Résultats de "Mike McGrath" dans Toutes les catégories

Out with the old and in with the new! On this episode of You Bet Your Garden, host Mike McGrath tells you how to replace the plants of summer with the crops that crave the cold; as well as suggests serious succession strategies for maximum good eating next season!

Have you only eaten potatoes bought at the store? Well, they've been stored for many months! Instead, consider home-grown potatoes - they're a sweet and juicy treat, one that you can only enjoy if you grow your own! Mike McGrath will discuss the basics of potato growing, and reveal a "no work" trick that allows you to grow spuds without any digging at all!

Are multi-legged crawly things creeping all over your house? Mike McGrath will explain how to tell if your "house guests" are pestiferous millipedes or highly beneficial centipedes and what you can do about them. We'll also find out how tomatoes protect themselves from pests with signals that travel an inch a minute through the plant.

We'll celebrate the beginning of seed catalog season with Burpee Seed Company president George Ball. He'll tell us what�s new on the market, and share his favorite picks for unique tomato varieties and bush beans! Plus, the Question of the Week: Cotton plants are very ornamental, with beautiful flowers and seedpods preceding that dramatic burst of white. But if you garden in a climate warm enough to see cotton appear, you probably aren't supposed to be growing it.

Are the leaves on your poor plants stained and splotched? Blemished, and blotched? Mike McGrath will reveal how to protect your plants from leaf spots, without any sprays, chemical or organic!

If you've grown squash plants in your garden you've probably suffered the savage attentions of the dreaded vine borer, which can wipe out an entire crop and is hard to detect at first. Mike McGrath will reveal six all-natural ways to prevent this pest, including one that dates back to the 1890s!

New federal laws may make it easier for homeowners to chase away those pestiferous Canada Geese. Ron Kokel of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joins us to discuss these new regulations. Plus, on the Question of the Week: Do you turn your garden soil every spring and then fight weeds all summer long? Mike McGrath will explain how a "no-till" system can do away with all that work of weeding and soil turning, not only for your garden beds, but also your lawn.

This week on You Bet Your Garden, Penn State Professor Don Davis joins us to discuss the house and car-staining fungus that breeds in shredded bark and other wood mulches. Later in the show, Mike suggests ways to deal with grasshoppers! He'll reveal the all-natural product that can kill this Biblical garden foe and name the bird that puts hoppers at the top of its 'to eat' list. He will also explain how molasses can protect your plants.

Groundhogs can eat a garden to the ground overnight, and their treacherous tunnels are a leg-breaking danger to people and livestock. Mike McGrath will reveal options for keeping them from coming into your garden, and explains how you can drive them away if they have already set up camp. Plus: A Kansas researcher has discovered that indoor pesticide use increases the number of dangerous spiders in your home.

Are mysterious creatures munching your plants? This week, host Mike McGrath will discuss how to identify the guilty party before all the green is gone. And of course, chemical free answers to all your garden questions.

Are you hoping to see lush, green grass in your landscape this year?

Are you worried that the recent decline in honeybee numbers means your posies won't be properly pollinated this season? Don't "bee"! Most garden pollination is performed by native bees, like the ones nesting in lawns right now! They are harmless creatures but often scare gardeners because of their size or seemingly aggressive behavior. Mike McGrath will tell you how to attract and protect these priceless pollinators and keep them happy.

Soil solarization is the tactic of last resort when your garden dirt is plagued by wilts and diseases, or is so infested with weed seeds you can't grow anything successfully. But you have to do it right - and live in a fairly warm region. Mike McGrath will reveal the hot details in the Question of the Week!

Are nasty pests planning to hitch a ride on your incoming houseplants? Mike McGrath will explain how to prepare plants that have spent the summer outside for overwintering in your house, without bringing pests like aphids along. Plus, he'll offer specialized cures for fungus gnats and scale. We'll also hear about a new way for pipes and tree roots to peacefully coexist.

Looking for something new to do in your landscape? How about building a labyrinth! Unlike a maze, labyrinths have no dead ends or tricks; all paths lead to the center. Unique and beautiful, they are thought to help people achieve a meditative state. We'll discuss labyrinth building and meaning with PA community garden coordinator Doreen Pasekoff, who recently created a classic outdoor turf labyrinth.

Mushroom expert Paul Stamets joins us to explain how seemingly humble fungi can be used to filter water, destroy pest insects like termites and fire ants, and create new medicines. Paul is the owner of the mushroom company Fungi Perfecti and his new book is Mycelium Running. During the Question of the Week, Mike will explain how gardeners can safely use wood ashes in their landscape.

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.

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.

Valentine's Day is coming up! Not sure what to get that special someone in your life? Bored with roses, or tired of them wilting so quickly?

You may call them pill bugs, sow bugs, or roly-polies, but the most correct name for either of these two land-locked cousins to crabs and crayfish is the "woodlouse". Mike McGrath will discuss these interesting isopods and tell you what, if anything, you need to do when they show up in your compost pile or plants.