Facing Down the Tea Party

This year is, as every American must know by now, the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War; after a century and a half, the conflict still seems far from over. In fact, there is a striking similarity between the events that led...

New Jersey, which has long described itself as the "Garden State," is killing itself with lawn fertilizers. Or at least, the fertilizers are killing its freshwater lakes and even Barnegat Bay. That's the conclusion of members of the state legislature, who have sponsored a bill (A2290), which, if passed into...

I slide up the door to the coop and the chickens come barreling out, clucking and twittering like Sarah Palin in pursuit of a lecture fee. Only my chickens, a mix of birds raised for meat, eggs and pure, silly enjoyment, aren't angry. They aren't taking aim at the establishment,...

Constituents had been complaining, state senator Jim Isgar says. Water shortages are chronic throughout most of Colorado, so that municipal delivery systems have trouble satisfying demand. Yet collecting the storm water running off your roof to irrigate a garden or supplement the household supply made you a criminal. Enforcement...

The American lawn has been the environmentalist-gardener's favorite target for a generation now - and to no effect. So I'm proposing a different tactic.

For more than 20 years, it's been like taking the pledge: if you wanted to count yourself among the horticultural green-elect you had to...

As spring settles in, I've been starting seedlings for this year's vegetable garden. And that has caused me to reflect on Charlie Murphy's bull.

From the time I was 8, I spent a large part of every summer on Charlie Murphy's farm in southern Ontario. I'd help...