We’ve all heard this one: to shade your house in summer (and save the energy used to run fans or air-conditioners), plant a tree on the south side of the house. According to my guest this week, that’s not so much a no-brainer as it is brainless. (Though she’d never put it so rudely.) In the course of the show, Sue Reed (http://www.susanreedla.com/)not only explains why that won’t work, she also tells us how to plant trees in order to shade a house and funnel breezes towards it in...

A weed-free garden sounds too good to be true, and near the end of our interview, Lee Reich (http://leereich.com/), author of Weedless Gardening (http://leereich.com/books.html), admits that it is: He does indeed weed—for about five or ten minutes a week. Five minutes, though, is close enough to nothing as makes no difference. How does he manage this? (Without planting through a plastic mulch, that is.) During this week’s show, Lee explains his four-part system and its many benefits, which...

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

If you think “stones and cactus” when you hear the term “xeriscape,” then Andrea Cummins (http://www.ext.colostate.edu/cedirectory/detail.cfm?index=4853)would like to talk to you. She’s too polite to just say “No,” and too eloquent for “Er, not so much,” but those do convey the general idea. A Horticultural Extension Agent from Douglas County, Colorado, Andrea spends much of her time dealing with such misperceptions. At the opposite end of the spectrum, she and her fellow agents try to...

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

My guest this week is Duncan Patten (http://landresources.montana.edu/Department/Patten.html), an ecologist with whom I discuss agricultural pollution, the importance of riparian strips along streams, fracking, and yes, rain barrels, all under the umbrella topic of groundwater. Duncan spent thirty years at Arizona State University before “retiring” to Montana, where he is now a research professor in the department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, the director of the Montana...

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

If you’re a Canadian Gardener, chances are that you’ve heard of Marjorie Harris (http://marjorieharris.com/), but we below the 49th parallel may not be so fortunate. The author of seventeen books, fifteen of them on gardening, Marjorie keeps in shape with her weekly column in the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s leading newspapers. She’s also a speaker, videocaster, garden designer, and this week’s guest on the Manic Gardener. Her topic, of course, is Thrifty Gardening, which is the title of...

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

“Greener” here doesn’t refer to color, but to being environmentally friendly. Yup, it’s a metaphor. Last week’s show presented some information about the damage that conventionally maintained lawns can do. This week, we dive into the whole ocean of lawn alternatives. Some people keep their lawn because they like them—which may be the only good reason to do so. Some of us believe that we need a lawn, perhaps because we don’t have the money to get rid of it, or because “natural” gardens are...

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

Lawns are practically an American institution, but they’re increasingly under attack. The amounts of pesticides, fertilizer, and water used on them are all matters of contention. If you’re wondering whether lawns deserve the abuse heaped on them, this show might help you make up your mind. My first guest, Paul Tukey, is a writer, filmmaker, activist, and founder of Safe Lawns.org (http://www.safelawns.org/). He tells the story of Hudson, Quebec, where a persistent local doctor got the town...

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

When they try to make a movie of Atina Diffley’s (http://atinadiffley.com/)story, some producer is going to reject it as unbelievable. Losing one organic farm to development, okay; but nearly losing a big chunk of the second to an oil pipeline? A pipeline owned by one of the two largest companies in the United States? Start with this setup, and it’s a given that Atina takes them on and beats them. To top it off, she not only protects her own land from the pipeline, but she gets Koch to...

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

On one level it can’t really get much simpler: you give them the money, they give you the plant, and you’re done. But then there’s the question of whether you and the plant stay happy with this arrangement: is the plant content in its new home, and do you remain pleased with the plant? Toby Day (http://www.mtmastergardener.org/), Extension Horticulture Specialist at Montana State University, returns to The Manic Gardener, this time to guide gardeners through the intricacies of the plant...

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

Spring has sprung just about everywhere in North America, and certainly across the pond, and in spring the avid gardener’s thoughts turn to—composting. All that pruning and mowing and clipping and raking of last fall’s debris and this spring’s growth produces plenty of garden waste. But just how does one start with this composting business, anyhow? The number of books out on the subject—or the fact that even one person, much less several, thought the topic deserved an entire book—can make...

Fern Richardson’s (http://www.fernrichardson.com/)balcony measures four feet by ten. On it she grows a fig tree, an apricot, a kumquat, two apple trees, and an abutilon, an ornamental tree with bi-colored leaves and red, hibiscus-like flowers. Of course, she also herbs, succulents, and vegetables, including peppers and tomatoes. In other words, she grows more in her forty square feet than many people manage in a full-fledged, ground-level garden. If this sounds so unlikely as to be...

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

When this show first ran under the title Turning the Tables: Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto, in December of 2011, 83 organic farmers, seed farmers, and organizations that had sued Monsanto were waiting to hear whether the judge would rule for the seed giant’s motion to dismiss the case, or would allow it to advance to oral arguments. At stake in the suit is the question of whether Monsanto would be able to continue to sue individual farmers, both conventional and organic, whose crops were...

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