John Walker, a horticulturist who trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and a multi award winning environmental writer, shares advice on Veganic Gardening, an approach that combines organic practices with plant-based nurturing of the soil with resources found or grown on-site for maximum sustainability.
Shopping for Topsoil
A Rift in the Native Plant World
“Gardeners are the worst threat to native plants.” Hostility toward horticulturists is common within the ecological restoration community. But, John Gedraitis of Van Berkum Nursery says, it’s an impediment to growers such as him who want to expand the availability of local ecotype plants, genetically adapted natives grown from locally collected wild seed.
“Plant Babies” vs. Science in the Garden
Beyond Bold
Landscape architects Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden electrified the gardening world in 1975 when they introduced a new horticultural richness and a concern for sustainability with their “New American Garden Style.” Eric Groft, current CEO of Oehme, van Sweden discusses the firm’s new book, “Beyond Bold,” describing how the successor generation has remained true to that legacy while pursuing new avenues of environmental sensitivity.
Finding New Allies in the Campaign to Save Our Ecosystems
Dr. Douglas Tallamy, the University of Delaware entomologist who has been awakening homeowners to the need to plant natives and join our plots together in a giant “homegrown national park,” has found a new audience. He has just released a young readers’ edition of his best-selling book, “Nature’s Best Hope.” Learn how you can enlist your children in the campaign to save our ecosystems.
A New Day for the Perfect Earth Project
Founded in 2013 by internationally acclaimed garden designer Edwina von Gal, the Perfect Earth Project seeks to introduce landscape professionals to toxin-free, sustainable approaches to their craft, while reaching out to their customers to create a market for these skills. Listen to the Project’s new Executive Director Matt Jeffery discuss the many new programs the organization is pursuing.
Refugia Leads the Way
A New Classic
Nebraskan Benjamin Vogt, a leader in nature-based gardening, has just published Prairie Up, a book that is sure to become a go-to tool for those designing and installing landscapes rooted in our native grassland flora. With its many insights how the dynamics of native plants will shape a native landscape, Prairie Up offers invaluable lessons to nature-based gardeners everywhere
What's New in the Vegetable Garden?
Are You Killing Your Garden With Kindness?
The Contributions of a Modern Plant Explorer
Plant explorers, once the rock stars of the horticultural world, have suffered a loss of status as gardeners turn to native plants. Listen to plant explorer extraordinaire Panayoti Kelaidis of the Denver Botanic Gardens discuss why his quest is still important to making our gardens more sustainable, as well as beautiful.
Become a Plant Explorer
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Gratify your Indiana Jones fantasies by joining the Plant Conservation Volunteers. Your work will have you hiking into overlooked corners of the wild to monitor surviving populations of rare and endangered native plants, and work with landowners to combat threats.
Fighting Back Against Weed Ordinances
Are your beloved native plants actually “noxious weeds”? Too often town or homeowner association officers say yes and invoke anti-weed ordinances to force gardeners back to old-fashioned lawns and foundation plantings. Listen to attorney and native plants advocate Rosanne Plante tell you how you can fight back, and win.
The Easy Way to Start Your Plants from Seed
What to Look For in the Garden this Year
Save the Snakes
Michael Starkey understands that not everyone shares his enthusiasm for snakes, but as founder and Executive Director of Save the Snakes he believes that humans and snakes, even venomous snakes, can coexist. As a wildlife biologist, Michael shares techniques for making your landscape less – or more – attractive to snakes and how education can protect against snake bites and enhance your enjoyment of these amazing creatures
Return of an American Giant
In the early years of the 20th century an introduced fungal blight killed an estimated 4 billion American chestnut trees, effectively eliminating what had been a foundational species of eastern North American woodlands. Scientist Andrew Newhouse of the State University of New York explains how his university is preparing to release a race of American chestnuts genetically engineered to withstand the blight, so that this essential tree may flourish in the forest once again
