Practical Blog Post #2 - So, why "Garden Project"?

For this week I will continue with the theme of introduction and background, focusing now on the "Garden Project" idea. After finishing the Program in Ecological Agriculture at Evergreen College in Olympia, WA, as well an internship at Evergreen's Organic Far,, I met Nyna at the Olympia Food Co-op, where she was a staff member, and together we moved to Ukiah, county seat of Mendocino, on the North Coast of California. I completed a 3 year apprenticeship on different farms and gardens around Medocino County, where I learned many different methods and techniques. This period may more properly be called a "journeyship", because of the diversity of experience involved. One thing that stayed common throughout this period and beyond, as I pursued more learning opportunities, is that all of my teachers and mentors had been themselves students and/or apprentices of a man named Alan Chadwick.

The story, as it has been passed down to me verbally, from different sources, is that Alan Chadwick was born on an estate, where he learned to garden by watching the peasants work the land. Later, as a young man, he is said to have apprenticed on a BioDynamic Farm headed by Ehrenfeld Pfeiffer, a student of Rudolf Steiner. Alan was told that for the first year of his apprenticeship, he could only watch the work on the farm. not participate in it, nor was he allowed to ask any questions. (This forgotten technique, I believe, was designed to home the student's observation skills, and actually save the farm time and labor in the long run.) Alan was also trained as an actor, and later, in his middle years, worked in that field, rather than in agriculture.

After the Second World War, Chadwick was so disturbed by the experience that he focused his energies on discussing with his colleagues and contemplating for himself, what would need to be done to avert such a disaster in the future. His answer finally came as (I am writing here by memory) : Only the Lifeforces inherent in Gardening, can overcone the Death Forces inherent in war.

Chadwick developed a system of gardening that he called the BioDynamic/French Intensive method, where he synthesized what he learned during his apprenticeship with techniques used by market gardeners around large European cities at that time, and maybe by his estate's peasant servants, as well. In the late 60's, Alan was invited to be a kind of "artist in residence" at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He was invited by the Philosophy Department, not the Agricultural Department. The garden that Alan dug and grew there, out of an infertile hillside, was the first "Garden Project". This garden continues to be maintained today, and his teaching has grown into a full University Program, within the Agriculture Department now, based on his original work, in that first garden.

This first garden is where many of my teachers and mentors, as well as many other farmers and gardeners, first met Alan and began to learn from him. His influence on Organic Farming and Gardening cannot be overstated, especially in California, but also across North America as well. John Jeavons, for example, learned directly from Alan at this beginning time, went on to simplify the teaching, shorten its name to "BioIntensive", and write what has become possibly the best book on truly sustainable food production, How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Land Less Than You Can Imagine. John's current "Grow BioIntensive" method is practiced all over North America, and in many countries around the World as well.

What impressed me most about Alan Chadwick's garden, when Nyna and I visited Santa Cruz in the late 90's, was how it grew in 3 dimensions. Up until then, most of the gardens I had seen were 2 dimensional, rows and rows of vegetables, mostly. His garden had vegetables in broad beds with fruit trees and other perennials growing in between these beds. It had a vertical element right within itself.

What impressed me next about this garden, was that the 'artist studio', a modest cottage of sorts, where Chadwick lived, worked, and taught, was completely within the garden. Alan's home, then, was not detached from his work, nor from his teaching, as commonly happens nowadays. All primary aspects of Alan's life were tightly woven together. He was following the First Law of Ecology (Everything is Interconnected) on a personal basis and was gaining the corresponding economic benefit of having low maintenance costs, so that he could pursue what had become his primary purpose in life, teaching by example.

So, when we use the term, "Garden Project", as in Living Earth Garden Project, it is to honor Alan Chadwick, to honor his work, his first brave students, and the lineage that has passed down since his time. I hope that I have been able to convey, then how broadly we are using the term 'Garden'. Many, if not most, people, upon hearing the word, 'garden', still think, as I did once, of not much more than straight rows of vegetables. Perhaps we are even using the term 'Garden' more broadly than Alan intended in his time. I hope so, for that would only be fitting to honor his vision.

I will finish with a passage from Voltaire's Candide, that is a favorite of John Jeavons, as I have heard him say this on so many occasions, and again, from memory: "All the world is a garden, and what a wonderful place this World would be if only all of us would each take care of our own part of this Garden."

So, when I refer to all of us as "Gardeners", it is in this broadest sense of the word that I do so. Gardeners of the World Unite!!

I ask anyone reading this who has better recall of Alan Chadwick's life story, to please feel free to make corrections and/or additions to what I have written. As already mentioned, I have written from memory a story passed down to me orally, and emphasized what I feel are the important points for us today. One final reflection to offer, as it occurred to me while writing, that Chadwick's life was much within the tradition of Leo Tolstoy: born to nobility, yet refusing to place themselves among the common people.

With best wishes for this week!

Gardener Machei

Taos, New Mexico