The Ethics of Gardening

[Pulsegleaner]

Hi
This is probably only a problem that applies to hyper depressive me, but here goes.\

Does anyone else ever feel GUILTY for gardening in the first place. I mean I get the idea that gardening and seed saving is important to preserving the diversity of our plants. And I love growing.

That's actually sort of the problem. Since I am so bad at growing things (and a lot of those causes are beyond my control to correct) I often feel like I am doing a terrible thing by trying, in that I am using up and ultimately destroying rare seed that might otherwise go into the hands of a more successful and competent grower.

This even applies to that seed which I find on my own. Since that is probably still rarer, a big part of me says that the ethical thing to do is to not grow it myself but immediately give it to someone who is more deserving. Indeed I should probably PAY them in order to encourage them to keep growing and ultimately, devote ALL my personal resources to such other people, leaving NOTHING for me.

Thoughts?

 

[Nyboy]

wow I joke going to name my garden death valley, I killed so many plants. No one has 100% success rate all the time.

 

[canesisters]

I think that if you enjoy growing them, and that if you're learning ways to improve your techniques, then there is NO REASON that you aren't JUST as 'deserving' as anyone else.
But if it's REALLY bothering you that much - why not switch to less 'rare' seeds??

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Because there IS no seed so not rare that someone else is not as deserving as me. Remember everything I say has to be filtered through my clinical depression, and under that I am, and always will be, utterly worthless and so irredeemably evil that there is NO torment so great that I don't deserve it and infinitely worse.

There is also the fact that I know that I am the only one out there who is recognizing how "rare" this seed is. If I don't save it, who will?

 

[flowerbug]

the only time i think there is an issue for me is when i have to deal with certain animals (due to Mom wanting them gone "NOW") as none of them are endangered i don't think it is a wider issue.

as for seeds, some of what i find in my bean selections are one of a kind and in that case i just have to risk them. like last year, didn't go well, most of what i planted didn't do great. few reproduced viable seeds. so those lines were lost to me, but i can't get too wrapped up in that because a dozen more came along. maybe they will repeat themselves sometime - there's only so many genes after all.

as i do want to actually help preserve seeds too i would not want to be the last person growing an old variety, i would likely not plant all the seeds in a single growing season.

my philosophy about seeds/beans overall though is that i don't want to grow plants that i have to baby. that they should grow and be productive within the reasonable limits of our location/soils. if whatever i grow isn't disease resistant enough or can't handle the weather then it's just going to have to be for someone else in another.

a few weeks ago i sent some beans off to someone and a few of them were more suitable to their location than mine. since i have limited fence space i'll likely not grow them again this year so i can grow others instead. they were a gift from someone down that ways - what goes around comes around.

as it currently goes, i have well enough diversity and such that i will likely keep finding new combinations to evaluate and i'll keep trading with others for even more because that is interesting to me.

 

[digitS']

@Pulsegleaner , can there be guarantees in agriculture? We have to learn from what happened in Ireland in the late 1840's. It happened throughout Europe at that time and probably had much to do with relying on a single species, probably more out of necessity than choice. We are likely to now have more choices.

You once sent me a package of various pea seed. I remember that Surami peas were in the mix of packages. This was after I assured you that I was only 100 miles north of the self-proclaimed US Dry Pea & Lentil Capital.

There was a record 108°f day in June! It was the hottest June, ever. Nearly 1 million acres burned in wildfires that year. My peas and favas burned up altho not from fires but from heat and wind ...

DW turns on the Today Show every weekday morning ... I doubt that I'd ever watch it by myself but life is about compromises, among other things. One of the hosts, I forget his name, recently talked about a childhood when he lost his father and having problems with panic attacks. He sought counseling into adulthood and said that it made a great deal of difference for him.

They had one of their silly games on the show this morning. Throwing a bean bag at a target, I guess it was ... only thing was that some guy jumped out of the cabinet beside the host before she/he threw the last bag. The host who had related his problems about panic attacks at a younger age was the only "contestant" who calmly stood there and completed his final throw. I'm not really sure if this calm, purposeful behavior is of survival benefit; maybe it is. However, jumping 15 feet to the side might be the best reaction to this event. Nevertheless, we are human. We make mistakes. We take risks. We experience accidents. We act with purpose.

Steve

 

[valley ranch]

Na, na ~ plant the seed ~ grow the plant ~ It works ~ if it works ~ when it works ~ you haven't got the last ten seed of any plant ~ on the contrary ~ you may just be the one who add more rare seed ~ back into the world ```

But I know what you're feeling ~ Uncle Joe ~ was in North Africa during WWII ~ he brought back rhizomes and bulbs ~ in the bottom of his Long Bag ~ Mom grew them at the Gardena ranch ~ I didn't even think to bring them when I moved north ~ left so many things ~ that can never be had again ```

 

[Beekissed]

Nope. Not even a smidge of guilt. I know two rules in this world and I live by them...

1. There is a God
2. I'm not Him

He controls every single thing in this world, I have a hard enough time controlling myself and even then can't do it without Him. Since He's in control of what creatures or plants live or die, ultimately, it's not my problem. If I plant a seed and it dies, if He had wanted it to live it would have, despite my seriously black thumb.

 

[valley ranch]

Lav e` that's good```

 

[valley ranch]

There is a friend in London ~ she took care of a indoor plant ~ for 6 months ~ before ~ finding it was plastic ```