🥰 Shalom everyone in Blurt!
And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was good. And it was evening, and it was morning: the sixth day. Genesis 1:31
I marvel at God's creation and His Providence in every detail of this amazing life! A few days in a row I have become more and more attracted to permaculture, and in my mind it is a way of interacting with nature based on its rules and laws, of which God is the founder. Grey urban everyday life encourages me to immerse myself in the bright green pictures on the internet, and to watch videos about farming. Thanks be to God for the wide access to a wide variety of educational videos through which talented people can share their experience and knowledge of farming.
I was greatly surprised by the experience of one woman, who purely by accident came to the fact that on clay soil without artificial intervention in the soil you can get a decent crop of courgettes, pumpkins and even watermelons! All notions that to get a harvest such soil should be first put in order, collapsed when one insolent zucchini grew on an alpine hill of clay without artificial irrigation, digging, mulch, fertilisers, etc. It turns out that nature is very self-sufficient in the matter of fertility and in the overwhelming majority of cases it is human intervention that disturbs these processes.
Formation of good soil on loams took place simultaneously with cultivation of crops on it, and it was not necessary to help plants with chemicals from shops. Microbes, worms and other organisms are perfectly capable of digging and loosening the soil. And excessive tampering with the root layer of the soil breaks the fungal bonds by which plants are nourished by beneficial substances from the soil. As one farmer said, "To break them is like cutting off a man's arms and legs." But if you let these processes run their course, the produce from the vegetable garden becomes highly nutritious - a real probiotic!
I was also quite surprised by the functionality of trees, which, as it turns out, are the most reliable source of water on any site. In fact, the water that is accumulated by tree limbs and thrown on the surface of the ground is enough to irrigate the area covered by the crown of the tree. And if we are talking about forests, then such a cluster of trees can be considered as a large lake or reservoir. God has so wonderfully thought out the details of the mechanism that ensures the movement of water from the earth to the atmosphere and vice versa through plants! The functionality of trees is not limited to collecting water, they also hold dust particles, various insects, bird droppings to be used as fertiliser for the soil, as the water that runs down the leaves dissolves these substances. Besides, tree roots strengthen the soil and protect hilly areas from such processes as landslides. If we are talking about hills, it is very important to take into account the risk of flooding in valleys, where settlements are often located, and it is trees that become a natural barrier against these destructive phenomena.
Speaking of trees, I would also like to note that with the interaction of the vegetation that grew on the clay soil, the organisms that lived in it, as well as the leaves of trees that fell to the ground, the soil began to transform and every year it became better and better and became similar to chernozem. At the same time, it began to yield crops while it was still clay!
As I delve into these details, I am constantly reminded of the Garden of Eden, which was created by God for man and Adam and Eve were given the task of tending it. I'm sure that garden was nothing like the ones that farmers create. It was like a forest garden (a concept that is very common in permaculture)! Divine harmony dwelt among the rich diversity of vegetation and animals and rivers that flowed through the garden. And what may appear to some as chaos is a masterpiece, from which man was satiated with the most varied and most delicious fruits at all times! I agree that at that time the earth was not cursed by man's sins and did not grow thistles.
But researchers in the field of agriculture come to the conclusion that even in the current conditions it is very realistic to achieve such a level of interaction between weeds and cultivated vegetation, in which the crop will be minimally damaged. And this can be achieved without the use of chemicals. I have yet to delve into these issues. In the meantime, I bless everyone with the peace of God and see you soon!
JESUS IS THE LORD! YES AND AMEN!
Amen. Jesus is Lord.