Garden Futurist

Read the Transcript Article Here . This episode was sponsored by: Bartlett Tree Experts Guests David Montgomery and Anne Biklé talk with Garden Futurist about how they have used soil science, history, and storytelling to explore the interconnections between farming practices, how soil health affects the health of crops, how the health of crops influences the health of livestock, and how all of the...

Read the Transcript Article  Here. This episode was sponsored by: Bartlett Tree Experts This episode is a little different from our usual format. This conversation with Michael Boland, Chief Park Officer at Presidio Trust in San Francisco, will fill you in on a really exciting in-person event Pacific Horticulture held back in August, when we walked the newly opened Tunnel Tops landscape. “We are f...

Read the transcript article here . This episode was sponsored by: Bartlett Tree Experts Emmanuel Didier, Principal and Creative Director at Didier Design Studio is a leading figure in public garden design. He speaks to Garden Futurist about representing the steppe biomes of the world as a permanent public garden exhibit and how he works to build ecologically functioning landscapes that also reflec...

Read the transcript and special botanical supplement  here . This episode was sponsored by: Bartlett Tree Experts When we look at the Willamette Valley, we recognize that we see these remnant giants of Oregon white oak in the landscape. Those Oregon white oaks and the oak savanna have been historically managed with cultural burns since time immemorial.  If we can look at the oak savanna—of which a...

Read the companion transcript  here . This episode was sponsored by: Bartlett Tree Experts We’re making space for the social and cultural aspects of horticulture as an experience—and we want to honor the role of individual voices. We spoke with a garden futurist who is working to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities in mainstream garden media, specifically the Black community. Colah...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts Dr. Matt Ritter is a professor in the  Biology Department at Cal Poly , San Luis Obispo and director of the  Cal Poly Plant Conservatory . He is the author of many books, including  California Plants: A Guide to Our Iconic Flora . “If you are just an average American, and you’re going about your business spewi...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts If you take Keystone plants out of your local food web, the food web collapses, because they are producing most of the caterpillars that run that food web. We found that just 5% of our native plant species are supporting 75% of the caterpillars that are out there. Dr. Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts With Dr. Nancy Shackelford,  Restoration Futures Lab  director, and assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Victoria British Columbia. “In this context, restoration has a lot of meanings. One of those meanings is yes, trying to support the plant species, but it’s also trying to rebuil...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts With Dr. Susan Cordell, Director and Research Ecologist, US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Hilo, Hawai'i. How might a more culturally inclusive viewpoint replace negative historical language associated with invasive plant biology? “In many parts of the world, we cannot uncouple the fact th...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts “There's a surprising portion of the entire natural world of all biodiversity that either rests in or on an oak tree. And another huge portion of biodiversity uses oak trees for food. An oak can produce 3 million acorns in its lifetime, but only a tiny handful of those, if any,  will create trees, but those ex...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts One of the most innovative things about botanic gardens remains the incredible diversity of plants in one place. In addition to being centers for horticultural education, botanic gardens can use their living collections—often consisting of thousands of plants—to inform research and conservation. Our guest toda...

Read the companion article  here . This episode was sponsored by:  Bartlett Tree Experts Deborah Pagliaccia’s work has many promising applications, including improving plant and soil health, reducing waste, addressing hunger and food access, reducing water use, and reducing fossil fuel use. Food waste bioproducts, which she calls digestates, are fermented food for plants and other microorganisms....

Read the companion article  here . While some areas of science get a lot of flashy language, Garden Futurist co-producers Sarah Beck and Adrienne St Clair discover that what is happening in the tree research lab may also be described in “explosive” terms. Some of this large-scale research also informs low-tech takeaways that gardeners can use right away. Decisions we make in our home landscapes ca...

"Who are the Kim Kardashians in our ecological network?” -Dr. Rachel Meyer   So we're really trying to discover which plants really change the whole community network.. We still don't know the rules of complex communities, how they get built, how they're maintained and how they fall apart. And I think eDNA's a rapid way to advance ecological theory about how interdependent we all are on other spec...

“In two to five years, I think there's going to be a lot more known about that jigsaw puzzle. There's an extremely low risk pursuit to do this biodiverse orientated gardening, and it's probably got immune benefits via gut microbiota and other pathways. “ We are talking about the microbiome and Dr. Martin Breed helps us imagine the microscopic, the microbiome inhabits, the soil, the air, and ultima...

The  Butterflyway Project  is the David Suzuki Foundation’s award-winning project led by volunteers, Butterfly Rangers, and helped by residents in local communities, bringing nature home to neighborhoods throughout Canada, one butterfly-friendly planting at a time. Today’s guest, Winnie Hwo, is taking a very particular approach to the problem of insect decline to mobilize people and take action. S...

“The younger bracket of people, the demographic that is coming into power…they may actually have more practical impact on this whole issue than all of us aging idealists, the ex-hippies who didn't believe in cars and so on.” Kim Sorvig    We hear a somewhat controversial perspective on managing fire risk around homes and properties. We discuss a compelling solution: transitional landscape from hum...

“I don't want to beat people over the head and say, you must conserve all of your water in a bucket, and this is the way to do it. I want them to do it because they want to see that water go down the runnel and they want to see the rain chain and celebrate it.” - Haven Kiers We address multi-dimensional resilient landscapes. Nature HEALS stands for health, engagement, aesthetics, landscapes, and s...

“And when I say ecosystem function, I mean, functions that are important for human survival. This is not just because I think ecology is cool and native plants are neat, but I think I want a world where my children and my grandchildren will survive.” - Tom Kaye We are talking about how wild plant populations are responding to climate change and what humans, both ecologists, and home gardeners, mig...

“Let's envision that beautiful green future where humans and nature live together in spite of the dense human population that's coming and let's manifest something better.” - Clayton Tschudy Our guest brings us a great example of the challenges and opportunities that are present, where a biodiversity hotspot, and a densely populated human settlement meet. It is radical innovation towards a futuris...