September 2026 SOIL ED This, Here, Now, Is Literally The Whole Point. First they came for our iceberg lettuce. Then they came for all our lettuces. Then they came singularly for our shredded lettuces.... Ian Willson
July 2026 SOIL ED THE FUTURE ALWAYS HAS BEEN: A SOFT TUTORIAL ON SEED SCIENCE When it comes to which seeds are healthy for the ecosystem and our own bodies, a great many fictions have been sowed... Ian Willson
June 2026 SOIL ED POOP. IT’S NEVER WHAT’S FOR DINNER. Ecosystemic evolution made a genius move when it added waste products to the circle of life, proactively making it as disgusting as... Ian Willson
May 2026 SOIL ED THE “MALNUTRITIOUS THREE”: AN INTERVIEW WITH ICEBERG LETTUCE, POTATO, AND PARSLEY I was lucky enough to get an exclusive interview with the group of friends the popular media... Ian Willson
April 2026 SOIL ED Go Eat Dirt, Nerd. From the same garden advisor who brought you Dirt Nerd, welcome to a new column that is exactly like the old column but with a different name. Neither of these... Ian Willson
November 2025 DIRT NERD THE BRASSICA BREEDING PROGRAM Humanity has a knack for selective breeding and toying with the natural order of evolutionary history. It is probably our favorite thing to do as a... Ian Willson
September 2025 DIRT NERD ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES Mango is my favorite fruit. Born of a barely-remembered SNL skit, it was also my ascribed nickname from the ages of 15 to 30 or so, a half cruel joke meant to... Ian Willson
July 2025 DIRT NERD A MURDER OF MOLLUSKS Snails and slugs are an inevitable hurdle to any grower of plants, from the tiny ornamental home gardener to the full bore large-scale crop farmer. They are... Ian Willson
May 2025 DIRT NERD A SPRING AWAKENING IN THREE PARTS A STAR IS BORN The sins are washed away the moment the smell enters the brain, before it’s even caught up with the senses proper. It’s not... Ian Willson
March 2025 DIRT NERD SICK BURN RESILIENCY It may be New Orleans’ literal least favorite word and putting it in the title may have lost me half my readers before we even got through this sentence.... Ian Willson
February 2025 DIRT NERD DIRT TO DIRT. EVERYTHING DIES. I’ve lost a lot of friends over the last year. I’ve lost enough that I’m not going to enumerate them or honor and name them at the end of this... Ian Willson
January 2025 DIRT NERD Really Obvious Cold Season Kitchen Herbs Even among somewhat seasoned food growers, there is an unending confusion around the efficacy of growing certain foodstuffs in the... Ian Willson
