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The Horticulturati

Dec 23, 2020

On this episode, we discuss virtual foliage, time travel, and big trees. Colleen looks into how video games might play a role in curing plant blindness, and Leah shines a light on the remarkable life and legacy of Margret Hofmann (1925-2012), whose 1970s “Think Trees” campaign introduced Austinites to a majestic...


Dec 14, 2020

Fertilizers...oxidizers...explosions! We’re still trying to wrap our brains around Ammonium Nitrate over here, so we called on science superstar Dr. Kate Biberdorf, aka Kate the Chemist, to help us out. What is Ammonium Nitrate, and why is this volatile chemical so ubiquitous? What are the conditions that create...


Nov 29, 2020

Autumn has come to Texas at long last! To celebrate, we watched the documentary Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf (2017) by Thomas Piper, and we're now officially card-carrying Piet stans sporting Dutch accents, asymmetrical haircuts, and scythes.

We discuss Oudolf’s “mathematics” of design,...


Nov 7, 2020

Crossover alert! This episode is a twofer. In part one, we check in about the busy fall planting season. After many months of Zooming, we’re back to in-person, social-distance recording from Colleen’s backyard! As we test out our new remote podcasting equipment, the conversation drifts from back-braces to bulb-mania...


Oct 6, 2020

On this mega-episode, we’re tackling garden design--our approaches, our anxieties, and our gripes about “expert” sources of mystifying advice and misleading photography. Garden design books are rife with the jargon of art theory. How well does this translate to the living medium of plants in the landscape? Google...