Well, if you are reading this it means that the world did not come to an end, and our fears of computer madness were unfounded. The world is still going around in circles and we are still in a rat race. My wife did not push me off of the side of the Grand Canyon and our family survived our first road trip. It is true that I want the kids to see a lot of the world, but I question myself for taking our suburban on the trip we just did. It is mind boggling that we almost killed each other in a 7 day period when there were only 4 of us in this huge car. My parents drove 4 kids all the way to Peru, a trip that took 2 months and we did not have but one fight. On our next trip we are definitely going by airplane.

North Texas Schools Beautification Program

Most of you know that in the past we have asked for donations to the Animal Adoption Center of Garland. Last year they received donations totaling more then $85000.00, between October and December. Of course only a very small part of that came from donations that many of you made at Rohde’s. However, with that money they were able to purchase the building and land that they were in. Financially that is going to take a big burden off of their shoulders. Because of their financial strength, we at Rohde’s want to go in another direction with the donations you leave with us.

In 1999 we gave discounts in plants and labor or made donations to schools in Dallas, Richardson, Plano, Allen and Garland. Some of these schools were Private and some where in Independent School Districts. Many of these schools have created living learning gardens, where the teachers plan to encourage their students to grow vegetables and herbs, Native plants and trees and plants that encourage wildlife’s return to their areas. In a couple of schools water gardens have been created to encourage toads and turtles to stay in the area. The idea of children going to school and learning not only reading, writing and arithmetic, but actually learning about the birds and the bees appeals to me. The legacy created by today’s PTA’s will brighten the education of tomorrow’s students.

We do not have the funds yet, we will not have enough money to start making donations to schools until the end of January. At that time with your donations or from the money we receive from your discounts, Rohde’s will help any school with a donation of up to $500.00.

To qualify we ask that your school present a plan using native plants or plants that will attract wildlife to the garden. Easy enough. First come, first serve

We think that we will be able to help one school a month.

Things to Do in January

Planting: This is an ideal month to plant trees. January is a good time to select and plant trees and shrubs. Because shrubs and trees are dormant, the plants suffer less stress and have more time to put out new roots before the summer. These roots will help the plant find water during the hot, dry months of July, August and September.

Fruit trees can be purchased as bare root, A plant that has all the soil around its roots removed, many fruit trees and roses are sold bare-root in the winter.

If you are starting an orchard buy a couple of extra ones in case some do not make it. Last year we sold around 200 bare root trees and had three customers tell us that they had one die. Start early while the selection is good. Do some homework. See what fruit trees grow best in your area. Karen, our buyer at Rohde’s goes through three list: Howard Garrett’s, Neil Sperry’s and Texas A&. She picks out the trees that all three recommend.

Shade Trees should grow large enough to cool off the house or an area of the lawn that you use to sit down and relax. Find a tree that will best fit your needs. Do you want it to shade a window in the winter? Do you want privacy from a neighbors view? How much room does it have to grow? Plan ahead. When you select your plant make sure you know enough about the plant to keep you out of trouble. For easier lawn maintenance, eliminate the hard to mow spaces such as angles around beds and borders. Combine single trees or shrubs into large plantings connected by ground covers. Consult a designer or a Landscape Architect, get on their list now so that you will have your plan ready for work to begin early in the year.

We recommend Carol Feldman.

Winter Plant Protection: Protect your plants from cold winds. Use row cover or a sheet to protect your tender plant material and do not forget to water a plant before freezing temperatures arrive. Watering is very important for a cold plant. The plant needs water to help circulation and keep it alive in cold periods.

Tree Care: Now that we have had some freezes I would trim Live Oaks and Red Oaks now. Make sure that you find the collar at the base of the branch and the tree trunk where you are going to make the cut. Cut on the outside of the collar. If you are removing a very long and heavy branch make sure that you cut the branch into sections so that the weight of the branch does not tear at the bark that you want left behind.

Fertilize with organic products at any time . If you have not fertilized the trees, in the spring or summer, this would be a good time. Fertilize trees with a combination of natural fertilizers, rock phosphate and sul-po-mag, corn meal and molasses. Go back to our December 1999 Newsletter for tree fertilizing techniques.

Dormant spray fruit trees and other plants that might have over wintering pest. Do not blanket spray, that means only spray the affected plants and not the entire landscape. If you have released beneficial insects do not use dormant oil. Always read the instructions of any product that you are going to use.

Bareroot Planting

reprinted from January 1999

We bring bareroot trees into our nursery during the month of January and hope to sell out by March 1st. This time period is excellent for buying and transplanting bare root trees. The price is normally three times cheaper then buying a container grown or balled and burlap tree or vine. The selection is great but it is first come, first serve. To be honest there is very little difference between one tree or the other, leading you to believe that these trees are cloned. I do not want to reveal my sources, but these trees come from one of the oldest and most respected growers in the US.

Here are some tips to planting and caring for growing bareroot trees:

The most important thing to remember is that you must not let roots of bareroot trees dry out even for a short while. That does not mean that you should break a hole in the bag that they came in and fill them with water, like we did. Duuuuuhh! Before we realized what had happened we noticed that the trunks of 6 six tree where turning black. Upon inspection we noticed that someone had filled the bags that the bare root trees had come in, and were full of water. Keep them in moist, organic matter or dig a shallow trench and bury the roots temporarily before planting. Try to keep them upright so that the sun does not burn the exposed surface. Do not lay them flat!

Never plant in soils that are so wet that the water runs into the hole as you dig.

Plant high, keeping the crown area above the original soil line, this is the transitional section where the trunk develops into roots. This area should be kept as dry as possible, especially in the spring when the tree is leafing out. If you take the time to look you will see that there is a different color between the lower section of the tree (root) and the trunk.

All fruits, nuts and berries will benefit from mound or raised bed planting. When you plant in a mound you prevent puddling near the trunk and crown of the tree.

Make sure the roots of the tree are going in the proper direction. Big roots should go downwards for anchoring, small hairy roots should be planted spread out and not in a clump, so make sure that the hole is deep enough for the tap root and wide enough to permit all the hair roots adequate separation, so that roots do not become twisted in the hole, and grow in circles.

Add rock phosphate to the soil, so that it is in direct contact with the roots. If you use the rock phosphate do not use a root stimulator.

Back fill the soil adding some organic matter to the same soil that you dug out.

Prune any broken branches near a bud. Do not over prune.

Never forget to mulch over the root zone and as the leaves come out spray with a mild solution of fish and kelp.

Buy your trees from Rohde’s.

Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Now Santa Clause.

The bad thing about growing up is that fantasy becomes questionable and sweet dreams of sugar plums dancing in our heads and fairy tails change to nightmares and reality.

I can remember when I was told that Santa Clause would not be coming to our house any more. I was told that it was not because I had been a bad boy. There were other circumstances that made that Christmas one to remember. A few weeks before Christmas I was told that my father would no longer be coming home and that Santa would not be able to bring me the presents that I had asked for. The news shocked me, I think that I was more hurt about the news of Santa than that of my father.

Going to bed that Christmas night was sad. I had already become used to the fact that my father would not be home, he wasn’t much of a homebody anyway. I only saw him about once a week and those times were not always pleasant. What really worried, me was the fact that Santa would not come. I knew that all my friends had asked Santa for roller skates, bicycles, soccer balls, and many other necessary play things needed by your average 8 and 9 year old. I knew that I was not going to get what I had asked for and was going to have to ask my friends if I could play with their toys.

On Christmas I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs, something that I loved but hardly ever had since my mother really did not like to cook. Hurriedly, I jumped out of bed almost tripping over my own feet. As I ran to the kitchen I noticed two bicycles by the breakfast table. They were not shiny and new, but they were kindaaaaaaa, like the ones my brother and I had asked for. As I looked at my mom with surprise, she sadly looked at me and said that she could not afford new bikes. As my sister cuddled her Christmas doll and my brother looked at his bike, I was already dreaming of doing wheelies and other tricks on my bike that would make me the best bike rider in Peru and even the world. The smell of breakfast brought me back to reality and after we all surrounded Mommy and gave her hugs and kisses we sat down to what was now a cold meal but a very warm moment. I will never forget the effort that my mother went through every Christmas to make it enjoyable. She would do everything she could to make all our Christmases happy.

During the Christmas of 1998 my son Victor was ten years old and in the 5th grade. He was beginning to question the reality of Santa Clause. Some of his friends had told him that Santa was not real, that parents and grandparents went to the malls and other stores to buy the presents. Then they rushed home to hide these until all the kids went to sleep on Christmas Eve. Then they would sneak around the house gathering gifts and placing them under the tree.

Assisi, Victor’s older sister, listened quietly and then much to my surprise she told Victor that she believed in Santa. Every year she had received almost everything she asked for. She went on to tell Victor that I could not be Santa because I was so cheap.

On Christmas Eve, after Victor placed the milk and cookies on the table, he decided that he was going to hide near the Tree and catch Santa delivering the gifts. Sandra and I waited until the early morning to bring out all the presents. At first we were very cautious, carrying only one gift at a time trying not to make a sound, but in our hurry to get back to bed we started to carry as many as we could. Through all of this, Victor never woke up, he did not even move. Feeling cocky I even walked across the room to eat the cookies and drink the milk.

A couple of hours later Victor came into our room to wake us up and open the presents. He never said anything about Santa until we got to the airport to leave on our trip to New York City. As we waited to board the airplane Victor came up to me and said that he knew that I had placed the presents under the tree, but since he did not mention Sandra, I innocently told him that I had been with her the whole night.

Now if you knew Victor, you would know that once he gets on a subject that interests him, there is no stopping him. While we were waiting to board the airplane I tried my hardest to make him talk about his presents and our trip to New York, but no matter how hard I tried, the subject would always go back to Santa. Finally, we boarded the airplane and, much to my relief, Victor became preoccupied with all the activity out the window. Then he started again. I could not take it anymore. I asked Sandra, who was sitting in the row behind us, if she would please change places with me. "No!" was her quick response. I begged Assisi to change places and her response was an even louder "No way!". When the flight attendant passed by I asked her if she could find an empty chair anywhere on the plane for me. "Sorry, the plane is full", she said with a smile as she winked at Sandra.

"Then, can you please take my son to see the cockpit, even for a little while?" When that did not work I offered her fifty bucks to let Victor go see the Captain, but she declined.

Victor was determined to make me tell him that I was Santa Clause. No matter what I said, he never believed me. Finally, in desperation, I acted like I was having a heart attack. As the flight attendant struggled up the aisle of the airplane while it was lifting off the ground I could hear her saying, "This better be the real thing or someone is going to be in big trouble. If we have to go back to the airport we will charge you for expenses and you will be arrested for endangering the lives of all of these passengers." As I considered my options, I almost thought that being arrested would be less stressful than sitting with Victor for the next three hours, but when Sandra grabbed my arm from behind and pinched me verrrry hard, I realized that I did not want to spend any time in jail with some guy named Bubba, so I told the pleasant flight attendant that my symptoms must have been heart burn.

I feared the rest of the flight. I was sure that for the next three hours I was going to be trying to convince Victor that there was a Santa Clause. I told Victor about a country named Turkey where there was a priest whose name was Nicholas. Nicholas once placed gold coins in the socks of three young sisters so that they would not have to become prostitutes and earn money by kissing strange men. I told Victor that that was why we hung stockings on the mantel, so that gifts would be placed in it, the same way that the three sisters had received their gifts. Now, Victor was paying attention and I knew that he was beginning to understand that what I was telling him was true.

I went on to tell Victor that because Nicholas was nice to these young children his kindness has been remembered by many of Saint Nicholas’ helpers. Every year people all around the world think of the generosity of that one man, even more so at the time that we celebrate the birth of another child, Jesus. At Christmas we also believe that Jesus was born into this world as a gift to mankind to show us how to win back the good grace of His Father.

Well, that was easier then I thought. Victor seemed to understand what I had told him and started talking about other things. All went well until November 1999, when once again Santa came up. This time Victor asked Sandra. Sandra tried to explain to him, to remind him that Santa had many helpers, but he did not give up. Reluctantly she finally told Victor that their was not one Santa Clause, but Santa had many helpers and , yes she was one of them. When I came home that night Victor was in his room, sulking.

I asked him why he wanted to know if Mommy was Santa if he was only going to be sad when he found out the truth. He looked at me and said with tears in his eyes, "First, there was the Easter Bunny and then there was the Tooth Fairy and now Santa Clause. I believed in all of these and now I find that they are not true. I am growing up, and I am not sure I want to".

At Rohde’s we have many people who come into our store and have believed for a long time that pesticides and chemical fertilizers are safe to use. It should not be difficult for these customers to start using organic products. They took the first step and came out to our store to inquire about organic products. Why? Are they doubting the truth about the safety of chemical pesticides and fertilizers?

Just like Victor, we need to be inquisitive even if we do not really want to find the truth. If the truth proves that we are harming our loved ones and ourselves by using chemical pesticides, did we wait too long to find out that truth?

Terms of the Garden: M-Z

M

Manure: Farmyard or stable refuse.

Marbled: Leaves that have molted or been changed due to weather or other factors.

Micro-organisms: An microscopic organism such as algae, bacteria or a beneficial microbe to help digest organic matter.

Mycorrhiza: The symbiotic association of fungus hyphae with plant roots. Hyphae fine tubular threads of fungus

Medium: A soil or soil-less mix used to start or re-plant houseplants, flowers, vegetables, and other plants. Many people are now using lava sand as a planting medium, because of it’s water retention.

Microbes: Many of these organisms are beneficial to the soil by fertilizing with the waste left behind as they advance converting everything they digest into a form they is more readily available to the plant. As the microbe burrows ahead he leaves tiny tunnels where air and moisture can easily penetrate improving percolation and encouraging root growth.

Mildew: Small fungi growing on plants exposed to damp conditions. Crape Myrtles get a powdery mildew.

Mineral: Any substance which is neither animal or vegetable.

Mineral Deficiency: The lack of one or more of the essential minerals normally present in the soil. Many times plants are incorrectly diagnosed as having an iron deficiency when the leaves are yellowish.

Moss: A small non-flowering plant growing in bogs, shady areas or on the sides of trees and stone.

Mound: Raised portion of soil normally done to improve drainage.

Mottling of Leaves: Discoloration or spotting of leaves. Sometimes confused as a disease.

Mycorrhiza: Microscopic thread-like growth which penetrate the root system to supply it with material from humus.

Mulch: a covering used to maintain soil temperature and moisture and to discourage the growth of weeds. Usually organic matter

N

Nana: Small, dwarf plant usually associated with an ugly plant called the Nandina Nana.

Native plant: A plant that grows naturally in an area.

Naturalize: A plant that can establish itself and grow undisturbed in an area similar to it’s original.

Neem Oil: This extraction of the Neem tree is very effective in killing many small insects, while disrupting feeding habits and repelling others. Research shows that little harm is caused to beneficials. I don’t know how they determined this, but we have seen good results when spraying Whiteflies. We did not see any Lady Bug mortality. Non toxic to mammals.

Nematode: A small insegmented worm. Normally associated with worms found on roots of plants in badly drained or poorly cultivated soils.

Nitrogen: The "N" symbol in NPK, promotes growth and health of all plants.

Nitrogen fixation: The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into an organic form usable by plants and other organisms

NPK: Chemical symbol of the three main plant foods.

Node- The point where a leaf emerges from the stem.

O

Offshoot: Growth as a side shoot or branch.

OPM: Organic Pest Management: Through a combination of organic soil building methods and preventative pest control you build up a bio-diversity of living creatures and plants creating a natural balance between predators and destructive insects.

Organic Matter: Living or dead plant and animal life used as a mulch for top dressing or turned into the soil as compost.

Ornamental: A plant that is grown for visual display. Forsythia, lilacs, Hollies.

Overwinter: A plant should be hardy enough to survive the winter. Some one can keep a tropical plant or a non-hardy plant indoors through the winter.

Outcropping: Landscape beds extending out beyond their surroundings. An extended shrub bed.

P

Parasite: A plant deriving its nutrition from another organism. Mistletoe.

PBO: Piperoynol Butoxide: a synthetic synergist that prevents insects from detoxifying insecticides. Some people, including Howard Garrett, do not recommend PBO’s because they may be toxic.

Perennial: A plant that grows and flowers for many years. Some are evergreens; others may die back to the ground but will grow back again the following season.

Pest: Any living creature which damages plants.

Pesticide: A chemical used to control or kill pest. Insects.

Petal Fall: The stage of development of fruit trees when flowers shed their petals. Normally associated with one of the applications of "Dormant Oils".

pH: A value in which one measures the degree of acidity or alkalinity of soils.

Pinching: Using your thumb and forefinger to remove (pinch off) the tip growth of plants to encourage a bushier growth habit.

Phosphorus: The "P" symbol of NPK responsible mainly for root growth.

Pompon: A small globular flower or flower head. Chrysanthemum. Also referred to plants that have branches trimmed into unnatural globes.

Potassium: The "K" symbol of NPK responsible for flower and fruit development.

Powdery mildew: A fungus forming a white powdery coating on leaves and stems.

Predator Insects: Insects that during their life time attack and eat hundreds of damaging insects. Lady Bugs, Praying Mantis.

Processed Manure: Sterilized, dried, and bagged manure. Usually sold in 40- or 50-pound bags.

Procumbent: Lying on the ground or trailing but without rooting at the nodes. Junipers

Propagate: To produce new plants, either by vegetative means involving the rooting or grafting of pieces of a plant, or by sowing seeds.

Prune: To cut back, for the purposes of shaping a plant, encouraging new growth, or controlling size.

Pyrethrums: Derived from a variety of Chrysanthemum (cinerariifolium), this insecticide quickly attacks the insect’s central nervous system killing them as you laugh uncontrollably. Pyrethrums break down quickly when exposed to sunlight. Many pest control companies are now using a combination of D.E., Boric Acid (equal amounts) and Pyrethrums (1 part), for residential insect control.

R

Raised Beds or Garden: Planting areas that are mounded or boxed above ground level. Mounding soil is another method of raising the soil level. This helps soils dry out quickly.

Repellent: A product that repels pest from an area.

Rhizome: A thickened stem with root below and growth above. The area where food energy may be stored, as in bearded iris. rhizome (

Rock garden: A garden laid out among rocks and adapted for the growth of particular kinds of plants, such as sedums, junipers.

Root: The underground part of a plant that serves to anchor it and supplies it with nourishment.

Root bound: The condition whereby a plant's roots themselves have formed a barrier to further growth, usually caused by a plant being kept in too small a container and often resulting in the death of the plant.

Root cutting: A cutting taken from the root of a parent plant for the purpose of propagation.

Root knot: A disease of the roots characterized by a swelling and caused by nematodes.

Root pruning: To cut back a root system to stimulate the growth of new roots. To cut the outer layer of roots of a plant that has become root bound.

Root zone: The area immediately surrounding the roots and from which a plant takes moisture and nourishment.

Root ball: The root stock and surrounding soil together; in nurseries and during transport, these are held together by burlap or other wrapping.

Runner: A filiform or very slender stolon. A prostrate branch that roots at its joints. Very noticeable on Junipers and Groundcovers.

Row Covers: made of lightweight materials that lay on top of plants to help protect it from cold weather.

S

Screen: A plant or grouping of plants used to hide unwanted views or viewings. Skinny dipping.

Scale: Insects that live under shell like scales on stems, bark and leaves and feed on juices of plants.

Seaweed: A high potash fertilizer produced from oceanic vegetation.

Soil: The top layer of the earth's surface, consisting primarily of clay, sand, silt and organic matter.

Soil Conditioners: materials added to feed and enrich the soil.

Solarazation: the use of the suns heat to kill unwanted grasses or crops as well as weed seeds and disease organisms.

Stolon: A runner, or any basal branch that can form a root.

Sucker: A shoot from the root or lower part of a stem.

Sandy Loam: A combination of sandy soil and loam. Sand content provides good drainage. Loam contains more body and is a combination of silt, sand, and clay.

Seedling: A young plant grown from a seed.

Self-pollination: The transfer pollen from the anther of a flower to the stigma of the same flower or different flowers on the same plant.

Slow release: Fertilizers that dissolve slowly in the soil and release nutrients over a long period.

Sludge: Processed residue from sewage many times containing heavy metals or Slag.

Soil Test: To analyze the chemical content and the pH of a soil

Spent Flowers: Dead or dying flowers.

Spindly Growth: Leggy, long, or flimsy new growth that has developed out of proportion to the rest of the plant.

Specimen: A plant separated from others because of it’s superior beauty or focal location.

Spot Treatment: Individual application of a spray to feed, kill or treat a specific problem pest or plant.

Stigma: The part of the pistil which receives the pollen.

Systemic: A chemical that is absorbed that is absorbed and circulated throughout the plant.

T

Taproot: The main root of a plant, having a single, dominant axis and often surviving the functions of structural support and food storage. Pecans have the largest taproot.

Thatch: A layer of dead grass that builds up between soil level and the blades of the grass. It keeps air, water, and fertilizer from reaching the soil below.

Toxic: Poisonous

Trace Elements: Chemical substances essential in very small quantities to plant life.

Transpiration: The passage of water through a land plant and usually out the pores of its leaves.

Transplant: To move a plant from one place to another.

Tropical: Of, being, or characteristic of a region or climate that is frost free with temperatures high enough to support year-round plant growth.

Twist Ties: Short lengths of wire encased in a protective coating; they are less likely to damage or girdle branches, stems, and other parts of plants.

U

Undergrowth: Growth of plants under trees.

Understory: The shrubs and smaller trees between the forest canopy and the ground cover.

Upright: A plant with vertical growth.

USDA hardiness zones: Planting zones established by the States Department of Agriculture, defined by minimum winter temperatures.

V

Vegetable Thinning: Removing seedlings that are planted too closely together, so those remaining have sufficient space in which to properly mature.

Variegated: Marked, striped, or blotched with some color in addition to the plant's general overall color.

Vine: A plant that trails, clings, or twines, and requires support to grow vertically.

W

Weed: A plant growing where it is not wanted, often to the detriment of a crop or disfigurement of a landscape design. Remember that one mans weeds is another mans flower.

Whitefly: Insects whose adults resemble tiny moths but are related to aphids; nymphs suck sap and damage leaves.

Wildflower: A flowering plant growing and usually propagating itself outside of a cultivated area.

Wilt: Any of several plant disorders characterized by drooping and shriveling of soft tissues, often caused by a. lack of moisture or a soil fungi.

Winter kill: The dying back of a plant or part of a plant due to harsh winter.

Woodland: An area primarily covered with trees.

X

Xeriscaping: Landscaping with the use of drought -tolerant plants, to eliminate the need for supplemental watering.

This year resolve to be organic.

Let Rohde’s help you.

Use More Green Sense products.

Treating Your Soil

George Branning, M.D.

The Religion of the Organic Movement

The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Gen 1:12

When I step from the concrete of my urban life to the humus of the forest floor, I am transformed. As if jumping into water, I immerse myself into the woods which calms my stressed soul. The poet would say I am experiencing the euphoria of nature’s bounty. I would say I am in the presence of God. It’s not that He can’t be found in town, He is just more obvious when you are surrounded by all that has evolved from his creation. For the sake of this arguement, it doesn’t matter whether you call it Mother Nature or God. What matters is that you go outside and enjoy what is there. It’s a natural progression of thought to a feeling of stewardship for the environment, a desire to preserve and protect the land and water from those who would destroy it, either by neglect or by deceit.

It’s a new year, a new century, and the beginning of a new millennium is at hand. This should be the year of the "Mother of all Resolutions". I have one for you.

Once I listened and opened my mind to the idea of the natural way, I was led down a path I was not anticipating. It seemed innocent enough at first. After all I was just selecting a method of gardening that made sense, that worked, and that allowed the biology to take care of itself. The moment I accepted this premise, everything changed forever. And if you have, so it has for you.

This must be an evangelical movement.

Once you accept the fact that putting toxins into the land and water is unnecessarily dangerous, and that the organic methods work safely without leaving a deadly legacy, you have crossed a point of no return. This is not just someone’s opinion that Dr. Pepper is better than Coke (It is!). This is an epiphany. You are concluding that the common practice of gardening, farming, ranching and governing that utilizes thousands of tons of deadly neurotoxins and teratogens is morally wrong and is harming the land, the water, and the people. Therefore...you have a moral obligation to stop it. I concluded that I had a moral obligation to spread the "Good News" about the organic philosophy and I became an "organic evangelist". You must also. That is your resolution.

Islands in the Stream. What do you do when your neighbors use the big green trucks?

Being an evangelist for anything is hard. But if you truly believe in what you preach, the work is easy. My neighborhood is not any different from yours. We all take pride in the way our houses look and want the landscape to add to the overall appearance of our homes. We all care about our families’ health. The only problem is that most of them have not heard the "good news". Therefore they have no blame, nor obligation to trash the toxins. They have no responsibility until they know the facts. And that is my responsibility as an "organic evangelist". What I did was write a letter to my neighbors. A very nice, non-threatening letter that explained who I was, what I did, and why I did it. In other words, I gave them the "good news". I wrote it as a neighbor, a father, and as a physician. I invited any of them to call or come by and chat about organics. I was trying to be "beneficial" and not a "pest". That was in April and so far I have had one person call and two people drive by and politely tell me they received my letter and that it was interesting. All three, though, told me an unbelievable story almost under their breath, so that no one else would hear. They are getting pressured by one of the neighbors to use the green trucks. If a weed pops up, they say, they’re frowned upon. One of the folks, who was 100% organic when she lived in Kerrville, but isn’t now because of the pressure, told me that a pair of adirondack chairs that they had in their front yard were placed in the curbside trash while they were on vacation. I guess the culprit thought they were an eyesore. Remember, most evangelists are martyred. In my opinion, however, we have no choice if we are to be the grass roots movement towards, what I believe to be, saving the planet. Note: I do not wear Birckenstocks, live on a commune, or smoke what I grow. I am a conservative physician who made the connection through the same avenues that most of you did. Common sense is the most "natural" gift we have.

Naturalness is next to Godliness.

Nature is God...God is Nature. So when we walk in the woods, or fish in a stream, or bury our hands in the rich soil to plant the spring color, we experience divinity. To defend nature from neglect or assault is defending something that is perfect. We have the power to make it imperfect. We have the power to alter evolution and the biology of the biosphere with the pollution we pour onto the earth. Let no politician or corporation attempt to say otherwise. It is an insult to our intelligence to do so. The question is not if we do it, but do we accept it? If we as a society allow this to happen, then so be it. But I don’t think that every thinking person realizes the potential damage that can occur. So it is the job of the "organic evangelist" to gently, or not so gently, educate everyone of the "good news". As a physician, I warn my pregnant patients not to use their pest control service, or their lawn "green truck" service for the duration of their pregnancy. I also add that they should seriously consider doing the same while they have small children in and around the house. They thank me usually saying, "I never thought about that!". Then I see the wheel in their head turn one click and a puzzled look comes over their face. Their head cocks to one side as they ask, "Say...if it can hurt my baby and my children, can’t it hurt...me?". I smile knowing that this "organic evangelist" is about to give another inhabitant of this planet the "good news".

Please become an "organic evangelist" yourself. Please spread the "good news".

Live Safely and Treat Your Soil

© 2000 GB Branning, MD, PA