We Baby Boomers may not be called the “greatest generation”—that’s you, Mom and Dad!—but we certainly are the biggest. A veritable demographic juggernaut, the generation of Americans born between 1946 and 1964 is proceeding into post-middle age. On January 1st, 2011, the oldest Baby Boomers celebrated their 65th birthday. On every day since, and every […]
At this time of year, just as my thoughts turn to Easter, I think of gardening, and as soon as I think of gardening, I’m reminded of Easter, and then I’m back to gardening, and then back to Easter, and so forth. If my toing and froing sounds like spring fever, well, it is. After […]
Metaphors bloom all around us as Spring approaches. It occurs to me how frequently gardening and agricultural images spring up in the language of business. Just the other day I read a headline on the Wall Street Journal site that Berkshire Hathaway and partners will “Plow $4 Billion into Copper Mines.” Keep your hand on […]
Most of the country has had a mild winter this year. This often means more insects and pests during the growing season. Maybe as a harbinger, a brown marmorated stink bug has been seen already at Fordhook Farm, home of W. Atlee Burpee. I think that we in temperate climates (most of North America) are […]
If you’re like most people, you missed the release in late January of the USDA’s new plant hardiness zone map. You probably didn’t even know an update was in the works. This new version replaces the 1990 release, and that one replaced the 1965 and 1960 releases. The plant hardiness zone map is probably most […]
Long before the ancestors of modern flowering plants diverged from their ancestors, ancient plants developed means that allowed them to tell time by the Sun, to sense the lengths of day and night. This told them when to grow and when to flower and when to rest. At that time, the climate was much warmer, […]
The value of a college or university education is a frequent topic in today’s news. “Is higher education worth the cost?” “Is higher education worth any cost?” Much jargon is used in these discussions. Words like “formation” and “socialization”. (Is “deformation” a result of a lack of “formal” education? Are uneducated people “anti-social”?) Often I […]
I have a good Argentinean friend who was a wife of a top executive of a major, multinational industrial company. She also has great taste. Once, many years ago, she and her husband spent several days as a guest of a wealthy client of her husband’s company at his home in Martinique, a former French […]
The great thing about reaching middle age in our current society is that one does so, more or less, healthy. Until very recently in the history of civilizations, middle age did not exist for most people. Of course, health includes mental health – the most important of all. In my case I am lucky to […]
Last summer I became sandwiched between two political issues that appear sympathetic, but on close scrutiny show a profound and dissonant contradiction deep in the fertile soil of community gardening. Recently, First Lady Michelle Obama boldly proclaimed that the urban poor were at serious risk of deprivation of fresh produce. The so called “food deserts” […]
