A Gardening Kind of Day

Since the Baltimore Orioles have a rain delay, I feel the need to share my gardening accomplishments for the day.

After last years, upside down tomato plant disaster. (I'll post more about last year, when I retry this year) I returned to plant my (read my parents) garden with conventional plant. 12 little tomato plants, 6 peppers, and some beets. (My own little Shrutte farms) I managed to do this before the rain started for today, but all in all a nice little Easter.

I'm hoping that my little garden will have my own stress-relieving effects. My feelings are proven from reading the article "Gardening Promotes Neuroendocrine and Affective Restoration from Stress" from the Journal of Health Psychology. People were given stressful tasks and assigned to either garden for 30 minutes or read indoor for thirty minutes. Cortisol levels decreased in both groups, but more significantly in the gardening test group. Maybe it's all the pulling and aggression being taken out on the soil. (doi: 10.1177/1359105310365577)

Either way, I'm ready for a little summer stress relief and not looking forward to heading back to school after a week off! It looks like the Orioles will need a little stress relief after their game...

Must be the money...

A study that caught my eye this week is from PNAS...

Population density and abundance of wealth are the driving forces for introduction of invasive species. This is especially true among trade routes. While trade has been a long known factor of invasive species into an ecosystem--bilge water from Asia introducing invasive oysters or Cargo boxes with insects infecting islands have been long studied, the panel of 26 researchers will likely impact policy of trade. Invasive species--animals or plants not native to an area-- place added pressure onto an ecosystem by competing and often winning against local flora and fauna. As international trade has increased, so have the numbers of invasive species.

While the exact mechanisms to the introductions maybe unknown, the scientists concluded that changes in climate, geography or land cover, were not as important as population density and wealth capital--in fact they have likely been over estimated in the past.

Petr Pysek et al. Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe. PNAS, June 7, 2010 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1002314107

Information has been provided through a press release from University of Oregon.

Code Orange Day

Since it is officially both Summer (well in my book anyway) and hurricane season, it also means lower air quality in Maryland. I know that everyone likes to say that their city has weird weather--how many towns claim "if you don't like the weather--wait an hour" as their motto? And that I know Baltimore isn't the only city with humidity--who knew Omaha had so much humidity? But, I do find Maryland's air quality reports nice.

Being summer and all, this means that Maryland's air quality will significantly drop, today for instance is an Orange alert day--meaning that there is enough pollution to be unhealthy for certain age groups and people with medical needs.

The guide is determined by how much of the five criteria pollutants (particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide) are present in the air. These pollutants were described by the EPA in the Clean Air Act.

So, for certain age groups make sure they stay inside. And for everyone, enjoy the start to what I hope to be a beautiful summer.