Growing Things

The Gift of Connection

(This is a re-posted blog post from 2024.)

To me, summer is a busy time at home mainly because my family have an allotment. Although I love to walk the land – it’s intrinsic to me as part of my spiritual connection, (which no doubt you may have read in previous blogs,) another way I relate to the spirit of the place is through tending and caring for the areas in which I live. This includes volunteering at my local nature reserve once a month, clearing rubbish, rebuilding paths, and keeping track and recording sightings of various protected wildlife inhabitants which in turn protect the reserve from re-development.

 However, nothing compares to the smell of rich soil after being turned ready for planting, and the sense of connectivity when crumbing the loam in my hand - all my senses are at one with the earth, communing with an ancient visceral language that is pure and immense. I bless each seedling or plant as I carefully entrust its care to the bed of soil, I feed it with organic nettle or comfrey tea and water every day, hoping in turn to be blessed with edibles or visual beauty. 

Our allotment isn’t neat and tidy, or have regular sized beds with straight paths and perfectly sized courgettes - it’s overgrown in places and we don’t cut the grass much, we let weeds grow and most of the greenhouse doesn’t have glass. We primarily don’t use any substance that could harm the wildlife, except some baracades to protect our trees from the deer, and netting to protect our swedes/kale from pigeons in winter. We follow some permaculture methods, such as companion planting crops that protect other crops, we collect water from rain and make our own compost, and allow plants to grow where they want to. That probably sounds odd, but as an example, our raspberries never really thrived in the area we originally placed them in, but instead re-sprouted a few feet away in our blueberry bed and are now perfectly happy, along with the lemon balm and blueberries!

Most importantly we try to grow in a way that works with the land and wildlife. We left some overgrown leeks to flower, encouraging hoverflies and bees, and leave some berries on the red and black currants for the blackbird family that resides in the next allotments bushes.  Our next project is to create a small pond from an old bath we were given to help the frogs who live under a greenhouse nearby, who in turn will (hopefully) eat unwanted slugs and snails on our bean crops.  We don’t go home with cart loads of crops, or prize winning cabbages, but we always go home with joy in our hearts and a few runner beans or the odd squash now and then.

We have quite a few apple and fruit trees, and were very lucky that when we acquired the allotment there was already an old and well established apple tree in one corner. Every year we are blessed with rosy red apples in October and cooling shade on hot summer’s day.  In January we traditionally wassail our old apple tree, after pruning and checking her over.  For those who don’t know, wassailing is the old tradition of ensuring a plentiful crop by toasting and offering libations (usually with cider) to the trees At the same time, it is necessary to make as much racket as possible, playing loud music and in some parts of Somerset, firing a shot gun through the branches of the tree to frighten the devil or bad spirits away who hide in the tree. It’s a good reason to have friends over, drink cider and brighten up a cold dull January night with fire and song.

I have recently been reading Mary Reynold’s book “The Garden Awakening” which is a fascinating insight into holistic bonding with land as a living being. In one chapter Mary speaks about beating the boundaries as a symbol of your purpose to form a relationship with the land. Walking the edges of your land was traditionally done annually in Ireland as a marker. The intent  should be clear as you  mindfully concentrate, you need to  make the land understand by maybe speaking or even singing your intention, as you pace  You could use a drum, or stones, which create resonation and clear stale energy.  Although I have not done this, it sounds like a beautiful way of creating a familial bond with the land you are working with and it’s something I will be doing from now on.

The most important part of our relationship with the land is allowing yourself to bond and heal the earth and yourself with it. Sitting in the shade listening to birds singing, the sun touching your skin in dappled light, breathing with, and feeling the heartbeat beneath your feet or hands, being as one.

This is the greatest gift we are given.

Words and photographs are ©Thea Prothero

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