This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne speaks with Erin Alladin and Sean Patchett about their podcast, Plants Always Win.

Plants Always Win Podcast

Plants Always Win is a podcast where two Ontario gardeners dive down plant-fact rabbit holes, answer audience questions, interview intriguing guests, and compete to bring you the most interesting stories and information.

Erin Alladin, a.k.a. Earth Undaunted, is a professional communicator with a love for gardens, especially garden ecosystems. She’s known online for her writing and videos about gardening with chronic illness and disability, as well as her background in permaculture and community garden-organizing. While chronic illness has kept Erin from making gardening her livelihood, she leaps at any chance to bring it into her work as an author, copywriter, and editor.

Sean Patchett, a.k.a GardenGuyMuskoka, is a professional gardener, horticulture technician, and member of the Master Gardeners of Ontario. Sean completed the Horticulture Technician C.O.D.A. Program at the University of Guelph’s Kemptville Campus and went on to build a landscaping design and maintenance business in Northern Muskoka. When he learned of The Master Gardeners in 2020, their mandate of freely learning and sharing plant knowledge inspired him to join. Sean continues to do public speaking and community projects.

Sean and Erin discuss the origins of their podcast, the community they've created and Erin's latest children's book: 

• The podcast began with Sean’s initial attempts at podcasting, which later evolved after he connected with Erin through TikTok. Their shared interests and local proximity led to a partnership, and after experimenting with different formats, they officially launched the podcast in December 2024.
• Episodes alternate between:
  • Plant face-offs, where each host champions a particular plant or gardening concept (e.g., Borage vs. Cosmos) and encourages listeners to vote for their favourite.
  • Guest interviews, featuring experts from related fields such as entomology and forestry.
• Topic selection is guided by a spreadsheet, trending questions from social media, and input from their Patreon supporters, who are given advance notice of upcoming episodes to submit relevant questions.
• Plants Always Win has an active and growing community, including a Discord group. They regularly solicit listener questions and feedback, encouraging corrections and further inquiries at the end of each episode.
• Sean and Erin discussed the importance of context and nuance in their research, highlighting the need to evaluate sources critically and avoid spreading misinformation.
• They believe in fostering a love of nature in both children and adults, advocating for hands-on experiences and the benefits of getting “dirty” in the garden.
• Erin is also a children’s book author. Her books, Outside, You Notice, and Wait Like a Seed, aim to connect children and adults with nature, emphasizing the importance of outdoor exploration and environmental awareness. They are available everywhere books are sold.

Find Sean and Erin online:

Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com

TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast

You can find Sean online as @GardenGuyMuskoka.

Erin’s blog, www.earthundaunted.com, makes the big ideas behind regenerative agriculture accessible to home gardeners.

Find her on TikTok at @earthundaunted.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect via her website at down2earth.ca.

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Down the Garden Path Podcast

On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible. 

In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

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