Another guest episode! Last year, as part of Urban Agriculture Week in Toronto, I visited Maria Solakofski’s garden in East York, and I found myself signing up for a workshop just so I could return days later. Listen in and I think you’ll get a sense of why.

Maria is an herbalist and educator growing a wildly abundant garden according to permaculture principles. She sells tisanes, skincare, and other herbal products, and runs workshops and a mentorship program out of her East York yard.

You’ll find this episode runs a bit longer than the other guest episodes, because we covered three gardens — and if you like listening as much as I liked being there, I don’t want to cut it short.

Tune in to learn a bit about permaculture, but also unique berries, growing in containers, soil amendment, and cooperating with wildlife. The episode also feature’s the pod’s first-ever groundhog guest.

If you’d like to learn more about Maria and her garden, check out her website, Wild by Nature, to learn more about her offerings. I hope you enjoyed soaking in her knowledge and enthusiasm, and you too always remember her prompt to enjoy something you don’t strictly need: “But wouldn’t it be nice?”

Lastly, I can’t seem to record a guest podcast without an audio problem (🤦‍♀️) and you’ll find the last three minutes with Maria are a bit of a shambles because it seems my new mic didn’t connect and you were getting raw phone audio. I encourage you to keep listening though — those are some of the most vital minutes of the conversation. One day I’ll crack this audio thing, I swear. Listening to my intro this morning, I thought maybe it’s making me sound like a robot, so my mic search may continue. Thank you for your grace as I stumble my way through. At a certain point, you’ll also hear some rambunctious play from a nearby yard, because that’s just life in the city.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardeningoutloud.substack.com