I'm thankful for the rain...
but I could really do without the daily afternoon rainstorms that have been occurring the last couple of weeks. I find myself thinking I'm back in south Florida where daily rainstorms in the afternoon are a common occurrence, though they move through and leave a wonderful evening for everyone to enjoy. These storms have been similar but sometimes they linger through the evening and that leaves no enjoyable time outside. That said, the break from drought conditions has been much welcomed and even our pond, which had dried up about halfway, is full again. Parts of Texas are still more droughty than others, so things are a little tenuous for some folk still.
I am planning out the new season of the podcast and have been trying to get a few people scheduled for interviews, though those are still pending. There will be alternating interviews and solo episodes throughout this season with a goal to focus on native plant gardening. It's such a broad topic and there are some great folks talking about it on both TikTok/Instagram and in the podcast world, but there are some elements missing that I want to address. Some of those elements have me wanting to get back into the podcast's Instagram account, the one I said I was closing back in the spring. I'm still tinkering with the idea to make it a Reels only account, to show videos and the like, but I'm also hesitant to deal with the work involved in creating Reels. So, for now I will focus on highlighting some issues and topics on the podcast!
I'm really interested in talking about the divide between ecology and gardening and the divide between the horticulture industry and for lack of a better word/phrase, the Grow Native! meme complex. There's a lot of talk about "why" but not a lot of "how", or really detailed "how". I'm flipping through a really great book right now called Native Host Plants for Texas Butterflies that has a companion book for moths, and while it is really good there are some components missing, too. I have reached out to the authors to have them on the podcast and hopefully that is an interview I will be able to share sometime this autumn if things pan out.
In my garden I am preparing for fall edible gardening and actually sowed some greens seeds in mid-August! They need a few more weeks to grow some true leaves and then I'll set them out in some of my empty bed space. And I'm slowly tackling the weed problem that I let get out of hand this summer. If it doesn't rain all Labor Day weekend I plan to tackle more of this over that time. How is your garden growing?
I do want to know input from folks who get information from places like TikTok or Instagram---does it help you make choices while gardening? Do podcasts make a difference? I'm also writing more blog posts these days---how about blog posts? I know our attention spans are ever shortening and it's hard to tackle the information from all fronts. But I am definitely curious.
Listen to The Garden Path Podcast!
Elsewhere in the Natural World...
+Monarch Butterfly Way Station Established at Shoreacres, Texas via NPSOT
+Marshall Johnston Interview on YouTube from Useful Wild Plants
+South Florida's monarch population is an unusual beast via Phys.org
+The Ugly Ducklings: Ten Lesser-Known Texas Endangered and At-Risk Species via Texas Monthly
+Wild Plant Culture The Book via Wild Plant Culture --- I just finished reading this and it is really good! A good primer between native plants, gardening, and ecology.
+Recent IUCN 'endangered' listing creates confusion for monarch butterfly fans via Monarch Butterfly Ranch