Growing Greener

Artist Robert Adzema discusses his history of creating ingenious and innovative sundials, and what sundials can teach the gardener about plants' primary fuel.

Dan Jaffe Wilder's response to the polluting sterility of the traditional lawn?   Plant strawberries.   And that's only one of many intriguing – and tested - proposals made by this talented native plants pioneer.  

Robert Kourik, a pioneer of sustainable gardening, draws on his 45 years of experience with Permaculture to explore the strengths and weaknesses of this controversial gardening movement

Will "volcano mulch" the landscaper piled around the bases of your trees kill them?   And is a mulch made of ground-up shipping pallets really beneficial for your plants?   You may be surprised by the science-based insights about common organic mulches that Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott of Washington State University shares in the most recent "Growing Greener."

Ecological gardening leader Larry Weaner details how you can get all the benefits of conventional mulch, plus boosting biodiversity and wildlife, with a well-designed and beautiful groundcover of native plants

Maya K. van Rossum discusses Green Amendments for the Generations, the movement she founded to bring an amendment to every state constitution guaranteeing residents' basic human right to clean air and water, and a healthy environment

John Walker, a horticulturist who trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and a multi award winner environmental writer, shares advice on Veganic Gardening, an approach that combines organic practices with plant-based nurturing of the soil with resources found or grown on-site for maximum sustainability.

Buying topsoil is a quick and popular fix for many garden problems – but buyer beware says Dawn Pettinelli, Director of the University of Connecticut's Soil & Nutrient Analysis Lab.   There are no industry standards, not even a definition, of what makes a good topsoil. Dawn shares tips on making sure the topsoil you buy is non-toxic and of a quality that will benefit your plants.

"Gardeners are the worst threat to native plants."   Hostility toward horticulturists is common within the ecological restoration community. But, John Gedraitis of Van Berkum Nursery says, it's an impediment to growers such as him who want to expand the availability of local ecotype plants, genetically adapted natives grown from locally collected wild seed.

Elizabeth Licata, a passionate promoter of Garden Walk Buffalo, the nation's largest free open garden tour, and a longtime contributor to the popular blog "Garden Rant" takes on gardener anthropomorphism, our appealing but destructive habit of ascribing human emotions and characteristics to plants.

Landscape architects Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden electrified the gardening world in 1975 when they introduced a new horticultural richness and a concern for sustainability with their "New American Garden Style."   Eric Groft, current CEO of Oehme, van Sweden discusses the firm's new book, "Beyond Bold," describing how the successor generation has remained true to that legacy while pursuing...

Dr. Douglas Tallamy, the University of Delaware entomologist who has been awakening homeowners to the need to plant natives and join our plots together in a giant "homegrown national park," has found a new audience.   He has just released a young readers' edition of his best-selling book, "Nature's Best Hope."   Learn how you can enlist your children in the campaign to save our ecosystems.

Founded in 2013 by internationally acclaimed garden designer Edwina von Gal, the Perfect Earth Project seeks to introduce landscape professionals to toxin-free, sustainable approaches to their craft, while reaching out to their customers to create a market for these skills.   Listen to the Project's new Executive Director Matt Jeffery discuss the many new programs the organization is pursuing.

Jeff Lorenz, founder of the acclaimed Refugia Design Build, explains why the pandemic was a boom time for a landscaper committed to native plants, and how his firm's " Ecological Greenway Network" is transforming neighborhoods

Nebraskan Benjamin Vogt, a leader in nature-based gardening, has just published Prairie Up , a book that is sure to become a go-to tool for those designing and installing landscapes rooted in our native grassland flora.   With its many insights how the dynamics of native plants will shape a native landscape, Prairie Up offers invaluable lessons to nature-based gardeners everywhere

My quest for tomatoes that will bear in my cool, cloudy climate led me to Dr. James Myers of Oregon State University.   He shared with me the cultivars he had bred for that purpose, then described a program to produce vegetables better adapted to organic cultivation, and his collaboration with chefs

Horticultural Educator Carol Reese explains why feeding your garden in springtime with a "complete" fertilizer can be a mistake, and describes a "lazy" style of gardening that can help heal the environment while drastically reducing your work.

Plant explorers, once the rock stars of the horticultural world, have suffered a loss of status as gardeners turn to native plants.   Listen to plant explorer extraordinaire Panayoti Kelaidis of the Denver Botanic Gardens discuss why his quest is still important to making our gardens more sustainable, as well as beautiful.

Gratify your Indiana Jones fantasies by joining the Plant Conservation Volunteers.   Your work will have you hiking into overlooked corners of the wild to monitor surviving populations of rare and endangered native plants, and work with landowners to combat threats.

Are your beloved native plants actually "noxious weeds"?  Too often town or homeowner association officers say yes and invoke anti-weed ordinances to force gardeners back to old-fashioned lawns and foundation plantings.  Listen to attorney and native plants advocate Rosanne Plante tell you how you can fight back, and win.

Starting plants from seed is economical and opens up a world of species and cultivars you'll never find in the garden center.  Seed starting is also easy and fun if you use the winter-sowing technique that Dolly Foster teaches. 

Since 1827, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has been leading the way in American gardening.  Listen this week as its Vice President of Horticulture, Andrew Bunting, describes the trends to look for in 2023, and why sustainability concerns are at the top of the list.

Michael Starkey understands that not everyone shares his enthusiasm for snakes, but as founder and Executive Director of Save the Snakes he believes that humans and snakes, even venomous snakes, can coexist.  As a wildlife biologist, Michael shares techniques for making your landscape less – or more – attractive to snakes and how education can protect against snake bites and enhance your enjoyment...

In the early years of the 20th century an introduced fungal blight killed an estimated 4 billion American chestnut trees, effectively eliminating what had been a foundational species of eastern North American woodlands.  Scientist Andrew Newhouse of the State University of New York explains how his university is preparing to release a race of American chestnuts genetically engineered to withstand...

Popular gardener and garden blogger Helen Battersby of Toronto, Canada describes the impact of Ontario's ban of pesticide use for ornamental purposes in this conversation from 2020