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Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.
Wendell Berry:
"We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it."
--from an essay in "The Long-Legged House"
"The word agriculture, after all, does not mean "agriscience," much less "agribusiness." It means "cultivation of land." And cultivation is at the root of the sense both of culture and of cult. The ideas of tillage and worship are thus joined in culture. And these words all come from an Indo-European root meaning both "to revolve" and "to dwell." To live, to survive on the earth, to care for the soil, and to worship, all are bound at the root to the idea of a cycle. It is only by understanding the cultural complexity and largeness of the concept of agriculture that we can see the threatening diminishments implied by the term "agribusiness."
"Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating."
--both the above are from essays in "The Art of the Commonplace: Agrarian Essays"
"An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor, or Ba'al, or The Golden Calf. As has been said before, we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further," Richard Dawkins, 2002.
Oh my. That is some difficult soil. Do you have problems with perennials coming back? I have a few clayey areas that are flowerbeds and quite a few perennials don’t make it.
Hmm. I don’t know. Though I have noticed that the perennials that self-seeded readily in my city garden really don’t get much of a toehold here (which is fine; how much phlox does one need, really?). I have wondered if it was due to my compulsive mulching or if it was the clay. The clay would make sense because the top few inches get really hard when it dries out so seedlings don’t have much of a chance.
Too funny.
You have “jiggle it differently.”
I understand COMPLETELY.
The think broke huh?
I don’t know whether to laugh or empathize (I’m laughing).
Goodness! I did some digging today and the top of the ground has hardened into a thick and horrible crust and the underneath is completely compacted. Horrible to work in! I sympathise deeply with you 🙂
Well, better the tool than your ulna.
But, still!
What a lovely old tool, too. Such a shame.
Hank, and everyone else, I thought it was just plain funny. Yes, I felt bad that it’d broken, but it is still usable, as I mentioned.
It made the most marvelous PING when it broke. Unfortunately, I (mis)spent much of my youth on a golf course, and yes, that sound reminded me SO much of the perfect chip shot. Who knew golf was such great prep for being a gardener.