The Helpful Gardener
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Preface by Wendell Berry

This is a most seminal section of this book, as this book would not have found its voice in Western Culture if not for the support of [url=https://www.wendellberrybooks.com/]Wendell Berry[/url].

Wendell's books are often fictional, but always grounded in the rural traditions of his chosen locales. He writes to the sense of place of his novels and recognizes the intrinsic nature of place to culture. This empathy made him readily accepting of F-sensei's message and I think this forward bears that out...

HG

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rainbowgardener
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LOVE Wendell Berry, his poetry, essays, fiction.... Wonderful writer.

He does a good job of introducing this book, making me want to dive right into it!.

He and Fukuoka-san are speaking my language

"The ultimate goal of agriculture is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings" Fukuoka

"An agriculture that is whole nourishes the whole person, body and soul." Wendell Berry

I have a workshop I developed and have lead a few times on "Gardening as a Spiritual Path." Gardening done mindfully connects to our senses, to the natural world, to the harmony of creation.

Here's a couple more quotes not in the book:

"Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace." May Sarton

"Gardening speaks to a deep-seated desire to experience the real, the essential, the astonishingly possible. To garden is gradually to give up control, to fall literally to one's knees and come into closer and closer contact with the tremendous and often bewildering beauty of the living world." Joyce McGreevy in Gardening By Heart: the Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Garden.

muland
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I love the quotes you used. For me Fukuoka's understanding is at once spiritual and practical. However, when someone would ask him if his was Buddhist farming or Taoist farming he would answer that it is simply farming. But by living a life close to nature the farmer has many opportunities to experience wonderful moments of living within nature. May Sarton's quote speaks exactly to that experience. Thanks for sharing it. :)

Wendell wanted to be sure that The One-Straw Revolution reached actual farmers and not simply new agers and spiritual people. That's one of the reasons he suggested Rodale Press be the publisher. They put out Organic Gardening and Farming magazine which had a circulation of over one million and a huge book club which reached into the heart of Middle America.

Wendell's Preface reflects this thinking. He wanted the book to make sense to an average American farmer. And yet he did not want to neglect what is really the heart of Fukuoka's message. Wendell is the rare person who could see both sides clearly and he worked hard during the editing to maintain a balance. I think he is about as close to an American Fukuoka as we have in the United States. I see him as an outspoken advocate for village scale farming very much like Fukuoka is in Japan.

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rainbowgardener
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I, unfortunately, am one of those new agers and spiritual people, not an actual farmer. But I am working here at THG and in my own life, to spread the word about gardening with nature to all the backyard gardeners (while encouraging there to be more of those). Here in US-America the biggest source of nitrogen run-off into rivers and lakes, causing eutrophication is not farmers, it is suburban gardeners using synthetic fertilizers on their lawns and gardens....

Farmers at least tend to be somewhat sparing with their fertilizer amounts because they have a cost-benefit analysis. Suburban lawn folks tend to go oh if one bag is good, maybe two bags is better.

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While I agree with RBG's assessment, I feel the groundswell is beginning to run in the other direction. Farmers and even the horticultural industry are starting to view nature as more than an enemy to be overcome; some of the newest and most cutting edge treatments of insects and disease are starting to come from the natural world.

Even the science that Fukuoka-san abandoned with vigor is beginning to accept that the natural cycles can be more beneficial in the long run, that predators are never thwarted by increased resistance, and that the damages to natural systems are often not worth the introduction of potential toxins. I was heartened by a study that showed that the use of DDT against mosquitoes has been clearly shown to be counter-productive; the lack of predators outweighed any benefit of population reduction. At least these studies are being done now, and we are beginning to quantify damages...

As the real costs becomes clear, the meaning of natural farming will become clearer as well... In the meantime, the move towards natural and biorational agents offers a healthy and safer place to move those not ready for the wholesale change to natural farming...

HG
Last edited by The Helpful Gardener on Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

muland
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I agree, Scott. There have been a lot of hopeful signs out there lately. I visited the retail nursery where I used to work in Berkeley, California recently. I overheard a conversation between a customer and the salesperson. The homeowner wanted to know how to get rid of "undesireable weeds," in this case crabgrass, from her lawn. Instead of suggesting a selective herbicide the salesperson posed a question right back, "How about learning to live with those weeds? Are they really bad enough to go to the trouble and expense? Then your kids would have to play where you just sprayed. Once the lawn is mowed it looks almost the same and you and your kids can safely play there just like on any other lawn." Amazing!

Then I heard another salesperson telling different customer that he could use sheet mulch to get rid of an unwanted lawn without going to the trouble of ripping it out and hauling all that good organic matter and topsoil to the dump.

I think I read somewhere that lawns are responsible for 45% of urban water use. Scarry...and unnecessary. Also, several particularly nasty pesticides that have been banned for agricultural use can still be sold in local nurseries.

Again, the good news is that people's view on all this seems to be changing and rather quickly.

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And turf is the most irrigated, most sprayed crop in the US (adding retail and hort together). Shrinking your lawn or your lawn care is a great first step towards ecologically friendly gardening....

I think we have reached Malcom Gladwell's Tipping Point on this topic. I have recently started a job selling for a large greenhouse supply firm. One of the places the company is expending the fastest is what they call BCA's, or biological control agents. Think nematodes, and predatory mites, and Beauveria bassiana and a whole lot more. Even the pros (or should I say ESPECIALLY the pros) are getting this more and more...

We do have answers to many issues, and more coming all the time, answers that address the problem without adding new ones. I think as long as we can get first to this place of "Above all else, do no harm", the correct answers will eventually present themselves. Even if it takes thirty years...
:wink:
HG



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