Growing Greener

In this revelatory book Dr. Lars Chittka of Queen Mary University of London explores the psychology of bees, their extraordinary learning abilities and their individual personalities.

Sara Weaner Cooper, Executive Director of New Directions in The American Landscape, describes her organization’s dynamic educational programing and her success in transitioning a front lawn into nat…

Although beloved by gardeners, earthworms are not native to the northern half of North America and can cause extreme changes in soil ecology there, with disastrous effects on native plants and anima…

Ecological landscaping trail blazer Larry Weaner explains the importance of the long-term conversations you hold with your plants, letting them inform you about the role they can play in the garden e…

Traditional gardeners shun plants that spread aggressively, but Ben Vogt, renowned natural garden designer, describes the positive roles they can play in an ecologically-based landscape

Amanda Freund of the Freund Dairy Farm describes how her family’s ingenuity has transformed manure from an environmental liability into a source of renewable energy, a means of recycling waste paper…

Dr. Amara Dunn-Silver of Cornell University discusses the advantages and limitations of biopesticides, and how, if properly used, they can often provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to…

Megan Edge of Victoria, British Columbia shares how her lifelong interest in foraging for wild foods and herbs set the stage for her current practice as a natural healer while also informing her pass…

Tom Knezick of Pinelands Nursery, one of the largest producers of native plants in the U.S., tells how his family’s business has mastered growing natives from locally collected seed, producing plants…

Dr. Matthew Kleinhenz of Ohio State University describes the ancient history of “biostimulants,” and how contemporary researchers are identifying natural bacteria and fungi that help crops cope with …

When automotive engineer Shubhendu Sharma met Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, Sharma found the cause he had been looking for.  Today, Sharma’s company Afforestt is the global leader in creating Mi…

Shubber Ali, CEO of Garden for Wildlife, a new venture of the National Wildlife Federation, describes how his company makes it almost effortless to order site-adapted, locally native plants that prov…

Lady Bird Johnson put native plants on the map with her program to plant wildflowers alongside our nation’s highways in the 1960’s.  Her legacy, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, continues to …

As the first Executive Director of Homegrown National Park, Brandon Hough talks about his unconventional journey to conservation, and how this non-profit makes it easy for homeowners to find plants t…

Coordinator of the New York Botanical Garden’s Gardening Education Program, Daryl Beyers has developed a fresh approach to teaching the fundamentals of the craft, one that not only provides a strong …

Annuals offer unique advantages for the ecological gardener, growing fast to stabilize disturbed soils, and providing quick color for new plantings.  In this conversation, master plantsman Ethan Drop…

In 2015 landscape architect Thomas Rainer and his professional partner Claudia West stirred the gardening world with their best-selling book, “Planting in a Post-Wild World.”  Now Rainer shares his a…

In the 1990’s Lauren Springer helped pioneer a new, regionally focused gardening style in Colorado, an “undaunted garden” that celebrated the Rocky Mountain landscape and the plants, native and intro…

The American chestnut was a foundational species of eastern forests until an imported blight killed virtually all mature specimens back to stumps in the early 20th century.  Jared Westbrook, Science …

When it was founded in 1900, the Native Plant Trust was the first plant conservation organization in the United States.  Its new CEO, Tim Johnson describes how, more than a century later, the Trust c…