Conscious Gardening

1. G E T T I N G T O K N O W E A C H O T H E R! Having read the Introduction - and if you have not, you should - you will realise that this book is about more WKDQ ÂľDOO WKDW PHHWV WKH H\H Âś It is also about that which the eye does not, and mostly cannot, see. This does not mean that it is impossible to see the seldom seen; it means that if you ZDQW WR VHH WKDW ZKLFK LV KLGGHQ IURP ÂľQRUPDOÂś REVHUYDWLRQ LW UHTXLUHV PRUH than normal attention, awareness, and acceptance.

This wLOO EH PRVWO\ D ÂľFKDWW\Âś ERRN ,ÂśP D FKDWW\ W\SH RI SHUVRQ 2K incidentally, the Oz I refer to in this book is, of course, Australia. I am writing this as though you and I are chatting about the potential of a garden, UDWKHU WKDQ PH ZULWLQJ DQRWKHU JDUGHQLQJ ERRN UHJDUGOHVV RI \RX ,ÂśP going to assume that you already know a fair bit about gardening, and, a big assumption, that you are open-minded and receptive to new ideas and speculation about Nature and the nature of gardens. To be reading this you will need to be!

Everything that I write in this book is from my experience. All of it! I was an Organic Farming consultant for a few years, travelling into four different states of Oz, so I gleaned a lot of knowledge and experience of the land and different soil types. I was very good at what I did, and my knowledge of soil and soil nutrients was essential, but I learned to use far more than just that knowledge during those years.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAND When I walked over the land, I could feel an energetic resonance vibrating around me that varied from farm to farm. This energetic resonance is always on the farm; it does not travel with or is personal to me! It varies from farm to farm because the farmers are different. Where the farmer - this includes his or her spouse or partner - is attuned to the land in a sympathetic way, the land is affected. You cannot separate the energy of the farming family from their farm. This does not mean that if the IDUPHUV ÂľORYHÂś WKHLU ODQG WKLQJV ZLOO DXWRPDWLFDOO\ JR ZHOO IRU WKHP LW PHDQV that this connection with the land enables a two-way growth to take place.

Seldom, however, is this connection actively looked for, recognised, or acknowledged. I call this energetic resonance the Spirit of the Land.

There are thousands of farms across the Western world today where that energetic resonance is absent. On millions of hectares (acres) the agricultural abuse of agribusiness is so aggressive, so erosive, and the 10