I Dig Your Story

A north-facing window box that didn’t go quite as planned might seem like an unlikely beginning for a gardening journey. But for Erin Schanen, better known as The Impatient Gardener, that early gardening mishap sparked a desire to understand what went wrong—and eventually grew into a thriving online community and business. Erin grew up around gardening, thanks to her mother, but it wasn’t until she bought her first home that she dove headfirst into learning everything she could about plants. In 2009, she started a blog to document her rapidly expanding garden. As the online gardening world evolved, she moved to YouTube, bringing viewers along for an honest, unfiltered look at her garden, whether it was thriving or a bit of a wreck. In this conversation, Erin shares how connecting with fellow garden enthusiasts led to unexpected opportunities in the horticulture industry, including a pivotal trip to California Spring Trials (CAST) that transformed her understanding of how plants get from breeders to gardeners. We also talk about the value of reliable, unsung garden plants, why she believes in planting more to control weeds, and the importance of remembering that gardening is supposed to be fun. In This Episode: How a failed window box sparked a deeper interest in gardening and led to The Impatient Gardener blog. How Erin’s transition from blogging to YouTube—and a revealing look inside the horticulture industry—helped turn her passion into a business. Why every garden needs its reliable “backup singers,” and why gardeners don’t need to worry so much about perfection. Find Erin: Website: The Impatient Gardener (https://www.theimpatientgardener.com/) YouTube: The Impatient Gardener (https://www.youtube.com/@TheImpatientGardener) Instagram: @ImpatientGardener (https://www.instagram.com/impatientgardener)   Connect with Our Show Sponsors: Seed Your Future: www.seedyourfuture.org (https://www.seedyourfuture.org/) National Garden Bureau: www.ngb.org (https://ngb.org/)

Flowers have been part of Katie Elzer-Peters’s life for as long as she can remember. They are her “thing.” Today, she combines her love of plants with a passion for making art, from botanical drawings and watercolors to cyanotype prints made with leaves, flowers, and even weeds. A horticulturist by training, Katie spent years working in public gardens before building The Garden of Words, a marketing agency that helps horticultural businesses connect with their audiences. But in 2020, drawing flowers with her mother over Zoom opened a new creative chapter—and a new way of experiencing the plants around her. In this conversation, Katie shares how art has become an important part of her life, why making things with plants deepens her appreciation for gardening, and how we can find new ways to connect with the natural world by following our curiosity. In This Episode: Katie's journey from public horticulture to marketing for the green industry. How rediscovering art in 2020 helped her find a creative outlet and a new perspective on the plants around her. How to turn garden plants into art through cyanotypes, leaf prints, and other hands-on projects—and why you don't have to be an artist to begin. Resources Katie Elzer-Peters: The Garden of Words (https://thegardenofwords.com) and on Instagram:@katie_gardenofwords (https://www.instagram.com/katie_gardenofwords/) Art from the Garden by Kerry Michaels (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kerry-michaels/art-from-the-garden/9781643264172/) Florals by Hand by Alli Kochs (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624162/florals-by-hand-by-alli-koch/) Art Toolkit, compact art supplies for sketching on the go (https://arttoolkit.com) Sign up for Katie’s occasional and extremely well-written e-newsletter at tinyurl.com/gownewsletter (http://tinyurl.com/gownewsletter) Connect with Katie on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/katieelzerpeters/) Listen to the episode and discover new ways to bring plants into your creative life! Connect with Our Show Sponsors: Seed Your Future: www.seedyourfuture.org (http://www.seedyourfuture.org) National Garden Bureau: www.ngb.org (http://www.ngb.org)

Sonya Harris loved teaching special education, but a struggling first-grade math lesson led her and a colleague to discover that nature is the ultimate classroom. With no gardening experience at all, Sonya reached out to a celebrity gardener for help—and the resulting school garden changed the direction of her work. As founder of the Bullock Garden Project, Sonya went from helping children understand math through gardening to teaching educators, families, and communities how to grow food. When COVID-19 underscored how close many people are to food insecurity, her mission expanded. Retirement didn't mean stopping her work as an educator; it meant finding new ways to help others learn, grow, and thrive. Today, Sonya is exploring garden-based learning as a way to help children cope with trauma, while championing more inclusive community gardens and reminding us that plants offer far more than beauty and food. In This Episode How a math lesson, a little ingenuity, and an unexpected outreach to a TV gardening personality sparked a school garden. How the Bullock Garden Project grew from supporting students to helping people address food insecurity and learn to grow food. How gardens can support children facing trauma—and how plants provide fibers, dyes, building materials, and opportunities for connection. Resources Sonya Harris is NJGardenTeacher on Instagram – instagram.com/njgardenteacher Watch the Bullock Children's Garden video created by Rich Laru – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5aEIdCWOQE

Kate Santos has built a career that crosses some of horticulture’s most distinct boundaries: from applied research and greenhouse production to breeding and global operations—and now public horticulture at Longwood Gardens. As Associate Vice President of Science at Longwood, Kate brings that commercial and scientific experience to a place where horticulture is about growing beautiful plants—and so much more. Her work connects production, conservation horticulture, biodiversity, climate resiliency, sustainability, research—and most importantly she’s helping to connect these to the 1.7 million people who visit Longwood Gardens because they simply love plants and nature. In this conversation, Kate talks about feeling disconnected from plants despite moving upward in her career, and eventually taking a year away to ask the hard questions and figure out what truly mattered to her. She also explains how Longwood is using horticulture as a tool for conservation and stewardship, and what it means to help carry the responsibility of a garden of such distinction. Listen for: How Kate bridged the gap between commercial and public horticulture—and why her perspective on the transition matters. The extraordinary amount of work behind Longwood’s 1,000-bloom chrysanthemum—and why it takes 18 months to create. Kate’s must-see list for a short visit to Longwood, including the meadow, conservatories, fountains, and ornamental kitchen garden. Connect with Kate: Website: www.longwoodgardens.org Email: [email protected] Connect with Our Show Sponsors: Seed Your Future: www.seedyourfuture.org National Garden Bureau: www.ngb.org

In this quarterly bonus I Dig Your Story sub-pod we call Fifth Tuesdays, host Ellen Wells does a follow-up with a former guest, Roshan Patel.   When we first talked, Roshan was getting his hands dirty at Mack Park Farm in Salem, Massachusetts, and discovering just how much community can grow around a garden. Now, several months later, he has plenty to report. Roshan talks about a busy growing season, creating garden videos, and the expanding impact of Mack Park Farm—including nearly 5,000 pounds of donated food and a growing volunteer base. He also fills us in on a new community garden at the Plummer House and the new Friends of Mack Park Farm, a nonprofit created to help secure the farm’s future. And, of course, Ellen has to ask: Has Roshan finally made peace with kale? Plus, a peek at fatherhood and Roshan’s hopes for introducing baby Blake to the garden.   Resources: Roshan Patel: Growing Community Through Urban Agriculture - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roshan-patel-growing-community-through-urban-agriculture/id1856208214?i=1000779882808 Roshan’s Instagram: - https://www.instagram.com/drizzleranch/