Chop Wood, Carry Water is a way to explore the remarkable power of doing things with our hands, together. It is an ode to labour, heritage, landscape, and community. Each photo essay is an attempt to understand and share how different restorative practices can influence collective wellbeing and serve as a form of meditation in action.
Like many of you, I’ve been navigating through heaps of climate anxiety this summer. One of the many worries that our society is and will be faced with is food shortages. Learning how to grow food, tending to the land, and supporting your local farms is a way we could have a direct impact on the future of the place where we live. Growing my garden has held me while traversing the sticky lands of grief. It’s what makes me feel inspired and keeps me humble. I often tell my students that growing a garden deepened my Buddhist practice. Having all of this in mind, you can imagine how keen I was to visit Loveland - an 8-acre community field in Penryn.
I visited the farm at the beginning of July, on a scorching afternoon, when Finn, Rachel and Evie showed me around, talked to me about growing, compost and the power of the community.
Earliest garden memory?
Eating mirabelle plums off the tree in the garden at home without any adults around.
Favourite thing to grow?
Tomatoes! I enjoy the weekly maintenance that you have to give to a tomato plant, watching the plant slowly grow in the cooler months of spring into hot summer. The gradual ripening of the fruit on the trusses and, of course, eating them - it tastes like summer!
Method you swear by?
Broad forking, it is such a simple lo-fi tool and so accessible for everyone to use; the impact it has in terms of improving soil health and structure feels so immediate and impactful.
Slugs?
No thank you
Mulch?
Moist
Fertiliser?
Erm ...is this necessary?
Compost?
Life!
If you could give one tip to a beginner gardener, what would that be?
Observe and keep it simple.
Also, don’t overthink it; just plant the seed and see what happens.
Loveland is currently running a crowd-founder and they are only £2000 away from reaching their goal~ You can support their incredible initiative here