joegardener® | Organic Gardening Like a Pro

"Leave the leaves" is a slogan you must have heard by now. Each fall, conservationists encourage homeowners to keep leaves on their property rather than sending them off to landfills. There are a number of reasons to do so, chiefly to support wildlife and reduce contributions to climate change. For a deep dive into why leaving the leaves is such a game-changer, returning to the podcast this week is National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

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When we pause to observe the natural world more closely and record those observations and the way they make us feel, we gain a greater understanding of nature and ourselves. Writer Margaret Renkl, who has a new prompt journal out now as a companion to her best-selling book "The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year," joins me this week to discuss the benefits of a nature journal.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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There are around 4,000 species of wild, native bees in North America, though imported, domesticated honeybees seem to be the bees that get all the attention when it comes to conservation. To help us learn about native bees and their value, joining me on the podcast this week is entomologist and wild bee expert Dr. Jessica Forrest.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Citizen scientists are key to tracking bird populations in North America and identifying which birds are growing in numbers and range — and which are on the decline. To explain the value of bird counts, what can be learned from the data and how anyone can get involved, joining me on the podcast this week is Project FeederWatch project leader Dr. Emma Greig.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Gardening burnout happens when a garden becomes so much more work than you can keep up with and a source of disappointment — one disaster after another — rather than a source of joy. It's the feeling of not just being overwhelmed but wanting to give up gardening altogether (at least for now). This week, I identify the sources of gardening burnout and the adjustments gardeners can make so they never get to that point.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Tree collectors come in many different fashions, as author Amy Stewart explores in her new book, "The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession." Amy joins me on the podcast this week to discuss tree collecting, what inspired her to write this book, and 10 of the 50 tree collectors she featured in the book.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Margaret Roach is one of those heroes in horticulture and gardening media who I really admire. She excels at communicating her fundamental understanding of the natural world and reminds her readers and listeners to keep on digging, in more ways than one. She has been a guest on this podcast many times, and this week I am revisiting her first appearance, from back in 2017, where Margaret joined me to share simple yet timeless garden design lessons.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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The annual monarch butterfly migration south starts this month, so I thought it would be a good time to revisit my conversation with ecologist and evolutionary scientist Dr. Anurag Agrawal, an expert on monarch butterflies and milkweed — the only type of plant that monarchs lay their eggs on.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Periodically, rather than recording a podcast from my studio, I like to get out into my garden and record an audio journal on-site, so I can talk in real time about what I'm seeing, the wins and challenges of the season, what's worked, what hasn't and what I plan to change. In this edition, I touch on many things you may have noticed in your own garden this year, and I share how I make the transition from the summer growing season to fall.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Soil bacteria perform many essential tasks to enable plant growth, including cycling nutrients and fixing nitrogen. To explain the fascinating things that researchers have discovered about soil bacteria in recent years, my guest on this encore presentation is gardening columnist and author Jeff Lowenfels.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Fumigation film and drip tape inaugurated changes in agriculture that made it easier and far more efficient to grow food crops in difficult climates, and now artificial intelligence is bringing about advancements in weed and pest control, among other promising developments. To discuss innovations in agriculture and how they could also benefit home gardeners, joining me on the podcast this week is Dr. Nathan Boyd, a professor of horticulture and weed science at the University of Florida.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Plants can do some marvelous things — in addition to being "light eaters" they have their own ways of seeing, hearing and feeling. My guest this week, environmental reporter and author Zöe Schlanger, is here to discuss her new book, The Light Eaters, on the concept of plant intelligence and how it changes our understanding of plant life.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Many apple varieties that have not been commercially available for decades have been lost to history, but there are people called "apple hunters" who go in search of once-popular apples to save them from extinction. My guest this week, Jude Schuenemeyer is an apple hunter who is here to share a success story: the rediscovery of the Colorado Orange apple.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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The insect crisis is one leg of the biodiversity loss problem that has cascading effects on the ecosystem and threatens human survival. To share the causes of and the solutions to insect decline, joining me this week is Oliver Milman, author of "The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World."

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Aldo Leopold is considered to be one of the most consequential conservationists of the 20th century. In his posthumously published book "A Sand County Almanac," he put forward the "land ethic" — the idea that the fates of humans and land are intertwined. To talk about Leopold's influence on the conservation movement, joining me on the podcast this week is Aldo Leopold Foundation senior fellow Dr. Curt Meine.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Groundcover plants require far less maintenance than a turfgrass lawn and can also offer erosion control and ecological services, among many other benefits. To discuss groundcover solutions to lawn troubles, joining me this week is Kathy Jentz, author of "Groundcover Revolution."

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Extreme temperatures, drought and flooding are all becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, creating new challenges for gardeners. To explain how to gird a garden for the effects of a warming planet, joining me on the podcast this week is Kim Stoddart, who literally wrote the book — two books, in fact — on climate change-resilient gardening.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Of the many reasons to garden, the presence of beautiful and interesting birds is among the most delightful. To explain how to make your garden bird-friendly, joining me on the podcast this week is Jen McGuinness, aka Frau Zinnie, the author of "Bird-Friendly Gardening: Guidance and Projects for Supporting Birds in Your Landscape."

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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About 80% of the population is allergic to the oily resin urushiol, the compound found in poison ivy that causes dermatitis — a burning, itching rash. Reactions to poison ivy range from mild to life-threatening, and I am among those who have ended up in the ER due to poison ivy exposure. As this three-leaved menace is in its peak season, I am revisiting my conversation with Dr. Susan Pell, a botanist with a deep expertise on the family of plants that poison ivy belongs to.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Controlling deer is a challenge for many gardeners, whether they have ornamental gardens or are raising vegetables, not to mention rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, raccoons, moles and voles. To explore the most effective ways to control nuisance wildlife, I spoke with wildlife damage management specialist Marne Titchenell, who shared her advice on which deterrents work and which are just wishful thinking.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Of all the tools you use in the garden, your body is the most important, and maintaining it is pivotal. To explain how gardeners can make small changes in their gardening routines to protect and strengthen their bodies, movement expert Katy Bowman joins me on the podcast this week.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Climate change has forced food growers to adjust how they garden, and as trends toward more extreme weather continue, this will only become more true. My guest this week, organic gardener and environmental studies professor Toni Farmer, explains the steps gardeners can take to mitigate the effects that climate change has on their crops.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Converting lawn to meadow is not as hard as it may seem, and my guest this week demonstrates as much in his book "Tiny + Wild: Build a Small-Scale Meadow Anywhere." Graham Laird Gardner works to get the word out about the simplicity and benefits of creating a native meadow.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Getting more people to participate in healing the ecosystem takes spreading awareness of both the problems and the solutions. My guest this week, Basil Camu, does just that in his new book "From Wasteland to Wonder: Easy Ways We Can Help Heal Earth in the Sub/Urban Landscape."

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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The Ecological Gardening Summit begins Wednesday, May 8, online, at noon Eastern time, and to prepare, I am sharing some of the principles that inspired this inaugural event. This week, I am revisiting my past podcasts with Rebecca McMackin, who will present "Adventures in Ecological Horticulture" during the summit.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Gardening goes deeper than growing your own food and enhancing the beauty of your surroundings — it can support your local ecosystem and contribute to the healing of our planet. This is the ethos shared by the gardeners, educators such as Dr. Doug Tallamy and ecology experts who will join me on May 8th for the inaugural Ecological Gardening Summit.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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You've heard me say many times that what I love about gardening is there is always more to learn. Gardening keeps us on our toes and constantly presents opportunities to refine our methods. I decided to check in with gardeners in my Online Gardening Academy™ about their top takeaways from this past gardening season and what changes they will make in 2024.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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New York Times gardening columnist and "A Way to Garden" podcast host Margaret Roach — who is a repeat guest on "The joegardener Show" and a fan favorite — is back again, on the heels of being presented with the prestigious Scott Medal from the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She shares how she came to be the renowned garden writer and podcaster she is today and her reflections on how gardening can benefit us as well as wildlife.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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To attract a greater diversity of pollinators to a garden, there's nothing better than native plants. In this encore episode, pollinator conservationist Heather Holm joins me to discuss the benefits of fostering the mutually beneficial relationship between native plants and the pollinators they coevolved with.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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Life has thrown Steve Kaufer some curveballs, but with some smart pivoting and serendipity, he's become a successful seed breeder and seed farmer, earning the moniker "Sunflower Steve." He joins me on the podcast this week to share his story and explain how a volunteer sunflower that grew in his field in 2007 set him on a new path years later.

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Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

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It's time once again for my annual check-in with Craig LeHoullier, also known as NC Tomatoman, an heirloom tomato and straw bale gardening expert as well as a dwarf tomato breeder. I always look forward to catching up with Craig and finding out what new and exciting things he has going on in his garden and beyond.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Mastering succession planting takes knowledge and practice, but it's not that tall of a task. Once you get the hang of it, you'll enjoy the benefits of an extended growing season and a greater harvest. To help you make the most of your garden space, this week I am reprising my conversation with Meg Cowden, the founder of Seed to Fork, an expert in succession planting.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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For success as a flower farmer as well as a seed breeder and seller, it helps to possess both a creative spirit and business acumen. My guest this week, Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm and the Magnolia Network series "Growing Floret," has both in spades, and we discuss how she maintains her creativity and furthers her mission to get more flowers out into the world.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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Pesticide regulations are designed to reduce the harm that pesticide use has on humans and wildlife, but they are not intended to eliminate all risks and ecological damage. To explain how gaps in pesticide regulations fail pollinators and other beneficial insects, pollinator conservation specialist Emily May of the Xerces Society joins me on the podcast this week.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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No-till gardening improves soil health and reduces the gardener's workload, all while supporting more vigorous plants with better resilience to pests and diseases and greater crop yields. My guest on this week's encore presentation, organic market gardener and writer Jesse Frost, shares the many ways that ditching the tiller has benefited his farm and how living soil gets the best results.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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I just passed the one-year mark of being a greenhouse owner in January. It has been an eye-opener, and I have learned so much. I want to share with you the greenhouse hacks and tips and the lessons learned in my first year and the main "aha" moments.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

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A cut flower garden, when planted in succession and harvested frequently, provides a continuous source of joy to hobby gardeners — and great revenue source for commercial growers. To share her advice on how to start and maintain a cut flower garden, returning to the podcast this week is flower farmer Lisa Mason Ziegler.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

A hobby greenhouse is an addition to the garden that most gardeners dream about, but having no prior experience with greenhouses, they often don't know where to start. My guest on this week's encore episode, Master Gardener Sheri George, shares her many years of experience growing in greenhouses and her tips for selecting and operating a greenhouse.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

To get the hang of seed starting, it takes practice. There is a lot to know and a lot to get right, including watering, lighting and timing. So in this week's podcast, I am answering seed starting questions that listeners have submitted to help you have a successful seed starting experience and get over any hurdles you've confronted.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

Seed starting is a fun winter and early spring activity that gives us an opportunity to exercise our green thumbs during an often dreary time of year, but missteps can lead to disappointment. To help you have a successful and delightful experience, this week I am sharing the top five seed starting mistakes and how to fix them or avoid them altogether.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

The gardening culture in the United Kingdom is strong and ingrained in society, much more so than it is in the United States. To talk about what it's like to be a gardener across the pond, joining me on the podcast this week is Bunny Guinness, a regular panelist on the long-running BBC Radio 4 program "Gardeners' Question Time."

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

The plants that live indoors with you need special care to get through the coldest, darkest months of the year. To share her expert tips on winter houseplant care, joining me on the podcast this week is Maria Failla of Growing Joy.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

Whether you have a small space that you want to make more productive or you have a sprawling garden that you struggle to maintain, you'll want to hear what this week's guest has to say. Ben Hartman is a farmer and author who applies the super-efficient "lean" system to gardening and micro farming and teaches others how they can do the same.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

Gardeners who wish to grow fruit trees will have much better results if they learn the ropes before they ever purchase a tree and dig a planting hole. Early decisions such as what cultivars to grow and where to plant them are pivotal to a successful orchard. To share how to get started growing fruit trees and how to do it successfully, joining me on the podcast this week is community orchardist and author Susan Poizner.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

As the year winds up, I like to pause and reflect on the valuable lessons that I learned over the past gardening season. These are my top gardening takeaways of 2023.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

Growing microgreens is easier than you think. Nutrient-dense microgreens can be raised at home for your family's enjoyment, and it's easy to scale up into a microgreens business, according to my guest this week, Jonah Krochmalnek, the owner and founder of Microgreens Consulting.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

Slowing down, removing distractions and paying attention allows us to absorb the wildlife that's all around us, even when we otherwise feel that we are far removed from nature. Writer Margaret Renkl documents what she observed in her own suburban yard and how it made her feel in her series of 52 short essays collected in "The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year."

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

With holiday gift shopping season upon us, I am sharing my top gardening gear picks for the gardeners in your life — the tools, accessories and books that you may also want to pick up for yourself.

In a nutshell, these are the items that I consider to be the must-have gardening gear — just to make your gardening life easier and more enjoyable. I've narrowed down the list to 12 to call extra attention to, but if you are looking for even more ideas, you can download my comprehensive gift guide, The Best of the Must-Haves™, updated for 2023-2024, with 30 recommendations.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

If you have been practicing organic gardening for a while, you probably observe the mantra "feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants," though to get even more precise, my returning guest this week, chemist and gardening author Robert Pavlis, explains that what gardeners are actually doing is feeding the microbes in soil, and it's the microbes that are feeding the plants.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.

Ecological landscape design is the practice of making meadows and gardens that are both pleasing to the eye and functional parts of the ecosystem, providing resources and habitat for essential wildlife. To share the principles of ecological landscape design and why it is so needed, returning to the podcast this week is landscape designer and author Owen Wormser.

Podcast Links for Show notes

Download my free eBook 5 Steps to Your Best Garden Ever - the 5 most important steps anyone can do to have a thriving garden or landscape. It's what I still do today, without exception to get incredible results, even in the most challenging conditions.

Subscribe to the joegardener® email list to receive weekly updates about new podcast episodes, seasonal gardening tips, and online gardening course announcements.

Check out The joegardener® Online Gardening Academy for our growing library of organic gardening courses.

Follow joegardener® on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and subscribe to The joegardenerTV YouTube channel.