We have had another roller coaster month...

OCTOBER 2014

Dear Friends,

We have had another roller coaster month embellished by the presence of Swamiji Maharaj and some very welcome help from some of our guru brothers and sisters in our gardens. The Shiv Bagh received many new plants in a new design and we cultivated our winter areas for vegetables and salad as well as for horse fodder. The seeds were planted during the last week of the month. In addition to this we harvested nearly half a ton of produce this month and so for the most part supplied the kitchen with most of the vegetables needed. Particularly prolific were lauki and toru and also snap melon which we enjoyed mostly as a salad vegetable. The weather was very hot and rain came on the 30th which was also the anniversary of Holy Guruji’s Mahasamadhi. It was undoubtedly His gift to us on this Holy Occasion.

Swamiji requested us to remove many ornamental plants from our workshop area as their roots are depleting the energy in the soil there and now that they have been removed the area looks fresher and cleaner. They were originally planted there in order to make boundaries and to fill the empty spaces which are now full of trees and herbs. All of the sonamukhi was removed with the exception of one plant. For the workshop garden and the Shiv Bagh we shall now concentrate on the cultivation of flower varieties and for the winter we have cultivated some varieties of European marigolds and sunflowers. Yellow mustard seed (for the sake of the honey bees) has been cultivated on 3 of the 4 boundaries of the original lawn area and the monsoon grasses have been replaced by a boundary of different flower varieties as well as some papayas trees. These include some deshi gulabs (native medicinal rose varieties) in red, pink and white colours and some pretty varieties of sadabahar or periwinkles.

Within just 3 days the horse fodders (oats, sorghum and alfalfa) germinated in our big garden and some of the mooli seeds too and we look forward to some new lettuce varieties and mangold and chakunder. A huge thank you to all especially in Croatia and Slovenia for collecting together a first class variety of winter seeds not only from organic seed companies but also from bhaktas own gardens. We have a supply now for 2 or 3 years. It is a marvelous collection!

So in short we have had an experience of abundance this month which included pumpkins and okra and chillies and cucumbers and yes – we have been running to the rhythms and cycles of the late summer and early autumn and are now looking forward to the duties of the cooler weather and the first leaves of ruccola and the first of the winter radishes. Please visit us in December if you can and help with the winter weeding and salad mixes. A big thank you too to all the guests who again supported the orgnanic store.

Much love from
Jadan ashram and Puspa Devi
October 31st 2014