Birthing Spiral Medicinal Garden

Birthing Spiral Medicinal Garden

     On Wellesley  and Silver in Nob Hill, the Birthing Center attracts the attension of the busy community buzzing around it.  The orginazation unites midwives and mothers and stands tall for women and infants birth rights and health in the face of the co-existing paternal birthing system.  In addition to a yoga room, library, and midwives’ offices, the building hosts a warm bedroom where laboring mothers can have a home birth experience in close proximity to area hospitals. 

     Birthings Center co-founder, Kelly Camden, wanted to create a garden that extended the same power of all the life that went on inside the building.  She worked with Mother Nature Gardens through the process of inspiration and installation. 

     We created a spiral pathway to a oval shaped sitting area within.  Because this was a garden to be used by midwives, laboring women, and mothers, we wanted the sitting area to draw visitors to the root chakra.  From the root chakra (represented by the sitting area), th Earthly qualities of vitality, vigor, and growth spirals clockwise from us.  The root chakra bestows breath and mind control, and knowledge of past present, and future, essential qualities in an empowering birth experience. 

     We filled the planting beds adjacent to the paths with herbs used in pregnancy and labor: yarrow, rasberry, vitex, to name a few.  This provides practical rewards as the herbs will actually get used for their unique medicinal qualities.  Furthermore, the gardens stand as an educational tool for women who want to learn to care for their bodies in close proximity to the healing Earth.

Cool Corner of Aspen

Aspen corner before

    Northeast Heights home owners look out their living room to the corner of their yard planted in aspen.  Aspen naturally live in high, cool mountain meadows and thus where struggling in the hot-scaped desert yard.  I pulled back gravel and landscape fabric allowing the earth and aspen roots to breath.  I replaced the rock with cool, water absorbent organic mulch.  I planted spring and summer columbines and seeded with shade-loving, low-water grasses to simulate a mountain meadow feel.  Instead of a barrier type boarder, I left an opening into the area, using the natural pattern of ocean waves to create a sacred and welcoming space.  Finally, I moved a bench, abandoned against an exposed east facing wall, into the space inviting the homeowners to spend time with their beautiful aspens.  Small changes for grand effects.

Northeast Heights Front Yard

Terraced beds

Terraced beds in graveled yards

Northeast Heights front before

     At the base of the Sandias, high-embodied energy gravel blankets the Northeast Heights neighborhoods.  Sloping west, gravel yards collect the desert sun’s most intense heat, store it in its mass, and release the heat at night when the desert typically cools.  Wanting their front yard to offer viewers solace to the harsh desert environment rather than intensifying it, Northeast Heights homeowners requested I go to work.  Without the budget to remove all the yard rock, I created terraced, organically mulched beds in the gravel field.  I used moss rocks to hold a notch in the sloped yard then leveled out a planting bed that will capture water run-off from the sidewalk and yard above.  I used the the natural pattern of contours (although exaggerated for artistic sake) in my design. 

     At the end of a “T” stop, this yard often gets viewed.  A little creativity captures the eye in a neighborhood where yards mostly seem to look the same.  Many landscapers fail to realize that every piece of land has unique potential and thus every landscape deserves a unique design.

Nob Hill Meditation Garden

   For years, Nob Hill homeowner avoided looking at her yard as she used it to hang laundry or passed through it to her car.  Piles of bare dirt, random collections of rocks, and abandoned landscape projects of previous owners did not provide pleasing eye candy.  She hired Mother Nature Gardens.  Keeping the budget small, I agreed to put in a hard-scape for her (earthworks, pathways, and mulch).   I moved dirt piles, creating depressed while raising the pathways of my figure 8 design at the same time.  I used rocks found on sight for a low embodied energy landscape and to keep the  design affordable.  The looping pathway reflects the symbol of continuous and balanced movement of thought and energy.  The garden draws visitors meditatively through and around the space. 

      I also installed an irrigation system with timer and lines to proposed planting areas.  This open canvas fit the budget and gives the owner the chance to add plants bit by bit as energy and time allow.  We sat down together to learn exactly how to tap into the irrigation system to bring water to each plant.  The homeowner no longer feels overwhelmed about gardening with the problem solving and hard labor out of the way.  She can plant beautiful gardens and enjoy her little piece of land.

Sacred Gardens

 

Galbraith's sacred garden installed with Soilutions

  A sacred garden first must strive for sustainability, producing life from within.  By raising pathways, we create depressed planting beds that catch and absorb rainwater where it is most needed, by the plants.  I use other methods of sustainability such as passive and active rainwater harvesting systems, low-water plants, drip irrigation systems, and thick organic mulch. 

           Pathways mimic patterns found in nature: waves, spirals, mushrooms, tree branches and roots, etc.  Such natural shapes create great visual interest, making the garden into an art form.  We subconciously relate to patterns in nature being products of nature ourselves.  The mental effect of looking and tinkering in a garden shaped in a life-creating pattern calms the mind in the same way the weekend in the mountains does, by making us feel connected to the Earth.  Natural patterns also increase edge effect, the law that life thrives where two ecosystems meet.  In our garden, the edge is where the path meets the growing beds. 

Front yard before

Front yard triple spiral

Galbraith’s sacred garden installed with Soilutions

           Paths of sacred gardens should promote walking meditations by looping and meandering.  Flowing paths as well as hidden sitting areas just beyond the bend in the path pull a resident into the garden.  This is when real magic happens, when a home owner begins to interact with the garden. 

          Many people seeking my services request a no-maintenance landscape.  Wild areas left to achieve its own balance (there are few left in the States) and parking lots are two examples of no-maintenance gardens.  Our city gardens, however, demand a little tending.  Yet with appropriately placed plants (in naturally wet areas, clumped plantings), a drip irrigation system, and a thick layer of organic mulch to suppress weed growth, maintenance is minimal but still required.  I invite my landscaping customers to attend my Abundant Gardening, Abundant Life class in order to learn how to make the “task” of gardening into a meditative experience.  Part of my product is the skill to connect with nature through our gardens.