I listen to Bob Tanem In The Garden on Sunday mornings 7AM-10AM. You can find him on KSFO 560 AM, and there are archives/podcast available to download. He is a longtime Marin County nurseryman and lecturer, and has a wonderful infectious laugh and friendly manner. He offers advice that steers people away from using toxic chemicals in their garden, and instead explains how to use low toxicity soap/oil sprays, beneficial insects, etc to get rid of diseases and pests. I like the fact that he takes the approach of using less harmful methods first, then resorts to stronger chemicals when absolutely necessary, and talks about how to use them responsibly. Most of us gardeners want to minimize chemical usage, but when there are times when you need to get serious with a problem, it is nice to have a person well educated in both natural and the "unnatural" products steer you in the right direction.

As a new member, I make it a point to read the forum each day! This site is a great service to the gardening community. I am a producer developing a new gardening program for television and radio. I have the opportunity to pitch the radio version to NPR in Saint Louis. We'll see. I may launch this program as a podcast first. My garden and home is north of the city. It's near the river in Zone 6. There's great soil here. I look forward to hearing more of your program ideas. I'll need topics and fun ideas. I'll certainly keep you posted on the progress of my upcoming gardening safari. Best regards, Christian

Once when I was layed off from my job at Lockheed for a year I worked at my Dad's printing shop when my younger brother still lived at home. I stopped by a Feed & Seed store on the way home and bought a grocery bag full of annual rye. Dad and I put sweet gum balls and pine cones on the front lawn to spell out in huge letters my brothers name "BOB" and sprinkled the seeds over this. Then we picked up the pine cones and stuff and watered the grass which was brown from the winter cold. Within a week you could see tiny bright green blades coming up. By the second week the name "BOB" was so prominent on the lawn that cars were slowing down to take a look. Dad had a big grin on his face at that practical joke we pulled. Today my brother jokes that he might take some rye grass seed over to the cemetery and spell "BILL" on dads gravesite.

In general, Dutch bulbs love lime. So I would start with that. After that, it gets murky. I have always had tremendous results with bone meal, which is high in Phosphorus (P). But there are expert growers who say that Potassium (K) is the key nutrient for Dutch bulbs and others. So I just sprinkle a little NPK fertilizer on when the foliage emerges. It may not be optimum, but it works great. Another reason to cut back on the P is that our soils in this area have plenty of P, according to the experts. And once you apply P, it tends to remain in the soil for a long time. I don't agree with him about "a lot of fertilizer". Bulbs use nutrients very efficiently. Nitrogen in particular is bad for bulbs if used in excess. You could end up with excessive splitting, where you end up with lots of little bulbs that will take forever to get to bloom size. So don't use lawn fertilizer, which usually has a gigantic amount of Nitrogen. A 5-10-10 or 10-20-20 is OK if applied lightly. Or use the 12-0-12 which is recommended for this region. If you are growing bulbs in heavy rich soil, the lime may be enough. In sandy soil, they require extra fertilizer. If they are happy, you will end up with big clumps of bulbs that will have to be divided, or they will stop blooming. By the way, tulips really love sandy soil. Daffodils will grow anywhere. You really have to be careful when taking advice from celebrities. They tell you the bare minimum, just enough to fill up the space between commercials. And they don't like to talk about negative or complicated things. For example, if your daffs are looking weak, it may be that they are infested with Narcissus bulb fly. All the fertilizer in the world isn't going to solve that. It's really too bad, because daffs are pretty bulletproof otherwise. However, I have seen virus in daffs, especially in the cheap ones that the big box stores sell. It can show up as yellow stripes on the foliage. Fertilizer won't fix that either. Keep in mind that tulips do not like wet soil in summer. Also, tulips are very attractive to rodents. Daffs don't have these issues. Google it. There is lots of info out there.