Author: Al Skoropa

We should not be plowing, tilling, fertilizing, or spraying. We should not see any bare soil between crops, and there are no such things as weeds. In fact, almost all our farming practices we’ve adopted since we hitched an animal team to a plow have done far more damage than we might realize. Before we… [Read More]

I call it “Zoop,” fertilizer from the plethora of exotic animals that poop daily at your local zoo. You can imagine collecting, transporting and disposing tons of daily waste represents a fairly large zoological capital expense. Is waste management of this scope a subject for budding zookeepers to study in college? The care and feeding… [Read More]

And what is that scent after an early Summer rain? Short answer:  the scientists call it Petrichor.  The internet definition: a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather….and there’s a much more interesting, albeit a bit longer, answer. Rain is one of the most beautiful, and… [Read More]

Saturday morning and it’s off to the garden center for topsoil to get the planting started.   Go ahead, pick out a likely bag from the selection. After all, you’re a gardener and you know your dirt. In grabbing a handful of topsoil, what sort of rating process do you apply? For example, does it look… [Read More]