Heart of the Garden

I’m always looking for good gardening podcasts, ones that give practical tips and plant profiles, but also one that touches on history, ethnobotany, and interesting stories about plants. One that represents a multiplicity of voices, indigenous wisdom baked into the mainstream hort pie, one that doesn’t quote John Muir because he was a racist and a horrible human being, one that doesn’t preach to the choir, one that doesn’t preach. One that’s inclusive, realistic, holistic, intersectional, uncensored, unapologetically passionate, colorful, a good balance of design and ecology (and bio- and ento- and dendro- ALL the -ologies), sensitive to the emotional world of gardening, but well-calloused and hard knuckled about defending science. One that’s radical, political, and sometimes angry. One that doesn’t have acoustic guitar music in the intro. One that doesn’t reduce everything down to “just plant more milkweed.” One that ties everyday life of humans to plants. Is there one out there? Oh, and it has to be run by really nerdy people.

That is essential, and probably inevitable.

Here is a list of podcasts that I listen to (when I’m not listening to Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon on Maintenance Phase):

GardenDC: The Podcast about Mid-Atlantic Gardening

Cottage in the Court

Cultivating Place

In Defense of Plants

Seeds and their People – True Love Seeds

Black in the Garden

The Plantastic Podcast

The Garden Thyme Podcast – University of MD Extension

GardenNerd

Native Plant Podcast