Good Growing

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome back horticulture educator Emily Swihart to finally talk about sunflowers! We discuss the history of sunflowers, some of their benefits to the environment and bees, what sunflowers we’ll be growing this year, and more. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YLlwBnHp4qA Skip to what you want to know: 00:40 – Welcome Ken, and why isn’t Chris in Macomb?...

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome horticulture educator Emily Swihart to share the new and strange seed we have ordered for our flower gardens for the 2023 growing season. We tease talking about sunflowers for the yard, but we don't get to them this week. So, look for that episode next week (we promise!). Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/q_HGNwhTvqE Skip to what you want to know...

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome horticulture educator Emily Swihart to share the new and strange seed we have ordered for our vegetable gardens for the 2023 growing season. Plus, Chris has a monumental task of narrowing down his list of shade trees to only one for his front yard. We tease talking about sunflowers and ornamentals for the yard, but we don't get to them this week. So...

This week on the Good Growing podcast, we finish our conversation on growing ginger, turmeric, and galangal. Last week we got through pre-sprouting indoors, this episode we dive into getting your sprouted rhizomes planted, growing, and then harvested. We take you through a growing season with these tropical spices in Illinois. Watch us on YouTube https://youtu.be/mGrZgSxOXJk Skip to what you want...

On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we have the long-awaited, often teased episode on growing ginger, turmeric, and galangal in Illinois! We discuss what they are, why you may want to grow them, where to grow them, presprouting, and more. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1V121FzkJus Skip to what you want to know: 00:40 – Welcome Ken and Nick 02:05 – Why would I want to grow ginger, turmeric,...

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we look back at 2022 to review what went well in our vegetable gardens, and also some lessons learned from the struggles of growing food in Illinois. From annoying critters to the beauty provided by some of our edible crops we cover it all. Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/cmDVlZ00ecU Skip to what you want to know: 0:37 Hey Ken! 1:21 Our year in review of the...

On this week's Good Growing podcast Chris Enroth talks about amaryllis care and how to get it to rebloom for next year's holiday season. Check out the original text by Ken Johnson https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2021-12-03-how-take-care-amaryllis-and-get-them-rebloom Check out the Good Growing Blog: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: h...

Garden and seed catalogs have been arriving for a while now. When flipping through catalogs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the choices. Unfortunately, you probably don’t have room (or time) to grow everything you see, no matter how amazing it seems. So how should you go about choosing what to grow this year?

Did you put off gift-buying this year? You’re in luck! On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we’re talking about last-minute gifts for gardeners. Get some ideas for gifts for the gardener in your life. We also take a look back on 2022’s podcasts and look forward to what the new year is bringing. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wO41vGCKKnw Skip to what you want to know: 00:40 – What’s the plan...

This week on the Good Growing podcast local foods educator Nick Frillman examines the impacts of tilling the soil and alternatives to lessen the damage tilling can have. Check out The Vegetable Beet podcast on reducing tillage when growing vegetables https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reducing-tillage-in-vegetable-production-an/id1511218540?i=1000583310715 Low and No-Till Gardening UNH document...

This week we take a clip from a webinar about wildlife damage in the landscape. In this clip Illinois Extension horticulture educator Ken Johnson talks about the different species of squirrel that can be found in Illinois, identifying their damage and what to do to manage squirrels from damaging your home and garden. Watch us on YouTube https://youtu.be/DjAM9YFgRqk Contact us! Chris Enroth: cenrot...

On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we’re talking Christmas trees. We discuss some of the different types of trees you can find, which are more sustainable cut or fake trees, potted Christmas trees, as well as some alternatives to the typical evergreen tree. Watch us on YouTube: youtu.be/1Ask9-9KcPo Skip to what you want to know: 00:31 – How was your Thanksgiving? 01:45 – Christmas trees, what ty...

On this week's Good Growing podcast we welcome a new podcast contributor, Nick Frillman! Nick is a local food system and small farms educator with University of Illinois Extension based in the Bloomington/Normal area. This week Nick, Ken, and Chris talk about the local Thanksgiving Challenge, which is sourcing items for the Thanksgiving meal from a local grower or market. Nick gives us some tips o...

The holidays are coming up, which means cranberries will be on many of our menus. Learn more about growing and harvesting these popular native fruits.

This week on the Good Growing podcast we talk all about black walnut. This episode is full of information on black walnut from growing it to eating it. We start with learning to identify black walnut and where we would typically find it in the wild. Watch out for the tree of heaven as this non-native can be misidentified as black walnut. Then we welcome our special guest, Illinois Extension nutrit...

On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we talk with Illinois Extension Forestry Specialist Chris Evans and Media Communications Coordinator Emily Steele about garlic mustard. This invasive plant can be found in forested areas throughout the state of Illinois. Learn about why we should care about garlic mustard, how to identify and manage it as well as some research updates! See our smiling faces and...

What do an ant and a rubber tree have to say about toxic plants? Apparently, more than one would think! This week Ken and Chris dress up in celebration of Halloween and talk about plants that could make you sick or *gulp* kill you! Did somebody eat something they shouldn't? Contact the Poison Control Hotline at (800) 222-1222 Those experiencing symptoms after eating a toxic substance should contac...

This week for the Good Growing podcast we throw it back to 2021 when Visiting Outreach Associate Layne Knoche gives his three favorite native plants to include in a home landscape setting. Of course, Layne has many more natives he would like to include, but we were mean and only let him give his top three! Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SVMogGrQ1Hc Skip to what you want to know: 1:24 Slende...

On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we continue our discussion on problematic plants in the landscape by getting into some invasive plants we have in Illinois. We discuss invasive bush honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet, teasel, and purple loosestrife. These plants are having negative impacts in many different environments across Illinois. Learn more about these invasive species, how we can contro...

Are they invasive? Not legally in the state of Illinois. (Yet!) But we are seeing Callery pear and burning bush escape from our yards into natural areas across the state. Today Ken and Chris talk about these two plants, give some background, and then what we can plant instead of these baddies! Watch us and see some pictures of the plants we mention on YouTube https://youtu.be/NcI0Q11AD0o Check out...

On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we talk about some problematic plants in the landscape, wintercreeper and Japanese barberry, They have been widely planted, but in many places, they have escaped cultivation and are now causing problems in natural areas. Learn more about these troublesome plants and some alternative plants we can plant instead! Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-06EunFV3Gk...

On this week's Good Growing podcast Ken and Chris chat with Illinois Extension small farms and local foods educator Grant McCarty. First, we dive into the odd crops we grew this year and then Grant talks about his latest research project on growing strawberries...for the FALL! In October, no greenhouse is needed to get a freshly picked strawberry in Illinois when you use day-neutral types. You may...

As we approach fall, chrysanthemums, aka mums, start appearing in nurseries and garden centers. They are a staple in many landscapes and can provide some much-needed color to our landscapes when many other garden plants are starting to decline. However, many people struggle to get mums to survive through the winter. So, what can be done to help mums survive in our landscapes?

This week on Good Growing we take an excerpt from our webinar on gardening myths to see if these are the best practices or not! In this video horticulture educator, Chris Enroth gives the scoop on the long-term effects on your garden when using landscape fabric. Watch the entire webinar on landscaping myths https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2-Xs_Ji1c Check out the Good Growing Blog: https://go.ill...

Trees are one of the biggest investments we have in our landscapes. On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we talk with University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator Emily Swihart about tree planting and care. We discuss how to plant and care for trees, some good trees for fall color, getting trees ready for winter, and more! See our smiling faces and some pictures over on YouTube: https://...