iowisota

My beloved American elm tree has Dutch elm disease. It is just a baby, but it is a clone of the big elm that grew behind the old farmhouse. Of course I am sad, but I also have a morbid curiosity about what is going to happen to this tree. Because there is so much more to the story… (play ripple-sounding music in your head, going back in time…) Some of you know that I spent my career with the USDA Forest Service as a forest pathologist. I spent my days (and some nights!) trying to figure out...

Today as I write, it is a humid 96 degrees outside, one of the quintessential “dog days of summer”. In the far reaches of my memory, a step outdoors takes me back decades to running barefoot through the sprinkler, eating frozen popsicles, and dreading the imminent return to school. The song of the cicadas reminds me that these days will not last for long. The “Dog Days of Summer” are traditionally the 40 days from July 3 to August 11 when the Dog Star, Sirius, rises and sets with the sun,...

We usually think of being “disturbed” as a bad thing, but perhaps I should differentiate between disturbance as a mental state vs ecological disturbance in nature. Many of my favorite foraged plants grow in places that are disturbed. I’ve touched on ecological disturbance in some of my other recent blogs, so I’ll keep today’s note brief. But there are so many tasty “weeds” out there right now because of disturbance, I must say a few words about them! Often our garden weeds originated from...