Author: Tom Stock Page 11 of 30

With a break in the weather a dozen share-holders and volunteers convened on the farm to catch up after several rain delays. Elizabeth provided bagels and juice before we broke up and worked to get the farm ready for harvesting a few weeks from now.

Don, the farmer, suggested various tasks. A mother and her son planted leeks. Several women descended on the two weed-filled herb and flower beds. I pried fennel with a long-handled spade. Fennel is n invasive and aggressive. It’s tap root goes straight down like dandelions.

After an hour, several large piles of weeks needed a trip to the compost pile. I wheel borrowed three loads. Don prepared a bed for planting. This season, Don decided to eliminate grass pathways along the beds. “Insects live there as well as weeds and travel into the beds.”  Behind his roto-tiller, flat,  smooth, velvety, brown, soft soil was to become the home of the roots of one of the dozens of kinds of produce the form will provide.

Soil is the key to growing healthy, organic produce. Lots of compost is applied and worked into it. Just by  thrusting my hand into this fresh soil, full of air, minerals, organic and organic elements, I could tell that any plant put in this soil and watered, is going to grow big and strong.

On my trips to the compost pile, I looked Austrailian Winter Pea cover crop. Don plants cover crops to increase carbon and nitrogen.

Don is particular about the way seedling plugs are planted. He wants the rows straight and the distance between each plant the same. He knows what space the roots of each plant needs. He used a 100 fool long string, measuring tape, and yardstick to plan where each plant will go. Once an entire bed is planted, I imagine a battalion of soldiers marching in place.

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Cutter is a form of interruption. Space is interrupted by objects. It can be as large as a building that blocks the sun and view. It can be small, like a living room loaded with collections on shelves, floor, and furniture

Reactions to clutter can run from like, tolerate, and abhor. I fall somewhere between tolerate and abhor. If it’s my clutter, like. Others clutter – abhor. Clutter is stuff you think you need, you want, you can’t part with. As soon as I step across the threshold and encounter a cluttered room, I form an opinion and I don’t feel comfortable.

Beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, hills, and meadows are clutter escape hatches. To to one of these places is to reorder mental clutter. After an uncluttered experience and return to a cluttered environment, the person might ask themselves…”Why do I keep all this stuff?” Garage sales are held so they people selling old stuff can buy new stuff. Or they may be moving and say. “How did I accumulate all this stuff?” if it was a gift, it is nice to show respect by keeping it.

I’ve seen photos of minimalist living quarters. The walls are bare. There is hardly furniture…maybe a chair and table. The people who live in this kind of environment chose to stay clear of the task of taking care of their stuff, protecting it, and eventually, finding room for more. They maximize calm and they see what’s not there. Empty is the new full.

Here’s an example. I volunteered to help set up hundreds of books for a used book sale. Eventually the room was packed with table after table of books. After just a few minutes, I stopped searching for a title I’d like. I had to leave. It’s easy to become overwhelmed. I needed balance. Outdoors, less clutter, mind clears. I drove to a pier on the bay and parked. I saw the horizon. This alone relieved my stress. Open space is necessary for everyone. What is there is not there…space, minimal information. This is the kind of place we all need from time to time. Nature is relevant, intelligent, and related. We experience networks of ecological connection.

Seeing nature is a holistic experience, a bigger picture experience. You are not closed in by walls. There are no boundaries. Nature is not cluttered. We all need “not there” experiences, away from job, house, neighborhood, traffic,and away from our monkey minds that jump and sway from tree to tree.

Where can you go to get away from busy, from speed, and noise, what’s not there is the there we need to find.

The Center for Environmental Education and Discovery has launched a groundbreaking effort to establish an education center in Bellport.  After three years of hard work, the board of directors has earned the key to a large building where future programs will be conducted.

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