Garden People – Details, episodes & analysis

My guest today is Ngoc Minh Ngo, a photographer and author based in New York City.  Her work is an immersive exploration of the beauty of plants and nature, enveloping and other worldly.  I always feel I am being drawn into a more three-dimensional space. It is an almost tactile experience as the garden wraps around you and where you can disappear into the page.  No matter what she captures, it often seems as though I am looking at my own memory of a space or plant, whether or not I have seen it before.  Her creative expression stretches not only through different gardens and subjects – this year alone she photographed gorgeous books by Gabriela Salazar and Umberto Pasti, and authored one on the green spaces of New York to be released next month – she also experiments with other media.  I can see how these practices, along with her own garden, give her a deeper understanding of her subjects and allow her to reveal their beauty and essential nature.  I am so grateful to have her work to transport and inspire me, and to share this conversation with you. Thank you for listening!

Garden People Podcast from @violetear_studio

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S H O W N O T E S

Ngoc’s IG

Ngoc’s website

Ngoc’s books:

New York Green - coming May 23, 2023

Eden Revisited

In Bloom

Bringing Nature Home

Artistry of Flowers: Floral Design by La Musa de Las Flores by Gabriela Salazar

The House of a Lifetime: A Collector’s Journey in Tangier by Umberto Pasti

Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan

Naval Cemetery Landscape

Nature Sacred

Can you name a garden dweller who is ecologically obsessed, a little punk rock, and creates spaces for plants, pollinators and people in equal measure? Why that would be the next guest on the Garden People podcast, Rebecca McMackin! Link to listen in the bio or find us wherever you catch your podcasts.

Rebecca @oroeoboeococoao is an ecological gardener, a Loeb Fellow with the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and former Director of Horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) in New York. She writes, lectures, and teaches on ecological landscape management and pollination ecology. In these spheres, she brings an infectious enthusiasm alongside an abiding commitment to ecological vitality and urban biodiversity.

As part of NYC Parks Rebecca was the head gardener at historic Washington Square Park, where she deftly maintained displays and occasionally was called on to coax a reveler down from an English Elm. At BBP, Rebecca managed 85 acres of diverse parkland organically, creating a habitat that was welcoming to New Yorkers, birds, butterflies, and soil microorganisms. She migrated to Cambridge after being awarded the Loeb Fellowship, where she currently studies ecological design and science communication.

Rebecca understands plants and their pollinators, but she also understands people and how we can best invite them into the garden. This is helped by her exceptional ability to synthesis and share important information about our world. Her newsletter is an indispensable part of my learning, a go-to for a roundup of important articles and ideas, all framed by her optimism, humor, and seriousness of purpose. This interview was recorded in the last weeks of her Directorship at BBP, and it was a pleasure to speak with her at this time of transition.

Thank you for listening!

S H O W N O T E S

Rebecca’s IG @oroeoboeococoao

Rebecca’s website

Rebecca’s newsletter

Douglas Tallamy

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc

Margaret Roach lawn article

National Audubon Society

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center - Wildflower.org

US EPA Ecoregions

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Brooklyn Bridge Park Horticulture database

My guest is Cel Robertson, author and owner of Forever Green Flower Co. an artisan flower farm in North Norfolk, England, growing garden gathered blooms for sale to florists and flower lovers.  Cel’s commitment to sustainability and her steadfast conviction in the power of collective actions to create necessary change make her a persuasive champion of locally grown flowers.  As an educator she manages to twine the beauty of the field to the necessity of spreadsheets, ensuring that growing ventures can become stable businesses.  Her new book with Bloom Magazine is out now, a wonderful guide to growing cut flowers that is packed with Cel’s grace and wisdom. 

Garden People Podcast from @violetear_studio

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S H O W N O T E S

Cel Robertson

Forever Green Flower Company

Cel’s book, Cut Flowers

How to go peat free plus alternatives, UK resource list, US resource list

No Dig (Charles Dowding) / No Till Flower Farming (Love n’ Fresh Flowers)

Floret’s how-to on using horticultural fabric for weed suppression

Soil testing: USA lab services, UK RHS services, at home tests

P L A N T L I S T

Astrantia ideas

Fern ideas

Birch tree ideas

Helleborus ideas

Japanese Maple Acer japonica ideas

Rowan tree myth and lore,

It is a pleasure to welcome Lauren Elizabeth Palmer, Founder and Principal Designer at The Wild Mother Creative Studio.  Lauren, along with her sisters Leah and Callie, are based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where they offer incredible floral design as well as in-person and online education.  Their art is informed by their Afro-indigenous heritage, and reflects their reverence for the natural world, drawing together the threads of the past and present, beauty and activism, to tell the stories of today.  The care they take with their materials imbues their creations with passion and true joy.    

2022 is the second year of the “Send Flowers To” campaign, through which the Wild Mother creates floral art installments to honor, draw attention to, and heal intergenerational community trauma.  This year, the campaign highlights Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, or MMIW, and involves an installation at the First American’s Museum in Oklahoma City from May 7th to May 9th.  Please follow the links in the show notes or at thewildmother.com to learn more and contribute to this important cause.        

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

S H O W N O T E S

Lauren and her sisters - The Wild Mother Creative Studio

The Wild Mother

#SendFlowersTo for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW)

Tulsa Greenwood Massacre - the subject of #SendFlowersTo for 2021

The First Thanksgiving

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

Story Pocahantas’ kidnapping

Ride on King Jesus

Edgar Degas

Robin Wall Kimmerer

bell hooks

Yo-Yo Ma

P L A N T L I S T

California Lilac, Ceanothus ssp. - Ceanothus thyrsiflorus ‘Blueblossom’

Sweet grass, Hierochloe odorata, and some of its uses

My guest is Clare Foster, the Garden Editor at House & Garden magazine in the UK.  Clare is the author of numerous books, including the gorgeous Winter Gardens with photographer Andrew Montgomery. 

Clare’s writing is such a pleasure to read and she has brought me closer to some of my favorite plants and gardens. Join us to hear about Clare’s career as a garden writer and her development as a gardener, as well as some of the principles at play in her own garden, which is an inspiring example of low(ish) input, high reward design from a gardener who has access to some of the most beautiful spaces and guides in the world.

** The first printing of Winter Gardens sold out quickly and a reprint has been ordered, which Clare and Andrew hope to make available by late summer.  You can find links in the show notes to follow them for ordering information.**

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

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S H O W N O T E S

Thames & Hudson

Gardens Illustrated

Rosie Atkins, book edited by Rosie on gardener profiles

House & Garden

Winter Gardens published with photographer Andrew Montgomery

Clare’s Compost book

Beth Chatto

Clare’s book The Flower Garden: How to Grow Flowers from Seed, in collaboration with photographer Sabina Rüber

Helen Dillon

Andrew Montgomery’s Petersham book

Piet Ouldof 

Ouldof’s Designing with Plants book

Dan Pearson

Ngoc Minh Ngo

Arne Maynard

P L A N T L I S T

Tulips

My guest is Amanda Vidmar, floral artist of Amanda Vidmar Designs, and co-owner/designer at Francis & Frances in San Francisco, California. Amanda’s appreciation of place and the unique connection between a flower and its land are a through line in her arrangements, which draw from the stories of her clients and the surrounding environment. To hear her tell the story of her work, each step has, in retrospect, been the right one. As if the road has risen up to meet her, matching her own openness and generosity of spirit.

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

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S H O W N O T E S

Amanda Frances Vidmar

Amanda Vidmar Designs

Frances & Francis (co-owned with Mikenzie Francis Salvucci)

UC Santa Cruz

Flowers Claire Marie

Joanna Letz, Bluma Farm

Hannah Brannan, Gather Flora

Kathleen Deery

William Eggleston – Flowers

Bernal Heights neighborhood in San Francisco

Mendocino County, CA

P L A N T L I S T

Clematis Clematis lanuginosa 'Candida'

Lilac Syringa vulgaris

Daphne Daphne

Dahlias

Heuchera Heuchera

Pee Gee Hydrangea - Hydrangea paniculata 'Grandiflora'

Rain Tree - Koelreuteria paniculata

Paper whites - Narcissus papyraceus

Koko Loco Rose - floribunda

Queen Elizabeth Rose - floribunda

My guest is Alison Jenkins of Damson Farm in Somerset, England.  Alison trained as a garden designer before making her small holding of Damson Farm into a resource for learning about the interrelationship of gardens and the natural world. The workshops that she offers at the farm focus on observing and supporting natural ecosystems, creating gardens which function ecologically and look beautiful, too. The garden is often a place of solace in difficult times. I think Alison’s work shows us the comfort that can be found working with nature, as well as a way forward in our efforts to bring peace and healing to the earth.

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

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S H O W N O T E S

Alison Jenkins, Damson Farm

Royal Horticultural Society

The English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden

Gardens Illustrated profile of Damson Farm

WWOOF International

Fergus Garrett, Great Dixter House & Garden

Robert McFarlane (some of my favorites are The Lost Words and Underland)

Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer

Permaculture

Oxford Real Farming Conference

Amelanchier essay by Robin Wald Kimmerer: The Serviceberry, An Economy of Abundance

Heritage Seed Library

P L A N T L I S T

Lemon cucumbers or cucumber melons?

Amalanchier

Damson

Dog Rose, Rosa canina

Wild Plum, Prunus Americana

My guest this week is Joanna Game, a grower and floral artist based in Devon, England. Joanna’s arrangements have a sort of cultivated wildness, reflecting both her garden and her forages from the surrounding countryside. She discusses her development as an artist, her next steps after pulling back from wedding design, and how she blurs the boundary between nature and maker.

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

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S H O W N O T E S

** Tips on responsible foraging**

New Covent Garden

Sarah Raven

Black Shed Flower Farm

Amelia’s Flower Farm

Rakes Progress magazine

Dan Pearson, Dan Pearson Studio

Great Dixter House & Gardens

Sissinghurst Castle Garden

Nicolette Camille

Sarah Ryhanen – Saipua, World’s End Farm

Sarah Winward

Fiona Pickles

Brigitte Girling, Moss and Stone

Bex Partridge, Botanical Tales

 P L A N T L I S T

Yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor

Meadow buttercup, Ranunculus acris

This week I welcome Tiffany Jones of Blomma Flower Farm (@blommaflowerfarm) to the show. Tiffany is a grower in San Clemente, California and is building new farm in Nevada where she’ll be focusing on her passion, Zinnia breeding and seed development. We talk about her journey to flower farming, zinnia breeding, and her new book. A self-described plant nerd, Tiffany has poured her enviable energy and enthusiasm into researching and writing this publication, and I know you’ll join me in saying that I can’t wait for the finished product.

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

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Tiffany Jones, Blomma Flower Farm

Danielle, Rose Flower Farm

Erin Benzakein, Floret Flower Farm

Keyhole gardens

Rogers Gardens

Lasagna method

Biochar amendments

The problem with miracle grow

USDA zones

Garden.com

P L A N T L I S T

Gladiolus (Gladiolus hybridus)

Martha Washington Geranium (scented geranium) (Pelargonium x domesticum)

Ranunculus

Butterfly ranunculus

We welcome Emily Avenson of Fleuropean to the show!  Originally from California, Emily grew into her role as a floral artist and instructor after her move to Belgium, where she lives and works today.  Her arrangements are always exciting, with movement and use of color.  She grows all the flowers used in her on-site classes and online workshop, and the delight she takes in the growing process is visible in each stem. Enjoy! 

Garden People podcast, from @violetear_studio

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S H O W  N O T E S

Emily’s Flueropean insta

Fleuropean

Celebrating the Seasons Class

Susanne Hatwood, The Blue Carrot

Sarah Ryhanen, Saipua

Studio Choo  (Garden People’s favorite books: The Flower Recipe Book and Branches and Blooms)

Kings Mums

Chrysanthemums Direct

Dan Pearson: Studio, Create Academy Class (Garden People’s favorite books: Home Ground and Natural Selection)

Madison Hartley, Hart Floral Design

Kristen Albrecht,