IN OTHER NEWS...

            Ted Danson’s written a book. This surprises me because I’ve watched “celebrities” compete on Jeopardy! The average IQ equivalent of those contestants—minus a few outstanding exceptions—seems to hover somewhere between “chicken” and “toadstool.” What they don’t know about history, geography, science, spelling, math, current events, puns and making connections beggars belief.

            Be that as it may. Ted is hitting the book-tour circuit with Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them. Along with co-writer Michael D’Orso, Danson aims to raise public consciousness about the deteriorating condition of the world’s oceans and to illuminate both international policy changes and actions individuals can take to reverse the damage. About time someone high-profile raised the hue and cry, I’d say, given the chilling statistics enumerated in Organic Gardening's review (in the August-September 2011 issue). Here’s a sampling:

1.      Shark populations have decreased by 90% since 1950;

2.      Commercial catches are decreasing by 500,000 tons per year;

3.      Data suggest widespread coral-reef death by the end of this century;

4.      The ultimate effects of massive crude oil spills are unknown, and only beginning to be felt;

5.      Increased atmospheric CO₂, due to escalating use of fossil fuels, have raised the oceans’ acidity levels by 30% since the Industrial Revolution.

I knew the Luddites were on to something.

The situation is dire. Calcium atoms can’t bind together at high acid concentrations, threatening the existence of the bottom of the food chain—corals, krill, sea snails and pteropods. At the top end, pollution and commercial overfishing have brought many species of fish and crustaceans to near-collapse. And then there are those huge rafts of garbage (thrown out any plastic bags today?) floating around in every ocean.

Like the contretemps over causes of global warming, the looming catastrophe has its naysayers. Smoke without fire remains the exception, not the rule, however. An international colloquium of marine scientists meeting in Oxford, England, in June released a report stating the pace and magnitude of degradation and its negative impacts far exceed earlier predictions. According to The Independent, the group warned that the wheels of a “globally significant extinction may have already begun” to turn.

In a comparison with five previous mass-extinction events, the fatal combination of factors—a period of global warming associated with rising acidity and falling oxygen levels in seawater—matches those present today, leading the panel to conclude “…that a new extinction event [is] inevitable if the current trajectory of damage continues.”  

Think it doesn’t matter? Think it’s all hot air and hyperbole? Then consider this: more than a billion people worldwide depend on fish for animal protein. That’s one in seven of us. Hundreds of millions take their livings from the sea in a $100-billion-dollar-a-year industry. Those in the coastal tourism business might want to sit up and take notice, too. Who wants to vacation at a beach befouled by tarballs and dead sealife?

Oceana leavens its tsunami of grim statistics with solutions, suggesting things all of us can do to halt—maybe even reverse—the destruction. Check out the chart for ten actions you can take today for healthier seas tomorrow. (If you can’t read the fine print, go to www.oceanconservancy.org and click on Trash-Free Seas.)

Every one of us relies on the oceans, for food, for clean air, for climate regulation. If it takes Ted Danson to get your attention, so be it.

*****

Let’s bring this difficult-to-digest imminent global disaster down to the level of our back yards. A major source of ocean pollution is the nutrient-laden chemical runoff from agricultural lands. Yes, that includes all the stuff you spray and sprinkle around your own little garden.

There’s some good news to report on this front, and it bolsters my adamant support of soil building. (See the “Food for Thought” posts of 20 and 24 February.) After finally figuring out that not all that’s interesting about plants happens above ground and with the help of advanced technology, horticulturists have started studying roots and their relation to their environment, i.e., dirt. Because “dirtology” lacks a certain je ne sais quoi, they call this “new” area of endeavor “rhizosphere science.”

Regardless of what it’s named, the dirtologists have given a scientific imprimatur to what organic gardeners intuited all along: not only is routine supplemental fertilization unnecessary, it actually impedes the quotidian miracles occurring underground. Left to their own devices, plants roots do a lot more than support superstructures and absorb water and nutrients. By producing an array of chemicals called exudates, roots assemble and direct microbial combinations one researcher says are as individual as fingerprints. In addition to marshaling forces to optimize nutrient gathering and pathogen control, root exudates alter the chemistry of the soil and play a managerial role in plant-to-plant interactions.

Harsh Bais

This last bit fascinates me. In her article in April 2011’s GardenDesign, Michele Owens explains how some roots aggressively wrest resources from competitors by manufacturing chemicals that weaken or kill their neighbors in a process called allelopathy (a really neat word to speak aloud: al-ee-LOP-uh-thee). In other, less hostile exchanges, certain plants, when under attack from pests, exude compounds that encourage other plants to come to the rescue. Rhizosphere biologist Harsh Bais of the University of Delaware studied a species of mustard that recognizes members of its family through its exudates. It then limits its own root growth so that the whole clan can comfortably share a garden plot, a behavior Bais finds “bizarre.” Bizarre, maybe. Cool, definitely.

(Bais’ research also solves the long-standing mystery of the Oakleaf Hydrangea Phenomenon—on two separate occasions, every other one of a line of oakleaf hydrangeas Tim and I planted died, despite identical installation, and light, water and fertilization conditions. “You can walk into Home Depot,” he told Michele Owens, “pick out two similar plants, same genus and species, but coming from different maternal lines. Plant them together; one will outcompete the other. You’ll assume you have one weird plant and blame the nursery.” Eureka!)

The bottom line (ha-ha) of the complex machinations of the rhizosphere comes down to that old organic/sustainable gardening dictum: feed the soil, not the plants. All gardeners need do to encourage healthy and diverse microbiota in their soil is to routinely add organic matter—either compost, or carbon-based mulch, or compost teas, or cover crops—instead of chemical granules or solutions. And put your tiller in storage. Tilling destroys soil communities and tears up the fungal networks necessary to plant nutrition and health. It’s safer, it’s easier, it’s cheaper, it’s a boon to the oceans and the environment as a whole. It’s a no-brainer.

*****

Don’t buy into that ridiculous ploy by the plastics industry in defense of its most indefensible product, that reusable bags aren’t as “sanitary” as their noxious one-use product. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t remember the last time I licked or ate off the inside of a grocery bag.

Thanks for dropping by.

                                                                         Kathy

A BLOGGING CRISIS / COMPOST CONCERNS

            “INERTIA: 1. Physics: the tendency of matter to remain at rest if at rest, or, if moving, to keep moving in the same direction, unless affected by some outside force. 2. A tendency to remain in a fixed condition without change; a disinclination to move or act.”

                                     Webster’s New World College Dictionary

*****

...from a member-no-more

            The Garden Writers of America sends me a batch of news briefs every other week or so. Apparently they think I’m still a member, even though I haven’t paid dues since 2009. I quit because the organization’s newsletter, Quill and Trowel, showcases such dreadful writing. When I objected to Belgium’s city of Ghent being spelled “Gent”—five times in one paragraph—the editorial reply was that’s how it’s spelled in Flemish. I apologized for my lack of fluency in obscure European languages and resolved to never send GWA another farthing.

Anyway. The news briefs are heavy on social media updates, suggestions for boosting one’s income via Facebook and Twitter, the continuing flaps over copyrights vis-á-vis e-books and the death of conventional publishing, nifty software for those who don’t have the time or desire to learn how to write, and various bloggers’ takes on how to write more effectively.  More often than not, I scan the headlines then delete the whole thing. Once in a while, however, I read a whole piece.

A recent article about the saturation of the blogosphere and its attendant diminishing returns grabbed my attention. There are in excess of a million bloggers out there, it said, all screaming for somebody, anybody, to pay attention to them. Tim, for example, follows three or four painters’ blogs. Some mornings he spends more than an hour clicking the “Next blog” tab, which takes him to some awful places. Once he ended up on a site promoting an astoundingly self-involved “artiste” who would be staging the imminent birth of her child (the poor, poor thing) as an art installation at the same gallery where she re-enacted the loss of her virginity—as an art installation. (Who attends these things?) Having twice given birth myself, I can testify there’s nothing remotely artsy about it. It’s bloody, it hurts, it’s not the bit least dignified for the two principal participants, and is an intensely private matter allegedly focused on the safe delivery of a healthy child. Does that fit any sane person’s description of a work of "art"?

Be that as it may. There have to be tens of thousands of gardening blogs competing for readers. Some are quite popular, like Garden Rant, although, to my knowledge, none of those ladies have felt it necessary to air their most private linen so far. Gardening Gone Wild, a blog I actually follow, seems to be by garden writers for garden writers: unfortunately, the writing’s not that great. Most, I’ve found, want to sell you something, or to get a cut of anything you buy that you saw advertised on their sites. In general, the actual writing seems to be ancillary.

This distresses me. I’m toying with the idea of throwing in the blog-towel.

*****

Sorry about the extended hiatus. I wrote the above for an October 10 post, immediately following which a serious bout of inertia settled in. In case you were wondering, that’s where I’ve been.

In the interim, I collected some interesting news about commercial compost to share.

Ever wonder what’s really in that bag of compost you picked up at Lowe’s or Home Depot? Not to worry—the U.S. Composting Council is on the case. Their Consumer Compost Use Program has designed “easily interpreted icons… reflect[ing] the compost’s use (or uses).” The catch is, only compost producers participating in the voluntary Seal of Testing Assurance program (STA) can incorporate the symbols reproduced below into their packaging and literature.

Consumer Compost Use STA labels

Still, I wonder: since compost adds organic matter to the soil, what difference does it make if you spread it around trees and shrubs, flower and vegetable gardens, or lawns? I guess the safest approach would be to seek out products labeled for all three. For people in my neighborhood, the Composting Council website’s locator map lists Seaside Mulch of Wilmington and Castle Hayne, NC, and Conway, SC, as the closest local source of STA-certified material.

Click on this link
for the dirt on
industrial sludge

Predictably, not all compost products are created equal. Recycled industrial sludge, like Milorganite, may contain unacceptable levels of heavy metals (although it’s better now than it used to be). Some manure products may come from animals fed genetically modified grains and shot full of antibiotics and growth hormones during their brief and nasty concentrated-animal-feedlot lives. Community composting operations can be contaminated by pesticides used on lawns and ornamentals. It’s enough to push you into making your own.

Exhibit A

Which brings us to the kerfuffle over DuPont’s latest entry in the herbicide market, Imprelis. A broadleaf post-emergent formulation labeled for use on turf grasses, Imprelis’ active ingredient kills plants by messing with their hormones, and belongs to a growth-regulating class of pesticides called pyridines. Because plants and animals have different hormones, the EPA rates them safe for ingestion by livestock.

Organic Gardening illustration
worth a thousand words 

That’s scary enough, but it gets worse. Pyridines persist for an extremely long time in the environment. An article by Dan Sullivan in 2011's October/November issue of Organic Gardening cites an Ohio State University study that found when grass treated with Imprelis was composted for 200 days, the chemical only degraded by 60%, “with plenty of the active ingredient remaining to do damage to susceptible [shallow-rooted] crop plants—including beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes.”

Countering with a move cementing their unshakeable belief in personal profit over ethics and the environment, DuPont and the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company announced plans to develop and market a combination lawn fertilizer/Imprelis-type herbicide to homeowners (pyridine-based products are only available to licensed pesticide applicators at present). So there.

In July, parties in Pennsylvania and Indiana filed a class-action lawsuit against the “Better Living Through Chemistry” company, charging negligence or recklessness in rushing its latest herbicide to market. The plaintiffs contend Imprelis-contaminated compost is killing trees, shrubs and perennials across the nation. According to the July 19, 2011 New York Times, DuPont responded by professing confidence “… that this purported class-action lawsuit is unfounded," and to "oppose it vigorously.”

 What evil lurks inside this
community compost pile?

By August, as reports of Imprelis-related dead and dying landscape plants multiplied geometrically, corporate bravado wavered. DuPont issued a voluntary recall of the herbicide to its distributors and turf managers. The notice expressed regret for the damages Imprelis “may” have caused and promised to “… promptly and fairly resolve problems associated with our product.”

Still, contaminated grass clippings and dead plants continue to enter the compost stream, raising red flags at agricultural agencies. Plus, there is no indication DuPont plans to stop marketing its four other pyridine-based products (Perspective, Plainview, Streamline and Viewpoint).

Dan Sullivan ends his Organic Gardening article on this note: “ ‘The industry’s rush to put products on the market before they are thoroughly tested has often resulted in unanticipated disaster,’ states Eric Vinje, founder of the gardening supply company PlanetNatural. ‘As with similar products, there are no “safe application” standards; no way to keep these products from moving beyond their point of application.’ Other than not using them in the first place.”

My advice to you? Make your own compost from material you know the provenance of, or seek out STA products. Find out exactly what your lawn guy’s putting on your grass, and ask him to stop if it contains pyridine. Or ask him to stop applying chemicals, full stop. There are worse things in life than lawn weeds.

Thanks for your patience while I wallowed in inertia, and for dropping by now. See you in a week or so.

                                                                                    Kathy