The Manic Gardener Archives - WebTalkRadio.net

The Manic Gardener Archives - WebTalkRadio.net episodes:

• 06.25.2012

  The Manic Gardener – The Weed-Free Garden

  A weed-free garden sounds too good to be true, and near the end of our interview, Lee Reich, author of Weedless Gardening, admits that it is: He does indeed weed—for about five or ten minutes a week. Five minutes, though,...

  
• 06.11.2012

  The Manic Gardener – The Seven-Fold Way of Xeriscape Gardening

  If you think “stones and cactus” when you hear the term “xeriscape,” then Andrea Cummins would like to talk to you. She’s too polite to just say “No,” and too eloquent for “Er, not so much,” but those do convey...

  
• 06.04.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Hidden Waters

  My guest this week is Duncan Patten, an ecologist with whom I discuss agricultural pollution, the importance of riparian strips along streams, fracking, and yes, rain barrels, all under the umbrella topic of groundwater. Duncan spent thirty years at Arizona...

  
• 05.28.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Thrifty Gardening with Marjorie Harris

  If you’re a Canadian Gardener, chances are that you’ve heard of Marjorie Harris, but we below the 49th parallel may not be so fortunate. The author of seventeen books, fifteen of them on gardening, Marjorie keeps in shape with her...

  
• 05.21.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Greener than Grass

  “Greener” here doesn’t refer to color, but to being environmentally friendly. Yup, it’s a metaphor. Last week’s show presented some information about the damage that conventionally maintained lawns can do. This week, we dive into the whole ocean of lawn...

  
• 05.07.2012

  The Manic Gardener – A Farmer’s story

  When they try to make a movie of Atina Diffley’s story, some producer is going to reject it as unbelievable. Losing one organic farm to development, okay; but nearly losing a big chunk of the second to an oil pipeline?...

  
• 04.30.2012

  The Manic Gardener – How to Buy a Plant

  On one level it can’t really get much simpler: you give them the money, they give you the plant, and you’re done. But then there’s the question of whether you and the plant stay happy with this arrangement: is the...

  
• 04.23.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Composting 101: Bite the Silver Bullet

  Spring has sprung just about everywhere in North America, and certainly across the pond, and in spring the avid gardener’s thoughts turn to—composting. All that pruning and mowing and clipping and raking of last fall’s debris and this spring’s growth...

  
• 04.09.2012

  The Manic Gardener – More Space Than You Thought: gardening on balconies, porches, and terraces with Fern Richardson

  Fern Richardson’s balcony measures four feet by ten. On it she grows a fig tree, an apricot, a kumquat, two apple trees, and an abutilon, an ornamental tree with bi-colored leaves and red, hibiscus-like flowers. Of course, she also herbs,...

  
• 04.02.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Turning the Tables, Again

  When this show first ran under the title Turning the Tables: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto, in December of 2011, 83 organic farmers, seed farmers, and organizations that had sued Monsanto were waiting to hear whether the judge would rule for...

  
• 03.19.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Minding Your Manure

  Some organic gardeners swear by manure. Others swear they’ll never touch it. To the first group, it’s the ultimate one-stop soil conditioner, complete with built-in fertilizers. To the second, conventional manure is contaminated with hormones and antibiotics, and even organic...

  
• 03.12.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Landscaping for Wildlife

  Doug Tallamy is not an idiot, so when he talks about a new national park that extends across the entire continent, he’s not proposing to bulldoze cities or tear up freeways. No; he’s talking about converting half the space that...

  
• 02.27.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Potless Plants: Starting seeds with Soil Blocks

  When you first see them, soil blocks are both unremarkable and fantastic. They’re just cubes of dirt, after all—big deal—but they function like a pot of earth twice their size or more. In fact, the headline could read: Pots Obsolete—Soil...

  
• 02.20.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Where it All Comes Together—Or Falls Apart

  Most of us are familiar with the term “food security,” meaning simply that people should have enough to eat. But Charles Levkoe, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, explains why this term doesn’t go nearly far enough in...

  
• 02.13.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Seeds for the Season

  It’s not yet spring, but with days growing perceptibly longer, the season of the seed catalogue has arrived. Many backyard gardeners still rely on packets from the grocery store or from the gardening center at a big box store, where...

  
• 01.30.2012

  The Manic Gardener – The Way It Works: Compost Science

  January is a not the best time to start a compost pile, but it’s a great time to learn about how compost works. This week I talk with two experts at the University of Pennsylvania, Tom Richard and Rick Stehouwer,...

  
• 01.23.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Going Native: why and how to garden with native plants

  Some people think this: Native plants are tough, hardy, drought-tolerant, and easy going, free of those picky preferences that plague domesticated garden plants. Stick ‘em in the ground and they’ll grow. Others think this: Natives are messy, unkempt, overgrown, weedy,...

  
• 01.16.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Botany for Backyard Gardeners #1

  Sure, you know the difference between a perennial and an annual. But are you aware that perennials, unlike diamonds, are not forever? Some only live for a few years. And a perennial in the south may be an annual in...

  
• 01.09.2012

  The Manic Gardener – 99.9% Gone: Prairie and Savanna Restoration

  We’ve all heard of habitat restoration. But how do you do it? What is actually involved—and why would anyone bother, if it takes years of strenuous work and pays little or nothing? Most of the savanna and prairie native to...

  
• 01.02.2012

  The Manic Gardener – Kitchen Composting: Bokashi 101

  If you live in North America, chances are that you’ve never heard of Bokashi. Yet it may be the answer to your composting prayers. It’s cheap, easy, and so small-scale that you can do it indoors, all winter, in a...

  
• 12.26.2011

  The Manic Gardener – A New Kind of Seed Bank

  Why would an organization dedicated to preserving our seed-saving heritage not save seeds? And why would such an organization concentrate on developing new seeds? And why, oh, why would a graduate program in breeding plants focus so exclusively on genes...

  
• 12.19.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Turning the Tables: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto

  Imagine this: Your neighbor invents fire and patents it so that you can’t have any unless you obtain a license–for a fee. Furthermore, your license requires that you put your fire out each morning and buy new coals from your...

  
• 12.12.2011

  The Manic Gardener – The Next Organic Fertilizer: Insect Poop?

  If you thought worm castings an odd fertilizer, brace yourself: the new kid on the organic fertilizer block is insect castings, or frass. Daniel Jazvac, one of the co-founders of Prime Nutrients Ltd., calls this fertilizer the “missing link” of...

  
• 12.05.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Steve Solomon’s Complete Organic Fertilizer—Eventually

  In the course of this interview, Steve Solomon covers a lot more ground than the tame “organic fertilizers” title suggests. This American-turned-Aussie gardener and garden writer defines the lovely phrase “to put into healing grass,” gives a bit of history...

  
• 11.28.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Gardening in the City

  Try this on for size: you live in the city, and you don’t have a yard. But you want to grow your own food. What do you do? Twenty-five years ago, or even ten, chances are you’d have been out...

  
• 11.21.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Geothermal Greenhouse

  Ever considered harnessing the power of your local hot spring to heat your greenhouse? If so, you have company. And if not, here’s your chance to meet some very different people. Cindy Owings and Jim Patrick belong to Madison Farm...

  
• 11.14.2011

  The Manic Gardener – IPM: Managing Pests Sustainably

  If you want to go organic but you have no idea how to control pests without a spray bottle of something lethal, IPM can help. It can also help if pests are taking too big a bite out of your...

  
• 11.07.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Permaculture: Everything Counts

  This is an arm of organic gardening that might be accused of taking itself over-seriously—until you realize how serious are the issues it confronts: not just the poisoning of air, earth, and water that organic gardening opposes, but the economic...

  
• 10.31.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Community Composting with Big Bokashi

  How can a food bank cut its garbage output from 85,000 pounds in one year to 40,000 the next—and produce tons of “good dirt” at the same time? By composting, of course. But large-scale composting without turning, and without machinery?...

  
• 10.17.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Fall Garden Tasks

  Wondering how to put your garden to bed for the winter? Even if you’re not, it’s worth tuning in to hear Linda Chalker-Scott, former science editor of Master Gardener, reveal the most common autumn gardening mistakes she’s encountered. If you...

  
• 10.10.2011

  The Manic Gardener – Steps towards Sustainability

  An interview with Jason Kimm takes place in a truck, a field, and a piece of harvesting equipment I’d never heard of. (It’s called a potato windrower, and it digs potatoes.) Along the way, he describes how he has worked...

  
• 10.03.2011

  The Manic Gardener – No Small Potatoes

  Not many people can claim that a dancing accident turned them towards organic farming, but Yvonne and Jason Kimm aren’t like most people. Jason’s multi-generational potato seed farm isn’t unusual here in Montana, but the small plot on which he...

  
• 09.26.2011

  The Manic Gardener – From the Ground Up

  Autumn may seem like an odd time to start a garden, but it actually makes sense, as this week’s guest, Tyson Stillman, explains. He’s funny, pithy, and an amazing source of gardening experience and information—a remarkable combination, considering that he’s...