The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers · Epic Gardening

Plant This, Not That with Elise Howard

·55 min·3 clips

Elise says abundant planting can create a self-supporting green mulch.

1. The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers episode centers on native plants, with Jacques Lykov talking to Elise Howard about her book Plant This, Not That. 2. Jacques is the host, and Elise Howard is the guest and author whose book organizes plant choices for native gardening by category and region. 3. The episode asks how native plants fit into food webs, home gardens, and ornamental landscapes without making gardening dogmatic. 4. Elise says pollinators sit at the core of the food web, linking plants, caterpillars, birds, and small mammals. 5. She argues that private property owners and gardeners have to help because there is not enough public land to support the pollinator population. 6. Jacques and Elise connect invasive plants to lost pollination resources and reduced reproduction for native plants and pollinators. 7. Elise gives monarchs and milkweeds in the Asclepias family as the classic obligate example. 8. She also names the spicebush swallowtail and explains its relationship to spicebush, with dill mentioned as a related plant that can still host it. 9. The conversation shifts to urban gardens and parks in places like San Diego, where native planting is described as a refuge for insects and birds. 10. Jacques says local parks in San Diego have been planting more native plants, and he describes his own yard as a mix of vegetable beds and slowly expanding native sections. 11. Elise says pollinator corridors matter, so a yard works best when connected to a neighbor’s yard and a park rather than treated as an isolated patch. 12. She says baby birds may need thousands and thousands of caterpillars to raise their young. 13. Jacques describes native gardens as lower-maintenance spaces where he leaves seed heads, lets stems dry brown, and notices goldfinches feeding on sage seeds. 14. Elise explains that dense planting can create what she calls a green mulch, with roots supporting one another and reducing the need to add mulch every year. 15. She says leafcutter bees are easy to spot because they leave semi-circular cuts in leaves. 16. The episode also covers native plant definitions, including ecoregions, BONAP county maps, and the idea that a dark green patch means native to the state while bright green means native to the county. 17. Jacques and Elise keep the tone conversational and practical, with the host using his own yard and San Diego examples to test ideas against real gardening decisions. 18. Elise answers with specific planting guidance, including fall planting for perennials, layering shrubs and trees, and using functional lawn space instead of treating every patch as decoration. 19. People planning a native border, a pollinator garden, or a California yard with regional plants would get the most from this episode. 20. Gardeners who want only fast visual tips without regional detail would probably skip it.

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