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. Heather is a biologist and award-winning author from Canada who now lives in Minnesota. She wrote her first book, “Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants,” based on her experience practicing ecological horticultur ..read more

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. The Scott Medal recognizes an outstanding person in the field of horticulture, which Margaret Roach certainly is. The Scott ..read more

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. Steve is the proprietor of Sunflower Steve Seed Co. in western Wisconsin, close to the Minnesota border. He had been raising cut flowers on his farm since 2000, but in the past couple of years, he has been raising ..read more

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. Meg is an organic gardener in Minnesota’s Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, where the growing season is relatively short. She overcomes this challenge through season extension and succession planting practices, yielding an abundance o ..read more

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. Craig is now in his fifth year living in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and before that, he lived for 28 years in Raleigh, which is also in North Carolina but offers a much different gardening environment. I’ve been fortunate to visit him and his ..read more

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. Emily holds a master’s in entomology (the study of insects) from Michigan State and a bachelor’s in biology and environmental studies from Middlebury College in Vermont. She has studied pollinator habitat restoration, bee nesting hab ..read more

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. Erin, and her husband, Chris, founded Floret Flower Farm in Skagit Valley, located in the northwest corner of Washington state. She has won a number of awards for her design and writing work, including ..read more

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. Jesse and his wife, Hannah, own Rough Draft Farm, a small organic farm in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. He shares the principles and farm-tested practices of no-till gardening and farming in his book “The Living S ..read more

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. Lisa’s been farming flowers on the line of USDA hardiness zones 8A and 7B for a quarter of a century. She is the founder of The Gardener’s Workshop in Newport News, Virginia, which offers seeds, supplies and online courses, and is the author of “Vegetables Love ..read more

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. It’s been amazing so far to experience the new opportunities owning a greenhouse presents. I know I’m just scratching the surface so far and will continue to learn.      My greenhouse is 12 feet by 32 feet. It’s by Yoderbilt, made of wood and poly, with big doors and 19 windows ..read more