Cultivating bamboo is a little bit like cultivating dandelion. According to David Carter, a bamboo farmer from Brazoria County, Texas, people are afraid to plant bamboo because it can take over your garden, then your neighborhood, then the whole world, to which Carter replies, "So What?" Lisa Gray, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle, visited Carter to find out what makes him tick, and discovered that he loves bamboo in all its species and varieties, its different heights and colors and leaves. And he loves the way it sounds in the wind.  Carter also grows vegetables at the Utility Research Garden - that's what he calls his business - but he mostly grows bamboo. He sells plants to landscapers and homeowners, and sells shoots at farmers markets. He likes bamboo's monocarpic philosophy. It lives. It blooms. It dies. That's a heroic way to live, according to Carter. It's what we should all do. Lisa Gray's story is here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/gray/7120598.html  The Utility Research Garden website is here: http://utilityresearchgarden.com/

     "Organic No-Till" sounds like an oxymoron, but the folks at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pa., are trying to make it work. Instead of pesticides to control weeds between no-till crops, Rodale's researchers are using winter cover crops, then rolling them as corn, soybeans, wheat or oats are planted. Each organic plot is compared to a no-till plot using conventional herbicides to control weeds. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres was on hand for the institute's annual field day on July 16. Organic no-till is a tough challenge, and in Rodale's studies, has yet to beat conventional no-till methods. But the folks at Rodale are nothing if not persevering. One of their organic-vs.-conventional trials has been going on for 28 years, and it looks like they'll be testing no-till methods for the long haul. You can read the story here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3081


     Watch a baboon make a monkey out of a lion cub. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/baboons-outwit-lion-cubs-during-hunt/26kx8216