It's A Garden Party: Grow What You Want To Grow This Summer

Published July 9, 2019 at 10:00 AM CDT

Volunteers plant tomatoes as they build a community garden on plot of land next to Charcoal Park, a community store, April 22, 2010 in Oakland, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The best green thumbs on the planet spill the beans on how to grow everything.

Guests

Brie Arthur, horticulturalist. Author of “ The Foodscape Revolution: Finding a Better Way to Make Space for Food and Beauty in Your Garden.” ( @BriePlantLady)

Ciscoe Morris, TV, print and radio gardening expert. Author of “ Ask Ciscoe: Oh, la, la! Your Gardening Questions Answered.”

Jennine Capó Crucet, novelist and short story writer. Associate professor of English and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska. ( @crucet)

Gardening Videos From Our Guests

Watch on YouTube.

Ciscoe Morris Teaches You How To Grow Your Own Strawberries

Photos From Brie Arthur’s Gardens

Our Listeners’ Gardens

From The Reading List

New York Times: “ Opinion: The Terror of Getting Lettuce Wrong” — “I spent many winter mornings this year staring at my big, empty yard from my kitchen window, fantasizing about the summer that’s now almost here and wondering what I could do with all that space. Build a giant slip and slide? Raise a small family of goats? I settled on what I thought was something modest: planting a legit garden despite having absolutely no gardening know-how or experience.”

USA Today: “ Grow your garden with only a little green” — “Gardens can take many shapes – expansive beds of seasonal vegetables, decorative plants stuffed into an apartment, a shelf of herbs growing near a kitchen window.

“Whatever the configuration, the fundamentals are the same: seeds, soil, care – and cash.

“That last ingredient can be the hardest to come by. But no matter how ambitious your garden plans, you can control costs at each step.”

Real Simple: “ 6 Simple Steps for Growing Greens, Herbs, and Potted Plants on Your Rooftop” — ” For those of us living in crowded cities or small-sized apartments, the idea of having a sprawling, spacious garden is—for lack of a better term—an urban legend. But missing a big backyard doesn’t mean we can’t still grow our own herbs and produce.

“The trick is knowing how to maximize our own pint-sized patios or rooftop gardens (heck, windowsills), picking the proper plants to grow, and tending to them in all the right ways. To bring you the best advice on urban gardening, we teamed up with Jenn Frymark, the Chief Greenhouse Officer for Gotham Greens—a New York City-based local produce brand growing leafy greens and herbs in commercial-scale urban greenhouses.”

Karen Shiffman produced this hour for broadcast.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.