For the last 6 weeks or so, the front of our house has resembled the title of one of The Beatles' songs: Strawberry Fields Forever. Over the past 3 or 4 years, we had planted 8 or so woodland strawberry plants and those 8 plants have propagated themselves into about 8 times more. With so many plants now, we have been able to pick buckets of them!
And let me tell ya, almost every one we have picked tastes sweet as nectar. Most, though not all, are smaller than the factory farm strawberries one tends to find at the local grocery store. You just pop one of our native strawberries in your mouth and it tastes almost like pure sugar.
And here's the big point I wish to make. Other than a little weeding and a bit of water from the hose 3 or 4 times each summer during our two dry months, the strawberry plants are on their own to do their own thing. No pesticides are needed. We don't prune them or inhibit them in anyway. They grow according to their own true nature and we reap the free bonanza of flavor.
In late summer and early fall, as the deer begin to reappear on our hill, the leaves of the strawberry plants are eaten, sometimes down to their nubs. We in no way discourage this. We view it that native animals are making use of native plants. Deer have eaten strawberry plants for centuries and we see no reason to interrupt this cycle.
This is but one example of how our Taoist beliefs inform the way we live. Aside from the act of planting the strawberry plants themselves, we get out of the way to let them do their own thing in their own way in their own time.
And here's the big point I wish to make. Other than a little weeding and a bit of water from the hose 3 or 4 times each summer during our two dry months, the strawberry plants are on their own to do their own thing. No pesticides are needed. We don't prune them or inhibit them in anyway. They grow according to their own true nature and we reap the free bonanza of flavor.
In late summer and early fall, as the deer begin to reappear on our hill, the leaves of the strawberry plants are eaten, sometimes down to their nubs. We in no way discourage this. We view it that native animals are making use of native plants. Deer have eaten strawberry plants for centuries and we see no reason to interrupt this cycle.
This is but one example of how our Taoist beliefs inform the way we live. Aside from the act of planting the strawberry plants themselves, we get out of the way to let them do their own thing in their own way in their own time.
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