Saving the world a backyard at a time

I spent early this morning on World Environment Day as usual, drinking coffee and reading poetry. Then I started up the tractor and mowed the grass in the back yard. I’m slowly, very slowly, learning about recycling nutrients in place. The mower deck was set on high to compensate for this being the first mowing/mulching of the year, thanks to No Mow May. Later, we did see one bumblebee in our reseeded, unmown, front yard. A transition from a fairly typical exurban middle class American lifestyle to one that is much more sustainable presents a number of interesting challenges. Adjusting aesthetics is one of them. Piles of fallen leaves may not always be attractive, but they serve a number of purposes that help support a healthier ecosystem. Figuring out how best to apply permaculture principles to our own property, which is neither farm nor woodlot, is a whole packet of such challenges. One of the bigger ones facing the Better Half and I is we don’t really know what we want to do with the place. Shortly after we moved in we tried serious gardening. Since each of us commuted to jobs and we were raising a family, the level of efforts required didn’t balance well. Plus, we didn’t do a good enough job fending off whitetail deer, pocket gophers, rabbits and other critters that found our plantings quite tasty. That all became a classic live and learn sequence.

“back yard” before mowing

Photo by J. Harrington

Today, after the grass was shortened, I took a break. Learning to pace myself is another transition I’m working on. Once rested, I grabbed the electric leaf blower and the push mower and cleaned up some more of our accumulated oak leaves to be used as mulch in the replanted day lily bed. In the process, while taking my break, I had read that mown leaves will decompose in about a year and that they help build humus, but not so much if they’re overlaid on landscaping cloth, which is precisely what we’ve done. Live and learn strikes again!

Part of the issue is the world, and life, don’t stop while you and I learn all we need to about what to do, what not to do, how to best do what needs doing and then get it done. Combine that with my long-time identity based on being a hunter, a fisher, and a forager more than a gardener or suburbanite and the complexities become clearer. It’s a case of both learning and unlearning. From what I read on a daily basis, there’s a lot of that kind of adjustment going on nearly everywhere.

We live; do our best (most of us); make mistakes and try again. The real problems arise when governments and corporate persons keep acting as if exercising their rights doesn’t also involve honoring responsibilities to the Earth and her other inhabitants. If we carefully think about it, the Earth is the commons that belongs to all of us and we need the other inhabitants to maintain a livable planet. As capable as humans are, we can’t do photosynthesis. In fact, we haven’t even been able to accomplish our own Green New Deal.

Earth Day

By Jane Yolen

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me.

Each blade of grass,

Each honey tree,

Each bit of mud,

And stick and stone

Is blood and muscle,

Skin and bone.

And just as I

Need every bit

Of me to make

My body fit,

So Earth needs

Grass and stone and tree

And things that grow here

Naturally.

That’s why we

Celebrate this day.

That’s why across

The world we say:

As long as life,

As dear, as free,

I am the Earth

And the Earth is me. 

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