The Plantastic Podcast

Shaun McCoshum on Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening (#51)

Discount link for March 23, 2026 Botanic Bootcamp on the Power of Plant Selection [https://meristemhorticulture.com/discount]. SHAUN MCCOSHUM'S BIO Shaun McCoshum is a certified, Senior Ecologist and Wildlife Biologist with over 20 years of experience restoring habitats, conducting research, and gardening. His work includes published scientific papers, books, and copious restoration plans from coast to coast including lands with bison, endangered plants, threatened pollinators, black bears, and mountain lions. His new book explores the pre-European ecology of North America and how habitats existed and explains how we can better mimic processes in our own yards to support habitat.  Shaun has kindly offered podcast listeners a discount of 30% of his new book! Use the code NHWG30 at the Princeton University Press website [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691261003/natural-habitats-and-wildlife-gardening]. THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST The Plantastic Podcast [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast] is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast]. You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/].  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe [https://meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe].  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

Dr. Allan Armitage on Common-Sense Gardening (#50)

Subscribe to my curated weekly newsletter plant•ed: meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe [meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe]. DR. ALLAN ARMITAGE'S BIO Dr. Allan M. Armitage [https://www.allanarmitage.net/] is an Emeritus Professor of Horticulture at the University of Georgia, where he served as a faculty member until his retirement in 2014. Internationally recognized as a writer, speaker, educator, and researcher, he is one of the most influential voices in modern horticulture. Dr. Armitage has authored more than 70 academic research papers, over 500 industry articles, and 17 books that serve as foundational texts, professional references, and trusted companions for gardeners worldwide. His landmark reference Herbaceous Perennial Plants was named one of the best horticulture books of the past 75 years by the American Horticultural Society and is now in its fourth edition.  His research focused on new crop introduction and evaluation and environmental physiology.He founded and led the highly respected University of Georgia Trial Gardens, a premier testing ground for heat- and humidity-tolerant plants where he released more than 20 plants to the gardening industry, including the iconic Verbena ‘Homestead Purple’ and ‘Margarita’ ornamental sweet potato. Dr. Armitage has received nearly every major honor in American horticulture, including the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award (American Horticultural Society) – highest lifetime honor and the Scott Medal and Award, another of the most prestigious honors in ornamental horticulture.  Dr. Armitage remains an in-demand lecturer throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South America, and continues to write, teach, and advocate for practical, joyful gardening. THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST The Plantastic Podcast [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast] is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast]. You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/].  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe [https://meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe].  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

Rachel Lindsay on Regenerative Design (#49)

Subscribe to my newsletter plant•ed: meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe [meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe]. RACHEL LINDSAY BIO As Head of Site Design at Regenerative Design Group, Rachel works principally with organizations and homeowners to create productive, resilient landscapes. She draws from her experiences in organic farming, Latin-American sustainable development, and art to approach design with cultural sensitivity and environmental integrity. Rachel approaches projects of all scales through a soil, carbon, and water conservation lens, looking for opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of design installation while meeting the client’s goals and aesthetic preferences. Her projects encourage people to engage deeply with their local ecosystems and apply holistic and low-stress approaches toward gardening and landscaping. A worker-owner at RDG, Rachel was a member of the steering committee that led the ownership transition process and has been the Treasurer of the Board of Directors since its establishment in 2022. She holds an MS in Ecological Design from The Conway School and a BA in Anthropology from Wesleyan University. When she isn’t working, she may be found messing around in her garden, cooking with the latest harvest, or hiking with her husband and young daughter. Learn more about Rachel at Regenerative Design Group [https://www.regenerativedesigngroup.com/]. THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST The Plantastic Podcast [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast] is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast]. You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/].  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe [https://meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe].  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

John Little on Caring for Gardens and Gardeners (#48)

Learn more about botanicbootcamp.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/botanic-bootcamp]. JOHN LITTLE BIO John Little has been reimagining what urban nature can be since founding the Grass Roof Company in 1998.  Over the past 25+ years, John has designed and built more than 400 small green-roof structures and various other species-rich planting with walls engineered for nesting, hibernation, and year-round habitat. His nonprofit Care Not Capital pushes for a fundamental shift to redirect funds from one-off capital projects toward ongoing, human-powered stewardship that benefits both biodiversity and communities. Here are the core ideas John argues for—putting the best gardeners in the poorest places, moving money from capital into care, understanding that gardened places are best for biodiversity and people, moving novel landscapes higher up the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) metric, understanding that a modern public space gardener is much more than a horticulturist, keeping waste on site and using it to make places beautiful and biodiverse, and putting soil and plants on roofs. You can connect with John on Instagram at @grassroofco and @carenotcapital.

Molly Hendry on the Bergamo Landscape Festival (#47)

Discount link for Botanic Bootcamp. [https://meristemhorticulture.com/discount] MOLLY HENDRY BIO Molly toggles the worlds of design and plants as both a trained horticulturist and landscape architect. She has stepped out to create her own garden design studio, Roots and Ramblings [http://rootsandramblings.com/], where she does design work for folks in the Birmingham, Alabama area and beyond. With this studio, Molly is most interested in the intersection between people and places. She loves designing gardens for "hands in the dirt" gardeners, focusing on how design is not just a masterplan on a piece of paper, but an ongoing dialogue between a person and a place... often with a spade in hand! Up through July 2023, she was the Associate Director of Gardens Support for the Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens [https://bbgardens.org/] for 5 and a half years. There she was actively involved in the horticultural and design development of the 26 unique gardens that make up Birmingham Botanical Gardens. One of her top honors is that she spent 10 months living in the UK, sinking her hands into the soil at some of the top gardens across the country as the Garden Club of America's 2016–2017 Royal Horticultural Society's Interchange Fellow [https://www.gcamerica.org/scholarships/details/s/gca-and-the-royal-horticultural-society-interchange-fellowships]. You can learn more about Molly by visiting her website Roots and Ramblings [http://rootsandramblings.com/] and by following her on Instagram @mollshendry [https://www.instagram.com/mollshendry/]. THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST The Plantastic Podcast [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast] is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/the-plantastic-podcast]. You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com [https://meristemhorticulture.com/].  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe [https://meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe].  Until next time, #keepgrowing!