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305-Compost Science for Gardeners, with Robert Pavlis

| Compost, Podcast

Gardeners know compost is the best thing for their soil, but the science behind the benefits of compost is generally not well understood. To shed light on how composting works and why compost enriches soil, my guest this week is chemist, author, and Master Gardener Robert Pavlis. Robert is an expert on busting gardening myths […]

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Feed Your Lawn Naturally by Topdressing with Compost

| Care

A healthier lawn comes with healthier soil, and there is no better way to improve soil health than by adding compost. You can feed your lawn naturally by topdressing it with compost. Compost contains the primary nutrients — nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium — and an array of micronutrients to naturally feed a lawn. But there […]

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How to Use Coffee Grounds in Compost

| Compost, Video

Among my favorite ingredients for making compost is coffee grounds. Here, I’ll show you how to use coffee grounds in your compost and how you can source coffee grounds for free.      Compost is my not-so-secret ingredient to having great soil and a productive garden. My “recipe” for making compost includes manure and […]

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160-Gardening Pet Peeves – My Top 10 from Joe Lamp’l

| Care, Podcast

Fair warning: This week, you’re in for a bit of a rant. I’m sharing with you my top 10 gardening pet peeves. No, I don’t mean those things like finding some pest has taken a bite out of an almost perfectly ripe fruit (although, that drives us all crazy too). I mean the human behavior […]

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159-Catching Up With Joe Lamp’l: Spring-2020 Q&A

| Care, Podcast

For this week’s episode, I invited my Director of Online Media back to join me for another Q&A session. We haven’t done a Q&A episode in awhile. Erin is my co-host when I have one, and when I want to have a conversation with somebody from my team. Our talks are always fun, and it […]

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153-The Science Behind Great Soil

| Care, Podcast

I don’t know if you know this about me, but soil is my favorite topic. I love all things gardening, and I’ve even hurled myself into a large heap of finished compost. Still, soil is king in my book, and the more we learn about the science behind great soil, soil health, and all of […]

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143-Gardening Products You Don’t Need, and Why

| Care, Podcast

This week, garden myth-busting expert Robert Pavlis joined me to talk about gardening products. Robert has a background in chemistry and biochemistry and is an avid gardener as well. He owns and runs a 6-acre botanical garden packed with over 3,000 different species of plants, trees and shrubs. So, he offers some valuable insights when […]

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131-My Top 12 Tools to Make Your Gardening Life Easier

| Podcast, Prepare

Over the years I’ve tried my share of gardening tools. Along the way, I’ve spent (and wasted) a lot of money. But it hasn’t been a total loss. Some of those purchases have resulted in the tools I can’t live without, including what I consider my top 12 tools to make your gardening life easier […]

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The Benefits of Backyard Chickens to Your Compost

| Compost

Of all the ingredients I could add to my garden to make it grow and thrive, without a doubt the single most important input is compost. It’s the key to the health of my vegetable garden, landscape plants, thriving lawn, and anything growing under my watch. And the benefits of keeping backyard chickens to your […]

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116-Understanding the Soil Food Web, with Dr. Elaine Ingham

| Podcast, Prepare

Are you ready to get your garden geek on? In today’s episode we’re diving into the deep end on the subject of soil – specifically, understanding the soil food web. If you’ve ever told anyone that you “like to play in the dirt” to describe your love of gardening, I’m willing to bet that this […]

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105-Gardening Questions Answered: Expert Advice from Joe Lamp’l

| Care, Podcast

Between my podcast listeners and members of my e-newsletter and social media channels, I receive a lot of gardening questions. This week, I’m highlighting questions asked by students of my new Beginning Gardener Fundamentals course. I introduced the course at the beginning of this year to teach the fundamental garden basics I’m asked all the […]

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097-Spring Tips for Vegetable Garden Success

| Podcast, Prepare

As winter slowly yields to spring, the call to get our hands into the soil becomes irresistible. These spring tips for vegetable garden success are a valuable guide to the essential steps everyone can and should take for a bountiful and productive garden. Pick the best location You may have heard the phrase, pick the […]

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086-Timeless Gardening Principles, with Barbara Damrosch

| Care, Podcast

My guest this week is Barbara Damrosh. An icon in the world of gardening, Barbara began her horticultural career in the mid-1970’s and has always been driven by the desire to help others get into gardening. To that end, she published her first of many books, The Garden Primer, in 1988; and she’s spent time […]

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079-Foodscaping: How to Create an Edible Landscape, With Brie Arthur

| Grow, Podcast

Have you ever thought about how to grow food without a garden? I’m not talking about tearing out those flowers and shrubs to convert the bed to a vegetable garden. I’m talking about incorporating vegetables in with those aesthetic plants to create an edible landscape. It’s called foodscaping, and my guest this week, Brie Arthur, […]

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How to Use Fall Leaves in the Garden – and Why You Should

| Compost

Fall is a favorite time of year for many. It certainly is for me. The softer light and cooler temperatures, football games, the approach of Thanksgiving – these are just a few of the reasons fall is what I consider the best season. Yet, it’s the falling leaves that I’m most thankful for right about […]

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074-How to Have and Care for a Healthy Lawn: Top 7 Non-negotiables

| Care, Podcast

Now that I’ve shared my recommendations for creating an eco-friendly garden and a resilient garden during the past couple of weeks, I want to talk about how to have and care for a healthy lawn. I know, to many organic gardeners, “lawn” is a dirty word. Incorporating lawn space is often viewed as environmentally irresponsible, but […]

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073-How to Create a Resilient Garden: 10 Key Principles

| Podcast, Prepare

Would you say you had a resilient garden? Did it stand up to the challenges of this past growing season? This year has been especially difficult for many of us, and while we’re in the middle of my favorite garden time – fall – I’m also already in planning mode for next year. Each season, […]

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072-Creating an Eco-friendly Garden & Landscape: 7 Key Tenets

| Care, Podcast

Having seen many gardens over the years, I’ve been on a mission to inspire people to think more towards eco-friendly gardening. My experiences led me to write a book, The Green Gardener’s Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet focusing on creating an eco-friendly garden and landscape.     In the book, I […]

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How to Create a Drought Tolerant Landscape: Pro Tips – Pt. 5 of 5

| Care

If you live in an area which experiences periods of drought, you’re probably subject to watering restrictions. Fortunately, your landscape can be surprisingly resilient and drought tolerant using the measures I covered in Part 2 of this series which ensure your plants establish well and sink their roots more deeply into the ground. Under extreme conditions, […]

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063-Garden Fertilizer Basics: What to Know Before You Grow

| Care, Podcast

Plants need nutrients, but how and when you provide those nutrients can make more difference than you might realize. Let’s explore some facts on garden fertilizer which, when put to use in your landscape, can make a significant difference in the color, production and vigor of all your plants. Fertilizer provides nutrients which are key […]

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How to Water Your Garden and Landscape: Pro Tips – Part 1 of 5

| Care

For most of us, having access to water means simply turning the faucet handle. Voila! Water in abundance, right? Well, this convenience is incredibly deceiving. Although 75% of our planet is covered with water, only a minuscule 1% is available as pure, clean water for use by the entire world population. That’s right – 1% […]

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058-Biochar Basics and More: Digging Deeper Into the Science of Soil

| Podcast, Prepare

This week, I spoke with Mark Highland of Organic Mechanics. Mark is passionate about soil and has quite the pedigree, having graduated from the Masters Program at Longwood Gardens. Well-versed in the basics of biochar, he’s also recently written Practical Organic Gardening – The no-nonsense guide to growing naturally. It’s a book packed with insight on […]

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Top Ten Tips to Repurpose Plastic Pots

| Plant

More often than not, those new plants we pick up at nurseries or home improvement centers are in a plastic pot. As responsible gardeners, we all hate to simply throw those pots away and add them to the landfill. Most of those pots are made of recyclable plastic, but if you’ve watched a related episode […]

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Top 5 Reasons to Garden in a Raised Bed

| Prepare

Do you garden in raised beds? If not, why not? Given the options, I can’t imagine not gardening in raised beds. Raised beds are versatile in shape and structure, and they provide the ideal starting point for gardening success and bountiful crops. Let’s dive in to the Top Five benefits offered by a raised bed garden: […]

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048-The Simple Science Behind Great Gardening, with Lee Reich

| Podcast, Prepare

In today’s podcast, I’m joined by Lee Reich, and we explore some of the subjects in his new book, The Ever Curious Gardener – Using a Little Natural Science for a Much Better Garden. As curious gardeners, Lee and I are always pursuing the “why” behind the workings of the garden. I believe this drives […]

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044-Raised Bed Gardening, Pt. 3: Animal Control & More

| Podcast, Prepare

Welcome to the last in our series on raised bed gardening. As you probably know by now, we received so many responses from my email group that this raised bed podcast turned into a three-part series. If you would like to join the conversation and contribute to future topics, I invite you to click the red […]

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043-Raised Bed Gardening, Pt. 2: Perfect Soil Recipe

| Podcast, Prepare

In this podcast, we continue our discussion on raised bed gardening. In case you missed it: I had invited my email group to send me any questions they hoped I would answer on the topic of raised bed gardening. I received a huge response, many from folks who plan to start raised bed gardening for […]

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042-Raised Bed Gardening, Pt. 1: Getting Started

| Podcast, Prepare

Are you building a raised bed garden, or are you looking to improve your raised bed crops? You have come to the right place. Earlier this year, I invited my email group to send me any questions they would like me to answer on the topic of raised bed gardening. Little did I expect the […]

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019-GardenFarm Audio Journal – First Day of Fall, 2017

| Care, Podcast

This podcast episode format is a first for me and quite a departure from our usual format. In this episode, I take the mic and recorder outside for a behind-the-scenes day in the life at the GardenFarm™. I’m calling it an “audio journal” – snippets of a typical weekend Saturday for me. From the time […]

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