maple street co-op

Cultivating News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Apr/May 2004

Tuning in to Your Garden
by Mary Meadows

Fifteen years or so ago, I had an ornamental shrub that was not performing. It had straggly growth, erratic foliage and spasmodic flowering.

So I pruned and fertilised this shrub and told it that if it didn't get its act together it was for the chop. It made a remarkable recovery and never looked back. I am a bit more enlightened now and would be much gentler with my treatment of that shrub today. This recall of past bad behaviour on my part led me to think about how we arrogantly put plants and trees into the ground without considering that the conditions may not be ideal or the climate at all suitable.

To prune or not to prune?

We also hack and prune and reconfigurate without being aware that we may be stunting the growth patterns of some plants. For example, wouldn't it be better to plant a row of trees as a hedge that actually grow to their normal height, rather than plant large trees and constantly trim them into submission? Consider the rose bush; when left to its own devices, it becomes a large, beautiful plant and still manages to produce abundant flowers.

So why do we prune? Is it to make the fruit or flower more easy to get at, or do we expect some benefit may accrue to us? If the plant in question is producing more because it is afraid that it will destroyed if it doesn't, then we shouldn’t prune.

Cellular memory and intelligence

Plant cells, like human cells, have an intelligence that causes them to replicate their current condition. You may have collected seed from, say, your coriander plants. In our climate, if planted in the heat of summer they will rocket to seed. The seed saved from these particular plants will have that same stored memory, and when planted will germinate and replicate the pattern of the mother plant.

The same scenario applies to taking cuttings. If your choice is taken from a plant that is not a happy plant, the cutting will grow but will be either stunted or straggly, as it will follow the condition of the plant from which it was taken.

In the late 1950s, a young Philadelphia researcher Leonard Hayflick could not get a batch of human embryonic cells to multiply past a certain limit. No matter how carefully he cultured them, the cells died after about 40 divisions. Other experiments revealed that the Hayflick limit was apparently part of DNA's programmed memory.

In support of this theory, cells extracted from older people and raised in a laboratory die after many fewer divisions than do younger cells. Giving them a new environment with perfectly controlled nutrients does not extend their life.

Nature's resonances at play

Radiations put out by every gardener contribute to the growth of the garden. These emotional and mental forces are transmuted by nature's forces and can add to plant growth.

I am not about to suggest that you play music to your plants (certainly not heavy metal music), even though some people do. The best sound environment for the garden is one of nature at its most active. Birds, crickets, frogs, bats, etc. create the melodies and harmonies that enrich the life of plants. Next time you are in your garden, give praise to the plants that give you pleasure. Don't see it as weird, as you won't be talking to yourself!

Wisdom from the tree devas

Having just finished reading a book lent to me by a friend, I felt the urge to pass on some of the quotes from a variety of tree devas. The book is called To Hear the Angels Sing, by Dorothy MacLean. Dorothy was one of the originals at Findhorn in Scotland, along with Peter and Eileen Caddy.

• The Scots Pine Deva
"Large trees act as a protective skin to the Earth, and in that skin bring about necessary changes. They are the rooted guardians of the surface, converters of the higher forces to Earth through the ground. They are calmness, strength, endurance, praise and fine attunement, all of which are greatly needed in the world."

• The Cypress Deva
"Let us not be niggardly in the future. Vast areas need us, and by 'us' I mean large trees in general. We simply cannot emphasise this enough. We are the skin of this world. Take us away and the complete planet, no longer able to function, dries up and dies. Let us be, and the whole creature purrs with contentment and life goes on in natural sequence, becoming ever more aware of unity."

• The Copper Beech Deva
"We channel a type of force that has a steadying influence on life. Man does not realise that, among other things, his natural environment is full of forces that correspond to, and therefore can bring out, some part of his own make-up, and that he is influenced by his environment in many subtle ways. Here, too, the great trees have a mighty part to play, and you are bereft of some part of yourself and of your heritage when you denude the land."

• A Tree Deva (variety unknown)
"There are some humans who do not like our purity, for it is alien to their usual surroundings, and still others who do not feel purity because they are too self-centred. Those who reach out to us we lift. When you are in our aura and reach into your being, you are lifted because we are in a rhythm of harmony. We can aid humans to achieve an inward peace. There should always be large areas where trees reign supreme and undisturbed."

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", April/May 2004; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]