{"id":59082,"date":"2021-08-21T07:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59082"},"modified":"2021-08-21T07:52:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:52:00","slug":"garden-logic-understanding-correlation-and-causation-in-our-gardens-and-landscapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59082","title":{"rendered":"Garden Logic \u2013 understanding correlation and causation in our gardens and landscapes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Garden Logic \u2013 understanding correlation and causation in our gardens and landscapes<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\"\"
This home landscape is managed using science-based methods; the only routine additions are water and arborist chip mulches.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Upon reading this post\u2019s title, you may be inclined to stop right there. (That\u2019s why I have an eye-catching photo to lure you in.) While logic may seem irrelevant to your enjoyment of gardening, I can guarantee that reading this blog post will challenge many seemingly logical assumptions you\u2019ve heard or read about. Recognizing unsubstantiated assumptions and avoiding their pitfalls means you can make wise choices about how you care for your gardens and landscapes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
You can find this and thousands of other silly correlations at www.tylervigen.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few definitions are needed before we get started:<\/p>\n

Correlation<\/strong>\u00a0refers to variables whose changes mirror one another. For instance, the addition of nitrogen fertilizer to container plants is correlated to plant growth: as nitrogen levels increase so does plant growth. You can also have inverse correlation, where the variables move in opposite directions. An example is water availability in soil and planting density: the more plants you have in a specified area, the less water is in the soil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Plant growth is correlated with increased nitrogen and other nutrients (from Xu et al. 2020)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Causation<\/strong>\u00a0takes correlation one step further: it establishes that one of those variables is causing the change in the other. Using the same examples, we know through published evidence that the increase in nitrogen is causing the increase in plant growth, and the increase in planting density is causing the decrease in soil water because of competing roots. These relationships are obvious to us, but what\u2019s important is that these causative effects have been established through scientific experiments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Inverse relationship between planting density and soil water content (from Shao et al. 2018)<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garden Logic \u2013 understanding correlation and causation in our gardens and landscapes This home landscape is managed using science-based methods; the only routine additions are water and arborist chip mulches. Upon reading this post\u2019s title, you may be inclined to stop right there. (That\u2019s why I have an eye-catching photo to lure you in.) While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[31644,4894,31645,14980,2372,31361],"class_list":["post-59082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-causation","tag-correlation","tag-landscaping","tag-logic","tag-research","tag-the-garden-professors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59083,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59082\/revisions\/59083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}