The Monastery Garden

Getting down: A lot of the work of making a raised bed has to be done close to the ground. It may not look like it but this gravel is so sharp it's a punishment to sit on or make any skin contact with. You can't tell from my foot's stoic appearance but my whole leg is crying out for help. Is it fitting that to make a monastery style garden I must experience some pain? Will I be more sharply spiritually focused when I'm done?

Making friends work hard: Lisa B is using a circular saw for the first time. It's liberating to be able to saw wood down to size without someone else's help. Lisa also helped to screw some boards together and then she shoveled a shit-load of soil into my raised beds. I'm planning to do the same for her this week-end.

Taking Shape: It doesn't take long for the beds to start looking just like I drew them on the graph paper. This whole garden has strong western exposure so I'm also starting to fear that it's going to be a stupid spot for anything to grow in. However, it also gets late morning sun from the south and it should grow lots of things well. A person's got to try. Otherwise a spot like this can easily become a machine grease-heap or a place to lay down and die when Jeb Bush runs for president.

Filling it up: There are still four raised bed sections to build but the center piece is done! It's ready to plant. One thing I love about raised beds is they impose order on a garden. Even if you let the weeds flourish there is always an underlying order that is tamable. I find it much easier to plan crop rotations and seasonal plantings when I'm working with raised beds. I spent my whole evening surrounded by garden books and graph paper working out what will go in my new garden. I am putting an antique apple tree variety in the very center box- "Calville Blanc" which is a French variety from the 1500's that has a high vitamin C content, unusual for apples.

Planting it out: there is no time to lose getting vegetables in here. It is questionable whether or not I can still plant beet seeds and get any beets to mature in time for a winter harvest. The same story with carrots. From all the local information I have access to it seems that if they are planted by this weekend there is a fighting chance. There's plenty of time for greens: chard, kale, lettuce, spinach, and collards are all on my list. There's still time for turnips and kohlrabi. The end of September is the time to plant overwintering vegetables like fava beans and peas and alliums.

Someone asked what a "monastery garden" is. That is an excellent question because it really doesn't seem any different from a kitchen garden or potager. Monastery gardens of the medieval period (my inspiration) were planned and planted so that the monks who tended them could be self sufficient. They not only needed to be able to feed themselves they also needed to be able to medicate themselves and the communities that they served. So a monastery garden would include medicinal herbs which most kitchen gardens/potagers don't. Another feature quite common with monastery gardens is that they were planted within a protected enclosure such as one with stone walls.

When I imagine the ultimate garden I don't just imagine one that sustains myself and my family. I don't even just think of one that can heal our skin and provide tonics for our livers. What I think of is a place of both beauty and abundance. I think of a place that is quiet and peaceful where you can hear the insects sipping at summer nectar and listen to the plants stretching their roots when the cool water wicks down to the center of the soil. I think of a place that offers room for spiritual contemplation while performing routine tasks; like a church of earth.

The plan of a garden can lend itself to this sort of prayerful contemplation. The layout and the shapes employed can lead the mind into positive channels...or not. I think the formality and order of raised beds arranged in a thoughtful formation clear the mind of clutter and allow the gardener to walk the prescribed pathways as though in meditation while attending to the needs of the garden. Having a central focus creates a bed to walk around. Having a central bed from which the other beds radiate guides you to the center; it invites you to seek the middle.

So the only real difference between a kitchen garden/potager and a monastery style garden is the inclusion of medicinal herbs and its situation in an enclosure.