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Sean Patchett and Erin Alladin

Plants Always Win

A Home & Garden , Leisure and Science podcast

#41 in Home & Garden · 🇰🇷 #160 in Home & Garden · 🇨🇦
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About the show

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. We care about ecologically sound gardening, strong human communities, and up-to-date science.

Newest episodes

Ep 51 Our Top Plant ID Apps

44 min

These two free plant ID tools can help you level up your observation and identification skills, spot invasive species, and even engage in citizen science to track what is spreading in your area. If you garden, hike, or just want to know whether that weird thing in your yard is a native, a weed, or a problem waiting to happen, this episode is for you. Sean sends Erin to do a trial run of the apps he actually trusts, including the built-in photo matching tools on smart devices, iNaturalist, and EDD Maps. They explain why a confident-looking app result is not the same as a correct identification, how to improve your odds with better photos, and how to improve your own skills by learning to think about location, season, leaf shape, branching pattern, and flower stage. You’ll discover: Why free tools often beat paid plant ID apps How iNaturalist turns your plant photos into citizen science What EDD Maps tracks beyond plants, including insects, diseases, fungi, and wildlife How to increase your chances of an accurate match Links iNaturalist “Identify plants, animals, fungi, and more while adding to a living atlas of life on Earth.” EDDMapS Find, map, and report invasive species in your area. Plants Always Win: Resources Find all our favourite gardening resources in one place.  Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH Timestamps 00:12 Introduction 01:11 What’s Growing On? Erin’s Harvest + Japanese Beetles 03:26 What’s Growing On? Sean’s dividing perennials and purg...

Midsummer Cleanup: Rescue Your Neglected Garden

53 min

Reclaim your neglected garden! Sean and Erin share eleven steps to overcome the overwhelm and start your own midsummer garden cleanup, even when you’re short on time and energy.

Community Urban Permaculture with Patrick Tohill

36 min

When a city dweller with no gardening experience gets pulled into leadership for a communal permaculture project, he starts using all his spare time to grow food and grow community in Toronto’s east end. This is Patrick Tohill co-founder of Garden@Kimbourne Community Permaculture Project.

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All episodes

Ep 51 Our Top Plant ID Apps

44 min

These two free plant ID tools can help you level up your observation and identification skills, spot invasive species, and even engage in citizen science to track what is spreading in your area. If you garden, hike, or just want to know whether that weird thing in your yard is a native, a weed, or a problem waiting to happen, this episode is for you. Sean sends Erin to do a trial run of the apps he actually trusts, including the built-in photo matching tools on smart devices, iNaturalist, and EDD Maps. They explain why a confident-looking app result is not the same as a correct identification, how to improve your odds with better photos, and how to improve your own skills by learning to think about location, season, leaf shape, branching pattern, and flower stage. You’ll discover: Why free tools often beat paid plant ID apps How iNaturalist turns your plant photos into citizen science What EDD Maps tracks beyond plants, including insects, diseases, fungi, and wildlife How to increase your chances of an accurate match Links iNaturalist “Identify plants, animals, fungi, and more while adding to a living atlas of life on Earth.” EDDMapS Find, map, and report invasive species in your area. Plants Always Win: Resources Find all our favourite gardening resources in one place.  Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH Timestamps 00:12 Introduction 01:11 What’s Growing On? Erin’s Harvest + Japanese Beetles 03:26 What’s Growing On? Sean’s dividing perennials and purg...

Midsummer Cleanup: Rescue Your Neglected Garden

53 min

Reclaim your neglected garden! Sean and Erin share eleven steps to overcome the overwhelm and start your own midsummer garden cleanup, even when you’re short on time and energy.

Community Urban Permaculture with Patrick Tohill

36 min

When a city dweller with no gardening experience gets pulled into leadership for a communal permaculture project, he starts using all his spare time to grow food and grow community in Toronto’s east end. This is Patrick Tohill co-founder of Garden@Kimbourne Community Permaculture Project.

Plants Are for Everyone with Jesse Thorn

58 min

Sean talks with Jesse Thorn about how gardening in LA compares to gardening in Ontario; about produce exchange and community food distribution organizations; and about access to green space, including majestic sequoia trees. The two of them even step into the roles of internet judge and expert witness to settle an age-old question: is a palm tree really a tree?

Ep. 47 Are You Starting Your Spring Garden Right?

Spring is tiptoeing in and we want to set you up for the smoothest garden year ever. This week we’re recording live on location in Erin’s garden and examining what tasks she has already done, what’s next on the list, and what pressures to let go of. (Remember: don’t let perfect be the enemy of good!) The first order of business as winter ends is to prune woody fruit-producing perennials. We chat about currants, apples, and grapes—yes, grapes in zone 4b. Naturally that leads into propagation: cuttings, mound layering, and even air layering. Next we talk seed starting indoors and out and the season extension that helps us save space on our windowsills. Then it’s on to spring bulbs to plant, fall bulbs that are blooming, water management (if you’re listening from a region with flooding, our hearts go out to you!) and the ever-vital skill of observation. Finally, we wrap up with a lightning round of fifteen other early-spring tasks that get you set up for success. Ready to get your hands dirty? Listen now! Take a Peek at Erin’s Garden Last year’s cuttings Swenson Red The Swenson Red grape, pruned The IKEA trellis The peas are sprouting! Erin’s vegetable garden The air layering device Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH Timestamps 00:41 Introduction 02:11 The Myth That Your Garden Is Already Behind 04:18 Late April in Zone 4b 04:58 What Erin Has Done So Far 05:56 Season Extension 06:36 Growing Swenson Red Grapes in Zone 4b 10:52 Pruning Currant Bushes 12:45 Moun...

Ontario One Call

42 min

Are you breaking the law every time you plant a shrub? This week we welcome Ian Simpson, VP of Communications and Corporate Affairs at Ontario One Call. That’s the public safety administrative authority that makes sure your gardening project doesn’t end in a damaged gas line or ruptured water main. You’ll find Call Before You Dig services across Canada and the United States (search  “One Call” for your province or “811” for your state), but Ontario is the one place where that call—or that click—is required by law. If you’re breaking ground, even by an inch or two, even out in the country, it’s your responsibility to submit a locate request to make sure you won’t be nicking any underground infrastructure.  Fortunately, Ontario One Call makes the process easy, free, and surprisingly quick. Ian explains how it works behind the scenes, what your responsibilities are as a homeowner, renter, or landscaping contractor, and why it matters so much. He also shares some startling statistics about the number of accidents that do happen, especially to people who think they know where their underground utilities are. Don’t be one of those statistics! Listen now and get the dirt on digging safety. Connect with Ontario One Call Colour Codes: https://ontarioonecall.ca/#colours Ontario One Call: https://ontarioonecall.ca/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnwjQMBxkG4QrPW2q5sbjpA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ON1Call/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/on1call/  Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-pla...

Hydrangea Happiness with C.L. Fornari

42 min

For some of us, happiness is a hydrangea in full, glorious bloom. And if you’re not yet well acquainted with these flowering shrubs, who better to learn from than The Garden Lady herself? C.L. Fornari is the author of the upcoming 2026 book Hydrangea Happiness: Planting, Pruning and Blooming, among many others. She’s also a well-known gardening radio host and podcaster, appearing over the years as a contributor on NPR’s The Cultivated Gardener, as host of GardenLine on WXTK, as co-host of the podcast Plantrama, and today as the eponymous host of The Garden Lady on several NPR stations. We get the scoop on her broadcasting career, on her founding of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival, and on how she planned a modern-day guide to hydrangeas that’s “more Instagram and less coffee table book.” Dive into this interview to learn about choosing the right hydrangea for a northern garden, about the truth of acidifying your soil for those beautiful blue mophead blooms, and about finding joy in your garden and your life.  Find C.L. Online at: GardenLady.com Facebook: @CLTheGardenLady Instagram: @CLTheGardenLady Mentioned in This Episode Hydrangea Happiness: Planting, Pruning & Blooming: https://brandeisuniversitypress.com/title/hydrangea-happiness-planting-pruning-and-blooming/  The Cope Cod Hydrangea Festival: https://www.capecodchamber.org/events/cape-cod-hydrangea-fest/     Hydrangeas on the Azores:  https://www.treehugger.com/hydrangeas-azores-4869708   Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License c...

Internet Plant Science with Dr. Vikram Baliga

47 min

The internet is a minefield of questionable plant hacks, rage bait, and—sigh—banana water. Good thing The Plant Prof is here to shed some science on the matter. Vikram Baliga, a.k.a. The Plant Prof, is a professor of horticulture and the host of the podcasts Planthropology and Deep Roots. He is that rare being in the world of science: an academic who has also honed the skill of communicating with non-academic audiences. As he says, public taxes pay for science research. The public deserves good, true scientific information. Today’s conversation ranges across education and misinformation in the digital age, the evolution of science, and the importance of experimentation. Then we get practical with tips on compost tea, a nuanced discussion on using synthetic or organic fertilization methods, and garden hacks that actually work. Of course, we also have to take a few minutes to get excited about Vikram’s information–packed children’s book, Plants to the Rescue: The Plants, Trees, and Fungi that are Solving Some of the World’s Biggest Problems.  Have a listen; class is in session! Find Vikram Online at: The Planthropology Podcast Deep Roots Podcast Texas Tech Davis College of Ag Natural Resources website YouTube Bluesky Instagram  Facebook X    Vikram’s Book: Plants to the Rescue , published by Neon Squid Books Timestamps 00:14 Intro 00:30 Meet Vikram Baliga, The Plant Prof 02:33 Vikram’s Podcasts: The Planthropology Podcast and Deep Roots 03:37 The Challenge of Public Science Communication 10:42 Plants don’t read our textbooks. 12:20 Plants Always Win Stole its Name from Planthropology Merch 13:04 The Evolution of Science and the Freedom to Experiment 15:56 Vikram’s Home Fertilizer Hack Experiments: Rice Water, Banana Water, Oatmeal, Cinnamon, etc. 18:36 How to Make Compost Tea 21:22 Synthetic Commercial Fertilizers vs. Organic Fertilizers for Containers, Planters, and Gardens 30:48 Vikram’s New Kids’ Book: Plants to the Rescue 36:50 Gardening Hacks that Actuall...

Rosemary vs. Lavender

1 hr 10 min

In this versus episode, we bring you two of the nicest-smelling and slowest-growing plants in the garden. Sean gets us started with rosemary, which is known to science as Salvia rosemarinus (though some botanists may be surprised to hear that!). We learn how to grow this Mediterranean plant and how to help it handle a northern winter, even if that means bringing it indoors. One option, of course, is to take softwood or hardwood cuttings and root them for next year, and Sean gives us a crash course in doing that before moving on to the fascinating research being done on rosemary and cognition. In the second half, Erin narrows down the many species and cultivars of lavender to just two: Lavandula angustifolia, often called English Lavender or “true lavender,” and Lavandula X Intermedia, a hybrid you may see marketed as “lavandin.” One is good to eat, and the other is great for toiletries. How do you know which is which? Erin has the intel. Just don’t ask her to talk about French lavender. You might be in for a plant rant.  You’re also in for some fun facts about growing lavender at home, becoming a commercial lavender grower in Ontario, and what historical humans and modern scientists think it’s good for. We wrap up with a busted myth: what does lavender have to do with King Tut? It’s not what you think! Who won the plant face-off? You decide! Email us, tag us on social media, or pipe up in our friendly Discord server to let us know who you thought made their plant the most interesting.  Will YOU be growing lavender or rosemary this year? The Ontario Garden Events Calendar It’s live! Check it out at https://plantsalwayswin.com/events/  Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsal...

Ep. 42 Landscape Design Fails

1 hr 0 min

As the 2026 growing season waves tantalizingly on the far horizon, we’d like to help you prepare for a disaster-free garden. To do that, we’re sharing a few key landscape design principles…along with a whole heap of stories about landscape design fails. No garden is truly no-maintenance, but while ordinary weeding and pruning is one thing, fighting endlessly against the effects of a bad design decision is something else entirely. We’re talking about hardscaping installed in the wrong spot, poorly selected plants, ever-spreading invasive species…The list goes on. Sean shares some zingers from his history of managing client landscapes, and Erin gets vulnerable with some stories of her own past mistakes. Tune in to find out what not to do…and to journey with our hosts through the steps you should take when designing a garden or landscape of your own. Check out our new website!  Check out our web designer’s portfolio!   Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH Timestamps 00:15 Introduction 00:55 What’s Growing On? The End of Erin’s Winter Garden 04:27 What’s Growing On? Sean’s Winter Observations 07:56 Water Break 09:05 Myth Busting: The Low-Maintenance Garden 12:34 Landscape Design Step 1: Dream and Observe 15:44 Landscape Pre-Design: Know Your Needs 17:21 Designing for Accessibility and Maintenance 19:07 Considering Microclimates 20:16 Landscape Design Step 2: Hardscaping 22:25 Artificial Turf Legislation Fail 27:14 Decisions about Paths 28:00 Myth Busting: Permanen...

Thoughtful Foraging with Gabrielle Cerberville

55 min

If you’re looking to build a relationship with the land that feeds you, you can start by embracing the wisdom of the Internet’s Mushroom Auntie. Gabrielle Cerberville, a.k.a. your new Mushroom Auntie, a.k.a. The Chaotic Forager, has spent her academic life collecting degrees in music. If you catch her in the forest, however, she’s more likely to be collecting mushrooms and plants for cooking and preservation. She’s known online as a mycologist and foraging educator, and—more recently—as the author of the book Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life – An Illustrated Adventure in Wild Food, Self-Discovery, and Honoring Earth. Part memoir, part field guide, part cook book, and part guided nature meditation, Gathered is 100% an invitation to connect more deeply and authentically with the earth. This week, Gabrielle joins Erin and Sean to discuss its writing, the deeply collaborative process of its editing and fact-checking, and the interconnectedness of nature, food, politics, and community. Find Gabrielle online at: ChaoticForager.com  Instagram: www.instagram.com/chaoticforager TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@chaoticforager  YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC0LqNI92KujRLCj-247ve3w Facebook: www.facebook.com/chaoticforager Purchase a copy of Gathered: www.harpercollins.com/products/gathered-gabrielle-cerberville?variant=43429934661666 Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Citations Can you forage on Crown land in Canada? Using wood from Crown land for personal use. (2025, May 26). ontario.ca. https://www.ontario.ca/page/using-wood-crown-land-personal-use Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (...

Ep. 40 Nut Trees and Connection with Elspeth Hay

46 min

Feeding humanity doesn’t need to come at the Earth’s expense. Elspeth Hay is here to talk nut trees, ecosystems, and humans as keystone species.  In 2019, Elspeth was a local food writer who felt despondent about humans’ need to tear up nature in order to feed ourselves. When she discovered that acorns are edible—that they had, in fact, once been a central pillar of an abundant North American food system—she was electrified. This week she joins Erin to talk about the book that resulted from her all-consuming research into that subject, Feed Us with Trees: Nut Trees and the Future of Food. If you have ever felt like human beings are rootless and adrift without our own habitat or wild food that can sustain us, this conversation will open your eyes and seize your heart. Erin and Elspeth discuss the oak savannas and chestnut trees that, managed by Indigenous peoples’ understanding of succession ecology, once fed the human and more-than-human life of a continent. They look at the still-living food culture of chestnuts in Switzerland, grieve over the politics that deliberately erased abundance at home, and embrace hope at the re-emergence of traditional land management practices in agroforestry and restoration agriculture.  Join us in re-discovering our habitat and home. Who knows—maybe acorns will change your life, too.  Find Elspeth Hay Online Website: https://elspethhay.com/ Instagram: @elspethhay The Local Food Report: https://www.capeandislands.org/podcast/the-local-food-report Feed Us with Trees: https://newsociety.com/book/feed-us-with-trees/?aff=65  Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Ou...

Plant Evolution: Kid Q&A

56 min

Kids ask the best nature questions! For this episode, a class of elementary-school students prepared a list of questions about plants for Sean and Erin to answer. The best part, of course, is that these are questions few adults would think to ask, and they let our hosts explore all sorts of fascinating topics. How did plants come to be the way they are? Why did they evolve to have roots (or no roots!) and leaves and fruit? What makes one tree grow big leaves while another one has narrow needles? We talk evolutionary niches, the tree of life, food chains, and even how plants move water and sugar through their cells.  Step into our plant-life classroom and see what you can learn from the curiosity of children! Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH Citations Bryophytes and Tracheophytes? Categories of Plants With and Without Roots Plant diversity. (n.d.). NatureWorks. https://nhpbs.org/natureworks/nwep14b.htm  The Parts of a Leaf Libretexts. (2022, May 4). 13.1: Leaf parts and arrangement. Biology LibreTexts. https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Botany/A_Photographic_Atlas_for_Botany_(Morrow)/13%3A_Leaves/13.01%3A_Leaf_Parts_and_Arrangement  Making Paper from Plants at Home Quillen, K. (2023, October 3). How to make paper from plants – Mother Earth news. Mother Earth News – the Original Guide to Living Wisely. https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/making-paper-from-plants-zm0z17jjzqui/ Lipman, B. (2024, October 16). Paper from Iris and Daylily. https://www.hand...

Ep. 38 Little Shop of Horrors

49 min

This episode is what happens when two people’s loves for venus flytraps, spooky season, and movie musicals collide.  Yes, we’re doing nerdy Halloween horticulture by analyzing the representation of carnivorous plants in the classic musical Little Shop of Horrors—specifically the 1986 movie version. If you  haven’t seen the show, don’t worry; we set the stage for you and save any late-story spoilers for the very end. For the most part, we’re interested in one question: based on our knowledge of real-world carnivorous plants, how reasonable were Seymore’s guesses when he first tried to care for Audrey II? This requires, of course, an exploration of Venus flytraps’ habitat and habits, how they reproduce, and of the care they need to thrive in our homes.  The movie does raise one more hypothetical, and I’ll put this in code for our listeners who still need to watch it: that ending. Would it really have worked? We get a buzz out of exploring the idea. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment?  Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon.  Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com  Credits Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH Citations Little Shop of Horrors Oz, F. (Director). (1986). Little shop of horrors. The Geffen Company. Venus flytrap Overview Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). (n.d.). iNaturalist. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/52666-Dionaea-muscipula Venus flytraps benefit from fires Venus Flytrap. (n.d.). National Wildlife Federation. https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Venus-Flytrap A chemical signal from the flytrap’s prey stimulates the se...

Ep. 35 Bat Ecology with Dr. Dana Green Part 2

43 min

Dr. Dana Green, a.k.a. "The Eyepatch Biologist" is back for part two! This free-flying conversation just couldn't be contained to a single hour.We plunge straight in this week with an urgent question: how do bats relieve themselves without dribbling on their own heads? From there the facts come thick and fast: microchiroptera (our local insect-eating, echolocating bats) vs. megachiroptera (bigger fruit-eating bats from other climates that don't echolocate); the truth about bats' sense of sight; and the unexpected songs of silverhair bats. Dana shares how to attract bats to our properties without welcoming them into our homes, and we delve into the devastating consequences of pesticide use in the ecosystem—and how to report it when you witness someone applying pesticides illegally. Throughout the interview we also get some of Dana's opinions on the quality of bat representation in media, including Daredevil, Dungeons and Dragons, Batman and vampire books. The episode wraps up with a lightning round of facts, favourites, and myth busting—and a promise to bring Dana back for even more ecological eloquence in the future!Learn More:Dana's website: https://www.danagreeneco.com/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theeyepatchbiologistInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/eyepatchbiologist/Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast).Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsalwayswin.com)TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com/@plantsalwayswinpodcast) YouTube: @PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast (https://www.youtube.com/@PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast)Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com (http://www.plantsalwayswin.com/)Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja (https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja)Timestamps00:12 Introduction01:00 How do Bats Relieve Themselves?01:58 Flying Foxes, or Megachiroptera, a Subgr...

Ep. 34 Bat Ecology with Dr. Dana Green, Part 1

55 min

Dr. Dana Green is a bat expert who is known online as The Eyepatch Biologist. As a science communicator, a pun connoisseur, and a woman who knows a good joke when it's staring her in the face, she says of herself, "What a wonderful bat advocate to go half blind."In Dana's interview with Sean, she tells us about her master's degree studying grasshopper mice (predatory, solitary, highly aggressive mice that howl) and her PhD in bat ecology, which she completed at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. We learn about echolocation and other bat chatter, fact check Hank Green's viral video (Do we know where bats go in winter? Not entirely...) and learn about bat species in Canada. We assuage some fears about bats carrying disease, explore the challenges of tracking bat migration, exclaim over the mysteries of bat reproduction, and celebrate their benefits in the garden. The episode is as wide-ranging as these fascinating mammals are, but we spend time especially on the lives of hoary bats, pallid bats, New Zealand's flightless bats, and the Mexican free-tailed bat...or at least their smell! Craving even more bat facts? Then you're in luck! Part two of this interview will be posted next week. Learn MoreDana's website: https://www.danagreeneco.com/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theeyepatchbiologistInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/eyepatchbiologist/Scientists and CommunicatorsSean and Dana drop a lot of names in this conversation. Here are the experts they mention: * Hank Green, science communicator: https://hankgreen.com/ * Dr. Brock Fenton, bat researcher and mentor of bat researchers: https://letstalkscience.ca/careers/brock-fenton* Mark Brigham, Dana's supervisor at the University of Regina: https://www.uregina.ca/science/biology/directory/academic-staff-and-adjuncts/mark-brigham.html  * Robert Barclay, bat researcher: https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/robert-barclay * Ted Weller, migratory hoary bat researcher: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Theodore-Weller *...

Ep. 33 Establishing Apples, Eradicating Horsetail & Fertilizing Flowers

58 min

Our gardens are winding down for the season, but our audience is putting on a growth spurt! This crop of new listeners has seeded our Q&A inbox with a flush of questions, which we love to see. And while we’d normally answer these at the end of our versus episodes, we currently have a backlog of recorded episodes and we don’t want folks to have to wait for answers. That means it’s time for another Q&A special!We start with questions inspired by Sean’s recent video about an apple tree sold with its graft and root flare buried well below soil level. If you want to understand how fruit trees are grafted and sold, how to plant them successfully, and what to expect from them as they grow, keep your ears peeled for this conversation.Next, we move on to plants that listeners are hoping to get rid of, touching briefly on bindweed (covered more thoroughly in episode 31) before digging into horsetail, that pervasive prehistoric plant. The question was “How do I get rid of it?” and we do address that—but you’ll find some options you might not have expected in our answers.Finally, we chat about an anecdote that was shared with us: “This year I learned that cosmos don’t like fertilizer.” It’s true that feeding nitrogen to flowering plants will push them to produce more greenery than blooms. But we’re here to offer some education on what you can do to give them a boost.Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja (https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja) Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsalwayswin.com) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com/@plantsalwayswinpodcast) YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.youtube.com/@PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast)Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com (http://www.plantsal...

Ep. 32 Home Composting with Delaina Arnold

41 min

Do you make compost at home? Do you delight in the experience? If your answer to either of those questions is no, this week’s guest is here to help.Delaina Arnold is the community programs manager with the Georgian Bay Mnidoo Gamii Biosphere, a UNESCO-designated “ecologically significant” landscape where people are striving to live in balance with nature. As part of that striving, the Biosphere launched a pilot project in 2025 to help people learn about home composting, to get started doing it themselves, and to troubleshoot any problems. Now we get to benefit from all that education, as Delaina answers Erin’s questions on the subject.We begin with the big question: why bother rotting our kitchen scraps at all? Then it’s on to busting common myths before entering a crash course on home composting: where to place your bin, what type to make or buy, and how not to hate the container you use for collecting scraps. We troubleshoot common problems like wildlife, smell, and slow decomposition, then get into a tangent on the truth about using urine in your compost. Of course we also cover how to decompose your garden trimmings safely and what to do with manure. Ready to make some black gold with us? Then dive in to the interview.Learn More“Do the Rot Thing” webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74UODcc3IZE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74UODcc3IZE)All the Biosphere’s short, downloadable gardening guides, including “Composting 101”: https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/gardens/ (https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/gardens/)The Biosphere’s community calendar: https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/events/ (https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/events/)     The Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve website: https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/ (https://georgianbaybiosphere.com/)CitationsUrine and Soil StudyRumeau, M., Pistocchi, C., Ait-Mouheb, N., Marsden, C., & Brunel, B. (2024). Unveiling the impact of human urine fertilization on soil bacterial communities: A path toward sustainable fertilizat...

Ep. 31: Joyful Gardening with Chris Paul Rainbows

55 min

“I am very enthusiastic about [gardening]. I don't know if I'm that great at it. I'm not very knowledgeable. I can't really answer any of your garden questions, but I love getting my hands dirty.”Gardening is for everyone! We’ve interviewed plenty of experts on Plants Always Win who’ve mastered everything from groundcovers to home hydroponics, but every so often we like to bring you a less experienced guest who is already skilled in one crucial area: gardening with joyful abandon.In their day job, Chris Paul Rainbows is a speaker and strategist who helps organizations create spaces where everyone belongs. In their own space at home, Chris has tapped into the joy that 80s and 90s children’s television once brought them, designing whimsical gardens inspired by Polkadot Door, Mr. Dressup, Sesame Street, and more. They take us back to the urban-farm inspiration that led them to buy their current home, and the transformation it has undergone with chickens, rabbits, and a surprise pumpkin patch that led to some heartwarming community building. Community, gardening, and cultivating joy are inextricable subjects for Chris, who is an activist for queer and trans visibility. We talk hostas, native plants, managing invasive bindweed, and Chris’ upcoming debut book for 2026, Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants. Now come on into the pumpkin patch through the Polkadot Door and remind yourself just how FUN gardening can be. Find Chris Paul Rainbows Onlineat their website, where you can also find information about Chris’ upcoming picture book, Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants: https://www.chrispaulrainbows.com/ (https://www.chrispaulrainbows.com/) on TikTok: tiktok.com/@chrispaulrainbows (http://tiktok.com/@chrispaulrainbows)on Instagram: instagram.com/chrispaulrainbows/ (http://instagram.com/chrispaulrainbows/)on YouTube: youtube.com/@chrispaulrainbows (http://youtube.com/@chrispaulrainbows) on Facebook: facebook.

Ep. 30: Sassafras vs. Cola Nut

57 min

Are you finding yourself thirsty for a little soda pop this summer? How about for some botanical knowledge about soda pop’s history?In this plant face-off episode, Erin and Sean put some fizz into the competition with the plants behind two iconic flavours: the cola nut that gives cola its kick, and the sassafras that puts the root in root beer. Or, at least, the plants that did serve those roles before the advent of artificial flavouring. Erin takes the first swig with a dramatic overview of the North American Sassafras albidum, an aromatic tree with a long history of use for medicine, food, furniture, and one nautical beverage that almost saw it hunted to extinction. She peers into the muddy waters surrounding its first use in root beer and, later, its controversial ban by the FDA, speculates about Choctaw influence on its use in gumbo, and delights over the Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) name, wenhákeras, meaning “smelly thing.”  Sean takes his kick at the can with the cola nut, the key ingredient behind the flavour and caffeine of cola beverages. He discusses the flavourful Malvaceae family tree of the West African cola tree (also spelled kola) (Cola nitida and Cola acuminata) and its surprising identity as a broad-leaf evergreen before serving up some knowledge about the fruit’s growing habits and its cultural history as a stimulant and a beverage ingredient. After some medical meanderings and a look at modern-day distribution, we wrap up Coca-Cola origins and its present-day ingredients.Who had the most interesting facts to share today? Vote for your favourite by tagging us on social media and using the hashtag #PAWFaceOff. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja (https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja) Bluesky: @plantsalwaysw...

Ep. 29 Climate Action with Lauren Saville

39 min

This week we’re celebrating the difference that can be made when a regional government supports its people and businesses in taking climate action. Get inspired by impactful local initiati...

Ep. 28 Cultivation Activism with Lorraine Johnson

1 hr 15 min

This week we talk about the activism embedded in native plant gardening and the creation of pollinator habitat with Lorraine Johnson.Lorraine styles herself as a “cultivation activist”. It’s a term she came up with to describe the common purpose at the intersection of everything she does, from writing books to giving talks to supporting the fight against harmful grass and weed bylaws. This episode is for anyone who:* feels guilt or overwhelm when they think about gardening, native plants, and invasive species* feels anger or frustration about garden centres promoting invasive plants* needs tools and resources to fight bylaws that make it hard to grow ecologically responsible gardens (even in cities that have signed pollinator pledges and are investing in flood protection!)* wants to feel re-energized about the value of gardening as activismYou can find Lorraine online at https://lorrainejohnson.ca (https://lorrainejohnson.ca/), where she shares her bibliography, her presentation topics, a blog with lots of updates on native-plant advocacy, and a (sometimes up-to-date) list of upcoming events where she’ll be presenting. Here are the resources Lorraine shared for bylaw advocacy:Network of Nature’s interactive map for finding a native plant nursery near you: https://networkofnature.org/where-to-buy.htm/ (https://networkofnature.org/where-to-buy.htm/) Ecological Design Lab’s Bylaws for Biodiversity toolkit for municipalities: https://ecologicaldesignlab.ca/site/uploads/2024/07/EDL_Bylaws-Biodiversity_ToolkitforMunicipalities.pdf (https://ecologicaldesignlab.ca/site/uploads/2024/07/EDL_Bylaws-Biodiversity_ToolkitforMunicipalities.pdf)The David Suzuki Foundation Action Alert Bylaw toolhttps://davidsuzuki.org/action/bylaws-for-biodiversity/ (https://davidsuzuki.org/action/bylaws-for-biodiversity/) The 1000 Islands Master Gardeners’ post about the Kingston, Ontario bylaw reform on which they collaborated: https://1000islandsmastergardeners.ca/2024/07/29/prohibited-plants-in...

Ep. 27 Tomato vs. Pepper Part II

49 min

It’s Part II of the nightshade party!Sean and Erin plunge back in with tomatoes and peppers, covering cultural hi...

Ep. 26 Tomato vs. Pepper Part I

1 hr 1 min

In this shady plant face-off, Sean and Erin explore two of the gardening world’s favourite nightshades: tomatoes and peppers. Both are members of the family Solanaceae, and have plenty of traits in common, so rather than splitting the episode in half our two hosts try a livelier approach this week, passing the stage back and forth to talk about their chosen plant’s botany, etymology, growing habits, and pest and disease management. Prepare for a wealth of interesting information (did you know the Spanish word for tomato references an old belief in their aphrodisiac qualities?) alongside practical gardening tips (make sure you don’t feed your pepper plant too late in the season). And what about our other usual categories of cultural history, culinary and medical uses, and fascinating facts? Well, there’s just so much to say about these delicious horticultural staples that you’ll have to tune in next week to hear the rest. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us, reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon. Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcastWebsite: www.plantsalwayswin.com CreditsWebsite Design and Illustration by Sophia AlladinIntro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-playsLicense code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PHCitationsTomato overview and etymologySolanum lycopersicum (Tomato, Tomatoes). (n.d.). North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/solanum-lycopersicum/#:~:text=The%20genus%20name%2C%20Solanum%2C%20is,when%20they%20came%20to%20EuropeA History of TomatoesThe University of Vermont. (n.d.). A History of Tomatoes. University of Vermont Extension. https://www.uvm.edu/extension/news/history-tomatoes#:~:text=Tomatoes%20have%20undergone%20centuries%20of,Andes%20of%20western%20South%20America ...

Ep. 25 Smart Hydroponics with Jennifer Holston

56 min

Smart hydroponics pioneer Jennifer Holston grows a living pantry in her home through all seasons. And so can you. When most of us hear the word “hydroponics,” we picture sprawling operations in a warehouse or basement, possibly constructed from home-drilled PVC pipes and buckets. We might also have a very specific idea of the kind of plants that are grown hydroponically. But over the last decade, attractive, compact, and easy-to-use home-scale hydroponic systems have become available. This week’s guest, Jennifer Holston, was an early adopter and she uses her bookshelf-sized indoor garden to grow everything from the expected herbs and lettuce to tomatoes, cucumbers, and even an experimental pumpkin. Jennifer wants everyone to feel comfortable embracing hydroponic gardening—not necessarily as a replacement for growing plants in soil, but as a complement to it. She explains how the technology in today’s hydroponic systems (including AI features in some) has taught her to be more sensitive to her plants’ needs, and how this kind of gardening is both surprisingly sustainable and prodigiously productive. The conversation addresses nutrient management, plant care, disease prevention, maintenance, and resources where listeners can learn more (see below for that list). Jennifer is working on the first comprehensive book for home hydroponic gardeners, Arable: Modern Indoor Hydroponics to Sustain and Fulfill (coming in 2026). Stay tuned for announcements (and read Jennifer’s blog posts) on her website at www.Gardening-anywhere.com (http://www.gardening-anywhere.com/).You can also find Jennifer on social media:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GardeningAnywhere (https://www.facebook.com/GardeningAnywhere)Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardeninganywhere (https://www.instagram.com/gardeninganywhere)Online ResourcesCornell University—Agriculture and Life Sciences, www.greenhouse.cornell.edu (http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu) University of Arizona—www.ag.arizona.edu/hydropo...

Ep. 24 Serviceberry vs. Haskap

1 hr 3 min

We’re berry excited for this extra delicious plant face-off. In this week’s shrub showdown, our hosts go head to ...

Ep. 23 Life, Death, & Master Gardeners with Cole Imperi

1 hr 1 min

Cole Imperi is known for her trailblazing work in thanatology, the study of death, dying and grief. But she’s also a master gardener: someone who helps others learn how to make life flouri...

Ep. 22 No Mow May…Debunked?

45 min

Every spring, the gardening and sustainability side of the internet explodes with posts: Practice No Mow May! Let your lawn bloom! Support pollinators! But does a lawn and garden initiative begun in the UK have the same environmental impact in North America? That’s the subject under scrutiny in this episode as we examine whether well-meaning horticulture advice can be exported around the world. This week, Sean comes armed with research while Erin is equipped with curiosity. Is practicing No Mow May in Ontario helpful, harmful, or neutral? Does a lawn full of imported dandelions somehow hinder our pollinators? What native plants should they be visiting in spring? Sean shares the history of the No Mow May initiative, the research that has been undertaken in recent years, and the nuance needed to consider non-pollinating insects as well. And of course our hosts both make sure to send you on your way equipped with ideas for lawn care and landscaping that really do result in healthy soil and thriving wildlife and insects for your Ontario garden. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja (https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja) Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsalwayswin.com) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com/@plantsalwayswinpodcast) YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.youtube.com/@PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast)Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com (http://www.plantsalwayswin.com) CreditsWebsite Design and Illustration by Sophia AlladinIntro and Outro Music

Ep. 21 Permaculture and Biodynamics with Debby Ward

35 min

Have you ever wanted to go a step beyond organic gardening and buzzword-y sustainable practices? To grow food, flowers, community, and even society in relationship with the land? This week’s guest, Debby Ward of Prior Unity Garden, helps her clients and students do just that in their own yards. This week she joins Erin to talk about two systems she draws on in her work: permaculture and biodynamics.Debby shares her own journey in organic gardening and her mission to help clients understand their gardens, not just to maintain them. She and Erin compare notes on the principles of permaculture (Observe and interact! Use small, slow changes! Stack functions!) and the ethics that underpin it (earth care, people care, fair share). Then Debby introduces Erin to biodynamics, another holistic approach to food production that seeks to marry the scientific and the spiritual. The conversation emphasizes the debt owed to Indigenous ways of knowing, the interconnectedness of gardening practices, and the importance of building community relationships with both the human and the more-than-human worlds.Debby offers courses, coaching, blog posts, and resources a-plenty at her website: http://priorunitygarden.com/ You can also find her on social media: Pinterest: https://ca.pinterest.com/priorunitygarden/ (https://ca.pinterest.com/priorunitygarden/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8PXaUp3Y5_8QXmu4Wt2vKQ (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8PXaUp3Y5_8QXmu4Wt2vKQ) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/priorunitygarden/?ref=embed_page# (https://www.facebook.com/priorunitygarden/?ref=embed_page#)Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Discord: https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja (https://discord.gg/K6wF9dY4Ja) Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsa...

Ep. 20 Ask Erin Anything about Monarch Butterflies

52 min

How much expertise does a children’s author need to write about monarch butterflies? In this episode, we find out.It’s a special show for a special day. Our co-host Erin Alladin is launching her second picture book, Wait Like a Seed, and we’re testing just how much research she did….and how much she retained. Wait Like a Seed uses the relationship between monarch butterflies and milkweed to teach kids the life cycle of a seed, and at the back of the book are nine extra pages of information about both monarchs and milkweed. We know from Episode 6: Milkweed vs. Beardtongue (https://www.plantsalwayswin.com/podcast/episode/52e02fa2/ep6-milkweed-vs-beardtongue) that she knows her stuff on asclepias. But what about Danaus plexxipus? Sean comes in hot with some challenging questions from his young daughter (How do monarchs fly so far?). “How long do monarchs live” is a trick question, but Erin is ready for it. The conversation wings its way through life cycles (egg, larva, pupa, adult), migration (incredible), and the threats they face (numerous). If you’d like to help monarchs in your own garden, community, or region, Erin and Sean tell you how to grow a butterfly garden, join a conservation initiative, and access excellent resources online.  For more information about Wait Like a Seed, contact your local bookstore or visit https://pajamapress.ca/book/wait-like-a-seed/ (https://pajamapress.ca/book/wait-like-a-seed/). You might also enjoy Erin’s previous picture book, Outside, You Notice: https://pajamapress.ca/book/outside-you-notice/ (https://pajamapress.ca/book/outside-you-notice/).  Find information about Erin’s life as an author, editor, and presenter (she does great nature-based school visits!) at https://erin-alladin.com/ (https://erin-alladin.com/). Follow her on social media:TikTok (Gardening account):

Ep. 18 Seed Starting vs. Direct Sowing

54 min

As a changeable April wears on, spring-hungry northern gardeners are anxious to get seeds planted. But should they start those seeds indoors with grow lights or on a widow sill? Or can the...

Ep. 17 Plants Need Bugs

1 hr 3 min

Plants always win…and to manage it, they need insects, arachnids, and other creepy-crawlies on their side. Of course, those creatures need plants too. In this episode, Sean and Erin are jo...

Ep. 15 Lost Ladies of Garden Writing with Carol Michel

41 min

Carol Michel is a garden author and co-host of The Gardenangelists podcast. She boasts of having the world’s largest hoe collection…which is overshadowed only by her library-worthy collection of gardening books. Among the hundreds of volumes on her shelves are hard-to-find copies of books by a number of American women who were horticultural experts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but who have been all but forgotten by history. To honour them, Carol started a Substack called the Lost Ladies of Garden Writing. On this week’s episode of Plants Always Win, she invites us into some of their stories. Publishing styles and garden trends change over time, but some things stay the same. People want to know how to make their poinsettia re-bloom, how to get rid of pests, how to find the hottest new cultivar. Carol uses genealogical records, newspaper archives, and Google Books to piece together the lives of the women who were answering those questions in decades past, then shares them with her subscribers. It’s a project of passion and dedication, and it has given her some extraordinary stories to tell!Lost Ladies featured in this episode include:* Cynthia Westcott, who saved the Azaleas of the southern United States * Grace (G.A.) Woolson who was, as America’s foremost fern expert, often assumed to be a man* Viola Brainerd Baird, whose 1940s Wild Violets of North America is still unmatched* Kate Brewster, whose book The Little Garden for Little Money was somewhat hampered by her own wealth* Alma C. Guillet moved from Toronto to New York City and catalogued all the trees and shrubs in Central Park* Mrs. L.L. Huffman, who wrote under her husband’s initials and was actually called Minnie EnolaSome better-known ladies of garden writing are also mentioned:* Cassandra Danz, A.K.A. Mrs. Greenthumbs* Elizabeth Lawrence, whose Charlotte, North Carolina garden was so beloved it’s now part of a bird sanctuary* Jean Hersey, whose book The Shape of the Year is still read and en...

Ep. 14 Living Soil with Michelle Bruhn

1 hr 4 min

Soil is the foundation of a healthy garden…or homestead…or farm. For sustainable gardening that gives us nutritious food without depleting the land, we need to know how to feed and maintain living soil. After all, it’s the community of living things in the soil that feeds the plants we eat ourselves. That’s where Michelle Bruhn comes in. Michelle is a suburban homesteading author, speaker, and educator who manages the online information hub Forks in the Dirt. This week, she joins Erin (who’s always excited about home-scale regenerative agriculture) to talk about how she has turned a sandy suburban lot into a tiny paradise that produced almost seven hundred pounds of food in 2024.Through the course of this conversation, Michelle gives us the dirt on a range of organic practices that build soil, feed it, and maximize its effectiveness, even in a short growing season. We’re talking composting in place with sheet mulching, lasagna gardening, and hügelkultur; supporting healthy soil food webs with companion planting, mulch, and cover crops; and extending the growing season with cold frames, hoop houses, and even plastic bins. If you think you’re already a master of all these things, so did Erin—and this interview got her out gardening in the early-March snow to try something she’s never done before.If you want to keep learning from Michelle Bruhn, check out…* Her online hub, Forks in the Dirt (https://forksinthedirt.com/): (Here you’ll find courses, resources, and recipes for homesteading and gardening).* Her book, Small-Scale Homesteading, co-authored by Stephanie Thurow* Stephanie’s fermentation books (https://minnesotafromscratch.com/) which Michelle shouted out during the episode: * Michelle’s Substack newsletter (https://forksinthedirt.substack.com/)You can also find her on social media:* Instagram: @forksinthedirt (https://www.instagram.com/forksinthedirt/)* Facebook: @forksinthedirtmn (https://www.facebook.com/forksinthedirtmn/)Citations:Jeff Lowenfels’ book Teemi...

Ep. 13 Beneficial Non-Natives? Borage vs. Cosmos

1 hr 0 min

It’s a concern being voiced by conscientious gardeners everywhere: is it okay to plant a non-native flower that feeds pollinators but also self-sows freely? One suspect that is being discussed in many online gardening groups in borage. It shows up in pollinator-garden seed mixes that the purchasers expected to be 100% native. It features at seed swaps and in seed libraries because its seeds are easy to collect, and established gardeners know it always brings the bees in. But it also sows itself aggressively, and it didn’t evolve alongside North American pollinators. The people want to know: is it problematic to grow it? Is an aggressive plant necessarily invasive? That’s the question that sets the stage for this week’s versus episode. Sean takes on the borage question while Erin examines her own potentially-problematic fave, cosmos. They look into each plant’s origins, its spread around the world, and how manageable it is once it’s in your garden. They examine studies about wildlife use and raise questions about nectar and pollen quality. Along the way, they uncover a treasure trove of interesting science…and a wealth of questions still to be answered. Who brought the most fascinating facts about their plant this week? Vote for borage or cosmos by tagging us on social media and using the hashtag #PAWFaceOff. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsalwayswin.com) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com/@plantsalwayswinpodcast) YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.youtube.com/@PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast)Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com (http://www.plantsalwayswin.com) CreditsWebsite Design and Illustration by Sophia AlladinIntro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Cre...

Ep. 12 Groundcovers with Kathy Jentz

1 hr 7 min

This week we cover a lot of ground on the subject of groundcovers with Kathy Jentz. Kathy is the editor and publisher of Washington Gardener, the host of the Garden DC podcast, and the author of Groundcover Revolution, a book written to give inspiration and examples for turf grass substitutes that gardeners everywhere can use to find the best plants for their region. They can also use its attractive and accessible photographs to get their spouses and their HOA on board.We start our conversation by establishing some ground rules: what is a groundcover? Kathy says it’s any plant that covers the ground thickly enough to suppress weeds, which kicks off a conversation about turf substitutes, plant height, maintenance, and moss lawns. We reflect on the history of lawns, the aggressive nature of many groundcovers, and how to manage them through plant choice or through physical intervention. What about avoiding invasive species of groundcovers altogether? Kathy shares some favourites and some species she would never recommend in her region, Washington DC. Erin and Sean offer their own top and bottom choices for Central Ontario and discover, in spite of distance and very different growing seasons, some common ground.For more of Kathy, you can find her in the following places:Upcoming speaking engagements* The 2025 Northwest Flower Garden Festival in Seattle * The 2025 Philadelphia Flower ShowKathy’s Online Platforms• Washington Gardener Plant Store: https://shop.kathyjentz.com/ (https://shop.kathyjentz.com/)• Washington Gardener Blog:www.washingtongardener.blogspot.com (http://www.washingtongardener.blogspot.com/)• Washington Gardener Archives:http://issuu.com/washingtongardener (http://issuu.com/washingtongardener)• Washington Gardener Discussion Group: https://groups.google.com/g/washingtongardener/ (https://groups.google.com/g/washingtongardener/)To join, send an email to - washingtongardener+subscribe@googlegroups.com• Washington Gardener Twitter Feed:www.twitter.

Ep.11 Valentine’s Day Special, Part 2, Carnation Nation

43 min

This is the second instalment of our two-part Roses vs. Carnations Valentine’s Day special. After Sean eloquently shared his love for roses earlier this week, Erin barges in with the claim that roses are elitist and carnations are the flower of the people. Her focus is Dianthus caryophyllus, a cut-flower relative of some familiar garden flowers like pinks. She takes us back to the Carnation Revolution and other people’s uprisings in which carnations became important symbols, tells us what the name “pink” has to do with dianthus’ ruffled petals, and explores carnations’ aromatic uses. When Erin puts Sean on the spot to describe the science behind why putting food colouring in a carnation’s water source will dye it, he pulls it off admirably and gives us some bonus facts about mineral buildup on tap water-fed houseplants. The episode gathers steam with school carnation sales at Valentine’s Day (awkward), Mother’s Day symbology (touching), and the Vicorian language of flowers (not Erin’s favourite thing). Then it winds down with carnation care both in the garden and as cut flowers. Are you ready to join Carnation Nation? Or have roses won your heart? Cast your vote by tagging us on social media and using the hashtag #PAWFaceOff. Fact CheckWe promised to find out which was named first: pinking shears (which cut saw-toothed edges in fabric) or garden pinks (which have petals with saw-toothed edges). The answer is not clear-cut, but we highly recommend the Online Etymology Dictionary’s interesting entry about it: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pink (https://www.etymonline.com/word/pink) Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsalwayswin.com) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com...

Ep.10 Valentine’s Day Special Part 1: Roses

49 min

This is a special two-part Plant Face-Off! We had so much to say about roses and carnations that we had to split the recording into two episodes. In this instalment, we start with some housekeeping, answering the listener question “What is Patreon?”, explaining why we’re phasing off the Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram, and reminding YOU to reach out if you’d like to join the conversation at our Plants Always Win Discord server.After that Sean takes us through history and around the world with the ever-sweet subject of roses. Learn about the surprising members of the rose family fruit tree, explore their history and symbolism, and learn how to take care of them in your garden—especially here in Ontario. Sean also answers some questions from the internet, such as “Can I regrow my rose bouquet?” “Are rose petals edible?”, and “How can I make my cut roses last?” But the face-off doesn’t end here. Come back later this week for Part II when Erin takes the floor with roses’ Valentine’s Day competitor, carnations. Then cast your vote by email on social media with the hashtag #PAWfaceoff. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Bluesky: @plantsalwayswin.com (https://bsky.app/profile/plantsalwayswin.com) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com/@plantsalwayswinpodcast) YouTube: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.youtube.com/@PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast)Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com (http://www.plantsalwayswin.com) CreditsWebsite Design and Illustration by Sophia AlladinIntro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays (https://click.pstmrk.it/3s/uppbeat.io%2Ft%2Fsoundroll%2Fwhen-my-ukulele-plays/vZub/6Aa1AQ/AQ/f58651af-7a63-4069-8f2f-b4d30f71c8a4/4/MDMaaK2LMO)

Ep.9 Garden Classrooms with Lauren MacLean

44 min

Have you learned to read your garden? This week we sit down with Lauren MacLean, a teacher, author, and podcaster from Richmond, British Columbia. She’s a big advocate for how outdoor classrooms help kids learn better, but a few years ago she had a learning experience of her own when her school built a new garden classroom. In this interview she shares with us her background as an outdoor educator and explains the magic of “sit spots” for creating a relationship with our environment—something we should all do in our own gardens. Lauren explains how even though she was new to gardening when her school dug into its new project, she was helped by the nature literacy she and her students already possessed. “Reading” the plants and the species who live in relationship to them is key.Throughout today’s conversation we celebrate the value of garden failures and what they can teach us and the children who follow our example. We extend grace to ourselves and all gardeners (and houseplant parents!) who struggle to help their plants thrive. Lauren also offers advice for teachers to keep their garden classrooms afloat when the first bloom of ambition fades, and celebrates the community connections they can forge. Finally, we wrap up by trouble-shooting problems like summer watering, wildlife interactions, and weed identification. If you want to learn more from Lauren about outdoor learning, check out…Lauren’s Courses: Nature’s Path: a Year of Monthly Sparks—monthly outdoor-learning professional development for educators and homeschooling familiesThrive Outside: Grow Your Teaching Space—a five-week program for teachers and homeschooling parents to grow their teaching into the outdoorsLauren’s Books: Me and My Sit Spot—a picture book about choosing and using a sit spotFinding Common Ground—a story set in an outdoor classroomSitting with Nature: An Educator’s Guide to Sit Spots—the book that brought Lauren and Erin together as author and editor, a resource that introduces why and...

Ep.8 Peace Lily VS Phalaenopsis Orchid

58 min

This versus episode kicks off with a discussion about creating a safe space on social media for respectful, loving communication about everything plants and gardens, then digresses into a discussion of Latin pronunciations in botanical, liturgical, and classical settings. When we make it to the Plant Face-Off, Erin leads with peace lily, or Spathiphyllum spp. She explains why some plants in the Spathiphyllum genus have Big Spadix Energy, then explores the fascinating physical mechanism that makes biting a peace lily a bad idea. She explains how to approximate the conditions of its home in the understory of tropical rainforests and how to treat problems, then digs into why she and others are so darned allergic to its pollen. Finally, Erin and Sean dissect the infamous NASA Clean Air Study that still prompts publications to insist that peace lilies can purify your air of household toxins.In the second half of the episode, Sean confidently takes the stage to predict a win for his favourite plants, Phalaenopsis orchids, also known as moon orchids or moth orchids (for their moth-like flowers). He explains how they grow hanging in the air, attached to trees or stones, and describes the various options for propagating them. Next he covers such controversial topics as what media to grow orchids in, how to water them, and where to position them for the best kind of light. As someone who has rehabilitated many a box-store orchid, he is well equipped with advice on helping them re-bloom and thrive. Sean closes his segment with some history and surprising medical uses for Phalaenopsis.Who won the Plant Face-Off? Was it Erin with peace lilies or Sean with Phalaenopsis orchids? You decide! Send your vote by email or on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook with the hashtag #PAWFaceOff.Instagram: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.instagram.com/plantsalwayswinpodcast/) Facebook: plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.facebook.com/plantsalwayswinpodcast) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (ht...

Ep.7 Winter Sowing Native Plants with Amanda Jewell

52 min

You might think a gardening podcast would focus on guests who have a lifetime of gardening expertise and plenty of credentials. But we want to emphasize that anyone can garden, and amateurs everywhere find niches to flourish in. That’s why we invited Amanda Jewell to share her adventures in learning to grow native plants from seed.Amanda is a vision therapist by trade. In her free time, she uses her postage-stamp urban yard in Northern Ontario to grow hundreds of native wildflowers every year. She describes for us the joy she felt the first time she discovered that her garden was supporting local insects and how the focus on bringing more wildlife to her yard drove her interest in native plants. She also explains how winter sowing has become such an effective technique for her, in spite of mishaps along the way, and how leaning in to nature’s lack of orderliness is both useful and liberating. We wrap up with conversation about finding community among gardeners and about resources and seed sources for listeners who want to try starting their own native plants. Amanda’s Shout-Outs:The Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library distributes free seeds to organizations and gardeners every winter: https://wildflowerseedlibrary.ca/ (https://wildflowerseedlibrary.ca/) The Butterflyway Project supports the creation of connected patches of butterfly habitat throughout neighbourhoods: https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/ (https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/) The Miskwaadesi native garden is a new garden in North Bay, Ontario created by the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre: https://www.miskwaadesi.ca/ (https://www.miskwaadesi.ca/) Timestamps00:51 Intro01:25 Gardening in Urban Northern Ontario03:20 Observe Before You Grow04:16 Becoming a Disney Princess for Hornets08:10 A Cheap, Low-Maintenance, Wildlife-Friendly Garden10:00 Growing Native Perennials Is Beginner Friendly!11:23 Why Some Seeds Need Cold Stratification13:57 What is Winte...

Ep.5 Pokemon Ecology with Alex Meinders

44 min

We’re always pretty nerdy on Plants Always Win, but in this interview episode Alex Meinders helps us take it to a whole new level. He’s a wildlife biologist and videogame enthusiast whose passion project is the YouTube and TikTok channel Geek Ecology. He uses his real-world science know-how to analyze the biology and ecology of Pokémon—yes, those quirky monsters from the cartoon, card game, and video games. This week Alex speculates with us about the plant-inspired class of grass-type Pokémon. We consider their place in the food web (are they animals or vegetables?), their evolutionary history (what environmental pressure caused them to look like plants?) and their methods of reproduction (do they create clones by seed and genetic diversity by egg?). If you’re worried about missing out on real-world plant talk, never fear! We dig into some fascinating plants along the way, including the parasitic corpse flower, the piratical ghost pipe, and mandrakes, which really do look like that.  Find Alex on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@geekecology), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@geekecology), and Twitter (https://x.com/geek_ecology) at @GeekEcology.Fact Check:We promised some fact-checking during the episode! Here are the results: Alex brought up the subject of a tissue-culture mammoth meatball that made news headlines. This was created in 2023 by Australian company Vow as a way to bring attention to their cultivated meat products. It turns out the meatball was not eaten since no one knows how our immune systems will react to protein from 10,000-year-old DNA. If someone wanted to eat it, the company would need to re-do the process with closer attention paid to the needs of regulators. But it’s a great story (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/28/meatball-mammoth-created-cultivated-meat-firm?CMP=share_btn_url)!The Pokémon Grimer was part of Generation 1 (https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Generation_I), which came out in Japan in 1996. Points to Sean for remem...

Ep.4 Bay Leaves VS Mustard Seed

47 min

In this Versus episode, it’s the battle of herbs and spices. Get your fill of these fascinating aromatic plants that have flavoured our food and changed our history since paleolithic times...

Ep.3 Garden Education with Paul Zammit

57 min

In this interview episode, Sean chats with Paul Zammit about the life of a garden communicator. Paul has had a long career in horticulture and is presently a professor of Horticulture and Environmental Studies at Niagara College as well as CBC’s Ontario Today gardening expert—although “expert” is a term he would like to contest. After all, we never stop learning, and that’s especially true in the garden. Paul and Sean talk about selfish gardening (taking space from nature for ourselves) compared to building a biodiverse space that wildlife can enjoy alongside us—even if that means broadening our definition of beauty. They lament the spread of incomplete and untrue gardening tips online, although they’re still excited about the information-sharing power of social media. And although they’d happily talk forever, they force themselves to wrap up the conversation by answering some listener questions about insect-afflicted ash trees and re-blooming orchids. Find Paul on Instagram at @paulsplantpix (https://www.instagram.com/paulsplantpix/)  Paul Zammit is a professor at  Niagara College’s School of Environment and Horticulture (https://www.niagaracollege.ca/environment/). He can be found giving garden advice on CBC’s Ontario Today program (https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.6511177) He occasionally co-leads international tours (https://www.facebook.com/p/Great-Garden-Tours-with-Marjorie-Mason-Jeff-Mason-and-Paul-Zammit-100057629281767/) of public and private gardens. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Instagram: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.instagram.com/plantsalwayswinpodcast/) Facebook: plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.facebook.com/plantsalwayswinpodcast)

Ep.2 Poinsettia VS Amaryllis

48 min

In this “versus” episode, Erin and Sean face off with two big holiday plants: Poinsettias and Amaryllis. Erin comes in swinging with the fraught history of settler (Poinsettia) and Indigenous (cuetlaxochitl) names for her plant, but Sean pushes back with the romantic (or is it?) mythology behind amaryllis. Both contenders shatter misconceptions (Poinsettias are not toxic! Some amaryllis are imposters!) and share care tips for keeping these festive flora in good shape during the holidays and year round. A few tangents slip in about specialist insects that thrive on toxic plants and the way plants interpret light and darkness. And of course we get a plant rant about florists and nurseries using spray paint and glitter. The episode wraps up with a listener question about how late she can plant an evergreen tree. Who won the Plant Face-Off? Was it Erin with poinsettias or Sean with amaryllis? You decide! Send your vote by email or on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook with the hashtag #PAWFaceOff. Comments? Feedback? Want your garden question to be featured in a future Q&A segment? Email us (mailto:plantsalwaysinpodcast@gmail.com), reach out over social media, or get Q&A priority by supporting us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/PlantsAlwaysWinPodcast). Instagram: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.instagram.com/plantsalwayswinpodcast/) Facebook: plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.facebook.com/plantsalwayswinpodcast) TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast (https://www.tiktok.com/@plantsalwayswinpodcast) Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com (http://www.plantsalwayswin.com) CreditsWebsite Design and Illustration

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