August 2020 - 16

duets
BY PETER KONJOIAN AND JEFF LOWENFELS
Inside the World of Home Gardening
Peter Konjoian is president of Konjoian's Horticulture
Education Services Inc. His career spans four decades as a
commercial grower, researcher and consultant. Jeff Lowenfels
is a best-selling author and North America's longest running
garden columnist. Konjoian can be reached at peterkfes@
comcast.net.
t is with a great deal of pleasure that
I introduce this month's guest, Jeff
Lowenfels. Jeff holds the distinction
of being North America's longest running
garden columnist. He is also the author
of the popular home garden book series
including the three titles " Teaming With
Microbes, " " Teaming With Nutrients, " and
" Teaming With Fungi. "
Jeff has served as president of the
Garden Writers of America, received the
honor of GWA Fellow and is a member
of the GWA Hall of Fame. He is a leading
voice in the organic and sustainable
gardening movement, a lawyer, and the
passionate creator of the " Plant a Row
for the Hungry " program active in all 50
states and Canada.
Peter: Congratulations, Jeff, your effort
to help feed the hungry is magnified
given the crisis the world is experiencing.
With our food supply chains experiencing
disruption, it has become even more
important to support avenues to get
nutritious food to those with poor access
to it.
Let's start with how you became
interested in the science of organic
practices. What inspired you to write
books on the topic, and how did you
acquire the knowledge to evolve into the
authority you've become?
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Jeff: Being North America's longest
running garden columnist ... going on 45
years without missing a single week, has
been a wonderful experience. During this
time I have seen an unbelievable shift in
the way gardeners approach chemicals.
Heck, I went through an unbelievable
change myself.
My father " dabbled " in organics. He
was a big gardener and also in the butter
business (so dull, one of his employees
went off to start Miracle Gro, but that
is another story) and was intrigued by
the first appearance of organic foods
and what he read in Rodale's Organic
Farming and Gardening magazine. This
was back in 1973. Until 1992, I was a
huge believer in chemical fertilizers. Had
you told me
that bacteria
and fungi
were key to
gardening, I
would have
referred you
to a doctor!
I started
writing my
garden
column in
Anchorage,
Alaska,
in 1976 and pretty much remained
a chemical head until I was asked to
investigate some special products. Turns
out they had fantastic numbers and
diversity of microbes and these made
a difference. At the same time, a friend
sent me a picture of a fungal hyphae
strangling a nematode trying to attack a
tomato root. The combination of the two
resulted in a lot - and I mean a lot - of
reading, investigation, experimentation
and study.
Peter: Earlier this year, Colin Bell,
a soil microbial ecologist, joined me
in this space to share his expertise
on the research side of soil microbes.
Our discussion focused on commercial
growers and the opportunity at hand to
educate them about soil health and the
vital and varied roles microbes play in
the root zone. It sounds like you and I
are discussing a topic where consumers
were ahead of the curve and commercial
growers are playing catch up. Your effort
is partly responsible in that you are
helping to educate consumers about the
importance of healthy soil. How did you
acquire your expertise in this arena?
Jeff: The stuff I was " discovering " about
the soil food web was new to me and my
column readers, but it made sense and it
worked. I developed a friendship with Dr.
Elaine Ingham and wrote the first book
Run trials if you are
not convinced organics
for her. What a teacher and inspiration!
" Teaming With Microbes " was published
in 2006. The
publisher
was not
sure of the
science so
subtitled
work. Sure you will need
to make adjustments, but
the market is there.
the book,
" AN organic
gardener's
guide to
the soil
food web. "
Who knew
microbes
had anything to do with gardening?
There were no mentions of microbes
in a positive sense in Rodale's monthly
Organic Farming and Gardening magazine,
that is for sure! The subtitle was quickly
changed to " THE organic gardener's guide
to the soil food web " once it became
clear that the book really did explain the
science behind organic gardening.
I was stunned, as was my publisher, by
the reaction and its success. The second
book came because, after figuring out
how to get the right nutrients to plants,
I didn't know how these got into the
plant and what happened once they
did. In other words, " How do plants eat
and why? " The third book came about
because so much new information
had come available on the use of
http://www.GPNMAG.COM
August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2020
