News garden 2008-08-10 Andanh.com

EARTH EDUCATION: Sunny days are here again
It's another perfect sunny day in Chapel Hill. I hear it might rain later on, but for now, everything is bright and the temperature is ideal. It was a lovely day to be outside.

Black campers recruit against history, stereotype
The throngs filling campgrounds across America this weekend will include hardy outdoors types and those who prefer creature comforts, but they'll have at least one important thing in common: Nearly all of them are white.

EARTH EDUCATION: Friends and changes of plan
A couple of my friends came to visit this weekend. I've known Leslie since the first few days of our freshman year at college, and she met her husband Matt that same year, so we've all known each other for quite a long time. They're living in Richmond now with their two little boys, and Leslie put in a garden this year too. She's the one who suggested planting radishes when my peas and carrots failed. We spent some time in my little garden; Matt pulled up a big stubborn root, and their three-year-old proved to be an adept and helpful weeder. Leslie also tipped me off about pinching the "suckers" from my tomato plants so they can put more effort into tomato growing.

EARTH EDUCATION: Heat, bugs and radishes
Summer has come to the South. June began, and a couple of days later, right on cue, the temperature shot into the high 90s. It's been hovering near 100 for the last few days, with all the lovely humidity that accompanies a Southeastern summer. I spent a little time weeding this morning and had to bring a towel out to mop myself off.

National meeting of park officials draws fire
Leaders of the National Park Service will gather next month at a private resort in the Utah mountains for a summit meeting that some career officials say feels more like a $1 million exercise in political promotion.

EARTH EDUCATION: (Crickets.)
I've been twiddling my thumbs and checking my email for the last half-hour, wondering what I'm going to write about this week. The "Untitled - Notepad" button on the bottom of my screen finally got too accusatory. So now I'm writing about how I have nothing to write about.

Grand Teton marks biggest addition since 1950
The Rockefeller family and National Park Service this weekend will quietly mark the single largest expansion of Grand Teton National Park since 1950 - the donation of nearly two square miles of property at the park's south end.

EARTH EDUCATION: Larceny
I have been robbed.

EARTH EDUCATION: I bet Peter Pan didn't grow tomatoes
We had three thunderstorms over the weekend. The one on Friday uprooted trees all over town, including one at the entrance to my neighborhood that took out an entire utility pole, along with our electricity. Given the circumstances, I should be grateful that my plants just blew over, instead of being scattered across the next county.

Park Service seeks to reach changing population
She'd spent a lifetime less than an hour's drive away, but it had never crossed Joquetta Johnson's mind to visit Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. What, she wondered when a friend suggested it, could a park in rural, lily-white West Virginia hold for a black teacher from Baltimore?

EARTH EDUCATION: On stakes and customer service
One thing that's nagged at me a bit since I started my garden is that I've gotten most of my supplies at big-box stores. My tomatoes, peppers and herbs came from the farmers' market, but the supplies I've gotten since - stakes, pest control, fertilizer - I've gotten at either Lowe's or Home Depot.

EARTH EDUCATION: In which I actually eat my produce
My tomatoes are growing back, and my peppers have sprung forth and begun to grow. I am slightly in awe of one of my tomato plants, which is now about seven feet tall and looks to be bearing well. Nothing is ripe yet, however, and the radishes didn't develop, so I haven't been able to eat any of my vegetables.

Falling rock kills climber on Oregon's Mount Hood
A 55-year-old physician who had scaled Mount Hood died after being hit by falling rock on his way down, authorities said.

EARTH EDUCATION: Odds and ends
Other places get rain. Just rain. Even the neighborhoods around me can manage to have rain that doesn't litter the streets with debris and bring the local greenery to its knees. Not my neighborhood. No, we always get the hammer of Thor.

At least 9 climbers feared dead on K-2
At least nine climbers were feared dead on K-2, the world's second highest mountain, after an avalanche cut ropes used to cross a treacherous wall of ice, officials and other climbers said Sunday.

11 feared dead after K2 avalanche; 3 men rescued
A helicopter plucked two frostbitten Dutch climbers from K2 on Monday after an avalanche and exposure left at least 11 people presumed dead on the world's second-highest mountain. An Italian who was also stranded made his way down the slope with a rescue team after telling a colleague, "I am surely not going to give up now."

EARTH EDUCATION: Tree rats
The squirrels are back.

Iconic stone arch collapses in southern Utah park
One of the largest and most photographed arches in Arches National Park has collapsed.

Kayaker finishes 1,700-mile solo trip in 54 days
A solo kayaker's 1,700-mile journey to promote prostate cancer awareness has wrapped up at a Manhattan pier.

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