April 2019 DIRT NERD CHICKEN NERD I haven’t had chickens in years, but I had them for years before that, starting with the late, great Szechuan and General Tsao, stray chickens we captured snoozing... Ian Willson
March 2019 DIRT NERD A DIRT NERD IS BORN (PART TWO) Last month I expounded on my fledgeling experiences in food production, from my first vegetable garden (a watermelon patch in Richmond, Virginia) to... Ian Willson
February 2019 DIRT NERD A DIRT NERD IS BORN (PART ONE) I wasn’t born with a wavering confidence and passing knowledge around plants and the like. My path was long, as long as I’ve been able to stand... Ian Willson
January 2019 DIRT NERD (ALMOST) NEVER TOO LATE Louisiana is not Los Angeles. It is not New York. It is not Wisconsin or Chicago or Minnesota or Vermont. It’s not Oregon or Virginia either. It’s not... Ian Willson
December 2018 DIRT NERD PRODUCE PLACEMENT Always I am coming to terms with the fact that most people think they can’t grow food because of their living situation. If you, beloved reader, are one of... Ian Willson
October 2018 DIRT NERD FERTILIZER: A JAGGED LITTLE PILL I used to not believe in fertilizer. I don’t know where my head was or how I thought plants worked. I had already been working with them for a... Ian Willson
September 2018 DIRT NERD MULCH MULCH MULCH It’s one of those words that you only have to say three times before you question its reality. Mulch. Mulch. Maybe it only takes two times even. No? Mulch. Its... Ian Willson
July 2018 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOLLYGROVE MARKET? AN INTERVIEW WITH NICOLA KREBILL Hollygrove Market and Farm closed down this past February after falling on hard times and failing to pay rent to the property’s landowner, Bobby Guillot. Since its founding in... Ian Willson
May 2018 DIRT NERD NUANCE OVER NOVELTY: A QUICK COMPOSTING GUIDE Nuance over novelty. I first got the phrase from a podcast and have been internally committed to the notion ever since… well,... Ian Willson
April 2018 DIRT NERD MONOMANIACAL POLYCULTURE Semantics will take you far in this world. Thinking too hard about what plants should go with which other plants will not. Intercropping, companion... Ian Willson
March 2018 DIRT NERD MY LIFE WITH THE EDIBLE FLOWER CULT I came into professional plant care at the tender age of 22, bleary-eyed and hungover most mornings, in an industry that expected me to start... Ian Willson
February 2018 DIRT NERD FREE RANGE PLANTS Plants deserve our respect. Without them we are nothing; we would literally not be here at all. They don’t deserve our respect in an abstract sense,... Ian Willson
