Roots sunk into the ground, branches to protect the squirrel’s games, the birds’ nests and ramblings, shade given to animals and people alike, your head in the sky.

Can you think of a wiser and more beneficial way to exist?

Marguerite Yourcenar, Written in a Garden

Mélanie Leblanc, Inking the invisible

editorial

the forest

an edible, food-producing and medicinal forest
an island of biodiversity in a region where grapevines, apricot trees, olive trees and truffle oaks are mainly grown as monocultures
a profusion of greenery in a Mediterranean climate
a haven, a resource
a place to rest, to contemplate, to dream, to be open to change
to read, write, draw and dance life

“gardeners,
I salute you
you invisible directors.”
Mélanie Leblanc, Inking the invisible

a vision

creating abundance, nourishing the living, sharing, weaving links with the earth and people
to let perpetual beauty blossom

a challenge

on the edge of a village, a long narrow strip of land between two properties, like a rift, an opening, a breach?
spring water flows at the end of the plot, but no underground vein, says the dowser: too bad …

the first trees were planted and mulched at the end of March 2022.
in May, the heatwave set in and the spring dried up (or the water was diverted!)
the neighbours have wells, they give water, then the water comes back and the ditch fills up, a miracle
then I sow, I plant all sorts of things and I mulch again

the second heatwave set in in July and August, this time the wells dried up: watering was forbidden
improbably, unbelievably, the water arrived again thanks to unexpected help … another miracle, the trees were saved
they call me Manon of the springs!
and in the meantime Bruno entered the scene

in search of light

without winter rainfall, the soil is hard and compact the following spring
and yet the trees, shrubs and perennials thrive, the couch grass proliferates and so does the bindweed
they are said to bring light into the soil
lighten, lighten, lighten
the water table is low, the wells are dry and the frogs are croaking
there are good harvests, but we’re not there yet

quantum leap

2024: this year we enter syntropy * (see Anaëlle Théry‘s fascinating book)
the method is obvious!
multiply, diversify, complexify: plant even closer together, sow thickly

the space becomes structured and harmonious
it becomes free
light
joyful

there’s no shortage of air
and this year we’re not even short of water!

© makeagif, frères Lumière, l’arroseur arrosé

to be continued!

* Syntropy is the antonym of entropy, which is a phenomenon tending towards disorder, destruction and simplification. On the contrary, syntropy means tending towards the organisation and complexification of living things, osmosis between each living species, just as nature organises itself between all its species.
the hub agriculture syntropique France