Good Growing
Talking all things horticulture, ecology, and design.

Latest Episode

As Americans prepare to celebrate the July 4th weekend, Good Growing takes a look at the Founding Fathers as gardeners. In this episode, we explore the lesser-known side of our nation’s founders.
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All Episodes

Ep. 134 Growing Cut Flowers w/ Chris Lueking | #GoodGrowing

Never be without a vase full of flowers after listening to this episode of the Good Growing podcast. This week Ken and Chris chat with Chris Lueking, Illinois Extension horticulture educator, and owner of her own successful cut flower farm. Chris describes how she got started, things to consider...

Ep. 133 Early Spring Gardening Questions | #GoodGrowing

On this week’s Good Growing podcast Chris and Ken sit down to go through our piles of early spring gardening questions about frost dates, seed starting, and more. Plus, we warn our listeners and viewers to be careful when getting out into the garden too soon! Watch us on YouTube https://youtu.be/...

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...

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