Somewhat off topic, but can’t help seeing a strong parallel between the benefits of no-dig gardening and the benefits of non-doing sitting-meditation!
I graduated with a degree in Accounting & Financial Management in 1981 but then, like Charles, hopelessly failed to meet expectations of getting a well-paid job. Instead I went to Japan to study Zen. There I was taught that enlightenment is just to sit in the right posture. After expending huge amounts of energy — akin to pointless digging — in thrall to that misconception, I was eventually guided by teachers of the FM Alexander Technique to understand Alexander’s teaching that there is no such thing as a right posture, but there is a right direction. That right direction might be the direction of growth.
For the past 15 years I have been coming to a half-acre near the forest des Andaines in Normandy, for family holidays and solitary sitting retreats. So far my main growing success has been good annual crops of black winter radishes (radis d’hiver). My method hitherto has been to sow them in a seed bed when I get here for a summer retreat in June or July, double-dig a new plot while they are germinating, plant them out, and that is it. They have thrived every year without any maintenance, while I have been back and forth between England and France, and have been ready to harvest from September right through to early spring. They are very tangy. Delicious grated with soy sauce.
This is the first year I have been here all year round and therefore been able to grow from seed crops of tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes & cornichons, and very rewarding indeed I have found it, harvesting and frying up this produce, followed by a desert of cheap creme fraiche with – in order of their appearance in the garden – cherries, blackcurrants, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, plums and grapes.
Enjoying the simple life like this has certainly been more rewarding than trying to convince other stiff-spined Zen practitioners, believers in the myth of “right posture,” of the benefits of non-doing. That has truly been a thankless task… not that I have gone about it with any skill or guile whatsoever.
I have recently started watching Charles’ videos on Youtube and really love his approach. Next year, all being well, will be my first year of putting Charles’ principles into practice.
Finally, on the subject of trying to convince others, a couple of pieces of wisdom I would like to share from FM Alexander’s niece Marjory Barlow (which kind of corroborate what has been written above about leading by example). In a series of Alexander lessons about 20 years ago, observing my urgent missionary zeal, Marjory told me:
1. You can’t force others to be happy, making yourself miserable in the process. Rather happiness is something that, if you find it for yourself, can’t help but radiate out from you as if in ripples.
2. We (in Alexander work) are in the business of growth. And growth can never be hurried.
All the best to no-diggers everywhere and thank you Charles for your great work.