On this week’s Good Growing podcast the crew chats with Extension horticulture educator Martha Smith about must-see botanic gardens and her favorite tree, the beech tree! From Longwood to Missouri Botanical Garden and much more, Martha points out some fantastic botanical gardens throughout the United States, and ones right here in the Midwest. We also discuss beech trees an under-rated and under-planted tree which happens to be Martha’s favorite tree. Martha shares her favorite beech tree cultivars and how they perform in her yard. If you’ve never seen a fern-leaf beech tree, check out that section of the video. Martha is soon to be retired and so to wrap this episode we ask about some of her favorite moments with Extension and tips for us Extension educators who still have awhile to go before we hit retirement. What’s a botanical garden? Is there a difference between that and an arboretum? Does Martha have a favorite botanical garden? Where is a botanical garden in Western Central Illinois? What is Martha’s favorite tree? Why do we hardly see this tree in our part of Illinois? Martha goes into the different types of beech trees in her yard. What is beech leaf disease? Is this a concern in Illinois? Would it be okay to cut down a healthy tree you don’t like to plant one you want? What tree would Martha recommend? Both Katie and Martha love ginkgo trees. Martha shares some of the unique ginkgo trees she has in her yard. With Martha about to retire, we ask her about some memories working with Extension What was your favorite part of the job? Best/ funniest memory? Greatest resource(s) as an Extension educator? Watch us on YouTube https://youtu.be/BwLRXnVB7J0 ___ Any products mentioned during the podcast are in no way a promotion of these products.