Oh Noes! Kitchen Scraps Cause Global Warming!!

So I'm looking up leeks online, trying to learn a little more about ways to prepare them, when I come upon an "article" about the fact that you can use the dark green parts of the vegetable.  Toward the end, we get a list of reasons to do so, winding up with this:

"Finally, putting this valuable food stock to your benefit means it doesn’t end up in landfills where it becomes a contributor to global warming. "

...What?  
Am I missing something here?  

...How on earth could putting part of a vegetable into the garbage-- and by extension in a landfill-- contribute to global warming?  Does this writer think that (the very natural process of) vegetable matter decaying in/on the earth leads to global warming?  Quick!  Someone gather up all the fallen leaves and withered plants from all the gardens and parks and forests of the world!  Do... something with them, before they start to decay and contribute to global warming!! 

It is possible that s/he meant the gas used to transport the leek trimmings to the landfill would contribute to blah blah blah blah, but that's not what s/he said-- and even so, how much extra gas will a few measly leaves require of the garbage truck?  

I wonder if tossing them on the compost pile causes global warming...

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  ;o)

Garden Notes

I can't remember if I ever wrote an update to my "Things We Learned from the Garden" commentary, but I don't see it in a quick search, so here it is-- for my own benefit.  (I doubt others will find it very interesting...)

More Things We Learned from This Year's Gardening:

--  Seriously, if the chives don't survive the winter, buy more.  They are so convenient and delicious!  Maybe try a few more herbs, too, since those were such a success...

--  The morning glories took a long time to bloom-- maybe because they got such a late start, maybe because they just take a long time, some years.  I'd almost given up hope of them ever blooming-- but then they did!  The three vines that survived the summer bloomed in overlapping succession.  Two of them are still blooming, while the third has mostly shriveled up.  It's looking a little pathetic, actually, and I was thinking that I ought to cut/tear it down, when I noticed that it's covered in seed pods.  I don't know why, but I was under the impression that they wouldn't set seed-- or at that the seeds wouldn't "come true", but the Internet tells me otherwise.  If I remember, I'll try to harvest some of the seeds for next year.  (And I'm sure some will fall to the ground in the process.)  The morning glory vines on the fence did very well.  The one on the corner of the patio cover was ok, but didn't really cover the trellis as much as I'd envisioned.  Instead, it climbed up into a neighboring shrub and took over a shepherd's hook.  (I could've gotten out there and trained it better, but by the time it was getting bigger, I didn't feel like bothering.  Humidity, yuck.) 

--  The surprise performers of the annuals were the vincas.  They took a while to really settle in and grow, but once they did-- wow!  Some of them have outlasted everything else.  The petunias didn't last that long (probably because I wasn't deadheading them correctly), and even the dusty miller, begonias, and marigolds have mostly faded away, but a few of the vincas are still going strong.  Definitely plant more of those, next year-- and give them room to spread out.

--  I think I'd skip the impatiens in favor of more begonias for the shady patio.  The impatiens just didn't perform as well.

--  The dusty miller kind of disappointed me, this year.  I'm not sure what was wrong-- and they were ok--  but not as nice as I'd expected. 

--  The marigolds were pretty great.  I'd plant more of those, and maybe try a few different varieties.  I saved some of the seeds for next year, and a few of the ones I scattered came up this season.  (Of course, they didn't do much, because they came up so late...)  I'll be interested to see if the seeds create nice plants.  (I'm still not completely clear on which things do well from seed and which don't.  I understand some of it, in theory-- hybrids and all that-- but it's not something I feel completely confident about.  No harm in trying, though.  Nothing to lose but a very little time and effort.)

--  The cleome were wonderful-- flowered and made a ton of seed.  I saved some of it in an envelope, but by far most of it was scattered directly into the surrounding soil.  I hope the seeds will take hold for next year.  There's every reason to expect that they will.

--  Try not to overdo the plants in pots.  It seems easier to begin with, but it ends up being more work when you have to water things so often.  On the patio, fine.  In the "septic tank" bed, yes.  Out in the flowerbeds, no. 

--  Maybe put something hardy (i.e. doesn't need watering very often) by the front door.  We never use that entrance, so it's easy to forget, but it might look nicer with something green in that corner... Possibly a few pots of aloe-- maybe one or two on a plant stand, with something decorative (a "welcome" sign? a wreath?) on the empty wall... I divided/re-potted the aloe this year, and there's a ton of it, now.  ...And I know from past torture sessions, ahem, "seasons when I forgot that it existed" that it can live for months and months and months on the back porch without watering, so it might do well on the front stoop, too.  (The main difference would be morning sun instead of afternoon...)

~Wailing & Choking Sobs~

Oh nooooooo!

How did I forget the most innocent victim of this whole government shutdown debacle?!

MICHELLE OBAMA'S KITCHEN GARDEN IS DYING!!!!!

(Warning:  That blog post is not for the weak-of-heart... or stomach!)

In the eleven days since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, the pounds and pounds of ripe organic bounty have gone to waste.  The vegetables filling the 1,500 square-foot plot are now rotting away on the vines and in the boxed beds, thanks to the mandate for "minimal maintenance" placed on the skeletal crew of National Park Service gardeners who remain on duty at 1600 Penn.  

The gardeners are not allowed to harvest the crops, a White House source told Obama Foodorama.  Weeds are springing up everywhere, and the vegetables that have already fallen off the vines are now mouldering on the ground.

There are also mushrooms popping up inside and outside the garden beds, and leaf litter raining from the trees like confetti.  The wildlife that lives on the historic 18-acre campus--including a newly arrived fox now making a home at the White House--are having a field day. 

 Oh, my heart!  The pounds and pounds of ripe organic bounty!  GONE TO WASTE!!!

Until the Congressional showdown ends, there will be no happy little helpers joining Mrs. Obama to pluck the artichoke, okra, sweet potatoes, lettuces, squash, tomatoes, peppers, kale, carrots, rhutabaga, garlic, cabbage, exotic herbs, Swiss chard, collard and mustard greens, spinach, garlic, turnips, jalapeno and chili peppers that are now growing amok.   

 No no no no no...  No happy little helpers to pluck the artichoke... ~sniffle~ ...the kale... ~whimper~ ...the exotic herbs!  ~racking sobs of the wretched~

I-- I don't think I can go on reading.  It's too much for my poor nerves.  -- But I must.  For the Kitchen Garden's sake!

The sweet potatoes--a favorite of President Barack Obama's [emphasis entirely theirs], according to the First Lady--are especially abundant this autumn, said garden mastermind Kass before he was furloughed.   Mrs. Obama has proudly displayed four-pounders at past harvests, but this year's orange behemoths remain in the ground as worm food.

It can't be true.  His Majesty's own favorite-- left in the ground as worm food?!  I can't believe it!  I won't believe it!  I refuse to believe it!  (Well, I guess they'll just buy them from the Super-Exclusive Way-Overpriced All-Organic-All-the-Time Farmer's Market, instead.  No biggie.)

 There's a heart-rending photo of "lemongrass with white basil"... And then one of "a happy squirrel" shamelessly devouring his ill-gotten gains that nearly turned my stomach...  

Why couldn't someone have done something about this?  Prevented this horror?  Like... spend half an hour picking the vegetables every day or two?  ...Maybe even Michelle Obama, since it's "her" garden?  Or the first kids?  I know that We and They are not quite the same-- but lots of commoners set chores for their children-- light housecleaning or yard work.  Asking them to pick a few vegetables doesn't seem beyond the pale.  

...No.  What am I saying?  Ridiculous idea!
 

So, so true.

“The older I get, and the more I see of human beings, the more I understand why some people love their dogs so much.”    
--Thomas Sowell

Human Reaction

Charming story:

EBT benefit card glitch sparks Walmart shopping sprees in Louisiana.

KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather

The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system allows recipients of government food stamps to purchase goods using a digital card with a set spending limit, but for a few hours over the weekend, that limit disappeared for many users visiting Walmart stores in Louisiana.

[Then word got out, apparently, and the "shopping spree" began.]

. . .

Walmart workers phoned their corporate headquarters to ask how they should handle all the shoppers with unlimited, government-funded spending limits, and were told to keep the registers ringing.

. . .

Amateur video taken on shoppers' cell phones shows dozens of shopping carts, piled high with merchandise, abandoned in the aisles of one Walmart after the announcement was made that EBT cards were once again showing accurate spending limits.

Police spokesmen in both locations told KSLA that no arrests were made during the spending sprees.

Shoppers gave mixed reactions to the incident, with one man in the Springhill store told KSLA it was simply "human reaction" to stock-up when given the opportunity. Shopper Stan Garcia was more critical of the unscrupulous shoppers, however, saying that taking advantage of the brief glitch in the benefits system amounted to "plain theft. That's stealing, that's all I got to say about it."

"Simply 'human reaction' to stock-up when given the opportunity."  By this logic, I guess it's also simply "human reaction" to thieve, rape, and murder if opportunity and desire coincide?

The people who went on the "shopping sprees" are disgustingly poor examples of human beings-- but I have only marginally less scorn for those who would go out of their way to excuse such behavior.