David E Ross has decloaked and given a pointer to his site:

http://www.rossde.com/garden/index.html
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_organic.html

I don't suppose it was a big secret but this is the first mention of that I
recall. Perhaps I missed it before. I bring this up because of the
philosophy that he espouses. Let me declare my position from the start. As
soon as I read it I thought "this could be me, I could have written this".

If you want to know what I mean go and read it rather than allow me to
mangle quotes from it. However to focus some discussion (hopefully) here in
my words are some things that jumped out at me from his philosophy mixed
with some of my own.

- Do the least harm. Weigh the long-term alternatives. A quick fix might
just get you out of trouble but it might cause you unending woe too. A good
year is when you didn't have to risk a QAD.

- Fit in with the climate and landscape, don't fight it. Use what you have
instead of mooning about what you don't have.

Closely related to this is: recognise that no matter what you do it will not
be 100% "natural" because we have been changing the landscape and the plants
for too long to ever go back. Probably the word "natural" is losing meaning
by the day, if the advertising industry continue slathering it on everything
this will be complete in my lifetime.

- Be flexible and practical, be prepared to ignore rules if it seems
necessary. Do what works in your situation. Find a local substitute. Give
up and start again if you have to, you will surely do better the next time.

Following from both of the above recognise that things that you can do
others cannot necessarily do, and vice versa. You will waste a lifetime if
it is a competition.

- Learn concepts and principles not recipes and rules. When it gets down to
details statements starting with "always" and "never" are probably wrong.

- Throw away perfectionism, bury it, burn it and stomp on it. You can get
80% of the result for 20% of the effort. The last 20% of result takes the
other 80% of effort. Neatness can become a terminal affliction, keep it
down and at arms length so that you can use it when you want to and it
cannot use you. Tolerate some losses, there is no-one keeping score.

- If you do all of the above and nothing else you will still wonder why.
Make sure there is time to smell the flowers, stroke the herbs and pull a
fruit from a tree just on a whim. And make sure you have somebody in your
garden to frolic with. And on a warm night do so.

David

PS
And here is the summation of a misspent youth from DER that is as relevant
today as 40 years ago

"When I lived with my parents, I would rather trip on a weed than pull it".

To be accurate some youths don't see this as an either-or situation but do
both. Some daily.

D