If you have a yard or garden, have you ever wondered how to cultivate your land and grow plants, vegetables and other living things naturally … and whether or not it makes a difference in your health?
Listen to this fascinating discussion as Dr. Karlfeldt visits with Lydia and Jon Primavera, owners of Healing Gardens. They specialize in helping people understand the importance of not only growing without using chemicals in a yard or garden, but how critical it is for detox, healing and overall wellness.
Dr. Michael Karlfeldt: With me I have John and Lydia Primavera, they are the owners of Healing Gardens. One of the aspects that people tend to forget – we are focusing on getting rid of toxins within ourselves – but then we’re not looking at what’s around us. And obviously in the garden; what’s in our garden is a huge aspect of what’s in our toxic load.
Lydia Primavera: Yes, yes, we go out and we garden, and we’re touching plant material, we’re touching the soil and touching everything with our bare hands, or even with gloves, a permeable surface. So we’re taking in toxins from the environment.
Dr. K: And we have our pet running outside in the garden, we have our little toddler crawling on the grass and touching the plants, and we just barely sprayed some pesticides and chemicals on it.
LP: And we don’t know when we’ve hired somebody what’s been responsibly or irresponsibly placed.
Dr. K: Yeah. So how are you two different? Because you go in and you help people with their garden.
LP: The first initial contact is a really nice interview with the family, to find out what the activity will be. And the activity outside is usually the same as it is inside, depending on the weather. And the importance of being responsible, and that’s the ability to respond to your own environment. You need to know what’s going on, on your own land.
Dr. K: Yeah.
LP: And without that you’ve living in a bit of ignorance.
Dr. K: Because you have a certain family dynamic within the home. And it’s a certain energy, you create furniture and paintings and other items with that dynamic. But then that is a reflection of who you are. But then you go out to the garden, and that should be a continuation of that.
LP: Yes. You should know, absolutely, if your neighbor has sprayed his yard, if it’s drifted over into your yard. And if you’re not paying attention, you’re not aware. And for us, it’s about really being responsibly aware. So you know what’s going on.
Dr. K: So with healing, what does that mean? It’s healing gardens. So you actually have then, a garden that’s healing around you.
LP: Right. It also means to heal the land. Your land. One of the things that Jon and I have done is we start with, basically, detoxing the lawn and the yard, from chemicals. And it goes into a toxic shock, and then it starts to reset itself.
Dr. K: So you support the lawn’s liver and kidneys.
LP: Yes, absolutely!
Dr. K: Pour some milk thistle on it! (laughing)
LP: (laughing) Yes, because if I stick a shovel in the soil, and there isn’t a worm, there’s a problem. If there’s no structure down there, then we have an issue, we’re not going to grow anything, except for artificially.
Dr. K: Yeah.
LP: So to us, healing the land is about mitigation. It’s about mitigating and feeding the soil and feeding plants the right way. And that varies depending on different things.
Dr. K: And when you are outside and in your yard or in your garden, and enjoying it, that energy … it’s such a different energy than being in that live garden without those chemicals. And we have lots of worms and lots of “structure” in the dirt, so to say.
LP: Absolutely. The difference between walking into a space that hasn’t been misguided. Like, let’s just say grown naturally … like, my space, is completely different than if I were to walk into a space that been treated and treated and treated, over and over and over again. I can feel it in my feet.
Dr. K: You can actually, as you’re walking in.
LP: I can feel it in my feet, yes. And then the rest of my body becomes aware of it.
Dr. K: Yes.
LP: And when you are sensitive … Jon and I have been extremely sensitive to outside toxins. You start to realize that everyone that you talk to, if they’re going as fast as they’re going now, which everybody is, there’s no way for them to detect that. Because they’re not slow enough to see it.
Dr. K: They’re not in tune with the subtle energies that exist in plants and so forth.
LP: Exactly.
Dr. K: So the common issues obviously are pests, and weeds. And how to people deal with that in a natural way?
Jon Primavera: Diversity. Planting diversity.
Dr. K: And so diversity … what does that mean?
LP: It means a variety of plant material in the landscape, and it’s getting away from mono-culture. And monoculture is about growing the same crop over and over and over again, in a large amount of space.
So if your space is only so big and you plant one plant, and insect is going to come in and say, “Yay! Look at the food I have.” But if there’s only one plant it likes among 50, it’s not even going to know it’s there. So that would be a bad bug. Because we have good bugs and bad bugs.
So the next thing is, when we’re talking about beyond organic, we’re talking about trying to not disturb that “good bug / bad bug” balance, because we need both.
Dr. K: Exactly. It’s such an important aspect, the environment that we’re in, because it’s impossible to heal yourself when you live in a toxic environment. That’s why I truly appreciate both of you coming on the show.
LP: The pioneers had it down. They did. If we can get back to what pioneers knew, we just use those practices … even on a small scale.
Dr. K: Wonderful. Thank you very much. I truly suggest if you have a yard or garden that you contact Healing Gardens to help you in that area.
Photo by Shannon VanDenHeuvel on Unsplash.
