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Organic Foundations

sandandsun
10 years ago

Communication is one of the most difficult tasks of civilized life. Expressing ideas in a clear manner with precision is a great challenge.
Often, ideas cannot be communicated concisely; concision is not a cornerstone of understanding or wisdom. Otherwise, diplomas would be earned in a day, an hour, or a second. The more complex an idea, the more difficult it is to communicate.

The concept of organic is amazingly complex. And there is one particularly complex aspect of it: the unseen macrocosm of life that exists in healthy soil.

The word "unseen" is historically associated with supernatural concepts. And "supernatural" connotes extremely powerful.

In healthy soils and healthy seas, a mostly unseen macrocosm of life supports all visible life in extremely powerful ways.

This post was edited by sandandsun on Sun, Sep 22, 13 at 10:32

Comments (7)

  • strawchicago z5
    10 years ago

    Hi Chris: Thank you for a great topic. What do I think of organic foundations: balance ... nutrients in natural fertilizer is in a balance form, such as NPK of dry chicken manure at 1.6 / 1.8 / 2.0 ... plus it's high in copper, zinc, and boron ... trace elements most lacking in alkaline soil.

    Henry Kuska, Ph.D.in chemistry used to post ABSRACT on how soil bacteria suppress fungal growth. Cantigny rose park near me, with 1,200 roses do not use mulch, just bare dirt. In our rainy & humid weather, artillery fungus shoot up from decayed mulch, and form black spots on my white sidings and wood trim. That's why I no longer use mulch in my garden.

    Below is a soil science ABSTRACT on the role of soil bacteria in suppressing fungi.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Anti-fungal properties of dune soil bacteria

  • kittymoonbeam
    10 years ago

    Exactly right. I remember the LA Times did an interview with a local farmer providing organic greens to top chefs and hotels in the LA area. He said he wished he had just worked on his soil for 4 years instead of trying to force the poor soil he had to give good results. Having become interested in soils, he has become a well known supplier of superior compost. He has different recipes for his composts and gathers scraps from the kitchens he supplies. It was all fascinating the way he was focusing more on composting than growing the greens. But that's what was giving the superior results he said. Good soil is everything he said. I feel like I'm just starting to grasp this even though I have been told all along. My challenge is to keep enough cover on the soil. It breaks down so fast here.

  • sandandsun
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    There is an oft asked conversation starter: whom would you like to meet, or whom would you liked to have met?

    To both my answer is no one. Just meeting someone is simply confirmation that they do truly exist, lol.

    But to the question: whose thoughts would you like to have shared with you, or to have been shared with you? That generates a list.

    One of the first on that list would be Leonardo da Vinci - possibly the genius of renaissance incarnated. In the 15th or 16th century, I'm not sure of the date, he wrote:

    "We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.âÂÂ

    This post was edited by sandandsun on Wed, Sep 18, 13 at 16:32

  • kittymoonbeam
    10 years ago

    I think he would have liked you more than me. Women were thought to be a slippery slope away from heaven in those days. I copied quite a few of his drawings some years back. My art history professor always thought he was perhaps dyslexic and this gave him the freedom to think as he did and the ability to be ambidextrous. Who can say. I've known two very creative thinking dyslexic people and I always loved how they could come up with solutions or see things from a completely different viewpoint.

    Charles Darwin studied the movement of earthworms by measuring rocks slowly sinking in the soil. His genius was said to be that he observed the smallest processes that over time generated great change. How many things are going on and we never really see what is happening until someone else points it out to us.

    Who would I like to hear ideas from? Maybe some of the young people that left us too early to leave us very much. Every little thing from them is precious. My old college friend's dream was to go back and argue with Socrates all afternoon.

  • sandandsun
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Margaret Mead's famous quote:

    "It was not until we saw the picture of the earth, from the moon, that we realized how small and how helpless this planet is...."

    Can one person ever truly speak for the society? Maybe only Margaret Mead realized.

    Centuries before, da Vinci had already considered how we take the Earth for granted.

  • sandandsun
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Margaret Mead's realization is, in retrospect, quite prescient given only a lunar perspective. She had not seen Earth from Saturn as provided by NASA's Cassini spacecraft taken July 19, 2013.
    Link below:

    Here is a link that might be useful: One Special Day in the Life of Planet Earth

  • sandandsun
    Original Author
    10 years ago
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