Growing Principles and DER

[David Hare-Scott]

David E Ross has decloaked and given a pointer to his site:

don't suppose it was a big secret but this is the first mention of that I recall. Perhaps I missed it before. I bring this up because of the philosophy that he espouses. Let me declare my position from the start. As soon as I read it I thought "this could be me, I could have written this".

If you want to know what I mean go and read it rather than allow me to mangle quotes from it. However to focus some discussion (hopefully) here in my words are some things that jumped out at me from his philosophy mixed with some of my own.

- Do the least harm. Weigh the long-term alternatives. A quick fix might just get you out of trouble but it might cause you unending woe too. A good year is when you didn't have to risk a QAD.

- Fit in with the climate and landscape, don't fight it. Use what you have instead of mooning about what you don't have.

Closely related to this is: recognise that no matter what you do it will not be 100% "natural" because we have been changing the landscape and the plants for too long to ever go back. Probably the word "natural" is losing meaning by the day, if the advertising industry continue slathering it on everything this will be complete in my lifetime.

- Be flexible and practical, be prepared to ignore rules if it seems necessary. Do what works in your situation. Find a local substitute. Give up and start again if you have to, you will surely do better the next time.

Following from both of the above recognise that things that you can do others cannot necessarily do, and vice versa. You will waste a lifetime if it is a competition.

- Learn concepts and principles not recipes and rules. When it gets down to details statements starting with "always" and "never" are probably wrong.

- Throw away perfectionism, bury it, burn it and stomp on it. You can get

80% of the result for 20% of the effort. The last 20% of result takes the other 80% of effort. Neatness can become a terminal affliction, keep it down and at arms length so that you can use it when you want to and it cannot use you. Tolerate some losses, there is no-one keeping score.

- If you do all of the above and nothing else you will still wonder why. Make sure there is time to smell the flowers, stroke the herbs and pull a fruit from a tree just on a whim. And make sure you have somebody in your garden to frolic with. And on a warm night do so.

David

PS And here is the summation of a misspent youth from DER that is as relevant today as 40 years ago

"When I lived with my parents, I would rather trip on a weed than pull it".

To be accurate some youths don't see this as an either-or situation but do both. Some daily.

D

[Tony]

His pages are well worth the time. He strikes me as a man with that all-to-seldom seen commodity these days: Common sense.

I try to garden organically as much as possible. I would score myself

90% in that regard. I consider a really good year to be one where I didn't have to spray for pests even once (I am primarily a vegetable gardener, incidentally). But if it's a really bad year for insect pests

- and they happen sometimes - I'm voting for my crop against the insects. My favorite tomato fertilizer is 100% organic. But my favorite corn fertilizer, a bagged 10-10-10, isn't. I think I would like David E. Ross very much. Common sense - yes.

Tony

[Billy]

There is something seriously wrong when "common sense" leads you to damage the environment with needless pollution, and assaulting soil organisms which produce the fecundity of the soil, and block the intrusion of plant pathogens. You may want to look into "Integrated Pest Management".

[David E. Ross]

Thank you and David Hare-Scott for your kind words.

[Dan L.]

Ross is also very helpful and knowledgable at creating web sites :) comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html

So many like minds here!