Producing One Hundredfold

Even though the weather has turned a bit, with -18C overnight, the indoor planting must go on! We're now in hyperdrive with our seed starting. Most of these seedlings will end up in the greenhouse, while some, like our celery plants, will be field planted once the soil is warm. The celery tends to be a bit slow growing. If everything goes well, we may even have some plants to spare for the farmer's market.

We love to see the growing enthusiasm for growing and homesteading, especially in the younger generations. Not everyone grew up with a master gardener, or had a grandparent who had a green thumb, or knew how to can preserves, or milk a cow. And for those who have that gap in knowledge, growing living things can have a steep learning curve. As with most things in life, it often helps to look to nature for guidance. And so just like in the natural realm, we plant as much as we can accommodate, understanding that some won't germinate, some may wilt or become stunted, and (hopefully) some will grow into productive plants. Of course, we do the best we can to give them the absolute best environment, but sometimes that's not enough. And we still learn new things season after season. This year I tried a new type of cherry tomato, and was blown away by how fast it grows, even for a tomato! Note for next year.... plant one week later than the rest. Got it.

There is another curious reality that we find in nature. Death is not always a tragedy. We might not like to see stunted, dying plants, yet death is necessary for life. And I'm not talking about the dead chicken carcass you mixed into your compost pile, although the principle applies there, too. We see another kind of death that leads to life in the plant world, or perhaps it is more like a metamorphosis. It is this; you place a seed, sometimes so tiny it's barely visible, and the seed sits in the dark, damp earth. And then when the necessary conditions are met, the energy in the seed is released and it sends out a sprout. The seed itself dies and becomes an empty shell, but from that death it produces not just a sprout, but a plant, or even a tree, that will go on to produce hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of seeds in its own turn. And the cycle continues.

It is clear to me that as we have moved away from the living systems that nourish us, and as we have become distant from our own natural food chains, our notion of death and decay has changed. Death is not just a part of the natural system, that must be dealt with. It is necessary for that system. Without death, there is no life.