Trowels Out at Garden Rant
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:00:25 — 57.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
(March 21, 2021) When I write “trowels out,” it’s not about leaving them in the rain in my backyard. It’s more about sharpened, poison pens. And attitude. And passion for gardening. And killer wit. And defense of science. And feistiness. And excellent writing. Garden Rant is celebrating 15 years of being out on the precipice, with apparently no desire to back away from the edge.
In their own words, Garden Rant has been “uprooting the gardening world” since 2006. It started with four funny, cheeky women: Michele Owens, Susan Harris, Elizabeth Licata and Amy Stewart. If you want to know the origin of this group, Harris provides a crash course in The Garden Rant Story. I was surprised to see that I’m included in the piece, though it’s just the photo on the left. That’s what happens when you bribe the crew with mimosas at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. Hey, I know my strengths.
Even at that time, they were inviting guest ranters to be get their trowels out and become part of their empire. The names include some of the most prominent garden writers in the country. Eventually, it led to regular ranters: Allen Bush, Scott Buerlein, and Marianne Willburn. With the 15th anniversary celebration, Garden Rant has added two more–horticulturist, plant explorer, and writer Dan Hinkley, based in Washington State; and UK garden author and blogger Anne Wareham, based in Wales.
So what will you find on Garden Rant? If I were being snarky, I’d say, “Read it yerself!” However, as you know, I am kindhearted and helpful to a fault. You could find this yourself on their website (just sayin’), but here are just a few categories of rant.
- Ministry of Controversy. This is Garden Rant, after all. And, as if on cue, guest ranter Jeff Gillman writes about a controversy that I haven’t thought of in years: does compost tea really work? The title of the piece is Jeff Gillman on the Great Compost Tea Debate and the State of Gardening Information Today. If you follow all of the links, it will lead you down a delightful rabbit hole. Or maybe you just don’t care. Another story is A Rose…By Any Other Name? by Scott Beuerlein (more on him in a minute). It’s why Latin binomial specific epithets for animals and plants are completely horrible and completely necessary.
- Rant’s Plants. What we do to, for and about plants.
- Rant Reviews. Mainly about books, but…ooh, Martha Stewart’s new TV show gets trashed! Fun! Okay, it also gets a more favorable review.
There are other sections, but I want to get to today’s guests, Marianne Willburn (who trashed Martha) and Susan Harris (who didn’t, but corrected some misinformation given out by Ms. Stewart). Willburn is a relative newcomer to the Garden Rant regulars (2020) after having written guest columns for years. She is a gardening speaker, columnist and author of Tropical Plants and How to Love Them (2021), and Big Dreams, Small Garden (2017). She is also now part of a fascinating public correspondence with the aforementioned Scott Beuerlein. It’s called Dear Gardener and it’s described as “an edgy, informative, humorous and often intimate portrait of their gardens and lives in very different regions of the country.” That’s putting it mildly.
Susan Harris, of course, is one of the founders of GR. In addition to terrific posts like Abuse of Osmanthus Shrubs by Power Tools, she is the resident historian and critic when it comes to White House Gardens. Yes, that White House. Yes, last year’s change to the Rose Garden, too.
By the bye, this is not the first time that Garden Ranters have been on the show. The first time was around the time of the legendary “mimosa conference.” Not long after that, there was a bit of controversy surrounding former ranter Michele Owen’s visit to my program. I don’t try to cause trouble, it just seems to follow me around.
Happy World Water Day 2021
Alaina Harkness returns to the show today. She is Executive Director of Current, which calls itself a “water innovation hub” and a catalyst for better, cleaner water. Their mission is to grow the “blue economy.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Chicago, Current collaborates with corporations, universities, nonprofits and governments to develop solutions that would be too risky or even impossible to undertake alone. The need for our work is greater than ever because water is no longer just an issue; it’s a crisis.
Indeed. The timing couldn’t be better because Monday, March 22 is World Water Day 2021. And in a pandemic, testing our water becomes more important than ever. One of Current’s projects is H2NOW Chicago Waterway Monitoring. They note that
Prior to this pilot project, there was no way for you or anyone in any U.S. city to check the microbial pollution in your river in real-time. H2NOW Chicago is a first-of-its-kind effort to inform you, the public. This is your ‘weather app’ for the river.
Current partners with organizations and businesses like the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Chicago Department of Water Management, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Exelon and World Business Chicago, to name a few. We’re pleased to have Alaina back with us today to explore solutions to questions about water quality, water scarcity, and problems caused by climate change.
BTW, Alaina will be one of the presenters at a 2021 World Water Day – Great Lakes Open House on Monday, March 22.
Instead of powerpoints or pitches, this 60-minute ‘tour’ will offer attendees a thumbnail of the region’s heft in technology innovations that address water/wastewater challenges in agriculture, conservation, buildings, industry, and utilities.
Our Featured Participants will spotlight the region’s innovation ecosystem, spanning: 1) test-bed, pilot, demo programs, 2) corporate innovation, and the 3) broader innovation ecosystem including universities, start-ups, non-profits, and talent.