The Horticulturati (The Horticulturati)

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

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 "disturbance-driven ecology" historically relied on periodic fire and low-frequency, high-intensity grazing to function. John Hart sees the "millions-year-old technology" of the American prairie as a replicable system that we can borrow in our own yards to sequester carbon, manage stormwater runoff, and support the essential interconnections between life forms that make up the food-soil web. As Douglas Tallamy writes in his book Nature's Best Hope, "If each American landowner made it a goal to convert half of his or her lawn to native plant communities...[we] could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than twenty million acres of what is now ecological wasteland."   

We discuss the role of wildfires and buffalo grazing in Texas before European settlement, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's research on prescribed burning, and how to prepare, install, and maintain a pocket prairie. 

John Hart insists that we must rethink our approach to landscape design, gardening, land ownership, and even our concept of "nature" if we are to sustain life on earth. He describes prairie restoration as "a trajectory, not an intervention" -- a process, rather than a product -- which can help us reconnect with the web of life, reduce climate anxiety, and make our homes more beautiful to boot. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy; the USDA Web Soil Survey; Black Owl Biochar; KR Bluestem.

Please join our Patreon for bonus episodes, early access, and more! 

Best wishes to everyone! Here is a little plantastic escapism to entertain you. [We recorded this episode on 2/28 and added a little corona check-in intro on 3/21. Episode begins around 4:19.]

Can plants “hear” music? What would plant-generated music sound like? On this episode, Leah and Colleen attend “The Secret Song of Plants,” the release party for an album of the same name by music therapist Andrea Cortez. Accompanying Andrea is cellist Henna Chou and… a pothos ivy?!?! 

Join us as we dive deep into the world of plant music, plant sentience, and philosophy, from the Plant Wave, to The Secret Life of Plants, to Mort Garson’s “Plantasia,” and beyond. 

Watch the Secret Life of Plants documentary here.

More info at our website: www.horticulturati.com. Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band. 

Also mentioned in this episode:  

“Inside the Spiritual World of Plant Based Instruments” (Vice magazine, 2016); “Data Garden Quartet” at Philadelphia Museum of Art (2012); Multiple intelligences; “Rock or Bach an Issue to Plants, Singer Says” (New York Times, 1971); In Search of … Other Voices with Leonard Nimoy (TV series, 1977)

PS. In our research, we found several great podcast episodes on the topic of plants and music and tried not to rehash too much territory. Highly recommend you check out: “Smarty Plants” (Radiolab, 2018); “Plants That Sing” (Twenty Thousand Hertz, 2019); “The Secret Life of Plants” (The Organist, 2018), “Are Plants Listening?” (Sound Meditation Radio, 2020).

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

What can we plant in the vegetable garden now? How should I fertilize my fruit trees? Get the answers for Central Texas now! 

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

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 Road Back," New York Times (2014); "Tropical Milkweed: A No-Grow," Xerces Society (2018); Flight of the Butterflies (2012); "Tropical Milkweed OK for Monarch Butterflies, Just Cut the Dang Stuff Down" (2015). 

Here's a preview of our Patreon bonus segment, "In The Weeds." To hear the full episode and get other exclusive content, join The Horticulturati for $5 a month at patreon.com/horticulturati.

Once you sign up, mark your calendars and join us for a live ASK US ANYTHING session on Friday, February 18 at 7pm CST! A link to this Google Hangout event will be provided to all our Patreon patrons. 

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 access to episodes, bonus content, and our undying gratitude. 

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 the City of Austin, having “grass and weeds more than 12 inches in height is considered an unsanitary condition and a code violation,” and many homeowners’ associations mandate that turfgrass must comprise a minimum of 25% of a front yard, despite local water restrictions. We discuss how these strictures are rooted in redlining practices and fear of the natural world, how they stand in opposition to sustainable or regenerative landscaping practices, and what citizens here in town, and around the country, are doing about it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Austin’s Tall Weeds and Grass Ordinance; the municipal code; a cringe video about weeds on the city’s official YouTube page; “Rethinking The American Lawn” by Will McCarthy in Texas Monthly, about Lewisville, Texas;  “Weeding Out Bad Vegetation Ordinances” by Bret Rappaport and Bevin Horn; Sustainable Development Code; updates to codes to allow managed natural landscapes in Minneapolis, Austin; pushback from residents in Ontario and Chicago in 2018 and 2019; a sunflower citation in south Austin in 2021; complaints about how the city fails to follow its own rules; San Antonio DSA’s Code Busters; Texas Senate Bill 198 “relating to restrictive covenants regulating drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf;” Joan Nassauer’s “Cues to Care”; and the “NYC Glyphosate Map” by Reverend Billy.

Music: “Egypt” by Weldon Irvine and “Don’t Forget Your Neighborhood” by Cola Boyy and Avalanches.

Support The Horticulturati by joining our Patreon. Email us at info@horticulturati.com 

Turtle rabbit. Shell possum. Roadkill. Whatever you call it, the nine-banded armadillo is a mysterious, ancient, and unfairly maligned mammal. Find out everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about this Texas icon. Leah traces the armadillo’s bizarre migratory history, its role in medical research, and its rise as a symbol of the Austin music scene. We’ll bust some armadillo myths, meet some famous champions (including naturalist Roy Bedichek and artist Jim Franklin) and discuss the intractable problem of armadillos in the garden. So, spark up a spliff and fill your pantyhose with worms! The next time one wreaks havoc on your flowerbeds, you may just have a little more appreciation for this humble critter. 

Songs: “Dead Armadillo Song” by the Lost Gonzo Band; “Spanish Moss” by Doug Kershaw; “Armadillo Stomp” by Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen;  “You Look Like the Devil” by Willie Nelson; “London Homesick Blues” by Gary P Nunn; “Beautiful Texas Sunshine” by Doug Sahm. Here’s a Spotify playlist.  

Mentioned in this episode: 

Pink Fairy Armadillo; Adventures With a Texas Naturalist by Roy Bedicheck; The Amazing Armadillo by Larry L. Smith and Robin W. Doughty; The Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir by Eddie Wilson Jessie Sublett ; The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, by Jan Reid; “The Rise and Fall of the Armadillo World Headquarters” doc; “Poster Art of the Armadillo World Headquarters” doc ; A Poem is a Naked Person, a film by Les Blank; Franklin’s story about “You Look Like the Devil” told on Pick Up The Tempo podcast; “Armadillo Man,” (The New Yorker, 1971). Managing Armadillo Damage (Texas A&M Agrilife Extension). 

In this episode, we talk about seed sharing and food justice with Hayden Kesterson and DJ Needelman from the Cooperative Gardens Commission. The CGC is an international grassroots collective of volunteers working to increase community food production, resource-sharing, and food sovereignty. Founded in 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic, one of the CGC’s main projects is seed distribution: sourcing commercial seed companies’ surplus inventory and distributing shipments of seeds to a network of hundreds of “seed hubs'' around the US and Canada, which in turn share the seeds with local communities. One of these hubs is Central Texas Seed Savers, founded by Horticulturati co-host, Colleen Dieter.

Hayden and DJ run the CGC’s Seed Distribution initiative from the organization’s home base in Philadelphia. We discuss food apartheid and mutual aid; the challenges of organizing in the wake of the pandemic’s (ongoing) economic catastrophe; and why Hayden and DJ are motivated by the mighty power of seeds.

Find the Cooperative Gardens Commission at https://www.coopgardens.org and support their 2024 Seed Distribution Fundraiser!

This interview is part of Colleen’s research for her upcoming book for A&M Press about seed saving and seed libraries. 

Editor Leah's note: We talk about Covid in the past-tense here. Ironically, Colleen had Covid at the time we recorded this episode, testing positive a few days later. She's recovered, but this little piece of context stands out as a reminder of how the pandemic continues to intervene into our lives, even as we imagine ourselves in a "post-Covid" world. 

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 airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM.  

Join our Patreon for early access to Horticulturati episodes, bonus content, and more! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

What’s the deal with mulch? Why do we do it? Where does it come from? Mulch is a noun, a verb, and--for many--a pile of mystery. On this episode, we discuss mulch's history, weigh in on the bag vs. bulk debate, and call into question the whole practice. Roll up your sleeves and grab a shovel, because your hosts are ready to dump several cubic yards of mulch facts in your mind's driveway! 

Mentioned in this episode: Austin Resource Recovery Recycling Center (currently closed due to COVID); Rodale's How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method; Cheryl Hazeltine's Central Texas Gardener. 

More info at our website: www.horticulturati.com. Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band. 

Fertilizers...oxidizers...explosions! We’re still trying to wrap our brains around Ammonium Nitrate over here, so we called on science superstar Dr. Kate Biberdorf, aka Kate the Chemist, to help us out. What is Ammonium Nitrate, and why is this volatile chemical so ubiquitous? What are the conditions that create fertilizer explosions? Is synthetic fertilizer safe? We ask these questions and more, then find ourselves back down the philosophical rabbit hole: questioning our assumptions about organic food, while taking stock of the unintended consequences of industrial agriculture. 

This is a follow-up to our earlier Ammonium Nitrate episode (released September 19, 2020). Drop us a line at horticulturati.com and/or leave a voicemail at 347-WAP-HORT. 

Mentioned: 

Kate the Chemist on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; Kate’s books: The Big Book of Experiments ; and her Kate the Chemist fiction series; Hypoxic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico; “Deadly blue-green Algae returns to Austin’s Lady Bird Lake” (kvue.com, July 20, 2020); “Austin’s toxic algae bloom continues to keep dogs out of Lady Bird Lake” (Culture Map Austin September 11, 2019). 

The Horticulturati is a new gardening talkshow co-hosted by designers Leah Churner and Colleen Dieter. Visit us at www.horticulturati.com 

Autumn has come to Texas at long last! To celebrate, we watched the documentary Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf (2017) by Thomas Piper, and we're now officially card-carrying Piet stans sporting Dutch accents, asymmetrical haircuts, and scythes.

We discuss Oudolf’s “mathematics” of design, seasonal ambience, and the art of garden editing. How might we translate Oudolf's temperate palate to the not-so-temperate climate of central Texas? 

Drop us a line at horticulturati.com or a leave a voicemail at 347-WAP-HORT.

Here’s where you can rent the movie: https://shop.fiveseasonsmovie.com/product/single-viewer/

Mentioned in this episode: Oudolf designs at Hummelo; Hauser & Wirth; the Lurie Garden; the High Line; Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury;  Medicinal Plants of Texas by Nicole Telkes; and Coopers BBQ in Llano. 

Here's a preview of our Patreon bonus segment, "In The Weeds." To hear the full episode and get other exclusive content, join The Horticulturati for $5 a month at patreon.com/horticulturati.

We're back at Colleen's picnic table to reflect on what we've learned (horticulturally and emotionally) in the year since Uri, the crippling 2021 snow-and-ice storm that plunged Texas into single-digit temperatures and left 40% of Austin residents without power and/or water for days. Last year we recorded a few episodes about the immediate aftermath of the Snowpocalypse; now we're examining the storm's lingering effects on local gardeners, growers, and plants. Which species fared the best and worst? How has the storm changed our approach to landscape design? And what are we expecting for the coming spring? Just in time for yet another cold snap, join us for a chat about "marginally hardy" plants, the role of microclimates and eco-regions, and every Texan's favorite topic: the weather.  

Mentioned in this episode: 

Central Texas Seed Savers; TreeFolks.

Enter the hive with us for another classic critter topic: BEES! We recorded so much on bees that we have to split this bee-nanza into a two-parter! In part one, Leah suits up for a tour at Two Hives Honey in Manor, Texas, and investigates honeybee ecology. In part two, we’ll focus on how, as a gardener, you can support our honey-making friends (along with native bees and other pollinators). 

What are honeybees? Why do they live in boxes? And how did Apis mellifera, just one of tens of thousands of bee species in the world, become so ubiquitous in our gardens? We’ll answer these questions and more with the help of professional beekeeper Samantha Dula. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Beekeeper’s Bible by Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeney-Lynch; and Bee City (1951), a short film about honeybees narrated by sportswriter and amateur naturalist John Kieran. 

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast, also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

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 Plant People's Spring Plant Swap 1-4 pm at Tillery Street Plant Co (801 Tillery, Austin)

April 23: Leah is hosting a workshop with the Central Texas Mycological Society: Sheet Mulching With Mycelium (Mushrooms!): Build Resilient Planting Beds 2-4 pm at Ruiz Branch Library (1600 Grove Blvd, Austin) 

Join our Patreon for early access to Horticulturati episodes, bonus content, and more! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

Shake off those umbrellas! On this episode, Austin-based garden designers Colleen Dieter and Leah Churner discuss Central Texas’ climate and its consequences. Specifically, rain. And the lack thereof. Leah explains how longitude is destiny, and Colleen examines how “Xeriscape” became “Zeroscape.” But first, a garden update: Leah’s ripping out landscape fabric and Colleen has a misadventure with a skid-steer. 

Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

“Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian,” by Christopher Collins in The Texas Observer, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Path to Power by Robert Caro, Southwest Gardening by Rosalie Doolittle and Harriet Tiedebohl, and “Gravel in the Garden: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” with Elizabeth McGreevy on KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener. 

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

At long last, here's the second installment of our bee-stravaganza. Leah interviews beekeeper Tara Chapman, owner of Two Hives Honey, about the intricate connection between bees, plants, and weather. Then, your hosts discuss how to be a good steward to honeybees--and native bees and other pollinators as well. Even if you're not a beekeeper, there are many things you can do (or not do) to be a friend to the bees! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Instagram's @mr.mrs.beeRescue and @theinnocentgardener (beekeeper Sam Dula); Honey and Venom by NYC beekeeper Andrew Coté. 

Find us on Patreon!

Crape myrtles are blooming all over the place and Leah is DISGUSTED! What’s triggering this Lagerstroemiaphobia? Perhaps it’s not about the crape myrtles, but rather the living demons of exurban hell? Next, Colleen reports on a storied gourd that vine borers can’t touch: the cushaw squash. Domesticated some time around the dawn of agriculture, the obscure cushaw took on special significance to African American foodways as a “slave food” staple. We discuss plants and memory, the merits of “folklore,” and the importance of heirloom seeds as “living archives” of cultural information. 

See photos of Colleen’s humongous cushaw plant and drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Botany Coloring Book by Paul Young; The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney; Neil Sperry on topping crape myrtles; Nandina ‘nana”;  the “Pool Party Incident” of 2015; Homestead Heart (YouTube); “The Seeds of Survival” (NYT); Kathe Hambrick-Jackson, The River Road African American Museum (Louisiana); Michael W. Twitty, The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty; Farming While Black, by Leah Penniman. 

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 have "evolved in a given place over a period of time sufficient to develop complex and essential relationships with a diversity of animals." Native plants, then, are organisms that have interacted with insects, birds, and mammals for thousands, if not millions, of years. We discuss Tallamy's perspective and the how we might tackle the challenge of implementing a conservation design -- and convincing homeowners to think of themselves as land stewards.

Up first: It's hot here in Austin, so we are talking about what early triple-digit temps mean for gardeners. Leah is looking for her niche, taking inspiration from specialist insects. 

Support us by joining our Patreon! $5 a month gets you early access to episodes, bonus content, and our deep gratitude.

Mentioned in this episode: National Wildlife Federation's Native Plant Finder web tool; The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden (2014) by Roy Diblik; Planting in a Post-Wild World (2015) by Claudia West and Thomas Rainer.

Also - after recording, we found this article from the NWF about yucca moths. (Their caterpillars eat the yucca seeds and flowers, not the leaves! Then the moths pollinate the yuccas in return!)

On this week's radio show, landscape designer Michele Fonzi joins Leah to talk about framing the garden with hardscaping. Michelle is a landscape construction expert, horticulturist, and project manager who builds commercial and residential spaces with her company, Michele Fonzi Designs. We discuss the architectural side of garden design -- dry creek beds, pathways, stairs, and stonework -- and her life lessons from being a woman in a male-dominated field. Follow Michele on on Instagram and Facebook.

Colleen will be back on the mic next week! 

Join our Patreon for early access to Horticulturati episodes, bonus content, and more! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

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 (“Turk’s cap”). 

While it's probably too much to expect everyone to start using Latin names for plants, we can adapt new common names that are more culturally sensitive and accurate. Like the plants themselves, common names are organic, living things that need to evolve over time. 

First up, some armadillo drama and an update on Colleen's super-low-maintenance front yard renovation inspired by the writing of Roy Diblik (here's our original episode about that.)

Mentioned: 

Great at Procreate, an online digital drawing course from instructor Amy Fedele; "Problematic Common Names" (House Plant Hobbyist, 2021); How Plants Get Their Names by L.H. Bailey (Macmillian, 1933); Native Flora of Texas by the Texas Highway Department (undated, ca. 1960); The Better Common Names Project of the Entomological Society of America; and Potentially Problematic Common Names, a study by the American Public Gardens Association (2021). 

Like the show? Please support us on Patreon! 

Email us at info@horticulturati.com or leave us a message on the Hotline at 347-WAP-HORT.

We’re back with an Old Farmers’ Almanac episode! Continuously published since 1792, the Almanac is an American institution, rife with weather forecasts, recipes, gardening tips, and snake oil. Long advertised on its cover as “useful, with a pleasant degree of humor,” the new edition provides tips on the best days in 2024 to wash your floors, perm your hair, and make jams or jellies – according to the sun, moon, and stars. 

Colleen traces her complex personal history with this grocery-checkout-aisle stalwart, a jumble of what she calls “astrological hooey and astronomical fact,” from her childhood fascination with natural phenomena, like bird migrations and eclipses, to her current wariness about the blurred line between fun folk wisdom and dangerous pseudoscience. 

Despite ourselves, we find it pretty compelling.

For a truly useful almanac, check out Colleen’s new Digital Texas Fruit Tree Calendar! Learn from a Central Texas fruit tree expert about when to plan, prune, and feed your fruit trees in 2024. Viewable on any device, this resource syncs with your Google or IOS calendar to take the guesswork out of maximizing your fruit harvest of figs, citrus, apples, peaches, pears and plums! With this superpower in your pocket, you’ll be empowered to care for your fruit trees with confidence. You’ll receive the file, plus video and text instructions for installing your calendar in an email after you purchase. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

“The Quiet Mysticism of Almanacs” by Jess McHugh (Los Angeles Review of Books, July 11 2021); “The Old Farmer’s Almanac Needs a Reboot” by Mark Athitakis (Washington Post, August 24 2022); “Farmer’s Almanac: Literature to Poop To” (Stuff You Should Know podcast, August 22 2023) 

Join our Patreon for early access to Horticulturati episodes, bonus content, and more! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

Crossover alert! This episode is a twofer. In part one, we check in about the busy fall planting season. After many months of Zooming, we’re back to in-person, social-distance recording from Colleen’s backyard! As we test out our new remote podcasting equipment, the conversation drifts from back-braces to bulb-mania to the monk parakeets of Austin. Part two is our guest appearance on another great planty podcast, One To Grow On! Hallie and Chris Casey interviewed us about one of our favorite topics, Xeriscaping. Subscribe to One To Grow On for stories of how food production impacts our world, and if you haven't heard our interview about local food and soil health with Sustainable Food Center's Hallie Casey, check that out here. 

Visit our website for show notes!
Email info@horticulturati.com 
Leave a voicemail: 347-WAP-HORT 

On this mega-episode, we’re tackling garden design--our approaches, our anxieties, and our gripes about “expert” sources of mystifying advice and misleading photography. Garden design books are rife with the jargon of art theory. How well does this translate to the living medium of plants in the landscape? Google Image Search puts pictures of every plant imaginable at our fingertips, which is great...but also not so great. Hashing it out at length, we agree on some basic aesthetic tenets, then throw the rest out the window. Maybe it all comes down to climate, maintenance, and solving problems with plants. First up, Leah describes a real-life botanical nightmare that sends her down memory lane. Last, Colleen shares a listener letter from a Buckeye gardening in the southwest.

Leave a voice message on the new Horticulturati Hotline! The number is 347-WAP-HORT. 

Or drop us a line on our website. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, here’s the illustration Leah’s referring to, and her 1991 home video of her interview with Chris Van Allsburg; Landscapes in Landscapes by Piet Oudolf; Gardens of Japan by Tetsuro Yoshida, and his excellent illustration of balanced grouping of stones; Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Volume 2 by Brad Lancaster; Texas Wildscapes by Kelly Conrad Bender.

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; US EPA explanation of phosphorus processing waste product storage; Florida Public Radio story about Florida mine disasters; Atlas Obscura podcast: “The Belt and Berm” Part 1 and Part 2; Atlas Obscura text: Moroccan Western Sahara Wall; Soil is Sexy

Support us by subscribing to our Patreon! 

Email info@horticulturati.com 

We dive into the "seeds from China" story and discuss the implications and ramifications in the context of the political moment, which brings us back to an endlessly debatable question: is garden "nativism" xenophobic? 

Visit us and drop a line here. And check out the Central Texas Seed Savers to learn about how you can get involved in sharing seeds. To hear the story behind Central Texas Seed Savers, and why Colleen is so passionate about seeds, listen to this episode of Hothouse! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Press release from texasagriculture.gov; “Mystery Seeds Mailed From China” by Reese Oxner (Texas Tribune, 2020); Sid Miller talks about seeds (Texas Department of Agriculture Facebook page); “Against Nativism” by Michael Pollan (NYT Magazine, May 15, 1994); Sid Miller’s 2020 Texas GOP Convention video (his Facebook page).

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 Horticulturati on Patreon and get early access to episodes and bonus content. 

Hey ya'll, check out this new episode of Leah's other podcast, Hothouse. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled Horticulturati programming soon. For now, welcome to Hothouse Season 2!

If you follow any flower farmers on Instagram, the romance may be all too tempting: picture yourself quitting the city, fixing up an old farmhouse, and spending your days harvesting flowers and arranging bouquets on a ten-acre homestead. Now imagine doing that in a fire-prone, flood-prone, deer-pressured, rapidly developing portion of Austin without access to well water or an agricultural property tax exemption. Sam Eberhardt and Dan Poole are farming on the razor’s edge, doing everything the hard way, and still somehow managing to make the dream look absolutely fabulous.

In this episode, we take a walk behind the scenes of Cassiopeia, a flower farm and orchard dedicated to ethical land stewardship, wildlife conservation, and “beyond organic” principles. Sam and Dan discuss the structural obstacles faced by small farms, their commitment to regenerative agriculture, and their “shotgun approach” to rolling with the punches of climate change. 

Check out Cassiopeia Farm's farm-to-table CSA, the Best Buds Club, find their flowers at Austin Flower Company, Salt and Time, and Confituras, and follow them on Instagram.

This interview was recorded in February 2019. Drop me a line! Music by Moonsicles.

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

On the premiere episode of The Horticulturati, Austin-based landscape designers Colleen Dieter and Leah Churner discuss the majesty of Joshua Trees and the thorns of Martha Stewart. But first, it's gardeners' corner: Colleen plants an orchard for wildlife and Leah buries cardboard to build soil.  

Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com.

Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band. 

Mentioned in this episode: Womack Nursery, Legg Creek Farm, American Eden by Wade Graham, Special Occasions by Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart’s Gardening: Month By Month, Just Desserts: The Unauthorized Biography of Martha Stewart by Jerry Oppenheimer, and this Cereal Cube Castle. 

Howdy, neighbor! In this episode, Colleen discusses architect Ross Chapin’s idea of “pocket neighborhoods” -- residential blocks arranged around a shared green space, where small homes or apartments face a pedestrian-friendly commons, rather than facing the street.  We imagine how much more aesthetically pleasing and psychologically rewarding landscapes could be if we took vehicles, driveways, and "car holes" out of the equation. Next, Leah brings up a perennial landscape design challenge that comes with having neighbors: screening! How do you create privacy around the home and block unsightly views, especially as growing density in urban areas has created a trend for tear-downs and the construction of taller houses with larger footprints? We share tips and tricks, from tree selection to the importance of sight lines, and ponder whether good fences really make good neighbors. 

Mentioned in this episode: Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World by Ross Chapin; and the Arborists’ Certification Study Guide, Third Edition, by S.J. Lilly. 

Here's the July 15 episode of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ. We talk about karst ecosystems, ticks in Texas, Navajo or "Indian" peaches, harvesting figs, and a native plant that's on our wish list: velvet leaf mallow (Allowissadula holosericea). 

Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am 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! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

We're live from Zone 8b with a tell-all about the "epistemological quandary" that is the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. What is hardiness? How is it quantifiable? And how useful is the USDA's classification system for gardeners grappling with extreme weather? Listen to find out. 

First up, some tree news -- some of it shady. Last but not least, we get our first-ever call to the Horticulturati Hotline! Thank you Misti from The Garden Path Podcast for your sharing your Big Tree journeys. 

Visit us at horticulturati.com and check out our NEW Patreon! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

"History of Plant Hardiness Zone Maps" (Plant Delights Nursery); The American Horticultural Society's Plant Heat-Zone Map; Famous Trees of Texas by Gretchen Riley and Peter D. Smith

On this episode, we discuss virtual foliage, time travel, and big trees. Colleen looks into how video games might play a role in curing plant blindness, and Leah shines a light on the remarkable life and legacy of Margret Hofmann (1925-2012), whose 1970s “Think Trees” campaign introduced Austinites to a majestic urban forest hidden in plain sight. 

Leave us a voicemail at 347-WAP-HORT or drop us a line at horticulturati.com! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Greenberg Turkey plant explosion; “A Video Game Garden: The Delights of Virtual Botany” (The Guardian); Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture; Video Game Foliage (Tumblr); the iNaturalist app; Myst; Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut; A Key To Survival by Margaret Hoffmann; The 1976 Tree Registry; Hofmann’s archive at the Austin History Center; The Secret Life of Plants documentary; Photo by Alan Pogue of Hofmann in 1975 with a historical marker at the site of a 700-year-old live oak at I-35 and Braker Lane (see the tree on Google Street View).

Here's the July 29 episode of Horticulture Hangover, our radio broadcast on KLBJ.  Leah reports on her visit to Braken Cave -- the world's largest bat colony! -- summer home to 15-20 million bats, then we talk about multi-trunked red oaks tendency to fall apart, watering trees, dealing with invasive grasses (KR bluestem and Johnsongrass), and the marvelous mistflowers. 

Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am 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! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

Happy New Year! We’re back from vacation with a discussion of a book that is very much in the Horticulturati wheelhouse, The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden. Author Roy Diblik, a Wisconsin-based designer and plantsman, argues that anyone can build a “design-magazine-worthy garden at home” by thoughtfully combining perennials to form functional plant communities that need little more than an annual mow – almost no irrigation, mulch, or hand-pruning required. This low-maintenance method could be a revelation for residential and commercial landscapes alike, but can it work in Texas, with our balmy winters and scorching summers? Is there a way to implement the mowing-for-maintenance concept using electric, rather than gas, machines? Colleen is inspired to experiment as she redesigns her front yard.

Next, we review a documentary short, The Soul of a Farmer, by filmmaker Roger Sherman. Chef-turned-grower Patty Gentry of Early Girl Farm rents three acres in Long Island from Isabella Rosselini (!!!), who calls Patty “the Picasso of Vegetables.” Sidestepping many of the tropes of farm-to-table docs (Gentry admits she’d probably be living out of her truck if it weren’t for her spouse’s financial support) this film paints an honest portrait of the struggles and small victories of one artisanal vegetable grower as she transitions from wholesale growing for restaurants to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. Food porn ahead! 

If you’re SERIOUS about gardening, join our Patreon at $5/month and get bonus “in the weeds” content from this episode, video classes, and early access to the show! In this edition of the bonus, Colleen shares her plant list for the front yard, and the mulch conundrum continues. We’re talkin’ hydrophobic crustiness, the virtues of leaf mold versus pine straw, and so much more! 

Email info@horticulturati.com or leave us a message on the Horticulturati Hotline at 347-WAP-HORT.

Photo credit Patrice Casanova/The Soul of a Farmer 

How did the invention of time-lapse photography revolutionize our understanding of plants? Leah checks in with Charles Darwin and Barbara Streisand on this subject. Colleen tells us how to get certified through the International Society of Arboriculture, and brings us up to speed on some Facebook drama. But first, a garden update... It's been a bad year for the roses. Watch the videos we discuss at the end of the episode at our website: www.horticulturati.com

Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band. 

Mentioned in this episode: Tree Folks Urban Forest Stewards Program; "The Secret Life of Plants: Visualizing Vegetative Movement 1880-1903" by Oliver Gaycken in Early Popular Visual Culture (Feb 2012);  Charles Percy's The Birth of a Flower (1910); The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso; Science in Action: Time Lapse Photography (1964); On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970).

A year ago, we recorded a long and rambly episode on garden design. Now we're making it an October tradition! Revisiting the subject, we realize our approaches to design have changed, but we're still hell-bent on questioning basic tenets. How important is color? Are foundation shrubs necessary? Should we flip the script on "seasonal interest?" Does "timesharing with plants" really work? Join us at the picnic table as we parse out some jargon (form, texture, verticality), swap tips, and get hangry for cookies. 

Mentioned in this episode: Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf (2017) and Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West (2015). 

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

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 the yard. Commercial compost is a waste byproduct defined by the US Composting Council. Manufacturers don’t have to tell you precisely what’s in it, and in fact they’re legally prohibited from doing so due to the way compost is regulated in Texas. As John Hart explains, this lack of transparency, along with the “windrow” form of manufacturing, can be a real problem for large-scale ecological restoration projects. He describes his work on Mission Reach, an 8-mile stretch of the San Antonio River restored by the city of San Antonio from 2002-2012. Rehabilitating the degraded riparian soil on this site required 35,000 cubic yards of compost – roughly the equivalent of 2,500 dump trucks– and a lot of trial and error. John Hart shares his findings about the shortcomings of commercial compost production and offers up some practical solutions. 

patreon.com/horticulturati

Chestnuts roasting in an ideological fire! Colleen shares the history of Castanea dentata, a once ubiquitous, now virtually extinct species that has become an unlikely sticking point in the controversy over genetically modified organisms.

But first, we talk about late season burnout, and COLLEEN’S FORTHCOMING BOOK! (Stay tuned for news about book release!)

PS. Leah will be presenting a free lecture to the Native Plant Society of Williamson County, “Landscaping with Native Plants: Ten Design Principles for Home Gardeners” on June 10 at 7pm, via Zoom. Sign up and learn more here.

Support us by joining our Patreon! And drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com 

Mentioned in this episode:

Akiva Silver; The Sierra Club’s paper on Chestnuts; Truth Out’s article by Anne Petermann; The Genetic Literacy Project’s podcast on biotech and chestnuts; SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Petition for Determination of Nonregulated Status for Blight-Tolerant Darling 58 American Chestnut; and the American Chestnut Foundation.

On this episode, we bring you stories of adaptation and change. Leah has been studying up on butterfly holometabolism -- that is, complete metamorphosis -- with assistance from her niece, nephew, and Vladimir Nabokov. Colleen describes the history of Victory Gardens, from World War I to the present day, and outlines three ways to start a “pandemic garden” of your own. But first: we revisit the sleeper masterpiece that is the Secret Life of Plants doc (1979), which is only available in bootleg on YouTube. Watch it here.

Mentioned in this episode: 

A color guide to familiar Butterflies Caterpillars and Chrysalides by Josef Moucha; Butterfly Gardening for the South by Geyata Ajilvsgi; Gayata on Central Texas Gardener;  photo of a giant swallowtail chrysalis and a monarch chrysalis; Nabokov’s 1948 “Butterflies” essay from the New Yorker; Sebastian’s rescued chrysalis and newly emerged monarch; National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies of North America; A Brief History of Gardening by Neil Fairbairn; Nature’s Garden for Victory and Peace by George Washington Carver;  Victory Garden (undated propaganda film); “How to Plant a Victory Garden” (NYT Sunday Style); this article about panic gardening; this article about scallions; and Central Texas Seed Savers.

Get in touch with us on our website. 

Why are we putting explosives on our plants? On this episode, Colleen charts the history of ammonium nitrate, the synthetic fertilizer that propelled the rise of industrial agriculture in the 20th century--cheap to manufacture, but spectacularly costly in terms of lives lost. This highly explosive compound has caused some of the worst industrial accidents of all time (Oppau, 1921, Texas City, 1947, Toulouse, 2001, West, Texas, 2013, Tianjin, 2015, and Beirut, 2020) and was the terrorist weapon used in Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. 

Nitrogen is critical to all life, and as any farmer or gardener knows, is the first ingredient in fertilizers (the “N” in the N-P-K). Plants can’t naturally pull nitrogen out of the air without the help of soil microbes; it wasn’t until the invention of the Haber-Bosch Process in 1910 that humans found a way to cut out the microbial middlemen and provide nitrogen to plants in synthetic form. 

We discuss the role of nitrogen in plant life, the disastrous toll of the Beirut bombing, Trump’s rollback of EPA regulations on fertilizer facilities, and how going organic (“teaming with microbes”) can help save the planet. 

...And then, to lighten things up, we read a listener letter! Horticulturati fan Mike has a bone to pick with us about our Xeriscape episode and pooh-poohing of “Martian landscapes” filled with rocks, but we agree his use of rocks in dry-creek bed design is the exception that proves the rule. 

Drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com

Here’s a YouTube playlist of the ammonium nitrate explosion videos discussed and a YouTube playlist of Leah and Colleen’s Central Texas Gardener appearances on KLRU-TV. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

“Arson Blamed For West Fertilizer Explosion,” Texas Farm Bureau (May 11, 2015); “West unveils memorial six years after fertilizer plant explosion killed 15,” The Texas Tribune (April 17, 2019); “Trump EPA eases safety requirements enacted after West explosion,” The Texas Tribune (November 5, 2016); Beirut blast: How does ammonium nitrate create such devastating explosions? Live Science (August 5, 2020); 

 Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale (2011); “Fertilizers: A Long HIstory of Risky Business“ in Modern Farmer (April 2013); “Many Fertilizer Plants are Poorly Located And Regulated, Says Report,” New York Times (January 29, 2016); “Extension Corner: Strike Fertilizer Facility Explosions Off Worries List,” The Gadsden Times (May 15, 2013);  “EPA Delays Chemical Facility Safety Regulations Inspired by West Fertilizer Plant Explosion,” Texas Monthly (June 15, 2017); “Texas town holds no grudge against exploded fertilizer plant owner,” Reuters (April 23, 2013); Teaming With Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis (2006). 

In remembrance of James Hand (1952-2020). Thank you a lot, Slim, for your music.   

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, 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 the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM.

Join our Patreon for early access to Horticulturati episodes, bonus content, and more! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

How is the global pandemic impacting local food systems? We interview @Hallie_Casey of Sustainable Food Center and On To Grow On podcast to find out. We discuss food supply chains, how local farmers’ markets are adapting, and who counts as “essential” workers during a Shelter in Place Order. Then we dig into a more fun topic: soil!  How do you know if your soil is healthy? What's the role of soil in regenerative agriculture? Lastly, we introduce a segment called the “Gardener’s Gauntlet,” in which we invite guests to spill their horticultural passions and peeves. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Essential Worker Travel Form letter from Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association, the SFC Farmers’ Markets, the USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service (NCRS), Texas Plant and Soil Lab, and One To Grow On’s series on organic agriculture. This one goes out to John Prine, who is battling the virus. 

Drop us a line on our website or email info@horticulturati.com and find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!

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 first two episodes, recorded April 1 and April 8.  

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 questions next week at 8-9 am CST on KLBJ's website, or on the airwaves: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. 

Support the Horticulturati on Patreon for early access to shows, bonus content, and our undying gratitude. 

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

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 at 8-9 am 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! 

Email: info@horticulturati.com 

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 valuable to the design process; the role of digital design programs like AutoCAD; and how tablet apps provide a new, hybrid avenue of digital hand-drafting. 

Then we turn to to the subject of emotional baggage: Why is drawing so scary for so many adults? How can we gain confidence as creatives and develop our own unique visual style? 

Mentioned in this episode: the tablet apps (Procreate, Adobe Fresco, Morpholio Trace, Concepts); The Creative Habit by Twila Tharp (2006).

Contact us! info@horticulturati.com 

Join our Patreon for early access to shows and bonus episodes! 

Springtime is owl time. Owlets be hatching. Fledglings be fledging. Owl cams be streaming. Enter, with us, the kingdom of the night, as we celebrate these mysterious and beautiful birds.

Drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com or call the Hotline at 347-WAP-HORT. Please join our Patreon! 

Mentioned: 

Merlin and Minerva's website, Instagram, and live Twitch stream; Austin Birds on Facebook; “Why is the owl considered a wise bird in the West and a symbol of foolishness in India?” (Times of India, Oct 3, 2004); “All About Owls” online presentation from the Austin Nature and Science Center by Mary Beck (Nov 14, 2020 -- ALSO please excuse us for calling it the Austin Science and Nature Center, that was incorrect); Athena the Great Horned Owl at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center; Owl Shack screech owl boxes. 

Colleen Dieter, co-host of the Horticulturati podcast also hosts the Horticulture Hangover Radio Show, a call-in (or text-in) show for gardening questions. Tune in to Horticulture Hangover live on Saturdays at 8-9 am CST: 99.7 AM and 590 FM. ATXgardens.com

On this episode, we’re sinking our toes into St. Augustine grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum), icon of the Texas lawn from Hank Hill’s house to the State Capitol grounds. Millions of acres of prime farmland and front yards are dedicated to this non-edible crop. St. Augustine is so ubiquitous in our landscape it’s almost invisible. But what paradoxes are hiding in plain sight? This coastal pioneer species, which grows on all continents except Antarctica, would seem to be an evolutionary success story. Why is it so plagued with weeds, diseases and pests? Its seeds likely floated on ocean currents to take root across the globe. Yet in its modern form, it can’t be grown from seed at all. And despite being a host plant for numerous pollinators in its native range, it offers very little ecological value in manicured lawns. Why won’t it grow under trees? WHAT IS IT FOR? Listen in for our totally unbiased opinions. 

First up, a special announcement! Colleen is writing a book about seed saving! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

“St. Augustine” by Richard L. Duble, Turfgrass Specialist, Texas Cooperative Extension; Diploids and triploids; “The biology of Stenotaphrum secundatum” by The Australian Government Department of Health; Houston Grass, YouTube; Becky Grubbs Bowling’s talk, “Can Trees and Turf Coexist?” at the 2022 ISA Texas Trees Conference; Cobalt St. Augustine; Atrazine; Shade Friendly Wildflower Mix from Native American Seed. 

Fresh off a hometown visit to Cleveland, Colleen brings us the story of the Cuyahoga: a river once so polluted with industrial sludge, it burned. At least thirteen times. While the largest and most damaging conflagration occurred in 1952, it was the 1969 river fire that made national headlines, thanks to Mayor Carl Stokes. As one of the first Black mayors of a major American city, the charismatic and media-savvy Stokes connected the dots between economic inequality and environmental degradation, and advocated on the national stage for legislation that would clean up the “urban environment,” starting with the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie. Today, the pristine Cuyahoga is a symbol of pride for Clevelanders, yet this civic success story belies the reality of ongoing inequality there. Colleen shares her personal history of growing up in “a city with no superlatives,” her own chance connection to Stokes, and how she’s begun parsing the difference between “environmentalism” and “environmental justice.”

Also, Leah shares an update on the so-called Mystery Seeds from China.

Support us on Patreon for bonus content and early access to episodes. 

Mentioned in this episode:

“The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds” by Chris Heath (The Atlantic, 7/15/21); Burning River Pale Ale; The Good Time III boat; The Mayor and The People: Carl B Stokes (album by Oliver Nelson); “Carl B. Stokes and the 1969 River Fire” (National Parks Service); “The Cities: The Price of Optimism” (Time, 8/1/69), “The Myth of the Cuyahoga River Fire” (Distillations Podcast, Science History Institute); “Bringing Back Trees to ‘Forest City’s Redlined Areas to Help Residents and the Climate” (NPR, 6/23/21).

When you have too many plants, it's time to make more! That's gardener logic for you. Fall is a great time to divide perennials and save seeds - but how? We dig into these methods of backyard propagation and again give you permission to be ruthless and/or lazy in the garden. Go ham on that root ball! Let the veggies bolt! Plants can handle it. Up first: Leah has a design question and Colleen scours the streaming platforms for Monty Don. 

Please join the Horticulturati on Patreon! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Monty Don; "How to Divide 45 Favorite Perennials" and "Three Simple Ways to Divide Plants" from Garden Gate Magazine; The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds by Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough.

www.horticulturati.com

John Dromgoole wears a lot of hats. Sun hats mostly, but also figurative ones: founder of the Natural Gardener, former host of the long-running garden call-in radio show Gardening Naturally on Newsradio KLBJ, regular TV presenter on PBS’ Central Texas Gardener and KXAN’s The Weekend Gardener; the list goes on. On this episode, your hosts (both former employees of the Natural Gardener), sit down with John to hear his story, from his early adventures in Laredo (exporting bell bottoms into Mexico and booking one of ZZ Top’s first shows) to his long career in Austin as a media personality and nurseryman. An early proponent of organic gardening, John discusses butting heads with conventional horticulturists, proving his point with demonstration gardens, and learning from his mentor, Malcolm Beck. We chat about designing with native plants, “the art of watering,” and the influence of the Natural Gardener as a training ground for countless plant people in Austin. 

Email us! info@horticulturati.com

Can a native plant garden be maintained without year-round pruning? In this episode, Colleen articulates her front-yard scheme for a super-low-maintenance native garden design for Central Texas, a cumulative idea inspired by past episodes of this very podcast. Her working title is “The Everything Garden.”

First, we introduce a corrections segment called the “Concession Stand,” and Leah wonders what the heat dome has to do with the surprising amount of debris in the road.

Mentioned: Native Texas Gardens: Maximum Beauty, Minimum Upkeep by Sally Wasowski and Andy Wasowski.

Past Horticulturati episodes discussed here (scroll down through your podcast player of choice):

• June 12, 2022 “Design for Ecology and Conservation”
• January 7, 2022 “Designing for Maintenance and ‘The Soul of a Farmer’”
• May 16 2022 “Pocket Prairies with John Hart Asher”
• Nov 27 2022 “Growing a Vision with Amy Hovis and Willy Glenn”
• January 23 2022 “Plant Communities and Vertical Layers”
• Nov 29 2020 Five Seasons Total Landscaping- also mentioned Four Seasons Piet Oudolf Documentary

Support The Horticulturati by joining our Patreon. Email us at info@horticulturati.com 

When American gardeners hear the word espalier, we tend to imagine installations in the formal French style: hoity-toity, high-maintenance, and baroquely decorative. Yet the ancient technique of training trees flat on a wall or frame has its roots in space-saving, yield-boosting practicality. In this episode, Colleen argues that this charming art of vertical gardening is uniquely suited to our urban landscapes. 

First up, we talk about "pruning" our workloads. Finally, we share some listener mail about anachronistic virtual plants and the controversial transgenic American chestnut.

Mentioned in this episode:

Colleen’s Pinterest board for espalier; How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method by JI Rodale; Orchard People Fruit Tree Education; The 20-30 Something Garden Guide by Dee Nash;  “Scientists hope genetic engineering can revive the American Chestnut tree” (Reuters, 4/22/21); “Mann seeks EBCI’s help in American Chestnut tree preservation” (The Cherokee One Feather, 10/12/20); American Chestnut Foundation’s press release on EBCI partnership.

Please donate to The National Bail Fund Network! On this Horticulturati, Colleen teaches us the best way to build a compost pile; Leah forages far and wide and lives to tell the tale. 

Visit our website for images from this ep.  

Mentioned: 

The City of Austin’s Home Composting Rebate Program; Mantis Compostumbler; Soil, a novel by Jamie Kornegay; The Telluride Mushroom Festival; The WIld Wisdom of Weeds by Katrina Blair; Turtle Lake Refuge in Durango CO; Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons

New developments are afoot here at Horticulturati HQ! More episodes of this podcast are on the way. In the meantime, you will find Colleen's radio show, Horticulture Hangover, on a separate podcast feed. Please subscribe to Hangover to get your weekly dose gardening advice: 

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Audible/Amazon Podcasts 

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Leah will also be releasing Season 2 of her other podcast, Hothouse. It's all about climate change and climate anxiety! Please subscribe to Hothouse: 

Apple podcasts

Spotify

Google podcasts  

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As always, if you want to support us (and get every podcast we release on a single feed), join our Patreon! 

We return from hiatus with tales of the Snowpocalypse -- or  Snowmageddon, Snowvid, whatever you want to call it -- to document the record-breaking winter weather that broke Texas' electric grid and ushered in a scary new climate reality for the plants and people of the Lone Star State. Your hosts discuss personal trauma, a jumble of conflicting post-freeze plant advice, and a bunch of anecdotes about what worked and what didn't in preparing our gardens and ourselves for an unprecedented 144 consecutive hours of below-freezing temps in Austin. 

Visit us at horticulturati.com 

Subscribe to our PATREON! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Aggie Horticulture Facebook page videos; City Council Member Greg Casar; Resolution Gardens

If you have a passion for plants, you probably love plant shopping. Our local garden centers are more than just a place to source nursery stock; they’re a designer’s trove of botanical information and inspiration. After untold hours spent perusing the grounds of Barton Springs Nursery, we finally sat down for a chat with two of the new owners, designer Amy Hovis and horticulturist Willy Glenn. 

Founded in 1986 by Bernardine and Conrad Bering, Barton Springs Nursery is an Austin institution. Into a drab '80s landscape of photinias, nandinas, and boxwoods, the Berings introduced wild plants from seed and cuttings -- salvias, mallows, bunchgrasses, and palms -- and helped to pioneer the city's vibrant gardening scene with an emphasis on sustainability, native plants, and local expertise. After 35 years, the Berings retired in January 2021 and sold the store to Hovis, the owner of Eden Garden Design; Glenn, the former manager of the nursery; and Greg Thomas. Since then, they've added an event space, revamped the grounds, and adopted two new mascots: a kitten named Fern, and a tortoise named Fig. 

Hovis and Glenn say their goal is to make the "new" BSN the best nursery in Texas (at the very least). We talked about new propagation experiments coming down the pike, the catastrophic winter storm in February, and how the pandemic has ushered in an unexpected gardening renaissance.

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Mentioned in this episode: 

Know Maintenance by Roy Diblik (2014); Leersia oryzoides; Melica mutica

This podcast is two years old! To celebrate, Colleen announces the release of her new BOOK and Leah brings you to the dark side of the plant kingdom with sinister tales of the horticultural uncanny. Journey with us to “Flytrap Gulch,” the Alnwick Poison Garden, and a greenhouse full of googly eyes. In the words of Michael Pollan: “A garden should contain all the colors of human emotion, even the very darkest.” 

Order Colleen's book here. Want to support the show and get 20% off the book? Join our Patreon!  

Mentioned in this episode:

Daisy Butcher, ed Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic (2019); Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart (2009); “So Beautiful, This Ghastly Flower” by Michael Pollan, The New York Times (9/18/97).