2023 Agenda
From the 2023 festival • March 11–19, 2023
Original schedule. All times Eastern (ET).
This archive preserves schedules, speakers, and session descriptions; it is not a video library.Descriptions reflect the original event. Invitations to join, tune in, or check social media refer to 2023.
Fresh ideas, day after day.
The 2023 festival promotes ten days of gardening inspiration, March 10–19. The preserved agenda below contains sessions for March 11–19: nine themed days of small-space ideas, seeds and soil, mindful gardening, wildlife, flowers, and sustainability, with garden tours and practical growing fundamentals woven throughout.
Sponsors recognized on the festival homepage include First Editions Shrubs & Trees, Garden Gate Magazine, Park Seed, Cool Springs Press, Epic Gardening, and Crescent Garden.
Meet our sponsors & partners
Small Space Saturday
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal the Look – Charming Southern Backyard Garden
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Ashlie Thomas
Session title: Fundamentals: Small Space Gardening
Session description: What does “small space gardening” mean? Do small space gardening techniques differ from a large space? Yes, even small spaces can provide abundant food, beauty and resilience for their gardeners. In this session learn key concepts, explore your motivation and discover that no matter what your garden yields, it’s always worth the wait.
Speaker: Jill Ragan
Session title: Lose the Lawn: Grow Food Instead
Session description: Want a more productive front yard, back yard, side yard… any yard? Jill Ragan – author of Tiny But Mighty Farm – walks you through planning your productive, food growing space no matter how large (or small) it is. Among other important points, this session dives into the sometimes confusing topic of “succession planting” so you can maximize production year round.
Speaker: Wendi Phan
Session title: Trellis Tricks for Vertical Growing
Session description: Growing up is a great strategy whether you’re short on space or not. Trellising keeps plants tidy and off the ground, improves air circulation, reduces disease and maximizes growing space. Wendi shares her tips and tools to take advantage of all these good outcomes and more.
Speaker: Graham Gardner
Session title: Tiny & Wild: Build a Small-Scale Meadow
Session description: With as little as a few square feet of space, you can create a beautiful, low-maintenance naturalistic planting that supports a diversity of plants, pollinators, and a plethora of other living things, not to mention its visual appeal in your home garden.
Speaker: Dave Whitinger
Session title: Best Veggies for Small Spaces
Session description: From small dwarf sized to downright tiny, old school plant breeders are creating new, exciting and tasty veggies specifically for small space and container gardening. Join Dave Whitinger, owner of Victory Seed Company, as he shares his favorites (spoiler: MICRO TOMATOES) that will fit perfectly in any space. And, as an added bonus, you’ll learn a little bit about the age-old art of how new varieties are made through traditional plant breeding.
Speaker: Niki Jabbour
Session title: Four Season Gardening: Use Garden Covers to Grow More Food
Session description: Your food garden doesn’t have to conclude at the first frost date! Niki shares techniques for year-round gardening from her snow covered Nova Scotia home. No matter where you grow, her advice will help you enjoy a year-round harvest.
Seeds & Soil Sunday
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal the Look - Clark Cottage Gardens
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Carrie Spoonemore
Session title: Fundamentals: Seed Secrets
Session description: How long do seeds last? How do I know my seeds are still good? How do I store them? Learn the answers to these questions and more in this fundamentals class on seeds.
Speaker: Jesse Frost
Session title: Home Garden Soil Secrets From a No-till Farmer
Session description: Learn how to apply no-till soil principles to your home garden. Jesse will share his experience and experimentation with no-till practices from his Kentucky farm and make them applicable to your home garden no matter how small it might be.
Speaker: Linda Ly
Session title: Tips for Starting Tricky Seeds
Session description: Having trouble getting your seeds to germinate? If you’ve simply been tossing a few seeds into the soil and hoping for the best, there IS a better way to improve your chances of germination—make that 6 better ways! Linda Ly shares the real reasons your seeds are being so stubborn and reveals all her favorite tips and tricks for getting them to germinate fast.
Speaker: Marco Thomas
Session title: Do I Have Bad Soil?
Session description: Good soil is the foundation of a healthy garden. And it is a complex topic, too. Marco breaks it down so you can determine what your soil needs for maximum health and productivity. Spoiler: there will be talk of microbes.
Speaker: Kamili Bell Hill
Session title: Houseplant Happy Hour: Custom Houseplant Soil Blend Recipes
Session description: Just like people, houseplants need unique conditions to thrive. In this session, Kamili will share her custom soil mix recipes for different types of houseplants. Anyone say “aroid mix”? Yes, we hear you! Find out the best blends for aroids and more.
Mindful Monday
Program credit: Virtual Garden Tour
Session title: Good Morning Garden Tours
Session description: Grab a hot cup of tea and greet the day while enjoying an inspirational look at public and botanic gardens across the US and Canada. Special thanks to our partners at the American Public Garden Association for their assistance showcasing these beautiful spaces.
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal the Look - Follow the Path: The Garden of Joyce Hannaford
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Jovan Sage
Session title: Fundamentals: Basics of Garden-based Wellness
Session description: Gardens have long been used as a refuge from the world. As we seek to increase mindfulness in our daily lives, home gardens become even more important. Learn how incorporating sound, fragrance and other elements into your garden space – no matter how small – can create an oasis of tranquility.
Speaker: Stephanie Rose
Session title: Garden Therapy: Five Minutes a Day to Transform Your Life
Session description: Spending just five minutes with plants can make a world of difference to your wellbeing. Stephanie Rose shares her journey of rehabilitation from severe disability starting with just five minutes a week in the garden. In this seminar, you’ll see the unbelievable transformation that can happen by starting small and get a bounty of quick ideas to include plants in your life and home. From making botanical bath and body products and herbal cleaners to natural candles and garden crafts, you will leave this session with inspiration, motivation, and surely a few laughs!
Speaker: Linda Black Elk
Session title: Grow Your Own Medicine
Session description: Gardens were the original pharmacies and more people are re-learning how to partner with plants to increase health and wellness safely. In this session, learn about basic medicinal plants anyone can grow and what to do with them to help heal your body and soul.
Speaker: Leo Carver
Session title: Growing Consciousness: The Gardener's Guide to Seeding the Soul
Session description: Leo shares an accessible path to self-discovery and truth; one that can apply to a small herb garden on the windowsill just as well as it would to a Buddhist Zen garden. Explore the spiritual qualities of gardening and how one can marry meditation, spiritual growth and gardens to cultivate a more conscious and satisfying existence.
Speaker: Maria Failla
Session title: Houseplant Happy Hour: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness
Session description: Learn to transform plant care into self-care by identifying your plant parent personality and matching it with plant care/self care practices inspired by your lifestyle. Discover the power of plants to help you disconnect from the stress and anxiety of modern life and grow more joy in your world. By the end of the talk you’ll have identified your plant parent personality and walk away with an easy plant care/self care practice tailor made for your plants and personality.
Take It Easy Tuesday
Program credit: Virtual Garden Tour
Session title: Good Morning Garden Tours
Session description: Grab a hot cup of tea and greet the day while enjoying an inspirational look at public and botanic gardens across the US and Canada. Special thanks to our partners at the American Public Garden Association for their assistance showcasing these beautiful spaces.
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal the Look - Hillside Beauty: The Garden of Ellie Gilbert
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Dominique Charles
Session title: Fundamentals: Garden Easy Hacks
Session description: In this fundamentals session, learn easy, time-saving hacks to keep your garden beautiful and productive with limited time or ability.
Speaker: Tasha Greer
Session title: Weed-free Gardening
Session description: Learn an easy-to-implement plan of attack to get even the most tenacious weeds under control without the need for potentially harmful synthetic herbicides. Tasha’s weed prevention and control strategies will have you growing flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and trees with little to no weed competition.
Speaker: Diego Footer
Session title: Simple Garden Planning for Busy People Just Like You
Session description: Why do most people fail when it comes to gardening? The pressures of weeds, weevils, and work can quickly overwhelm you, turning your green dreams into an overgrown jungle. We’ve all been there. Without a plan, nature will always win, and the prize probably isn’t what you want. Fortunately, there is an easier way. Using key planning strategies, you can drastically reduce your garden workload and grow more food than ever. Get rid of garden overwhelm forever, and join Diego Footer from Epic Gardening to create a plan to have your best harvest ever.
Speaker: Stacey Hirvela
Session title: Low-Maintenance, High-Impact Gardens
Session description: No matter what your skill or comfort level with plants and gardening, it’s always nice to have a few time-saving plant suggestions and design ideas in your back pocket. Learn some plants that give way more than they take, as well as how to site them so that, once they’re established, you needn’t do much more than smile every time you see them.
Speaker: Paris Lalicata
Session title: Houseplant Happy Hour: Awesome Airplants
Session description: The ultimate easy houseplant, air plants come in a range of quirky shapes and some have beautiful blossoms. While “air plant” may make it seem like you set them on the shelf and just smile, these interesting beauties do require regular tending to help them thrive. Paris Lalicata from The Sill breaks down the facts on air plants to keep them happy and easy going for years to come.
Wildlife Wednesday
Program credit: Virtual Garden Tour
Session title: Good Morning Garden Tours
Session description: Grab a hot cup of tea and greet the day while enjoying an inspirational look at public and botanic gardens across the US and Canada. Special thanks to our partners at the American Public Garden Association for their assistance showcasing these beautiful spaces.
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal the Look – The Cottage Garden at Bochner Farms
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Dan Wilder
Session title: Fundamentals: Bee Friendly Gardens
Session description: These quick and easy, yet powerful, ideas will help you incorporate bee-friendly practices into your garden and landscape. Learn specific recommendations for plant choices, lawn maintenance and fall garden cleanups.
Speaker: Heather Andrews
Session title: Blinded Me with Science: Beautify Your Backyard by Attracting Butterflies
Session description: Have you ever wanted to host butterflies in your backyard? Discover actionable, science-based tips you can use to attract and host the Jewels of the garden to your outdoor spaces.
Speaker: Mary Phillips
Session title: Garden for Wildlife: Be a Hummingbird Hero
Session description: More than 180 North American plant species depend on hummingbirds for pollination. They use their thin beaks and long tongues to drink nectar from flowers and rely on insects to feed their young. Mary Phillips, Head of Garden for Wildlife at National Wildlife Federation and certified master naturalist will share fun facts about these beautiful hummingbird species from across the U.S and the important plants to attract and support the life cycle of these animated creatures.
Speaker: Owen Wormser
Session title: Lawns Into Meadows
Session description: Learn how to convert your lawn into a low maintenance, eco-friendly meadow. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution. It is garden landscaping that is beautiful and easy-care, all year round.
Speaker: David Mizejewski
Session title: Garden For Wildlife: Bats and Their Benefits
Session description: Bats have long been painted as scary monsters or dangerous pests, but the reality is that this diverse group of flying mammals is incredibly important ecologically and even beneficial in our gardens. Naturalist David Mizejewski will introduce you to the fascinating bats of North America and highlight both why you want bats around and how you can help them in your own yard or neighborhood.
Speaker: Josh Brown
Session title: Keeping Carnivorous Plants
Session description: The ultimate native plant, learn how to care for carnivorous house plants and enjoy the side benefit of pest control. This session also shares the critical importance of where you should purchase carnivorous plants to protect diminishing stands in the wild.
Speaker: Taylor Whitney
Session title: Houseplant Happy Hour: Taming the Small Space Jungle
Session description: We collect plants because they bring us joy and make our space feel cozy. So, how do we grow our collection without letting them overrun our space? Join Taylor as she shares some of her tips and tricks for keeping her ever-growing plant collection healthy while also aesthetically pleasing.
Transformation Thursday
Program credit: Virtual Garden Tour
Session title: Good Morning Garden Tours
Session description: Grab a hot cup of tea and greet the day while enjoying an inspirational look at public and botanic gardens across the US and Canada. Special thanks to our partners at the American Public Garden Association for their assistance showcasing these beautiful spaces.
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Spectacular Spring Front Yard: The Garden of Renee Minirth
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Scott Zona
Session title: Fundamentals: Gardener's Guide to Botany
Session description: In this fundamentals class, learn the basics of plant botany so you can make wiser decisions while planning or caring for your outdoor environment. Focusing on the home landscape, this session breaks down the fundamentals of botany so you can easily apply them to your everyday (garden) life.
Speaker: Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Field Guide to Outside Style
Session description: Learn to personalize your outdoor living space with the right plants, furnishings, and other design elements to create a space that reflects YOU perfectly, even if you’ve never sunk a shovel into the soil before.
Speaker: Linda Vater
Session title: Design a Perfect Potager Garden
Session description: Learn the design elements of a French “potager” (kitchen) garden to create a space that is formal, beautiful and productive. A great solution for an alternative “manicured” front yard or anywhere you want pattern and style for your garden. (PS if you love boxwoods, this is the session for you).
Speaker: Sandra Nam Cioffi
Session title: Getting Back to Basics with Design
Session description: Shopping for plants can be enormously fun! That is, until you end up with a hodgepodge of pots and no plan in mind. Before getting ahead of yourself and your buying spree, learn how the basics of design through simple sketching techniques and with affordable drawing tools will better prepare you for your adventures in the garden.
Speaker: Jim Putnam
Session title: Favorite Flowering Shrubs
Session description: Flowering shrubs are a powerful way to add joy and interest to your garden. In this session, learn about the most popular and easy to care for flowering shrubs to add that special pop to your landscape.
Speaker: Darryl Cheng
Session title: Houseplant Happy Hour: Transforming Houseplants with Light
Session description: Outdoor gardeners generally have a good sense of their sunlight exposure and indoor grow ops have well documented instructions to follow – but houseplant owners are left with vague, hand-wavy directions like “bright indirect light” – which leads to dramatically different interpretations and results. In this talk, Darryl will reveal the secrets to understanding light with a particular focus on how it applies to houseplants – comparing natural light and grow lights. You will finally be able to make sense of light!
Flower Friday
Program credit: Virtual Garden Tour
Session title: Good Morning Garden Tours
Session description: Grab a hot cup of tea and greet the day while enjoying an inspirational look at public and botanic gardens across the US and Canada. Special thanks to our partners at the American Public Garden Association for their assistance showcasing these beautiful spaces.
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal The Look - Peony & Iris Tour: The Garden of Kris Jurik
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speakers: Sean & Allison McManus
Session title: Fundamentals: Flowering Bulb Basics
Session description: Don’t know the difference between a rhizome and a corm? A spring-planted bulb vs. a fall-planted bulb? How to plant them? How they “naturalize”? It’s ok. Sean and Allison McManus have the answers. Once you learn a few basics about spring (and fall) flowering bulbs a whole new and exciting world of color and fragrance open up for your garden.
Speaker: Yan Skates
Session title: Big Flower Design
Session description: Inspiration! Inspiration! Inspiration! Big! Big! Big! (Did we mention big inspiration?!) You might know Yan from Big Flower Fight on Netflix. In this session, there’s no fight – just love of design and flowers. Yan walks through his “flowers-as-art-installation” aesthetic and provides tips and ideas to create your own masterpiece at home.
Speaker: Briana Bosch
Session title: Planning & Planting Your "Perfect Palette" Cutting Garden
Session description: Planning for a special occasion or just in love with certain color palettes? Please don’t stop supporting your local flower grower but why not grow your own? Learn how to plan, plant and tend your own cut flower garden in a rainbow of your choice. Enjoy months of color coordinated floral bliss or impress the world on your special occasion…
Speakers: Teri Speight + Panel
Session title: Black Flora Creator Panel
Session description: Teri Speight, author of Black Flora, hosts a panel of Black floral creators showcasing their design styles and aesthetic.
Speaker: Isha Foss
Session title: Container Design from a Florist's Perspective
Session description: Move beyond the typical “porch pot” mentality, Isha Foss walks through her process for creating containers with a florist’s eye. Learn a new way to design including how to pick the right vessel, color matching and adding “accessories” so your containers make every day a special event.
Speaker: Lisa Eldred Steinkopf
Session title: Houseplant Happy Hour: Secrets of Flowering Houseplants
Session description: Flowering houseplants are a fun and beautiful way to expand your growing skills and the number of specimens in your houseplant family. Want to see the colorful, intricate and sometimes fragrant blooms houseplants can offer? This session dispels the unfair reputation that flowering houseplants are tricky and offers simple insider strategies to coax blossoms out of your houseplants.
Small Space Saturday 2
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal The Look - Flowing Borders With Tera’s Gardens
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Matt Lebon
Session title: Fundamentals: Fruit in Small Spaces
Session description: Want to incorporate home grown fruit into your garden or landscape? In this fundamentals class, learn about the wide array of easy to grow fruit that will make your garden pop for decades to come and the logic required to plan, plant and tend successfully.
Speaker: Mark Ridsdill Smith
Session title: Vertical Veg Guide to Container Gardening
Session description: If you long to grow your own tomatoes, zucchini, or strawberries, but thought you didn’t have enough space, this session teaches how to make the most of walls, balconies, patios, arches, and windowsills.
Speaker: Jacques Lyakov
Session title: Transplants vs. Direct Seeding Pros & Cons
Session description: Understand the pros and cons of transplanting seedlings – perhaps those you have grown yourself – versus direct sowing.
Speaker: Jessica Damiano
Session title: Companion Planting Essentials
Session description: Can growing specific types of plants together increase productivity, pest resistance and longevity? Yes. This session demystifies the “old gardener tales” with evidence-based examples of which plants like growing together and why.
Speaker: Kevin Espiritu
Session title: Growing Microgreens at Home
Session description: Whether you can’t garden due to weather or space constraints, microgreens add joy and a nutritional bang to your diet. Easy to grow, tasty and productive, learn how to grow this powerful addition to your diet – and tastebuds – no matter where you grow.
Speaker: Miranda Niemiec
Session title: There Are No Small Gardens…
Session description: Only small ideas! There’s no need to compromise on bodacious blooms, lush foliage, and a large presence when gardening in small spaces – as long as you choose the right plants. Discover which small (yet mighty) shrubs and perennials are ideal for nestling into small beds, balcony containers, or urban gardens.
Sustainability Sunday
Presenters: Garden Gate Magazine & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: Steal The Look - Exploring a Sustainable Garden: The Garden of Heidi Heiland
Session description: Ever watched a garden tour on YouTube and wondered how you can get that exact look at home? Wonder no more! Garden Gate Magazine and Ryan McEnaney from First Editions® Shrubs & Trees are taking you through a beautiful home garden each morning of the Great Grow Along and providing style commentary and plant suggestions so you can easily recreate these beautiful gardens at home.
Speaker: Mike Lizotte
Session title: Fundamentals: Gardening & Sustainability
Session description: We can all do our part to support the environment with our home gardens. In this fundamentals class, learn basic approaches to engrain sustainability practices into your garden and life.
Speakers: Sally Morgan & Kim Stoddart
Session title: The Climate Change Garden
Session description: Create a resilient, climate-wise garden and learn how to adapt your garden to cope with volatile weather extremes and other effects of a rapidly changing climate.
Speaker: Andre the Farmer
Session title: Food Forest: Permaculture Principles
Session description: Take a tour of Andre’s food forest and learn how it’s built on permaculture fundamentals. Based in Florida, this native Canadian has ideas that work no matter where you live to integrate permaculture principles for resilient, natural gardens.
Speaker: Dan Wilder
Session title: Kill Your Lawn
Session description: Every house in America should be fronted with a non-native monoculture with the maintenance requirements of a golf course and the ecological value of a strip mine ; a place where all flowers are called weeds and signs to the extent of ‘keep off’ are the norm. Does the idea seem a bit odd to you? It’s time to take a second look at this idea we call lawn. Learn about various options available, from whole lawn replacement to starting small with strategies for reducing inputs and increasing ecological value. From well-known plants to new introductions, learn various options that fit the needs of any lawn space.
Speaker: Janet Sluis
Session title: Water-wise Gardening
Session description: You don’t need to live in drought conditions to benefit from water-wise gardening. Learn how to select water-wise plants and group them together to encourage more efficient water use as well as other water-wise principles.
Speaker: Doug Tallamy
Session title: What's the Rush? (World Premiere!)
Session description: Doug Tallamy presents the grassroots science-based solution to the biodiversity crisis and explains why it’s so urgent to take action. Learn how individually and together, our small or large actions can make a huge impact and what you can do to get started NOW. Each of us can be part of this extraordinary cooperative conservation movement – together – we can regenerate biodiversity and see the impact of our actions almost immediately.