Part 4 of 4: This Year's Goals and Pictures of My Garden

My plans for this summer are to make my keyhole beds more defined and to continue building them up with organic matter. To assist this I want to make more cement paver stones to finish out the outlining of the beds. I am excited to see how well my comfrey does and I am getting impatient to add it to my mulches. I also plan to buy some white clover for a general ground cover because it is low growing, tolerates cutting if need be, and is a good dynamic accumulator. I think it is important to add more garlic and onion and I want to get some marigolds going, which keep failing from seed, so I will probably buy some of these plants to get them going.  The marigolds, onions, and garlic will act as general pest detractors; I will keep my eye out for other odoriferous/strong smelling plants. I will keep researching about building soil fertility and may find some other plants I wish to add to aid in this effort. I also want to research nectary plants to act as an attractor for beneficial insects like lady bugs; insects that act as predators to other pest bugs like aphids. Another goal of mine, more long term, is to plant more items from direct seeding into the ground. Paul Wheaton also made a good argument about transplanting plants means the plants will not have a taproot because it is highly sensitive and is always killed in the transplanting process; I cannot remember the exact podcast but I am sure if you search the archives at the link for the soil health podcast then you can find it along with seeing all his other wealth of information.  Finally I want to figure out how to construct mini swales and integrate some huglekultur into my layout. I will keep you posted on how my garden develops. For now, here is an article that discusses hugle culture http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/.

The picture below is a sketch of my L-shaped garden space. Each square represents 4 square feet or 2'x2'.  

The picture below is of the entrance to my garden. The purple plum with the green leafed plum and apricot growing underneath are in the foreground on the top, left corner. The middle section shows my makeshift arbor; a carport put up originally to serve as a greenhouse but I used as an arbor instead. On the right side of the arbor is the wire fence I attached for vining plants (grapes and kiwis will be trained up and accross and I want some others like peas or something on the fence). The paver stones are my primitive start to laying out key hole beds. As you can see the grasses and weeds are clipped low but are left to cover the bare dirt. At the end of the arbor is one of my volunteer trees (I believe is a plum). In the background behind the arbor but inside the fence are my volunteer trees: to the left are my other two volunteer trees, my apple is in the middle but hidden behind the volunteer tree under the arbor, and the peach on the right. Directly behind those trees and the fence is the grove of trees behind our property (some of those trees are cotton wood trees).

The next two pictures sort of show the plight of the stressed tree trying to reach the sun while the apricot has successfully reached it.

The next picture is a better view of my peach and apple trees with a back view of the arbor. The peach is on the left with a walnut tree touching it (apparently the walnut want to join this garden because he was 4' away last year) and the apple is on the right.

Part 3 of 4: Current Year, The Arbor, and Lessons From a Stressed Tree

Through the winter of 2011-12 I did lots of reading and planning. I started understanding a concept called key hole gardening so I restructured my beds to take that shape. I also realized that I needed to hold off on any other plantings and focus intently on building up the health of the soil. I also started learning about making swales; which I am still looking for a good resource on because I am missing something :).

I left to visit my family just prior to this year’s leafing out of the plants; when I came back three weeks later, I was pleasantly surprised. My peach and apple came back, my grapes came back, and my three mystery trees were lush and vibrant. Six of my eight comfrey plants I planted came up too. All of my strawberries made appearances. Even though nearly all of my mail order plants died and my cereal seeds never came up I still felt a great sense of accomplishment that my important plants, important to me that is, all made it through their first year and were happily establishing themselves.

This year, I took a more proactive approach to my weeds rather than the love/hate bipolar relationship I had before. I decided to trim them down as a general ground cover so I would not have bare soil rather than letting them rule until I had enough of them. This  approach of cutting them has been much more effective control than last year where I was trying to hoe them up. It seems my cutting them back is keeping them in check whereas hoeing seemed to encourage them. I am starting to understand a bit of information about succession and thus I have noticed that the variety of my weeds is slowly changing. The first year I had a ton of milkweed. The next year I had milkweed mixed with grasses. This year I have more grass and fewer milkweeds. I also have another weed which I am not sure what it is; but it provided good mulch. Like I said, the weeds are more manageable this year. This could be due to my perception shift of having them work for me rather than trying to have a love/hate bipolar relationship with them. This could also be due to maintenance on my part. It could be due to the land recognizing my intentions. I could be due to succession. It could be due to all of that or none of that, but the weeds are not as much of a problem.

I have made sure that my main plants are well clear of weed invasions that could choke them out. I am not too concerned with the weeds competing with the tree roots because many weeds have deep taproots which go much deeper than the shallow tree roots. I do know that the grasses may be competing, however, so my goal is to eventually have the beds so well mulched and properly planted that they are not a concern. I know they are nature’s attempt to start succession;  however, I want to control the direction of her succession in my garden and perhaps speed it up.

I still irrigate my plants because I have not built any water storage into the soil; like I said I am trying to figure out how to do that. I have noticed, though, that my plants need less irrigation and when I irrigate the water does not run off like it used to. This is not just my imagination. In the areas where I put the leaves this last fall, the water just soaks in; the areas that did not have the leaves the water quickly runs off. So I guess I am doing something right; increasing the soil fertility by giving it dead plant materials is helping increase the soil drainage. From what I understand then, I can deduce that I have probably increased the earth worm population through my mulch which in turn aerated the soil. During the winter I was also regularly adding my extra water kefir grains and their juice; I am not sure if or how that helped, but I was just following my intuition that perhaps they would add to the soil microbial level.

A surprise I was not expecting this year came from my trees: they set fruit. My one year old apple and peach both set fruit and so did my three mystery trees. It was hard for me to determine the identity of these mystery trees because I had the paradigm that they came from the roots of the grove of trees behind my house; it never entered my thought process that they came from the roots of some trees that were on the property. Last summer I finally figured out that they bore a strong resemblance to two trees I never took much notice of; two trees that I thought were both apricots that had been forced to grow under the canopy of a purple tree which I am told is a plum. I was also told that the two trees were different: one was an apricot and the other was a different variety of plum. I was not convinced because the two trees were nearly identical; or so I thought until I got better at observing them. When those trees set fruit this year I had my last piece of evidence to show me they were different and which one was the parent of my trees: they belonged to the green leafed plum tree. Their fruits were smooth and not fuzzy like the apricots (which had fruited before); so I guess they are plums. Their parent or the purple tree they grow under have never set fruit; this year both set a few fruits so this helped me in identifying the mystery trees.

Now that my observation skills have improved, I have set myself to assisting the highly stressed green-leafed plum; I believe it sent out its runners because of the stress. Unlike its partner the apricot, this tree had never reached the light. The apricot fruited because it was in the light; this one never fruited because no sun ever reached it. Whenever it sent out side branches it was immediately pruned. I took it over this year and kept those side branches and pruned out the top ones that were growing up into the purple-leafed plum in their vain attempt to reach some sun. I also tied a particularly long branch I found over to my arbor with the hope that if this branch was in the sun that it would encourage others to follow it too. I did this only four days ago, but I could swear that the tree looks fuller on the side and certain branches seem like they are taking more effort to reach for the sun. Another interesting event is that the apricot has found my arbor and has taken a fancy to it. Now my arbor that was originally for grapes and kiwis will now host apricots and plums growing over the top.

This is an interesting observation for me to illustrate an important concept in the canopy of the forest garden. From what I read, the trees should be placed in such a way that some sunlight is still able to penetrate to the garden floor. The edge of the forest, where it meets a field, is usually the most productive place of the entire forest; the interior of the forest is the least productive. While many plants do quite well in deep shade and many perennials grew up in forests originally, they were always more productive where they received dappled sun. The lesson that this tree showed me was that some sun is still important; I will keep this in mind so I do not plant too densely. I think this may be another reason that I have intuitively held off on getting more plants.

My comfrey are other plants I want to discuss. The comfrey plant that is the biggest is in dappled sun, but high shade. The next biggest one is near that area too. Both of these plants are in my arbor area for the grapes and kiwis. One grape is also growing in this dappled sun but once it grows up a bit it will be in full sun; just the floor is quite shaded. Four other comfrey plants emerged last week; two on each side of my peach, one by the apple, and the fourth in an area I was going to make a bed but later decided against so it is out in the middle of an area with no companions except the grasses. All four are in full sun and they seem to be struggling. Frankly I am surprised that they are still growing and preserving. I did not realize that they needed partial shade to grow so the full sun is probably quite taxing. The ones under the peach and the apple will eventually be shaded but their trees are still very young and quite sparse. I am interested to see what nature will do with these plants; if they will live or die or die back and come back when there is more shade. Next to the comfrey under the peach are some onions growing so this combination is probably greatly helping the fertility of the soil around the peach; I wonder if this will be enough to keep the peach pest free. I heard from Paul Wheaton in his latest podcast at http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/1777-162-berms-and-cherry-tree-intervention/ that fertile soil, which leads to healthy plants, is enough to keep most pests away. Time will tell I guess. This little interaction along with how the comfreys develop should be interesting to observe. In part four, I wish to espouse some of my goals for this year and I also want to show you some pictures of what my garden currently looks like and a picture of a scale, but not exact, drawing I did showing the dimensions and the placements of my plants.

Part 2 of 4: 2011 Year Two The Garden Takes Shape

By the spring of 2011 I had compiled a large list of plants I wanted to put in my garden. I had read more on permaculture but I did not heed the advice to observe the land and sculpt it before putting in permanent plantings of perennials. I was too impatient and I wanted to grow my own food. As I was perusing for plants I quickly realized that organic, non-GMO, heirloom, etc were not only expensive but were hard to find. I made the decision that I could embark on that path little by little, but since what I really wanted was to get my forest garden going, I decided to temporarily put those standards on hold. Off to Costco, Home Depot, and mail order catalogues I went. At Costco I purchased a three in one grafted apple tree, a peach tree, and some blueberry bushes. At Home Depot I purchased a red grape, a green grape, and a raspberry. From the mail order I purchased cold-hardy kiwis, sweet pea perennial plants, two paw-paw, some honeysuckle vines, strawberries, and a few other plants. I did not have the knowledge to take starts of these plants nor did I have the resources of where to get those starts from in the first place. I was slightly concerned that my very inexperience would spell doom for these plants but I was too impatient. If these plants did die then I was out a small chunk of change; but I also realized I would have valuable experience.

I had my plants well before it was planting time in my area. I kept them in a dark shed but never the less they decided to prolifically leaf out. Concerned for their health because they were only in a bark medium, I made the decision to plant them even though I was concerned it was too cold. I dug holes, put in leaf debris and kitchen scraps in the bottom hopping they would give some nutrients, placed the plant, and filled with dirt. I did not amend the soil to proper conditions, I did not add fertilizer, I did not add mulch, I did not add sand to break up my clay soil, I did not test my soil density, I did not test soil ph, and I did not do what I was “supposed to do” when planting a plant. I only gave them was a leafy bottom to sit on. I was certain I spelled out their death sentence. I still did not understand that forest gardening was about purposeful manipulation of the environment to provide the best conditions for the plant. I thought forest gardening went in the opposite direction from traditional gardening with its focus on letting the plant fend for itself. I later realized that this fending was only done once all its needs had been met by the gardener. It was never supposed to be a sink or swim on its own ordeal.

Some of my plants died, particularly the mail order ones; however, most survived. My two grapes that I thought had died made a comeback this year. Once I got all these plants in the ground and delineated their actual beds with a border of cement paver stones I made a few years ago, I decided that my next step was to companion plant them. I began looking for companion plant lists and found several plants to add to my wish list for next spring. At this time I kept having a nagging idea that I needed to focus my efforts on building soil fertility. I began searching for dynamic accumulator plants. During this time I also began nurturing two other volunteer mystery trees that were identical to the first. I also took active steps to identify them.

For the fall I ordered comfrey roots and some cereal seeds buckwheat and rye that are supposed to be good cover crop plants. I decided that I wanted to cover the empty spaces with beneficial nutrient offering plants, also known as dynamic accumulators. Once the leaves fell from the trees I piled them up on my new beds. It was so nice to see my garden taking shape. In part three, I discuss the third and current year of my forest garden, I describe my arbor, and my lessons learned from a stressed plant.

Part 1 of 4: Beginnings of My Forest Garden

I have made allusions to the idea that I have a forest garden going and I posted my research paper that first motivated me to start forest gardening; yet, I have never actually described my garden. Here is my attempt to explain what I have going on, where my knowledge is currently, and some directions I want to head in. I split this into four parts. Part one is the first year I tried to implement some forest garden concepts. Part two is the second year where my efforts looked more like forest gardening with the planting of trees and plants that would serve as my backbone of sorts. Part three is my current year of tending my forest garden and the insights I have gained. Finally, in part 4 I listed my goals for this year and posted some pictures of my current garden.  

Two years ago in spring of 2010, I took over the management of an L-shaped garden space. This space was previously organically cultivated with typical row vegetables like corn, peppers, tomatoes, squash, etc. A few months prior to this time I had written my research paper on forest gardening so I was very excited to put into practice what I had learned… which as it turned out barely scratched the surface :).

                                                                                               

I cleared out a section of weeds and proceeded to seed in a 10’x10’ section of corn, sunflowers, beans, and squash. I was trying to grow the traditional three sister’s crop, corn, beans, and squash that I wrote about in my paper. I was also growing the sunflowers for their added shade and to experiment with a rapid, mini-upper story. Those plants were very brave… For the rest of the growing season they only received supplemental watering once a week and they had weeds knocking on their doorstep as constant companions. I was admonished to pull the weeds, but my newbie research led me to believe that all weeds were good, that they had just as much right to live as any cultivated plant, that they would help rather than harm, etc. I now realize that not all weeds are good, that it is ok to direct their growth habits, that they provide excellent mulch, and many other things about weeds; but I also admit that I have a lot of learning in this area.  As for the water thing, I was convinced that plants could live without supplemental watering… Little did I know that this is only true if I put time and effort into sculpting the land to hold the water. Ooops.

Well, by the time fall came I had a garden full of weeds, none of my plants could produce anything beyond some attempts at upward growth because they were so dehydrated, and my first attempt to forest garden was an utter flop. When the leaves began to drop from the trees and all the weeds died back I attempted to put down a kill mulch of several layers of newspaper; needless to say the wind had other ideas so it was a mulch that never was. I did, however, make my first real attempts to nurture some perennials. During the summer a strange tree started growing off to the side of my garden space. I was told to cut it down because it was one of “those pesky trees” that lived in a grove behind our house. I liked it and those trees as well. I said I was keeping it. I carefully wrapped its trunk in newspaper to officially mark it as my tree. I said it would be the upper story in my garden because it would reach 50’ or so if it were one from the grove behind our house. It did not occur to me until later that the upper story did not have reside in my small garden space. Just prior to the leaf drop I also rescued some baby trees from a grove of walnuts and peaches that was cultivated on an adjacent spot to my garden. I transplanted a walnut and two mystery trees. I also wrapped around their trunks at the base. With that I put my feeble attempt of a forest garden to bed for the winter. I am not a master gardener so I did not mulch or “cleanup” my space of dead debris. In part two I will discuss my 2011 planting year.

40 Days of Blogging and Being More Human

Lately I have been mulling over how I want this blog to appear because it is ultimately a reflection of me. I have had the thought for some time now that I wanted to be more authentic in my daily dealings rather than hiding behind the veil of pretense. This blog, up to this point, has not been an accurate reflection of me; it was the polished version of me that I wanted to show the world. My dream, as crazy, redundant, and ambiguous as it sounds it to help people emerge from the darkness of their lives. This is my purpose for studying psychology: I do not want to drug people up I want to help them find the source of their problems and fix it. This is my purpose for studying forest gardening: to help feed the world by providing a light at the end of the tunnel. This is my purpose for unschooling, attachment parenting, and things in this vein: so my daughter can build immunity from the world's darkness by retaining her own light. This is my purpose in whatever I do.



I realized the other day that I would never achieve this dream. My failure to achieve this has nothing to do with the darkness of the world; rather it has everything to do with my embrace of the darkness and refusing to let go. It is my fault that I will never reach this dream of helping others emerge from the darkness. It was a very downtrodden moment for me to come face to face with the realities of my current mode of thinking and realize that the potential outcome would be something that would not help people but would contribute to that perpetual chain of endless misery. In other words, I would end up assisting the very thing I seek to eliminate. I do not want to contribute to that endless chain of misery.



At this point I have two options that I can see. One, I continue my current path or two, I take the detour. Well I cannot find the detour until I can define my path right now. That is not entirely true because I can take the detour at anytime; however, I will gain much more from it if I know what I need to work on. Thus I suppose it is more accurate to say that I do not feel the detour would do me any good or advance me toward my dream if I taint it with my darkness.



Well first off, I seem to thrive on pretense. So I feel my first step should be to practice self-authenticity. I think it will take me awhile to be comfortable speaking my mind to those around me and standing up for what I believe in rather than letting them walk all over me. For now, I will practice my authenticity online so perhaps this will give me greater courage in face to face interactions.



How will I do that? Well I am going to start with this blog. For starters, I am setting a goal for myself to put up at least one blog post per day for the rest of May and all of June. Next, I want to discuss more thoughts in the raw meaning thoughts that come to me rather than waiting to present them along with an image. For three, I want to blog about my daily upsets and victories like a journal. Four, I want to write regular updates on some of my projects. Five, I want to show people my human side. This last part is perhaps the most important to my goal of helping others find their light. I cannot hope to help people if I myself seem aloof or on a pedestal; no, I have to be human and admit my mistakes so that we are comrades in the crazy and sometimes embarrassing arena of life changes.



So to recap the goal I have set for myself: I will blog at least one entry for the next 40 days by including my very human thoughts and my progress on the current status of my projects. These posts may seem more like rambling than what I have written, but it is my hope to connect with my deeper subconscious and bring this power into my daily interactions.



To the birth of wonderful creations,

~Tiffany

Expanding the Defninition of Teacher

Recently I have had the feeling that I was at a new stage in my life. I felt I was ready to move on and explore life from a hands-on perspective. I felt certain that I was finally ready for a teacher to guide me on this path. This last week I had an interesting experience that led me to realize that my definition of teacher was limited. First off, I thought a teacher was someone who specifically took me on as a student with the purpose to enlighten me on particular concepts. Second, I thought a teacher was supposed to purposely inspire me and help me question my attachments. I suppose it is obvious at this point that I am taking about a special type of teacher although these definitions could fit any teacher to various degrees. The teacher I was waiting for was a spiritual teacher.

My experience this past week, culminating today, helped me realize this definition was too narrow. I realized that all human interactions have the potential to help one learn about oneself; especially when strong feelings arise. I also realized that a teacher does not have to know they are teaching. Even if a person does not think he or she has something to pass along it does not mean that what he or she does know will not benefit someone else. I also realized that how we interact with people can be a better teacher than forced or on-purpose teaching. The experience I speak of was an encounter with another person and emotions were intense. While things did not turn out as I secretly hoped they would, I did learn a tremendous amount from this experience even though this person emphatically posited that he was not a teacher. He was a teacher because I was willing to listen to the lesson born from our interaction.

This brings me to the idea I have struggled with for so long. I fully realize that as a parent I am onstage. My daughter will or can pick up anything and everything I do and mimic it with beautiful accuracy. I tell you, if you want to know what your dark side looks like watch your children; if something they do makes you mad then most likely it is something about yourself that you do not want to admit. Because my daughter mirrors me I get instant feedback. Isn't that what a teacher does is provide feedback.

However, these teacher/student relationships are quite ambiguous. The teacher is not trying to teach and the lessons are up to what the student observes and processes. In the case of children they are not necessarily teaching but showing and it is up to the individual to assimilate this information. I can only learn lessons from my daughter because I am open to observing and integrating them. It is the same thing with this experience I had.  He was not teaching; we were interacting and I was observing myself. The lessons I gained were not from lesson plans that he prepared; I had to find the lessons.

I realized that at any moment the individual has the potential to be a teacher and a student; it all depends upon our agreed upon interaction with the other individual(s) and what we truly need. A verse from the Bible keeps wondering through my head that said something like, "Blessed is he who can see without seeing and hear without hearing". I always thought a proper teacher would cross paths with me and our roles would be well defined. In other words,  I would see and hear in the very physical sense. If, however, teacher/student roles are more subtle then that means one must be astute enough to realize what is going on without the sensory seeing and hearing. Thus the question is can I learn without seeing and hearing meaning can I learn from the ambiguity of life?

I am thankful for the lessons I learned today and the potential for more freedom from self-bondage.

Self-Compassion

My daughter is my inspiration to be a better person; I have completely changed my thoughts regarding parenting so I can help her achieve her "potential". I work hard at practicing non-violent communication and practicing cooperation rather than coercion. But it seems that no matter how hard I try my daughter and I often butt heads. My daughter's personality is almost exactly like mine so we but heads frequently. As our wills collide I often find my desires of cooperation and communication flying out the window as I engage in my programming of yelling and coercion. I hate it when I do this and I feel like it isn't even me. I get so angry at myself for acting in this way; so opposite of good communication. As I chided myself I came up with plans on what I would do next time. Then next time came and those plans were not there; my programming was. I realized that to end this cycle, something had to change. As I took steps to remember my small successes I embraced self-compassion. Through this I was able to begin the process toward recognizing small potentials.  



Awhile back I realized the need for self-compassion. What this means is that I give myself permission to be me and I remove the yardstick of comparison. I attempt to look at my life within a larger scope and remember all the progress I have made; even if it isn't the same area. Remembering this progress helps me realize that every day I get better and better at leading a more in tune life. Self-compassion gives me permission to make mistakes and helps me look at mistakes in a different light; reframing them to a positive way. When I act compassionately toward myself, then I can give compassion toward others. Thus when I feel myself getting angry I let myself express that, but I also remember that I need to cool off before continuing. I walk away, I count, or I ask my husband to take over. Either way, I am interrupting my normal response. Then, when I have a chance to think over it I tell myself my response was ok, that I am ok, and that I am learning. I searched for what I do that was positive and I focused on that even if the only positive thing was my pattern interrupt. Focusing on the positive enables me to remove myself from the negative rumination.



Another trick I discovered in self-compassion is to pick my battles. For example, I used to yell and get angry at my daughter for failing to clean up the room. We live in tight quarters and her play room is also our sleeping room where I lay out our bedding on the floor each evening therefore the room must be completely picked up. One day I realized that the yelling was ridiculous and it made me feel icky to get so angry. Therefore I made the decision that if I wanted the toys a particular way then I would assist her clean up. I would set the example of what I wanted rather than expecting her to respect what I had already established. Even if she did not help me but continued to play, I knew my example was important so I continued. Yes there are many times where I cleaned up the whole room by myself. I picked my battle, decided that the relationship with my daughter and a tidy room were both important to me so I took actions to preserve both. Many months later, I am finally seeing my efforts paying off. My daughter and her cousin who often plays with her are both more contentious about their mess and both take efforts to clean up and put things away where they belong. Many nights of yelling and anger to get them to do it correctly did not work. However, many nights of setting the example and choosing peace did. I could list many other areas where I choose my battles but the most important thing is to decide what I wanted and take actions to model what I wanted. I am not suggesting that I have it all figured out, but I have made significant progress.

Potential

Human potential. My potential. Living up to potential. Thoughts and actions that harm my potential. Am I moving toward my potential? Should I do something to move quicker? Should I do something specific to get there? Should I specifically decide what my potential is and what activities or thoughts are conducive to getting there? Hmmm...

What is potential? This question rings as a constant companion in my thoughts as I obsess in getting there. I believe that I can be like Jesus; to do the things he did. I also believe that I can be more than he was like he suggested. I believe that my current life is not living up to my potential. I believe I am wasting my potential. I believe I should whip myself into shape and force myself to toe the line of an upstanding and empowered individual. But is this line of thinking correct?

If I believe my potential is somewhere out there and all my actions cause me to fall miserably short, then will I ever reach potential? What if potential is not some big thing to aspire to someday? What if I looked at the present? If I were to look at the present moment and say, "this is what I am right now", then how would that change this concept of potential?

Right now I sit at my desk typing away on my laptop. I worked on homework for awhile, checked my email, attended to Facebook, played a game, worked on homework some more, changed my kefir grains to new sugar water, bla, bla, bla. Right now I am involved in a typical routine; a routine I work toward to better myself. Sure there are things I could do better in this routine. I could exercise in the morning, I could stop looking at my email and Facebook hoping for a distraction, I could stop playing games, etc. If I were to look at my day I can give a dissertation about all thing things I should be doing; things that are "keeping" me from my potential. Things that show I am lazy and hold me back; habits that I struggle to change. But that is all in the future. What about right now? Honestly, I am tired of this concept of potential and how it has become a yardstick to gauge myself by. Big surprise, or perhaps not, I often measure myself as lacking :(.

Maybe I am looking at this whole potential thing wrong. Not only should I look at what I am doing in the present, but I should also look at what I am doing well. What have I achieved that I was unable to before? Where am I better? Where have I grown? What is my overall trend? Am I growing? Am I stagnant? What time frame am I looking at for comparison? Am I being fair or am I somehow skewing and misinterpreting the results so that I look bad?

I am going to try something. For the next month or so I promise to monitor my thinking in regard to potential. Instead of looking at potential as something out there, I promise to look at potential as something in here; something that is right here, right now, with me at all moments. If something happens that I feel "keeps" me from my potential, then I promise to address my thinking and refocus it. I have done this on a limited scale when I practice self-compassion by picking my battles, but I want to apply it to all my thinking; particularly the rumination that states I am doing something wrong. I promise to find what I did do “right” and focus on those wins rather than ruminating on the losses. I promise to tell myself that I did the best I could and at that moment I lived up to my potential. I promise to recognize that potential is always about what is possible at the moment rather than something out there. Everything is a part of everything else and everything is always a part of something bigger. Sure there is the big potential of an event in some far off future. There are also the smaller potentials that stack up to create the larger potential. I promise to recognize the smaller potentials, the small wins, the small acceptances, and the small events that lead to the larger event. I am who I am today because of all that I was before.

Remember before when I spoke of the windfall effect? This idea of an unreachable potential yardstick of comparison is an example of a windfall. It states that potential is only some far off event and that currently you are not living up to it. It expects you to act well and appropriately as if to live your potential now. It fails to account for the accumulation of potentials, for the accumulation of energy, for the accumulation of stuff, or for the parts and pieces that make up the whole. It expects everything at once and will always judge as lacking because everything is not manifest. It is a lie we tell ourselves so that we can hide from our true selves. The fact is, I and you are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. Therefore, it is my assumption that if I learn to recognize the smaller potentials then a day will come when I will see the project they contributed to building; the project of me. Until then I can still see the whole in the pieces and be thankful for each of them because without them then I would be incomplete. I, for one, am tired of feeling incomplete therefore I want to gather all my minute potentials and recognize them as complete in and of themselves. 

 Update

Well I am not sure if I have adequately addressed my poisonous thought process; that is a process and will take time to undo 31 years of conditioning. I can say that today I happier than I was six months ago. My life is  flowing, I am becoming more social, I am comfortable waiting, and I recognize the achievements I have. I came across and article today, June 12, 2012 on potential. I believe I wrote before about my beliefs with the potential of the human brain. I now know I want to partner with that amazing mass between my ears so that we can co-create wonders. I always wondered if humans could teach themselves to achieve feats like those seen on Phenomenon; for the first time someone has confirmed my suspicion. Here is the link to the article http://rethinkingeverythingtheblog.com/2012/06/12/mind-power/.

Being a Blessing

A month or so ago, I made an important decision. I decided that mourning the state of my life and circumstances was illogical and stupid; it only made me feel sad, despondent, depressed, angry, and sorry for myself. It gave me permission to hide and pretend that I was not a powerful being with great potential; something I have stated about people for quite some time now, but I guess I never really believed it. I finally decided that I was blessed. My life and circumstances are completely different from everyone else and yet I have the means to help others. I decided that rather than mourning about my circumstances, I would recognize the blessing and then pass those blessings onto others. In short, I decided that I would be a blessing too.

Resolving Fears

Today I will have a chance to resolve key fears in my life. It is not just about today; this process has been happening for some time now. Today, I feel ready to face them. These fears center around following my intuition and what feels best for me. Society is bent upon telling you what is best for you; if you do not follow then you are considered worthy of ostracization. For the first time in my life, I am making decisions based upon what is best for me and my family.

Strangely or perhaps appropriately enough this falls during a time I consider a resolution phase for me. June has been a wonderful time of resolving old energy in preparation for beginning new projects with new energy. Problems that I felt were stuck are becoming unstuck as inspired solutions reign. I am graduating in more than one sense. Graduation does not mean I have arrived; to the contrary it gives me permission to ascend to the next level.

For the first time in my life, I am getting off of the fence. I am committing to certain courses of action rather than remaining wishy-washy. I am making deliberate choices; I finally own my life. These choices are empowering and allow me to move on. These choices give me a reason to exist. They open up the door for continued growth. They allow me to accurately assess the damage with a heart toward harmonious resolution that set the stage for the next step. I am free.  

I own my path going forward. I have made deliberate decisions. I am committed. I am doing what is best for me even if this means being at odds with everyone else. I am finally reaching a point where I don't need other's approval just my own.

Thankfulness

Hello all.




I want to share one of my personal struggles with you to highlight the power of a very simple principle. I am sure most of us equate money with happiness. Sure we have all heard the notion, "money does not buy happiness", but let us be honest: being broke sucks and it is so hard to be happy when you feel like you are drowning in a sea of bills. I have been working to create healthy financial circumstances in my life; but it has not happened. I keep hoping that a large sum of money will magically appear to help me rise above the water... that a magical fairy will appear and wave a magic wand and make the bills disappear... that I will win the lottery... that I will suddenly have a house of my own... that my business attempts would work... etc. etc. etc.



The point is I am looking for a windfall to solve my problems; the reason being that my problems are so huge that only a windfall, in the form of a tidal wave could clean it up. I honestly think that this one concept is the source of all unhappiness. We have a problem and we look for windfall solutions. Before I go on a tangent, I will commit to the windfall being the topic of another conversation.



When I first began creating my new life circumstances a small, seemingly insignificant concept kept whispering in my ear. I encountered this concept in various places... it popped up constantly... I could not ignore it. But I did ignore it, or at least I tried. I used it when things were really bad, but when things would go well I would forget it. I did not realize the power of continued use. I finally got it today. I read somewhere that the key to happiness was thankfulness. We will never find happiness if we constantly focus on what we do not have. We will find that we are so blessed in abundance if we will just focus on what we do have rather than what we don't.



Where you put your attention you will gravitate toward. If you focus on what you do not have, then you will never have enough. If you focus on what you do have, then you will always have exactly what you need. I remember my driver's ed teacher telling the class that if we ever found ourselves in a spin out, a tire blow out, hydroplaning, or something like that, then we needed to focus on the road and not the closeness of the guard rail. He said that if we focused on the guard rail then we would inevitably head toward it because we stear toward the direction our eyes are focused.



I am giving myself a challenge. Every night before I go to bed I will recite what I am thankful for. I will do this in both the good and bad times. I will keep it up. I am tempted to say that I will try it for a period of time like 30 days, but then I am using it for my own gain. That would mean that I am not truly thankful just greedy. I will work to create a new habit for myself, one where I will be in the habit of giving thanks every night for all my blessings of the day.

Re-Creating Myself Through Eavesdropping

I am a sneak. I have my ear up to the door. A private conversation is going on; they do not know I am listening. They thought I was busy elsewhere...putting out some fires, pursuing flights of fancy, worrying about things I cannot change, worrying about what others think about me...and on and on and on. It turns out I got suspicious about their conversation when I was notified that my life did not have to be the way it was...it could be better.

"But," I said, "they told me that this was as good as it gets. They fed me all kinds of stories about how I was a victim. They told me to stop trying because I kept getting hurt."

"You can change your circumstances," the voice said, "all you have to do is eavesdrop on the conversation of those creating the circumstances and take back control of your life."
"You mean I don't control my life?" I asked incredulously.

"It is not control, to put out fires or succumb to worry; it means you are a puppet. You will only have control when you give up trying to control by responding to things in fear. When you come from a position of love then you can create. When you focus on yourself then you can create. When you focus on how you react to the world then you can create. You cannot create when you react out of fear and loathing."

I did not understand this, but I understood the admonishment to listen. And so I did... I realized the conversations in my head were negative, loathing, fear-based, irrational, and left me feeling wanting. I want acceptance. I want love. I want understanding. I want to teach. I want to know. I want to experience. I want to accept. I want to know God. I want to "be all this and more".

"You will never reach your potential as long as you hang onto the strings of manipulation, the crutch of longing, the feeling of lack, the feeling of being harmed... The string of connection is not the same as the strings of manipulation; one is love and the other is loathing. Just start by changing those stories you hear; they are only true to the extend you make them true. You can create the life you want if you change your advising council."

This conversation seems silly, but it is the conversations, somewhat, that I had with my higher-self, intuition, God-self, inner-guidance, whatever name you give it. As humans we cannot conceptualize circularity, we only grasp singularity. I am many parts, but I cannot understand that. For my human conscious and limited understanding, I see me as different parts. The parts I was eavesdropping on were also me. This was the part that listened to and believed all the lies I was ever told. This is the part that believed I deserved lack and was nothing special. This was the part that my inner-guidance always contended with. They are the figurative figures on the shoulder; one good and one bad. I realize I have been taking orders from that part of myself that is out of alignment, without love, and that embraced pity and loathing.

I have decided to listen to my inner guidance, or that oh-so-little voice that quietly offers up advice. I suppose now that it has my attention, and I am listening, the voice will become stronger as my ears adjust to that wavelength of conversation. I notice that when I do listen to that little voice, things seem to go ok; when I do not listen and get overconfident, then things go wrong. If the little voice tells me to bring a change of shoes for my daughter, and I do not listen, then my daughter ends up getting her shoes wet. If I had listened to that little voice, I would have had fresh socks and shoes for her; instead I had to buy a new pair. This failure to listen is happening less and less, and my ability to listen is happening more and more. When I listen to this little voice, my life seems easier, things are better, I have more light, I have more peace, and I feel happy.

I also realize that listening is not about subservience. Afterall, I am not a puppet. Acting is done out of my free will, therefore if it is done in accordance with listening, then I am co-creating. Because I find happiness in this process, then I am creating abundance. All this is because if eavesdropped on myself and changed my council of advisers. It will be interesting to see what my life becomes now.

Complaint, Worry, and Wishing

Yesterday, in line with my fixing broken commitments, I was sorting out a small box of my jewelery making supplies. I haven't made a piece of jewelery in over six years, but I have pillaged the box for one tool or bit of wire or something else. In addition to the box being very mixed up and cluttered, all of my work was in a large ball in the center. All of the necklaces and bracelets that I spent countless hours making were in a ball because the first time I moved I was haphazard and just shoved them in the box. My thinking was, "Well it isn't that long of a trip and these will be re-displayed in a few days; they will be ok." Few days, yeah right, try a few years.

As I began to meticulously untangle this ball I complained to my husband about the size, time it was taking, time it would take, and how it interfered with the rest of my desk reorganization. He said quite calmly, "Well if you want to speed it up, cut it apart or just throw the whole thing away." "Are you serious!?" I asked incredulously, "I spent so much time on these pieces, this is my art, my work; I can't just throw it away like garbage." "Well," he replied, "then stop complaining. Either you commit to taking it apart, or you commit to taking it out of your life."

He was right; we have had this conversation many times over other things and for some reason we both need to be constantly reminded. We have come to realize that complaining is akin to fence sitting. When one is sitting on a fence they are not committed. Another way of looking at this is having one foot in each of two worlds, never making a whole-hearted commitment to either. In this case my opposing worlds were the old paradigm of accepting my junk and clutter while the other was doing something about the clutter.

Any form of complaining, wishing, worrying, etc are all passive; they don't involve action just creations of the mind. We can either live in these safe worlds or actually take action to achieve what we want. At this point I feel these passive circumstances will confuse some people. "What is wrong with wishing and worrying?" some might ask. "Afterall, wishing helps you determine what you want and we always worry about the safety of our loved ones."

True, there is nothing wrong with the actions except when they are taken to an extreme. If someone has a dream and they just sit around wishing, then the dream will never happen. If, however, he or she starts to take steps in that direction then the dream becomes a map. At this point the dream takes on substance and becomes a useful tool rather than some fancy painting on the walls of the mind's eye.

The same is true for worry; some use it as an excuse to avoid personal responsibility to live one's life to the fullest. An individual simply cannot live if all they do is worry about how others are living their life. This brings up the phrase sick with worry. This is the individual who does not let others live their life and thinks he or she knows what is best for the other. This individual will not accept normal human limitations, mortality, individual choices, or accept that he or she has an outsider's view. Only an individual can make changes, excessive worry for another will not force that individual to change unless he or she deems it necessary. But even then it will only be because of personal choice not the worries of an outside individual.

Commitments

The word commitment has many different connotations. In one regard it means a marriage or taking the plunge. Another means to attend an event. Still another means to budget one's time. The other day, I was pondering why I felt so stuck in my life when this word came to me. I had just read about commitment in my last Psychology chapter before Christmas break. My last assignment was to describe a goal I have and ways I can increase my commitment. It was just an assignment...or so I thought. This assignment had major ramifications for re-evaluating my commitments.

I realized that commitments are not just big, easily identifiable things like a marriage, an event, or time budgeting. Rather commitments are prolific and infiltrate our entire life. I also realized that most things in our life are commitments. For example, if you buy something you commit to using it. If you have something you commit to using it; if you do not use it you commit to storing it. If you cook something you commit to eating it. If you have a child you commit to rearing it. If you have a garden you commit to tending it.

Simple enough yeah, but my ah-ha moment came when I realized the sheer degree of broken commitments in my life. I have book shelves of unread books. I have many projects started but never finished. I have many supplies to make things but have never made them. I bought kiefer starters recently to clear up my digestive flora but never made it. I bought a dehydrator a few years back and rarely use it. I bought a Vitamix but rarely use it. I could go on, but the point is I have many things or commitments that I do not properly utilize. I use the excuse of "I'll get around to it" or "I am just too busy now, but [fill in date] I'll be finished with [certain thing] and then I will do it" or something along those lines.

My life is filled with broken commitments. Broken commitments are clutter and clutter brings us down. Clutter is accumulated when we have things we do not use. Oh, but we have the best intentions to use them...someday. Someday. I am so committed to my projects and self betterment that I recently filled an entire 24' moving truck, had to leave stuff behind, and had no furniture in there. What was in there...all the stuff I found necessary to better myself, things I thought I needed, toys for my daughter to make up for my childhood, and basically a lot of baggage.

As I am evaluating my commitments I have "committed" to divesting myself of commitments. I moved from a much larger house than where I am now so more than half of my stuff remained in a storage area. I have decided that if my stuff will not fit within the confines of my small space, then I do not need it. Slowly, but surely the Goodwill is benefiting from my divestment. I am beginning to see the light as I now question all my stuff. If I cannot part with it then I commit to doing something with it; if I fail to do something with it by a certain date then off to the Goodwill it goes. I have to be ruthless otherwise I will never unbury myself from broken commitments.

Forest Gardening: Feeding the World through Sustainability

 
Self-Responsibility Given Away

Near the beginning of recorded history Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eaten (Eden) . In Exodus 20:18 the people of Israel said to Moses, who had delivered them out of oppression in Egypt, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” This set a precedent where people decided that they were unable or unwilling to take self responsibility. In today’s world this is no more evident than the problems of world hunger and the resulting reliance on big business to feed the masses. The production of food requires intervention oriented cultivation which is unsustainable and exploits the environment. This dilemma and solution mimics the ancient Cahokia society as their exploitation of the land to feed their growing population ultimately led to disaster. Is this where present society is heading? Will the earth ultimately retaliate and spew natural disaster to destroy man-made infrastructure? “Climate change and the recent financial crisis clearly show that humans have entered an unprecedented era of fast and possibly dangerous changes” (Lichtfouse, Hamelin, Navarrete, Debaeke, & Henri, 2010). Entry back into the Garden of Eaten requires food production to epitomize the original conditions and for humanity to adopt awareness, responsibility, and motivation to change.

The Cahokia Mirror for Modern Agriculture

It is said that history repeats itself, unless the lesson is learned. In an eerie parallel to modern agriculture, the tale of the Cahokia Indians offers a prediction of doom if attitudes of exploitation do not change. Around 1000 AD The Cahokia Indians populated near what is known as St. Louis. It was the largest tribal settlement in the United States. Their population had grown so expansive that they had nearly eradicated wild animals to hunt. To feed the growing population, an agricultural system was established to grow maize; this system was very similar to modern monoculture. As the population grew and more maize was being grown, the Cahokia quickly overtaxed their stream’s capacities. Their solution was to divert water from a nearby stream into their water supply to create a river. For space to grow they practiced extensive clear cutting of the surrounding forests. This move served to increase maize production and population growth. However, this was not a sustainable enterprise.

“Eventually, disaster struck. Heavy storms which would have been soaked up by forest quickly ran off the agricultural fields, bloating the river, and causing floods and mudslides in the city of Cahokia. A subsequent earthquake was the last straw which broke Cahokia's back. Within a few hundred years of its inception, the city had dissolved back into the earth. The Indians fled the city and developed a more sustainable agricultural system based on small fields of maize surrounded by managed forests of fruit and nuts. ” (Ana & Mark, 2010, Cahokia: a cautionary tale).

Modern Agriculture: History Problems Repeated

It took over 1600 years for human population to reach 1 billion people and it took scantly 400 years for the population to increase 6 fold to 6 billion people. Currently the population has increased by nearly 1 million people in less than 11 years. While the population growth is showing signs of slowing, the rate of growth is so large that current agricultural production cannot keep up with the demand. “Currently, the World Health Organization estimates that more than 3 billion people worldwide – the greatest number in history - are malnourished” (Berg & Hager, 2007, p. 338). To increase food yields farmers have turned to science to create super-producing crops. While this has met much of the population growth, it is also unsustainable, therefore this high intensity food production cannot continue for more than a few decades (Berg & Hager, 2007). What then? How will the growing population be fed?

Modern farming methods involve monoculture, or long rows of one type of food. To feed the growing population science intervened in plant production through genetic manipulation to increase food yield. These crops require massive interventions such as pesticides, high potency fertilizers, herbicides to discourage unwanted weeds, and special machinery to sustain the food through the growing season and onto harvesting. (Berg & Hager, 2007). Pesticides are used in increasing amounts to deal with the out of control pest populations which monoculture encourages. A monoculture is considered a feast to invader bugs, thus their exploding populations require even more pesticides (Agroforestry Research, 2008). All of these things contribute to pollution by poisoning the plants, animals, and people in the environment. “…Agricultural practices are the single largest cause of surface-water pollution…” (Berg & Hager, 2007, p. 346).

The terrestrial resources needed to sustain such large operations are tremendous. Aquifers, rivers and streams are rapidly becoming depleted from the large amounts of water used to irrigate these high yielding crops. Immense tracts of land are needed to meet current and future production demands. However, all the cultivatable land in the world is already taken and that land is giving way to urban development. Wild animal populations are also becoming increasingly isolated as more land is wrest from forest through clear cutting. Clear cutting contributes to soil erosion and floods because there are no longer natural vegetation roots to hold the soil in place or absorb large amounts of water from rain (Berg & Hager, 2007). Soil erosion also occurs when land is tilled. Tilling disturbs the natural ecosystem of the soil killing much of the microbiology and soil structure (Ana & Mark, 2010).

To offer a complete picture, the economics of such large scale farming also need to be accounted for. It takes huge sources of capital to live in such odds with the environment. Nature will eventually reclaim what it loses thus efforts to keep nature away are expensive. “It seems apparent that continued reliance on monocultures is more of a liability than an asset.” (Agroforestry Research, 2008, p. 6). It would also seem that such huge amounts of work and investment for such limited, or unbalanced food return does not make economic sense. Natural disasters must also be taken into account. The old adage about “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies to reliance on one huge mono-crop; putting that principle to the test. The Cahokia found their solution in gentle land persuasion, otherwise known as forest gardening. Will modern society embrace their lesson or will history repeat itself?

Forest Gardening: An Ancient Practice

Researcher Charles Mann (2006) delineates an alternative view of the history of American Indian land influence. American History teaches that the, “American Indians had a pure connection with the nearly untouched wilderness they lived in” (Anna & Mark, 2010, What American Indians can teach us about permaculture). Mann’s research has shown otherwise stating that the American Indians had significant influence on the structure of the forests and in created large civilizations sustained by agriculture which covered nearly two thirds of the United States (Mann, 2006).

The tropical rainforests of South and Central America have long been considered virgin forests. The Amazon forest and Mayan forest rank first and second, respectively, for sheer amount of biodiversity present in one place; in other words they have higher species diversity than anywhere else in the world. Scientists have long considered the forests to be an anomaly of nature. Evidence now points to the contrary. Because over 90% of the plants are useful to humans, science concludes that much, “8% to 100%, [of the forest] was anthropogenic” (Ann & Mark, 2010, Anthropogenic forests in the Amazon), or created through carful, human manipulation, see figure 1. To add credence to the argument, forest stewards of the El Piliar Maya Forest Garden Network [El Pilar] (2009) state that “that there is a higher percentage of useful plants in forested areas where the Maya lived than forest where people did not live. This suggests that the Maya manipulated their forest, favoring plants that were useful to them, changing the composition of the forest.”

Clarifying Terms

Forest gardening has become a blanket term for any system which involves the careful manipulation of plants in a forest setting to produce the maximum amount of beneficial plants. That said, there must be a distinction between temperate forest gardening and tropical forest gardening. Technically any gardening which takes place in the tropics is called permaculture. However, these techniques will not work in temperate forests. Robert Hart invented forest gardening as a way to apply the wisdom of permaculturists to the lack of abundant rainfall, less direct sunlight, and seasonal fluctuations of a temperate forest (Ana & Mark, 2010). That said the terms are usually used interchangeably. One thing is certain however, “Once a forest is managed it becomes a garden” (El Piliar, 2009, How a forest garden is different from a plowed field).

The Forest Garden: A Modern Garden of Eaten?

In the Garden of Eaten all was perfect and food was abundant. Adam and Eve had no cares except to be good stewards of the garden eat their fill. They did not have to toil for their food; they only had to pick it. When temptation overtook and they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the couple forsook the wisdom that partners with knowledge. In so doing they went against nature’s harmony and balance; choosing to follow self-righteousness and abdicating spiritual understanding. They no longer sought direct sustenance rather they chose to eat by the sweat of their brow. They were expelled from the abundant food provision of the Garden to toil away in unfulfilling, meager agriculture that would never cultivate anything resembling that abundance.

Forest gardens, once established, require little human intervention and do not deplete or harm natural resources the way monoculture does. Plants are introduced to take maximum advantage of natural rainfall. Land is not tilled and plants are not removed so soil structures remain intact. Many plants are perennials thus they do not need to be replanted year after year and they contribute to soil health. Even the annuals are encouraged to reseed themselves. Some plants, known as dynamic accumulators and nitrogen fixers, enrich the soil naturally without the use of fertilizers.

Guilds or groups of plants which cohabitate nicely, are created for maximum land efficiency and production. Considerations for finding good cohabitatable plants include: root depth, spread, and type; plant size and spread; mineral, water, and light needs; and growth season. These guilds can then can then provide all their own needs as well as help their neighbors. Pesticides are not used because plants are also grouped so that one plant discourages the pests of another. Herbicides to kill weeds are not used because the plant groupings are so dense that weeds cannot gain a foothold. When the gardener marries vegetation by filling in empty niches with useful plants he or she expands Mother Nature’s plan. Together they co-create a garden of super abundance (Agroforestry Research, 2009; Ana & Mark, 2010).

This guild process creates a system of over yielding which can be further explained by a physicist Eliyahu Goldratt (AGI – Goldratt Institute, 2009). Goldratt applies the principles of physics to management philosophies in a system he called the Theory of Constraints. This, in turn, can be applied to the management of land. A constraint is a limitation. For a farmer, his or her constraint is the land. This constraint limits the production capabilities of the farmer since he or she views the land as having a limited yield. A farmer in this situation accepts this as inevitable and the solution is to find more land or accept their financial cap. More land is not a feasible solution, however, as is discussed earlier. Goldratt would admonish that one has to maximize the potential of the constraint. A forest gardener does just that; growing more in less area; or increasing the land’s efficiency and output.

An example to showcase a guild’s high degree of productivity and beneficial cohabitation is found in the traditional three sisters crop: beans, corn, and squash. Researcher Stephen Gliessman noted that corn production, when grown in the three sister crop nearly doubled under these conditions and the bean and squash yields remained relatively the same as in conventional monoculture. But that is not the whole story. The bean and squash yields may have been the same, however all this was grown in an area less than half the size of the land it would take to grow these same plants as monocultures. He said, “This is known as over yielding. Considering increasing hunger and starvation, this more productive model offers hope for a better future” (Agroforestry Research, 2008, p.5). As far as beneficial cohabitation: the corn stalks provide a vertical surface for the beans to climb upon; the beans gather and share nitrogen because they are known as nitrogen fixers; and the squash grows so thickly as to effectively block out weeds (Agroforestry Research, 2008).

A nitrogen fixer means the plant has a unique root system which can convert otherwise inert nitrogen into beneficial nitrogen. Dynamic accumulators are also used in beneficial groupings because their deep root systems mine minerals from deep soil depths to store in their leaves. Plants are also considered dynamic accumulators if they provide a good home for beneficial bacteria to colonize. The soil benefits of both nitrogen fixers and dynamic accumulators are usually realized as the leaves of these plants are used for compost. (Ana & Mark, 2010).

Forest gardens take agricultural practices to a new level of sustainability while affording high yielding, and highly nutritious food. The sheer diversity of useful plant material grown in such a small area is economical. “A greater diversity in one’s diet leads to better nutrition and health… [M]alnutrition results from…a reliance on a limited number of foods, which generally have lower nutritional value… (Agroforestry Research, 2009, p. 8)” Promoting home gardening in a system of large diversity goes a long way to discouraging malnutrition. Heriberto Cocom, master forest gardener for El Pilar (2009), states that everyone has some land they can garden on; therefore, everyone can plant a forest garden. Plus, if one does not have land, community gardens are always options especially since the large food yields lend themselves well to sharing. Nutritional density also reduces malnutrition. The density is higher in the perennial versions of typical annual plants like spinach and its perennial counterpart good King Henry. Since forest gardens rely on perennials they naturally produce more nutrient density. In addition, the cohabitation and resource sharing of the plants provides higher nutrient density than monocropped plants (Agroforestry Research, 2009).

Forest gardens make more economic sense. A diverse range of plants can be grown in an area a fraction of the size needed for monoculture. This diversity has the added benefit of economic security. Should a natural phenomena like blight attack one crop the others are still intact. Conventional farmers, relying on one crop, would be devastated by the blight (Agroforestry Research, 2009). Polyculture, the cohabitation of many plants, also allows the farmer to grow year round as opposed to just one season. This additional growing time is beneficial for the pocketbook (El Pilar, 2009). A temperate forest example of this is highlighted by Agroforestry Research (2009) when the author discusses harvesting fresh food for his winter dinner party. Finally, a forest garden makes economic sense because of the diversity of cash brining crops. A forest garden, “produc[es] plants to meet a diverse array of human needs, like food, shelter, medicine, and many others” (El Pilar, 2009). Plants like the bamboo plant can also be used for clothing.

The best example of a city sustained on personal forest gardens is found in Kerala, India. Agroforestry Research summarizes forest gardening founder Robert Heart’s book Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape. “Hart’s book cites the 3.5 million home gardens in Kerala, India that provide the majority of food for the 32 million residents in an area the size of Switzerland. Kerala ranks second in The Physical Quality of Living Index for Asia despite being one of the most populous places on Earth and having an average income of less than $400 per year. Only Japan ranks higher. Life expectancy rivals the US, literacy rates are approaching 100%, free hospitals and Ayurvedic clinics are very common, and ninety percent of the Keralese population owns land. Their secret is that they don’t need that much money--practically all of their necessities are growing in the backyard” (2009, p.4)

Forest gardening is a community affair, thus much of the labor is voluntary. A community forest garden would follow the same rules and regulations of a regular community garden. A community garden requires that those community member who wish to benefit from the harvest need to contribute to the upkeep of the garden. A forest garden is self sustained and thus does not involve all the work a regular community monoculture garden requires. It only requires regular pruning and mulching with most of the work occurring at harvest time. It seems reasonable that each community member would harvest their own food. This is the same principle that God set forth in Exodus with the manna. The manna was provided each morning and each member of the community was responsible for acquiring what he or she needed for the day. El Pilar (2009) discusses community involvement is essential for a source of labor and generational knowledge acquisition. This not only keeps money in the community rather than outsourcing for labor, but it allows for greater camaraderie. In addition the garden is, “is almost entirely maintained with local resources, such as household refuse (compost), organic material (dead weeds), ashes from kitchen fires, and manure,” providing all the necessary fertilizer to “enrich the soil” (El Pilar, 2009, What is a forest garden?).

Problems Facing Adoption

People have abdicated their rights to produce their own food to the big business farmer. Forest gardening, despite its benefits, is unlikely to be adopted as a serious alternative by farmers until some biases are dispelled. For one thing forest gardening is a long term proposition not a fix-it-quick scheme; big problems require big solutions. These solutions must be far reaching with true commitment. In a business text book called Wharton on Decision Making (Hoch, Kunreuther, & Gunther, 2001, Ch. 6). the authors describe “Maintaining a normal state of mind requires constant practice.” To further describe this idea they quote from a book named The Book of Five Rings by an author named Musashi, “This is something that requires thorough examination, with a thousand days of practice for training and ten thousand days of practice for refinement” (p.114) They further explained that: “To the ancient Chinese, reflection was closely linked to knowledge. Because the Chinese believe all things are interdependent, knowledge was the ability to trace out the connections between things. Once this was accomplished, the decision maker would know what actions to take today to reap the benefits of the future. The idea was summarized in a saying, ‘To know after seeing is not worthy of being called knowing’” (2001, Ch. 6, p.109).

This concept can be applied to the creation of a forest garden. A forest garden can take up to 10 years to reach maturity; therefore it is not a one season solution like a monoculture. It requires patience. Knowledge acquisition of the land, climate, whether patterns, rain fall, plant characteristics, plant interactions, plants needs, plant cohabitation options, etc. all require patience and commitment. In other words, farmers as businesses people are looking for short term profits, not long term gain. The farmer would justify his or her position saying they are concerned with the bottom line, profits. Mechanized crop harvesting is cheaper than the human labor necessary to harvest food in a forest garden. This translates to fewer profits.

This is a fallacy however. The adoption of the forest garden method of cultivation requires a paradigm shift. It also means that the two systems cannot be fairly compared because they are so different. Sure, the farmer may profit more from mechanized harvesting systems, but the farmer is not looking at the other factors involved; this is narrow minded thinking. The farmer automatically saves money because he or she does not need to spend money on pesticides, herbicides, special machinery, fossil fuels, machine upkeep, fertilizers, new batches of seeds, etc. In addition the costs to the environment of monoculture are not taken into account in this statement. That said, many farmers, particularly those in third world countries are not concerned with environmental preservation if it cuts into their profitability (El Pilar, 2009; Ana & Mark, 2010; and Berg & Hager, 2007).

This narrow minded thinking is based out of fear of the unknown. Fear is an interesting concept as an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real (author unknown). The Bible further explains this concept in Hose 4:6 when it states, “My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.” The idea behind this is fear is often illogically justified by strong emotions not logical evidence. The farmer in this case, would base his argument for maintaining modern agricultural methods on the illogical evidence of the strong emotion of fear. The overwhelming benefit of forest gardening would be lost on him or her.

For the sake of logic, the fear of the farmer is also perpetuated by the biases and discrimination from the farmer’s suppliers that exist against sustainable agriculture. For example, insurance agencies often will not insure a sustainably farmed crop because they consider it too high risk (Bailey & Preston, n.d.). Once again this bias is bases upon fear. An example of discrimination against forest gardeners is in Brazil where the government considers an area to be developed if it is monocropped. Forest land is considered undeveloped and therefore subject to economic pressures to “develop it” (El Pilar, 2009).

Gary Yukl (2006), another business textbook author, provides an explanation of modern managers that provides a striking similarity to the farmer whose motivation is profit. Most people have the misconception that managers have inordinate amounts of time to sit in their offices and create elaborate action plans. This is simply untrue. Managers, he says are involved in a flurry of activities all day long as they run from place to place putting out fires; they react not act on their situation. Their processes are fragmented and their activities lack any real cohesion. They only look at the steps involved at this particular moment and lack a view of the bigger picture of the interaction of things. Likewise farmers do not have an overview of the bigger picture and their processes are thus fragmented.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the forest garden and modern agriculture is the forest garden is not really suited to big business per say. To understand this further, two principles that seem unrelated, warrant introduction. Christine Woodrow and Frances Press, university professors, discussed a concept that is similar to the dilemma of the modern farmer even though they were discussing the dilemma of the child in daycare. “At the turn of the 21st century [people] have been witness to an acceleration of privatization and commercialism in many aspects of everyday life” (2007, p. 315). They further discussed “that values such as trust, respect, good will, sincerity and fairness…are likely to be transformed [into] supplier-consumer relationships built upon profit motives” (2007, p. 318

To further explain that dilemma the views of another pair of professors, Genevive Vaughan and Elia Estola, also discussing education, can be applied. They proposed that two paradigms exist that rule all human engagements. The dominate paradigm is the exchange paradigm where recompense is expected for any service given. This is the paradigm that dominates world commerce and relegates those goods which satisfy human needs, like food, water, shelter, education, etc. to vehicles for exchange rather than nature’s free provision. On the other hand, a paradigm that has just as much to offer, but is only recognized as the domain of mothers to their children, it the gift paradigm. In the gift paradigm, goods and services are offered out of love and respect without expectation of a payment in return. This paradigm is long term whereas the exchange paradigm is short term. For example, mothers tirelessly offer their services and never once do they ask their children for payment. The reason is because the mother’s intuitive wisdom knows that the better the rearing in the present, the better adults their children will become (2007). She knows that someday the fruits of her efforts will manifest or the seeds will flourish.

The gift paradigm relates to the forest garden in once it planted and nurtured to maturity, it freely gives what it has without expectation for recompense. A monocrop may give its harvest but that only happens in exchange for tremendous amounts of interventions and constant vigilance from the farmer. As stated before, the return of the crop is disproportionate to the amount of work involved in getting that return. Because a monocrop cannot give, the farmer does not understand the gift paradigm, thus, these two principles adequately explain the dilemma of the farmer. Farmers have to be responsible to big business which overtakes precedence for what is right. The farmer is driven by the exchange paradigm because that is the dominating force of our world. The farmer will never realize the gift paradigm because it does not follow what he or she has always known.

The gift paradigm also describes Eliyahu Goldratt’s (AGI – Goldratt Institute, 2009) Theory of Constraints when he states that one needs to maximize their constraint. The farmer does not believe his constraint can be maximized. However if he or she were to look at the land as providing a free gift, then that gift paradigm would naturally lend itself to the creation of the forest garden to maximize the constraint of the land. The farmer is blinded by ghosts of profits, rather than looking at the entire picture of expenses. Forest gardening will never be a feasible solution when it is viewed completely through the lens of big business, or exchange paradigm, and thus meddling in the realization of the forest garden or gift paradigm.

Despite showing the illogical nature of the farmer’s for profit argument, the farmer would not be compelled to change his or her mind; they have no reason to. They do not see their system as broken or if they do they are too afraid to take action to fix it. A logical way of looking at all sides of the issue and eliminating the fear, described later, would be to examine John Nash’s Theory of Equilibrium (Osborne, 2002). This theory states that in every game there is a win-win situation, not always a win-lose. This theory when applied to the farmer, would state that what is best for the farmer is for maximum land usage and what is best for the people is to have abundance of food. If food production followed forest gardening, it would overcome the World Health Organization’s prediction that agriculture will quickly become inadequate to supply the demands of the people.

Re-entering The Garden of Eaten

The lesson of the Cahokia basically states if one cannot learn from past mistakes or perceive current misdirection, then one cannot progress toward finding a solution. The Bible explains this differently in John 20:29 when it states, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” and in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. Exploitation of the land, also known as monoculture, is not a solution for feeding the masses. Exploitation and crop isolation will ultimately lead to a disaster because it does not work with the ecosystem.

Forest Gardening is the art of resisting exploitation as a solution and relying on an intuitive process which draws upon the knowledge of interactions to follow nature’s way. The gift paradigm explains the concept of the forest gardening as the plentiful giving of food without expectation for recompense. Modern agriculture is based on the opposite exchange paradigm. The monocrop does not give freely rather it does so in exchange for the farmer’s intensive interventions.

The Theory of Constraints delineates that the farmer’s land is his or her constraint, meaning that it can only produce so much. The theory also discusses that one must seek to make the constraint achieve maximum profitability. The farmer’s paradigm will not support more yield from the land, however, the polyculturist recognizes the untapped potential land yield through successful plant cohabitation. The Theory of Equilibrium provides the solution stating that the best solution would be something that best provides for the farmer’s and the people’s needs, or win-win. Monoculture, while trying to have the farmer’s best interests in mind, is illogical in nature and is also a win-lose proposition. Forest gardening represents mankind’s journey coming full circle; from original sin to re-entering the Garden of Eaten.

 
References
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