Splendor in the grass

Thieves essential oil

That's what I fondly call my plants and their fruits, profusely growing in harmony with the grasses and weeds on the soil. Farmers and their counterparts in government and academe usually look at weeds and grasses as harmful to the plants that we cultivate that they are normally plowed, uprooted and sometimes burned. Some teachers at one famous agricultural university here say these grasses emit chemicals harmful to the plants, justifying the act of grass-burning and thoroughgoing cleanup of the soil.

But my recent experience has shown these assumptions to be false and misleading. The images below only demonstrate that my vegetables have not been deprived of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, as shown by the green, healthy-looking crops. Quite the opposite is true. These plants thrive in harmony with the grasses and, so far, have remained untouched by insect herbivores.
My thesis is that the existence of the grasses have provided ample shelter to the various carnivore insects preying on the herbivores, like the praying mantis and the spiders, to name just two of them. Because nature has been virtually left untouched, I have not driven away the worms and other soil micro-organisms with plowing, nor have I caused the soil to erode. Thus, I have preserved the soil's fertility, and this will be enhanced as I will allow the dead plants to rot in place so that the nutrients will return to the soil.