BEND BUT DON'T BREAK

[Carol Anne Kincaid~Paradis]

A'HO

Allow the promise of tomorrow to guide you through today,

WORDS OF WISDOM

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

JOHN MUIR

Bend, But Don’t Break

One of my fondest memories as a child is going by the river and
sitting idly on the bank. There I would enjoy the peace and quiet,
watch the water rush downstream, and listen to the chirps of birds
and the rustling of leaves in the trees. I would also watch the bamboo
trees bend under pressure from the wind and watch them return
gracefully to their upright or original position after the wind had died
down.

When I think about the bamboo tree’s ability to bounce back or return
to its original position, the word resilience comes to mind. When used
in reference to a person this word means the ability to readily recover
from shock, depression or any other situation that stretches the limits
of a person’s emotions.

Have you ever felt like you are about to snap? Have you ever felt like
you are at your breaking point? Thankfully, you have survived the
experience to live to talk about it.

During the experience you probably felt a mix of emotions that
threatened your health. You felt emotionally drained, mentally
exhausted and you most likely endured unpleasant physical
symptoms.

Life is a mixture of good times and bad times, happy moments and
unhappy moments. The next time you are experiencing one of those
bad times or unhappy moments that take you close to your breaking
point then bend but don’t break. Try your best not to let the situation
get the best of you.

A measure of hope will take you through the unpleasant ordeal. With
hope for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as
bad as they seem to be. The unpleasant ordeal may be easier to deal
with if the end result is worth having.

If the going gets tough and you are at your breaking point, show

resilience like the bamboo tree, bend, but don’t break!

Grow your own vegetables with these easy steps….

by christa.hicks 

Looking to start your own vegetable garden?    Here are few basic steps to get you started:

WHERE TO PLANT

The first considerations are sun and soil. Most vegetables require six or more hours daily of sunlight. Lettuce, arugula, spinach and other leafy vegetables can get by with a little less. (Other vegetables can too, but with some sacrifice of yield.)

As for soil, water drainage is the most important consideration. Don’t plant where water sits for long periods after rains. Your vegetables will thrive wherever lawn grass or most garden flowers grew well.

You don’t need a small farm to grow your own vegetables. A plot 15 feet on each side will yield an amazing amount of fresh vegetables (and perhaps spur you to plant more next year).

Whatever size your garden, the closer it is to your home, the more care it will receive.

No yard space in which to plant vegetables? No problem. Grow them in tubs, flowerpots or other containers. Again, drainage is important. Containers should have drainage holes in their bottoms. Fill them with potting soil, not garden soil, because it doesn’t drain well within the confines of a container, even if it does so in open ground.

READYING THE GROUND

As an alternative to the traditional digging or rototilling, here’s a way of clearing existing vegetation from your proposed garden site: Just cover the whole area with newspaper, four sheets thick and overlapped, or “landscape paper.” Wet the paper in either case to prevent blowing. Then mark out areas with string for 3-foot-wide beds separated by 18- to 24-inch-wide paths.

Now check with local stores or online for “compost.” If your garden is going to be small, bagged compost from a garden centre might be enough. Otherwise, have it delivered in bulk. What you need is enough compost to spread an inch or more deep in each designated bed, over the paper.

For the paths, all you need is any weed-free, organic material such as wood chips, wood shavings, sawdust, straw or pine needles. Lay down just enough to hide the paper.

The advantage of this nontraditional method of preparing the soil is that it’s quicker, less disruptive to soil life, and results in fewer weeds in the weeks to come.

 TIMING IS IMPORTANT

Planting time depends on where you live. Find out the average date of the last killing frost in your area; you can call your county Cooperative Extension office for the date. Since we can’t predict weather, we go by averages.

Vegetables can be divided into those that thrive in cooler weather and those that thrive in warmer weather. Cool-weather vegetables can be planted outdoors a few weeks before the average date of the last killing frost. Warm-weather vegetables can be planted outdoors about a week after that last frost date.

Not to muddy the waters, but within each of these categories are vegetables whose seeds you plant directly in the garden, and those that require so long a growing season that you need to purchase transplants (seedlings) for planting. Putting all this together for some common vegetables breaks down this way:

— Cool-weather vegetables for seeding directly in the garden: lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, peas.

— Cool-weather vegetables planted as transplants: broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts.

— Warm-weather vegetables for seeding directly in the garden: beans, corn, cucumber, okra, squash.

— Warm-weather vegetables planted as transplants: eggplant, pepper, tomato.

HAVE A BLESSED WEEKND. STAY STRONG MY FRIEND. HAPPY TRAILS X