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Steven’s Story

Steven’s Story

By Steven Martyn November 14, 2017 January 13, 2020

One of two videos from the introduction to Herbal Medicine Making workshop; in this video of the sharing circle Steven gives us a brief account of his journey. Lots of life lessons for all of us here.

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sacredgardener

Seeding earth wisdom since 1989.
Home of The Sacred Gardener School.
Wildculturing ~ Co-create ~ Wildcrafting
We're on Patreon!

The Sacred Gardener
Esoteric Mythology of Western Agriculture and Thou Esoteric Mythology of Western Agriculture and Thought. An excerpt from a talk recorded at Ignatius Jesuit Centre, April 2017 in Guelph, Ontario. Steven reveals hidden meanings and history behind Western culture's primary myth, the garden of Eden story. These insights offer hope for resolving our four thousand year exile, giving us a key to re-enter The Garden. Full recording available for all levels of our Patreon subscribers! https://www.patreon.com/sacredgardener
After about five years the creek and pond silted b After about five years the creek and pond silted back in about six inches deep. The gradient of the land demanded this. The fruit trees struggled with their wet feet and the basement started to flood again. I wasn’t going to have it re-dug because this would cause too much damage. I’m a luddite at heart, and feel machines should only be used when necessary. And, the creeks and shoreline had completely grown in with perennials I’d planted. These plants, like Comfrey, Horse Radish, Day lilies, Marsh marigolds and wild Jewelweed had all spread up and down the creek. I decided in late fall, five years after I’d had the creek dug, when that year’s leaves had fallen, that I would rake out the muck and leaves that had built up over the years. I did this as a small gesture towards bringing back the flow, it only took a few hours. Sure enough, once the debris was clear and the flow increased, the water carved deeper still into the silt, to the bottom of the dug creek bed. The basement flooding let up the next spring and the fruit trees started doing better the next summer. So every year now, by hand, I hard-rake the muck out from the creek. I plop the muck on top of the perennials running along side the creek. It’s great fertilizer. The Navaho, Aztecs and many other people grew their gardens intentionally alongside both natural and hand-dug canals, for water and for the fertile muck. This is an extension of the biomimicry our ancestors practiced in natural flood-plain areas. In flood-plain agriculture, where natural seasonal flooding happens, (which we’ve stopped everywhere we can), nutrients used up by the year’s plant growth and taken away by the grain harvest, are naturally replaced by the silt from the river. Natural flooding and burning were the primary tools used to co-create large scale agriculture, which in turn gave birth to civilization as we know it. These practices have been all but lost. I’m telling my story about the creek, in part because it’s not spectacular. It’s just about ‘mucking’ around on the land and figuring things out by paying attention. And then, moving forward in a gentle way. It’s a good humble example of how to work with the Earth.
I moved to the farm at Golden Lake, now home of th I moved to the farm at Golden Lake, now home of the Sacred Gardener, in December 1999. When the snow melted in the spring, a huge swale ran halfway around the barns and house. A swale is a place where water collects seasonally, into a wide shallow puddle that is slow to move off. The shallow water sat through to late June. It covered a lovely rich piece of land right in front of the house, making it unarable for gardens or trees. And what it did, was make a great breeding ground for mosquitos. We’re already surrounded by wetlands, so I figured the mosquitos could get by without this swale. That fall I had someone with a backhoe come in. I asked him to follow the natural water course and just make it deeper. I clearly marked out the creek bed to be, along with a few areas of Sensitive Fern and Wild Plum trees, that I didn’t want damaged in the process. He also made a pond and outflow in front of the house. The effect was amazing. It doubled the land around the house for growing. We made a 30 x 40 foot no-till mulched garden and planted Apple and Apricot trees, in the areas that had been too wet. It cleared out the bug breeding ground and it also gave us an unexpected bonus. Our basement (30m from the dug creek) no longer flooded in the spring. In creating drainage, the level of the spring water table actually dropped. When the creek was made, it changed the energy of the place for the better. Digging the creek changed the Feng Shui of the land. Where there had been decades of stagnant energy, there was now flow. The moving water Herself and the song of the little creek had far reaching effects. The hurly burly path of the creek, over rocks and roots, purified and oxygenated the water, so I’m sure many insects and fish in or down stream from the creek also benefitted. Because of the increased flow and deeper channel, the creek also now stayed open much of the winter and brought life back to the land very early in the spring. This was of great benefit to all the birds and animals (including cats and dogs) who then had a place they could access clean fresh water, when all their other drinking spots were frozen and under four feet of snow. Image: Marsh Marigold
Wild plum blossoms. intoxicating thick and heady s Wild plum blossoms. intoxicating thick and heady smell, sending their scent on the wind to open you to the wonder of the land; awakening. Today we picked many flowers to infuse in cream towards chocolate making adventures inspired by @gathervictoria #wildplum #nativeplants #nativetrees #spring #floral #floralchocolate #chocolate #sweetness #wildfood
White sage harvest, from plants we grow in our gre White sage harvest, from plants we grow in our greenhouse. They’re in pots that will live outside for the warm months, then back in before the frost in the fall. #whitesage #growyourown #atriskplants
Tomorrow evening at 8pm EST, Steven will be speaki Tomorrow evening at 8pm EST, Steven will be speaking with Chris of Changing World Project as part of his ongoing free series of Nature Mentorship conversations. Link to register is in our bio. When you join you'll have access to all the other upcoming free calls! Steven has more than thirty years experience living co-creatively with the Earth, practicing traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing. Steven released his first book The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden in 2016, and his second, Sacred Gardening, was released in June 2017. His upcoming book, a meditation on bioregional building, will be coming out this summer. "The Sacred Gardener was chosen for our farm/school’s name because it conveys something that we feel is unique in our approach to both growing and teaching here on the farm. While there are many places, books and ways to learn about gardening or working with the Earth, there are very few that put the needs of the Earth first. This means not just thinking about production and convenience for ourselves but making the effort to step forward gently with real ecological/spiritual integrity. " #sacred #earth #regenerativeagriculture #cocreate #wildculture #reconnectwithnature #gardening
Daily diverse wild salad. This one mostly perennia Daily diverse wild salad. This one mostly perennial planted greens: Sorrel, chervil, lovage, bergamot, good king henry. Wild cultivated dandelion leaves. #wildsalad #cultivatedwild #wildculture #perennialgarden #dandelion #lovage #sorrel #perennials
Looking forward to this bite! Cracker, old chedda Looking forward to this bite! Cracker, old cheddar, caramelized sesame and herbal vinegar burdock root topped with a pickled spruce tip. Oh yes. Check out our Patreon for more. #wildfood #spring #roots #foodasmedicine #elevated #elevatecultivate #burdock #realfood #artisanfood

sacredgardener

Seeding earth wisdom since 1989.
Home of The Sacred Gardener School.
Wildculturing ~ Co-create ~ Wildcrafting
We're on Patreon!

The Sacred Gardener
Esoteric Mythology of Western Agriculture and Thou Esoteric Mythology of Western Agriculture and Thought. An excerpt from a talk recorded at Ignatius Jesuit Centre, April 2017 in Guelph, Ontario. Steven reveals hidden meanings and history behind Western culture's primary myth, the garden of Eden story. These insights offer hope for resolving our four thousand year exile, giving us a key to re-enter The Garden. Full recording available for all levels of our Patreon subscribers! https://www.patreon.com/sacredgardener
After about five years the creek and pond silted b After about five years the creek and pond silted back in about six inches deep. The gradient of the land demanded this. The fruit trees struggled with their wet feet and the basement started to flood again. I wasn’t going to have it re-dug because this would cause too much damage. I’m a luddite at heart, and feel machines should only be used when necessary. And, the creeks and shoreline had completely grown in with perennials I’d planted. These plants, like Comfrey, Horse Radish, Day lilies, Marsh marigolds and wild Jewelweed had all spread up and down the creek. I decided in late fall, five years after I’d had the creek dug, when that year’s leaves had fallen, that I would rake out the muck and leaves that had built up over the years. I did this as a small gesture towards bringing back the flow, it only took a few hours. Sure enough, once the debris was clear and the flow increased, the water carved deeper still into the silt, to the bottom of the dug creek bed. The basement flooding let up the next spring and the fruit trees started doing better the next summer. So every year now, by hand, I hard-rake the muck out from the creek. I plop the muck on top of the perennials running along side the creek. It’s great fertilizer. The Navaho, Aztecs and many other people grew their gardens intentionally alongside both natural and hand-dug canals, for water and for the fertile muck. This is an extension of the biomimicry our ancestors practiced in natural flood-plain areas. In flood-plain agriculture, where natural seasonal flooding happens, (which we’ve stopped everywhere we can), nutrients used up by the year’s plant growth and taken away by the grain harvest, are naturally replaced by the silt from the river. Natural flooding and burning were the primary tools used to co-create large scale agriculture, which in turn gave birth to civilization as we know it. These practices have been all but lost. I’m telling my story about the creek, in part because it’s not spectacular. It’s just about ‘mucking’ around on the land and figuring things out by paying attention. And then, moving forward in a gentle way. It’s a good humble example of how to work with the Earth.
I moved to the farm at Golden Lake, now home of th I moved to the farm at Golden Lake, now home of the Sacred Gardener, in December 1999. When the snow melted in the spring, a huge swale ran halfway around the barns and house. A swale is a place where water collects seasonally, into a wide shallow puddle that is slow to move off. The shallow water sat through to late June. It covered a lovely rich piece of land right in front of the house, making it unarable for gardens or trees. And what it did, was make a great breeding ground for mosquitos. We’re already surrounded by wetlands, so I figured the mosquitos could get by without this swale. That fall I had someone with a backhoe come in. I asked him to follow the natural water course and just make it deeper. I clearly marked out the creek bed to be, along with a few areas of Sensitive Fern and Wild Plum trees, that I didn’t want damaged in the process. He also made a pond and outflow in front of the house. The effect was amazing. It doubled the land around the house for growing. We made a 30 x 40 foot no-till mulched garden and planted Apple and Apricot trees, in the areas that had been too wet. It cleared out the bug breeding ground and it also gave us an unexpected bonus. Our basement (30m from the dug creek) no longer flooded in the spring. In creating drainage, the level of the spring water table actually dropped. When the creek was made, it changed the energy of the place for the better. Digging the creek changed the Feng Shui of the land. Where there had been decades of stagnant energy, there was now flow. The moving water Herself and the song of the little creek had far reaching effects. The hurly burly path of the creek, over rocks and roots, purified and oxygenated the water, so I’m sure many insects and fish in or down stream from the creek also benefitted. Because of the increased flow and deeper channel, the creek also now stayed open much of the winter and brought life back to the land very early in the spring. This was of great benefit to all the birds and animals (including cats and dogs) who then had a place they could access clean fresh water, when all their other drinking spots were frozen and under four feet of snow. Image: Marsh Marigold
Wild plum blossoms. intoxicating thick and heady s Wild plum blossoms. intoxicating thick and heady smell, sending their scent on the wind to open you to the wonder of the land; awakening. Today we picked many flowers to infuse in cream towards chocolate making adventures inspired by @gathervictoria #wildplum #nativeplants #nativetrees #spring #floral #floralchocolate #chocolate #sweetness #wildfood
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