![\"bloodroot\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/bloodroot-300x250.jpg\" "\\"bloodroot\\"")
Spring has returned.\u00a0 The Earth is like a child that knows poems.\nRainer Maria <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\nNathaniel Hawthorne<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Agriculture:\u00a0 Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin agricultura, from ager field + cultura cultivation.<\/p>\n
We worked small plots, or gardens, before the advent of fields or large scale cultivation.\u00a0 I have a book in my library that I’ve not read (ok, I have a lot of books in my library I’ve not read), but this one has the title Human Scale.\u00a0 Horticulture is human scale cultivation; agriculture is large scale cultivation.<\/p>\n
As I’ve thought back over my life, I’ve noticed a common thread in many of the things I’ve done and co-operative efforts to which I’ve given energy:\u00a0 they are an attempt to wrest human scale decision making authority and human scale work back from impersonal bureaucracies or larger scale political and economic entities.\u00a0 Horticulture fits.<\/p>\n
It fits in particular because it is a very old, but modern human defining act.\u00a0 Along with art, hunting, gathering and living in families, it is one of the oldest of human activities.\u00a0 We stay with it for far more than the pragmatic purpose of growing food, though that can be a primary purpose.\u00a0 Hawthorne got it; we garden because we take part in the process of creation.<\/p>\n
We plant the seeds, just as they did long ago, perhaps after having scratched the earth with a sharp stick.\u00a0 Then, as Hawthorne writes we go out to see what, if anything, has happened since we were there last.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I walked the whole of our tended beds.\u00a0 The poplar trees moved last fall are still alive.\u00a0 Two young oaks that looked good last year became deer or rabbit food, gnawed right down to the sliced garden hose I used to cover their base.\u00a0 Oh, well.\u00a0 The fruit trees I think are alive though I’ve not gone through a winter with them and don’t know them as well as some others.<\/p>\n
The garlic had not come up and it had by this time last year.\u00a0 That made me sad.\u00a0 This year I planted cloves from last year’s crop.\u00a0 Did I do something wrong?\u00a0 Impatient I dug with a finger into the still cold soil.\u00a0 There, an inch or so below the surface, maybe two, was a pale lance of garlic headed for the surface.\u00a0 Relief.<\/p>\n
This week cold weather plants need to go in the soil.\u00a0 The daffodils and tulips have begun to be well above the surface.\u00a0 The garden has begun to awaken, but it’s still a bit sleepy.\u00a0 Easy to understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Seed Moon Friend Bill Schmidt passed these quotation on, sent to him by a friend.\u00a0 I like the Hawthorne quote a lot because it captures an elusive feeling I often have when walking the grounds. Spring has returned.\u00a0 The Earth is like a child that knows poems. Rainer Maria ===== I used to … Continue reading Taking Part In the Process of Creation<\/span>