Healing Gardens

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Reflection #1: My Cultural Perspective On Gardening

My great grandparents on my mother's side lived on a farm a hundred years ago, but I don't know what they farmed or anything about their family. I know my grandma fell in love with a boy from the city, and abandoned her lifestyle for something completely different. Both sides of my family ancestry are a mystery to me, bits and pieces, but no big picture. I never ask enough questions when I see grandparents, or maybe I don't ask the right ones.

Gardening was introduced to me as a little girl watching my mother spend hours and hours in our garden while I used it as a playground. I give credit to the garden for my imagination and for my belief in make believe. I love gardens, and I have gardened in the past, but I don't consider myself a gardener. I don't garden with cultural tradition. I barely know my roots, so I take after my mother; one generation of family tradition.

Sitting in the Longhouse garden and drawing I realized I have been doing this since I was a little girl, but I had never thought about observation as an activity or a ritual, more like a habit. I always draw from what I see, but now I hope to observe with depth and a changing perspective. I will develop my own traditions and rituals, or discover the traditions and rituals I do without knowing.

I read that culture revolves around thought, speech, and action. The growing knowledge is passed on to succeeding generations. From this, beliefs, rituals, and the traits of culture emerge. My culture is new, based on young family tradition, and has no defined traits or rituals. It is freshly planted with plenty of room to grow.

 

Reflection #2: What Types of Gardens are There?

After discussing birds and other animals gardening the spots they live in, I really started to wonder what the dictionary definition of a garden is. I like the 3rd definition the best, "a fertile and delightful spot or region." At first answering the question "what types of gardens are there?" I listed vegetable, herb, flower, cactus, butterfly, rock, etc. Now I think a garden is any fertile/ growing area that is being loved by someone or something. At my Longhouse Garden spot I have come to love the path. It is inviting and encourages people to walk through while keeping its boundaries. I would love to make this spot even more inviting. It is it's own working system, and if we weren't there to garden, most of this area would get by just fine. (Maybe not aesthetically, but it would live.) I saw a bird gardening there today, probably spreading seeds, and the leaves are decomposing into healthy soil on their own. Maybe it doesn't need the hands of a gardener, but because I love this spot, it is a garden, whether it be in the woods left alone, or in front of the Longhouse where we will tend to it. It is a delightful fertile spot. According to me there are millions of difference gardens and they are all loved.

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I am thinking about a lot of new things after reading The Herbalists Way, and visiting my community garden for the first time. Vegetables are amazing. There is something truly wonderful about pulling up a carrot from the ground and eating it. A few minutes ago I ate an apple from Safeway which had been waxed, which was blatantly obvious when I held it next to the apple I picked from a tree a few days ago. I ate it anyway, and it didn't feel half as good as eating the carrot from Lincoln School. I keep thinking we need to get back to the basics.

In The Villlage Herbalist Michael Wood talks about knowing the basic biological response states, and which organ systems they respond to. I think everyone should become familiar with these states, or with symptoms and the organ system it relates to. We can eliminate the mystery of what our pain means. We leave so much up to doctors instead of taking the time to know the basics of our own body. It is important to nourish our whole body and to simply know what we are eating. I am continually overwhelmed by the power of food.

 

Reflection #3: Traditional and Ecological Wisdom

Reading the myths in The Earth's Blanket, and thinking about storytelling as a tradition, my mind goes to my favorite bedtime story. Each night before bed my mom told me the same story about Daisy, the singing giraffe that could fly. The story goes something like this: Daisy would come to my window and wake me up. She would ask me if I wanted to fly with her to the land of the lemon drops. We could pick as many lemon drops as me wanted, but we always had to leave a few on the tree so that more could grow. Below the lemon drop tree there were evil wolves that would eat Daisy and I if we were caught. Beyond the lemondrop field lived a princess, and after we picked the lemondrops we would bring some to her in her tower, and then fly back to my bedroom.

I believed this with all my heart, that somewhere there was a land full of lemon drops, wolves, a princess, and a flying giraffe named Daisy. Although this story is magical, and completely entertaining, it does lack some ecological wisdom. I feel that most American stories are fairytales. They don't relate to the land we live on, or the places and things we see on a daily basis. The myths in The Earth's Blanket are just as entertaining, but they carry strong messages of creation, conservation, repsect, and appreciation for our land, for the earth. They bring the listener back in time, demonstrating that there is more than now, and there needs to be more for the future. I always appreciated my mom stressing the importance of leaving some lemondrops behind, but I couldn't follow through. There is no lemondrop tree in my yard that I can eat from. In fact I never knew anything about the plants in my yard, let alone anything I could possibly eat or use. It remained a fairytale.

I think it is important for us to pass on stories, to carry tradition, but it should have a valuable message. Children are willing to believe, so we need to give them something valuable to believe in. I think my fairytale would have been even more magical if it did relate to plants an animals that I could experience, and form relationships with first hand. I will have a chance to pass it onto another generation, without losing tradition, without losing any magic , but including things that are ecologically important and wise. It is a small step in stopping the downward spiral we are caught in.

 

Reflection #4: What Purposes Do Gardens Serve?

A garden is a place that connects us to the earth. A place to see growth, its potential, and literally use the growth to grow ourselves. Knowing where plants come from, the stages in their life, their qualities, and their overall process reflects a bigger picture, rather than grabbing it off the shelf in a grocery store.

Gardens teach me to respect what I eat, or the medicines I use, or the flowers I put in a vase. It is so easy to miss out on the process, and become wasteful in consumption. A garden takes time, each plants takes time, and often I have eaten something on the run without giving credit tp its life, or respecting the life and energy it gives to me.

On top of gardens representing growth and time, promoting respect and thought, they bring people together and enhance community, which brings us all closer to the earth. I notice more and more a huge separation taking place. People isolating themselves into their comfort zones, ignoring present reality by living in convenience instead of dealing with the truth. If people are becoming distant from each other, they are even farther from the earth; the biggest garden, where we all grow together.

In The Earth's Blanket we read about different tribes giving thanks for their food, eating together, learning about values, and history before consumption. The process is thoroughly present enhancing the value of each living thing to be consumed. It isn't a reckless act, it is ceremonial, respectful, and full of growth. In my life this is lacking. I like to think I respect what I eat, that I am wise to my consumption, but I realize I am only touching the surface. There is always more to know, and simply being part of a garden, using my hands, and researching plants has opened my eyes.

Reflection #5: What is a Garden?

I suppose I got curious too soon, and explored this question in my second reflection. I do have some things to say about the world itself being one big garden. In The Earth's Blanket nature was likened to one big machine with many many different parts. For me this makes perfect sense. It is like the Birch tree and the million purposes it serves to nature, only the birch tree is one part, containing a million little parts of a giant machine. This machine is being taken apart little by little, sometimes big by big and the pieces are being lost, or forgotten. We will never be able to rebuild the machine the way it was. It is being altered forever with little regard to the losses in our future.

The tradition and culture of native peoples is being lost because the land they use to gain spirituality has been destroyed. They cannot teach and share the same rituals and traditions with their children because they have lost their source. Each generation will experience more deterioration than the last, until there is nothing left to deteriorate. The Hmong people, were pushed out of their homes and faced with living in America with only farming skills. Their children are pressured to join the "real world" abandoning the farming tradition of their people, and then raising their kids with less culture than the generation before. It isn't by choice, it is by consequence. Each year, there is less room for people to return back to the earth.

There are people cutting down trees, over-harvesting, rerouting rivers, genetically modifying vegetables... without knowing anything about what they are destroying. Obviously mother nature will react, no trees means mud slides, rerouting rivers means the death of many animals, over harvesting means no more growth in the future, GMO's means the loss of a pure vegetable ( and that is only a few ). The signs are very clear, and frightenening, and I don't understand why we can't stop, or atleast slow down. Mother nature has been given no time to heal, no thanks, and no respect.

Reflection #6: Why Do Gardeners Garden?

Native peoples gardened their territories to ensure health and productivity in the future. They tended to plants produced by nature by burning bushes, cutting plants back, keeping the rivers clean, thinning out clam beds, and burning plots of land that had become too dense. They gave back to nature. These days I feel like there is a general idea that nature nurtures itself. It is easy to forget that we are part if the system, that we are supposed to involve ourselves in nature like all other animals. Instead their is severe separation, visiting and taking from nature in extreme ways, without nurturing her back to health.

Although "gardening nature" isn't as prevalent as it used to be, everyone seems to have their own personal gardens. Personal gardens separated from nature are tended to ensure health and productivity for individual/personal use. There is a common view of nature as a resource, not a garden. An assumption that nature continues to give without being cared for or "gardened".

Americans do not completely depend on nature. Although most of what we buy comes from the earth in some way, harvesting directly from nature is rare, so caring for nature in return is even rarer. There are so many middle men it has become easy to take and take from our resources without putting something back. No one takes responsibilty for the land. There is no Ha hoolthe. We have no chief guiding us to care for and take responsibilty for the land, the sea, and the people.

In my LHG garden site I tend to the plants to ensure growth and stability for the garden's future. I am cautious about how much I eliminate, and I harvest nothing. The concept of harvesting directly from nature is new for me, and I feel thankful to know the importance of giving back, of giving thanks, and always considering the future while keeping the past in mind.

Reflection #7:

For the first time I see corruption in gardens. The Europeans ruined so much native land by replacing it with farms, or "gardens". It's weird, my sense of a "garden" has been constantly changing in this class. Before this quarter I saw it simply; gardens are beautiful and sweet, they provide a place for growth. Part of me still feels this way now, but it blows my mind to think that "gardens" took part in such a corrupt process. the Europeans completely ruining nature to put in vegetables, when there was amazing native food there already, or draining lakes for them, cutting trees for cattle "gardens". What bull$*%t!

Humans were part of the precious cycle. Just like deer or bunnies or birds, or wolves, or any member in the cirlce of life. First Peoples lived with nature just like all other beings, creating ecological relationships, beneficial for the growth and life of other beings. Cutting twigs from bushes to make baskets, enriching the health and strength of the bush. Harvesting only the biggest sea creatures to make room for more to grow, even eating, moving around, being a presence in nature. They were a link in the circle of life. Now it feels like humans are separate from this circle. Like we have risen above into our own circle, and have no relationsip with the bunnies, and trees, and wolves. Of course, humans are part of this circle, but we are not enriching anything, or playing our role. Now we enhance the circle of death. Hah, ok I should chill out. What I mean is, we bailed out, and left nature to heal itself, or find something to fill our place, to remain exotic and separate from the human world.

There is only one world. Everything is one.

I do feel that gardens these days are our only hope. They retain the things we are losing in nature. We have to save our seeds! Gardens now can create community, they can connect us back to the earth, and remind us of what we have lost. I just think everyone should know and recognize what has happened, and hold what we have left in gentle caring hands. I believe in gardens.

Reflection #8:

There is power in herbal healing. I was always taking note of action terms, and properties, but not until just recently have I been able to feel at peace with herbal healing. I have to admit the idea in concept sounded good, but there was an internal fear of actually making it a part of my life. When I read about herbal pregnancy prevention and abortion it made sense. If faced with that situation, having to choose between a clinic or helping myself through nature I had no doubts. There is empowerment in helping yourself instead of turning to something unknown and foreign, especially when dealing with something as intimate as your own body, your own ability to give or not give life.

Speaking with someone who is unfamiliar with herbal remedies, she was completely freaked out by the thought of not going straight to a doctor with an issue of that kind. Shouldn't we all be in better touch with ourselves? Doctors enable us to leave our most personal issues in the hands of someone else. It doesn't make sense! I won't abandon doctors, because they are a part of my life. I will however, know my options. Having options is really important.

From now on I will take the time to know my body, and to know the plants I am putting into it on a personal basis. Not only does the power come from self help, but that in combination with nature is a beautiful, unmatchable thing. Plants were the first medicine, they have been around longer than any of us. It makes me sad to see so much fear in the natural, and in taking responsibilty for ourselves. I feel empowered.

 

Reflection #9:

Now that the end of the quarter is coming on strong I am thinking about what all of this has done for me. My opinions are constantly changing, and I can't say I know exactly how I feel about gardens and gardening. It is so strange to me that I had been walking among so many plants for so long without giving them second thoughts, or even first thoughts. It all was green to me, and now there is a world within the green that I can identify with.

Although I am leaving the program I will not abandon my knew found knowledge. With winter coming on so strong I find comfort in their sleepy state. For so long I assumed that plants die in the winter, and are brand new in the spring and summer. But like me, they live in a cycle, and beneath the layer of wet leaves, their brown twigs they are growing. Their buds are not visible, but they are present, preparing themselves for rebirth. If anything I have learning from that. Winter is the time for me to rejuvenate, through all of the stress and priorities I am still at rest.

I will carry what I know into my next journey.  Everything is connected, and I have no doubt that acknowledging and respecting these connections leads to the best places.  Whether I am making art, or starting my own garden I will take what I know and transform it.  Everything is one big circle, and each link is connected to the next.

I feel proud of my ability to name plants and know their habits, their cycles, their needs. I will think before I step. I will respect even the smallest bit of life, and always give thanks.