Soil

Why is entomologist Doug Tallamy on a national crusade to get private landowners to tear their lawns? As a wildlife ecology professor at the University of Delaware, Dr. Tallamy sees the world from a bug’s point of view. He’s also co-founder of Homegrown National Park, which works to convince Americans to grow native plants that…

Take an audio tour of the famed Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery in Walnut Creek, California, with expert garden designer Cricket Riley, gleaning inspiration (and a few tips) for planting a climate-resilient garden of your own. Riley, a former design services director at the garden, gives us a tour of its 3-acre oasis of succulents, cacti,…

Craftsmanship‘s editor-in-chief, Todd Oppenheimer, sits down with Paul and Elizabeth Kaiser, a husband-and-wife farming team who have been at the forefront of the regenerative agriculture movement. Hear how regenerative techniques help fight the effects of climate disruption; some of the mind-boggling results they found in testing their soil and produce; and how they harness Mother…

Since the communist revolution of 1959, Cuba has been on an economic rollercoaster. The country has lurched from dependency to self-sufficiency, in a bubble of isolation where technological time stopped. Our correspondent, who in 2016 visited the artists and self-taught engineers who have kept Cuba running throughout its bizarre ride, updates us on Cuba’s declining fortunes in the years since.

While many gardeners take their flowers seriously, few devote almost all of their time to growing one breed—the dahlia—then drive hundreds of miles to go mano a mano against other fanatical growers, for nothing more than a blue ribbon. But that’s exactly what Deborah Dietz does.

In Providence, Rhode Island, Janice McDonnell started one of the unlikeliest of revolutions. On seven empty lots in the inner city, she set up a new kind of playground—places where kids could build anything they want, break anything they want. Her larger goals? To fight the disappearance of free play brought on by the relentless testing that’s become the norm in today’s schools—and to spread playful opportunities to all children, not just those from wealthy white families.

The blind spots in the American West’s approach to managing water are on full display in Ventura County, a coastal region of Central California that holds the most lucrative farmland in the state.

Now that the tequila craze has crested, the latest Latin liquor to capture the world’s alcoholic imagination is tequila’s grandfather: mezcal. But an explosion of authentic mezcal is impossible—for reasons our correspondent discovers when she goes to Oaxaca to learn how this hyper-local spirit can be sustained.

In a small, Indigenous community in the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico, a band of determined women led the overthrow of a criminal cartel. Their victory gave the town a new sense of purpose by reviving its traditional livelihood, its capacity for self-government, and its communal spirit.