Bob Tanem In The Garden

Look! Up In The Sky! It's... Orchid Time Again! OK, they're not up in the sky, they're out at Fort Mason: Pacific Orchid Exposition is on next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb 20 through 22. To tell us all about it, we had our guest Tom Perlette, one of the San Francisco Orchid Society stalwarts helping to put on the show, took 30 minutes away from the docks to talk about the show with us. Suffice it to say if you live anywhere near San Francisco and you like Orchids, this is the show for you: it is the largest dedicated Orchid show by both attendees and vendors, by far, in the whole country.

Beverley Tanem starts us off in style; her list of Bay Area Gardening Events is unparalleled! Following Bev it's back to Bob; we're In The Garden on KSFO!

Our guest at 8:30 was Stacy Tornio, editor of Birds and Blooms Magazine and Micro Greens enthusiast. Lets just say these are not your grandmothers bean sprouts.

Beverley Tanem starts us out with a list of gardening events throughout the bay area; then it's America's Happy Gardener, Bob Tanem, answering calls!

Our guest at 8:30 this morning was Kim Eierman of the web site EcoBeneficial. The idea here is to link Earth Day, coming up in April, to the notion of helping nature with what we plant in our gardens. Kim speaks eloquently and clearly on the case for native plantings, and for tolerating wildlife in our yards and open spaces. Of particular discussion were Monarch Butterflies, and the extent to which their decline can be linked to the lack of available Milkweed in the midwest.

Hour number two of our little secret garden club begins with Bev; she has more secrets than anyone else -- but the secret is, she shares them here each Sunday at 9:06; the Bev Tanem Report lists gardening events all around the bay in the coming weeks. But don't tell anyone, it's a secret! Following Bev, it's back to Bob; America's Happy Gardener is in fact happy to hold court this morning on KSFO.

Our one-hour show today featured Pamela Bennett as our guest at 8:30. Ms. Bennett is co-author of Garden-pedia: An A-to-Z Guide to Gardening Terms. Brand new this year, this thing is exactly what it says: a handy paperback reference of all the gobbley-gook terms you hear about gardening. What is OMRI anyway, right?

Welcome to the 21st Anniversary edition of the Bob Tanem In The Garden radio show, on KSFO! Bob came in to the San Francisco Studios with his wife Beverley and daughter Edie, shown with a guest in the KSFO studios. We gave away prizes to randomly drawn postcards sent in ahead of time here at the station.

Hour #2 of the Anniversary Show edition of Bob Tanem In The Garden. Shown in the picture are the 450 plus postcards we received to commemorate our 21st year on KSFO

Our guest this morning is the incomparable Claire Splan, locally based gardening enthusiast, lecturer and author of a new book California Month-by-Month Gardening: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year . She spent half an hour talking about the idea of gardening in different areas, on a month-by-month guided basis using her book; its' tips help home gardeners to set up a gardening system in their yards throughout the year.

Our second hour begins right on time with Beverley Tanem. She's at the head of the class with her list of gardening events all over the bay area; from pruning clinics to garden tours and back again, Bev tracks it all and reports it here exclusively. Then it's back to the phones and America's Happy Gardener, Bob Tanem!

Our guest this morning was Rich Affeldt of Cascade Minerals: a supplier of a prepared mineral supplement that dynamically assists certain plantings, such as fruit trees and tomato plants. Bob has long recommended powdered rock products for this purpose, but Rich points out that Cascade's Remineralize product has a rounded range of necessary minerals and nutrients, including silicon, that are made accessible to plants in a way that unprepared rock powder is not.

There are a lot of things that gardeners can do around the bay area: pruning workshops, classes, garden tours, and special events. Beverley Tanem tracks all this stuff, and at 9:06 she reports back to you, the listeners; all your options. Then it's back to Bob... Tanem, that is: America's Happy Gardener takes your calls for the rest of the hour!

Our guest this morning was the inimitable, the one and only: Dr. Elmo Shropshire, who got himself famous with the song, "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer" years ago. He hasn't sat still in the meantime.

Hour #2 of this program once again starts off with Beverley, telling us what's going on in the gardening world around these parts; then it's back to Bob Tanem, Garden Guru, on KSFO!

Our guest this morning was Don McPhearson and his friend Tony Dykes; they came on to talk about a solution they have for color-blindness. As it turns out, color blind people -- as much as 10% of the population -- see a lot less in the garden than the rest of us do. Well, Don's got a solution of sorts; check out the special "sunglasses" they've come up with, at enchroma.com

The show is hosted by Mr. Bob Tanem, but Mrs. Bob Tanem -- Beverley Tanem to her friends -- collects data about gardening-related events all over the bay, and presents it here each week -- but only once. So pick up your pencils and dial in for all the info. After that, we're back to Bob and our callers on the phones!

Well now, 'Tis the Season and all that, so... we had on Barry Hoffer, of Maples for All Seasons! Barry and his wife Sue are pretty much "the" regional experts on Maples.... that's your Japanese maples, your Green maples, and whatever other kind of maples you might think of. Barry and Sue grow them, sell them, prune them, and assist homeowners and institutions with them every day, all around the bay. That's what they do. Barry's been on our show before, so we know. Maples for all seasons dot com, or 925-596-3345

Hour #2 starts off with B for Beverley... she runs down the weeks' upcoming gardening events around the bay... ...Then it's back to Bob Tanem, and In the Garden, on KSFO! Featuring your calls at 808-5600

Our guest this morning was John Schuster, our go-to owl and bluebird expert up in Sonoma County. John is the public face of Wild Wing Company, provider of tools of the trade to enable and encourage carnivorous birds as pest control, among other things feathered.