Information
from Past Shows
May
Grace Koehler, Midwest Ground Cover
Mike in his trusty 1978 Toyota pickup
April 27, 2008
More and more gardeners are beginning to appreciate the importance of native plants.
They increase biodiversity, provide habitat, adapt better to local growing conditions, conserve water, need less fertilizer and more. Grace Koehler is a long time friend who works for Midwest Groundcovers out in St. Charles, Illinois. Midwest has been growing plants for landscapers, retailers and the public since 1969, and Grace is on the show to talk about their partnership with American Beauties. If you haven’t seen the green containers with the American Beauties logo at your favorite nursery, you might want to ask them to carry the line. Meanwhile, check out the website for the various types of native plants that they grow.
Jeff Lowenfels is another friend, and he is, simple put, an unforgettable character. Jeff has his own radio show called “The Garden Party” at KBYR AM 700 in Anchorage, Alaska. But that’s not all. He has produced the longest running garden column in North America for the Anchorage Daily News, having an unbroken string that stretches back to 1976!
And that’s not all. He is also the co-author of one of the most important horticultural books to come out in years: Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web. Believe me, if you’re a serious gardener, this book will change the way you garden. Along that line, here’s one more link, where Jeff breaks down the “Soil Food Web” concept and makes it pretty understandable: Jeff Lowenfels' Lecture Notes and Gardening with the Soil.
April 20, 2008
First, let me tell you how excited I am to have " The Mike Nowak Show" on WCPT 820AM. And, judging from the response I've had so far, a lot of you are happy to have me here.
I'm going to talk about gardening, horticulture in general, the environment, green living, and sometimes just do stuff that doesn' t have anything to do at all with gardening.
Please call in to 773-838-WCPT whenever you have a gardening question or you want to discuss something about horticulture or you just want to say hi. It' s okay. Really.
So let' s get to work. The first topic on my very first show was the crisis in funding for the University of Illinois Extension. In a nutshell, it 's politics as usual in Springfield, with the Governor withholding about $18 million in funding and the legislature wringing its hands and saying, "Oh, dear." And if you don' t know that there is a funding crisis, it 's partly because Extension services don' t seem to be on the radar screens of papers like the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. You have to go to the downstate papers to get any real coverage of this issue:
Bloomington Pantagraph
Canton Daily LedgerThat 's why I had Cook County Extension Public Information Specialist AmySue Mertens in the beautiful Showcase Studio on south Pulaski Road to explain the value of this program. She brought along these two pdfs, which explain what an important role Extension plays in the lives of thousands of people:
The Case for Agriculture in Cook County 2008
Cook County Hearing Testimony 04-08The point is that we need the funding restored. Now. You can contact AmySue about this issue at amertens@uiuc.edu or 312/575-7844. And, of course, contact your state senator and representative: http://www.ilga.gov/ .
Next up was Guy Sternberg, the man with the deepest voice in horticulture, who runs Starhill Forest Arboretum in Petersburg, IL ( www.starhillforest.com). He was reporting on the demise of part of Illinois history that most of you had never heard of B the IndianTrail Tree in Menard County.
The tree, a white oak ( Quercus alba ), core-dated to 1730, was located south of Athens, Illinois and fell in late March 2008. R.J. Fehl, Guy Sternberg, and other volunteers suspected it might be in trouble, and had worked with the landowner to install a prop, which protected it from the weight of the terrible ice storms of the past two winters. But a strong north wind gust pushed it over from the side, breaking it at the base. Attempts are being made by Guy Sternberg to have the tree cloned, and some wood pieces will be salvaged for use as future award plaques for the International Oak Society and for other commemorative uses. Most of the tree will be left in place as a fallen monument to history, and the stump will be protected from browsing in case it sends up a new shoot from the base. This was one of the last pre-settlement trail-marker trees remaining in the Midwest, and had been visited by people from many states and foreign countries.
I took this photo of the tree in May of 2004.
click on the image for a larger version
click on the image for a larger versionFinally, a couple of links. I'm MC for The Conservation Foundation's Earth Day Benefit Dinner 2008 on Thursday, April 24. Click through for more information.
And if you're down Crown Point, Indiana way on Saturday morning, I'm speaking at the Illiana Garden Pond Society's Waterscape Weekend Garden, Pond & Patio Show at the Lake County Fairgrounds. I' ll be doing my talk, "Good Planets Are Hard to Find," which takes a look at environmentalism in your backyard. Don' t worry, I usually manage to inject some humor into a pretty serious subject. Admission is $5 and children under 15 are free. What a deal. Click through for more information.
