Showing results by author "Mike McGrath" in All Categories

Are the leaves on your poor plants stained, splotched, and smudged? Besmirched, blemished, and blotched? Host Mike McGrath will discuss the dread diseases that cause spots to appear, and how you can prevent the problem - without any sprays, chemical or organic!

You've all seen the ads for "amazing zoysia grass". On this week's You Bet Your Garden, host Mike McGrath will reveal the pros and cons of this warm-season turf that survives northern winters! Plus: plans for a beautiful three-bin compost system.

A lot of gardeners get a bit confused when looking for the right soil or soil amendments at the garden store. What do terms like mulch, compost, humus, topsoil, and biosolids really mean? Mike McGrath will help you buy the right stuff with a loquacious lexicon of the language you may encounter on your quest for compost! He will also advise on where to use which type of "dirt". Plus, local activists have put North Carolina on the leading edge of safe farming and gardening practices.

Tulips and other spring bulbs are our reward for getting through another month of March. But they sometimes fail to return, and one of the biggest reasons is a mistake gardeners make when the bulbs are finished blooming. Mike McGrath will reveal a great plan that will dramatically increase your spring bulb returns!

Asparagus is the ultimate perennial vegetable. Plant a couple dozen crowns correctly and you'll harvest 20 pounds of tasty treats a year for decades to come. Mike McGrath will tell you how to get started and how to care for your patch to insure sequential seasons of springtime succulence.

It's our annual You Bet Your Garden Holiday Spectacular! Our musical director, Mr. Kenn Kweder and the Reindeer Band join us to play holiday tunes and - our annual traditional - the full version of our rocking theme song. We'll discuss the Christmas Rose with Barry Glick of Sunshine Farm, and Garden and Ellen Spector Platt will explain how rosemary and lavender can be used in holiday decorations.

Looking for a holiday gift for the gardener in your life? Mike McGrath will reconstruct the classic "Twelve Days of Christmas" to present you with a dozen unique, useful, and ecologically sound options. There's something for everyone, from the hard-core, already chemical-free grower, to newbies you're hoping to coax away from bottles and bags with big warnings on them.

What can you do when you show up at your vacation beach retreat and the outside of the house is covered with mosquitoes instead of vinyl siding? Mike McGrath will reveal how he handled this very problem this summer, without any of the mosquito-fighting tools he has at home, and without turning to toxins! We'll also tell a year-long island resident how to keep the local insect life out of her house.

Raspberries are the perfect fruit! They are nutritious, delicious, and easy to grow, in fact, they prefer to be planted in poor soil! Mike McGrath will provide all the details you need to have a red stained face and a big grin in summers to come. Plus: Now that harvest time is here, are you starting to realize that you once again planted way too much? We'll tell you how to "share your harvest" and help feed the hungry.

We'll hear about a new product called "Messenger" that's designed to boost the productivity and immunity of your plants, and to protect them from pest and disease. Then, during the Question of the Week, Mike McGrath will discuss the conditions that cause clover to appear in your lawn, and explain both how to get rid of it and how to make use of its fertilizing and healthy eating attributes.

Do you feel like growing some unusual offerings in your garden this year? Exotic flowers, heirloom varieties, or strangely-colored vegetables maybe? We'll hear about the eclectic selection in the quirky J. L. Hudson seed catalog. And to make sure your seed-starting endeavors are off to a good start, Mike will go over his Seven Secrets of Successful Seed Starters. He'll also reveal a cure for the dreaded disease that often claims over-watered seedlings.

Want to save some money-and help save the world? On the next episode of You Bet Your Garden, host Mike McGrath will reveal how to save your own seeds from season to season and protect our genetic diversity.

Garden success begins with raised beds, and during this hour, Mike will prepare our listeners for Spring by explaining how to create the perfect growing space. We'll cover the best dimensions for raised beds, how to frame them, what to fill them with, and what to use for mulch.

What are the most important organic controls to have at the ready so that pest problems can be dealt with promptly? We'll name the top ten organic essentials every good little gardener should have close at hand!

Winter means icy sidewalks and worries about what the salt or other chemicals used to make those surfaces safe is going to do to the poor plants in the proximity.

Not sure what kind of Christmas tree to pick? Professor Mark Vodak of Rutgers University joins us to help you choose the perfect tree for your family's needs.

Are you one of those listeners who avoids the actual growing of things because your "black thumb" makes you feel inferior to the other gardeners in your neighborhood?

The stuck-tight scale pest can be a persistent problem on plants indoors and out, and their highly effective waxy coating completely protects them from natural and chemical pesticides. Mike McGrath will explain how to tell if your problem really is scale and go over the treatments that do work against this well-protected pest.

Are you worried about aggressive wasps swarming around your garden and building nests? We'll discuss how to handle yellowjackets and other dangerous hornets with "Norman the Conqueror" Norman Patterson. He defeats these aggressive beasts and sells them to medical companies, where they are used to protect people with severe bee-sting allergies.

This is the time of year when many people hear the tap-tap-tapping of woodpeckers on their chamber wall. What are they doing there? "Probably not eating bugs" says woodpecker expert Dr. Jerry Jackson, biology professor at the Florida Gulf University in Fort Myers, Florida. He explains that the birds are tearing up your siding to build a nest. He'll discuss how you can protect your home and create other habitats for these beautiful and beneficial birds.