The Wild Garden

Well, apparently according to the poll, 82% of you talk to your plants!
I'd like to know if anyone has done a controlled experiment with plants that are talked to and plants that are put into 'solitary' (if you have the heart!).
But forward. I've downloaded a slideshow (just click on the pictures to enlarge and see the captions), of some pictures for you to look at of my wild patch, which is currently giving me the most delicious purple sprouting broccoli trimmings, zucchini, carrots, and arugula, as well as a wild harvest of grey mustard and assorted thistles. You'll see the original dug out, wire lined, fenced in protective garden that I started with fitfully a few years ago, faced with rabbits, gophers, and deer to mention just a few! But I always felt restricted and caged in, and felt the plants did too. I felt their connection to the wild plants and their free life, that they longed to be growing with them to nature's rythmn as they once did. I felt their longing to be free to come to seed and establish family generations and knowledge bases like the centuries old stands of sage and horehound up my hill, not always be seeded far from home, be uprooted and eaten before setting seed, and be discarded at the end of the year perennials or not. That they wanted to take their chances out in the wild and be free.
This sensed longing from the plants became urgent and compelling last year, and was the start of my working intuitively in partnership with the plants in a kind of 'captive release' experiment, protecting them so they had a chance to 'learn' their environment and develop whatever phytochemicals or other defensive mechanisms they needed. I hid them carefully in amongst the natives that do now seem to me to be protecting them. I mentally asked the gophers and rabbits to take part too and let the plants establish with the intention of a future share in mind. ( The gophers did pretty well, they left me one potato on each plant! I know I didn't specify the sharing ratio, but whether they heard me or are just darned good gardeners I can't tell! Whatever, that to me is a sign of a very intelligent and knowledgeable gardening partner.) I started listening to the plants and experimenting with joint tactics so to speak, to see what natural support tactics non native plants need to allow them to live a life as close to wild as their adaptive abilities can get. It was also the start of my intuitive gardening journey, with them, as a guardian to help them on their way to a whole life, to see if we can free the plants, create a new, equal, relationship together and still have enough to eat.
I'm watching as the plants seem to be thinking this one out too, with me, and now you.
Perhaps the vegetables we know and love will change their flavors a tad. So far, from a very few thinned out tastings when curiosity has got the better of me ( checking future seed quality) , they have just become more intensely flavorful, and I can't believe my clump of 'wild' carrots have not been touched by the many rabbits I see hopping around. One tiny observation is that one of the outside small carrots I tasted was very bitter, one bigger, taken from further inside of the clump was unbelievably delicious, was this on purpose? That would be a great defense, I'll test that out with the next bigger batch where I can test without compromising any defenses, and have half a mind to what I am doing. Perhaps the rabbits really just haven't found them yet, hidden amongst the native mustards, which is where I felt it right to put them. Where on earth did that thought come form? Perhaps both. Very interesting. Do please, try this, observe closely and add to the knowledge base.
If this is a type of localized defense that is already developing, maybe was in fact remembered and waiting ready to be enacted given the right circumstances, we can learn these from the plants and work with them to maximise the plant's efforts. They will not need any chemical pest control efforts as with the wild plants. Many possibilities and your observations invited.
The other observation is that the mustard is alive with bees and other little bugs, ladybugs amongst them, and so far (touching the nearest piece of wood), they seem to be enjoying those rather than my intermixed upcoming potatoes, leeks, broccoli, squash etc. I am reaping the benefits in pollinators of all types!
Also downloaded is a picture of the new area to be planted in which I will be working more deliberately trying out the co creative approach, working with nature through kinesiology and intuition, to advise on everything from soil amendments, layout, watering, and planting - what, where, when, and how!
I'll be following the Perelandra Workbooks (in book list) to see how to do this, and the first step has already been taken of creating a small garden sanctuary, a lovely idea, to look after the land we will be working with.
The next step is to do some energy work on the land itself, prior to anything else happening, to balance the environment of the soil and the atmosphere above it, which again makes perfect sense as although it has laid fallow with gorgeous wild annuals on it for many years, it has been carved out of it's original chapparral state and weed whacked every year, thus must not be anywhere near as balanced as the wild land.
This will require a bit of study prep on my part, it sounds a bit complicated, and a new venture, but I'll let you know how it works out.
So far I have been given meticulous instructions for the soil amendments for planting the winter crop of broccoli seeds into, in flats, the exact amount of time they are to spend in those flats before transplanting, and where they are to go when ready. Quite amazing. I'll give you details of how they get on.
I can see it might take me some time to get all the information for each crop planted, not to mention instructions on how to prepare the new area for planting, and as I am planting with the moon cycles, I have to get going as the sowing time for above ground crops is now!
I am intending to leave the wild plants to grow as I have in the bed up the hill, as there are such great benefits and the area has a balance to it that feels good.
Here is a mystery for you to check out with me, the lettuce mystery on the picture to the right. As I am collecting all the seed from my wild veggies to make sure the next crop already has a bunch of info learned from their parent plants, on their locality, bugs, soil etc, I'm watching the seeds develop more closely than I have ever done before.
I saw the lettuce produce the fluffy dandelion seed heads and thought I had better keep close watch before all the seeds blew away. Well, I didn't have to worry. The fluff has gone and the seeds are maturing right there in the seed heads. So why bother with the fluff? I thought maybe SOME seed got carried away further from the plants and some stayed, but it doesn't look like that happened. If you gently pull out the fluff there is nothing attached.
All answers and theories interestedly received, for the unspecified major prize mentioned!
Happy Fall gardening!