Landscaping

My Mother (Rita Pandey) and I have been exploring environmental landscaping.  On one of my sacred trees was ivy that grew so greedy and mighty that it suffocated and strangled the spirit of my tree.  I let it grow for so long because it was beautiful.  Instead of killing the ivy, we decided to strip it off the tree and have it waterfall over a tunnel.  Throughout our yard, we have the leitmotif of arches and tunnels that are like portals.  This portal  is about salvation and transformation, because the portal was born as a way to find a solution of peace and harmony.  That is, we collaborated with the ivy to create a tunnel that otherwise would never have been created and therefore we all (us+ivy) turned a problem into beauty. 

At the side of my house, I created a pathway that I call the  'Hallway of Hemlock and Holes" because the right side is made of a line of Hemlock.  My mother and I have been exploring creating zones in our yard, each which has a different personality.  Because this area gets nearly no sun, not much grows here.  So, we decided to create a peace shaded pathway lined with leaf litter.  Most people rake and throw away all of that precious leaf biomass, we, instead, put some of it in this pathway.   It provides shelter for native insects during the winter, like the bumblebee.  The path is lined with fallen Hemlock trunks that eventually will become home to native insects and provide food for native birds.  Keeping leaf litter and decaying wood is important because most of the creatures of Massachusetts evolved depending on it.  This path connects my vegetable garden to the bower.  

The other pictures show beautiful holes on the path.  Eventually I will get sindoor which people can use to mark the holes as form of reverence to Mother Nature.

In this video, my mother and I share different preliminary ideas we have been using in the landscape design of our yard.  Some of these ideas including increasing biodiversity, increasing native plants, creating different micro-ecosystems (perennial flowers, native berry patch, vegetable garden, moss garden, herb garden, leaf litter pathway, biodiverse lawn, and compost area), and creating pathways of leaf litter and decaying wood for creatures to shelter in.  We also explore themes of arches, and re-using sinks as raised beds. Thanks to Nellie T for recording this.

PS my eyes are looking intense because I am pumped about the landscaping project...I only noticed afterwards :)

On the side of the road I found this beautiful structure that was being offered for free.  I dreamed of creating Skyscrapers of Digestion in my Backyard of Biodiversity.  I would fill these skyscrapers with green gold (leaves that fall from my  trees) thereby saving all of my previous biomass and turn it into rich compost.

On Saturday morning, I stood by it with a jumping rope, brainstorming how I would drag this all the way home. I had underestimated its weight and size and right as I was contemplating giving up, Aaron and Beth drove by and stopped.  I was blessed by their graciousness because they offered to help! Before I knew it, Aaron M. Gaudette brought his trailer and helped me bring this home.