2. Water Conservation, Education, and Muddy Wheelbarrows w/ Daniel Cunningham

Kyle was great and it was just a perfect way to kick this off. So , we're going to jump into episode two. So , as you may remember, some of you, actually exactly three of you may remember, we did a giveaway a couple of weeks ago for stickers. Who doesn't love stickers? Apparently , uh, about 500 of you don't love stickers, but three of you really do.

So , the whole thing you were supposed to do was tag someone in either the Facebook or Instagram posts that I shared and , uh, ask your plant question because the deal was that you win a couple of stickers, which I will get to you , um, this week. And , uh, I would also answer your plant question at the beginning of this episode. So , um , on Facebook, Victoria asked, how do I re-root a ginger plant that was harvested way too early without getting it rotten?

So I think the biggest thing you gotta do is let it dry down a little bit. Um, you don't necessarily want to plant a mushy ginger ever. Um, and a lot of times those laminated rhizomes that you get with a ginger plant need to be a little bit dryer before they'll read, germinate, and spread. Now, ginger naturally spreads on its own. And , uh, so along that rhizome there's lots of nodes and lots of points of growth.

So you take it out, let it dry a little bit, and then when you're ready to plant it, a lot of places and a lot of resources suggest that you soak it in warm water for like 12 hours before you plan it. That just helps rehydrate that rhizome before it goes in the ground. Now rhizome if you don't know, is an underground , um, modified STEM structure , uh , out of which shoots and roots both grow.

So , um, you will lay it horizontally in a pot , uh , fill it with a loose soilless potting media buried at about two or three inches and weight and water spares sparingly. But wait, it may take months. It may take weeks, but be patient. That's the biggest thing. And then as soon as you get some root development and shoot development, then you can take it and plan out in the landscape, bump it into a bigger pot , um, and do whatever else you need to do with it.

Over on the Instagram, the Instagram. How old am I over on Instagram? Uh, how so ? Got a couple of questions that I'm gonna go ahead and try to answer. So the first one was from Ashton and she was asking about how do you grow a Rosemary outdoors in Lubbock, America, we're zone seven, so we get down to an average annual low temperature of about five degrees Fahrenheit. And um, a lot of times they , um, do freeze back some varieties of Rosemary.

Now what you have to find is a cold, tolerant or truly cold tolerant Rosemary. Uh , and Ashton, you're on campus come by and get a cutting from ours. It looks great. Route it out, let it get fairly large before you put it out in the landscape. I would, you know, let it get about an appropriate size that you would want to put it in a one gallon pot , um, planted out in the landscape soon enough that it has time to root and develop and harden off before winter comes.

Um, also I would recommend probably watering them pretty sparingly. They , uh , there's , you're catching onto this theme of don't over-water stuff. We over water a lot. Um, but they're fairly drought tolerant plants, so no need to water . The other question on Instagram came from Richard , um, whose username is a wandering ecologist and he has a really interesting question about , um , the suppression of plant growth under Quercus or Oak trees specifically.

Um, uh, Quercus agro folia and Quercus low Bata . Um, so Oak tree leaves contain tons of tannins, which is an acidic compound. That's why if you see Oak leaves sitting in a puddle, that puddle looks like it turns Brown like T because it's the tannins and tea leaves, which are a lot milder than those found in Oak trees that let you boil your , um , tea leaves and get your delicious morning beverage.

So , um, the question was what plants can actually grow under Oak trees because in MOTS of Oak trees are an Oak forests. Um, you do see undergrowth, you do see understory plants. And I don't know the answer to this specifically. I tried to do a little research on it and it's an interesting thing that I don't believe has been studied all that much, which is kind of cool. It's maybe something to look into.

My assumption would be, and this is an educated guess, just from knowing the biology of plants, that those tannins don't necessarily move super well down through the soil because of the nature of them. They're probably trapped within the top few inches of soil and not especially mobile. Um , now, if I'm wrong, please fact check me.

Let me know and I would be happy to correct this on the next episode, but my thought would be that the plants that are more able to grow in an Oak forest , um, Rosa californica and a few other species, I would think that it has to do with the root structure. Um, allelopathy and other suppression of plant growth. We tend to see it a lot more in shallowly rooted plants with fibrous root system.

There are some notable exceptions , uh, specifically, or , or one that comes to mind would be the way that , um, a pecan trees and Walnut trees, they release a chemical in it called jug lone , which can , um , suppress the growth of Apple trees and roses and other things in that genus. But I would think with the tannins and Quercus leaves , um, most of the activities up in the top inches of soil.

So if you get some deeper rooted , um , plant species with more robust root system, I would think that they would be more capable of growing in that environment. I'll keep doing a little more research on that. It's an interesting question and it's something that I think I would like to answer.

Okay. Now that I've talked to you for five minutes about random plant facts that you may or may not want to , wanted to know, keep them in your brain for your next trivia night or , uh, you know, if you , um, I guess want to tell people at parties, I don't know, maybe you don't like to talk to people at parties and throwing random plant facts at them is probably a good way to make sure that nobody talks to you at a party. I can say this from experience.

Uh , today's episode is with my dear friend Daniel Cunningham. Um, uh, he and Kyle and I, Kyle Tanger from episode one. We're friends in graduate school here in Texas tech and we've worked together in different capacities for a long time. Uh, Daniel is quite the plant guy. He does everything from urban foraging, which we didn't really get into in this episode, but he knows everything from what plants grow in an urban environment to a Woodland environment and everything in between.

The things that you can eat, the things you probably shouldn't. And there's quite a few of those out there that you probably shouldn't, but a Daniel currently walks, works for walks, he does cook, so he may walk as well. Uh, but Daniel currently works for the AgriLife water university with Texas a and M AgriLife extension out of the Dallas AgriLife center. And uh, he's a smart guy, passionate about water conservation, about plants, about horticulture, about fluid and all kinds of great things.

I think you're going to love this episode, Daniel. So thanks for listening. As always, I appreciate your time and I appreciate your support. Uh, enjoy the episode and I will talk to you again at the end. Thanks for being on with me today. I'll thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I'm excited. So Daniel, how long have we been friends, do you think? Oh man, turn back the clock. Uh , like is it been a decade, maybe eight, nine years, something like that?

I think it's been pretty close to a decade cause I think I started my masters in 2010. And so you were already here? I think so. We've spent a lot of hours, like doing weird stuff like collecting wildflower seed on the [inaudible] side of the highway. Yeah, that was, that was a lot of fun. For sure. There's a picture of that, I think somewhere we'll have to share that there's, there's gotta be right somewhere.

And so you can't, like I , I know podcast listener folks that you can't see us, but , uh, how tall are you? Like six, four, six, four. Yeah, around there. So, so Daniel is a very tall man and I'm not a short person. And , uh, we spent a lot of time on the side of the highways for our research, like, you know, picking wildflower seeds and , uh, I'm sure we got some funny looks and there may more than just the pictures we have floating around out there.

Yeah. I know that one, for example, we were hanging off of a cliff collecting those, a Blackfoot Daisy seed, so, and a middle of a Canyon in West Texas. Yeah. And like, and I'm sure it was like 105 that day. Oh yes. Without a doubt. So yeah, so we've had a lot of interesting experiences.

You know, the one experience that will always like stick with me is the character building day was one day , um, one of our fellow grad student , and this is, this has nothing to do with the interview, but it's funny story that one of our fellow grad students, Amber, was like, I really need to fill up some pots for soils from the research farm. And we were like, well, okay, you know what , let's go full of pots and we get out there and , uh , it's raining for one thing.

You remember where you , that you were there for their , I was, yeah. No, it was not only raining, I mean it , it started coming down. I mean at one point I think it was pouring. Yeah. Yeah. And so we had to feel like I had to been like 55 gallon pots with dirt soil or whatever. Uh , and it's pouring rain. We couldn't get the truck out to the pile because there was like three inches of mud.

So we spent I think three hours in the rain pushing a wheelbarrow with a flat tire full of hundreds of pounds of wet mud , uh, and then loading it in the truck and driving it back to the greenhouse. So that was grad school's not for the [inaudible] . Yeah. Probably the worst part about that was that the mud, when mud starts caking on your shoes, it was like we were all in ice skates and uh , yeah. Slipping and sliding, you know, hundreds of pounds of soil in a wheelbarrow.

Yeah. Was character-building without a doubt. Yeah, for sure. So , uh, anyway, listeners, now that we've taken a trip down memory lane , uh, so Daniel, tell me about what you do. Yes. So I am a horticulturalist and a project manager with Texas a and M AgriLife. And a specifically I'm with the urban water team based out of the research and extension center in Dallas. Okay. So what exactly does that mean? So what do you, what do you do day to day?

Yeah, so , um , it's, I like to tell people it's the best job in Texas horticulture. It's kinda something different every day. So my appointment is actually , uh , with AgriLife research. And so from time to time we get to get into , uh, some research projects , um , looking at a rainwater harvesting , um, we're looking at , uh, you know, trying to develop water, use efficiency data for plant material. Um, but also , uh, we do research on how we can educate people about saving water.

And so our main goal is , uh , to try and find the most , uh , current research based methods in terms of water conservation. I disseminate that information to the public and the best way that we can. I also, we bring in storm water management. So here in the DFW area, we get most of our water from surface water, so our area lakes and uh , you know, whether that's to irrigate a landscape, but also to take a shower, do everything we need water for.

And so , uh, specifically in an urban area, we get a lot of pollutants going into our water supply. So we try and deter that , uh, with education and programming as well. Okay. Uh, well that, you know, that's pretty interesting. And so I think that like, man, water conservation in the state of Texas is such a big deal.

And , uh, you know, and I don't know , like, I think we think about it a lot up here in , in Lubbock, you know, where I am that, gosh, it's dry and it's hot and , uh, we're running out of water or whatever. Um , people kind of freak out, which maybe , um, maybe for good reason, maybe not. You know, it depends on the day and all that. But uh, um, what is that, what's that issue like in the Dallas Fort worth area? Cause y'all get a lot more rain.

Y'all get , um, you know , uh, your climate's vastly different. Is that still a big concern for y'all? Yeah , so on average we get about 36 inches of rainfall a year here in the metroplex. And so , uh , that can range from, you know, 72 inches in a year to 18 inches in a year. It's kind of like a Lubbock and other parts of Texas. It's feast or famine and, and , uh, so that can create a little bit of of a challenge.

Um, in fact, just recently there was a report that listed , uh, that , uh, North central Texas was not only the fastest growing , uh , part of , uh, Texas, but it was the fastest growing area in the country. And about 7.5 million people are here in North central Texas. Um , about 50% of any urban area is covered , uh , with lawn and landscaping. And then , um, really one of our largest contributors , uh , to , uh , water use or one of our end uses of water is about 41% on average.

And that could be higher up job . You know, 50, 60% , uh , during the summer is really landscape irrigation. So we've got this vastly growing population. Uh, we have , uh , the lakes that we have , um, most of the lakes here have been around for about 40, 50 years. And so , um, there's aging infrastructure associated with that.

Most of the areas that we could impound a leg, so that would be a river Creek , uh, that has kind of a natural Canyon , uh, that you could put a dam on that's already happened. And so , uh, we do have two new lakes coming on board .

Um, but , um , really if we look at the 50 year plan, which a lot of our, our water folks with the Texas development board , um , have worked hard to, to look at , uh , we have challenges to meet the demand, the water demand of our growing population, especially in a, in a, you know, certainly on a regular rainfall year, but especially in a drought year.

So if we do see that , um, the drought of record or the drought of a hundred year drought or , uh , we can look at our drought record , um , there's research where they've looked at a bald Cypress trees or live of trees and have seen in Texas there were drought periods that lasted 20, 30, even 40 years , uh, where you would get less than 50% of normal rainfall. Um, the North central Texas area would be in quite a crunch there.

Um, you know , uh , we've seen issues I think recently , uh , with South Africa where, you know, people are turning on the tap and water's not coming out. Or a decade ago, and Atlanta people couldn't irrigate , uh, outdoor plants. They could wash their cars. And so what we try and do is prevent that from happening , uh , with education on conservation and , uh, using our conservation to find new water supplies to meet that growing demand. Wow. I mean, yeah, that's, that's quite a job.

Like that's a, that's a big thing to tackle. And I know that, you know, we do quite a bit of it around here and one of the guests on an upcoming episode is a Katherine jury for the water district here. And um, you know, so they , uh, it's just interesting to think about scale cause we've got, you know, in the Lubbock area about 300,000 people , uh, which is not a small number of people by any means, but you compare that to the seven and a half million in, in North Texas.

And that's a, that's a, that's a crazy number to think about. It is. It's, it's quite a challenge. Um, and you know, how many people can you reach through education, face to face interaction? You know, I think the traditional method is , uh , we have what we call bait and switch classes. So we offer , uh , 20 horticulture based classes. Um, a lot of people wouldn't necessarily want to come to a class specifically just on drip irrigation.

I mean, some people would, but I think the majority of those people would come to a efficient irrigation class already are interested in efficient irrigation. You don't get a lot of, you know, high water users all of a sudden just trying to , to switch their ways. So , uh, what we do is we'll teach a class on vegetable gardening. Uh , we'll teach a class on edible landscape or composting or a variety of different subjects like shade, gardening, wildlife, gardening.

But at each one of those classes starts out with about 10 to 15 minutes on where we get our water from. Uh , why it's critical , uh , going forward to conserve some of that water. And then because is so intertwined in each one of those subjects, it really pairs nicely, you know, in terms of vegetables that many vegetables require more irrigation than some of our native and adaptive plants.

So we really kind of dig deeper on how we can conserve water, but also that's going to help people grow, you know , uh , be more productive with their tomato garden now for composting and mulching, using drip irrigation, all that. So really we're teaching people how to be productive and the water thing is just one component of that. Yeah, that's really cool.

So, you know, I know you're working in , um, the Waterworld now, but I've always known you as , uh , like, I don't want to call you Daniel, the plant guy, but you're kind of Daniel the plant . In fact, your Twitter handle is what Texas? Yeah . Text plant guy out social media at TX plant guy. That's right. Yeah. So definitely, I mean you and you've got quite a following on Twitter, don't you? Yeah. Something, you know, I don't know. Almost 20,000. I think we're pushing.

Oh my gosh , I have like nine friends. I , that's amazing. That's really cool. But, so where did your , um, like love of, cause I, you know, I, I know how much you love gardening and nature and plants in general. Where did that start for you? Yes . So there's, there's kind of two, two things. Um, you know, I can't remember some of my first memories I was being with my great grandmother and her vegetable garden that she had in her front yard and kinda bending over.

She had an apron and harvesting tomatoes and I think I couldn't, couldn't quite walk. And so I was either holding onto her the tomato cages there. Um, and , and my, my grandmothers were into gardening too, but I do remember distinctly that we had a neighbor, Diane and Diane , if you're out there, I want to connect with you. I can't remember her last name, but , um, she lived two doors down and her back fence was non-existent.

She , um , had taken that down in her whole backyard, was a vegetable garden. And I remember in that day, you know, this was the 80s, so I , I think, you know, five years old or however I would walk down the street and talked to her and just was amazed at the vegetables that she was crying and she would, you know, pick asparagus or spinach , um , and bring it inside and cook it with a little butter or salt .

And I remember it tasted so amazing, better than, you know, the cans , you know, versions of those vegetables that we were eating at home and pun intended, really, that planted a seed or for me just in a desire to grow vegetables. And so I came home and would harp on my dad. I want to have a vegetable garden, I want to have a vegetable garden. In about sixth grade, he finally gave in and we built a vegetable garden and I've been growing vegetables ever since.

Um, and now the flip side of that, so there's two kind of, you know, realms of horticulture that, that I really nerd out on. The one is native plants of , of course, you know , um, and uh, funny enough, I grew up about two and a half miles from where I work right now at the research and extension center in Dallas and as a wee below, which I re , I guess that was about third or fourth grade and we did a tour of , uh , the research and extension center and Benny Simpson a horticulturalist.

Actually I'm from Texas tech and then ended up working for AgriLife , uh, later in life. He showed us around and uh, really , um, he was kind of a pioneer of his day. He , uh , promoted native plants, was one of the founders of the native plant society. Also. He saw the needs specifically in urban areas to use a water efficient plant material.

Um, just because, you know, we had limited water supply and I remember that talk and just thinking native plants are cool and , uh, it's kinda just started digging into native plants as a hobby. And then, you know, I kinda at some point figured out, Hey, you could actually do this as a job and make money, maybe not lots of money, but make money and have fun doing it. And I think that's, that's really important with a job and a career. Yeah. Well for sure.

And, and you know, I think that, you know, one of the reasons I'm doing this whole thing is to figure out why people are passionate about the things they are right. The story we don't tell our students well sometimes or the potential students well sometimes is in 10 or 15 years, are you still going to care about this? Right? Like, we're real good at telling them, Oh, here's some facts and some knowledge and stuff.

And I think the piece we miss sometimes is, you know, you can have a really rewarding , uh, like lifetime career and find a lifetime passion in plant science and in the things we do. And , uh, I think that's an important story to tell. So it's just cool hearing like your story of like going through all of that and , and still like really loving it. Sure. I, and it , you know, I kind of skipped, there was definitely some bumps in the road.

Um, uh, you know, when I first went to tech I studied , um, I was the arts and sciences undecided for the first two years and after that they kind of make you, you know, decide what you want to do. And I was business marketing and economics , um, at first and , uh , then I figured out yet to have a math minor and I was like, I don't know if I really want to do that. Um, I had done some construction growing up. My, my family w w you know, was in the construction business.

And so I thought maybe, maybe I'll pursue that construction technology and the engine engineering department. But again, a lot of math that , um, I didn't really , um, wasn't too excited about. And so I actually left school for awhile .

Um, I had studied business marketing and , uh , had over a hundred hours in that and left and started building custom homes and did that for about five years in Dallas and was actually , um, it was a pretty lucrative career, but it just wasn't scratching that itch. It wasn't something that I was passionate about. Um, it was just kind of more of a job and I started doing more research on, on plants and uh, you know, again, at that point it was more of a hobby.

Some of the people I would build houses for at the end , uh, they knew I was into plants and so on the side I would build them a vegetable garden or make suggestions on some of the plant materials that they chose in their landscaping. And I had a buddy, my buddy Richard, which is like, I really think that you should go back to school, finish your degree and just , uh, just follow your passion. And , um, there was a , another gentleman who I was building his , his house , uh, about the same time.

And , uh, he was , uh, had gone to Texas tech and , uh, and I , my, funny enough, my boss , uh, that the construction company had also gone to Texas tech and they just kept echoing the same thing and they encouraged me to go back and I did.

And um, where , you know, originally changing my major, I think four or five times , um, I had been on, on Scholastic probation, I'm not going to lie a few times and was kind of the kid that sat in the back and you know, didn't know , uh, necessarily what I wanted to do. So there wasn't always a lot of effort would skip class to play video games.

But when I did go back, I sat in the front row and I wanted to consume everything I could , um , from the classes I took and the plant and soil science department and , uh , you know, went from the class. The kid that was kind of just scraping to get by to, you know, was the kid that ruined the curve for everybody else.

And , and I apologize for that, but , um , just wanting to learn everything I could about plants and to really, you know, pursue my passion , uh, not only was a lot of fun, just learning and that learning process really never stops. Um, but , uh, doing that actually really getting to apply that in a career. Yeah. Every day is something different. And , uh, it is funny.

So many times I just look up and I say, I, they're actually paying me to do stuff that , that I would probably do for free anyway. Yeah. That's super cool. No , that's, and that's, I think that's such an important story for our students and for students in general that we all hit those bumps in the road. Right? Like I started in , um , engineering, I did a year of biomedical engineering at a, and M and , uh , same kind of thing.

They sent me your , you know, I got my Scholastic probation letter, email, whatever, of like, you know, you have a 1.3. Do you really want to be doing this? Um, and the answer ended up being no, right? Like I wanted to go to med school cause both of my grandparents on my mom's side are doctors or were doctors. And , uh, I realized like, you know, that's cool. Nothing. I mean it just wasn't, I don't like blood or calculus. So like that was a problem.

Um, and so, you know, I went to a general studies advisor and was like, I don't know what I'm doing with my life. I'm 19 years old and I'm already like, totally lost. Right? And they were like, you know, so what do you enjoy doing? What do you, and I was like, well I, you know, kind of the same stories. Years grew up gardening with my grandparents and um, they're all good . Have you thought about horticulture? And so that's kinda how I, and , and like I've never looked back. I really haven't.

I have enjoyed really every minute of this journey. It's just such a cool, like again, I feel like, and you and I are very similar in a lot of ways that we get to do a lot of education. I think we're both , uh, uh , fairly passionate about teaching people and education and we get to do that, but then we also get to play with plants. And that's kinda like the best of both worlds. It is, it is.

You know, I initially , um, I had got into horticulture, you know, for the passion for plants, but also thought , um, you know, this is a job that I can spend time in a greenhouse or out in a field or in a landscape. And I, and I don't really have to interact with people. That's what I thought. Um, and I didn't necessarily know, you know, when, when at tech, I, I've taught some of the, the introduction to horticulture labs in grad school.

And when they originally asked me to do that and my mom was a teacher growing up, but I added know if I wanted to go down the teaching route. And so they originally asked me, I, I turned them down. And then , uh , and then they came back and you know , they talked about the tuition forgiveness and the money was a little bit better than I was making enough at diamond . So I was like, well, you know, okay , I'll do it. And the first and second day I was like, Oh, what did I get myself into?

Why did I say yes? And man, it was like that third class that I was like, I love this. It was so fun because, you know, I love plants so much, but to pass on your love and your passion to somebody else is really amazing and it can be a challenge.

Uh , you know, there was, I always did say during a classroom setting, about a third of the kids came to learn every day and were excited and , and about a third of the kids, you know, they were just there because it was a lab science and they weren't really trying too hard. And you know, those kids were definitely a harder to reach.

Um, and then in the middle, you know, third it was like, I felt like those were the kids that , um, if you really tried hard to interact with them and you , uh , kind of presented the information in a fun way, that was fascinating , uh , that you could really get them interested. And so my goal every semester, I think I did it for seven semesters, was she recruit one of my students from each class into the horticulture department.

And , uh, it is funny to this day how many people come up and was like, Hey, you know, I took your such and such class. And , uh, it's so rewarding at , uh , to kind of help steer people on their path. Um, you know, like the Binny Simpsons or the Diane's or my grandmothers did. So , uh , that's one of the most rewarding parts of my job today is, although I do teach classes for students, we do career days and, and different educational things with community gardens.

Um, you know, anything from elementary school, junior high to high school, but the majority of the people I'm teaching or older people who own a home or perhaps retired people, master gardener trainings, master naturalist planning trainings. But it's still that, you know, and I helping turn on that passion of plants and other people that really gets me excited to go to work every day. That's awesome. No, that's really awesome.

So , uh , we just have a few minutes left, but I wanted to touch real quick on , um, some of the media stuff you do because I think that, you know, maybe there's this picture that, you know, you get into plant science and you spend all your time like digging in the dirt and uh, or as an educator just hanging out in the classroom. But like you do TV news, you've got regular spots, you do a lot of social media. How to tell me what that's like in your life.

How is that , um, part of your , uh, career and how does that lets you get your information out? Yeah . So , um, you know, T Texas , same AgriLife through that, the state agency, really a lot of what we need to do is disseminate the information to the public. And that's definitely something that I'm passionate about. Um , and we teach these, these face to face classes. You know, there could be 25 people in a class, maybe the big ones will have a few hundred. Um, but 7.5 million people.

That's a lot of people that were charged , uh , with reaching and helping. And so , uh , my boss early on really , uh , saw that social media could be an effective tool and education, teaching people how to grow plants and be better stewards with our natural resources. And so I just started consuming every article, just reading how to be successful on social media. And , uh , a lot of people are into plants, come to find out, a lot of people are into conservation.

And so that kind of just snowballs. And , uh, I'm an editor of the Dallas morning news, followed me on Twitter. And , uh, she had seen some of this stuff that , that I had written and was like, Hey, would you be interested in, in writing for the morning news? And that was a little bit different than kind of the technical or scientific writing I had done, but I was like, sure. I mean, we can reach, you know, 175,000 people that take the Dallas morning news with this message.

And so , uh, we do a regular newspaper article there , um, uh , one, one or two a month. And then , uh, the Dow's where news happens to have a partnership with NBC. And so , uh , NBC asks , uh , to come on and do some different stuff, teaching people how to grow plants and water. And I think other people have seen that, that, and it's turned into regular spots with Fox and now more recently, CBS.

And we've got to do some fun stuff , uh, with WFA or bred , uh , ABCs , verify a radio show down a regular once a month, go on the radio shows. So , uh, never anything that I thought I would, I would be doing. I don't consider myself a journalist. Um, I'm more of a hack maybe.

Um, but it is, it's been a lot of fun and , uh , I think it's , uh , whether you're using social media or traditional media or mixed media, it really is a great way to get the message out there , um, to teach people about, about horticulture. That's really cool. That's really cool. So, no , and that's, I , I've had a similar experience where it's just, it's fun. It's kind of scary the first couple of times, Oh , without a doubt.

Even even doing this podcast thing, I'm like, you know, where people are gonna listen, am I going to say something stupid? Whatever. But then I think about a podcast is I can always go and cut sections out, right? Like if I say something really dumb, I can, it can go away. But , um, but no, it's, it's fun and I think it's an important part of our job as science communicators , uh, to, to reach as many people as we can to get our information out there and get that , uh , in the public year.

And , um, you know, again, conservation and plants and gardening and health and nutrition and all that are such big deals that I think it's, it's super important. So just a couple of questions before we wrap up. You know, you've spent a lot of time in the horticulture industry , uh, in, in various facets, right? You've done everything from the home, like landscape side, the garden side to the education side. Where do you see us headed?

Um, what do you think in the next five to 10 years is the future of horticulture and the maybe the green sector in general? Yeah, that's, that's a good question. Um, you know, looking at the garden cringe is we teach , um, close to 300 classes a year through, through our water university program and it does seem like more homeowners are interested in the classes , uh, where we talk about edible plant materials.

So whether that's vegetable gardening or edible landscaping, herbs, you know, what have you , um, we've seen now a about a third of our classes are , are, are people attending those , uh, type programs. Um, in fact, we've seen , uh , just across the United state , uh , about , um, a third of the population is now growing some of their own food and which is the highest number we've seen in decades.

I think the latest study was like 52 million households now are growing , uh , something food related . Uh, we also see a lot of people interested in gardening for wildlife. So that's bird butterflies or bees. Um, you know, hummingbirds, a lot of people seem to really be trending in landscapes that give back. Um, in fact , uh, the , uh , associate , what is it? The association of landscape architects does a survey each year.

Um, uh, they ask people what they want in a landscape design and it's crazy how many people want native and adapted plants that are pollinator friendly. Uh, I also think , um, in the horticulture horticulture industry, we're seeing a lot of millennials , um, that may not have, you know, big landscape, especially in an urban area, but they still are interested in plants and gardening.

So a lot of interior plants seem to be peeking interest , uh, of people , uh, so plants that can grow well in low light conditions, whether that's , uh , on a window sill or somewhere in the home. Uh, so those are kind of the three big areas , um, uh , that I've seen recently. But , um, it's hard to say for sure to put my finger on it, but I think it is something that's exciting and , uh , I'm definitely , uh, going to go along for the ride and see where the future takes us. Yeah, for sure.

No, that's cool. That's, and that's all exciting and I think , uh, encouraging to hear that we're maybe getting , uh , back to our roots, so to speak. Yeah, no, I thought so. And if you, if you're out there and you follow Daniel's , uh, social media, the puns come , uh , fast and hard and like they're , they're a mile a minute.

So we always appreciate that I'm all, I'm all about a dad joke and upon , um, the last thing I want to ask you is , um, uh, what I've been trying to do at the end of these episodes, just to like thank people for listening to the whole thing and committing to it , uh, is , uh , I'm trying to get, you know, our experts that come on and give us a gardening tip or a landscape tips .

So I know it's been, it's kinda hard to narrow down, especially on the spot, but if you had one piece of advice for someone for their garden or landscape, what would that be? Um, I would have to say to cover your bare soil. Um, so if you have bare soil, cover it first with compost or mulch , um, you know, two to four inches of mulch can infiltrate 60% more water than just bare soil. It also reduces erosion, helps hold water during the summer months.

So, you know, whatever, whatever growing conditions you have mulch is definitely going to help with that. And if it's not that, then then cover it with plant materials. Select the right plant for the right place. A lot of our bare soil are underneath mature trees that were formally turfgrass. Um, so just shoot , choose shade tolerant plants under your trees. Um, if you do have an area, it's kind of a heat Island.

I know we see that Lubbock on the West side of the house where there's bare soil there just because it's kinda so hot and dry. Um, choose native and adaptive drought tolerant plants and moles around those. But yeah, that's probably the easiest thing and a small amount of time I would say is just cover your bare soil cover that cover the soil. Yeah, that's a , that's definitely great advice. I think especially in a hot dry climate. So Daniel, where can we find you online? Where a plug your stuff.

Tell us what , tell us about where we can get you. Uh , yeah, probably the easiest thing is just in a Google to type in T X plant guy and uh , all this stuff pops up. So there's TX plant guy.com. Um, there's uh , you know, whether it's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, you can type in TX plant guy. Um, and , uh , all that stuff , uh, would love to follow and uh , have you follow me but also just connect. Ask me any questions you want.

Um, we actually have a Facebook page that we're getting rolled out and I'm happy that Vikram is a part of the Texas plant questions. And then my day job, all of our information's a searchable plant database , uh, publications that we've worked on on growing plants. Uh, you can find that@wateruniversitydottamu.edu. Awesome. Hey man, thanks so much for coming on. I always enjoy chatting with you and catching up and it's fun to kind of nerd out and talk plants. Yeah, likewise.

I really appreciate you , uh, you having me on and uh, love to , to talk to you anytime I get the chance. As he mentioned, Daniel is TX plant guy. Pretty much anywhere you find a social media. He's there talking about plants, connecting with him. He loves talking to folks, loves answering your questions. We are playing the apology in all of the places. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The handles vary . You can find us by searching plant apology . I love to get your feedback.

Review us, rate us, give us some comments on iTunes, Stitcher, Castbox , pod chaser on the social medias and anywhere else. Thanks so much for listening. Can't wait to talk to you next time when we'll have Christina Reed from AgriLife extension. Keep being fooled . Keep being nerdy and keep asking questions about plants.