Tilling Soil

TILLING SOIL

lessons from the garden

written by

Recently, I have been leaning on nature as a teacher through the process of unlearning the prioritization of efficiency and productivity that has been instilled in me. This is a documentation of the lessons that I have been taught so far.

Trusting their wisdom

Even though we share 1/4 of our DNA with them, plants have inhabited this planet over 1000 million (1000,000,000) years longer than we have. Plant social systems have been developing throughout millennia, by learning from their systems and seeking an understanding of the ethnographies of nature itself, we can learn a lot about ourselves. We must remember that trust comes with relinquishing the desire to understand right away, placing that faith with what nature has to offer you will go a long way.

Engage in Co-Regulation

Plants are members of our community just as much as anyone else. With connection to our community members comes the ability to support each other in co-regulation. A couple of ways that you can co-regulate with nature include:

holding hands with tree branches

dancing with your shadow casted by the sun

flora picking and co-creating with the flora (making art with flora you find on walks)

waking up and going to bed with the sun

laying on a stone warmed by the sun

How can I learn from plants?

Observe the behaviors that your local plants participate in:

For instance, many flowers have signposts to guide insects to hidden nectar.

Gardeners incorporate regular transformational pruning to improve the stability of the plant and make room for more light exposure by thinning the canopy.

Regenerative planting focuses on keeping the land closest to its natural ecosystem.

The underground plant ecosystem is a network made up of fungi-like internet fibers to share nutrients and information. They depend on each other for survival and flourishment.

Identify and reflect on the core values being expressed through these behaviors

- nature demands local expertise

- nature rewards cooperation

- nature recycles everything

- nature banks on diversity

- nature fits form to function

- nature uses only the energy it needs

Engage in dialogue and reflect.

Ask your local plants for advice or insight and reflect on how you might learn from their lived experiences. Here are some examples:

“a garden doesn’t shout into the void, it stays put and complexifies. It quietly grows” - Max Anton Brewer

“A garden can create ‘finished products’ but not immediately, and not without showing the in-between steps first” - Charlie Trochlil

"If we pay just a little bit of attention in a garden, we notice that it's constant, this sharing." - Ross Gay

If we want to model our lives off of gardens, we should orient towards being community gardens and being communally tended to. We should treat ourselves as a consistently evolving landscape, growing for the sake of growing, not towards completion. We should develop and become out loud and publically, not in isolation. Occasionally, we must partake in the tedious act of weeding potentially harmful aspects of our lives to make room for growth. We don’t need to try to be useful – by participating in our ecosystem, our existence becomes a beautiful part of a dynamic web of life.

Ok, now go say hello to your local trees, grasses, flowers, stones, and more!