The Findhorn Garden   (Revisited)

“Man in Partnership with Nature”                                                              

By Jeff Frank
 
    In 1966, the worlds leading polygraph expert, Clive Baxter, decided to test his Lie Detector machine by hooking up it’s sensors to a Dracaena Massangeana plant in his office.  This adventure made headlines in the world’s press as Mr. Baxter proved scientifically that plants could think and respond!  A Consciousness!  This has come to be called the “Baxter Effect”.  Baxter tested the plants response to his simple questions and the plant answered him on his polygraph machine.  It gave responses very similar to that of a Human Being, Experiencing an emotional stimulus of short duration.  Baxter did months of research and found plants respond to threats as well as healing peaceful thoughts.  Plants love to listen to easy-listening music and classical music (but no heavy metal) and seemed to be attuned to animal life.  The plants could actually tell when a human subject on the polygraph machine was lying!  Baxter found out in stress conditions, as when it is being cut, a plant will “faint” so it can’t feel any pain, it goes “flatline” on the machine.  With fruit, the plants wish to give up it’s fruit only in a loving ritual, a communion between the eater and the eaten, a Sacrifice.  Baxter said,” It may be that a vegetable appreciates becoming another part of another form of life rather than rotting on the ground, just as a human death may experience relief to find himself on a higher realm of “being”.
     The Findhorn (pronounced Finn-horn) Garden is in Scotland and in 1963 was the first garden in the world to test the discoveries that Baxter was making in the United States, both were doing research separately and unknown to eachother.  The Findhorn Garden proved with Nature’s guidance and our own awareness we could grow any type of plant, almost anywhere and get outstanding results. Findhorn has no soils to speak of and only used compost (no fertilizers or chemicals of any kind) and could grow Fruit Trees, Herbs, (culinary and medicinal) Vegetables and Flowers and all were abundant, oversized, and healthy and grew all year long!  Now this might not seem difficult in a lower latitude, however Findhorn is only a few miles from Macbeth’s Castle in Scotland and the conditions are so difficult, that almost nothing grows there normally except Heather, Heath and Thistle.
   The folk at the Findhorn realized the consciousness they discovered of the Vegetable Kingdom and with it’s cooperation were showing the world what could be done by working with Nature and not against Her.  The consciousness they discovered, was the same as Clive Baxter proved existed scientifically. 
    At the Lyceum Foundation, we teach about the Findhorn and I would like to share a few true stories that professionals in the Green Industry found when they used the Principals of the “Mindfulness” in their occupations.
  Chris Barker of RoseAnns’s Landscaping told the class that she found tomato worms in her NEW garden.  They really upset her and she used her thoughts to ask the worms to leave.  That night she dreamt that the tomato worms were chasing her, she was quite frightened until she turned on the worms and demanded that they leave her garden alone.  The nightmare ended and the next day she asked her neighbor to pick off any worms he found, and Chris would even pay him $20.00 for every worm he could find.   He found NONE!  They had disappeared!
    In our arboricultural class given by James Sottilo of Koch Tree, he told the class how He hugs trees and actually gets and immediate positive results in the Trees from this Mind treatment that James learned through reading the “Findhorn Garden”.  In the class that night were several arborists listening but very skeptical.  That night on the way home from class they were laughing and discussing in a mocking way what they heard that night,” hugging trees and sending them kind thoughts,” Ha”!  At a stop light, still laughing, a bolt of lightning, hits the transformer on the pole right next to them and created a blackout in the area.  Bill and Chris looked at each other, frightened by the explosion, sparks, fire and blackout, screamed, freaked out and drove home in a panic (it wasn’t raining).  When they came into the next class they told everyone the story, which was very funny to hear, they had become believers in Nature’s way, and stopped making fun at James.
    At a local Long Island Country Club, the head Greenskeeper’s name is Kirk and once upon a time He had a problem with Crows tearing up his fairways and greens in search of grubs to eat.  Kirk as a last resort attempted to get close enough to shoot at them to scare them away.  He would put his rifle in his golf bag put a sox over it to disguise it further and drive out to find the offending culprit Black birds.  As soon as He got to with in a couple of hundred yards, all the birds flew away, only to come back as soon as He left the area.  Puzzled, He would leave his rifle in the office and he would drive up to with in a few feet of the Black birds before they flew away.  As if the birds knew Kirk was armed and when He wasn’t.  Kirk remembered a Findhorn story I had told Him and went out and asked the Crows to leave his fairways and greens alone because of all the damage they were doing to the turf, and it isn’t pretty!  The next day the damage stopped and the Crows would now only open a small hole and extract the grub clean.  Needless to say Kirk was amazed at the consciousness of the Crows.  He has not had the problem again.
   By far the best example of the Findhorn in cooperation with man was the story of the worms at Old Westbury Country Club an Audubon certified club at the time.  Worms show up when the soils lose their toxicity and do their work of aerating and producing microbes. A worm is not killed by toxic pesticides.  When a toxic genetic chemical is used, the worm’s dive deep into the soil and the poisons only kill all the life in the soil, not the target pest.  Since 99.9% of any toxic spray does not reach the target pest anyway, it’s an exercise in futility to spray for worms; they come back only as the turf loses its toxicity.  At the time Phillip Anderson was the head Greenskeeper and he called me and asked me to the club and advise him on a stragedy to handle the worms which were making quite a mess.   The Fourth fairway on the south course had so much worm action the turf was dark from all the castings.  He had to tell his membership that the hole was under renovation, which technically it was.  Now most of us know what worm castings do to a reel mower, dulling the blades, making costly repairs.  Phil and I went out to the fairway and we discussed what to do.  Phil had read the Findhorn and did everything at the club in the highest, safest standards possible.  Phil wanted help in opening up communication with the worms and Nature.  I just told Phil,”just ask the worms to leave, politely.”  We spent a few moments doing this mentally and I left.  The next day there was not a worm on the whole golf course!  This happened again a year later and although it’s a wonderful event to have worms, because it shows life coming back to the soil, its not the best thing for golf course during the height of play.  Again we asked the worms to leave, move off the fairways into the roughs, leave the greens and fairways alone and lo and behold, no kidding, the next day, no worms!
    Everyday professionals are understanding our relationship with Mother Nature and the partnership that’s available to all through communication.  We as Human doings (not beings) have attempted to use chemistry to control weeds,dis-ease and insects with disastrous results to the environment and its inhabitants.  We short sightedly forget that it’s MAL-NUTRITION that brings those three Horsemen of the Apocalypse to our gardens, parks, ball fields, lawns, courses and farms.  Not only do plants need every element besides N-P-K, they also need the vibrations of the Sun, Moon and Stars, the rain, clouds, clean air and carbon dioxide to work properly.  Over millions of years this Planet evolved a unique and wonderful way to grow plants.  We have been interfering with these processes and the results have been Pollution and Dis-ease. A Stragedy of Tragedy. We are spoiling our own nest!
In Georgia in 1980 a mysterious huge monument was erected.  Five huge granite blocks aligned like Stone hedge with the Sun and the Moon, reaching over nineteen feet in height.  On each side spells out a message in eight languages English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili and Hindi.  The last message for our and future generations (out of ten messages) says” Be not a cancer on the Earth, leave room for Nature, leave room for Nature”.
   As our soils, air and water become more polluted, Human dis-ease rises accordingly.  Think about it.
    We can change, we can make the difference, we can clean up our act, with Nature’s help.  As Professionals in the Green Industry we can learn and use alternative responses to our soil and HEALTH PROBLEMS TOGETHER in an ECO-EFFECTIVE way.  Who else can lead the way except us?
    The Findhorn is one of the ways we can find our way back to the garden, as we hurtle into the next century.  Let’s leave our old, out modeled ways and embrace and use new/old remedies to a Dysfunctional world.  You can make a difference and be part of the solution. The Iroquois, would debate the effects of decisions on what the effect would be on the SEVENTH generation from them.  “They said, even if you have to eat the thick bark of the pine, do not eat your seed corn.”
   Think of the Children and resolve to do no harm for the short time we are on this Beautiful Blue Jewel of a World.
   Vaya con Dios