On our 19m2 hectares of rolling Danish farmland, 25km north of Copenhagen we’re beginning a journey to transform our impacted ‘dirt’ into a rich, thriving fertile soil. We envisage a naturally diverse haven for native flora and fauna and a climate-change resilient environment. An extra dimension in all this ecosystem restoration is that this 10-to-15-year project will hopefully also put the farm on the map as a place of learning about optimum opportunities to produce healthy and nutritious foodstuffs that counteract climate change; something that others can draw from and emulate on their own land, gardens, and public spaces. The development of our land will take place in several stages, and we began the project back in the autumn of 2023 with the help of Steen Nørhede, the go to authority on no-till farming practices in Denmark, and with the help of permaculture farmer, Jørn Jacobsen.
Duemosegaard has been an organic farm for 13 years, but the irony is that organic farming relies on frequent heavy machinery which effectively compacts the soil, this combined with frequent ploughing destroys the natural microbiology of the soil and leaches CO2 in an alarming rate. Couple that with the water-loss incurred through having no permanent cover crop of organic mulch to retain moisture in our frequently dry summers – this tells us that conventional organic farming is also a thing of the past.
My husband, Ross, and I are “walking the talk” in converting our land, but as a gardening enthusiast and someone formally trained to be an artist I feel somewhat under-equipped to “talk the talk” about our project. I know instinctively that regenerative agriculture is the way forward in beginning to heal the colossal malpractices that farming has inflicted on Mother Nature since the Industrial Age began. I’m angry and saddened at the state in which we have left the planet, and as a mother of three lovely children, I don’t just wish to stick my head in the ground and pretend that everything is alright. It surely isn’t, but society appears to have made the decision to continue life as usual until a loss of valued goods and services is realised. Then society will expect and rely on science to clean up the mess and make it look natural. Our mission begins right now with the soil and is very straightforward, very feminine and very creative – I just need more knowledge.
Since early February 2024 I have begun the Gaia Education – Ecosystem Restoration Design – Applied eLearning Course. I began the course (a Christmas present from Ross) in order to learn more and complement our re-wilding project – and I’m not disappointed. I was hesitant to think that in my completing the first module I’d come away with relevant knowledge for our no-till project when we were studying temperate forests, tropical forests, deserts and oceans – all case studies seemingly a million miles from our Scandinavian location.
It’s been a voyage of discovery though, and instead I’ve revisited places in my mind and through the internet around the globe that I have deep attachments to and with personal knowledge of. The first project was Restoring Temperate Forests – a case study of the efforts of re-wilding the Scottish Highlands by with the practitioner Alan Watson Featherstone, founder of the organisation “Trees for Life”. In October 2023, I visited the Highlands and was dismayed by the severity of the landscape, yet couldn’t put my finger on what the problem was; these days it’s accepted as being bleak, dramatic and for the rich elite to shoot defenceless and overpopulated animals. Alan Watson Featherstone opened my eyes. Here’s an introductory video where you can share my “aha moment”.
Next up, Tropical Forest Restoration. I was initially feeling out of my comfort zone and far from our project in temperate northern Europe. Then, after a successful project of reestablishing forest and scrub by John Button of NatureDesigns on the slopes of the sacred mountain of Arunachala at Tiruvanamalai in Tamil Nadusouthern India
In 2009 I had visited Tiruvanamalai and returned to Denmark changed, dazed by the sheer chaotic beauty and power of my time spent in southern India learning to be a yoga teacher. I’d studied some of the writings of The Mother who established the immense spiritual international settlement of Auroville, close to Pondicherry. My chosen tropical forest restoration then was of the forests bordering the vast ecovillage site. From this I became all too aware of the dizzying political pressures which eco-activists face, in this instance where spirituality was cruelly twisted for political means at the expense of the young forest.
Desert Ecosystem Restoration took me to once again my beloved Australia, a place where I lived for a while in 2006 – a place where I would love to return to live one day. A country which appears to be on target for keeping non-native plant and animal species at bay as you painstakingly disinfect your shoes upon landing at immigration. But which needs to reverse the toll of historical invasive species of plants and animals introduced as seemingly good ideas and must remain non-analogue. In this case study I pinpointed the fight against non-native buffel grass, a plant which is wreaking havoc on the great deserts of the interior but ironically is readily available at garden centres across the land.
The final area of study was a short project on Ocean Ecosystem Restoration. After seeing many vivid and creative projects highlighting coral reef restoration in Bali, I turned my attention to the chronic state of the waters surrounding Denmark; eutrophication and climate change are causing algae growth in the Baltic Sea. As a result, fish are suffocating as the water is so depleted of oxygen due to the over-application of artificial fertilisers for crops, and ultimately the over-density of pig and cattle farms with the subsequent over-leaching of manure into waterways and the very water which we drink. Ghastly, and all in light of Denmark’s pin-up status as the ecological darling of Europe.
All the information that I have studied and written about so far is invaluable to our no-till project here at Duemosegaard. In just two months I’ve learned about such a wide spectrum of case studies. Our next module hits the mark for our re-wilding project too, as it’s all about restoring agricultural zones 🙂
Duemosegaard 