The Wisdom of Weeds

Weeding the garden bed is one of the best things I do for myself--inside and out. Our intern, Shelley, has been doing most of this lately, but when I get to do it, I am always reminded of the wisdom I've learned from earth and its communities (even the weeds). You know, things like the importance of focusing on a task to keep our monkey minds quiet.

Co-founder Moriah Salter helps as intern Shelley Hodges completes her strawberry project.

Or the fact that weeds you want (we call those fruits and vegetables) are often the easiest ones to pull out of the ground. The roots of those vigorous grasses and vines you don't want are often the hardest to extract. (That is, of course, why they're so vigorous.) Isn't it that way with our issues sometimes? We often work hard to get rid of our problems, but the really vigorous ones--the hardest lessons and those we need to learn most--keep coming back over and over until we really find the roots.

In addition, it seems the more we weed, the more we realize what else needs to be weeded. This is kind of like life. At least in my case, it seems the more I look to see what challenges I need to face, or am facing, the more I notice other ways to improve myself as well. Of course, this could be overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Weeding our garden beds--and our minds--is like opening everything up to get a clearer picture of what needs to be done. And the good stuff we leave growing, well, it grows taller and more vibrantly than ever before.

Kale and amaranth at the ReTreeUS farm.

During this summer of closing out a year of grants, writing new grants for next year, working numerous jobs and preparing for our wedding, I have decided that we wouldn't have been able to see much of anything but weeds without our intern, Shelley.

But the weeds have wisdom, and so do the creeks and the sky, that reminds me to take it all in stride. We had such an immensely successful first year of educational programming, orchard installation, planting 1,000 trees, and reaching thousands of families...that waiting until fall to open our farm stand is okay.

Our first sunflowers of the season.

The sunflowers and the kale will be ready...when we are. They are growing beautifully and will be ready in September, when we plan to open our farm stand and make last preparations for our 2012-2013 participating schools. On the queue so far are Wiscasset Middle School, Brownfield/Denmark School, and others in the Durham and Portland areas who are still in the process of completing applications. 

We have loved watching our support grow along with our fields! We are excited to be hearing already from new schools interested in receiving orchards in 2013-2014. And we are happy to welcome new members to the ReTreeUS team and to our green house campaign. Through www.crowdrise.org/retreeus, we have already raised 13 percent of our goal to install a green house and provide kale and other highly nutritious foods to families throughout the winter.

Thank you for supporting communities, good nutrition, ecologically-friendly farming, education and  a greater connection to the earth! Join us here.

*For more information on the many benefits of plants, visit www.weedsofwisdom.com.