Adventures in Gardening

One of the things that spurred me to get more active with “green” thinking is the idea that most things labelled “green” just aren’t. I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “greenwashing,” which refers to the marketing of materials purported to be green, but aren’t. Research suggests that up to 90% of “green” products aren’t green, at all.

In my experience, what pushed me over the edge were “green” sunglasses. Enough, already, I thought, and started looking around for ways to help organizations with long-term commitments to green ideas.

Truth be told, though, we as gardeners are some of the worst at being green. It’s taken me years to do no-till gardening, for instance. It’s so simple, and I’ve always been a composter, but (and I’m ashamed to say it) I only within the last 5 years made extensive use of mulch. Water here in the Ohio Valley is plentiful, but it never dawned on me how much time I was wasting composting to create good topsoil, and then just washing it away.

I’m still ignorant on many fronts, to be sure, so I’m more than happy to let others do their things, and express my opinion here and wherever else I feel comfortable. I am interested in ideas, to be sure, and want to make sure I understand what folks are up to before I make any decisions. Most people don’t do everything I do in the garden, and I’m not even sure I should do everything I do in the garden. But, even if you’re not doing something I would expect, I’m doing my best to just ignore it.

But, I’ve had a few experiences lately that have increased my concern that things among the “green” movement are going to have some problems.

Random overheard conversations.

#1:

Overheard, a couple of weeks ago at the Library, teenage boy to his mother: “The don’t have [the movie I was looking for]. Can’t we just buy it?”

Mother: “No.”

Son: “Why?”

Mother: “Have you heard about the economy?”

Son: “Yea, I’ve lost money.”

Mother’s jaw must’ve dropped, awkward silence.

Son: “From my college fund.”

Mother gasps. Author laughs.

#2:

In a local store, known for a green clientele and product line, before a class.

A lady picking up her CSA allotment discusses with the clerk her teenagers recent declaration

Pretty Lady: “So they came home the other day, and said ‘I’m not eating anything but organic food. Do you know what they do to the animals? And  I just looked at them, and thought, What is it I’m serving you? Hello? We’ve been eating this way for years?”

Pretty Lady’s kids had absolutely no idea that the work their parents had put into feeding them healthy foods from local sources was a choice that’d already been made for them. Some dope at school, teacher or child, had assumed the avant-garde, spouted off and made some assumptions, resulting in hysteria in PL’s children. I guess that’s the way it is, with schools, but what is this? Since when is it cool to be sensible?

It isn’t cool. People making decisions because it’s cool is going to bring this whole thing down on its ear.

Don’t tap the glass

At the poker table, where I find myself frequently, there are, in many peoples eyes, two types of players: sharks and fish. Now, being a pretty lousy player (for the time I’ve put into it,) I don’t necessarily subscribe to that logic. But, there are some undeniable facts about poker.

It’s not, solely, about luck. The only edge a person can count on is they’re understanding of the basic facts about the game, and their ability to understand the situation at hand. I mean that there are good hands, and bad hands, to start with. There are a finite number of ways a hand can play out, and there is an opportunity in every situation.

Some folks don’t believe this. They’ll say, for instance, “Every time I do x, y happens.” They’ll stick to sub-par hands at the start, because they like them, they “hit” more often for them.

At the poker table, it’s in a player’s best interest to let these fallacies go uncorrected. It is a game, afterall.

The shark, who corrects a poor player (the fish) on a bad decision, is said to be “tapping the glass,” as in the aquarium glass.

Granted, most poker players learn from discussions with other poker players, but mostly not while the chips are on the table. These are discussion to have outside the game.

Sometimes, you don’t care if someone else knows better or not.

To cool for school

Some things happened recently that concerned me, among people who should know better. Both involve the health and welfare of a hypothetical third-party, unrelated to the author.

One was coincidentally timed after Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment to appoint a board of livestock regulator. It’s a little more complicated than I’m letting on, but the fear among small farmers, and reasonably so, is that this board will make it difficult for small farmers to continue, due to regulation designed to favor “the big boys.” I suspect that this will happen, and sympathize with the plight.

Shortly after the passage, though, a notice went out, requesting that folks recycle their egg containers to be used again. Now, I don’t know if you know, but this is really, really not up to regulations. Chicken eggs aren’t exactly sterile, and have a lot going on with them. Putting them in a cardboard container shares that “going on” with the cardboard container. There are reasons farmers aren’t supposed to be doing this.

When your local farmers market, do you want the chance that your vendor has a 5th use egg container? Of course, you’ll keep the carton clean, in your garage or basement, but did the other 4? Do you even know if your basement doesn’t have something someone shouldn’t have on their eggs (who knows what this is, but you get the point.) In the effort to be “cool,” thrifty, we (and the vendor) risk causing some major issues. There are reasons those regulations are there, and it’s not to make it tough on the small farmer, it’s to make it safe for the customer. The cost of an egg should probably be a chicken and a clean container.

In another instance, a lady is dumping dog poop tea on her garden. Not composted, no processing other than put it in a bucket with water, let it steep. Tremendous results, naturally. No one’s ever been sick.

Not yet. I’ve noticed a resurgence of the “humanure handbook” in local circles, and having now read a bunch of it (for free, over at humanurehandbook.com) I can say that it’s a pretty interesting read. However, the man is attacking a taboo, namely humanure, and doing so with well. I don’t think that he’d suggest that other feces are more or less pathogenic, or that you should take more or less caution with them.

And, having experienced the business part of humanure, and the 2nd step in the process, I doubt I’ll be partaking.

Vigilance?

The net result of these experiences has been to make me more worried than ever that this “green” movement won’t take flight. A Prius is no more a solution than a dog turd tea. Each can have their place, but a Prius is much less efficient, for instance, than mass transit, and we know that, just as we know that not composting or otherwise treating feces is a bad idea, just as we know that egg cartons can harbor dangerous pathogens.

I’m stuck in my own little world over here. I make mainly self-interested decisions (thank you, Ayn Rand). But, honestly, some of the choices people are making, with regards to supposedly protecting our common future, seem strange. In some cases, as strange or stranger than driving an SUV like a Hummer while living in a city, for instance.

But, glad to have the conversation, at least. There are good things happening. Let’s keep it that way.

Have fun.