Weeds are plants whose undesirable qualities outweigh their good points, according to man. Most of us would consider weeds as a nuisance because they are unsightly and competitive. They grow in places where it is not wanted, compete for nutrients from desirable plants, persistent, pernicious, and interfere negatively with human activity. Despite all the negative connotation associated with weed, one farmer discovered that dry, damaged land could become healthy again through the presence of weeds. Did you know that weeds help absorb the carbon present in the atmosphere?
More than 60 years ago, Peter Andrews experienced one of the worst dust storms that have left their Australian farm devastated. It led him to think of a more sustainable solution to Australia's problem on drought. He thought of how important it was to keep the land in balance. and realized the government efforts to keep the land fertile may prove to be useless. Over the years, Andrews discovered the landscape has its own natural way to recover from such a drought.
It was in the 1970s when Andrews became interested in what sustainable agricultural practices has to offer. He looked into the waterways and how it helped the plants grow. He followed the natural method not weeding off his property. No fertilizer was used too. He wanted his farm to be resilient to the ever-changing weather conditions of the area.
Every landscape comes with its natural flow of water and this is what people should be after. Where does water originate and in what direction does it flow? To be able to regenerate an eroded landscape, one must start with the highest point in the area and then work with the flow of the water downwards. This was the hypothesis he used to propagate his idea called natural sequence farming.
"Climate change has indeed driven the temperatures high and it has led to extreme weather conditions in Australia," as written in a scientific study conducted on the island of Australia. The study also included information concerning the past four years as being the hottest years in the country. Not only did it cause drought in many farmlands, but it has led to the death of cattle across the continent, not to mention the crops that farmers just couldn't grow.
"We are dealing with a problem that was not even in the scale of what the government has predicted for the next 20 years," Kate Smolski said. She is the chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council (NCC) of Australia. The NCC reported that the clearing of forests made it even more impossible for rain to start, cool the weather and keep the carbon content in the atmosphere to a minimum.
The weeds take on the energy from the land to help rehydrate the land. Despite receiving very little rain, the weeds are able to survive because they moisturize the soil where they grow. If they can help keep the soil moisturize, who then would still think that they are a nuisance? After all, weeds are still plants. It is humans that consider them as weeds due to their undesirable traits rather seeing the quality it already has.
