Organic Soap Box
April 6, 2010 – 8:30 amThis morning I discovered that my long-awaited eggs had finally hatched….
My Camellia nursery
No, I’m not pregnant. I’m just the proud foster mother of thousands of tiny little creatures all over my yard. Those of you who know me well, know that I LOVE creepy crawly little creatures: spiders, squash bugs, caterpillars. Okay, I draw the line at cockroaches and flies only admiring them from afar. But walking around this morning I literally ran into a half dozen caterpillars parachuting from the oak trees. It’s no coincidence that they hatch right now. Every bird in Charleston is nesting this month and will begin the search for hundreds of bugs per day to feed their nestlings. They are all welcomed in my yard.
Banana Spider Hatchlings under the camellia flower - Pretty soon these little guys and girls will be all over my yard helping control mosquitoes and flies
You see in my yard I do not spray for bugs or caterpillars or spiders. Nature is given free rein to achieve balance. Living an organic life means accepting the inconvenience of walking through a spider web now and then, or having to relocate caterpillars from my veggie crops. Because along with those inconveniences I get to enjoy the bounty of honey bees and bumbles. I get to spend hours watching banana spiders weave their orbs in the eaves of the porch. To watch wrens and bluebirds, thrushes and thrashers routing through the leaf litter. I am rewarded by the sight of bluejays feeding their fledglings along my fence and squirrels chasing each other up and down the oak trunks. Occasionally I find an extra special treat like a parula clipping a spider from her web or a robin feasting on the worms in the compost pile. But best of all, I get to eat healthy nutrient rich organic foods right from my own backyard and share them with friends and neighbors.
I do not worry that I am consuming genetically modified corn or Round-up ready wheat. You may think that living this way is inconvenient. But I ask you, if given a choice between eating good wholesome foods that you grew yourself or putting unknown chemicals into your body that cause all kinds of disruption to your own natural balance, which would you choose?
These days, it’s not good enough to read the labels. Apples don’t come with labels that tell you what’s been sprayed on them to make them pretty and shiny. Corn isn’t labeled as grown in fields sprayed heavily with Round-up and genetically modified to be tolerant of such harsh salts. Sure the EPA says that all of these things are safe. But didn’t they say that about DDT at first too?
Everything is a choice. Choose wisely.
If you’re not convinced to go organic and stop using Round-up, read this
