10% loss ain't so bad!

 Walking around the new Lisnabreeny community orchard last night counting all the dead trees and there are about 30 or so definite ones that are dead.

We have around 300 native Irish apple trees here so thats about 10% that didn't make it, which is not a bad success rate.

What I have noticed is it was nothing to do with the ground that killed the trees, like too wet or too dry as the rootstocks we have them grafted onto are still alive. Its just the graft thats died.

I think some of the trees just didnt like the conditions, from being in a nice cosy tropical polytunnel the year before, then being put up on a very windy exposed site.

They looked like they were going to start to leaf and then stopped and died. They must have woke up out of dormancy and said whats going on here, this is not where we were last year.

I think whats best to do with new apple trees is propagate for the first year in the polytunnel, then plant them out in bunches in a not so exposed site to harden them off for another year, then they will be ready to be planted out anywhere.

But then is all this extra work and wait time worth it if your only going to be loosing 10%.

Maybe best just to do what we did and get them in the ground in the first year and just keep replacing the dead ones the following year.

What I am seeing and learning is creating an orchard of this size takes time and patience. 3 years I would say to have it all up and running smoothly getting all the trees well established in their new home.

3 years is not long at all though considering this orchard will live on for 100 years or more.

This is a prototype for me also, I have plans for many of these community orchards all over the place.

Last night I walked around every tree in the orchard barefoot, tops off taking in the sun energy and connecting to the earth.

I chanted and said prayers also.

May the attractive and healthy forests be increased in all the one hundred directions

Many sentient creatures be freed from untimely death and live happy lives.

This is a Tibetan Buddhist prayer. I say this 3 times then chant, om mani padme hum 3 times after.

Pretty powerful all this Buddhist stuff when we really put it all into practice. When we guard our thoughts, words and deeds and use them for the benefit of all they have the potential to change your reality.

Last night walking around the orchard I was definitely in a heavenly realm, my thoughts, actions and visualisations over the past many years created this.

They say in Buddhist cosmology depending on how we are interacting and think about the world around us determines our mental states. We can go from hell realm to heavenly realm right inside our own heads.

When people say to me do you think ww3 is coming I always say its already happening in peoples minds. And the same goes for utopian times, they are already happening in peoples minds too.

Just be very careful of cravings, craving as the Buddha says is the root cause of our suffering. Craving is the holy ghost realm. Never satisfied, never content. We create so much negative karma in these states of craving as we become ignorant to everything around us and this will lead us into the mental hell ream where negative karmic debts must be settled.

I'm in and out of them all guys like a yo yo. But its all a practice this Buddhist stuff.

Keep on planting and chanting guys and giving back to mother nature.

I believe if the Buddha was alive today his teachings would be very different. Back in his day there wasnt all this destruction of nature, chemicals, drugs and the soul poisoning of society.

I dont believe anyone in this world today can attain Nirvana or enter heaven unless we actively pursue and fix this mess down here. Karma yoga which is prayer in action holds the key to earning more spiritual merit than ever before.

Soil - Soul - Society 

All interconnected and interdependent. 

I challenge you all to phantom plant a tree. 

Peace and love

The Phantom Planter