Understanding Your Garden Ecosystem

This workshop will look at the way we mistakenly think we know what is best when gardening, often due to the inherited idea of what a garden should be and look like. Our reaction to pests and weeds is an indicator of how much we truly understand about the nature in a garden. Questions like - How do I get rid of slugs and snails? How can I encourage beneficial insects? How can I deter aphid? What natural means are there for removing weeds? These are normal questions to most gardeners, even organic wildlife friendly ones, but they show a belief that some parts of nature are better than others and that we may need to intervene to create a ‘better balance’. In this workshop we will examine some of these basic ideas and learn how gardening can be an opportunity to notice how we separate ourselves from nature through these beliefs, a separation we are suffering on a global scale. Understanding just what a slug, weed, or insect is doing in our garden helps to reconnect with the wisdom of the whole ‘nested systems-thinking’ of Nature, so that we can be truly aware of what any of our actions are doing to the whole system before we intervene.

Please bring packed lunch, refreshments - teas/coffee/homemade herb teas provided.