Organic Gardening: What has organic gardening to do with spiritual healing?

By Ann Lees, Vedic Cultural Fellowship

What has organic gardening to do with spiritual healing?

Allow me a few moments of your time and I shall tell you.

A centre such as we are developing will be a place of tranquillity, comfort and revival, both spiritual and physical. I suppose this could be achieved without the benefit of nature on the doorstep but nature itself is a healer, and can offer so much to the troubled spirit. Let us take a stroll through a year in the garden of our healing centre, where visitors will be encouraged to enjoy their surroundings as much, or as little, as they so desire.

In the gradually lengthening days when winter is losing it's hold and spring is anxious to reveal herself, multi - coloured crocus will provide a rainbow of colour, followed by sparkling yellow primroses emerging from the grass under the hedgerows.

On a brisk, sunny day, the greenhouse will be drawing the warm rays in through the glass, to encourage the many seedlings to grow strong and true, that they may provide the house with sweetly scented flowers and healthy vegetables for the table. Frogs will have spawned in the pool, and the tadpoles will be slowly developing until they too can take refuge among the free flowering borders, safe in the knowledge they will not be poisoned by the use of sprays which rid us of ` those horrid aphids'.

We know spring has arrived when the nettles start to emerge, invigorated after a winter's rest and ready to outgrow anything except perhaps the docks and creeping buttercup. Most gardeners will race to the garden shed for their `systemic, all encompassing, certain to kill anything that moves' bottle, BUT, hold on a moment, have you ever really considered these plants also have a right to a place in the scheme of things?

The common nettle will attract butterflies such as Red Admirals, small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and others, to give us pleasure during the summer, as we watch them flit from flower to flower As for the dock, have you ever tried to find one when you have been stung by a nettle? Take heed, cultivate a few!

May will see the bluebells making a carpet of colour in the shade, and the sweetly scented Hesperis Matronalis ( Sweet rocket ) will be planted close to seating areas, where they can be enjoyed to the full. The lilac and white heads will sway with the slightest breeze, carrying their perfume across the garden. After the yellows of early sprig, I tend to think of May and June as `the lilac time', as this colour seems to dominate the borders. Honesty is another of my favourites, which will find it's way into a corner or two. Mother nature is not a tidy gardener. Not for her, or us, the spotless landscape of regimented and `approved' plants, set 12 or l 8 inches apart in an orderly fashion. She dislikes open patches of soil, immaculate lawns and manicured trees.

Faced with these challenges, she takes no time at all to fill in the gaps among the flowers with chickweed and fat hen, encourages mossy patches to appear among the blades of grass, or sends an unwanted branch sprouting from the leylandii, all to the horror of the `tidy' gardener.

Why do we constantly fight her? In the last few years, there has been an enormous increase in the number of people becoming interested in gardening, not least because of the pleasure and satisfaction it gives, yet the majority of gardeners still wage war against nature, treating it as the enemy which must be subdued. There are whitefly, blackfly, caterpillars; the number of `pests' to be dealt with are endless, so they are sprayed, poisoned and hounded from the garden. When we do this, we also banish bees, birds, beetles etc., as we are removing their source of food. If they are unwise enough to hang around, we finish them off when they unwittingly eat the remaining prey that have ingested a lethal dose of the chemicals we have covered the plants with.

The height of summer at the centre will see cascades of colour from roses, lavender and honeysuckle, their aroma combined with that of sweetly scented herbs. These herbs will be harvested and taken indoors, for use both in the kitchen and the healing preparations. Fresh vegetables will also contribute to the wonderful food presented to our clients, offered to the Creator first. To sit in or stroll around the gardens at this time of year will surely soothe the troubled spirit and strengthen the body. Dragonflies and Damselflies will hover above the pool, carrying on their courtship rituals among the ragged robin and water forget-me-not.

As autumn approaches with it's mellow tones, apples will be ripe for the picking, either to eat, fresh from the branch, or hand over to the kitchen and enjoy the results in a tasty dessert. Hips will appear on the wild roses, food for the blackbird perched in the tree. The unruly nasturtiums will scramble over the flower beds and climb any vertical structure they can reach, nodding their bright orange heads at passers by. The swallows and Martins who have spent the summer with us will suddenly disappear from their usual meeting places, to search Out warmer weather until the following spring.

With the first heavy frosts, you might think our garden will have nothing more to offer but you would be wrong. Put on your warm coat and gloves, a sturdy pair of shoes, and crunch your way through the fallen leaves. See the winter birds gathering around for scraps from the kitchen, the robin fighting all-comers for the tastiest morsels. The cock pheasant, unseen for most of the year, will bring his wives to visit during the cold months of January and February, searching for seeds among the dead flowers. Should you throw them a handful of corn they will scatter at first, emerging cautiously as you leave - they have learnt Man is not to be trusted. Should January find you wandering along the frozen paths, you may catch a glimpse of slender stems pushing their way through the grass, determined to herald the approaching spring - the snowdrops have arrived!!!

Organic gardening is for the spiritually inclined. We know there is something inherently magical about the earths ability to produce healthy food and beautiful plants. We don't want to interfere with it, rather we would nurture and encourage its bounty. By working with rather than against mother nature, we become closer to the creator, however we perceive Him share this experience with us.

Hare Krsna.

Ann Lees

The mission of the Vedic Cultural Fellowship (VCF) is to bring vedic spirituality to the enchanting land of New Mexico, establishing a center that can be visited by people from around the globe. Vedic culture is inherently spiritual in outlook, making kindness, charity, compassion, and honesty the main values for harmony in life. We will seek to teach and apply the sciences of natural ayurvedic medicine, yoga, meditation, and vedic astrology, along with the varied arts which have their origin in the Vedas. Our desire is to help individuals overcome physical, emotional, or spiritual problems naturally, gaining a higher outlook on life both individually and collectively.

For more information, please visit http://www.vedicworld.org