John Magee on Native Plant Design (#39)
This month on The Plantastic Podcast, I have a rich conversation on native plants, design philosophy, and practical garden maintenance with John Magee. John shares how his hands-on experience in landscape installation shaped his approach in design. He discusses the importance of working with and not against client constraints to create gardens that are both ecologically vibrant and visually compelling. We also discuss one of his favorite designs that was recently featured in Fine Gardening magazine, and he shares his approach for plant choice and rain garden design. We also cover his smart, efficient strategies for managing weeds in pollinator plantings, including using weed whackers between plants and burying weeds on site, the need to move away from invasive species, and common myths about native plants being more expensive or difficult to grow. And, of course, we talk about memorable moments on The Native Plant Podcast. Enjoy the show!
The Plantastic Podcast · John Magee, Jared Barnes
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Show Notes
JOHN MAGEE BIO
John Magee has been designing and building landscapes in the Washington DC Metro area and beyond for the past 30 years. After receiving his B.S. degree in Agriculture from the Ohio State University and spending a few years training and showing horses, he settled into the landscaping industry as the General Foreman of Pennsylvania’s highest award-winning landscaping firm. While in Pennsylvania, he became a volunteer at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary where he met his wife Susana and was introduced to habitat gardening and the use of native plants in the landscape. He now operates his own award-winning design firm Magee Design in the beautiful countryside of Middleburg, VA where he also enjoys kayaking and taking long walks with his wife and dogs Shaq & Dilly. He created and hosts the award-winning Native Plant Podcast to help inform the public about the benefits of landscaping with native plants.
THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST
The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.
You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!