1. Organic-Gardening Expert
To Appear at Garden Faire
By D. J. Mathews
(This appeared in the Bristol Herald Courier, Bristol, VA, on April 17, 2008, page A1
and A5)
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 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.

2. Birds are actually a part of one of McGrath’s “Seven Secrets of Organic Gardening,”
the name of one of his 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 eight 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 nitrate bags for
fire bombs to promoting them as fertilizer for farmers.
The hardwood forests for thousands of years provided mulch and compost for 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 plenty of
simple information.
McGrath said he is looking forward to meeting area gardeners on Friday and Saturday.
Sidebar:
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. on Sunday
Where: Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center

3. 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.
Saturday-- 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.
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