What I didn’t know about apple trees and grafting.

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Mimic Nature

 

apple tree

apple tree

I woke up this morning and wanted to watch a documentary so I found one called “The Botany of Desire”, the main point of the video was that maybe plants manipulate us to do what they want, instead of us manipulating them. The first part of the documentary was about the apple tree, and when people talk about apple trees, they bring up Johnny Appleseed who went across the country planting apple seeds.

One thing they wondered was why he went around planting seeds because all seeds will make a variety of apple trees, no two trees will be the same. I always thought that each seed would produce the same tree as the parent tree, but I was wrong. Then the video talked about grafting, and I knew I had to learn more about it.

Grafting is a term I have heard before, for starters, it’s in the Bible. The Bible talks about taking a wild olive branch and grafting it into a tree, which has spiritual implications, but I have never heard this word in regards to apple trees. Here is a definition I got off of a website where I was researching grafting, “grafting is a horticultural technique that’s defined as attaching a twig (scion) from one tree to the stem of a tree seedling (rootstock). The scion becomes a permanent part of the tree over time. If the scion is from an improved variety, the tree will take on those characteristics.”

 

tree that's been grafted

tree that’s been grafted

There are some really interesting videos on YouTube about grafting, where you can watch them graft a tree and then see what the tree looks like 6 months later. So if you have a variety of tree that is not very good to eat, and you really want apples that are sweet to eat, you can graft the branches of a sweet tree into the limbs of your existing tree, and you will get sweet apples.

As you can see though, you have to cut the tree’s limbs down considerably, but I read on one website, that you shouldn’t cut all of the limbs down, you have to keep an original limb on the tree (you can always graft it later) or it will die.

There is some debate as to whether this type of grafting changes the make-up of the scion and the rootstock, or if they keep their own separate genetic make-up. I tend to believe the statement from the above definition of grafting, “If the scion is from an improved variety, the tree will take on those characteristics”, so basically I feel that the entire make-up of the tree is changed.

 

tree with 40 different varieties of fruit on it.

tree with 40 different varieties of fruit on it.

Obviously this has a lot of inspiration you can add to your daily life, change can happen with a little time, cutting away certain areas, and grafting in what you want, remembering not to cut too much too fast.  When you change your life for the better,  your entire make-up changes from who you were in the beginning, creating a whole new you.

And yes, there really is a tree that someone grafted in 40 different varieties of fruit into a single rootstock.

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One odd way to enhance the growth of your plants.

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Mimic Nature
dying plant

dying plant

Have you ever gone into a store at the end of the summer and seen rows and rows of neglected and half dead plants and trees? I know they are trying to get rid of the summer stock to make room for their fall and winter items, but isn’t there a better, more efficient way of doing this? What if stores would actually take care of these plants, mark them down, or donate them for a small fee to a local park or business?

Yesterday I went to a local grocery store who periodically sells plants, I couldn’t wait to see what variety of plants they might have for me to buy. What I saw saddened me, this is the second time in the last month that I have gone to a store and found the plants completely neglected and marked down to almost nothing because they were half dead.

Ever since I watched the documentary “What Plants Talk About”,  my outlook on plants has changed, I see them as living beings instead of just old merchandise that can be thrown out in the dumpster. I felt sad to see those little half dead herbs and I wanted to buy them all, but unfortunately I can’t afford to help every plant in every store, but I could help one. Sometimes people focus on helping forests in foreign countries but fail to look at what they can do right outside their own back door.

I think the reason this type of behavior bothers me is because its wasteful. How companies can spend all that time and money to grow all these plants, and then just let them rot in the stores instead of using them to enhance local parks and businesses, is beyond me. This type of wastefulness extends beyond just plants and encompasses other areas, like food.

healthy sage plant

healthy sage plant                   

One key to a successful plants is love,  plants can sense the positive energy that comes from love, but the corporate greed that is based on money and profits, is not conducive to plants well-being. I brought my little sage plant home and gave it some tender loving care, it quickly perked up some and is looking as well as can be expected. Love can change the world, not just the world of humans, but the entire planet.

I think I will send an email to my local business and see if something can be done to reduce this type of wasteful behavior, maybe an alternative solution can be agreed upon.

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Growing the right trees

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Mimic Nature
growth

growth

When starting any permaculture project, you must have a plan. If you want to start planting trees, you need to decide what the trees function will be, is it for shade, will it give you food, or do you want a wind barrier? If you are like me, you need all of these things, but you need to pick one and start there. You can easily search for the best variety for your specific function in your specific growing zone on the web, or you can call your local nursery. I purchased a great book on Amazon called Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, he has really done his work and this book has many guides and lists to finding the right tree to fit your needs.

One thing to remember though, is that when you decide on a specific type of tree, you want to make sure that it’s a tree that doesn’t grow too fast. There are many new varieties of trees that have been engineered to grow very fast in a short amount of time which leads to root systems that are not mature enough to handle the fast growth of the tree, this can lead to weak root systems that will not be able to support the tree in high winds.

storms of life

storms of life

These rules can easily apply to life as well, we should not focus on growing too fast, we should focus on growing steadily so our roots will easily support our growth and we will not fall during the storms of life. It’s so easy to get caught up in the instant gratification of our society, but true and lasting growth or enlightenment, whichever you want to call it, takes patience and develops over time.

I will be the first to admit that I am not a very patient person, I like to have what I want now or in the next few months, it’s hard to wait and wait for what you want. But what I really need is to grow at a steady rate and not worry about growing as fast as I can. Also, we need to envision ourselves as already being what we want to be, so envision your garden in the end now, live as if it’s already there and manifest what you see in your mind, into reality.

Be happy for every small step in the right direction, and don’t get caught up in what you think is failure, true failure is when you sit and do nothing, not when you try something and it doesn’t work out, when things don’t work out, that is when you really learn. Be happy in what you do, every thing in life starts with a small step and is only built by setting one foot in front of the other, not by forcing yourself to run to the next level.

If you really want to have those fast growing trees, make sure to plant slower growing trees nearby, so when their root systems become well established, they will intertwine with the roots of the faster growing trees and they will help anchor their root systems better.

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Being there for each other

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Mimic Nature
elephants

elephants

I watched a video today that showed a baby elephant who fell in its habitat at the zoo, immediately its family came to the rescue, helping it up. But the one thing I found interesting was, not only did they help it up, they continued with it until it was out of danger. I sat and wondered, have I ever done this? Have I ever gone beyond ‘just helping someone up’, have I ever walked with them for a while until they were ‘back on their feet’, in more ways than just one?

I understand that these elephants were doing this to their family, but what if we went beyond this and applied it to others as well? Many believe we are all connected and are one big family anyway, what if we actually applied these principles to our entire family also? How many lives would be changed? If we acted like we cared about one another more than we do, would there be war? Caring for someone removes our attention from ourselves and shifts it to someone else for a while, changing our perception and helping us to feel compassion for something other than ourselves.

I watch that video over and over, amazed at how the elephants knew the baby was in trouble, how did they know? Maybe they saw it, the video doesn’t show whether they saw or heard it, but I would bet that they sensed the distress signal coming from the young elephant more than hearing or seeing it. Do we, as humans, sense the needs of others? If we do have this sense, how can we uncover the hidden potential of this?

What would happen if all of us went out and helped just one person? So if I went out tomorrow and helped one person, and that person helped one person, and so on down the line, then that one act of kindness just changed the world. Just like with every other aspect of life, one small change can make a big difference. Don’t look at that one tree you planted, or that one person you helped, or even that one pound you lost as anything less than what it is…success.

In nature, one small step sets the next step in motion, for example, planting one small tree can create shade and protection to the plant life around it, which in turn, helps the bugs and the ground. I do believe that we are all connected, and that us, the planet, and the animals have a symbiotic relationship that can be mutually beneficial. That little elephant will grow up and have its own babies, and those babies will have babies, but what if that elephant herd didn’t care about it? What would the outcome have been?

I just saw a beautiful post from a friend who has been having back issues, “Healing is a whole lot easier when you’re loved”, I’m sure that baby elephant is thinking the same thing.

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Instant gratification

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Mimic Nature
instant gratification

instant gratification

I have to say that this is harder than I thought, being dedicated enough to write and create over 500 words each day to share with others. Although, when you really count how many words you actually say in a day, 500 is probably pretty low. I was struggling with what to talk about but then it came to me, instant gratification.

I went to the store with my mom and my son to get some odds and ends that I forgot when I went grocery shopping a few days ago. Every time we go to the store my 7-year-old son asks for toys, and these are not normal toys, these are cheap toys that break easily. I ask him if he wants to save his money for bigger toys that won’t break as easy, but he usually says no, he wants a toy now.

I hope that some day my son will figure out what patience is, to learn to save for something better in the future, and not fall victim to getting what you want now all the time. In some cases getting what you want now, helps, but in most cases it does not. All it does is set people up to want more and more instantly instead of learning to be patient.

If I look really close at nature, I see a patience that many humans lack. The food doesn’t come in ‘instant gratification’ mode, it slowly grows and matures over time, if you pick it too early, its sour, if you pick it too late, its rotten. But, if you pick it at just the right time, it’s sweet and it gives your body all the nutrition needed to live a healthy life.

But nature doesn’t have a choice, does it? No, nature just is. Us humans, on the other hand, were designed with the ability to choose, so we have to go through a lot of experiences and situations before we make our decisions on the subject. In this day in age, I feel we have forgotten the beauty of taking our time, of allowing our food, our goals, our dreams, and our lives, to ripen over time, releasing the sweet flavor of success. Instead we try to force situations to ripen when we want it too and what happens is that the flavor of our life is weak, and the nutrients aren’t there to properly nourish our bodies.

I have heard of a concept called the ‘Law of Gestation’, which means it takes time for things to manifest in your life, I challenge all of you to, for one moment, take your time doing a project, no matter what it is. Allow yourself the time to just enjoy the project instead of trying to rush through it so you can be done. You might find that you enjoy things a lot more than you originally thought.

What are your thoughts on instant gratification? Do you think that kids nowadays will understand what it means to truly earn something,  or will they want to be instantly gratified?

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What are you passionate about?

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Mimic Nature
permaculture garden

permaculture garden

I am thinking about what I want to write for my 500 word challenge today, and the only thing I can think of is what I want to do with my blog. What is my passion? I know we all have them, but sometimes it’s hard for some of us to see what they are. So what am I passionate about at this moment in time?

I love to talk about spirituality, but some days it’s one of those topics that people struggle to talk about in a civilized manner, maybe I’ll leave that for another time in the future. I like…no, I LOVE nature, I always have. I feel more at home out in nature than I do anywhere else, so maybe I will focus my attention on that for now. This is one of the wonderful things about life, you don’t have to focus on one area unless you ‘feel’ you need too. I can be passionate about nature now, but if something else catches my attention down the road, then I can focus on that as well or completely change my focus, it doesn’t matter.

One topic that I have been drawn to over the past few months is permaculture. Permaculture is hard to explain because it means something different to each person, but simply put, it is a set of tools for designing landscapes that are modeled after nature, yet include us humans.  I feel that nature has the answers to every question and yet is simple enough for everyone to understand and connect with. The harder something is, the harder it is to connect with it, but the moment you begin to understand and things become clearer, the more connected you feel to it.

I feel that the area around my home is wasteful, it has no purpose other than mowing it, but what if I could change that? What if I could use every part of my land for the production of something? Whether it be air, shade, food, or just creating my own ecosystem, all of these things are beneficial to me and my family, not to mention the ground and the animals. Yes, I do believe the soil we walk upon is a living being and not just dirt, I also see animals as living beings and not just food or pests.

This will be a big change for me, but one I am willing to make, one that I know will benefit future generations and the planet. I have already started by purchasing a few different plants and shrubs, and one thing I know I will add into my blog, is some free giveaways, trying to do the right thing is hard and expensive at times. I was so excited to be able to purchase a beautiful flowering tree that I wanted for a fraction of the original price because it was at the end of the season and they just wanted to get rid of it so they had a place for their winter items. The poor thing was very neglected and the leaves were pretty dried up, but I knew it wasn’t dead and I knew I could nurse it back to health. It is now growing beautiful new leaves.

This is not about manipulating nature to do what I want it to, but realizing that nature is perfect the way it is and if I follow its example, I can give life to everything around me.

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My all-time favorite movie

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Mimic Nature
The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride

I am doing a challenge to write 500 words a day, so I’m going to use my blog for this and have a record of what I wrote for 27 days.This will also help me to get ready for November when I entered another challenge to write even more words per day.

I know this is kind of cliché, but I have to add in my favorite movie/book of all time. I remember watching this movie for the first time when I was around 13 years old. I was staying at a friend’s house and we watched it together, for some reason I don’t remember liking the movie then as much as I do now. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve watched it, and since my husband bought me the DVD for my birthday many years ago, I have watched it a lot more and it never gets old to me.

I am reading the book for the first time and it has me just as spell-bound as the movie does, although the book goes into more detail than the movie…as usual. The version of the book in the photo also cuts out a lot of the parts that are not as interesting, so that adds to my liking. Note to self, if I ever write a book, don’t get caught up in boring details that no one cares about just to make my book longer. I would rather have a really good short book, than a really boring long book.

As I sit here watching the movie on the tv,  I wonder why I like this book so much, and the one answer that comes to mind is the simplicity of the story. True love is simple, it is our human minds that complicate it; adventure is simple, unless our human minds complicate that as well.

I find that my life is simple when I don’t complicate it with my own expectations, expectations of what my husband should do, expectations of how my kids should act, expectations of how my life should go, and on and on. Expectations are defined as a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. I have found that expectations only bring suffering when they don’t work out, so I am trying to live each day without any expectations of how I think it should be.

I can’t recommend this book enough, but I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Not everyone likes simple and seek to live more simple lives, there are those people who enjoy complicated books, and that is fine. This book is a reminder to me of simple, the simple love between Buttercup and Westley, simple adventure with Westley and Buttercup putting one foot in front of the other and facing what each moment brings into their paths without expectations of how it should go. I don’t see simple as boring or a life without stuff, I see it as a life without expectations and just accepting what comes our way with gratitude.

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Bondage

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Mimic Nature

images (3)

There is a story about a man who fell in a hole named Corban. When he finally realized that he could not get out he started to yell for the people he heard above. The first person who answered his call was a billionaire who threw down a check for $100,000. Corban thought, “Where am I going to spend this down here?”, so he threw it aside. The next person who answered the man’s call was a religious leader, “What can I do for you, my son?” said the cleric. When Corban presented his problem, the cleric said, “I must perform mass at the church in 5 minutes, so I can’t stop now, but we’ll pray for you.” As he was getting ready to leave he dropped a Bible into the hole. Corban picked up the Bible and tried to imagine any possible way he could use it to get out of the hole.

The next person was a woman who threw down some organic vegetables, vitamins, and herbal supplements. A doctor stopped and donated a few bottles of sample medications; a lawyer came by and talked about suing the city for not putting a fence around the hole. At this point Corban was giving up hope that anyone would help get him out, he felt lonely, and a little afraid. He desperately needed someone to guide him out of the hole. Corban couldn’t help the tears of desperation that fell from his eyes, eyes that were quickly losing hope in humanity.

Then a woman came by who told him that he had to let go of all his negative thinking, learn to visualize, and then use the law of attraction. “But that’s exactly what I’m doing, trying to attract someone to help me get out of this hole!” Corban yelled, anger beginning to rise within. “You must not be doing it right”, the woman responded, and she threw down a DVD about the law of attraction. A little while later, a Zen Buddhist sat down at the end of the hole, wanting to teach Corban how to meditate. “If nothing else,” the zen master said, “if you practice long enough, you’ll feel better about being in the hole. You might even be able to levitate your way out in a few lifetimes.”

Corban couldn’t believe it, were these people so blind that they couldn’t see that he needed real help, not food, money, a DVD, or anything else they tried to throw down at him. Couldn’t they hear the desperation in his voice? Couldn’t they see that his life was in danger and that he needed to get back to his family? Corban also thought that maybe the woman was right, maybe it was his fault that he was in here, and maybe it was his fault that he didn’t already know how to get out.
Then a man’s voice shouted “Can you move over a few feet, out of the way?” His eyes still moist with the tears of hopelessness, Corban reluctantly stood up and took a few steps back toward the side; he figured this person didn’t care about his problem either. After he moved, the man jumped into the hole, landing at Corban’s feet, “What did you do that for? Now we are both stuck in here!” Corban exclaimed. “Why couldn’t you throw down a rope or get a ladder?” The man looked at him gently, “Those won’t work. I’ve been here before, and I know the way out.”

I used this story because it is a model of what I have been through, and probably a model for a lot of people’s lives as well. You go to all these different “groups” looking for the answers to the questions that burn deep inside you. You think someone has to have the answers, so you search and search. Mostly what you end up finding is a lot of disappointment, unanswered questions, and no help from anyone. You actually begin to wonder if these people are actually keeping you in the state you are in.

A lot of places don’t want you to find inner peace, they don’t want you to find the answers you seek, because that means less money in their pockets, so they drag you along for years, revealing small bits of truth just to keep you coming back for more. Should the truth about reality really be peddled for money? The Light of the Creator is supposed to be freely given to people who truly desire it, so that they can live an abundant life, not used as bait to keep people tied down and under another’s control. I was blessed to find two mentors who deeply love and care for me and my husband. They don’t tell us what to think, they just walk beside us on our journey and share their experiences with us, allowing us to come up with our own conclusions and find our own way.

So I ask that all of you really look deeply at where you are learning from spiritually, are you really seeing a change in your life? Are there people there to “lean on” when times get rough and you need a little mentoring? Are they doing it for money? Always keep your spiritual eyes open, this new spiritual awakening ‘movement’ is big business now, making tons of money, and there are many wolves ready to devour our energy and potential, keeping us in their chains of bondage.

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Welcome to my new home

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Mimic Nature

You have reached the home of J.R. Richards (Author).

Stay tuned for stories that will touch your heart…

🙂

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The Beauty of Balance

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Mimic Nature
Share Your Light

Share Your Light

It’s hard to sit and watch the horror stories on the news about murder, violence, and total apathy of one another. The worst part of it is when this violence and apathy is premeditated by lies and materialistic gain, why would someone want to hurt another person over a pair of shoes, have human beings really fallen that far?

The upside to this is that in life, in the Universe, there is a balance so when I see all this violence  I know that there is the same amount of love and compassion somewhere else in the world.

Then many will take offense, betray one another and hate one another. Many people who claim divine inspiration and use it for personal gain will rise up and deceive many, because of all this the love of many will grow cold.

Let your love shine bright, especially in times of darkness and despair.

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