Let Life do it.
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Enjoying life by letting Nature help
Recognizing that we are a part of the Earth rather than apart from it allows us to draw on the enormous creativity that the living world displays. From butterflies that can smell nectar from a great distance to elephants who communicate at frequencies we can't hear, the planet is full of the old wisdom of creatures just as alive as we humans. Our best science has always taken a page from other forms of life.
Think we humans are smart? Mosquitoes seem to have invented needles before us. Nature invented the engine too, as any child can see in the beating wings of a bug, or the hunting skills of the rotifers under a microscope (They whip up a tiny whirlpool to suck up nearby food). We just learned how to fly not too long ago, but this is a skill birds and insects seem to have had from the get-go. When was the last time YOU walked on a wall or ceiling? Got a pollution problem? Microbes are being stress-bred to not only withstand specific chemicals but use them as food.
The lowly earthworm provides disease suppression via encouraging microbiological diversity. Ever felt teased by a fly? Geez, they're fast - they fly circles around us, literally.
I don't know how we humans got so confused along the way, but life really doesn't have to be as hard as we make it by our fear-caused emotions. Take greed, for instance. The more you tell a fearful person supplies are limited of something or other, the more that person will hoard - not realizing that ultimately it's our greed that destroys economies and long term wealth. Life does have its limitations, but we make things far worse by fighting over things rather than sharing each others' know-how to work out problems. Think what our economy would be like without the huge expenditure for military and police. There have been times in history that were peaceful, when people didn't feel the need to fight.
And there are times and places in which nature is more peaceful. Just as in an honest democracy people get along by respecting all different types of people and ways of looking at things, a healthy ecosystem thrives by diversity. Wiser garden managers produce more quality and quantity by allowing nature to work together. Take grass clippings, for instance. Now, if I had my druthers humankind would un-invent the lawn mower and the chemicals used to make battle with those plants people have decided are "weeds". But, if others persist in this vain war with nature in the yard, at least the grass clippings can be used to feed a more productive community of life somewhere else. I used to brag that, whereas other people slaved over their lawns to keep them mowed, I had thousands of earthworms working for me - eating those grass clippings and other stuff and turning them into plant food for tomatoes, spinach, onions, and whatever.
A healthy garden or farm, rather than try to grow just one kind of plant, rather encourages a wide variety of plants and animals as part of the web of life. This strategy - diversifying your portfolio, if you will - is more likely to pay off one way or another than just putting all your eggs in one basket by for instance planting all corn or all one kind of tomato. If larcenous neighbors or stealthy wildlife decimate one or two types of crop, a day or so of regrowth in a diverse planting provides healing via regrowth of some other plant or plants that weren't hit. An encouragement of a soil with plenty of life - molds, bacteria, earthworms and other little critters - yields well-fed plants which are more resistant to disease, tolerant of mechanical damage, more tasty and nutritious to eat. To me it's evidence of the good science behind spiritual principles - Serve life in general and life will serve you.
We consumers have been victims of many hoaxes, but one of the biggest is that store-bought synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are necessary to grow plants. In fact, the opposite is true. Though application of synthetic nutrients and pesticides sometimes increases initial growth, in the long run the acidification of the soil and the decline in the community of life at soil level results in declines of safety, nutritional content, and quantity of garden produce. As nightmare after nightmare of industrial agriculture delivers toxics and disease across borders, the tried and true old ways of using manures and composts and rock dusts and organic amendments such as seaweed highlight the more humane agriculture of the past.
When some wild animal or person tramples your tomatoes or eats your corn, not to worry - there's plenty other stuff growing. Biocontrol succeeds by encouraging more life - such as ladybugs to eat other bugs - rather than making war on whatever species are bugging you. Just as violence on an individual or national level includes collateral damage and is self-defeating, taking pot shots with pesticides at "enemy" species ends up hurting the hurter. Bottom line, be as welcoming of all life in your garden as much as you find possible, and it will be more productive and safe for you, a refuge of peace in a seriously crazy world.
All animals, from bugs to humans - as part of the web of life - produce both their own bodies and their own manures as substrate for the growth of new life. In a sane and healthy society most organic waste would be returned to the soil rather than either flushed to the ocean via the sewage system or incinerated or landfilled. Until we get the message we've made some wrong turns in our "civilized" modern world, nature is going to keep on delivering some hard lessons. If we treasure and love those plants and creatures around us, our enjoyment of life will pay off by the creation of a more peaceful world. If we continue to wildly destroy so much of nature's community - out of the false fear-based logic that we have to fight for everything we get - this will continue to result in an ever more harsh environment - the end product will be our own extinction as a species.
It all comes down to one thing. Love everything that lives. Love is natural, easy, and the most scientific thing to do. Nurturing an ecosystem with a quantity and diversity of life may take longer, but one way or another the community of life will pay you back.
======
Jim McCue
St. Jim the Composter
412-421-6496
composter and biotech researcher
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebrate-earth.html
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://plentyoffish.com/member498447.htm
http://hazelwoodhomepage.com
Enjoying life by letting Nature help
Recognizing that we are a part of the Earth rather than apart from it allows us to draw on the enormous creativity that the living world displays. From butterflies that can smell nectar from a great distance to elephants who communicate at frequencies we can't hear, the planet is full of the old wisdom of creatures just as alive as we humans. Our best science has always taken a page from other forms of life.
Think we humans are smart? Mosquitoes seem to have invented needles before us. Nature invented the engine too, as any child can see in the beating wings of a bug, or the hunting skills of the rotifers under a microscope (They whip up a tiny whirlpool to suck up nearby food). We just learned how to fly not too long ago, but this is a skill birds and insects seem to have had from the get-go. When was the last time YOU walked on a wall or ceiling? Got a pollution problem? Microbes are being stress-bred to not only withstand specific chemicals but use them as food.
The lowly earthworm provides disease suppression via encouraging microbiological diversity. Ever felt teased by a fly? Geez, they're fast - they fly circles around us, literally.
I don't know how we humans got so confused along the way, but life really doesn't have to be as hard as we make it by our fear-caused emotions. Take greed, for instance. The more you tell a fearful person supplies are limited of something or other, the more that person will hoard - not realizing that ultimately it's our greed that destroys economies and long term wealth. Life does have its limitations, but we make things far worse by fighting over things rather than sharing each others' know-how to work out problems. Think what our economy would be like without the huge expenditure for military and police. There have been times in history that were peaceful, when people didn't feel the need to fight.
And there are times and places in which nature is more peaceful. Just as in an honest democracy people get along by respecting all different types of people and ways of looking at things, a healthy ecosystem thrives by diversity. Wiser garden managers produce more quality and quantity by allowing nature to work together. Take grass clippings, for instance. Now, if I had my druthers humankind would un-invent the lawn mower and the chemicals used to make battle with those plants people have decided are "weeds". But, if others persist in this vain war with nature in the yard, at least the grass clippings can be used to feed a more productive community of life somewhere else. I used to brag that, whereas other people slaved over their lawns to keep them mowed, I had thousands of earthworms working for me - eating those grass clippings and other stuff and turning them into plant food for tomatoes, spinach, onions, and whatever.
A healthy garden or farm, rather than try to grow just one kind of plant, rather encourages a wide variety of plants and animals as part of the web of life. This strategy - diversifying your portfolio, if you will - is more likely to pay off one way or another than just putting all your eggs in one basket by for instance planting all corn or all one kind of tomato. If larcenous neighbors or stealthy wildlife decimate one or two types of crop, a day or so of regrowth in a diverse planting provides healing via regrowth of some other plant or plants that weren't hit. An encouragement of a soil with plenty of life - molds, bacteria, earthworms and other little critters - yields well-fed plants which are more resistant to disease, tolerant of mechanical damage, more tasty and nutritious to eat. To me it's evidence of the good science behind spiritual principles - Serve life in general and life will serve you.
We consumers have been victims of many hoaxes, but one of the biggest is that store-bought synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are necessary to grow plants. In fact, the opposite is true. Though application of synthetic nutrients and pesticides sometimes increases initial growth, in the long run the acidification of the soil and the decline in the community of life at soil level results in declines of safety, nutritional content, and quantity of garden produce. As nightmare after nightmare of industrial agriculture delivers toxics and disease across borders, the tried and true old ways of using manures and composts and rock dusts and organic amendments such as seaweed highlight the more humane agriculture of the past.
When some wild animal or person tramples your tomatoes or eats your corn, not to worry - there's plenty other stuff growing. Biocontrol succeeds by encouraging more life - such as ladybugs to eat other bugs - rather than making war on whatever species are bugging you. Just as violence on an individual or national level includes collateral damage and is self-defeating, taking pot shots with pesticides at "enemy" species ends up hurting the hurter. Bottom line, be as welcoming of all life in your garden as much as you find possible, and it will be more productive and safe for you, a refuge of peace in a seriously crazy world.
All animals, from bugs to humans - as part of the web of life - produce both their own bodies and their own manures as substrate for the growth of new life. In a sane and healthy society most organic waste would be returned to the soil rather than either flushed to the ocean via the sewage system or incinerated or landfilled. Until we get the message we've made some wrong turns in our "civilized" modern world, nature is going to keep on delivering some hard lessons. If we treasure and love those plants and creatures around us, our enjoyment of life will pay off by the creation of a more peaceful world. If we continue to wildly destroy so much of nature's community - out of the false fear-based logic that we have to fight for everything we get - this will continue to result in an ever more harsh environment - the end product will be our own extinction as a species.
It all comes down to one thing. Love everything that lives. Love is natural, easy, and the most scientific thing to do. Nurturing an ecosystem with a quantity and diversity of life may take longer, but one way or another the community of life will pay you back.
======
Jim McCue
St. Jim the Composter
412-421-6496
composter and biotech researcher
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebrate-earth.html
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://plentyoffish.com/member498447.htm
http://hazelwoodhomepage.com
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 10:58 AM
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