The Horticulturati

Here's the July 1 episode of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ. We get calls about planting sweet potato slips; four o'clocks failing to bloom; when to mow wildflowers; and how to collect sunflower seeds. Enjoy!  Austin listeners, don't miss Colleen's free class, Native Plant Maintenance, at the Natural Gardener on July 8 at 10am. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays...

Just unearthed from the archives, here's the 5/27 recording of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ. We talk about the difference between Bti ( Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis ) and Btk ( Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki ), propose solutions for invading Bermuda grass, and give a classic answer to a question about the best time to plant wildflowers: It depends!  Austin listeners, d...

Here's the June 24 episode of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ. We talk about National Pollinator Week, heat stress on citrus, and the pros and cons of various types of irrigation. We also get two calls about unruly vines driving people crazy.   Austin listeners, don't miss Colleen's free class, Native Plant Maintenance, at the Natural Gardener on July 8 at 10am. Tune in live on...

Why do we mow our lawns? That's the question posed by our guest, artist and urban ecologist Chris Kennedy  of the  Urban Systems Lab  and  Central Texas Mycological Society ; the answer is a tangle of municipal policy, attitudes toward property ownership, and status anxiety. Chris joins the pod to tell us about his research into city lawn ordinances and weed-control laws in the United States. In t...

Here's the 6/17 recording of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ. We got a little silly this week, and answered questions about pruning boxwoods, how much to water, leaf footed bugs, wild pumpkins, and more. Austin listeners, don't miss Colleen's free class, Native Plant Maintenance, at the Natural Gardener on July 8 at 10am. Tune in live on Saturdays at 8am CST online here , or on...

Here's the 6/10 recording of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ. This week, we covered transplant shock, twining vs. clinging vines, and poison ivy. Tune in live on Saturdays at 8am CST online here , or on the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM Join our Patreon  for early access to Horticulturati episodes, bonus content, and more!       

  Colleen did the show solo on June 3 because Leah skipped town! She got a lot of great questions. Topics include crabgrass, live oak suckers, and sneaky squirrels scheming on stonefruits.  Have a question you want us to answer on the podcast? Email info@horticulturati.com . Tune in live and call or text your questions next week at 8-9 am CST on KLBJ's website , or on the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590...

Here's the May 20 episode of Horticulture Hangover, our live call-in show on Newsradio KLBJ. We talk about how to deal with mosquitoes, making room for poisonous plants in the garden, staking plants in pots, and the radical difference of gardening in Texas vs. California.  Have a question you want us to answer on the show? Email info@horticulturati.com   Tune in live and call or text your question...

More garden questions answered! Here's the April 13 episode of Horticulture Hangover, our live call-in show on Newsradio KLBJ. Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at info@horticulturati.com Or, tune in live and call or text your questions next Saturday from at 8-9 am CST on KLBJ's website , or on the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. Support the Horticulturati on Patreon to get early acces...

Here's a double dose of Horticulture Hangover, our live call-in show on Newsradio KLBJ, recorded April 29 and May 6. Due to various travel plans and life events, we each did our first solo episodes of the radio show. So many technical surprises and goofs! Tune in live and call or text your questions next week at 8-9 am CST on KLBJ's website , or on the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. Support the Hor...

On this episode, we're tackling Phosphorus – an element, crucial to life on earth, which exists in both abundance and scarcity. We cover how humans got hooked on P fertilizers, the political and environmental impacts of mining and pollution, and what might be done about it.  Mentioned in this episode:  City of Austin Algae Mitigation ; Toledo Junction Coalition Interview ; Points North Podcast ; U...

Here's the 4/22 broadcast recording of Horticulture Hangover, our NEW live show on Newsradio KLBJ.  Saturday's chat included a rundown of our busy weekend of garden events, plus listener questions about compost tea, grass alternatives for deep shade, poisonous plants, tender tropical bulbs, and more. Tune in live and call or text your questions next week at 8-9 am CST on KLBJ's website , or on the...

Here's the recording of this week's Horticulture Hangover, our new radio broadcast on KLBJ.  This week's coversation includes: plant swap tips, dividing muhly grasses, protecting young trees from deer damage, transplanting milkweeds, and more. Tune in live next week at 8-9 am CST online here , or on the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM!  Check out these events next weekend!   April 22: Central Texas P...

We're doing a call-in gardening show the radio! It's called " Horticulture Hangover " and it airs on Saturdays from 8-9 am CST on KLBJ 590AM/99.7 FM. You can also stream it live here. We'll still bring you deep dives into topics on the Horticulturati podcast, but now you get a bonus show in this feed. Horticulture Hangover is a live Q&A format program where we take listener questions. Here are our...

On this episode, we're gettin' down and dirty with sheet mulch. Sheet mulching is a no-till, no-dig gardening practice of removing unwanted vegetation and building fertile soil by layering organic matter and letting it compost in place. While the layers suppress weeds by blocking sunlight, subterranean soil biology goes to work to break down the layers into new soil. The beauty of this simple prac...

"Fruit trees need hands-on care." That's the motto of our guest, Susan Poizner of OrchardPeople.com . Susan is an urban orchardist, teacher, journalist, and filmmaker. She is the author of Growing Urban Orchards (2014), cofounder of the Ben Nobelman Park Community Orchard i n Toronto and the host of the Urban Forestry Radio podcast. She also teaches fruit tree classes on her website . Colleen was...

In this roundtable, we talk about drafting and drawing with Lisa Nunamaker, of Paper Garden Workshop , and Amy Fedele, of Pretty Purple Door , two fabulous garden educators who offer online courses in landscape graphics. Leah took courses from both instructors this year -- Lisa's Garden Graphics Toolkit and Amy's Great at Procreate .  We discuss why the fundamentals of hand-drafting remain so valu...

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but some of the common names we use for plants downright stink! In this episode, we're diving into problematic colloquial names. Some common names are geographically misleading (" Jerusalem artichoke "); others are xenophobic, racist, or antisemitic (" wandering Jew "); while still others are an unfortunate combination of both (" T urk's cap ").  Whil...

Attention plant lovers! Central Texas Seed Savers is hosting a Seed Swap at the Austin Central Library  (710 W. Cesar Chavez St) on Saturday, October 29 from 11-1pm. This event is free and open to the public.  Bring seeds to share! Or just come get some seeds! For more info, visit https://www.centexseedsavers.org and https://library.austintexas.libguides.com/seedsandsustainability

In this episode, Colleen unearths as much as she can about the largely unwritten  history of plant pots. When did humans start growing plants in containers? How did innovations in materials and technology lead to the domestication of plants, plant collecting, and the growth of the nursery industry? Why are plant pots so overlooked as a facet of industrial design? (We can rattle off several iconic...

We're back with a salute to Monty Don , beloved British gardening expert, author, and fashion icon , whose infectious passion for plants is boosting our spirits through this bummer summer.  Though little known in the US, jaunty Monty is a big celebrity across the pond, as the host of the BBC's Gardener's World , Big Dreams, Small Spaces , and Around The World in 80 Gardens . With his soothing temp...

On this episode, we dive into ecologist Douglas Tallamy's books Nature's Best Hope (2019) and The Living Landscape (2014, with Rick Darke). Tallamy's work takes native plant gardening and wildlife gardening to another level by focusing not just on species diversity, but on diversity of species interaction to promote ecological conservation. According to Tallamy, "native" plants are those which hav...

Here's a preview of our bonus segment. To hear the full bonus epsidode, subscribe to our Patreon !  Compost is a mysterious product. Gardeners prize it as "black gold," but few of us know how it is manufactured on an industrial scale. In this bonus, John Hart Asher breaks down the difference between traditional compost (the kind we might make at home) and the kind that you can buy by the bag or th...

We sat down at the picnic table with John Hart Asher, host of Central Texas Gardener and Cofounder/Senior Environmental Designer at Blackland Collaborative to talk about pocket prairies. What's a pocket prairie? It's a very small prairie. What's a prairie? It's a community of native grasses and forbs wildflowers that have evolved along with microbes, plants, and animals over millennia. This "distu...

Tropical milkweed...Monarchs' friend or foe? We dip a toe into contested territory with a look at Asclepias curassavica , the most controversial milkweed of all.  Up first: we chat about the spring rush and a secondhand ringtail cat sighting.   Want more? Join our Patreon for bonus content, early access to episodes, and fun classes.  Mentioned in this episode:  "For the Monarch Butterfly, A Long R...