The joe gardener Show - Organic Gardening - Vegetable Gardening - Expert Garden Advice From Joe Lamp'l Joe Lamp'l

Tomatoes enjoy warm weather, but they don’t like it too hot. Extended periods of heat can stress out plants and lead to a number of problems. Joining me on the podcast this week to discuss how to overcome the tomato-growing challenges that arise in high heat is tomato expert Craig LeHoullier. 

An old tree is a marvel to gaze upon but it’s the unseen things an ancient tree does in a forest that are truly astounding. To talk about the vital importance of “mother trees” in regenerative forest ecosystems, my guest this week is ecologist Suzanne Simard, Ph.D.

Regenerative agriculture is one of the best tools we have at hand for combating climate change and increasing biodiversity, but convincing lawmakers, farmers and the public at large of its merits is a challenge. To discuss those merits and how regeneration works, my guest this week is Finian Makepeace of Kiss the Ground, an advocacy organization that promotes soil health as an integral part of the global effort to sequester more carbon.

If you have been gardening for any amount of time, you’ve experienced how being with plants can bring great joy. My guest this week, self-professed plant killer turned plant lady Maria Failla, has penned a book that explores how and why plants lift our spirits, and she’s here to share the wellness benefits of raising houseplants and gardening.

Native plants are all the rage right now — or all the buzz, considering how much pollinators love native flowers. But finding a nursery that sells the right native plants for your area can be a challenge. To explain why native plants are vital to wildlife and how we can find native plant collections that are the correct fit for our ecoregions, Mary Phillips of the National Wildlife Federation joins me on the podcast this week.

When it comes to bees, everyone’s familiar with the iconic honeybee, but what many don’t realize is that honeybees are not native to North America. The 4,000 or so native bee species in the United States behave much differently than honeybee colonies and are generally not well understood. To educate us on the diversity of native bees, pollinator conservationist and author Heather Holm joins me on the podcast this week.