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The Buried Environmental Justice of George Washington Carver
“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…
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Sheet Mulch: Creating Rich Soil Without Tilling
Have you ever dug a hole on a summer day in clay soil? The sun bakes your back as you strike your shovel to the ground. It seems like instead…
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Growing Nasturtiums: Champion of the Edible Flowers
I first met nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) growing wildly in an abandoned park. They had no water and no love but their lily-pad leaves blanketed the ground and their vibrant flowers…
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What I Love About Native Plants and Can’t Stand About Native Plant People
These 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…
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Why the Fight Over the Most Sustainable Diet is Missing the Point
The 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…
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Gardening With Nature: How to Grow a Cover Crop
Plants greedily soak up soil nutrients, leaving the soil weak and malnourished, that is how we tend to view it. But, look at a natural ecosystem. There are plants that…
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What I’m Reading: Teaming With Microbes
There is a world beneath your feet, or, if you avoid stepping on your garden soil, beneath your hands. Bacteria hide from hungry protozoa in tiny soil pores the protozoa…
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Inviting in the Bugs: 11 Plants to Increase Garden Diversity
The Good, the bad and the ugly. Gardeners talk about bugs like they are characters in a Western; ladybugs in a white hat, aphids in black. Ecology, however, is much…
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What I’m Reading: The Urban Homestead
There is a movement happening in America’s cities. A movement of people who map edible trees in their neighborhoods and eat weeds growing from cracks in the sidewalk. These people…