Wildlife and Biodiversity.

I am out doing chores this morning and happened upon some nice wildlife, including a couple critters I haven't seen here before. I take it as a good sign, and I hope to see more new friends in the future.  

A little toad.  I pretty sure that chicken wanted to eat him.  But I set the toad down a little ways from the fence.  I'll let him choose his own fate.

The hibiscus started flowering, and it's loaded with buds.  

Moments later I saw this honeybee leaving a hibiscus flower.   He was covered in pollen!  So much so that flying seemed a challenge.  Pollen butt.  Nice to see!

We used to call these lady bugs.  Then they told us in school that they're really called Ladybird Beetles.  But now I see they're called Asian Lady Beetles.  Maybe it's here because my wife is an Asian lady.  I think they're good in the garden.  They eat aphids.  Back in Brooklyn I actually bought a box of them to combat aphids.  I spread them out over and around the infested plants.  But apparently they preferred some other kind of lunch because they all left within minutes.  

Hooray for biodiversity.  Hopefully it's a sign that some of my efforts are creating good soil. The food chain starts in the soil with microbes.  A diverse population of microbes means more diversity up the food chain.  

An interesting parallel to note is the decrease of microbes in the soil that commercial commodity monoculture crops are grown in, with a decrease in diversity of our culture.  The soil in those monocultures is essentially dead.  It's just there to hold plants in place while the farmers feed it chemicals. These huge crops of corn and soy are used as building blocks for junk food, fast food, chain restaurant food.  It's why you get the same exact meal at any TGI Fridays across the country.  (How sad and kind of disgusting, right?)

Could it be that a population fed from monocultures starts to become a monoculture itself?  Go to nearly any city in the USA and you know what you're going to find there: A Walmart, a Home Depot, a Starbucks, and all the same chain and fast food restaurants.  

BUT, happily it does seem to be changing for the better.  There is a really strong artisan movement building, don't you think?  People making highly specialized food, drinks, and goods right here in America.  You can find that stuff.  You pay a little more for it.  But the quality and craftsmanship is awesome.  Perhaps it's not just a coincidence that the artisan movement is happening along side the rise of organic, small-scale, microbe-friendly food production.  That notion excites me.  

I've been reading a book called Will Bonsall's Guide to Radical Self-Sustaining Gardening.   It's pretty over my head honestly.  But through seed saving, Mr. Bonsall is preserving, developing, growing, and eating al sorts of rare varieties of foods - veggies, fruits, and grains.  It's really amazing to me to think about the healthy biodiversity he must be creating in himself and his family.  He's got all these unique varieties and strains of foods developed right there in the biome of his property.  This food is intimately connected to his immediate environment.  When he and his family eat it, they are themselves becoming biologically intimate with nature around them.  Plus they've got so many varieties that you and I will never find at a store of even at farmers markets.  They've gotta be the strongest people in the country!  He's obviously on a serious mission, going way beyond most peoples' capabilities, but gardening and seed saving were things that nearly everyone did at one time.  That, and more active lifestyles, among other things, are factors that I believe made our ancestors stronger, happier, more disease resistant.  Doesn't it kind of seem like we're all a bunch of weak complaining pussies these days?  I think we gotta get our soil diversity up - with our own hands.  Then grow some food in that soil - with our own hands.   Then cook it - with our own (dirty) hands.  Then eat it.   

Here's to diversity!  

Ooo!  I just saw one of those black and yellow butterflies checking out the cone flowers.  A Tiger Swallowtail maybe? Nice.