‘Mother’ Earth As we tend our gardens and give thumb or gloved index finger to a sow bug or white fly we may curse the leaf nibblers and all the other crawling, flying and slithering insects that view our garden as a buffet we should always remember the same Mother Earth that does buds also does bugs. Not even the brashest of us under the threat of crop failure or rose blight would resort to railing against Mother Earth for aphids or lawn beetles or calling her anything other than Mother Earth. Cursing her is as productive as blowing against the wind. Nicknames don’t work either. Oh, we may use ma’am as a title of respect when we commit our seeds, seedlings, corms or rhizomes to the ground but calling her Ma, Mom or Granny just doesn’t have the proper ring. So why do we call it Mother Earth? We are so used to calling the land around us Mother Earth and the force we as gardeners deal with each day as Mother Nature we do so without thinking. Not that this is a bad thing. Poets through the ages have referred to Earth and Nature as feminine. One of the first written references occurred in the eighth century B.C. when the poet-philosopher Hesiod, wrote of the feminine earth who produced not only the waters and the mountains but also the entire range of the gods. Victor Hugo had nature "like a kind and smiling mother" lending herself to our dreams. William Wordsworth, wrote, “Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own…” and Alexander Pope penned “Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made taller or stronger than the weeds they shade”?….. and….. “Earth for whose use? For me kind nature wakes her genial power suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower”… On the side of some old and distant garden shed our old friend Anonymous wrote: “Nature provides no written text on her laws. She only smiles or frowns faintly on her subjects, and whispers softly in approval or disapproval of their conduct. Her disciplines seem very mild, even to the most careful observer, but in the long run, continued obedience to her laws leads slowly to great abundance and continued violation of her laws ends in desolation.” So any way you look at it, we are stuck with Mother Earth/Nature and boy we better pay attention!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:34:08 +0000
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