Mimic Nature

One of the many things I can’t do

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Mimic Nature

Contemplation

When I started this blog, I want to share certain tips about permaculture, and for the most part I have. But one thing I cannot do, is parrot information back at people.

A few days ago I was so busy that I didn’t have time to get a blog out when I wanted too, so what I did was push myself into posting a blog that I really didn’t like. I don’t like parroting information at people, I found that I have to say things in my way, and in my interpretation, or my inner self suffers.

I love permaculture, but mostly I love it because it’s focus is on returning control back into the hands of where it belongs. Nature knows what it’s doing, and for many decades now, we have tried to take control and act as if we know better. The Creator of all that is, knows what it is doing.

So many life lessons can be learned from nature, more than I could ever put in a blog, but my latest life lesson has been about pruning.

If you read one of my past blogs called “One odd way to enhance the growth of your plants”, you would remember I talked about a tree I wanted to buy, but didn’t because it cost way too much. I found this same plant at the beginning of the fall marketing season all dried up and appeared to be dead for only $5, of course I bought it wanting to save this poor living plant.

Starting new

All the leaves were dead and shriveled up, so I figured they would fall off like the trees outside do. But they never did, and they were really stiff and wouldn’t come off. At one point I wondered if the leaves were only half dead and not fully dead like I thought.

My husband decided to prune these leaves off, but got busy doing something else, so he never finishing the whole tree. So when I was transplanting the tree the other day, I seen that those few branches were now sprouting a lot of new growth. What was happening was that the tree was putting unnecessary energy into trying to revive those half dead leaves when it was just easier to cut them off and start again.

How true this rings in my life.

How many times have I put a lot of energy into trying to revive certain situations that should have been cut off and started over? How much energy was wasted in trying to grow plants the old-fashioned way of rows and paths, and of living my life the way other people said I should? Too much.

Removing unwanted thinking

After figuring out what was going on with my tree, I went through all my plants and pruned off any dead or dying leaves, branches, and flowers. Now I will have to go through the rest of my life and do the same.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged blog, growth and change, life lessons, nature, permaculture, pruning, renewal | 1 Comment

confessions of a nature blogger

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Mimic Nature

Confessions

In one of my blogging groups, I was challenged to write a confession for my blog, unfortunately there are so many to choose from.

As I sit here thinking about what my confession will be, I can’t help but notice that I have a lot of problems, and could confess each day for the rest of my life, but I will pick the deepest and most personal I can think of.

First of all, I don’t like being vulnerable, I don’t like putting myself out there for people to actually see because I lack confidence in myself and can break down from one persons criticism, although I do have to say I’m getting better at this as I’m getting older. I have put myself out there before and had my “head chopped off”, (has anyone read the book Through The Looking Glass: Awakening Your Inner Alice” by Sunni Chapman? She talks about the Red Queen with the big head, symbolic of our ego, who is always saying “off with their heads” because these people don’t agree with her, and she needs to kill anyone who defies or disagrees with her) sorry, back to what I was saying, I’ve had my head chopped off by many people all through my life, so I am timid when it comes to sharing a piece of myself.

My problems

So when it comes to my nature blog, I have to confess that I don’t have the best green-thumb on the planet. I haven’t taken what I’ve learned and put them into practice yet, but I will get there some day. When it comes to gardening, I was taught the old way by my parents, and they were taught the old way by their parents, and so on. The only reason I decided to look into something different, is because I am tired of working so hard in my garden, I knew their had to be a smarter way of growing things, and with all the other commitments I have in life, I can’t spend all day working in my garden pulling the unwanted plants (I’m not going to call them weeds) out.

I also have a problem with work, I don’t mind working, and I don’t mind working hard, but when I work hard and have little to show for it, I begin to question what I am doing, and if there is an easier way of doing it. Here lies my next confession, I don’t allow myself to be creative, I don’t trust myself enough to come up with a solution to my problems, so I go looking for other people’s thoughts and opinions, which is okay for some situations but not okay for others. There will always come a time when you need to look within yourself for your answer to live the unique life that is yours.

I don’t like fake people, people who don’t live their lives and just mimic other people, acting as if they are unique. Why? Because I am one of those people. With age comes wisdom, so as I get older I am getting better at all this, and I have to say that blogging is helping me as well, it helps me to put myself out there a little at a time.

So there you go, my confession(s) of the day, like I said, I could add a whole bunch more but I would have to write a book since there is so much to talk about. Despite everything I know that is wrong with me, I see a beauty in being broken, a beauty that surpasses all other.

Kintsugi: a Japanese technique for repairing broken pottery with seams of gold.

Posted in confessions | Tagged beauty, beauty in being broken, blog, confessions, confessions of a blogger, don't like being vulnerable, don't trust myself, fake people, garden, life lessons, nature, vulnerable | 3 Comments

Another Way To Boost The Plants Around Your Home Naturally Without Added Work

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Mimic Nature

Laws of Nature

One thing about nature is that the laws that govern it, govern our lives as well, and what is the one thing that makes a lot of our lives bearable? Companions. Living out the rest of my life with my husband is a huge benefit to my entire being, he grows alongside me and helps me to thrive in any condition. He even helps attack the parasites that invade my beautiful flowers and fruit.

One area of gardening that is being explored, is companion gardening. Plants that assist each other to grow well, plants that resist insects, plants that can even repel other plants, all of them can be used and applied in our backyard gardens, orchards, or any permaculture setting.

Life companions

Carrots planted with leeks, will benefit each other, keeping the pests away because of the strong smells of the companion plant. This is exactly why a mixed planting will give you better insect control than a monoculture.

Think about our lives, if nature thrives off of a biodiversity, then our lives will benefit from a biodiversity as well. It’s not beneficial for us to live in a monoculture of all the same people, once a parasite breaks the code and attacks one person, it will decimate the entire group, just like in nature. One bug can decimate an entire orchard consisting of the same type of trees.

Just like my last post that talked about weeds, even poisonous plants have their benefits in our gardens and lives, since they can supply us with medicine and insect repellents. Many of our loveliest and most decorative plants are poisonous, just like in our lives, the prettiest and most attractive paths and people, can be the most toxic to us.

The flip side if this is that there are also plants that harm us and stunt our growth, when we are planted next to them. Beans are inhibited (unable to act in a relaxed and natural way) by any type of onion planted near it. In the same way, certain types of people, when they come in contact with us, will inhibit our lives as well, so it is best that we don’t plant ourselves near them.

“The Laws of Nature are But the Mathematical Thoughts of God.” ~Euclid

We can either thrive or dive from the companions that we plant ourselves near, so be careful, just like we can wreck our entire gardens just because of what we plant together, we can also wreck our whole lives by the people we plant ourselves near.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged benefits of poisonous plants, blog, companion plants, gardening, how to thrive in any condition, laws of nature, life lessons, nature, permaculture, successful gardening | Leave a comment

5 Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Demonize Weeds

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Mimic Nature

weeds

Weeds, what are they? I’m going to give some information on what weeds really are and let you decide if they are a nuisance or if they are a benefit. Plus, I will give a list of reasons why we shouldn’t demonize something we know so little about.

Weeds are defined by the Unites States Department of Agriculture, as plants that interfere with human activities. Where do you normally see weeds grow? On bare ground. Weeds are natures way of covering up a wound, like the scabs that form over our wounds. The weeds grow, cover the ground, and then die. Each year they will do this, adding more and more nutrients and soil-inhabiting bacteria to the ground, making the soil richer for other plants.

After so many years, you will get small shrubs and plants growing in that area, as these shrubs grow bigger, the shade that they cast, will kill off the weeds, thus ending the cycle of the weed.

Weeds are pioneers, they cover, protect, and fertilize bare soil, preparing it for others. They are superb nutrient accumulators, pulling up nutrients that are deep in the soil, for plants to use. They can also tell you what is happening with your soil, for example, if your soil is hard-pan, penny-cress, morning-glory, horse nettle, field mustard, and quack grass will grow.

plantain

There are some weeds that are edible, here’s a few of them,
chickweed
chicory
dandelions
wild garlic
lamb’s quarters
plantain

So here is my list of why we shouldn’t demonize weeds,
1. Some are edible.
2. They condition, and add nutrients to the soil.
3. Their extensive root system adds humus to topsoil and subsoil.
4. They are good indicators of what type of soil you have.
5. We don’t know enough about them to categorize them a bad.

“A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

plant whose virtues have not been discovered yet.

You obviously want to make sure that they don’t go to seed, and get out of control, but when it’s done properly, you will have less work with more nutrition in your garden.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged balanced eating, dandelions, demonizing weeds, eating healthy, edible weeds, food, gardening, healthy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, weeds | 3 Comments

What You May Not Know About Failure

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Mimic Nature

failure

I’m going to show why the definition of failure that society has today is not the true definition, and I’m also going to show you why failure is not possible when you set out to try something new.

First lets start with society today. Society today tells us that when you start something you need to finish it, and if you don’t, then you are a quitter, and we all know that quitters are failures. Recently, I have decided to challenge this idea, why are people called quitters when they decide not to finish something?

key to success

What happened to adventure? What happened to exploring? If I didn’t know what I liked, I would start selecting various paths in life that I felt drawn to, like gardening, for example. If I felt drawn to plants and gardening, then I would start buying certain items I knew I was going to need, but what if I started gardening and decided I didn’t like all the work, is this really quitting or is it just realizing that gardening is not for me?

The true definition of failure is not doing anything. Yes, it is as simple as that. Lets go back to my gardening example, if I did something wrong, and all my tomato plants died, did I fail? No, I still got up and tried, and I also found a handy way to kill plants, and that will help me in the future so I can avoid doing that again.

When a person gets involved in nature and permaculture, it is really important to remember that you are never a failure, even if your plants or trees die. You got up and did something, if you kept a journal, then you know a great way to not plant them next time. When I read Masanobu Fukuoka’s book ‘Sowing Seeds in the Desert’, I read that he would normally just throw the seeds out and where they grew was where they were meant to grow, he never worried about the ones that didn’t grow. Masanobu knew that nature would flourish no matter what, so don’t worry about things not working out the way you planned, nature is very forgiving.

Here is a simple list to let you know if you are failing at permaculture, or life in general,
1. Not doing anything. This is pretty self-explanatory.
2. Not doing anything. Wow, did this make it on the list again?
3. Not doing anything. Isn’t anything else going on this list?

I said it three times, hoping you would get the point, there is no such thing as failure when you try, failure is a title reserved for those who sit and do nothing.

Adventure is waiting.

So, next time you try anything, remember that you cannot fail, and if you don’t like it and decide to stop, don’t worry about it, you are still not a failure or a quitter. You are a seeker, and an adventurer!

Posted in Life lessons | Tagged 500 words a day, adventure, adventure is out there, blog, expectations, failure, failure is not doing anything, failure is not possible, gardening, key to success, landscaping, life lessons, nature, no such thing as failure, permaculture, quitting | 1 Comment

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

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Mimic Nature

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

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.

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.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged grafting apple trees, life lessons, nature, permaculture, rootstock, scion, tree growth, trees | Leave a comment

One odd way to enhance the growth of your plants.

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Mimic Nature

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

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.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged blog, company greed, company wastefulness, gardening, life lessons, love, nature, positive words, sage plant, successful gardening, words have power | 2 Comments

Growing the right trees

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Mimic Nature

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

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.

Posted in permaculture | Tagged 500 words a day, life lessons, nature, patience, permaculture, storms of life, tree growth, trees | Leave a comment

Being there for each other

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Mimic Nature

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.

Posted in Life lessons | Tagged 500 words a day, elephant, healthy, kindness, life lessons, nature, permaculture, relationship | 2 Comments

Instant gratification

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Mimic Nature

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?