Looking good in the hood!

 Check out this perfectly pruned and well cared for apple tree growing in the estate!

I remember way back at the start of my phantom planting journey when I started to share on here what I was doing and some of the negative comments coming at me were like -

Those trees needs watered or they'll die,

Apple trees need pruned,

What about fallen fruit attracting wasps

what about people who may slip on fallen fruit

These were just some I remember being said to me.

It was such simple answers I had,

I water all my trees and will learn how to prune them.

Wasps are amazing and are so important for the ecosystems, they are also great pollinators and a natural pesticides as they eat so many bugs that eat your trees. Its believed the oak tree makes the wasp gall for it to lay its larvae, knowing that once the wasps hatch they will eat all the bugs that feed on the oak tree. Oaks are believed to have this type of symbiotic alliance with many other species.

There wont be much fallen fruit either as I will be letting everyone know when to pick it, I even have a map telling people where the trees are so people can go and pick themselves.

And I always phantom plant my trees a good bit back from paths or roads so people can never slip on fallen fruit. Also never plant inline with sewers or manholes or under any phone or electrical cables.

These comments I got all them years ago were a bit silly for me, I knew I was in this for the long haul, I knew I was going to learn all there is to know about urban orchards and get as many others as I can to learn and get involved too.

I had a dream and vision back then and I wasn't for letting anyone put me off. The more light you shine in this life, the more shadows you cast, heard a monk say this and he is so right!

Enthusiasm is the key of me, when we are enthused about what we are doing things open up. All my business wheeling and dealing of the past it was enthusiasm that made everything happen.

I never forgot the day I lost my enthusiasm, I had been through so much in the underworld and had to move out to Spain in exile, even with my son and partner living out in Spain nothing was getting me down, I still had drive and enthusiasm, I was setting up a new business over there after being bombed out of my home and all my businesses closed. People were robbing me everywhere. Once your name and reputation begins to crumble in the underworld thats when you see peoples true colours. All my wee empire was gone and many of my close cohorts in jail.

S**t hit the fan with a bang for me. But I was still enthused and upbeat living out in Spain going to make a big success of my new venture which was kind of half shady and half legit at the same time. But my partner had enough, she wanted to move back home, so we did, got up and left tens of thousands of investment out in Spain. Came back moved into a top security housing development way out in the middle of nowhere and still I was going to make things big again. You see I always believed I could make money anywhere and I did. Money was my God, every minute of every day was money on my mind. But then we came back and I set up a new house clearance business and started to build things back up again. Had my son who was about 10 at the time out helping me and after everything I'd been through I still had fire of enthusiasm in me. I never worried at all that I wasnt going to make it again. I built the house clearance business back up again till I was making a fortune.

Then I never forgot the day my enthusiasm left me, I had been building the business back up and had started to employ workers again and I got this massive house clearance, one of the biggest and best I ever had, The guy passed with no family and we got the job. He owned a corgi shop in the 60s/70s and had brand new corgi cars everywhere. He had bundles of cash, antique accordions, electric pianos, (you ever see the price of these, never mix these up with keyboards. Electric pianos are worth thousands). He even had 5k in US Dollar traveller cheques which I forged the signatures to cash in. Not like anyone was going to query this, the guy is gone and deceased. This house was the jackpot for me. I remember counting off the top of my head Ebay and auctions sales of over 100k.

Then my longtime partner of 14 years left me!

Well that was it for me, my enthusiasm was gone, I had no interest in life anymore and went down a very dark negative spiral vibrating in the hell frequencies, I was attracting like for like crazies into my life. I hit the drink and drugs so hard and over the next lot of years, spent everything I had with no interest at all for life. My enthusiasm died that day she left me! 

She did right to leave me though.

I never developed enthusiasm for money or business again after that until one day I found Buddha. And everything made perfect sense. I dug that hole for myself. You see Buddhas dont bother with Gods, no God or Devil is going to ruin or heal you. we do that all ourselves.

The Buddha brought enthusiasm into my life, I got so full of life again knowing I can make things better and heal. With following his teachings as best as you can you can lift yourself from the lower realms back into the light. Every day I say my prayers of gratitude to the Buddha, I've even changed my name to Siddhartha Gautama.

Phantom planting trees is what I'm enthused about today and thats why its worked. Phantom planting trees for nature and community is also my form of prayer in action. Emotional writing this guys but its the truth.

Forget the underworld guys, forget what society glorifies, there are other higher realms of existence out there that can coexist with the madness. Its up to us to get there with right effort, right thought, right action and the rest of the Buddha Eightfold path!

If you enjoyed reading this please plant a tree. 

Peace and love 

The Phantom Planter