Now-a-days one keeps coming across many Gurus, who use miracles to attract more followers. They write books on their mystic experiences; put up internet ads promising wonderful results if you enroll in their courses.
But we often close our eyes to miracles that have been going on around us since ages and still very active. But these miracle makers don’t put up ads, nor they are interested in our ‘donations’.
Are you aware of them?
You may be wondering why am I talking about miracle makers when I am supposed to be talking about gardening! In the last episode I had promised you that I would talk about ways of nurturing the plants by neither feeding them with harmful chemical fertilizers nor getting into the hassle of managing organic fertilizers. Ok, rest assured, I am still on the track 😉
I said that the plants need Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potash as their main nutrients. You probably are aware that the air around us is made up of almost 80% Nitrogen! That means we are sitting on a treasure trove! Nitrogen is available in plenty and costs nothing. It is also never exhaustible. No matter how much we use it, it is always available in plenty.
Why don’t the plants use that Nitrogen?
The problem is that the plants cannot directly use atmospheric nitrogen.
Let me digress a bit. If you live in tropical regions or in warmer parts of your country, you probably are aware of an interesting weed that is called variously by different names as “shy plant”, “action plant”, “touch me not”, and so on. Have you seen that plant? It is a thorny plant that grows on any soil without any care, and sometimes can even be a menace.
What researchers observed is that this plant adds nitrogen and potash rich fertilizer to the soil, without asking for any ”donation” from you! Wherever these plants exist, the soil N and K values automatically increase without your adding any fertilizer!
I am not talking about using these plants as green manure. These plants can “manufacture” fertilizer all on their own. Yes, you heard it right. They can “manufacture”!
Isn’t that a miracle?
So, grow Mimosa Pudica all over your garden? No. I am not suggesting that. For one, these nice miracle makers don’t thrive in shaded areas and they can’t stand extreme cold climates. Though these are not found to be harmful to any other plants in your garden – i.e. they don’t steal someone else’s share; they are quite thorny and can turn your garden into a bed of thorns since they are quite invasive. And when they dry, they can be fire hazards as well!
So, what am I suggesting?
We need to understand how these plants manage to produce N and K rich fertilizers that they add to the soil. How is it that they are able to do it while most other plants and trees, though dependent on these nutrients, cannot produce them?
If there is a way we can sustain this production of nutrients all on its own, then we have an endless self-propelled store of nutrients – the topic I raised in my previous talk.
We need to go deeper and understand how these friendly plants manage to achieve this miracle while neither we, nor most plants are able to do it. Can we take advantage of this miracle without having to go into the hassle of raising some menacing weeds? – I am sorry to call these nice beings as menacing, sorry my dear fellow!
We will go more into this miracle in the next episode.
A series of weekly (every Monday 12 PM PST) talks on new ways of Gardening by Dr. King. © Dr. King 2019
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