Not every flower in my garden is in bloom. There are flowers with dropped petals, with browning stems and drooping heads. A tidy gardener will go through and dead head these spent blooms to encourage the plant to keep looking it’s best and prolong the growing season.

But by late July the heat and dryness of summer is signalling plants to shift from growth to seed set. Blooms can’t be forced forever and soon the prettiness of the garden gives way to the practical need for next year’s seed supply.

We don't quite understand how a flower turns out a seed that is more resilient, more adaptable and stronger than the season before- but they do. Everytime a flower grows it becomes better at surviving. That is why the plants we label weeds (who set seed and regrow many times in one season) are better at survival than most others.

Normally when we talk about plants we think in terms of growing and expansion: planting seeds, growing starts, blooming flowers and harvesting bounty. But none of this would be possible without the liminal time in late summer when the seeds ripen and form. This very important moment is often overlooked all together because well, it’s not that “sexy”.

In a culture that worships at the altar of beauty and youth and endless growth- those worn out flowers going to seed are just seen as having outlived their purpose. Maybe as a woman nearing 50 I can identify a bit more with late summer flowers than I did in my early 30s when I started farming.

But in 2021 I feel our whole culture is in a kind of seed set mode. We have just been through a global pandemic, economic shut down, extreme political polarization and as I write, fires of climate change are burning through Southern Oregon months earlier than last year.

Many of us are simply exhausted. To jump back into blooming again from this point would be to skip one of the most important steps on our journey.

Late summer was known to the ancient Irish as the time of Lammas (or Lughnasa)- and it marks the midpoint between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox. It is traditionally a time of less work for farmers as the spring planting is done and the big work of harvesting grain the fall is still to come. County fairs held around this time are remnants of the Lughnasa celebrations of old.

Lammas is the time of seed set. Most finished seed is not ready to harvest but the magic of creating seed is underway. During seed set plants are no longer trying to grow. Instead, they are quietly taking stock of all the information the bees have given them about pollination, about how much water was available, what minerals were lacking in the soil, how cold spring was and a billion other factors. They are storing all of this information in a tiny hard drive called a seed. Poppy flowers can create tens of thousands of seeds per square foot. Each one with a full store of knowledge about how to be a more resilient poppy in the season ahead.

As humans we also go through “seed setting” cycles in our lives.

Times of personal seed setting could show up as feelings of disconnect from your past self while still being unsure on what’s next. It could be a time of realizations but not action, or maybe even depression and grief as parts of us that no longer fit start to drop away.

It’s deep work of letting go and turning inward to find resilience. It also means stopping growth for a while.

Because seed setting is not the most comfortable of times many of us may prefer to skip over this process to what feels more fun and exciting.

We live in a culture that is always in a hurry to get to the next thing. There seems to be no time to process and reflect.

News outlets bemoan the fact that people aren’t rushing back to work and that economic indicators aren’t rising as fast as they could. The culture yells as us- Grow! Grow!

I think many of us see where this constant focus on growth has gotten us.

To grow a new culture we need to a new set of seeds. We need to feel into how we can truly live as resilient, loving and connected beings on the planet. We need to tend to our areas of depletion, grief and imbalance. We need to let go of growth for deep reflection and visioning for our future.

Lammas is the perfect time to drop into seed set mode. Many of us are already there anyways- so perhaps just fully give yourself permission to go deeper. Release the need to keep “doing” in favor of listening to your own heart. Resist the urge to dead head your own flowers and find the beauty in this process of life.

Never fear that seeds will eventually begin the growth cycle again. If we let them fully mature with the wisdom and healing we have earned they will rise up beautifully to create the world our hearts know is possible.

Journal Questions for Lammas Time ( I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below too!)

• Check in with your inner flower power. Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a flower in the garden. What does it look like? What stage of life is it in? What does that tell you about where you are right now?

• What seeds are you setting deep within for your future self?

• What do you need to finish or fully ripen in your life in order to harvest the rewards?

Enjoy this beautiful late summer time while it lasts! Eat peaches and go swimming.

Take a break from the hard work and rest a while.

xxoo

Ginger