I have always felt close to earth/Gaia. From going foraging with my parents, to gardening, walking and meditating on the soil. I need soil under my my bare feet and fingers, just as much as I need food in my belly and air to breathe. We talk. I know, it sounds crazy, but we do. She has taught me so much about life, and in a way raised me to be the person I am today.
I remember picking wild blueberries and flowers, with the sun shining down on me and
bees buzzing around me. I remember gathering wild chestnuts,
rose hips, walnuts and pine needles in the forest, while my mother picked wild
mushrooms. I also remember my sisters dropping homemade itching powder (made from rose hip seeds) down my back. This way I learned that Gaia will take care of me, if I let her. She will
feed me, clothes me and keep me warm and dry. She has thought me patience, to slow down. To take setbacks with grace, and to count my blessings instead of focusing on negativity. The last and most important lesson though has been to listen and observe what goes on around me, and to trust that with hard work, she will provide.
We bought our 1/2
acre with house already built in 2014. It had been “flipped”, so lots of rolled out grass, weed fabric and tons of white rubble. After observing our surroundings for a year, we decided to put in an orchard in our front
yard. The back yard though had really dead soil. Not even weeds could grow there, when we started out. Not knowing anything about
permaculture and design, we started from scratch, though using chemical has never been something we have done. The right side of the back yard, had the best soil to work with, so we build raised beds, and filled them with a mix of our
native soil,
compost and organic top soil from outside. The left side, I decided needed to be left alone to recover from the abuse it had taken. At the time, not even gophers wanted anything to do with it. All we have done over the years, has been to add
mulch and
poop from out chickens, ducks and
rabbits. After a while we sort of forgot about it. Slowly we started getting weeds. The insects came back, then the birds, rats,
mice, lizards and rabbits. We did plant a Grape wine and Rue there, that miraculously has and still do survive. We bought in a beehive, early on (hosting
bees) since we had no pollinators.
Starting last year the weeds really took off, and this year the area has been covered with Mallow,
Nettles, mustard cress and a little grass in some areas. Watching the videos from the master gardening course, I finally figured out why there are so many. I had stopped listening to what the soil was telling me. Gaia didn’t just give me
nettles and mallow to combat winter colds, but to tell me that the soil are full of nitrogen. If I had sat down, wondered, watched and listened, I would have seen what was going on a lot sooner. The ecosystem had recovered
enough that things now can grow and thrive there. I was just wasn’t listening. To others, this will look messy and overgrown, especially in the front yard, but it’s a living mulch, that will be cut down this week, and provide nourishments to the
trees. If I hadn’t watched the videos here or read the posts and articles, I would have despaired over all of those weeds. I mean, there are only so much nettles and mallow you can eat, before you get tired of it
.
So, I have cut most of that living mulch down (in the back yard), and are now wondering how to move on from there. I do know that I will find plenty of inspiration here LOL. I have been thinking that the area will be good to try some hugelkulture in.
My children has also grown up with this, and I have passed the lessons I have learned on to the next generation. Especially my son has found a love for preserving and cooking, with that the
land provides for us. My oldest daughter deals with depression a lot, so I take her with me out in the garden as much as I can. With each seed, she puts in the ground and sees grow up into food, she is healing. It’s life confirming to work with the soil and plants, while the animals chatter around us. Plus, plants won’t tell others, the secrets you tell them, and they don’t get upset when you vent out your sorrows.
I
think that the most important lesson Gaia has taught me, is that it’s okay to fail. Failure is a lesson in itself, and it’s okay. Not everything works out in the garden or in life. Often failure opens up new opportunities or forces you to look at thing
differently. To observe.
While some crops might fail one year, they might thrive the next, and long as your
roots are firmly deep in the ground, and you bend and flex in the wind, life won’t blow you over and you will always be able to find
water and nourishments.
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