Soil Conditions

One of the things I love about my husband is that he is interested in everything. In the past few months he has read two biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, several tractor manuals and adventures of tractor aficionados, a history of the early church and and a couple of books on farming. I leafed through one of these books, You Can Farm by a genius of farming, Joel Salatin. His perspective on weeds, though probably age-old wisdom, was new to me. Evidently, it is possible to determine the condition of the soil by the kind of weeds it grows. I am still reeling from this discovery. Our lower meadow, for example, is overgrown with dense broom which indicates calcium deficiency. Clover indicates high calcium. We have no clover growing in the lower meadow, but plenty in the upper side pasture.

When I mentioned this amazing fact to my dear husband, he sighed heavily and said, "Of course the lower meadow is calcium deficient. It is surrounded on all sides by woodlands which are highly acidic." Oh, of course.

I am still fascinated by this concept. The plants that grow well speak volumes about what is hidden in the earth. What we see is a manifestation of what we cannot see. The point is to focus on the soil conditions and not on the weed. I can cut down broom this year and still be fighting it next year, or I can amend the soil so that it is less hospitable to broom and more inviting to clover. When the soil shifts to higher fertility the quality of the weeds, or, um, plants, will improve.

Doesn't that sound like parenting? The real issue is not the weeds, it's the heart, I mean soil.