Have you ever wondered where chemical fertilizers came from?

One evening, while working at my computer I heard gunfire and mortar shells exploding in the living room. I poked my head around the corner. Black and white images of men and machines were blasting across the TV screen. My husband looked up from his chair. "It's that documentary by Ken Burns about World War II."

As soldiers stormed the beaches, I had a feeling there was one battle the 7-part series would not be covering. It's a battle that continues to this day and one I'm sure we could bring ...   more »

In Richard II, Shakespeare uses a garden metaphor to explain the political problems of the day: England is wasting away as a result of the royal family's greediness. In one scene, the gardener instructs his helpers about weeding and pruning. The garden is England and the plant that needs weeding and pruning is the royal family.

By the same token, many plants and shrubs become thin and straggly, even choked out of existence, if left to grow without weeding from time to time. Weeds rob valuable nutrients from the soil and compete with your hard-earned herbs, flowers, shrubs and vegetables. Plus, they are often hosts to harmful insects and diseases, so it's important to eliminate weeds.

The job of weeding however, is not often embraced with joy and enthusiasm. Yet weeding, as I'll explain later can be one of your best teachers.   more »

Back in the days of Thomas Jefferson, it was believed that plant roots actually ate soil particles. Therefore, the more you pulverized soil, the easier it was for roots to eat it. Thus it seemed logical to till the earth. Centuries later, scientists now say tilling--specifically rototilling--doesn't improve the soil, it destroys it. Now what do we do?

[To listen to this article, a 3-minute audio file, subscribe to to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or simply listen to it the mp3 file now by clicking here]

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The number of organic gardeners is predicted to increase about 10 percent a year. What about you? If you choose to switch from chemical fertilizers to organic ones, keep in mind that the process is compared to giving up smoking...   more »

I confess. I hold a special place in my heart for seaweed. Once when I running on the beach I sliced my foot on a shell. "Wrap it in seaweed," my Mom said. The wound healed quickly. Then, after moving to Alaska I discovered the magic of using seaweed in the garden...   more »

What if I told you that by mowing the lawn during certain phases of the moon meant you didn't have to mow as often? What if I told you the same system applied to cutting your hair?

HAH! Before you think I’m crazy, let's turn to the National Geographic, which says more gardeners today are turning to the moon for advice on the best time to do yard chores. The practice, called gardening by the moon, centers on the moon's gravitational effect on moisture flowing in soil and plants. The moon also controls the ocean tides and acts upon the groundwater beneath your feet.   more »

Once upon a time in 1837, after returning from his 5-year trip aboard the Beagle, Charles Darwin took some time off. One day, while roaming the countryside with his uncle, they stopped to watch an earthworm s-l-o-w-l-y pull a leaf into its burrow. Fascinated, Darwin fell in love with worms. How could such a lowly creature capture the attention of a distinguished scientist like Darwin?   more »

The recent spinach scare, where E. coli-tainted spinach killed one person and hospitalized hundreds more, brought to the table the importance of food, that is, where it comes from and why we should care...

Most of the food we buy travels great distances to reach our plate. A head of lettuce for example, travels about 2,000 miles from farm to market. These distances, measured in “food miles,” reveals how most of us are overly dependent on outside sources for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[Note: Hey, now you can LISTEN to this article (just 3 minutes long) by subscribing to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or you can listen to the mp3 file now by clicking here]. Otherwise, keep reading the article. You'll be glad you did!]   more »

OK, so you love Ben & Jerry's ice cream. But did you know that Ben & Jerry's Organic is owned by food and personal care product company Unilever? And when you sip Celestial Seasonings tea did you realize you are dropping pennies into the pockets of Cargill, the giant agribusiness-chemical giant? For an eye-opening look into the Who's Who of the organic food industry, post this Organic Industry Structure Chart on your fridge.

The chart (in a pdf format), compiled by Phil Howard, PhD, illustrates companies and their--often large--parent corporations. It may change the way you shop for food.   more »

You're standing in the produce department, checking out the displays of fruit. The little baskets of strawberries catch your eye. Hmm, a strawberry shortcake would be nice for dessert, and tomorrow you could slice a few berries over your granola.

Nice thoughts; bad idea.

Why? Let's first get out of the cereal bowl and look at the big picture.

If you are concerned about oil prices and global warming, consider this: It takes 400 calories of fossil fuels to transport a single 5-calorie strawberry from California to East Coast supermarkets. What's more, that bright red, but flavorless strawberry was probably grown with methyl bromide, a carcinogenic and ozone depleting pesticide. [Reported by the Organic Consumers Association]

Still considering strawberry shortcake? Here are a few more things to think about when you're at the grocery store:   more »

When you think you're having a bad day, think of Jill Weiss. She not only gardens from a wheelchair, she donates her vegetables to people with AIDS...

First, let's go back to the Torino Olympic Winter Games Closing Ceremony, where Canada invited the world to ‘come play with us’ at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. One of the special moments in the closing ceremony occurred when Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan accepted the Olympic Flag, using a specially modified wheelchair.

Vancouver resident and gardener Jill Weiss, knows what it’s like to get around in a wheelchair. Thirty-five years ago, a car accident left her disabled. But she didn’t let that stop her from digging in the dirt. In one of Vancouver’s many community gardens, I caught up with Jill as she maneuvered her wheelchair to pick lettuce.  Listen to her story. I promise you'll be inspired by her Olympic spirit.

To hear my 2-minute interview with Jill, subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or simply download/listen here to the mp3.

Across the country, grandparents are stepping in to care for children of parents that are drug addicts, in prison, working as a single parent, or simply need help caring for their kids.

Operating out of a van, a special program in Hawaii called Tutu and Me Traveling Preschool visits community centers, schools and churches, bringing grandparents, caregivers and kids together for two hours of science, reading, history, Hawaiian traditions and even gardening. ("Tutu" means grandparent in Hawaiian.) Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the program has received high praises as a model solution to a growing problem.

Listen and learn as Carrie Kowolski describes how the Tutu and Me organizers pack a van full of garden supplies to teach the how-to's and importance of gardening, Hawaii style. To listen to this inspirational interview (only 2-minutes long), subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or simply download/listen here to the mp3. Who do you know who might benefit from a program like this?

What national resource are we wasting away at an alarming rate? Oil, you might say. Perhaps. Try manure.

[Listen to the 2-minute audio article by subscribing to my podcast feed -- so you can open the attachment below -- or simply listen to the mp3 file now by clicking here]. Otherwise, heck, just keep on reading...

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“'Scuse me while I kiss the sky.”

If you play professional football, you’d like to win the Super Bowl; if you’re an actress, an Academy award would be nice. But if you’re a vegetable, flower or herb, the title of “All America Selection” winner says you’re the best of the best, garden-wise. This year’s winners include a very unusual carrot called "Purple Haze," named after the song by Rock 'n Roll legend Jimi Hendrix.

[Please Note: I produced a fun, 2-minute audio piece from this article. To listen, you can subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) OR simply listen to the mp3 file now by clicking here]

Otherwise, enjoy yourself and keep reading...   more »

Thanks to the Web, there’s a new way to find old seeds.

It's 15 degrees outside. I'm checking my garlic, which is covered with plastic and frozen in the soil. The sun hits my cheek, but there’s little warmth in its kiss.

To me, nothing provides more comfort on a winter day than sipping coffee and cruising through seed catalogs. In those pages rest the promise of spring and childhood memories of my Grammie's beans, hot and seasoned with bacon, salt and pepper.

Today, it's easier to sprout past memories in real life, because old is new in seeds. Heirloom varieties, considered new and improved in their day, are now old and reliable. That's because "heirloom," means varieties introduced at least 50 years ago that are open-pollinated, not the result of hybrids. People are re-discovering the diversity in color, texture and taste that heirlooms provide.

[Lend me your ear! To LISTEN to this article, which is only 2 minutes long, subscribe to my podcast feed (which let's you open the attachment below) or simply listen to the mp3 file now by clicking here]

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For eight years, starting in the late 1970s, I worked aboard research ships and tugboats, first as an able-bodied seaman and then as a merchant marine officer.

Because we'd be at sea for 2 to 4 weeks, the galley crew was keenly aware that food was an important part of shipboard life. Sunday was prime rib day, Wednesday was steak day, and once a month (if we were working in the tropics) the cooks served a roast pig on the upper deck, complete with the apple in its mouth. (I can't remember what they filled the eye holes with.) Each dinner was paired with a salad.

Notice I didn’t say "green" salad, because at the end of a 4-week trip the lettuce looked anemically white. Yet, the stewards managed to keep lettuce from going bad by packing each head in a brown paper bag before storing them in the walk-in coolers.

Perhaps that explains why, when I switched my focus from the sea to the land, I placed lettuce at the top of my To Grow list -- even though I'd never grown it, or anything else. By late summer, the plants had bolted to 3-foot towers and when I finally got around to picking some greens they were so bitter we couldn't eat them.

What am I getting at?   more »

When is garbage not garbage? Why, when you look at it with a gardener’s eye. Those seeds and pits that you usually throw away? You can turn them into fruitful houseplants.

Take a mango, for example. In the center of the mango, there is a large, hairy husk with a pit in it. To prepare it for planting, scrape off the excess flesh from the husk. Wait a second! Let’s back up. First you EAT the mango, THEN you scrape off the excess fruit.

[PSST! To listen to this article, which is only 2 minutes long. It's easy: subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or simply listen to the mp3 file now by clicking here]

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Would you like a little more cash in your pocket? Of course. But first, you might have to clean up the dog poop...

In the current see-saw real estate market, selling your house can be stressful. One way to reduce the stress and increase the odds of a sale is to make sure the landscape is in tip-top condition. Nice thought, but what if you're trying to sell your house during the middle of winter? These chilly months create unique challenges for yard presentation.

"You can transform a barren winter landscape into a lasting first impression," says Home and Garden Television’s master gardener Paul James. "You can punch things up a bit and enhance the appeal of your property. As a matter of fact, much of what you can do won't take more than a weekend and won't cost you a dime.   more »

Many of the best gardens are planned around the kitchen table on cold winter nights as people gather to page through the seed catalogs arriving now in stacks as deep as snowdrifts.

More than 24 million American households will spend an estimated $128 each on mail order seeds, plants, bulbs, garden tools and garden supplies in 2006, the Mailorder Gardening Association says. Yet the catalogs we see today, online and printed, are very different from yesteryear.

[Special note: Have some fun and LISTEN to this article, which is only 2 minutes long. Subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) OR simply listen to the mp3 file now by clicking here]

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In my early 20s I purchased every back issue of Mother Earth News. I devoured every article written by Helen and Scott Nearing, back-to-the landers who lived in Vermont and Maine. The authors of 50 books, Helen and Scott (they both lived long lives: Helen 91, Scott, 100) cleared brush, built stone structures, and raised most of their own food in gardens that were amazingly productive for New England. Today, their lifestyle continues to inspire and teach, like how to grow lettuce when it's freezing arse cold outside!

[NOTE: To listen to the 2-minute audio version of my article, subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or simply download/listen here to the mp3 file.] Otherwise, keep on reading. Trust me...
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When a Christmas tree is no longer magical with ornaments and lights, it’s all too often tossed unceremoniously into the garbage, over a cliff or in a ditch right after the holidays. But there’s no reason that holiday greens can’t be allowed to serve long after the merry-making is over. (Consider it your responsibility to give the tree another life!)

[To listen to the podcast version of this article, subscribe to my podcast feed so you can open the attachment below or simply listen here to the mp3 audio file.]

For a splash of instant green outdoors, cut branches off the tree and add them to barren window boxes or containers. Or recycle them into an arrangement for your porch or walkway. To do this...   more »

It's a tiny garden, sandwiched between two park benches and surrounded by apartment buildings. And though picking cucumbers is not exactly an urban activity, Shannon Bradley, a food systems manager for Vancouver, BC, would like you to think so. Following more than a decade of community organizing efforts, Vancouver’s city council adopted a "just and sustainable food system" which includes planting fruit trees, and establishing community gardens and edible landscaping, like the one you see here. Listen and learn how a tiny garden can play a big role in the third most densely populated city in North America.
Subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below) or simply download/listen here to the mp3.

If you think houseplants aren’t worth the trouble, think again. In his book, How to Grow Fresh Air, Dr. BC Wolverton, an environmental consultant and retired NASA scientist, describes how houseplants filter toxins from the air inside your house or office. Plants become the lungs of a building, much like the tropical rainforests are the lungs of the Earth. Learn how houseplants improve the overall quality of your life. Subscribe to my podcast feed (so you can open the attachment below). If you can't wait, listen to the mp3 audio file by clicking here.

I'm not very fond of surveys and trend predictions, but my heart warmed when I saw that organic was listed as "in" and chemicals were "out." Here are four of my favorite garden trends for 2006 from a survey conducted by the Garden Writers Association. (OK, so I'm a member.)

1) Garden in small spaces is in. Giant landscapes are out.
As lot sizes shrink and people downsize their homes, consumers are gardening more in less space, on patios and decks, on rooftops and, of course, in containers. Vertical gardening is in, growing either up or down from balconies or on patios.   more »

"Stop for a moment and think about how important real food is to our holidays and celebrations. Suppose you showed up at Grandma’s house on Thanksgiving, and dinner was Big Macs, McFries, and Mcapple pies, with maybe some micro-waved convenience store bean burritos on the side. You would think that she had lost her mind!"

Meet Bob Waldrop, founder of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, writer, and ardent supporter of Oklahoma’s farmers and ranchers.  Bob doesn't mince words and what he has to say will make you think about your grocery shopping list...

"Nobody wants fast food on Thanksgiving. Everybody wants 'slow food' for celebrations. Turkeys stuffed with sage dressing, seasoned with herbs, carrots, onions, and celery, baked sweet potatoes, real mashed potatoes, gravy made from the broth from the turkey, and home-made pies and rolls. That is a Thanksgiving dinner. It’s not cheap fast food sandwiches made with mystery meats and industrial chemicals.

"The Slow Food movement is at the vanguard of the next big thing in food. It rejects the tasteless, anonymous, homogenized, and industrialized flavors dished up by the modern agribidness system. It embraces real food — meals prepared from basic ingredients that originate in local farms with stories and histories and are distributed via local 'Value Chains' where every stakeholder benefits and receives a fair price for their contribution to the final result. Read Bob's whole article...

As the fall season progresses, so does the great debate: To rake leaves, or not to rake leaves. At stake are tons of leaves filling up municipal landfills. Which explains why some folks, like Anchorage, Alaska garden writer Jeff Lowenfels, say you should leave your leaves on the lawn.  (Try saying that after a couple beers!). Then again, if you let them pile up on your lawn, will they kill the grass? Listen and decide for yourself... But first, subscribe to our podcast feed so you can open the attachment below, or simply click here to listen to the mp3 audio file.

In the national debate hurricane Katrina has triggered over emergency preparedness, one element shouldn�t be overlooked, experts say: the availability of food, set aside by government authorities as well as individuals and families. Unfortunately, few communities and households have more than a couple day�s worth of food stockpiled. [What is YOUR state doing?]   more »