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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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154-Garden Savvy Shopping Tips for Healthy Plants

| Podcast, Prepare

These past few months have been difficult for many of us, but one bright side has been the re-ignited interest in gardening. I’ve heard from so many people who’ve never planted anything before but are eager to grow their own food. Gardeners of all experience levels have been able to spend more time with their […]

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152-The Native Plant Trust: Why Plant Choices Matter

| Grow, Podcast

Another spring brings the excitement of a new garden season. For most of us, that means adding more plants to our landscape. Well, today’s episode is a reminder that your plant choices matter, especially when it comes to supporting biodiversity and wildlife. Guest Uli Lorimer is the Director of Horticulture at the Native Plant Trust. […]

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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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136-Top Garden Takeaways From 2019: Lessons Learned

| Care, Podcast

It doesn’t matter how big or how small your growing space is, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or have decades of experience under your belt. Every year brings new lessons, challenges, disappointments, and wins in the garden. With the end of another year just around the corner, I wanted to share with […]

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134-Bird Population Decline and What Gardeners Can Do to Help

| Care, Podcast

Many gardeners have an appreciation for backyard songbirds. It’s a natural fit. As gardeners, we do a lot to invite them into our landscapes with food and shelter. All the more reason it’s concerning to know that many bird species are rapidly falling in their numbers, some at alarming rates. It’s time we all learn […]

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133-Native Plant Design in a Post-Wild World, With Thomas Rainer

| Plant, Podcast

How do you define a beautiful garden or landscape? Is it a perfectly manicured space, free of weeds with coordinated blocks of color? Perhaps it’s more relaxed and informal. In this episode, we focus our discussion around native plant design in a post-wild world with Thomas Rainer, author, teacher, and landscape architect. Thomas describes his […]

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

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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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125-Saving Seeds: The Basics, the Benefits and Beyond

| Grow, Podcast

Do you save seeds? These days, more and more gardeners are interested in keeping seeds from the plants in their garden, but it’s a process that can be intimidating. For this week’s episode, I invited Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance and master seed saver, Bill McDorman, to share his expertise for anyone […]

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

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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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114-Understanding Hydrangeas: Pruning, Blooming, Color-Forcing & More

| Care, Podcast

Hydrangeas are some of my favorite ornamentals shrubs, and this week’s guest shares my love of this beautiful plant. Well actually, Lorraine Ballato has a special appreciation for all hydrangea varieties, and she has become a recognized expert on the care of this sometimes finicky species. She contributes to many respected horticultural resources, like a […]

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113-Designing Abundant Container Gardens: Pro Tips for Healthy Plants & Beautiful Combinations

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Whether you’ve got an extensive garden area or just a postage-stamp-sized balcony, you can garden in containers just about anywhere. There are some similarities in techniques for gardening in the landscape versus containers, however there are many key differences for success too. This week’s guest is Karen Chapman, and she’s a sought-after expert in the […]

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109-Garden Safety: When Shortcuts Have Consequences

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Sometimes, you just have one of those weeks. I didn’t intend to share a podcast on garden safety this week, but a series of accidents – and shared experiences of our team – inspired a conversation about all the shortcuts which can put us at risk in the garden. I hope some of these reminders […]

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108-Easy Ways to Make More Houseplants, Vegetables and Flowers

| Grow, Podcast

One thing that fascinates just about every plant lover is the process of propagation, and finding easy ways to make more houseplants, vegetables, and flowers from those plants you already have and love. If you’ve ever tried to propagate a plant, did you know your success rate was just as dependent on the type of […]

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107-Encore Presentation: Tomato Care Checklist with Craig LeHoullier

| Care, Podcast

Tomatoes. They just might be the hands-down most popular plant for home gardeners, but they sure aren’t easy. Last year, my friend and tomato-growing expert, Craig LeHoullier, joined me for a podcast about his recommended steps for healthy tomatoes. He called it his tomato-care checklist, and it is so packed with good information, that I […]

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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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101-A Way to Garden: Observations and Lessons, with Margaret Roach

| Care, Podcast

Do you love books? I have a fairly large library, and you probably won’t be surprised to learn that it’s comprised of mostly garden-related volumes. One of my favorites has long been A Way to Garden, written 21 years ago by Margaret Roach. So, I’m pretty excited that Margaret has just released a fresh publication […]

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098-Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden with Lee Reich

| Grow, Podcast

Many gardeners shy away from growing the typical fruit trees and shrubs because of the amount of care and upkeep needed to maintain them, especially when it comes to pest and disease control. Yet some of the more uncommon fruits can be ideal for many gardens because they are so carefree while offering delicious and […]

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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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076-How to Create a Bird-friendly Yard

| Podcast, Resources

Lately, I’ve really been focused on identifying all the ways we can attract more wildlife to our gardens. Diversity in our little, individual ecosystems not only helps us to be better gardeners, it strengthens our environment at a national and global level. With that in mind, I invited Dr. John Rowden of the National Audubon […]

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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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069-The Fascinating Facts Behind the Plants We Eat, with Jeff Gillman

| Grow, Podcast

Today’s episode dives into some of the interesting facts of the foods we all eat. My guest, Dr. Jeff Gillman, is Director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens, and he recently began his own podcast show “The Plants We Eat” which features the unique aspects and history of common garden edibles. We rarely consider, or […]

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068-Top Predatory Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them, Pt. 2

| Care, Podcast

Last week, we began a two-part series on garden pest predators with Jessica Walliser and discussed the predator/prey cycle taking place in all our landscapes as well as the cues that signal to good bugs that a meal is available. If you haven’t checked out that episode, I recommend you begin there before diving in this […]

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065-Tips For Reducing Garden Overwhelm, With Margaret Roach

| Care, Podcast

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your garden – by out of control growth or disease or an abundance of crops? You aren’t alone. Nearly all of us feel garden overwhelm at some point during the growing season –  and some of us feel that way frequently through the summer months. This week, I talk […]

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062-Great Garden Reads: Must-Have Books For Every Gardener

| Podcast, Resources

If you know anything about me by now, you know that I love the world of gardening. I’ve been involved as a hobbyist, horticulturalist, public speaker, and/or TV host since the age of eight. Formal education helped to get me where I am today, but I’m also a big believer in learning through experience. My […]

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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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057-What Happened to the G in HGTV?

| Podcast, Resources

Do you ever wonder what happened to the G in HGTV? I used to love weekend binge-watching favorite gardening episodes on HGTV. We, as gardeners, used to have a wide variety of garden TV shows to feed our passion, but that is just no longer the case. Ten years ago as part of my syndicated […]

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056-Tomato Care Checklist with Craig LeHoullier

| Care, Podcast

I have a love/hate relationship with tomatoes. This year, I have 32 tomato plants in spite of knowing that tomatoes are notorious for being a lot of work in the garden. Still, in these early days of summer, everything is growing strong, looking great and setting fruit; so it’s easy to start feeling a little […]

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055-Vacation Preparation For Plants: What To Do Before You Go

| Podcast, Prepare

Vacation season has arrived, and if you’ve got a trip planned, you need to take some key steps to prepare your garden for your absence. After all, you’ve probably invested more than your fair share of time (and money!) nursing your plants through a difficult spring, getting new vegetables established, and planting up those containers. […]

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053-Waterwise Gardening With Nan Sterman

| Care, Podcast

This week, I take a look back at a conversation on conservation – with Nan Sterman, co-author of Water-wise Plants for the Southwest and expert on waterwise gardening. Although she spent some years away, Nan grew up in and returned to southern California and has become known as a water-wise guru. Nan speaks frequently on water […]

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052-Why Organic Matters – with Maria Rodale

| Grow, Podcast

In this week’s episode, I revisit a conversation with one of my hero’s – Maria Rodale, on why organic matters. Maria is a lifelong advocate of organic farming and gardening and is third generation in a legacy of commitment to organic agricultural practices. Although her family is now iconic in the world of health and […]

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051-How to Grow Bountiful Blueberries – Key Steps with Lee Reich

| Grow, Podcast

Just about everyone loves blueberries, but this week’s guest – Dr. Lee Reich – might just be blueberry-obsessed. Lee knows how to grow bountiful blueberries and has been perfecting best practice techniques for over 30 years on his small farm in New York state. Beyond bearing delicious fruit, blueberries are also an attractive addition to […]

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050-Organic Pest Control: Beneficial Insects And Beyond

| Care, Podcast

This week, I continue my conversation with the Bug Lady, Suzanne Wainwright-Evans. Suzanne is an entomologist and industry leader in the movement to utilize biocontrols – putting beneficial insects to work before reaching for pesticides. This is Part Two of our biocontrols discussion, so if you missed Part One, start there. The information in Part […]

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049-When Good Bugs Eat Bad Bugs: The Business of Beneficial Insects

| Care, Podcast

This week’s guest is Suzanne Wainwright-Evans, the Bug Lady of Bug Lady Consulting. To say that Suzanne – an entomologist and expert on biocontrol who I’ve known for many years and interviewed multiple times – is a wealth of information… well, that would be a true understatement. Our conversation is so jam-packed with pest management […]

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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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047-Tomato Seedling Mistakes with Craig LeHoullier

| Care, Podcast

Craig LeHoullier has been a frequent guest of this podcast series. He joins us again today to follow up on our early 2018 series on seed starting. If you missed that series, I recommend you start there, so you have context for this discussion on tomato seedling. In this podcast, we check in on how […]

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046-Organizing Your Gardening Life

| Podcast, Resources

Spring – it’s what we, as gardeners, eagerly anticipate all winter long. Yet, when it arrives, it can be so overwhelming. The spring season moves quickly, and there are lots to accomplish. No matter how I try to prepare, each year comes with a renewed sense of overwhelm. So, how do you stay organized in […]

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045-Succession Planting: Practical Tips For Growing More Food

| Plant, Podcast

In this podcast, I explore succession planting techniques with my guest, Meg Cowden. Meg and her husband are well-versed in the art of succession planting. Living in southern Minnesota, on the outskirts of Minneapolis, they garden in USDA Hardiness Zone 4B. While many gardeners in a Zone 4 environment see their season as Memorial Day through […]

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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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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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024–Japanese Maples: A Passion and Profession with Matt & Tim Nichols

| Grow, Podcast

Who knew a childhood introduction to Japanese maples would turn into a thriving business for two young brothers? Matt and Tim Nichols of Hendersonville, NC never doubted that someday they would turn that passion into a thriving Japanese maple nursery business.     Fueled by their grandmother’s Japanese maple-filled yard, and their dad’s weekend ritual […]

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017-The Five Biggest Mistakes Gardeners Make

| Care, Podcast

Over my many years of traveling the country touring gardens both great and small, I’ve managed to summarize what I believe are the five biggest garden mistakes made by gardeners in their home landscapes and gardens. They also happen to be some of the most common. In speaking with horticulturists and gardeners at every level, […]

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015-Life Lessons on Gardening and Design with Margaret Roach

| Care, Podcast

Over my long career in horticulture and gardening media, I’ve had the privilege of meeting pretty much all my heroes – the people that really walk their talk and that I truly respect and admire. In my short list of standouts is Margaret Roach.     Our kindred spirits have united us as good friends. […]

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014-Top Tips for Saving Money in the Garden

| Plant, Podcast

Several years ago, I was challenged to offer my top money saving garden tips. At the time, the economy was down and a lot of people started growing their own food to try and save on their grocery bill. Unfortunately, a lot of that was often spent gearing up, negating any savings they could have […]

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