Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["mtncats" <mtncats@myway.com>]

I, too, would commend y'all for going to lengths in explanation- and remain 
courteous.  My initial thought on the subject was: great!  Would probably do 
wonders for the fertilizer/pesticide river pollution here, almost entirely 
due to lawn over-care.

Then I realized that the same folks who want a trophy lawn for their trophy 
house would likely want a trophy veggie garden, yielding similar river 
results.  In fact, when I thought about it, one of my furniture clients fits 
that stereotype.  Yes, they have long river frontage.  

Member of a hoity-toity garden club, they demand perfection from their head 
gardener and his 2 assistants.  In their perfection veggie garden (behind 
white picket fence, lovely raised beds with carefully groomed crushed stone 
walkways) everything always looks great.  "Whole Paycheck" is very 
inexpensive by comparison. (That designation is widespread.) 

Never occurred to me to ask the head gardener about chemical help, but he 
periodically goes through certification processes to maintain his upper level 
toxin license.  Part of the uniform there: disposable coveralls with serious 
respirator, rubber boots and gloves.  The plants look great.  Unsure what all 
that's doing to the gardeners.

He sometimes wonders how I can get veggies without all the fuss.  But he 
still doesn't compost to speak of and they're serious about tilling.  Be 
interesting to do a worm survey there.  Certainly, his employer would not be 
favorably impressed with the appearance of my beds.

>From a nearby "farm", a friend complained to me just yesterday how he spent 
>two days with a backpack sprayer dispensing Roundup because his employer 
>wasn't interested in motorizing the process.  They're preparing for grapes, 
>the new trophy crop here.  Fortunately, nobody there is licensed for the 
>most toxic substances.  

Neither are upstream from me.

Tom (skeptical in central Virginia)

 --- On Sat 03/31, linda < lindai81@comcast.net > wrote in part:
I agree with you, we may not have time. Probably don't actually. People are
so self-absorbed and wandering around in meaninglessness wondering what 
happened to feeling some sense of fulfillment. 

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