Comment 50721

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted October 28, 2010 at 12:51:42

I must admit, I like power tools. I have a workshop I've been putting together, and it can make a hell of a racket. And since my house shares a wall with a family, I have a personal rule not to do it late at night. The issue is courtesy, whether that annoying noise is my bench grinder or the screaming kids running around outside my window all day, all summer.

What bothers me most about all of this is how many really flawed asumptions are wrapped into traditional "landscaping". It's a massive, motorized de-mulching project. Trees drop leaves and grass shed clippings because that's what the soil needs - fertilizers and pesticides are a poor substitute. The "green waste" which is collected in bags with power tools is a massive collection of important soil nutrients, in the best possible form for soil organisms. This simply leads to poor heath of soils and plants, only which encourages "weeds", blight, and bad visuals in general.

Want a great-looking, low-work garden? Let it grow. It will be ugly for a while, since most city soils are in awful shape, but the reason we see so many of the same weeds in our gardens as grow in sidewalk cracks and construction sites is that they're succession species which exist to quickly bring life to damaged soils (like a PH imbalance or lack of carbon). Real nature isn't something that can be planted in an afternoon - it's something that has to grow.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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