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Respecting Plants

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    #16
    Re: Respecting Plants

    I have some rowan trees which grow lots of red berries. About this time of year the starlings arrive in a big flock to feed and it's total chaos, birds and berries flying everywhere! The starlings are quite fussy though, they wait until the berries are at a certain point of ripeness - I've noticed that before the main flock arrives there are visits by solitary birds who seem to be checking whether the berries are ready.
    Once a man, like the sea I raged;
    Once a woman, like the earth I gave;
    And there is in fact more earth than sea.
    Genesis lyric

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      #17
      Re: Respecting Plants

      While I differ on the details a little bit, pretty much what Rae'ya has said. Unless we are talking about a tree (and not a seedling), spiritually and energetically, it has been my experience that the plant "soul" (for lack of a better word) is something that is shared across the ecosystem... As a metaphor, think of it as a well--if you take a few buckets of water out of a healthy, well placed well, its not a big deal, in time the water level will even out again. Taking a leaf or a flower from a plant (from the proper place on the plant) is like cutting your own hair or nails. Cutting off a branch or taking bark, ideally should be done from already felled trees for two reasons--you've created an area that can get "infected" (either from a pest infestation or from a pathogen or other parasite).

      The biggest thing though, is that (to maintain the overall health of the ecosystem, physically and spiritually) you have to understand it. You need to know the plants in it, their lifestyle, how long they take to germinate, how many makes for a self-sustaining population. And that is a skill you can only get by knowing your landbase. By watching, and researching what grows there and how it lives. The 10% thing is a good rule of thumb (as is the more conservative 1 in 20)...but that's not 5-10% every time you go out, or even every year...that is 10% until it recovers completely, plus. And that depends on the plant and its lifestyle, where its located (how easy of a time it has growing there), and how its being harvested:

      In Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, ramp harvesting was banned in 2004 after a study there found that the only way to prevent damage to a ramp patch was to harvest less than 10 percent once every 10 years. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has argued that its traditional way of harvesting ramps in the park, by cutting off the tips of the leaves, does not kill the plant.
      (snip)
      How to harvest ramps sustainably is a controversial subject. Seeds take 6 to 18 months to germinate, and the plants take 5 to 7 years to produce seeds.
      The exception to the 5-10% rule is weeds (most of which are non-native and often invasive)--many of these are a damaging force to the physical and spiritual health of the ecosystem--picking them is like removing a splinter or taking antibiotics to get rid of a strep infection. The other exception is NEVER take anything that is endangered or threatened or rare in your ecosystem.

      As far as assuaging your plant-killer guilt (a feeling I understand)...my policy is to tell the land what I need and why, make the most educated decision I can about what to take, how much to take, and how to take it, and then thank it. Depending on circumstances, there are different actions I can take--replanting rhizomes or bulbs (like with wild onions), reseeding plants, etc... And always pick up what doesn't belong there--shopping bags, cans, bottles, etc.

      This is from my blog, from quite some time ago, and its about gardening, but I think the ending is appropriate here:


      "If you plant green beans in the spring, you won't be pullin' up turnips come tomorrow," she said. "Sometimes you gotta shout at them clouds til they tremble at yer voice and rain just to shut you up. Sometimes you cry because the sky stays blue after blue with not a cloud in sight. That's when you know you got a bad harvest coming in the fall. Or maybe buggies are gnawing your field. Seems something always happens to crops when you need 'em to grow. But when you just want to give it all up, the rain falls and those little shoots pop up like you've never seen before." She stopped and considered her garden, "Sometimes they don't though. You always reap what you sow, you just never know how much your crop might be worth at the end."
      All I know about a backyard garden I learned from a neighbor. To my nine-year-old self, she was pretty old. Ancient. She'd been born during WWI and the first third of her life on a farm before moving "into town" in the WWII era neighborhood where I would later arrive. Wrinkly like creased paper and brown from the sun like old leather. Hunched over and wrapped in worn wool sweaters over vintage style dresses, her tiny feet encased in giant rubber boots. But she never let that stop her. Her kitchen smelled like cookies and violets, and she always had a pitcher of lemonade or iced tea ready. In the spring time, her window sills, counters, and shelves would be covered in egg cartons of dirt with little seedlings popping up. Too many to plant in her postage stamp yard. The best-looking seedlings would find a new home from her stack of pots that she stored on her porch through the winter. Some were carefully selected for the neighbors, based on what went with their yard. The rest were destined for her yard after the last frost. And the seedlings that didn't make the cut got relegated to the "kitchen scrap pile" (compost pile) out back.
      Mrs. Bloom (her real name) mourned the loss of "the little sprouts", but she also understood that some of those plants just weren't going to make it. Not every sprout can find a home in the garden. Sometimes "you just gotta pluck out the unlucky ones little girl, and hope you made the right choice."
      Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
      sigpic

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        #18
        Re: Respecting Plants

        Originally posted by habbalah View Post
        I use dandelions for tenacity in spell work, because what's more difficult to get rid of than dandelions?
        Japanese stilt grass

        "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical." -- Niels Bohr

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          #19
          Re: Respecting Plants

          Originally posted by Porpoise View Post
          Could you say how you do that?
          I just saw this. I'll send you a PM, rather than derailing the thread further.

          Originally posted by nbdy View Post
          Japanese stilt grass
          I've never seen it, but I believe you.
          Army of Darkness: Guardians of the Chat

          Honorary Nord.

          Habbalah Vlogs

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            #20
            Re: Respecting Plants

            I was also thinking Scotch thistle is tougher and plain nastier than Dandelions

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