Good Growing

Talking all things horticulture, ecology, and design.
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Latest Episode

Have you ever had a container planter with perennials and excitedly waited for them to resume growth in the spring, but it never happened? Perennials in pots are subjected to much harsher conditions compared to those in the soil.

Gardenbite: Growing Asparagus | #GoodGrowing

On this week's Good Growing Podcast, Ken Johnson talks about growing asparagus, including what type you should grow, how to plant, weed control, and fertilizing and harvesting. Check out the Good Growing Blog: go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: go.illinois....

Gardenbite: Our local food system through the eyes of bread | #GoodGrowing

This week Nick Frillman takes us on a journey of our local foods system through his very own kitchen and a single loaf of bread. Listen in to learn how you can support a local food system with your food dollars.

Ep. 132 Sunflowers for 2023 | #GoodGrowing

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome back horticulture educator Emily Swihart to finally talk about sunflowers! We discuss the history of sunflowers, some of their benefits to the environment and bees, what sunflowers we’ll be growing this year, and more. Watch us on YouTube: https://...

Ep. 131 New Flowers for 2023 | #GoodGrowing

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome horticulture educator Emily Swihart to share the new and strange seed we have ordered for our flower gardens for the 2023 growing season. We tease talking about sunflowers for the yard, but we don't get to them this week. So, look for that episode...

Ep. 130 New Veggies for 2023 | #GoodGrowing

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we welcome horticulture educator Emily Swihart to share the new and strange seed we have ordered for our vegetable gardens for the 2023 growing season. Plus, Chris has a monumental task of narrowing down his list of shade trees to only one for his front yard. We...

Ep. 129 Part 2 of growing ginger, turmeric, and galangal | #GoodGrowing

This week on the Good Growing podcast, we finish our conversation on growing ginger, turmeric, and galangal. Last week we got through pre-sprouting indoors, this episode we dive into getting your sprouted rhizomes planted, growing, and then harvested. We take you through a growing season with these...

Ep. 128 Growing ginger, turmeric, and galangal in Illinois, Part 1 | #GoodGrowing

On this week’s Good Growing Podcast, we have the long-awaited, often teased episode on growing ginger, turmeric, and galangal in Illinois! We discuss what they are, why you may want to grow them, where to grow them, presprouting, and more. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1V121FzkJus Skip...

Ep. 127 A year in review of our 2022 vegetable gardens | #GoodGrowing

On this week's Good Growing podcast, we look back at 2022 to review what went well in our vegetable gardens, and also some lessons learned from the struggles of growing food in Illinois. From annoying critters to the beauty provided by some of our edible crops we cover it all. Watch on YouTube...

Gardenbite - Amaryllis care and getting it to rebloom | #goodgrowing

On this week's Good Growing podcast Chris Enroth talks about amaryllis care and how to get it to rebloom for next year's holiday season. Check out the original text by Ken Johnson https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2021-12-03-how-take-care-amaryllis-and-get-them-rebloom Check out...

Gardenbite: Some things to consider while going through garden catalogs | #GoodGrowing

Garden and seed catalogs have been arriving for a while now. When flipping through catalogs, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the choices. Unfortunately, you probably don’t have room (or time) to grow everything you see, no matter how amazing it seems. So how should you go about choosing what...