Category: ISHA Dera Blog

Dear Friends, Half of the ISHA Maintenance Shed in Wisconsin now has a fantastic concrete floor!    Putting a smooth, durable finish on concrete is a skill you can only master with the proper set of tools and lots of Read more

Dear Friends, One of the recent big jobs at Ishwar’s construction project in Bruce, Wisconsin was to pour the concrete floor for the ISHA Maintenance Shed/Greenhouse. Due to the size of the garage floor, the pour was divided into two Read more

Dear Friends, While Ishwar’s team for the ISHA Meeting Hall Dome is working to finalize the building design, other volunteers have been busy on a variety of projects on the Dera property. The principal task is construction of the Maintenance Shed Read more

Dear Friends, There’s been lots of recent volunteer work on Ishwar’s dera project in Wisconsin. One important project was to get the greenhouse “dried in,” meaning getting all of the doors, windows, roof, and walls installed.   Here, a large Read more

Dear Friends,   The volunteer gardeners have planted 80 varieties of vegetables and herbs in Ishwar’s dera garden in Wisconsin!   Beans – Bush – Garbanzo – Shell or DryBeans – Bush – Soybeans – Be SweetBeans – Bush -Fresh Read more

Dear Friends,   Among the many wonderful vegetables planted in Ishwar’s 2019 Wisconsin garden, one stands out. It’s called “Beas Kohlrabi,” and was discovered in the Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog by one of the volunteer gardeners.   Kohlrabi is a low-growing, Read more

Dear Friends, Many more vegetables have been planted in Ishwar’s dera gala garden in Wisconsin.   Three varieties of potatoes were selected this year.    Dark Red Norland – Round to oblong, red-skinned tubers have white flesh, store well, and Read more

Dear Friends,   All of those little seedlings are introduced to their new garden homes.   In goes the kale!   How about some onions?   Anybody for parsley?   Okra! Somebody’s favorite!   Don’t forget the peas!   Everybody Read more

  Dear Friends, A lot of planning and preparation goes into establishing a large garden, and the dera gardening volunteers have been at it for months.   Back in the gloomy days of winter, they created a (long!) list of Read more

Dear Friends,   ISHA is pleased to announce that two cameras are now live-streaming views of Ishwar’s dera in Bruce, Wisconsin. These “DeraCams” are now visible to all of Ishwar’s friends throughout the world. You can find the cameras on Read more

Dear Friends,   The gardeners at the ISHA property in Wisconsin have also planted some ornamental, perennial shrubs, including one elderberry and two chokeberry bushes. Our elderberry variety is called “Adams Elder” (Sambucus canadenis “Adams”), and is excellent for pies and jam. Read more

Dear Friends,   The next perennials planted in Ishwar’s dera garden were 30 Jersey Knight asparagus plants. Jersey Knight makes huge yields of big, tender, bright green spears.   Asparagus is one of the first plants that emerges in the springtime. It’s Read more

Dear Friends,   This year, the gardeners at Ishwar’s dera in Wisconsin are planting some perennial fruits and vegetables. Some of the earliest to go in were the blueberry bushes … probably because everyone loves fresh blueberries!   A berry-loving Read more

Dear Friends,   It’s time to prepare the garden at Ishwar’s dera land in Bruce, Wisconsin.    A local farmer delivers a load of magnificent, rich, organic compost to the site.   A large bale of hay is unloaded from Read more

Dear Friends,   The first apple orchard has been planted on Ishwar’s Dera property in Bruce, Wisconsin!   A team of volunteers gathered on a Sunday morning to prepare the holes and plant the trees.   The potted apple trees Read more

Dear Friends, ISHA is delighted to announce the schedule for the 2019 summer volunteer (seva) opportunities at Ishwar’s construction project in Bruce, Wisconsin.   Although much of the work will be focused on completion of the Maintenance Shed/Greenhouse, there will Read more

Dear Friends,   In Wisconsin, spring is the time to plant apple orchards. Lucky for us, several local volunteers have decades of experience growing fruit trees in the area around Ishwar’s dera project at Bruce.   Standard-size apple trees make Read more

Dear Friends,   The first planting of the year in the ISHA Wisconsin dera garden was four rose bushes. Roses are one of the most beautiful, traditional, and fragrant flowers that can be planted in a garden. Our rose garden Read more

Dear Friends,   As the 2019 seva season gets underway at Ishwar’s dera project in Wisconsin, there will be lots of things to move … including some very heavy things. Things like lumber, dirt, windows, gravel, trees, cement, sheds, rebar, Read more

Dear Friends, The variety of April weather at Ishwar’s project in Wisconsin has been amazing. Cold, warm, wet, cold again, snowy, warm again, rainy, cool, and now warming and drying.    Here are some photos from the last week of Read more