When planting a naturalistic garden, is having more plants always better? If you ask Kelly Norris, my podcast guest this week and the author of “ New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden ,” the answer is, unequivocally, “yes.” He is an advocate for biodiverse, abundant landscapes that use every square foot to its maximum potential. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving gard...
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast The science behind the relationship between plants and light is complicated, but my guest on this week’s encore episode explains it in an accessible, easy-to-understand way. Her name is Leslie Halleck, and she is an expert on lighting for indoor growing. In our conversation, Leslie explains what gardeners need to know about light to raise houseplants as well as herbs and vegetables indoors. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have...
Feb 18, 2021•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Before attempting a pest control method that may prove to be unnecessary, ineffective or complete overkill, the first step a gardener should take is to correctly identify the problem. Positive identification of garden pests paired with the appropriate intervention will yield the best results while minimizing or eliminating negative impacts. My guest this week, Susan Mulvihill, has penned a new book on solving common pest problems that will arm you with all the information you need to make the ri...
Feb 11, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast No-dig gardening is a simple gardening method that many gardeners — who were taught for years that they had to till or turn their gardens annually — still have many questions about. To demystify no-dig gardening and explain its benefits, my guest this week is my longtime friend Charlie Nardozzi, a nationally recognized garden writer, speaker, and radio and television personality. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving...
Feb 04, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Many factors affect whether seeds started indoors will grow to become seedlings that are strong and healthy enough to transition into the garden, survive and prosper. On this week’s encore episode, John Porter of The Garden Professors shares his non-negotiables for success when seed starting. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It’s what I still do today, without exception to get incredible res...
Jan 28, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Indoor seed starting time is nearly upon us, and whether you are starting seeds yourself for the first time in 2021 or you have prior experience, I’m certain you’ll find my discussion with tomato growing expert Craig LeHoullier enlightening. In this encore presentation, Craig and I share tips and tricks to successfully start seeds indoors. Download my free chart- Seed Starting Soil Temperature Chart - Get Optimal Soil Temperatures for Germination of Common Vegetable Seeds. Subscribe to the joega...
Jan 21, 2021•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Winter sowing is an easy and fun way to scratch the gardening itch in the coldest months while also getting a head start on growing flowers and cool-season crops that will then take off in spring. In this week’s encore episode, I explain how winter sowing works and identify the types of seeds that are the best candidates to successfully employ this easy seed-starting method. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving gard...
Jan 14, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast From time to time on the podcast, we’ve touched on growing herbs, but this week’s episode is the first that is dedicated solely to growing herbs. My guest to help us dive into this topic of these workhorse plants for every garden is horticulturist Sue Goetz, whose new book, “Complete Container Herb Gardening,” was published just last month. Download my free guide- How Do I Grow Herbs . The basics of how to grow fragrant and delicious herbs in your garden. Subscribe to the joegardener® email list...
Jan 07, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast From a large back yard to the tiniest balcony, the garden is a place of refuge, and never has that been more true than in 2020. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, gardeners new and old have realized the many ways that gardening enriches their lives, and how that joy and satisfaction is compounded when they share their bounty and their love of gardening with others. On this week’s podcast, I’m highlighting a few stories about the bright spot that gardening provided in 2020. Download my free eBook 5 S...
Dec 31, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever compared a packet of conventional seeds and a packet of organic seeds and wondered what the difference truly is? My guest this week — to demystify what it means when seeds are organic — is Tom Stearns, a pioneer of growing and selling organic seeds. Download my free guide- Seed Starting Chart . Before you start flipping through those seed catalogs, don't forget to take an inventory of what seeds you already have and determine if they are still viable. Subscribe to the joegardener® ...
Dec 24, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Before placing your order online or filling out a seed catalog order form, be sure you are making the best buying decisions. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing tips to help make you a more informed seed shopper. I'll explain what to do before you start, how to process the plethora of seed catalogs arriving at your home or in your email inbox, and the types of seed to look for to meet your needs. I’ll also get into the differences among the various seed companies, large and small, and other sour...
Dec 17, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Buying an artificial Christmas tree and reusing it for years may seem like a more environmentally friendly option than buying a real, cut tree every holiday season, but when you dig a little deeper you’ll find that real trees are truly the sustainable choice. In this week’s podcast, I’ll explain the benefits of real trees as well as how to care for a live tree in your home so it retains needles and looks great through Christmas. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 mos...
Dec 10, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast The American chestnut tree spanned the eastern United States and numbered in the billions before blight wiped out most of the population. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing my personal affection for the American chestnut and speaking with an expert from The American Chestnut Foundation about what devastated this tree and what’s being done to save it. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It’s wh...
Dec 03, 2020•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast While I am a big proponent of learning through experience, I also hone my gardening skills and draw inspiration by regularly dipping into my library of books on horticulture and the natural world. In the nearly two and a half years since I first presented an episode on my favorite books for gardeners, I’ve added more must-haves to my list, and I am sharing them with you this week. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thrivin...
Nov 26, 2020•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast As we approach Thanksgiving, a time for taking stock of all the things we are grateful for, it feels like a good time to reflect on our gardening successes this year. I’ll admit I’m guilty of talking about how challenging this summer was in the garden for many of us while failing to highlight the achievements. This week, I am rectifying that at the suggestion of podcast listener Tom Discordia, who encouraged me to do an episode on everything that went right this year. And I agree. So with that, ...
Nov 19, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast When you plant vegetable and flower seeds in your garden, do you ever think about where exactly those seeds came from? Could you even imagine certified-organic seeds being collected from a one-acre farm in the middle of the second-largest city in California? That’s exactly where my guest this week, seed grower and farmer Brijette Peña, trials, breeds and produces the Certified Organic seeds for her business, San Diego Seed Company. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 ...
Nov 12, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gardeners know that eating food you grew yourself raises your spirits in a way that few things can. My guest this week, educator and author of The Power of a Plant, Stephen Ritz, recognized the benefit of growing edible plants to enrich students’ bodies and minds in a variety of ways, and his Green Bronx Machine has now inspired a documentary on the far-reaching benefits of raising and sharing nutritious food. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps a...
Nov 05, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ornamental grasses are eye-catching, low-maintenance additions to home landscapes that offer color, texture and seasonal interest, but they continue to be underutilized. To share the many benefits of using ornamental grasses, my guest this week is horticulturist, lifelong gardener and author Brie Arthur. Download my free guide- Growing & Using Ornamental Grasses in the Home Landscape. How to Select, Grow, and Care for Ornamental Grasses and Grass-like Plants. Subscribe to the joegardener® email ...
Oct 29, 2020•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Companion planting has been practiced for centuries, but it’s not always clear why some plants perform better when paired with others. To separate conjecture from facts, my guest this week, horticulturist and author Jessica Walliser, has penned a new book on companion planting strategies supported by science. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It’s what I still do today, without exception to g...
Oct 22, 2020•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Houseplants bring life to our indoor environment, and caring for them can bring both joy and challenges. To answer how to pick the right houseplants for your home and how to best look after them, joining me this week is Jane Perrone, the host of “On the Ledge,” the No. 1 houseplant podcast on Apple Podcasts. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It’s what I still do today, without exception to ge...
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Ornamental grasses are now common sights at nurseries and garden centers, but that hasn’t always been the case. One of the earliest advocates of incorporating native and ornamental grasses and grass-like plants into American gardens was horticulturist and landscape designer John Greenlee — a well-known and respected expert in grass ecology known as the “Grassman” or “Grass Guru,” among other monikers — and he’s my guest on the podcast this week. Download my free guide- Growing & Using Ornamental...
Oct 08, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast The most satisfying triumphs in the garden are built on experimentation and, yes, what many call failures, but what I always call learning opportunities. Perhaps no one I know pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in the garden further than veteran gardener, Meg Cowden of the blog Seed to Fork , so I invited her on the podcast this week to find out what lessons she’s learned from her garden in 2020. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone ca...
Oct 01, 2020•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Despite the best efforts of gardening educators to debunk poor gardening advice, bad information continues to be shared online and elsewhere by well-meaning, though ill-informed, gardeners. To keep up the fight against bad gardening tips that persist, this week I am sharing once again my conversation about decoding gardening advice, with Dr. Jeff Gillman, a horticultural scientist who puts common gardening recommendations to the test to determine what’s really backed up by science and what advic...
Sep 24, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast When many gardeners are picking their last crops for the year and getting ready to say goodbye to their gardens until spring, Niki Jabbour doesn’t slow down when temperatures drop. Though Niki lives in USDA zone 5b in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where winter temperatures can plunge to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, she can harvest fresh vegetables year-round because she implements season-extension practices and structures in her garden. Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most impor...
Sep 17, 2020•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Starting a new tomato garden in an unfamiliar location poses a number of challenges and can be intimidating, even for experienced gardeners, but it also provides a clean slate and new opportunities for lessons learned. Tomato growing expert Craig LeHoullier moved in January to Hendersonville, North Carolina, and he has much to share about experimenting in his new garden there. Download my free guide- How Do I Grow Tomatoes? . The basics of how to grow delicious tomatoes and keep them thriving in...
Sep 10, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Of all the gardening seasons, the fall growing season is my favorite. Arugula, beets, broccoli, carrots, lettuce and more — there are so many cool-season vegetables that you can grow in fall and enjoy on your dinner plate. The trick is to know your first frost date and work backward from there to pick the right time to start growing cool-season vegetables either indoors or direct-sown from seed, or transplanted. Download my free guide- Seed Germination:Optimal Soil Temperature Range . Optimal So...
Sep 03, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast I like to encourage risk-taking in the garden because the stakes are usually very low, and we know that “mistake” is another word for “learning opportunity.” However, there are some common gardening mistakes to avoid that you don’t need to learn about the hard way. Download my free guide- Seed Germination:Optimal Soil Temperature Range . Optimal Soil Temperatures for Germination of Common Vegetable Seeds. Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episod...
Aug 27, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is succession planting? Succession planting is how gardeners make the most of limited space and extend their growing season beyond what’s considered typical of a region. To speak to this topic, I invited succession planting expert Meg Cowden of the blog Seed to Fork on the podcast for a previous episode, and I am reprising that conversation this week because now is when vegetable gardeners are taking steps to have a successful fall garden. Download my free checklist- Fall Edibles Checklist ...
Aug 20, 2020•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Coming up on the middle of August, it’s clear that the 2020 gardening season is one for the record books — not for its performance, but for its challenges. Having been a gardener my whole life and in professional horticulture for more than 30 years, I can say that this was the year of all years for garden challenges. In this week’s episode, I answer questions that have come in this summer from podcast listeners, the members of the joegardener Facebook group and students in my Online Gardening Ac...
Aug 13, 2020•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Of all the problems that gardeners run into, having a bigger harvest than you know what to do with is the best problem to have. If you find yourself in this enviable position, you’ll want to listen to my conservation from a few summers back with Theresa Loe on preserving your garden harvest. Download my free guide- How Do I Grow Cucumbers? . The basics of how to grow delicious cucumbers and keep them thriving in your garden all season. Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly u...
Aug 06, 2020•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
