Welcome to the Failing States of America — When I was growing up in the ’70s, a common vision of the dystopian future was a bleak, industrialized landscape where everyone has to wear gas-masks because of pollution. …

Choosing paper over plastic — You can make pots for veggie starts out of newspaper instead of using plastic pots, or peat pots. One of the biggest advantages of paper over plastic is that newspaper pots can be put directly into the ground, so there is much less disturbance to the plant. This makes newspaper…

It’s more economical and is fun besides — I can’t remember where I first heard this recipe, but it was over a decade ago, and it’s still the best one I know of. If you’re doing lots of starts (as in hundreds), this is much more economical than buying bags of potting mix. …

It’s not about drawing a line — I posted an article on social media about a scientists who believe that mushrooms “talk” to each other. Fascinating stuff. In response, someone made this comment to my post: “my son and I were talking about this today… so now that plants, trees, fungi, animals, and so forth all talk…

“Man does not live on tomatoes alone,” to coin a phrase — I originally posted this essay in July, 2019, in response to massive flooding in the US Midwest that had the potential to affect food supplies. I am re-posting it now because food shortages could result from the war in the Ukraine. …

In pursuit of an approach based less on ideology and more on real world dynamics In 1912, Albert Thellung (1881–1928), a Swiss botanist, was one in a long line of people who proposed a taxonomy to differentiate various types of native and non-native plants, and though his system never caught…

It’s BS coming from the Catholic Church, and BS coming from the left — During my Catholic upbringing, one the main messages hammered into my head was, “You’re not good enough.” That’s some cruel sh!t to inflict on a child, and believe you me, the toxic legacy stuck with me for decades. …

There doesn’t seem to be any “here” here — I talked to my biological parents on the phone tonight, and they’re a good barometer of what a particular segment of normal, mainstream people are thinking. They’re Democratic voters who get their news exclusively from corporate media, and never go near anything alternative. Their idea of what’s going on in…

Seeing eye to eye on everything has never been an expectation, or even a wish — In Real Life, I have — and have always had — a wide variety of friends and acquaintances with different lifestyles and views. Seeing eye to eye on everything has never been an expectation, or even a wish. I focus on those qualities of the person that I most appreciate…