Plow Monday

Plow Monday (the first Monday after Epiphany) is the traditional day in Europe for men to restart their farm work. 

Our garden isn't large, but I think of it as my miniature farm. Normally, it's too wet at this time in the Pacific Northwest to do any digging, but many other tasks are possible, and it's good motivation for me to have this set date each year to start my “farm work”. 

Agenda for today & this week: 

1. Journal queries
2. Tool blessing ceremony
3. Sort seeds
4. Daily garden visits
5. Make plough pudding
1. Journal query:

Today I also like to fantasize and plan changes in my garden. I map out the rotation of my vegetable beds for this year, look through my Garden Journal notes from last year, and make a list of ideas- new garden projects, and new things to plant. My query:

How can I make my garden a better sanctuary for my family, more comfortable for friends, a greater learning-experience for my art class kids, more mysterious and secluded, more of a visual treat, AND easier to keep up with?

2. Tool Blessing Ceremony:

A jumble of garden tools, sprinklers, gloves,
and a birdfeeder...

Before farmwork starts on Plow Monday, a ceremonial plow is blessed at church, then paraded through the streets to collect money for the parish.

Better.

Today I clean and sharpen my garden tools and oil the wooden handles. While I work, I focus on the purpose and history of these tools: All the planting of food that they have helped with, and the pruning of trees, and the trimming of grass. I clean the dirt out of my storage basket, and put everything away again in better order.

I make the act of cleaning into a blessing: “Bless these tools to do their work”.

3. Sort seeds:

Sometime this week I will pull my seeds out of the refrigerator, and go through the seed catalog to make a list of new seeds to buy; I want to buy some seeds before February 1st for the seed-blessing ceremony on Imbalc.

4. Daily Garden Visits:

Junco in our apple tree, against the gray sky of January.

I've been out in my garden less since winter started. But even in January, the garden offers me connections with the earth and sky, the seasons, and the Spirit of God. My heart fills when I visit my garden even for a few minutes each day, to see the buds poking up and watch the changes in the trees. 

Here are the tasks that inspire me to step out into my garden this week:

Fava beans over-wintering in a garden bed

• Tour the garden and make note of things to do this week and this year. 
• Visit a different garden bed each day and pull just a few weeds or dead plants. 
• Take my camera out into the garden to collect images. 
• Check the bird feeders and refill them. 
• On sunny days, drop everything and go outside to prune: This is a good time to prune the apple, grape, and summer flowering bushes like the lilac and hydrangea.
• Another sunny day job: Rake up the last of the Hawthorn leaves and berries, and move them to mulch the paths.

5. Make Plough Pudding:

This is a steamed meat pudding traditionally made in Britain on Plow Monday- very rich and yummy. See the recipe here.