Showing posts with label falling trees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label falling trees. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Why you must "cultivate your own garden"

            Long Drought -- As Hard to Recover From As Long COVID

"Il faut cultiver notre jardin" is the famous phrase taken from Voltaire's novel Candide. It means in literal terms, water your garden. Metaphorically it means to think rationally for yourself.

Walking around Vancouver Island, even during the rains of winter we see the continuing effect of the drought of July and August. Rain lands on the soil and slides off, for the soil was baked to a solid surface by the summer heat. Wild landscapes suffered, but people didn't even use a hose to water their own urban gardens. "Don't worry, the rains will come back," they said. The rains did come back (and filled the already-full reservoirs we feared to empty), but the rain can't get into the soil unless we keep the soil receptively moist all along. Municipal water restrictions prevent that.

So trees topple, their roots even in rain not accessing sustenance and failing to anchor the trunks and crowns. Once the fall winds come the trees blow down. 
They land on roofs and power lines and then people chop more down fearing that more will land on roofs and power lines. The suburban tree-scape is diminished even further than it already is by paving and development.

Underground, soil without water is a dead zone, for the minerals in soil which micro-organisms and fungal filaments make available to roots are dissolved in water. Water cycles as vapour from leaves to sky, from clouds to soil and to roots. Underground tangles of grass-roots hold water, and the leaves of grass send oxygen and moisture into the air. Unless, that is, the water supply is shut off during a dry season with no sprinkler use.                                                              

The number one rule of gardening is to water your plants, shrubs and trees if you want them to survive. Rule number two: notice what your plants need, what they're asking for when they droop, not what bureaucratic notices tell you you're allowed to do. Enlightened reason (Voltaire's big project) tells us to cultivate our own thoughts. Reason tells us that when plants and trees droop, the horticultural world is dying. The trees are speaking. We need to cultivate our ability to listen. 

It's time to revisit the dictate that municipal water-restriction is a form of conservation. We can see, if we walk the neighbourhoods with eyes open, that drought kills (with a lingering effect of "long-drought") and it also opens the door to wildfire. Fire and water don't mix; let's go with water.