Dearest HiveGarden friends,
I've been sharing about my garden over on the Electroculture Community lately, as I resonate a lot with the deep concepts of energy and flow that folks are discussing there. Here's a more general and simpler post, about how my plants get so huge:
The tamarillo, in its 3rd year, I think?
I practise a never-dig approach to my gardens, almost always.
Particularly in a specific location like this one, Sergio's garden - a steep, partially tiered/ half semi-wild garden, at around 450m above sea level, in south Italy. The plot was mostly restructured around 15 yrs ago, and it was mostly abandoned around 10 yrs ago. I began reworking it around 2 years ago, which involved a lot of cutting back of jungley stuffs. We have baking heat in summer and a cool-temperate winter, and little soil had developed due to the restructuring and the intense summers, no watering and high exposure...
The tamarillo is around 2 or 3 years old - I think.
So in many parts of the space, I was beginning with the thinnest scraping of soil over rock/ rubble: this is not inherently a problem, but it does demand a lot of patience and a lot of presence: listening and gratitude too.
The first ever flowers are looking very well on the tamarillo: it's very exciting to see the cycle coming to fruition, after growing a tree from seed!
As well as practising never-digging, I also look at everything from a perspective of abundance: this is an unusual stance to take nowadays, as most of us are deeply conditioned to believe that we're in conflict with Nature, and that everything is competing for minimal nutriment. That is an approach probably true of most gardening techniques, BUT when one comes at it from deep gratitude for all that we are freely being Gifted, the results can be literally effortless and excessively copious.
The work, in an effortless garden, tends to be in synchrony and harmony; tweaking rather than striving, gently pulling rather than digging, sitting and listening rather than breenging in.
The idea of scarcity comes from a belief in contraction; tightly-grasped conditioning that itself is contraction. Belief in scarcity is usual rooted (ironically!) in a lack of rootedness, lack of presence: lack of presence leads directly to scarcity, because at its core, it is a distractedness from WHAT IS, therefor an inability to put one's attention onto WHAT IS ALREADY THERE - and consequently, a belief that it doesn't exist, because we can't see it. In contrast to this concept of lack, I Know in my highest awareness, that Gaia Sophia's working are inalienably prolific: it is OUR interference with them that brings temporary 'scarcity', and our machinations of commerce that steal from us and sell us back chemo-laden crumbs...
Here are my feet below borage and bietole/ chards. The two plant types were growing wildly around the gardens, when I first began to work with Sergio here, back in the winter of 2009. They are pioneer plants, meaning that they'll grow well on rough ground, then mulch themselves in to create soil for the next generation of bigger bushes and suchlike which will come along afterwards (eventually growing more complex multilayered forests, etc). They are both also highly delicious and nutritious.
I simply worked with them over the years: I lightly cleared around them in places, pottering by as I do. I let them seed abundantly, and left the seeds in place for nature to distribute - or else grabbed handfuls of them and threw them over by to grow a bit further (where I knew they'd love to grow).
I also 'prune' them occasionally, again very spontaneously - like, if they're hard to walk past, or if the leaves are getting tatty near the ground: I don't see cutting leaves off them as 'waste', because I and my friends (not many folks in this area eat bietole or borage, probably for superstitious reasons, like thinking of them as 'poverty' food!) have plenty already. It is Right to give them back to the earth; they serve multiple purposes, including protecting the topsoil by keeping in moisture and nutriment.
I occasionally also cut the big poles (of the bietole/ chards) down when they're going to seed; if I cut them right down to the ground, like many leafy plants will do, they grow a whole new enthusiastic canopy. I prefer not to do this hard pruning with too many of the plants, as it is a means of forcing them, and is not the most symbiotic way - especially as there are so many of them already happily producing abundantly; there is no need to go overboard!
As I 'work', i.e. potter and tweak, I'm always in a deep state of:
- relaxation
- presence
- freedom
- sovereignty
- peace
- gratitude
The latter is vital to the success of a garden. I notice if I am tense, or if I have a narration of conflict going on in my mind: it will cause me to make more aggressive and unappreciative actions in the garden. If I notice my thoughts and/ or my actions taking such a turn, I am very careful to either stop, or to step back quickly into gratitude and prayer.
My prayer centres around gratitude and around noticing the tendency of all things to both co-create together with other things, and to produce a lot. All the plants have abundant capacities and have a natural inclination to thrive. It is up to us whether or not we use our capacities well, to support their thriving. All plants have a use as nutriment, medicine and/ tool in the Right layering of a natural space.
I pray around that: I thank each plant that I pull up and lay down. I thank it for bringing up nutriment from deep in the soil, for its service and for its sacrifice for us. I thank each plant, the soil, the elements, for the myriad purposes that they serve, especially the subtle and mystical purposes...
That feels to be one of the most important actions that I make, and the words come from a fully-embodied presence and honed intention, from a liberated mindbodyspiritcosmos and from a series of Right actions and intentions. My prayer is not rote or dogma; it is a deeply-felt Knowing the consequences of Right Action for the benefit of all beings in symbiotic wellbeing.
So my plants get big because:
- I am listening and mimicking natural systems just as they are
- I keep out of the way of the plants and rarely intefere with them
- I know the nature of the plant is abundant
- I know my own nature as abundant and that I'm moving always towards mastery - and that I am an inalienable part of Gaia Sophia
- the soil is NEVER left bare - especially around the base of plants
- nothing is wasted, only composted or mulched!
- my energy is fully rooted, grounded, present
- I can check myself if I get into contraction or into overly controlling patterns in the garden
- I endeavour always to learn directly from Gaia Sophia, and to let go of presumption and human logic/ arrogance
I wonder how big they will continue to grow?!
Much love, and immense blessings and merit-gained to you,
