I have to confess: With all the things he gets done, my “little” brother Gene (the West Coast Nature’s Guy) is sometimes a motivator … and sometimes I wonder if I can keep up with him in our rural life.
His Live Innovations Farm and Education Center Facebook posting from Saturday said this:
- Expanded the deer fence around the wildflower garden
- Planted 4 apple trees
- Planted 6 blueberry bushes
- Planted 2 thornless blackberries
- Planted 1 Loganberry
- Planted 50 (2 25′ rows) of Asparagus
And…Boom! Harvested some Shiitake mushrooms from a couple of logs we inoculated with spore dowels 2 years ago!!!
(Live Innovations Farm and Education Center photos and full Facebook page can be found here).
In contrast, what did I do Saturday?
– Planted about a dozen purple iris roots in the spot near the front porch where I’d killed the grass by laying down a 4′ x 8′ piece of old plywood 2 months ago
– Down by the hammock by West Chickamauga creek, sod-busted a 2′ x 4′ chunk of land. Planted wildflowers there, as well as 6 old pumpkin seeds in a hill. As with all planting, it’s a labor of faith: Will wildflowers grow there in the sunny part of a shady woods? Are the pumpkin seeds too old?
– Found a hickory nut that looked like it maybe was starting to split and root. Planted it next to the wildflowers; if it grows, it might hold in the creek bank a lot longer (from erosion).
– Improvised a watering system by tying the hammock an old 1 gallon paint bucket and throwing the bucket into the creek. (I was going to use fishing line, but the line wasn’t strong enough). 3-4 gallons of creek water served to water the wildflower space.
– Took photos of wildflowers in the “burn area” north of the house (a successful experiment I’ll discuss elsewhere).
In other words, by comparison, the East Coast Nature’s Guy did A LOT LESS than the West Coast Nature’s guy!
My brother Gene
is a machine.
I’d say I turn green
with this battle,
but he lives in Seattle.
(*In other words, everything is green there).
I’m always in awe of how hard he works, and what he is able to do. In contrast, whether because of lack of motivation or lack of tools or more difficult, rock-filled soil, or just our age difference, I do significantly less than he does.
I admit: Sometimes it’s discouraging! I guess that’s why I wanted to write this blog today, to remind you (and myself) : What we do in nature is NOT a contest. Will Rising Fawn Farm near here, with their 120+ acres and their equipment, get more done than I will? Yup. Will my brother? Yup. Will my neighbor Mr. Simms and his sod farm? Yup? Or my neighbor to the north, Old MacDonald (REALLY!)? Yup. Sometimes my wife’s Dad, Jack M., comes out. I’ll be planting a few seeds, showing him some things I did, and I’ll think “Back in the day, when HE had this place, he had a tractor, a plow, a backhoe, a grader, etc. etc, etc.” He moved more dirt in 5 minutes than I move all day.
I have to remember (and so should you) : This is all a learning experience. I don’t know what will grow here. I don’t know what I have here. I don’t know so much! But I do know that if I compare what I do with what my brother does, I’ll make myself sick, and I’ll stop doing anything. So I just plug along, trying experiments — which I share with my brother, taking his advice but trying not to compare. I’m seeing if I can make wildflowers and pumpkins grow near the creek, so when Marnie goes down there to think or to rest in the hammock, she can enjoy a splash of color and maybe some butterflies. And I rejoice in my small successes, and think to myself: “It’s better than it was!”
