Thoughts from the Healing Garden

“If you have a garden and library,
you have everything you need.”

So said the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106BC-43BC) over 2000 years ago. It is interesting to reflect that words can echo for that long and still be true.

At the beginning of the summer, I visited Ruskin Mill for a BD100 celebration and conference. I learnt so much that weekend, and even 100 years is longer than most people alive can remember, unless you’ve got it written down! Luckily, someone had the sense to write down the words spoken by Rudolf Steiner in his agriculture lectures. I admitted to finding the agriculture course difficult to read, so I haven’t read it properly.

In my defence, I’ve got several copies of the agriculture course in the Healing Garden library, and I’m looking forward to adding another new and improved translation by Simon Blaxland-de-Lange when it comes out later this year and I’m determined to read it from cover to cover.
We have an extensive library in the Healing Garden. It is far from complete, but it does contain several thousand books on biodynamics, gardening, botany, arts and crafts, self-sufficiency and sustainability, medical herbs, natural health, and medicine. We also have what is left of the old biodynamic college archives with many interesting journals and field reports. They nearly got dispersed when the biodynamic agriculture college closed over a decade ago, but were rescued by Udo Ottow, and now they reside in a cupboard while we are creating more library space to house them.

As the name suggests, the Healing Garden is also a garden. In fact, like the rest of the Emerson gardens, and the neighbouring Tablehurst land, it is Demeter certified biodynamic and organic. We follow the biodynamic calendar and the principles described in Maria Thun’s brilliant book. It has taken me years to understand the abbreviations and to learn not to feel stressed about missing a root day or a descending moon – instead it now makes me feel relaxed and in tune, accepting my own limitations, and appreciating that root days and descending moons return on a regular basis.

The system reminds me of an old farmer I knew out in the Jutland moors where he lived with his family on a very remote farm. I used to visit on my horse, and we would have coffee – using cups from the dresser with the fine china – and discuss the land and the weather and other matters of interest. He didn’t always manage to get everything sown, weeded or harvested as he used very old-fashioned tools and machinery which he would repair himself using his portable tool kit kept in an old midwifery bag. Sometimes the old harvester would spend all year where it had broken down in the field, and he would sow around it, planning to get it repaired by the next harvest. He also had a blind hen who he had taught to find the seeds he spread for her, thus proving the old Danish proverb “even a blind hen finds a grain”.  But I digress…

The Healing Garden is kind of a mixture between that old farmer’s practice and biodynamics – we use no-dig methods, meaning we mulch and let the worms do the digging, and the lack of air and light do the weeding. After a while, we remove the cover and find excellent, moist and nutrient-rich soil to plant in.
Although we grow around 420 different species of medicinal plants, we also leave areas for wildlife and insects, creating natural flower meadows and leaving plants to go to seed that we then use for propagation. This practice has created an amazing biodiversity in the garden with myriads of birds and bats, visitors to our insect hotel, and guests in our bee-b&b which is very popular among solitary bees. Did you know, by the way, that out of the 267 species of bees in the UK, only one is a honeybee, and 25 species are bumblebees which have in common that they live in hives and colonies, while the other 241 species are solitary bees that prefer their own private homes.

We welcome and cater for all insects but are particularly popular with honeybees. A couple of years ago, I attended a local event where I heard someone say that nearly all honeybees in Sussex had been wiped out during the winter and it was hard for beekeepers to get new stock and keep them alive. I didn’t even know! We have several hives in the Healing Garden. They have come by themselves. Some have been there for over a decade. Every year new swarms arrive, and we either give them a home in the garden or with someone who has to promise not to take their honey. I believe the abundance of biodynamic wildflowers combined with letting the bees keep their own harvest is the secret of our success. Just the other day, a swarm left our sun-hive and found themselves a new home in the cracked willow next to Pixton in the Emerson gardens.

Apart from the birds and the bees, the Healing Garden is also host to many human visitors who come to learn or relax or volunteer. It is a natural environment to do all three. But that’s another story, one you can find out  more about if you visit  www.thehealinggarden.uk/
Kirsten Hartvig