The life I choose to add to the project is not random. Just like the biochar, each component has a job to do. Also, the plants tell a story about this place and my life in this place. My story is not unique and the affiliation with these plants is also not unique.  The plants are also chosen because of their place in the big picture. The elderberry’s deep purple berries and sweet smell draw in small children and birds.  The birds drop seeds further than the elderberry tree can reach. The birds feed the soil, and the branches also shade the soil and allow thirsty young plants to thrive in the shade. It in turn nestles back up against a strong oak who she shares their wealth with. He holds strong against the cold winds and hard rains protecting her protected from the elements. All living together in harmony or least in my imagination.

Fire has come back again and again, not to destroy but to rebalance. Fire in my project was used to heal the unbalanced pH of the soil. I used the ashes brought on by fire to sweeten soil of the site and allow life to begin. This medium resets the soil geo clock that was washed away by acidic rains and time. Fire was recently used to create biochar that can feed soil for hundreds of years, providing structure to the soil and surface for life to flourish.

The body of my project is earth. Tammie asked me a couple of weeks back, “If I identify plants with people, which of the plants do I identify myself with?” I have realized that it is the soil that I identify myself with. I am bringing all the different facets that heal the earth and by healing the earth I’m healing myself. Soil is the body of the project and until the body of the project is healed all other aspects of the project flounder. Luckily with a little research, I have found a few options that include natural homeopathic amendments created from local plants. Vermicomposting of worms are the savers of the project. They will feed the soil while I feed them scraps that would otherwise be put in landfills. The biochar project will also add to this and become natural fertilizer. All of these ideas have led me down paths I never thought I would follow.

The final element and medium of this project are my companion species that are planted and welcomed to the site. Life is the fifth element and the material that is the future of my manifestation. A future of abundance for future generations of myself and these co-creators. The living elements will live in symbiosis and thrive. Life is tenacious and delicate all in one breath. Recent science and studying of others allow me to grasp concepts and species interaction that until recently I had very little knowledge of. These unseen yeasts in the belly of a wasp directing it to the flower to sip from because the flower called to it is amazing and wonderous. Science has given us a lens to miracles and unseen beauty. The data from my own soil test let me know that the soil under my floundering apple is because a cooper and zinc soil deficiency. This led me to the knowledge of a discovery of ancient biochar found in the amazon that would allow me to recreate to amend the soil with chicken manure and charcoal.

Carbon is now becoming a medium of the project. Life is carbon. I am building life, air and carbon need to be carefully considered. Tearing earth with a plow is a large component to the global warming effect that no one talks about. Plowing allows carbon to evaporate into the air and is lost from soil. Trees breathe that carbon back into growth of their bodies and die back into soil to feed life. For the trees carbon is like mother’s milk sipped from the air.  By planting trees and planting an orchard I am decreasing the carbon from the air and putting it back where we need it. In just the last couple of weeks I have built and experimented with a kiln to make biochar. The charcoal will be inoculated with nitrates, bacteria, fungi, and nutrients. This material will keep the carbon in the soil for hundreds of years and give structure to the soil and a surface area for microscopic life to flourish.

Water is the blood of the project, a constant reminder of how delicate the balance of life is. She is life. Too much water and my project is washed away from the surface and too little water and life ceases to exist. She is a task master as a co-creator. She is the component that is most relentless in her demands of tending to site. As she is the most unforgiving, she is also the most giving of all the elements. Now in the site she blankets the project in snow. She is telling all her children to rest for when the spring rains come the work for making life begins.