Recent Volunteer Gardener Clips
Adding vibrant color with containers
July 10, 2025
Annette Shrader visits with an accomplished gardener who loves color. She has a talent for selecting plants with gorgeous hues and stellar growth habit, and displays those in containers throughout her outdoor spaces. The long front porch features eye-catching window boxes with a trio of plants. Vignettes are created in spots with using a dozen or more containers in combination. Her design skills are evident in the plant placements and combinations. There are showstopper spots throughout the outdoor spaces.
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Nepenthes
July 10, 2025
Nepenthes, or tropical pitcher plants, are carnivorous plants that have a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. Surprisingly, they are pretty easy to grow. We're at Red Leaf Exotics Nepenthes Nursery in Morrison Tennessee to learn about both species and hybrid specimens. Care and growing tips are also discussed.
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Beautification Awards – Cheatham County Master Gardeners
July 03, 2025
One element of a good garden design is repetition of plants, as it creates a rhythm. April Moore tours the home garden spaces where the deer do roam, so plant choices are made with that in mind. The selections here are gorgeous, and combined with shrubs, trees, and even a water feature.
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Elevating the Outdoor Spaces
June 19, 2025
Have you let yourself dream of what your backyard space could be? We'll tour a garden that could provide the inspiration. The homeowners began with a Master Gardener group to learn plants and design, then expanded into water features and stone terracing. The backyard features a long, deep terraced border with banana trees, shrubs, herbs and perennials in a nice display. There's also a colorful and varied plant palette around the house foundation. In every garden vignette, there's a variety of form, and multi-season interest.
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Sustainable Small Market Farming
June 19, 2025
Julie Berbiglia visits with a self-taught farmer who gathered knowledge during the COVID era, and started farming in his urban backyard. In addition to that farm, he now leases an additional 2 acres. Alex Bice uses sustainable agriculture methods to grow high quality vegetables and herbs which he offers for sale at Nashville farmer markets.
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Strawberry Farming
May 15, 2025
Strawberries are the primary crop at Lester Farms in Lebanon TN. They are considered an 11 month crop that requires work to be done by hand: planting, weeding, harvesting. Each year brings its challenges because that large time frame encompasses a wide range of weather conditions. The main variety grown is 'Ruby June' as it produces consistently sweet, large, tasty berries. An optimal growing year in middle Tennessee will have strawberries ripening well into June.
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Where Brie Grows
May 15, 2025
Troy Marden strolls the home garden spaces of horticulturist and popular You Tube personality Brie The Plant Lady. Her passion for growing is infectious. We'll learn what challenges she has had with the quality of soil in her yard, and what methods she is using to add bring life into it.
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Geophyte Border
May 08, 2025
Ever hear the term 'geophyte'? It's a perennial plant with an underground food storage organ. Geophytes include bulbs, tubers, corms and/or rhizomes. Come along as we tour the Geophyte Border at J.C. Raulston Arboretum in springtime when the tulips and iris are in their full splendor.
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Creating safe passage for pollinators
May 08, 2025
A well-planned garden can be attractive, and also provide for beneficial insects. Sheri Gramer tours one such residential garden in Brentwood that is part of the Green Bridges program of the American Herb Society. We'll learn about this initiative that encourages home gardeners to create safe and supportive passage for pollinators.
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Growing Flowers for Market
May 01, 2025
They grow a lot of things at Bloomsbury Farm. On this visit, Jeff Poppen explores the flower fields where they grow many different types of annual flowers to be used in pre-made bouquets or a U-pick opportunity. Amaranth, gomphrena, sunflowers, marigolds, celosia, borage, and straw flowers are just a sampling of the flowers being grown on this farm.
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Home Garden Spaces of a Designer
May 01, 2025
Rita Venable introduces us to an avid gardener who, in retirement, studied landscape design. Then she started a landscaping business, designing more than a hundred landscapes. Now she's devoting full-time to her own garden. Rita Venable walks with her through 3 distinct areas, each brimming with good-performing trees, shrubs, vines, ground covers, and perennials.