The Manic Gardener Archives - WebTalkRadio.net

We've all heard this one: to shade your house in summer (and save the energy used to run fans or air-conditioners), plant a tree on the south side of the house. According to my guest this week, that's not so much a no-brainer as it is brainless. (Though she'd never put it so rudely.) In […] The post The Manic Gardener – Energy and Landscaping: Surprising Connections appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

A weed-free garden sounds too good to be true, and near the end of our interview, Lee Reich, author of Weedless Gardening, admits that it is: He does indeed weed—for about five or ten minutes a week. Five minutes, though, is close enough to nothing as makes no difference. How does he manage this? (Without […] The post The Manic Gardener – The Weed-Free Garden appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

If you think “stones and cactus” when you hear the term “xeriscape,” then Andrea Cummins would like to talk to you. She's too polite to just say “No,” and too eloquent for “Er, not so much,” but those do convey the general idea. A Horticultural Extension Agent from Douglas County, Colorado, Andrea spends much of […] The post The Manic Gardener – The Seven-Fold Way of Xeriscape Gardening appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

My guest this week is Duncan Patten, an ecologist with whom I discuss agricultural pollution, the importance of riparian strips along streams, fracking, and yes, rain barrels, all under the umbrella topic of groundwater. Duncan spent thirty years at Arizona State University before “retiring” to Montana, where he is now a research professor in the […] The post The Manic Gardener – Hidden Waters appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

If you're a Canadian Gardener, chances are that you've heard of Marjorie Harris, but we below the 49th parallel may not be so fortunate. The author of seventeen books, fifteen of them on gardening, Marjorie keeps in shape with her weekly column in the Globe and Mail, one of Canada's leading newspapers. She's also a […] The post The Manic Gardener – Thrifty Gardening with Marjorie Harris appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

“Greener” here doesn't refer to color, but to being environmentally friendly. Yup, it's a metaphor. Last week's show presented some information about the damage that conventionally maintained lawns can do. This week, we dive into the whole ocean of lawn alternatives. Some people keep their lawn because they like them—which may be the only good […] The post The Manic Gardener – Greener than Grass appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Lawns are practically an American institution, but they're increasingly under attack. The amounts of pesticides, fertilizer, and water used on them are all matters of contention. If you're wondering whether lawns deserve the abuse heaped on them, this show might help you make up your mind. My first guest, Paul Tukey, is a writer, filmmaker, […] The post The Manic Gardener – So—What's wrong with lawns? appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

When they try to make a movie of Atina Diffley's story, some producer is going to reject it as unbelievable. Losing one organic farm to development, okay; but nearly losing a big chunk of the second to an oil pipeline? A pipeline owned by one of the two largest companies in the United States? Start […] The post The Manic Gardener – A Farmer's story appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

On one level it can't really get much simpler: you give them the money, they give you the plant, and you're done. But then there's the question of whether you and the plant stay happy with this arrangement: is the plant content in its new home, and do you remain pleased with the plant? Toby […] The post The Manic Gardener – How to Buy a Plant appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Spring has sprung just about everywhere in North America, and certainly across the pond, and in spring the avid gardener's thoughts turn to—composting. All that pruning and mowing and clipping and raking of last fall's debris and this spring's growth produces plenty of garden waste. But just how does one start with this composting business, […] The post The Manic Gardener – Composting 101: Bite the Silver Bullet appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Fern Richardson's balcony measures four feet by ten. On it she grows a fig tree, an apricot, a kumquat, two apple trees, and an abutilon, an ornamental tree with bi-colored leaves and red, hibiscus-like flowers. Of course, she also herbs, succulents, and vegetables, including peppers and tomatoes. In other words, she grows more in her […] The post The Manic Gardener – More Space Than You Thought: gardening on balconies, porches, and terraces with Fern Richardson appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

When this show first ran under the title Turning the Tables: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto, in December of 2011, 83 organic farmers, seed farmers, and organizations that had sued Monsanto were waiting to hear whether the judge would rule for the seed giant's motion to dismiss the case, or would allow it to advance to […] The post The Manic Gardener – Turning the Tables, Again appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Here's a riddle: how do you grow vegetables without a vegetable garden? Answer: polyculture. Which means that you either tuck the tomatoes and lettuce into with your existing flowerbeds, or you bring herbs and flowers into the vegetable patch. Yes: not only does this method do away with rows, which segregate one vegetable from another; […] The post The Manic Gardener – Mixing It Up in the Veggie Garden appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Some organic gardeners swear by manure. Others swear they'll never touch it. To the first group, it's the ultimate one-stop soil conditioner, complete with built-in fertilizers. To the second, conventional manure is contaminated with hormones and antibiotics, and even organic manures can contain human pathogens. Both groups are right, and the only way to make […] The post The Manic Gardener – Minding Your Manure appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Doug Tallamy is not an idiot, so when he talks about a new national park that extends across the entire continent, he's not proposing to bulldoze cities or tear up freeways. No; he's talking about converting half the space that now goes to lawns to more productive plantings—plantings that attract insects, especially native ones. And […] The post The Manic Gardener – Landscaping for Wildlife appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

People in northern climes, with their short growing seasons, often try to get a jump on the season by starting their plants, especially their vegetables, indoors—on a windowsill, or in a greenhouse, a cold frame, or a basement. But though many of us start our own plants, a lot of us don't do it particularly […] The post The Manic Gardener – From Seed to Seedling appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

When you first see them, soil blocks are both unremarkable and fantastic. They're just cubes of dirt, after all—big deal—but they function like a pot of earth twice their size or more. In fact, the headline could read: Pots Obsolete—Soil Blocks Replace Plastic. Implausible? Perhaps. Impossible? No. Unlikely as it sounds, a cube of free-standing […] The post The Manic Gardener – Potless Plants: Starting seeds with Soil Blocks appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Most of us are familiar with the term “food security,” meaning simply that people should have enough to eat. But Charles Levkoe, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, explains why this term doesn't go nearly far enough in defining people's rights in the realm of food. “Food security” does not ask us to […] The post The Manic Gardener – Where it All Comes Together—Or Falls Apart appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

It's not yet spring, but with days growing perceptibly longer, the season of the seed catalogue has arrived. Many backyard gardeners still rely on packets from the grocery store or from the gardening center at a big box store, where all the carrots are orange and all the beans green. But there's an extraordinary array […] The post The Manic Gardener – Seeds for the Season appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

We all know that Texas is in the midst of a terrible drought with no end in sight, so it makes sense that irrigating lawns and gardens is restricted there. But in fact water is running short in areas far wetter than Texas. Aquifers are depleted and water tables have dropped in states as damp […] The post The Manic Gardener – Water-wise gardening appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

January is a not the best time to start a compost pile, but it's a great time to learn about how compost works. This week I talk with two experts at the University of Pennsylvania, Tom Richard and Rick Stehouwer, about some of what goes on inside a compost pile and what happens when you […] The post The Manic Gardener – The Way It Works: Compost Science appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Some people think this: Native plants are tough, hardy, drought-tolerant, and easy going, free of those picky preferences that plague domesticated garden plants. Stick ‘em in the ground and they'll grow. Others think this: Natives are messy, unkempt, overgrown, weedy, undisciplined, and invasive. And they lower property values. Still others believe this: Natives take too […] The post The Manic Gardener – Going Native: why and how to garden with native plants appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Sure, you know the difference between a perennial and an annual. But are you aware that perennials, unlike diamonds, are not forever? Some only live for a few years. And a perennial in the south may be an annual in the north. So—are you sure you know the difference? If you have any doubts about […] The post The Manic Gardener – Botany for Backyard Gardeners #1 appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

We've all heard of habitat restoration. But how do you do it? What is actually involved—and why would anyone bother, if it takes years of strenuous work and pays little or nothing? Most of the savanna and prairie native to the Midwest are gone. But native plantings are being re-established by many private landowners, my […] The post The Manic Gardener – 99.9% Gone: Prairie and Savanna Restoration appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

If you live in North America, chances are that you've never heard of Bokashi. Yet it may be the answer to your composting prayers. It's cheap, easy, and so small-scale that you can do it indoors, all winter, in a bin under your kitchen sink. Jenny Harlen of Jenny's Bokashi Blog joins us from Sweden, […] The post The Manic Gardener – Kitchen Composting: Bokashi 101 appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Why would an organization dedicated to preserving our seed-saving heritage not save seeds? And why would such an organization concentrate on developing new seeds? And why, oh, why would a graduate program in breeding plants focus so exclusively on genes that most students in it can't tell a rutabaga from a dandelion? My guest this […] The post The Manic Gardener – A New Kind of Seed Bank appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Imagine this: Your neighbor invents fire and patents it so that you can’t have any unless you obtain a license–for a fee. Furthermore, your license requires that you put your fire out each morning and buy new coals from your neighbor each evening. Or you get sued. Bad enough? It gets worse. One day, his […] The post The Manic Gardener – Turning the Tables: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

If you thought worm castings an odd fertilizer, brace yourself: the new kid on the organic fertilizer block is insect castings, or frass. Daniel Jazvac, one of the co-founders of Prime Nutrients Ltd., calls this fertilizer the “missing link” of organics. Here's why: insects play a crucial role in recycling organic matter everywhere, and some […] The post The Manic Gardener – The Next Organic Fertilizer: Insect Poop? appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

In the course of this interview, Steve Solomon covers a lot more ground than the tame “organic fertilizers” title suggests. This American-turned-Aussie gardener and garden writer defines the lovely phrase “to put into healing grass,” gives a bit of history about the British garden “allotment,” critques Elliot Coleman's seven-year garden rotation, describes the odd Oregon […] The post The Manic Gardener – Steve Solomon's Complete Organic Fertilizer—Eventually appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Try this on for size: you live in the city, and you don't have a yard. But you want to grow your own food. What do you do? Twenty-five years ago, or even ten, chances are you'd have been out of luck. These days though, many cities across North America positively bristle with helpful organizations […] The post The Manic Gardener – Gardening in the City appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Ever considered harnessing the power of your local hot spring to heat your greenhouse? If so, you have company. And if not, here's your chance to meet some very different people. Cindy Owings and Jim Patrick belong to Madison Farm to Fork, a group dedicated to promoting healthy, organic foods within their foodshed, the Madison […] The post The Manic Gardener – Geothermal Greenhouse appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

If you want to go organic but you have no idea how to control pests without a spray bottle of something lethal, IPM can help. It can also help if pests are taking too big a bite out of your established organic garden. IPM, or Integrated Pest Management, is a graduated approach to dealing with […] The post The Manic Gardener – IPM: Managing Pests Sustainably appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

This is an arm of organic gardening that might be accused of taking itself over-seriously—until you realize how serious are the issues it confronts: not just the poisoning of air, earth, and water that organic gardening opposes, but the economic forces that push industries to adopt dangerous practices; forces that transform manure, one of the […] The post The Manic Gardener – Permaculture: Everything Counts appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

How can a food bank cut its garbage output from 85,000 pounds in one year to 40,000 the next—and produce tons of “good dirt” at the same time? By composting, of course. But large-scale composting without turning, and without machinery? Michael Daltons and MJ Arendes of Gardens from Garbage explain how they are establishing school […] The post The Manic Gardener – Community Composting with Big Bokashi appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Wondering how to put your garden to bed for the winter? Even if you're not, it's worth tuning in to hear Linda Chalker-Scott, former science editor of Master Gardener, reveal the most common autumn gardening mistakes she's encountered. If you are in the midst of fall garden tasks, learn whether mulching makes a difference, why […] The post The Manic Gardener – Fall Garden Tasks appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

An interview with Jason Kimm takes place in a truck, a field, and a piece of harvesting equipment I'd never heard of. (It's called a potato windrower, and it digs potatoes.) Along the way, he describes how he has worked to reduce his farm's dependence on pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers, not to mention […] The post The Manic Gardener – Steps towards Sustainability appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Not many people can claim that a dancing accident turned them towards organic farming, but Yvonne and Jason Kimm aren't like most people. Jason's multi-generational potato seed farm isn't unusual here in Montana, but the small plot on which he and Yvonne grow organic potatoes — that's rare. Even more unusual, they grow organic seed […] The post The Manic Gardener – No Small Potatoes appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Autumn may seem like an odd time to start a garden, but it actually makes sense, as this week's guest, Tyson Stillman, explains. He's funny, pithy, and an amazing source of gardening experience and information—a remarkable combination, considering that he's still an undergraduate. He'll walk you through the garden he's putting in at his new […] The post The Manic Gardener – From the Ground Up appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.