Healing Gardens

Body:

What Purposes do Gardens Serve?

 

Diet Supplementation

 

With the advent of domestication, gardens began to be used as a way to cultivate the favorite foods of traditional peoples world wide.  Wheat was one of the first plants to be cultivated around 10,000 years ago, but man cannot live on wheat alone.  The first cultivated plants were all important sources of starch: wheat, rice, corn, millet, quinoa, potatos, and squash are all starchy food plants that have been cultivated for 7,000 to 10,000 years. 

 

Subsistence

 

As private property and surplus pressures began to spread over areas where the cultivation of plants was commonplace, peoples began to become more sedentary and cultivate plants for the basic needs of subsistence and supplement their diet with smaller amounts and fewer species of wild plants.  Pioneers in 19^th century America got all, nearly all, or most of their food needs met by their farms and the farms of those around them.  Trading for services or goods is very common in subsistence economies. 

 

Herbalism

 

The herbal garden is a crucial accompaniment to an accomplished and grounded herbalist.  In my personal opinion, you cannot truly be an herbalist unless you have a personal connection to the plants that you administer, and the people you heal.  I visited such a garden that belonged to Linda Katana in Bellingham.  When we first arrived with a group interested in herbal gardening, she had us practice a little Qi Gong to open our senses, ground ourselves, and clean negative energy before we were allowed to touch plants that she used for healing.  Her face was weathered and rosy, her body spry and athletic, she radiated health and plant knowledge, and had been cultivating in that one spot for 15 years, and had been cultivating many perennial plants or their descendents for nearly that long as well.  Often the energy of an herbalist is as important as the herbs they give, because of the belief and trust that the patient carries.  Herbal gardening can cultivate an aura of healing within the healer. 

 

In Medieval Europe, the herbal garden that contained plants connected to paganism, DIY medicine, or birth control plants was sufficient evidence to report a woman to members of the Inquisition.  Often these women lost their lands, were tortured, charged for their torture, and killed.  Their land was given to those who reported them, and to the Catholic Church.  Witch burnings continued into the early 18^th century in England.  The Inquisition was a direct assault on DIY medicine, women’s power, and village living.  The Inquisition also served the purpose of replacing these elements with the power of the University, the male doctor, and the private corporation.  Thus the mere presence of a plant such as Belladonna (Atropa) nearby a woman’s house could thus be the means for the death of a woman single or not, the destruction of a family, and the traditional village infrasturcture. 

 

These days, the home herbal and spice gardens are relatively common.  Chefs want to directly know the quality of the ingredient they use or want specialty products for their restaurant may start to garden, and Fields that Dream documents the local stories of a few such folks who started gardening in this way.  Old-school grandmothers who cook often and might have an old family house or farm and traditional knowledge are often found to have herbs sprinkled or slathered around.  Those who rent or have only a balcony can utilize herbal gardening techques such as container gardening, raised bed gardening, window boxes, or flower strips.  The herbal garden even has a place with the affluent homemaker who has the time and land with which to pursue such endeavors.  And of course, aspiring community healers everywhere cultivate herbal plants for their own use and to take care of their friends and family. 

 

Herbal gardens provide the possibility of healing yourself and your family from all common complaints, some serious or rare complaints.  The potential of these gardens is directly related to the skillset and dedication of those who keep the herbal garden. 

 

Eating seasonally/locally

 

Often, the supermarket has produce from far flung places that have been shipped all over the country for treatment, refrigeration, and packaging.  People who are interested eating seasonally, and avoiding the excessive transportation (and the global warming petroleum combustion that this travel contributes) of their food may choose to garden.  They may also choose to purchase produce and other goods from a local Farmer’s Market which directly supports local and seasonal food production, and the local economy.  Purchasing locally greatly increases the buying power of that community, while buying products from outside the community or from large corporations decreases the power of the local economy and transfers local power and money to foreign individuals and organizations that often do not have the best interests of the community in question at heart.  One organization that has greatly contributed to this movement is SloFood, started in Italy. 

 

Eating organic/healthy

 

Gardening also helps the family or individual eat the way that they want, because they may grow a crop or garden with organic plants whose origins and care they know of.  Investing in a garden rather than buying food or going to a restaurants can lead to exponential profits in terms to the individual or family’s sustainability, psychological grounding, community and environmental knowledge, economic benefits, and knowledge of where their food comes from. 

 

Intoxication

For hundreds if not thousands of years, plants that can intoxicate, or can be used to make intoxicating products have been some of the most important cultivated plants.  Examples would be: coca, marijuana, cider apples, hops, rice, mushrooms, and corn.  There is one theory that corn is the first cultivated plant, used for making liquor in Central America. 

 

Monetary

 

With the increasing specialization of farming and professions in general, monocrops were increasingly encouraged by economic pressures, and money became more popular as a way to negotiate the worth of a large amount of surplus product.  Farming for monetary gain has the effect of degrading the environment, disrupting local subsistence economies, encouraging pestilence and famine, and demanding technological competition.  However in today’s economy, a local organic farm that sells to the community can have the effect of helping to sustain the local economy and preserve land from being paved over, even if that farm utilizes a monocrop structure and needs to adopt a business model of organization. 

 

Land management

 

Within the nature-as-resource paradigm, land needs to be managed to be of worth.  Except in very remote areas, land has all kinds of added value actions associated with it.  Encouraging tourism to old growth forest on the Olympic peninsula is an economical way of making this remote land profitable.  Utilizing genetically modified species, herbicides, thinning and clear cutting are just some of the methods that foresters maintain a forest-farm. 

 

Land Stewardship

 

Within a traditional culture that has the needs of future generations in mind, nature is a resource, but with direct consequences placed upon people and their descendents.  By need and by intention, stewardship cultures learn and keep the needs of their environment in mind when they cultivate, encourage, weed, or propagate species: intentionally or unintentionally.  This knowledge is imbedded in traditions, taboos, stories, and songs. 

 

Landscape design/cosmetic

 

Within a culture of surplus, specialization, and dispensable income, the garden can fulfill the needs of those who want to make a statement with what grows around them.  Also, landscape design can create physical barriers for animals or people, utilizing hedgerows, prickly or spiny plants, or plants that create privacy for homeowners along roadsides.  This is as valid a need as one for food, but these purposes can also be joined with the needs of the environment and the subsistence of the people who frequent these areas.  In our area, prickly barriers could be composed of herbal plants such as tall Oregon grape or nootka rose, hedgerows of evergreen huckleberry or salal, and visual barriers from native evergreen species (instead of Arborvitae).  Those who want color or shade on their property could choose a native cherry, or apple.  Those who love wildflowers could utilize wildflowers from the area that the development of their neighborhood replaced (such as prairie plants in Yelm and Tenino). 

 

Native plant gardens

 

Native plant gardens can be used for many purposes.  On this continent, all gardens whether as part of the landscape or cultivation were composed of native plants, with some exceptions such as corn, beans, squash, or tobacco being planted in places other than where it evolved.  

 

Native plant gardening helps to give wildlife of your area food that it is used to and best suited for, especially in environments where there is a lot of development or invasive plant species.  Native plant gardens can also cut down on water and maintenance bills because the plants planted are well suited for the are in which they are planted, and need less maintenance.  Native plant gardens can be planted to attract local birds, butterflies or wildlife.  Often a homeowner, renter, or landscape designer can utilize native plants in conventional ways to achieve colorful and sculpted looks.  Soil amendment is a good idea in these cases if one chooses plants that are broadly native, but do not have native genetics or are from a slightly different ecosystem.  An example of this would be to add sand to your soil to plant beach or outwash prairie plants.