Healing our Relationship with Earth through Permaculture

Wow what a trip these last few months have been! Lammas came with so much fiery Energy on the 1st of August, coupled with the Full Moon in Aquarius. Things began shifting at a global scale, a shift that I felt within me.

It also brought with it the hottest summer on record. I walked to the forest in horror to discover that its edges, where once glorious Himalayan Balsam opened their policeman-hat flowers to hundreds of bumble bees, now stood shriveled up in the scorching sun, not a single pink bloom in sight.

It hurt and all I could do was sit in the midst of my fatigued plants and cry and pray for rain.

I felt so helpless and angry that the world was still blind to this. That we still pumped fossil fuels into the environment and still cleared rainforests to make way for cattle farms.

I realized I could no longer stay silent.

Instead of shifting the blame onto society, the government or corporations, however, I realized that what we need to do is take the ownership of protecting the environment ourselves. For too long we have looked outside of us for answers and salvation. We have lobeyed and tied ourselves to railway lines and it has resulted to nothing. We are still living in the belief that the solution to our climate crisis is in the hands of someone else. This has to stop. We have to seize back our power. For the first time in human history, we are capable of at least that much freedom.

Making a start with Land

Healthy soil is absolutely vital for life. Soil is the basic essence of our terrestrial life, it is where spirit becomes manifest. Soil is the byproduct of a complex set of reactions between sunlight, water, carbon and millions of microorganisms and invertebrates. It has the immense propensity to home organic matter that nourishes plants which in turn nourish insects, birds and mammals. It sequesters (or stores) atmospheric carbon. It increases biodiversity. It produces rich hummus that the mycelial network feeds on and in turn, sends important messages to trees so they can fight diseases and pests.

In the UK alone, 87% of our households possess land in the form of gardens. We have 23 million gardens covering the size of 433,000 hectares of land. Here is an opportunity for us to grow our own food, create abundant pockets for wildlife and even grow our own medicine.

Poppy Okotcha, an ecological homegrower, forager and cook shares that “..The garden is not just a space that can be productive or beautiful, it can be all these things. It can become a really beautiful political tool, in that it is peaceful and almost like a Trojan horse; no one suspects a garden as being something radical, and then it is.”

Return to Indigenous Knowledge

The native peoples always knew how to nurture and care for the land. There was no separation between them and their natural environments. The forest that provided so much of their food and medicine, also taught them a valuable lesson on growing gardens. By mimicking how forests sustained a dizzying array of biodiversity, the native peoples nurtured and protected their lands as caretakers, not owners. They planted fruit and nut trees on the edges of their land, interspersed with brambles. They planted wild flowers, grains, and medicinal plants that were pollinated by hundreds of insects that moved in. They mimicked mama Gaia and created mini food forests in their own backyards.

This observation was made by two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren back in the late 60s and the revolution of Permaculture was born. By observing how the marsupials in the Tasmanian forest lived a life of rich abundance and interconnectedness and those practices fostered by the indigenous people of Australia, they proposed a revolutionary system that is grounded in nature’s wisdom.

Permaculture is as much a philosophy as a design principle through which we can build sustainable practices for life. I have just started to learn about this incredible practice and it has already made tremendous shifts in how I perceive my world. I am no longer feeling powerless and looking outside of myself for answers, but my garden is teaching me that I am connected to something so much greater, a web of life that is eternal.

A Permaculture Love Story

When I first moved into my home, a year ago, I had grand ideas of creating apothecary gardens and growing all manner of medicinal plants. But I had no idea where to start, I had never grown anything in my life.

My first attempt of growing something from seed was disastrous, the slugs ate away all my baby saplings. The Fennel and the Valerian became scraggly stumps only a few weeks after planting. I toyed with the idea of using organic pesticides, but something inside told me that killing something was not the answer. Furthermore, upon inspecting the lawn, I noticed so much Juniper Haircap growing, a moss known to grow in poor soils. I disdainfully conducted the soil test and confirmed my worst fears - we had sandy soil - the bane of any gardener as it barely holds any nutrients.

I began to grow worried that my dream of growing my own medicinal plants was slipping away from me.

That’s when I took a step back and began observing my garden. I noticed that whenever I disturbed a piece of land and exposed earthworms to the surface, a Robin would fly over and start eating the worms.

And I thought to myself - what if slugs had natural predators too?

What if I could alter my soil?

I began researching and found out that slugs do have natural predators. Slow worms, toads, ground beetles. I learned that if you allow parts of your garden to grow a little wild by leaving piles of logs or bowls of water, this ecourages new life to move in. It became an oasis of sanctuary for goldfinches and sparrows. To my delight I even found a blue tit couple nesting in one of the bird boxes and raising their baby.

Slowly I began dabbling in other principles of Permaculture such as compost making, no dig gardening and the joys Terra Preta.

My garden is brimming with so many varieties of bees, flies, insects and spiders.

Last week I sat in ceremony as I made medicine from the Calendulas I grew from seed. There was no sign of any distress - my plants grew so happily. Despite having the hottest summer, hardly any rain and a hosepipe ban, my Calendulas and Cornflowers are still blooming brightly. My Valerian is almost ready for a second harvest and I was able to save seeds from Nigellas to grow on and on.

So much changed since I first moved into this house. My humble dream of growing an apothecary garden has became so much bigger than I could have ever imagined. It has given me back my Power, I no longer feel small. I no longer feel like I cannot make an impact.

And all I did was throw myself into the hands of my Garden and said to its spirit, here I am your apprentice, teach me your ways.

I have many projects planned for the autumn: installing water butts for rainwater harvesting, planting fruit trees and virginia creepers for shade, and breeze, installing a greenhouse and creating more pockets of wild abandon for all manner of creatures.

May they all flourish. May they all flourish. May they all flourish.

Reading Material

Gardens as a Resource for Wildlife http://www.wlgf.org/garden_resource.html#:~:text=Number%2C%20size%20and%20area,on%20for%2023%20million%20gardens

Poppy Okotcha https://www.poppyokotcha.com/about

Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Homescale Permacultre - Toby Hemenway https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/toby-hemenway/gaia-s-garden/9781603580298?gclid=Cj0KCQjwr4eYBhDrARIsANPywCgWm1vvgKVsyNG9ufrgauFRehaVugkjLslpSE6rJtqzaKGuRipfxOkaAgokEALw_wcB#GOR004637764

Permaculture Magazine https://www.permaculture.co.uk/