If you are a gardener you have a minor understanding of plants, but we continually learn from them. There is a book called The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird  published by HarperCollins Publishers, NY, 1973 reprinted in 2002. The introduction is lovely – Short of Aphrodite, there is nothing more lovelier on this plant than a flower, nor more essential than a plant. Without green plants we would not eat or breathe. The plants through the miracle of photosynthesis produce oxygen; most of the food we eat is plant-based.

No one has counted the roots of a tree, but a study of a single rye plant indicates a total of 13 million rootlets with a combined length of 380 miles. On the rootlets are fine hairs estimated to be 14 billion. The root is a water pump raising elements from root to leaf, evaporating and falling back to earth to act one more as the medium for this chain of life, The leaves of an ordinary sunflower will transpire in a day as much water as a man perspires. On a hot day a single birch tree can absorb as much as 400 quarts of water.

A climbing plant which needs a prop will creep toward the nearest support. Should this be shifted the vine, within a few hours, will change its course into the new direction. How does it know?  Is it chance that plants grow into special shapes to adapt to the insects which will pollinate them, luring these insects with special color and fragrance, rewarding them with their favorite nectar, devising extraordinary canals and floral machinery with which to ensnare a bee so as to release it through a trap door only when the pollination process is completed? The ingenuity of plants in devising forms of construction far exceeds that of human engineers. It is safe to suggest plants are complicated in the way they have developed to do what they do.

The book takes a turn to whether plants have souls which you may or may not want to ponder?

Plants start with soil, as any homeowner knows unless there is good soil to grow the lawn will not. If you add the waste of trees and animals to the land, the plants will grow. Unfortunately, most people try artificial chemical fertilizers and for a couple of years it does boost the productivity of the land, but within 5 years the land productivity goes down. The reason is the plants can not convert the chemicals or break them down. Ideally, the animal wastes from the corporate farms should be sprayed over land which has lost productivity from either single crops or land extensively sprayed. The problem is the waste has to travel to get from the corporate farm to where the land is needed. The other option which takes a year or two is rotate the use of lands. Different crops will bring the balance back to the soil and it will be healthy.

Healthy soil, properly composed with the right bacteria and earthworms, free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides produces strong healthy plants which naturally repel pests. Healthy plants make strong, healthy animals and strong, healthy human beings. Poor land grows poor food in terms of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and proteins. The food lack in nutrition produces sick people.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while knowing about the effects of the chemical industry on the food we eat, it is very hard to change or make dramatic changes in the food industry. However you can learn from plants, whether it is the ones in your garden or reading how the plants adapt. If they can adapt, you can move towards companies that not only are profitable but try to keep the world in balance.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.