had a story in the Chicago Tribune today about growing tomatoes in containers. That's how I grow all mine. I don't have enough ground-level sunny space for vegetables, so I grow tomatoes in pots on the third- and fourth-floor porches.
It would be easier if I really had full sun, but there's a roof over the porch and railings that cast shadows, so my personal situation is even more complicated than I mentioned in this story. I do a talk called "Vegetables Anywhere" in which I go into it in more detail.
I just checked my tomato seedlings and they're ready to plant. Whoo-hoo! I'll wait till it cools off, though. Did a full day of gardening in the heat yesterday and felt like I would die. In May I'm not ready for 85-degree gardening. I'm not too cool with it in July, either, comes to that.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
See you on the radio tomorrow
While you are preparing (or waiting for someone else to prepare) the Mother's Day brunch, you might as well turn on the radio. I'll be co-hosting the Mike Nowak Show on WCPT 820-AM from 9 to 11 a.m.
If you're taking your annual Mother's Day trip to the garden center, listen on the car radio, and don't forget to wear your shin guards and football pads. (Also, take cardboard boxes so you can minimize the plastic trays, etc., you have to take home with your plants.)
Mike and I will be talking about gardening, taking gardening questions, etc., and also discussing the latest University of Illinois Extension funding crisis, and checking in with Rick DiMaio about weather for gardeners. The call-in number is 773-763-9278 or you can Tweet Mike at @mikenow or me at @chicagogardener.
The show can also be heard, to varying degrees in various places, at FM 92.5, 92.7 and 99.9. For those of you who don't bother with anything as primitive as a radio, the show streams live at the WCPT website.
See you there and happy Mother's Day.
If you're taking your annual Mother's Day trip to the garden center, listen on the car radio, and don't forget to wear your shin guards and football pads. (Also, take cardboard boxes so you can minimize the plastic trays, etc., you have to take home with your plants.)
Mike and I will be talking about gardening, taking gardening questions, etc., and also discussing the latest University of Illinois Extension funding crisis, and checking in with Rick DiMaio about weather for gardeners. The call-in number is 773-763-9278 or you can Tweet Mike at @mikenow or me at @chicagogardener.
The show can also be heard, to varying degrees in various places, at FM 92.5, 92.7 and 99.9. For those of you who don't bother with anything as primitive as a radio, the show streams live at the WCPT website.
See you there and happy Mother's Day.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Cook County Extension needs your help telling its story to fight new funding threat
Once again, the University of Illinois Extension is facing a huge funding cut. This time, it's in Cook County. And I'm told the basic problem is not that Cook County Board commissioners have it in for the Extension; it's that they have no clue what the Extension is or what it does.
If there ever was a time for all those who have ever been helped by the Extension in Chicago and beyond to step up and explain why it is useful and valuable, now is the time.
I've been a University of Illinois Master Gardener in the Cook County unit since 2005, one among hundreds. I know there are no volunteers who have contributed more to community gardens, school gardens, urban greening, local food, educating gardeners, promoting sustainability in gardening and using gardening to teach kids who may never have played on grass about nature and science than the Master Gardeners. There is no end to the energy, invention, enthusiasm, curiosity and desire to help people that I see both in my fellow Master Gardeners and in the dedicated educators and other University of Illinois Extension staff who support their efforts.
And the Master Gardeners are just one of the programs through which the Extension delivers the knowledge of the University of Illinois into communities. Extension programs educate inner-city families about nutrition to fight the obesity epidemic. They help teachers make science come alive for grade-school students. They help homeowners fight bedbugs. In the state's largest city, they are addressing urban problems.
But many people don't know that. In the Chicago area, if people have heard about the Extension at all, they may have some dim sense that it has something to do with farmers or 4-H. It seems like a vestige of the agricultural past. In a time when county staffers and commissioners are trying to close to close an estimated $427 million shortfall in the county budget, they see funding for what they think is an anachronism as an expendable frill.
So board president Toni Preckwinkle is planning to eliminate Cook County's entire $411,000 contribution to the Extension budget. Since state and federal matching funds and grants are based on local funding, Cook County Extension director Willene Buffett estimates that this would end up costing more than $740,000, or about 65 percent of the Extension budget in Cook County. It could end Extension programs in the county. "How can you say that the largest populated county in the state will not have an Extension program? How can you say that?" asks Buffet.
These are tough times. Cook County truly is under terrific financial stress, caused not just by the recession but by decades of patronage, payroll padding, corruption and incompetence. Preckwinkle has proposed a severe budget that includes eliminating upwards of 1,000 county jobs and many other cuts. She has an awful mess to straighten out and I understand that it requires difficult choices in core areas including health care, policing and law enforcement. I understand that when her budget-cutters came across a $411,000 line item for Account 298-521310 in Department 49 that was simply labeled "special or cooperative programs," it seemed like a superfluous line item they could afford to get rid of. But that line is the Cook County Extension that has been serving Chicago and its suburbs since 1914.
The Extension might be able to withstand a cut in county finding, but if this line item is eliminated altogether, I'm told, it will be difficult if not impossible to restore it.
Buffett says part of the problem is the total changeover in county administration, as well as major changes in the membership of the County Board. The new people simply have no clue about the Extension and have other things on their minds.
The staffs of George Dunne and the John Strogers, father and son, were less than admirable in many respects. But they did grasp the value of the Extension, and they supported Cook County's contribution to its funding -- just as counties contribute to their local Extension offices all over the state and the nation.
Since Preckwinkle's reform administration took over in 2010, Buffet says, she's been unable to get a meeting with anyone to acquaint them with the Extension and all the good work it does. At her request, Preckwinkle appointed two commissioners, Robert Steele and Bridget Gainer, to the Extension's Cook County advisory council. But neither commissioner has ever attended a meeting.
So now, the friends of Cook County Extension need to step up and clue these people in. If you know how much concrete good the Master Gardeners and other Cook County Extension programs do in the communities you know, write to the County Board -- to Preckwinkle, Gainer and Steele, and to your own commissioner as well. Tell them how the Extension is important to you, your community or your organization. Tell them if educators or Master Gardeners have come to your school or your institution to help. Tell them how you learned about composting or got help setting up a community garden. Tell them how the Extension identifies pests that could cause significant economic harm to the landscape and landscape businesses. Tell them how Extension training programs support landscape and horticulture businesses and help reduce pesticide dangers and pollution. Tell them how it would affect you or your organization if Extension programs were eliminated. Ask them to give the good work of the Extension in Cook County fair weight as they consider what to save.
Public outcry has helped save Extension funding before -- for example, a year ago when the state legislature was planning to eliminate the special Cook County Initiative funding that recognized the fact that Cook County serves many millions more people than Extension units Downstate. That state funding was cut from $5 million to $2.1 million, and it's always on a razor's edge, but so far, it hasn't been eliminated.
When you write, be sure to include your name and, if appropriate, your organization's name and letterhead. Send your letter by e-mail or fax if you can, because the horsetrading over the budget is going on right now. Cook County commissioners need to hear right away that there are people who aren't farmers -- people right in Chicago and its suburbs -- who value the Extension and its work. The website of the Extension Partners can provide supporting information.
Write soon, if you can; the next county board meeting is May 14. But the budget process will go on after that, so hearing from you after May 14 will help too.
Send your message to:
Toni Preckwinkle, President, Cook County Board
118 N. Clark St., Room. 537
Chicago, IL 60602
Phone: (312) 603-6400
Fax: (312) 603-4397
Commissioner Robert Steele
3936 W. Roosevelt Rd., 1st Floor
Chicago, IL 60624
Phone: (773) 722-0140
Fax: (773) 722-0145
r.steele@robertsteele.org
Commissioner Bridget Gainer
5533 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: (773) 561-1010
Fax: (773) 561-1025
commissioner@bridgetgainer.com
To find your local county commissioner's name and address, click here.
I'll be co-hosting the Mike Nowak show this Sunday on WCPT 820-AM from 9 to 11 a.m. and we'll be talking about the Extension funding issue (and other gardening stuff). Call in with questions about the Extension (or gardening). The call-in number is 773-763-WCPT (9278), or Tweet Mike at @mikenow. (I'm @chicagogardener.)
If there ever was a time for all those who have ever been helped by the Extension in Chicago and beyond to step up and explain why it is useful and valuable, now is the time.
I've been a University of Illinois Master Gardener in the Cook County unit since 2005, one among hundreds. I know there are no volunteers who have contributed more to community gardens, school gardens, urban greening, local food, educating gardeners, promoting sustainability in gardening and using gardening to teach kids who may never have played on grass about nature and science than the Master Gardeners. There is no end to the energy, invention, enthusiasm, curiosity and desire to help people that I see both in my fellow Master Gardeners and in the dedicated educators and other University of Illinois Extension staff who support their efforts.
And the Master Gardeners are just one of the programs through which the Extension delivers the knowledge of the University of Illinois into communities. Extension programs educate inner-city families about nutrition to fight the obesity epidemic. They help teachers make science come alive for grade-school students. They help homeowners fight bedbugs. In the state's largest city, they are addressing urban problems.
But many people don't know that. In the Chicago area, if people have heard about the Extension at all, they may have some dim sense that it has something to do with farmers or 4-H. It seems like a vestige of the agricultural past. In a time when county staffers and commissioners are trying to close to close an estimated $427 million shortfall in the county budget, they see funding for what they think is an anachronism as an expendable frill.
So board president Toni Preckwinkle is planning to eliminate Cook County's entire $411,000 contribution to the Extension budget. Since state and federal matching funds and grants are based on local funding, Cook County Extension director Willene Buffett estimates that this would end up costing more than $740,000, or about 65 percent of the Extension budget in Cook County. It could end Extension programs in the county. "How can you say that the largest populated county in the state will not have an Extension program? How can you say that?" asks Buffet.
These are tough times. Cook County truly is under terrific financial stress, caused not just by the recession but by decades of patronage, payroll padding, corruption and incompetence. Preckwinkle has proposed a severe budget that includes eliminating upwards of 1,000 county jobs and many other cuts. She has an awful mess to straighten out and I understand that it requires difficult choices in core areas including health care, policing and law enforcement. I understand that when her budget-cutters came across a $411,000 line item for Account 298-521310 in Department 49 that was simply labeled "special or cooperative programs," it seemed like a superfluous line item they could afford to get rid of. But that line is the Cook County Extension that has been serving Chicago and its suburbs since 1914.
The Extension might be able to withstand a cut in county finding, but if this line item is eliminated altogether, I'm told, it will be difficult if not impossible to restore it.
Buffett says part of the problem is the total changeover in county administration, as well as major changes in the membership of the County Board. The new people simply have no clue about the Extension and have other things on their minds.
The staffs of George Dunne and the John Strogers, father and son, were less than admirable in many respects. But they did grasp the value of the Extension, and they supported Cook County's contribution to its funding -- just as counties contribute to their local Extension offices all over the state and the nation.
Since Preckwinkle's reform administration took over in 2010, Buffet says, she's been unable to get a meeting with anyone to acquaint them with the Extension and all the good work it does. At her request, Preckwinkle appointed two commissioners, Robert Steele and Bridget Gainer, to the Extension's Cook County advisory council. But neither commissioner has ever attended a meeting.
So now, the friends of Cook County Extension need to step up and clue these people in. If you know how much concrete good the Master Gardeners and other Cook County Extension programs do in the communities you know, write to the County Board -- to Preckwinkle, Gainer and Steele, and to your own commissioner as well. Tell them how the Extension is important to you, your community or your organization. Tell them if educators or Master Gardeners have come to your school or your institution to help. Tell them how you learned about composting or got help setting up a community garden. Tell them how the Extension identifies pests that could cause significant economic harm to the landscape and landscape businesses. Tell them how Extension training programs support landscape and horticulture businesses and help reduce pesticide dangers and pollution. Tell them how it would affect you or your organization if Extension programs were eliminated. Ask them to give the good work of the Extension in Cook County fair weight as they consider what to save.
Public outcry has helped save Extension funding before -- for example, a year ago when the state legislature was planning to eliminate the special Cook County Initiative funding that recognized the fact that Cook County serves many millions more people than Extension units Downstate. That state funding was cut from $5 million to $2.1 million, and it's always on a razor's edge, but so far, it hasn't been eliminated.
When you write, be sure to include your name and, if appropriate, your organization's name and letterhead. Send your letter by e-mail or fax if you can, because the horsetrading over the budget is going on right now. Cook County commissioners need to hear right away that there are people who aren't farmers -- people right in Chicago and its suburbs -- who value the Extension and its work. The website of the Extension Partners can provide supporting information.
Write soon, if you can; the next county board meeting is May 14. But the budget process will go on after that, so hearing from you after May 14 will help too.
Send your message to:
Toni Preckwinkle, President, Cook County Board
118 N. Clark St., Room. 537
Chicago, IL 60602
Phone: (312) 603-6400
Fax: (312) 603-4397
Commissioner Robert Steele
3936 W. Roosevelt Rd., 1st Floor
Chicago, IL 60624
Phone: (773) 722-0140
Fax: (773) 722-0145
r.steele@robertsteele.org
Commissioner Bridget Gainer
5533 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: (773) 561-1010
Fax: (773) 561-1025
commissioner@bridgetgainer.com
To find your local county commissioner's name and address, click here.
I'll be co-hosting the Mike Nowak show this Sunday on WCPT 820-AM from 9 to 11 a.m. and we'll be talking about the Extension funding issue (and other gardening stuff). Call in with questions about the Extension (or gardening). The call-in number is 773-763-WCPT (9278), or Tweet Mike at @mikenow. (I'm @chicagogardener.)
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