Initially there was a little uncertainty about how this weekend and planned activities would develop. Weather forecasts weren’t favouring a weekend suitable for gardening so I advised those people who indicated they might come, that they could opt out if they wished, particularly those coming from Christchurch. Fortunately a rainy forecast didn’t seem to dampen everyone’s plans for a stay at the Centre. So the Centre and the garden were blessed with lots of good dana giving energy over the long weekend
Georgia, Dan, Mark, Hadleigh and Nicole arrived from Christchurch
Rosie and Freya from Golden Bay
Roger, Anna, Josh and Jesse and Danielle from Nelson
And James from Blenheim
For James and Nicole it was their first time at the Centre. Everyone else had been at the Centre many times and are ‘well versed’ in the way things work and since I was wanting to focus my energies on the garden work, it was gratifying to know the preparation of food and other important household duties were taken care of seamlessly.
Fortunately a rainy Saturday didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for keen gardeners and though those people keen enough to ’brave’ the rainy elementals got quite soaked, the work we were doing was reasonably appropriate for the day and no one seemed to mind being wet. Ironically there was almost a grand opportunity to have an ‘enforced’ workforce for some days because as most people now know, a large slip formed on the driveway on Saturday evening and prevented anyone leaving on Sunday morning.
We all strolled down Sunday morning armed with shovels etc. but one look was enough to realize that shovels and picks were not going to move the large rocks easily and I think it dawned on everyone they might be in for a longer stay. Tracy convened a ‘what do we do now’ meeting to check out the feelings and needs of everyone who might or might not be in for a longer stay!
The ‘silver lining’ was that Glenn just happened to have his front end loader on site and by Sunday afternoon he’d made the road usable. So much for keeping the workforce on site, perhaps I should’ve had a quiet word with Glenn. The reality was however that really everyone did have other commitments. A big thank you to Glenn for that, especially from everyone who needed to leave.
And also really big thanks to everyone who came and offered their energy and support to the garden and the Centre. As we all know Dana is a living breathing entity, a living energy of exchange, a communication between beings. How can we possibly know about this endless flow of Dana between those who offer and those who receive. The Centre is both a great source/resource of Dana, a dance, a dancing flow between innumerable beings. How wondrous to know even just a small part of this.
Anyway, over 3 days the garden got transformed, yet again. Compost was spread. Another compost heap was turned and yet another compost was made, composing itself as
composts do, over the next months. Seedlings were sown, green manure cut down, seeds were sown, the process of digging up couch grass and convolvulus continues ad infinitum. Fortunately the hot composting method I use cooks everything and magically with the help of uncountable and largely unseen micro organisms a living soil is being created. The ultimate process of Dana.
I reflect on this ‘garden’, this indescribable process of livingness and transformation. I reflect on how the garden began. I believe it was Ana Dorrington who over 25 years ago was the driving force, the inspiration for this garden, and so with the help of Mike Elliott and others who I can’t personally name in this moment, a budding garden was birthed, using rocks from the river bed and poles from the amazingly durable Robinia pseudoacacia, all of which are still standing strong after all these years. A great tent of wire netting enclosed and covered the garden, protecting it from rabbits, wekas, and pigs. A prototype 3 bin composting structure was made, still functioning after all these years, even though some of the timbers are now showing signs of being part of the composting process.
Another significant aspect of the garden that many people are aware of, was how the garden beds were laid out in the form of a mandala.
So years have passed, the cycles of the seasons have come and gone, so too plants and crops, caretakers and gardeners, volunteers, this garden of livingness, countless human gardeners and innumerable lives of creatures largely invisible and unknown have all ‘made’ the garden what it seemingly is.
Retreaters, visitors, volunteers, many have eaten of the garden, of its livingness, this grand cornucopia of salad greens and roots and flowers and seeds, lives feeding lives an endless stream of participation in life.
One could be forgiven for believing that this cycle of gardening would just continue ad infinitum as gardens and gardeners do, growing, eating, composting but nature or life has other plans, something to do with COVID-19 , something to do with just how much a caretaker or caretakers can manage sustainably.
The garden did, without a lot of human intervention, did what gardens do, it sort of rested. In farming terms the garden went fallow. As far as nature is concerned the garden became more natural, wild if you like, but still a living entity in its own right-full-ness. How does one create a recognisable garden once again out of that resting wildness. That was the question that Amber and Jacinta asked of me in 2022.
A request became an invitation, seemingly to take on the role of kaitiaki.
Two years later, the mandala has partially been dismantled. Some garden beds are ‘resting’ under a blanket of black plastic. I’ve made compost, sown ‘green manure’ crops. I’ve made 3 trips a year from Golden Bay, most often with a fully laden car with plants and compost, horse manure, seeds and tools. Much gratitude to a very durable ‘workhorse’, my old Toyota Corolla diesel s/w. The garden is slowly being transformed into something that is practical and useable for caretakers and retreaters, and in a process of co creation.
I’m endeavouring to use the wire mesh to grow climbing beans and grape vines. Crops planted are more of the varieties that respond to regular picking rather than crops or plants that only produce a one off crop.. I’m establishing crops that self seed en situ so they develop a sort of perennial nature.
The hot composting system is working ( it’s a living working system of innumerable beings giving Dana, whole heartedly) really well and is feeding the garden beds. Consider this brief period of time of these gardens and the ancient nature of the separation point granite that the gardens sit on. This sliver of earth and compost feeding endless mouths and bellies. Wondrous!
This is one grand practice of kaitiaki, a nurturing and feeding of beings multi dimensionally. So far I’m able to orchestrate this from Golden Bay. My visits allow me to take refuge at the centre and in the garden in meditations on this unfolding livingness.
However I’d be happy to pass the kaitiaki on to some other dedicated gardener/s
