This episode 809 just scratches the surface of just a few days out of an always busy year In Susan’s Garden.
As we were preparing for this current season and considering what topics to cover, many of you responded to our survey with great ideas.
Yet an overwhelming number listed a similar request. While you enjoy the beautiful large gardens we sometimes cover, you were more interested in seeing gardens you could relate to. Ones that could provide some really tangible takeaways.
The bonus would be if we could cover such a topic from a garden where the gardener was one of us. A real, hands in the dirt, growing a greener world, kind of gardener.
Susan Mulvihill’s raised bed garden is spectacular and productive most of the year.
Finding her wasn’t hard. Spokane, WA resident, Susan Mulvihill is a good friend of the show. As a Master Gardener, long-time garden writer and columnist for the Spokesman-Review, blogger, nature lover, and passionate birder, she keeps busy doing all the things we love to cover.
Susan’s garden is a safe haven for creatures great and small. She makes a special effort to provide plenty of plants that offer shelter and food sources for wildlife–especially birds.
It was a joy to experience her garden and passion for nature in her very special and lively ecosystem. To know that she was gardening and providing a safe and healthy environment for all the creatures that came to visit there too was so gratifying to share her story and garden with our audience.
Bill Mulvihill was all smiles all the time and always ready to lend a hand (or umbrella) whenever needed (seen here sheltering our Director of Photography Carl Pennington).
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention all the help and support she gets from her husband, Bill. Not only is he handy in and around the garden, he also makes a great production assistant for out-of-town TV crews. Thanks, Bill!
Additional resources:
Susan Mulvihill’s website – Susan’s in the Garden – In keeping with Susan’s belief that everyone should know how to grow a garden; her website has been designed as a resource for beginning and experienced gardeners alike. It features her blog, links to several years of her garden columns, and guides to seed-starting, planting vegetables, and preserving the harvest. Photo galleries, an index to her wildlife and how-to videos, and tales of Susan’s garden travels can be found here as well.
Insect Hotel information – Read Susan’s blog post about building an insect hotel, which includes her video on the process.
Hoop house information & Supply List: In 2014, Susan and her husband Bill built a hoop house to grow salad greens during the winter months. For those interested in growing vegetables during fall and winter, Susan suggests planting very cold-tolerant crops such as kale (Vates, Winterbor), minutina, claytonia (miner’s lettuce) and corn salad (mache).
Susan’s Guide to Birds in the Garden includes information on attracting birds, photography tips, profiles of the birds in her garden, a slideshow of her bird photos, and birdwatching resources.
Helpful books related to this episode
All About Birds – Cornell’s Online Guide to Birds
Northwest Gardener’s Handbook by Susan Mulvihill and Pat Munts _ Guide to Gardening in Washington, Oregon, southern British Columbia and northern California.
Pollinator-Friendly Gardening by Rhonda Fleming Hayes (book includes info on building an insect hotel)
Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden by Jessica Walliser
Attracting Native Pollinators, Xerces Society
Susan’s YouTube channel: bird, wildlife and how-to videos on a wide variety of gardening topics.
Susan’s Facebook page: daily gardening tips and observations.
Susan’s Behind-the-Scenes YouTube video of the making of this episode:
Susan’s article from the Spokesman-Review on the total experience of planning, preparing and filming this episode 809 of Growing a Greener World as appeared in Spokesman-Review
I just saw this pbs show yesterday. I am not yet a gardener but would like to begin my first attempt in 2019 with the beans and the arch structure shown on the show. Where can I find the information on the project? Also, do you have reading/learning materials for a n ‘ I don’t know anything about gardens’ person?
Thank you.
Hi Susan. Please refer to the show notes for this episode as with all our episodes to learn more about what you saw in the program. We have countless pages of information based on over 200 episodes. Please take time to browse our site to see what might be helpful. Here’s the link to the show you are asking about: https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode-809-in-susans-garden/
A very inspiring episode. I enjoyed it a lot. Susan’s garden looks beautiful and gave me some great ideas. I also enjoyed the photography portion of the show and strongly agree that gardening and photography go hand-in-hand. The garden provides endless opportunities for picture taking. Some of my favorite photography has been in my wildflower garden chasing light and photographing all the interesting critters that visit. Thanks very much for your terrific program.
I love the idea of taking images in my garden. One thing I’d like to do is take Joe’s advice an go through my images – update and toss those that aren’t as clear and name each image.
What a beautiful garden! I really enjoyed the information about the insect hotel and the tip about growing pole beans on an arbor.
I totally agree. I love the idea about the pole beans and I’ve got all the resources I need to build an insect hotel. I’ll get the grand kids involved. They’ll love it.
What a lovely gardener and wonderful episode. As always, Joe and his talented crew captured everything beautifully. I can’t imagine the challenges they face with each episode trying to stream down the content of everything they film. Such great work, thank you!
Rachel
I missed part of the show where you talked about no longer using a teepee style to grow on. What style does she grow on now?
Paula,
Susan uses an arbor to grow her pole beans on and the arbor serves as both an ornament and a support for the the beans which hang down on the inside,
making it easier to harvest them. Great idea! Happy gardening.
I love this show so much! I don’t have a garden of my own right now, but my heart is full from seeing what other people are doing around our beautiful country. This was one of my favorite episodes. I couldn’t get enough. So inspiring. Thank you Joe and thank you Susan. I also plan my weekend mornings around my favorite shows on Create … this show being my very favorite. I look forward to every episode and learn so much from every episode. I also share the link to GGW and specific episodes with family and friends. Thank you for bringing so much joy, beauty, and information to your viewers.
Thank you Diane. We’re glad you can enjoy all the benefits of gardening through watching Susan and
other gardeners we feature on Growing a Greener World. We are lining up our shows for the 2018 season and
hope you will enjoy visiting with gardeners throughout the US.
As a self taught gardener of many years, and Master Gardener in year 4, recent graduate as a Dietetic Technician and strong advocate for family gardens (for many reasons), and someone who dropped the chemicals after serious illness years ago, THIS show really caught my interest.
I had been wanting to create a bug hotel, so can say I realy loved this show! What a wealth of knowledge shared in such a small amount of time! Thank you!
Your show is my favorite program on TV. I try to never to miss. I am tuned in to LPB Create 3 every Tuesday at 10:00.
Keep up the great shows. Love that you are going to the homes of gardeners. Episode 809 is a favorite.
I am enjoying Joe’s home gardening in Atlanta area.
Thanks for this wonderful program.
Annita Blanoo
Hi Annita! Thank you so much. Yes, episode 809 with Susan Mulvihill was a good one and just the thing we wanted to do to bring real gardener’s stories into episodes that people could relate to. Sounds like we achieved that with you. And glad you liked my garden stories too. It’s fun and keeps me very busy. Thanks for writing Annita!
Looking for instructions for insect hotel.
Hi Joan. Sorry we were late in adding that link to the show notes. It’s there now so if you just scroll down you’ll find a link referencing it from these show notes page: https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode-809-in-susans-garden/
Bravo! What a visual treat this episode was to watch. And seeing the transformation, from the house on five empty acres, to a stunning and productive garden, was wonderful AND inspiring.
Well done, Susan and Bill and kudos to Joe and crew!
All of Susan’s friends and fellow Spokane Master Gardeners have been eagerly anticipating this episode and it did not disappoint. We are so lucky to be able to see her effort and hard work in person.
I could have watched anotherhour!