Sunrise Garden Club
My brother once asked me years ago, “What gets you up in the morning?” He was talking about passion and drive. At the time it was the same-o-same-o. I’ve thought about this question over the last couple years and can definitively say, gardening.
I am continually amazed by people who try out the raw lifestyle wanting to suddenly reconnect with the earth, almost as if the food they had been eating suddenly turned them into green thumbs. It’s not a simple desire to garden, its almost a have to do it, like breathing, or sleeping. So it is with me.
As the VP of my garden association, time gardening during the day is really a challenge because so many people ask for advice, want you to see something, or want to just plain chew the (raw coconut) fat. My plans to garden usually get swallowed up in helping someone build a compost pile, giving advice about different gardening techniques etc. So I’ve discovered the perfect time to garden; before the sun rises.
My community garden lies next to a huge dog park, biggest one around I believe, and I often wonder what people think of when they drive in to bring their dog out for a stroll at 5AM (the diehards) and I’m already out there with my REI headlamp blazing loading leaves into a wheel barrow. “Wow now that guys loves to garden!” they mumble to themselves listening to local FM and sipping their Starmucks. You got that right dog bitches.
The project now is to cover the garden with Fall leaves to suppress Winter weeds. We have been blessed to have the Parks Department bring over 8 cubic yards of shredded leaves. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to smell the tannic acids and fungus smells from the center of a 20’x4’ foot pile of leaves. I pull down the shredded leaves and grab big handfuls of the stuff. It smells like tea and earth and Fall and love. I watch it cascade in big clumps of Fall confetti into the wheelbarrow. As a bonus, one might be freezing at this hour, but as the leaves break down they get hot, and as you get to the center, the steam rises in the morning and surrounds you in warmth. Almost like a sauna.
Yesterday I was out there, and there was a full Moon to the West of me just above some cottony long clouds and to the East the Sun was rising, turning the clouds into all hues of pinks and reds and oranges. A light fog was overhead, just about 8 feet off the ground like a big comforter. I just started laughing because; I was in the center of that! I said outloud, “I’M A PART OF THIS!”
Today was magical as well because as I was working I turned around and a blue heron flew in….silently…I literally didn’t even hear it. But there it was about 25 feet away from me resting on the arbor. I was grateful and said, “Hello spirit-brother.” The heron just stood motionless, cocked its head subtly towards me and moved its feathers just a bit. I got closer, carefully, and slowly walking…three steps at a time…my feet barely making any noise as it crushed the frozen dew grass. Soon I was about 15 feet away. I felt this amazing vibration run through me, of just being there with the Heron. It was so relaxing, like for a moment we synced up, as if I was in its energy field. I decided to just calmly look in the direction he was looking. I did this for a moment as the sun stayed hidden, and my breathing made small puffs of clouds carried off in the gentle morning wind.
Beautiful Video of my locale. It’s a big file, 65mb so if it stops to buffer, hit pause when it plays again and wait a couple minutes till the bar is entirely grey, then hit play again.
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