Garden -- my big fat

Collard plant

I did not plant collards this year. I didn't plant them last year. Or the year before. Several years ago I didn't clear the bed well enough, and this root survived and has been throwing out greens ever since. This year with nearly 20 inches of rain since the start of May, it has gotten to nearly a yard across. Each leaf is more than a foot long, not including the stalk.

Next year it will flower, attracting bees, and then go to seed, which the birds will get. Some of the seeds will germinate because the original was planted from open-pollinated seed.

It's edible now. I cut a leaf a few days ago and cooked it up with smoked beef, potato, and some seasonings. It was as good as anything I would have bought in the grocery store at the same time -- only no pesticides.

The pesticide chlorpyrifos is banned by law starting some time in October. The chemical is related to deadly sarin gas and it kills bees. Starting in November, watch your grocery stores and garden stores and ask lots of questions before using an exterminator. The chemical is used in mosquito and cockroach sprays and bait traps. Terminix, for one, lost a court case almost 20 years ago after exposing a family to chlorpyrifos. If your landlord informs you they are going to treat your place for bugs, call your health department so the exterminators can't get away with using a banned chemical.

And of course check your garden store; if they have this after October, report them to your state Department of Natural Resources or equivalent.

Also get rid of your Roundup. Monsanto just lost the first of about 2,000 cases claiming Roundup causes cancer. This is made from the same chemical as Agent Orange, which was used for defoliation in Vietnam, resulting in high rates of cancer among troops who served there.

Canada has just banned bee-killer neonicotinoid pesticides, which you will find in Bayer products. Bans on these pesticides have not become widespread in the U.S.; I have been using Twitter to push people to start movements in their neighborhoods to get it banned locally. This is about our food supply, people. Some food crops don't reproduce at all without bees -- almonds are an example -- so your choice is losing a percentage of the crop to other insects and having no crop at all.