Chaos Gardening

New Moon Greetings – August 4, 2024

I’ve always joked that my style of gardening should be called chaos gardening. Springtime plans quickly turn unwieldy, leading to a backyard awash in shapes, colors, fruits, flowers, and vegetables in no discernable order. And that is how it has always been. So, I was delighted to find a Facebook group for  chaos gardeners.  Kindred spirits!

I do understand the general theory of keeping a tidy garden. There is even a copy of the Square Foot Gardening book on my bookshelf. For those of you who don’t know, it is one of the most orderly approaches to gardening I have ever seen. Some might even call it rigid. (It does have a great section on soil health and specific vegetables.)

My Chaotic Garden

During the winter I am busy with graph paper and colored pencils creating summer garden plans. But something happens between my detailed hand drawn maps in winter and the chaos that ensues by mid-summer. Things begin to go off track immediately with the call of enticing new varieties in seed catalogs. Suddenly, I am ordering more seeds than I can ever plant in my yard. That is followed by spontaneous purchases of seedlings calling my name at the garden center. After that come friends and family (who are not chaos gardeners) offering me their extra seedlings. They’ve purchased a pack of four or six plants, and they only need two. They have a plan, and they are sticking to it! I, on the other hand, find it impossible to turn down seedlings and will find a place to tuck them in somewhere.

Lastly, the volunteers start to pop up in the garden. I have a hard time pulling out resilient seedlings that have made it through the winter and sprung to life, even if they are in the wrong place. The beans in the picture below popped up next to a tomato and pepper plant and I could not turn them away. The tomato and pepper were re-homed to another part of the yard and the beans have produced abundantly.

If you are an organized gardener you view my yard and think, “what on earth is happening here?”  But you just have to look a little closer.to see that even though it does not look like your garden, it is overflowing with life, pollinators, energy, and abundance. (I’ve also heard that chaos gardening is confusing to predatory insects – they can’t find the plants they are looking for.)

So what defines chaos gardening?

Basic tenets of chaos gardening include:

• Order is Over-Rated – Seriously, have you looked around? The world is not an orderly place. Chaos gardening embraces the understanding that life does not happen in straight lines. It is complex and messy and more like a Circque du Soleil performance than a single file parade. Besides that, order is hard to maintain. Why not surrender to the flow?
• Accept, Welcome, and Adapt – When unexpected plants show up as gifts or volunteers, welcome them in if possible, and adapt your plans for the newcomers. (Serious weeds are exempted from this tenet. However, remember that many plants that are labeled as weeds are also edible.)
• Co-creating with Plants – Plants have intelligence that western science is just beginning to wrap its head around. Be willing to pay attention to the plants that show up spontaneously in your yard. What might they be telling you?  They may be there to help address a garden issue with the soil, predators, or the environment. Also, be mindful of the energetic attributes of individual plants. Perhaps a plant has appeared with a message for you that you can decipher by considering its attributes. (You can find lists of these correspondences on line or check out my book, Growing Mindful.)
• Ultimately, chaos gardening is grounded in the sheer joy of seeing things grow, even if it wasn’t what you originally intended. It is about embracing the beauty in whatever is manifesting.

Chaos Gardening and Life 

When you stop and think about it, chaos gardening is a good model for the our lives as well as our gardens. We can work to joyfully embrace life in all its messiness. Be adaptable and open to change. Cooperate. Be welcoming to newcomers -usually they will be wonderful additions to the community. And most importantly, find joy in what is unfolding, even if it is diverging from your plans.

About this Blog Post & and Global Healing Circles

This post is part of my lunar blog series.  For the time being I’ll be posting on each new moon (not the new and full moon as I did the last few years because of some other writing projects). I’m posting this blog early because I’ll be traveling for the eclipse.  Usually, blogs will post each new moon and will be related to plants and ideas featured in my book,  Growing Mindful.  or on other topics related to mindfulness, gardens, and intentional living. For more details and a list of past lunar blog posts, click here. 

An invitation to healing circles. One of my new projects this year is partnering with other graduates of the IIQTC (Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi) to offer virtual HeART of Body Compassionate Self Care Practice Circles based on qigong and tai chi. Check out the information here: Global Healing Circles or contact me if you need more information.