The Manic Gardener Archives - WebTalkRadio.net

We’ve all heard this one: to shade your house in summer (and save the energy used to run fans or air-conditioners), plant a tree on the south side of the house. According to my guest this week, that’s not so much a no-brainer as it is brainless. (Though she’d never put it so rudely.) In […] The post The Manic Gardener – Energy and Landscaping: Surprising Connections appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

A weed-free garden sounds too good to be true, and near the end of our interview, Lee Reich, author of Weedless Gardening, admits that it is: He does indeed weed—for about five or ten minutes a week. Five minutes, though, is close enough to nothing as makes no difference. How does he manage this? (Without […] The post The Manic Gardener – The Weed-Free Garden appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

If you think “stones and cactus” when you hear the term “xeriscape,” then Andrea Cummins would like to talk to you. She’s too polite to just say “No,” and too eloquent for “Er, not so much,” but those do convey the general idea. A Horticultural Extension Agent from Douglas County, Colorado, Andrea spends much of […] The post The Manic Gardener – The Seven-Fold Way of Xeriscape Gardening appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

My guest this week is Duncan Patten, an ecologist with whom I discuss agricultural pollution, the importance of riparian strips along streams, fracking, and yes, rain barrels, all under the umbrella topic of groundwater. Duncan spent thirty years at Arizona State University before “retiring” to Montana, where he is now a research professor in the […] The post The Manic Gardener – Hidden Waters appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.