Complimentary Blueberry Juice

There’s a whole world out there. If we’re willing, patient, and we listen, we might learn something.

It might be the sound of birds signing, or the smell of leaves on a forest floor. Moss growing on the shaded side of a tree. A flower poking out from a sea of grass. Everywhere we can look in nature, there is a sight, a sound or a smell that we can absorb and process as information.

We are also surrounded by products and marketing campaigns designed to take advantage of the insecure grower, to separate us from the path of seeking more knowledge.

Plants may seem complex because they are different life forms than us and we cannot communicate with them. It is easy to assume they are unintelligent and only need some chemical ions to miraculously grow. And with so many questions, where might you even begin to learn more about plants?

Spring, I find, is the most amazing teacher.

In Spring we can witness so much more, as Nature wakes up we have the opportunity to ask questions that might lead us to some insight (or maybe a book or two).

How do trees know when to stop sleeping, and release their buds?

If I plant a seed from a package at the wrong time, hoping for a bountiful harvest, it might rot, and I might get no harvest at all. But soon there will be billions of very productive weeds that grew from seeds that did not come from a warehouse and certainly did not rot! Why?

Why don’t forests need NPK fertilizer? What are we fundamentally missing about how plants obtain the food they need to survive and thrive?

And one of my favourites, the famous Dandelion, one of the first plants to bloom and fill our sights with vibrant colour. Why is one of the world’s most successful plants such a scourge to humans? What does the answer to that question say about us?

If you’ve got interesting questions about plants inspired by springtime, let me know in the comments.

Stay curious!

Graham

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