The Garden Question

When Southern Living The Grumpy Gardener speaks gardeners listen.

For more than 40 years Steve Bender has strived to make gardening fun. His writings about southern gardens and his hands in the dirt experiences are sought after by beginning and expert gardeners. 

Steve takes great joy in answering your garden questions every day at Southern Living Blog  and The Grumpy Gardener on Facebook .

Steve is quoted often. Usually in distain tones since he coined the term “Crape Murder”.

His book Passalong Plants, co-authored with Felder Rushing, was named the best written garden book of 1994 by The Garden Writers of America

His new book, “The Grumpy Gardener,” is an amusing and informative guide to plants culling from a compilation of “Grumpy Gardener” blog posts, selected articles from Southern Living, mixed in with a lot of new stuff.

During his tenure at Southern Living, Steve edited a number of gardening books for Southerners, including The Southern Living Garden Book. 

We’ll celebrate one year of podcasting without missing a single week by bringing you this episode 052 - The Grumpy Gardener Speaks with Steve Bender.

Growing food on your balcony, patio, or in small yards is fun and simple. Follow a few easy steps and many healthy good eats are in your future.

This is episode 051 – Growing Vegetables and Herbs in Containers with Amanda Bennett.

Amanda is the Vice President of Horticulture & Collections at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

She oversees the development and enhancement of the Garden’s prestigious indoor and outdoor collections managed by 33 professional horticulturists.

Since 2005 she has participated in many of the Garden’s design and construction projects.

The Garden’s recurring art installations and special exhibits are horticulturally enhanced and as her team develops many of the Garden’s special projects.

Amanda oversees the landscape design and continued execution of the master plan for the 30-acre garden as well as the displays in the Fuqua Conservatory and Orchid Center. 

Amanda is often cited in local and national publications. Featured on local and national radio & television. She also has written for publications such as The Cactus & Succulent Journal, and cited in Mother Earth News.

Amanda earned a University of Georgia bachelor’s degree in horticulture and completed an internship at Chicago Botanic Garden before joining the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Minimizing diseases, reducing pest, improving soil fertility and pollinator support are all determined by the plant combinations you choose. In this episode 050 – Companion Planting That Works with Jessica Walliser we talk about the science back methods that will reward your decisions.

For 15 years horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosted The Organic Gardeners, an award-winning program on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

She is the Editorial Director for The Quarto Publishing Group's garden imprint, Cool Springs Press, and a former contributing editor for Organic Gardening magazine.

Jessica is the author of seven gardening books, including the Amazon best-seller 

·      Good Bug, Bad Bug: Who’s Who, What They Do, and How to Manage Them Organically

·      Plant Partners: Science-based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden, which earned a prestigious 2021 American Horticultural Society Book Award

·      Attracting Beneficial Bugs to the Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control, which was awarded the American Horticultural Society's 2014 Book Award. It has recently been released as an updated 2nd edition.

For over twelve years Jessica   wrote two weekly gardening columns for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

She is also co-founder of the popular gardening website SavvyGardening.com.

Jessica received her degree in ornamental horticulture from The Pennsylvania State University and is the former owner of a 25-acre organic market farm.

She’s taught a diverse array of gardening topics for over 25 years.

Jessica lives and gardens northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and son, two cats, two hermit crabs, and billions and billions of very good bugs.

Do you ever get frustrated with your Turf Grass?

In this episode 049 Proper Agronomics for Healthy Turf Grass, we talk with Dr. Clint Waltz about solutions to your frustrations.

The current research into practices and efforts to lowing the inputs into successful turf grass.

How turf grass ecoservices brings good things to our environment.

We also talk about the benefits and hurdles to auto mowing.

Dr. Waltz has state-wide responsibilities in all areas of turfgrass management, including turfgrass water use and conservation.  

Clint is published in scientific journals and makes regular contributions to the newsletters of the State’s trade associations.  Furthermore, he makes numerous presentations from a range of turfgrass professionals, county extension agents and homeowner groups.

Our conversation with Dr. Clint Waltz after this.

UGA Turfgrass Field Day

The University of Georgia Turfgrass Research Field Day is set for Thursday, Aug. 3, on the UGA campus in Griffin, Georgia.

Georgia Turf

This is Episode 48 and we are introducing a new series that I believe you will find interesting and beneficial. The series will be a collection of Garden Case Studies from my experiences as a garden designer and creator.

I’ll drop a Case Study in from time to time when I’m inspired to do so.

Don’t worry I’ll continue to interview inspiring designers, builders and growers of smarter gardens that work.  I couldn’t stop doing that. I’m addicted to learning and applying the many new things I learn from the guest I interview each week.

So here we going. This is episode 48 Moving and Editing Your Plants: A Case Study with Craig McManus

Susan Mulvihill is passionate about growing vegetables! Her organic growing methods and pest control have yielded some mighty good eating.

She and her husband, Bill, live and garden on 5 acres in Spokane, Washington. Their large raised-bed garden where they grow all sorts of edible crops has been featured on the popular public television program, “Growing a Greener World” (episode 809 and 1202), hosted by Joe Lamp’l.

In the  last year Susan’s book, The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook, has proven to be very popular nationwide. She is also the co-author of the Northwest Gardener’s Handbook.

Helping other gardeners be successful has driven Susan to produce and host over 400 hundred YouTube videos on her channel, Susan’s in the Garden. 

She is the longtime garden columnist for the Sunday edition of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington.

Been a Spokane County Master Gardener for 20 years.

Her website can be found at SusansintheGarden.com and contains resources for organic pest control along with many other guides designed for gardening success. 

Craig LeHoullier is known for many things in the tomato world. Some know him as the NC Tomatoman. Some know him as the fellow who named the very popular heirloom tomato Cherokee Purple.

To others, he is the author of two books Epic Tomatoes and Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales.

Craig is the co-host of Tomatopalooza and a co-leader of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project.

Around town in Henderson or Raleigh North, Carolina, you may know him as just the odd person with a garden where the driveway used to be.

Craig proclaims to be a tomato nut with a website, a blog, a newsletter, and a huge collection of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

In reality Craig LeHoullier pursues with a passion heirloom tomatoes to help keep them relevant.

Growing Epic Tomatoes Course

You will learn and may ask any tomato question you can think of in a weekly live session with Craig LeHoullier and Joe Lamp’l. They’ll be growing their own tomatoes right along with you. Celebrating your successes and discovering solutions to this season’s challenges. The early significantly discounted course sign up period is now open for a very short time. Go to here check it out. That’s Growing Epic Tomatoes in your garden. 

Today we talk with Joe Lamp’l about Preparing for Your Spring Garden.

We find out how an energetic young boy snaps the branch off his dad’s shrubs. In his hast to cover up his accidental deed he hurriedly shoves the branch into the ground. To his amazement a few weeks later the branch had taken root and begun to flourish. This incident ignited Joe Lamp’l gardening passion onto a path leading to one of the country’s most recognized and trusted gardening and green-living personalities.

The passion for living a greener life is evident to a nationwide audience who watches Joe in his current role as Creator, Executive Producer, and Host of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Growing a Greener World® and previously as host of Fresh from the Garden on the DIY Network.

Joe also shares his know-how on NBC’s TODAY SHOW, ABC’s Good Morning America, The Weather Channel, through his popular books, and his podcast series (The joe gardener Show).

Join Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier and learn how to plant, grow, care for, and harvest your own epic tomatoes. In this practical hands-on course with Joe and Craig as your guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to have your best tomato growing season yet. Learn more here. Registration will only be open for a short time beginning 2/23/22. Lifetime access!

You will want to take advantage of this limited time significantly discounted early enrollment pricing so go now to www.joegardener.com/tomatosuccess. 

The seed planted in Tom Cox as a little boy have matured into the largest species collection of conifers in North America. In this episode we talk about his over 4,000 plant collection and how you may bring interest to your garden year-round.

Tom is a pioneer in the evaluation of conifers for adaptability in the Southeast and is recognized as one of the leading authorities on growing conifers in the region. 

Cox Arboretum and garden in Canton, Georgia is now a site for the preservation of rare and endangered plants from around the world.

He is a frequent lecturer on the subject of conifers and other woody plants. He co-authored a book titled "Landscaping with Conifers and Ginkgo for the Southern Landscape” and has been published numerous times in both British and U.S. conifer journals. 

I’m honored to have captured this amazing story and plant wisdom of Tom Cox in this episode 044 - Year-Round Garden Interest from Cox Arboretum – Tom Cox

Terry Beasley has seen his fair share of flower emergencies at Oelschig Nursery. When the unforeseen happens and blooms are needed in a hurry Terry and the team jump into action.

The next time you see multiple blooms of color from an event within 100 miles of Savannah Georgia you know Terry was probably involved.

The Oelschig name has been associate with growing plants in Savannah since 1882.  How does a nursery survive and thrive for 140 years becoming the oldest nursery in the southeastern United States?

Terry tells the story. It’s a story of keeping the faith and tenacity through numerous world events and natural disasters.

He talks about the skills and techniques resulting in very special beautiful plants