June 1 2022
DOWN TO EARTH.
I am very fortunate in that I have a large property with lots of trees, and enough open space to cultivate a patch of earth. I also have a well – some 70 feet, 23 meters, deep. When, in 1975, I bought my 50 acres (20 hectares), I asked a ‘witcher’ to walk the property near where I was going to build. He detected, with his miraculous talent, two separate underground streams and advised me to drill where they crossed. He also was able to gauge the depth. The well-driller came, and bored through the granite 70 feet, and up shot the water: crystal clear, a real gusher, at a rate of 150 liters per minute!
In 1979 I qualified as a commercial property appraiser, and was asked to evaluate all sorts of real estate, including river dams. I remember being called by a lawyer in Bancroft who had a peculiar problem. His client had bought a house and the vendor had given him a well certificate, stating that it pumped 10 liter per minute, sufficient for a household. Upon occupancy the new owner discovered that the certificate had been altered from 1 liter to 10 liters, greatly depreciating the property value. My job was to calculate that amount.
Water is essential.
With the weather becoming more and more unpredictable, agriculture, horticulture and water are closely related. Living today involves many new hazards, including getting ticks, of which I ‘ve had my share. While I am writing, my solar power kicked in, as, suddenly, access to the grid was interrupted. Always prepared: few years ago, I had a frost-free handpump installed on my well, assuring that, when electricity is out, the old-fashioned way to water supply would be ready. There is that ‘three’ rule, three minutes without air, 3 days without water, 30 days without food.
Yes, I have solar back-up, with batteries enough to provide lights as long as the batteries remain charged. Today, with the turbulent weather, either solar power or a fuel-powered generator is a necessary tool wherever we live.
Food supply threatened.
Access to good food is a growing concern, world-wide. Now that global heating has kicked in with disastrous results, with too much water where it is not needed, and not enough where it is, expect growing food deficits everywhere. Yet, I curtailed my vegetable garden somewhat, because I now live alone. But I did make my patch more productive with extra compost and organic fertilizer and spreading a thick coat of mushroom compost over the entire 1,250 square feet, reduced from 2,000.
I use raised beds and between the beds I spread thick carton paper, covered with difficult to decompose leaves, keeping weeding to a minimum.
I each year rotate my crops, and planted 2 beds with potatoes, yellow and red, one bed with green beans and one with red beets. The fifth one has an assortment of vegetables, red, white cabbage, kale, of course, four tomato plants, and both red and wawa onions, plus zinnias.
The Bible, Genesis 3: 19, tells me that, “Earth we are and to earth we shall return”. That has tremendous implications for us. God formed us from the earth, and, when we die, we simply remain there, to be revived on the New Day. That’s why Friedrich Nietzsche, steeped in biblical knowledge, wrote in his Thus spoke Zarathustra, “Remain true to the earth”.
The earth, by divine order, is holy. When we cultivate it, we do a gesture of worship. When we plant flowers, we act divinely, because we beautify what God intended to be beautiful, and when we grow food, we also do sacred business: pulling weeds is equivalent to what God does for us in forgiving our sins.
So, yes, gardening is a holy business, especially since the entire world is struggling to grow sufficient grains and legumes to feed an ever-growing number of people. Now with war in Europe’s breadbasket, Ukraine, with increasing risks of natural disasters, we do well to secure our own food supply and do it in such a way that it enriches the earth, rather than deplete it. In the USA, due to overuse of pesticides and fertilizer, 20 million acres are on the verge of becoming desert, imperiling our situation even more.
“Earth we are”, is a rule well to remember. The earth’s DNA is almost totally identical to human DNA. “Down to Earth” is more than being sensible. Being ‘down to earth’ is God’s will, and an act of worship when we treat the earth with love and tender care. We also do ourselves a tremendous favor when we cultivate a more fruitful and longer life for ourselves, because by divine design: “Earth we are and to earth we shall return”