Growing a Greener World

- Season 6

(2015)

In the first 12 months of our beekeeping experience, we learned a lot about what it takes to keep your hives healthy and thriving. While we know a lot more now than we did when we started, there is still so much more to learn.

Many people seem to get bogged down in the details of how to make compost. That, or they think it's going to be messy and smelly. Neither is true if you follow a few simple guidelines which we cover. We show you all the basics of composting and everything you need to know to make it at home, without the smell or fuss of wondering if you're getting it right.

Theresa and Joe talk about how anyone can get started with raising chickens, which includes checking your local ordinances, a little research into breeds, where to get chicks and how to care for them, building or buying a coop, and what it takes to care for your chickens. Chef Nathan cooks up delicious, fresh eggs three ways: fancy shirred eggs for brunch, quick scrambled eggs, and perfectly "over medium" fried eggs.

As urban development is encroaching more and more on native landscapes, animal habitats shrink and birds and other animals in those areas are displaced. But we can help the situation by creating gardens that restore just a little piece of their habitat - even if we only have a small backyard or apartment balcony.

Joe shares some of the specific how-tos of starting plants from seed, inside and out. There are plenty of reasons to do so. For starters, seed packets cost far less than purchasing individual plants. Extra seed can be saved from year to year. Even with the additional expense of lighting, growing containers, and heating, these are largely one-time expenses and may already be things you have around or can find inexpensively.

Growing a Greener World started with one purpose: to shine a spotlight on the people and places making a positive difference in the way we interact with our environment. It's been over five years now, and that's exactly what we've done. We've crisscrossed the country dozens of times and even island-hopped our way to foreign soil looking for the best sustainable practices and most inspiring success stories. We've seen some incredible places, done a few unbelievable things, and met plenty of amazing people along the way.

Joe visits with University of Georgia wildlife specialist Professor Michael T. Mengak at his research facility to talk about eco-friendly and humane control methods for deer and other garden critters and pests.

Meet young urban professionals who have started successful businesses by growing their own food.

Brooklyn Grange, currently America's largest rooftop farm, produces over 40,000 pounds of fresh produce on over 2-acres of rooftop farms, overlooking the heart of NYC.

If you're a fan of the show, you know we've talked a lot about protecting and keeping honeybees. But this show is not as much about that. It's about creating habitats to attract and protect our "native" bees. According to the Xerces Society, about 25% of our native bumble bees are currently threatened with extinction. And many more native bees are losing pollination sources due to pesticides and habitat destruction.

This week finds Joe and Nathan in Richmond, CA for a behind the scenes visit with Annie Hayes of world-renowned Annie's Annuals and Perennials. From humble beginnings in her own back yard to two and a half acres of prime San Francisco real estate and a tremendous following, Annie now offers some 3,000 varieties of hard to find and rare heirloom annual and perennial plants preserving them for generations to come.

We meet Dr. Lee Reich at his own home garden, where he's mastered the art of weedless gardening, all without chemicals. Dr. Lee Reich is a former plant and soil researcher for the USDA and professor of horticulture, author, and long time avid gardener. From his own garden, Lee shares some of his tips for keeping it weedless. While no garden is ever weed-free all the time, over the years, Lee has mastered the art of having a garden with a lot less weeds.

With more people living in urban settings than ever before, it can be difficult for them to find locally sourced food within their neighborhoods or even to find a plot of dirt in which to grow their own food. Today, we look at some different food growing options that don't require a garden or even soil.

How many times have you tried to figure out a way to kill the moss in your lawn so you could grow grass in its place? After today, you might have a whole new appreciation for moss. In fact, some may now be looking for ways to kill their grass to replace it with moss. Unlike grass, moss requires very little water, does not need any fertilizer or pesticide, mowing or mulching, and stays green all year long.

"Healthy soil equals healthy food, equals healthy people, equals a healthy planet". It's the mantra of J.I. Rodale, the founder of the Rodale Institute in 1941.

Pruning is such a variable topic with many attributes to be taken into consideration such as climate, species, and goals of the gardener. For many, pruning is simply another part of gardening, but for others it can cause a cold sweat more commonly described as prune-a-phobia.

This story has been one of our most popular episodes ever. You gotta love a story about four childhood friends that decide to take a cross-country trip (and back) on a converted school bus turned mobile farm to teach kids in food deserts how to grow plants.

Horticulturalists and guru to all things gardening, Jeff Gillman, Ph.D literally wrote the book on the truth about organic gardening. He's particularly fond of telling it like it really is, in his no-nonsense, practical and conversational style.

Have a small yard or garden? Less - maybe a patio or balcony? Driveway? No space is too small or oddly-shaped for a bit of garden, and you'd be surprised how with a few design tricks you'll see you have more growing space than you imagined.

Our love affair with alien plants, along with unchecked habitat loss to urban sprawl is taking a significant toll on important native plants. In too many areas of the country, there's no place left for wildlife. By bringing nature home in the landscapes and gardens we ourselves create, we can collectively start to reverse this alarming decline.

One of the most inspiring movements in modern agriculture today is a growing trend of young farmers coming on the scene. And just in time. With the average age of today's conventional farmer approaching 60, this next generation is arriving without a moment to spare.

As much as you may love compost, one of the biggest challenges is not in knowing how to make it (which we dedicated an entire episode to), but in making enough.

Mention the term "four-season gardening" and more often than not, Eliot Coleman is likely to come up. He pretty much owns the space when it comes to year-round growing in cold climates.

As the world struggles to find space to grow food, an expanding market has emerged in the most unlikely places. One of the most popular practices is known as hydroponics, or growing without soil. The technique has enabled people to grow plants where traditional methods would never work. While the method of growing plants without soil is not a new concept, the technology and innovations to perfect the practice is, and getting better all the time.

Are wood chips good or bad for your landscape? Should you stake those young trees, or not? Is landscape fabric necessary? Should you go by the rules Grandma taught you, or the completely different ones you heard from the "expert gardener" down the street? As gardeners, we're bombarded by advice, both good and bad, and often contradictory. How do you know which is the good? Even established advice does not mean good advice.

While we love to teach you how to do things, we believe it's just as important (maybe more) to teach you the "why do" behind the how-to. By understanding why you do something, it will empower you to apply that knowledge as you build you skills in landscaping, gardening, horticulture and more.