In my ongoing work as a land healer, I find that I regularly need a retreat from my battered bruised landscape. Why? Because this work is really difficult. Lately, it seems more so–we have large swaths of forests where I …
polycultures
My Best Advice for Homesteading: Planning, Flocks, and Gardens
I’ve been homesteading (or what those in the UK would call smallholding) since 2010 at two different homesteads. Through this, and through being in community groups and having many friends who are also homesteaders, you learn a lot of things …
Land Healing at the Druid’s Garden: Replanting, Forest Healing, and Refugia Update
Today I wanted to take some time to share some of the updates on the land healing and permaculture practices we are enacting at the Druid’s Garden Homestead. As I’ve shared in earlier posts, when we purchased this land four …
Sacred Trees in the Americas: American Hazel (Corylus americana) Magic, Ecology, and Sacred Uses
For three years, I have had my eye on our American hazel bushes here at the homestead. When we first moved to the property, much of the understory was damaged with the logging the previous owners did and it took …
A Walk Through a Sacred Garden
Today, we are taking a walk through the sacred gardens at the Druid’s Garden Homestead. There are so many lessons to learn with a simple walk in a beautiful garden. Today’s Lughnasadh garden walk reminds us of the power of …
Forest Regeneration at the Druid’s Garden Homestead: Forest Hugelkultur, Replanting and More!
The property was almost perfect: in the right location, a natural spring as a water source, a small and nice house with a huge hearth, areas for chickens and gardens, a small pond, and a stream bordering the edge of …
Introduction to Sacred Gardening: Connection, Reciprocity, and Honoring Life
Walking into a sacred garden is like walking into another world, one full of joy, happiness, and wholeness. Fruit hanging from happy branches, plants coming up from all angles inviting a nibble, a taste, a touch. The pathways spiral and …
A Druid’s Primer on Land Healing: Ecosystems, Interconnectivity, and Planting Guilds
I had a recent conversation with a friend who lives in the town where I work (and where I used to rent a house). I had commented on how “nice” her lawn looked, as it was growing tall full of …
A Druid’s Primer on Land Healing: A Healing Grove of Renewal
Many years ago, I shared the story of the “mystery of the stumps“, which was my path into druidry. I grew up spending all my days in a forest that was rich, full, and bountiful. When I was 14, that …
Walking Meditation Garden with Hugelkultur Beds
As a practitioner of permaculture and as a druid, I am always looking for ways to work with the land to create sacred and ecologically healthy spaces. That is, to create self-sustaining ecosystems that produce a variety of yields: create …
Responding to the Predicament We Face: Planting Seeds and Cultivating Polycultures
On Problems, Predicaments, and Responses To say that the present post-industrial age has its share of problems is perhaps, at best, an understatement. I think the urgency of the challenges we face been exasperated here in the US by a …