Gardening in Harmony with Nature
For thousands of years agriculture and horticulture have been transforming the surface of the Earth. It has often been an enrichment to the ecosystem. It can be the same even today. The modern idea that we humans only disturb nature, does not serve for any purpose and is not even true. We play an important role in the life on Earth. And this role need not be negative. We are able to contribute a lot to this Earth.
A pleasant surrounding
An important thing, no doubt, is that work in the garden or in the field is pleasant and attractive (maybe romantic). This is forgotten too often. It is a worthy step to create a beautiful surrounding that improves the life quality of the workers. Use your imagination. Some ornamental plants, nice-looking and nice-smelling, orange-trees between the olive-trees so that the olive harvesters can eat fresh oranges. That way the workers can more easily have the feeling to be part of nature. The harmony of gardening should also be harmony with the humans.
Companion planting
In many cases the most constructive way is to have more than only one crop species in a bed or field; companion planting for example of maize and beans that support one another. An error of the Darwinists is the strong focus on fighting for survival between the beings, forgetting that there is also symbiosis and other sorts of mutual support between living beings. Today we know more about the grouping of plants (and also animals), there is even a science called phytosociology, which describes the plant communities, more often than not consisting of more than one species. Thus it is more in harmony with nature to plant different plants together and to understand the way they effect each other: A maize plant gives a bean plant physical support, the bean provides the plant with nitrogen – a culture that in the Americas has been used for millennia.
Including wild plants
The plants known as weeds in fact are not our enemies, they too are part of nature and the ecosystem. First we can enjoy their beauty. When we weed them, we can use them as mulch or green compost, providing the soil with humus. Some of them can even be used as medicinal plants and food. An example is the field marigold (Calendula arvensis) which can be used for ointments and teas, also in salads, in the same way as the pot marigold (Calendula officinalis). Others like the pigweed (common purslane, Portulaca oleracea) serve as vegetables. However, in order to use plants for medicinal and food purposes, it is, of course, important to know them.
Circulation
An ideal of gardening as well as of agriculture is the circulation of materials. The organic waste is recycled, mainly as fertilizer so that the substances remain in the cycle of living. That way it is avoidable to buy chemical fertilizers, which need a lot of energy as well for production as for transport, and moreover cost money and are void of humus.
