Your Mental Edge – Trusting Your Intuition in the Garden

Permaculturists place an emphasis on using “edges” in landscape design. There is something almost alchemical about two different systems colliding that results in greater diversity and productivity than each system is capable of alone. The perimeter of a pond, the juncture of a forest and a field, and even the entrance to your house are good examples of the edge-effect in action.

In some cases it is easy to understand why life gravitates toward the edge. Plants and animals have easy access to water and food near a pond edge. Deer like sun-grown grasses in fields and the security of the woods. Bugs rally around a porch light because they navigate by natural light and become disoriented by artificial light at night. Yet there are aspects of the edge that are hard to comprehend. Like, why do frogs, from an existing edge-habitat, decide to cross a relatively large distance to a newly dug pond that doesn’t even have mosquito tadpoles yet? Maybe those early frogs are the risk-takers of the bunch, just out for adventure. Or maybe, they followed an inexplicable feeling that a new water source would become a bustling edge-environment with less immediate competition for food.

In humans, a “feeling” that helps us see beyond present circumstance to some future outcome is called intuition. It is the intersection between what we consciously know, unconscious details we may not even be aware we have noticed, and our resulting formulations on how to use that information. Although scientific understanding of intuition is incomplete, many studies have shown that intuition uses both the left and right brain – the creative and cognitive facilities. Intuition is also the driving force behind many break-throughs and discoveries, as it is the intuitive belief that enables the leap from known to unknown or new. Also, intuition is often the edge between ordinary and extraordinary, as it gives the confidence to take risks. In so many ways, intuition may be the ultimate edge – which is why, whether you use other permaculture principles or not, this is one edge you definitely want to have in your garden.

Between droughts, floods, super-pests, super-weeds, pollinator shortages, increasing soil pathogens, and incessant record-breaking weather events, even veteran gardeners have been struggling to grow gardens. Paradoxically, as challenges escalate, some gardeners are making radical break-throughs and actually growing better gardens than ever before. So, how are they doing it and why isn’t everyone doing it?

In talking to gardeners from both camps, the struggling and the thriving, the one stand-out difference between them is the degree to which gardeners use their intuition to counter problems. As old methods become less effective against new challenges, the willingness to branch out and try less orthodox solutions – a tactic which inherently requires the use of intuition – is becoming critical. In a way, because environmental change is happening faster than commercial solutions can be made available, gardening has become a kind of new frontier. Individual gardeners now have to pioneer their own answers to unprecedented garden problems. For some, this leads to frustration and increased failures. But for others, these new challenges are stimulating creativity and triggering the use of intuition, resulting in break-throughs in both sustainability and productivity.

For example, this year a gardener in my area said he had beetles that he had never seen in his fifty years of gardening. He had to use more pesticide than normal and still only had a mediocre crop (possibly because the pesticide he used also impacted pollinators). His cost of growing went up, his production went down, and he made less money at the farmer’s market. Another gardener said he had the same beetle problem, so he borrowed his neighbor’s guineas and released them into his garden. He had to put a temporary fence around his tomatoes, but otherwise the guineas were more interested in the abundant beetles than the vegetables. When asked why he decided to use guineas, he said he read they were good for insect control and less destructive than chickens, and he knew his neighbor wouldn’t mind if he borrowed them.

Using pesticide was an automatic response to an insect problem, based on previous success using pesticides. It was somewhat effective in that it saved the crop, but it also had unintended repercussions like reduced yields and lost revenue. Using guineas, on the other hand, required an intuitive leap from two knowns: 1) guineas eat insects and 2) a neighbor has some guineas, to the unknown – what would happen when releasing the guineas into the garden. The guinea results were better and cheaper. They also might have been disastrous, if there weren’t enough beetles to occupy the guineas or if the gardener left them too long, etc. But in this instance, the gardener’s intuition proved correct and his risk-taking paid off.

When growing conditions are easy, gardeners tend to stick to what they know. However, as challenges increase, we have to make more intuitive leaps, like using guineas instead of pesticide, if we want to get great results without increasing costs or time inputs. Just like using edges in permaculture, using the intuition-edge in growing our gardens can produce almost alchemical results. In the previous example, the gardener who borrowed guineas also created a stronger relationship with his neighbor and although he hasn’t needed the guineas again in his garden, they routinely come visit his un-fenced areas and have seemingly eliminated the tick population around his house. There is always risk in taking intuitive leaps, but if used effectively, intuition can help create more productive gardens even in the most difficult growing conditions.

So, how do you develop and use the intuition-edge in your gardens? It’s not that different from how you build other skills – it takes education, experience, and practice trusting your intuition.

Education

Although many people think of intuition as something that spontaneously happens, this is actually incorrect. For example, when you have an intuitive feeling that a person is not trustworthy, and later your suspicion is confirmed, it’s not just dumb luck that tipped you off. All of your previous experience with people contributed to your good intuition. Whether we consciously realize it or not, our accurate hunches are the result of our past experiences meeting new information – yet another edge.

Most of us didn’t instantly become good judges of character. We had to meet a lot of people and be both wrong and right before we began to have accurate intuition. It will be the same in the garden. So many new gardeners enthusiastically start a new garden, then give up because they didn’t get it right the first time, as if gardening was something they should have been instantly good at. And many long-term gardeners have so many well-developed skills that it is often hard to believe that a new answer can be developed. But if you want to actively develop your garden intuition, then whether you are just starting a garden or have gardened for years, you need to begin by actively learning about gardening.

Gardening intuition is a skill best learned by immersion. Like learning languages, by surrounding yourself with all-things-gardening, you can speed up the process. Read about it, watch programs about it, visit gardens and farms of every variety, and talk to other gardeners and growers as much as you can. Don’t limit yourself to your preferred style or even to the list of things you like to grow. And don’t just research new methods, study as many different methods as you can – old, new, fringe, mainstream, etc. Some of the information you learn will get committed to your accessible memory, but a whole bunch more will end up in your “subliminal library.” For example, you may not specifically remember how much the bees loved your neighbor’s tomatillo plant, but you might still find yourself picking up a pack of tomatillo seeds in spring.

Since we are facing a new gardening frontier, the answer may not be something you learned in a book. Instead it will be something you pieced together on your own from two books, a garden tour, a class, a blog post, and a conversation with a fellow gardener. You may not be able to cite all six sources, if you had to explain how you arrived at the answer, because your intuition-edge brought them together in a new way at a subliminal level. But you also wouldn’t have been able to form the answer at all if you hadn’t come into contact with all that information beforehand. The more varied exposure you have to all things gardening, the more ammunition your intuition has to draw from to arrive at new answers.

Experience

We all know some “black thumb” person who tells us how they always kill plants. When you ask about their experience, they’ll say “Well, I had this fern in my office and kept forgetting to water it, so it died” or they’ll say, “I grew some basil in my kitchen, but I think it didn’t have enough light.” Even these supposed black thumb plant killers have figured out that ferns need to be watered and that basil likes more sun. As a result of this intuitive learning, next time they try to grow plants, they might unconsciously move a plant to better light or water more frequently when they see signs of desiccation. This information might not make them experts, but it does show that even when they are failing, their intuitive skills are being developed. So, don’t be afraid to try and fail – even in failing, you are gaining valuable experience that will give you better intuition in the future.

Now that you have permission to fail occasionally, the next step in building garden intuition is to get your hands dirty! And by that, I mean take off your gloves. Gardening gloves are good in some circumstances, but if you don’t have dirt under your fingernails, you are missing a whole lot of subliminal opportunities to connect with your garden. If you plant seeds with bare fingers, you know how it will feel for tiny, infant seedling roots to burrow down to find nutrients. You’ll also get a lot more subliminal information about moisture levels in the soil and how much life is wriggling in it. So, go ahead, play in the dirt like you did as a child.

You also need to spend a lot of time in your garden. None of us want to be slaves to our garden, so it’s OK to choose low-maintenance plants, install irrigation systems, or use whatever other tricks make it easier for you to get good results. But you should also spend time observing your garden and enjoying the beauty you have helped to create. When you are doing a specific task, like weeding or watering, you are focused on achieving what you set out to do. Your intuition is also focused on those tasks – like determining when a plant has enough moisture or tracking down squash beetle eggs on vine leaves while you are checking on your zucchini plants. You will still notice other details along the way, but you will notice much more when observation and enjoyment are your main tasks. So, sit or roam, and stay awhile. Touch, taste, take deep breaths, and meditate on specific sounds in your garden to really crank up your information intake.

Finally, you need to keep trying new things in your garden. But only in moderation. Novelty is to intuition what nitrogen is to plants. You don’t want too much or too little, but if you can find a good balance, then your intuition skills will keep on growing. Routine tasks don’t require intuition, so your intuition goes into sleep mode when gardening becomes habitual. Overload, on the other hand, leads to distraction and your intuition becomes ineffective. But when you hit your Goldie-locks sweet spot “just right,” your intuition stays engaged.

A good way to do this is to give yourself a “sandbox,” or a safe place to play. It might be a garden bed or plot, a large container, or even empty water bottles you use to start new plants in your apartment. It could be a notebook where you theorize about different gardening methods until you have the space to test your theories. It could also be a budget you give yourself annually to spend on projects like aquaponics using buckets, raising lady beetles at home, or sprouting different seeds on your counter top. The important factor is that you push the limits of your current gardening practices without worrying about the consequences. Remember, even failures build intuition, so make play OK!

Trusting Yourself

Trusting our intuition is often the hardest part. A broccoli plant in the center of your bed has an infestation of aphids, but you also see twenty lady beetles feasting on that aphid population and mating. You know lady beetles love to eat aphids, and you want more lady beetles in your garden. But should you risk aphid infestations on other plants to create habitat for lady beetles?

For new gardeners, soaping off the aphids or pulling the plant is probably the answer to prevent a bigger problem in the long run. However, as your powers of intuition get stronger, your ability to calculate the gray area increases. So when your gut tells you to leave the broccoli, and let the lady bugs do their work and reproduce, you might listen to it.

But don’t do it blindly! You know you’ve got an aphid-infested plant in your garden, so keep tabs on it. Follow up daily to make sure the ladybugs are keeping the aphid population in check. Keep your insecticidal soap handy and use it on any aphids that end up on neighboring plants. Intuition is an inexact science and circumstances change. So while your intuition might be right-on one day, things might happen to change the equation. Maybe birds show up and eat your lady bugs, giving the aphids unencumbered access to your plants.

The key to trusting and using your intuition is to follow-up and make adjustments as necessary. That being said, intuition is the main doorway to new break-throughs, so sometimes you have to be willing to take a risk to reap the rewards. At a time when difficult environmental conditions and diminishing resources are making it harder to garden the “traditional way,” we need to use every tool at our disposal to garden successfully. Like permaculturists making huge break-throughs in resilient, sustainable food growing by creating and managing edges, you can use your intuition-edge in your own environment to grow a stronger, more resilient garden.

Whether you use other permaculture principles of edge-management or not, the ability to effectively use your intuition-edge is a great tool for your gardening success. Develop it and keep on growing stronger!

Tasha Greer

Tasha Greer is a regular contributor to The Grow Network and has cowritten several e-books with Marjory Wildcraft. The author of “Grow Your Own Spices” (December 2020), she also blogs for MorningChores.com and Mother Earth News. For more tips on homesteading and herb and spice gardening, follow Tasha at Simplestead.com.

simplestead.com/