Gardening
Community / Demo Garden
Sattwic Peace Gardens
Teaching Gardening for Self-Reliance and Food Sovereignty
Community / Demo Garden
At the School of Life, a terraced vegetable garden stands across from the CSA pick up site in Bethesda at 4209 East-West Highway where you may join in to learn and share of the bounties of nature. BioDynamic seeds are used and some of the BD Preparations applied along with compost, mulch, and other natural methods for maintaining a chemical free garden. Planning starts in late winter, spring may include hands on demos/workshops of soil preparation and planting, summertime is maintaining and harvest. If you want to garden but don’t have space of your own, want to learn more about gardening or just want to pitch in at any step of the way, let us know.
Sattwic Peace Gardens
Sattwic is the Sanskrit word for “pure.” Sattwic Peace Garden is an intensive gardening process, which means that the most chemical free and energy boosted produce possible is grown in a limited space. Instead of long rows of vegetables and herbs, which would require substantial space, intensive gardens are usually 3-4 foot square consisting of one plot or many, depending upon the needs of the family.
It has been demonstrated that this process will produce five times the amount that can be grown on the same surface using standard gardening methods. More than that, sattwic gardens produce food that is not tainted by artificial chemicals, pesticides, herbicides or artificial chemical fertilizers. The good earth, nourished by naturally produced compost, the energy of the sun, water and loving care are the only ingredients in this recipe for health and well-being.
“So much for so little” is a slogan that aptly describes this intensive gardening technique. It requires less space, less water, fewer seeds and less labor than conventional gardening techniques, and the results are phenomenal.
Similar intensive gardening methods have proven to be effective in locations all over the U.S. as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Anyone can do it with a minimum of resources and reap the benefits of health and self-sufficiency.
In the Women’s Self-Reliance Program, a project of Global Coalition for Peace, our experience with bringing the Sattwic Peace Gardens to other parts of the world has proven that the gardens can be life-changing. For an overview of the program, see theWSRP page on globalcoalitionforpeace.net.
See also the story of our projectt in Lebrun, Haiti and a report of the latest visit to El Remate, Guatemala (below, under Activities). For how the Sattwic Peace Gardening concept got started, see the Who We Are page on makinggardensmaking peace.
We bring biodynamic seeds and compost starter (www.biodynamics.com) and teach the gardening technique, as well as how to make rich soil through composting and eventually how to save seeds. The program offers a totally self-sustaining system that can be effective even in areas with very poor soil.
Our goal is to bring the gardening to people all over the world who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. It’s our hope that people who experience the gardens for themselves will want to help promote this wonderful program however and wherever they can. We ask that each person who receives the training commit to training at least one other person.
There is a storm brewing throughout the world, a food crisis of monumental proportions, one that is touching every nation and community. Many believe that this type of gardening could go a long way towards alleviating the world’s hunger problems. In speaking about John Jeavons’ intensive gardening method,
"There are probably a billion people in the world who are malnourished. [This] approach could enable that segment of the population to feed itself adequately for the first time ever. That would be a remarkable development in this world, and would do more to solve the problems of poverty, misery and hunger than anything else we've done."
--Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Bob Bergland
Teaching Gardening for Self-Reliance and Food Sovereignty
Whether at home, at a local school or community center or abroad,
- Home Gardening – Angels in My Garden online course
- Community Gardening – build a garden in a day, seed-saving and more.
- Weaving a Tapestry of Women’s Self Reliance - a workshop for anyone who is, will be, or would like to work with economically depressed or underprivileged women and women who struggle to create a physically and mentally healthy and conscious lifestyle for themselves and their families.
Activities So Far
Installed over 100 Sattwic Peace Gardens in the villages of El Remate, Jobampiche and Corazal, Guatemala
Trained the women of El Remate to teach the gardening process so they can spread the gardens throughout this town and neighboring villages. See April 2015 Trip to El Remate which celebrates 10 years of this highly successful program. Here is the 12 year report from Guatemala.
Introduced the Sattwic Peace Gardens to inner-city women at the Emergence Community Arts Collective in Washington, DC.
Through the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, brought the gardens to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic
Established a community gardening program in Lebrun, Haiti.
Initiated a community gardening program in Bethesda, MD.
And, so that future generations will be able to feed themselves and their children, we bring the Sattwic Peace Gardens and lessons in sustainability to children in such diverse locations as the
- Washington Waldorf School of Washington, DC,
- Islamic Center in Pittsburgh, PA
- Changing Seasons Learning Center in McMurray, PA
- The schools in El Remate, Guatemala
- Secondary and high schools in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Schools and orphanages in the Barcelona region of Venezuela
- The schools in Lebrun, Haiti
Contact
If you're interested in learning about the Sattwic Peace Gardens and/or working with women and children to help them develop their own source of healthy, life-sustaining food contact Rose "Mirabai" Lord.