Articles, Environmental - Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:14 - 3 Comments

The Joy of Gardening

August is the season when many youth from all over the world flock to Amritapuri to spend their holidays with Amma. It is a time for the youngsters to reflect about life in a deeper way, contribute to Amma’s charitable work and socialize with other like-minded youngsters. This year, AYUDH, Amma’s International Youth Movement, decided to make an effort and follow Amma’s advice to work on the preservation of Nature. The first initiative was to start a vegetable garden.
Twice a week aound 30 youngsters have been going to the ashram’s “Vrindavan” garden near the Ayurveda College to prepare vegetable beds, mix compost into the soil, plant medicinal trees and learn about organic gardening.
Br. Shubamrita accompanied the youth to start with the planting of the first vegetables on Friday, August 21st 2009. After the planting the group prayed together for peace and harmony in Nature.
Along with the garden in Amritapuri, AYUDH has started cultivating food in Amma’s Centers in California, Michigan, Germany and France. Even youth who live in cities have made an effort to grow vegetables, in whatever space they have available. The AYUDH group in Austria for example has turned one of their members’ balcony into a field of pots, with tomatoes, zucchini and pepper sprouting up everywhere. “GrowIn’ – One Seed at a Time” is the project title which the youth have given to their common effort to grow healthy, organic food, thus reducing pollution and becoming more independent from the international food market. Another objective of the project is to reconnect to Nature as the life giving principle. Even though all the youngsters have consumed countless of tomatoes in their lives – very few have ever experienced how much effort and time it takes to grow a tomato plant. People are used to getting their food from supermarket shelves – not from the soil. GrowIn’ wants to re-introduce the younger generation to the joy of gardening. Continue…