Despite being a young professional making a home in big cities, I was several years late to the smartphone craze. You know that friend who tested your patience because she was slow to respond to your witty text messages and when she did it was never with a funny emoji? That was me. While you were wondering why I couldn’t at least send you a “thumbs up,” I was busy squinting at my flip phone screen while slowly typing detailed texts to avoid exceeding the “300 texts a month” phone plan.
Because I was late to the smartphone craze, I was REAL late to the podcast phenomenon. The on-demand, radio-show-style programming sounded up my alley when friends raved about their favorite shows. I was all about a DIY sensibility that gave more people a platform to share ideas they were passionate about and was relieved when I could slide down the podcast rabbit hole during my daily mass transit commute. Burned out from the daily grind at the office where I found myself working, podcasts became a low-key way to feed my insatiable need to learn new things.
When I wasn’t reading a book on the bus, I plugged earbuds into my iPhone and listened to favorite educational podcasts while I knit or stared mindlessly out the window as the city passed in fits and starts. From news shows and long-form storytelling to informational deep dives into an array of subjects, podcasts were a great way to learn more about topics I love without looking at a screen or scrutinizing small print in a book.
It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon nature, garden, and environmental podcasts that ignited my high-altitude horticulture obsession. Below you’ll find three of my go-to gardening podcasts that have helped improve my gardening skills. Each is hosted by seasoned gardeners, and while they weigh in with their experiences during episodes, the shows rely on interviewees to share expertise on a specific gardening topic.
Garden Podcast #1: A Way to Garden
A Way to Garden is the first gardening podcast I tuned into when I needed inspiration (and motivation!) to attempt gardening in an unfamiliar geography and climate. The host, Margaret Roach, is a long-time organic gardener in New York’s Hudson Valley. She’s also a celebrated garden writer. When I was at my most stressed as a full-time working parent, I would download an episode and let her calm voice and thoughtful conversations with garden experts serve as a reset for my mind and body.
Even though New York receives much more rain than we do in Colorado, the area where Roach lives and gardens is also Zone 5b, so I’m always listening for wisdom on plants that grow well in our zone. Her interview with writer (and gardener) Margaret Renkl about the memoir, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss, led me to borrow a copy from the library and to now count it as one of my favorite works of nonfiction. Similarly, Roach’s conversation with Canadian gardener Nikki Jabbour about succession sowing in the garden inspired me to sow seeds throughout the garden season to encourage a consistent supply of home-grown vegetables.
Garden Podcast #2: Gardenerd Tip of the Week
Christy Wilhelmi, the creator and host of Gardenerd Tip of the Week, is a long-time organic gardener in southern California. Her upbeat curiosity about all things place and gardening reminds me how fun gardening can be when you enter the practice with humility and wonder. At the end of each episode, Wilhelmi asks each guest to share a practical garden tip that is vital to their practice. That advice serves as useful tools as I grow as a gardener and steward of my small chunk of the planet.
While Wilhelmi interviews people from all over North America and abroad, her interviews with expert gardeners and sustainability thinkers and doers in California and throughout the arid American West have taught me to tend my garden with water conservation as a top priority. Wilhelmi’s recent interviews with Soul Fire Farm’s Leah Penniman about the power of food sovereignty and with David White on regenerative horticultural practices has made me all the more committed to advocate for organic and regenerative agriculture practices. These practices can improve and preserve the incredible ecological diversity in our soil and honor the cultural values of communities sustaining themselves through the act of farming land that was so long denied them.
Garden Podcast #3: Epic Gardening (now The Beet)
I first heard about the Epic Gardening podcast (currently called The Beet: A Podcast for Plant Lovers) when Christy Wilhemi interviewed the podcast creator and host Kevin Espiritu this past winter. Based in San Diego, California, Espiritu is a wildly popular garden educator on YouTube. I have no doubt I’ll watch him at some point, but I like to listen to his short (6-10 minute) podcast episodes on specific gardening topics when I head out for my daily walks.
If you’re looking for quick and easy-to-apply garden tips, I recommend Epic Gardening. From how to grow sunflowers to biointensive gardening methods, I finish each episode empowered to adapt how I garden to improve the living conditions for the plants, animals, and microorganisms that make a home together in my garden beds.
Is there a well-loved gardening podcast I should add to my listening queue? Share in the comments section, and I’ll check it out.
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