Encyclopedia Botanica

In episode 115 of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast, host Hilary Dahl interviews Christian Douglas of Christian Douglas Design and the Backyard Farm Co. about his new book, The Food Forward Garden. They discuss Christian's principles of good food forward design. They also discuss integrating vegetable gardens into existing landscapes. Christian shares insights from his diverse background in horticulture, design, and permaculture, emphasizing the value of growing food for personal and environmental benefits.

Buy Christian's book from Bookshop.org: "The Food Forward Garden: A Complete Guide to Designing and Growing Edible Landscapes"

Shop the Freyr trellis and accessories: seattleurbanfarmco.com

In this episode we discuss the benefits and practicalities of installing and using drip irrigation systems in vegetable gardens. We delve into the specifics of drip irrigation, explaining how it delivers water efficiently to the soil, reduces weed pressure, and minimizes water waste. We also cover the basics of setting up a drip system and the maintenance required, as well as adapting watering schedules to various climates and soil types. 

Adding organic matter to your garden is crucial for vegetable growing success, and for many gardeners, compost is the most readily available source of organic matter. In this episode we discuss how to use compost as a fall garden amendment to improve and protect your soil over the wet winter months.

Hilary Dahl, host of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast, announces a new season featuring guest gardening experts and enthusiasts. While Hilary continues to work on new episodes she'll be re-releasing a few timely fall favorites from the EB Podcast archives. This episode, "Cover Crops In The Home Garden", delves into the use of cover crops, explaining their benefits for soil health, nitrogen fixation, and carbon addition, alongside practical tips on planting and management. It also highlights the challenges smaller home gardens face with cover cropping, such as timing and space limitations, and stresses the importance of careful planning.

The quality of produce you grow is dependent on the quality of your soil. We are big advocates of doing everything possible to make garden soil the best it can be right from the start, and then working year after year to maintain and improve its quality. In this episode we're joined by award winning author Jeff Lowenfels to discuss the soil food web and garden soil ecosystems.

Jeff Lowenfels is the author of an award-winning trilogy of books on soil, Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide To The Soil Food Web, Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition and Teaming With Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae.

In this episode Hilary and Colin answer a listener's questions about wood-framed raised bed construction best practices. Their business, Seattle Urban Farm Company has designed and built hundreds of custom raised bed gardens in the Seattle area, so check out this episode for an inside scoop on all of the pro tips!

Pre-order their newest book Grow More Food here!

This week we'll be discussing management techniques for growing in high tunnels, hoophouses and greenhouses!

We're thrilled to be joined this week by our good friend and Seattle Urban Farm Co co-founder Brad Halm. Brad is also the co-author of our gardening books, including our most recent "Grow More Food", which is available for preorder now and will ship in early February 2022.

Send us your question and episode topic suggestions: [email protected]

This week on the podcast we're tackling powdery mildew! Colin and Hilary are joined by Jenny Rebecca Glass, Extension Coordinator and Plant Diagnostician for the WSU-Puyallup Plant and Insect Diagnostic Laboratory. Jenny will help us answer your questions about the lifecycle of this common garden disease as well as management tips and techniques.

Send us your question and episode topic suggestions: [email protected]

In this podcast we chat with special guest Niki Jabbour about techniques for using structures of all sizes in your garden year-round to extend your season, reduce pest pressure, and improve yields.

Show notes: Episode 110: Growing Under Cover with Niki Jabbour

The Grow More Food Pre-Order Giveaway!

Everything you wanted to know about cucumbers but were afraid to ask. We dig into the history of the cucumber, it's botanical curiosities and why you should start succession planting them.

The survey…! In order to keep making this podcast, we need your support by taking this quick, 30 second survey for our podcast hosting platform. Once we have enough replies to the survey we will creating episodes again!

In this season we’ll be addressing topics selected by you! So, starting now please email your garden questions or topics you’d like us to cover to our new dedicated email address: e[email protected]