Connecting With Land Spirits Through Urban Farming
My husband and I spent the day working in the yard. We recently received some trees and berry bushes we ordered, and it was the first warm and sunny day to get them in the ground. It was the first time in many, many months that I’ve been able to get outside and get my hands dirty and I was immediately reminded how much doing so energizes and sustains me.
About two years ago I decided to try growing some vegetables to help with my depression. Even though I was very enthusiastic about buying pots and soil, trellises and fertilizer, and a variety of plant friends, it ultimately ended up going very poorly. Once I got everything potted I only tended to them for a few weeks before my depression got the best of me and I didn’t have the capacity to keep up with the plants. Going into the fall I went out back to survey the damage and throw things away when - to my complete surprise - there were a couple peppers and a single green bean. I was so excited I nearly cried.
That experience convinced me to try again the following year. We spent the winter planning out our planting and researching what would grow well in our yard. As soon as the last frost passed we got to work putting tomatoes out front and beds out back with a variety of vegetables. We had a great year with over-abundant tomatoes and an amazing haul of peppers, peas and other tasty things. I even successfully grew my first plants from seed! It went as well as I had dared hope.
What I did not expect, however, was the impact jumping into urban farming would have on my craft.
When we planted the tomatoes in early April we also decided to hang a ceramic Green Man plaque I bought at the Renaissance Festival the year prior. We hung it on the side of the shed facing the house so we could see it from the back windows. The first plant to fruit was a cherry tomato, and without really understanding why, I told my husband we shouldn’t eat it and instead we should give it back to nature. It was a symbolic “sacrifice” of our first harvest as a thank you to the land for providing for us. We dug a little hole under the Green Man and offered up the tomato, and it felt right.
Following that, every time I worked out in the yard spraying homemade pet-friendly bug spray, checking the leaves for worms, and pruning back vines it felt less like a chore and more like a spiritual practice. I approached trying to grow vegetables for my family with a deep sense of gratitude and found that it was becoming increasingly easier for me to feel connected with my local land spirits. They became not only more accessible and responsive while journeying, but also more physically present and active throughout my day. I noticed I was becoming much better at intuiting how best to prune my plants, or where to move pots, or when to water them even though this was my first time really trying to grow my own food.
I believe the act of acknowledging that it is the land and the plants around us that provide us sustenance, offering our first “harvest” back to the land, showed these spirits that I was approaching this journey of growing my own food as someone looking to work in partnership with them not from a place of mastery over them. I knew at any moment something could go wrong growing any one of these plants and it would take more than just me and my desires to see my dream of having an urban farm manifest. I allowed myself to be open to messages from the spirits of the plants I was working with, to let them tell me what they need, and to trust myself to receive those messages and be able to act on them accordingly.
Cultivating this relationship helped keep me engaged with my small urban farm. Even when my depression would flare up and sap me of the energy to do all but the bare minimum, the relationship I was building with my local land spirits helped to sustain my gardening. Sometimes when I felt guilty about not making it outside I would get a gentle nudge and a sense of “Hey friend, that’s okay. We’re doing fine and don’t need much right now.” Sometimes I would get a message saying “We know you are struggling right now, but we do need some attention. If you’re willing, we can help give you some strength,” and I would be motivated to drag the hose around the backyard for 30 minutes.
I’m excited to get back to these relationships this year. I can feel things starting to wake up around me and it feels like friends coming back from vacation. In tending to these plants they in turned tended to me. It makes me think of when I was younger and I looked at paganism and magic as something you memorized and did when needed, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to see it more as a craft. As I’ve aged, my practice and spirituality have become something I am constantly engaged in and working to refine and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think gardening would be a perfect expression and extension of this.
