Growing Greener

Travel with Growing Greener to Winnipeg, Manitoba to learn how Ash Burkowski is collecting seed from local prairie remnants to raise indigenous grasses and wildflowers that can be integrated into lawns, restoring populations of native flora while relieving homeowners of the need for fertilization and irrigation and reducing the need for mowing.

A replay of a February 2024 conversation in which Joseph Lofthouse, author of "Landrace Gardening" details how anyone can create genetically diverse vegetable and fruit crops that flourish in the local climate and soil with minimal inputs in just three years.

Byron Kominek knew the family farm needed a more profitable crop than hay to survive.  By installing  photovoltaic panels and growing crops underneath, he now supplies electricity to 300 neighboring houses while also producing food and hosting educational programs at what is now a popular learning center.

Liz Koziol of the University of Kansas shares hew work with mycorrhizal fungi and native plants, and how a properly designed fungal inoculant can make your ecological garden more biodiverse, quicker to establish itself and more resistant to weeds.

Herbariums, annotated collections of dried plant specimens first appeared in Italy almost 500 years ago.  In today's Growing Greener, Lea Johnson, Director of Conservation at the Native Plant Trust discusses why they remain an essential tool for those who track and study native plant populations, and the new technologies herbariums facilitate.