We Dig Plants

On our season finale, host Carmen Devito visits Zone 1 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes Alaska, and also revisits Zone 13, which includes Puerto Rico. First, we hear from Peter Johnson and Rusty Foreaker, agronomists with Alaska's Department of Natural Resources Division of Agriculture. After the break, we're joined by Dr. Grizelle González, Project Leader of the Research and Development Unit at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico. We Dig Plants is powered by Simplecast

This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 2 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes Fairbanks, Alaska, where our first guest Cyndie Warbelow is a gardener. After the break, we're joined by Marta McDowell, author of The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Frontier Landscapes That Inspired the Little House Books. We Dig Plants is powered by Simplecast

This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 3 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes parts of Alaska. Joining them on the line is Jeff Lowenfels, the author of a trilogy of award winning books on plants and soil, and the longest running garden columnist in North America. We Dig Plants is powered by Simplecast

This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 4 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes the Wisconsin prairie. A pioneer in the native plant industry and recognized internationally as an expert in native plant community ecology, Neil Diboll has guided the growth of Prairie Nursery for 30 years. He has dedicated his life to the propagation of native plants and their promotion as uniquely beautiful, ecologically beneficial and sustainable solutions for landscapes and gardens. In 2013 Neil was the recipient of the Great American Gardeners Award from the American Horticultural Society. We Dig Plants is powered by Simplecast

This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 5 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes parts of both Nebraska and Iowa. Del and Alice Hemsath are members of Nebraska's Soil Sisters and Misters Garden Club, which promotes education of the general public about the importance of outside activities for health, supports community projects, and provides education for youth and adults. Kelly Norris is an award-winning author and plantsman from Iowa and the first director of horticulture at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, a newly revitalized public garden in Des Moines, Iowa. We Dig Plants is powered by Simplecast

This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 6 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes Utah and western New York. Geoff Ellis is a landscape architect in Salt Lake City. He was born and raised in Utah and received a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from Utah State University. He is the Past President of the Utah Associated Garden Clubs and currently the President of the Alternative Garden Club. Sally Cunningham is a garden writer, educator, and CNLP (landscape professional), well known in Buffalo after 23 years on Channel 4 (WIVB-TV) and as columnist for the Buffalo News and Buffalo Spree magazine. She is formerly a Master Gardener and Cooperative Extension Agent. She is also author of Great Garden Companions which has sold 50,000 copies. She leads Great Garden Travel for AAA around the U.S. and Europe.

This month on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito visit Zone 7 of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which includes our home state of New York, as well as Virginia. Joining them are Dr. Cait Field, Manager for Science and Research Development at Freshkills Park in Staten Island, and Symsi Houser, ‎Operations Coordinator for the Virginia Beach Department of Parks and Recreation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito speak with renowned forager, food educator, and author Mike Krebill over the phone on his book, The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles: Learn How to Forage, Prepare & Eat 40 Wild Foods. Organic supermarkets are common for New Yorkers and few of us are foraging for sustenance, but the practice of finding edible plants in the wild is actually on the rise. We go “Into the Wild” with Mike and discuss how his portable, instructional guide, featuring a curated selection of thirty-three best-tasting plants and seven of his personal favorite mushrooms, is inspiring and informing adults and the next generation of foragers.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito are joined by Caroline Seebohm and Curtice Taylor, author and photographer, respectively, of the book Rescuing Eden: Preserving America's Historic Gardens. From simple 18th- and early 19th-century gardens to the lavish estates of the Gilded Age, the gardens started by 1930s inmates at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay to the centuries-old camellias at Middleton Place near Charleston, South Carolina—Rescuing Eden celebrates the history of garden design in the United States, with twenty-eight examples that have been saved by ardent conservationists and generous private owners, and opened to the public.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito are joined in the studio by Gerard Lordahl, Director of Open Space Greening for GrowNYC. GrowNYC is the sustainability resource for New Yorkers, providing free tools and services anyone can use in order to improve our city and environment. With over 30 years of experience in urban and community gardening, Gerard currently leads a dedicated team of city-wide environmental professionals who design, maintain and coordinate services for hundreds of community, school, and roof-top garden projects each year.

This week on We Dig Plants, hosts Alice Marcus Krieg and Carmen Devito are joined by Sarah Lohman, author of the forthcoming Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. The book introduces the explorers, merchants, botanists, farmers, writers, and chefs whose choices came to define the American palate, and uses long-forgotten recipes to explain how eight flavors changed the way we eat.

On this Halloween edition of We Dig Plants, hosts Alice and Carmen are joined by Mary Reynolds, a landscape designer and author of the book The Garden Awakening: Designs To Nurture Our Land and Ourselves. The book is a step by step instruction manual drawing on ancient methods of working with the land and using them to invite the power and energy of nature back into your life and surround your house and life in its life giving healing embrace. Introduction to the book: Everything becomes simple if you immerse yourself in nature. Life’s complications melt away, leaving only the truth of the present moment, and the presence of what I call God. In this place we can see our soul reflected in every living thing, every gust of wind and splash of rain, and here we can find peace. This is our true home. Yet we are losing what little wild places we have left in nature, those corners where the spirits of the earth are flowing freely, where harmony, and balance still exists and we feel accepted for the truth of who we are. We have gone off course and need to find our way again. An old pathway, overgrown and forgotten, is waiting impatiently to lead us back home. Nature is willing us on. A feature length movie based on Mary's true life story will be released in 2016. This focuses on the story of Mary's journey to build a gold medal winning garden at the Chelsea flower show.