'A Growing Passion' Host Nan Sterman Talks About Season 8 Of Her Popular Show

Speaker 1: 00:00 Whether you yourself are a gardener or not gardening expert, Nancy Germans, award-winning TV show. A growing passion is a refreshing glimpse into our Southern California gardening landscape from ways to grow things without using much water to what makes our region special in the horticultural realm, a new series of a growing passion starts tonight on KPBS television. And Nan, Joseph's now to talk more about what's in store, then Speaker 2: 00:27 Thank you so much. Speaker 1: 00:29 So for any listeners who are not familiar with the show, tell us why they should watch it. You know, what's your goal in making these shows? Speaker 2: 00:36 Oh, my, there is so much that happens in and around our region that has to do with plants, be it gardening or native habitats with some of our farms what's happening in nurseries, you know, at the university research, all kinds of things, you know, plants are so important in our lives. They are everything to us. They're what we wear to make the oxygen. We breathe. There are food. They're the basis of the world, food chain, their habitat for birds and all kinds of animals. We rely on plants without them. We can't live literally. So let's go look and see where plants are and how they benefit us and what ways they're involved in our lives that we don't necessarily know about it. Some ways that we do. And it's just, it's the exploration of plants and the planet. Speaker 1: 01:21 Now the focus this season is on environmentally and economically friendly gardens, right? So what does that mean? Really for the average gardener, Speaker 2: 01:31 It means growing things you can eat. Interestingly, the pandemic has done something that I never anticipated, and that is it's made people really interested in, um, focusing on home and garden. I have a Facebook group called San Diego garden and we have just, we're coming up on 12,000 members, uh, from San Diego area alone. The Facebook group has absolutely exploded since the pandemic began and everyone is interested in growing their own food, their backyard gardeners. So that puts a lot of interest in growing things that you can eat in your backyard. And so this, this season, for example, we are doing an episode on dragon fruit, which grow on cactus climbing cactus. We were out in, um, onsell last week, shooting a segment for that. And we'll be up in Irvine, this coming week shooting another segment, dragon fruit, a wonderful cactus fruit, and they're beautiful. And they taste delicious. We're going to visit revisit some of the farmers that we visited in the past and find out how the pandemic has affected their operations, the demand for their products and their livelihoods. That's been very, very interesting if you're a farmer, a lot of ups and downs and uh, I'll, uh, won't give away what the, what the information watch to find out. Speaker 1: 02:52 Right? No, I understand that one of the episodes in the new season is all about growing olives. Now, when I think of olives, I think of Italy, but what's the story with olives in San Diego County? Speaker 2: 03:02 Well, Italy and Spain. Yes, but you know, Italy and Spain and the middle East, they all have the same kind of climate. We do. They all have the Mediterranean climate, which is a climate where the rainfall comes in winter and summers are long and hot and dry. Those climates are all the perfect kinds of climates for all of us. So there's a couple that lives out in Ramona, um, where we're going to tell a couple of different olives stories. One of them is about a couple that lives in Ramona. The husband is from Israel and he grew up in a family where fresh olive oil was on the table. Every day in Israel, they moved here and their property. They have about 12 acres where was burned in one of the, one of the fires. I think it was the which Creek fire, 12 acres of landscape. Speaker 2: 03:50 They saved the house, but all the native plants are burned away. And so when they were trying to figure out what to do on their property, the husband remembered that olive oil and decided he wanted to try his hand at growing olives. So we're going to visit him and his, uh, his whole family and their olive Grove and see how he makes award-winning olive oil. We also, um, visit Temecula olive oil company, which is, I think the biggest olive grower and olive oil maker in Southern California. They do an amazing, an amazing job. They have a big facility out East Temecula. The great things about growing olives is that you can grow olive trees on land. That's great marginal for growing anything else. So it makes it a very versatile crop. One that a lot of people are interested in. Those are our main two places that we're going to visit, but we tell a whole lot of little stories within those two locations. Speaker 1: 04:45 Well, of course, we're, we're all, you don't have to be a farmer to be worried about water these days. We're all trying to save water. Do you have any new words of wisdom about ways to do that? Speaker 2: 04:56 The same ways that we've been, you know, I've been talking about for years, think about your garden in zones. Each stone is a different water requiring zone and plant group, your plants, according to their water needs. I did a garden consultation, uh, for a couple of actually at Ramona last week. And the husband said to me that his biggest challenge when it came to watering was that he found that the plants were all mixed up. There were things that needed a lot of water planted and things that didn't need very much water. And how was he supposed to manage that? I mean, how long was he supposed to water? And I looked at him, I say, that's not the solution. The solution is to remove the plants and regroup them so that all the high water plants from one region, all the low water cleanser and another region, and each plant will get what it needs without, without getting too much or too little. And that is key to having a garden that concerns why, and also making sure you have the right kind of irrigation system, inline drip irrigation is the best irrigation for our region because all the water goes directly. The soil during the day Speaker 1: 05:58 Shows you get to interview all sorts of interesting people and go to interesting places. What are some of the things you will be focusing on this season? Speaker 2: 06:06 So I'm so glad you asked. We have an episode on plant Explorer and the adventures of the plant Explorer and misses about a local man who travels the world, looking for new and interesting plants and rare plants. And he documents where they live around the world and he brings back seeds and pollen. He grows those plants up, and then he uses them to breed new plants, primarily succulents. So owl is a garbage is, uh, some of the deadly which are actually native to here and other plants like that. He is one of the world's experts and he makes new varieties all the time. It's, it's like the mad scientist and he's made some really, really amazing plant. So we're going to explore what the process is. We're going to see how he does that. We're going to see his growing grounds. Um, Oh, but you're local. Speaker 2: 06:58 We're also going to visit our own San Diego Botanic garden, which is right down the street from me and, and, uh, very important in some respects, hidden gem here in San Diego area. But it's open now during the pandemic, you know, you have to make a reservation to go because they're limiting the numbers of people, but the San Diego Botanic garden is on historic property and they have some of the most amazing demonstration gardens showing what grows well here, as well as an amazing, wonderful, fun children's garden. And there's just lots going on there. And I can't wait to show people what's happening. Speaker 1: 07:37 I've been speaking with Nan Sturman who has hosted a growing passion, and I am certainly going to be watching the new season. I just planted some dragon fruit myself. So I want to see what you have to say about those. And season eight premieres tonight at eight 30 on KPBS television, you can also see Encore presentations of past episodes by going to either kpbs.org or a growing passion.com, which has all kinds of wonderful tips for gardeners. And then thanks so much for joining us. Speaker 2: 08:04 Thank you. And can I tell people to please follow us on social media to get behind the scenes images and tips regarding and all that kind of stuff on Facebook, right. Instagram all or usual places. Great. Thanks so much, man. Happy growing. Thank you. Awesome. Would you.