Growing Greener

Gardening can be a prime source of aches and pains, from a bad back to tendonitis – now “GardenFit,” the new public television series, combines inspiring visits to extraordinary gardens with professi…

Jeanine Scheffert, co-chair of the Community Seed Network details the ways in which her organization can help gardeners to achieve success in seed saving and sharing and join a community of like-mind…

James Golden’s new book, “The View from Federal Twist: A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves” delivers in full everything the title promises.  In this conversation, the author dis…

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser is fascinated by the insects in our gardens, the vast majority of whom play positive roles in these domesticated ecosystems.  We discuss the fruits of her studies and …

In 2017 Benjamin Vogt captivated the gardening world with his book, “A New Garden Ethic,” in which he explored the need to radically redesign our domestic landscapes to accommodate all the other crea…

Gardening can be the heart of a community, as the Rochester, Minnesota Seed Library demonstrates.  Librarian Keri Ostby describes how the seed library brings together vegetable seeds for all the grou…

Alina Harris of the Xerces Society discusses the ecological importance of invertebrates, and how you can use your mower more strategically to convert a field to a thriving pollinator meadow without h…

Bill Melvin of Ecoscape Environmental Design in Boulder, Colorado discusses appropriate management of the human landscape in a region where wildfire is endemic.  What were the lessons for gardeners i…

What is a naturalistic garden and how does it differ from a natural landscape?  Duncan Brine is a principal with his wife Julia Brine of Garden Large, a garden design firm based in Pawling, New York.…

Struggling with a wet spot in your yard?  Join John Courtney of Kind Earth Growers to learn how to turn this difficulty into an asset.  John has more than 20 years of experience in growing native pla…

The flowers in your garden are not, as gardeners often think, aesthetic statements, they are invitations for sex. Ranging from plant incest to the brutality of dragonfly sex, Carol Reese, distinguish…

Sam Hoadley, Mount Cuba Center’s Director of Horticultural Research deliberately neglects his plants.  His responsibility is to conduct the trials by which this renowned botanical garden in Hockessin…

Dr. Philip Kauth, Director of Preservation, describes the history and activities of the Seed Savers Exchange, and how this remarkable organization is preserving tens of thousands of vegetable and fru…

Native plants enthusiasts Kristen Nicholson, Britt Drews, and Jasmin Callahan were frustrated by the lack of nearby sources on biodiverse, locally adapted plants.  So they started their own nursery, …

Dr. Jared Westbrook of the American Chestnut Foundation explores a controversial subject:  the use of genetic engineering by his foundation to create blight-resistant American chestnut trees and retu…

How to introduce Sefra Alexandra, “the Seed Huntress”?  She’s an agroecological educator with a masters degree from Cornell University and she’s worked as an ethnobotanist all around the world, inclu…

Eric Fleisher of F2 Environmental Design has been breaking new ground – literally ­– ever since he first began converting New York public landscapes to organic management 30 years ago.  By building u…

Do you hate the noise and stink of gasoline-powered blowers and mowers rampaging through your neighborhood?  Matthew Benzie of Indigenous Ingenuities in Doylestown, Pennsylvania is doing something ab…

Brooklyn’s famous cemetery builds on its heritage, becoming a community green space, an arboretum, and a center for environmental research