From the grand to the minute, nature is simply breathtaking.

It baffles me that anyone could not be intrigued and awe-inspired by the natural world. Let alone cause it harm.

But we do.

On my many excursions to collect discarded cans, sandwich wrappers and fast-food bags from local hedgerows and verges I have had plenty of time to muse upon why there is so little respect for nature. It’s a complex picture but one I think that has a relatively simple (albeit not easy) solution. Make nature more visible and valuable.

Make nature more visible and valuable.

For a few years now an inner whisper has repeatedly said “Be the Voice”.

As with all such interventions, it can take a little while for the meaning and action to become clear. Nonetheless I took some steps:

• I let nature guide me.
• I started a membership to guide entrepreneurs in the rewilding of their businesses.
• I talked about how the principles of nature can restore and innovate.
• I began to realise that I needed to be a conduit for the voice of nature, that it wasn’t all on me to work it out.

The pieces began to fall into place when I finally gave in to my hankering and started to record plant music.

From chlorophyll to melody

Many people have no idea that plants can make music and most assume that the music is my interpretation of the plants. Let me put that to rest straight away. I am not a musician nor do I have musical training. The music I share is made by the plants.

Simply put, I have a device that attaches to the plant to read the electrical impulses in the leaves, stems or roots. It then beams this, by the power of Bluetooth, to my phone where I can translate the signals into sounds by selecting an instrument, how fast it plays and how loudly. When I have a setting that feels right, I record the sounds. There is a little editing required afterwards to make it a coherent track but not much. The recording is the easy bit.

Tuning in

The translation of electricity into sound is a simple scientific process. To make music, there needs to be an added dimension – connection with the plant itself. From learnt experience, I can tell you that the “music” sounds dissonant and unstructured without this piece. It’s much more than grasping the technological functions, it’s understanding which plant wants to sing and how it wants to sing. For me to “be the voice” I have had to learn to listen to the plants. Sometimes that means stopping mid-stride to connect with a plant, sometimes that means sitting with a community of plants to sense the individual that wants to sing. It is imperative for me to come to the process in partnership to break the pattern of extraction and disregard that dominates our current relationship with nature. I have had to slow down and it is this that has taught me more than anything.

The voice of nature

Nature doesn’t operate on the same timelines as humans and that’s part of our collective malaise. Being constantly on the go, bombarded by notifications and noises and worrying about every little thing deprives us of rhythm. If there is one lesson I would put above all others after sitting with 300+ wild plants, it’s the power of rhythm.

Society may prize permanently being at 110% but nature does not. There is a waxing and waning written in our DNA which means many different things. It is a reflection of inner and outer worlds, expression and restoration, rest and play and so much more. This rhythm is everywhere as the day turns to night, as the moon brightens and disappears, as the leaves grow, turn and fall…

I hear this when sitting with the plants, which are in their chosen, natural environment. The music always comes in waves. Bursts of song are interspersed with quieter periods or deeper tones.

Within these waves are three discernible rhythms of earth, community and plant that move with different tempos. Each individual plant will create a slightly different song with these three rhythms. The rhythm of place will influence the songs of all plants within a community and the rhythm of the earth influences every plant, everywhere.

Modern societies are missing connection to place and planet, which surely is affecting our songs. Perhaps this sense of being disconnected can be addressed by simply listening to the plants and letting them awaken a dormant part of our being that aches for more connection.

It’s certainly part of the puzzle and why I am committed to recording as many plants in as many places as I can.

We know that nature is good for us and we know that a polluted, damaged environment is harmful on so many levels. It has become a quest for me to nurture appreciation and the opportunity to appreciate nature in the smallest of ways. I am painfully aware that far too many in our societies have limited to no access to natural or healthy spaces. To bring nature to all, the tide of damage has to be reversed. We have to see the value in the nature that is right in front of us, breaking through the cracks in the pavements trying to restore wildness to a concreted world. Nature is willing, it’s us humans that need to do the work to let it back into our lives. If that lone plant surrounded by brick, stone and tarmac is given a voice and we choose to hear it, we can, I believe, change our future for the better.

I began this journey with a simple hope; that bringing the voices of the plants to those who wanted to listen would spark a deeper appreciation of the natural world. But as is ever the way, nature has bigger plans and is gently guiding me to see our world in a different way. Suffice to say, there is much to be explored in the future which I will share through Wild Inspiration on New Reality TV.