2024 Agenda
From the 2024 festival • March 16–31, 2024
Original schedule. All times Eastern (ET).
This archive preserves schedules, speakers, and session descriptions; it is not a video library.Descriptions reflect the original event. Invitations to join, tune in, or check social media refer to 2024.
Three weekends of garden inspiration.
The 2024 Great Grow Along spreads the inspiration across three weekends: March 16–17, 23–24, and 30–31. Six days of online sessions bring together gardening educators and creators, with ideas for growing food, welcoming wildlife, caring for houseplants, and making the most of your garden.
The homepage’s Friends of the Festival include First Editions Shrubs & Trees, American Meadows, Crescent Garden, Cool Springs Press, Epic Gardening, and Hoselink, together with garden organizations and partners.
Meet our sponsors & partners
Flower Power Party
Speaker: Janice Groves
Session title: Beds for Your Blossoms
Session description: If 2024 is the year for making your garden more “flowerful,” this session is for you. Whether you’re creating new or expanded beds or want tricks for feeling more positive about difficult soil, Janice shares her passion for sheet mulching and simple, inexpensive ways to create space for all the flowers you love.
Speaker: Kate David
Session title: Coping Strategies for Plant Addicts
Session description: Admit it: you’ve walked into the garden center intending to get one or two plants and walked out with a carload. Kate David breaks down how to shop more thoughtfully, save money, and build a better garden in the long run—without losing the excitement of spring plant buying.
Speakers: Skye Hamilton & Ryan McEnaney
Session title: The Happiest Hydrangeas
Session description: Learn the four main types of hydrangeas, where they grow best, and what helps them thrive. This session covers old wood versus new wood, gift versus garden hydrangeas, and the secrets to keeping plants blooming longer.
Speakers: Paula Douer & Barb Wise
Session title: Container Design Like the Pros - Part 1
Session description: Paula and Barb review standout container designs created at the professional Digging In gathering. Get inspiring ideas for your own containers along with practical design tips you can use for years to come.
Speaker: Crystal Walker
Session title: Feed Those Flowers!
Session description: Ensure a healthy, vibrant flower patch season after season with advice from Crystal Walker, the Compost Fairy. Learn how to keep soil fertile for the best blooms and pick up approachable composting basics.
Flower Power Party
Speakers: Paula Douer & Barb Wise
Session title: Container Design Like the Pros - Part 2
Session description: Paula and Barb continue their look at innovative container designs from professional growers and designers, sharing practical ideas and techniques for showstopping combinations at home.
Speaker: Michael Perry — Mr. Plant Geek
Canceled
Session title: Weird & Wacky Flower Show
Session description: Canceled due to health concerns. This time slot was filled by Container Design Like the Pros - Part 2.
Speaker: Jenny Rose Carey
Session title: Supercharge Your Summer Flower Garden
Session description: Learn how to get started, combine flowers for spectacular effects, and keep your garden beautiful all summer long. Jenny Rose Carey helps you navigate color, bloom timing, and plants that truly thrive.
Speaker: Roxana Snedeker
Session title: Flowering Shrubs for Small Spaces
Session description: Even small yards can get big color from flowering shrubs. Tour Roxana’s home garden, see how she integrates her favorites, and find inspiration for adding flowering shrubs to your own space.
Speaker: Teri Speight
Session title: Confessions of a Rose Lover
Session description: Roses are beloved, but they aren’t always a no-brainer. Teri breaks down rose classifications so you can choose the right variety, plant with confidence, and enjoy your new favorite rose for years to come.
Speaker: Riz Reyes
Session title: The Fragrant Flower Garden
Session description: Join horticulturist and floral designer Riz Reyes for a garden show-and-tell featuring fragrant plants that can bring scent to your spaces year-round, indoors and out.
Speaker: Karen Chapman
Session title: Designing with Deer-Resistant Flowers
Session description: What does deer resistance really look like? Karen Chapman explains the logic of combining deer-resistant flowers and other plants into artistic, multi-season garden vignettes you’ll love and the deer won’t.
Your Kick A** Kitchen Garden
Speaker: Resh Gala
Session title: Abundance in All Spaces
Session description: Don’t let a small space stop you from enjoying a lush and bountiful kitchen garden. Resh shares ways to use containers and vessels of all kinds to maximize harvest and beauty while minimizing work.
Speaker: Wendi Phan
Session title: Trellis Tips & Tricks for Successful Vertical Growing
Session description: Wendi Phan is here to help you grow up—literally. Discover practical trellis ideas that help you get the most from your garden, no matter how much space you have.
Speaker: Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago
Session title: Living a Garden Life: Projects to Find Your Bliss in the Veg Garden
Session description: Go beyond simply growing vegetables with projects designed to help you find joy, creativity, and mental well-being in your garden—while still creating something tasty.
Speaker: Jacques Lyakov
Session title: Seed Selection Secrets
Session description: Get an inside look at how Jacques selects seeds for his favorite spring crops. Discover his go-to vegetables, a few flowers, and seed-starting and direct-sowing advice for a particularly flavorful season.
Speaker: Christina Chung
Session title: Layered Edible Gardens: The Way Nature Intended
Session description: By including edible plants from eight different layers—from trees and shrubs to vines, ground covers, annuals, and roots—you can build a mini food forest that produces for years with less work and fewer resources.
Speaker: Tasha Greer
Session title: Grow Your Own Spices
Session description: Many spice-cabinet favorites can be grown at home. Tasha Greer shares the details behind tasty turmeric, glorious ginger, super saffron, and more—wherever you garden.
Your Kick A** Kitchen Garden
Speakers: Paula Douer & Barb Wise
Session title: Container Design Like the Pros - Part 3
Session description: The series concludes with more innovative container combinations from professional designers and growers, plus ideas and techniques you can use in your own 2024 containers and beyond.
Speaker: Kim Stoddart
Session title: The Less Work/More Resilient Vegetable Garden
Session description: High-maintenance gardens are often more vulnerable to extreme weather. Kim shows how letting nature take the lead can build resilience, ease gardening guilt, and bring more fun and well-being to your vegetable patch.
Speaker: Kevin Espiritu
Session title: Epic Homesteading
Session description: There’s no need to go off-grid to improve your self-sufficiency. Kevin explores modern ways to grow and preserve food, raise mini livestock, and automate systems such as irrigation and greywater recycling.
Speaker: Jovan Sage
Session title: Gardening for Teas & Tinctures
Session description: Reach beyond your current garden staples and learn to grow plants for medicinal teas and tinctures. Meet new garden allies that can further support your well-being.
Speaker: Meagan Lloyd
Session title: The Food Preserver’s Garden
Session description: Plan abundant harvests with preservation in mind. Meagan discusses the tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and other crops that help you can, dehydrate, and enjoy your garden long after the season ends.
Speaker: Robin Haglund
Session title: Planting to Party: Cocktail Gardening
Session description: Grow your own party patch and learn to craft alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks using homegrown ingredients and unexpected garnishes. Robin turns the garden’s bounty into a memorable happy hour.
Plants & Pollinators
Presenter: Naples Botanical Garden
Session title: Naples Botanical Garden - Good Morning Garden Tour
Session description: Start the morning with a quick tour through Naples Botanical Garden, one of two American Public Gardens Association partners sharing their work with Great Grow Along attendees.
Speaker: Kim Eierman
Session title: Pollinator Victory Garden: Winning the War on Pollinator Decline
Session description: Kim Eierman offers accessible, actionable ways anyone can help reverse pollinator decline. Learn how everyday garden choices can better support the animals essential to our food supply and environment.
Speakers: Mike Lizotte & Megan Foster
Session title: Meadowscaping: Lose That Lawn
Session description: Whether you’re starting with one corner or removing a whole lawn, Mike and Megan cover lawn alternatives, mini-meadow plants, and the do’s and don’ts of transforming turf into a vibrant, earth-friendly habitat.
Speaker: Paige Payne
Session title: Water Wise Basics for Every Garden
Session description: Learn water-wise fundamentals that apply wherever you live. Paige shows how to save time and money while helping your garden make the most of rainfall and smarter irrigation.
Speaker: Krystle Hickman
Session title: ABC’s of Native Bees
Session description: The United States is home to more than 4,000 species of native bees. National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman uses stunning macro photography to reveal what makes them special and the signs of a healthy garden.
Speaker: Leah Brooks
Session title: Keystone Pollinator Plants for Every Garden
Session description: Learn the fundamentals of keystone species, discover which plants give pollinators the greatest benefit, and find practical ways to incorporate them into any garden.
Speaker: Megan White
Session title: Berries for the Birds
Session description: Trees and shrubs that bear berries provide a visual treat for gardeners and vital cold-weather food for birds. Explore standout picks and plan how to incorporate them into your landscape.
Plants & Pollinators
Presenter: Denver Botanic Gardens
Session title: Denver Botanic Gardens - Good Morning Garden Tour
Session description: Start the morning with a quick tour through Denver Botanic Gardens, one of two American Public Gardens Association partners sharing their work with Great Grow Along attendees.
Speaker: Jessica J. Lee
Session title: On Plants, Borders and Belonging
Session description: What happens when plants leave their original homes and put down roots elsewhere? Jessica explores plants perceived as out of place and considers how both plants and people come to belong—or not—as they cross borders.
Speaker: Nimkii Brad Howie
Session title: Our Relationship with Insects and the Plants They Pollinate
Session description: Brad explores the Anishinaabe relationship with insects—beings understood as teachers deserving respect and reciprocity—and shows how a change in perspective can reshape our relationship with nature.
Speaker: Heather Andrews
Session title: The Butterfly’s Apothecary
Session description: Certain plant chemicals act like a pharmacy for butterflies, supporting their health during mating season and helping protect their eggs. Learn which herbs and plants to include in a pollinator habitat.
Speakers: Sean & Allison McManus
Session title: Let’s Talk Native Bulbs
Session description: Native bulbs can increase plant diversity while attracting native pollinators. Explore regional examples, the pollinators they support, and approachable ways to use them in the landscape.
Speaker: David Mizejewski
Session title: Everything You Need to Know to Garden for Wildlife in 2024
Session description: Using the latest conservation science, David explains how to create a beautiful garden that fits the local ecosystem and supports birds, butterflies, bees, and other wildlife. Learn why native plants matter and how to provide the four essential components of habitat.