Hard Work, Still Beautiful.

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.” – Rudyard Kipling

I love this quote because whether for flowers or food, gardens are work. A lot of work. Often in unforgiving temperatures or humidity. Often in hard packed dirt. Often a way between bugs and birds and plants and planters. Often a way between gardener and the plants we don't have a use for (weeds).

MyNun, the only nun, who lived at the Buddhist temple where I stayed for a few days in Laos had a garden.

I never saw her tend her garden. I don't know is she had weeds or pests. Her plants were lush and tall, however. It could have been the Laotian climate. The temple was in the middle of a patch of jungle.

I mean, Savannakhet, the second largest city in Laos, was in the middle of a patch of jungle! People living in S.E. Asia know what I'm talking about.

My point about MyNun is I know the Buddhist attitude to life. Don't kill even insects. But aren't plants alive? So is pulling up plants considered taking life? How did she control weeds and pests?

Most Buddhists are vegetarians. But Monks and Nuns eat what the community provides. They are allowed to eat meat of it is placed in their donation bowl. Monks and Nuns concern themselves with the enlightenment of the populace, preforming blessings of every kind. Most won't get paid to work and subsist on donations. I donated a new tile floor for the daily worship area used by MyNun.

I also donated, at her requests several cans of Off! insect spray. She didn't like mosquitos any more than I did, but she would just wave them away. My instinct was always to slap them.

As a matter of fact, the first morning I was there, during second prayers (the first prayers were before sunup around 4:30 a.m. - second prayers were around 7:00 a.m.) They young monk (I called him a baby monk - he was only 14) was leaving the prayers and a mosquito landed on me! I slapped it! I was mortified!!

So, though the Buddhist tradition is to not take a life, any life, and to not eat meat, there seen to be exceptions to the rule.

Though I was considered a novice Nun during my stay at the temple, and though I really appreciate much of the Theravada Buddhism philosophy, I am still very far from enlightenment.

I have fly traps everywhere. Sticky paper and those disgusting stinky ones that are filled with water and purified egg solids that the flies get into and can't get out of and drown to death.

I am at war with all the posts in my garden. I allow my husband to spray which kills the worms and insects big and little. I pull tomato worms off of plants and toss them to the chickens. I even intentionally stepped on these two to do their reproductive cycle.

I pull weeds up by their roots. I pick flowers just to look at. I would not make a good Buddhist Nun. But I enjoy my wars and hard work. I love eating fresh foods. Vegetables AND meat.

I'm sure in some countries those two bugs would be considered a delicacy. In Laos, I ate 2 different kinds of insects, a cricket and a bug we call a stink bug.

I didn't really enjoy the bugs I ate. Although, the worst part was the little legs that got stuck in my teeth. Apparently, you are supposed to peel the legs off. Like a shrimp.

Since I didn't enjoy eating the bugs, I did not consider the mating insects to be food. They had to die. They were eating the plants I DO consider food!

The last time Keith, my husband, and I were out in the garden together we saw so much bug damage. That's when we decided to spray.

Before spraying, we had to harvest as much as possible, because the chemical used can be very toxic to humans of ingested too soon. Summer plants need to be left uneaten longer than others.

The swiss chard for example. We need to wait a couple of weeks before we can eat that. I keep harvesting it, but it goes into the compost heap.

Other garden goodies aren't mature enough to eat anyway.

The watermelon, tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers, for example. Oh! and the second growth cabbage heads I hadn't yet harvested.

I'm going to just publish this now, as is. I have a much longer outline and a few more photos. I'll include those when I'm back to writing, or write another article altogether.