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Not Your Average Garden Club Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Ecoversity
Stephen Brooks and Seraphina Capranos of Ecoversity and Not Your Average Garden Club host highly curated, weekly expert sessions featuring Indigenous elders, renowned herbalists, and regenerative pioneers. Life-changing and tangible medicine, wisdom and resources.
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- Aug 27, 20261h 9m
Forty Years Without Digging What Charles Dowding Learned by Leaving Soil Alone
What if the best thing you could do for your garden is stop trying so hard? Charles Dowding has spent over four decades proving soil doesn't want to be dug; it wants to be left alone. Raised on a dairy farm in Somerset, he started questioning conventional gardening in 1982 and never dug his beds again. Since then, he's written 16 books and built Homeacres into the global home base for the no-dig method.This conversation goes past technique into philosophy: why compost isn't fertilizer but food for an underground fungal network, what a lymphoma diagnosis taught him about pacing, and how the moon shows up as visible rings inside a beetroot. If you've ever assumed gardening had to be a fight, this one argues otherwise.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:03:42] Discovering no-dig by accident in 1982[00:08:15] Leaving Cambridge to return to the land[00:11:28] The soil biome mirrors our gut biome[00:15:47] Firm soil versus compacted soil[00:22:34] Starting no-dig on weedy ground[00:31:15] 13 years of trial data: no-dig yields 50% more[00:38:52] No crop rotation, same potato bed for 11 years[00:44:20] Composting bindweed, blight, & weed seeds[00:52:18] Multi-sowing modules to save space & time[00:58:30] Interplanting carrots with Brussels sprouts[01:04:45] Moon rings in beetroot, 30% more yield[01:09:12] Electroculture, copper tools, & five-stick energy fields[01:14:50] Healing lymphoma & learning to paceMemorable Quotes:"Firm is good. You want your soil to be firm. And the other part of it is mulching on the surface. There's nowhere in nature it gets dug in. It's always sitting on the surface, and you provide it for the soil life to come and eat. You're making a buffet for them there right on the surface." [00:16:38] – Charles Dowding"Be passionate about your gardening and don't be afraid to feel that and show it and feel the love that you are giving to your plants and your soil. They're then giving it back in return." [01:17:28] – Charles DowdingIf Charles has you rethinking what your soil can do, claim your free 72-hour pass to the Garden Summit, 13 speakers plus special guest Zach Galifianakis showing you how to grow food, flowers, and medicine, right here: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep008_no-digConnect with Charles Dowding:Website: https://charlesdowding.co.uk/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charles_dowding/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CharlesDowdingNoDigGardeningYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesDowding1nodigConnect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Aug 14, 20261h 11m
Preserving Your Harvest Simple & Creative Ways to Make Garden Food Last
You nailed the growing part. The counter's covered in more tomatoes, peppers, and blueberries than you know what to do with, and the clock is ticking. Meagan Lloyd, a gardening educator in Charlotte, North Carolina, learned to preserve food from her own family, starting with a jar of strawberry jam she canned with her great-aunt around age 11. She now teaches people how to freeze, dehydrate, pickle, ferment, and can their way through a harvest, confidently and without fear.In this episode, she breaks it down method by method, including the fact that canning makes up only about 20 percent of what preservation actually covers. With a background in cellular and molecular biology, she explains what's really happening inside the jar, which makes botulism a lot less intimidating. If you've ever wondered why grocery store blueberries taste like nothing, this one's for you.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:04:56] Preservation: the missing piece of gardening[00:06:23] Megan's garden as a mental health anchor[00:07:21] The overwhelming first harvest[00:10:41] Preserving for peak flavor & nutrition[00:12:20] A tradition of preservation[00:18:57] How food spoils, & why microbes matter[00:25:31] Freezing: the easiest method, done right[00:29:15] Dehydrating herbs, fruits, & vegetables[00:33:07] Pickling without canning[00:39:55] Spotting spoiled food before you eat it[00:48:24] Curing, smoking, & freeze drying[00:54:12] Using every last bit of the harvest[01:01:04] How preserving changed Megan's relationship with food waste[01:06:15] Gifting preserved food as a love languageMemorable Quotes:"When you harvest things right from your backyard, the food itself feels alive." [01:03:09] – Meagan Lloyd"With preserving, it's so important to really educate yourself and really learn this science of how food spoils and how you can prevent that." [01:05:15] – Meagan LloydAnd if Meagan's got you thinking about what your own hands could learn to do next, the Not Your Average Garden Club Summit takes that same energy further, free for 72 hours: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep007_preservesConnect with Meagan Lloyd:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meggrowsplants/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Meagan-Lloyd-100072315193204/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@meggrowsplantsConnect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Aug 4, 202657 min
From Barren Dirt Lot to 40-Tree Food Forest One Family's Living Model
Big change rarely starts with a plan. More often, it starts with one tree pulled out of the ground, and the willingness to see what grows in its place.In this episode, Evan Marks, founder of The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, walks through how a forgotten dirt lot and an old farmhouse became a 28-acre regenerative hub that now welcomes 150,000 visitors a year. He shares how he read the land before he ever planted it, why he pulled out hundreds of fruit trees that weren't thriving, and what it took to keep building something that's still evolving, season after season.This is a conversation about working with nature instead of against it, at whatever scale you have. Evan grows 40 fruit trees on a lot that's just 5,000 square feet. So if you've ever wondered what your backyard, your community, or your own life could become, this episode is a good place to start listening.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[01:04:00] Meeting at Punta Mona[03:14:00] The Ecology Center Today[05:15:00] The Grateful Dead and Farming.[08:00:00] From Farmhouse to Regenerative Hub[12:30:00] Designing with Nature[18:45:00] Growing 40 Fruit Trees[24:10:00] Starting Over After 200 Apple Trees[28:30:00] Building Regenerative Communities[35:20:00] Grow, Eat, Make, Peace[42:15:00] When Plans Need to Change[48:00:00] Change Your Own World[52:30:00] Steven's Costa Rica Food ForestMemorable Quotes:"We're modeling creative solutions for thriving on planet earth. It's all of the elements of a healthy settlement, a healthy community, a healthy culture." [00:09:18] – Evan Marks"We can't change the world. We can change our world. How big is your world? It starts with you and what you show up with every day." [00:52:18] – Evan MarksIf you're ready to take the next step, join the free Garden Club Summit to learn from world-leading experts in gardening, herbalism, growing food, and regeneration. Claim your free pass at: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep006_fruitConnect with Evan Marks:Website: https://theecologycenter.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theecologycenter/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theecologycenterConnect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Jul 30, 202647 min
Architects of Abundance: How Indigenous Nations Fed Millions Without Extraction
When Dr. Lyla June Johnston, an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (tsay-TSAY-heh-STAH-hess) (Cheyenne), and European lineages, tells people she keeps sheep, they ask what the sheep do for her. Her answer stops the conversation cold: they're her relatives. They're her people.Blending her Stanford background in Human Ecology, graduate study in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the worldview she grew up with, Dr. Lyla June walks us through the receipts: 3,500-year-old rock walls built by hand, fossilized pollen records, chestnut groves that sustained entire regions, clam gardens engineered as habitat for otters and water birds, Hawaiian kalo fields that doubled as nesting grounds for endangered species. None of it built to maximize human yield. All of it built to feed the whole web.She's not here to romanticize it, either. We inherited a destructive way of life, she says, and the bill is coming due. But she also offers a way back, not through guilt, but through reciprocity, through fire, through the humbling act of asking: what is my garden doing for the land?Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:03:52] The sheep question[00:06:33] We are made of relatives[00:08:57] Kin-centric vs. anthropocentric food systems[00:10:36] Chestnut groves: monoculture killed a relative[00:17:21] Pohuacu clam gardens: a nation of clams[00:21:45] Ahupua'a: Hawaiian watersheds as districts[00:26:12] Illinois prairie fire feeds the bison[00:37:18] Humans as keystone species[00:39:12] Ecosystems Benefit Assessment flips farming[00:42:30] Bee baths, bird baths, backyard spirituality[00:44:15] Land back to indigenous women leadersMemorable Quotes:"When you think about life as your relative versus your resource, you start to understand that we're not the masters of the web of life. We're but a strand within it." [00:06:46] – Dr. Lyla June Johnston"The more we give to the land, the much more wealthy we become. The more we try to take from her, the more broke and sad and bankrupt we become as a species." [00:09:18] – Dr. Lyla June Johnston“What is my garden doing for the land?” If this question lit something up in you, that's exactly what the Garden Club Summit is for: 72 hours free with the world's top growers, herbalists, and regenerators, teaching you how to actually start answering it. Claim your free pass at: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep005_peopleLinks Mentioned In This Episode:ReHuman School: https://www.rehuman.earth/Connect with Dr. Lyla June Johnston:Website: https://www.lylajune.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lylajuneFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lylajuneConnect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Jul 16, 202649 min
The Cancer Cell Knows Something We Don't
Cancer isn't just a disease to fight. What if it's the body trying to tell us something? After 17 years studying tumors in the lab, Zach Bush began seeing the same patterns in human health unfolding across ecosystems around the world. In this episode, Zach, a physician specializing in internal medicine, endocrinology, and hospice care, shares how his work on the microbiome, human health, and regenerative food systems has reshaped the way he sees healing.Together, we explore the connection between our bodies, our food, and the natural world. From fertility and biodiversity to permaculture and ecosystem restoration, Zach explains why regeneration starts with changing our relationship with nature, not controlling it. His perspective challenges the idea that we are separate from the world around us and reminds us that we have always been part of it.Zach also shares what cancer taught him about isolation, why compassion reaches further than empathy, and how healing begins with connection. It's a conversation that challenges the way we think about health, nature, and our place in both, leaving you with a perspective that's hard to unsee.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:02:18] From Cancer Research to Soil Systems[00:03:28] Why Connected Cells Don't Become Cancer[00:08:34] Why Trees Near Trails Grow Bigger[00:09:47] Cancer and Ancestral Trauma[00:12:22] DNA as an Antenna[00:13:36] The Zinc Flash at Conception[00:17:05] From Empathy to Compassion[00:19:21] Emotions vs. Feelings[00:26:30] The Fertility Crisis[00:28:16] The Extinction Question[00:30:38] Earth's Rebirth[00:35:22] Letting Go of Judgment[00:38:02] Biosis and the Power of Connection[00:40:50] The End of Inhumanity[00:44:43] Brighter Than the Sun[00:46:35] The Ikaria Story[00:48:06] Who Did You Eat With?Memorable Quotes:"We're at this tipping point in human biology now. We've stored so much trauma inside the human genetics that we can no longer procreate. And so, this is how extinction happens." [00:26:27] – Zach Bush "The difference between physics and life is the concentration of light energy." [00:45:06] – Zach Bush If this conversation leaves you wanting to reconnect with nature in a practical way, join our Garden Club Summit to learn from world-leading experts in gardening, herbalism, and regeneration, and discover how to grow your own food, medicine, and a healthier future. Watch here: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep004_cells Connect with Zach Bush:Website: https://www.instagram.com/zachbushmd/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachbushmd/Connect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Jul 7, 202621 min
Zach Galifianakis on Why Growing Old in a Garden Beats Growing Up in Hollywood
Zach Galifianakis doesn't live in Hollywood. He works there, and he believes there's an important difference.Known for The Hangover, Between Two Ferns, and as an Emmy-winning comedian, actor, and writer, Zach is now exploring a different passion through his Netflix series, This Is A Gardening Show, where he combines humor with gardening, sustainability, and the people preserving the art of growing food.In this episode, Zach shares why he believes a garden might be the simplest remedy for the human condition. He talks about the importance of growing food, preserving elder knowledge, finding hope in small cultural shifts, and why he has more respect for gardeners than actors.This conversation is a reminder that some of the biggest solutions to modern life might begin with something as simple as getting your hands in the dirt.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:01:18] Why Zach visits gardens everywhere[00:01:57] What the Dust Bowl taught us[00:05:08] Can gardens change the world?[00:05:42] Is gardening political?[00:06:23] One seed for a deserted island[00:07:45] The apocalypse and the cardoon[00:09:09] Finding peace in the garden[00:12:13] What "64 harvests" really means[00:13:32] Why the garden show resonates[00:14:01] Walmart and the organic shift[00:15:52] How COVID inspired the show[00:17:04] Wedding garlic and new beginnings[00:18:16] Preserving lost gardening wisdom[00:19:15] Making gardening cool again[00:20:26] How we've lost touch with natureMemorable Quotes:"To me, we can even up the world. We can make a beautiful thing that we're supposed to be doing. But for some reason, humans go in this other negative direction of war." [00:05:21] – Zach Galifianakis"I hope people from different philosophies can pull a carrot out of the ground and agree that it tastes good. And that's a bonding thing." [00:05:46] – Zach GalifianakisIf this conversation inspired you to reconnect with nature and learn practical skills for growing your own food, flowers, and medicine, join the free Not Your Average Garden Club Summit and learn from world-class gardeners, herbalists, and regenerative living experts: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep002_soilConnect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Jun 30, 202639 min
Sixty Harvests Left: The Soil Crisis No One Wants to Admit
Most people think they’re growing plants, but Evan Buckman, a scientist and regenerative systems thinker focused on soil health and food systems, would argue that the real story begins underground. Before anything breaks the surface, a living network beneath the soil is already determining whether your garden will thrive or struggle.In this episode, we explore the soil food web and why soil is not just dirt, but a dynamic, living system. We unpack how modern practices have disrupted that system, and why adding more products often fails to fix the problem. If your garden feels like guesswork or your food lacks flavor, this conversation offers a more grounded way to understand what’s going on.Evan breaks down the organisms and relationships that drive plant health, along with regenerative principles that help restore balance. When you understand the system, growing food becomes simpler, more consistent, and far more rewarding.If you have been trying to fix your garden from the surface, this episode will show you where real change begins.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:08:19] Myth #1: Soil microbes don't matter[00:08:38] The three components of soil[00:09:57] How long it takes to build organic matter[00:13:05] Understanding the soil food web[00:21:24] Extractive vs. regenerative agriculture[00:26:02] Five benefits of living soil[00:27:34] How microbes break down toxins[00:33:35] Tripling cassava root growth[00:39:12] Soil health and human healthMemorable Quotes:"The math shows that if we were to adopt this sort of genuine regenerative agriculture principles, we could sequester all of the carbon that humans put up into the atmosphere every year." [00:27:11] – Evan Buckman"Human health is rooted in soil health, and so is planetary health." [00:32:39] – Evan BuckmanIf this conversation inspired you to reconnect with nature and learn practical skills for growing your own food, flowers, and medicine, join the free Not Your Average Garden Club Summit and learn from world-class gardeners, herbalists, and regenerative living experts: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep002_soilConnect with Evan Buckman:Website: https://soilfoodweb.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-buckman/Connect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
- Jun 23, 202637 min
From 225 Students to Thousands of Acres: What Commitment Over Certainty Actually Looks Like
What if happiness isn’t something you think your way into, but something your body already knows?While lying under the stars on an off-grid permaculture farm in Costa Rica, Alexa Rosenthal felt a quiet, embodied sense of connection, as if the earth itself was meeting her with love. That land had been cared for over 27 years by Stephen Brooks, who built more than a farm. He built a living community rooted in presence, food, and connection.When COVID forced their in-person launch to collapse, they had three weeks to pivot. They moved online, and what followed was unexpected. 225 people signed up, momentum built quickly, Netflix got involved, and eventually 400,000 people tuned in.Ecoversity wasn’t built from a traditional plan but emerged from a desire to respond to a system that felt disconnected and to create something more alive.In this conversation, Alexa shares her three-month commitment rule and her focus on only what feels genuinely fun. Stephen speaks about karmic bank accounts, long-term impact, and creating experiences that shift people so deeply they can’t easily go back to who they were before.Together, they explore fear, faith, and what it takes to bring something meaningful into existence.Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] Introduction[00:40:00] Ecoversity began with a question[01:39:00] Meet Stephen and Alexa[02:25:00] Alexa's decision to join Ecoversity[02:58:00] The Punta Mona turning point[05:51:00] The risk of joining forces[08:20:00] Stephen's 23-year jungle journey[10:48:00] Creating truly impactful time[15:23:00] The COVID pivot: from uncertainty to global impact[21:29:00] Designing thousands of acres with permaculture[22:28:00] Healing depression and anxiety[23:46:00] The power of the three-month rule[26:29:00] When it became more than an online business[30:06:00] Remembering how to be well[31:43:00] Finding your people[33:35:00] Water it, nurture it, commit[34:53:00] Trust yourself and take actionMemorable Quotes:"I was like, oh my God, wait, I finally get it. This is what it feels like when the earth loves you back. I was like, there's actually a reciprocal relationship when you're with land, and you're with the spirit of land that you can feel in your body." [00:04:08] – Alexa Rosenthal"Avoid the paralysis by analysis. Sometimes we're just overanalyzed, and we don't think we're ready, and we don't think that it's baked enough, the idea. And I'm from the school of thought where like, just do it and improve it along the way." [00:34:53] – Stephen BrooksIf this conversation inspired you to reconnect with nature and learn practical skills for growing your own food, flowers, and medicine, join the free Not Your Average Garden Club Summit and learn from world-class gardeners, herbalists, and regenerative living experts: https://www.ecoversity.org/garden-club-summit?utm_source=spotify_for_creators&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nyagc_podcast&utm_content=ep001_foundersConnect with us:Website: https://www.ecoversity.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecoversityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcoversityOrg/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ecoversityorgProduced by Evolved Podcasting: www.evolvedpodcasting.com
About Not Your Average Garden Club Podcast
Stephen Brooks and Seraphina Capranos of Ecoversity and Not Your Average Garden Club host highly curated, weekly expert sessions featuring Indigenous elders, renowned herbalists, and regenerative pioneers. Life-changing and tangible medicine, wisdom and resources.
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