Blogs
Bacillus thuringiensis
In a recent blog post (https://valleyadvocate.com/blogs/home.cfm?uid=96) I wrote about some of the ferocious worms who compete with me for my corn. I can’t really blame them. All of that biomass must be irresistible. My plants are well over 7 feet tall now and...Tubers
The potato originated in the Andes where thousands of varieties are still cultivated. According to John Roach in “Saving the Potato in its Andean Birthplace” individual farmers may plant hundreds of varieties. This serves as a sort of insurance against...Food security
Like most people I have lots of bad habits. Also like most people I find my own bad habits entirely understandable whereas everyone else’s are deplorable. I don’t make my bed (sorry mom). I’ve always thought it was stupid and continue to. I also am...Ivy, Oak and Jewelweed
A year ago I wrote a blog post arguing that poison ivy should be declared the state plant of Massachusetts. I still feel that way. Poison ivy owes a lot to the big biped invasives. It doesn’t grow very well in shade, though it’s pretty happy with any type...Yardivore
I had a boss several years back who liked to establish arbitrary goals: “let’s have this project all wrapped up by the third week in July.” I imagine he was just trying to motivate me, but he had a tendency to forget assignments once given. Most...A theory on garden disappointment
Guy Clark sings that “there are only two things that money can’t buy….true love and homegrown tomatoes.” I doubt it. Let’s see you buy some giardia. But there’s one thing that comes free with life, and tomatoes: disappointment. In...Coconut
I favor twitter over facebook as I don’t know the majority of the people I follow. Some are puerile, others knowledgeable in areas that I am ignorant (corporate law), some just funny. No one speaks to me directly, so I can ignore it or pay attention as I choose....Chicken Talk
We used to have an earthy, ranch-owning president who was connected with the common man. It was said that you might want to have a beer with him, even though he was a teetotaler. As an effete liberal elite, I never wished to spend time with him, nor did I buy his...Anxiety Dreams
I am not an easy sleeper. I am reminded of a quote attributed to Colin Powell when asked whether he, like his boss, was “sleeping like a baby” on the eve of war. He agreed: “I’m sleeping like a baby, too. Every two hours, I wake up,...Late blight
Phytophthora infestans is no run-of-the-mill plant pathogen. Given the right conditions it can down a field of tomatoes or potatoes in days. That’s what we saw here in 2009. It did much worse to potatoes in Ireland in 1845. Before the mid-1800’s P....West Nile Virus
In the hour around sunset standing on my lanai looking south the sky is filled with birds and bats. Nighthawks, swifts and swallows swirl through the air collecting insects. I don’t like mosquitoes, but I’m sure that they provide a good diet to the birds....The hard way
The elder of our two indigent boarders is a “hard-way” learner. Certain authority-type figures in our household have argued that he comes by this naturally and that I might benefit from “just doing what other people do instead of always trying to...Varmints
One of our indigent boarders has reached an age where he can read. He has taken to reading Captain Underpants graphic novels when he’s not busy working. He works about as much as our cat, so I find these novels strewn throught the house. Most recently I happened...Black Beans!
Last year I grew dry beans for the first time. They tasted great, but in the end I think I netted about two pounds of dirty beans. The boss was not convinced. This year I planted what I thought were bush beans; they grew into pole beans. I’m not sure if I...Beet history
Swiss chard may have been the first plant I grew successfully. I lived in Austin, TX at the time and had started a garden because it seemed like the thing to do. After almost two decades of growing vegetables I look back on my ignorance then and think, “I sure...Peace in the Barnyard
We know now that, accepting the loch ness monster and Todd Akin, there are no dinosaurs left. However, paleontologists agree that birds evolved from dinosaurs. When I watch my chickens I wonder how much their behavior resembles dinosaurs. Did dinosaurs make throaty...Asters and Eating
My ride to work has become much more beautiful in the last few weeks. The leaves are turning of course, but the show that really grabs me goes on a little lower. The fall flowers are bursting out everywhere I look. Little surprises like the white wood asters...Fixers
We all need the most abundant element in the atmosphere, nitrogen. DNA and protein are both chock-a-block with nitrogen. But atmospheric nitrogen, N2, is entirely unusable by multicellular organisms. Animals get their nitrogen from plants (by eating plants or another...A perfect melon.
I’ve read a lot of gardening books and looked at a lot of gardening blogs. The images that are included usually suggest perfect harmony with nature and abundant food production. I tend to doubt that even the superstar small farmers manage to escape the...Frogs vs. plants
Many of our crops must live their lives bracketed by the last frost in the spring and the first frost in the fall. Some years that first frost just coats the plants with icy beards before giving way to another week or two of frost free nights. With the exception of...Garlic: Seasonal syncopation
Around Europeans ruined two continents day we allium lovers of the northeast tuck our garlic in. I plant mine staggered throughout a bed so that each one gets about seven inches in every direction. They do fine that way and as a result I get a whole lot of garlic out...Fungal partners
When Moses bugged out of Egypt with the Israelites, he was in such a rush that they didn’t let their bread rise: they baked it flat. Apparently no one thought to keep a little starter on the side. On Passover Jews commemorate this event by avoiding leavening:...Zombies
The flesh is weak and prone to error. For example, I watch bad TV specifically “The Walking Dead.” Though the characters suffer from a tragic lack of development, many of them are nice to look at and sometimes deliver good lines. I can’t think of any...A Tankard for Gas
Massachusetts apples came in early this year. Apparently warm weather in March and April encouraged an early bloom. For many orchards the harvest was good, it just came at the wrong time. This impacted the pick your own operations as farm tourists aren’t...Sleeping the cold away
The eldest indigent boarder has taken on a job this year. I suppose some might argue that this means he is no longer indigent. When he starts paying rent we’ll talk. At this point he is paid a dollar a week to let the chickens out in the morning and seal the...Nothing Says Home Like a Good Condiment
I rather like one of the duties of keeping indigent boarders: I must read to them before bed. I’ve been told that this fosters good reading habits and helps them to sleep. The latter certainly works for me but seldom works for them. Nodding off during the...Of Opium and Hagfish
Plants furnish humans with all the calories we need either directly or indirectly. We also harvest chemicals from plants to harm others, inebriate us, or keep us awake. An excellent example is the poison ouabain from the Acokanthera shrub. African hunters have long...False Consciousness
I’m having personnel problems. Before I go any further I should point out that I am certainly pro-labor. I don’t wish to align myself with walmart (sic), but my least favorite chicken has effectively gone on strike. Broody has once again decided to brood....Zipper
In our house these days little cat feet don’t bring in the fog as Carl Sandburg suggested. They jump around scaring the other much more dignified cat. They incite games of chase with the indigent boarders. We have taken on a kitten because life had become a...Floating Signfiers
I’m sure that Christmas was a favorite holiday when I was a child. Before the bitter years of high school, Christmas promised joy. During college and my years of bachlerhood Christmas became “the holidays”; a period of little or no work and much...Chestnuts and Dying
One of the most ancient traits distinguishing humans from other animals is that we bury our dead. We’ve done this for a long time, perhaps more than a hundred thousand years. We can never know exactly why our ancestors choose to honor their dead in this...Secret Spinach
Freshly fallen snow covers the earth indiscriminately. So does a patina of filth in a poorly cleaned home. The patina has more of a negative connotation for some reason. Most of us like to think of snow as a lovely warm blanket covering the earth. Oh how comfy and...Quinzee
Quinzee Amongst the under 10 male set in my neighborhood the computer game Minecraft is a big hit at the moment. It follows in the wake of Wizard 101, last month’s his. The game’s conceit, at least as I understand it, is intriguing. You are suddenly in a...Squashing bugs
By the time this article makes it into the pages of The Advocate temperatures will once again have returned to the new normal for January – that is to say not quite cold. At the time of writing though, it is just a bit chilly out . Each morning the chickens...Transitions
Water is an “unusual” substance. Not “unusual” like a thoughtful Republican, or living Dinosaur. Unusual in that it has properties that most other kinds of matter don’t have. The most obvious example is that when water freezes it becomes...Pie Bender
The boss is on something of a pie bender. She’s made an apple pie and a fantastic blueberry pie in the last few weeks. Apparently the eldest boarder mentioned something about liking pie and this set her off. He doesn’t like very many foods. But pie,...Next Year: cancun
“The girls and I have been talking and I think we have a bit of a situation. Whatever this white cold stuff in the run is, it’s not in the least bit entertaining. It’s time to talk about going somewhere a bit warmer until this cold spell passes....A Walk
A few years back one of my neighbors gave Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. I don’t think she was worried about me or my boarders; it’s more likely she was trying to rile me up. I can make quite a spectacle of myself when I get upset. Just ask my...Buyers
We are a people who buy for the world. The Chinese, as a nation, are savers and makers, so their economy needs suckers, I mean consumers, to buy stuff: we fit the bill. Our purchased items stand in for us. Our cars, our houses, and our electronic devices all in some...Seedjitzu
A colleague of mine took some students out to the Montague Plains for a ramble recently. To demonstrate seed dispersal he picked up a pine cone and shook the seeds into his hand. Instead of seeds, he got a handful of springtails. As he tells the story, he didn’t...Nature will out
In a first go at making it in academia I tried graduate school in English. At the time, the mid-nineties, my colleagues liked to embed art in the historical moment along with other texts. The author acted as some sort of filtering conduit for the historical moment....Solar powered kitty
Last month an expert on FoxNews explained why Germany can get so much of its energy from today’s sun, whereas we in the Insatiable States have to get our energy from the sun of millions of years ago. It turns out that it’s always sunny in Germany, just as...Carpe Pascham
Children and some adults love holidays. Curmudgeons like myself find them tiresome. They come a bit too frequently to really count as special occasions; they’re also unmoored from the traditions and cultures that once made holidays meaningful. They are all, of...Control
When we read about the Catholic Church these days, it’s in connection with pedophilia. The whole switch-a-pope thing was trumped up to give them some positive press. Back in the middle ages, though, the Church was at the top of its game. That’s not to say...Onion Update
This year I started my onions at about the same time as last year: in early March, but this spring has been cooler than last. Last year, I put onions in the ground right around the first of April, and harvested lots of big onions that kept us through the winter....Pile 'o hoes
The starlings have begun nesting in the maple tree next door and some robins have hatched up the street, so that’s as springy as I need: time to plant peas. With the exception of the short rows I planted in honor of Easter, peas are the first seeds I sow. If his...Control Redux
Upon looking into last week’s letters at the urging of my esteemed editor, I was excited to read that I had provoked an emotion in one of my readers. Anger, of course wasn’t the emotion I was hoping to provoke, but it will have to do. Unfortunately, I...May Day
I dawdled this morning. I was “working” at home (grading papers), so there was no rush to bike to work. Despite the cool spring I wrote of a few weeks ago, the air and soil have warmed up quite nicely now. I had closed up my cold frame last night because...Grubs
All energy enters the food system through plants. They are the “primary producers.” Everything else depends on their work either directly or indirectly. Cows eat grass and we eat cows. The biomass, that is the total mass of individuals, tends to decrease...Radical Root Radix
Our former commander in chief enjoyed a well-worn phrase more than most. Sometimes he slipped up with his wording: “fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” I’m thinking he didn’t mean to...Symbiosis and signification
Claude Levi-Strauss used “floating signifier” to refer to terms with meaning only in a given cultural context. Derrida of course would argue that all words are floating signifiers. I’m not sure what he means. “Symbiosis” is one such...Peaches on Apple Trees
One of the great aspects of working in a biology lab is the diversity of lab personnel. I have shared bench space with colleagues from Brazil, Korea, China, Taiwan, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bulgaria,...Good Science, Bad Science and Not Science
As I’ve written before in this space, weeds are just plants where we don’t want them. A well-mannered garden plant can become a weed merely by growing in the wrong part of the garden. I shouldn’t complain too much as I enjoy weeding. Therapeutic or...Crushing Beetles
Last winter my wife caught me looking at plant porn. The catalogs are beautiful of course, but it’s the garden design books that really get me excited. It’s true that they encourage an unhealthy fantasy version of what one’s garden will look like....Harry! Adelgids!
In many temperate biological communities trees are the dominant organisms in terms of biomass. That is to say, trees are really big and around here most land should be covered by trees. Trees are also producers. Unlike animals, the so-called 47%, trees produce their...Species
Carolus Linnaeus, an eighteenth century Swedish botanist, promulgated the “binomial” naming system that egg heads use to distinguish species. Linnaeus didn’t dream the system up, but he popularized it through page-turners that he cranked out...Peas Please
The first fruit I harvest each year is usually some sort of edible-pod pea. Lettuce, spinach, chard, and radishes come in earlier, but those are vegetables. Snow peas and sugar snap peas have real star-power in our food. Snow-peas stir fried with rice, onions, eggs,...Beans and cocktails
At some point in the distant future I will be able to sit on a beach and read a book. Right now a day at the beach is more like extreme child-care: if the children aren’t endangering their lives or the lives of others why bother going? In that far distant future...Weeds and the dog days
July breaks the spirit of many gardeners. We fill the garden with seeds and seedlings in late May and June and wait enthusiastically for the first signs of life. In June we harvest greens and early vegetables. The beginning of July usually means fruits: peas, beans,...E-Edition
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