I used to be a visionary with a garden,
now I’m a gardener with a vision
There is very little more revolutionary then gardening. And by gardening I mean, working with nature rather then against her. Here’s why. Nature creates abundance by perpetually reusing a limited amount of elements and by using smart forms of collaboration between species. Economy is based on the opposite; it uses an infinite amount of money to create scarcity and promote competition between people. Adhering to natures mantra essentially shakes the very foundations of patriarchal society and capitalism.
Boom.
There’s not a lot of people who will tell you this. You definitely won’t hear it from gardeners because generally they shy away from big talk. And I know quite a few that don’t bother having a meaningful conversation with anyone who doesn’t know the word ‘fermiculture’[1]. I understand because I speak from experience when I say a radical opinion doesn’t get you in the lime light at a party. Let’s face it, it was not that long ago that women like me were burned alive.
I hope by now we have a beginning of a collective realization that we need more meaningful interaction with our surroundings than grabbing and dumping. People like Satish Kumar, Vandana Shiva, Kate Raworth and many more have been spreading the word that we need to marry the concepts of economy with ecology. It may be possible…But it takes a much more fundamental shift in perspective than what companies and governments are willing or able to achieve at this point. They are simply very far from walking the talk. Why do I feel gardening is the answer?
Human-nature symbiotic interaction
There is no denying that no other species has been able to influence our ecosystem quite like us. It’s a dubious honour considering what we’ve made of our gifts and talents in recent centuries. But let’s not abandon hope. We have creative power. We just lack wisdom. If we look at nature we can find the answers. There are many relations in the world around us from parasitical to symbiotic. Here’s where gardening comes in. Gardening is the oldest form of human-nature symbiotic interaction. By practicing gardening we can learn to ‘nudge’ our surroundings, rather that reap havoc on it.
Enhance the biodiversity, increase resilience of our soil, raise productivity for both people and non-human beings and creating health. All of this comes under gardening, so it combines the world of medicine, geo science, engineering, agriculture and more. But by rather that segregating these fields, we connect them.
Gardening is our past and our future
A practical example: there is research that shows the amazon is so rich in biodiversity because it’s human inhabitants managed it as a food forest. Precolumbian society, Vedic society, Northern Africa, China, and many more cultures that shape the history of human kind; all gardeners. Compare traditional to modern agriculture, which wouldn’t last more than a season without active management and you see the benefit of holistic design over segregation. Segregation belongs to the economic domain. Integration belongs to the natural world.
It’s not to late. Nature is kind and forgiving, unlike economy.
Take what you like to eat, but give back what you don’t need. Help spread seeds, compost, enhance the soil and you will find a more natural logic weaving into your behaviours that multiplies value rather than destroys it. We may need to rebuild our whole system of production from the ground up following this logic. Starting by rediscovering there is another truth than economics. No matter if you do not have a garden of your own. Nature doesn’t know possession. She only knows creation. Humans are creative beings by nature. It makes sense to work together.
[1] The use of earthworms in composting
