Napa Master Gardener Column

Last January I decided to pull out the thicket of wild blackberries that took up 25 percent of the backyard.

Six weeks ago, I dug up my undies. Earlier this year, I decided to repeat an experiment that the new class of Napa County Master Gardeners had conducted last winter: I buried my underpants. Why do such a thing? The results will tell you how active the residents of your soil are.

Can we improve our soil and manage insect pests with techniques that slow and maybe even ultimately reverse the human damage to natural resources? Practices that started innocently enough to improve and simplify food production have turned into a huge problem.

Heal the earth by healing the soil? Are we really able to slow global warming by manipulating dirt? Humans have been stripping mother earth of her verdant, life-supporting cloak for a long time, but the damage has shot up to a critical stage in recent years.

The first time I saw soldier fly larvae in my worm bin I did not know what they were other than maggots. I picked them out with a long tweezer and dropped them on the ground. My intention was to kill them when I was done.