Losing Our Sense Of Service

Community thought in the United States has shifted over the course of the last two generations. There is no grand unifying theme. There is no call to help elevate humanity. There is no spectacular urging that moves us beyond self-interest.

Worse than there being no calling for us to serve, there has been a conscious shift to the elevation of the individual.

It is cloaked in myriad forms. It is called personal responsibility; discussed as a means of improving self confidence; and defended a individual liberty.

All of these modes of thought glorify an individual and set him/her above society. This creeping and increasingly pervasive narcissism is fundamentally at odds with a society's ability to grow.

We seem to lose sight of our neighbors as we focus on ourselves rather than the collective. It has been about, "What can my country do for me"?

Where do we begin the Herculean task of reversing the trend to hyper-individualism?

In the garden - May 19

The recent thunderstorms have really helped the garden. We went with the expectation of seeing everything enjoying the warm, wet weather. We were not disappointed. In fact, we were surprised by the amount of plants that were ready to harvest.

We harvested our first garlic ever; some of the onions; a few "Sunburst" tomatoes; and some herbs. We have lots of tomatoes, blackberries, cucumbers, peppers, and beans that are growing well.

We then planted some pumpkins (Sweet Pie); long beans; and chamomile.

Here's hoping the weather stays friendly and we'll harvest all summer.

In the garden - May 12

With most of the two 10' x 20' beds planted, this weekend was primarily about maintenance. That means everything from beans, blackberries, and cucumbers to onions, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and watermelon received a healthy dose of compost tea.

We removed the plastic from the cages surrounding the tomatoes that were planted on March 17. All of the plants seem to be doing well. The two wild tomatoes from Hunt County, Texas and the additional two tomato plants we recently added to the bed are all lagging behind. 

The onions of every variety are starting to flower. So it shouldn't be long before we're harvesting in earnest. 

Next weekend, we'll probably till some of the marigolds into the earth--in an effort to control nematodes--and then plant the long beans, squash, and pumpkins. 

In the garden - April 7

Today we planted two varieties of cucumbers: homemade pickle and picklebush. The former will climb whole the latter should be an actual bush.

We also planted some bush beans. They're purple when mature, and turn green when cooked.

The tomatoes that we planted on March 17 are doing very well in their cages. We have Viva Italia, Black Plum, Amish Paste, Sungold, and another variety whose name I forget.

We're learning that we need to be more meticulous about the selection of companion plants. So we added dill and marigolds to the cucumber area, and planted beans around the blackberries to add Nitrogen to the soil.