I would like to share some ideas that I’ve come across that I believe are relevant and helpful to the landrace gardening experience.
I plan to come back here and post regularly or when I come across new ideas.
This first idea comes from Daniel Kahneman who wrote the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”
Here’s the idea: There are unknown or unconsidered factors that influence an outcome.
What I take from this: When making a decision or reflecting on an experience, it is advisable to consider what else could be at play that I haven’t considered.
Okay, here’s another idea. I think this is a Chinese proverb: “Dig the well before you are thirsty.”
What I take from this: For me, this is a proverb that speaks to me personally. I have been in a spot in my life where I was metaphorically thirsty without a well. Landrace gardening for me is about empowerment and food security. I live in a climate that doesn’t need special seed. However, I am the type of person that does not need to have a problem to motivate me to make improvements. I want to continuously and steadily make improvements so that if the need ever arouse, I would meet the challenge with ease … because I have dug a very deep well.
From Stoicism, “Some things are within your control or influence. And some things are not. Choose what you focus on based off this understanding.”
I heard this years ago before it really stuck. Hearing is not the same thing as truly understanding. When I began to follow this principle, I discovered life that is more rewarding with less anxiety.
Like today, my garden, watermelon patch and pumpkin patch got smashed with flooding! What control did I have? Well, I could have mounded up the pumpkin and watermelon planting spots. That would have improved drainage. Besides that, I can’t control rain. Therefore, I will take this moment as an opportunity to gain seed genetics that can handle a tremendous amount of flooding and rain. I will take this as an opportunity to lose genetics that cannot handle this weather event. I have about 35 pumpkin varieties and about 12 watermelon varieties. Maybe some, most, or all can handle it, that the conditions are within their survival tolerances.
Either way, I exercised the limits of my control when I picked the varieties and chose not to mound them.
“There is usually money behind a consensus, and it is usually wrong.” — David Goodman.
I think most people on this forum are okay with the idea of not belonging to the majority, being part of the “fringe.”
The all white zebra gets ate by the lion. The odd ball kid has trouble fitting in.
To accept the principles of landrace gardening, one must first be okay with being different, and he or she is likely predisposed to not trusting mainstream misinformation.
Here are some quotes I love that I think are relevant to this thread.
If people don’t like you for who you are, they’re not going to like you for who you aren’t.
— Vanessa Smith
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
— Anais Nin
Reality hasn’t been invented yet. We’re in the process of designing it now.
— Michael Clark
Live joyfully. Live enthusiastically, knowing that God does not dwell in gloom and melancholy, but in light and love.
— Ezra Taft Benson
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put foundations under them.
— Henry David Thoreau
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
— C. S. Lewis
The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth.
— Niels Bohr
Scientists do not coddle ideas. They crash test them. They run them in a brick wall at sixty miles per hour and examine the pieces. If the idea is sound, the pieces will be those of the wall.
— Unknown
“As you stumble forward, you illuminate and inform yourself.” — Jordan Peterson
This describes the essence of my views about making progress in any endeavor. I welcome mistakes, problems, challenges — even temporary failure. Those are the way forward to accelerated learning.
As a matter of fact, if things go too smoothly, I take this as a sign that I am not pushing myself enough. Mistakes are a natural part of walking a new path. New paths have untested ground. Holes to fall in. Snakes around the corner.
You know, I’ve been kicking myself over bungling a whole bunch of things as I stumble forward, trying to figure out how in the world to get solar panels to charge batteries when I have next to no electronics experience and how-to guides online seem to assume everyone does . . . (Wry grin.) But I think I ought to take the same attitude towards that as I do towards gardening: when you fail, you don’t give up. You just research some more and then try again with a better idea of what to try next.
I am scared of electricity. Screwing a lightbulb and flipping the breaker is the extent of how far I will go on that.
I have a tendency to mess things up on my first attempt. When I try something new, I prepare for things to go wrong because I fail the first attempt at every new thing. I have 0 natural talent at all things and therefore start at level 0 and work my way up from there.
The more i learn abiut things, the more i am convinced thats true of everything. If someone seems naturally good at something the first time they try it, they either have skills that are transferring from something else theyve done or theyre lying to you about the fact that they havent done it. Or maybe extreme luck or random chance. But i think that everyone is bad at everything and have to work at it. I feel much more free to try new things and work at things with this perspective
“The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint
The greats were great 'cause they paint a lot”
Macklemore, ten thousand hours. Great song.
What do you do when a baby is trying to stand on their own? We are supportive. And when they do topple we tell them how good they did and try again.
We don’t tell them they are doomed for failure because they tried it once and didn’t stand perfectly. Or walk perfectly. And on and on.
It’s not any different just because we get older. The first time I try something is always the first time. Expecting it to go even mostly right is setting myself up for failure because that simply isn’t how learning works.
“Distrust & caution are the parents of security.” - Benjamin Franklin
If a company sells seed and chemicals to solve all the problems with the weak seed, I see that as a red flag. I expect them to orient their decisions to bring in maximum profit. That’s what they are supposed to do.
However, those goals don’t line up with food security for me. Time and time again, we experience unintended consequences of our actions. Time and time again, we realize we don’t know as much as we thought we knew.
“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.” - Thomas Edison
Wow, this is a great insight into reality. And I think it translates 100% here.
There are preconditions that give something its value; i.e., an umbrella in a rainstorm.
Suppose I have 2 varieties of a carrot and unpredictable rain patterns. One variety is better in a drought, and the other is better in a wet season. If I plant both varieties, I have more confidence I will get a satisfactory yield.
Why can’t we breed these together for an increased wet & dry tolerance range?
If you could cross a cactus and a water lily would you get a plant that could grow competitively anywhere? A species which is truly specialised in a particular soil and climate will outcompete a universal generalist. Biology is all about trade offs.
Perhaps some traits are inversely related. Tolerance to wet/dry could be one of them. If you gain 20% increase dry tolerance, you lose 20% wet tolerance. Only time will tell for sure. I find joy in trying it out myself and talking about it.
My breeding goals are to have plants that find a way despite challenges. I want to keep things simple by having one bag of seeds.
In climates that swing between extremes you often end up with two or more complementary species that proliferate at either of the extremes. Accepting that you are better off eating a different crop during wet years from dry ones feels like less of an effort (mostly psychological) than finangling a way to stretch a single species/population over the extremes.
