Annie Spiegelman

Last week, I interviewed Laurie Syms, co-director of Rachel's Network, an advocacy group that promotes women's leadership, both in the environmental community and government. I learned that women, overall and regardless of party, consistently vote more in favor of environmental protections and policies than their male counterparts in...

How did a girl raised and hardened on the streets of New York City become a passionate environmentalist, geeky master gardener and full-fledged compost queen? I read Rachel Carson's bestseller, Silent Spring. Carson, a marine biologist, wrote about...

Though worldwide bee health has been on the decline since the 1990s, it wasn't until the fall of 2006 that beekeepers nationwide began noticing millions of bees vanishing from their hives. This syndrome,...

Photo courtesy of www.Woollypockets.com. Grow a garden anywhere with these fabric squares made from recycled plastic bottles!

1.Grow Your Own
I grew up in NYC in an apartment building, yet somehow I can now grow organic fruits and vegetables. And so...

Last month, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide held its 2012 annual sales conference in San Francisco, California. Over 2000 general managers and sales personnel from over 500 Starwood Hotels (Westin, St. Regis, Sheraton, Le Meredien, W...

What, all run by gigantic corporations? Is that really the answer? I think not. That would be the absolute destruction of everything and the classic way of ensuring that there is no food in the future. Millions...

It's wintertime, but that doesn't stop us hortiholics from daydreaming about next spring's garden and everything flowery. This is the time we start planning on what we'll do different next year in our backyards to create a naturally sustaining and flourishing ecosystem. In other words; impress our neighbors. Here are...

One of the latest trends in gardening is to grow ornamental or edible plants vertically up a wall of a building or a backyard fence. Horizontal, low gardening on the ground, is so 20 minutes ago! If you want to be with the horticultural trendsetters you gotta get high.

Patrick...

Photo:Annie Spiegelman

Cheap food is great, and we have to acknowledge that achievement, but we also have to acknowledge the cost of it. If you understand what it takes to make food cheap, you lose your appetite. -Michael Pollan, speaking last month on the...

Annie, Pickles and the organically grown, man-eating, fence-bending white Lady Banksai climbing rose. (Courtesy Bill Buzbuzian)

Excerpted from Talking Dirt: The Dirt Diva's Down-to-Earth Guide to Organic Gardening (Penguin Group) Author: Annie Spiegelman

Here in California, I usually prune my...

Well, now I can add "interviewed a crap farmer" to my esteemed resume, while checking it off my bucket list. My parents will be so proud. My parents will be so proud. This so totally surpasses...

Americans will purchase roughly 110 million roses for Valentine's Day gifts. Purchasing fresh flowers for our sweethearts while poisoning farmers and their families is so yesterday. Come on already! Today it's about purchasing flowers from a floral company that cares about environmental,...

Here in the Bay Area where I live, according to the EPA, all of our creeks are contaminated with significant levels of pesticides, especially diazinon, an insecticide that was banned for home use 10 years ago because of its toxicity to mammals. If a bunch of compost-loving, Prius-driving tree-huggers and...

Though worldwide honey bee health has been on the decline since the 1980's, it wasn't until the fall of 2006 that beekeepers nation wide began noticing honey bee colonies disappearing in large numbers without...

Last week Sarah Palin opened her mouth again and out belched super-sized, high-fructose corn-syrupy pearls of misguided logic and fool's gold wisdom. She was pontificating about the amount of sugary desserts being brought into schools. Palin thinks that parents should be...

Can a chic, overachieving doctor and a successful Manhattan advertising executive leave the Big Apple and survive on a historic farm in upstate New York? I doubt it, especially since most New Yorkers think Central Park is the vast wilderness... What...

Betty Louise, life coach and radio host at CoachBettyLive! claims we can all live a more organic life. She says we just need to simmer down. Something as simple as hiding from our computers and cell phones for a bit each day can be a great benefit. (Try it, fellow...

Personally, I think it's very cool! Astrology has played an important role in gardening since our ancestors first began planting seeds in the soil to grow food, medicinal herbs and flowers. In ancient times the sun, moon and stars were critical...

When I was invited to a private screening of Living Downstream, the new documentary about biologist, author and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, I was a bit hesitant. The showing was sponsored by the Breast Cancer Fund and...