Happy New Year to all Bhaktas from Jadan Gardens

Chilly mornings and foggy dawns are here in Jadan these last weeks and a minimum of 5 degrees in December. Such a climate has been a great friend to our winter roots and salad vegetables and we have made a salad bar during our lunchtimes and no one has caught a cold or even has a cough this season. Baby carrots started at the end of the year and we have these lightly boiled with fresh dill and a little ghee and salt and pepper. The moolis are becoming moolas and reaching their peak and shall be harvested the last time on January the 13th which is the day before Makar Sankranti and we are already talking about where to plant the summer vegetables in the first week of March.

The year 2014 was kind to us – at one point the talaab was 8.8 metres deep and we still have enough water to easily see us through to monsoon 2015. We produced more than 2 tons of vegetables and our lemon trees are fruiting for the second year now. We had a lot of help too this year from visiting bhaktas and karma yogis – which reminds me – we need a lot more good and light and medium-to-small size gardening gloves – and the Shiv Bagh received a new injection of love from Gurudev in the form of rose bushes and papaya trees and many more flowering ornamental plants. In December we spent a lot of time weeding the new beds and cleaning up the old ones (which originate from July 2007 when the garden was fully planted with around 2000 ornamentals shrubs and climbers and flowering plants) and also transplanting some of the marigold plants that we have raised up from the different varieties of seeds brought out by the bhaktas from Strilky ashram in October.

 
Most of the horse fodder had its first cut this month – oats and lucerne grass, sorghum wheat and Napier grass and some ajwain and flax is also growing well in that area. Today on the 1st of the year we had a very overcast day and there is definitely a promise and indeed forecast of rain for tomorrow which would be greatly welcome as we have only received one rainfall since the monsoon ended on September the 11th.
So I wish you all a hearty seasonal greeting and a green year – not only eating your salad and leafy greens but also planting where and when you can and embracing your local organic markets and supporting your local culture and crafts and cottage industries. Remember that all organic producers have a lot of hands on work and are always happy to get some help and to share with you their knowledge and organic surplus. Let us welcome abundance and goodness into our lives and expand our awareness to all those within our areas who are bearing the extremes of the elements in order to supply us with honest and wholesome nutrition. It was the way of our forefathers and it will be and has become the way. Mother Nature will never be defeated!
See you at Guru Poornima ( 31st July ) if not before. Regards from Puspa Devi