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From the Archives
Archive for March, 2008
Opening Day in Detroit: NOW Spring is Really Here!
Detroit Tigers’ Opening Day is practically a holiday here in the Detroit area. Schools and businesses know to expect a certain amount of absenteeism, and even those who end up going to work or school will somehow be following the game. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, it was practically a guarantee that your teacher would have smuggled a radio in and have it tuned to WJR. The windows would be open, letting in the cool, April air, and you’d get to listen to the great Ernie Harwell (now retired) call the game.
Even if you don’t have tickets to the game, it’s no reason not to play hooky. You can plan for a day at home watching the game on TV. Basically, you can spend all day watching Tigers coverage if you want—the local news this morning was all Tigers, with the anchorpeople dressed in Tigers swag and chirping about gametime weather forecasts, how to make a coney dog, and where to catch shuttles to Comerica Park. You can hang out downtown at the restaurants and outside of the ball park. And everyone looks a little like they’ve just woken up from a long, long winter slumber.
What does any of this have to do with gardening? Very little, except that it means that spring is finally here in Detroit. The weather is finally cooperating as well: it’s going to be 57 degrees here today, with scattered showers in the morning. My daffodils are finally peeking out of the soil, and my crocuses will be blooming in the next few days. I bet I’ll even see a wintersown sprout or two this week.
A sure sign that this is the real first day of spring? My lawn-crazy neighbor was out at 7:00 this morning, raking and overseeding her lawn. Forget the first robin (which I saw yesterday.) Seeing Vera emerge in springtime with rake in hand is a sure sign that winter is over 
As of 1:05 today, I’ll be in springtime bliss, listening to the Tigers game on the radio, writing about gardening, and enjoying the cool, sweet-smelling breeze fluttering in my dining room window. It’s going to be a good day.
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A Compendium of Updates
My garden: Currently buried under three inches of snow.
Wintersowing containers: Not a single sprout yet.
About.com: Today is D-Day—I have to have the site finished by the end of the day today. I have a ton of stuff to do still!
Mouse & Trowel Awards: Keep those nominations coming! We’re going to keep it to three nominees per category. I know it’s hard to pick, but I’m excited about the huge variety of blogs I’m seeing get nominated.
Tomato seedlings: 13 of 16 are up!!
Pregnancy: Sucks. My stomach enters the room a couple seconds before I do. My back is killing me, and I slipped on a toy the other day and pulled a muscle. I’m really, really ready for this baby to get here.
Twitter: Addictive. More on that another time…
Have a great day, everyone! I’ll try to put together a semi-coherent post over the weekend
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Gardenbloggers on Twitter? Anyone?
Okay. I’ve been thinking about starting up with Twitter for a while now, but I keep putting off actually starting an account. Part of me doesn’t get why I’d want to use it, but another part keeps whispering that everyone else seems to be into Twitter, so maybe there’s something to it. I know….if all of my friend decided to jump off a bridge, would I want to do it too? I know, I know. But I’m curious.
I know Carol’s on Twitter. Anyone else? And those of you who use it, do you like it? Is it fun or useful or will it just be yet another thing for me to keep track of?
It feels like I’m one of the few people on the planet who doesn’t use it. I’m just wondering if I’m really missing anything
Update: Okay, I gave in. I’m DetroitWriter on Twitter…..
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And the Winner of the Book Giveaway is….
After a very scientific process in which Sarah picked the winner’s name out of an Easter basket, I’m happy to announce that Kim from A Study in Contrasts is now the lucky winner of a copy of Jeff Gillman’s The Truth About Organic Gardening.
I want to thank everyone who commented—you guys are amazing. And I especially want to thank Jeff for guest posting, and for being absolutely awesome about answering the questions you guys came up with. This was a lot of fun. Hopefully, we can do it again soon
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Jeff Gillman on Organic Dogma
I’m so excited to have Jeff Gillman guest posting here at ITGO today! To give you a little background about Jeff’s post, he asked me what I’d like him to write about. My first thought was “Anything you want! Like I’m gonna tell Jeff Gillman what to write…” but then I read an interview with him from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in which the interviewer asks if there has been any backlash from the organic gardening community, and Jeff states that he doesn’t want to be labeled “anti-organic” (for some reason, the interview is only available for paid subscribers now, otherwise I’d link to it.) Anyway, I asked Jeff if he wanted to expand on that line of thought, and he agreed. Okay, enough from me. Here’s Jeff!
To put it simply I don’t fall in line with the beliefs of hard-core organic enthusiasts. There is an organic dogma and a group of people out there — and I’m not going to name any names — who would have us believe that we’re bad people if we feed our children produce that isn’t organic, if we use any sort of a synthetic pesticide, or if we use any fertilizer that isn’t “organic”. I think that these people have gone way too far and I believe that science does not currently support the notion that all things organic are necessarily good…or even better than conventional. I am a strong proponent of not using chemicals at all, particularly in the garden (and here it’s only appropriate for me to admit that I do use chemicals, though only rarely, in my garden and around my house — most of the chemicals that I use are synthetic). After all, pesticides are poisons and so it isn’t a good idea to expose
ourselves to them. In a commercial farm or orchard situation I believe that a minimum of chemicals should be used, but in this type of situation it is difficult to avoid using chemicals completely. And the thing is, once you decide to use chemicals the evidence that organic pesticides are necessarily safer than synthetics is weak, sometimes to the point of non-existence and is, in some cases, based largely on the fact that there’s a lack of information about organic pesticides. People will claim that organics have a shorter residual…but the truth is that when you look at the studies that are out there (and there aren’t many because organic pesticides are, for some reason, exempt from residual testing) residuals of organic pesticides can be found on fruits and veggies, same as synthetics. Also, some of the organic pesticides that are used, such as those containing copper, can have residual effects that include making the soil toxic to future plants if they’re over applied because the copper can build up in the soil. Additionally, organic pesticides often need to be applied more often than synthetics which may cause problems. In other words, once pesticides enter the picture the terms organic and synthetic cease to have that much meaning, at least in terms of human and environmental health. We should be basing our decisions about pesticides on how effective and safe for us and the environment they are, not whether they are organic or synthetic. To say that we shouldn’t use pesticides at all in our gardens and awns….that’s something that we should strive for (though it may be a bit idealistic). To say that organic pesticides are usually
a better choice than synthetics….I can live with that. To say organic pesticides are always a better choice than synthetics….that’s just wrong.
So does my calling attention to the problems of organics make me anti-organic? To some people it might. Does my calling attention to the fact that in some cases using a synthetic pesticide or fertilizer might be better for the environment or human health than using an organic one make me anti-organic? Once again, to some people it might. To me it doesn’t. I welcome the role of critic and don’t mind that label at all, but I think that the label anti-organic is overboard, and, to be honest, I fear it because it implies that I’m pro-synthetic. I’m not. Rather I’m pro-do the right thing for us and the environment which rarely includes applying a pesticide at all, especially in a garden setting. I’m pro-keep your plants healthy by using compost, watering properly, and planting the right plant for the right site so you don’t need pesticides. I’m also pro-grow alternate hosts for beneficial insects, grow polycultures, and use a blast of water to wash off aphids. My goal is to help people think critically about what they’re doing, not to attack organics, but undoubtedly some people won’t see it this way, which is unfortunate, but probably inevitable.
*******
Thanks so much Jeff! I want to remind everyone that one lucky commenter will win a copy of The Truth About Organic Gardening. In addition, Jeff told me he’ll be monitoring this post today and answering questions, so this is a great opportunity to pick the brain of someone who truly knows what he’s talking about. Let’s keep him busy, OK?
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