Science
Related: About this forumThe World's Longest-Running Experiment is Buried in a Secret Spot in Michigan
In the fall of 1879, Dr. William James Beal walked to a secret spot on Michigan State Universitys campus and planted a strange crop: 20 narrow-necked glass bottles, each filled with a mixture of moist sand and seeds. Each vessel was left uncorked and placed with the mouth slanting downward so that water could not accumulate about the seeds, Beal wrote. These bottles were buried on a sandy knoll in a row running east and west.
In the spring of 2000, under cover of night, current WJ Beal Botanical Garden curator Dr. Frank Telewski and his colleague Dr. Jan Zeevaart crept out to the same secret knoll and dug up the sixth-to-last seed bottlecompleting the latest act in what has become the worlds longest continually monitored scientific study.
When he buried those bottles 137 years ago, Dr. Beal didnt aim to start the As the World Turns of garden experiments. As a botanist at an agricultural school, he was just trying to find a rigorous answer to a question that has dogged farmers for millennia: how many times do you have to pull up weeds before they stop growing back? Back then, [farmers] didnt have herbicides, and weeding was the most tedious part of the job, explains Telewski. Have you ever heard the expression thats a long row to hoe? Thats where that came from.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)actually looks like something I'd like in my garden.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)Warpy
(111,270 posts)They used the flowering weeds for decoration, others for flavorings, and still others for folk medicines. Everything that sprouted in the garden had a use.
Then some genius realized that the stuff they'd actually planted had a higher yield without weeds competing for sunlight and nutrients and gardening as hard work was born.
I actually did very little weeding, I'd discovered mulch. Anything that grew through the mulch deserved to live.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)I appreciate this kind of post even more in the current contentious political climate. Thanks for that!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Dried leaves do a good job of opening lung airway. Also can be used in a tea or even dried and smoked.
Night moths like the flowers.
BobTheSubgenius
(11,564 posts)...I'm here to tell you that the mallow - around here, they are known as Lavatera - are as prolific and fast growing as anything. Annuals propagate like crazy, and, if you cut an established perennial variety back to stumps, it will be a bush with a 6' diameter by the end of the season.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)Forget about the seeds, I want those old bottles!