January 20, 2019
I found myself picking up a night crawler from the driveway and moving it to higher ground yesterday. I've always done this, even at the age of twelve. I used to get a coffee can and collect them from the sidewalks and roadways back when I was a suburbanite. I didn't know much about their benefit to our planet, but I knew they shouldn't be bird food. I would put them in my dad's garden, spaced out and covered with soil, because Robins abound after a heavy rain. They know what up..
A fluffy top dressing on your garden soil allows them to remain unseen while keeping from drowning. This is another benefit of recycling garden waste as mulch. Most lawns are compacted earth from all the walking on them so the night crawler tunnels fill with water in heavy rains, forcing them to surface for air. Aerating your lawns is a good idea..
January 21, 2019
My garden is a swamp. There are creeks running through it. Even with rubber boots on I hate walking in it. Every instinct says to get out, so I went for a walk in the woods. The pathways there are creeks too, but walking along side them affords you the opportunity to observe natures rock collection. The movement of crystal clear water over pebbles and rocks is enchanting. It evokes a sense of awe that connects you to the vastness of our experiences. It flows to the ocean, evaporates to the sky and repeats it's journey endlessly. In this moment we are a part of the beauty we see, contributing to it the miracle of our existence..
The pine trees have a reddish brown color to their bark that looks warm compared to the creeks. They are like smoldering campfires with orange embers, flames of golden sap, and the gray outer bark of smoke. Discarded bark, in shapes like a jigsaw puzzle surround their base. The oaks look cold with their lime green fluorescent moss, dark green mistletoe and wet gray bark. The deep cracks of the oak tree bark shelter the tiny white spiders, black gnats and gray leaf hoppers from the rain. Oak trees are astounding in the variety of habitat they provide for the enumerable insect, lichen, moss and fungal hosts. Their outstretched branches welcome the birds too. A walk in the woods always delights..
January 22, 2019
I got to wondering what the similarities were between our garden microbes and our gut ones. Google informed me that garden microbes include protozoa, fungi, bacteria, nematodes and actinomycetes as major categories with springtails, ciliates, algae, amoebae, flagellates and beetles. Probiotics for the soil would probably be worm castings. Too much of a good thing was discovered in our gut biome by the use of probiotics. Unbalancing a system that evolved for a reason can cause problems. We depend on both systems for our survival..
Our gut biome is being upgraded to the status of an organ because it's importance is beginning to be recognized. It's also being considered that the spaces in between our cells work in concert and should therefore be considered an organ. The ground we walk on is a living, breathing organism. Tread lightly..
