I keep a wild garden.
To most the land round my cottage looks unkept and ugly but I see life, diversity, beauty, nature. I see health and wellness.
Nothing leaves the property, it's a closed system. I let the fall leaves decompose where they land and use all the dead wood and pruned branches in hugel mounds to nourish the soil -- loamy, lush soil that holds moisture through the dry part of the season.
In my garden nuts, fruits, and berries grow, medicine, herbs, healing roots and vegetables thrive, perennial flowers come back year after year stronger than before, the bees find sanctuary here and in return pollinate my garden.
I grow for the wild life too, the critters and bugs, the birds and toads. In a perfect balance with nature, the cycle of life and death keeps all in order according to natural laws.
I plant herbs and veg and fruit together, no rows here, only curves and guilds of sister plants. Winding paths with edibles at every crook and turn.
A garden is a teacher! One learns many lesson as the seasons go by, patients, acceptance, loss, reward, one learns when to cull and plant, when to look away and when to relish.
The outer world is a reflection of the inner world and in my garden I see abundance and untamed, savage beauty. I see a chorus of color ever changing, ever turning, everlong tides of energy.
The great trees are elders here, the two hundred year old cypress and cedars. The giant elder pine comes to me in dreams; when I wake I go out and sing songs to her as she watches over me and mine in the cottage, she gives me medicine and tea to nourish my soul and body, magical pollen to strengthen my immune system. I dance round her naked when luna is high in the night sky, weaving strands of energy as thanks to feed her in return.
life with nature is a relationship, I always ask permission when harvesting. I always give back. Reverence for the unseen ways of her ever evolving tides keeps me in perfect harmony. "Gaia Sofia" I whisper as I walk the path.
The days are never monotonous when your garden is wild. There are tribes of nature spirits here, whole systems that I am not privy too. The sacred mushrooms pop up in fairy circles. There are so many kinds of fungus that I am ever enchanted upon discovering a new friend growing amongst the organic debris that builds up as it does in the great wood and forests. Every day brings something new to discover.
My garden grows as I do
un-curated
un-bound
un-tamed
