Practical and Reliable Talk from Melinda Myers

April 17, 2021May 18, 2021 Mike Nowak 60-Second Garden Video Challenge, Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards, Dolores Huerta, Earth Day 2021, It's a Wonderful Slice, Melinda Myers, Melinda's Garden Moment, Midwest Gardener's Handbook, One Earth Film Festival, Peggy Malecki, The Mike Nowak Show

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(April 18, 2021) Happy Earth Day Week! Melinda Myers is a mensch. Let’s face it, she’s a pretty fancy person. As we note every time she’s on this program, she is a nationally known gardening expert. She has more than 30 years of horticulture experience. She is the author of 20+ gardening books. For years, she hosted her own Milwaukee-based radio show. You can still see her on television via “Melinda’s Garden Moment” segments. But she always finds time to be on this show. I even borrowed the phrase “practical and reliable” from her website. (Hey, it has great SEO properties!)

Literally speaking, that’s what makes her a real mensch. But she entered my hall of fame in December. That’s when she checked her dignity at the door and agreed to be part of my annual presentation of It’s a Wonderful Slice of It’s a Wonderful life. (Scroll in to about 1:03:00 to see the full presentation.) As I wrote at the time,

This year, I’ve reached out to the horticultural community for star power. And we’ve gotten it in the person of gardening expert Melinda Myers, who is a show regular. Not only that, but she agreed to play the roles of God and Violet, meaning that she’s playing deity and a tart within minutes of each other. That’s talent!

As I stole from her website: she’s practical and reliable. Perhaps not practical in this instance. But guess what? She’s still one of the best when it comes to teaching folks how to grow things. Her gardening books include Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening and Midwest Gardener’s Handbook. Melinda also hosts the internationally distributed Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series, including the latest Food Gardening for Everyone DVD set. Speaking of halls of fame, it’s not surprising that, in 2017, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of GWA: The Association for Garden Communicators. Since then, the organization has rebranded as Garden Communications International or “GardenComm.” No one knows why.

Kerria japonica and tulips — How will this look in snow?

This might be the perfect day to talk spring gardening with Melinda. We’ve seen 80 degree temperatures, but it’s still April and it might snow on Tuesday! What better time to talk about the challenges of early season gardening? A friend of mine says that allium blades are popping up in his yard. I’ll ask her for some practical and reliable advice about that. And since I’ve been talking about Melinda’s Garden Moment for years on the radio, we’ll actually show some of those today. Get your gardening questions ready!

By the way, you can get more of that practical and reliable advice. Melinda will be presenting a FREE online seminar, “Spring-flowering Shrubs” on Tuesday, May 4 FROM 6:30 TO 7:15pm. The event is sponsored by Pasquesi Home and Gardens. and there will be a short Q&A after the program. To register for the event, click HERE.

Celebrate Earth Week 2021

There are a lot of ways that you can participate in the 51st Anniversary of Earth Day. The actual date is April 22, but the entire week is full of activities. We start with our friends from the One Earth Film Festival. In partnership with the City of Chicago, OEFF hosts its annual Earth Week Mini Fest April 19-25. The Mini fest will feature seven outstanding feature-length films and 14 shorts.

Highlighting the week of films is a reprise Dolores on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 6:30 p.m. CDT. The legendary Dolores Huerta herself will be part of the post-film Q&A. From the OEFF site:

Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century—and she continues the fight to this day, at age 90. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one’s life to social change.

Other Earth Week festival feature-length screenings include: “I Am Greta: A Force of Nature,” “The Condor and The Eagle,” “Closing the Loop: A Documentary About the Circular Economy Revolution,” “Mossville: When Great Trees Fall,” “To Which We Belong,” and “The Great Green Wall.”

If you want to get out and work this Earth Week, here are some suggestions.

The 60-Second Garden Video Challenge Returns

Meanwhile, the CEGA 60-Second Garden Video Challenge is BACK! Last year, the Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards was unable to visit individual gardens, thanks to the covronavirus pandemic. Instead, gardeners from anywhere in the world were invited to create one-minute videos of their gardens. In 2021, the virus is still with us, hence, CEGA will be accepting videos again.

CEGA’s first-ever 60-Second Garden Video Challenge garnered more than 13,000 views, as gardeners from coast-to-coast showcased their efforts. There were two major categories—residential gardens and institutional gardens (schools, churches, community gardens, businesses). There were monthly awards as well as overall first, second and third place finishes for each category.

This year, the competition is back, with a new twist. In 2021, there are two sections: spring and summer. In answer to the gardener’s complaint, “But you should have seen my yard in May!” CEGA will have a two-month spring competition for May and June. That will be followed by a separate July and August summer competition.

To be eligible for the spring competition, videos will be accepted from May 1 June 30. Videos for the summer competition will be accepted from July 1 to August 31. The competition is FREE and open to anyone who has a garden or who belongs to a garden. Videos can be straightforward, clever, artistic, funny—whatever the gardener chooses. And, since we’re not viewing them in person, entrants need not be from Chicago. We’re looking for 60-second videos of gardens from anywhere in the world. For more information, go to https://chicagogardeningawards.org/.