Final Acknowledgments and Closing Remarks

From the rolling up the sidewalk studios of W DIY and Bethlehem PA , it is time for the final NPR episode of Chemical Free Horticultural Hijinks . You bet your garden. We finish up our thirty year public radio run with a very special show , featuring an interview with our favorite naturalist Thor Hansen li,ve music from our musical director Ken Cueder , and maybe phone call . Plus the single most popular and requested Question of the Week in the history of the show . You'll laugh, you'll cry, your plots . So keep your ears right here, cats and kittens . It's coming up faster than you saying goodbye. Well I say hello . W DIY presents a selection of award winning podcasts that air weeknights from six to seven PM . Listen to important conversations regarding art, science, business, health, and more here in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. Check our website for new topics and archived programs. W IDY podcasts are on eighty eight point one FM, streaming at WDIY. ORG on the app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to the final public radio edition of You Better Garden from the studios of WDIY FM in Bethlehem PA. I'm your host , Mike McGrath. And to reassure you that this is a change in venue and not an ending , here's a favorite Phil Oak song of mine perform, ed by my lifelong friend and undisputed King of South Street , mister Ken Quitter, accompanied by Ken Lawson and Jeff Alexander . This first song is called When I'm Gone by Phil Oaks There's no place in this world where I belong when I'm gone and I won't know the right the wrong when I'm gone and you won't find me singing on this song when I'm gone so I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here and I won't feel the flowing the time when I'm gone . Or the pleasures of love will not be mine when I'm gone . My pen won't pour a lyric lines when I'm gone , so I guess I have to do it while I'm here and I won't breathe the bracing air when I'm gone and I can't even worry about my cares when I'm gone . I won't be asked to do my share when I'm gone . So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here and I won't be running from the rain when I'm gone and I can't even suffer from pain when I'm gone , can't say who's to praise and whose to blame when I'm gone so I guess I have to do it while I'm here and I won't see the golden the sun when I'm gone or the evenings and the mornings will be one when I'm gone . I can't be singing louder than the guns when I'm gone so, I I guess have to do it while I'm here . All my days won't be dances of delight when I'm gone and the sands will be shifting from my sight when I'm gone . Can't add my name into the fight when I'm gone so I guess I have to do it while I'm here And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone and I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone , I can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone , so I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here . There's no place in this world where I belong when I'm gone and I won't know the right from the wrong when I'm gone and you won't find me singing on this song when I'm gone I guess I have to do it , I'll guess I'll have to do it . I'll guess I'll have to do it while I'm here Well , yes , Kenny does have a bit of tom weights in him today, doesn't he? That's what you get when a musician performs three hours before normally get up. So stay with us right now . Next up is a couple of stories from me and maybe even a phone call . I'm Mike McGrath and you're listening to you Betcher Garden from the studios of W DIY in Bethlehem PA Spread the word about your business or organization to a well informed audience. Become an underwriter with W DIY. Our lineup of NPR news and locally produced programs reaches thousands of engaged listeners in the Lehigh Vall ey and beyond. Underwriting on WDIY is an affordable and effective way to provide information about your product and services to people who care . To learn more about underwriting opportunities , six nine four eight one hundred or wdiy dot org Welcome to the final episode of You Bet Your Garden from the Studios of W DIY FM in Bethlehem PA . I am host , Mike McGrath and we got a barrel full of surprises and just all sorts of stuff this celebratory final show on N R . But as we keep saying , it's not the last you bet your garden. We're just getting away from public broadcasting and we're going to come to you from a whole new venue . But we leave , we're going to take one last fab ulous phone call from one of if not our most frequent caller , and that is Bill Wang in Yardley A who's bugging me with questions for years now . Bill, welcome to a very special edition of You Bet Your Garden . Well, thanks very much, Mike. Now I probably have a whole bunch of questions that I could ask you , but what I'd like to find out is what's coming up and in particular how can I find other sources of good information on organic gardening because I'm going to keep coming up with more questions. I know everybody else has the same kind of thing , but going to some of these things, you know, you obviously don't want to go to the big box stores because they're not going to give us good information. They're going to give us good sales talks . Well, you know, any retail establishment has to make a profit . Bob Rodale used to say the way to make a magazine or a company sustainable is to make sure you end up in the black every year. That's number one. Then you can do all the good you want. You can't do any good if you're in the red . And to backtrack the next show will come to you from a different venue, courtesy of Gardens Alive and Gurney's seed and plant company . Follow our Facebook page for information , but the way things are falling now is you will always find us at Ubet Your Garden . or g that is not going away . New material is not going away , as we'll say later in the show , you say goodbye, but I say hello . Well, that's great because I know the first thing that I wind up doing is going to look at the archives because nine times out of ten , the questions I have already been asked and answered . What are some of the other tips that you might give somebody that's getting organic gardening , how should they get started ? How should they take their baby steps, get going? Gardeners do too much . There is this impulse, especially as our listeners all over the country know, this spring , when do we get out and plant ? What can we do ? And as soon as they see a problem in the garden , they panic and they go to a big box store and they say I have weeds . So why would we be surprised when they sell them a jug a roundup terrible same thing , you know, my plants don't look perky enough. I think I need to feed them. Well, then out comes the b ag of miracle grove and chemicals upset the balance , then something else comes in and you wind up on this treadmill going to the same big box store every week buying more poison . Trust nature and when you don't know what to do nothing . You know, I have a variety . I do flat earth for things like raspberries and blueberries , raised beds for almost everything else. But I've been doing a lot more with pots at this point . Oh yeah . I grow all of my pepper plants in containers . They stay outside all summer and when winter arrives I take the best looking ones and bring them inside to live through the winter under lights in a relatively warm room. Just a four tube fluorescent fixture that I try to keep the plants close to any green peppers on those plants are going to ripen up . New flowers will turn into peppers . You will even get new flowers if you do this right . And really the challenge here is to get the watering correct. No, yes , because the indoor humidity can drop . So this isn't something you can go away for a month and come back to anything less than tragedy . Now before I let you go , I'm going to answer your overall question . What if you search my stuff and it's not there or you're confronted by a plant you're not familiar with you have to be so careful with search engines these days . Don't click on anything until the URL looks correct . But you can trust state extension services for plant identification , suggestions for plants that do well in your area , watering skills , but just don't do if they advocate chemicals for lawns and gardens or anything . Just ignore that part . You're not going to get good information from an influencer because they're just documenting life and they're hopefully learning as they go along , but we have no idea how much they've learned or you know what kind of background have . So the state extension websites master gardener websites again ignore any chemical advice because I think it was Bill Clinton, right? Keep it simple, stupid . Yes . Well, I'm looking forward to the next iteration of You Bet Your Garden . I am as well. There's some melancholy here , but yeah , I need to take the stress off myself so that I can be around longer and yell at people for using chemicals . Well, that sounds good. I'll bring you some new questions next time around. Yes, please follow us to the new show . All the information will be at Ubetyourgarden. org and or the Ubet Your Garden Facebook page . We need to keep you, Bill, you're our number one listener. You lead the charge or you're the guy lots of questions. Yeah, you're the guy driving the good humor truck. One of those. Oh, thanks a lot. All right, take care for now and we'll talk to you again soon. Bye bye . I have chosen the music in this show to reflect what's going on and that you bet your garden is going to continue uninterrupted in a slightly different form and new venue, not going away . I hope we made that clear with the show's opening number . And yes , I guess I'd better do it while I'm here . But now I want to use a different piece of music as a way to tell you how much I have appreciated your involvement , accolades, chastisements, love and listenership over these many decades . And so , an early masterpiece by John Lennon per,formed by Ken Cueder, Ken Larson and Jeff Alexander . There are places remember all my life the song have changed, some forever for better . Some have gone and some remain . All these places had their moments with lovers and friends . I still can recall . Some are dead , some are living . In my life , I love them all But of all these friends and lovers there is no one who compares with you and these memories produce their meaning when I think of love as something new , though I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went . I know I often stop and think about them in my life I love you more Though I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before . I know I often stop and think about them in my life I love you more in my life , I love you more Well, it's time for me to take a little break and remind you that while this is my final show for NPR , for whom I thank for a remarkable run , it is not the end of you bet your garden. If all goes to plan , our new podcast will be available right where you listen to this one . It's a clean slate . So we need your questions and comments . Email them to Y g at P T D net we will always be available to you at Ubetourgarden O RG And you can always find us through the You Bet Your Garden Facebook page . Next up is a brand new interview with our favorite naturalist Thor H ansen and the most popular question of the week in You Bet Your Garden History . I'm Mike McGraft and you're listening to You Bet Your Garden from the Studios of W DIY Bethlehem P A Do you have vinyl albums, forty five's or CD's on your shelves that are taking up space and gathering dust ? Why not donate them for a good cause? WDIY will receive profits from the donation and you can claim a tax deduction. For more information, or to arrange for a drop off or pickup. six Call hundred ten six nine four eight one hundred or visit wdiy dot org . Welcome back to the last thrilling episode of You Bet Your Garden from the Studios of W DIY FM in Bethlehem PA , I am your host Mike McGrath . Let's just get to our special and frequent guest , Thor Hansen , who is the author of many books on nature. My favorite is Buzz about the nature and necessity of native bees. He has another book called Feathers. There's one about seeds and I'm just learning about your children's books . But before we get into any of that , I have to add is now co host of a freak show on the history channel in which he com ments on topics of great scientific interest , including the physics of exploding a whale and the lifespan of a headless chicken. Thor, you're moving up in the world . Mike, you've done your homework. Hey, it is a pleasure to be back. And let me say congratulations on such a fine run with the show. It's so much great inform ation you've gotten out to folks over the years with a lot of fun along the way . And I'm not going to go away completely. I'm a cockroach. You really can't kill me . So I'm just going to move to a different venue where I won't have to work as hard and I'll have more time for myself . Okay, great. Of course, you're a bum, you have all your time to yourself. You just sit out in your raccoon infested shack and write whatever book comes to your mind . Well, I let nature steer the way. I'm the sort of curious person who has a hard time walking through the yard without stopping to look at stuff. And fortunately, those frequent stops have led to a lot of interesting research and books over the years. Well, I think that means you have been a natural writer. When you were growing up , I presume you were out there digging for worms and looking at them and catchin' butterflies . Were you always writing about this ? Well, that's a good question. You know, I was certainly the kid who had the snakes in a bucket and the tadpoles and a bowl and everything else growing up. I loved the outdoors , but I really didn't see myself necessarily as a scientist or even as a writer . That interest came along later and it really started to gel for me when I was a college student down doing my undergraduate work in southern California. And I had grown up in a very rural sort of small town and rural setting and then I went to school in a very developed place where I really missed the natural world and saw how at risk it was. And so that sort of steered me into more of a formal study of nature and conservation and then this desire to get information out to people and that led to the writing. So it all sort of all the pieces were there, but it kind of came together over the course my time in college, graduate school, and early career. And what was the first book you turned out The first book that I did concerned several years that I spent working on a mount ain gorilla project in Uganda in a place called the Impenetrable Forest, Bundi Impenetrable Forest . And it was a remarkable project really, and I was very lucky to do it . And when I got back after that , that experience I thought, boy, I really have a story to write. And so that was the first book. But that couldn't be any more different than the books that followed I know. That one was a big fancy animal, but one thing about my interest in nature that has stayed true over the years is just a fascination wr it large microwave, it just, you know, it's the whole experience of being outdoors and of the interwoven stores there. So the size of the animal or how magnificent it is irrelevant. It's all fascinating to me from the flies all the way up to the gorillas . Believe it or not, even though I lived in a row home in Philadelphia , we had a place called Penny Pack Park near us that had the Taconi Creek and Eels would come into it once a year to spawn , which just I mean, blew my mind especi,ally when I learned that they had somehow migrated and traveled here from pirate story place of the Sargasso . Yeah, unbelievable. And those sorts of discoveries are everywhere. One of the projects that I fell in love with in a recent book that I wrote was called the Bioscan Project and it was based in Greater Los Angeles where a group of entomologists down there realized that we didn't even know what was living in L. A. It's the most developed landscape on the contin ent and they've discovered over fifty new species of just in one family of flies that they were looking at in the backyards of Los Angeles. So there's just mysteries everywhere. We tend to think of nature and we think of national parks or we think of the wonderful programs we might see on the Discovery Channel or what have you , but the vast majority of our own interactions with nature occur , you know, between the front door and the car or out in the backyard or when we're firing up the barbecue or whatever it is when we're outdoors close to home, those are the places where we really have a chance to see nature on a daily basis and there's more there than we give it credit for. I can tell you that. I know. I've tried to travel extensively and spend a lot of time in Colorado whereas you know the mountains and the biomass and everything else is astounding and changing . But it seems distant . It seems far away . It doesn't , you know, I can't pick up a mountain and look at it, turn it upside down . That's right. And that, you know, this is one of the things where you're, you know , to bring it to your your show and the interest in gardening and what this can do for people is it's so hands on , it's so hands on. And you have this ability to interact with nature in a very personal way that I think is really important in this world where we live in a time of globally, you know, sort of an environmental crisis, you know, where we read about climate change or the biodiversity crisis or these sorts of things. And that can seem so vast and overwhelming. So I really feel it's even more important for people to have their hands in the dirt and to have these sort of local experiences, these hyperlocal success stories where you can manage the nature around you and really boost biodiversity in a very visible and give yourself the strength for the broader fight . I was just reading again an article from National Geographic about a guy who's trying to research the plants of the rainforest in Madagascar while it's still there . And he mentioned a rosy periwinkle that was more than just a pretty flower , it turned out to provide the cure lymphoma , one of the juvenile cancers , Hodgksin's disease , real easy to see. Oh, it's a flower. Well, there's plenty of flowers in the world. Okay, guys, start cutting the trees . And instead go, you know, this may save some thousands , not only of lives, but of a terrible end of life . Sure. Yeah. We tend to forget not only nature nature, the diversity of it and how wonderful it is and intrinsically valuable, but we tend to forget what it can do for us, what it can do for us. And that's a wonderful example where we get still to this day many of our most important drug discoveries come from the natural world. There's a story I absolutely love from Alaska where a woman saw about this project at the University of Oklahoma where they were asking people to send in soil samples so they could look for fungi that live in the soil that might be producing interesting compounds. So she participated. She sent in about two tablespoons of dirt out of her back yol k. And that single soil sample has already produced a promising new drug for the treatment of breast cancer , as well as this compound that the scientists had never seen before that has the ability to just eliminate odors. Almost anything you can throw at it. In the lab, they were trying, you know, skunk odor and it could eliminate skunk odor. They were tried wolf urine no problem, you know, anything they could put in there. And so that compound now has already been licensed by a company in the pet industry, and it will probably end up in your kitty litter soon. So I mean there are , you know, it's it's everything from curing cancer to a fresher smelling house and it all comes from overlooked things out in the natural world. Sorry, I thought you made a promise that you would not tell the listeners that I personally use kitty litter. It's a full disclosure show . But you know, I latched on to one of your words. You said diversity . That's a dirty word now. Isn't it remarkable? We're in this period right now where we see science under attack and we see conservation projects being reduced and which as a scientist and as a writer, I feel a certain responsibility lies with my community and that we need to be sure we're getting the word out about what we do so that everyone can understand why it's important . So yes, we need to change course , but I think part of the responsibility for that lies lies with us. It seems your life is a reflection of that. In one sense, you rejected the academic, the big stone buildings and said, let's go see what I can find digging in the dirt in my own backyard . Yeah to a certain degree. You know, I mean I wouldn't say I necessarily rejected academia. I think I could have been perfect in fact I, know I could have been perfectly happy in a lab with a bunch of students and we'd be heading out in the field and getting data and doing all that. But what I really feel like I guess you might say the highest and best use of my skills and time would be to be sort of more of a storyteller of science and taking many of those discoveries never seem to make it beyond the limited audience of peer reviewed journals out to a broader audience. And what are the names of your children's books? I know one of them is about noctopus . Yes, the most recent one is called The Escape Artist and it's a true story about an octopus that escaped from its tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand and crawled down a drain pipe and out right back into the bay where it had been caught originally in a lobster trap, as it turns out, a lobster fisherman brought it to the aquarium. It's just a great story of octopus intelligence and adventure. Unfortunately, I think in this day and age that they have more culture than we have. We've kind of tossed culture to the side the entertainment today is largely violent and hurtful and not a good thing for kids to grow up in. I'm always thrilled to see school programs . I mean, even if they get everything wrong , they get the kids outside . You know, they get to quote see how a carrot grows or catch a worm or something like that. Absolutely. You know, I'm reminded of a school field trip when my son was in elementary school and they took all the kids down to one of the local beaches. I live on an island here in the Pacific North west . And they had a big net and the kids walked out into the shallows with the net and scooped up a bunch of stuff and then they brought it back and they had it in these live pans with water so they could look at everything and try to identify it. And the kids, you know, were just going bananas as you can imagine. And I overheard my son say to one of the other kids, this is so much fun. I can't believe it's school school . Exactly right. And that's what you and I said about our best teachers . I can't believe this is school. We're having a good time in this class . Right. Now what can parents do to fight back against this horrific robotic AI world and help their children to develop I know what a cliche , a love of nature . Right. You know, and one of the things to do is to lead by example . It is really hard for us to tell our kids not to be on the screen so much when we're doing it ourselves. So it really begins with what we do and setting some boundaries in our own behavior that they can emulate. And so setting times of the day when the screens are off, you know, and encouraging and leading experiences outdoors whenever the time permits, if it's a weekend or after school or depending on the age of the kid, you might have some time during the day . Part of it is that leading by example and and showing the kids that we love this stuff too because their interest is already there. You know, they will love the bucket full of sea creatures . That's there. You just have to create those opportunities that. t Andakes effort on our part too. So I really believe we have to do some hard work ourselves to lead the kids in the right direction. Now I presume you're already at work on another book. Always , always yes, I am writing a book right now for adults about biological mimicry. So how plants and animals copy one another or copy other things in nature to gain advantage. They copy the background for camouflage or they copy another species so they can sneak up on it and attack it or they copy a species that looks more dangerous than they do so they can be well protected or they copy species so that they can disperse or gain an advantage in mating or almost you can do and need to do as an organism can be accomplished through mimicry and nature. And that's what I'm working on right now. All right, spell my name right on the dedication. We'll do my friend. All right, Dor, it's always great to hear from you. Let's not make this the last time . And thanks very much for being on this very special show. Thank you for having me. I look forward to the next iteration of your endeavors and we'll be happy to join you in that format as well. All right, stay in touch, pal. You do. Bye bye. Well, it's time for me to take a little break and once again remind you that while this is my final show for NPR , it is not the end of you Bet Your Garden. If all goes well , our new podcast will be available next week right where you listen to this one . We will also be available to you going forward at you bet garden Org and you can always find us through the Ubetcher Garden Facebook page . So stay with us . Next up is the definitive version of our theme song and the most popular Question of the Week in You Bet Your Garden History . I'm Mike McGrath and you're listening to You Better Garden from the studios of W DIY F M in Bethlehem P A I'm Mike McGrath and the next thrilling episode You Betour Garden will be coming at you from a brand new venue please send questions or comments for the new show to Y PT net it's all coming up one week from now . That's on the next . You bet your garden just knock from here . Welcome back to the final segment of the last you bet your garden on public radio . We asked my old friend and musical director Ken Cueder to come into the studio and record some tunes live for this very special episode . So here the definitive version of our theme song Two Little Books Two little bugs and a bugs and a bugs and a bugs and a bugs and a box. Two little bucks in a box in the box and a bucks and a bucks in the buck . Two little bucks in a box in a box in a box in a box in a buck. Two little bucks in the box and the box in a box in a box in a bucket One little bug, little bugs, little bugs, little bugs little bugs, little bugs. One little bug, little bug, little bug, little buck, little bucks little bug. One little box, little box, little box, little box, little box, little box. One little box, little box, little box, little box, little box, little box Three little bucks in a box in a box in a box in a box in a box . Three little box in a box in a box in a box in a box in a box. Three little box in a box and a box in a box in the box a box in the box in the box in the market in the market in the market Little box in a box in a box in the box in a box in a box little box in a box in a box in a box in a box in a box Till in the box in a box in the box and a box in the box in the box yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ye Alright , as promised, it is time for the question of the week, which we're calling what's the story behind hate blue paint for our final show from WDIY FM here in the Lehigh Valley , I have chosen to resurrect the single most popular question of the week we have ever done It's originally from twenty fifteen and it generated internet action than well than a lot of things . It started with a call from a listener who had been following our conversations about how to deter wasps and hornets from building their nests on or near houses , especially houses whose residents were allergic to quote be stings . I say quote because I learned years ago that the culprit behind quote be stings were generally yellow jackets or other aggressive wasps and hornets , and that most true bees don't sting . That's right . Most of the hundreds of different species of native bees like bumblebee, carpenter bees , mason bees, squash bees , sweat bees , and ground nesting or digger bees , don't sting people , even when that type of bee has a stinger , which is really good as native bees are super important pollinators of most flowers , virtually all fruits , and a good number of your favorite garden veggies. They don't call one essential species the squash bee because it plays a strange form of tennis , no bees no zucchini , and no pumpkins, no gourds, etc . The non native honeybee, which originated in Africa and was domesticated in Europe does sting , but you generally have to do something like step on one to get stung . And even then that bee dies after stinging. And yes, this is why you should NOT walk barefoot through a field of clover . But highly aggressive wasps and hornets , especially yellow jackets will sting you just because they feel like it . Each one can sting you repeatedly and when it comes to yellow jackets the entire hive will come out of the ground hunt you down after the first one stings you . Bald faced hornets only build their football shaped hives up in the air , typically on tree limbs . They are no threat to you unless you spray them with something or try and knock the nest down with a broom, Elmer Fud style. Leave them alone and they will voraciously eat your garden pests . Yellowjackets are a different beast . They only build nests in the ground are hyper aggressive and a serious danger to you , your pets and especially your kids , read our previous articles on what to do if a nest shows up near your home or hire a professional who uses a special vacuum cleaner like device to suck them all out of the hive . Some be ekeepers have this type of equipment handy for sucking rogue honeybee hives out of people's walls . Do not freehand this one or take unreliable internet advice . It literally could cost you your life . Back to our supposed topic . Our caller said that his family down south always p ainted their porches a certain color that he called hint blue to keep stinging insects from nesting there . He said that he started doing it after years of having wasps build nests on his porch , probably muddawbers, paper wasps or similar species that are known to build small living spaces on or near people's homes , generally on outside walls or in their gutters . Although if you're unlucky enough , a hornet's aerial nest on your porch is a possibility . He swears that he hasn't had a single nest since . I thought it was a pretty neat call and then we were flooded with calls and emails . Bill and Gladwin PA wrote Haint means haunt in South Carolina and the color hint blue is used around openings like windows and doors to prevent the entry of evil spirits into the house. I don't think it has anything to do with insects . Then we heard from George in Nether Province PA . My first thought was The Nether Provinces . He's a spook But it turns out that Nether Providence is a little area just outside of Philadelphia near Schwarthmore. Anyway, George wrote When we bought our home years ago , my mother insisted that we paint the porch ceil light blue . She claimed it was an old Pennsylvania Dutch practice that would keep wasps from building their nests there . I painted the porch ceiling light bl ue and no more wasps again . I have no idea why they stay away , but I can attest to the fact that it works. So what does this storied color really repel? Haunts or hornets ? Deb noted that there are a huge number of websites devoted to this mysterious color and practice . One great example is the Wikipedia entry for Haint H A IN T LUE. But the one I found most authoritative was the Sherwin Williams website . Yes, that's Sherwin Williams. The paint people who to this day offer paint blue as an official color . I quote Once just an old southern tradition , the blue port ceiling has made its way north and is being introduced to new generations . There are numerous theories as to why from fooling spiders and wasps into thinking the ceiling is the sky , to blue being a harbinger of good luck to the color extending daylight to scaring away evil spirits . They continue . Southerners , especially in the area of South Carolina have a name for the ceiling paint used on porches , a soft blue green referred to as hain' blue . Haints are restless spirits of the dead who for whatever reason have not moved on from the physical world , says Lori Saoya , a color strategist . She explains that paint blue , which can be found on door and window frames as well as porch ceilings , is intended to protect the homeowners from being taken or influenced by evil haints . But wasps do get equal time . The page continues . Some people swear that blue paint repels insects , leaving a porch bug free and pleasant during those long summer evenings and afternoons , and this belief could be seeded in historical truth when blue paints were first used on ceilings , they were usually milk paint that often contained lye , a known insect repellent , as milk paint has a tenden cy to fade over time , people would repaint every few years , covering the existing coat with fresh paint and fresh lye But others theorize that insects prefer not to nest on blue ceilings because they are fooled into thinking that blue paint is actually the sky . So what do I think ? I think if I had a front porch I would paint it paint blue Well , that sure was a fun article about the color haint blue. Now, wasn't it? Our musical director is Ken Quitter, our social media director is Amanda Norfle et. Our peerless prince of profound production is James Zipwe. Margaret McConnell is the executive director of WDIY FM , our executive producer is the always lovely Jonas Bowen, and our incredible assistant is the awesome Ninja Sean . This show is dedicated to the memory of the much loved Kathy McGrath who only wanted someone to grow raspberries for her , not realizing that her wish would become my calling card for the next forty years . I would also like to recognize the Saturday Morning Today Show on NBC for making me their monthly garden expert for five wonderful years in the nineteen nineties , and for introducing me as quote R Mike McGrath to WHY in Philly for helping get this show up and running and for twenty years of wonderful friends and memories to W LVR slash PBS thirty nine for picking me up when I couldn't make the weekly commute into Philly anymore and W DIY FM for stretching my NPR run to today . Fabulous friends wonderful memories all . I'm your host, Mike McGrath and after yet another miserable Memorial Day weekend , it always rains and it's cold . The weather guessers are giving me hope that a quote normal week will follow so I can finally get my tomato plants in the ground and pot my pepper plants up into their final containers. I hope you'll join us again next week when we begin broadcasting all new shows from our new home at the Gardens Alive Gurneys website . As always , please visit the Ubetcher Garden Facebook page for up to date information on how to access and cont the new version of our show . Oh , and special thanks to all of you out there for making this amazing run possible We end with a final gesture of reassurance as Canon is banned tell you the tale of three little birds Don't worry About a thing 'cause every little thing gonna be alright lies up this morning , smile with the rising sun . Three little birds sit by my doorstep Singin' sweet songs Melody is pure and true Saying this is my message to you you don't worry about a thing because every little thing is going to be alright don't worry a thing because Because every little thing is gonna be alright . Rise up this morning , smile with the rising sun . Three little birds my doorstep , singing sweet songs , melodid is pure and true saying this is my messism . You don't worry Happy Trails to you until meet again . Happy Trails to you keep smiling on till then ? Who cares about the clouds when we're together ? Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather , high betrayals to you until we meet again