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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Food Not Lawns

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "mtncats" <mtncats@myway.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Food Not Lawns
  • Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 08:44:31 -0400 (EDT)


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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