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Looking Back on 2023
92 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we look back over and reflect on our past year of podcast episodes. We share some of our favorite moments, tips, and stories. We also talk about what we learned, what we enjoyed, and what we hope to do more of in the next year. Join us as we celebrate a year of Hort Culture!
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Introduction to Hort Culture Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Hort Culture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow. Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
Casual Banter & Moonshine Talk
00:00:15
Speaker
I walked into the chat with the boys. I came into moonshine talk, so if that gives you any reflection on how this episode might end. There was a theoretical discussion on hanging methods of crystallization. I was asking it with sunshine, because, you know.
00:00:32
Speaker
Lexus, I just want to go on record by saying she can't keep a secret at all. Not at all. I will call you out every time. Wow. To be fair, she did distill our conversation quite. Yes, the distillation was very tight there, bringing it Brett. Brett's not going to waste any time if Lexus is not Brett's not. Yeah.
00:00:54
Speaker
It's winter time. We don't have time to waste. I mean, date lights burning people. Let's tell all the secrets. Yeah, it's pretty much free for all where I'm at. So I've got 18 hours of depression scheduled. Let's make it happen. We put that in for this evening, starting around 4 45.
Instagram & Photosynthesis Humor
00:01:13
Speaker
I don't know if you if you follow us on Instagram, you saw a picture of some red and blue lights on the some houseplants from our episode the other week.
00:01:22
Speaker
And if you haven't seen that, you should go look at it because just imagine I am sitting beneath those lights and I'm like, maybe if I could just like photosynthesize, life would be okay. I would be okay if I was a plant.
00:01:39
Speaker
I do photosynthesize. We've moved around the living room and in front of the patio, which is not a good spot for the plants because nobody can get in and out on the deck. We've kind of put chairs there. Well, all the pets now sit in the chairs and it just cracks me up. The cat, the dog, they're just all gravitated and they're just looking out the window like they've never looked out the window before. It's wintertime and the sun is shining today, at least for now here in Kentucky.
00:02:06
Speaker
They just, they just look out the window. It's the cutest thing ever, but the weirdest because there's like transfixed by that. They have a better access to the sun now. So it's like their plants photosynthesize in their happiness. I can't say that like solar storage, you know, you gotta get the battery batteries for sure.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, you get that warm sun on your belly and it just gets charged up. It works for me. It works for me, a hammock. Everyone just imagined Ray and Josh just sitting in the sunlight, soaking it up on their bellies. Yes. Reasing a laser pointer. We're not soaking it up. We are charging up. No, I'm just sitting there and one ear is turned the other way at all this.
00:02:50
Speaker
Oh man. It's good stuff. Winter time. Winter time. But what are we chatting about today, you guys? I guess this episode is going to be a little different, isn't it? This may make a little bit more sense to those that have joined us for other episodes, but maybe since the year's ending, it's a good time to do a little bit of self-reflection on our experiences.
Podcast Journey and Growth
00:03:14
Speaker
up to this point with the podcast. Is that kind of what we're doing today? Or maybe I just made that up, which is quite impossible. Maybe some other elements of vaguely horticulture related life events and stuff could factor in as well. For those of you listening on Spotify, I know that you love Taylor Swift because your top music genre was pop, which means pop princess Taylor Swift. So throwing out that data to you today.
00:03:45
Speaker
I don't know
Music Preferences & Listener Data
00:03:46
Speaker
that maybe it's dark Taylor Swift. It could be that too. I was Taylor Swift for Halloween. Okay. Yes, you were. I forgot about that. Acknowledged. Acknowledged. I just had to point that out. Tyler Kelsey. Tyler Kelsey. Yes.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah. So I was looking through race and out our, our wrapped, everybody's done their wrapped Spotify and I don't listen to Spotify apparently. So it's very hard to get Spotify at my house for some reason, but it was telling us who
Podcast Expansion & Challenges
00:04:16
Speaker
of our people who listen on Spotify, who, what else they listened to and their top genres were pop rock contemporary country. So I guess they're listening to.
00:04:28
Speaker
I just said Taylor Swift, because who else would you be listening to in the pop category besides T-Swift? That's not a true question. Michael Jackson. Maybe. King of Pop. The police. People that are no longer together. Sting. People who are somewhat dead, or dead to us. Yeah, maybe that by your, that's a pop song.
00:04:53
Speaker
It's like the number one song. It's a marketing slogan and a pop song. Yeah, exactly. If you're a flower farmer, it's a marketing slogan. Thank you, Miley. Shout out. I have seen that on a lot of floral advertisements. Kind of the jingle if there's some kind of, you know, rat's problem with playing that song, but at least the jingle. So yeah. But the data behind all of that, the rap when I looked at that,
00:05:17
Speaker
We're on multiple platforms. Those of you that listen know that you may be on Google, you may be on Spotify or Apple or one of the other RSS feeds. We're on a lot of different platforms like a lot of podcasts are. And from different times, we've looked at the metrics.
00:05:35
Speaker
And it's been one of the things that we've discussed about growing the podcast, but we're also very humbled and thankful that we apparently have listeners outside of our local communities. We have listeners that are not just our friends.
00:05:51
Speaker
And it's the nature of the podcasting platforms that we have listeners all over the place. And it's interesting to me when I go back and look and see where folks are listening from. I'm just very thankful because this has been an interesting year where we've basically pulled off. We thought we would do a trial run for a few weeks, or at least in my head, do a trial run to see if we could keep up with it. A weekly podcast, which was
00:06:16
Speaker
For me, kind of intimidating doing a weekly podcast was something new in this format for me, but we've managed to do it. I don't know what episode we're on 30, 37, 38 episodes. We're still, still, still fairly young. The tea is hitting the caffeine. My words are getting on top of each other. That 1800s is hitting.
00:06:38
Speaker
Yes, the accumulation of time weighs heavy upon my soul in the darkness. March 11th was the release date of the first podcast, March 11th, 2023. Was that it? Yeah. Time has flown by and we have managed, I think for the most part, to have, there might've been one week we had a glitch or a skip, but for the most part, we've been able to keep up with the weekly. The fourths of us had COVID.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yes, there was a lot of COVID involved. That was a tough week. Don't say the name. It was tough. Yeah, don't say that. But we were able to keep up with it. I mean, I'm surprised. For me, 2023 felt like the first totally back to something approaching normal year, like the whole year. Not to say that we didn't go back to doing things typically in 2022.
00:07:29
Speaker
But it was just that, I don't know, from the jump. But we, my own 2023 started out, well, I guess it started out okay. But 2022 ended, we had like a pretty bad car accident. And the whole first part of the year was kind of a blur. And then you all talked me into a podcast while I was still in the middle of that. And I've been committed to it ever since, apparently, it's been my experience. So for me, 2023 has been
00:07:57
Speaker
pretty good from that start. Started the bar low and kind of went in a positive direction. But we did, in that first part of the year, we had done through the SARE stuff that we do, a farm transition, series of farm transition, outreach, workshop things. And that was a really interesting way to start the year and start thinking about things a little bit differently.
COVID's Impact on Programming
00:08:24
Speaker
Do you all have any kind of programmatic highlights from stuff that you've done this year either with the podcast or otherwise?
00:08:34
Speaker
Not really for me, not really. I mean, there's been some program highlights that, you know, specific to topic, but more than anything, and it goes back to COVID. I mean, I know that that that's been a while back, but it's still fresh on my mind. It was sort of a global thing. COVID was, and you know, an extension, we talk a lot about trying to get back to normal, trying to rebuild groups, trying to rebuild community, you know,
00:08:57
Speaker
and trying to manage all the different ways that we deliver programming, which is kind of for me what led me working with you guys that are on here and myself investing efforts into this thing. It's just another way to deliver programming. So that's sort of been a highlight to me.
00:09:14
Speaker
I mean, during COVID, obviously, we were doing a lot of things, and Brett, you guys were doing, I know a tremendous amount of things, program delivery online, but really made me kind of step back, and I'm still rethinking what is community programming. Obviously, there's the premium community programming we as agents are involved with. That's the face-to-face stuff. But there's all these different ways of delivering programming, whether it's a video that's recorded and then shown later, or
00:09:41
Speaker
webinars or things like podcasting, but that's been the highlight of my, really my 2023, I guess, is the diversification of, um, kind of delivery methods for me. And it's kind of all started with COVID. But if I'm trying, I'm trying to find a silver lining here, guys, I'm trying to find the lemonade from lemons. It's the fact that I've, I've, I've, I'm still rethinking what, what is a community program for us in extension? Cause that's kind of what we do. We do non-formal education and that that's been a highlight for me.
00:10:11
Speaker
The podcast is part of that it's part of my efforts to try to branch out a little bit.
Favorite Episodes & Content Styles
00:10:20
Speaker
that diversity of kind of delivery and examining that coming in, as Brett said, kind of like sort of a first year back to normal-ing in a way that started to feel more normal to me. I mean, COVID was just so kind of disruptive to how we do things in our day-to-day, but also like our outreach and how much in-person programming was. One of the things that stood out to me for this year was putting together this kind of comprehensive checklist
00:10:50
Speaker
at the end of a multi-year project for distributing information for sustainability practices in agriculture. And kind of a lot of that program delivery was done with remote, like kind of done remotely with remote delivery in mind. And, you know, this year was the year that it was kind of all summarized into one big document. And I remember
00:11:14
Speaker
kind of dragging and pulling all that stuff together over the year, over the previous two years and how much of it was remote delivered material, but now is in this kind of handheld and put together publication on sustainability practices. Yeah, and that is how I would sum up kind of 2023 in a lot of ways is kind of this transition, this
00:11:41
Speaker
collection, having this collection of remote developed material and moving back into some more novel ways of delivering it to people like the podcast. And I believe COVID, to kind of speak a little bit more to that point, Josh, do you guys feel that having gone through such a global event and having to digest, you know, the way we receive information, just let's say just consumers in general, that's changed what
00:12:12
Speaker
kind of people's needs or their expectations for getting information.
00:12:16
Speaker
I've seen that a little bit in my local community is that we had some people that may have had, let's say, limited transportation. They really enjoyed, you know, receiving some of the programs that we offer. They really appreciated us reaching out on certain ways, you know, in certain ways. And they still want that, even though we're trying to transition back into what we call normal, which is more in-person. So that's created this balancing act of how do you do that? I mean, you have a pot of information like you were talking about, Josh.
00:12:45
Speaker
But how do you deploy that? I mean obviously the answer is all the ways but all the way sometimes there's not enough time for all the ways and we're still trying to you know morph into what we need to be you know as educators or You know workers in our field getting information out And I still feel that so so it sounds like a big project Josh. That's kind of at a point
00:13:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it you know concluded midway through the year, but it was a collection of all
00:13:17
Speaker
activity that had happened over the previous two years. And just kind of see it all there and, and remember how there was a time where everything was being delivered remotely. And now a lot of things are and you know, it kind of gives us the opportunity to think about when we're delivering things, is this something that could also be recorded and delivered, which I would say that's become more of a standard now is, you know, when we put something together, there's kind of a
00:13:48
Speaker
The thought is in the room, like, can we record this and also make this available for the future? Or just for people who can't make it here on time for this event? You know, podcasting makes me think of that. It's like you do something great. You do an in-person program that was great. It makes you think, oh, how can I capture that so that we can have that in the future? That extends my reach, but also doubles my effort. You capture one great program.
00:14:17
Speaker
And then you have that recorded. So this year has also been that for me. It's how can I record things so that I have it for later if I want to use it for later. Because if you do one great program, I still love doing in-person programming. I'll just say it. I love that. I think that's a premium way of delivering programs face to face. And some of the work we do as field agents, we have to do it one on one or in small groups.
00:14:39
Speaker
that's the nature of what we do but I love making an effort and then capturing that digitally so that I could have it for later to either use it in parts or use it as a whole program that I just you know push out later I do like that been thinking a lot about that too and podcasts are one of those things where we can you know anybody can go back and listen to any one of the 30 some odd programs that we've done so far and that's that's pretty cool that's pretty cool it captures the effort a little bit better
00:15:08
Speaker
I think for me, the effect of the COVID era was yes, it did press fast forward on a lot of technology and technological adoption, particularly by people who previously had avoided it or resisted it or whatever. And I mean, that includes things like digital e-commerce and accepting credit card payments and touchless and pre-orders and all that kind of stuff in the marketing side.
00:15:37
Speaker
but also in that development or program delivery side. But I think for me, what it has underscored is the importance of, and maybe even the primacy of quality and authenticity in the programs we're delivering and then like in the relationships. And what I mean by that is,
00:16:01
Speaker
Yes, it is possible to deliver things through virtual means, and it's also possible now to do things in persons, which means we have to make a choice. But I have seen many poor presentations, and a change of format one way or the other wouldn't have helped. I wouldn't have wanted to sit and do it in person, and I didn't want to sit through it. I've probably given more than a few of those myself, to be honest.
00:16:26
Speaker
And I think, you know, choosing the technology is an important part of it, but I am just so, some of the best content I've ever seen, I've seen virtually. And I've experienced it through video or through, you know, recorded, produced video, or in some cases, you know, recording or a live stream thing. I've seen really effective stuff done in person too. And in both cases, the quality of the information being shared
00:16:51
Speaker
And again, the authenticity either with the relationship with the person speaking or like trusting that they know what they're talking about or their ability to communicate was like so, so important. And I think that the lack of, of contact and some of it being mediated through the internet, et cetera, and us, us.
00:17:09
Speaker
You know, we have been, we had been doing webinars and digital content delivery back to 2015 when it, we had Adobe connect or some, some Adobe platform that would go crazy and delete the PowerPoint like right before you were ready to start. And it's still going crazy occasionally. Keep you on your toes. Keep it extemporaneous. It's a reminder that everything is permanent. Everything is impermanent.
00:17:34
Speaker
But, and then so the transition to the Zoom stuff, it was a relatively easy transition for us, but the content that we put out during that period was really important. I think, I'm curious how you all see,
00:17:48
Speaker
What what needs other than our own enjoyment of doing it, which I think we all really enjoy doing it Do you do you see what do you see this podcast thing fitting in? with that in this environment like do you I think our you know our relationships and our banter and all that stuff and getting to know us is a big part of it, but I'm curious what you all think or what you've heard feedback on and
00:18:11
Speaker
I think when we started talking about doing the podcast, to me it was like, what would I want
Learning through Podcast Format
00:18:20
Speaker
to hear? And maybe that was selfish, but I also know that, you know, I have a, I have a posse, right? And in my line of work, my, my job is to listen to the community and their needs and wants. And a lot of the time, you know, we all align in that way.
00:18:35
Speaker
and I wanted something that I could learn while I was doing something else.
00:18:43
Speaker
That's where the digital technology gets overwhelming, at least it is to me. And I know a lot of friends that I have is just like, well, yeah, it's great that I can go access that YouTube video and don't get me wrong. I'm really glad that I can go watch how to put irrigation together. If I couldn't make the live, that is valuable. But I also have to seek that out. I have to sit down and watch it.
00:19:08
Speaker
and make time and schedules. And for people who are growing or farming, it's just really hard sometimes to make time. But what you can do is listen a lot of the time. So you can be on the tractor, you can be weeding a bed, you can be doing that and listening. So I thought the podcast was a way to get into people's earbuds who maybe wanted to learn some things and we do the best we can and try to give quality when we don't have visuals available to us.
00:19:37
Speaker
Also just like.
00:19:39
Speaker
you know, you're not alone in it out there, you know, how we made it where we want to throw a lot of science at you and facts and stats and awesome stuff, but also just the quality of life that surrounds gardening and farming and things like that. And some of that is building a community. And I don't know about you. I don't know what kind of podcast you all listen to, but a lot of the podcasts I listen to, I know I'll never probably meet these people in person, but somehow I have like formed this like make believe community with a lot of them, right?
00:20:09
Speaker
I think it's real community. If you feel like it is, then it is. I call them internet friends. Yeah, my internet friends. We've talked about that. Chatting online. I'm speaking with you. I'm wearing a bonsai shirt from one of my internet friends for the first time ever on the podcast. For the first time ever, yeah. They just pretend like they don't know me. I think it's a way to get to those, from Extension Agent Alexis's point of view, it's a way to get to people.
00:20:36
Speaker
who maybe don't have time to watch our presentations, to come to our presentations in some way. We can still get them that information. We can still be available to them and maybe in a way help community build there, especially when we have local guests and stuff like that. But from like grower Alexis's point of view, it's nice to be able to receive information like this.
00:21:01
Speaker
when I'm doing other things and I can chuckle at some weird joke that Josh makes and be like, why does he think he's so funny? And stuff like that. Not a joke. I'm serious, guys. Who was joking?
00:21:18
Speaker
So I think that is a benefit is reaching audiences that we didn't before, but maybe also providing some sense of community, having, you know, almost like you're in a conversation, but maybe that's just me and my avid imagination. It's not crazy. It's imagination, everyone. I think something that kind of, to me, to what you're speaking to is like the
00:21:44
Speaker
So much of the value of like a lot of the work we do is informal and it's hard to get across some of that informality and that off the cuff type conversation and discussion in a formal presentation or video, like the thing goes on. And whereas we're just talking and we're talking about stuff that's interesting, that's related to order culture and things come out where it's like, Oh yeah, I didn't really realize that. Or yeah, that's a good point. Or I wouldn't have thought to bring that up, but I'm glad that you did.
00:22:11
Speaker
And if I had to make a power point about that, I would have left that out, but instead it gets to unfold a little more organically, which is really fun and cool. And yeah, I think I, when Josh makes a dumb joke, I think how is, how is he so funny? You know, I don't think about why does he think he's so funny. I just, and that is how we meet myself. And that's where we're different. Sometimes I just say stuff and people laugh at me.
00:22:41
Speaker
For a long time, it wasn't supposed to be funny, but then I learned what they liked, and I started saying that. With an adder is a distinction and a fine line. Indeed. I made a Michael Jackson reference earlier in Alexis. You said that, yeah, telling people you are not alone. And I was just like, you are not alone. And he had his short hair kind of like, I don't even know what you would call that haircut, but yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
And this podcast would be really hard to do. I know I enjoyed having conversation with you guys because that's a new format for me. And we try to forewarn our guests that come onto the show that if they are used to delivering educational programming in more of a scripted nature, you're not going to find that here. Yeah. As our frequent listeners very well know, we're very conversational. That's the format that I personally enjoy. It's not always the best method, but
00:23:31
Speaker
I'll be listening, I'll be listening to that after the part.
00:23:45
Speaker
We try to keep things sort of conversational. It's one of the things that I do enjoy about the podcasting format.
00:23:52
Speaker
and have enjoyed kind of working with you guys. And that was different for me. I was more of the scripted, you know, show a slideshow, which I've grown to, I've tried to get away from that delivery method as much as possible because I've over relied on it over the years. But that's one of the other reasons why I've gravitated to podcasting because it is educational programming, but more of an organic flow.
00:24:16
Speaker
More of an unscripted flow conversational style and that really appeals to me and hopefully it does to listeners as well because i listen to a different podcast. And that's one of the things one of the reasons that i like listening to podcast myself is that.
00:24:33
Speaker
It's not as scripted, so hopefully that's a format that will allow us in the extension service to maybe, as Alexis said, to reach out to more people, more stacks of demographics that normally we wouldn't be able to reach, reach more people's ears.
00:24:49
Speaker
with this delivery method and that's what it's all about to me is extending our reach and making sure that we're reaching out to as many different folks as possible and the great thing about a podcast is you know this is not just one county working here in Kentucky like we tend to do a lot of our work in county
00:25:06
Speaker
parameters as extension agents. But, you know, there's folks on the podcast here, Josh and Brett, that are state level focused. And, you know, the podcast is great. It can go all across the state and outside of the state and on and on. That's one of the great delivery formats. But yeah, I guess the saying all of that, that's just the style is what I've enjoyed being on the podcast. And sometimes things just come up that surprise me because I never know what I'm going to say, for one thing.
00:25:32
Speaker
podcast. I surprise even myself. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have said that. Yeah. Can I take that back? Can we post produce that just right out of there? Yeah. And we never do. We just leave stuff in. Sometimes I just start talking. I don't even know where it's going. No, I just let it go. I just let it flow. Yeah. Just, just, just start talking. Yeah. I noticed the office reference. We're always sliding those in. Yeah. But it's been fun. It's fine. It's a, it's a building. You know, it builds me up, you know, working with you all. So that's, that's a good thing.
00:26:00
Speaker
You fill my cup. Oh, yes. Programmatically, I think, you know, we have to, in my opinion, in a 21st century context, you have to think about this.
Diverse Audience Reach Strategies
00:26:13
Speaker
If I were going to be like a tech bro, I think I was like an ecosystem of methods of reaching people and they all kind of compliment each other and feed into each other. You're not going to hit everyone with the podcast. You're not going to hit everyone with a lecture. You're not going to hit everyone with a publication, but you have to kind of offer it in these different formats and different types of like types of introducing or sorry, different approaches to introducing topics.
00:26:38
Speaker
you have different learning styles. To Alexis's point, you have different availability. If someone's in a beginning stage and they're in that, we talked about the Hort Biz quiz last week or at some point recently, I can't remember when it was, but we talked about that. If you're in that stage, maybe you go to all the lectures at the local extension office that they can put out and
00:27:02
Speaker
maybe you are able to download and read all the publications. And I think in general, we've seen with the CCD stuff that we tend with the more diversified we are, not just in our crops, Center for Crop Diversification, but also the more diversified we are in our methods.
00:27:20
Speaker
You start to reach these audiences you hadn't touched before and then they can cross-pollinate into other things that are available, finding the publications or finding the Hort Biz Quiz or connecting with their local agent. Maybe they hadn't done that yet. I think all of that programmatically is a strategy we have to have.
00:27:41
Speaker
Redundancy and overlap and different methods and that's tough sometimes blending all of this together and not getting lost in the delivery methods because you know at the end of the day that we're thematic we're sort of based around programs a particular program that we're all interested in here's a many facets of horticulture.
00:28:01
Speaker
But it's easy to get lost in the technology and the delivery formats because all of that takes time and it takes management. And that's one of the challenges, but it's also one of the opportunities to kind of extend your reach. So it's a manager. That's one of the things about the technological thing. I think there are there are, let's just say, I think that there are unimaginative people doing similar work to us who think, oh, great technology, I can just hop on a webinar and reach way more people and it's way more effective.
00:28:31
Speaker
And it takes so much more effort to be strategic and careful and do high quality outreach using the right tools. But that's our job. That's what we're supposed to be doing. And that's what we're going to continue to try to do. So maybe we can move away from the nerdy programmatic delivery pedagogical reflections
Personal Impact of Favorite Episodes
00:28:50
Speaker
and say, did you all have a favorite episode of the year? I did.
00:28:55
Speaker
Shoot. Sounds like Brad ready to go. Brad is ready. He's going to name an episode that none of us remember. He recorded one by himself. He did. He did. Well, no, I mean, I'd- Which one? For me, it was the Joy episode. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:29:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think especially pushing. Pushing you nerds and. Professional people in the direction of talking about more abstract personal uncomfortable things was so cool. And touching and I don't know, I just. There was just something very nice about it.
00:29:44
Speaker
And it to me gave another dimension to what we're doing here, like a very personal dimension. And, uh, yeah, I just really appreciated it and I hope to do more. I mean, this is a little bit in that, in that vein, but I think it, it gives, it gives that, you know, the culture of horticulture or the, the humanity of horticulture. I think, I don't know. It was just really, it was really nice. That was a good one. Yeah. It was a good one. And it was different.
00:30:15
Speaker
Sort of a theme and that's what makes the show interesting because we do cover a variety of topics but and then that's a balancing point we try to make is between like homeowner and commercial production marketing try to cover all this but those episodes are so nice that come along where you know we kind of do the reflection pieces. I know a lot of that's inward looking and we have an outward facing crowd and that's that's fine because we're doing it for you guys.
00:30:42
Speaker
But yeah, that was a great episode. Brett, I really enjoyed that. And it sort of gives me time to get to know you guys. That's kind of a fun thing for me. I kind of know you all, but I don't know all the dimensions, nor will I ever. But yeah, that was a cool episode. Brett, I agree. Yeah, there's a lot of people that you know pretty well, actually. But you never have that opportunity to really... What makes them tick?
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah, or to even ask those kind of probing questions. That's why you said that Alexis. Like you're trying to figure us out to figure out... How would you make them stop ticking if you were... Yes, how do you make them stop so much ticking? Yeah. Tick tock. Tick tock. I wish that we had already added video to this podcast because the looks we're getting from Alexis are pretty searing. The looks are, yeah, I'm getting a sunburn from the looks. Did you have a favorite episode Alexis?
00:31:37
Speaker
Or did you have thoughts on the joy episode? I did and I have forgotten them in my stress of I was muted when I started to talk and then Ray started talking and I was like, wow, rude. And then I was like, oh, I'm muted. And everybody was quiet and we noticed that Alexia, I was like, somebody has sustained something with Ray. Alexia's like, I don't know. And then Ray started talking and I was like, excuse me, was I not? Wow, he's even more rude than normal.
00:32:01
Speaker
How dare you? So I don't actually remember what I was going to say about that episode other than I did. I do remember that being a good episode where I was like, you know, talking about my feelings and stuff, but, um, cathartic gloss right over them. Yeah. So what's your favorite episode, Alexis?
00:32:24
Speaker
You know, I've really enjoyed our guests. I think it's been fun to have them on. And I, I was just looking through like our big list of all of them and I have a couple favorites. I think some, one of them was like myth busting, I think was fun because I swear like, it's like a big part of our job is just like people calling and being like, can I identify a male pepper versus a female pepper by how many bumps on the bottom it has? And I'm like,
00:32:50
Speaker
So that's not the way botany works, but let me just go through that with you. You can't, in case you were just wondering, there's not a thing of male and female peppers. They all have seeds because they are a fruit. That was the one that we recorded and we were all in the same office, wasn't it?
00:33:12
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I think that was, yeah. Yeah. That was my favorite. Even though like the sound was kind of, I don't know how that came out exactly, but that was cool.
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah, we were all trying to manage the situation because we found out that it's harder to do in person that it is remotely because of technology with it. So we were all leaning in or leaning back and yeah, that was, we'll have to figure out a better way to do that in 2024. Just for a couple, I've already got some things set up. If we want to do that again, I've already figured out the microphone stuff. Well, there was like lunch involved. I think maybe that could play a role in to why I really liked it a lot. If there's food automatically like it more. Yes.
00:33:54
Speaker
Content of lunch and the content other than the food josh, what did you uh, what'd you enjoy? About the myth making no just about like what episode your favorite episode just sticks out to you I mean I it's a joke that I like to tell other people about like, you know this podcast like episode that was I think 55 minutes that we talked about mulch and
00:34:18
Speaker
That episode rocked. I like that episode. It could have been three hours. It could have been four. We had to get cut off because mulch was real. And I worried that we were not having much to say about mulch. I didn't want it to be too little, but I also didn't want it to be too mulch.
00:34:38
Speaker
Oh, hmm. Yeah. I see what you did there. People are going to have four inches of that is enough. A drinking game on puns of Brett's, I think shot for every pun. Somebody's over there with the Saurus trying to figure it all out, which either sitcom or, you know, where did they come from? The references. Yeah, but I like.
00:35:02
Speaker
I mean, I like all the kind of different ways and we explore kind of horticulture and people and all that. But I really do tend to like the episodes that, you know, by their title or the simple theme, we think of it as like something that how could you even talk about that for that long, but that it ends up being, you know, this
00:35:24
Speaker
rich vein that we can mine and talk about the practices of doing something. I remember when I was going to say, someone told me horticulture is 90% people and 10% plants. I was like, damn it if that's not true. Horticulture, the culture of horticulture. See, that's us. That's us. Horticulture, yes. I was like, yeah, that's pretty accurate. You don't go into the plant world unless you're willing to deal with people because
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, but you can't make money living out there if you go into hort horticulture business. Oh, yeah. So, okay, hort as a culture, not a I'm going to disappear and become a, you know, a forest witch. I can be a monoculture.
00:36:17
Speaker
Well, the, I know Ray is going to share his in a second, but the people of the world, at least via Spotify, seemed to, seemed to like the IPM podcast the most. Oh yeah. I listened to it the most. Yeah, I thought that was interesting because. That was Jonathan Larson. Sort of a heavy thing. Yeah. Was that Jonathan Larson or was that us before that? Was that Jonathan Larson or was that us before that? I think that was a Larson episode. He could be the ringer that.
00:36:45
Speaker
You know, people are actually following or whatever on his podcast. Yeah. Yeah. He's like Elvis of many impersonators, only lots of entertainment substitutes. Oh man. If you, if you don't, Ray, did you have a safe?
Producer Stress & Burnout Discussion
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:12
Speaker
Probably, I mean, I like the culture pieces to the plant world. I always enjoy those. I enjoy the ones where we get to talk about some of our own experiences. But one that I enjoyed just because it was a bit challenging and wasn't real comfortable for me, but a very important topic was the
00:37:30
Speaker
Producer stress and burnout because it was something that was near and dear to my heart that you know our families experienced But I enjoyed that one. It was a tough one for me because it was so personal And it's not an easy topic to talk about but I would when we first threw that out. There's a possible topic I was like wow, this is this is gonna be a heavy topic I don't know where this is gonna go but you know, we kind of talked about and it was okay, but I remember that one specifically
00:37:57
Speaker
For the content in it. And it was, it was challenging, uh, for me, but I, you know, that's one of the ones that I remember, uh, that I guess not enjoyed would not be, um, not be the right way to say that, but maybe, uh, was proud that we, that we kind of tackled that because anytime we talk about producer stress and burnout, I feel like we're tackling that topic rather than enjoying doing the topic. So meaningful engagement with that. Yes. Unvery uncomfortable reality.
00:38:28
Speaker
Just in case anybody's out there searching for these old episodes, that one, Ray, said the name pretty closely so you'd be able to find it under producer stress and burnout. But the one that I called the Joy episode was called Reasons We Grow Other Than Money.
00:38:41
Speaker
Uh, in case you want to go back in the back catalog and listen to that. Yeah. The one about mulch was like all about mulch. So yeah. And we, uh, you know, it's a bit of fault with advertising. That is not all that we can say about. If you want more involved, it is all about mulch, but it's not all we have about mulch. Maybe we need to bring in like,
00:39:03
Speaker
I feel like, you know, we've had a lot of like court professionals and, you know, people really involved in the court world, but maybe we need to bring on someone who like, uh, like more, um, psychology ask for talking about, you know, cause I think, I think.
00:39:22
Speaker
Like why am I the person that I am? Um, well, just talking about burnout or like maybe thinking of it as a, um, you know, starting the season, you know, how to set goals for yourself that are maybe more like.
00:39:38
Speaker
from a mental perspective. And so we talk about setting goals for business. We talk about setting goals for production. Like that's something is relatively easy for all of us to talk about, but setting goals for yourself for self care. And I hate the term self care because I think it insinuates like, you know, bubble baths and getting your nails done and stuff, which is if that's what you're into, like I'm here for that also. But I think it's a lot more than just
00:40:04
Speaker
that it can just be, you know, maybe buying yourself a new pair of knee pads so that when you are waiting, it's not miserable. Like I think that there is, and we've talked, we talked about that in that episode, but maybe we need someone. Mostly I'm just saying, can we please bring someone on for me so I can personally learn that and other people can really cool idea. I know they had, so like they had done, you know, it's a little bit less on the pro. Well, I guess, I don't
00:40:31
Speaker
It's a little less on the proactive side and more on the, let's bring attention to the issue, but they had the farmer health wellbeing nurse person who was doing extension programming. I think she retired. I'm not sure if she's been replaced or what the deal is going on with that. There's been some of the expansion of the land grant mission stuff, and I don't know, maybe that's factored in, but I really liked that idea as a concept.
00:40:57
Speaker
I think going into your crop planning, it's like to me, I would almost think of it as part of my crop planning, things that I can do to
00:41:09
Speaker
sustain myself to be more sustainable as a farmer because if you think about those three pillars, people are one of them and you are a person. You are not the robot you thought you were. Maybe those of you who are under 30, yes, you probably are still a robot. For those of us who have hit 30 now, we're like, maybe I'm not actually the robot I thought I was. My batteries are getting where. Oil can. Oil can. Yeah. You don't pop lock and drop it like you used to.
00:41:39
Speaker
You do drop but there's no next step. You don't pop again, that's for sure. I think something I'd love to do, think about a way to bring in is the interface between agriculture and art.
00:41:59
Speaker
I think that there's a lot of different ways. Obviously we have a cut flower OG on the line here. And I had gotten into some flower arranging and like the Ikebana style of flower and more minimalist kind of Japanese influenced style. But I think, you know, Ray's wife has worked with kids and art in extension contexts and now in other contexts.
00:42:28
Speaker
We have some fine arts agents that we could probably pull in and talk to. If you have other ideas about how to do that, I would love to hear. Dying fabrics. I'd be realizing just how important. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, if you think about landscaping,
00:42:44
Speaker
It's 50% art and it's 50% science. That's what I stress in that portion of the Master Gardener program. So much of that is just taking like color theory and applying it to landscape colors. I mean, yes, there is, you know, plants and the way that we enjoy plants and lay plants out. Yeah, art and science is blended together so much. And that's one of the reasons it's weird that it's one of my favorite things to teach a Master Gardener is landscaping on large and small scales.
00:43:13
Speaker
It's because that juxtaposition of art and science together, you use both principles equally. When you landscape, you use psychological theory with making big spaces feel small and vice versa. Yeah, Brett, that's a, that's a cool hope. Hopefully somebody that is putting that in the spreadsheet that loves spreadsheets, you all. I know that I've made reference to a bunch of times, but it was awesome. I was recent this past year, I was able to go to the national.
00:43:41
Speaker
Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington, D.C. And you mentioned that kind of landscaping as this blend of art and science. They have these really cool trees and but the hardscaping that they did with some of the paths. So they have sections of the National Arboretum where there's a part of it where it's like the Japanese collection and they kind of
00:44:06
Speaker
have these curvaceous lines and then you transition into a more like English style garden and it's much more right angles and just that type of environmental influence. I don't know, it's just really cool. I think that would be a good way to...
00:44:17
Speaker
a good thing to bring in and talk about. So we got a lot of different ideas. And if you have ideas, if you want to know more about mulch, we can do that. Yeah, we can make that happen. Josh is like, please, please let me talk about mulch. I've got one. The art and science of mulch. The mystery's revealed. We all have a lot of mulch, too. I think it's been a pretty darn good year on the whole here. It has been. Especially the time I've spent with you wonderful people.
Future Directions for the Podcast
00:44:45
Speaker
Shucks. Yeah.
00:44:47
Speaker
And we've had a lot of discussion on how we deliver this thing. Are we going to continue to do kind of the kind of format that we've been doing a weekly? Are we going to add video has been a discussion a couple of times in the past and the future? Are we going to make it onto like YouTube? And, you know, there's we're always trying to live episodes with people like calling in. Oh, that's terrifying. Kind of thing. I don't know.
00:45:08
Speaker
Oh man. If there's food, I'll give it a shot. I didn't mean like in person. Zoom, like a Zoom live and they can like chat boxes or something. No, I do think that's a good idea to go to live at events like the fruit and veggie conference and, you know, record onsite. I mean, if we can make the technology work, maybe at some of these events, because I know we'll be turned on in work mode at that time and there'll be specialists there that we could trick into coming over maybe with a buffet, Josh.
00:45:38
Speaker
All right. Now I'm in now. Gotcha. Gotcha. I'll bring some candy. I'll have peppermints and butterscotch in my purse so you can have whatever you need. Bring gravy, bring a little KFC thing in your purse. I will be in on that gravy too. Like shots so that I can keep you around once you're going to go to sleep. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to have to give it to you in little bursts of gravy gravy.
00:46:08
Speaker
I'm excited. That's a good way to book in this conversation is moonshine and gravy. I like that.
00:46:23
Speaker
All right. I see you take us home, Alexis. Awesome. Well, uh, we appreciate you being here for this kind of fun, jazzy episode. And, uh, we are serious when we tell you that we'd love to hear from you. Otherwise you're just going to get all the random things that the bald boys can come up with. And then me and Ray going, yeah, but like, what about, so if you actually have some cool ideas or want to hear more about a certain topic, definitely.
00:46:47
Speaker
let us know and you can do that by reaching out via email if you like. That's hortculturepodcastatl.uky.edu. We link that in the show notes as well. Or if you're tech savvy and fancy and you like to be on Instagram, you can follow us over at hortculturepodcast. You can shoot a DM over there if you would like to. If you'd like to see like videos of something happening. So
00:47:12
Speaker
If you want to see how Josh mulches trees and what volcano mulching looks like and how not to do it, let us know that too, and we can throw those up online and make those accessible. If you're like, okay, I just really need a visual of all that gravy, that's cool. We can do that, but you have to let us know because I need something to fall back on when I tell Josh to do these things.
00:47:38
Speaker
Please let us know there. You can also leave us a review. It helps other people find us. I know several of you have. Thank you so much for that. We really do appreciate it. But anyways, we hope that as we continue to grow this podcast in 2024, that you will grow with us and that you will join us next time. Have a great one.