John Coykendall is a renowned heirloom seed saver, a classically trained artist, and Master Gardener at Blackberry Farm, one of America’s top resorts. For nearly four decades, Coykendall’s passion has been preserving the farm heritage – the seeds and stories – of a small, farming culture in Southeastern Louisiana, and this work is the subject of a new documentary, Deeply Rooted, from Louisiana Public Broadcasting. The documentary will be screening at Slow Food Nations in Denver this July.
Podcast
Episode 204: Zone Envy – Zone 8
This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 8 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes the great state of Texas.
First, they’re joined by Master Gardener Jenny Peterson of J. Peterson Garden Design, which has been creating cool gardens in the Austin area since 2001. She is also the author of The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing & Joy in the Ground Beneath Your Feet.
After the break, Rick Herman of the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute tells us about the organization’s 507- acre site, which is comprised of semi-desert grasslands and igneous rock outcrops.
Episode 203: Zone Envy – Zone 9
On the summer season premiere of We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 9 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes New Orleans and Palm Springs.
First up is Ann Macdonald, director of The New Orleans Department of Parks and Parkways. Employees at the Department of Parks and Parkways perform an enormous number of tasks to maintain and upgrade public green spaces, and to re-green and beautify New Orleans.
After the break, we’re joined by Troy Bankord of Troy Bankord Design, which specializes in landscape and interior design, consultation, and project installations in Palm Springs, San Francisco, Long Beach, Las Vegas, the Midwest, and the across The Desert Southwest.
Episode 202: Zone Envy – Zone 10
This week on We Dig Plants, Alice and Carmen examine Zone 10 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes parts of Oregon, Florida, and Arizona.
First, we’re joined by Chris Daly, a senior research professor at Oregon State University, and founding director of the PRISM Climate Group. Next up is Denyse Cunningham, curator of the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens in Fort Lauderdale. And last but not least, we hear from Humberto Hernandez, farm superintendent of the University of Arizona.
Episode 201: Zone Envy – Zone 11
This week on We Dig Plants, Alice and Carmen examine Zone 11 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes both Hawaii and Florida.
First, we’re joined by Brandon von Damitz, co-founder of Big Island Coffee Roasters in Hawaii. After the break, we meet James Jiler of Urban GreenWorks, an organization which provides environmental programs and green job training to incarcerated men and women, youth remanded by court to drug rehab and at-risk high-school youth in low-income neighborhoods.
Episode 200: Zone Envy – Zones 12 and 13
On the season premiere of We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito introduce a new series examining the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, taking you across the country one zone at a time. The map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones.
This week, we’re joined by Scott Appell of Puerto Rico’s Zone 13, and Tobias Koehler of Hawaii’s Zone 12.
Episode 199: The High Line! Symbol of Transformation and Grace
Grace, thirty feet above the Most Urban of Jungles. On the season finale of We Dig Plants, senior gardener John Gunderson joins Alice and Carmen to discuss gardening and garden practices at the High Line public park.
Episode 198: Betsy Barlow Rogers and the Green Metropolis
This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito are joined in the studio by Elizabeth “Betsy” Barlow Rogers, a landscape designer, landscape preservationist and writer, whose lasting memorial is the revitalization of Central Park, New York City. This took place under her guidance as the first Central Park Administrator, and through the Central Park Conservancy, a private not-for-profit corporation that was founded, largely through Rogers’ efforts, in 1980 to bring citizen support to the restoration and renewed management of Central Park.
Betsy is also the author of Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability.