Smart Talk Friday: Gardening during the pandemic

Erica Jo Shaffer answers your questions and offers growing tips

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 Kimberly Paynter / WHYY

Flowers atop the main exhibit of the 2020 Philadelphia Flower Show, themed “Rivera Holiday.”

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted so much of our lives this spring.

Many people who were staying at home and looking for things to do found they had time to plant a garden or devote more attention to their existing gardens this year. Some concerned about food supplies thought that vegetable gardens or planting more vegetables would be practical. Seeds were a little more hard to get early in the pandemic.

There have been a few others challenges this spring, too. April and much of May were cooler than usual. In fact, records were set in some parts of Central Pennsylvania for the coldest nighttime temperatures in May. It wasn’t unusual to hear from someone who said they lost plants and flowers to an overnight freeze.

Smart Talk’s COVID-19 coverage has forced our annual spring gardening program back a few weeks.

Erica Jo Shaffer, landscape designer and consultant with Black Landscape Center in Mechanicsburg joins us on Friday’s program to answer your gardening, flower and plant growing questions.