Garden Faire To Feature NPR Organic Gardener Host

At Mike McGrath’s house in rural Lehigh County, Pa., spring brings a morning symphony of chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals and the like.

He said he’s had chickadees as close as 6 inches from his face because "they feel safe" on his 1.5 acres, which is an organically managed homestead.

McGrath, organic gardening author and host of the National Public Radio show "You Bet Your Garden," will be the featured speaker at this weekend’s 11th annual Mid-Atlantic Garden Faire in Abingdon, Va.

McGrath didn’t come to organic gardening naturally. He explained in a recent phone interview that he grew up in a Philadelphia row house, where he mowed a lawn about the size of a "postage stamp."

He remembers his mother tending some roses when he was a child. He also recalled hawkers who walked the streets in the summertime, singing out that they had Jersey tomatoes or sweet corn for sale.

McGrath didn’t go organic until much later in life when he fell in love. Now 56, he met his future wife, Kathy, at a party when he was in his late 20s.

He said she raved about her parents’ and grandparents’ gardens, where they picked tomatoes, raspberries and herbs.

She wanted someone to grow raspberries for her, so he did.

Starting out with "a couple of trash cans of horse manure and a lot of enthusiasm," McGrath decided against harsh chemical fertilizers for the raspberries and vegetables he’s grown for more than 20 years.

And he experimented.

He used suet on his peach trees to attract meat-eating birds like chickadees, titmouses and woodpeckers. The birds stuck around to eat the bugs that emerged in the spring, naturally keeping their population down and his plants healthier.

Birds are actually a part of one of McGrath’s "Seven Secrets of Organic Gardening," the name of one of the presentations he will share with local residents at the garden faire.

Attracting wildlife like birds to your property helps cut down on garden pests in the summer. McGrath said attracting wildlife should also include utilizing the elements of earth, air, water and fire.

In his sometimes self-deprecating style, McGrath pointed out that he got into writing and radio "because I have no real skills." Then he added that he won the English prize offered by the Sacred Heart Society when he was an eighth-grader at St. Bartholomew’s.

After many years as a successful entertainment editor for Philadelphia’s The Drummer and feature writing for publications like The Philadelphia Inquirer, his interest in explaining the health side of medicine helped him land a position as a health writer for Prevention magazine. He later became editor in chief of Organic Gardening magazine.

In his health and garden research he’s learned some interesting trivia, such as the fact that after World War II munitions plants went from producing ammonium bags for fire bombs to promoting them as fertilizer to farmers.

The hardwood forests for thousands of years provided a natural mulch and compost of plants, and he thinks people could go back to the natural, organic way of growing plants.

On his syndicated show "You Bet Your Garden," now in its 10th year, McGrath has tried to make "everybody feel comfortable gardening. ... There are no stupid people; there are no stupid questions."

His latest book is "Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost," which he said offers a plenty of simple information.

McGrath said he is looking forward to meeting area gardeners on Friday and Saturday.

Garden Faire chairwoman Margie Munsey said it is the first year the event has drawn such a prominent speaker.

YOU SHOULD KNOW

What: The 11th annual Mid-Atlantic Garden Faire

When: From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center off Exit 14 of Interstate 81

Mike McGrath’s programs:

• 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday – The Seven Secrets of Successful Organic Gardening.
• 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Answers to Garden Questions.
• 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. – Grow Your Best-Tasting Tomatoes Ever!

Tickets are $5 a day and $10 for the entire show. Kids younger than 12 will be admitted free.