9102 Creating Sanctuary with lines

CONTENTS 9 INTRODUCTION

Coming Home to Yourself

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154

Creating Sacred Space

Botanical Alchemy

Nurturing Self: Healthy Body, Mind, and Soul

19 Envisioning Your Sanctuary

83 Fifty Sacred Plants for the Sanctuary Garden

159 Your Body as Sanctuary: Caring for Your Personal Ecosystem

115 Plant Spirit Medicine: Plants as Our Allies

185 Mind and Soul: Finding Clarity and Comfort

133 Growing Your Own Apothecary

201 Daily Sanctuary: Practices and Rituals

37 Common Elements of Sacred Spaces 59 Five Steps to Creating Your Sanctuary Garden

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FURTHER READING

225 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 226

PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

227 INDEX

Five Steps to Creating Your Sanctuary Garden Every garden has the potential to be a sanctuary to those who are stewarding it.

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t has been said that when we heal the earth, we heal ourselves. The process of taking your sanctuary ideas off the page and beginning to shape your space to match your vision may involve some restoration work, and this work can be restorative to you, too. If the space is full of diseased or overgrown plants or has been paved over with asphalt or concrete so that the earth can barely breathe, you must first and foremost take care of restoring the earth to an ecologically robust state.

This chapter assumes that at least some aspects of your backyard ecosystem will need to be restored to health, even if you don’t need to start from scratch in creating your sanctuary garden. The steps in either case are the same: 1 Clear out the space.

2 Improve the soil.

3 Manage the water.

4 Provide wildlife habitat.

5 Build the plant layers.

Step 1: Clear Out the Space The first step in creating a sacred space is clearing it of anything that might keep you from feeling calm and at peace there.

I recommend taking some time to evaluate the space with fresh eyes, as if seeing it for the first time. Take notice of anything that’s not needed or that’s visually distracting. This includes plants that are sick and materials that may be in the way of creating the space you envision.

Bothersome objects can include old fencing, knickknacks, chipped old pots, or containers that are mismatched. Remove anything that will make you feel like you should be taking care of it, fixing it up, or otherwise dealing with it instead of meditating or relaxing.

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lavender

A dream garden

Chamomile calendula

Mushroom Gardens

hops mugwort

containing plants to treat what ails you is a great place to start. A dream garden can contain herbs known to promote healthy sleep and nourishing dreams. What shape do you want it to take? How about the shape of a crescent moon?

mint in a pot

I recommend growing some mushrooms in your sacred space for their ecological and medicinal value. Many mushrooms are edible, and more and more scientific research is discovering how medically and

How to save seeds for propagation Collecting seeds to start the next generation of plants in your sacred space is a great way to save money, feel empowered, and stay closely connected to the plants you are growing and will be using. Some easy herbs to start with are borage, calendula, California poppy, and echinacea.

This medicine wheel garden mixes medicinal herbs with edibles.

Poppy seed heads contain thousands of small seeds that are easy to collect and disperse.

Notice the plants that are healthy and disease free, and pick their seedpods when they have dried and are beginning to open. For plants with fragile seedpods, you can put a paper bag over the seedpods and secure it with a twist tie before harvesting so that you capture all of the seed.

Split the seedpods and shake all the seeds out into a basin or bowl, then spread them out on clean paper in a warm, dry place for about a week.

Pack them in airtight labeled jars or bags and store in a cool, dry place.

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I often find that when my clients live with a space for a long time, it becomes hard for them to imagine what it could look or feel like without all those familiar-but-ramshackle plants or objects.

As you evaluate each object or plant, ask yourself when the last time was you stopped to enjoy it—or even noticed it. If you can’t answer, clear it out.

PLANT ORPHANS

Regarded as a symbol of fertility, love, and enlightenment, the fig has been a sacred tree throughout history in many cultures.

Deciding to remove plants can be hard for those of us who are empathetic and sensitive to ending a life. Sometimes plants require minor restoration pruning to return them to earlier glory or health, but sometimes plants are beyond repair and would rather be put out of their misery. Some plants have major wounds, some have structural issues that are dangerous or will be soon, some have been so repeatedly malpruned that they might just die of shame.

As an arborist, I have seen many trees treated poorly as a common practice, whether topping them for a better view or malpruning because they are seen as a nuisance.

Plants age like we do, and while some live longer than our lifetime, not all do.

Plants have hormones and

the ability to be restored to better health, but it can often take more resources than the steward can offer.

Over the years I have come across thousands of plants that clients wanted to get rid of for various reasons: maybe it was growing too big for the spot where it was originally planted, maybe the flowers were the wrong color, or maybe it was in a spot slated for a more desirable plant. Many people struggle with the guilt of uprooting a plant, but sometimes the space is just too valuable to let it stay.

I too hate uprooting perfectly healthy plants without having a new home waiting. I have always had a plant orphanage, where all the plants I’ve had to move or that I simply don’t want anymore come to live until they get a chance at a new beginning in a new garden.

That said, I should admit that some of my favorite plants are ones that had been slated for removal but somehow redeemed themselves. Once I told a fig that had been barren for nearly a decade that it was going to go if it didn’t produce soon, and the next year it was covered in fruit!

If plants you want to remove are salvageable, consider transplanting them to a new area of your yard or giving them to friends, family, a school, or a community group that may want or need plants for a project. Good plants should not go to waste! I think you’ll be surprised at how many people will step forward to take unwanted plants if you just start asking.

Even common plants will be welcomed by nonprofit organizations or new gardeners who have no plants to start with or have a small budget. Donated plants can make a huge difference to them.

A number of plant species were overplanted in a certain era of landscaping and take well to transplanting. These include rhododendrons, boxwoods, roses, lilacs, nandinas, and ornamental

grasses. Plants’ genetic predispositions, which determine size as well as soil and water needs, can help us determine if another site is suitable for relocation.

Transplanting a mature plant can be a wonderful way to add instant life to a space, and its new owners may give it that extra little boost of love it needs to be a much happier plant.

Should this plant stay or go?

Before ripping out a plant to redesign or reconfigure a garden space, consider the plant’s age, what it offers, and its ecological success. Here are some questions to ask to determine if a plant should stay or go: Can the plant be moved elsewhere in the garden?

Approximately how old is the plant? The younger it is, the better it may take to transplanting. The older it is, the more value it brings to the landscape, especially trees.

Does the plant rely on support or resources (irrigation, fertilization, and such) from its people to survive?

Does it block views or enhance them?

Does it provide needed shade in a sunny area? Or does it shade an area where you’d like to grow sun-loving plants?

Does it provide food for pollinators or other wildlife?

Does it make you happy?

What does this plant need to be happy and healthy?

Nandina, or heavenly bamboo, takes well to transplanting and is among my favorite plants to use for good luck.

Planting them near a home’s entrance is said to prevent negative energy or spirits from entering the home.

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CREATI NG SACRED SPACE

FIVE S T EPS TO CR EAT ING YO UR S A N C TUA RY G A RD EN

path

tipis log rounds Mulches Branches Placing plugs of fungus in branches drilled with holes is an easy way to grow a variety of edible and medicinal mushrooms.

ABOVE RIGHT

room garden

A mush-

ecologically beneficial some can actually be. Not only can some mushrooms restore the damaged earth by absorbing toxins and cleansing water, but some also have antiviral, antibacterial, and cancer-fighting properties. Mycologist Paul Stamets writes, “Mushrooms are miniature pharmaceutical factories, and of the thousands of mushroom species in nature, our ancestors and modern scientists have identified several dozen that have a unique combination of talents that improve our health.”

Several edible mushrooms are easy to grow using materials found at home and spores in sawdust or in plugs ordered from fungi suppliers such as Mushroom

Mountain (mushroommountain.com) and Fungi Perfecti (fungi.com). Shady spaces are the best places to grow mushrooms. Log rounds and long branches used to line forest paths provide great habitat for plugs to spawn. A tipi made of branches can grow different types of fungus and makes a great focal point.

Woodchip mulches and other biomass (such as leaves and straw) can host different kinds of mushrooms, depending on the parent material.

Some mushrooms are poisonous, so it is important to gather information as you decide what to grow and use, just as you would for any other plant. Before you 136 BOTANI CAL ALCH EM Y

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

Chicken of the woods, Laetiporus species Wine caps, Stropharia rugosoannulata Shiitake, Lentinula edodes Lion’s mane, Hericium erinaceus Turkey tail, Trametes versicolor Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus species