A Positively Poetic Priest

I biked my errands today in honor of Earth Day. I dug around in the dirt in my garden and planted some potatoes. I spent time connecting with the sun and the wind and the earthworms.  In college I was one of the few people who had plants in my dorm room, and when others who had plants had neglected theirs, they would bring them to me and ask for help or simply give them to me. Throughout my student years, going into seminary too, I received a bunch of plants, and pet fish, and even two pet mice.  It seems to me that we know we need to be in connection with plants and animals, we are just not doing a great job of making it a priority or passing that knowledge along. I've learned from my mother and random books and people I've asked, but without everyone learning how to be in better connection, we are going to lose the relationship.  I know environmental science is not everyone's cup of tea. But we all need to know more about our own relationship to our environmen

Today's action was not really that environmentally friendly or related to the garden, but it is festive and made me happy. My mother-in-law gave me Earth Day themed nail stickers for Christmas, so I put them on in preparation for tomorrow.  In other news, the tomato, carrot, cucumber, and pumpkin seeds I started in my dining room are starting to sprout. 

Rose bushes Elderberry  The yard has seen a lot of different landscaping in its life. I saw a previous map of St. Peter's campus where it was a playground! But besides the ivy and random hunks of concrete, the previous caretakers have left me with two growing rose bushes and two growing elderberry bushes. I'm going to have to do some research on both to keep them healthy and happy. I look forward to seeing the blooms! 

The Good News Garden got a bunch of sleet and rain last night. The roof has pooled water. I'm going to have to rethink how we put plastic on the roof. 

I started working in my backyard at the beginning of April and already have suffered a couple of weeks of poison ivy rash. I pulled out half of the ivy that was in the backyard, but now I am reluctant to pull out the rest of the ivy. I have started planting some things in my new (very messed up) greenhouse.  The greenhouse was a saga I am not proud of. It is working, but I didn't put the plastics on very well and so I have lots of leaks and I'm going to have to figure it out at some point. Part of the problem is that it has a flat roof, which is not great for rain.  But I now have lettuce and kale and spearmint growing in my greenhouse. I am starting tomato, carrot, cucumber, and pumpkin seeds in my dining room. I am hoping to plant them in the yard in May. The yard seems to have pretty good soil. I have plenty of worm casings in the morning. Roses, ivy, trees, lemon thyme, and other things (dandelions) are growing well.  Good News Gardens is an initiative of the Episcopal Chur