On the 19th of May, I went to my local plant shop to buy some veggies. I am very new to the game of gardening, but I fell in love with its simplicity and functionality whilst integrating therapy, exercise, grocery shopping and artistic expression.
Could gardening be a positive tool that humbly tackles systematic oppression, founded by colonial capitalism and its bi-product, climate change?
Vandana Shiva author of Monoculture of the Mind has stated that saving seed is possibly the ultimate tool to gain agency. By diverting wasteful energy from big food production co-operations including overseas and local transportation, lack of biodiversity in fields, unsustainable large amounts of factory emissions including processing food, short term plastic packaging and genetically modified crops etc, the meek seed that is "saved", can be preserved to feed a family, without the necessity of relying on a monetary-based system.
Vegetables I bought to plant: broad beans, broccoli, white and purple cauliflower and brussel sprouts. I saved pumpkin seeds from a store-bought pumpkin and propogated parsnips, carrots and spring onion. I also planted some horseradish and some garden herbs including a family favourite- coriander.
The process was very exciting and took 6 hours over two days to finish the bed.
After watching "no-dig" methods when gardening implemented by Charles Dowding, I bought two bales of pea straw mulch from a local business in Kumeu and started the layering process.
Conceptually it was very interesting understanding "no-dig" as opposed to conventionally tilling the soil.
By refusing to leave the soil as untouched as much as possible, rather layering it with compost and carbon material, as and when needed, the ground is treated as sacred.
Plants are able to communicate with each other over considerable distances, due to their symbiotic relationship with fungi (mycorrhizae). Entire forests can be interconnected so intricately through invisible networks that function akin to being online. The function of this communication is of healthy benefit, where plants are able to share nutrients with other plants who are nutrient-deficient. Other functions include plants who have pests sending information to unaffected plants. The unaffected plants then use this information to send specific pest immunity to resist the disease.
By implementing "no-dig" gardening methods, as Dowding simply puts it, you are avoiding bruising, beating, or even kill the life beneath and within the soil. Instead, they are left to "get on" with their work, and build a complex soil structure, aerate and drain.
By leaving the soil as is, and feeding layers of compost and carbon material, the ground is respected and trusted to do what the life that lives in it does best.
The following images document my progress of planting and layering compost, and loose "weeding".
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