On any given day in the garden, you’ll find me with earbuds and my phone, listening to my favorite gardening podcasts. What better way to spend a few hours in the garden than to do the thing I love, while learning ways to do it better?
As a first-time gardener in 2013, I could not find enough gardening podcasts to fill my time or my thirst for knowledge. Since podcasting was in its infancy, I listened to the few I could find. Then, as I started teaching others how to garden, I even created my own — the Beginner’s Garden Podcast.
But now, I’m grateful to access more gardening podcasts at my fingertips, and I want to share my favorites with you.
So as I think fitting, in this episode of the Beginner’s Garden Podcast, I share my favorite podcasts to listen to in the garden. Click to listen or continue reading below.
Gardening Podcasts to Listen to in the Garden
Best Podcasts for Gardening Tips
My favorite podcasts — the ones I don’t miss — are full of “right-now” gardening advice. I can put the principles into action in my garden today. For the most part, they stick to the basics of vegetable, herb, and fruit gardening with only an occasional foray into the broader world of horticulture. Though they’re my top recommendations for beginning gardeners, they’re so good that veteran gardeners will learn something new from just about every episode.
The Joe Gardener Show
I wish the Joe Gardeners Show was around when I first started gardening. Joe Lamp’l combines his extensive personal experience with interviews with experts to give us an in-depth, well-rounded, and easily-accessible education on topics applicable to all home gardens. He cuts through the myths and stays up-to-date on latest research, all of which appeals to beginners and veterans alike. I never miss an episode.
Epic Gardening
You may have heard my interview with Kevin of Epic Gardening when we talked about seed starting indoors. This daily podcast packs informative tips and lessons in usually less than 10 minutes. It’s great for veterans but easy enough for beginners as well. Kevin gardens in a small space so urban gardeners will especially will appreciate his viewpoint, though even those of us with larger spaces will learn from his daily episodes.
Encyclopedia Botanica
Hosted by Hilary Dahl of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, the Encyclopedia Botanica offers longer discussions in an easily digestible form. She is in the Pacific Northwest so listeners from her part of the country will appreciate her experience, but the rest of us (I’m in Arkansas) can readily apply the her vast knowledge as well as the knowledge of her guests.
The Beginner’s Garden Podcast
I began the Beginner’s Garden Podcast in January 2017, my podcast is solely devoted to helping beginning vegetable gardeners learn how to start and grow their gardens by providing a podcast they can understand. That’s why I put it in the “Podcasts for Gardening Tips” category. Though I enjoy podcasts that explore the wider applications of nature and the home garden (and I’ll share my favorites with you next), in my show I stick to offering practical information for the beginning home vegetable gardener.
Best Podcasts for Gardening Life
Gardeners know that planting and growing a garden is just the beginning. For a wider application of gardening — including preserving and homesteading — I learn from these shows.
Pioneering Today Podcast
This is hosted by Melissa K. Norris and it was the only podcast I found when I first started gardening. You may recognize her name, as I’ve interviewed her myself on my podcast, talking about tips for beginners as well as preserving your harvest. Even if you’re not a full-on homesteader like she is, you will learn so much about gardening and how to use your harvest year-round.
Living Homegrown Podcast
You’ll learn about the basics of gardening, but also preserving, raising chickens, and how to incorporate unique recipes into your kitchen. The host, Theresa Loe, gardens in a small space so it’s a great podcast for those without much room to grow. However, even those of us with large gardens can learn from this show!
Best Podcasts for Gardening, the Planet, and the Love of Horticulture
For a mix of higher-level gardening talk plus practical tips you can learn along the way, these broader subject gardening podcasts are worth your listen.
The Organic Gardener Podcast
Jackie Marie Beyer interviews well-known, expert gardeners and farmers. Her guests have a wealth of knowledge and even the beginner will find tidbits of helpful information in each episode. I interviewed Jackie Marie Beyer last year on my podcast, and you can listen to that conversation here.
The Urban Farm Podcast
The Urban Farm Podcast features interviews with people from all over the country. Exploring a variety of gardening methodologies and climates, we can learn what gardening looks like in different places and get ideas for how to apply these ideas to our own gardens.
Margaret Roach – A Way to Garden
Although not every episode of A Way to Garden focuses on vegetable gardening (in fact, many explore the wider world of flowers, landscaping, and more), the episodes that do feature the edible garden pack plenty of actionable garden tips. For example, earlier in 2019, she interviewed a carrot grower and I learned aspects of growing carrots I’ve never heard before.
The Garden Path Podcast
The Garden Path Podcast features conversations about how the botanical environment works and how the home garden fits into this. This is a great podcast in which to learn the wider world of nature and the role we can play in it, even in our individual spaces. Misti Little, the host, is also an avid vegetable gardener, and she talked with me on my podcast here in 2018.
Best Garden Radio Shows
Before podcasts became a thing, there were radio shows! I’m sure there are great ones that I haven’t discovered yet. Some are region-specific so if you can find one of those, you’ll get some great information! Here are some of my favorites.
You Bet Your Garden
In this popular call-in radio show, quirky and entertaining Mike McGrath answers questions from gardeners of all walks of life. This show is basic enough for a beginner but is helpful for veterans, too. I personally enjoy his no-nonsense approach and how he isn’t afraid to expose commonly-held garden myths. But he doesn’t stop there. He gives the “why” behind his advice, which I find helpful and informative.
You can find current episodes here and the archive from this show as aired from another radio station here.
Get Growing with Farmer Fred
A podcast listener of mine suggested this one to me. It definitely has more of a radio-show feel, but if you’re patient you’ll find some good garden advice between the talk.
The Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener
This show also has great, basic information for the vegetable gardener of any experience level. The hosts Joey and Holly Baird give practical tips from an organic standpoint that I truly appreciate.
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I hope these suggestions get you excited to listen to a few new podcasts next time you head out to your garden!
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I know you were talking about Podcasts but if you haven’t seen Jess’s videos from Roots and Refuge Youtube, you are missing out!!!!!! Beautiful vertical gardening and homesteading! Seed starting, greenhouses, pests, she talks about it all. She is on Facebook-Friends of Roots & Refuge, Instagram and YouTube. Also, if you have a moment to take a breather and relax follow Liziqi on Facebook and Youtube. She is a Chinese girl that cooks and grows in traditional ways on a farm with her Grandma in the most beautiful region in China! It’s mostly breath taking gardens and scenery set to calming Chinese music. I love watching it after a hard days gardening and relaxing before bed. If you watch the videos on Youtube, several have English Subtitle, which helps because sometimes you just want to know what that veggie is! It’s fun to see all the beautiful and different kinds of edible plants they have. Thanks for your podcast and website. I have been gardening for about 10 years and still consider myself a beginner in many ways! I love all the suggestions and great tips. Thank you for your hard work and happy gardening!
Thanks for sharing, Rachael! I’ll check these out!
I second that!! Her videos are amazing and she is such a sweet soul!
You listed all my favorites, but here are a few that I also really enjoy.
•Still Growing – they aren’t active anymore but there are a lot of archived episodes that are great!
•Modern Homesteading Podcast – there are a few episodes I skip because they are about topics I don’t find relevant for me, but his show is the one that initially inspired me. Some really good older episodes
•Bloom And Grow Radio – not Radio, it’s a podcast. It’s more about indoor plants but it’s still great!
Thank you! I’ll have to check these out!
“You Bet Your Garden,” with Mike McGrath, is still on and still a podcast. He just moved from public radio to public television. If you search for “You Bet Your Garden” in podcasts, you will find the archive of his WHYY years, and also his recent transition to PBS 39 (out of Bethlehem, PA) as a podcast.
I am probably late to the party, providing you with this information, as I’m sure someone else has already commented on this. But, Mike McGrath is my number one garden guru. So, I wanted to share.
I hope this helps!
Jill, you have an awesome podcast – I look forward to it every week! I used to listen to this one podcast that was really good called “Average Person Gardening” by Mike Podlesny. He would do I think 3 podcasts a week. And then all of a sudden his website link stopped working and I can’ t find even his old episodes, and he had a bunch of them. It makes me wonder what happened?
Thanks, Derek! I haven’t heard of that podcast before but it sounds great. Most of us could use more “average person gardening” advice!
You mentioned that you use 2 different apps to organize podcasts. Could you share which apps you use and how you organize them? I am an android user and haven’t found a system I really like.
I’d recommend Podbean and Podcast Republic. Podbean is probably my favorite but some feeds don’t appear there (very few though — most do), so Podcast Republic is a good back-up. Because neither app would let me have “folders” for different genres of podcasts, I used Podbean for gardening and business podcasts, and I used Podcast Republic for faith-based and recreation podcasts I listen to. I’ve heard good things about Overcast, though I haven’t tried it. Google Play Music is also an option, though I didn’t find it as user-friendly as the others.