Why Are You Working So Hard? Blow Up Your Rototiller

A commanding , metal voice crackle over the loud-hailer . “ maltreat back from the rototiller , get down on your knees , clasp you hand behind your head . ”

As the terra - terrorist haltingly complies , a team of darkly clad commandos inches forward on their abdomen . Suddenly , with blind speed , the well - rehearsed supporting players shoot down the engine of the growling , fag alloy monster and swiftly ushers the nurseryman into a waiting unnoted van . Their destination , the CGGRC ( Cool Green Gardening Re - education Center ) .

Scenarios like this fire across my synapses more often than I ’d care to admit . That ’s because I have a strong aroused response when I see citizenry ignoring one of the most canonical tenets of sustainable landscaping : shape with , not against , what nature gives you .

That admit your soil .

My most recent “ trigger ” was an clause in a local newspaper instructing reader about creating “ your perfect paradise garden . ” The author used the usual “ 10 tips ” approach , include “ How to avail your soil . ” Readers were told to dump bag and bags of store - bought filth amendment into their beds to make a rich medium for their plant . “ That way , ” the author enticed , “ you could grow anything your pump desire . ”

“ Even if it means you have to put the industrial plant on life support , ” I thought .

Here ’s my philosophy . How about designing with nature rather than function against it ?

A Lesson From Nature

Living here in Santa Barbara , California , I look out at the Santa Ynez Mountains every day . Acres and acres of native chaparral flora abound with tone of down in the mouth Ceanothus flower and entice with the rust-brown trunk of Manzanita .

shimmer golden California poppies dot the hillside in spring . Canyon sunflower brightens the dappled shadiness along the arroyos .

Nature does this with no help from me or anyone else , give thanks you very much . No one rick on the sprinkler , spreads fertilizer or remedy the grease . No weekly gardener , no “ projects ” that exhaust your three - Clarence Day weekends .

Here ’s my school of thought about adding all that organic cloth to your grime : Go with the flow . Why pay ripe money to add stuff to the soil , then rototill until the natural , living community of unseen flora and fauna is moil into limbo ?

It ’s live !

The delicate canyon helianthus ( Venegasia carpesioides ) thrivesin the cooler environs of shaded coastal arroyo .

Many gardeners are unaware of the billions of living organisms that inhabit a smattering of ground . An interconnected vane of living . An ecology we can not see .

or else of trying to interchange your land , select plants native to your area . If these do n’t give you the aesthetic pallet you search , describe from areas in the world similar to yours . It stands to reason that there ’s somewhere in Europe or Asia or South America with a clime and soil term just like yours . It also stands to reason that plants from those regions will prosper in the same conditions as the ones you already have .

In my coastal southern California mood , I design garden using plant from Chile , southwest Australia , South Africa , Italy , France , Spain , Libya , and my home state . They ’re all adapt to my Mediterranean climate — dry summer , wet wintertime and temperate temperature . Most need lilliputian or no fertilizer , can get by with minimum summer irrigation , and if I provide enough diversity , no plague .

I work with what nature give me and let the fittest survive . My client are overjoyed .

good of all , this approaching help me nullify a test in with those commandos holed up in my frontal lobe .

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

A.M. Leonard Deluxe Soil Knife & Leather Sheath Combo

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