Blog – Page 190 – Ellis Hollow

Saint Francis was right

st francis

Interesting article in this morning’s Washingon Post: If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural. It’s about some neuroscience studies conduted at the National Institutes of Health and their implications on moral behavior:

The results were showing that when the volunteers placed the interests of others before their own, the generosity activated a primitive part of the brain that usually lights up in response to food or sex. Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable.

Their 2006 finding that unselfishness can feel good lends scientific support to the admonitions of spiritual leaders such as Saint Francis of Assisi, who said, “For it is in giving that we receive.” …

The research enterprise has been viewed with interest by philosophers and theologians, but already some worry that it raises troubling questions. Reducing morality and immorality to brain chemistry — rather than free will — might diminish the importance of personal responsibility. Even more important, some wonder whether the very idea of morality is somehow degraded if it turns out to be just another evolutionary tool that nature uses to help species survive and propagate.

Read the whole thing.

Between work, gardening and holiday festivities, it’s been hard to find time to blog. Will start sorting through pictures tonight and be back in action soon.

Thanks Charles!

Believe me, a gift certificate goes at lot farther at the Ithaca Agway than it does in Boston — or even Springfield, for that matter. The colors in this image aren’t great. The large pots are a very subtle lavender. (Nana would approve.) I may even get them planted today if the rain winds down. Will post more pix when they’re planted.

More on organic bees

bees on hellebore Colony collapse disorder (CCD) continues to get ink all over. This morning, there was a recommended diary on DailyKos pointing to this article in the Organic Consumer Association newsletter. Shorter version: Pushing for larger bees encourages varroa mites. Conventional treatments for the mites and other stresses lead to collapse.

In another story, WVU professor helps develop techniques to reduce threat against honeybees, a West Virginia University apiculturist touts a program to bolster hives that includes lemongrass, spearmint, wintergreen and formic acid.

Sounds refreshing.

Motherplants: Where green roofs are born

The mother plants at Motherplants (above) and demo dog house (right).

This morning, I stopped by Motherplants — a woman-owned nursery specializing in plants for green roofs. Marguerite, a friend and co-worker, is one of the operation’s principals, and I’ve been having her save up some ‘seconds’ for me for my Mudman project. (More on that later.)

The business is thriving. Marguerite is propagating and growing for projects small (the dog houses are for demo purposes) and large (one order for 18,000 square feet is keeping her hopping) from Alabama to Manhattan. But the nice thing about growing plants for living roofs is that they thrive on neglect. If being a little late to ventilate the greenhouse is going to kill your plants, you probably aren’t growing the right plants for the stressful conditions they’re going to encounter later in life.

Motherplants’ plant list includes nearly 50 sedums and a couple dozen other species, including Armeria, Delosperma, Dianthus, Festuca, Opuntia, Sempervivum, Thymus and more.

Motherplants’ primary product has been flats of plugs. But more and more they’re custom planting modules that are installed directly on the roof, eliminating transplanting on-site. Another twist along these lines is the living wall unit Marguerite is holding (right). The planting cells are angled slightly to help retain the media.

Plant ’em. Grow ’em. Hang ’em. Nothing to it.

Mother plant pad

Demo dog houses

Caltha palustris, lone apple

About 6 of our 7 acres (here’s an aerial view) is pretty scrubby woodland. I suspect that it was once apple orchard and/or pasture on pretty poor soils that were further compacted and depleted for 100 years or so of use and abuse. (Our house dates to 1863, and there was also a small cheese factory on the site.)

With the lousy soils, disturbance and heavy deer populations, there isn’t much exciting going on plant-wise out in the woods. But along the small stream and wetland that define the south edge of our yard, there is a great showing of Caltha palustris, aka marsh marigold or kingcup. (palustris = of the marsh.)

It’s not rare. You can find it in wet areas across northern North America, Europe, Russia and Asia. It’s poisonous and a skin irritant, so the deer leave it alone. Here’s a nice botanical drawing from 1885 and a double-flowered variety from a co-workers garden. The photo is fuzzy, but it’s a spectacular plant.

There’s a little bit of high ground that extends into the wetland, where there’s more grass than cattails. Growing out of that high spot is what I call the lone crabapple, but I suspect that it’s a seedling from one of the trees that formerly dotted the property, maybe with some cider apple lineage in it. There is one huge (30-foot-tall) ancient apple tree on the edge of the wood that looks dead in winter but leafs out every spring. It’s flowering profusely this spring. When it does manage to produce a few fruits, they are white-skinned, usually with a little green algae-like cast to them.

Anyway, the lone crab is on an alternate-year flowering schedule. This year is its year and it’s covered with flowers. On off years, there’s a mirror image of it flowering 200 yards away to the west on the other side of the main wetland. You can see it from the kitchen and bathroom windows. It couldn’t be better placed, though I would never have thought to put it there.

The flowers close up.