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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] 'Balanced' Ecosystems Seen In Organic Ag Better At Controlling Pests

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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] 'Balanced' Ecosystems Seen In Organic Ag Better At Controlling Pests
  • Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 01:56:22 -0700 (PDT)

> There really is a balance of nature, ...

I used to think that this is just a romantic idea. Yet after more than ten
years on this land, I come more and more to the conclusion that this is in
fact very true and that all our endeavors will be in vain if we don’t
understand this balance of Nature and find ways of living in harmony with
Nature. A few years ago, I would have cringed at writing such a sentence.

For example, when I first started gardening/farming on this land nearly 15
years ago, there was an explosion in the slug population after a couple of
years. The slugs prospered magnificently on that added food from my garden.
I resisted the impulse of using poison and went for all kinds of non-toxic
methods instead, mostly just hand-picking, which was very cumbersome and
still would loose me more than half of my young salad and cabbage plants in
some years. When I go out at night now, I usually find more toads than
slugs. It has taken a few years of patience and some losses, but now Nature
has found its balance again and slug damage is held under control by the
toads that have multiplied on the back of the slug population.

Dieter Brand
Portugal








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