The Garden Path Podcast

Ep. 1-9: Becoming a Naturalist | Erin Gettler

In today’s episode I talk to naturalist, artist, gardener, and soon-to-be author, Erin Gettler. Erin is based out of Long Island and writes at The Familiar Wilderness when she’s not having a big year in projects, like she had in 2015! We talked about a variety of topics, ranging from her naturalist beginnings, being a birder, exploring local parks, and incorporating all of these things as she mentors and works with others at a school garden.

There was so much to talk about that I forgot to even bring up her super-awesome monarch sighting a few years ago! I will definitely have Erin on in the future to not only talk about this experience but of course to talk about her forthcoming book! She briefly mentions what she’s working on at the end of the podcast and I am definitely looking forward to supporting a fellow naturalist and artist in her endeavor.

Where you can find Erin:
+The Familiar Wilderness
+Bird Seed Field Guide
+The Familiar Wilderness Tiny Letter—>this is her monthly newsletter!
+@familiarwldrnss on Twitter

Download Episode 9

Music: Adam Selzer ‘True North’

Show Notes:
+E-Bird
+The Long Island Project
+John Heinz NWR
+The passenger pigeon and Carolina parakeet
+Tomato Hornworm

Books
+Second Nature: A Gardeners Education by Michael Pollan
+The Warbler Guide
+Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
+Baby Birds: An Artist Looks Into The Nest by Julie Zickefoose
+Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide
+The Forest Unseen by DG Haskell

People and Other Sites
+Doug Tallamy
+Julie Zickefoose
+Bird and Moon
+Your Wild City

Twitter Personalities (Notes from Erin)
@annewhilborn (Ph.D. student studying cheetahs on the Serengeti, tweets photos and research all the time)
@RosemaryMosco (creator of Bird and Moon and Your Wild City)
@alongsidewild (reptile researcher who tweets about snakes!)
@EdYong209 and @helenjmacdonald (two fantastic writers, science and natural history. I follow them so I never miss their articles!)

Ep. 1-7: At Home on the Prairie| Elizabeth

This podcast was a fun one to do and I’m willing to bet Elizabeth will be on the show again in the future. Elizabeth and I are second cousins but up until 2008 or 2009 we didn’t know each other existed. Maybe in some kind of out there way, but our mother’s had been out of contact for almost 30 years. As fate would have it, we had similar interests and genealogy was one of them. Elizabeth stumbled across an ancient forum post of mine from 2002-2004 where I had posted about one of our mutual relatives, wanting to find more information about him. She replied to my post and an email was sent to me and from there we’ve been in contact ever since.

Gardening is another one of the many interests we share and I wanted to have her on to talk about her own garden in Norman, Oklahoma as well as to talk a little bit about gardening heritage. We also touch a bit on the landscape of Oklahoma and how the prairies and central plains states are often overlooked in regards to being a beautiful habitat to enjoy.

Download Episode 7

Music: Adam Selzer ‘True North’

Where you can find Elizabeth:
+ Elizabeth’s Website
+ Pickled Okra Podcast
+ Picture Shows and Petticoats Podcast
+ Follow Elizabeth on Twitter

Ep. 1-6: Communicating Ecology through Art| Leigh Martin

I’m so excited to share this interview with y’all! Leigh and I were able to rerecord the podcast we attempted a few weeks ago and I’m so glad we did! Leigh is an Urban Forester by profession but a passionate knitter who works to communicate her love for the natural world through her craft. She creates fabulous knitted installations that she exhibits around her home state of Oklahoma. In this podcast we touch a bit on her job as an Urban Forester, her passion for trees, and dive a little bit into how she works to communicate nature to others via her chosen medium of fiber arts. We also talked a bit about her personal garden, bee keeping, and indoor plants.

You can visit Leigh’s website here: Leigh Martin Art.

Download Episode 6

Show Notes:
+ Leigh’s fantastic installations!
+ Leigh’s Living Wall
+ Kentucky coffee tree via the University of Kentucky.
+ Osage orange via Great Plains Nature Center and Osage Orange via In Defense of Plants.
+ Texas mountain laurel
+ Top Bar & Langstroth Bee Hives
+Witches’ Broom

Ep. 1-5: Adjusting Gardening Expectations & What’s Growing in January

So. I had a big fail this week! I sat down and recorded a podcast with my internet friend Leigh. Unfortunately I had issues getting both sides of the conversation to record! I thought about trying to make it work but in the end Leigh and I both decided it would be better to just rerecord at a later date!

Today I’m talking a little bit about adjusting expectations when faced with a life event, whether it’s a new baby, illness, or something such a moving. It’s always a little difficult to not feel as if you can keep up with your old ways when faced with life changes and it can certainly get the best of us. I also talked about what was growing in both the vegetable and flower garden here in mid-January in southeast Texas. We’ve had a very mild winter so far but are keeping a wary eye on February’s usual wrath!

I hope I didn’t get too rambly for y’all!

Download Episode 5

Some of the things I mentioned in the podcast (links aren’t paid or to anyone in particular!):
Extra Dwarf Pak Choy
Sophora secundiflora, Texas mountain laurel
Cassia corymbosa
Mexican flame vine
Red Russian Kale
2014 Houston Ice Storm

Ep. 1-4: Suburban Gardening with Curtis

Over the New Year’s weekend I sat down with my brother, Curtis, to talk about his garden for a little while. He gardens in zone 8a/b in the DFW area of Texas near where we grew up. He’s got a typical suburban lot but has done a lot of great things with it! We covered quite a bit in 30 short minutes: chickens, composting, vegetable gardening, growing wheat, flower gardening, and a smattering of other goodies!

The audio quality should be better this go around as I got a new microphone for Christmas. However, you can still hear kiddos in the background at times—that’s the perils of podcasting with little ones, even if the door is shut! Show notes are below!

You can find Curtis here: Backyard Ramblings, his defunct blog. You can see his posts at Sprout Dispatch instead! Curt’s YouTube Channel.

Ep. 1-3: Garden Planning for 2016

In today’s episode I sat down with my husband Chris to talk about our garden plans for 2016! We ran through topics such as composting, beekeeping, pruning fruit trees, managing native habitats, the vegetable garden, and being friendly with snakes. Show notes are below with some more detailed information on what we talked about!

Don’t forget you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, Stitcher, or via the blog’s feed in a feedreader or email. If you are listening on iTunes, it would be great if you gave us a review and comment!

Music: ‘True North’ by Adam Selzer

Show Notes:
+Composting: Compost Pile Update
+Beekeeping: Bee Day & 2015 Honey Harvest
+Snakes: Friends not Foes, a post I wrote. Living Alongside Wildlife is a great website for learning about snakes and differentiating venomous versus non-venomous. Don’t Kill Snakes via the Wandering Herpetologist.
+Carnavale Apple
+Dawn Redwood information

Ep. 1-2: A Conversation with my Mom

In this podcast I sat down with my mom to talk a little bit about my grandmother and her relationship to gardening. My grandmother passed away in August 2013 and as I recorded this episode I was kicking myself for not doing something similar with my grandmother while she was still alive. Mom and I could have delved further into gardening talk, not only about my grandmother but about other family members that I did and didn’t know. I will probably have my mom back on in the future to talk a little more about those memories because I think they are valuable to discuss and to tell the stories even if they are from a third person narrative.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast!
You can find me on Twitter at @owilderness and @gpathpodcast

Show Notes:

A photo of my grandmother with what appears to be gladiolus.
Information about schoolhouse lilies
I found more background information on the Tandy Lake that was mentioned in the podcast. My grandmother wasn’t crazy! It was actually really interesting to go down the rabbit hole of history for that area my parents grew up in. Definitely fascinating to get to know a bit more about Ft. Worth.
+ A very old write-up about the Polytechnic area and the old Poly prairie.Poly alumni page
+ A very interesting website that digs deep into the history of Ft. Worth and a specific page about Tandy Lake and the development of the area.
+Tandy Hills, what’s left of the prairie in Ft. Worth. This is a great park in the midst of suburban Ft. Worth! Very much worth exploring. A few posts I’ve written about Tandy Hills: Fresh Air at Tandy Hills, Nature in the City: Tandy Hills Natural Area, Awaiting Spring at Tandy Hills, Early Spring at Tandy Hills

Ep. 1-1: Introductions

Hello! Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Garden Path Podcast! This episode details a little bit about why I started this podcast as well as my gardening background. I hope you’ll have a listen!