Now that I am struggling with the organic garden concept,
I look back on our evolutionary progress (?) with great puzzlement. How did
they do it? I can’t get a lousy 9 bean plants to survive in the natural
environment. How on earth (pun intended) did our ancestors move from
hunter/gatherers to farmers and survive?
I am not saying that I share my beans and peas with the
earth and all its critters and insects. I am saying that I am ceding my beans
and peas to them. Look at the picture. Where do you see 4 and ½ plants
surviving to feed me and my family? Nowhere! The critters and insects have
demolished the whole crop and have moved in on the peas. How did those
ancestors manage to grow enough for them to survive?
I am still faithfully (and it takes a whole lot of faith
let me tell you) planting my cherished seedlings in the market garden. They are
protected by wood plank walls and bird netting and still they are nothing more
than a portable feast for whatever.
I am also planting seeds directly in the soil. The soil,
by the way, which is overrun with weeds. Remember all the paper we smoothed out and
then laid out? How about the top soil,
compost, and mulch? Remember them? My aching muscles do. Dan and Yael’s aching
muscles also vividly remember. But the weeds were born without shame and
continue to thrive in our organically correct market garden. I just pray that
enough of our plants thrive to feed us this Autumn and Winter. But I’m not too
optimistic.
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