Principal principle
The principal agricultural product of Afghanistan is wheat. In Bulgaria, wheat plus corn and tobacco. In Chad, sesame seeds and cotton, and in Denmark, wheat and barley. The predominant flora in my garden during warmer parts of the year are known collectively as weeds, and it is my devoted hobby to control their numbers and replace them with annuals that produce things I can eat.
My other hobbies include going to my job, cleaning up after myself, mowing, playing musical instruments, reading/writing/arithmetic, stirring compost, hanging up laundry, avoiding the news, and sometimes showering. Healthy weeds have no other hobbies and proceed steadfastly on their life’s mission to create a jungle.
Gardeners, each in a personal way, embrace the challenge of growing annuals amidst an impending jungle. Spring rains are a boon to vegetables and the jungle – fair is fair. All plants matter, and a principle in my garden is to respect them all, just like all human people – even despicable, reckless, heartless, self-serving turds – who deserve the respect of facing a judge and jury (sooner is better).
For example, fossil records indicate grasses have been on Earth at least a hundred million years, and I figure they will outlive petrochemicals by that long again even if thoughtless politicians ban science-learning. Grasses as here to stay, such as in the pathways of my garden. So, I respectfully kneel to plant bean seeds and yank out grasses growing nearby. Some go to the long-term mulch pile where years from now they will have joined with other uprooted biota and broken down into rich soil. That’s respectable. Others go to the short-term compost repository where, mixed with leaves of all colors and denominations, they return to replenish the soil from which they came.
As grasses decompose in compost, their components combine with leaf elements, eggshells, banana peels, hard bread crusts, and assorted vegetable leftovers to make a mixture for future growth. It’s scientific, diverse and inclusive of the best parts of all just like the education system in Finland but not Arkansas.
Banana peels, by the way, contribute phosphorus, iron, magnesium and calcium to the compost mix. Cut them up first if you remember. Grasses add nitrogen and texture. Various tree leaves add more nutrients than manure, and pine needles add trace elements plus more magnesium, phosphorus and calcium. That’s a good thing.
The soil in my area is replete with seeds of plantain and mullein. Both are medicinally significant. You can add a few plantain leaves to a stir fry or, if you are so inclined, dehydrate them for later. Compounds in plantain aid the digestive process and even have anti-inflammatory properties which facilitate the healing of wounds. Nevertheless, my luxury is having so much of it I add some to the community of compost.
Mullein is not culinary, but dehydrated leaves and flowers in infusions and syrups will coat mucus membranes and reduce inflammations, and that is cold, hard cool for plants I did not ask for but sprout indiscriminately anyway.
Plus, mullein or plantain leaves (and sassafras and ash leaves and grass clippings) snipped into pieces make excellent mulch. Tomatoes, peppers and pole beans from all origins benefit from a broad array of multi-source input just like neighborhoods in Cincinnati and Green Forest.
Chemistry is a part of it, but the principal principle is we’re all in this garden together. We’ll make lemonade, paella, ragatoni bolognese, kim chi, vegemite sandwiches, rutabaga borscht and tuna melts. You grow crookneck squashes and I grow ping tung eggplants, and we’ll share. Who’s gonna stop us? Only us. That is our principal principle.