O’Neill: It’s always something (column)

Casey O’Neill is a farmer and owner of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, Calif. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mendocino Voice. If you’d like to write your own column for The Mendocino Voice, send your idea to info@mendovoice.com.

I’ve been learning some hard lessons about pests and heat, and we’ve been saying “it’s always something” to describe the reality that every year there is a different pest or problem to deal with. I’ve been thinking about how evolution designed different insects and creatures to fill unique niches. I’ve always tended to see this as a factor of plant-insect or plant-animal interaction, but I’ve been focusing on it more in terms of the unique climatic conditions of a given season. In a sense, it really is “always something” because the conditions will always be right for extreme growth of one pest or another.