Free-Range Living

'Organics Re-visited ----- 

 'Natural emergence ----  

     Crikey - fair takes the breath away - the emergence of all the green new growth, the profusion of blossom and flowers, along with a good selection of blue skies - all happening here at the organic eco micro-holding in the UK heartlands just over the last three/ four weeks. For those with a reasonably strong connection to nature, which is probably quite a few (- ?), it's a great time with the feelings of resurgance, renewal, uplift of spirit and so on all coming on strong. And not forgetting the plants here on the plot, including good shows in the veg. patch of potatoes, peas, spring cabbage (ready for use), broad beans (now in flower) plus emerging seedlings of beetroot, spinach, parsnips and salad-type plants, along with good growth in the soft fruit area - the strawberrries are now too in flower, all surrounded by the brilliant light green new-growth canopy of trees, which makes for a stunning backdrop. Has Earth indeed anything more fair to show - ? Fair does the heart good --- and especially with twelve buzzards wheeling and gliding high above the cottage just before - so many together are not often seen, and quite a thrill to see them ---

'Naturally connected ---- '

For such lucky 'nature connected' souls, this time of year surely confirms that man is an integral part of nature, in spite of the reservations that 'urbanised man' has lost the connection, causing the 'man conquers nature' outlook, said to foster 'inhuman' living experiences for man (concrete fire-hazard tower blocks?) and for animals (factory farming systems?) - ? The 'forces of nature', though, are surely infinitely more powerful than the small organism that is 'man', which again those lucky enough to directly experience 'Tao' (pronounced 'Dow'), the positive universal energy force/power accessed by 'tuning in' to the appropriate wavelength (and implying going beyond the 'small self'), are likely to attest to. Maybe the modern level of focus on 'small self gain' could in fact be acting as a limitation in terms of then accessing any larger, beneficial energy sources - ? Some might again suggest that 'exploration beyond the self' can be a natural need and activity of people, thwarted and/or limited though by any over focus on the material side of things - ?

'Naturally active --- '

Micro-holding activity here, has been, well, active - what with seed sowing, planting out plants, along with sundry other maintenance tasks such as 'touch-up' painting on the cottage, storing the bought supply of logs into the 'logs-istics' woodstore, re-seeding with grass seed one or two worn grass areas, sorting cars (MOT's etc) and bikes, and perhaps above all, clearing all the trash in the paddock produced by the extensive tree trimming that took place earlier in April. It took in fact three 'goes' to burn it all involving six hours in total of fairly hard work. Good, though to see it all done, along with quite a bit of woodash fertiliser being produced, and to know that the paddock's 'sorted' for a year or two now. The trash for burning can be 'springy' making it quite hard to burn: one discovery this year which helped a lot was the application to the fire of old engine oil, which can often be got for free from garages, and which is not volatile like, say, petrol, but burns surprisingly well.

'Natural livers ---- '

  One young highly industrious female blackbird has been a virtually constant companion at work, especially in the veg. patch. In her considerable efforts to get food to feed her brood, she has learn't to be virtually fearless, coming within just six inches of her human companions, often just standing there, head cocked, listening to human cooings and blandishments. She's now called 'Tweetie Pie', and the humans are in awe of her industry, her energy, her sheer hard work and of course her friendliness - quite a thrill and never been known in a blackbird here before. The slight worry, though, is that our feline friend does not see her in the same light. Tia is a gorgeous snow leopard look-alike cat, but in spite of her beauty, she's a formidable hunting machine, often spending hours, for instance, hunting down in the paddock. Ah well, without 'the cycle of life and death', nature wouldn't work, but there'd still be some gnashing of teeth if Tweetie Pie 'bought it' ----

No swallows this year in this neck of the woods - first time in thirty odd years - not good, maybe nesting has become a problem for them --- ? In rural areas in China, according to a nature TV programme, the slightly bigger red-breasted Chinese swallow nests on the ceiling in the living rooms of the houses in rural areas - nature really entwined with man - and it's considered unlucky. for instance, to close the window to stop access for the birds.

'Natural way ---- '

 Many might well see the biologically-based organic way of growing employed by man as the 'natural' way, the way that delivers the 'working with nature', as opposed to the domination of nature, modus operandi. One of the difficulties that exists in trying to support the organic way is that it is 'feeling' based, meaning that for some there is the innate, intuitive feeling that not only should man be cooperating with nature, giving animals, for instance, the opportunity to practice natural behaviours, but also that such a move is anyway in man's long-term interest. It might be, for instance, that by default the intuitive part of man has been 'diminished' by the sheer weight of modern rational, scientific-type of approach - ? A modern take on Lao-Tsu's words from long ago acts as an affirmation of 'natural power'  :

'Natural events are potent because they act in accordance of how things work ----- potency comes from knowing what is happening and acting accordingly. Paradoxically, freedom comes from willing obedience to the natural order.'

( The Tao of Leadership    John Heider )

  Organic growing's accepted ability to long-term maintain and increase the health and fertility of a - the? - basic resource, the soil itself could be, for instance, a useful example of longer-term 'natural potency' - ? Of course additional elements can be added such as chemically-based fertilisers and sprays, but such moves whilst boosting short-term output, could be creating longer-term problems and limitations, such as soil degradation, as apparently has been found in some areas. A system such as organic growing which gives a reasonable to good level of outputs, albeit at a bit lower level than with using added chemical inputs, and at the same time takes care of on-going longer-term soil fertility, plus maintaining and improving longer-term soil health and condition, surely must have quite a bit going for it - ?

'Natural long-term - ?'

Interesting too, to speculate as to whether over time the switch to chemically-based growing methods from the traditional organic systems that had to be used before chemical inputs became available, has contributed then to the creation of more short-termist outlooks, given then that focus and attention on the longer-term effects then can become less inherent in the growing system, as chemical inputs replace the longer-term soil nutrition cycle involved in organic growing - ? Another effect of a change to chemical-based growing systems is that the previous rotation requirements involved in maintaining long-term soil health and fertility then become less of a 'must', which in the quest for evermore output, which seems to have been a feature of more modern growing systems, can 'fill the bill'. So  in the case of a 200 ha's farm, for instance, with the use of chemicals technically now 200 ha's of, say, wheat, could be grown. The same farm under the organic system would have the rotation requirements, so only 25 per cent of the land could grow wheat at any one time, significantly reducing wheat output potential. Then, though, the remaining 75 per cent of land is  available to produce other crops - a mix of 'exhausting' crops, such as wheat itself, and 'restorative' crops such as the legumes, beans and peas and grass/clover leys .

 A traditional farming rotation, which is also needed for modern biological-based growing 'organic' systems, might look as follows :  
   
                       Grass/clover, Wheat, Roots (swedes turnips, mangolds, potatoes), Barley/Legumes

This would then be called a 'four-course', rotation, with each stage representing a year's growth/production. In earlier times there may well have been a fifth 'course' of 'fallow', representing a year when the ground 'had a rest' and could be worked for instance at various intervals to reduce weed burden. The clover in the first course grows intermingled with the grass and as a legume, it takes nitrogen from the air and 'fixes' it into the soil - a little bit of magic really - ? The grass/clover ley (temporary grassland) is then ploughed into the ground after its year's production, again adding to soil composition and soil nutrition. Generally the production off the grass/clover ley was not sold for cash, but rather used as livestock feed in either grazing or conserved fodder (hay, silage) form, then meaning that livestock was also kept on the farm, so the farming system was said to be 'mixed' (livestock and arable).

'Natural 'fit' - ?'

A convenient bye-product of the wheat and barley was straw, then used to bed down the livestock in winter when they were 'housed' in under-cover cattle yards, there anyway being no grass in the fields for them to eat at that time of year, and/ or in the case of barley straw, used as cattle feed. The animal droppings ('dung') mixed with the bedding straw and then when piled up, rotted, to then produce manure which when spread on the land was a form of fertiliser in itself. The whole system was in fact a self-contained, self-supporting production system, the more modern term for which would be 'a permaculture system' - one that has no reliance on inputs brought in from elsewhere.  Modern organic systems often do rely to some extent on imported inputs such as, say, feed. which has then to conform to the strict organic standards set (in the UK, for instance, by the Soil Association).

Even though the organic/biological output of the micro-holding here is micro small, in effect the same rotational rules for organic/biological growing have to be observed, otherwise soil health and soil fertility would not be maintained over time  The veg. growing patch, approx 50m * 20m, was divided into four sections, which just fitted the crop rotation pattern, but now one of the sections has gone to soft fruit production and a wood storage area, complicating matters. So now the rotation is 'three course' : potatoes/onions, legumes -beans/peas -, and roots - beetroot, turnips, swedes, celery. It maybe pushing the potato side of things - the general recommendation is to grow them one year in four, but as quite a few of them are earlies, second earlies(lower yields, taking less out of the ground), then it maybe should be ok; it's actually very similar to the rotations used by the commercial potato growers in this area, who also grow quite a few early potatoes. The use of compost in smaller organic/biological growing situations can compensate for lack of a livestock-using phase within the rotation.

'Natural partners ----- ?'

Since a bit more compost has been available and used here, for instance, yields of produce have generally been ok/good, and of course it's all been healthy and highly tasty stuff, it helping being able to pick it 'fully fresh'. A year or two ago, one bucket of broad beans, for instance, was forgotten and not 'processed' till the next day, by which time half the taste had gone. Then of course there's the wider benefits to the grower - fitness and health, pleasure and satisfaction at, in partnership with nature, creating something useful and good, and not least, fostering the ineffable spirit of self-reliance and independence - quite a list of multi-dimensional benefits. Maybe the modern strong money focus is too single-dimensioned, by default obscuring the more multi-dimensional view ---

Ah well, busy-ish time of year, plenty of small jobs to be getting on with - hoeing weeds, sowing more spring onions and peas, planting out runner (climbing)  beans, onion plants, picking lettuce and spring greens - better get at it - and get some more of those 'multi-dimensional' benefits ----