Is This Invasive Plant Killing Wetlands?

Menace. Monster. Barbarian. Scourge. Thug. Outlaw. Killer.

All these terms have been used in one publication or another to describe a single species whose common name is a bit less provocative.

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria).

This showy plant was introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1800s. Since then, purple loosestrife has spread itself far and wide across the North American continent.

Today, purple loosestrife is considered a noxious weed throughout many parts of North America. The International Union for Conservation of Nature even lists purple loosestrife as one of the 100 worst invasive alien species in the world.

But not everyone agrees that this “purple menace” is a serious threat.

Some researchers think that the problems associated with purple loosestrife invasion are exaggerated. Some researchers even think that purple loosestrife invasion is associated with positive effects in North America.

Who are we to believe? How can people be so divided over a single plant? What does the research really say? Is purple loosestrife a serious ecological threat or not?

We explore the topic of purple loosestrife invasion in a brand new video. If you are interested in learning more about this purported wetland killer, check it out!

Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!

-Adam Haritan

Cultivating Resilience as a Physical and Spiritual Practice

The Druid's Garden

Staghorn Sumac: A tree that teaches us about resilience

Resilience is a term I first learned as a permaculture practitioner–resilient ecosystems are those that are able to withstand hardship, recover quickly when faced with difficulty, and had a capacity to endure. In other words, a resilient ecosystem can withstand drought, flooding, or other difficulties by being adaptable, flexible, and having redundancies. Which of course, is so critical in today’s ever-changing world fraught with climate change and instability. Resilient plants are the often-maligned weeds: those weeds who take every opportunity to grow: who find a crack in the sidewalk and take root, who immediately start to grow after disruption, or who outcompete less resilient plants. They are able to be like weeds or opportunistic species, taking advantage of new opportunities, finding niches, and gracefully adapting to change. Think of the dandelion here, growing up through cracks in the sidewalk. This same…

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Land Healing at the Druid’s Garden: Replanting, Forest Healing, and Refugia Update

The Druid's Garden

Ramps planted in my Grove of Renewal

Today I wanted to take some time to share some of the updates on the land healing and permaculture practices we are enacting at the Druid’s Garden Homestead. As I’ve shared in earlier posts, when we purchased this land four years ago, the family who owned it just before us selectively logged about 3 acres, leaving the forest an absolute mess. The land otherwise was perfect–we have our own spring, a nice sunny area for gardens….and three acres of land in desperate need of healing. Since land healing is one of my primary forms of spiritual practice, I rolled up my sleeves and purchased the land! As this ongoing land healing project takes shape, I try to check in on the blog every once in a while to share new insights, techniques, and experiences. Today I want to spend some time offering updates…

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Deepening the Wheel of the Year and Wildcrafting Druidry

The Druid's Garden

What is amazing about this wonderful planet we live on is the diversity of ecosystems, weather, climate, and life. This diversity, however, can be challenging for those looking to adapt druidry or other nature-based spiritual practices to their practices. Particularly challenging is the concept of the wheel of the year, especially if trying to apply the wheel of the year in a non-temperate climate setting. Thus, today’s post extends some of my earlier discussions about wildcrafting your own druidry, which include developing your own wheel of the year; in considering the role of observances, activities, and rituals; and in developing distinct symbolism for your work. I’m going to continue this discussion today by talking about a further way to work with a seasonal approach from a wildcrafted and observational way and continue wheel of the year development! So let’s get going!

The Wheel of the Year and Why…

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Drought workings: A Druid’s Perspective on Drought and Dry Weather

The Druid's Garden

2020 is certainly a year to remember for many of us in the human realm. Here in Western Pennsylvania and up along many parts of New England, we’ve had an additional serious problem affecting the natural world—an extreme drought. This summer, the jet stream is way off of its normal course and so most of the major storms that would typically hit us have been forced south of us, creating the “moderate” drought that we are now in and causing uncharacteristically dry conditions. know there are other serious droughts around the world, such as the three-year drought currently happening in Germany. Climate change is making these kinds of weather events all the more common and teaching us powerful lessons along the way. In today’s post, I’ll share some drought lessons, drought land healing, and ways of working and honoring water.

Honoring Water and the Scarcity of Water

Altar for water…

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The Tree That’s Only Slightly Out Of Place

Greetings,

In the fields of biology and ecology, a specific word is used to describe a living organism that no longer inhabits a particular area: extirpated.

An extirpated tree, for instance, grows in other regions of the world, but it no longer exists in a particular place that it formerly occupied.

An appropriate example is the Atlantic White-Cedar tree. This coniferous tree formerly inhabited the state of Pennsylvania, though by the early 19th century all wild populations had been logged. Atlantic White-Cedar is not extinct, however, because its range currently spans the Atlantic coastline. Instead, this tree is considered to be extirpated from Pennsylvania because wild populations no longer grow here.

This past weekend, I encountered something fascinating: a healthy population of Atlantic White-Cedar in Pennsylvania. This population was located within a beautiful bog containing typical bog specialists including cranberry, huckleberry, pitcher plant, sundew, and dozens of other plants.

Interestingly, ecologists and botanists are well aware of these Pennsylvanian Atlantic White-Cedar trees, and even though this population of Atlantic White-Cedar seems to be thriving, the tree is still considered to be extirpated from the state.

But why?

In this brand new video, I discuss the topic and address a few pertinent questions. If you are unfamiliar with the beautiful and majestic Atlantic White-Cedar tree, check out the video!

July through September is mating season for timber rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania, and in this recent Instagram post, I describe a very recent and close encounter with one of these beautiful creatures.

Click to view post

Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!

-Adam Haritan

Spirital Lessons of Ecological Succession for the Pandemic: Healing the Land, Healing the Soul

The Druid's Garden

Nature heals!

Ecological succession is nature’s approach to healing. From bare rock, ecological succession allows forests to eventually grow. Ecological succession has much to teach us as a powerful lesson from nature, and it is a particularly useful thing to meditate upon during the pandemic. As we can look to how nature heals, it offers us guidance and stability during this challenging time. Thus, today’s post introduces the idea of ecological succession and how these lessons can be helpful to us as spiritual lessons for thought and reflection. This post is part of my land healing series. For earlier posts, you can see a framework for land healing, land healing as a spiritual practice, a ritual for putting the land to sleep, and a primer for physical land healing.

Ecological Succession

Because nature works on larger time scales, its not always obvious that nature is engaging in…

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Land Healing: Ritual for Putting the Land to Sleep

The Druid's Garden

As I shared a few weeks ago in my land healing framework post, the forest that I grew up in is having a big chunk cut out of it to make way for a septic line, a 40-60′ cut that will go for acres and acres. It’s coming directly through the refugia garden that my parents and I have worked for years to tend and cultivate, where the ramps, wild ginseng, bloodroot, hardwood nut trees, and so many others grow. My very favorite hawthorn tree, a tree that grew up with me and now stands tall will likely be removed by the line. The situation is extremely heartbreaking to me and my family–we have done everything we can to fight and try to get them to use the roadways or non-wooded areas to put in the line, but the condemnation papers have arrived, even the lawyers says it can’t be…

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A Framework for Land Healing

The Druid's Garden

American ginseng in our sanctuary

In the next few months, the forest that I grew up in is going be cut and torn up to put in a septic line. A 40-60 feet path, at minimum, will rip a tear through the heart of it. This is the forest where I grew up, where my parents and I have created a refugia garden, a wildlife sanctuary, and native woodland plant sanctuary. It is just heartbreaking to tend land carefully, only now, to have this awful thing happen that we have failed to stop. This is the forest that taught me so many of these lessons of land healing. The forest had just gotten to a point where it was once again vibrant, where the ramps started to creep back in, and the mature forest trees now stand, growing above the stumps that have rotted away. I feel powerless, knowing…

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Taking up Land Healing as a Spiritual Practice

The Druid's Garden

Sometimes, spirit offers you a call and its a call that can’t be ignored. Part of the reason I write so much about working physically and energetically with land healing on this blog is that its clear to me now that a large part of my call is in this direction. When I was a child, it was the logging of my forest–and my eventual return to that forest years later. At my first homestead, I had to spend years working to connect with the spirits of the land and heal the land physically. When I found the current land where I live, everything was perfect about it in terms of features I wanted–except that three acres had been logged pretty heavily. I put my head and my hands and cried–how did I find a perfect piece of land that just had been logged? The spirits laughed and said…

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