An inner sanctuary - a shared home

What am I custodian of?

Welcome to my wee corner of Substack. I am a seasonal artist living on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland. I am the custodian of approximately two acres of land that includes a woodland, a meadow and my wee garden. I offer a seasonal book arts project for paid subscribers if you are interested and you can read more about that HERE. Grab a cuppa and lets delve into our relationship with the shifting seasons…

In a wee comment someone talked of their garden as their sanctuary and it sparked the idea for this piece. Good writing platforms do that all the time.

My garden is my inner sanctuary and the small Scottish island I call home is my outer sanctuary. Both spaces are fundamental to my health, happiness and creativity. Today I want to focus on on my inner sanctuary and just why it is a shared home. I do not garden for myself or even my family - I garden for wildlife and then consider it an honour that they share the space with me. I am custodian of approximately two acres which is a mix of wild garden and woodland. Over the years I have shifted my approach to this space in order to provide wee corners where wildlife can thrive. Little did I know just how much this shift would feed my health, happiness and creativity.

The journey bagan when I decided to grow a wild flower patch and in that very first summer of bloom I understood the importance of what I had done. Suddenly the garden was alive with flying insects and when we dug a pond next to that patch we extended the reach of our garden to new species. We have not looked back since. I spend endless hours researching what spaces are useful for wildlife and plant and garden accordingly. I don’t use any machines preferring to manage the space by hand, slowly so as to allow nature to be the best teacher she can be. I learnt this lesson early on in my journey when cutting back the flowering privet hedge so I could get down the path more easily. The next morning when drinking my coffee outside I realised that I could no longer hear so many bees and wasps nearby. I had cut down their source of food and I felt dreadful. From that day on I promised myself that wouldn’t ever happen again. I must admit I often want to dive into the ferns to cut them away as they are a favourite spot for ticks but I am happy to say I resisted the temptation.

I don’t cut my grass as I understand the importance of wild grasses for the ecosytem and I love butterflies and moths. They fly close to the tops of the wild grass so they can dive into it if they feel threatened. They also rest in there and I love to see a butterfly curling up for the night. I don’t just have one patch of nettles to help them breed I have loads of patches. I share the nettles patch with the butterflies as I use them as food, medicine and cordage but I always leave plenty behind for my butterfly friends.

Nearby at this time of year are two sources of water contained in my lupin and lady’s mantle leaves and I leave wee containers out with water in also. I don’t actively encourage the birds as we have four rescued cats but I do grow wild food for them everywhere as well as places for shelter and nesting. A favourite moment in the last few weeks has been spotting the bullfinches feeding off the wild sorrel as it just begins to turn to seed before jumping into my wild gravel patch to do the same with my herb robert. These are happy moments, for sure.

Our woodland is gently managed but we leave well alone as much as we can and, as a result, we have lots of red squirrels, a lonely heron (that I worry about constantly) and at least one woodpecker that I hear but never see. Over the other side of the road that borders our woodland is an animal rescue centre and they have a heron that they rescued and nursed back to health. It now lives on their chimney pot most of the time so I hope he or she might make friends with our heron. When they fly over the garden my dog, Frank, dives into the house. We hear them coming so he is getting wise to that sounds and takes off like a rocket.

Fruit has a large place in our garden but you won’t find any nets. These are so damaging to birds and we don’t need them because we have learnt to share! At the time of writing we are sharing our huge raspberry crop with lots of birds but, in particular, a family of blackbirds who live in the privet hedge nearby. Wild strawberries are super for ground feeding birds and our apples are shared well with the wasps.

We do have a polytunnel where we grow our mixed leaves spinach and tomatoes but we never manage to eat all we sow so we let some go to flower as they encourage flying insects will pay a visit. We also have a small vegetable patch which is actually mixed in with the wild flowers and lots of nastutiums to allow for the slugs and snails that will ultimately find our crops whereever we put them. We have tubs of poatoes dotted about the place and lots and lots of herbs and flowers that I use in my business. Sitting in the garden making tussie mussies to dry for an up and coming event is one of my favourite things to do. I sit quietly and move gently and then I feel I am really sharing the space with the wildlife.

Working and sitting in the garden gives me an enormous sense of peace and time just drifts by……I take my creative work out into the garden as often as I can. My garden is a constant source of inspiration but it is also a resource for my creativity. I use plants to dye and print and make botanical inks. I press lots and lots all year round and I dry herbs and flowers for my Etsy store. I wrote about all of that HERE if you are interested.

Much more than these individual creative projects my inner sanctuary is a space that I can share with other beings that are having their time on the planet. Dragonflies are the one species that will make me stand and stare while it weaves its way through this space that we share and I am completely lost in that moment. I get lost frequently. My creativity is fed by these lost times when the stresses of every day life crumble away. They will wait for another moment. Right then I am lost with my dragonfly.

So, if I feed wildlife with a huge range of plants that speak well to diversity the space, in turn, feeds me in so many ways. It is like wearing an additonal skin that embeds me deeply with the natural world I might be custodian of a couple of acres on the Isle of Arran but I don’t ‘own’ this space. I am just looking out for it for the time I am passing through this planet and I am very proud to be doing so.

Often I sit on a bench just under this tree able to see the wild grasses beyond and take in all around me and understand that I am fortunate to inhabit such a beautiful space on such a beautiful island. Just sit quietly and move gently and all will be revealed over and over again.

Until next time, Fiona xx