“Natural Emergence: Gardening an Awakening” by Alison Ensor

ISBN: ‎ 978-1836284789

This is an interesting book in several ways. On one level this is a book about gardening, and particularly the way we, as gardeners, respond to the things we regard as problems: pests and weeds. By her own admission the author is both a Nature lover and permaculture gardener, yet she found herself in conflict with various pests such as slugs and snails and weeds such as bindweed and brambles, that threatened her ability to grow the things she wanted to grow in her garden. She realised that there was a huge disconnect between her love of Nature in general and her response to these aspects of Nature that she regarded as being a problem. Over time she came to realise that, instead of fighting the things she regarded as problems, gardening was much less stressful when she learned to accept them, and allowed things in her garden to find their own balance with only very gentle guidance and intervention from her. Her view is that Nature will always find the right balance for the environment as long as we allow it to do so.

The book is written as a sequence of chapters based on the garden growing cycle: from preparing the ground via sowing the seed, germination, flowering, fruiting and harvesting, reseeding and new shoots. From her breakthrough understanding that garden “problems” are only problems if we allow them to be, the author came to understand that she, and we, are all part of Nature and that to live harmoniously with Nature benefits everyone and everything. As she says, this is something that has long been understood by people who live closely with Nature and is still fundamental to many indigenous cultures. However, more recently many of us, particularly those living in urban environments, have become separated from Nature and have lost this awareness. When people are disconnected from Nature they are less likely to value it or realise the importance of looking after it.

In the later chapters the author explores her experience of sensing or perceiving “messages” from plants: sensations that include emotional responses to individual plants that might have healing effects for example. By opening up her awareness to these experiences she has improved her own wellbeing and mental health and this has helped her to feel part of Nature. One of her main aims is to teach other people to become aware of this ability in themselves, and it’s potential wider consequences. Alison says, if people learn to pay proper attention they “will then discover Earth is talking to you, through the Nature that is your body, all the time and not just in the garden”. I found this section more difficult to read: the way that the spirituality and particularly the science were presented felt rather “woolly” to me, but I certainly appreciate the main message, and am open to the possibility that plants and humans can communicate with each other.

Alison Ensor’s conclusion is that we cannot force people to change how they perceive and interact with Nature. However the more people that learn to regard themselves as part of Nature the more likely they will be to live in balance with it, and this may help to tip the balance away from destruction and towards regeneration of our Earth. This book is a very thought-provoking read, and I hope that it helps more people to develop a greater awareness of, and appreciation for, Nature and the importance of this for its survival.