Cultivation | Earth | Elements | Growing
Earth Energy Practice: Garden Sketching
Earth Energy Practice: Garden Sketching
I started sketching out my garden(s) early on in my cultivation journey to keep up with what I’d planted, and where. I’d tried those little plant ID stakes, of many varieties, but a few months of sun and rain often left me scratching my head, and of course there were no plant ID apps back then.
Sketching things out had two added bonuses:
(1) After sketching things, I could more easily remember without the sketch, because (2) I added/updated them often, especially when I wanted to keep up with when I’d put in the earliest carrots or peas.
As my gardening and cultivation grew into more of an active part of my spiritual practices, I’ve learned that drawing out the garden is a beautiful and easeful way to flow into a vision of the future. I was recently out in my garden, asking the plants for ideas for the day’s Earth Energy practice, and they said, “when are you going to sketch us?” Sketching out the garden, in color, is a wonderful earth-energy practice for rooting in present time, and considering how to direct cultivation in the coming months and years.
So after the great advice from the plants, I got right to it, and you’ll see that sketch up top. This is my first summer for this primary garden space; this time last year, it was a pile of horse manure on cardboard, topped by the dirt dug out of a french drain, topped by lots of straw. Last fall, I formed out some paths and rows: for this garden, I am starting with a keyhole concept to maximize edges!
I did grow lots of nice lettuce, kale, beets, and garlic through the winter and spring (Tennessee is an ideal place for year-round gardening). But for this first summer with mostly unimproved soil, I focused primarily on growing living fertilizer plants: peas, clover, buckwheat, and a massive comfrey right in the middle that I’ll separate for all the other garden areas come spring. All of these add nutrients to the earth, and all can be direct mulched back into the garden to improve the soil and add biomass….supporting abundance and vitality for the future.
Sketching things out had two added bonuses:
(1) After sketching things, I could more easily remember without the sketch, because (2) I added/updated them often, especially when I wanted to keep up with when I’d put in the earliest carrots or peas.
As my gardening and cultivation grew into more of an active part of my spiritual practices, I’ve learned that drawing out the garden is a beautiful and easeful way to flow into a vision of the future. I was recently out in my garden, asking the plants for ideas for the day’s Earth Energy practice, and they said, “when are you going to sketch us?” Sketching out the garden, in color, is a wonderful earth-energy practice for rooting in present time, and considering how to direct cultivation in the coming months and years.
So after the great advice from the plants, I got right to it, and you’ll see that sketch up top. This is my first summer for this primary garden space; this time last year, it was a pile of horse manure on cardboard, topped by the dirt dug out of a french drain, topped by lots of straw. Last fall, I formed out some paths and rows: for this garden, I am starting with a keyhole concept to maximize edges!
I did grow lots of nice lettuce, kale, beets, and garlic through the winter and spring (Tennessee is an ideal place for year-round gardening). But for this first summer with mostly unimproved soil, I focused primarily on growing living fertilizer plants: peas, clover, buckwheat, and a massive comfrey right in the middle that I’ll separate for all the other garden areas come spring. All of these add nutrients to the earth, and all can be direct mulched back into the garden to improve the soil and add biomass….supporting abundance and vitality for the future.
Of course I can’t resist some food, so this August in my garden you’ll also find a few unstaked tomatoes, several happy jalapeno peppers, a smattering of flowers, two giant zucchini plants, a couple of onions and herbs, and the strawberry bed. The gray areas in my current sketch are the cardboard “border spaces” — keeping the grass at bay! This winter, I’ll work on defining those boundaries by filling them with flowers and herbs (good practice for energetic boundary work as well).
If you want to connect more directly with the energy in your garden space, sketch it, draw it, color it, paint it. See what comes through, and honor the artistry of spiritual cultivation.
