Not Much, You?

[lydamorehouse]

Not much to report here from Lake Wobegon… Mason and I trekked over to the Friends School Plant sale and spent far too much money given how few plants we took home (how much for that hosta?)  Still, I like supporting them and they’re very good about their information – they even suggested plants this year that are metro area natives (!)  I tend to forget that something grew here before buildings did, so I was very happy to plunk down six dollars a plant for something that once grew here.  I wonder if it still can, or if we’ve changed its environment too much.  I guess we’ll find out.

 

Speaking of that, I’m reading a really interesting article in National Geographic about the original Jamestown settlement.  It’s full of all sorts of startling information, not the least of which is that apparently Europeans brought worms to the Americas.  Seriously.  According to this article earthworms aren’t native.  Apparently the forests of North America used to depend on the piles of rotting leaves that laid mostly undisturbed for food for the new trees.  Earthworms, which came along with the imported plants (like tobacco) ate it all and changed the landscape dramatically. 

 

The article also debunks the image of the unspoiled wilderness.  The natives near Jamestown were, according to the article, pretty settled and agriculturally advanced.  They clear cut woods for corn fields and all that sort of high-impact farming stuff that we tend to attribute to the white settlers. 

 

I’m only half finished with the article (it’s my bathroom reading), but it also marks one of the few times when I prefer the article to the pictures in National Geographic.

Comments

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

You should get a copy of 1491 if you want to read in more detail about the agriculture and forest management going on in the Americas before us whiteys arrived. It's a great, eye-opening book.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Not that North American history is my strong point, but that National Geographic article is certainly news to me. No more of that "noble savage" propaganda for me!

Jamestown, earthworms and the Friends School Plant Sale

[(Anonymous)]

Oddly enough, I am one of the organizers of the Friends School Plant Sale who stumbed across your post.

I am also reading Love and Hate in Jamestown by David Price, which is full of primary source material (from the English point of view, of course) but still a good read and very informative.

The earthworm problem is definitely disturbing. They are on the verge of causing total ecological change in the northern Minnesota forests because of their devouring of the leaf "duff."

A fan,

Pat Thompson, www.friendsschoolplantsale.com