After the Winter Solstice each year, the Angels share the designs for the next year’s gardens. One design reveal I look forward to with particular relish is the Venus Garden reveal. This garden is the energetic cutting edge of Green Hope Farm. The designs always surprise me, yet the themes always prove timely and deeply supportive.

Sometimes I am given a Venus Garden design with no other information than what plants go where. Creating and living with the garden for a growing season brings the insight and learning. Sometimes I am given a bit of information about the purpose of the garden before it is made manifest. This year when I was given the Venus Garden mandala, the Angels said I would be planting a Dhuni Fire garden.

My grasp of a Dhuni Fire is limited. My understanding is that it is a sacred fire that helps us burn up the flotsam and jetsam of our personalities and all that impedes us on our spiritual journey home to Divine oneness. My beloved Meher Baba had a dhuni fire lit once a month in his home in Meherabad, India. I’ve had six months to mull over what it will mean to have a Dhuni Fire garden here without coming to any conclusions. Right now, I am thinking of the Dhuni Fire garden as bringing a fire of purifying love.

In early spring it was time to start seeds for the garden. The Angels picked plants with names like Molten Fire and Burning Embers. Sometimes those Angels are so subtle. Flowers in this garden include Marigolds, Snapdragons, Bachelor Buttons, Four O’Clocks, Lions’ Ear, Castor Bean, Sunflowers, Tithonias, Zinnias, Chamomile, Nicotianas and Sweet Alyssum, The Angels laid out the garden as a spiral moving from tall plants in fiery colors in the center to orange then yellow then pink and white Flowers. While the Mehera white Marigolds often are planted in the heart of the Venus Garden in a protected position, this year over a hundred Meheras rim the last circle of the spiral.

There were a fair amount of snafus offset by a couple synchronicities while getting this garden ready to plant. The Angels wanted a long straight pole in the center of the garden. The Elementals conveniently had a fifteen foot birch sapling bite the dust about fifty feet from the garden. I dragged this over to the garden with a minimum amount of fuss.

A dozen streamers were meant to be attached to the top of the pole then pulled out like a circus tent to the edges of the garden. The pole and streamers had to be in place before the garden was planted yesterday, so I went to get supplies a few days before. I decided to use ribbons for the streamers. I went to the local strip mall to a big box fabric store. I timed my rare expedition off farm perfectly. When I got to the fabric store, there was a note on the door saying the shop was closed for a couple hours because of staffing issues. I wasn’t going to wait around in a hot parking lot for two hours when there was so much to do back at the farm, so I went on to another big box craft store.

Former math teacher Jim had done the math, so I knew I needed ribbons that were 20 feet long. At this craft store, ribbons came in 3 yard increments. This meant I would need 36 rolls of ribbons. This seemed ridiculous. I abandoned the ribbon idea.

Perhaps if the fabric store had been open, I would have gone back there for fabric to sew some streamers. But the place was closed, and I needed to figure something else out. After prowling the aisles, I decided to use tulle. I bought rolls of 4″ wide tulle in fiery colors. I also bought a few rolls of white tulle. When I got home, I discovered the robustly colored tulle was also robustly covered in micro plastic sparkles that came off in my hands. I didn’t want a Venus Garden that was an ecological disaster, so the colored tulle was out. Thankfully the white tulle had no micro plastic sparkles, and I had enough white tulle for six of the twelve streamers. For the other six streamers, I decided to use some chunky wool from Barcelona given to me by my son Ben. I’ve been hoarding saving this wool with its gorgeous colorway of red, yellow and blue for a decade. Its time had come.

First I dug the hole for the pole then I attached all the streamers to the top of the pole. The streamers had to be in place before we set the pole, because attaching streamers to a pole fifteen feet in the air seemed challenging even to me who often thinks I can do things I can’t. Jim, Elizabeth and her children Grace and Henry helped me drop the pole in place. Right away the Barcelona yarn began to break apart in the wind and rain. That’s right, I forgot to mention it was pouring rain with a stiff wind from the east.

The pole had to come out of the ground so I could do some more head scratching. I decided to tie I another support yarn to the Barcelona beauty (so thick and luxurious looking but actually so fragile ). I picked a tough yarn and when I was done knotting it to the Barcelona wool, the pole was relaunched.

This part of the process involved some yelling as Jim and I argued about what was necessary to keep the pole safely in the ground. I always underestimate these things and think a fifteen foot pole will just naturally stay upright. Jim as the sane person in our argument insisted on additional chocks. And so we imported rocks, gravel and cinderblocks to anchor the pole. I can verify that this pole will be going nowhere anytime soon. I can also verify that Jim agrees with me.

Sadly, there are no photos of us fighting about what was needed to anchor the pole. However, the good news is that the Dhuni Garden is already burning up ego crap! After the pole was in place, I parted the mulch hay in a spiral design, preparing the dirt that the plants would live in by adding organic amendments.

I add organic amendments to the soil, things like greensand, soft rock phosphate and kelp. When planting, I dip each baby plant in a bucket of water that contains Superthrive ( a vitamin mix), our Green & Tonic Flower Essence and a Nettle decoction. The Nettle decoction is new this year for us. It gives baby plants some good nutrition for their start in the world. Baby plants often set back hard and seem pretty bedraggled after being planted out, and these tools really help them.

Another gardener friend was slotted to help me plant the garden, but she was unexpectedly ill on the day of the planting. The meant the planting team was me and Sheba. Together we moved all the seedlings grown for this garden from the hoop house to the the edge of the garden.

I had a general idea of what plants would go where, but I was interested by the way the Angels mixed the colors. At one point I was sure we wouldn’t have enough plants in the yellow part of the spiral, but the Elementals said there would be enough, and there were. At another point I had to do some forensic work to figure out which variety of Nicotiana was in which flat. The ink had faded on my labels, and it was only by looking at my seed orders that I figured out which flat was Nicotiana “Night Flight” and which was Nicotiana “Misty Dawn”. Well I think I figured it out. Time will tell. I can’t imagine what this garden is going to look like later in the season. The Flowers are mostly old friends, but they are planted in unusual combinations.

The plants were laid out in a circle of the spiral then I went back and dug them in after I got the green light from the Elementals that every plant that was meant to be in that circle was there.

As I put the last plant in the ground and creakily stood up to water everything in, I savored the lovely feeling of the garden. Apparently so did Sheba as she kept poking around then laying down in the garden. She usually has excellent garden manners, so I was a little surprised by her stretching out in the garden without regard to the baby plants. I guess she just wanted to wallow in the already ignited Dhuni fire of sacred love.

Just as I posted this a Green Hope Farm friend sent a photo of the air in NYC right now. Sending so much love to all affected by this very different kind of fire.

Because our Red Shiso is an essential crop for our Flower Essences and because Red Shiso is very frost sensitive, we always wait to plant the Red Shiso until June 1st when danger of a frost is very, very low.

This morning Staff Goddesses Indigo, Sam and Elizabeth headed off into the gardens to plant the Red Shiso. This crop (like everything else here) gets moved around the different gardens on a three year cycle. For this season, there will be a couple of rows of Red Shiso down by the main vegetable garden while the bulk of the Red Shiso is in the garden which sits inside the ring of Apple and Pear trees.

Here’s my artsy shot of the trio with Woad in the foreground. Until the introduction of Indigo from Asia, Woad was the European dye plant for blue. This Flower lights up the gardens with its vibrant wands of yellow. It is beloved of bees, and the hum coming off the Flowers is loud and wonderful. I love Woad Flower Essence’s strengths as both a support to ease depression and “the blues” as well as support us find new purpose when an old one is gone. This is what Woad had to do for itself when Indigo arrived on the scene and replaced it as the primary dye for blue.

Woad volunteers around the gardens making its own conversation with other plants. Here it has grown cheek by jowl with a Tree Peony in a zesty tableau.

While making my way down to the trio planting the Red Shiso, I visited with a few other Flower friends.

Here is Chives. It may be small in stature but this Flower has a big presence in the garden. I went back to look at my Flower Essence description for Chives and didn’t think it did justice to either the Flower or its Flower Essence, so I rewrote my description this morning. It still doesn’t do justice to Chives, but it is better.

I also visited with the first of the Roses, the Yellow Rose of Texas. I love this Rose so much, and I love its Flower Essence too. Such a support for solving our most difficult and seemingly insolvable problems.

The trio has just come in from the gardens to report that the Red Shiso seed is in the ground and watered in. Always a great moment to get this crop planted. Now we will wait with bated breath for the seeds to germinate and begin their season with us.

Much June Love to one and all from all of us here at Green Hope Farm.

We have had some really unusual weather here this month. A heavy frost of 24 degrees this week was a particularly extreme (and for a gardener an unfortunate) moment. In the aftermath of this frost, the beech trees in the surrounding hills turned brown as did the young leaves on many of our spring blossoming shrubs. Out in the vegetable garden, the baby radishes, beets and collards bit the dust and had to be reseeded. The perennial gardens looked almost as if they were melted by this cold, but in the past few days, most plants have picked themselves up and begun to regrow. The abundant Lemon Balm had made an impressive and gorgeous ground cover under many Roses. I was quite chuffed by how well it all looked. Now it has bravely picked up its tattered, brown and frizzled leaves to try and regroup.

Even with this frost, the gardens are still filled with lovely and thriving Flower friends- many of whom are Flower Essences we lean on every day.

Bleeding Heart is granddaughter Grace’s favorite Flower. I remember feeling the same way when I was ten. There is something so compelling about its shape. Of course it is a vital ingredient in our Grief & Loss mix, offering much support for a broken heart and all the sorrows of life. (Bleeding Heart can also be purchased separately as its on our Additional Flower Essence list)

Leopard’s Bane is a key ingredient in Golden Armor, our beloved Essence for the protection of our energy field. Most of Leopard’s Bane’s Flowers survived the frost, but I was still glad I had made our year’s supply of the Flower Essence before the frost. Again it can be purchased separately too as its on our Additional Flower Essence list)

Today I made Lilac Flower Essence. I went around the entire property collecting Lilac Flowers from all the different varieties of Lilac we have here- a good two dozen varieties. The Lilacs in this photo are from Siberia. Lilac has such an immense restorative and strengthening energy. I love the feeling of this photo which conveys both the majesty of this Flower and also its mystical qualities. Long live Lilacs!

The Apple and Crab Apple trees are done blooming, but only just. We don’t yet know if the frost will mean no apples this year. I love the cleansing quality of Crab Apple Flower Essence. Many spring Flowers including Crab Apple have such a strong cleansing and restorative energy. They make me think of Hercules cleaning the Aegean stables.

Celandine is a Wildflower, but it thinks it should be part of every Flower/Herb/Vegetable bed at the farm. Actually that is not entirely true. I was weeding out copious amounts of Celandine in the Roses yesterday and paused to consider whether I should just let Celandine bloom unimpeded. Celandine had the grace to tell me to keep weeding as if I let it go there it would take over. So yes, sometimes Celandine demonstrates restraint. It’s a Flower Essence about cell to cell communication, and somehow I felt that it was respecting the harmony of all the parts of the garden by telling me to keep weeding.

Today the first Tree Peony opened. Tree Peony is a show stopper. This first Flower’s petals look a bit wonky from the frost but still radiant. By the time I noticed this blossom the honeybees had already found it and were busy enjoying the bliss of its abundant pollen.

I hope your May is going swimmingly and that you find many moments of peace and beauty. All of us here send you much love.

The month of May can be both bliss for the gardener and a nightmare challenge. To say May is a busy month is an understatement. To bring this point home let me just say that I think of April as a preparation for May. If it is snowing and the ground is still frozen in April, I hack through the dirt to plant peas because I KNOW there just won’t be time in May.

When I was young, a hoary old lady gardener with a mustache told me to never ask any questions at a plant nursery in May. This stuck with me as did the concern that I too would have a mustache in my eighties. Not only do I not ask any other gardeners questions in May, I don’t have any answers to offer in May. I barely have any thoughts. I am just a fast moving basket of tools trotting from task to task with a list in my head which the Angels and Elementals constantly edit.

Thank goodness my Angelic and Elemental support team is not in overworked bodies like the folks at plant nurseries. Unhampered by physical constraints, they can take all my questions in May. And a good thing too, as May is entirely about me asking them questions.

This morning for example. Mild mannered Jim asked me what I was going to do today. It was a gentle question meant to engage us in gentle breakfast banter. Instead it lit up my brain like pinball machine. Would I prune more Roses ? Or mulch them? Or fertilize those Roses that haven’t gotten their compost and amendments yet? Or would I mulch the asparagus? Or the blueberries? Or fix that pesky leak in the Sacred Feminine pond (again)? Or would it be weeding? Were the weeds in the herb garden or the perennial beds or the vegetable garden or any garden on the property calling my name this morning? Or would there be time to deadhead the Daffodils? My pea brain exploded with possibilities to the point of meltdown. How to even pluck a possible job from the barrel of tasks in order to give Jim a civil friendly response? I was flummoxed.

So I croaked out a random answer. “The raspberries. I’m weeding the second row of raspberries this morning.”

Is this likely to be what I do? Doubtful as 100% NO. What will actually happen is I will water all the seedlings in the hoop house and greenhouse, and then my upstairs crew will alert me that something much more urgent timely than crabgrass in the raspberries has cropped up. I will then be off to do the first task on their rota.

All my marching orders come from the Angels and Elementals, and thank God for that. They actually know the weather conditions ahead and which plants and gardens need care the most. Once they give me my first assignment for the day, I will enjoy a dizzying day of bouncing from task to task as chosen by them. I do love it that as I get older, they adamantly include the task of rest. Apparently sometimes I am the Flower in the garden most in need of water and a weed job.

May is a month in which my mind could go into a crazed state, but with the help of the Angels and Elementals, it becomes a month in which I just go mindlessly from task to task and leave all the deciding and agonizing to my upstairs staff.

This leaves me free to glory in the beautiful May. Every glance up from weeding or watering or pruning is sensational. So many old Flower friends are there to savor as they spring back to life after our long winter. I love how these old friends move around the garden and have a life (and mind) of their own. They often are NOT where I planted them but have launched themselves into surprise places where they thrive. I love that. This place is a big four decade conversation in which all my plans for the gardens get tossed by the plants and my dear friends the Angels and Elementals. And because of this, the gardens are much more amazing than anything I could have ever imagined. I love this.

The gardens of Green Hope Farm are 37 years old now. The tasks I had when this place was a wide open hay field couldn’t be more different than now. Back then it was all about planting trees, shrubs, perennials, herbs and annuals. I needed them all to build a garden from the blank canvas of the hay field.

Creating structure with these plantings was a big part of the early years. With the Angels and Elementals guiding me, we made garden rooms that each have a different feeling and purpose. There is the Arbor Garden which offers a timeless sense of repose, wholeness and serenity no matter what is going on elsewhere in one’s life. This garden is a sea of spring bulbs and other spring Flowers like Hellebores, Snowdrops and Virginia Bluebells. Other Flowers are part of the garden too, so when I make Arbor Garden Flower Essence each year there are always a good forty or fifty different Flowers in the mix.

We created a Rose garden, a space that immerses us in Divine beauty within and without, Each Rose shares a numinous experience of unity and Divine Love via its presence in the garden and in the Rose Garden Flower Essences

Then there are the three vegetable gardens that take up the issues of daily life and helps to sort them out in mandalas that change season to season. We always grow our Red Shiso stabilizer in one of these gardens, rotating from garden to garden each year. Red Shiso is as daily as it gets as this plant is the foundation and stabilizer for all our Flower Essences (see About Our Essences for more on Red Shiso.)

The many perennial beds anchor the place with their steady drumbeat of joy. They connect the years and our experiences like string holding a set of beads.

The entrance garden with its ring of rock walls, abundant Thyme and central pool welcomes us into the gardens and our own heart space. This garden sweeps us into the Sacred Feminine as part of our journey of reunion with the Divine. You may remember two years ago when our pick up truck made an unexpected visit to this garden!

And then there is the Venus Garden. This garden astounds us each year with its wildly inventive structures, timely purposes and unusual plantings. This garden is the door opener that shows us the way (and right now this year’s Venus Garden is just a circular space covered in hay waiting to be planted the first week in June).

Each of these gardens required planting many different plants to see what was meant to be there. I gathered plants from roadsides, plant nurseries and gardens of friends with great enthusiasm. Once the bones were in place, I continued to grow an exuberant amount of annuals, herbs, vegetables starts and perennials in the greenhouse space and other window ledges that get enough light. Growing seedlings is part of every spring. For example, here is the passageway into the office right now.

The greenhouse is also full with tropical beloveds and flats of baby plants. Yes, the Tomatoes are getting the best light and steamy warmth in the greenhouse. As you might suspect from the last blog, they have gotten good light and especially tender care since 1993.

The hoop house, (built by Rex Miller and therefore called the Rex) receives the baby plants that are tough enough for colder conditions. I spent this morning beginning to fill the hoop house with baby plants and flats planted with seeds.

So yes, there is an annual process of growing more plants but in truth, at a certain point of garden creation, the work shifts almost entirely from gathering plants to editing the garden. I loved the gathering years, but editing work is when a garden becomes something essentially true to itself.

In part this is because a garden edits itself. No matter how hard I tried, some plants didin’t stay after I planted them. For example, hundreds of Lupines have departed this garden. Bearded Iris too. It’s not all departures. Without my volition, plants multiply and establish themselves with vigor, declaring that this the perfect spot for them.

The editing of comings and goings gives me a feeling of deep partnership. The garden has its own soul that has expressed itself over time. It helped the garden’s soul that I worked with Angels and Elementals to create this garden, because I suspect without this partnership I would have delayed the garden’s self expression. But I think this process of dissolving away human personality ideas and having something essential arise happens in most older gardens. It happened here, and I am grateful it did.

As I was thinking about this topic, it was hard to miss that older people like an older garden grow into a certain authenticity as life pares away some things and other things continue to thrive. And once again, I like that this process is a melding of our own efforts and the grace of life.

While society may encourage us to to keep our tentacles out in the world reaching for everything new and more at an undiminished (even accelerating rate) to the end of our days, life itself takes us in a different direction. Life encourages us to accept the paring down and let thrive what really matters and what is real.

And what is real and what is just illusion and diversion? What are we here to do and what is just a waste of our time?

The gardens give me my own answer to this. Love, beauty, peace, generosity, flow and acceptance. Love most of all. As Darwin Shaw said, “Divine Love is total significance.”

And how sturdy are these verities? As we clean up from a winter that pared down just about every shrub and tree on the property, I am heartened to feel the rock steady vibration of the place. The years of pouring love into each garden space means that even as some very large trees and shrubs are gone, there is still a palpable Green Hope Farm feeling of peace and calm, love and infinite blessings. And I do not think this is unique to Green Hope Farm. I think this is true of everyone and every place when other stuff is stripped away (either by life or by our own efforts). Its not just that love is total significance, love is the only real thing.