Author: Mike Nowak

We welcome Mark Wise from Greenwise Organic Lawn Care to talk about what you should–and shouldn’t–be doing at this time of year. Holly and Joey Baird from The Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener help you get the most out of the remaining growing days. Then Pamela Todd and Arthur Smith introduce a new group called Chicago Living Corridors, which is engaging private landowners to restore wildlife habitat on their own property.

Rob Greenfield is in the middle of something he calls “Trash Me,” when he literally wears every piece of trash he creates for 30 days. Regina Hawkins and Marissa Manker teach at Southside Occupational Academy in the west Englewood community, where they work with students with disabilities to build vocational, social and work skills. And in 10:00 a.m. hour, we talk to the folks behind the Active by Design Summit on Tuesday, October 4 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, which will promote the safety, health, economic, environmental and social benefits of designing communities that promote physical activity.

This week’s edition of The Mike Nowak Show runs the gamut from the sublime-but-more-than-slightly-obsessive desire to grow pumpkins that weigh as much as small cars to what happens when you, as an unsuspecting gardener who is trying to rescue a nearly extinct plant, find that it is taking over your garden to the idea of the City of Chicago creating a “green” space by cutting down century-old cottonwood trees and replacing them with…well, nothing.

Michelle Byrne Walsh is an editor for State-By-State Gardening Magazines. She is also a McHenry County Master Gardener who is one of the folks behind the 2016 McHenry County Farm Stroll and Market on Sunday, September 25. Suzanne Malec-McKenna, executive director of Chicago Wilderness, discusses that organization’s One Home: A Campaign to Support Our Species, which will raise money to protect crucial species in this area. Dallas Goldtooth–Native American activist, comedian and Keep It In The Ground campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network–comes to the Que4 Radio studio from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in North Dakota to talk about life in the Sacred Stone Camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

This is one of those weeks when you realize that two hours of show time isn’t nearly enough to talk about all of the environmental and food issues that our country–let alone our planet–faces. The 2016 Factory Farm Summit: Demanding Accountability in Animal Agriculture in Green Bay Wisconsin highlights just one of those issues, and we’re happy to be on site for the event.