy of your own and add a link in comments.

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This space thrives on positive material.  Soul Dipper reserves the right to decline any submission that is presented with a flair for the negative, deemed  to be derogatory or could be surmised as slanderous.

***

Α – Ω

84 thoughts on “Occupy Blogosphere – Thursday, March 29, 2012”

    • Check out the methodology on the web, Joreen. There are many sites explaining this simple set-up. I can just see you having a wee herb garden in your home – just waiting for more of your creative dishes!

    • Good for you, Bev – I hope you keep all that good information well practiced so you can pass it on! My tiny garden patch has been composted all winter so I hope it’ll be rich soil for Kale and other leafy greens.

  6. I Love this ideal!
    Thank you for sharing it…!
    I would really like to participate….

    Take Care…
    You Matter….
    )0(
    maryrose

  8. I have 8 kale plants now in my vegetable garden and am so excited to start using it. I love kale. Yes, get out and garden, plant something. This year, I hope to save a lot of money not buying the veggies at the store. My sister and brother will have vegetable gardens, too. It’s such a positive feeling to bring food from your garden onto your table.

    • Ah, for a dinosaur’s kiss! That’s my problem, too, Raven. I have one area that receives lots of sun, but it’s too much in summer. Plus it’s where the deer have created an escape route from human interference. A fenced area is full of Mountain Ash trees that cut off the fullness of the sun.

      I need a garden on wheels – that I can move with the sun and bring into a protected area at night.

      I may have to end up with a little greenhouse.

    • Good for you, SuziCate. You have obviously NOT let the fear of failure stop you! I used to think my thumb was green, but now I suspect it had a lot to do with my dad! :d

    • In our Province, June, I know that people who sell eggs are not supposed to use old egg cartons. Therefore, I buy eggs in paper cartons so I can burn them. However, this creates another use for the Styrofoam ones if paper is not available.

      How’s your TOyOLa? I can just see you racing through the fields in that hot little red ATV. I hope Emma will let me know if her walks have been decreased because of that beastie!

  13. I would grow one also. It’s a time thing for me and well, I find digging in the ground kinda icky. That’s the girly side of me, I guess. My step-dad used to have a small garden and I realize now how much of a money-saver it was, as well as the benefits of eating organically. I still don’t get the price gauging in this market. But yes, if I could get someone to help me start it, I think I’d be okay with maintaining.

    • Yes, I agree that it’s a challenge to get started. That’s the part my dad looked after and I’m not in love with the idea of shoveling truckloads of soil. So, I will start small and kick myself in the summer when I’ve eaten all that my tiny plot produced.

      There’s a community garden allotment being built on our island. I’m going to hang around there and pick people’s brains. The plots were grabbed so quickly there are none left, so it will be my school this year!

  14. Wow I would never have thought of using egg shells!! Again…wow! I saw Regina’s TED talk and the very thought sets butterflies off in my tummy..can you believe I actually find the thought of no fear frightening? Does that even make sense? Any advice very welcome!

    • Off the top of my heart, Chris, I suspect fear gives us a place to hide. If we remove the fear of failure, we’re “out there”. So it makes perfect sense.

      My opinion? There is no failure. There’s only growth. It’s all attitude. It would be too sad to imagine not “going for it” – to whatever degree we are capable. When a child takes its first step and falls, do we chastise it? So why do we think we need to do that to ourselves?

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  16. I love to garden and I love those cool planter ideas…especially the eggshells. My grandmother owned and operated a nursery when I was growing up…I inherited my green thumb and love of plants from her and my father. What a great posting…really enjoyed it and I encourage everyone to give gardening a try…it’s so satisfying in many ways.

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  20. Excellent ideas for an urban space – I’ll pass it on! I’ve planted a few things in my raised beds and pots – but it’s still cool over here at night, so not many signs of life in the earth yet. I hope to devote more time to gardening, over the next 2 weeks, while I’m on holiday. Thank you for the thought-provoking inspirations, Amy! 🙂

    My contribution this week can be found on http://wightrabbit.wordpress.com

    • Time Out! It’s what we all need to remember to take! If we aren’t kind to ourselves we have little hope of offering genuine loving kindness to others! Methinks your Artist knows that. Please give him a hug for me!

  21. Great Ideas. I like the egg shell Idea a lot. We use mud pots, plastic bottles and bags. We just need to change the soil of this pots after every 3-4 months. 🙂

    • I’d love to see some photos of your methodologies, Arindam. Mud pots sound totally sensible, but how… I know…you aren’t at home. But are the mud pots used to start seedlings?

      • I will send you some photographs, whenever I will visit home. Yes mud pots used to start seedlings. And the procedure is very simple, first we have to make a small hole at the bottom surface of the pot, so that the air will transfer perfectly through this hole and top surface which is already open. Then after filling it with soil, we need to start the seed. Then with proper supply of water to these pots every day, the seedlings will start. Another advantage of that hole which we make is that- If by mistake we are pouring extra water in to that part, than automatically, that extra amount of water will come out from the pot through that hole.
        I hope I am right! 🙂

        • I understand your concern about being right. I used to think I knew what my dad did until, years later, I realized how much he did without me paying attention!

          I love the idea of these mud pots so I look forward to photos some time, Arindam. Thank you!

  22. Absolutely honey, and i am typing with filthy finger nails while taking a wee break from planting the potatoes.. blue ones this year! who knew!! I had better get out there, gardening is so satisfying but we cannot harvest unless we put in a bit of work!! c

  23. We used to water our tomatoes by burying a 2 liter plastic bottle with the top cut off spout down . . . aimed right for the roots.

    To water the tomatoes, we filled up the bottles.

  24. Hi Amy,

    In a world increasingly fraught with large corporations muscling in and trying to take over every aspect of our lives, this simple do-it-yourself initiative does have the power to usher in the spring into our lives.

    I remember in my childhood days in India,it would have been a sacrilage to “brand” grains, cereals, vegertables,fruits, milk, yoghurt, honey etc etc which we took for granted as the gifts which the land gave us. One bought these from the bazaars and for the enterprisng few, great deals were available from the farms and producers themselves. In a short period of a few decades, our economic models have turned all these ” taken for granted” aspects in our lives upside down! Greed… and more greed in the name of development.Where did we go wrong, I wonder.

    This is the reason why I love your ” Occupy the blogosphere” Initiative, We need many more like this to create a conscious generation if we are to avoid “21st December, 2012.”

    In introspection…

    Shakti

    • Shakti, I share the same background (albeit in Canada) and observation as you. I remember my shock at people enjoying TV dinners! That was my first memory of processed food. Thankfully it did not attract me. Today, I gloried in a delicious salad… fresh produce and vegetables. Nothing was processed. Even though that’s mainly how I eat, each bite feels like a blessing!

      Your presence, the encouragement you give, the positive attitude you share…it all contributes so admirably to where we want to go, Shakti.

      We’ll just keep it up and see what we have on December 21st! Bet we’ll still have each other! 😀

  25. I love canning and freezing all the veggies from my garden. Your ideas are so very creative! Wonderful–thanks for sharing!!

    • Jennifer, I popped round to visit you. I can see that you and your muse are viable candidates to share some fun and simple tips and tricks to canning and freezing. Please consider it! We’d love to have you join us! I think we need a stepmom…not sure we have one yet! (I was one for a short time and was flummoxed by a 5 year old who thought she was Goldie Hawn! So did her father.)

    • That’s a riot, Poch…however the squirrels are covered. My trusty black cat keeps those quick little beasties at bay. I need that water spray for deer! But knowing our deer, they’d think it was a new drink!

      • I’m glad your cat is an ally Amy. Stray cats are giving us the most hell presently. They persist on nesting inside our ceiling and under beds even though we’re trying to kill them yet.

        • In the Philippines, do you have agencies that deal with feral cats and dogs? We have many groups that focus on keeping the wild population down. It’s not just pest control – it’s a call to reduce cruelty. In North America people are constantly being asked to neuter their pets so they are not reproducing indiscriminately. I’m sorry for you and the cats.

  30. I love all those imaginative planters…. especially the eggshells. Gardening is one of the great peaceful occupations: learning to work with nature is an awe-inspiring business. Lovely post, Amy.

  31. What absolutely wonderful ideas Amy…I may not be an avid gardener…but I love my garden and all things related….

    In our part of the world although lifestyles have charged drastically as Shakti mentions…the emphasis on fresh produce and freshly cooked food is still fairly regular…preferred and enjoined…and kitchen gardens quite the norm…albeit on a smaller scale now…so thank you for this great and informative post…

    God bless…

    • Even a kitchen garden keeps our focus on health and self-sufficiency. It puts the practice in front of children and keeps the emphasis on wholeness and fresh produce. Each step adds to the impact. We don’t pooh-pooh these gestures because they are a seed to a greater understanding, respect and reverence for what the earth offers.

  32. In some cities, it’s a crime to eat dogs and cats and I agree with that. But that’s all. Our only people who are really cruel are those who kill cats and dogs so that they could eat or sell them.

    • Poch, if people are truly that hungry, who can judge them?

      I don’t eat any animal – except for an occasional piece of chicken. I am thankful that I am able to live this way and not have to be on the verge of starvation.

      I can’t bear some of the methods used to raise poultry and beef cattle here in North America. I feel I can judge my own countrymen AND I can speak up against their cruelty. Other countries? I can only say I wish no human or creature has to suffer.

      But…you’ve found my heart button, Poch!

  33. I love this, thank you so much. When I first saw the title/question, I wanted to answer “play the lottery” like a smartass. If I could do something and not fail it would be to leave academia and start my own business – either a bookstore or restaurant or b&b or community center – or all combined, which is really the dream.

    And at all of these places I would have my own organic garden 🙂 thanks for the tips!

  34. Love the pallet idea! This could be a great space saver as well as keeping things neat and tidy in a small space. Thanks for such great ideas. I’ve got the gardener’s itch going on right now — I’m looking through magazine after magazine and website after website (gardening one’s that is) and can’t wait for the ground to thaw and dry out enough for me to get out there and start grubbin’ around.

    • A garden is another baby, isn’t it Kath? All the prep, the excitement, challenge, and maintenance of the growth process and the results. One of my gardener friends reminds me how it’s all about being totally present. Have a little grub in that beautiful Alberta soil for me!

  35. Most enjoyable. I’ve been an on-again off-again “gardner” of sorts, depending on whether I was in a house or an appartment. Right now I have mini-garden pots in the house and outside my door.

    Pics and suggestions are fab. Kale looks wonderful. Must go to the grocery. (I have no character. So suggestable.)

    Thanks for the gardening push …

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