The Pomonan | by Daniel Quintero

Sometime during the spring of 2013 a neighbor handed me a sack of flowers form this amazing plant called holy basil. Holy basil known as Tulsi has a long history, which is known for its healing properties. The aim of this story is to bring awareness and create an audience that could benefit from this amazingly pleasant treasure of nature.

One evening I had a knock at the door, it was a police officer, and he was parked in front of the neighbors place. He asked if I knew my neighbor, I responded No then said good night and closed the door. That’s when I headed to the garden in the back yard and noticed the police were actually in-side the neighbor’s home. I observed them and the next day I let the people next door know. This action set in motion a chain of events that really helped out the individual next door and he wanted to share a harvest of a sacred plant with me, as a token of appreciation.

I spoke to the gentleman next door, and let him know that the police had asked about his son and what I had observed the previous evening. He informed me that his son has been staying with the boy’s mother and he has not seen his son. The neighbor then rushed to his sons school and the police where there, with his son. They were on their way to the county jail according to the father. It turns out someone may have hacked the sons fb account and posted some pictures with a firearm or a photo shop picture of the son. There may have also been captions of suicide from what I remember. The neighbor was so thankful that he was there, to stop the whole thing from going down, that he gave me a fat sack of holy basil.

You can imagine how shocked I was, by the weight of both what had almost went down at the high school, and the most excellent sack of flowers handed to me. It put an immediate smile on my face and sparked a long conversation about Tulsi, and how Hindus believe the plant to be an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulsi or Vrinda.

“Tulsi is often described as adaptogenic, which seems to indicate that it can reduce stress”.

As curiosity set in I began to research the aromatic Indian spice and super food. Tulsi is often described as adaptogenic, which seems to indicate that it can reduce stress. The dry leaf is often used to make tea, which is both aromatic and pleasant to drink. More recently I found a tea company that blends holy basil with several other herbs; called Zen’s Tea House, and the mix goes by the name Holy Detox. According to Zen’s Tea House sited article Tulsi has antidepressant and antianxiety properties. This small herb seems to be a very powerful ally against the everyday stress of living in a big city.

My neighbor and friend ended up moving to a nearby city, although I don’t see him anymore; he made an impact in my life, and is a large reason why I created my web page and personal blog. I’m happy to know that his son wasn’t put in a cage on that day, and wish the best for them out there in this wild world. Tulsi is another plant addition to my garden and is one of those species that is such a powerful resource.

“Tulsi not only has the ability to heal us the human but also is awesome at attracting benificial insects to aid the garden in biologically controlling the environment from unwanted pests”.

Tulsi not only has the ability to heal us the human but also is awesome at attracting benificial insects to aid the garden in biologically controlling the environment from unwanted pests. I have observed basils attract assassin bugs, which are exceptional at taking out unwanted pests. They are like having a healthy population of ladybugs or praying mantis on deck ready for action out there in the garden! I can’t stress just how important it is to have at least two of those three popping off in the garden to assist with garden warfare.

See Growing Roots