Growing Greener

With roots in traditional Korean agriculture, Bokashi composting has much to offer the contemporary gardener. Conway School graduate Boris Kerzner describes the process, explaining how you can pursue this process for recycling kitchen wastes – including meat scraps and dairy – to enrich your garden's soil in just weeks.

Water is a resource plants cannot do without, and maintaining the right level of moisture in your soil – not too little and not too much – is critical to gardening success. That's why pioneering horticulturist Robert Kourik holds irrigation to be one of the gardener's most powerful tools. Join him for details about the techniques he has found most precise and efficient, methods of irrigation that can reduce your water use by a half or more while also boosting your harvest of fruits and flowers.

For 40 years, Larry Weaner, founder of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates, has been exploring the intersection of ecology with landscape and garden design, creating a style of planning, planting, and management that is founded in the natural dynamics of the site. One of the most powerful of these dynamics is succession, the inherent tendency of landscapes and their flora to evolve and change. By learning how to work with succession, how to channel and direct it down desirable paths, Larry has succeeded in creating landscapes that are not only biologically richer but also far easier to manage than conventional gardens designed around a static, change-resistant plan. Join the conversation and listen to Larry Weaner discuss how to incorporate succession into a habitat that addresses the needs and desires of both people and nature.

Share my discovery of a Nebraska treasure: the Prairie Plains Resource Institute. For more than 40 years this organization has been perfecting low-tech methods of wild grassland restoration while reconnecting people with the richness of their prairie heritage. Join us for a visit with executive director Amy Jones

To trace the impact of climate change on the plants and animals of Massachusetts, Dr. Richard Primack of Boston University turned to an unconventional source: the journals of 19th century philosopher Henry David Thoreau. In these documents, Dr. Primack discovered a wealth of relevant, closely observed data. Learn about this and Dr. Primack's other intriguing discoveries in this week's Growing Greener.

Gardening can be a prime source of aches and pains, from a bad back to tendonitis – now "GardenFit," the new public television series, combines inspiring visits to extraordinary gardens with professional advice on how to keep your gardening healthy. Join hosts Madeline Hooper and Jeff Hughes in their project to make your gardening more rewarding horticulturally and physically.

Jeanine Scheffert, co-chair of the Community Seed Network details the ways in which her organization can help gardeners to achieve success in seed saving and sharing and join a community of like-minded gardeners

James Golden's new book, "The View from Federal Twist: A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves" delivers in full everything the title promises. In this conversation, the author discusses the birth and evolution of his remarkable garden, and how it changed him and his relationship to his landscape.

Horticulturist Jessica Walliser is fascinated by the insects in our gardens, the vast majority of whom play positive roles in these domesticated ecosystems. We discuss the fruits of her studies and the new, updated edition of her award-winning book, "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, a Natural Approach to Pest Control." Learn how your landscaping can bolster the work of these essential garden allies.

In 2017 Benjamin Vogt captivated the gardening world with his book, "A New Garden Ethic," in which he explored the need to radically redesign our domestic landscapes to accommodate all the other creatures of North America. Since then this award-winning author, horticulturist, and educator has been promoting this message in the gardens he designs, his many articles and talks, and his on-line classes. Today we discuss these classes, and how they present an engaging and easy-to-master introduction to his special, eco-friendly, style of gardening.