Humus, humility and climate change

By Clive Blazey, Founder of The Diggers Club

When I went to school it was by tram and on the way home I used to call in on my grandfather, who was always out in his very neat vegetable garden, forking the soil and picking his vegetables.

This is not something my father continued and so he didn't pass any of these skills on to me. It wasn't until I walked into the Melbourne Botanic Gardens when I was about 20 years old that I made up my mind to become a gardener.

I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the garden, the solitude of the space and, of course, the birds, ducks and swans that were completely at home in the gardens.

It was then that I decided I wanted to create a garden as beautiful as the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

Now I strongly advise you to visit any of our 150-year-old botanic gardens in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide, just so you can get a feeling of how beautiful a garden can be. Our modern suburban gardens have evolved ignoring this incredible legacy, which is sad because these botanic gardens have some of the finest examples in the world of garden landscapes with mature trees and shrubs.

However, when it comes to edibles, everything has changed and it is not a change for the better — it is a monumental threat to our very existence.

Our disconnection from our food supply has only happened since the 1950s. Back then we grew most of our fruit and veg at home; now only about 5% of the food we eat comes from backyard gardens.

But we have lost far more than control of our food supply — we have disconnected from our environment. The Greek word for ecology literally means “The study of our homes”.

Not houses mind you, but the connection between plants, animals and humans in the space we describe as home. It is part of the bigger picture we call the environment. It's incredibly interesting.

For example when you see a flower you want to pick it, but that flower was not created for you or me, it is there to attract an insect, a butterfly or bee that will use the nectar in the flower to feed its young and, in the process, pollinate that plant and fertilise the seeds to create the next generation.

So just the simple act of picking flowers disturbs the ecology of your garden.

When you dig the soil, you disturb the worms and literally millions of other tiny creatures in the soil who are all working to create fertile soil. The plants that we grow create the oxygen we breathe, they create the soils that grow our food, and create a habitable planet.

Just outside your back door is a world teaming with life, that helps you to better understand yourself and your place in the world.

Therein lies the problem: our leaders who are disconnected from the food they eat and its soil (its Humus), these Humans have lost their Humility.

No other species that loses its connection to its food supply has survived. So our greatest threat from a heating planet is the lack of humility; our leaders misunderstanding man's proper place in our environment and the belief that all-powerful humans can continually manipulate the planet on which we live.

Clive Blazey (2017)