From The Old Farmer's Almanac.
From this morning before work my Garden Robin singing a song.The weather has turned foul now with heavy winds and driving rain. I hope all the birds have wrapped up warm as its wet and windy.
"The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
When I was here, I tilled my garden, and I lived in it. But I dream that it will outlive me. I would be perfectly happy to believe that the woods will decay and fall long, long after I do. For man, the lifespan of a forest seem to approach the infinite, immortal, ultimate peace and stillness. Yesterday, I harvested some moss from the north shade of the house and planted it in tiny mounds with pretty stones. Today, here it is, sparkling in the morning sunshine.
first published December 20, 2007
I have this theory that Smokey the Bear is to blame for our angst about buying real Christmas trees. If you think this sounds personal, you’re right. It all started back in Grade 6. I remember sitting in the gym at my elementary school in St. Albert, watching a reel-to-reel film of a stern-looking Smokey pointing directly at me and saying, “Only you can prevent wildfires.” Gulp! Well, that vision stuck in my mind just about as firmly as the film stuck and melted in that old projector. But even with the presentation cut short, Smokey succeeded in convincing me to question my dad about whether it was a good idea to cut down a tree each year for Christmas.
Now, I know that good old Smokey’s message was really about burned-down rather than cut-down trees, but I still can’t drive by a Christmas tree lot without hearing that bear’s stentorian voice in my head. Fortunately, once the fog of nostalgia clears, common sense prevails and I remember the fact that Christmas trees are farmed no differently than any other commercial crop.
The decision regarding what crop a farmer chooses to grow is based on the same sound principles common to any other business practice. That means deciding to farm cabbages or Christmas trees depends on factors such as climate suitability, cost of production, equipment required, return on investment, not to mention a little something called intuition. But regardless of whether the numbers tell you to plant cabbage or Christmas trees, both crops start their lives as seeds, grow in the ground, absorb sunlight, water and nutrients and, ultimately, are harvested and sold. The resources required to grow cabbage are not a whole lot different than those needed to produce a crop of Christmas trees, either. The only major difference between a crop of trees and a crop of cabbage is that trees take years to grow, whereas cabbage is ready the first season. Of course, there’s also the fact that you can’t eat trees…but neither could you decorate a cabbage plant…or at least not tastefully.
Then what is it that makes us squeamish about harvesting farmed Christmas trees? Well, I think it comes down to the fact that the crops we eat are less scrutinized because we all need food. However, as reasonable an argument as that is, it’s equally easy to argue that food crops leave a greater environmental footprint in the waste department. Here’s why. When it comes to cabbage, I suppose people could be thought of as ‘first-stage, living composters’ because we process food within our bodies, and then it eventually finds its way to waste treatment plants. But besides that not being an image that belongs embossed on a Christmas card, it’s also a process that requires a lot of chemical intervention to turn the waste into a product that can be re-utilized. In contrast, farmed Christmas trees are recycled easily by putting them through the chipper and using them as mulching material around tree and shrub beds. Mulch decomposes in the soil, nourishing other plants, and the cycle is complete. Heck, I’ve even heard a representative from the David Suzuki foundation endorse the use of real Christmas trees.
Of course, I haven’t done a complete environmental audit on cabbage versus Christmas trees, and there are lots of other considerations, but I think you get the picture: trees are farmed like any other crop. As I said in last week’s column, I own an artificial tree because not only is it one of many items that my wife brought along with her into our marriage, I would rather lug a pre-decorated fake up from the basement than strap a real one to the hood of my car. And as silly a deciding factor as that may seem, it’s actually as valid as any other when deciding what you support as a consumer. With that said, however, in a battle between Smokey and Suzuki, I’m still betting that Smokey would win claws down.
I think that there are a lot of us that could have said “duh” to this story. Open Register points us to a Forbes magazine article titled, “Shop ‘Til Your Husband Drops”.
Here is the gist of the article. Major retailers like Bloomingdales have made a HUGE discovery. After a “comprehensive analysis to learn how to make shopping more enjoyable.” “Stores need more areas for weary shoppers to relax.” Of course it’s only the wise retailers that are catching on, “’Park-your-husband lounges’” are slowly making their way into retailers from Bloomingdales to Kohl’s.”
Its taken these retail giants this long to figure it out! I love this from the article, “Retail analysts say it’s impossible to quantify the return on investment these lounges bring in. But the results speak for themselves.” Those analysts always have to quantify everything, don’t they?
When you read stuff like this it makes you wonder how these business have become retail giants and stayed in business for this long. I guess we as customers have been willing to put up with this stuff for so long that it now seems like news that most men would like to sit and relax while the ladies shop.
What this says is that the most obvious things that matter in the shopping experience have been, in some cases completely ignored by the major retailers. I am sure many of us could have told these stores just what they needed to do, YEARS AGO! You can imagine the amount of money spent on analysis just to figure out that a few chairs for the men to sit in might make a difference. Of course it will take much more analysis and money to discover that its not just men that need a place to sit, but with the aging population there might be a need for the elderly to sit while the younger member of the families shop.
This all goes to show that just because these places are large with multiple outlets they can be completely oblivious to the most obvious things. I hear that in store sales this year are likely to be a bit softer than they had hoped. Yet, Internet sales rose by 20%. Maybe its not just price, but the fact that you can shop comfortably from home without having to drag the mate to the store, where they will just bug you complaining about the lack of a place to sit.
The ZZ Plant or Zamioculcas Zamiifolia is one of the toughest most durable house plants I’ve found. They can handle conditions most indoor tropical plants would never consider “liveable.” It is on the same level as Aspidistra - Cast Iron Plant and Sanseviera.
The popularity of the ZZ plant has grown across the United States and Canada. It is also popular in Europe.
I’m always interested in how people grow, what plants they grow in other parts of the globe. The ZZ plant is no different.
Here are a couple of pictures I received from a nursery growing the ZZ in Vietnam. The plants look healthy and growing in plastic bags.
If you have trouble with houseplants give the Zamioculcas (ZZ) a try.
