Epic Gardening
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The Beet started its existence as the Epic Gardening Podcast but has grown into a one-stop shop for plant lovers. Each week, we explore topics ranging from beginner gardening tips to in-depth discussions with industry and science experts. Here, we’ll open up new gardening horizons, inspire you to greater heights, share new and exciting discoveries in agriculture, and fill your mind with freshly harvested information you can apply to your own gardening journey.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes plant care more intelligible by connecting practical garden problems with the biology, experience, and careful observation behind their solutions.
The Beet turns gardening questions into generous, detail-minded conversations with people who grow, study, cook, and teach through plants. Kevin and Jacques approach the subject as curious practitioners: they bring their own garden observations, ask guests to clarify…
Purple snap peas garnish a cauliflower steak; your vegetable patch just acquired plating ambitions.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm case for treating cut flowers as a creative, forgiving part of gardening.
Elizabeth Brown presents cut flowers as part of gardening practice rather than a polished extra. She keeps the tone welcoming, moving from beginner-friendly advice to the pleasure of building a bouquet that feels personal, with herbs, berries, tomato leaves, and even natural…
Practical rainwater-harvesting advice that keeps the first steps simple.
This episode looks at rainwater capture for the garden, with Tucson-based Martha Retallick offering a practical view from a place where the work is encouraged.
A practical pepper primer that focuses on seed starting, transplanting, and what yellow leaves can mean.
Pepper growing is treated as a working craft rather than a hobbyist flourish, with Kevin bringing on Jason Tate of Bojica Pepper Hut to cover super hot peppers, seed starting, and transplanting.
A warm, practical garden conversation about reset, pests, and the calmer outlook that comes from growing things.
The conversation works best when it stays close to lived details: Zone 8B heat, Texas gardening, raccoons tearing up beds for grubs, and the calmer outlook that comes from getting back into the garden.
A sensible tomato talk about soil, fit, and the cost of forcing a garden.
Frank Hyman treats tomato growing as a chain of practical choices: matching the plant to the place, reading the soil, and knowing when restraint beats improvisation.
Practical garden talk that favors lived judgment over tidy theory.
James and Joe keep this conversation on the nuts and bolts of gardening: which plants can survive rough conditions, when to plant them, and when hand watering is the better call than putting in irrigation.
Seed-starting, flower farming, and the patience behind a working garden.
Nicole Pitt's move from carrots, tomatoes, and squash into flower farming gives this episode a tidy garden-to-farm arc. The strongest part is the concrete detail: Boonville, zone 4B, the patience it takes to wait for a seed to become something worth cutting, and the plain work…
A practical garden conversation about redesigning real yards, not perfect ones.
This episode works best when it stays close to the dirt and the yard: shade, rocky ground, a hillside, and deer all shape the advice into something practical. The clearest point is a simple one, and it sticks.
Practical food gardening for real spaces.
Cut flowers, real fields, honest growing.
Kevin and Jacques spend most of The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers on winter garden timing, with Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, citrus, and brassicas all named as current wins.
The podcast opens with Jacques Lyakov framing the continuous vegetable garden as a way to make a small space feel useful.
Kevin talks with Chef Chris Starkus of Urban Farmer Denver and Lost Creek Microfarm about what farm-to-table means in practice: cattle feed and treatment, dry-aged grass-fed and grain-fed beef, and whole-animal butchery shaping the menu.
Jason Tate talks about his pepper business, which is built around super hot peppers, though he has also added mild and medium varieties because of demand for them too.
Host Jacques interviews Erin Schanen, 'The Impatient Gardener,' about her gardening journey in Wisconsin, covering topics from embracing mistakes and container gardening to dealing with invasive pests like Asian jumping worms.
Graylin Brown joins Jacques to talk about gardening in Texas and how getting back into it changed his outlook.
Kevin and Jacques open with fall as "the right amount of time" for crops, then talk through a 50-square-foot sweet potato patch, first broccoli harvests, and why brassicas taste better from the garden.
Kevin from Epic Gardening talks with Brian from Never Enough Dirt about a California garden that uses ducks, succession planting, citrus grafting, and heirloom varieties.
Elizabeth Brownon talks about cut flower gardening with Jacques Lyakov and keeps returning to the idea that beginners do not need to be perfect.
Jacques sits down with Brandy Hall of Shades of Green Permaculture to talk through home permaculture in a way that feels practical instead of overwhelming.
Martha Retallick talks about capturing rainwater and putting it to use in the garden.
The host welcomes Ben Goulet-Scott and Jacob Suisa and starts with how they each found their way into botany.
Kevin opens by welcoming Daryl Chang, one of his early Instagram follows, and sets up a conversation about a fresh philosophy of houseplant care tied to Daryl's work at Houseplant Journal and his book The New Plant Parent.
Host Jacques interviews Pam Penick, author of 'Gardens of Texas,' about adapting gardening practices to Texas's diverse climates and extreme weather.
Jacques brings James and Joe on together, because one guest does not quite fit the amount of garden experience they bring.
The Beat Podcast talks with Frank Hyman about matching plants to the conditions they evolved for.
Kevin and Jacques start with spring in San Diego, noting chamomile, nasturtiums, sunflowers, and a fresh rain of a little over half an inch.
Host Jacques interviews Nicole Pitt, a flower farmer from upstate New York, about her journey from growing vegetables to running a cut flower farm, buying a local garden center, and launching a new podcast.
Host Jacques Lykov interviews Pippa Chapman, a permaculture gardener from Yorkshire, about her journey from traditional gardening to specializing in food forests.
Jacques Lykov talks with Elise Howard, author of Plant This, Not That, about why native plants matter in gardens and food webs.
An interview with Stephanie Rose about her book 'The Wild and Free Garden', discussing how to create a beautiful garden on a budget with a permaculture mindset.
This episode discusses preserving garden harvests and managing a homestead to eat homegrown food year-round, featuring authors of 'The Preserver's Garden'.
An interview with tomato expert Craig LaHoullier discussing the differences between heirloom and hybrid tomatoes.
An interview with a horticulturist about her lifelong passion for plants and expertise in arid plant care.
An interview with David Scanlon about gardening in Florida, covering food forests, annuals, perennials, and natives.
This episode discusses the benefits of attracting birds to gardens, featuring an interview with a bird expert.
Host Jacques interviews herb expert Anna about her gardening practices and favorite herbs.
Host Jacques interviews Shani, a professional horticulturist, about her gardening background and experience in organic vegetable farming.
Host Jacques interviews Logan Haley, a traveling farmer turned blog editor, about her journey from suburban upbringing to living in nature and farming.
The hosts discuss their trip to Aquascape headquarters and the appeal of adding a pond or water feature to their gardens.