2010 Diary week 15

The garden

With the warm weather following recent rain the grass has grown rapidly and needs continually attention. I have found the strimmer to be the most practical tool for keeping the property tidy. I have also been planting seeds and transplanting purchased plants – tomatoes, peppers and egg plants.

Book Review

Forest Farming points out that “civilised man has marched across the face of the earth and left a desert in his footprints.” “When the plough invades the hills and mountains it destroys the land.” “The crop-yielding tree offers the best medium for extending agriculture to the hills, to steep places, to rocky places, and to the lands where rainfall is deficient.” “One of the greatest teachers of India was the Buddha who included in his teaching the obligation of every good Buddhist that he should plant and see to the establishment of one tree at least every five years. As long as this was observed, the whole large area of India was covered with trees, free of dust, with plenty of water, plenty of shade, plenty of food and materials.” “Just imagine you could establish an ideology which made it obligatory for every able-bodied person in India, man, woman, and child, to do that little thing – to plant and see to the establishment of one tree a year, five years running. This, in a five-year period, would give you 2,000 million established trees. Anyone can work it out on the back of an envelope that the economic value of such an enterprise, intelligently conducted, would be greater than anything that has ever been promised by any of India’s five-year plans.”