Plant Talk

Nature's Decorating for the Holidays

I've been thinking about how much I don't feel like decorating for Christmas this year, only made worse by walking into Pottery Barn the week before Thanksgiving and backing out the door. Holiday music and an overwhelming pine candle scent saturated the air, there were lights and shiny balls and fake greens and...well, it was overwhelming. It may have been beautifully done, I'm not sure, because I didn't wait around to look that closely. My reaction was visceral - I was out of there.

Contrast that to this gnarly old apple tree in a Langley pasture. A few apples hang on the old branches and the sight cheered me up and gave me my first little jolt of holiday cheer. How can we stir our souls and warm our homes during the darkest days of the year without resorting to fake scents, too many twinkly lights and just altogether too much stuff?

Well, at least now I have a goal for the season...

Who Is In Control Here, Anyway?

Michael Pollan's fascinating book on plant/human dynamics is coming to PBS this month. Tune in to "The Botany of Desire" on October 28, 8 p.m. on Channel 9 to see Pollan's view of natural history brought to life.

"We don't give nearly enough credit to plants....they've been working on us, they've been using us for their own purposes," says Pollan. So who is in charge here on the planet anyway? See how the tulip, the potato, marijuana and the apple have tantalized and shaped human behavior for centuries. The special broadcast begins in Pollan's own garden, but roams the world from the potato fields of Peru to the tulip markets of Amsterdam.