How can the un-local Davis Garden Show be the best one for Southern California? It’s partly that the radio show/podcast is that good, and it’s partly that co-host Don Shor grew up in La Jolla and knows about growing plants here better than we do and kindly remembers to make side notes about how gardening works in our slightly drier and milder neck of the woods.
Last week’s episode perfectly represents why the Davis Garden Show is the best. In this January 5, 2017 episode, Shor talked all about the timely topic of deciduous fruit trees, from bare root planting, to training and pruning, to the meanings of terms like “sucker” and “pollenizer.”
The episode is so packed with information that you’ll want to listen multiple times. Shor articulates the concepts so well that even if they’re not new for you, you’ll enjoy listening to him describe them. But he isn’t reading from a horticulture book. Shor has studied horticulture formally at U.C. Davis, but he has also run a retail nursery, Redwood Barn Nursery, for decades, and he grows just about everything on his large property in the Davis area. When he says he recommends training most fruit trees to a “modified central leader” structure, it’s because he has trained many trees in other styles over the years, and he gives reasons and examples to support why modified central leader is his favorite for backyard growers. (The photo above shows Fuyu persimmon trees that have a modified central leader structure.)
In other words, when you listen to the Davis Garden Show you get not only an education but also ideas that are concrete and with which you can take action.
The Davis Garden Show broadcasts every Thursday at noon, when Shor is usually joined by co-host Lois Richter. You can listen to the show live from the KDRT website, but I always stream or download the podcasts on my computer or phone, which you can do from here or here.
Listen to the January 5, 2017 episode, and also listen to the excellent previous episode about fruit trees from December 29, 2016. From there you’ll probably be hooked like me, and you can browse past episodes for topics of interest, and you can listen to the latest episode for timely topics.
Love this podcast. Are there any others you recommend that are interesting/useful/fun for folks in SoCal?
Hi MB,
I wish. I occasionally listen to a few others, but none are nearly as consistently high quality and useful as the Davis Garden Show.