The more you garden, the more you are interested in hearing what people have to say, especially to learn how best to garden in this climate. Here are traditional, gardening-related media. These venues do not include social media, which will be best served in a separate post (more to come!).
Newspaper
Every Thursday, in the Washington Post’s Local Living section, Adrian Higgins writes a gardening article and Barbara Damrosch, who lives in Maine, writes an article on growing edibles. These are in the print edition and online. During the growing season, on some Thursdays, Adrian answers questions from the public from noon to 1:00 pm. You can e-mail the question in advance or e-mail during that time period. If you missed the session, you can read the questions and answers in transcript format, online. Adrian has written several local gardening books and is now venturing into Facebook Live.
You may find local gardening clubs’ meetings in the Washington Post’s Local Living section. There are many small, local papers that list such clubs as well.
Magazines
The Washington Gardener is a a monthly digital magazine. For a subscription fee, one can receive the pdf file as an e-mail a couple of days before it is published and available online via other means such as Facebook, Issuu, and the Washington Gardeners’ website.
The Virginia Gardener is produced by State-by-State Gardening, a company based in Louisiana, but the articles are written by Virginia gardeners. At this point in time, there are no magazines for Maryland or Washington DC.
Television
Fairfax Public Access sponsors the Gardening News & Views show with Dr. John Buckreis on Monday, 9:00-9:30 pm; Saturdays 8:30 am; and Thursday 7:30 am on channel 10.
Although these next two are not local, your local television stations should have Home and Garden Television (HGTV) and there are landscaping and DIY shows. Check their web site for programming. PBS often has garden-related shows, specials, and documentaries. Check out your local station.
Radio
A Virginia nurseryman, Andre Viette has a live, call in radio program called In the Garden with Andre Viette on Saturdays 8:00-11:00 am aired at several local radio stations. You can listen live from your computer or podcast as well, 1-800-274-4273. In Washington DC, it is WMET, 1160 AM; in Leesburg, VA, it is WAGE, 1200 AM; in Annapolis, MD, it is WNAV 1430 AM; and in Frederick, MD, it is WFMD 930 AM.
Mike McGrath, garden editor for WTOP, 103.5 FM, an all news radio station in Washington, DC, has one-minute “Garden Plot” sessions on Saturday and “Yard Warrior” on Friday morning. He writes the Garden Plot gardening column every Friday on http://www.wtop.com and you can e-mail him your gardening issue/questions. Mike also hosts a Public Radio Show called You Bet Your Garden on Saturday mornings which you may not be able to hear since it is broadcast from Philadelphia but his website with the same name does have gardening advice applicable to this area.
Garden Sense Radio is hosted by Rick Fowler and Jos Roozen of Roozen Nursery, Inc., on Saturday, 8:00 to 9:00 am., WMAL AM 630 and 105.9 FM. Call 1-800-721-6003 or visit their website for more information.
If you know of any additional local gardening media, please contact me so I can keep this as current as possible.
I find Virginia Gardener Magazine one of the most practical of gardening publications. The current (July/ August) issue is one of their better ones! Check it out if haven’t already done so.