Hothouse

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 voicemail at 347-WAP-HORT. Here’s where you can rent the movie: https://shop.fiveseasonsmovie.com/product/single-viewer/ Mentioned in this episode: Oudolf designs at Hummelo; Hauser & Wirth; the Lurie Garden; the High Line; Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury;  Medicinal Plants of Texas by Nicole Telkes; and Coopers BBQ in Llano. 

On this mega-episode of the Horticulturati, 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 the rest out the window. Maybe it all comes down to climate, maintenance, and solving problems with plants. First up, Leah describes a real-life botanical nightmare that sends her down memory lane. Last, Colleen shares a listener letter from a Buckeye gardening in the southwest. Leave a voice message on the new Horticulturati Hotline! The number is 347-WAP-HORT.  Or drop us a line on our website.  Mentioned in this episode:  The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, here’s the i

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 intractable problem of armadillos in the garden. So, spark up a spliff and fill your pantyhose with worms! The next time one wreaks havoc on your flowerbeds, you may just have a little more appreciation for this humble critter.  Songs: “Dead Armadillo Song” by the Lost Gonzo Band; “Spanish Moss” by Doug Kershaw; “Armadillo Stomp” by Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen;  “You Look Like the Devil” by Willie Nelson; “London Homesick Blues” by Gary P Nunn; “Beautiful Texas Sunshine” by Doug Sahm. Here’s a Spotify playli

Hothouse is returning from hiatus! From here on out this podcast feed will be all Hothouse, so if you want to keep hearing The Horticulturati, please subscribe to that feed HERE (for Apple Podcasts) or HERE (for Spotify).   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 at all, but rather the lingering demons of her past in 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 “folklore,” and the importance of heirloom seeds as “living archives” of cultural information. Happy belated Juneteenth! See photos of Colleen’s cushaw plant and drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com.  Mentioned in this episode:  The Botany Coloring Book; The Crape Myrtle Trails

On this Horticulturati, 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 YouTube. Watch it here. Mentioned in this episode:  A color guide to familiar Butterflies Caterpillars and Chrysalides by Josef Moucha; Butterfly Gardening for the South by Geyata Ajilvsgi; Gayata on Central Texas Gardener;  photo of a giant swallowtail chrysalis and a monarch chrysalis; Nabokov’s 1948 “Butterflies” essay from the New Yorker; Sebastian’s rescued chrysalis and newly emerged monarch; National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies of North America; A Brief History of Gardening by Neil

Best wishes to everyone! Here is a little plantastic escapism to entertain you. [We recorded this episode on 2/28 and added a little corona check-in intro on 3/21. Episode begins around 4:19.] Can plants “hear” music? What would plant-generated music sound like? On this episode, Leah and Colleen attend “The Secret Song of Plants,” the release party for an album of the same name by music therapist Andrea Cortez. Accompanying Andrea is cellist Henna Chou and… a pothos ivy?!?!  Join us as we dive deep into the world of plant music, plant sentience, and philosophy, from the Plant Wave, to The Secret Life of Plants, to Mort Garson’s “Plantasia,” and beyond.  Watch the Secret Life of Plants documentary here. More info at our website: www.horticulturati.com. Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band.  Also mentioned in this episode:   “Inside the Spiritual World of Plant Based Instruments” (Vice magazine, 2016); “Data Garden Quartet” at Philadelphia Museum of

How did the invention of time-lapse photography revolutionize our understanding of plants? Leah checks in with Charles Darwin and Barbara Streisand on this subject. Colleen explains how to get certified as an arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture, and brings us up to speed on some Facebook drama. But first, garden updates: it's been a bad year for the roses. Watch the time-lapse videos from the episode at ww.horticulturati.com. Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band.  Mentioned in this episode: Tree Folks Urban Forest Stewards Program; "The Secret Life of Plants: Visualizing Vegetative Movement 1880-1903" by Oliver Gaycken in Early Popular Visual Culture (Feb 2012);  Charles Percy's The Birth of a Flower (1910); The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso; Science in Action: Time Lapse Photography (1964); On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)

Shake off those umbrellas! On episode 2 of The Horticulturati, Austin-based garden designers Colleen Dieter and Leah Churner discuss  Central Texas’ mercurial climate. Specifically, the rain. And the lack thereof. Leah explains how longitude is destiny along the Hundredth Meridian (or is it the 98th?), and Colleen examines how “Xeriscape” became “Zeroscape.” But first, a garden update: Leah’s ripping out landscape fabric and Colleen has a misadventure with a skid-steer.  Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com. Our theme song is “Plants” by The Horticulturati House Band.  Mentioned in this episode:  “Austin’s on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian,” by Christopher Collins in The Texas Observer, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Path to Power by Robert Caro, this map of the hundredth meridian; Southwest Gardening by Rosalie Doolittle and Harriet Tiedebohl, and “Gravel in the Garden: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” with Elizabeth McGreevy on KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener. 

Hi Hothouse listeners! Hothouse Season 2 is still in the works, but guess what! I'm launching a spinoff podcast: The Horticulturati!  The Horticulturati is a biweekly gardening talkshow I'm cohosting with my friend, and repeat Hothouse guest, Colleen Dieter. We're a couple of "designing women" here to fill you in on the ups and downs of landscaping life and teach each other about horticultural history and sundry fun plant facts.  Episode 1 is out February 7! Please subscribe to The Horticulturati by following this link right here. Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com.

The upcoming season of Hothouse is devoted to climate change. I'll be talking to activists, artists, farmers, and journalists about the new normal that we face in 2019. How is climate change already affecting our lives? What can we do to limit global warming? And how are each of us reckoning, in our own personal ways, with the future? Stay tuned and stay in touch! info@hothousepodcast.com "Belview" by C. Scott is licensed under CC BY 3.0  

On this episode, we’re taking an intimate look at the the most domesticated plants of all: houseplants. My guest, Jane Perrone, is a London-based journalist and the host-producer of the indoor gardening podcast On The Ledge. We’ll discuss Jane’s background, some myths and misconceptions of container gardening, and the human tendency to anthropomorphize our houseplants. At the top of the show, I’ll dive into the revealing history of the Aspidistra elatior, a houseplant once so iconic it was the subject of a popular song, the codename for a “black propaganda” operation in WWII, and the central metaphor in a George Orwell novel. Today, the Aspidistra is barely considered a houseplant at all. Can this casualty of fashion ever come back in style? To learn more about On The Ledge, visit janeperrone.com or find the show on Apple podcasts. Find Jane on Instagram @j.l.perrone and on Twitter @janeperrone. Check out Darryl Cheng’s Instagram @houseplantjournal and his blog at houseplantjournal.com. Music in this episode

Colleen Dieter, co-founder of the the Central Texas Seed Library, talks about how saving, swapping, and sharing seeds can help us build community, reclaim lost agricultural knowledge, and preserve crucial genetic diversity in our global food supply. Thanks to Colleen and a group of other volunteers, a seed library is coming soon to Austin’s fabulous new downtown Central Library. Here, anybody can browse and take home free, open-pollinated seeds to grow in the garden. CTSL is hosting a seed swap and seed-saving class at Austin Central Public Library on October 20, 2018 at 1pm. For more info on the Central Texas Seed Library, visit them on Facebook. Find Colleen Dieter, landscape consultant and certified arborist, at www.redwheelbarrowplants.com See Leah and Colleen on Central Texas Gardener on KLRU! Please subscribe to the Hothouse email newsletter! Sign up at www.hothousepodcast.com. Follow Hothouse on Instagram @hothousepodcast Music in this episode is “Elatan” by Gustav Landin and “Nostalgia of an ex-gang

In Part 2 of the series “Nothing Natural About Capitalism,” Leah talks to Austin-based activist Ryan Rosshirt about permaculture design and the challenge of building a society that supports meaningful work. Like so many Americans, Ryan was jolted into political action by the rise of Donald Trump. He quit his desk job before the 2016 election to focus full-time on canvassing for social justice and environmentalist issues. At the same time, he discovered a passion for gardening; a small vegetable patch grew into the backyard microfarm where he’s producing a lot of his own food today. On this episode, Ryan talks about implementing permaculture principles to repair the ecosystem in his backyard. Also, he and Leah discuss the idea of “vocations,” the structural barriers imposed by capitalism that prevent people from enjoying meaningful work, and how the Austin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is fighting business interests big and small to improve quality of life for workers.

Capitalism: Can't live with it, can't live without it! Or can we? And what is the connection between capitalism and what we eat, how we work, and who bears the impacts of climate change? For a lot of us, the ecological consequences of our economic system are clear: factory farming, algae blooms, pollinator decline, and the Trump Administration's evisceration of the EPA. What, if any, are the alternatives? In this two-part series, "Nothing Natural About Capitalism," the Starship Hothouse will boldly go where no gardening podcast has gone before, as Leah attempts to articulate some nascent ideas about how the design principles of permaculture, combined with the populist vision of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), might offer a ray of hope in these dispiriting times. In Part 1, Mike Moody, co-host of the Star Trek Discovery Pod (and the engineer of this show) interviews Leah about how she envisions a path between democratic socialism and environmentalism. Also, Leah tracks down one of her podcasting he

On this episode, we'll examine the relationship between natural history and social history. Join Leah as she sits down with park ranger LaJuan Tucker to talk about the conservation of urban wildlife, and how changing societal attitudes determine how we relate to our landscapes. LaJuan will explain how, in recent years, Austin's Parks and Recreation Department has implemented a new mandate to protect pollinator habitats, even when that means sacrificing the "manicured" look of the park in high-traffic areas.  We'll also zoom out and talk more broadly about the philosophy of conservation today. How should our parklands be used, and who gets to decide? Should we strive to preserve "native" landscapes, or build more community gardens? And how do we reconcile the romance of the Texas landscape with the racist realities of our past? We'll talk about the lingering effects of Jim Crow in Austin, from actual monuments to the Confederacy, to present-day structural inequality. And we'll hear about LaJuan's personal miss

Farmer-florist Gretchen O'Neil dishes the dirt on growing cut flowers. Gretchen is the founder of Petals, Ink, a floral design studio, mobile flower truck, and women-run farm in Manor, Texas. She'll tell us about the highs and lows of the farming life -- extraordinary beauty and terrible uncertainty -- and explain how working the land has helped this New England native find a sense of seasonality in balmy Central Texas. Of course, she'll also recommend a whole bunch of varieties you can plant from seed right now to start your own cutting garden -- no greenhouse required!  For more info on Gretchen, visit Petalsinkfloral.com. Pick up their bouquets at the Texas Famers Market at Mueller (Sundays 10-2) and the Petals, Ink flower truck at the Tasty Spoon (Thursdays-Saturdays 4-7). Grassdale Farm's Instagram is amazing. Recommended reading: Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart (2007) and Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein. Hothouse is produced by Leah Churner and engineered by Mike Moody. Visit us a

On this episode, we venture into the strange and mysterious kingdom of fungi. Join Leah as she sits down to talk mushrooms with mycologist Daniel Reyes, the founder of MycoAlliance, a science and education company that offers classes in mushroom propagation and conducts research at an off-the-grid laboratory in a nature preserve in east Austin. Daniel is a specialist in Mycoremediation, the practice of using fungi to clean up toxic pollution.  We’ll start with some basic fungi facts (What is a mushroom, exactly?) and learn how easy it is to grow delicious mushrooms in your garden — even in pots! Hear tales of mycological adventure in the Amazon rainforest, learn how mushroom cultivation can help provide disaster relief to earthquake-damaged areas in Mexico City, and get the scoop on the future of fungi! To learn more about MycoAlliance, register for a class, or buy spawn, you can visit their website at txfungi.com. Follow them on Instagram at @mycoalliance. For dates and info about the Introduction to Mushro

Leah sits down with Linda Lehmusvirta, the producer of KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener, to find out what goes on behind the scenes of this long-running, award-winning public television show. Linda’s been producing CTG since the beginning, in the 1980s, when it began as a live call-in show. Viewership has now expanded beyond its namesake region, as CTG now airs weekly on PBS stations from Amarillo to Corpus Christi, and from Myrtle Beach to Tucson. Over the years, Linda has filmed hundreds of gardens, interviewed countless locals, and embarked on a personal garden education of trial and error. Hear about the history of CTG and the many myths and misconceptions Linda’s encountered along the way. Also: How to retain a sense of humor when foul weather, downed limbs, or busted pipes destroy your best-laid garden plans.    Leah is teaching a free class, “Urban Permaculture for Austinites,” on Saturday, May 12 at 10am at The Natural Gardener. Visit naturalgardeneraustin.com for more details.    Here is Linda’s article

Join your host, Leah Churner, as she sits down with Jenny Peterson, author of The Cancer Survivor's Garden Companion (St. Lynn's Press, 2016) to talk about the therapeutic power of gardening. As a landscape designer, urban farmer, and breast-cancer survivor, Jenny has unique insight on the healing potential of outdoor spaces. She explains how to find relief in the garden, whether you're experiencing illness, stress, grief, anxiety, or depression. For many reasons, working with plants can help us clear mental fog, process feelings, and gain perspective on the rhythms of life. Plus: your host envies Jenny's adorable baby goats. Visit https://www.jennynybropeterson.com/ facebook.com/JennyNybroPeterson.    This interview was recorded in February 2018 at Permanent RCRD in Austin, Texas. Hothouse is produced by Leah Churner and engineered by Mike Moody. Visit us at www.hothousepodcast.com. Email the show with plant questions and feedback at info@hothousepodcast.com and follow us on Instagram @hothousepodcast. Music

Welcome to the first episode of Hothouse, a podcast about design, ecology, and the way we garden now. Join your host, Leah Churner, as she sits down with organic gardening aficionado Colleen Dieter of Red Wheelbarrow Landscape Consulting (www.atxgardens.com) to talk about the joys of seed saving, cultivating a rich sense of place, and how "now, more than ever, gardening is a political act." Our book recommendation this week is Biophilia, by Edward O. Wilson.  This interview was recorded in January 2018 at Permanent RCRD in Austin, Texas. Hothouse is produced by Leah Churner and engineered by Mike Moody. Visit us at www.hothousepodcast.com. Email the show with plant questions and feedback at info@hothousepodcast.com and follow us on Instagram @hothousepodcast. Music by Moonsicles. www.moonsicles.bandcamp.com.