Leaving the untilled edges

at the edge of my yard

A few days ago, Tom and I were talking about gardening practices, and he remembered a story that one of our pastors told in a sermon years ago when we were young and still attending the Baptist church. This preacher used a farming story as an analogy for sin. He said that early Norse farmers had a practice of leaving the edges of their fields in weeds; they did not till up to the edges of their fields. Now, Tom didn't know how true this story of Norse farming was, and in several minutes of searching on the Internet, I couldn't find any reference to Norse farmers leaving the edges of their fields untilled. However, that's the story the Baptist preacher told; he probably got it out of a book of illustrations for sermons.

 So, what, according to this pastor, was so bad about leaving the edges of one's fields untilled? Weeds would flourish there, seed, and then disperse throughout the tilled land, infiltrating the harvest. A field with untilled edges is like a person who leaves just a little bit of sin in her life, the pastor said. That little bit of sin will spread its seed and poison the pure actions of a Christian. The Christian should be careful not to follow the practices of pagans; sin must be weeded out of every area of one's life. That Norse farmer would have a better harvest if he pulled out every plant not associated with the fruit of his harvest. 

This story struck us because it emphasizes a worldview that is inimical to any kind of chaos, that prefers an authoritarian control, that categorizes everything as good or evil, black or white, sin or innocence (and innocence is suspect). It's a worldview that preaches "dominion" over the earth, as if humans are the ultimate arbiters in and over Nature.  And it's a worldview with devastating consequences.

When every bit of arable land is pushed to the maximum in farming practices, the natural world suffers. Habitat is destroyed, and the creatures that depend upon that habitat are diminished as their habitat is diminished.  According to a comprehensive survey of American bird life in a report titled "The U.S. State of the Birds,"

[m]ore than 97% of the native grasslands of the U.S. have been lost, mostly because of conversion to agriculture. As a result, grassland bird populations have declined from historic levels far more than any other group of birds.

You see this worldview of authoritarian control over nature in suburban yards, where all the grass is one species, poisoned and pummeled to punish any plant that dares to raise its inflorescence above the height required by neighborhood lawn control. An unholy number of lawn and pest control products enable suburbanites to become little dictators to nature: herbicides and weed killers, fungus and disease control, algae and moss control, animal repellents (deer, rabbit, snake, mole, bird, bat, goose, cat and dog repellents), pest controls of all kinds. According to a 2002 fact sheet of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Americans use more than a billion pounds of pesticides each year to combat pests on farm crops, in homes, places of business, schools, parks, hospitals, and other public places." (my emphasis)

Everyone knows that our addiction to pest and weed control is hurting us and the planet, and yet we continue to slather the stuff on our lawns and public spaces. It just goes to show how powerful a metaphor can be: the American lawn is a stand-in for the soul--weeds and pests are the dark stain of "sin." Untidy lawns, the untilled edges of a field, are indications of moral failings.

So let's exterminate the metaphors that equate the natural world with sin.

 And leave the edges of the field untilled.


note:
Advice for creating a healthy yard, from Audubon