Podcast

Live from Custer Fair in Evanston

June 16, 2018June 15, 2019 Mike Nowak climate variability, Custer Street Fair, environment, Evanston, gardening, green living, landscaping, pesticides, Rick DiMaio, sustainability, The Mike Nowak Show, The Morton Arboretum, Tom Klitzkie, viburnum leaf beetle

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Nothing like a 90+ degree day for an outdoor broadcast.

(June 17, 2018) Like our relatives, we don’t get to choose the weather. However, we’re still going to have a lot of fun when we broadcast live from Custer Fair in downtown Evanston, Illinois. 1590 WCGO is bringing most of its local weekend shows to the event, including The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki, Chicago History & Automotive Heaven with Richie Zie, and Playtime with Bill Turck & Kerrie Kendall. You might have caught Mighty House Home Improvement Radio on Saturday morning from the same event.

We’re going a bit local today, so funder and owner Tom Klitzkie of Evanston-based Nature’s Perspective Landscaping joins us on location this morning. Nature’s Perspective is an Evanston-based company that designs, builds and maintains a little bit of everything in the way of outdoor settings.

While we’re live at Custer Fair, we welcome your garden/landscaping questions at 877-711-5611. One thing we will probably discuss something called the viburnum leaf beetle. As the Morton Arboretum notes, this insect has been in the United States since the early 1990s, but hadn’t made its way to the Midwest until the last few years. They report that “This insect feeds as both larvae and adults and can do extensive damage. If left unchecked it can lead to the death of the shrub.” Nice.

This year, the Morton Arboretum Plant Health Report wrote about the larval stage of this insect in its May 11 issue, and the adult stage in its June 7 issue. The latter report has advice on spotting this potentially damaging insect.

In fall, look for egg laying sites. The actual eggs are not visible. The eggs are laid in small holes on the ends of twigs, and then the holes are capped with a mixture or chewed wood and excrement. The caps are dark and stand out against the bark of the twig, making them easy to see. From October through March, cut out the twigs that have the eggs in them and get them out of the garden completely. This is the most effective and least toxic means of control. It will greatly reduce the number of insects you have next year. If the beetles can’t hatch, they can’t eat.

Meanwhile, National Pollinator Week begins on Monday, June 18 and runs through June 24.

Eleven years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.

DuPageMonarchs.com has information on how you can help bees, butterflies and dragonflies, including how to

plant your gardening to attract pollinators
register your garden with various organizations
cut down on pesticide use
inspire others

This morning, meteorologist Rick DiMaio joins us early, and he reminds us that when temperatures get into the nineties, as they will today, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your neighbors. We’ll get a comparison with the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, which resulted in 739 deaths. To be sure, this stretch of hot weather is nothing like what happened 23 years ago, but it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on unusually hot or cold weather.