Dorm Room Gardening

One of the best things a college student can do to improve concentration, study habits, and social atmosphere is to furnish their room with an assortment of plants that would do well with minimal to moderate sun. During my freshman year of college, that's exactly what myself and many of my floor mates ended up doing in order to create a better atmosphere on our floor. Being students at an environmental science and forestry college with eight greenhouses on top of one of our buildings, it was a very easy to fill our floor lounge with plants to a point where it began looking like a greenhouse itself. That lounge contained bamboo, succulents, and other large plants that apparently thrive indoors. Visitors often compared it to a flourishing jungle, although it was far from that. It was a very pleasant place to be and study in though. Every other floor lounge in the residence hall was barren and lifeless compared to ours.

During the late portion of the spring semester, I started a bunch of my own vegetable seeds that I would transplant to my garden back home once summer vacation started. I must've had over fifty peat moss and terra-cotta pots full of soil that would soon become home to an array of nascent plants sitting on my window sill. I had peppers, bamboo, tomatoes, soybeans, basil, and the two jade plants and the coffee plant that I still have today. I cannot begin to describe how much more comfortable my room was, not only to me, but to everyone that visited my room. They were conversation starters from the beginning. People would come in to see how they were doing and, since my room was also a nursery for other peoples' plants, they would often tend to and water them. It was one of the best ways to encourage social interaction, especially at an environmental school. My dorm windowsill garden allowed my room to maintain an atmosphere that encourage learning, sharing, and friendships. We had dozens of study parties, social gatherings, and knowledgeable discussions in my room frequently and I think the plants helped to harbor such activities.

Before I left for school for my freshman year, a neighbor of mine back home told me I'd probably have a miserable time because of troubles adjusting to a new location, higher level classes, huge assignments, and a new social atmosphere. Thanks to my openness, my friendliness, and my desire to meet and interact with new people, that wasn't the case. My plants helped me create bonds with my floor mates based on a common interest. Creating a dorm windowsill garden was one of the best things I think I've ever done. This year (my last year in dorm housing!), I have started yet another dorm windowsill garden containing poppy flowers, my jade plants, and my coffee plant and for the next 22 days (until I leave for home on May 6th) you can see how it's doing on my Folia page. Of course, after that those plants will just be moved to my "Backyard Garden" where you can continue to check up on them, if you're interested.

Arbitrary Thoughts On A Daily Basis

Yesterday I went about my usual Thursday activities with many random thoughts on my mind. I made a mental note about just two of those myriad thoughts. One was to do some online research about the mechanics of a sneeze, also known as a sternutation. A sternutation is defined as a semi-autonomous, convulsive expulsion of air from the lungs. In my quest for information, I came across an article from WebMD's Sexual Health Center that discussed the occurrence of sneezes in a few people worldwide that happened as a result of sexual thoughts they had. Seriously, there are people who sneeze when they think dirty thoughts. If you're interested in reading further, look here.

I didn't realize how complex the whole process of sneezing really was until this point. Besides thinking dirty thoughts, I read about many other stimuli that may trigger sneezes such as foreign particles passing the nasal hairs and reaching the nasal mucosa, sudden exposure to light (the result of which is formally known as the photic sneeze reflux), and the fullness of the stomach following a large meal.

Another interesting bit that I thought I should share is the fact that it is physically impossible for an individual to sneeze while sleeping. This is simply because the body is in a state wherein motor neurons are not stimulated and reflex signals are not relayed to the brain due to REM atonia. Task one accomplished!

The other task was to research the aromatic compounds that are present in soil and give it that pleasant aroma. Being a vague topic, I was not able to find any information about it upon initial research, but just as I began writing about it, I looked one last time and came across an article that explains it in quite a detailed fashion.

According to an article, written by Whitney Eng, that appeared in The Brown Herald Tribune on Oct. 2, 2007, Professor of Chemistry David Cane, Jiaoyang Jiang GS, and Xiaofei He PhD'07 have discovered the enzyme that creates the chemical compound responsible for the sweet aroma of soil and the earthy taste in drinking water. 

That organic compound is commonly known as geosmin. Geosmin is a Greek word that literally translates to "earth smell". It is also responsible for the earthy taste in beets and the strong earthy aroma that occurs in the air when rain falls in an area after a dry spell of weather. Geosmin is produced by bacteria in soil and by blue-green algae in water. Task two, accomplished! So there you have it, two very unrelated topics that represent a portion of the thoughts streaming through my head on a daily basis.

Also, while I'm on the topic of interesting organic compounds in nature, I came across this very interesting NPR article the other day by Robert Krulwich that discusses the processes that ants have developed to let their counterparts know when an ant has died and what chemical is responsible for alerting the other ants in a colony. He also discusses one scientists ingenious and somewhat comical methodology for determining the chemical signal that declares an ant has deceased. You can find the article here.

Salutations!

Greetings to all those who may find themselves reading this post, and hopefully future posts on my newly established blog, Humus & Peat-a. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Well that's a ridiculous name! He spelled hummus wrong and who is this Peat A. fellow?!" So, in an effort to clear up any misunderstandings about the title of my blog, it is the result of the long and arduous task of finding a clever name that reflects both my interests and my personality.

Let's break it down like this: I like food. I like all kinds of food and foods of various cultures. I especially like Middle Eastern food (hummus and pita included). I also am quite fond of humus (that lovely smelling earthy stuff you find on the ground) and bogs, for they contain sphagnum peat moss (the stuff that makes up the squishy ground upon which you walk in a bog). So I've established three important aspects about my blog's name. It represents my love of healthy, cultured food, my interests in the environment as a wetland restoration ecologist, and my enjoyment of ridiculously silly word play.

I must not fail to mention that these topics are not all you'll read about in this blog either. Topics I will most likely discuss include, but are not limited to: coffee, food, music, computers, technology and design, photography, stop motion videography, gardening, bicycling, camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, indigenous culture/land management, nature, household chemical alternatives, frugal living, DIY projects, science, politics, and my friends. So, I look forward to posting many more blog entries that you, the reader, may find somewhat interesting and maybe, at times, a little inspiring.