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We make podcasts and newsletters that connect people with the cities they love.

City Cast Madison

Let us help you find Mother Nature in this concrete jungle.

Summer has arrived and thankfully, Madison is a great place to go swimming with the many lakes the city has to offer. On the 

 shares some of her favorite places to take a dip.

But there are a few things to keep in mind before diving in.

The City of Madison constantly checks the safety of the water in our lakes. For updated information on each beach, you can check with 

 to see what beaches and lakes are open for swimming. While the city tries to be as accurate as possible, conditions can change quickly. This means you should still keep an eye out for green-blue algae in the water.

Now, you may wonder what exactly you’re looking for when it comes to 

. The city describes it as “algae that looks blue-green, green, reddish-purple, or brown, murky looking water that has a texture similar to ‘pea soup,’ a layer of scum or puffy blobs floating on the surface, and a strong musty odor near the water.”

Coming into contact with blue-green algae can cause skin irritation, nausea, respiratory problems, and more. The importance of being smart is key when it comes to swimming in these lakes!

If you do come into contact with the blue-green algae, make sure to wash off immediately.

Dogs are more affected by the blue-green algae because they're smaller than humans. Make sure to keep an eye on where your dog swims and if they ingest any water. Also, make sure to wash off your dog after they swim in a body of water that may have the blue-green algae.

Summer is here and it's time to take a swim! But there are a few things to keep in mind before diving into one of Madison's lakes.

Is It Safe to Swim in Madison’s Lakes? 

When Is It Safe to Swim in Madison’s Lakes? 

Get to know the natural side of Madison: the plants, animals, weather and more that make our city unique.

Madison Urban Almanac

Urban Almanac

As spring unfolds, baby bunnies are bouncing about — and they need your help! The 

Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center

 as people are finding more nests filled with bunnies.

: DCHS wants to remind the public that just because their mother isn’t nearby doesn’t mean she’s not coming back for them. It’s normal for mama to leave the babies alone for most of the day to not attract predators, and then come back at dawn and dusk to feed them. So if you find a nest of these cuties in your backyard or nearby, don’t report them as abandoned.

 Eastern Cottontail kits are incredibly challenging to rehabilitate. Their best chances of survival are with their mothers. These wild kits are extremely sensitive to stress and require specialized formula and intensive care from licensed wildlife rehabilitators. DCHS has admitted over 130 cottontails this year alone.

Dogs, free-roaming cats, and human disturbance of nests are the most common threats. Here are the DCHS’s Wildlife Center’s tips on how to keep Madison’s bunnies safe:

 Their nests can usually be found along the edge of a fence or building, and in the middle of the yard. Their nests are usually lined with rabbit fur and patches of dead grass. If you see an adult rabbit returning at the same time each morning and night, that might be the mother.

 Keep cats indoors or offer on-leash time. To further shield pets from the nest, place a laundry basket over the nest and weigh it down with bricks or rocks while your pet is outdoors, and then remove it once your furry friend is safely indoors so mama can find her babies.

Temporarily pause your yard work if you find a nest.

 Avoid mowing, spraying herbicides, or working near the nest. Kits become independent and leave the nest at four weeks of age, so they’ll be moving on and bouncing about Madison in no time!

If you find a sick, injured, or orphaned rabbit, please 

The Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center is receiving a lot of calls about Eastern Cottontail rabbits as people are finding more nests filled with bunnies.

What To Do if You Find Baby Bunnies in Madison

How To Keep Madison’s Wild Baby Bunnies Safe

Trying to add plants to your home this year? Need help keeping plants alive? Plant experts are here to share tips for beginners.

Succulents are resilient and can take a lot of neglect before it shows.

Jade or aloe plants tend to be slower growers in the Midwest, which is good for folks who don’t have a lot of space.

Hoya, or vining plants, have succulent characteristics and come in different shapes and sizes.

For Garden Unit Dwellers (AKA Who Don’t Have Much Sun)

Snake plants, which require minimal care, come in different colors and shapes.

ZZ plants are also tolerant of low lighting, so you can put them in further away corners of living rooms.

Cast iron plants can handle a lot of shade.

Pilea and peperomia variety plants tend to be more compact and firm, and have leaves that don’t flicker (or resemble cat toys).

Do your research! Some plants can be toxic to pets and kids.

The good news is that many indoor plants bloom year round and would be great as reminders of the spring season, said Melissa Obrien from Madison’s GROW Greenhouse.

Anthuriums have red, leaflike flowers, and African Violet sport small purple blossoms.

Bromeliads, related to the pineapple plant, are also pet safe.

If you take the roots out of the pot and see they are all squishy and slimy, they are dead, and it’s time to cut them off, Chicago Plant Salon owner Nika Vaughan said. If you cut off most of it, and the root ball is brown and squishy, the plant is ready to be composted.

But don’t be too fast to dump a droopy plant.

“If you have little bits of fresh green, where you're like … ‘ I went away for two weeks and I forgot,’ … but hey, now there's these little nubs popping out again: That is a sign that the plant is resilient, and it's trying to come back,” Vaughan said.

Here are a few local shops with experts who will help you find the perfect plant for your home.

 has locations at 127 State St. and 337 Mifflin St.

Are you wondering how to take care of your indoor plants this Spring? Or thinking of getting some new ones? We dive into plant ideas and care suggestions for popular indoor houseplants.

Caring For Indoor Plants This Spring

How To Take Care of Indoor Plants This Spring

Last weekend, one of our dogs slipped out of her collar to go chase an unidentified critter under the shed. We got her back in a hurry (luckily she was more obsessed with the critter than running away) but if you’re a pet owner, you might know that feeling of panic of having your dog or cat run loose without their collar or tags.

 to help reunite human and animal friends in those situations.

, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping dog owners find their missing pets, recently donated a pet microchip scanner to the Madison Police Department. Microchips are tiny transponders, about the size of a grain of rice, that are inserted under the skin of a pet, usually between the shoulder blades, by a veterinarian or animal shelter.

 containing information about the animal and contact information for its owner. The information goes into an online registry, and is revealed when a scanner is used to detect the frequency of the microchip. That can come awfully in handy if a dog or cat is found that’s missing their tags.

The chip is designed to work for 25 years, and usually bonds to the animal’s subcutaneous tissue within 24 hours and stays put.

The scanner will be kept at MPD’s Central District, and will be available for officers throughout the city to use. But it doesn’t work if your pet doesn’t have a microchip, so be sure to make sure they have one, and that your contact information is kept up to date in case you move or change phone numbers.

And even if they are chipped, make sure they still wear a collar and tags. No matter what fascinating creature is under the shed.

A new Madison Police Department microchip scanner will help pet owners reunite with their lost dogs and cats. 

How a New Tool Helps Reunite Pets With Their Owners in Madison

How a New Tool Helps Reunite Pets With Their Owners

Fall is here! Soon, you’ll be serenaded by the sound of your neighbor’s leaf blower, and wonder if it’s time to get out your own, or a rake, and deal with the autumnal pile on your own lawn.

Or maybe not. In some situations, it may be better off to leave that golden carpet alone.

Leaves have nutrients that can be recycled into your lawn, 

according to UW Extension educator Diana Alfuth

. They break down over the wintertime to provide a rich compost for the soil ahead of spring planting. And they provide a natural insulation for plant roots as the cold sets in.

They also provide a handy cover for insects, like butterflies, caterpillars, and even bumblebees, to shelter beneath during the cold winter months. So that’s where they go!

It’s the amount of leaves on your property that really determines whether you should get out the rake.

If only some of your lawn is covered, say 20% or so, you can go ahead and leave them be. They’ll blow around and break down on their own.

If you have 50% lawn coverage, you still don’t need to rake. Just run them over with your lawn mower. The smaller pieces will settle down between the blades of grass and provide nutrients.

But if you have a heavy cover of leaves, it’s probably a good idea to rake up at least half of them. The issue is that too many leaves might end up smothering and matting down the grass.

. But you can also use those leaves for composting or winter mulching, or save them for mulch in the spring planting season.

Or you can just make a big pile and cannonball into them!

Take a Break From the Rake in Madison! 

Take a Break From the Rake! 

The cows come home to Madison next week as the 

 returns to the Alliant Energy Center Oct. 1 to Oct. 4. You might have heard about the event, or seen the trailers full of cows on the road heading in and out of town, and wondered what it’s all about. Well, I’m here to give you the (ice cream) scoop!

The World Dairy Expo started in 1967 as the World Food Exposition, and in 1971 refocused to include a trade show for the dairy industry. Now the largest cattle event in the world, it currently draws over 600 companies and over 50,000 attendees from all over the world, bringing in an estimated $31 million revenue to Dane County.

Most importantly, 2,600 head of dairy cattle of seven different breeds come from across the country, all competing to be crowned Supreme Champion of World Dairy Expo.

With good reasons, organizers call the World Dairy Expo “the Super Bowl for cows.” The cattle compete on colored wood shavings, and it’s a closely-guarded secret what color the shavings will be at each expo.

And, like your high school prom, each year’s festival has a special theme featuring colorful costumes and backdrops. This year’s is “The Golden Age,” using the glitz and glamor of old Hollywood to celebrate modernizations in the dairy industry.

You can see that cutting-edge tech at the World Dairy Expo’s gigantic trade show in Exhibition Hall. There are also plenty of seminars and other educational opportunities for those in the industry to learn from experts or their fellow dairy producers.

World Dairy Expo also has much to offer for the next generation of the dairy industries. Youths from high school Future Farmers of America chapters and 4-H programs compete in how they display their cows, how they prepare their cows for competition. There’s also a competition where young contestants are judged on how they judge cows.

With cattle coming from all over the country and people coming from all over the world, there’s global interest in what’s going on in Madison during those four days. For those who can’t make the trip, or are just curious about what’s going on, the World Dairy Expo website offers 

 a subscription streaming service offering three channels of constant coverage.

You can hear more fun anecdotes about the event and more 

 where host Bianca Martin caught up with the expo’s general manager Laura Herschleb.

The cows come home to Madison next week as the World Dairy Expo returns to the Alliant Energy Center Oct. 1 to Oct. 4. You might have heard about the event, or seen the trailers full of cows on the road heading in and out of town, and wondered what it’s all about. Well, I’m here to give you the (ice cream) scoop!


Why the Cows Come Home To the World Dairy Expo in Madison

Why the Cows Come Home To the World Dairy Expo

A lot of people passed by the Madison Water Utility reservoir at 201 S. Hancock St. and just saw concrete. But others saw an opportunity to create Madison’s newest park.

On Thursday, the city will be able to enjoy the results of 15 years of planning and organizing by city officials and community remembers as 

the new Lakefront Porch Park opens on the reservoir’s concrete space.

The new park features a raised platform, garden beds, and shaded tables and chairs with a spectacular view of Lake Monona. The space is meant to be a social area for residents that acts as a sort of bridge between the First Settlement district and Madison’s downtown.

The park’s origin story goes back to 1995, when plans for a gathering space at the East Wilson St.-John Nolen Drive intersection were included in the East Capitol Neighborhood’s master plan. Some seating was added in 2010 using funds from the Water Utility, and planting beds were added in 2014. The Lakefront Porch Volunteer Committee raised $460,000 to complete the park.

The city is celebrating with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday, rain or shine. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Ald. Mike Verveer, and volunteer project manager Emily DeVore will give remarks, followed by volunteers providing food, drinks, and music.

The party is open to all, and residents are encouraged to bike, bus or walk to the park. And make sure to get out on the Porch this year and enjoy Madison’s newest park.

A lot of people passed by the Madison Water Utility reservoir at 201 S. Hancock St. and just saw concrete. But others saw an opportunity to create Madison’s newest park.

On Thursday, the city will be able to enjoy the results of 15 years of planning and organizing by city officials and community remembers as the new Lakefront Porch Park opens on the reservoir’s concrete space. 


Hang Out At Madison’s New Lakefront Porch Park

It’s a farm friendship as unlikely and fruitful as Charlotte the spider and Wilbur the pig – sheep and solar panels. Solar array projects are popping up around Wisconsin, and some enterprising farmers have figured out a second use for the land where the solar panels are installed – as grazing land for sheep.

“This Ain’t Your Granddad’s Sheep Farm” boasts 

the website for Fitchburg’s Wiscovery Farm

, which provides sheep to graze at Tyto Solar, the 31.5-acre Madison Gas and Electric solar project that went online in February.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” owner Beau Stafford said. “The sheep love it.”

It’s the first Dane County solar project that employs sheep to graze between the panels, and it’s a win-win scenario. Sheep clear away vegetation that might grow to obstruct the panel in spots that machinery can’t reach, while the panels provide shelter and shade (and a steady supply of snacks) for their wooly partners.

 that found sheep with access to solar panels grazed more, and for longer periods of time, than those grazing on native ranges. And researchers found that grazing improves soil quality that can help plant productivity down the road.

Wisconsin and Iowa are relatively new to the sheep/solar partnerships. The American Solar Grazing Association estimates that 80,000 sheep are currently grazing at 500 solar projects in 27 states.

Sheep and goats are becoming increasingly popular as an environmentally-friendly way to clear vegetation. eliminating the need for herbicides or heavy equipment. 

The Madison Parks Department uses goats in fenced-in parks

 to clear away plants like buckthorn, honeysuckle and box elders – and even toxic plants like poison ivy (which don’t bother the goats). As an added bonus, my dogs absolutely go wild when the goats arrive to clean up our local dog park.

It’s a farm friendship as unlikely and fruitful as Charlotte the spider and Wilbur the pig – sheep and solar panels. Solar array projects are popping up around Wisconsin, and some enterprising farmers have figured out a second use for the land where the solar panels are installed – as grazing land for sheep.


A Sheep Way to Help Solar Projects in Madison

A Sheep Way To Help Solar Projects

At 18, Jessica Ricci is changing the world of microgreens in Madison. This young entrepreneur has turned her passion for growing into her business called 

Most of you have had Jessica’s microgreens at least once at a local restaurant. Spots that use New Life Greens include Lucille, Everly, Deliciouser, Todofresco, Cento, The Statehouse, The Boathouse at Edgewater, Draper Brothers Chophouse, Kettle Black Kitchen, Ancora Cafe & Bakery, Eno Vino, Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge, Cadre, and more outside of Madison!

We caught up with her to get the scoop on her business endeavors and find out why microgreens are so special.

Q: How did you manage school with your business?

 In high school, I was part of a youth apprenticeship program, so I attended school half of the day and worked the other half. At first, I would have school from around 8:00 a.m. to noon and work from then until 3:30 p.m. As my business grew I began to work longer days, but I loved what I was doing so much that it didn't feel like work to me. Now that I am out of school, I try my best to have a healthier work/life balance so that I can still enjoy time with my friends and family.

 Microgreens drew me in because of their unique appearance, flavor, and diversity. It amazed me how a plant at the beginning of its life could have the same flavor as its fully grown counterpart. For example, cantaloupe microgreens taste just like a cantaloupe!

Q: What method do you use to grow your microgreens?

I am now using a vertical hydroponic farming method. With my new indoor space, I am able to control the climate to ensure that I am producing the highest quality product in the most clean and sustainable way.

Q: Where did your love for plants come from?

 My love for plants came from my grandfather, Thomas Smith, he was an environmentalist and was passionate about connecting humans to plants. He instilled a love and appreciation for plants and sustainability within me. I am so thankful that I can spend my day-to-day with plants, it makes me feel connected to my Grandpa Tom!

Q: What is your favorite way to prepare and eat microgreens?

 Microgreens can pair very well with any dish that a vegetable would — salads, smoothies, stir-fries, soups, grain bowls, veggie boards, and more! My favorite way to incorporate microgreens for the past month has been in spring rolls. They add so much flavor, texture, and freshness to the dish as well as make a beautiful appearance.

At 18, Jessica Ricci is changing the world of microgreens in Madison. This young entrepreneur has turned her passion for growing into her business called New Life Greens.

Q&A With the Queen of Microgreens

If you’re like me, you think about composting all the time. But you never get around to it because you don’t know 

. Well, that ends now! Here is your ultimate guide to composting:

 is the process of recycling organic materials into a soil-enriching product.

Raw fruits and vegetables, including peelings, can be composted. Also, coffee grounds, eggshells, and uncooked grains and rice.

Among the food and items you cannot compost are meat and bones, food products cooked with or in oils, fat, or grease, dairy products, pet waste, diapers, and plastics. For more examples, check the 

aren’t sure whether something is acceptable

, contact the Streets and Urban Forestry Offices.

Use an enclosed bin to retain heat and moisture. For 

, bury the waste below a layer of greens, like grass clippings, for nitrogen. Also throw in some brown materials, like dry leaves or clean newsprint, for carbon. Keep your compost damp.

, or finish, for at least four weeks, before using it to feed your home garden. Remove items that didn’t break down, such as fruit pits and eggshells, which can also be added back into an active composting pile. You can 

 for indoor plants, flower and vegetable beds, 

 from the City of Madison. And brush up your knowledge of the 

: the Eastside Farmers Market, the South Madison Farmers Market, and the West Community Market. Confirm dates and times for composting for each site.

Here is your ultimate guide to composting in Madison, from what you can and can't compost, to where you can drop it off for free.