Organic Gardening - Gardening With Our Yards

 by Chris Hagey

After such wonderful training on plant anatomy, soil conditioners, pest management and the basics of every major category of plant we might want to grow, we were graduated as Master Gardeners with only one more tiny, little thing to then acquire: years and years of experience and observation in our own gardens.

As Mary Wilson, author/lecturer for the MG Woody Ornamental section said, “Horticulture is not an exact science.” I am sure any gardener can understand the wisdom of this and that only the roses know why we were able to plant a rose stick in the ground, do nothing at all and it would bloom pest free for years but that when we moved to another house, we found we needed to lay into the cultural practices non-stop and even then it was not entirely satisfactory. How did I lose my touch with roses when we moved to our new house? The answer is, I didn’t. We merely moved to an Earth spot that had a far different energy blueprint than my previous yard – one that I needed to learn how to listen to and then work with.

Asking ourselves if we are gardening with past patterns in mind or whether we are really in tune with the dynamics of our present yard will yield some interesting insights. There is no one area on Earth that is the same. Each area will support a uniquely creative approach and mix of the elements. This is our yards’ unique blueprint.

Beyond the basic cultural requirements for keeping plants vital and healthy, we need to listen deeply to our yard and work with its unique blueprint. I find it helpful to begin by remembering that I am, as part of the human kingdom, only one of many kingdoms there.

If we can successfully place ourselves into this stance of less ego, when we then tune into the rhythm of our yard we will have opened the doorway to untold epiphanies about how to design our yard, what plants will be best there and about the ongoing care.

We all likely know that good care will involve the use of organic growing methods to feed the soil. More than that, it also involves the good neighbor principle. Health and happiness happens when each plant is interacting well with the plants they are situated next to on all sides. This creates good subtle energy flow. As with ourselves, we know that when we are flowing well and feeling balanced we are healthy. When we feel stagnant in some way, we tend to feel run-down and are open to becoming ill. Our garden beds and plants are the same. Placement matters hugely.

One of the easiest ways we can improve any garden area is to create good energy flow between the plants. It is the same basic approach as when we open two windows at opposite sides of a room to get a cross draft to move through the room. This type of movement is happening invisibly through our yard as plants interact subtly with one another. The question is, do we have this type of good flow or movement happening or is there a stagnancy? Likely we have some garden beds that flow better than others.

The first clues we can look at are the plants themselves. Are they healthy? Do pests set upon them continually? Does each plant have a dynamic, strong presence in the garden bed? All of these are good questions to start our listening process.

We also want to think about the plants neighboring one another to get a sense for whether they are interacting well. Subconsciously we tend to stop at areas that are stagnant or not flowing as well when doing this type of deeper listening so having our attention swivel to one set of plants is a good clue to tune in there. Where else are your eyes drawn to naturally as you think about improving the flow? Trust this and then build on your initial sense by tuning into that spot even more specifically. It may be that you feel you need to move one plant out of the bed entirely or over a few feet. Perhaps you might feel the need to include a metal sculpture or bring the water element and bird kingdom in with a bird bath.

Opening to the unique rhythms of your yard will imbue you with a new sense of excitement and creativity. It will bring immense fulfillment as you feel a new depth of vitality for the Earth and your yard as well as uplifting you and your family.

Chris Hagey has achieved the status if Advanced Master Gardener with additional university training in landscape design but counts her training in subtle energy facilitation and 35 years of hands-on gardening experience as the mainstay of her thriving yard. In addition to her facilitation practice (www.earthalchcrnv.com) Chris enjoys doing on-site yard consults to aid with energy flow dynamics. (248) 643.-4755.