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Air-Purifying Houseplants and Other Myths
Read MoreIt’s an enticing idea, creating little biomes in our homes filled with crisp plant-purified air. Nurseries market it and plant blogs post articles titled, 20 Best Plants for Cleaning the Air. It’s not true. This myth originated in the 1980s when NASA scientist, Bill Wolverton, studied cleaning volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air in small […]
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The Buried Environmental Justice of George Washington Carver
Read More“The Peanut Guy” is how many people think of George Washington Carver if they think of him at all. It is true that he did some dynamic work with the peanut and is credited with developing about 300 uses for the legume including soap, cheese, paper, cosmetics, wood stains, medicines and ink. But this is […]
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What I Love About Native Plants and Can’t Stand About Native Plant People
Read MoreThese thistles were not the ones I was used to, not the small ones that sneak through your socks when you venture off the hiking trail. These thistles were taller than me with razor spines, cactus-like. I attacked them with a hoe, keeping my distance but taking the occasional war wound nonetheless. I imagined I […]
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Why the Fight Over the Most Sustainable Diet is Missing the Point
Read MoreThe food we eat, whether it is bacon or tofu, is based on an ideology of control of the land. All food has blood on it. But, it doesn’t have to. Farms can create wildlife habitats and restore water cycles. Nutrient dense food can pull carbon out of the air and sequester it in the […]
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Sticking Carbon Where The Sun Don’t Shine
Read MoreI was nine years old, standing face to face with a pine tree, taking long deep breaths. “Breath in…. And out….In…. And out” As far as field-trip activities go, it wasn’t the most thrilling, but it stuck with me. I was breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. The pine tree was breathing in […]
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My Pet Worms: How to Make Your Own Worm Bin
Read More“It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.” Charles Darwin made this observation about earthworms in his 1883 book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms With Observations of Their Habits. […]
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Banking on the Future of Seeds: What Are Seed Banks and Why are They Important
Read More“A seed is really something spiritual as it is something material. It contains a life spark that allows the regenerative process to happen. We need seeds because they are the physical manifestation of that concept that we call hope.” –Gary Paul Nabhan On every kernel of corn there is a history. A woman in Central […]
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What I’m Reading: Never Out of Season
Read MoreBy the 1800’s the hills of Ireland were covered in the green foliage of potato plants. More than 3 million (or ⅖) Irish peasants subsisted almost solely on the potato, namely the lumper potato. Then, in 1846, the fungus-like late blight (Phytophthora infestans), arrived. It spread by air-borne spores from field to field. The potatoes […]
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The Politics of Gardening and Michelle Obama’s White House Garden
Read MoreMichelle Obama had the usual fears of a novice gardener; will these seeds sprout? What if weeds take over or the soil is no good? What if the vegetables are tasteless? Unlike most gardeners, cameras would be pointed at her Swiss chard ready to report the first wilted leaf. The garden was a response to […]
It’s time to plant your winter greens
