Wow, that sounds so...final. :) And I'm sure you're right. I think there are many places in our lives where we need to rewind rather than bolt ahead to all the new and improved. And the garden might be a good place to begin.

This is a great post and surely made me want to sit you on my front porch with my new cultivars and torment you!

I work and live in three different worlds. Some of my family's work involves discovering new treatments for diseases and life threatening illnesses where the family members hang on ever new discovery. That is a good biological genetic stadium.

Part of my world involves preserving the past and documenting what was there, treasured, loved, and doesn't necessarily get better with change.

The third part of my life deals with the discovery of new plant cultivars. I've seen cityscapes that were trash heaps become beautiful gardens and benefited from the new technology and biological advances.

I was studying Chlorine this week. A little place called Saltville, VA was recently the place of a Civil War reenactment. It was important to our Civil War because it was the center of mining, Salt, which was often as valuable as money.

Many of the salt mines closed in the 1970's due to their inability to meet EPA standards. That was a good thing. That decision to close the salt mines changed a lot---it affected fertilizers and spawned the need to use less of it. This research led to today---where new plant cultivars that are more resistant to salt build-ups in farm land is producing greater yields for the market. Good or bad, the economy drives everything. There are other discoveries that had a compounded affect from the salt mine closings both good and bad that I could use as catalyst for this discussion. I'm sure there are many other things out there that also built the research for the new super plants. It was coming--and is still to come. With it..comes all biological discoveries including life altering treatments.

The business man and economy drive our needs and discoveries. You can't want one thing and not get another. Everything touches everything else. If the salt mines had not been closed, many discoveries wouldn't have been made. One of them----algae resources that are proving to be off the chart helpers for mankind.

So even though I understand how big box is making us all look the same---if they hadn't done it, and we hadn't done it..it still would have happened. I know you know that and miss the good old days. I miss them too.

Hi Stuart; you are so right; per Example, I live in a area where all the plots are at least 1 1/4 acre. Lots of trees but could have more! Nobody has an orchard; only us and our neighbour; nobody has a vegetable plot, only us and the neighbour. The garden all look fairly the same, same plants etc. boring..boring.. Only one is planted as a fantastic
garden with native and rain forest plants. It looks great. But nothing edible. The diversity disappears.

I just made an offer on a cute little house on an acre of land that will be perfect for gardening (the livestolk used to fertilize the soil a lot, heh). Looking forward to growing a few things for myself! ;)