GAIA LUNA: setting boundaries

GAIA LUNA: EARTH MOON GARDEN

Today the cats and I put up the deer fence around Gaia Luna - 8 feet tall! All the posts are in place, the netting is cut to width. Hopefully we'll finish tomorrow.

The new deer fence is a boundary. I'm resistant to boundaries. I didn't want to put up a fence around Gaia Luna, but I'm learning that boundaries can be as necessary for gardens as they are for people.

The best boundaries are invisible to all except those who are unable to pass through them.

The deer fence around Gaia Luna consists of a fine netting strung between tall wooden posts. Without it, the deer and groundhogs eat most of tender plants right down to the ground. Gaia Luna is meant to provide food, herbs and flowers for the people who live here, not the animals passing through. We encourage deer and groundhogs to browse elsewhere.

I've learned about the habits of deer.

They don't mean any harm. They're deer, doing the things that deer do. Gaia Luna is along their path from the woods to ... where ever it is that deer go when they leave our field.

Like deer, certain people devour time, energy, and compassion while leaving behind only trampled remnants. Deer-People. Like hungry forest creatures, Deer-People gobble precious resources only to fill empty bellies.

I work to share my time, energy, compassion and resources, hoping that this will create lasting change for others. This can only happen if Deer-People aren't allowed to graze on the seedlings my inspiration or indiscriminantly consume the harvest of my efforts.

I've learned about the habits of deer.

And I've learned about the habits of Deer-People. They usually don't mean any harm. They're Deer-People, doing the things that Deer-People do. I just happen to be along their path from ... where ever Deer-People come from ... to ... where ever Deer-People go when they finally move on.

Is it possible to stay open, to experience life fully while having clear boundaries?

When it's finished, the protective boundary surrounding Gaia Luna will be open to light and air. It's not a fortress wall. Robins and bluebirds will still fly in for a visit. The cats will still come to roll in the dust and rub up against my legs as I work. I can see outside the garden's boundaries, across the field, all the way to the woods. The breeze blows through. The sounds of children playing nearby still reach me. If it works as planned, I'll be able to move freely across the boundary surrounding Gaia Luna.

This is the right kind of boundary for Gaia Luna.
This is the right kind of boundary for me.

WHAT'S GROWING IN GAIA LUNA TODAY?

Bulbs I planted in Gaia Luna last fall - crocuses just finished blooming, little blue bell things that I didn't label, the tips of late daffodils about 3 inches tall. Last summer's valerian, Egyptian onions, garlic, sage, moss between the rocks, all waking.

AND yesterday I finished transplanting lambs ears to outline a 10 foot wide circle around the central mound. The clump these were divided from started out last spring as four little sprigs in a 3 inch pot at the garden club plant sale. My mother says that lambs ears were one of my grandmother's favorite plants. How fitting that they now encircle the central altar stone in Gaia Luna -- a place for celebrating the rhythms of earth/moon and the traditions of women.

The impulse to grow? ... Innate to all living things!

Peace,
Kay

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