Tomatoes and thoughts on decompressing

Gardening for me is the best anti stress activity.

Firstly, it's cheap. The materials are easily available and there are few things to buy except maybe for the seeds or a sack of organic soil as additive to regular soil, this optional of course. Regular soil is OK as long as it is cultivated properly. 

You don't even need a lot of space. Urban gardening, if done properly, can accommodate a lot of plants in small spaces.

The beginning has started.

Secondly, it gives back. Drinking, partying, or eating out cost money.  I am not saying these things are bad, occasionally they are good but done regularly, the accumulated cost would be significant especially for income earners. 

On the other hand, gardens provides food on the table, and even ornamental plant gardening gives a lot in return, clean air, beautiful surroundings, water retention, etc. 

I am now re-starting my urban garden since the rainy season has ended. I have been bringing home  empty water bottles 

brought to the school by pupils for the school's recycling campaign. I have planted in them with tomatoes, okras (lady fingers),  basil, eggplant, and string beans. 

 Thirdly,  the activity diverts the mind from anxieties real or imagined. Most of the times, I am so focused on what I am doing from snipping off unnecessary branches from a bonsai tree to removing weeds from a pot that I could feel my mind uncluttered. 

Of course, this is an unconscious effect of letting the hand and mind work together because once I think that I am doing this to fight off stress, it becomes an effort. 

Okras and tomatoes. These are staples. Last year I have planted them into the ground but since space is  and sunlight is becoming scarce due to competition, I have decided to plant them on recycled bottle so that I could move them once in while where there's more sunlight.They need at least six hours of direct sunlight.

I guess this where the eastern philosopher Lao Tzu got it right when he said that "to the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders" or "usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness." 

Our life is cluttered with busyness, with work, with the desire to be the best, to be ahead. But at what cost? Disconnection. People are disconnected with their inner self. Too occupied with impressing other people, with ambition, that they miss other human experiences.

Eggplants and basil seedlings. The basil was given to me by my sister from Baguio and I don't know anything about basil except what I have read about it. This is my first time growing them.

We believe that having and doing more is the solution to the choking clutter of anxieties.