One Year of Growth: Celebrating Our First Anniversary

In this episode of The Evergreen Thumb, we celebrate our first anniversary! It’s hard to believe that a full year has passed since we first started sharing gardening tips, stories, and advice with all of you. Over the past year, we’ve dug into everything from soil health to seasonal planting, explored the beauty of native plants, and connected with gardeners from all corners of Washington State.

In our special anniversary episode Host Erin Hoover covers:

Whether you’ve been tuning in since day one or recently joined our growing community, we are so grateful to have you with us on this journey. 

[00:00:00] Erin Hoover: Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, your go-to podcast for up-to-date research-based horticulture and environmental stewardship knowledge to help you grow and manage your garden, produced by Washington State University Extension Master Gardener volunteers and brought to you by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

[00:00:16] I’m your host, Erin Hoover, a WSU Extension Master Gardener since 2015 and a certified permaculture designer and modern homesteader. WSU Master Gardener volunteers are university-trained community educators who have been cultivating plants, people, and communities since 1973. Are you ready to grow? Let’s dig into today’s episode.

Welcome to Our Anniversary Episode

[00:00:35] Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb Episode 30. Today is a very special episode because we are celebrating our first anniversary. Our first episodes were released on September 5th, 2023.

So, taking a look back over the past year, I thought I would recount our top five most popular episodes followed by our top ten gardening tips from ten different episodes; and finally, the top five questions from listeners about the podcast.

Our Top Five Episodes

[00:01:15] To start off with, I thought I would talk about our top five episodes. These episodes have had the most listens over the last year. So if you missed them, I will put links to them in the show notes so you can go and check them out.

Number One Episode:

Our number one episode was episode number 16, Protecting Our Pollinators – How to Support Solitary Bees with Thyra McKelvie.

[00:01:47] Thyra talked to us all about leafcutter bees and mason bees, how to protect them, how to provide habitat for them, and how important they are to our gardens as pollinators and to our ecosystems. And people really enjoyed her episode, and I encourage you, if you missed it, to go check it out.

Number Two Episode:

Our number two episode was Unlocking the Soil Carbon Code with Doug Collins.

[00:02:20] Doug is a WSU Soil Scientist, and he talked to us all about soil carbon sequestration, and what that is, uh, how it affects soil health, and the impacts of organic matter on carbon sequestration. It’s a little more advanced topic than some of our other episodes, but, uh, it must have struck a chord because it is our second most popular episode.

Number Three Episode:

[00:02:52] The number three most popular episode was Spring Gardening Secrets with Bob Cain. Bob is a WSU Extension Clallam County Master Gardener and in episode 18, he talked to us all about getting our gardens restarted in the spring.

He went over all the basics of planning, um, how hardiness zones and local climates can affect spring vegetable gardening, how to start preparing, how to prepare your soil, how to start seeds, direct sowing, and uh, common mistakes in vegetable gardening, how to maximize your space and your yields, and succession planting. He covered this topic very in depth.

Number Four Episode:

[00:03:34] Episode number four was Pests, Predators, and Prevention: Integrated Pest Management for Vegetable Gardens with Laurel Moulton. This was episode 17 and those episodes, that one and the one with Bob came back-to-back, um, because it was spring and it was time for us to get going on that garden so I wanted to do some timely episodes.

[00:04:02] Laurel spent a lot of time talking about the basics of integrated pest management, and the techniques, how to use it in the vegetable garden, what are some of the common pests in vegetable gardens, and how to deal with them. We talked about foliar diseases, soil-borne diseases, using timing to prevent disease, beneficial insects as part of disease and pest management, and a ton of different ways to help prevent disease and insects from doing irreparable damage to your vegetable garden.

Number Five Episode:

[00:04:36] And finally, the number five episode is From Dry to Dazzling, Transforming Your Landscape with Xeriscape Gardening with Elaine Jamerson. Elaine is a Kittitas County Master Gardener and was part of the team that installed a xeriscape garden locally.

[00:05:03] She went through all the basics of what a xeriscape garden is, talking about the xeriscape garden they built in Kittitas County, what the benefits of xeriscape gardens, what the disadvantages are.

Our Top Ten Gardening Takeaways from Year One of the Podcast

Moving on, uh, I made a list of the top 10 gardening takeaways from, uh, the podcast and these are in no particular order.

[00:05:34] So, number one is, that blossom end rot is not a deficiency of calcium in the soil. This comes from episode 27 with Alice Slusher on Top Tomato Tips. She explains that blossom end rot is actually caused by the inability of the tomato to take up calcium in the soil, which is often caused by inconsistent watering.

[00:06:06] Number two is wander, ponder, and prune. This comes from episode 21 with Keith Decker about PlantAmnesty which was founded by Cass Turnbull and “wander, ponder, and prune” is one of what he called Cass-isms, uh, it was something that she said a lot.

What she’s saying is to walk around the tree or shrub, wander and ponder, look at it from different angles, and put some thought into what you’re going to do before you dive in and do your work.

[00:06:43] Uh, number three is to, uh, develop a threshold for pest damage that is acceptable to you before treating an issue in the garden. This comes from episode 17 with Laurel Moulton on IPM in vegetable gardens.

[00:07:00] Number four is rain gardens slow the flow of stormwater runoff and filter toxins, keeping them from getting into groundwaters, lakes, and streams. This comes from episode 15 with Valerie Savisky about rain gardens.

[00:07:12] Number five. Always, always, always read the label when you are using a fertilizer or pesticide. It doesn’t matter if it’s organic. It doesn’t matter how safe you think it is. You are legally obligated to follow the directions on the label of a pesticide. That comes from episode 28 with Rachel Bomberger about deciphering pesticide labels.

[00:07:44] Number six is from episode 25, where I talk about how to determine the reliability of your gardening advice, and that is using the CRAAP method. C R A A P. The CRAAP test was a system created by the California State University at Chico that stands for credibility, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose.

In that episode, I break it down and go through each one of those and give a number of other ways to determine whether or not the advice that you’re reading or looking at, listening to is credible.

[00:08:17] Number seven, top gardening takeaway. Grow native or hybrid grapes over European varieties because they’re less susceptible to disease and hardier in our growing environment, and this comes from episode 19.

[00:08:45] Episode 19 is on what you need to know about growing grapes in your backyard with Gwen Hoheisel who is the WSU Perennial Fruit Crop and Sustainable Pest Management Extension Specialist.

Traditional wine grapes or other European-style grapes are going to be much more susceptible to, uh, particularly fungal diseases, but other diseases that they don’t necessarily have in wine country in Europe.

We go through together in that episode all of the varieties and some of the best ways to grow grapes in your backyard.

[00:09:17] Number seven is mason bees also known as blue orchard bees are the number one spring pollinator in the garden and they’re susceptible to pesticides and predators. So it’s critical to clean your bee hotels or bee blocks every year. That’s episode 16 with Thyra McKelvie all about solitary bees.

[00:09:41] Number nine is soil health is the capacity of soil to function and those functions include producing healthy plants, cleansing water, infiltrating water, holding nutrients, and re-releasing those nutrients to the plants. That tidbit is from episode 14 with Doug Collins about carbon soil sequestration.

[00:10:18] And then finally, number 10 is that Master Gardeners are here for you. WSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers offer plant clinics, demonstration gardens, workshops, Speakers Bureau, plant sales, and so much more all across the state of Washington. So check with your county WSU Extension office for events in your county.

[00:10:39] And I will put a link in the show notes to the map that has all the different counties that will show you how to get a hold of your local extension office.

2024 WSU Extension Master Gardener Advanced Education Conference Info

I wanted to take a short break to invite you to join us on September 27th and 28th as we cultivate knowledge, nurture passion, and sow the seeds of a greener future.

[00:11:00] The virtual 2024 WSU Extension Master Gardener Advanced Education Conference, Gardening in a Changing Climate, provides exceptional opportunities with high-quality classes and instructors. WCU Extension Master Gardeners can earn continuing education hours while improving their ability to teach sustainable horticultural skills.

[00:11:20] Our aim is to empower all garden enthusiasts with knowledge, inspiration, and sustainable practices. Enjoy our inspiring keynote speaker, Rebecca McMacken, an ecologically obsessed horticulturalist and visionary garden designer. Her insights will ignite your gardening passion.

Discover 35 other captivating live and recorded classes that delve into research-based gardening and environmental stewardship practices.

[00:11:44] Learn more about the Advanced Education Conference and register at mglearns.org.

Top Five Questions from Listeners

Finally, um, I’m going to go over the top five questions that I received from listeners.

Question One

[00:12:00] Question number one is what inspired you to start The Evergreen Thumb?

Actually, a year and a half ago, I was a guest on a podcast with my, um, business coach. She has a podcast and asked me to be a guest, um, to talk about how her coaching method had helped me to get organized in my garden, my homestead, and things like that.

When I was done with that interview, I was like, “Oh my gosh, this was so much fun. I need to do a podcast”. But there are so many homesteading podcasts and things like that out there.

[00:12:35] So I was thinking, what can I do? What can I do? And I did a little research and I realized that there aren’t a lot of podcasts out there that are produced by Master Gardeners. So I went to the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington state and asked for their support. I went to, uh, Jennifer Marquis, the State Program Coordinator for WSU Extension Master Gardeners, and we worked together, uh, to create some guidelines for the podcast and here we are.

[00:12:59] Uh, we’ve have a whole year’s worth of episodes, 30 episodes online, and we’re ready to keep on going and really are finding value in the podcast as a way to engage people and educate gardeners and do all the things that, that Master Gardeners do and that are important to us as Master Gardeners.

Question Two

[00:13:29] Question number two is, what is my favorite episode and why?

Because I did a variety, I do solo episodes and I do guest episodes, I kind of thought I would do one of each. My favorite solo episode is Digging into the Basics of Soil Biology, and that’s episode number 12.

I think this was my favorite because, uh, it’s a topic that I am passionate about; soil health and soil biology. I have done presentations on soil health multiple times. I’ve presented it to our local county master gardener trainees, but what it boils down to is soil is alive, dirt is dead.

[00:13:56] Biology is the foundation of soil health and I personally believe that it is the most important thing when it comes to gardening, agriculture, and the overall health of our planet.

[00:14:20] As for a guest episode, that one is not so easy for me to answer. It’s really hard to pick one favorite guest. There have been so many people that I have met and talked to that have this great depth of knowledge in their field, and I have learned a lot from, and a lot of them were just fun to talk to.

[00:14:42] I really enjoy meeting all these new people and these Master Gardeners from around the state and scientists from all over WSU and with the state of Washington and other companies. I just can’t really pick a favorite guest.

However, I would love to know who your favorite guest was, or even who would you like to hear from again.

[00:15:05] Email me and let me know. You can email me at hello@the evergreenthumb.org, or you can always DM me through Instagram or Facebook.

Question Three

Question number three is how do you choose the topics and guests for each episode?

I’ll admit for the first year for topics, a lot of it was based on who I could get as a guest and suggestions from fellow Master Gardeners, and suggestions from WSU faculty and staff.

[00:15:40] I was just kind of winging it a lot. With gardening topics, I tried to do a good mix of beginner and advanced topics. Um, but I really want to know what you want to hear about and what are the topics or the issues when it comes to gardening that you want to hear about.

As far as guests, I have a large pool to choose from when it comes to Master Gardeners, and then I also have access to WSU faculty and staff, Washington State Department of Agriculture. Outside of WSU, I have found a number of people who have just been wonderful.

[00:16:13] Some of it is word of mouth, you know, a Master Gardener will say, “Hey, this person really knows their stuff on this topic and, you know, you should have them on the podcast” and so I’ll invite them to the podcast. Having WSU as a resource for all these scientists and Master Gardeners has made the work of finding guests easier.

Question Four

[00:16:38] So question number four is what are some challenges you’ve faced while producing the podcast? One challenge that I’ve faced is putting together a team of volunteers to produce this podcast. This podcast is 100 percent produced by WSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers and for quite a while it was just me.

[00:17:01] Now I have a blog editor, Becca, who is a King County Master Gardener, and her help has been fantastic in getting the blog posts done while I’m doing the interviewing and the editing, and the social media.

So, it is 100 percent produced by volunteers. I really appreciate Becca stepping up and being part of the team.

[00:17:27] Another challenge I faced was knowing what our listeners wanted to hear about. As I mentioned with brainstorming topics. I’ve kind of been just kind of picking things off the top of my head and trying to get a good variety, but I don’t know what as listeners you want to hear about unless you tell me. So, I would love for you to contact me, and tell me what you want to hear, what challenges do you face in your garden, and what gardening topics do you want to learn more about.

[00:17:59] So far, our most popular categories have been soil health and pollinators. So, I can use some of that data to determine, you know,, what’s popular and what, what you want to hear about. So that’s what I’m looking at going into the second year is how to incorporate more episodes on those topics.

[00:18:25] Local food is another popular topic. So we’ll probably do more than a few episodes about that as well.

Question Five

 Question number five was how has the podcast evolved since the first episode? And I would say probably, the biggest changes I have seen are mostly in me, um, my confidence, uh, my skills as an interviewer, and my skills as an editor and producer of the podcast.

[00:18:56] Now that I’m building a team to help me, um, it allows me to focus on my skills as a host and producer. I can have a team of people who manage the show notes and the social media and, and all those other things.

Um, when I started out, I was trying to do it all myself and it took a lot of time and it took a lot of effort because I was learning, you know, several new platforms of software and I was just figuring it out as I went along.

Technical Information About How the Podcast is Made

[00:19:28] So, which leads me to another topic for anybody who is curious about how we produce the podcast, the primary tools, I use Trello to organize my episodes and track where each episode is in production and who I’ve asked to talk about certain topics and a list of potential topics. I can manage all of that in Trello.

[00:19:56] It’s free software for anybody who’s interested. I use it pretty much to organize my entire life. I have a Trello board that actually maps out what I have to do in the garden each month of the year. Um, and even down to, you know, cleaning my house and you know, day-to-day things that have to get done.

[00:20:16] So Trello is absolutely one of my favorite tools. So that’s how I keep the podcast organized.

Then to record the broadcast, I use a platform called Riverside FM, and it is very similar to Zoom in that when you’re recording, but it has a lot of features that are, um, more specific to podcasting, and that’s their target audience is podcasting, and that is a subscription service that is very generously paid for by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

[00:20:48] For editing software, I use Audacity, which is a free, open-source software. It took me a little bit to get to learn how to use it, but once I learned, I found it’s really easy. I have gone from taking three hours to edit an episode to half an hour to an hour now, um, that I know the software better.

[00:21:12] So just for those who are a little more technical or who are curious, that’s the key software pieces that I use to manage and produce the podcast.

Then of course we have WordPress for our website, which is where we put all of the show notes and all the resources and everything for each episode. That is now all managed by Becca who has been a wonderful addition to the podcast team. So thank you, Becca.

That pretty much wraps up this episode.

[00:21:37] I also want to thank, again, the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State for their support as well as the WSU Extension Master Gardener program. Without either of them, this podcast wouldn’t make it.

And finally, the other big challenge is securing knowledgeable and engaging guests.

[00:22:00] So I know I said, I’ve had some great guests and I work with, um, Master Gardeners and I work with WSU to find guests. I’ve also gone to some other Washington state agencies and other companies to get guests on the podcast. There are certain times a year that it’s kind of hard to get guests because they’re busy doing their work.

[00:22:32] I found that summertime has been especially hard to get, um, guests because a lot of the WSU faculty are out there doing the research and doing the work, um, that informs us in our work. So, if you know someone who is passionate about a specific gardening topic and can talk about it all day long, have them get in touch.

[00:22:57] We are always looking for guests, and, um, you know, maybe you have something you’re passionate about that’s a topic I may not have even thought of yet. So, um, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and have both guest ideas and topic ideas.

[00:23:27] All right. So that just about wraps up our first anniversary episode.

Thank you so much for joining me and thank you for listening and, um, for a very successful first year as a podcast. We want to keep it up and we want to keep giving you great content, great gardening advice, and great guests. So be sure to let us know what you want to hear.

[00:24:00] Again, thanks to the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State for the financial support to produce the podcast and the support of the WSU Extension Master Gardener program, allowing us to provide you with great content. Thanks for listening.

[00:24:32] Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Evergreen Thumb, brought to you by the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Volunteers and sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

We hope that today’s discussion has inspired and equipped you with valuable insights to nurture your garden.

The Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to provide unifying support and advocacy for WSU Extension Master Gardener programs throughout Washington State.

[00:24:50] To support the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State, visit www.mastergardenerfoundation.org/donate. Whether you’re an experienced Master Gardener or just starting, the WSU Extension Master Gardener program is here to support you every step of the way.

WSU Extension Master Gardeners empower and sustain diverse communities with relevant, unbiased, research-based horticulture education.

[00:25:16] Reach out to your local WSU Extension office to connect with Master Gardeners and tap into a wealth of resources that can help you achieve gardening success. To learn more about the program or how to become a Master Gardener, visit www.mastergardener.wsu.edu/get-involved.

If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to stay connected with us, be sure to subscribe to future episodes filled with expert tips, fascinating stories, and practical advice.

[00:25:42] Don’t forget to leave a review and share it with fellow gardeners to spread the joy of gardening.

Questions or comments to be addressed in future episodes can be sent to hello@theevergreenthumb.org. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and do not imply endorsement by Washington State University or the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.