How to Create The Healthy Garden
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(January 9, 2022) What? It’s 2002? Already? No? Wait. It’s 2022??? Why didn’t you wake me? Time to hit the ground running! Let’s do some gardening. Uh, except that it was 3°F with a wind chill of -12°F, last time I checked. That’s Chicago. Regardless, this is the best time to plan your garden. You know, before the warm weather and reality kick in. And if you’re going to grow things this year, do it right. Make your garden better in every way. Today, we’re talking to a couple of people who can help. They’ve written a book called The Healthy Garden: Simple Steps for a Greener World.
How can you argue with that? Especially on this show. Let’s get started.
The Sunset connection
I have histories with the authors, Kathleen Norris Brenzel and Mary-Kate Mackey. Mackey dropped by the show in person several years ago. (Remember when you could meet in a small room with someone and your biggest worry was about bad breath? Ah, good times!) Anyway, that’s how I know Mary-Kate. At the time, she was promoting her book, Write Better Right Now: The Reluctant Writer’s Guide to Confident Communication and Self-Assured Style. Additionally, she co-authored Sunset’s Secret Gardens and contributed to Gardening in the Northwest and the Sunset Western Garden Book.
However, both of them influenced me long before that, thanks to the Sunset connection. For years, Kathleen was Garden Editor at Sunset Magazine. That means she worked on the aforementioned iconic Sunset Western Garden Book. When I first started taking this gardening thing seriously, the Western Garden Book was my bible. That is to say, if a plant wasn’t in that book, it wasn’t worth growing. Okay, that’s a little harsh, but you know what I mean. But today, the editor AND a contributor are on our show. Geez, my palms are sweating.
But about the book…
First, The Healthy Garden is lovely book, with fabulous photos. We’ll see some of those this morning. It’s less of a “how to” guide than a “why to” one. But there’s still plenty of great advice. Much of it comes from the dozens of gardening professionals Kathleen and Mary-Kate interview. They call it the “Gathering of Gardeners.” I’m pleased to say that a number of those folks have been on our show. Mackey and Brenzel divide the book into three main sections: “Healthy Garden,” “Healthy You,” and “Healthy Planet.”
Healthy Garden
From “Healthy Garden:”
Healthy gardens rarely, if ever, need chemicals, including insecticides. Instead, these gardens rely on natural methods to control any insect pests or plant diseases that may appear. Even sprays labeled organic are used with caution, because they are not pest-specific. A spray you choose to kill aphids will kill beneficial insects as well. Better to hose or wipe the aphids off and concentrate on improving your soil with compost and mulch, because in most cases, pest go for the least healthy plants first.
I’ve been preaching that gospel for twenty-five years.
Healthy You
Here are some words from “Healthy You” about warming up before attacking physically difficult tasks in the garden.
Start with light exercise–walking around the garden, sweeping the patio, or tidying containers–that allows muscles to warm up for ten to fifteen minutes. By doing this, you blood flower increases and your available oxygen levels go up, putting less pressure on your heart. Your body gets more efficient at regulating your energy production. Your muscles become more elastic and your range of motion improves–all by spending a few minutes messing around with your plants.
Okay. I won’t say I always do that, but it’s good advice.
Healthy Planet
Finally, from “Healthy Planet,” a great story about Teresa Speight, who was on our show several years ago.
In the spring of 2020, when the pandemic kept so many at home, food security was on the minds of many, Teresa says. Plots in community gardens filled, with long waiting lists for openings. So Teresa began to plant.
She put extra seedlings of all the warm-season vegetables–peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, squash (and flowers for fun)–out on her driveway with a sign that said “free.” All disappeared before noon. She also anonymously delivered thirty-five plants, with detailed instructions, to doorsteps around her neighborhood.
If that’s not a way to create a healthier world, there isn’t one. When it’s 3°F outside in January, this is book is a great way to remind yourself exactly why you garden. We welcome Kathleen Norris Brenzel and Mary-Kate Mackey.
A few environmental stories to start 2022
It’s been a few weeks since we last talked, but the world keeps on turning. Peggy and I might not get to all of these stories during the show, but you can read them for yourselves here.
Top environment stories of 2021: A paltry number of lead pipe replacements, pollution next door and trillions of invasive mussels blanketing Lake Michigan
‘Cage-Free’ Is Basically Meaningless, and Other Lies Your Egg Carton Is Telling You
How “stars” are helping the French keep the night sky dark
After Years of Pushing for Prairie Strips, This Ecologist Won a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant
The secret MVP of sports? The port-a-potty
KFC’s new menu item tastes like chicken (but isn’t)
Join Us for a Public Meeting and Sign the Action Alert
Please join us for the next public meeting to hear updates on what’s happening in the effort to Save Bell Bowl Prairie. It will be Zoom only, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Meeting ID: 876 8405 9519
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87684059519
TAKE ACTION
Sign the latest Bell Bowl Prairie Action Alert to tell the governor, state and federal reps, and key decision makers that it’s time for the airport to collaborate with local experts and use recently awarded state funds to develop a win-win sustainable expansion design that avoids destroying Bell Bowl Prairie.
https://ilenviro.salsalabs.org/savebellbowlprairie/index.html
More info at https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org/