On the radio Sunday, talking about rain gardens

I'm behind on my blogging; too much else going on, too few hours in the average day.

One new adventure for me: This coming Sunday, Feb. 21, I am going to guest-host the Mike Nowak Show, Mike's gardening-and-greening radio show from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on WCPT 820-AM in Chicago. I've been a guest on the show several times, and now Mike has snookered me into soloing while he goes off cross-country skiing or snowshoeing or something. More likely goofing off on the couch.

Now, this is not a monster radio station, but apparently if you can't get the signal at 820 AM, it also is broadcast on the FM dial at 92.5 (if you're toward the west of the city), 92.7 (north) and 99.9 (south). There also are streaming audio and podcasts of previous shows at the station's web site.

I've got two different conversations lined up. First, we're going to talk to folks from All-America Selections and the National Garden Bureau, a related trade organization for the garden seed industry based out in Downers Grove. I'm going to ask them to explain about the All-America Selections trials and to give us some tips on shopping for seeds.

Then, we're going to talk rain gardens. The rain garden idea has been around for a while; there are a lot of government and nonprofit programs to promote the idea (there is a lot of information online, but here's one representative sample, a Web page from Minneapolis).

It seems so simple and appealing: Help control storm water and prevent pollution by collecting rain that falls on roofs and driveways into a low-lying garden so it has time to sink in to the ground rather than run off into the storm sewer.

In places like Chicago and the older suburbs--where the storm sewers empty right into the sanitary sewers, and the clean rain becomes polluted water that requires sewage treatment before it is released into rivers and lakes--keeping rain where it falls and out of the sewers in the first place has the theoretical potential to greatly reduce the amount of polluted water that we have to treat.

So, why doesn't everybody have a rain garden? And what can we do to encourage people to plan their landscaping so they keep the rain water that falls on their homes on their own property?

I'll be talking with Jim Kleinwachter, who heads the Conservation@Home program for The Conservation Foundation in Naperville, and Andrea Green of Gardens by Design in Oak Park, a garden designer and board member at the Oak Park Conservatory. On March 6, Andrea will be speaking on the topic "Design a Prettier Rain Garden" at the Midwest Gardening Symposium at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle.

And I hope we'll have time to get to a few garden questions. To call in during the show, the number is 773-838-WCPT(9278). You also can e-mail mike@wcpt820.com.

My Twitter handle is @chicagogardener. Mike's is @MikeNow. The Twitter hashtag for the show is #MikeNow. I do not, however, plan to be tweeting during the show; I expect to have my hands full figuring out what I'm supposed to do next. The only thing standing between me and the wrath of the FCC will be Heather, the valiant producer.

See you on the radio...

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.