The Year 2020 – Beyond all Challenges

Article by Patricia Rojo

Beyond all challenges: Thanks to the year 2020 for the opportunities for change that it brought to us.

The year 2020 began with unusual news (we now know the issue so well).
A new virus would force us to change our way of life in the coming months.

Within the mixture of feelings in front of something unknown, as that what we faced, appeared with force the feeling of celebrating a life that was beginning to be reborn in that special Spring. The feeling that Mother Nature never fails, she is always punctual every early year, if we give her the minimum she needs to develop.

Also strong was the feeling of gratitude for having health (despite this new threat that we didn’t know yet how it would develop) and for having some important capital: Peace (something we sometimes take for granted in countries where we have already spent several generations without having to face the horror of war in our territories). With these two gifts and the force of love, we can face every challenge we felt.

We decided to be positive and live intensely day by day, while showing confidence in the future with a project that will develop in time. I remembered a quote I heard a few times.

“If I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree today “

This quote gave many people confidence and energy in challenging times, such as the last years of war in Europe. And now it gave us the confidence to face these uncertain times.

When it was time for the strict “lockdown” in mid-March, we decided, with my son Kilian, to take this opportunity and the time we now had at home, to implement our long time wish of transforming our traditional garden into a “Natural Garden,” according to the principles of Permaculture.
Until now, our garden was mostly green, with grass and old trees (mostly non-fruit trees), planted long ago by the Grandparents. And we wanted to transform it into a colorful garden, filled with abundance and good for other endangered creatures these days, such as insects and birds. We called the project “Un-locked in the Garden” (in opposition to be “locked-down” due to the measures taken to fight the pandemic).

We were also very grateful for the opportunity to have a garden (which we are very aware that many people living in big cities or other circumstances do not have). This would allow us to spend these difficult months of restrictions outdoors and in contact with Nature. The importance of having a garden and also to be more self-reliant became much more noticeable in this time.

The months passed and we could really feel in our hearts the joy and the wisdom of this Chinese proverb.

“Life begins the day you plant a garden”.

Chinese Proverb

We compiled in images the results of this first cycle of just over nine months, from mid-March to December, in which we have tried to follow Nature and imitate its patterns and rules on our plot of land.

We made, with all the pictures of our work until now, a photo book as a souvenir for us, and put it as a gift under our Christmas tree as a recognition for our “hard work” this year. We called it “our private e-book”.

We want to share with you, dear Permaculture friends, some of our achievements in a short graphic summary of our photo book about these months of work and pleasure in the garden.

You can see all the elements we used in our project and the results of the fertility of this first year, which we hope will continue to increase in the future, as is usual in these cases.

We hope that maybe some of you will find on them motivation and ideas for your own projects. And we look forward to the next Spring to begin another cycle guided by Mother Nature and her laws!

“Un-locked” in the Garden:

First month: mid-March to April:

Here we started planting some fruit trees and berries, building an herb spiral and an insect hotel, preparing the beds and a “Hügelbeet”, planting our seeds and preparing for the mushroom cultivation, building a biotope and preparing the area to leave as a “natural meadow” with wild herbs and flowers for the insects.

Second month: mid-April to May:

We planted the vegetable beds with our own seedlings, prepared a system to collect rainwater, used the product of our worm farm to fertilize the beds, and planted a potato tower.

Third month: mid-May to June:

We installed more bird nests, continued planting and caring for the plants, and built a solar-herb dryer.

Fourth month: mid-June to July:

We installed a wildlife camera to see our “secret night visitors”, built two more insect hotels and several raised beds (some of them upcycled), and prepared for the certification of our garden as a “Natural Garden”. And had the joy of harvest our firsts berries and vegetables.

Fifth month: mid-July to August:

We planted the raised beds, began using the solar dryer also to make flaxseed crackers, among others, mow the natural meadow, and continued caring for the plants and harvesting our food

Sixth month: mid-August to September

We continued harvesting, eating, cooking, drying, and preserving our produce. And we prepared a new vegetable patch for next season and planted it with green manure.

Seventh month: mid-September to October

We collected nuts, chestnuts, and mushrooms in our surroundings and continued harvesting vegetables and flowers.

Eighth month: mid-October to November

We collected the fallen leaves from the trees and planted flower and vegetable bulbs for the Spring. We built a tea light oven to warm the winter garden when necessary.

Ninth month: mid-November to December

We built more beds and raised beds and filled them with the leaves to compost and to plant in the next season. We continued harvesting and planting some shrubs until frost and snow came.

And now we are taking a rest and waiting for Spring again…

Our wish for the Next Year:

At the end of the year, we are with our thoughts and hearts close to those who went through or are going through difficult times in 2020.

With this feeling in our consciousness, we wish you a good end of the year and a much better start of the year 2021. Particularly, the wish of a year with Health and Love and with the capacity to enjoy the simple things that life gives us, which is one of the positive things that it has left us and that we have exercised in this year 2020. And that perhaps thanks to the teachings and experiences gained in it, we can be better in the Next Year.

May life return to normal during 2021 and many of our dreams come true, with warmest regards from Austria.

PS: Should any of you be interested in seeing our complete “private e-book” :-), in which each of the elements, work, and results of our project are seen in more detail, you can, if you wish, contact me briefly through my profile at https://permacultureeducation.org/profile/patricia-r/ and I will gladly send you a link where you can see it (of course for free)!

Patricia Rojo is a Permaculture Designer and Instructor with the International Permaculture Education Center.