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I think we have to think about sustainability in the broader sense as we might think about our own garden. It is not an answer, not a goal as much as it is a process and a perspective. It is not a solution to be found but a process of maintenance to be continuously tweaked and paid attention to. For about 15 years I measured and recorded everything that went in and out of the different gardens I worked in, and that is certainly part of a useful perspective. A gardener on here raised the issue of what was the real cost of the produce she grew, when all was added up--and that is also a useful perspective. Ravi Shankar was asked why he would spend 20 minutes on stage tuning his instrument, and he answered that he was not really tuning his instrument, he was tuning the audience, bringing them into alignment with what he was about to play. Our gardens tune us and sustain us in many ways. Over the years, I have known many gardeners, farmers, and researchers who started with such fire and did great things, and then burned out--sometimes returning to the "normal world" and sometimes, shifting to become advocates, political activists, writers, and teachers, but in a real way no longer a person of the earth. I am certainly one of these. A while back I went to a yoga retreat by David Williams, the man who brought Pattabhi Jois--in my mind the founder of most of western Yoga--from India to the US. His topic was how to have yoga be part of your life for the rest of your life. He said that two people could do identical yoga routines every day and that watching them, you would not be able to tell any difference. But...one's engine was adrenalin and the chemicals of fight or flight, while the body chemistry engine of the other was more endorphins and the chemicals of the runner's groove. This is the engine that will sustain you. A garden can be a big part of this--of sustaining the gardener by helping them find the groove that will keep them going in the long run. When I was a commercial grower, I had my mental lists of what had to be done by March 1, April 1, May 1, and while I enjoyed the thrill of the ride, I also more or less lived in continuous terror. For months each year, I was only a few days from great and real failure if I could not maintain my frantic pace. So for a food production technology to be sustainable, it must also sustain the gardener in their intimate relationship with nature. Gardens are at one level, anything but natural--you can be as organic at you want, but do not fool yourself, a garden is a huge manipulation of what would be nature were we not there. The trick is to recognize your own creatureness and know that you are part of nature and in an intimate relationship with your garden. So do what matches your life and your body and your need for stimulation, and seek to balance the nature that you are part of. I believe gardens are one of our best interfaces with nature, where we do not just learn and grow things but where we best experience where we should be as creatures within nature.

DavidDuhon 7 Nov 16
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A very insightful post about balance and harmony, which is really what we all hope gardening is all about for us.
Thank You.

Surfpirate Level 9 Nov 17, 2019
1

Thanks for sharing that reflection! We can all use reminders to pace ourselves and pay attention to flow of life around us, rather than pushing our garden and ourselves in a forced way that leads sometimes to burnout.

1

I have always gardened in the spirit of curiosity, try something and see what nature will do with it, since I came to gardening from an interest in natural history in general.

A lot of the problems that people experience, come from the idea that gardening is a competitive sport, with a goal. Which is of course the way that the multi-billion pound/dollar horticultural industry wants to promote it, since that keeps people buying the products in order to keep up. If you plant cabbage seed and the butterflies eat some of the cabbage, and you see that as a lose, then you will never win. But if you plant cabbage seed and the butterflies eat all of them, but you say. "I sowed cabbage seed and harvested butterflies this season." Then you will never loose.

Fernapple Level 9 Nov 17, 2019

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Posted by FernappleNature is the best gardener still. All nature asks is a little space, that's all. Maybe no more than a slightly leaky fall pipe, and a bit of neglected wall, and you have a perfect tiny garden.

Posted by JolantaNematodes are helpful too.

Posted by KateOahuThe Ala’ala wai nui wahine in my little terrarium that I planted a month ago is blooming.

Posted by JolantaGround beetles.

Posted by JolantaHoverflies, not to be confused with wasps.

Posted by FrostyJimI picked my first 2024 rhubarb... so I made cobbler - yum!

Posted by FrostyJimI picked my first 2024 rhubarb... so I made cobbler - yum!

Posted by FernappleThe pond and stone bridge are lush with growth now.

Posted by FernappleIts foxglove (Digitalis ) time.

Posted by JolantaEarthworms are amazing workers.

Posted by JolantaLadybirds, the gardeners friend.

Posted by JolantaLacewings are useful in the garden.

Posted by FrostyJim...as you Sow, So Shall you Reap

Posted by FrostyJimSurprise! Alaska has farm country too.

Posted by FrostyJimSurprise! Alaska has farm country too.

Posted by JolantaHappy hormones.

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