I ran into this article on FastCompany website about how Google is renting goats to replace their lawn movers and fertilizers. Apparently this is becoming a trend. First it was Bayer and now it is Google. Soon the days of job boards for contract labor for goats and cows might be the norm.
Reading this article reminded me of my younger days in India. We had a large yard where we grew flowers, vegetables and fruits with still a large portion left unused. Keeping it clean was our (my mom and sisters and I) responsibility. Since we did not have any of the machinery in India i.e, lawn mowers, edge trimmers and the like, (they are just making their way there now), we used to cut the grass and weeds by hand and with a curvy sickle.
When they got really unruly and seemed out of our capability or during times when we had to prepare for our exams, we would reach out to the neighboring local cowherds and get them to bring their cows, oxes into our yard to graze and in return they would give us baskets of cow-dung which served as the best fertilizer to the trees and plants. Talk about organic fertilizers.
It is amazing to read that all the amenities and advanced technologies we sought all these years seem to give way to some of the age old nature friendly practices. Going green was part of life in those times without being a dire need to save the planet.
While we are on the topic of being sustainable and green, here are few things that come to mind, as things we did unbeknownst at that time, but in retrospect seem truly – Going Green.
- Tea bags or tea leaves after they were used made great fertilizer for vegetables. Apparently tea makes a great compost and also rids of insects/pests for eating/infecting plants. They are also chemical free and that is a bonus. That is recycling and organic fertilizer for you.
- Rain Water collection and re-use: While we used to live in a place where rains were aplenty and water was not in short supply, we still used to store rain water from downspouts and use them for things like washing the driveway and patio after rains, water the garden for days after the rain. In fact, we had the shower drain flow into trees in the yard. Water was never wasted unless absolutely impossible to re-use. That is preservation of a scarce resource for you.
- Make our own compost with all the kitchen waste and garden waste. This way we hardly bought any fertilizer outside of some boosters for flower garden. Recycling and avoiding hazardous chemicals going into the land.
- As people who have lived in farms and rural areas can relate, living around a large yard meant we had to deal with mosquitoes and other bugs. To combat that we used to pluck eucalyptus and lemon leaves and perform periodic fumigation of the house and neighborhood. This while doing its job of repelling all the pests was also healthy. This was natural, chemical free bug repellent. Having Eucalyptus also help in clearing our glands. Come to think of it, we had never heard of such a thing like Allergies despite living close to nature. Environment friendly repellents at practically no cost.
- We had to burn firewood to heat water as living in a village we were not guaranteed power at all times. But once the water was heated, the burning coal served as means for us to heat our houses and dry clothes in rainy/winter days. We would make small pots made of old metal boxes (recycling there too) to hold the burning coal and place them in the middle of room to heat the room and clothes hung on the clothesline. There is re-use of alternative energy and maximizing the energy generated from unavoidable wood burning.
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May 4th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
This seems like a story of “Back to the Past”. Time and again we seem to find instances where we realize the virtues of things done by people in the past, the whole appetite from technology innovation notwithstanding. This is something done in Australia regularly. We don’t use lawnmowers at all.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Nice article on “Going Green”, Subraya! Reminded me of my childhood spent on the farm — we too employed most of the efficiencies mentioned in your article, including, drying cow/buffalo dung and use it as fuel, reusing used cycle tire/tubes to patch leakes in running tires/tubes, made our own glues from trees etc.
However, I doubt if we would’ve done the same if “conveniences” were freely available – as they are today …
I am more inclined to believe that we did what we did out of necessity.
As you know, ‘Necessity is the mother of all inventions’.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Yes Srinivas.
It is nostalgic to think about those days. We did manage to work with what we had. Did’nt we?
But if you really think about it nature gives us so much that we sort of under utilize or disregard and create more things (and thereby destruct others).
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