Today's picture on my Page-a-Day Art Gallery Calendar is Vincent Van Gogh's "The Sower"... It sets me to thinking...
How much of life is like sowing seeds or planting plants... Seeds are a truly unknown commodity... As an example, last year, the packet of seeds said they would grow into "Sentimental Blue Balloon Flowers"... but the ones I sowed all ended up white... and one of these was something else... no idea what it was going to be; except that it was going to be HUGE... too big for the space I had, so it had to go... and then conditions are anyone's guess... For the past few years in my garden the summers have been HOT and DRY, so I'm choosing plants that like these conditions... but maybe the next few years are all COOL and DAMP... OH! DEAR!! Will what I've planted make it through??? I research plants carefully before I buy, but the information I find isn't always indicative of what I can expect to happen in my garden... The nurseries make EVERY plant sound WONDERFUL!!! Even plants like staghorn sumac, with which I have personal experience, are listed as GREAT to buy and place in your garden... The grove of sumac I had on the fringe of the property, which apparently were the result of someone 3 or 4 doors down planting a single tree... grew over 15 feet high (15 feet is supposed to be their maximum height) and were like THUGS, wanting to take over the entire property... their roots went down more than two feet in compacted gravel and clay (I don't know how much farther down they went, because I couldn't dig farther) and spread out at least 30 feet, sprouting vigorously at every node and then, on top of this, they self-seeded too... After trying to work with them for years, I finally just cut them all to the ground in the fall of 2020...so I tend to take what the nurseries say with a BIG "grain of salt"... and do my own, independent investigation on the Internet... However, this too, isn't really reliable... Often I've seen the Internet say this kind of plant grows to 6 feet tall in one place and 4 feet in another... but what I really want to know is how big it will grow in my garden??? No-one can tell me this... Maybe it grows only 2 feet, or maybe 8 or even 10... one place lists it as Zone 5 and another Zone 3... What am I to believe??? I'm supposed to be in Zone 4, so it makes a difference! Zone 5 things aren't likely to survive the winters here... and this is just a small sampling of what sowing and planting is like in my garden space where some research is possible... Even if it is of questionable value, I still do the research because it broadens the view and is at least a little more informative than the nursery's glowing words and "pretty" flower pictures... The extra information allows me to get a "feel" for the plant and whether I have a space for it in my garden... However, I NEVER know... it's always a gamble! Each time I sow a seed or place a plant in the ground it's a step into the unknown; a gateway into another world where potentially strange or unexpected consequences can occur... To me, it always feels a little like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit's hole...
Eating isn't much different... I put things in my mouth... but I don't know if my body is going to be able to digest and use them... or ... not... My body has done SEVERAL radical shifts, where the food she'd been used to eating and digesting was suddenly completely INDIGESTIBLE! She'd been able to digest it quite happily yesterday, but today NO and the NO is strong and stays in place for weeks or months or years... Consequently, I never really know if she's going to be able to use what I've so carefully stocked in my pantry, prepared and chewed... Here too, I find body's digestive process isn't well understood... even the generalizations, that assume we all have similar bodies, have gaping holes where a lack of understanding is readily apparent... and then, I think we all have unique bodies, uniquely tied to unique souls, and if this is the case, the generalizations are frequently going to be inaccurate and incorrect... If my thinking is correct, it would render at least some, and maybe much of the "knowledge" we've gained so far useless in a practical sense... landing us back again with Alice in Wonderland, sowing seeds of unknown type and result... whenever we eat...
In my "secret" private, inner garden, I sow the seeds and plant the plants of "qualities" and "traits of character" I think I want to grow there... but how they will REALLY grow, or what they may require or... I have NO idea!
My Web-site... well it's the same... I put things out there, on it, that make the "best" contribution I can for now... However, what I put there are very much like seeds... I have NO idea what will grow as a result... in me or in my readers...
Gardening... wherever and however we do it... isn't as simple and easy as it would appear... No matter where or how it's undertaken, it is a CHALLENGING activity, with many unknown variables and unforeseeable consequences!
This Post's Flavor(s): food,gardening,human,process,puzzle,art
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