"Amma says..." Two innocent sounding words that when applied before any sentence, can really give any husband a nightmare, especially when these words are followed with something like 'we must do' .These words act as the most powerful weapon that a wife can use to render her husband completely powerless.

It was in 2020 when my wife used these powerful words and told me, "Amma says we must grow our own vegetables organically." And as you can expect from any good husband, I vehemently opposed the idea that requires me to do any more work than I usually do.

But it wasn’t just my laziness, you see I have a recurring problem of selective amnesia where I forget anything that Amma advises me to do as a couple. It’s either that or Amma tells me such things only when I am not paying attention. Whatever may be the case, the end result is that I don’t have any recollection of Amma ever telling me to grow vegetables. I used this as my argument against gardening. Bearing in mind what Lord Krishna tells us in the Bhagavad Gita, I argued my case without any expectation of a winning outcome. After all, can there be any winning argument against what Amma herself had asked us to do? But thanks to my wife who is always attentive to what Amma says, she was able to lovingly remind me and convince me that Amma indeed had asked us to grow vegetables at home. And this is how my journey into organic home gardening started.

But before I get further into gardening itself, let me tell you about the second major problem I have. Amma made me a real simpleton. She didn’t give me enough wisdom to decipher her words. So, I was really struggling to understand what Amma actually meant. Thankfully, I am blessed with a wise wife who was able to break down the words "we must grow our own vegetables organically" into simpler terms for me to understand easily. What Amma actually meant was:

• Abhinav should make his own garden beds from scratch using untreated wood
• Abhinav should apply linseed oil to the wooden beds
• Abhinav should rip out the lawn, dig soil and put garden beds into soil
• Abhinav should carry several yards of soil and compost to fill the beds
• Abhinav should prepare a wired fence around the garden and make a wooden gate to get into the garden.
• Abhinav should mulch the whole area surrounding the beds
• Abhinav should set up the drip irrigation system

Well, there were many more simple tasks to follow, after we constructed 17 beds in total. Luckily, my wife Sujata was always there to tell me what Amma actually meant in her one sentence instruction to us as a couple, and all the things I needed to do.

If it is not clear already to the readers, I must clarify that I, Abhivav, do not like gardening at all; not one bit. To the extent that whenever I have to do something in the garden, the desire to seek liberation from this job and this world increases exponentially. I experience instant detachment from everything surrounding me and I start praying for instant moksha. I will tell you why this is the case for me in a moment. Also, I will tell you how I use spirituality to manage doing any garden work at all. I will tell you about the blessings we have received as a result of gardening, and some survival tips for beginners in home gardening.

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In all honesty, I would not have been able to do a single task at our garden if I hadn’t incorporated spirituality in my actions. And this is how I do it.

Becoming witness to the body and mind: I am severely allergic to dust and every possible weed and tree that grows in our region. Consequently, I am miserable with non-stop sneezing and breathlessness during springtime when pollen is abundant everywhere and when we also have to do most of our gardening work. So, I hope now you understand why I don’t like gardening. And on top of that, I have trouble bending my right knee due to sciatic problems. So, whenever I have to be in the garden, I need to make a conscious decision to be a witness to my body, my mind, and the discomfort I face. While I try doing that, I fail each time to remain a witness for long. After years, I finally succeeded in doing this for a couple of days this year. That’s one of the reasons I can really admire how Amma gives a motherly hug during darshan to thousands of her children while her body goes through pain.

Practising Karma Yoga: Gardening gives me the best opportunity to practise karma yoga and be selfless without expectations. Before stepping into the garden, I remind myself that I am doing this for the divine and for my wife. Most of the time, I squander this opportunity by complaining a lot about all the work I need to do. However, with time, I have gotten only slightly better at not making a big fuss. Starting this work with the attitude of being selfless is the key for my being able to do any work at all.

Chanting mantra and being an instrument: Whenever I use any gardening tool to dig into the soil, I end up harming earthworms. Since I don’t have an understanding of how this adds up to my karma, I think of myself as an instrument in God’s hands and keep doing it while chanting some mantra. I sincerely hope that this approach helps with incurring additional karma. Keeping myself focused on mantra also helps me create a little distance between myself and my body and mind.

I might have had my moments of dissatisfaction with gardening but in truth, this gardening project had been a blessing to us. Besides the usual benefits of having a home garden like being able to eat the juiciest strawberries, the sweetest peas, the tastiest tomatoes or the flavorful cilantro right out of the garden, there is an undeniable joy of seeing plants grow and flourish from seedlings to the fruiting stage when we get to enjoy nature’s bounty. But I want to talk about something that goes beyond all these.

Making Amma laugh: My wife, Sujata, got a chance to give a talk while she was at Amritapuri last year. In her talk, she mentioned the long list of things that we need to do for our garden, with our planned activities starting from March each year and going until December. Listening to the long list of things, Amma started laughing heartily. Later, Amma gave her a beautiful darshan after her talk. Making Amma smile is probably the best thing a devotee can do for Amma as well as for oneself, and this was made possible only because of this garden.

Festivities with Swamini: In 2023, we were planning to have a Nature’s Day retreat with Swamini Ambikamrita Prana in the New England region and we were looking for a venue to host the event. We were looking for a devotee’s home with a home garden. It was indeed a blessing when our home was chosen for the retreat.

We had the presence of Swamini at our home, and those four days were as joyous and festive as possible for us and our satsang members. It was a delight to see our New England satsang community come together to make this retreat a success. While we opened our home, the satsang members opened up their hearts to prepare our home for the retreat.

During this time, our days would start with Surya Namaskar and chanting Lalita Sahasranama along with Swamini ji, followed up with fun-filled spiritual activities, informative talks and presentations, and sumptuous meals prepared by devotees. We also had a memorable Q&A session with Swamini ji. And best of all, we now have a flourishing plum tree that was planted on this occasion. All this was made possible only because we have a home garden.

I personally learnt quite a few things from my interactions with Swamini ji; the most important of all was the lesson on how to stay calm and trust Amma amidst all the things going around us. I have a best example in the following: On the day of retreat, the weather forecast indicated heavy rains throughout the day, and we were concerned as many of our activities were planned outdoors. Yet, Swamini ji stayed calm and started our day with group chanting.

In all honesty, I was a little anxious at the time of chanting as I had to complete a few tasks for the retreat that was about to start in a couple of hours, and the weather conditions didn’t look promising at all. But unsurprisingly, the clouds cleared up right on time and the rain didn’t come until we were done with all our planned outdoor activities. Amma says success depends on effort and grace. I believe that the strong commitment from the satsang community to make this retreat a success, regardless of whether or not it rained, attracted Amma’s grace and the rain paused to make it so. It’s amazing to see how devotion and love towards Amma makes the community stronger and committed; and how we come together whenever the New England satsang organises any program.

Do the Following Every Week:

1. Spray all your plants with BT, a bacterium found naturally in soils around the world that upsets the intestines of worms. It is considered safe and effective and has been used for the past 40 years to control the worm population especially on leafy vegetables. Spray under the leaf otherwise BT may get washed off easily or die under hot sun.
2. Spray your tomato plants and squashes with a mixture of milk and water in 1:10 ratio to control fungal growth. This will save tomatoes from blight. Also, keep the bottom 1 feet of tomato plants clear of any growth, otherwise those branches will carry fungus from the ground and spread all the way up.
3. Spray highly diluted neem oil to keep other insects away. Be careful not to use higher concentration of neem oil as the leaves may burn under sun as a result.
4. Put cups filled with beer a few feet apart in each garden bed. This is needed if you see the growth of slugs in your garden. Remember to clear the trapped slugs each day. Do this until the slug population comes under control.

Don’t spray all these things in a single day. You need to wait until the next day before you spray the next item. So, remember to allocate at least 3 days each week out of your weekends to do this. Hope you get long weekends every week at your work.

Do This to Deal with Vine Borers: Vine borers notoriously attack summer squashes and spaghetti squash, and kill the plant just when you are about to see the first fruits. Once infested, these vine borers come back each year. The best advice to deal with this situation is to plant your squashes 1 month later than the usual time. Also, you should tightly wrap the lower section of the main stem (about 1 foot) with aluminium foil to prevent vine borers from laying eggs. You may have to remove the leaves from the lower section of the stem to do this.

Do This to Control Leaf Miners: Leaf miners are really creative pests that burrow into leaves (e.g. beets and chards) and hide there while slowly growing and eating the leaves from the inside. Once you see those miners grow, that image is guaranteed to haunt you for days to come. Using neem oil can be of help but one cannot use too much of that as the neem oil turns edible leaves bitter and harder. So, another approach is to patiently monitor each leaf for eggs and remove those eggs before they hatch. I suggest using the fourth day out of your really long weekend to do this. Harvesting these leaves when these are smaller in size can help too. But ensure to watch out for those eggs while washing the leaves before cooking. This is an important exercise in building patience! Trust me, there is so much to learn from nature.

Do This to Control Squirrels and Chipmunks: Put a fence around your garden with a fine mesh covering the bottom 3 feet. If these animals still get in your garden, watch them play. They are actually fun to watch.

Time to Smile

Alright, I might have given you enough reasons and tips to pursue organic gardening at home. No matter how I said it in this article, home gardening is indeed a rewarding experience. You can ask my wife who knows more about it. My final advice for any beginner is to do gardening at a scale that you can manage without making it overwhelming for you, and gradually grow your garden as you gain experience. I sincerely hope you found at least one thing useful in this article. Happy gardening!

Abhinav Parate, Boston, MA