x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Horticulturati

The Horticulturati

The Horticulturati is a biweekly-ish gardening talkshow cohosted by Austin-based landscape designers Leah Churner and Colleen Dieter. Join us for gossip, gripes, and fun plant facts!

science nature

All Episodes

56:09

A Gardener's Guide to Honeybees (Part 2)

The Horticulturati ·

2021/08/17

At long last, here's the second installment of our bee-stravaganza. Leah interviews beekeeper Tara Chapman, owner of Two Hives Honey, about the intricate connection between bees, plants, and weather. Then, your hosts discuss how to be a good steward to honeybees--and native bees and other pollinators as well. Even if you're not a beekeeper, there are many things you can do (or not do) to be a friend to the bees! Mentioned in this episode: Instagram's @mr.mrs.beeRescue and @theinnocentgardener

en

50:41

A Gardener’s Guide to Honeybees (Part I)

The Horticulturati ·

2021/07/19

Enter the hive with us for another classic critter topic: BEES! We recorded so much on bees that we have to split this bee-nanza into a two-parter! In part one, Leah suits up for a tour at Two Hives Honey in Manor, Texas, and investigates honeybee ecology. In part two, we’ll focus on how, as a gardener, you can support our honey-making friends (along with native bees and other pollinators). What are honeybees? Why do they live in boxes? And how did Apis mellifera, just one of tens of thousands of

en

01:00:45

The Charming Art of Espalier

The Horticulturati ·

2021/06/24

When American gardeners hear the word espalier, we tend to imagine installations in the formal French style: hoity-toity, high-maintenance, and baroquely decorative. Yet the ancient technique of training trees flat on a wall or frame has its roots in space-saving, yield-boosting practicality. In this episode, Colleen argues that this charming art of vertical gardening is uniquely suited to our urban landscapes. First up, we talk about "pruning" our workloads. Finally, we share some listener mail

en

01:09:18

Hothouse: Beyond Permaculture with Cassiopeia Farm

The Horticulturati ·

2021/06/04

Hey ya'll, check out this new episode of Leah's other podcast, Hothouse. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled Horticulturati programming soon. For now, welcome to Hothouse Season 2! If you follow any flower farmers on Instagram, the romance may be all too tempting: picture yourself quitting the city, fixing up an old farmhouse, and spending your days harvesting flowers and arranging bouquets on a ten-acre homestead. Now imagine doing that in a fire-prone, flood-prone, deer-pressured, rapidly

en

01:08:02

Saga of the American Chestnut

The Horticulturati ·

2021/05/15

Chestnuts roasting in an ideological fire! Colleen shares the history of Castanea dentata, a once ubiquitous, now virtually extinct species that has become an unlikely sticking point in the controversy over genetically modified organisms. But first, we talk about late season burnout, and COLLEEN’S FORTHCOMING BOOK! (Stay tuned for news about book release!) PS. Leah will be presenting a free lecture to the Native Plant Society of Williamson County, “Landscaping with Native Plants: Ten Design

en

01:05:56

The Secret Life of Owls

The Horticulturati ·

2021/04/23

Springtime is owl time. Owlets be hatching. Fledglings be fledging. Owl cams be streaming. Enter, with us, the kingdom of the night, as we celebrate these mysterious and beautiful birds. Drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com or call the Hotline at 347-WAP-HORT. Please join our Patreon! Mentioned: Merlin and Minerva's website, Instagram, and live Twitch stream; Austin Birds on Facebook; “Why is the owl considered a wise bird in the West and a symbol of foolishness in India?” (Times of India,

en

01:30:00

Hot Takes on Cold Hardiness

The Horticulturati ·

2021/04/06

We're live from Zone 8b with a tell-all about the "epistemological quandary" that is the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. What is hardiness? How is it quantifiable? And how useful is the USDA's classification system for gardeners grappling with extreme weather? Listen to find out. First up, some tree news -- some of it shady. Last but not least, we get our first-ever call to the Horticulturati Hotline! Thank you Misti from The Garden Path Podcast for your sharing your Big Tree journeys. Visit us at

en

01:33:26

Thawing Out

The Horticulturati ·

2021/03/02

We return from hiatus with tales of the Snowpocalypse -- or Snowmageddon, Snowvid, whatever you want to call it -- to document the record-breaking winter weather that broke Texas' electric grid and ushered in a scary new climate reality for the plants and people of the Lone Star State. Your hosts discuss personal trauma, a jumble of conflicting post-freeze plant advice, and a bunch of anecdotes about what worked and what didn't in preparing our gardens and ourselves for an unprecedented 144

en

01:07:32

Virtual Flora & “Tree Lady” Margret Hofmann

The Horticulturati ·

2020/12/23

On this episode, we discuss virtual foliage, time travel, and big trees. Colleen looks into how video games might play a role in curing plant blindness, and Leah shines a light on the remarkable life and legacy of Margret Hofmann (1925-2012), whose 1970s “Think Trees” campaign introduced Austinites to a majestic urban forest hidden in plain sight. Leave us a voicemail at 347-WAP-HORT or drop us a line at horticulturati.com! Mentioned in this episode: The Greenberg Turkey plant explosion; “A

en

01:00:35

Kate the Chemist on Chemicals in the Garden

The Horticulturati ·

2020/12/14

Fertilizers...oxidizers...explosions! We’re still trying to wrap our brains around Ammonium Nitrate over here, so we called on science superstar Dr. Kate Biberdorf, aka Kate the Chemist, to help us out. What is Ammonium Nitrate, and why is this volatile chemical so ubiquitous? What are the conditions that create fertilizer explosions? Is synthetic fertilizer safe? We ask these questions and more, then find ourselves back down the philosophical rabbit hole: questioning our assumptions about organic

en

52:23

Five Seasons Total Landscaping

The Horticulturati ·

2020/11/29

Autumn has come to Texas at long last! To celebrate, we watched the documentary Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf (2017) by Thomas Piper, and we're now officially card-carrying Piet stans sporting Dutch accents, asymmetrical haircuts, and scythes. We discuss Oudolf’s “mathematics” of design, seasonal ambience, and the art of garden editing. How might we translate Oudolf's temperate palate to the not-so-temperate climate of central Texas? Drop us a line at horticulturati.com or a leave a

en

58:39

Backyard Update & One To Grow On crossover

The Horticulturati ·

2020/11/07

Crossover alert! This episode is a twofer. In part one, we check in about the busy fall planting season. After many months of Zooming, we’re back to in-person, social-distance recording from Colleen’s backyard! As we test out our new remote podcasting equipment, the conversation drifts from back-braces to bulb-mania to the monk parakeets of Austin. Part two is our guest appearance on another great planty podcast, One To Grow On! Hallie and Chris Casey interviewed us about one of our favorite topics,

en

02:00:55

Garden design

The Horticulturati ·

2020/10/06

On this mega-episode, we’re tackling garden design--our approaches, our anxieties, and our gripes about “expert” sources of mystifying advice and misleading photography. Garden design books are rife with the jargon of art theory. How well does this translate to the living medium of plants in the landscape? Google Image Search puts pictures of every plant imaginable at our fingertips, which is great...but also not so great. Hashing it out at length, we agree on some basic aesthetic tenets, then throw

en

01:08:37

Ammonium Nitrate

The Horticulturati ·

2020/09/19

Why are we putting explosives on our plants? On this episode, Colleen charts the history of ammonium nitrate, the synthetic fertilizer that propelled the rise of industrial agriculture in the 20th century--cheap to manufacture, but spectacularly costly in terms of lives lost. This highly explosive compound has caused some of the worst industrial accidents of all time (Oppau, 1921, Texas City, 1947, Toulouse, 2001, West, Texas, 2013, Tianjin, 2015, and Beirut, 2020) and was the terrorist weapon used

en

01:17:30

Armadillo!

The Horticulturati ·

2020/08/23

Turtle rabbit. Shell possum. Roadkill. Whatever you call it, the nine-banded armadillo is a mysterious, ancient, and unfairly maligned mammal. Find out everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about this Texas icon. Leah traces the armadillo’s bizarre migratory history, its role in medical research, and its rise as a symbol of the Austin music scene. We’ll bust some armadillo myths, meet some famous champions (including naturalist Roy Bedichek and artist Jim Franklin) and discuss the

en

31:18

Seeds from China

The Horticulturati ·

2020/08/08

We dive into the "seeds from China" story and discuss the implications and ramifications in the context of the political moment, which brings us back to an endlessly debatable question: is garden "nativism" xenophobic? Visit us and drop a line here. And check out the Central Texas Seed Savers to learn about how you can get involved in sharing seeds. To hear the story behind Central Texas Seed Savers, and why Colleen is so passionate about seeds, listen to this episode of Hothouse! Mentioned in

en

54:12

Neighborhoods & Neighbors

The Horticulturati ·

2020/07/26

Howdy, neighbor! In this episode, Colleen discusses architect Ross Chapin’s idea of “pocket neighborhoods” -- residential blocks arranged around a shared green space, where small homes or apartments face a pedestrian-friendly commons, rather than facing the street. We imagine how much more aesthetically pleasing and psychologically rewarding landscapes could be if we took vehicles, driveways, and "car holes" out of the equation. Next, Leah brings up a perennial landscape design challenge that comes

en

01:19:27

Crap(e) Myrtles & Cushaw Squash

The Horticulturati ·

2020/06/25

Crape myrtles are blooming all over the place and Leah is DISGUSTED! What’s triggering this Lagerstroemiaphobia? Perhaps it’s not about the crape myrtles, but rather the living demons of exurban hell? Next, Colleen reports on a storied gourd that vine borers can’t touch: the cushaw squash. Domesticated some time around the dawn of agriculture, the obscure cushaw took on special significance to African American foodways as a “slave food” staple. We discuss plants and memory, the merits of

en

01:27:03

Compost Clues & Urban Foraging

The Horticulturati ·

2020/06/08

Please donate to The National Bail Fund Network! On this Horticulturati, Colleen teaches us the best way to build a compost pile; Leah forages far and wide and lives to tell the tale. Visit our website for images from this ep. Mentioned: The City of Austin’s Home Composting Rebate Program; Mantis Compostumbler; Soil, a novel by Jamie Kornegay; The Telluride Mushroom Festival; The WIld Wisdom of Weeds by Katrina Blair; Turtle Lake Refuge in Durango CO; Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell

en

01:23:44

Metamorphosis & Victory Gardens

The Horticulturati ·

2020/05/17

On this episode, we bring you stories of adaptation and change. Leah has been studying up on butterfly holometabolism -- that is, complete metamorphosis -- with assistance from her niece, nephew, and Vladimir Nabokov. Colleen describes the history of Victory Gardens, from World War I to the present day, and outlines three ways to start a “pandemic garden” of your own. But first: we revisit the sleeper masterpiece that is the Secret Life of Plants doc (1979), which is only available in bootleg on

en

87 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter