Past Shows: Jan-Feb
2009

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A rain garden in progress

William Cullina

Rinda West

Dr. Gabriela Chavarria

Gabriel Spitzer

Bill Wilson

Mike with Debra Shore

Amy Stewart, of Garden Rant blog site and author of . . .

Is Max Muller the most modest man in the world? We could not find a larger picture.

Nia Robinson is feature in Black Creativity 2009: Green Revolution

The lovely and talented Nancy Clifton

 

February 22 , 2009

We’re in the home stretch...when it comes to winter. After that, all the people who are attending horticultural conferences will be too busy actually designing and putting in gardens and, you know, doing horticultural work. So let’s see what they–and you–can learn in the next couple of weeks.

Every year around the first or second weekend of March, the Morton Arboretum hosts its annual Midwest Gardening Symposium. This year, it’s March 13-15. Karla Lynch, Arboretum Manager of Horticulture Education, says that there’s a lot of emphasis on eco-friendly gardens. One of the innovations that will be discussed in the seminar "Waterwise Gardening” is a new, state-of-the-art water-capture system for homeowners. Lynch says that it’s just coming on the market in the Chicago area this year but it’s based on an old technology. Remember cisterns? However, this is a “new age” aerated cistern, capable of holding more than 500 gallons of water, with a pump that hooks directly into an existing irrigation system or water feature. Some even feature solar-powered equipment. What will those crazy environmentalists think of next?

And while I'm on the subject of water conservation, one of the best ways to do that is to plant a rain garden. If you're a public institution, non-profit group or school, you could be awarded a $500 grant to plant a rain garden. However, the deadline is soon--March 2. For information and to download an application, go to Governor Pat Quinn's Clean Water website or contact Jamie Campbell at 312/814-6671.

In 2008 I spoke at the Wildflower Preservation and Propagation Committee’s Natural Landscaping Seminar at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake. I assume I was asked because the WPPC was desperate–obviously, somebody had canceled on them. They even taped my performance, most likely to use as evidence against me in some future lawsuit. They haven’t filed yet. I’m still sweating.

This year, however, they’re featuring William Cullina, who is the plant and garden curator for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, one of North America's newest public gardens featuring 250 acres of forests and gardens along a mile of salt water in Boothbay, Maine. Cullina holds degrees in plant science and psychology and has been working in plant propagation and nursery production for over twenty years. And he’s just part of the whole program, which you can link to above. Makes you wonder what the WPPC was thinking last year, doesn’t it?

Almost exactly (in relative terms) seven years ago I got involved with an effort to see if landscapers might become more environmentally friendly. Now you might think that people who work with plants and the earth might already be on that page but you might be wrong, too, for a number of reasons. Thus, the Midwest Ecological Landscaping Association was born. Next Thursday, MELA is hosting its seventh annual conference, called “Nature at Work: Creating Professional Standards for a Sustainable Green Industry.” For the third year, the Chicago Botanic Garden will be hosting the event. Rinda West, who has her own landscaping business and who I consider a friend (please don’t hold that against her), attempts to answer the question “What is sustainable landscaping?” Rinda, you have thirty seconds. Go!

February 15 , 2009

How many scientists does it take to change a lightbulb? Um, I don’t really know, but there are a few thousand of them in Chicago this weekend who would probably be happy to attend a seminar about that question.

Seriously, the American Association for the Advancement of Science or AAAS is in town for its Annual Meeting and it’s almost frightening how many scientists are gathered here. And comforting, too, I guess.

One of them is Dr. Gabriela Chavarria, Director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Science Center and a leading expert on bees and pesticides. She gave a talk at the Chicago Botanic Garden last week about Colony Collapse Disorder, which I have discussed on my show in the past. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the subjects she’s well versed in. Speaking of CCD, you might be interested in the NRDC's lawsuit, which it filed against the EPA last year, and the EPA's rather indignant response. Let's not forget, however, that that was during a different administration, which happend to inhabit a different universe. We hope.

Some of you may have been surprised to hear my voice on another Chicago radio station this week. WBEZ-FM reporter Gabriel Spitzer interviewed me in my capacity as president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition. Wait. I didn't tell you that I was elected? You mean you missed the inauguration and all of the inaugural balls? Sorry about that. Anyway, if you missed Gabriel's story, too, you can check it out HERE.
So I thought I’d return the favor and invite him on my program to talk about recycling issues in Chicago.

Are you familiar with Permaculture? You all know about horticulture, and many of you are familiar with “sustainability.” But what’s “permaculture”? That’s what Bill Wilson from Midwest Permaculture is on the show to discuss.

Of course, you can go to the website and get his own words: "Permaculture is a creative and artful way of living, where people and nature are both preserved and enhanced by thoughtful planning, the careful use of resources, mimicking the patterns found in nature (bio-mimicry) and a respectful approach to life. Thus embraced, these attributes create an environment where all may thrive for untold generations."

Okay, that’s a little esoteric. You might get a better of idea of what Bill and his friends are up to if you take a look at what they’ve done to their front lawn in the name of permaculture. Now that’s a rain garden on steroids. And it’s just a small part of how Bill wants to change the world for the better.

Here's a quick peak at the yard in progress. For more, click above.

 

February 8 , 2009

Do you know that your water quality for the next 30 years is being determined right now? The Illinois Pollution Control Board has been conducting hearings for months. Why? The Illinois EPA determined that the Chicago and Calumet systems are overdue for higher water quality standards, which could result in the most significant water quality improvements in over 20 years.

Chief among the improvements that could be made is something known as disinfection. According to the Friends of the Chicago River website, That’s “the general term for several processes that can be used to substantially reduce the amount of bacteria that is discharged in water that flows into rivers and streams as a by product of sewage treatment.

The area under review is known as the 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."

That’s where it’s the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago comes in. As stated on the website, “Our mission is: Protecting the water environment.” This happens in an 883 square-mile service area within Cook County. The District collects and treats 1.4 billion gallons of wastewater from the City of
Chicago and 124 surrounding communities, and that’s just part of what it does.

Debra Shore was elected Commissioner in 2006 and I’m proud to say that I saw her sworn in that December. This is a woman who is truly qualified to hold her office and I’m happy to have her on the show to talk to her about various water issues, including disinfection.

From what I understand, if we don’t move on this issue now, it might be another 30 years before that opportunity presents itself again. I, for one, don’t want to wait 30 years to have clean water in the Chicago River.

If you like gardening and kvetching, you’ll love the blog site Garden Rant. It’s the work of four women: Susan Harris, Elizabeth Licata, Michele Owens and Amy Stewart, who is also my guest today. Here’s how they describe their mission:

We Are:
Convinced that gardening MATTERS.
Bored with perfect magazine gardens.
In love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens.
Suspicious of the “horticultural industry.”
Delighted by people with a passion for plants.
Appalled by chemical warfare in the garden.
Turned off by any activities that involve “landscaping” with “plant materials.”
Flabbergasted at the idea of a “no maintenance garden.”
Gardening our asses off.
Having a hell of a lot of fun.

‘Nuff said. Check it out.

Meanwhile, Amy Stewart is self-described on her website as a “best-selling author.” May I pause to say just how jealous I am? Of course, it would help if I actually published a book, which I plan to do this year. Really. But I digress.

The reason Stewart is a best-selling author is because she’s a hell of a writer. The book I just finished, Flower Confidential , is a book that you will enjoy whether you’re a gardener or not. You’ll learn about how your cut flowers are grown, where they’re grown, how they’re shipped, whether they’re covered in chemicals (hint: if they're from South America, wear a gas mask when you inhale the fragrance, but because you never ask where they came from, forget it), and even the politics of the flower biz. She has the ability, present in all good writers, to spin an engrossing tale, whether it’s about gerberas or gondolas. No, that’s not the name of a flower, it’s a boat. See, I’m just using alliteration to...oh, never mind.

Anyway, she has a new book coming out called Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities. It’s about plants that live, as Stewart puts it, more or less on the dark side. They’ll kill, maim, and steal your lunch money. Sounds like my kind of plants.

 

February 1 , 2009

Is it shovel ready? I mean, that seems to be the only thing that people are talking about since President Barack Obama sent his controversial eight-hundred-and- something-something-billion-dollar stimulus package to Congress. Even the pundits who like the proposal have serious reservations about it.

However, Environment Illinois Program Director Max Muller thinks that the proposal is at least a step in the right direction, mainly because it includes at least $37.9 billion for energy efficiency, $27.8 billion for renewable energy and $14.6 billion for public transit and clean transportation, for a total of $80 billion in clean energy funding.

At least that’s what the bill looked like as it came out of the House, with zero Republicans voting for it. Onto the Senate, where it will morph into...well, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Muller is also applauding President Obama’s directives that were aimed directly at the heart of the automobile industry's record on emissions and fuel economy. Unlike the messy process of creating legislation, Mr. Obama was able to immediately send a strong signal that the new sheriff in town was not just cleaning up the streets but the air, too.

The Illinois Climate Action Network (ICAN), a diverse coalition of advocacy organizations formed to tackle climate change, is urging the Illinois General Assembly to stay in step with the President by passing the Illinois Clean Cars Act.

Today is the first day of Black History Month, which, interestingly, is also celebrated in Canada (In the words of the late Johnny Carson, "I did not know that.")

Anyway, here in Chicago, one of our great institutions, the Museum of Science and Industry is highlighting the contributions of African American architects, designers, engineers and business leaders to the green movement with Black Creativity 2009: Green Revolution. Angela Williams, Design Manager of Design and Exhibit Development says the exhibition, which runs through the end of the month, features some of the latest innovations in renewable energy, organic agriculture and sustainable building. And, of course, in the great tradition of MSI, it’s interactive–-you can try your hand at activities like digging into a worm composting bin and racing a solar-powered toy car.

January 25, 2009

Food: Part I. David Murphy was on the show just a couple of weeks ago, when we talked about the direction that the Obama Administration might be taking regarding food policy in general and the Department of Agriculture in General. Since that time, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of Agriculture. However, it’s not a choice that has been universally lauded.

Among those groups attempting to shape the course of the Ag Department is David Murphy’s group, Food Democracy Now!, which is a grass roots movement working to get a supporter of sustainability appointed to a subcabinet post. Murphy says that two of their “Sustainable Dozen” are being considered for posts in the department. Interestingly, Vilsack himself is discouraging speculation about who will get appointed to those positions.

Huh? Let’s see if I understand this correctly, Mr. Secretary. You’re saying that you don’t want people to make suggestions about who might be on your staff? Exactly what is it about open and free discussion concerning the future of food policy in America that makes you nervous? Didn’t I just hear your Commander in Chief call for more transparency in government?

Just wondering.

Food: Part II. I’ve mentioned it on the show before, but until now I haven’t had a chance to talk to the people behind Eat the View. In the words of organizer Roger Doiron, “Eat the View! is a campaign to urge the Obamas to replant a large organic Victory Garden on the First Lawn with the produce going to the White House kitchen and to local food pantries.”

Unless you’re at least a sexagenarian (c'mon, don't even go there), you’re not going to remember the last time that the White House Lawn was used in the service of food. That was towards the end of World War II, when Eleanor Roosevelt grew peas and carrots there and Americans were producing 40 percent of the country’s produce in their gardens. We’ve come a long way, baby, and not for the good. Now, more than 30 million acres of land (depending on who’s doing the counting) in America is devoted to lawns. Which means the use of tens of millions of pounds of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that eventually find their way into our water tables and down to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

My advice about lawns has always been: “When in doubt, rip it out.” Truthfully, I don’t care whether you pop in native plants or a vegetable garden. I hope that Mr. Obama is smart enough to understand that this “symbolic” gesture is much, much more than symbolic.

Food: Part III (Vino). As a Chicago Master Gardener and a contributor to the Electronic Plant Clinic, MaryAnne Spinner has been a regular guest on this program. Now I find out that she is knee deep in the fight against an Illinois law that went into effect last year. She and Gretchen Neumann, who has her own blog, Vino Verve, are on the Steering Committee of the Illinois Wine Consumer Coalition.

According to the IWCC, when House Bill 429 was signed by Governor Rod Blagojevich (remember him?), Illinoisans lost all right to purchase wine from out-of-state retailers, wine clubs, Internet wine stores and auction houses.

Hey, I’m the first to admit that I’m not a wine connaisseur. But I’m not a big fan of laws that might actually be unconstitutional, so I say, let’s talk about this, okay? And, meanwhile, pass the Merlot.

January 18, 2009

It's the learnin' time of year. You know, when horticultural types can’t grow anything outdoors, so they talk about growing things outdoors at conferences and seminars and symposia (if you’re more hoity-toity).

There are two great ones coming up, and both have survived having me speak in the past several years. Congratulations to them!

We start with the Wild Things 2009 Conference at University of Illinois at Chicago on Saturday, February 7. Co-sponsored by Audubon Chicago Region, Chicago Wilderness, The Nature Conservancy of Illinois, and the Volunteer Stewardship Network, there’s more packed into one day than you can possible absorb, including everything from habitat management and wildlife conservation to advocacy, education, art, culture, history and backyard and neighborhood ecology.

I’m pleased to have three speakers, representing the more than 70 seminars. Greg Rajsky is both an organizer of the conference and a presenter about Project Quercus, dedicated to protecting and regenerating the oak-history groves of McHenry County. Joe Lill is presenting “Roger Tory Peterson: No Person Left Inside. How one man and his book changed the way we look at the natural world.” And Rich Hyerczyk is...get ready for it...a Lichenologist. I can honestly say I’ve never had a Lichenologist on the show before.

For information on Wild Things, log onto the website or call 847.328.3910 ext. 21.

Next, we move to Indiana, where my Master Gardener friends in Porter County are presenting the 6th Annual Gardening Show on January 24. By the way, it’s at a new location this year: the Porter County Exposition Center, IN-49 at Division Road in Valparaiso, Indiana. Again, it’s a cornucopia of presentations about local arboreta, shade gardening, vegetable gardening, how to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to your yard and more. There are demonstrations that will teach you about specific gardening tasks, like pruning, worm composting and seed starting.

Representing this show are my colleague Jean Starr, who is a garden columnist for the Northwest Indiana Times and Chicagoland Gardening magazine and Jim Hitz, Executive Director of Taltree Arboretum & Gardens in Valparaiso, Indiana.

The experts are all here. I’m just along for the ride.

January 11, 2009

It's hard for most of us to imagine the depth and breadth of the challenges facing Barack Obama as he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. An economy on the brink, two wars (not counting Gaza), the challenge of providing health care for all Americans. This is not made any easier by distractions like the circus in Springfield, starring Governor Rod Blagojevish.

Yet there are other issues that are crucial to the survival of our country and the world. Like food policy. A lot of people would consider the phrase “sustainable USDA” an oxymoron. Yet that’s what a group called Food Democracy Now! is advocating.

Among the names on the list of original signers are some of the sustainable food movement’s who’s who: David Murphy, Paul Willis, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Alice Waters and more.

Food Democracy Now! is self-described as “a grassroots movement initiated by farmers, writers, chefs, eaters and policy advocates who recognize the profound sense of urgency in creating a new food system that is capable of meeting the changing needs of American society as it relates to food, health, animal welfare and the environment.” Their focus is change at the legislative and policy level that will encourage “sustainable, humane, organic and natural food systems.”

With the appointment of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to Secretary of Agriculture seemingly guaranteed, Murphy says that the focus has shifted to the undersecretary positions, which can have as much influence or more on day to day workings of the department.

Food Democracy Now! wants to present a list of candidates for those positions to President-Elect Obama. FDN calls them “the Sustainable Dozen.” You can check out their names, credentials and sign a petition supporting a sustainable agriculture policy by logging onto their website.

If it’s January, then it must be time to talk to Randy Schultz. Randy is an old friend who represents the Mailorder Gardening Association. With each new year they announce their Green Thumb Awards, which are given to the best new plants and products. Hmm. I just noticed that last year’s products are still up on the website. Well, that’s why Randy’s on the show–he’s the guy who can take the heat...and let me know what the new winners are.

I received a terrific newsletter from Rebecca Grill at the Park District of Highland Park. The Natural Areas Notebook (pdf) came at exactly the right time, with all the snow we have received in the past few days (and more on the way!) It examines the question of various salt products and how helpful and harmful they are to roads, soil and plants. Gardeners and environmentalists (and I believe that good gardeners are good environmentalists) will find this particularly useful. Thanks to Rebecca and the park District of Highland Park.

January 4, 2009

Nancy Clifton is hosting the show today. I have known her since she shepherded me (think of the one sheep who can’t even find the flock and the border collie who wonders whether it wouldn’t be easier to turn this one over to the wolves) through my Illinois Master Gardener training at the Chicago Botanic Garden ) some eleven years ago.

Nancy is an Ornamental Horticulturist with over 30 years experience in the landscape field. Her love of plants started in high school, where she worked at a local nursery, and continued with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois. Nancy has worked at the Chicago Botanic Garden for over 16 years and currently is a horticulture program specialist. She also serves in many other areas of the Garden; designer, teacher, and media representative featured on the weekly segment ‘Botanic Backyard' at WGN television and radio in Chicago.

Outside of the Garden, Nancy has been featured for her design work and containers in the Chicago Tribune, and Midwest Living, Chicagoland Gardening and Smart Money magazines. Nancy works for other horticultural organizations including Ball Horticultural, Lurvey's, Clesen's, and Chalet Nursery. Nancy presents at professional programs including MidAm and the ANLA. She is a University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service Lake County council member.

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