The Botany of Desire Michael Pollan explains how four plants, the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato, have all managed to further their existence by controlling us, the human beings. The apple seduces us with sweetness, the tulip with beauty, marijuana (cannabis) with intoxication, and the potato, in its productivity, gives us greater control over our […]
10 photos of what happens to plants exposed to radiation, compliments of the Fukushima disaster. Scary stuff. TweetFacebookLinkedInTumblrStumbleDiggDelicious
For a couple of years now I’ve fooled around with adding heat to cold frames to extend the growing season in both spring and fall. In a recent DIY project I made a low-wattage electrical heater that heats the soil rather than the air above the soil. In the spring, I might use this unit […]
When I wrote about picking raspberries I realized that when I’m in the garden, or encouraging seedlings in the house in the spring for that matter, I spend much time speaking to the plants. I compliment the tomatoes on their abundance, and the pole beans on their lovely appearance. The raspberries themselves get a lot […]
Last gardening season I planted Butternut squash and Hubbard squash. This season, several volunteer squash plants came up in the same area. If I don’t need the space for other plantings, I usually let volunteers grow, just to see what will happen. Since the squash from last season were heirlooms, I figured that I would […]
The ground cherries are coming. Ground cherries actually aren’t cherries at all but rather members of the Solanaceae family, also known as Nightshade. The family includes bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, tobacco, potatoes, petunia, and more. With such a wide-spread group you’d think the whole family was adopted but not so. Richard picked a half-gallon or […]
When, decades ago, I first heard about the Devas, I thought the people who dreamed them up must have been crazy, stupid, drugged, impractical, or all four. It wasn’t only the Devas. It was the nature deities and the elementals as well, gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders (apparently not the salamanders from biology class but […]
Worm tea may have had its origin in a series of eight agricultural lectures given in 1924 by the spiritual scientist, Rudolf Steiner. These teachings are available in his book “Agricultural Course: The Birth of the Biodynamic Method.” To my way of thinking, Steiner thoroughly understood the link between the spiritual and physical realms. He […]