Plants Grow Here - Horticulture, Landscape Gardening & Ecology

Data may seem boring to the average gardener, but if you've been working with plants for long enough, you'll have learnt the value of recording information (which is also known as data). Whether you're a pro working in domestic gardens, an urban forester who's working with legacy trees, or even a home gardener looking for long-term success, you'll find value in this episod...

Have you ever wondered how to get large trees indoors, or how to maintain plants safely with water, fertiliser and pesticides once they're inside? Gabby Stannus is here to help by teaching us how the pros do it in shopping centres, hospitals and office buildings. This episode isn't so much about "house plants", it's more about interior landscaping in a commercial setting w...

We all have to deal with pests in the garden, whether we're working in our backyard veggie patch, or we're a landscape maintenance pro working in a bunch of properties for different clients. We know that we should avoid reaching for chemicals unless it's absolutely necessary, but how can we use nature's tactics to our advantage? In this episode, Dr Ian Smith is back to teach us...

Most of us have encountered soil issues from time to time, but probably not on the same scale as the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. In this episode, our sponsor Hort Journal Australia's editor Karen Smith is back to interview Russell Larke and Marie Velthoven on some of the challenges they've had to solve, as well as some of their favourite plants that are now growing happily on site. EPISO...

Warrnambool Botanic Gardens have been around since the 1850s and have managed to stay quite pure as a site dedicated to plants, while other sites have become caravan parks and barbeque areas. In this episode, John Sheely explains what makes these gardens special including the accommodation of wildlife, design theory and plant maintenance. He explains why "straight lines" don't excit...

Matthew Davis is the Director for Established Tree Transplanters nurseries in Victoria, and he's also a writer for Hort Journal Australia. In this episode, Karen Smith interviews him about the mindset we need to approach purchasing established trees, and why it's such a specialised service to work with older trees. EPISODE LINKS Visit Hort Journal Australia: https://hortjournal.com.au/ C...

Is lawn mowing using a ride-on or push mower a thing of the past? Phil Esterman is a robotics and digital solutions product manager at Husqvarna, and in this episode he explains how the Husqvarna AutoMower® works, how safe they are, and why they are going to take the landscape maintenance industry by storm. This episode is not sponsored, it's just really interesting. EPISODE LINKS Read more a...

Bruce Thompson is a horticulturist working in waste management for council, and in this episode we explore why plastic pots have a negative impact on the environment, how to properly recycle them, what alternatives are on the market, and whether or not we need legislation in the industry to level the playing field and make plastic pots a thing of the past. EPISODE LINKS Visit Hort Journal Australi...

A career in horticultural media can help you meet exciting people and get a unique insight into the industry that you can share with others. Whether you specialise in one area or your focus is more general, like today's guest Karen Smith who is an editor, horticulturist and mentor, this episode will help you start your career change. Ian Smith is our first guest interviewer - you might rememb...

Clive Larkman is an Aussie grower that writes for our sponsor Hort Journal Australia and really knows his herbs. Together with his wife Di, he runs Larkman Nurseries in Victoria, and he's also one of the growers for Renaissance herbs who distribute plants around the country. In this episode, Karen Smith, editor for the Journal and I interview him to see if we can understand a bit more about h...

Angelo Eliades is an urban permaculturist that's able to harvest significant yields from his 60m2 of garden beds. In this episode, he explains how we can use the power of nature to grow more food with less land. We discuss Integrated Pest Management (IPM), companion planting, layering plants and much more. EPISODE LINKS Visit the Deep Green Permaculture website: https://deepgreenpermaculture....

As a horticulturist working in the maintenance sector, I can appreciate the importance of connecting people from different sectors so we can all learn from each other. In this episode, the editor of the best and only Aussie horticultural industry magazine, Karen Smith explains why this is so important, and how Hort Journal Australia has aimed to be the conduit connecting industry people since it b...

Ben Courtice is an ecologist, botanist and bush regenerator working for a company on behalf of council around the Melbourne area, and he knows native grasses. In this episode, he shares his wisdom so that we can approach this type of plant with confidence. There are a range of habitat and amenity services that our native Aussie grasses can provide, so there's really no excuse to use invasive...

Joey Santore runs the awesome Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't YouTube channel, where he walks around describing plants in his own unique style. In this episode, he came on the show to talk about Australian plants, how they've evolved, and how they're unique compared to other plants around the world. EPISODE LINKS Start by watching Joey's Western Australian plant playlist on YouTu...

Ben Sims is a landscape business owner and a board member for the Landscape Industry Association of Western Australia (LIAWA), and in this episode he's back to teach us about wildflowers, specifically in the massive Aussie state of WA. He helps us understand what a wildflower is and what it isn't, how they can be used in horticulture, and what some of the pressures are that are challengi...

Ian Smith is an extension worker consulting with farmers in the basaltic plains just west of Melbourne. He did his PhD thesis on shelterbelts, so I thought I'd get him on the show to teach us about this interesting and important topic! We discuss what shelterbelts are, why farmers are "wasting" space putting them in, and how they can be important for reasons beyond wind control and...

Dr Richard Bate is a dental surgeon and botanist that works with Joshua Styles (from episode 17) at the North-West Rare Plant Initiative (NWRPI), he's involved with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) and is also active on twitter as part of the @Wildflower_Hour team and his own orchid-obsessed handle @TheNewGalaxy. EPISODE LINKS Dr Richard Bate on Twitter: https://twitter.com...

The Davey Tree Expert Company is a leading tree care company in North America, and in this episode Alexandra Julius explains the athletic demands on a climbing arborist, or tree surgeon. She is an Employee Development and Safety Training Specialist within the company, and has experience in both professional and competitive climbing. EPISODE LINKS Visit the Davey website: https://www.davey.com/ Che...

Denis Crawford is a legendary Australian entomologist, and in this episode he was generous enough to walk us through some of the biggest offenders with regards to insect pests. We discuss sucking, chewing, boring, leaf-mining and gall-producing pests as well as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the importance of biodiversity. It's a great chat, give it a listen! EPISODE LINKS Garden Pests,...

Jason Gooden is the supervisor of sales and customer service at ArborGreen, who provide a range of products for those working in the revegetation, horticultural and urban forestry industries. In this episode, he explains how the pros plant a tree for longevity and health. We go over some soil basics, what shape to dig the hole, and formative pruning among a myriad of other topics. EPISODE LINKS Vi...

Billy Goodnick is a landscape architect, horticulturist, educator, author and is also the creator of the famous Crimes Against Horticulture Facebook page. In this episode, we chat about some of the ways we can fail at horticulture, whether we're putting new plants in or maintaining old ones. Scroll through the page while you're listening to this episode because Billy has uploaded a kind...

Amanda Brezzell from Fennigan's Farms in Detroit is back and this time she's brought her co-founder Claire! In this episode I chatted with them about the wonderful different types of pollinators out there, why they're so important, and how we can help them thrive especially in urban environments. It's more than just insects that pollinate plants you know! EPISODE LINKS Check ou...

Growing Real Food For Nutrition (GRFFN) is a UK Community Interest Company testing and trialling ways to grow and measure the nutrition density of our food. Elizabeth Westaway and Matt Adams answer the question "is a carrot a carrot?" in this episode and explore the benefits of growing in an agroecological and permacultural environment as opposed to growing in monocrops with poor soils....

Biogenic Amorphous Silica is a natural product that offers an impressive array of benefits when added to any soil type or potting medium. Nick Clayton is a Co-Founder of a company called Mineral Magic which is mining and distributing BAS in Australia, and in this episode he helps us understand why we might consider purchasing some to help give our soils water retaining and drainage as well as prov...

The Bird Emergency podcast is an Aussie show run by a fellow Melbournian, Grant Williams. I was lucky enough to be invited on the show, along with Dr Holly Parsons, to speak about something I'm particularly passionate about which is building habitat in the garden. We speak about building layers into the garden for habitat, having a variety of food sources available throughout the year, and ho...