Meta – Page 13 – Ellis Hollow

Botanical illustration, organic gardening distance learning courses

First, my usual disclaimer: I work in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, the sponsor of these courses.

Introduction to Botanical Illustration
Course starts Jan. 19.

If you’ve ever wanted to become proficient at illustrating what you see in your garden, this 6-week online course will teach you the basics of rendering plants in pencil and ink.

The instructor, my friend and co-worker Marcia Eames Sheavly, is an accomplished artist who also teaches our popular Art of Horticulture course, recently featured by Julie over at The Human Flower Project.

More info about the course. | View the full syllabus.

Organic gardening
Course starts Jan. 5

This course is designed to help experienced gardeners broaden their understanding of organic techniques for all kinds of gardens. It covers one topic during each of the 8 weeks, including vegetables, fruits, flowers and ornamentals, and lawns, stresses soil health and its impact on plant health, and explores tried-and-true and cutting-edge techniques. The course leader is Marguerite Wells, a hands-on horticulturist if there ever was one, and the proprietor of Mother Plants, a green-roof plant supplier.

More info and course registration.

Marguerite also teaches an online plant propagation course that is currently in session. If you want to be notified of upcoming courses, visit the Cornell Department of Horticulture’s distance learning courses website.

Fred’s new coat

fred's new coat'

We call Fred our ‘cotton dog’. (Jade, our border collie-lab mix is the ‘wool dog’.) Getting Fred to outside in winter has always been an issue. So with the January-in-November we’re having now, we splurged and bought him a coat.

He likes it more than he lets on.

The Silent Scream of the Asparagus

Get ready for ‘plant rights,’ from the Weekly Standard.

You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the “dignity” of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called “plant rights” is being seriously debated. …

The committee offered this illustration: A farmer mows his field (apparently an acceptable action, perhaps because the hay is intended to feed the farmer’s herd–the report doesn’t say). But then, while walking home, he casually “decapitates” some wildflowers with his scythe. The panel decries this act as immoral, though its members can’t agree why.

Read the whole article…

I missed this when it came out last spring. Hat tip to Stephen Colbert, who mentioned it in his ‘Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger’ segment last night.

Saturday funnies: Computer menace (Colbert)

Caught up on last week’s Colbert Reports while folding laundry this morning. HAL 9000. Soft-focus computer porn. Funny.

Richard Louv talk online

If you missed last week’s talk by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, it was a really good one. It’s now available online.

Louv, chairman of the Children & Nature Network, columnist, & recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal will spoke on Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder as part of the Cornell Plantations lecture series.