San Diego is one of our nation’s top cut flower producers. These crops generate almost 78 million dollars a year. The cost of land and water has put pressure on local growers. Host Nan Sterman visit a hardy few who are helping San Diego’s floraculture industry to survive and thrive.
They are in our canyons and hillsides, estuaries, mesas and mountains.They are native plants and San Diego has an astounding diversity of them, from desert to coast. Many make great garden plants. Host Nan Sterman will visit native plant gardens, growers, and restoration specialists who will help us appreciate these gems of the natural and backyard landscape.
With only eleven inches of rain a year on average, San Diego’s hot dry climate can be tough on garden plants. Host Nan Sterman takes us to a look at climate appropriate gardens in home and commercial landscapes. From low water plants, to water smart designs, we’ll show you beautiful gardens that are low water winners.
If you’ve ever wondered if you could grow your own vegetables, we’ll show you that you can. From starting seeds and seedlings, to gardening with children, to building your own raised bed, host Nan Sterman shows how experts and novices grow edibles.
What goes around comes around. That’s what recycling is all about. From composting to fertilizer to recycled water, recycling is a vital part of the growing process. Host Nan Sterman show us how San Diego recycles its green waster and its water, and how its put back to work growing more.
If you haven’t got a large space to garden, containers may be your answer. Whether they’re decorative or filled with something edible,they can be beautiful and productive and just right for small spaces. Host Nan Sterman shows us how pots are designed, planted, and used to solve almost every small space gardening need.
San Diego's vineyard and winery industry has a centuries-long tradition of growing grapes and making wine. Explore the current state of vineyards and wineries, from the county's largest operation to backyard growers and winemakers. Visit the next generation of wine makers and see how they are reinventing the process.
Chaparral is the shrubland that blankets our hillsides and valleys, from desert to coast. We don't always recognize its beauty and its value, but that makes it ripe for exploration. We start where desert vegetation gives way to chaparral near Anza Borrego Desert, then follow it to the coast at Torrey Pines State Reserve.
We visit green roofs large and small, across the county, in commercial settings, a hospital, private home and even a green roof that is part of an art installation on a university campus.
From subscription- based farming to networked "local" hydroponics growers, to mini-farms in business parks that supply on-site cafes - we see them all in this Emmy-winning episode.
We visit some innovative projects that teach children and adults to grow food, about nutrition, and about cooking and eating fresh, healthful edibles.
Gardens beautify, they feed, they serve as habitat for animals, and they do more. Some gardens become places that heal bodies and souls or inspire new beginnings. Such is the case with the locations we visit in this episode.
In this episode, we explore the history of the gardens in San Diego's iconic Balboa Park, as 2015 marks the centennial of the Park's 1915 Panama California Exposition. We hear how the Exposition promoted the city, the first port of call as ships sailed west through the Panama Canal, and how it also promoted the regions' fledgling agriculture and horticulture industries.
In this episode, we search out some of the champion trees listed on the California Big Tree Registry. From San Luis Obispo where the Registry is housed, all the way to Los Angeles where, with the help of a big tree hunter, we climb a giant floss silk tree to measure and crown it as a new champion.
It's garden show season and Nan travels up and down the coast experiencing various gardening shows and tours to see what's new in plants, the world of design, and what other gardeners are doing in their gardens.
Every vegetable or fruit gardener has faced the dilemma of too much, all at once, much more than they can eat fresh. The issue becomes, how to preserve that harvest and enjoy it throughout the year. In this episode, we make jam from tomatoes, preserve home grown lemons the Moroccan way, pickle cucumbers, beets, fennel, and onions, make kimchi from cabbages, smoke peppers, and so much more.
You walk into a nursery, pick up a beautiful plant in one-gallon container, pay for it, take it home and plant it in your garden. Ever stop to think about how that plant got to the nursery? We aren't talking about the truck that delivered it, but rather about what it took to breed, trial, propagate, grow, and then deliver that plant to the nursery.
Water is serious stuff, particularly in California where drought is on everyone's minds Water flows into our houses and it also flows into our farms and gardens. With supplies growing more limited, how do farms and gardens factor into the water equation? What are the environmental issues? We take a look at California's water supply, where it comes from, where it goes to, and its impact.
Pasadena California's annual Rose Parade is world famous for spectacular floats covered in petals, seeds, leaves, grasses, and bark. We follow Cal Poly Pomona and Luis Obispo college students who design, build, and drive the Universities' 68th annual float.
Citrus is one of the crops that "made" California. We learn about its history and how Riverside County California was the seat of California's citrus industry and the wealthiest county in the country. See how citrus genetics are evaluated and preserved. We visit a "living citrus museum", a commercial grove in Pauma Valley, a citrus nursery, and learn how to plant and grow citrus in our backyards.
What's so bad about "bugs?" Some may cause problems but the majority of bugs play important roles in nature, pollinating plants, preying on pathogens, aerating the soil and more. In this episode, we explore the world of "good bugs" by visiting the pollinator garden at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, an insectary (bug farm) in Ventura, a seed company with a fly breeding program, and more.
Lawns are the thirstiest and most resource intensive plants in our gardens and frankly, they don't belong in our climate. The combination of four drought years, state mandated water restrictions, and water agency rebates have finally inspired Californians to remove their lawns. See how several home gardens each use a different method to remove their lawn to replace each with a waterwise landscape.
Once the lawn is gone, it leaves behind a blank slate ready for it to be reimagined to meet the homeowners' needs and desires. We learn about planning a new waterwise garden, the features of a waterwise garden, and watch the process of waterwise garden installation. We visit a nursery with waterwise plants and a just-planted garden to see the characteristics of these climate adapted gardens.
Algae are aquatic plants that can be a single cell, or a 20-foot long seaweed. Algae extracts are ingredients in an enormous number of products we use: foods, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, even surfboards. We'll talk about what algae are, visit research laboratories where new algae discoveries are made, see the huge desert farm that grow algae, and head to Mexico to see how algae surfboards are made.
Brewing is all the rage in San Diego County. Beer recipes start with a few basic ingredients: water, grains and hops. In this episode we’ll visit a local hops farm, discover the process of how and why hops is used in beer, visit a local brewing supply store and more.
We stroll through the zoo with some of the staff who point out plants they harvest on-site, then we go off-site where they grow and harvest more. What there isn't room to grow on-site gets collected along highways and in neighborhoods around San Diego County. We visit reserved koalas on strict eucalyptus diets and tortoises that enjoy a range of fresh greens.
Honeybees are the best-known and most recognizable insect pollinators in our farms and gardens. Without them, we'd have no peaches, nectarines, apples, almonds, lemons, oranges, eggplants, tomatoes, etc. Get to know their role in native ecosystems, farms, and gardens.
Walk into the produce section of the grocery store and you'll see big, beautiful heads of broccoli. Why are store bought and home grown fruits and vegetable so different? Learn about the four different target markets for vegetable breeders: commercial farmers, home growers, farmer's market farmers, and the growers who grow the seedlings that we buy in a nursery.
Aquaponics is a mashup of hydroponics and aquaculture. It is the practice of using fish wastewater as fertilizer for plants, whose roots filter the water, cleaning it sufficiently to be returned to the fish. In this episode, we visit homeowners, a non-profit, and even a restaurateur using this highly efficient system to grow a stunning array of fruits, vegetables, and freshwater fish.
The words "urban" and "forest" may sound like contradictory terms but our urban environments are, or could be, vast forests of street trees,park trees, and backyard trees. Trees are very important in the urban environment, where they serve many valuable purposes. Meet the founder of Tree People, learn about San Diego's urban forestry efforts, and how to select trees for our own gardens.
Go on a fruit tasting tour in the experimental orchard of internationally renowned Zaiger Genetics to see how they've revolutionzied the world of stone fruit breeding. Next, visit a nursery in Hickman, CA that has an exclusive license to produce and distribute Zaiger-bred fruit trees. Then learn how you can prepare, plant and irrigate fruit trees in your own backyard.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Aloha Spirit captivated Southern Californians at a time when the Beach Boys were singing about surfing, home gardeners were planting Plumeria in their gardens. Now this plant is making a comeback. Meet local plumeria experts and growers in their own homes and learn how they cultivate and care for their plumeria varieties.
There's no question that gardening is an art and some of the most interesting and inspiring gardens belong to artists. San Diego has no shortage of wonderful gardens made by artists. In this episode, we visit several local artists to tour their gardens and learn from their insight and vision. We talk with them about how they use space, color and different plant varieties to create their gardens.
If you've eaten in a sit-down restaurant, no doubt you've heard of farm-to-table or farm-to-fork, the movement that directly connects farmers with chefs and restaurants. It means that your meal is made from fruits, herbs, and vegetables -- even fish and meats - that were locally grown and produced. It all sounds so romantic, but how does farm to fork really happen? And who is making it happen?
Golf courses are legendary for their perfectly manicured greens surrounded by lovely landscapes that are generously fertilized, treated, irrigated, and frequently mowed. Learn how a new wave of golf course managers are reducing their environmental footprint by reducing the amount of harmful inputs in their green and grounds.
San Diego is a hotspot of biodiversity with more species of plants here than anywhere else in the world; learn about the "endangered" plant and how to care for them.
Bromeliads are a unique group of plants with amazingly colored and patterned foliage along with vividly colored flowers. Bromeliads have evolved in some of nature's most challenging conditions, from desert to rainforest to cloud forest. Spanish moss is a bromeliad. Air plants are bromeliads, too. Discover the amazing diversity of bromeliads!
California's Mediterranean climate is ideal for growing the dried beans that Native Americans and other ancient cultures have grown and eaten for centuries. Sadly, delicious and nutritious heirloom beans have some weaknesses - the plants are naturally smaller and produce fewer beans than today's "improved" varieties. Learn how the work of breeders are strengthening the traditional varieties.
Miniature gardens are the rage - from railroad gardens to fairy gardens, traditional Asian art gardens, to tiny gardens that surround buildings constructed from Legos! There is a miniature garden for everyone, whether young or simply young at heart. In this show, we visit a range of miniature gardens to enjoy their whimsy as we discover how they are carefully designed and meticulously constructed.
In America, 40% of all the food produced goes uneaten. In an era with rampant food insecurity, it is shameful to waste so much. What’s the solution? We unravel this complicated story as we follow the paths of wasted produce from farm to landfill to compost. Along the way, we meet individuals and organizations working hard to stem the flow, both on a large scale and in our homes, too.
Come along on an armchair tour of Southern California’s amazing wildflower “super bloom” of winter 2018/2019. We accompany scientists and flower experts through the rolling wilds of Riverside County, Anza Borrego Desert, and other blooming areas. Everywhere we go, you’ll be amazed and delighted by the diversity of annual flowers in explosive bloom.
If you want to garden but don't have the space, don't give up! Like many other regions of the country, San Diego County is home to dozens of community gardens. In these collections of small plots, your friends and neighbors grow a bounty of produce; sometimes enough to sell at local farmer's markets. We visit a variety of community gardens in this episode.
We tour groves of the region’s largest olive grower and olive oil producer. We discover olive varieties best for curing and eating, and others are best for gourmet oil. Viewers learn how to grow olive trees and how to deal with the dreaded olive fruit fly that can destroy entire crops. We see how olives are pressed for oil, olive oil tasting techniques, and the stunning array of olive dishes.
In this episode, we meet renowned plant explorer and succulent breeder Kelly Griffin. Griffin has searched for the rare and beautiful on nearly every continent, including our own. Wherever he explores, Griffin documents his finds and gathers just enough seeds or pollen (with permits of course) without threatening the survival of native populations.
In this episode, we learn all about the dragon fruit, research the best growing methods and how the plants are grown for commercial production and in backyards. We visit a specialty produce market and see how an expert chef incorporates dragon fruits in creative combinations for adventurous diners.
In this episode, we revisit growers featured in past episodes of A Growing Passion, and meet some new ones, all of whom have dramatically shifted their business models to survive, and perhaps thrive, during the pandemic.
In this first of a two-part series, we take viewers on a tour of the San Diego Botanic Garden, starting with the gorgeous collection of tropical plants in the stunning new conservatory. We then take in some of the many interesting collections from regions around the world: South Africa, Asia, Australia, and more.
In the second of our two-part series about the San Diego Botanic Garden, we focus on the Garden’s work with plants native to San Diego County and Southern California. The Garden’s onsite collections include three native plant displays: a landscape demonstration garden, a demonstration of plants important to the native Kumeyaay peoples, and chaparral preserve native to the site.