“Among the first to document the exuberance of urban ecosystems were casual observers and curious botanists in war-torn Europe in the 1940s. The rubble-strewn cities of World War II, to the astonishment of their inhabitants, very quickly brimmed with plant and animal life. The vegetation that emerged from the debris was totally unexpected, a cornucopia […]
Category Archives: biophilia
Edinburgh Castle rises above craggy heights in the middle of the city, part castle and part palace, the home of Scottish royalty. An ancient hill fort dating to before the seventh century, Edinburgh’s steep cliffs and rocky slopes preclude entry or attack from all but one side. Today the Royal Mile is filled with buildings […]
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” ~ John Muir “We forget that nature itself is one vast miracle transcending the reality of night and nothingness. We forget that each one of us in his personal life repeats that miracle.” ~ Loren Eiseley […]
“For gardeners, this is the season of lists and callow hopefulness: hundreds of thousands of bewitched readers are poring over their catalogues, making lists for their seed and plant orders, and dreaming their dreams,” ~ Katherine S. White, A Romp in the Garden, The New Yorker Magazine Every winter the Nichol’s Garden Catalog arrives to […]
“Wild thing (bam, bam bomp!) You make my heart sing (bam, bam bomp!) You make everything … groovy.” ~ The Troggs My sister reports from San Antonio that she has made friends with a neighborhood possum. She occasionally puts food out for it, mostly leftovers of some kind. Possums are omnivores, so they eat […]
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!” ~ Hamlet by William Shakespeare I’m not sure how I started composting. Maybe it was just a result of not wanting to have stinky things in the trash so I didn’t have to take it out so often. I also dislike the idea of raking up […]
“The idea behind agrivoltaics is simple: use the ‘empty’ space beneath solar panels to grow stuff.” ~ Gabe Allen and Tyler Hickman On the hills above my town, there are some solar panels placed in the grassland. I’ve noticed that in spite of the panels, the shaded areas are full of vegetation that periodically require mowing. […]
“’Taliban farming’ — pointlessly hostile to the natural world … It’s got no food. It’s been flailed within an inch of its life.” ~ Jake Fiennes “I think the tide has gone out on the agricultural system we have. I think that’s over. If you look at where the science is going, we have […]
11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was […]
The last few tomatoes from the summer crop had taken turns ripening slowly on the kitchen counter over the fall. Every year when the first frost comes on, I harvest all the tomatoes, red and green alike and lay them out on the counter. The ripe ones don’t last too long — salads and sandwiches […]
Writes of Nature 