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@KissMyAster and@JeanAnnVK
AKA Amanda Thomsen and Jean Ann Van Krevelen
Who's betting they'll have Mike for lunch?

Jim Slama of Family Farmed

The irrepressible Vicki Nowick flashing the
"Live Green and Prosper" sign

Proposed expansion of DeKalb County landfill

Peter Nicholson of Foresight Design Inititative

Joe Lill and the Long-Eared Owl
He plays a mean trumpet.
Um, Joe, not the owl.

Appropriately, this is one of Mr. Brown Thumb's profile pix from Facebook.

Local fruit puree destroyed by City of Chicago inspectors

Ken Dunn

Randy Blankenhorn

Connor Shaw


Jean Starr

Will Allen and friends

Kewanee's historic Osage Orange.
Click on the picture for a slide show of the pruning.

Click the picture for more information about
"Verbatim Verboten"

The Logan Square Winter farmer's market is in the lobby of the Congress Theater on Milwaukee Avenue.

It's a Wonderful Slice of
It's a Wonderful Life

Shawna Lee Coronado

Eric Hansen

 

 

The not-so-funny Asian carp

Horgan Urban Forest employee milling a tree from the Chicago urban forest

Franklin Fine Arts Center

Underwriter of the Mayor's Landscape Awards Program

 

The notorious kudzu . . .

. . . and the misnamed Tree of Heaven.

The late, lamented 61st St. Garden. It will be missed.

MWRD Commissioner Debra Shore and What's His Name

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

March on Fisk Coal plant in Pilsen neighborhood

49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore with Mike. These men are smiling because Chicago citizens are beginning to wake up to the harm caused by the Fisk plant.

"Compost Queen" Lynn Bement (left)

Fisk Coal-Fired Power Station


Click the pic for Wisconsin Barns slide show

Click the pic.

Stacey Pfingsten, of No Foam Chicago

Hinsdale bid for 26 forest preserve acres is a "land grab," according to Friends of the Forest Preserve's Benjamin Cox

Click for a report and slide show of the CEDA remote.

Click for a slide show of Bob Erlich's monarchs

Robert L. Wharton at the CEDA offices in Berwyn

Ernie Adams on Drums

Mad City Chickens

The Cook County Fair

Adopt-a-Beach

The Miracle of Fall--Paperback Maple

Manuel and Leslie Applewhite at their farm in Matteson.

The green roof on the potting shed under a bridge. Whatever.

The handsome and highly green Scott Jamieson

Another handsome and highly green guy, Benjamin Cox

Mike Bryson, of Roosevelt University

Ken Benson with some of his prize-winning students and Miriam Goldberger with some of her beloved plants

Don't go away mad, Bambi. Just go away

Our favorite picture of Beth Botts

Marcus de la fleur

Fox & Obel

Don't let the bedbugs bite. Really. These guys are not cute.

The Sheffield Garden Walk offersa lot of beautiful gardens and beautiful . . . er, cool bands.

I'm not sure I understand about this sculpture from the Dearborn Garden Walk, but I'm sure it's all right because it's a family event. Right guys? It is a family event?

Shane DeRolf and Charlie

The Cioper Garden

The Walker Garden

 

March 7, 2010

This is "Foodie Week" on The Mike Nowak Show!
I say that because in both hours I'm talking to people who are at least knee deep in efforts to help you grow your own food easily and efficiently.

Let's start with two people that I first got to know on Twitter. After all, it's supposed to be the next great social medium...perhaps not as good as having your own radio show, but some people are really working it. Like authors Jean Ann Van Krevelen and Amanda Thomsen. Out in the Twittersphere they are known, respectively, as @JeanAnnVK and @KissMyAster. Well, not exactly. Jean has other Twitter accounts, but that's something she likes to do. Without belaboring the point, the jury is still out for me.

Anyway, they're serious writers. Jean has several blogs, including Gardener to Farmer and The Edgy Entrepreneur. Amanda--who, as far as I can tell, is actually edgier than Jean (but I wouldn't like to see them get into a contest)--does a blog for Horticulture Magazine online. Here's an example. They also have a podcast called "Good Enough Gardening." What scares me is that they're pretty damned funny--which I always thought was MY gig. But I suppose it doesn't hurt to have other funny people around, especially if they grow things.

But I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about their new, terrific book,Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food. They collaborated with Robin Ripley and Teresa O'Connor to create a book that delivers what it advertises. It walks you through the whole process--from selecting varieties to preparing your soil to dealing with insects and diseases to presenting recipes of all shapes and sizes to preserving and storing the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor. They even give you tips on how to purchase the best produce, in case you can't grow it yourself. Like a lot of the best of the new gardening, their ideas are organic through and through.

Okay, I don't cook...much. But considering how much territory this book covers in a relatively short space (250-something pages) , I suggest you add it to your collection.

And the Chicago Flower & Garden Show opened yesterday!
Geez, I almost forgot about that. It's quite good, really, and if you have any interest in plants at all you should stop by. This year's theme is "Cultivating Great Performances," which means that horticultural and theatre designers got together for a number of the exhibits. Shows like "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," "Miss Saigon," "Wicked" and more are represented--some more successfully than others.

There are the usually goodies like the Master Gardeners booth, where you can have all of your garden questions answered; the Marketplace, where you can start shopping for the gardening season (even if it's way too early) and the educational seminars, where even I will be doing my thing. On Monday, March 8 at 6:15 p.m. (yes, in the evening), I will be presenting readings of my favorite columns that I have written for Chicagoland Gardening Magazine. If this garden show is about theatre, then I will do my best to bring those columns alive, as they say. Here's the complete seminar schedule.

"Foodie Week," Part Deux: Family Farmed Expo 2010
It bills itself as "The Midwest's Premier Local Food Event" and I, for one, am not going to argue with that label. Family Farmed Expo is a three day extravaganza, March 11 - 13 at the UIC Forum on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. Among the features of this three day event:

• Thursday: Financing Farm to Fork. No touchy-feely stuff here. It's all about the business side of connecting connecting local food producers with potential investors.
• Friday: The Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council Summit. This day brings together urban farmers, city officials, community activists and educators, as they hammer out solutions to questions about how to make healthy foods to create healthy neighborhoods.
• Friday night: Localicious! A sampling of the freshest ingredients and flavors of the season.
• Saturday: Local Food Festival Workshops

Family Farmed's guiding force Jim Slama and Vicki Nowicki, who has been growing food sustainably in the suburbs of Chicago for decades, will walk me through the mission of this local food event. By the way, I will be moderating a seminar called "Growing & Using Herbs & Botanicals" on Saturday from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.

By the way, there are fees attached to all of the events at Family Farmed Expo, so check the website for the seminars, talks, and food happenings that you would like to attend.

One more thing. I was contacted by Alicia Ontiveros, who is the host of an blog called EcoChicago, which works to connect Chicagoans with green resources. As part of that, she recently launched on online talk show called EcoChat.

On Monday, March 8th, at 8PM CST, she'll also be interviewing Jim Slama. You can participate by visiting ecochicago.blogspot.com and keep track of shows by following @ecochat on Twitter.

What's the latest on the DeKalb "mega-dump"? If you heard the show last week, you know that I talked to Dan Kenney from a group called Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump about a proposed expansion of a DeKalb County landfill.

The county landfill, operated by Waste Management, was seeking to expand its intake from The expansion would allow the landfill to increase its intake from about 340 tons to about 2,000 tons per day, including waste from surrounding counties, which would pay a tipping fee. That revenue would be used to expand the county jail, among other capital projects.

The public hearing was scheduled for last Monday, though it would be extended if there was a need. Well, apparently there was a need. According to Dan and the posts I'm seeing on their Facebook site, the hearing--and the controversy--are far from over.

I'm talking to Dan again today, to get the latest information.

February 28, 2010

Will a "mega-dump" be approved in DeKalb County? The county is considering expanding the capacity of a landfill and that has created a white-hot controversy in this north-central Illinois county.

The county landfill, operated by Waste Management, takes in about 350 tons of trash per day from DeKalb County. It is estimated that about seven years of capacity remains. The expansion would allow the landfill to take in about 2,000 tons per day, including waste from surrounding counties, which would pay a tipping fee. That revenue would be used to expand the county jail, among other capital projects.

Dan Kenney is chair of a group called Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump and he has a number of concerns about the proposed expansion. One of those concerns starts with the public hearing that is scheduled for tomorrow, March 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Jenkins Auditorium,21193 Malta Road on the campus of Kishwaukee College, at the intersection of Malta Road and Route 38 in Malta. It should be noted that the hearing will be continued the next day if necessary. The hearing is being conducted by the DeKalb County Pollution Control Facility Committee and members of the public can comment on any portion of the expansion, including design and location.

Kenny and others are outraged that members of the DeKalb County Board have been advised not to speak with their constituents until after voting on it. This directive came in the form of an email to board members from DeKalb County Administrator Ray Bockman, who received the advice from State's Attorney John Farrell.

In addition to questioning the legality of the enforced silence of the board members, Kenney and the members of Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump, which also has a Facebook site, are predictably concerned about the environmental and esthetic impacts of an expanded site.

Speaking of Illinois landfills, here's a recent blog by the Chicago Reader's Mick Dumke, who makes appearances on my show from time to time. Here he's reporting the bad news that Chicago might be on its way to becoming the garbage capital of America. See? We're not the Second City anymore. Break out the champagne...and throw the bottles in the landfill.

The Foresight Design Initiative is leading the "green" charge for businesses and organizations in Chicago. It's not hard to spot Foresight Design Executive Director Peter Nicholson, especially if you attend one of the Foresight Design Chicago Green Drinks panels. He's the charismatic, eloquent guy pulling together the various strands of social, environmental and economic sustainability in a room full of people who are eager to move those issues forward...and have a beer at the same time.

According to their website," Foresight Design Initiative seeks to improve and sustain the quality of life in the urban environment through smart design, without sacrificing the needs of future generations." How does it do that? Let me count the ways:

• Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance
• Foresight Immersion
• Foresight Studio
• Internships
• Sustainability Career Workshops
• SUSTAINOVATE Conferences
• Sustainability for High School Leaders

I would go into what each of those programs is about, but I don't have the time or space. Which means that if you're interested in sustainability in Chicago, you should check out some of the links yourself. Or listen to the interview, either live this morning or on the podcast of today's show.

If you're a gardener, you know about Proven Winners. Along with their complementary brand, Proven Selections, their sales are greater than a half-billion dollars annually. The plants are available from just about every garden center in North America.

Last August, I ran into Director of Marketing Marshall Dirks at the Independent Garden Center Show (IGC) at Navy Pier. He showed me some ridiculously fabulous plants that Proven Winners is bringing to the market place this season. Their goal, always, is to " introduce the best, most unique, high performing plants, to produce them under the highest quality standards, and to market the plants innovatively."

How successful have they been? Well, if you are familiar with plants like Bacopa, Nemesia and Verbena, all of which are used extensively in containers, you can probably thank Proven Winners, which introduced these varieties.

So, in a week which features Sid's Garden Expo, the opening of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show,and the Morton Arboretum Midwest Gardening Symposium, Proven Winners is presenting their Outdoor Living Extravaganza at The Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows. Geez. I was planning to paint the garage this weekend.

Let's add Birding America VIII to this week's events. Why not, since everything else in the world is happening next weekend. Heck, I even missed Birding America VII last year. Okay, all jokes aside, this seems like a very cool event on Saturday, March 6th at North Park University on Chicago's north side.

Joe Lill, Vice President of the Chicago Audubon Society, says that if you attend, you will learn about some of the most rewarding places to bird locally, nationally and internationally. Experts will help you plan birding trips and vacations around hotspots, highlighting resident birds as well as migrants. Locations to be presented range from Chicago’s North Pond to Kenya. Hmm. Chicago. Kenya. Barack Obama. Chicago. Kenya. My advice? Don't give the wingnuts any more ammunition.

UPDATE: When I booked Joe on the show, I had no idea of his musical talents. To get the idea, you need to listen to the last ten minutes of the podcast of this show. Trust me, it's fun.

February 21, 2010

Beth Botts filled in as host, while I took a real day off.
This is what she wrote on her blog Growing in Chicago before the program.
This is what she wrote after the program.

February 14, 2010

Chicago continues its "war" against local food producers. That seems to be the only conclusion I can draw, as another week saw even more food destroyed at Kitchen Chicago. Kitchen Chicago is a "shared use kitchen," which means they provide a fully equipped, commercially licensed facilities to small business that want to rent by the hour. Last week I interviewed the Chicago Tribune's Monica Eng, who wrote a story and blog about how two small companies attempting to operate out of the kitchen had thousands of dollars worth of food destroyed by city inspectors about ten days ago. The problem wasn't contamination, however. It had to do with licensing.

The businesses were apparently told originally that Kitchen Chicago's license would cover them. At some point, the city changed its policy and required the individual businesses to obtain licenses. But when the businesses tried to do that, they were told that wasn't possible because the city wouldn't allow more than one business per operating address. On top of this, it's pretty clear that not only are the Licensing, Health and Zoning departments not talking to each other, but often people within each department aren't on the same page, creating even more confusion. In addition, there are issues surrounding the labeling and use of fresh produce from local growers.

It's a mess, really, and it isn't being helped by the city's inexplicable reluctance to step in to help get all of the concerned departments on the same page. Meanwhile, even more food was throw out this past week, as reported again by Monica Eng. You might also want to watch the methodical destruction of the food, as documented by WBEZ's Chip Mitchell.

This story is far from over. I've invited Monica Eng back this week. Kitchen Chicago's Alexis Leverenz. They are joined by Martha Boyd, Program Director for the Chicago Urban Initiative of Angelic Organics Learning Center

Chicago Public Schools have a serious food waste problem. While I have Monica Eng on the line, I am asking her about yet another article she wrote last week. If you thought the city's assault on small food businesses was aggravating, consider this:

• The Chicago Public Schools throw away about 1 million styrofoam breakfast and lunch trays every week.
• About 400,000 milk cartons end up in landfills each day.
• Fewer than 1 percent of the district's 675 schools have initiated composting programs for lunch waste.

So what are we teaching Chicago kids about how to take care of our planet? Nothing, it seems.

Not completely, though. Not as long as there are people like Waters Elementary School teacher Pete Leki, director of ecology programs at Waters Elementary in Ravenswood. According to Eng, Leki composts about 2 tons of lunchroom waste for the school's 3-acre garden each year. He's a guy I'm going to have on the show soon.

Meanwhile, I've posted one of the Waters videos on my home page. Check out the rest of the Waters Elementary videos about ecology here.

MELA wants to make sustainability the norm in the green industry. If you're wondering what the fuss is all about, well, it's that the "green" industry isn't always as "green" as it should be. And I'm talking here about landscapers, growers, garden centers and more. However, thanks to programs like the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SSI), those businesses are moving in the right direction.

President Garth Conrad says that MELA's eigth annual conference on Thursday, February 25 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, will touch on all five aspects of sustainability as defined by SSI. The MELA Annual Conference 2010: "Our Future is in YOUR hand—Sustainability in Action" looks at plants, soil, water management, materials, and human health/well being. Conrad and board member Mark Moxley of Lake Street Landscape Supply say that the conference features breakout sessions about plants, the soil food web, water management, and there's even a tour of the the Chicago Botanic Gardens' new Plant Science Center.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of the co-founders of MELA. Which makes me really, really proud, too. Because this organization is changing the way the business of landscaping is done in the Midwest. I don't spend a lot of time at MELA meetings these days. But that doesn't mean that I can't stand back and be a proud papa, either. If you're in the green industry, you should be there.

It isn't every day that a hort event features a "punk rock earth mother." But that's the case at "Tending the Earth," the 18th Annual Natural Landscaping Seminar presented by the Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee of McHenry County. I spoke at this seminar a couple of years ago and I can tell you that this is a terrifc gathering.

The keynote speaker is the earth mother of which I spoke. She is Lorraine Johnson, native plant expert and author of a number of books on the subject, including Grow Wild! Native Plant Gardening in Canada and the encyclopedic Garden Plants and Flowers, for which she is the Canadian editor.

One of the more fascinating sessions will be “Realizing a dream: Hack-Ma-Tack National Wildlife Refuge." It is about the effort to establish a local National Wildlife Refuge in the Chicago Metro area. It would be established in the counties of Walworth, Wisconsin and McHenry, Illinois, and conserve the area’s unique natural landscapes, plants and wildlife. I must admit that I wasn't aware that we had no local wildlife refuge. Ed Collins is Ed Natural Resources Manager at the McHenry County Conservation District (MCCD) and Nancy Williamson works for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and I'm eager to talk to them about the project.

By the way the WPPC seminar is Saturday, February 27th, 2010, 8:00-3:45 at McHenry County College Conference Center, 8900 U.S. Highway 14 Crystal Lake, Illinois.

February 7, 2010

"Asian Carpe Diem" is my new favorite saying. Roughly translated, it means "Pluck the Asian Carp out of your left ear before it does any more damage." I could be mistaken. Regardless of my ridiculous jokes, the Great Lakes are still in danger of being invaded by this swimming eating machine. There are a lot of unanswered questions:

• Have the various species of Asian carp already found their way into the Great Lakes?
• Is there a way to keep them out--or to keep more of them from entering the lakes?
• Would closing the locks on the Illinois waterways that lead to the Great Lakes cause untold economic damange to this state?
• Will the issue be resolved in the courts or some other way?

The Natural Resources Defense Council's Josh Mogerman is back in the studio to shed some light on these questions. He has blogged recently about the Asian Carp problem, noting that there are lessons to be learned from other species that have colonized other parts of the globe. And his colleague Henry Henderson writes about the State of Michigan's attempts to have this issue legally resolved, and cites a study that indicates that the cries of economic doom may be overblown.

Mr. Brown Thumb is the most famous person you've never heard of. Unless you Tweet, that is.When it comes to horticultural social media in Chicago, he might not be The King (that honor apparently belongs to Ron Wolford from Cook County Extension), but says he's probably the Court Jester. Works for me. He has a blog on Chicago Now called Chicago Garden. He has another blog called, appropriately, Mr. Brown Thumb. He has a Facebook page, too, and the Tweets from his Twitter account seem to be everywhere.

I have to confess that, against my better instincts, I've been putting a little more time in the Twitter thing, just to see what value it might have. And that led me to make a connection with Gary Oppenheimer, founder of an organization called AmpleHarvest.org. This worthy organization helps people with excess food find food pantries in their area that can use it to feed the hungry. Now that's great stuff. Of course, one connection through Twitter doesn't exactly make me a fan. But if it leads to more friends like Gary...I might do some reconsidering.

UPDATE: Okay, I have to admit that Tweeting live on the show was a blast. I gained quite a few more Twitter followers and started following a few myself. Gary Oppenheimer says that immediately following his appearance on the show, he gained a few. So, it was a good combination of Radio and more modern technology.

"Health Department destroys thousands of dollars of local fruit" was the title of the blog by the Chicago Tribune's Monica Eng on Friday. By the end of the day, a number of people had sent me links to this disturbing story about how the Chicago Department of Health had destroyed thousands of dollars of food inventory belonging to a small entrepreneur, bascically because her papers were not in order.

The company that was victimized is called Flora Confections, created by Flora E. Lazar, who has already blogged about the City of Chicago's ham-fisted actions at Huffington Post. The story smacks more of Kafka than of Horatio Alger, and is a chilling reminder of what bureaucracy run amok is capable of.

Flora Confections Chief Operating Officer Lee Greenhouse, Tribune reporter Eng and I will attempt to recreate the timeline of how a small business, trying to follow the letter of the law, was undone by that very attempt. It's also a lesson in how fast the world is changing and how our governments--city, state and federal--are often hopelessly unequipped to keep pace. The local fresh food movement is happening all over the country faster than anyone can imagine. It will require new laws and new ways of thinking about how food is grown and produced and distributed. Hang on to your turnips.

January 31, 2010

Beth Botts is back on the program today. Which means that we will sit around and talk about various horticultural issues and maybe even answer a few gardening questions. Among the various topics that could be discussed:

• You might be happy that Chicago's snow cover has gone away. But it might not be so good for your plants.
• The University of Illinois Extension is facing severe budget cuts, for the second time in three years. Beth blogs on the story here. You might not even know what Extension does (think Master Gardeners and 4-H and a zillion other programs).
• The truth behind Groundhog Day (this alone is worth the price of admission).
• When and how to start your seeds for the upcoming growing season. By the way, one of the best books on the subject is a thin paperback called "Starting Seeds Indoors" by Ann Reilly. It's the best $3.95 you will ever spend to learn about this subject. It gives you the basics then has all kinds of charts about when and how to prepare seeds to germinate.
• Mid-Am (Mid-America Horticultural Trade Show) was held at McCormick Place in Chicago last week. I was too busy to attend but Beth tells me that, in general, the outlook in the biz these days is pretty gloomy.
• As I keep telling you, winter is a great time to prune certain trees and shrubs. Beth agrees.
• If you don't have room to garden out, garden up. The latest, greatest thing seems to be vertical gardening.

I'm sure we'll cover even more than that. But you have to tune in to join in the fun. Okay, I'm lying about that, too. If you miss the show you can always download it on my podcast page. I make it waaaay to easy for you to listen to the show.

From the "green beer" desk... This story was sent to me by Ron Cowgill of Mighty House. He apparently keeps up on all things beer. Crain's reports that the Goose Island Beer Company has come up with a green beer--and it has nothing to do with the goofy things people do to brews around St. Patrick's Day. This idea of this beer is to create a more environmentally friendly drink. It's not surprising that the beer will be unveiled Monday at Uncommon Ground Restaurant on Devon.

I am proud to say that I am TreeKeeper #417. In this program presented by Openlands, folks learn to care for trees in the urban forest, whether private or public. The Spring 2010 TreeKeepers classes, will take place at the historic Washington Park Field House, located at 5531 South Martin Luther King Drive, in Chicago.

The program runs seven weeks, every Saturday morning for three hours. Among the topics covered are basic tree planting and care, species identification, and how to recognize diseases and pests. Best of all, it's only $80--one of the last great bargains in America. And if you can't handle that, financial assistance is available. Click on the link above or call Jim DeHorn at 312-863-6259.

 

January 24, 2010

Ken Dunn is a Chicago activist, philosopher and recycling icon. And he's being receiving the 5th Annual Elizabeth I. Benson Award this Wednesday, January 27, at the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, 615 W. Wellington, Chicago IL 60657. And I don't mention this simply because I'm emceeing the event.

Ken has been a driving force for sustainability and the general good in this city for more than 35 years. He founded the Resource Center and City Farm (if you've ever driven past the garden at Division and Clybourn, THAT's City Farm.) The evening will feature testimonials from the people whose lives have been changed by Ken, not to mention hors d'oeuvres from Frontera Grill and North Pond Café, wine by Bodega Ramos, and singing by the Bullfrogs Community Choir.

Pam Richart of the Eco-Justice Collaborative says that while there's a $15 suggested donation,
no one will be turned away for lack of funds! And all proceeds will go directly to the Resource Center and
City Farm. I hope you can be there.

The people have voted and they want change. Yeah, I guess you've heard that one before, but it's not what you think. I'm talking about an online poll at a website called Go To 2040, where 20,000 people in the Chicago area voted for the strategies to shape the region's transportation system and development patterns, in project called Invent the Future. This is a continuing project of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the comprehensive regional planning organization for the northeastern Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.

CMAP Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn was on the show in June to plug the voting campaign. Now that it's over, he's back to talk about the direction in which Chicago area residents say they want this region to go. In addition to public input, the scenario proposed by CMAP is also based on two years of research and analysis, and the issues it addresses will require coordinated solutions at the local and regional levels. (What, you thought we could vote on it and that would be that?)

There's a fruit orchard coming to my neighborhood! (Maybe) You can learn more at an event tomorrow, January 25, at Uncommon Ground restaurant on Devon. They're having a benefit Monday night from 6-8pm to announce the name of a new cocktail that will provide $.50 per drink sold to help fund the group CROP. CROP stands for Chicago Rarities Orchard Project, which is a non-profit organization founded to establish community rare-fruit orchards in Chicago.

CROP spokesperson Dave Snyder tells me that they might start growing some fruit trees in my Logan Square neighborhood, if everything goes right. Works for me. Meanwhile, TimeOut Chicago wrote about CROP and their efforts a few months ago. If you're interested in attending the event tomorrow (yes, I know that this doesn't give you a lot of time), you can purchase tix at Brown Paper Tickets. Or just show up and do something good for fruit in Chicago.

 

January 17, 2010

Haiti needs our help. I can't say it any plainer than that. I know that this isn't a public affairs show--except, usually, for environmental matters--but all you have to do is turn on a television news program or log onto just about any search engine with a news page to know that Haiti has been dealt a terrible blow.

So I thought I would make it as easy as possible for you to contribute to the Haitian relief effort by posting some links that I think are helpful.

• The quickest way to donate is to text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross
  The official White House Haiti Earthquake Relief site. It has links to other sites and outlines the federal response to the disaster.
• USAID is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. This site outlines the response of the United States government and other agencies to the Haitian crisis.
• Inter Action is a coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focused on the world’s poor and most vulnerable people. They provide a comprehensive list of organizations that you can donate to.
• Doctors Without Borders has been providing medical humanitarian aid since 1971.
• Partners in Health has been working on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years. Their site is called Stand With Haiti.
• Since its inception in March 2004, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has given concrete aid to Haiti’s grassroots democratic movement.

Finally, if you have concerns about where your money is going, you can always check the financial efficiency of a charitable organization by logging on to Charity Navigator, which evaluates the financial health of over 5,400 of America's largest charities.

Everybody loves the seed exchange at the Porter County Master Gardeners Garden Show.

Get ready for a mid-winter extravaganza in Porter County. The Porter County Master Gardeners present their 7th Annual Gardening Show this Saturday, January 23, 2010 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CST (Chicago Time). It really is a terrific event and, as spokesperson Maureen Phillips explains, Valparaiso is much closer to Chicago than Chicago is to Valparaiso. (Please don't ask me what that means.)

It's an all-star lineup and I should know because I spoke there three years ago. (Hmm. Funny that they haven't invited me back.) Anyway, the terrific events include

• Connor Shaw, founder and owner of Possibility Place Nursery in Monee, Illinois. His talk is “Native Trees, Shrubs and Plants in the Urban Landscape: Flowers, Structure, Size and Placement."
• Jean Starr, Master Gardener and garden writer for The Times and Chicagoland Gardening Magazine. She is speaking on “Unusual Bulbs for Spring Planting,”
• Master Gardener Maureen Phillips, who has been battling deer on her property for years. Her talk, predictably, is “Gardening in Deer Country." Will she win the battle? Stay tuned.
• The Seed & Bulb Exchange. This year there are 10,000 packets of seed; most are non-hybrid and open pollinated. Many are native prairie plants and heirloom vegetable seeds. Show attendees also bring in their saved seeds to trade.

There's a lot more going on this Saturday, and all of it is listed here at the Porter County Master Gardeners Association website. Oh, by the way, admission is only $7.00! Geez, you'd pay that for a cold hot dog at Wrigley and then the darned Cubs would lose anyway. And at the Porter County event, kids under 12 are FREE! At Wrigley, they charge you DOUBLE for kids. At least that's what I've heard. I could be wrong.

January 10, 2010

Social justice cannot be achieved without food justice. That will, more or less, be the message of Will Allen when he speaks in Chicago this Friday. In case you don’t know who Will Allen is, he’s the founder of Growing Power, not to mention a former NBA basketball player and a MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' grant recipient. And his talk will be at KAM Isaiah Israel, 1100 E. Hyde Park Boulevard on January 15th at the 7:00 pm Shabbat service. KAM member Robert Nevel says that it’s part of the Martin Luther King, Jr.Social Justice Weekend program on food justice, urban farming and the environment.

Allen’s talk is Part I. Part II is on Sunday when a panel of experts and activists will participate in a symposium on food justice and sustainable land use and a two-part workshop on how to start a community food producing garden. Both the symposium and workshop are free and open to the public and presented by the KAM Isaiah Israel Social Justice Committee. For information, visit the KAM Isaiah Israel website or call 773-924-1234.

The historic Osage-organge tree in Kewanee is safe...for now. A few weeks ago I received an email from arborist extraordinaire Guy Sternberg about a tree that was in trouble. An osage-orange that dated back to the 1840s was in danger of being cut down in Kewanee, Illinois in a few days. Apparently, the City of Kewanee was concerned that the tree, located on a major thoroughfare, was leaning and might be a safety hazard.

Sternberg explains :

This great tree is the only remaining part of one of the original hedgerows promoted by Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner in the 1840s, and is perhaps the last documented tree remaining from that era. The hedgerow was planted by the Potter family, who farmed here before the City of Kewanee was founded on the site. Turner was a professor at Illinois College and is considered the founder of the American land grant university system as well as the impetus behind the establishment of hedgerow plantings throughout the Midwest and Great Plains. Many additional trees were planted later for windbreaks, and these trees became the shelter belt system that saved America's soils from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

This is living history that cannot be restored once it's gone.

Sternberg wrote to just about anybody who he thought might be able to help save this tree. As a result of his request, arborists, municipal employees, educators, media people and ordinary tree-lovers sprang into action. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about their response was the way they listened to each other with courtesy and respect. City officials had emergency pruning performed on the tree. The parties agreed to a meeting and came up with a plan to save the tree and reduce the threat it might pose. As a result, though there is still work to be done, the tree remains in its spot.

I followed the dozens of emails that went back and forth among the various people working to save the tree and I knew that I wanted to talk about this effort on my program. Thus, Guy Sternberg, Kewanee Mayor Bruce Tossell, and David Ellis from the American Horticultural Society are joining me to talk about this effort.

Luke Miller, who blogs for Better Homes and Gardens, writes about a fundraising effort that has sprung up to keep the tree well maintained. If you're interested in contributing, here's where you can send your donation:

Osage-Orange Tree Fund
Peoples National Bank of Kewanee
207 N. Tremont Street
Kewanee, IL 61443

Have you ever said something that you wish you hadn't? Well, imagine if those words were recorded for posterity. And then read aloud on stage by actors. Now you have some idea of what Verbatim Verboten - the Words You Long to Hear! is all about. It's a theatre piece that had a long run in Chicago a number of years ago and is now returning. Why do I mention this? Well, I'm going to be part of the six week run, opening next Wednesday, January 13 in Mary's Attic at Hamburger Mary's, Chicago.

The person responsible for this fascinating look at the perils of celebrity is Michael Martin, who stops by the show this morning. In addition, veteran Chicago actor Richard Henzel is here and the three of us will perform a couple of pieces from the show. Don't worry--if you miss it live, you can always go to my podcasts page and download the audio.

The show runs only one night per week, Wednesdays, so you better grab your tickets now. You can order them at Brown Paper Tickets or purchase them at the door: Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark, Chicago, IL 60640

 

January 3, 2010

Happy Food Year! And decade, too. I have no doubts that food--especially local, organic food--is going to be THE hot topic in the horticultural world for the foreseeable future. So climb on board, kiddies, we're in for an interesting ride, as ordinary people discover that growing their own food is not only possible, but necessary. And then we'll have to be on guard when the multi-nationals and other moneyed interests attempt to convince us that what we're doing isn't safe (think "unsafe Canadian drugs" in the health care debate), even as they are desperately seeking ways to cash in on the movement (think "organics.")

In the words of Yakov Smirnoff: "Whatta Country!"

Meanwhile, you CAN go to Farmers Markets in Winter. Thanks to Churches' Center for Land and People (CCLP) and Faith In Place, and people like Robin Schirmer, Winter Farmers Markets are again giving local farmers the opportunity to sell their goods and consumers the chance to buy local and fresh goods. Held in parish halls of congregations of many denominations throughout Chicagoland, these markets are open to the public and from November to March. Depending on the week and the market, you can pick up cheese, meat and poultry, soap, syrup, honey, wool, yogurt, raw fibers, vinegars, dried fruits, milled flours, sauces and salsas, preserves, cider, and fresh produce as available.

Some of the markets are one-day events; others happen weekly throughout the winter. You can find the list at Local Harvest.

And if you STILL haven't gotten your fill of local food (excuse me while I burp), you need to pay a visit to
The Local Beet. One of the contributors to this guide to local eating is Rob Gardener. There are blogs, features, a calendar of local food events (of course), and more. Mark this website in your favorites.

Here's a comprehensive list of Winter Farmers Markets from Local Harvest.

Sun., Jan. 10, 10am to 2pm ~ Deerfield
North Shore Unitarian Church
2100 Half Day Rd. (Rt. 22), Deerfield IL 60015

Sun., Jan. 24, 12noon to 3pm ~ Chicago/Old Irving Park
Irving Park Lutheran Church
3938 W. Belle Plaine Ave., Chicago, IL 60618

Sat., Feb. 13, 9am to 1pm ~ Oak Park
Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church
405 S. Euclid Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302

Sat., Feb. 20, 9am to 1pm ~ Chicago/Rogers Park
United Church of Rogers Park
1545 W. Morse Ave, Chicago, IL 60626

Sun., Mar. 7, time TBD ~ Oak Park
St. Giles Catholic Parish
1025 Columbian, Oak Park IL 60302

Sun., Mar. 14, 9:30am to 1:30pm ~ Park Ridge
Park Ridge Community Church
100 Courtland Ave., Park Ridge IL 60068

Recurring markets:
Geneva Geneva Community Market, Saturdays 9am to 1pm,
Green City Market Green City Market, Saturdays 1/16, 2/13, 2/27, 3/13, 3/27, 4/10, 4/24, 8am to 1pm, Kenosha Kenosha WinterMarket, Saturdays 9am to 1pm,
Logan Square Logan Square Farmers Market, Sundays 10am to 2pm
Portage Park Portage Park Farmers Market, Saturdays 1/23, 2/27, 3/27, 4/24, 10am to 2pm

One-time markets
Empty Bottle Sat., Jan. 16, 11am to 5pm,
Ebenezer Lutheran Church-Andersonville Sat., Mar. 20, 9am to 1pm,
Unitarian Universalist Church of Elgin Sat., Mar. 21, 1pm to 3pm,

Stay tuned
St. Benedict Parish-Northcenter
First Evangelical Free Church-Andersonville

Voting has already begun for the Chicago Seed of the Year. But don't panic--you have until April 1 to get your ballot in. The contest, er, election is being held by an organization called One Seed Chicago and the best part is that just for voting, you will receive some winning seeds in the mail. The project is the work of NeighborSpace, a nonprofit urban land trust dedicated to preserving and sustaining community managed open spaces in Chicago. NeighborSpace Executive Director Ben Helphand (no, I didn't make up that name) says that the winner in 2008 was a sunflower and that 2009 was the "year of the bean."

In keeping with alternating between flowers and vegetables, this year's contestants, er, candidates are three prairie plants: bee balm (genus Monarda), purple coneflower (genus Echinacea) and nodding onion (genus Allium). You can vote at One Seed Chicago. May the best flower win...but they're all worthy candidates.

 

December 27, 2009

Welcome to the things I missed in 2009. What I mean is that there were a number of stories that I meant to discuss on the air during the year that never made it, usually because I got long-winded. So, as a public service, here are some articles that I found interesting, and I hope you do, too. I'm just listing the headlines and the links. The rest is up to you.

Gardenology.org - (think Wikipedia for gardeners) passed the 15,000 article milestone this year. If you use this as a resource, do remember that pretty much anybody can contribute to the site. So double-check the facts, preferably at an .edu site.

If you think we're headed down the wrong road with plastic bottles, how about paper bottles?

Heartland Portrait, edited by Robert Wolf - to put on your reading list for the holidays

A possible answer to dealing with food wasted: Accelerated Food Composting
Watch the video

Killer Tomatoes (I'm not kidding)
Killer Petunias (I'm still not kidding)

I drink raw milk (sold illegally on the underground market)

Evanston Passes Commercial Green Building Ordinance
Major new construction must meet LEED Silver

Time to 'pull the plug' on giant pandas and let them go extinct, argues naturalist Chris Packham

The Grass Is Greener at Harvard (because they've gone organic)

Man Attempts to Shoot Dragonfly With Rifle, Misses and Hits Friend in the Head (no, it's not a story about Dick Cheney)

The Dragonfly Mystery (no, it's not a story about Dick Cheney)

Homes pollute: Linked to 50 percent more water pollution than previously believed

Giant Rat-Eating Plant Discovered in the Philippines (I'm already trying to grow it in my neighborhood)
Story #1
Story #2
Story #3

US vehicle efficiency hardly changed since Model T

Ant mega-colony takes over world

American shoppers misled by greenwash, Congress told
98% of supposedly environmentally friendly products in US supermarkets make false or confusing claims, campaigners say (Wow...ya think?)

Changing Climate Likely To Make 'Super Weed' Even More Powerful

Train can be worse for climate than plane

City Living Encourages Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Have a happy New Year! See you in 2010!

December 20, 2009

It's a Wonderful Slice of 'It's a Wonderful Life'! If you have no idea what I mean by that, you are obviously new to The Mike Nowak Show. I have been performing this ten-minute, one-man version of the holiday classic film for about fifteen years now. Mostly I do it on stage during the holiday season, but today I am bringing the piece back to radio for it's inaugural performance on Chicago's Progressive Talk.

When I say back to radio, I mean that I performed 'Wonderful Slice' a number of years ago at Gargantua Radio down the dial with actress and friend Kathryn Gallagher. Well, they archived that piece and played it on their airwaves every year until...well, until I decided to switch radio stations. As it turns out, there were a couple of people out there who missed it, including Scott Austin, who has hosted his own radio show in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada for the past 21 years. I don't know how he knew about 'Wonderful Slice,' but he became a fan and tracked me down when he could no longer find a link on the Internet.

So, as a public service, I am presenting a new version of my masterpiece, and will archive it on my own website, where it will live until...well, forever, if I can strike a bargain withe devil. By the way, Scott knows his stuff--he's been the nursery manager at Art Knapp's Plantland and Flower Shop, which has 15 retail nurseries in British Columbia. So I'm making him pay for this new radio version of 'Wonderful Slice' by helping me answer some gardening questions. He doesn't know it yet, but he's going to be a part of the presentation.

It's a Wonderful Slice of 'It's a Wonderful Life' should happen on my radio show around 9:30 a.m.

However, 'Wonderful Slice' is LIVE ON STAGE TONIGHT!! though you'll have to make the trek to the venerable Green Mill (where Al Capone used to hang out) at Broadway and Lawrence in Chicago. For the past six (seven? I can't keep count) years, I have been honored to be part of the Christmas Uptown Poetry Slam, hosted by the man, the legend, Marc Smith. Get there early for a good seat. The festivities go from 7 to 10pm, and I usually hit the stage around 8:00.

Another guy who knows his stuff is Joe Heidgen from Shady Hill Gardens in Elburn. I often bring Joe on the show as "the harbinger of spring." But this is also a great time to shop for those holiday plants that are as important a part of your decorations as Christmas lights. So, between Scott Austin and Joe, we've got it covered. If you have a garden question, give us a call at 773/838-9278.

By the way, holiday plants can be beneficial to have around. Just take a look at this article from The Daily Telegraph, London as reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, Australia.

The rest of the show is going to be a holiday free-for-all...or free-fall. I hope you can join us and help celebrate the holidays. By the way, on behalf of Producer Heather Fry and Meteorologist Rick DiMaio, allow me to wish you a fabulous, happy holiday season, whatever you celebrate or don't celebrate (that covers everything, doesn't it?)

December 13, 2009

Have you considered "Gardening Nude"? Hey, I didn't come up with title of this book, Shawna Lee Coronado did. Not only does her empire include the book "Gardening Nude," the website with the same name, another website called "The Casual Gardener.com," several blog sites, a newspaper column and YouTube videos, but she also has 10,000 followers on Twitter (that's just kind of frightening, if you ask me).

Basically, her deal is self-empowerment through connecting with nature, embracing a green lifestyle and building community. She has a story to tell of how she took control of her emotional and physical health to defeat a chonic illness. Along the way, she developed what she calls the Get Your Green On Healthy Philosophy. Okay, let's get healthy.

The Chicago Reader's Mick Dumke is in the house. It's always a pleasure to welcome Mick back to the beautiful showcase studio on South Pulaski Road. As you might know, Mick is one of the contributors to the Clout City blog. His beat is generally politics, but one of the reasons that I book him on my show is because he also enjoys writing about how politics affects our city environment. For instance, he--like me--wonders why the City of Chicago and, in particular, Mayor Richard M. Daley, can't wrap their noggins around the idea that recycling is an important environmental issue. Mick wrote about this just the other day and in an interesting, if dismaying post, revealed how Hizzoner's penchant for giving away the store is now reaching into the world of recycling.

We are definitely going to touch on the stalled Blue Cart program and why cities like Los Angeles are so far ahead of us, plastic bag recycling, and perhaps even TIFs, since he's been spending a lot of time on that story lately.

Meanwhile, I'm pleased to announce that the Chicago Recycling Coalition (of which I am president, in the interest of full disclosure) is over 1,000 Facebook fans and climbing. If you care about recycling in Chicago and use Facebook, I hope you'll become a fan. The goal is to get so many people on board that it will be impossible to ignore us. One can dream, can't one?

Did you know that...

• Propane is the third most common engine fuel today, after gasoline and diese?
• More than 200,000 bus, taxi, delivery vehicles, and other fleets across the U.S. run on propane?
• Propane has been used as a motor fuel for more than 80 years?
• 90% of the propane used in the U.S. comes from domestic supplies?
• I didn't know any of these facts?

Way back in March of this year I had Eric Hansen on the show. Hansen runs the Downers Grove-based Competitive Lawn Service, Inc. He was taking an unusual tack in order green up the planet in that he was reducing his carbon footprint by converting his power equipment to propane. Now he's taking it to the next level, which is to get his largest power tool to operate on propane--none other than his company truck.

On Wednesday, December 16th, 2009, Hansen will be driving the first in the country Roush/Ford F350 propane truck from the factory in Detroit to the Al Piemonte Ford dealership in Melrose Park IL on propane. One question I'm going to ask him is how many propane dealers are between here and the Motor City and are they attached to mini-marts. That's two questions, actually.

December 6, 2009

How to have that "Continental" experience...in the West Loop. If you're a rail commuter who uses the Ogilvie Transportation Center, you are about to witness a transformation of that part of the city. Just this week the 15,000 square foot Chicago French Market opened, featuring European-styled vendors selling local, seasonal and certified organic food, as well as as artisan-crafted goods, flowers and more.

Co-developer Bob Wislow, CEO and Chairman of US Equities, says that the market is just part of a larger development called MetraMarket. Not only that, but it's part of an green urban strategy called TOD (Transit Oriented Development), which is not only centered around rail and other transit systems, but attempts to lure people within walking distance of the hub. In this instance, the market is utilizing a 100-year-old structure that is part of the transportation center.

Can't picture the location in your mind? You're not the only one, mainly because most people are familiar with the entrances on Madison and Washington, but not on Canal and Clinton Streets. Don't worry--it'll make sense when you see it.

In addition to being the World Pastry Champion of 2008, Dimitri Fayard is co-proprietor of Vanille Patisserie, one of the merchants in Chicago’s first and only year-round indoor market. He's giving me the scoop on how well things went in the first three days. Market Hours are Monday – Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. It's closed on Sundays. How come I have to work on Sundays and nobody else does? Hmm.

Planning to decorate your outdoor trees? You might want to give The Care of Trees a call. Not only will the experately decorate the living assets to your property, they will insure that they are not harmed. Can you guarantee the same treatment?

Shawn Kingzette and Thom Kraak are both in studio today, not only to talk about stringing lights on trees, but to answer tree care questions as we head into winter. It might be a good time to give the show a call: 773/838-9278.

Speaking of trees, I thought I'd leave this up for another week. It's about how to find an eco-friendly Christmas Tree. It's a little trickier than you might think. The first question is always about "fake v. real." That one's pretty much a no-brainer, as artificial trees are likely to contain harmful pvc's, which are sometimes stabilized with lead, and will probably end up in a landfill, anyway. That leaves real trees, which can be mulched or put to other uses after the holidays. But that doesn't mean that they're perfect, either. Unless the tree is grown organically, a lot of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were probably used during its lifetime.

Which means that you need to find an organic Christmas tree farm. Easier said than done. After doing some checking, I found a list of trees on a website called Green Promise. They list organic Christmas tree farms that grow low-spray and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Christmas trees, as well as farms that are certified organic or practice organic methods but are not yet certified. Here are the two farms they list in Illinois:

Ben's Fraser Fir Farm
Capron, IL. 630/279-3227. Choose and harvest Fraser, Douglas and Balsam firs. All trees are organically grown. Tree wrapping, shaking & bailing, gift shop, warming barn, saws & twine provided.

Pioneer Tree Farm
McHenry, IL. 815/385-8512. Organically grown Christmas trees. Species include Scotch Pine and Colorado Spruce. 10% of tree sales donated to the McHenry County Defenders. Tractor-drawn wagon rides to and from the pines, tree shaking and baling, hot coffee and cocoa in the warming house, and pre-cut pine boughs all included at no extra charg

The Asian carp story isn't going away for awhile. A You probably saw a fair amount of coverage this week about this crisis for the Great Lakes. Among the more interesting stories were the one in the Detroit Free Press that mused about whether the dead carp would not be found belly-up because they would just sink to the bottom of the waterway. Regardless of how many dead fish are carted away to landfills, the bigger question is what do we do next? The Natural Resources Defense Council's Josh Mogerman sent me an article by NRDC Director of Midwest Program Henry Henderson that addresses this issue.

Ultimately, unless somebody steps up to the plate, it will end up in the courts. If that's the best we can do, it's pretty darned pathetic.

November 29, 2009

"C" is for Cool holiday books for kids. Bringing basic environmental concepts to kids-- that's pretty much the mission of Tim Magner and Green Sugar Press. To me, this statement on their website says it all:

Green Sugar Press exists to ensure that our future leaders understand Cheerios don’t come from a box, milk doesn't come from a plastic bottle, water doesn't come from the tap and gasoline doesn't originate at a pump.

To that end, Manger has penned (so far) three books, each aimed at a slightly different age range. An Environmental Guide from A to Z (ages 8-13) is the most sophisticated of the trio, featuring concepts such as natural cycles, greenhouse gasses, recycling and urban farming. It even introduces kids to people like Paolo Lugari. Don't know who that is? You'd better get the book (or click on the link to his name). Earl the Earthworm Digs for His Life (ages 5-9) is basically a worm's-eye view of the world, designed to give children a sense of the kinds of critters they will find at or below ground level. N is for Nature: An Environmental Alphabet Book (ages 2-6) is out to prove that it's never too early to teach kids about habitats, the Amazon rainforest, and xeriscapes (hey, what else are you going to do with the letter "X"?)

All three books would make excellent holiday gifts. I'm going to try out at least two of them on producer Heather Frey and her two-year old, William. It's good to have my own personal litmus test available for the show.

There's way too much going on in the environmental world everyday. At least for one lonely guy like me. That's why I have people like Brian Granahan from Environment Illinois on the show to help me keep up to date. In just the past month or so, Environment Illinois has been covering stories like these:

• New Report: Illinois Ranks 6th for Most Pollution from Power Plants
• Nuclear Power Will Set Back Race Against Global Warming, New Report Shows
• Over 230 Million Pounds of Toxics Discharged into American Waterways
• Natural Gas Drilling Poses Toxic Threat to Illinois’s Drinking Water

Yikes! No wonder I haven't been sleeping well lately. Actually, there are some good stories mixed in with the bad, but you don't sell newspapers with good news. Brian discusses the bad AND the good (I'm going to hold him to that) on the show today.

And as if things weren't bad enough...the Asian carp are coming! The problem with this story is that it sounds funny though it's as serious as things get. A couple of groups that are watching the advance of three Asian carp species-the bighead, silver and black carp--towards the Great Lakes are the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Alliance for the Great Lakes. The NRDC's Josh Mogerman and the Alliance's Joel Brammeier have a disturbing tale to tell of incompetence, buck-passing and inaction that have put the greatest fresh water resource in the world in jeopardy.

Currently, only an electric barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) is keeping the carp from entering Lake Michigan via the CSSC. eDNA evidence suggests the Asian Carp are already very close to the electric barrier in the CSSC and are also present in the Des Plaines River and I & M canal. That barrier must be shut down for routine maintenance, which is scheduled for Wednesday, December 2. Since the barrier will be inoperative, a decision has been made to poison nearly six miles of the CSSC, between the barrier and the Lockport Lock and Dam, to insure that the carp cannot advance during the work on the barrier. Of course, that will kill thousands of other fish, too.

There's even an Asian Carp Rapid Response Workgroup that exists to halt their progress. For a fish story, there's lot's of intrigue and a challenge to lawmakers to step up and protect the Great Lakes. I dive into it with the experts on Sunday morning.

Want an eco-friendly Christmas tree? It's a little trickier than you might think. The first question is always about "fake v. real." That one's pretty much a no-brainer, as artificial trees are likely to contain harmful pvc's, which are sometimes stabilized with lead, and will probably end up in a landfill, anyway. That leaves real trees, which can be mulched or put to other uses after the holidays. But that doesn't mean that they're perfect, either. Unless the tree is grown organically, a lot of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were probably used during its lifetime.

Which means that you need to find an organic Christmas tree farm. Easier said than done. After doing some checking, I found a list of trees on a website called Green Promise. They list organic Christmas tree farms that grow low-spray and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Christmas trees, as well as farms that are certified organic or practice organic methods but are not yet certified. Here are the two farms they list in Illinois:

Ben's Fraser Fir Farm
Capron, IL. 630/279-3227. Choose and harvest Fraser, Douglas and Balsam firs. All trees are organically grown. Tree wrapping, shaking & bailing, gift shop, warming barn, saws & twine provided.

Pioneer Tree Farm
McHenry, IL. 815/385-8512. Organically grown Christmas trees. Species include Scotch Pine and Colorado Spruce. 10% of tree sales donated to the McHenry County Defenders. Tractor-drawn wagon rides to and from the pines, tree shaking and baling, hot coffee and cocoa in the warming house, and pre-cut pine boughs all included at no extra charg

If you know of any more organic Christmas tree operations in this area, please write to me at mike@mikenowak.net and I'll post them on this site. However, I'm not holding my breath.

 

November 22, 2009

How do you recycle an urban forest? That's a question that a company called Horigan Urban Forest Products, Inc. addresses every day in Chicago. If you're a fan of Mighty House, heard every Sunday right after my show, you might have heard Bruce and Erkia Horigan talk about their contributions to sustainability in Chicago. Their services include

• producing high quality hardwood lumber from the Chicago area urban forest
• custom milling and kiln drying for unique projects such as thick mantles, wide boards and book matching 
• creating a source of old growth wood without a single tree being removed for lumber.

They also maintain a sense of history of the wood, as the origin of the lumber is often known. And there's not a much better form of recycling than giving a tree a second life

I don't want to panic you, but...Christmas started yesterday! I'm talking about Christmas at the Farm up at Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, Wisconsin. Co-founder Roy Diblik is one of the leading perennial growers in the country, the author of Roy Diblik's Small Perennial Gardens: The Know Maintenance Approach, and a personal friend. He says that Christmas at the Farm runs every day, now through December 13 (closed Thanksgiving Day), from 10am to 4pm.

Northwind Perennial Farm is just north of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and west of Burlington. It's a century-old dairy farm that undergoes a transformation for the holidays. The vintage barn is filled with ornaments and gifts by local artists, as well as garden containers and decorated, fresh evergreen wreaths. The best part might be the fire pit, where folks are encouraged to roast marshmallows. Roy says that might be the most controversial part of the experience, as each person seems to have a proprietary way of cooking a marshmallow. Who knew?

Ladies and gentlemen...The Frozen Robins! If the holidays are already here, then I'm jumping on board. The Frozen Robins are my caroling and holiday performance group and I figured I'd bring them down to the beautiful showcase studio on Pulaski Road and turn them loose. Chicago radio will never be the same again.

In case you're wondering, yes, we do hire ourselves out for the holidays. If you want to contact us, just write to me: mike@mikenowak.net. By the way, I also do a performance piece called It's A Wonderful Slice of It's a Wonderful Life. You'll see the entire movie in ten minutes., with the whole cast played by...me. Hey, it's a living...kind of.

November 15, 2009

The 2009 Chicago Gardenerer of the Year is...
... Franklin Fine Arts Center (FFAC)

Yesterday, the winners of The 53rd Annual Mayor’s Landscape Awards Program were announced in a ceremony at the Garfield Park Conservatory. Believe it or not, they put me in the front row and even gave me a kitchen counter composter. Maybe they like the radio show. Or, more likely, it was a thank you for helping to judge the competition. Open to all Chicago citizens and businesses, the awards recognize horticultural excellence in many categories:

• Commercial Landscapes
• Community Landscapes
• Container Gardens
• Living Green Roofs and Walls
• Multi-unit Residential Landscapes (8+ units)
• Multi-unit Residential Landscapes (less than 8 units)
• Native Landscapes
• Public Institutions
• Schools
• Single Family Residential Landscapes
• Specialized Gardens
• Vegetable Gardens

You might be wondering how a Chicago Public School can be the gardener of the year. Actually, it was a team, led by Ellen Moderhack, who is an FFAC parent and has a business, MODE Landscape Design. Others included the local community of teachers, parents and the non-profit organization Openlands. pooled their resources to create the garden. Using the previously installed Chinese moon gate for inspiration, the team created a series of functional, asian-style garden spaces for the entire school community to use. That garden was awarded First Place for Region 3 Schools and was given the title of 2009 Gardener of the Year.

You might be interested to know that the Mayor’s Landscape Awards Program is underwritten by one of my great sponsors, WRD Environmental.

Today is America Recycles Day... regardless of the mess that is recycling in Chicago. That's why Mike Mitchell, Executive Director of the Illinois Recycling Association is in the studio to help me answer all kinds of recycling questions.

Joining us today is Kay McKeen from SCARCE (School & Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education). She was on the program just a few weeks ago to promote their Green Fair at Cantigny. Now they're partnering with the IRA on Thursday, November 19 to host a program for people who want to learn about the new Illinois food scrap composting industry, which is being created in the wake of the recent passage of SB99.

The day-long seminar (Registration begins at 8:30 am) will be held at the Crowne Plaza in Lombard (Roosevelt & Finley Roads) and it's $45. Click here to register for the event.

Meanwhile, in honor of the day, here are a couple of items about two recycling problems:

• Expanded polystyrene (or styrofoam) recycling comes to Illinois
• Update on plastic bags

 

November 8, 2009

Every 12 days, a new plant pest is detected in America, according to the USDA and The Nature Conservancy. That's in addition to the 400 or so that are already here, attacking many of our native plants, including some of our most iconic trees. For example, when's the last time you saw a mature Chestnut tree (Castanea dentata)? More than three billion of them were wiped out in the U.S. in the first half of the Twentieth Century by a fungus accidentally introduced into North America on imported Asiatic chestnut trees.

Now we're being invaded by the Emerald Ash Borer, which has already killed millions of ash trees in the Midwest and is threatening millions more. And that's just the start. Other trees under attack include dogwoods, oaks, pines, maples, willows, poplars, hemlocks, beeches...and the list goes on.

That's why The Nature Conservancy, working with industry partners and scientists, is supporting revamped regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve its ongoing efforts to block non-native insects and diseases from entering the country and to protect American homeowners, businesses, agriculture and native trees.

Faith Campbell, who is a senior policy representative at The Nature Conservancy¹s headquarters in Arlington, VA, has been working on the issue of invasive forest pests and plants for at least two decades. She says that both industry and conservationists are hoping to stem this tide with an educational campaign called Plant Smart. The website is under construction but keep it handy. If you're interested in this subject, two more sites that might be helpful are The Continental Dialogue on Non-Native Forest Insects and Diseases and Know the Enemy.

Two other people who are working to save our trees are Guy and Edie Sternberg. Thirty years ago they created Starhill Forest Arboretum in Petersburg, Illinois, just outside of Springfield. How many people do you know who start their own arboreta? That's what I thought.

Kathleen and I were in Springfield for a meeting with the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force this week and stopped by to see the work that the Sternbergs are doing. We also made a quick trip to Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, a reconstruction of the village where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood. Some of the photos we took are on the slide show on this page.

Guy and Edie continue to rack up accolades for the environmental work they do, and deservedly so. Among their latest accomplishments is Starhill Forest's introduction into the North American Plant Collections Consortium (NAPCC) for their Quercus (oak) collection. NAPCC is a program of the American Public Gardens Association.

So if you're ever in the Petersburg area, stop in and say hello. You'll know it's Guy because he has the deepest voice in horticulture. I'm glad he didn't decide to go into radio--I can't compete with those pipes.

The future of community gardening in Woodlawn/Hyde Park will be discussed at a meeting 6:00 p.m. Thursday, November 12 at Carnegie School, 1414 East 61st Place in Chicago. This meeting comes in the wake of the University of Chicago's decision to demolish the 61st Street Garden, which has been a focal point for both the Woodlawn and Hyde Park neighborhoods for decades. The controversy over how to use the land, which is owned by U of C, has become a source of conversation on a website called The Invisible Institute. There have also been stories in the Sun-Times, Tribune and Hyde Park Herald.

According to Connie Spreen, co-founder and executive director of Experimental Station, which has long supported the garden, 20th Ward Alderman Willie Cochran is bringing together concerned citizens to discuss how urban agriculture can make a comeback in the neighborhood. If you live in the area, you might want to make time on Thursday evening for this important gathering

Next Sunday is America Recycles Day. I'm letting you know in advance because I'll be talking about it with Mike Mitchell from the Illinois Recycling Association. Meanwhile, I encourage everybody to work just a little harder this week at recycling or buying recycled products. We can make a difference.

November 1, 2009

Full Show podcasts are now on line! In case you missed the notice on the home page, I will now be featuring my full shows right here on my own website. So, if you miss any program, you can listen to it anytime. We will go back and retrieve a few of our favorite shows but mostly we'll more forward from here. I hope you enjoy this new feature of The Mike Nowak Show, which is an old feature of most shows but, hey, I've always been a late bloomer.

Do you want a say in the future of storm-water management? If you live in suburban Cook County, you might want to know about the Cook County Watershed Management Ordinance Public Review. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is having public meetings about this program. From its website:

The mission of the countywide stormwater management program is to provide Cook County with effective rules, regulations, and projects that will reduce the potential for stormwater damage to life, public health, safety, property and the environment. Nineteen stormwater management goals have been developed by the District for the CCSMP. The goals extend from protecting new and existing development from flooding to preventing the loss of water quality and habitat.

What that means is that the WMO, if properly conceived and implemented, should reduce flooding, protect the county's natural resources and help improve water quality.

MWRD Commissioner Debra Shore says that the public review period lasts only until December 31 of this year. She also says that one of the unfortunate but inevitable problems is that the WMO isn't exactly light reading. However, it is important, and she urges citizens and institutions that have an interest in the quality of water to speak up. Public comments will be limited to three minutes. Written comments are welcome and will be entered into the record. There will be a court reporter and transcripts of these meetings.

If you think it's been a weird weather year...you're right. Of course, it's important to remember that there's no such thing as a normal weather year. That being said, meteorologist Rick DiMaio has some fascinating--and perhaps alarming--statistics about Illinois farmers. At this point, only 25% of the Soybean crop has been harvested. One of the reasons is that October has been abnormally wet.Not only that, if no further wet weather occurs during November & December (and how likely is that to happen?) the anticipated completion of harvest will not happen until December 31st. This should be an interesting conversation. Of course, if you don't hear it live, you can check out the podcast of today's show at your convenience. (I knew I was going to be able to get in another plug for that!)

Pop Quiz! Name the organization that...

• Helped Create Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
• Banned logging in Illinois State Parks with an Illinois Supreme Court Victory
• Helped to protect 500 acres of Lake Michigan Shoreline at Ft. Sheridan
• Was part of the creation of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie out of the former Joliet Army Ammunitions Plant
• Started the Safer Pest Control Poject
• Was instrumental in banning phosphorus from diswashing detergent in Illinois
• Asked Mike Nowak to MC their 50th Anniversary Celebration

If you said the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, give yourself a pat on the back (I'm fresh out of prizes). Director Jack Darin says that 2009 marks the 50th year of the Sierra Club in Illinois and they're having a big bash next Saturday, November 7, from 6:30 to 10:30 at the Volunteer Resource Center of the Cook County Forest Preserves, 6100 N. Central Avenue in Chicago.

And, yup, I'll be there, too. I'm working on all of my best jokes about how it feels to be 50 years old. Not that I know.

Chicago recycling needs your help. Last week I wrote here about how, in the wake of Mayor Daley's 2010 budget speech, Blue Cart recycling in Chicago was likely to take a hit. In the interim, there have been several articles about this development--this is one of them.

The point is that I have an interest in this because I am president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition. And, contrary to the belief of one person to responded to a Sun-Times article, I am not paid for the priviledge of keeping the City of Chicago honest when it comes to recycling.

So I'm urging those of you who care about recycling in Chicago to log onto the Chicago Recycling Coaltion Facebook page and become fans. If you have a Facebook account and you know people who live in Chicago, tell them to become fans, too. More soon.

October 25, 2009

Full Show podcasts are now on line! In case you missed the notice on the home page, I will now be featuring my full shows right here on my own website. So, if you miss any program, you can listen to it anytime. We will go back and retrieve a few of our favorite shows but mostly we'll more forward from here. I hope you enjoy this new feature of The Mike Nowak Show.

Hundreds marched on a big Chicago polluter yesterday. I went to the Pilsen neighborhood on Saturday to participate in the rally and march outside “Chicago’s Dirty Secret,” the Midwest Generation's Fisk Coal-Fired Power station. The event was partnered or endorsed by 27 Chicago organizations. You can see my photos on the event on my Facebook page.

It was part of an International Day of Climate Action. If you want to see what worldwide concern for climate change looks like, go to 350.org and look at the photos that are still coming in from all over the globe. We were calling attention to the number 350--the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere.

Among the speakers were Kim Wasserman from the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore, who seemed to be the only politco who bothered to show up, Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford, who gives us more insight into the global warming on the show today.

If you're a real gardener, you know all about compost. You know that it is the best thing that you can do for your soil and, subsequently, your plants. But do you know about things like vermiculture and compost teas and the Soil Foodweb? In the interest of compost education, I'm devoting more than an hour or my show to the subject. Here's my cast of characters:

• We start with Stephanie Davies, who is proud to call herself an Urban Worm Girl. She and her fellow Worm Girls are preaching the gospel of vermiculture--which is simply composting with worms.
• I have known Lynn Bement, sometimes known as the Compost Queen, for at least half a decade. She runs her own business, The Organic Garden Coach, and has been on the board of directors for the Midwest Ecological Landscaping Association (MELA).
• Christine Nye is the horticulturist for the Shedd Aquarium. She has been a proponent of compost teas on the grounds of the Shedd for years. She was also a MELA board member, and she just installed a 20,000 square foot sustainable garden around the perimeter of the building, with the help of uber plantsman Roy Diblik.
• Then there's Charles Martin, who has been studying the effects of compost and compost teas for more than 40 years. He is with a company called Terra Biotics. If you find the website undergoing some changes, however, you can link to a Chicago-area company called Organic Garden Company, to find out about his Instant Bio-Tea.

Has the Chicago Blue Cart rollout been put on hold? There was disappointing news this week when Mayor Richard M. Daley announced his 2010 budget. It looks as so there is no money in the budget to continue placing Blue Carts in residential alleys in Chicago. It gets even worse. According to Budget Director Eugene Munin, Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne may have his department opt to pick up recycling every three weeks instead of two. I was interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times about the turn of events in my role as president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition. As you can imagine, I'm not particularly pleased.

So I'm urging those of you who care about recycling in Chicago to log onto the Chicago Recycling Coaltion Facebook page and become fans. We're looking at strategies now and we'll have more to say about this regrettable action soon.

October 18, 2009

Is 350 the most important number on Earth? It very well may be, if you believe Bill McKibben and his colleagues, who are behind the organization 350.org. So what does that number represent? Spokesperson Jamie Henn explains that 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. And now the bad news: the planet is at about 390 PPM right now, thanks to things like coal-burning plants and gas-guzzling cars and deforestation and so many other things we've created and done to make energy cheap without examining the consequences. And now we have to march that number backwards. Read more at understanding 350.

That's why next Saturday, October 24 2009 350.org is holding an International Day of Climate Action. The goal, among other things, is to call attention to the need for an international climate treaty to reach 350. There are 3,250 events in over 150 countries being organized to demand that President Obama and other world leaders secure a fair, ambitious and binding global climate deal at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December. Participants are being asked to incorporate the number 350 at an iconic place in their community, and then upload a photo of their event to 350.org website. There are a number of events in and around Chicago, which you can find at the 350.org website.

I want to call two of them to your attention. The first is 350 DuPage--Sights and Sounds for Climate Action. Organizer Dave Lloyd says that climate activists will form the number "350" at Hawthorne Grove in Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville. Even more important is what will happen later, when folks will send postcards to DuPage County's congressional representatives for action on climate change. You can bring a picnic lunch and enjoy music after helping to change the world. It all starts at 1:00 p.m., the numerals are formed at 1:30, and the event goes until 4:00. Of course, Chicago's Progressive Talk will be there.

The other action is in Chicago, where there will be a rally and march outside “Chicago’s Dirty Secret,” the Midwest Generation's Fisk Coal-Fired Power station -- one of Chicago's biggest contributors to global warming. To date, the event is partnered or endorsed by 24 Chicago organizations. There's more information on their Facebook page or at 350.org.

If 350 is an icon, so is the American barn. Photographer Ernest J. Schweit and history writer Nancy Schumm-Burgess hit the road "north of the border" to photograph and chronical these monuments to Midwestern agriculture. The result is a lovely book called (what else?) Wisconsin Barns. The divide the state into five regions, each with its own influences and styles. Schweit's photography reflects his reverance for his subject matter and you can get a sample of it in this short slide show. As we head into the holiday season, you might add this inexpensive and compelling book to your gift list.

We didn't get to the pumpkin people last week, so here's a do-over. The winner of the 2009 Great Pumpkin Weigh off at Didier Farms in Prairieview-Lincolnshire is once again Gene McMullen. John Didier lists the top three growers.

1st Place Gene McMullen, Streator, Illinois - 1227 pounds
2nd Place Jeff Shenoha - 1173 pounds
3rd Place Thomas McIlvaine, St. Charles, Illinois - 1148 pounds

In my opinion, giant pumpkin growning is an art, a science and an obsession, not necessarily in that order. We'll see if Gene and John agree.

 

October 11, 2009

The Tree Trimmers Cometh. Bright and early last Monday morning, the Chicago Streets and Sanitation guys showed up on my block, armed with chain saws, loppers and shredder. You might have heard me talk about gang problems on my block during my show in the past. I wish I could say that it was all a show bit. But it's not. I'm in the Logan Square neighborhood but I'm certainly not rich and I can't afford to live on a boulevard. In fact, my block is one of the most gang-ridden sections of Logan Square. Kathleen and I have been butting heads with those knucklehead gang-bangers for years and we're finally making some progress in getting them off the street.

While I love trees and I prefer to let them grow as they would in the wild, that doesn't work in the city, especially if the gang-bangers can hide in the shadows. So Kathleen and I were happy to see the Streets and San Tree Trimmers swoop in and limb up the trees on our block. I have to admit that I had some trepidation about what the block would look like but the guys on this crew, led by a certified arborist, did an excellent job. My kudos to Streets and San.

Click here to read more about how our block has become a kind of cause celebre and to see the slide show of the tree trimming.

I met Stacey Pfingsten at Uncommon Ground Restaurant during one of their Green Room Sessions. Stacey is the enthusiastic spokesperson for No Foam Chicago, an organization that is dedicated to eliminating the use of Expanded Polystyrene (Styrofoam) food packaging in Chicago. You'll get no argument from me...or from the 100+ U.S. cities that have already banned the stuff. Stacey was recently featured in this report on CBS2Chicago and this article in the Chicago Tribune.

But the question to use or not to use EPS is not as simple as it seems, according to Earth911.com. And what to do with it afterwards is even more difficult. For example, I used the Earth911 search engine to find recycling sites around Chicago for #6 plastic (polystyrene) and EPS. Click on those links for yourself. It's slim pickins, brothers and sisters. If the companies that produce this stuff really want to sell us on the idea of how useful it is, they'd better start making it easier to recycle.

However, if you don't know how to get rid of it, you might want to use your already-used EPS to make art. That's what New York based artist John Delk is doing in an upcoming show at Thomas Robertello Gallery in Chicago. One of the pieces in Delk's show "Stream," which opens on October 23, will feature an amalgam of EPS forms. And, because producer Heather Frey and I both have basements full of the stuff, we're going to help graciously donate our stashes.

Friends of the Forest Preserves score this week: 1 win, 1 loss. Last week I talked with Executive Director Benjamin Cox about the Village of Hinsdale negotiating with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County to transform 26 acres of Bemis Woods South into a park to be used for for large-scale recreation events, concerts, and other village activities. FOTFP has support from Openlands, among other groups, which calls this "a land grab."

Unfortunately, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, who make policy for the Forest Preserves, voted 9 to 4 to continue talks with Hinsdale on an intergovernmental agreement that would allow the village to lease nearly 30 acres for ball fields.

As Beth Botts said on the show last week: "What is it about the word 'preserve' that the commissioners don't understand?" Even worse, the commissioners seem to revel in their ignorance, and reportedly said things like "What? Is forest preserve land only supposed to be for squirrels and rats?" and "Are people only supposed to go sit in prairies?" Ouch.

There is no question that a board is needed that will be solely dedicated to the mission of the forest preserve district, without the conflicts of also serving as county commissioners.

However, there was good news, too. On October 6 the restrictions in Chicago's air pollution ordinance that would have halted restoration in parks and forest preserves was defeated in City Council Committee.

Picture of the season. If you like corn mazes--and who doesn't?--take a look at the photos from the Richardson Farm in Spring Grove, Illinois. They host the World's Largest Corn Maze, and it's pretty spectacular. Ryan Richardson is a sixth generation farmer on the land and he says that if you want to do a maze like theirs, you'd better get your GPS system on the tractor.

There's still time to work for CoCoRaHS. Huh? Okay, it stands for Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). Basically, you can do it in your backyard with low-tech equipment (in your bunny slippers, if you want) and still make a important contribution to the collection of precipitation data. And there's a FREE workshop this Wednesday, October 14, 7:00 PM - 8:15 PM at the Village of Oak Lawn Municipal Center Auditorium, 9446 Raymond Ave., Oak Lawn, IL 60453. Click HERE to register.

The winner and still champion: Gene McMullen. In the last 20 seconds of last week's show, we announced the winner of the 2009 Great Pumpkin Weigh off at Didier Farms in Prairieview-Lincolnshire. John Didier says that the top three are

1st Place Gene McMullen Streator, Illinois - 1227 pounds
2nd Place Jeff Shenoha - 1173 pounds
3rd Place Thomas McIlvaine St. Charles, Illinois - 1148 pounds

(Insert funny comment about giant pumpkins here. I'm all tapped out.)

 

October 4, 2009

Beth Botts is in the house! And for no particular reason other than that she's smart, articulate and knowledgeable. That's good enough for me. As you might already know, until recenly Beth was a staff garden writer for the Chicago Tribune. While she is no longer on staff at the Trib, she still writes for the paper. And now she is a senior editor for Chicagoland Gardening Magazine and has her own blog, Growing in Chicago.

I noticed that on Friday Beth posted an item about something that I had already planned to discuss on my show today. The Village of Hinsdale is negotiating with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County to transform 26 acres of Bemis Woods South into a park to be used for for large-scale recreation events, concerts, and other village activities. What's so bad about that, you might ask. In a word: plenty. Not only would the 40-year lease radically transform the woods from a natural area to a managed one, but it would be a horrible precedent that other municipalities might jump on to acquire other Forest Preserve land.

If even Openlands, which is not given to hyperbole, calls this "a land grab," you can imagine what my friends at Friends of the Forest Preserves think. FOTFP Executive Director Benjamin Cox is stopping by for a few words. Meanwhile, I would be remiss if I didn't give them a plug for their upcoming event, Ignite the Night, next Saturday, October 10, 5 to 10 pm at Spring Creek Forest Preserve, Barrington Hills. Among the features: a Cookout Dinner, Beer and Wine, Bonfire, Narrated Horse-Drawn Wagon Rides, Flashlight Tours, Star Gazing, and Native Live Animals. Bring the kids, too.

And who says horticulture ain't controversial? In the past few weeks, I've featured The Mike Nowak Show's special Monarch Correspondent, Bob Erlich. He's the Evergreen Park resident who, like many volunteers, has been harvesting Monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars, raising them in his garage and then setting them free. He is a member of Monarch Watch , which is part of the Kansas Biological Survey of the University of Kansas.

Bob sent me photos of his efforts to help Monarchs reproduce and migrate to Mexico for the winter. In the process, Bob harvested milkweed plants from "the wild." However, a listener wrote to remind me that harvesting plants from the wild has its own set of rules. Did Bob cross the line? We're talking about it on today's show.

September 27, 2009

My thanks to all who helped make last week's special show a success. As you know, we headed out to God's Harbor for All Souls Church in Matteson for the special presentation of the The Mike Nowak Show. If you missed the show, you can log on to Chicago's Progressive Talk to see pictures and hear the entire broadcast online. My thanks especially to CEDA, our sponsor of the event. As you can see, there was food, fun and lots of gardening wisdom to share.

One of the young people who helped get that farm up and running is 21-year old Lawless Hawks, who is on the show today to talk about his very first experience with growing food.

Speaking of food, I came across a great website this week. It's called Direct2Food, and it's described as "Metro Chicago's one-stop shop for meeting the food needs of you and your family." Bascially, it helps you locate the food pantries, soup kitchens, and meal programs closest to you. In addition, yo can answer some basic questions and Direct2Food will also help you determine if you are eligible for further assistance like food stamps and resources for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Monarch season is almost over and I thought I'd have another visit with The Mike Nowak Show's special Monarch Correspondent, Bob Erlich. He's the Evergreen Park resident who, like many volunteers, has been harvesting Monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars, raising them in his garage and then setting them free. He is a member of Monarch Watch , which is part of the Kansas Biological Survey of the University of Kansas.

Bob has sent me another batch of photos that you can see here. Or you can click on the photo on the left. As of a couple of weeks ago, Bob had released more than 600 Monarchs. Check out the photos for the tags he attaches to some of them. He also has photos of Red and Swamp Milkweed. Says Bob, "They are really beautiful plants. They flower all season and are a good alternative to the very invasive common milkweed. Now I just need some garden centers to carry them." Amen

They are known as "exotic invasives": emerald ash borer, gypsy moth and Asian longhorned beetle. And you know that they can do a lot of damage to our landscapes. So does Edith Makra, Community Trees Advocate for the Morton Arboretum. In fact, the Morton Arboretum is partnering with the U.S. Forest Service this week to present "Coping with the Costs: The Economic, Social, and Environmental Impact of Invasive Insects of our Communities" The two day seminar is this Tuesday and Wednesday, September 29-30 at the Morton Arboretum. Experts will look at ways of controlling pests, as well as how to control costs and what to do after an insect has ravaged an area. I saw that one of the seminars is called "Invasive Round Up: What is Out There, What is coming Down the Pike." Gosh, I can hardly wait.

Safer Pest Control Project is having a bash...a Ladybug Bash, that is, Friday, October 2 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at Space, 1245 Chicago Avenue in Evanston. Tickets are not that expensive, and Safer has done a lot of great work to protect us and our children from unnecessary pesticide use in their 15 year history. SPCP's Steve Pincuspy says that another one of their efforts--one that particularly resonates with me--is the Natural Lawn Care Workshops. There are two coming up:

• Natural Lawn Care Basics for Homeowners
  September 30th - 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
  Evanston Ecology Center
  2024 McCormick Boulevard
  Evanston, IL 60201

• Natural Lawn Care for Community Associations
  November 13th, 2009 - 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
  The Morton Arboretum
  4100 Illinois Route 53
  Lisle, IL 60532

You can get more information on those workshops HERE. And while you're at it, take a look at this amazing story that ran in the New York Times this week. If this doesn't change your mind about chucking those money-wasting and useless chemical products and going organic...I'm not sure what will.

September 20, 2009

This week: Two shows for the price of one! I'm on at the new regular time of 8:00 a.m. Then I head out Matteson for a 1:00 p.m. special presentation, “Chicago Urban Farm Harvest” from God's Harbor for All Souls Church, 4100 Maple Avenue in Matteson (see the link above for a map). It's a celebration of local food and how CEDA is working to help create urban farms that will provide fresh, nutritious food for people who don't always have access to it. This morning, my guest is Robert L. Wharton, CEDA President & CEO. Then, at the afternoon event, because the University of Illinois Extension is a partner in this effort, I'm happy to have two Master Gardeners on hand to answer questions about growing food. They are the husband and wife team of Jennifer and Bill Tobin, who were a Cook County Outstanding Master Gardener couple in 2008. Jennifer is an Illinois Extension Master Gardener Bill is a Purdue Extension Master Gardener. Sounds like the makings of a TV sitcom, doesn't it?

I hope you can drop by. There's going to be food and fun and even some radio. If you can't make it, I hope you can tune in to Chicago's Progressive Talk at 1:00 p.m.

While I'm on the subject of Illinois Extension, they're helping out at the Monarch Butterfly Festival today at Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens 7402 W. Lake Katherine Drive in Palos Heights. There's live music, rock climbing, kids activities, scarecrow making, a reptile road show and, of course, butterflies. If you can't get down to Matteson, head over to Palos Heights.

Before we move on to next week's stuff, I want to call your attention to something going on up in Lake County this afternoon. The third annual Prairie Harvest Celebration to benefit the Liberty Prairie Conservancy will take place today, from 3 pm to 7 pm, in Libertyville. Enjoy music, cocktails, harvest dinner, silent and live auctions, and a chance to take a wagon ride through scenic Lake County landscape.

I'm proud to say that one of my advertisers, WRD Environmenta,l is both a sponsor of the event and a new partner of the Conservancy. It’s been asked to create a master plan for the Conservancy’s new state-of-the-art Casey Farm Center for Land Health.

As far as I can tell, every event in the history of the world is scheduled for Saturday, September 26. One of them is the The 2009 Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Now you may be wondering what that has to do with "green stuff." Well, one of the venues is Experimental Station at 6100 S. Blackstone Avenue, which is a not-for-profit incubator of innovative cultural, educational, and environmental projects and small-scale enterprises. Connie Spreen, co-founder and Executive Director says that among those enterprises is The Urban Farm Project, an organic garden at the corner of 61st Street and Dorchester Avenue. She also touts the 61st Street Farmers Market, held every Saturday and which, for one day only is at the Whole Foods South Loop store (corner of Roosevelt and Canal) today, September 20 from 10 am to 2 pm.

The Cantigny Green Fair is also next Saturday, from 10 am to 4 pm at Cantigny, 1S151 Winfield Road in Wheaton. This event is sponsored by an organization called SCARCE, which stands for School & Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education. As far as I can tell, they teach kids and adults how to recycle pretty much everything. I saw their marketing person, Shefali M. Trivedi, speak at a Green Room Session at Uncommon Ground Restaurant the other week and I ordered her to come down to the beautiful showcase studio to be on my show, and to bring SCARCE founder Kay McKeen with her.

SCARCE, as i understand it, was a prime mover in getting SB99, the food composting bill, passed in Illinois this year. So it doesn't surprise me that their green fair will feature

• The Giving Tree Band live performance
• Fashion EcoNista Show with celebrity MC, Kristin Hassan, from Bravo TV's The Fashion Show
• Recycled Art Contest
• Scrap Metal Artist, Joe Gagnepain, live demonstration
• Local and Organic Farmers Market
• Cooking Demonstrations
• Recycling Extravaganza: collecting televisions, computers, scrap metal, cell phones, ink jet cartridges (small printer cartridges), hearing aids, eye glasses, old keys (car & house), bikes, brita water filters, plastic bottle caps, vinyl records and properly retiring flags.
• Displays on beekeeping, recycled papermaking, energy bike, composting, rain barrels, solar ovens, watersheds, hybrid car with plug in conversion, eco-activities for kids and much more
• Raffle Prizes

Sounds like a great way to spend a day.

But wait...there's more! Listeners Bob Sandidge and Anne Ward wanted me to know about Prairie Fest, also next Saturday, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Elgin, 3 Miles west of Randal Road on Highland Ave (look for the big tree...just kidding). The name of the conference is "Ethical Choices for Sustainable Living" and they're addressing topics like native plants, transportation, green cities, energy and more. Sounds like another day well spent.

The chickens are coming! The chickens are coming! Actually, the movie about the backyard chicken movement in America, Mad City Chickens, is coming to Chicago. There are two days of events. The first is September 22 in Chicago and the other on September 23 in Evanston. You can find information about both at the Angelic Organics Learning Center website.

Are we done? Whew. I hope so.

September 13, 2009

T-Minus 1 Week and counting... Until our special one hour broadcast at 1:00 p.m., Sunday, September 20 at God's Harbor for All Souls Church, 4100 Maple Avenue in Matteson (see the link above for a map). It's a celebration of urban local food and how CEDA is working to help provide fresh, nutritious food to area populations by growing it right in their own communities.Even better, local youth are being hired to work on these urban farms, which teaches them about the land, gives them a paying job, and keeps them away from less productive or even illegal activiies. Leslie and Manuel Applewhite, who work at God's Harbor, are there in the trenches, er, crop rows, turning an overgrown field of weeds into a field of dreams.

University of Illinois Extension is a partner in this effort to teach adults and young people alike how to farm the urban land. If you live out Matteson way, come on by for the broadcast of The Mike Nowak Show. There will be representatives from CEDA, Illinois Extension and Chicago's Progressive Talk to give you informationi on all of their programs. Leslie and Manuel say they're going to do a little grillin' and will have some lemonade on hand. See you there!

 

The Cook County Fair is here! Celebrate the end of the growing season at a county fair smack in the middle of Chicago next Saturday, September 19 at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park. Melanie Harding, School, Teacher & Volunteer Programs Manager for the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance says that the Cook County Fair has all of the family fun you could ever ask for, including

• live music
• petting zoo
• pony rides
• farmers' market
• beekeeping demonstrations
• composting demonstrations
• garden tool sharpening
• food vendors

What's really scary is that they're going to let me answer gardening questions from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Ask an Illinois Master Gardener Booth. Do they have Internet?

 

Also next Saturday is something I wrote about last week. The Alliance for the Great Lakes is sponsoring its annual one-day event, Adopt-a-Beach. Stephanie Smith, Education Program Director at Alliance for the Great Lakes, says that last year more than 6,191 volunteers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan removed nearly 25,000 pounds of trash from 185 locations. That was an increase of 2,000 participants from the previous year. And the Alliance is hoping that even more concerned citizens show up this year.

Volunteers are encouraged to check the Alliance's registration website for up-to-date information.

 

Finally, I wanted to call your attention to a great website. I also wrote about this website, The Miracle of Fall, last week, but I think it bears repeating as we head into the fall color season. My buddy from the Cook County Master Gardeners, Ron Wolford, is behind this website, which will give you all of the information you need to enjoy the fall color season.

 

September 6, 2009

Field Trip! At a special time! In two weeks! The Mike Nowak Show will head south to Matteson for a special one hour broadcast at 1:00 p.m., Sunday, September 20 at God's Harbor for All Souls Church, 4100 Maple Avenue in Matteson (see the link above for a map). It's a celebration of urban local food and how CEDA is working to help provide fresh, nutritious food to area populations by growing it right in their own communities.Even better, local youth are being hired to work on these urban farms, which teaches them about the land, gives them a paying job, and keeps them away from less productive or even illegal activiies.As we move towards the event, I will highlight various aspects of this collaboration between God's Harbor and CEDA.

University of Illinois Extension is playing a role in teaching adults and young people alike how to farm the urban land. Extension Educator Dr. James Theuri is one of the people behind the scenes of the Matteson project. He knows that there's a lot to know about growing anything, let alone keeping a working farm going and he lends his insights on the show today.

Speaking of urban farming, Growing Home's Annual Harvest Celebration is coming up next Saturday, September 12, from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm. The celebration is held at the Les Brown  Memorial Farm at 2539 N. 30th Road, Marseilles, IL 61341 ( map ), about an hour outside the city. The LB Memorial Farm is a ten-acre USDA Certified Organic farm. Growing Home is one of the pioneers in urban organic farming and because they're a not-for-profit organization, they can use your support.

Want proof that you can put a green roof almost anywhere? Just pay a visit to the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park. This past Tuesday, a new green roof featuring almost 2,000 plants in 15 varieties opened, um, under a bridge, uh, on top of a potting shed. Okay, fine. I'll just leave it to Lurie Garden director and horticulturist Colleen Lockovitch to explain that site. She collaborated with Greg Raymond, owner of Eco-Gardens, which has become somewhat of a green roof specialist, having installed the 70,000 square foot green roof on top of Chicago's only Wal-Mart.

Mark Moxley also played a part, providing the planting medium from his business, Lake Street Landscape Supply. We've come a long way in the development of green roofs in the past ten years and it's only going to get better.

 

Want to adopt a Great Lakes beach? Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 19, when the Alliance for the Great Lakes once again sponsors its annual one-day event, Adopt-a-Beach. Last year more than 6,191 volunteers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan removed nearly 25,000 pounds of trash from 185 locations. That was an increase of 2,000 participants from the previous year. And the Alliance is hoping that even more concerned citizens show up this year.

Dates and times for the event -- which is part of the International Coastal Cleanup -- may vary depending upon location. For instance, my friend Rebecca Grill, who is the Natural Areas Manager for the Park District of Highland Parkwrote to me that Highland Park's beach clean ups will be held Saturday, September 12 to accommodate those who celebrate the Jewish High Holidays. On the "official" Adopt a Beach day, September 19, you are welcome to join the crew at Fort Sheridan. Volunteers are encouraged to check the Alliance's registration website for up-to-date information.

I hate to break the news to you, but fall is here. Of course, that's not all bad. I think that September is absolutely the best month in Chicago, and the past week has proved that. Not only that, but we have the fall tree colors to look forward to. I haven't talked to him personally about this, but I understand that my buddy from the Cook County Master Gardeners, Ron Wolford, is behind a wonderful new website that will give you all of the information you need to enjoy the fall color season. Just link to The Miracle of Fall, then plan your dream fall color trip.

This just in...I received an email from Jenny Worrell, a blogger who was at the Eat-In at Daley Plaza the other week. She has posted her comments about the event at Hungry? City Blog. I hope you understand, like Jenny, that the important issue is upgrading the Child Nutrition Act, which is up for renewal in Congress. Log on to her blog site and do what you can to make healthy foods a priority in our schools. For goodness sake, we won't even let the President of the United States talk to our children any more, for fear that he's going to brainwash them into become obedient communists or fascists or whatever inanities the crazies out there make up out of whole cloth.

You know what? This country is in trouble. And NOT because of Barack Obama. So can we at least try to FEED our kids properly? Please?

August 30, 2009

Scott Jamieson is one of the good guys in the green industry. He is now Vice President of Corporate Partnerships and National Recruiting for Barlett Tree Experts, a company that has been around for a hundred years and has locations throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Great Britain and Ireland. However, I met him when he was CEO for The Care of Trees, which you may have heard of if you've ever listened to my show. Impressively, he is also on the boards of Openlands and the National Safety Council and is co-chair of the Chicago Trees Initiative. I'm proud to say that the organization I co-founded, the Midwest Ecological Landscaping Association, presented Scott with a Polaris Leadership Award in 2008 for his commitment to sustainable practices.

As you can imagine, he knows something about safety in the yard, which is why he's here today. Many people think that they can do their own tree trimming and I suspect that few people understand just how dangerous that can be. Jamieson outlines some potential problems in this article in Family Safety & Health Magazine, which is published by the National Safety Council. Those dangers include being cut by pruners and saws, and being hurt by falling limbs and trunks. Which is why I always tell folks to contact a certified arborist from a reputable tree company, like Bartlett or The Care of Trees.

Another good guy is Benjamin Cox, Executive Director of Friends of the Forest Preserves. You might recall that in early June he was on the show to talk about Miller Meadow, which has become a kind of dumping ground. Well, I'm happy to say that not all the news about the Cook County Forest Preserves is bad. A couple of weeks ago Cox wrote to say that an "air pollution" ordinance in the Chicago City Council that would have put a stop to restoration work in Chicago's parks and forest preserves had been put on hold. In his own words:

"... Aldermen Tunney, Schulter and Shiller moved to have it sent back to committee for review. The ordinance would have banned prescribed burns within 200 yards of a residence and all brushpile burns.

Without question, phone calls from Friends members and other concerned citizens, along with support from several Forest Preserve Commissioners made all the difference. Many thanks to everyone who reached out to their elected officials in support of restoration.

Thank you to Commissioners Silvestri, Suffredin, Gainer, and Claypool, Congressman Quigley, and Aldermen Preckwinkle, Maldonado, and others for working hard to help ensure that city parks and preserves will continue to get the management they need to be healthy."

The "anti-burning" battle has been raging for over a decade. Perhaps at some point the FOTFP and other like minded organizations will be able to show how valuable the time-honored practice of burning open spaces can be. Keep your fingers crossed.

Last week I talked to Bob Erlich, an Evergreen Park resident who is harvesting Monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars, raising them in his garage and then setting them free. He is a member of Monarch Watch, which is part of the Kansas Biological Survey of the University of Kansas. He sent me some Monarch photos from his property, which we posted on the home page. This week he forwards the Monarch Watch Facebook page, which has some spectacular photos taken last year in Mexico, where Monarchs go to overwinter. Take a look. You won't be disappointed. In addition, check out this article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sent to me by listener Elsie Sullivan

August 23, 2009

Welcome to The "New" Mike Nowak Show! Well, new time, anyway. I hope that you'll be able to join me every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. for all things green--gardening, the environment, your home, your life. As Mr. Chicago Progressive Talk Announcer Guy says, I'm trying to change the world, one kilohertz at a time.

Local food is coming (back) to Illinois! That is to say, the first important step was taken this week when Governor Pat Quinn signed House Bill 3990, which creates the Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Council which will work with state agencies, Illinois businesses, organizations and Illinoisans to build an active local farm and food market. You might recall that my special broadcast in May, Rooted In Austin, covered this issue. In fact, one of the panelists on that show, State Representative Julie Hamos, was a co-sponsor of the bill. I've talked about how more than 96% of our table food is imported from other states or countries. That's simply not sustainable, and it's a food security issue. Actually, it's just plain crazy, given the fertility of Illinois land.

Jim Braun is another person who has been working hard to see that the food we eat in Illinois is actually grown here. For the past couple of years, he has been a member of the Illinois Local Food, Farms and Jobs Task Force, whose job it was to determine the potential for Illinois to grow and distribute food within Illinois and in neighboring states. He says that the goal now is to get state agencies to purchase 20 percent of their food locally by 2020. State-funded institutions such as schools would have a goal of 10 percent by 2020.

While this is the beginning of a long journey, my kudos to the task force, Governor Quinn, Rep. Hamos, co-sponsor State Senator Jacqueline Collins, and all the members of the General Assembly who voted for this important piece of legislation. Let's get to work.

Speaking of food, what are you doing on Wednesday at 11:00am? You might want to head over to Daley Plaza for the It's Time for Lunch! Eat-In sponsored by Slow Food Chicago. I will be emceeing this event, which is being held to call attention to the nationwide lack of healthy food in our schools. The Child Nutrition Act sets the standard for the food that is consumed by 30 million children every school day, and it comes up for reauthorization in September. You can go to the Slow Food USA website to find out why it is so important that we put REAL food in our schools.

Among the people who will be speaking are the aforementioned Jim Braun and Rep. Julie Hamos, as well as Josh Viertel, President of Slow Food USA and Cleo Record from Growing Power. Bring a lunch or pick up a Slow Lunch from one of the participating providers and show your support for giving our kids a fighting chance to eat healthy at school. By the way, the full line up for the event is at Slow Food Chicago.

"Where are all the butterflies this year?" is a question that many people have asked me. I think the answer is "in Bob Erlich's garage." The Evergreen Park man started raising Monarchs last year by finding and checking milkweed plants in his area for both eggs and baby caterpillars. Last year he released 150 from his garage and this year he thinks the number will be around 500. He's also part of Monarch Watch, which is part of the Kansas Biological Survey of the University of Kansas. Unfortunately, the future of Monarch Watch seems to be in doubt. I hope that it can continue, and continue to inspire people like Bob Erlich to do their part for the survival of this touchstone species.

Mike Bryson IS the "Science Dude." Okay, I know that he'd rather go by "Science Guy," but if I'm not mistaken, that name is already taken. Anyway, Mike and I go way back, to softball days at Clarendon Park on the city's north side...but I digress.

These days he's teaching a very cool course at Roosevelt University called The Sustainable City. One of the field trips the class took last spring was a canoe ride down a tributary of the Chicago River called Bubbly Creek. Check out the photos of the creek and the brave, brave students. It turns out that Mike is in the vanguard of a new trend in higher education--teaching sustainability. In fact, Mike says that he and his colleagues are designing a sustainability studies curriculum for Roosevelt this fall. See? Some of the smartest people I know play softball.

 

August 16, 2009

The New "Self Help Sunday" lineup starts next week!! And I can hardly wait. Starting next Sunday, The Mike Nowak Show moves to 8:00 a.m. on Chicago's Progressive Talk. Here's the new lineup:

7:00 am - "Our Town" with Mike Sanders and Julia Shu
8:00 am - "The Mike Nowak Show" with a guy named Mike Nowak
10:00 am - "Mighty House" with Ron Cowgill and Joe Builder

I certainly hope you'll join me at the new time.

As for today, my buddy Ken Benson is co-hosting. Ken has been a horticultural mainstay at Triton College for years and, over the years, has done it all. In fact, he just got recruited by one of my sponsors, Eco-Lawn, to grow some of their turf for the Eco-Lawn booth display at the Independent Garden Center Show at Navy Pier this week. We'll talk to the irrepressible Miriam Goldberger from Wildflower Farm, the creator of Eco-Lawn, to see how that lawn experiment worked out.

Have you had problems with critters this year? It's hard for me to be an expert on that question because I live in the city. Of course, I do have critters in my yard, but they're more along the line of squirrels and rats and gang bangers. Different kind of problem, you know. But Greg Ecsedy knows something about keeping garden-destroying animals away from your plants. That's because he's the brains behind Bobbex company, which he started twenty years ago and which you hear advertised on the show. Ken says he's been having critter problems out at Triton this year, so we'll get Greg's advice about giving Ken some relief.

When I head off to the theatre at about 1:30 p.m. (and with my new 8:00 a.m. show time I'll never again have to bail from the radio show to get to a matinee), Ken says he will be talking about vegetable gardening. As long as we're on the subject, you should know that the east coast has been having problems with a disease called late blight, which has been attacking tomato and potato plants. And now it seems to be spreading our way (here and here). If you're growing tomatoes in your back yard, that's one thing. If you're an organic farmer, and you rely on tomatoes for your summer profits, that's another. And because organic farmers have fewer remedies in their arsenals, they are more vulnerable to the spread of the disease.

Late blight has been identified in plants bought at Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe's and K-Mart, so if you bought your plants in one of those places, you might keep an eye on them. And if you see signs of the disease (pale green lesions that eventually turn brown to black and appear somewhat greasy) don't fool around. Cut off the plant at the roots, put it in a plastic bag and leave it in the sun to kill the disease, then throw it away. DO NOT put it in the compost pile.

August 9, 2009

The Mike Nowak Show is moving!! No, not to another radio station. Just to another time--8:00 a.m. starting August 23. I'm still going to be on Sundays. I'm just going to have to get up a little earlier. But it's well worth it, because I'm going to be part of a great WCPT lineup that will help you get your Sundays rolling. Here's what the new schedule will look like:

7:00 am - "Our Town" with Mike Sanders and Julia Shu
8:00 am - "The Mike Nowak Show" with Whatshisname
10:00 am - "Mighty House" with Ron Cowgill and Joe Builder

So there's no reason to go anywhere else on Sunday mornings. Set your clock radio to Chicago's Progressive Talk and keep it there all morning long. I'm looking forward to waking up with you.

Now onto today's show. Beth Botts is back. In addition to co-hosting the show again (so I can head off to perform in "Waiting for Godot" at Redtwist Theatre on the north side), she continues her substantial reporting on the topic of reusing and recycling horticultural plastic. Beth wrote a terrific piece earlier this week for her blog Growing in Chicago, which includes a partial list of garden centers where you can return plastic containers.

One company that is working hard to address this problem is Luurtsema Sales , a big grower based in Jension, Michigan. If you're wondering what their Chicago connection is, Luurtsema supplies plants to the tent-stores that you see in Jewel supermarket parking lots in the spring. Not only that, but spokesperson Rob Arnold says that they will also recycling your plastic pots at those same locations. There is much more about this in Beth's blog post and I urge you to read it.

Do you think that the Chicago River should be clean? I know, I know, it sounds like a dumb question, but when it comes to disinfecting Chicago's second most important body of water, there is a controversy. Margaret Frisbie, Executive Director of Friends of the Chicago River, thinks that wastewater treatment plant effluent should be disinfected. Why? Well, it is recommended by the Illinois EPA, for one thing, after a five year study.

That's why on Thursday, August 13 and Friday, August 14, the Illinois Pollution Control Board is holding hearings on this matter...as it has been doing for months. In fact, this particular issue is about to set a longevity record in Illinois. Now who, you might ask, would be against disinfecting our Chicago Area Waterways, or CAWS? (CAWS consists of the Chicago River, its North Branch and South Branch, the North Shore Channel, the Cal-Sag Channel, the Calumet river system, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Lake Calumet and the tributaries in an area extending from the metropolitan Chicago area to the Lockport vicinity.)

Well, it seems that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago might not be interested in treating that water, despite the fact that it's stated mission is to protect the quality of our water systems. No, really. Among their arguments against disinfection:

• The Chicago River is not a natural river.
• No one gets wet so therefore there is no pubic health risk
• Despite bacterial sewage in the water, the river is clean enough for paddle craft so no public health risk
• Disinfection costs too much
• Disinfection will cause climate change
• Even though MWRD captures 85% of the combined sewer overflows through TARP (deep tunnel) which they spent over $3 billion building so far, the river is still too polluted from sewage to make it worthwhile to disinfect
• Not enough people use the river so therefore disinfection is not worth the investment

Ann Alexander might know something about this. She is a senior attorney in Natural Resources Defense Council's Midwest office. Prior to joining NRDC, she served as an environmental attorney for the Attorney General of Illinois. She thinks that, legally, the Clean Water Act requires the river to be disinfected.

It will be an interesting conversation on the show today.

And while we're talking, I hope you're CarrotMobbing (is that a verb?) Carrotmob Chicago is working hard to get as many people as possible to shop at Fox & Obel gourmet market at 401 E. Illinois today between noon and 6:00 p.m. They're doing a "buycott" (which is a word that I coined, thank you very much). It's pretty much the opposite of a boycott. So why are they doing this? Because Fox & Obel has pledged to use 50% of the money they make that day to help green up their store. Works for me.

Just show up if you can to help the cause. Not only will you be helping Fox & Obel, you can turn around and immediately donate your food to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Or you can go home and eat it. Or a little bit of both.

 

August 2, 2009

My favorite meterorologist, Rick DiMaio, is co-hosting today and it's not just because he's a show regular (though that helps). He's also one of the guest lecturers for a course called Science, The Environment & Politics of Sustainability, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Course instructor Michele Hoffman-Trotter is in studio, too, along with Guest Speaker Juli Campagna of the John Marshall Law School. If they tell me to get out my blue book I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

This course is particularly timely as Congress wrestles with the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which recently passed the House by a single vote and now lurches toward the Sebate. How does one think critically about the issues involved in changing our country's energy policies? As its title suggests, the class examines the ethical and legal debates about topics such as Biodiversity, habitat destruction, water issues and more.

I have the feeling that I'm going to be peddling pretty rapidly just to keep up.

If you're a vegetarian--and even if you're not--you might want to make a trip to Naperville next Saturday and Sunday, August 8 & 9, for Veggie Fest 2009. Jonathan Kruger says there's just about everything you want in a festival: 100 food vendors, restaurants & exhibitors, cooking demos with free samples, health talks by medical professionals, children's programs with crafts, games & activities, and plenty of live music. As far as I can tell, about the only thing that won't be there is meat.

Oh, did I mention that all of this is FREE? It takes place on the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Center. Have a veggie burger for me.

And speaking of veggies...there's a rumor that a huge carrot--and I mean about ten feet tall--has invaded Chicago. Okay, it's all about something that I discussed a couple of weeks ago: the "buycott" (copyright 2009 by Mike Nowak, all rights reserved) of the Fox & Obel gourmet market at 401 E. Illinois, at McClurg - Near Navy Pier in the Streeterville neighborhood.

Carrotmob Chicago is behind not only the buycott but the giant carrot. They're trying to show that the power of the purse can work for good. Next Sunday, August 9, from noon to 6 p.m. they're asking you to stop by the market and buy something--anything. Why? Because Fox & Obel has pledged to use 50% of the money they make that day to help green up their store.

And that's the whole Carrotmob concept: make businesses compete to see who can be the greenest and then reward them for it by mobbing their stores. Get involved. Log onto their Facebook page, Twitter your friends or even call them using ancient technology like a cell phone...and then show up next week and use your green to create green. It's a good concept.

July 26, 2009

Beth Botts is my co-pilot today...and also on August 9. That's because I'm doing some theatre in the next five weeks and I'm going to be ducking out a little early while Beth--and whoever else wants to take this kind of abuse--wraps up the last half hour of the show. By the way, the play is "Waiting for Godot," which I hope more than two of you have heard of, and it's at Redtwist Theatre on Bryn Mawr at Kenmore on the north side of town.

And, of course, you know Beth, former garden writer for the Chicago Tribune, who is now a senior editor for Chicagoland Gardening Magazine and writes her own blog about gardening. Let me put it another way: she's overqualified for the position of radio host, but is graciously helping me out anyway.

 

Marcus de la fleur is another person who knows his stuff. He is a landscape architect who considers himself an "environmentalist...in the bio-political sense" and he's seeking ways to make sustainability practical. His first effort was the 168 Elm Ave. Pilot Project in Elmhurst, which includes features like a green roof, rain barrels, porous pavement, rain gardens, gravel grass, a cistern and a bioswale. You might want to spend at least a few minutes on the website to see what de la fleur accomplished and how you might incorporate some of those practices on your own property.

Now he and his wife Cathy are bringing this green thinking into the city with their new pilot project at 3141 W. 15th Street. It's a kind of "This Old House" with a decidely environmental approach. You can follow Marcus and Cathy's progress on their blogsite: "Reshaping Our Footprint." Their goal is no less than to "help dissipate the lingering ignorance about green options, technologies and lifestyle choices." Works for me.

 

Speaking of rain barrels and such, during a trip to Detroit recently to visit mom, I discovered that an old friend of mine from college days has found his way into the green industry. John Muresan is known as Mr. Rain Barrel in the Detroit area. His motto: “A Rainy Day is a Good Day." All I know is that he's had a lot of good days this year.

 

July 19, 2009

Do you know what a “buycott” is? If you don’t, it’s because I just coined the phrase (I think I'm going to break my arm patting myself on the back) for a group called Carrotmob Chicago. They’re holding a “buycott” of a Chicago store called Fox & Obel on Sunday, August 9 from noon to 6:00 p.m, as a reward for environmental responsibility.

Carrotmob is a concept started on the west coast, which, as the name implies, uses the “carrot” rather than the “stick” approach to help businesses that make socially responsible decisions. When Carrotmob finds a business that is willing to pump some of its profits into sustainable efforts, they rally the troops for a “buycott.” That is to say, you call your neighbors, your friends, your car mechanic and buy as much as you can from that business in a few hours. So instead of punishing bad businesses, you reward the good ones.

If you’re still not clear on the concept, check out this video from the Carrotmob website.

Here in the Windy City, Laura Flanigan (interestingly known as “Carrot top” for her red hair) says that Carrotmob Chicago wants to prove that Midwesterners can make this concept work, too. Here’s their Facebook page.

Fox & Obel Is a gourmet market, cafe and caterer at 401 E. Illinois, at McClurg - Near Navy Pier in the Streeterville neighborhood. So you can pick up some culinary delights and you can help a good cause at the same time. Your purchases can be donated on the spot to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. It’s a win, win, win, win, win and win situation, as far as I can tell.

I’ll be covering the event LIVE on my show that day, so tune in.

They’re baaaaaaack! Unfortunately, I’m talking about bedbugs. Yup, these nasty little critters have begun to be a problem again the U.S. That’s why Safer Pest Control Project Executive Director Rachel Rosenberg says that they have organized the seminar “Beating Back Bed Bugs: Everything You Need To Know To Protect Your Property” at Loyola University from 9:30 a.m. to Noon, Wednesday, July 29.

One of the sponsors of that seminar is a friend of The Mike Nowak Show, Rick Moskovitz of A-Plus Pest Control, Inc. Rick is on the program today not only to talk about the bed bug problem, but to announce a new line of insect repellents that he has developed.

You’re going to like these because the active ingredient is non-toxic cedar oil. Not only does A-Plus have a mosquito and tick repellent for our species, but they’ve produced a flea, tick and mange control for your dog or cat, and a fly, mosquito and tick control for horses. I don’t own a horse, a cat or a dog, but I’ve already tried their cedar oil products and I predict that they are going to protect a lot people and pets from a lot of insects.

July 12, 2009

Stay tuned for...Garden Wars!! Okay, maybe I'm trying too hard to jazz things up a little bit. This is the time of the year when gardeners like to strut their stuff and the way they do it is in the many garden walks throughout the city and suburbs. I'm featuring two of them on the show today, though it's not as if they duke it out in the compost pile.

Former Chicago Gardener of the Year and current President of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association Laury Lewis is in the fabulous showcase studio on South Pulaski Road, representing one of the city's most colorful events, the 41st Annual Sheffield Garden Walk, Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19. This is what I call a garden walk on steroids. Sure there self-guided tours of more than 90 gardens at what they call the "Summer's Best Festival" (I'll bet Taste of Chicago would like to have a talk with their PR folks about that) but there's also music, dancing, food, drink, kids activites and more.

As far as my producer Heather Frey is concerned (and I'm discovering that, more and more, it's all about her), she's getting a back stage pass for Rusted Root on Saturday night. Also performing: Cowboy Mouth, Poi Dog Pondering and more.

FYI, proceeds from this volunteer-managed festival provide continued support for neighborhood schools, local institutions, and community projects.

Meanwhile, in a galaxy, er, neighborhood not far away, (I can't seem to break free of the metaphor) there's another venerable Chicago garden walk that takes place on Sunday, July 19. This is the 51st Dearborn Garden Walk, Presented by the North Dearborn Association, says Greg Hodapp, Co-Chair of the Dearborn Garden Walk.

I love the contrast between these two distinctively different events. Where the Sheffield Garden Walk goes for rock and roll, the Dearborn Garden walk has opted to create a “Literary Garden Tour” as part of its program. Peg Callard Chairman, Garden Vignette Committee, says that garden representations of stories like “Return to Never Land” (no, nothing to do with Michael Jackson), “The Emperor and the Nightingale,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Tales of Alhambra,” will highlight the horticultural tour.

According to Carol Truesdell of the North Dearborn Association, the hour-long architectural tour of historic Dearborn Parkway is back, due to popular demand, with three start times: 1:30pm, 3:30pm, and 5:00pm. The tour includes both pre and post-Chicago fire structures, sites that have been used in movies, homes formerly occupied by famous celebrities including a U.S. President. Well, there goes the neighborhood!

 

 

July 5, 2009

As somebody once said to Bruce Willis, "I see Big Green Rabbits." I might be slightly off-target with that. However, when it comes to me, I see ONE Big Green Rabbit, and it hasnothing to do with the libations I had over ther 4th of July weekend. It's more about going to the website, www.biggreenrabbit.com. I have to confess that I found out about BGR through my producer, Heather Frey, whose two year old, William is a big fan. And if your producer wants to make her son happy, well, there's nothing you can do but get out of the way.

Big Green Rabbit is just one facet of a larger enterprise, Big Green Company, created by Shane DeRolf. BGC sees a link between the health of our kids and the health of the planet. Basically, they want your kids to GET UP AND DANCE!

And they do it with environmental stories and lessons, featuring memorable, appealing characters, well-executed animation and even better music. For an example, click one of these: dinosaurs    Spud   symbiotic

If you're a parent who wants to keep up with BGR, you can log onto their blog site, Big Green Parents. Shane says that his goal is to expand beyond the Internet to Public Television. If you like Big Green Rabbit, he's urging you to contact the Head of Programming at your local PBS station (in Chicago you have two options, Channel 11 WTTW, and Channel 20 WYCC)and ask her/him to carry BIG GREEN RABBIT in your market. It's distributed by American Public Television and is free to all public television stations in America. Easier said than done, I know, but here's a chance to do something good for your kids by making a couple of short phone calls or emails.

It's garden walk time, which is why I've invited Linda Brif to join me in the luxuriant WCPT Showcase Studios. She is the chair for Hope Among the Flowers, the third annual Downers Grove Garden Walk sponsored by the Bridge Board of First United Methodist Church, Downers Grove. The Walk features six unique private gardens throughout Downers Grove. In addition, Master Gardeners from the University of Illinois Extension DuPage County will be available at several gardens to answer your gardening questions.

However, the real purpose of this garden walk is to help others in need. The Bridge Board of First United Methodist Church is a Program Partner with Bridge Communities, a grassroots, non-profit organization committed to transforming the lives of homeless families. They do this by partnering with talented, resourceful individuals and groups in the Downers Grove community, with the goal of moving families towards self sufficiency.

That's what I call win-win: a beautiful day in beautiful gardens, all for a beautiful cause. Beautiful.

A couple of weeks ago I told you about a terrific website called the University of Illinois Extension Home,Yard & Garden Pest Newsletter, where you can get the latest on the pests that are plaguing your plants. If you're really into what's happening in your yard, add this website to your list: the Morton Arboretum Plant Health Care Report. This is yet another great tool that can help you figure out what's wrong and whether you can fix it (sometimes you just need to let nature do its thing.)

By the way, if you want to show up in person with a plant question, you can go to the Morton Arboretum Plant Clinic at 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, IL 60532 (630-968-0074) If you're on the north side, the Chicago Botanic Garden has Plant Information Services at 1000 Lake-Cook Road, Glencoe, IL, 60022 (847-835-09720).

 

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