Welcome! Raven + Root is a space for those seeking connection with the land, radical reclamation of the authentic self, & cooperative re-integration with the natural world. Here you’ll find posts and tutorials about low desert gardening, urban homesteading, urban chickens, vegetarian & plant-based cookery, rewilding, living seasonally, Naturalistic/Atheistic Paganism, imbuing ritual into the mundane, de-colonization, honoring the cycles of life, & ways to cultivate a slow, intention-filled human experience.
WHERE DO YOU LIVE? I live in the Southwestern US, in the low desert of Tucson, AZ. Our home sits nestled in a 70s suburb at the foothills of the Santa Catalina mountains. Here in Tucson, we garden in USDA Zone 9b, which sees mid-winter low temperatures of around 25F, with summer highs up to 120F. We average about 12″ of rainfall per year, & have a beautiful monsoon season that lasts from about July 4th through the first week of September. The sun here is very intense, so gardening in the Sonoran desert has unique challenges, especially in the summer months. Due to the heat and intensity of the sun, many vegetable plants here slow significantly or stop producing entirely in the hottest months due to their flowers being sterilized by high ambient temperatures. Additionally, our landscape is quite arid, and many growers here struggle with compacted/clay soils, inadequate organic matter in the ground, and high supplemental water requirements.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN GARDENING, AND HOW DID YOU LEARN? I have been gardening intensively for about three years. Prior to that, I did not have a green thumb, and sent a lot of lovely plants to an untimely death on a variety of back porches. However, I decided that I really, really wanted to be growing food, so I became determined to find a way to grow successfully. I learned what I know to date about gardening from YouTube, articles online, and (most importantly) direct observation/trial & error.
WHAT IS NATURALISTIC/ATHEISTIC PAGANISM? I practice solitary and eclectic non-theistic paganism. That means I am an atheist who engages in pagan practice from within a paradigm of metaphor, allegory, and the emotionally transcendent value of ritual. I do not believe in any gods or deities, but have a deep reverence for and awe of the natural world, of which I consider myself a part as opposed to separate from. I feel a great sense of duty to live harmoniously within a beautiful and delicate web of life, as a steward of the land on which I’m honored to live. I might also be considered a non-theistic animist, since I definitely project anima and animus onto virtually every natural object or being in my vicinity!
WHAT IS “REWILDING?” Rewilding is, for me, two-fold. Firstly, I feel strongly about the need for ecosystem conservation and regeneration via the rewilding of open spaces. This is the idea that nature should be allowed and encouraged to return to its wild, non-topiaried self. For so long, human beings have attempted to bring the natural world under our control, operating under the idea that we are separate from it, and are its rightful masters. However, that has wrought disastrous consequences to ecosystems, biodiversity, and species all over the world, including ourselves.
Secondly, I subscribe to the idea that human beings could use a bit of rewilding ourselves. Because of a lingering Victorian/Puritanical impulse to divest ourselves from integration with the natural world, the cycles of life, and the seasonal nature of existence, I feel that human beings are missing out on an integral, foundational component of life. Over the past few years, I have been in the process of deconstructing harmful internal, cultural systems of control, and have tried to cultivate real, meaningful authenticity and congruency in my life and self. Part of that is the celebration of the feral, and a departure from excessive cultural domestication. This means more time outside, less time neurotically focused on how I’m perceived by others, more solitude, more time with my hands in the dirt, and more direct engagement with the natural world and its cycles.
What do you mean by “living seasonally?” Living seasonally refers to observation of the earth’s natural cycles as we move through the year. Pagans and practitioners of Witchcraft often refer to this as the Wheel of the Year, which is divided into eight festivals that fall on important turning points of an agrarian calendar. Instead of arbitrary or commemorative dates for holidays, these celebrations are based on the position of the sun relative to the earth’s tilt on its axis. These are celebrations such as the Spring Equinox, the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year), the Fall Equinox, and the Winter Solstice (the longest night of the year). By observing these astronomically-derived events, one is more closely aligned with the subtle changes in the world around us as we move through the year, and can help us develop stillness, appreciation, and an intentional presence with time passing through our lives.
HELP! I WANT TO START GROWING PLANTS, BUT I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START!!! If you live in an arid/hot region, you’re not the only one who’s overwhelmed, confused, and maybe a bit discouraged! So much of the gardening advice available for mass consumption is written by and for those living in cool climates or have been grandfathered in from European growing traditions and calendars. Please explore this website for advice, articles, and tutorials on low desert gardening, and please check out the many incredible gardening content creators on YouTube! I will eventually make a post with some of the YouTubers whose channels have been especially helpful to me on my gardening adventure. Also, please enter your email in the sidebar to subscribe to this blog and receive updates on new posts!