economicmultipliers_149

Economic Multipliers (149)

Do you know what these are?

They help CREATE wealth in systems.

Nature is an economic multiplier (and teacher) for mankind.

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Life offers up many ironies.

A couple years ago, I surrounded a blackberry bush with mesh so neighborhood animals wouldn’t disturb the soil or the plant. The branches needed to ‘reach over’ the mesh to grow and in a sense, I sent them airborne.

Two winters ago, amidst icy conditions mixed in with some unseasonably warm weather and then freezing conditions again, the buds … which looked like they would guarantee a bumper crop … froze out. If the branches had been protected by snow or buffered by the boughs of pines along the edge of a forest, the plant may have been very ‘fruitful.’

Last summer the blackberry bush ‘spread its wings’ in every direction, sending out runners underground that bypassed the mesh. New blackberry plants started springing up in a grassy area.

I let the plants grow and an amazing thing happened this past winter: Animals in the neighborhood ‘pruned’ the accessible plants and they all survived.

Last year’s plants were recently moved: Hopefully they will ‘take’ in their new location. The old area is still producing new plants … via the ‘root runners.’

This kind of gardening is haphazard at best. Nature is a unique kind of ‘master.’

Old maple trees in the neighborhood, perhaps somehow knowing their own years are numbered, have been sending out hundreds of thousands of ‘helicopters’ … at least the seeds look like helicopter blades rotating when they fly through the air.

This year I noticed something else. The old maple trees have been releasing ‘bundled’ packages of helicopters. These ‘bundles’ are heavier and when they hit bare soil, sink in a bit. I’ve pulled a couple after some local rains and they’ve already developed roots.

If you leave even a small portion of a yard to ‘nature,’ it’s rather easy to see how nature gardens.

Along with the propagation by plants, birds and ground animals like rabbits and squirrels disperse seeds. They either instinctively or inadvertently deposit those seeds for ground cover, new trees or food producing plants.

How nature gardens may seem insignificant as you walk down a street.

It may seem insignificant as you mow a lawn.

It may even seem insignificant if you do your own gardening … starting from prepackaged seeds or starter plants.

Birds and other animals are constantly expanding and tending to the natural gardens that mankind has a tendency to mow down. They are constantly ‘saving’ and ‘sowing’ seeds in alternative locations so biodiversity is preserved. And via the places they like to visit, they are constantly fertilizing areas that might otherwise get depleted of nutrients.

Recently an individual noted that they planned to harvest some of this year’s maple ‘helicopter crop’ to disperse in a more northern locale. In the future, they might ultimately harvest maple saplings, lumber, maple syrup or maple water, cordwood for heating or even more helicopters (It turns out that the seeds are edible if properly processed).

Mankind is constantly ‘enhancing’ nature’s work: It’s always worthwhile to learn from a ‘master.’