This week on We Dig Plants, Alice and Carmen are joined by Megan Uithoven, Community Manager for GrowIt!

GrowIt! is a mobile app that connects gardeners through photos and comments using geo-location technology. GrowIt! is the only app that allows you to rate plant pictures from your area. The goal is to engage the next generation of gardeners (Millennials mostly, ages 20-38). This free mobile app is the first of its kind, creating a social platform for users to promote plants they love and help others steer clear of plants that just don’t perform, and runs entirely on user submissions.

This week on We Dig Plants, Alice and Carmen are joined by Troy Guinther, founder and CEO of Natural Stone Wall Solutions.

Natural Stone Wall Solutions was founded by a team of engineers and certified landscape architects using an innovative new method of building and seamlessly installing retaining and freestanding natural stone walls. Their retaining walls typically cost 25–50% less than traditional stone and stone veneer walls with an installation rate 20x faster than both methods.

Today on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito do their part to contribute to the "robots will take our jobs" story! Our guest: Rory Aronson, the creator of the FarmBot.

This robot is installed above a planter box, before Raspberry Pi, a rudimentary (and cheap) computer pushes it into action. FarmBot then plants and waters seeds in order to grow crops with minimal human labor.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Carmen Devito and Alice Marcus Krieg are joined by William Thomas, executive director of the Chanticleer Foundation.

Chanticleer has been called the most romantic, imaginative, and exciting public garden in America. The garden is a study of textures and forms, where foliage trumps flowers, the gardeners lead the design, and even the drinking fountains are sculptural. It is a garden of pleasure and learning, relaxing yet filled with ideas to take home.

On the season premiere of We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito discuss their new gardening exhibit, Garden of Discovery, which consists of growing tobacco, rice, cotton, begonias, and other plants with strange tales to tell in an urban setting – 550 11th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn to be exact. For more information about the project, which will run from September 17th to the end of October, visit http://www.wedigplantspodcast.com/.

On the season finale of We Dig Plants, hosts Carmen Devito and Alice Marcus Krieg speak with Dr. Richard T. Olsen, director of the U.S. National Arboretum. Prior to this appointment, he was a Research Geneticist and Lead Scientist in the Floral and Nursery Plant Research Unit (FNPRU) at the USNA. He reinvigorated the USNA’s urban tree program and developed new woody ornamental breeding projects utilizing genetic tools such as ploidy manipulation and interspecific and intergeneric breeding strategies. He is a recognized international leader in the public garden arena, providing his scientific expertise and practical knowledge to multiple national and international arboreta, urban forestry groups, and professional associations.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito are joined by Marta McDowell, a teacher of landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, and consultant for private clients and public gardens. Her garden writing has appeared in popular publications such as Woman’s Day, Fine Gardening and The New York Times.

Marta's book All the Presidents' Gardens tells the untold history of the White House grounds. Starting with the seed-collecting, plant-obsessed George Washington and ending with Michelle Obama's focus on edibles, this rich and compelling narrative reveals how the story of the garden is also the story of America. Readers learn about Lincoln's goats, Ike's putting green, the Kennedys' iconic roses, Amy Carter's tree house, and much more. They also learn the plants whose favor has come and gone over the years and the gardeners who have been responsible for it all.

Author Yvonne Horn calls in to tell us about her travels to exceptional gardens around the world, from Macau to Iceland, Germany and England.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito wrap up their season on horticulture in America. They then chat with guest David Milarch, founder of  Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a nonprofit that seeks to replicate the genetic material of the world’s biggest and oldest trees (the ones Milarch calls “champion trees”) and replant them anew, all around the world.

On this week’s episode of We Dig Plants, host Alice Marcus Krieg welcomes guests Dr. Richard McCourt and Dr. Alfred E. (Ernie) Schuyler, both of Philadelphia, to discuss the plants and horticulture associated with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Dr. McCourt is the Associate Curator of Botany at Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences, Dr. Schuyler is its Curator Emeritus.