GREEN NEW & VIEWS
about the materials used to make a compost, my next criterion is how it smells. We are detecting the biological communities present and the chemical compounds they produce as they vaporize and reach our noses. Organic acids, alcohols, and esters register as earthy, faintly sweet, or pleasantly fermented. Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide — the smell of rotten eggs — offend us in just the right ways. Which bouquet of aromas soothes and delights you? Soft rain on a forest floor, faint notes of vinegar and yogurt, a touch of fermentation, a mushroom-like undertone…? What a wonder that we can distin - guish such complexity with just a sniff. Our hands, too, know healthy soil, and touch reinforces what sight and smell suggest. On a felt level, we recognize the difference between hard, compacted ground and soft, living soil. Our hands register resis- tance or yield, warmth or coolness, dryness or moisture, and teach us how to treat the soil well. When we work the soil, our bodies learn its condition directly. Soil that is alive gives way under gentle pressure, crumbling while still holding together. It accepts a seed, a root, a tool. Compacted ground resists, pushing back against the hand and the shovel alike. Touch teaches patience. It tells us when soil is too wet to work, when it needs rest rather than intervention, when care would do more harm than good. In this way, the hands become teachers, guiding our ac- tions through sensation rather than instruction. When the steady work of our hands finally culminates in harvesting and eating what we have grown, another sense completes the relation- ship. Taste is a highly refined tool for detecting the nutritional profiles of the foods we eat. Though the ancestral cravings of our palates have been confused and capitalized upon by today’s processed food indus - Embodied Knowing in the Garden... ...continued from page 33
Photo by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash
try, taste was once the primary way humans detected nutrition — and it still serves that function today. Soda drinks aside, flavor remains a profound measure of nourishment. While caloric density may be the most obvious and exaggerated met- ric, flavor also correlates with vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. This relationship between taste and nourishment is explored deeply in Fred Provenza’s book, Nourishment , which gives language and evi- dence to what our bodies have long known. These compounds — the real personality of the plant — are responsible for defending against insects and weather, attracting pollinators, and communicating with the surrounding environment. When assimilated into our bodies, they act as powerful antioxidants and confer a wide range of benefits. Do the supermarket tomatoes you’ve been buying all winter — like - ly grown in soilless hydroponic greenhouses and picked green and shipped long distances — pale in comparison to your garden’s summer offerings? Does your mouth water at the thought of the explosion of flavor from the first vine-ripened tomato? Though you may appreciate the orderly look of a perfect slicing red tomato, your tongue has al- ready cast its vote for the eccentric heirloom, with its endless range of flavors and phytochemical richness. Delight in the Knowing As your intimate knowing of your garden deepens, so too will your intuitive sense. That fabled gift of the gardener, the green thumb, may simply be a felt sense developed through sustained attention and care over time. It grows slowly, through repeated encounters and small acts of noticing, rather than through instruction alone. Take time to delight in the rainbow of colors, the smell of flowers, to kneel and touch the soil, to listen to the rustle of corn leaves in a light summer breeze. Relish the complex flavor of your garden’s herbs. Notice how your body responds before your mind reaches for explana- tion. It is the body that knows best. This isn’t just garden therapy, though it is good medicine. It is ob - servation, information, and relationship woven together. It is a way of knowing that asks us to slow down, to trust our senses, and to remem- ber we belong to the living systems we tend. It is a way of knowing that has been with us all along, waiting patiently for us to return. Taylor Logsdon is the owner and operator of Dragonfly Food - scapes, an edible and ecological landscaping business. He can be reached at 667-701-5757. www.dragonflyfoodscapes.com
The GardenDC podcast is all about gardening in the greater Washington, DC, and Mid- Atlantic area. The program is hosted by Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, and fea- tures guest experts in local and national horticulture. The latest episodes include interviews with experts on boxwood, bay-wise landscapes, persimmon trees, and viburnum. You can listen online at https://washingtongardener. blogspot.com/ or wherever you get your podcasts — Spotify, Apple, etc.
The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City By Kathy Jentz and Teresa Speight Published by Cool Springs Press/Quarto Homes Available Now Order it today at: https://amzn.to/3yiLPKU
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34—PATHWAYS—Spring 26
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