Digging In The Dirt with Kevin Gallagher

This "Digging in the Dirt" features locals doing the right thing by our pollinators by changing their lawns and gardens. Plus words of wisdom from renowned entomologist Doug Tallamy. First up is Cori Kondas., After retiring, she joined Protect Our Pollinators, POP , a unique Newtown group that started 11 years ago with a mission to save endangered pollinators through education and action. She joins me to talk about having “More Garden Pollinators with a 3x3x3 Planting Method.” Then I speak with Doug Tallamy , who inspires both of my other guests. Doug is an American entomologist , ecologist and conservationist . He is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware . Tallamy has written and co-authored several popular books. He is also one of the founders of Homegrown National Park, a nonprofit organization promoting habitat restoration and biodiversity on public and private lands through the planting of native plants and removal of invasive species William Sweet, a New Canaan Ct resident and a 20 year old student at UConn is a man who has a passion for certain environmental issues that he is working to address through his activism. He is most active in his opposition to lawns. William is convinced that homeowners should convert their lawns into native meadows. With that in mind, he began to advocate for the creation of legislation to offer homeowners in Connecticut multi-purpose credits for doing so.

Harry Holding joins me on this episode of "Digging in the Dirt". Harry is a British garden designer and author known for championing edible landscapes that are both beautiful and practical. His debut book, Eat Your Garden , explores “Edimentals” which are plants that are both ornamental and edible. Harry says this is a low-effort way to grow food.

My guest is Rob Hopkins. Rob is a British writer and permaculture advocate best known as the co-founder of Transition Network and the author of The Transition Handbook. He has helped inspire community-led sustainability efforts around the world through his work on resilience, local economies, and practical climate solutions. His latest book is How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveler's Guide to Changing the World.

Harry Holding joins me on "Digging in the Dirt". Harry is a British garden designer and author known for championing edible landscapes that are both beautiful and practical. His debut book, Eat Your Garden , explores “edimentals” which are plants that are both ornamental and edible. Which Harry says is a low-effort way to grow food. Secondly, I talk to the kids at my grandsons school garden club. Where Mrs. Page Chambers teaches her young students about growing vegetables. Then a Digging in the Dirt regular contributor Gloria Frazee drops in to tell us what's going on at one of my favorite groups. Rewild Long Island

First up; A visit to my grandsons school garden club. Where Mrs. Page Chambers teaches her young students about growing vegetables. Then I talk to my guest Rob Hopkins. Rob is a British writer and permaculture advocate best known as the co-founder of Transition Network and the author of The Transition Handbok. He has helped inspire community-led sustainability efforts around the world through his work on resilience, local economies, and practical climate solutions. His latest book is How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveler's Guide to Changing the World. Lastly, but not least. I rebroadcast a speech given "down under" by Natalie Kyriacou of "My Green World". Natalie completely won me over with this extraordinary speech.

It's my pleasure to welcome my next guest Amory B. Lovins Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus, of the Rocky Mountain Institute , Adjunct Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Senior Precourt Scholar of Integrative Design and Energy Efficiency, Precourt Institute for Energy, and the Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, RMI has the goal of Transforming the global energy system, to secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. Then Craig Repasz Director and Co-founder of Lights Out CT joins me. Lights Out Connecticut is a special project of Menunkatuck Audubon Society. He is past president of the New Haven Bird Club. Lights Out CT works across Connecticut to educate the public on light pollution and its impact on human health and wildlife.

Joining me now is Dave Chapman who started Long Wind Farm in Vermont and is a Co-Director of the Real Organic Project and "host of the award-winning Real Organic Podcast" . He is a founding member of the Vermont Organic Farmers. He's here today because I received an email from the Real Organic project, which I found quite disturbing. I wanted to talk to Dave about why Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in the U.S. My second guest is Jacqueline Maisonpierre who owns and runs Two Meadow flower farm in North Haven, Connecticut . Jacqueline joins me to talk about her cut flowers business. Mostly about wonderful Dahlias.

My guest David Ansel, VP of Save the Sound Center for Water Protection and their policy lead in New York State. David has been active this legislative session in CT and NY. focusing primarily on three budget-related items, clean water infrastructure spending, opposing NY Governor’s Hochul's proposed rollbacks of both New York’s Climate Law and the state’s 50-year-old State Environmental Quality Review Act that serves as a Sunshine Law for proposed development projects, ensuring that the public is informed and allowed to participate in the process.

Peter Linderoth, Director of healthy waters and lands for Save the Sound. First of all In my opinion, we're very lucky to have Save The Sound on the beat protecting our wonderful Long Island sound. in case you're not aware of Save The Sound, they lead environmental action in our region. They fight climate change, save endangered lands, protect the Sound and its rivers, and work with nature to restore ecosystems…. part of that is monitoring water quality in our area. So to that end Peter is here today to talk about Save The Sounds most recent Beach Grades for water quality at more than 200 public and private beaches based on data collected during the 2025 swimming season. Next up is my guest David Ansel, VP of Save the Sound Center for Water Protection and their policy lead in New York State. David has been active this legislative session in CT and NY. focusing primarily on three budget-related items, clean water infrastructure spending, opposing NY Governor’s Hochul's proposed rollbacks of both New York’s Climate Law and the state’s 50-year-old State Environmental Quality Review Act that serves as a Sunshine Law for proposed development projects, ensuring that the public is informed and allowed to participate in the process.

Peter Linderoth, Director of healthy waters and lands for Save the Sound. First of all In my opinion, we're very lucky to have Save The Sound on the beat protecting our wonderful Long Island sound. In case you're not aware of Save The Sound, they lead environmental action in our region. They fight climate change, save endangered lands, protect the Sound and its rivers, and work with nature to restore ecosystems…. part of that is monitoring water quality in our area. So to that end Peter is here today to talk about Save The Sounds most recent Beach Grades for water quality at more than 200 public and private beaches based on data collected during the 2025 swimming season.

On this episode of DITD my guest is Rob Hopkins. Rob Hopkins is a British writer and permaculture advocate best known as the co-founder of Transition Network and the author of The Transition Handbook. He has helped inspire community-led sustainability efforts around the world through his work on resilience, local economies, and practical climate solutions. His latest book is How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveler's Guide to Changing the World . It’s presented as the follow-up to his book From What Is… to What If and focuses on imagination as a tool for building better futures.

Then Real Food CT’s Founder, Sean Fitzpatrick joins me. Sean has 20 years of experience as a nutrition, health, and fitness coach. His career has been based on his passionate belief that access to nutrient-dense food is an absolute necessity for the health of this and future generations. Sean’s business experience, along with his observation that growing numbers of people are experiencing food insecurity, combined to make Real Food his life work.

First up on DITD is Rob Hopkins. Rob Hopkins is a British writer and permaculture advocate best known as the co-founder of Transition Network and the author of The Transition Handbook. He has helped inspire community-led sustainability efforts around the world through his work on resilience, local economies, and practical climate solutions. His latest book is How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World, . It’s presented as the follow-up to his book From What Is… to What If and focuses on imagination as a tool for building better futures. Then Real Food CT’s Founder, Sean Fitzpatrick joins me. Sean has 20 years of experience as a nutrition, health, and fitness coach. His career has been based on his passionate belief that access to nutrient-dense food is an absolute necessity for the health of this and future generations. Sean’s business experience, along with his observation that growing numbers of people are experiencing food insecurity, combined to make Real Food his life work.

This episode of “Digging in the Dirt. is all about the soil. My first guest, Dr. Amelia Magistrali, is the Soil Health Extension Educator at UConn who is developing new programming through her role as the connector between the UConn Soil Lab and farmers and growers in the state. She conducts many on-farm consultations, while supporting people to collect and interpret soil sampling results. Next up. My guest is a huge supporter of WPKN. He has provided prizes for contests that we've had here at the station and donated products for us to use as premiums during fundraisers. He is Joe Magazzi President and founder of Green Earth Ag And Turf and the website Growitnaturally .com . We talk organic amendments for your soil.

Every day is Earth Day. Digging in the Dirt celebrates the little blue ball we live on with a collage of voices from expert guests from past Digging in the dirt shows. Listeners, friends & family and major environmental groups speak to what Earth day means to them. Plus a mix of great music to inspire action .

My first guest is someone who's been here before, His name is Vincent Dion. Vincent is a well known Connecticut artist and a serious gardener and Bee keeper. When he drops by it's because he and I are going to talk gardening. I'm met Vincent through my colleague and fellow Gardener Joseph Celli. We have never met in person, but have become fast friends remotely because we are kindred spirits. We're talk spring prep in the garden. What I'm doing and what he's doing in our respective gardens. Listening to our chat may help you with a few ideas and maybe better ways to garden. . My next guest is Caty Poole of Valley Community Gardens who after more than two decades in the life sciences industry, Caty followed her passion for equitable food access to Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge Ct. where she spent 11 years leading and growing food and farming programs. Now a Master Beekeeper, she has a Master’s level certificate from The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition. She focuses her energy on teaching cooking and nutrition courses at Valley Community Gardens, a collective of public gardens serving the Lower Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut, focusing on sustainable, local food production.

Welcome Judith Enck who is a Professor at Bennington College in Vermont. She is the President of Beyond Plastics and former EPA Regional Administrator, appointed by President Obama. Professor Enck is author of the new book "The Problem with Plastic: How to Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late”

Today's guest is Mary Ellen Lemay. She is the " Conservation Director for the Aspetuck Land Trust ", providing outreach, education and engagement to encourage people to improve biodiversity on their land by adding native plants and avoiding pesticides. Lemay's recent work includes designing and installing nature-based, climate smart projects in the City of Bridgeport, including the planting of 8 Miyawaki Forests at public schools and Seaside Park, as well as waterside buffers along rivers and coastal properties in the city. Her 25 years of conservation work was recognized as Winner of the Aquarion Connecticut Environmental Champion Award in 2022.

My guest today is Eliot Coleman . Eliot is an American farmer, author, agricultural researcher, educator, and proponent of organic farming . In 1989 he wrote the highly influential "The New Organic Grower". A master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener. His latest book is "The Self-Fed Farm and Garden" , A Return to the Roots of the Organic Method, on Chelsea Green Press. Then I speak with Eliot's wife Barbara Damrosch about her recent book, "A life in the garden" . Barbara is a professional in the field of horticulture and a writer. Her book The Garden Primer is a classic manual of horticulture. For 14 years she wrote a weekly column for The Washington Post called A Cook’s Garden. Finally Long Islanders, my regular contributor to DITD Gloria Frazee of RewildLongIsland.org drops in to fill us in on many of the amazing events Rewild has going on this spring.

First up on Digging in the Dirt is Dana Jackson, who is the Director of Communications and Development for CT Northeast Organic Farming Association. Prior to joining CT NOFA, he published Edible Nutmeg, a regional magazine focused on western Connecticut’s food community, including farmers, chefs, and locally produced food of all kinds. He also worked for more than a decade as a certified organic farmer in Connecticut, an experience that led him to believe that local food production is the key to building stronger, more resilient communities in our state. Dana is coming here today to tell you about this weeks CT NOFA 44th annual Winter Conference. My 2nd guest is Sarah Layton Agricultural Programs Coordinator At the Connecticut Resource Conservation & Development Area She is a Certified Compost Operator, steering committee member of the CT Compost Alliance and the New CT Farmers Alliance, she is also a member of the Deep River Garden Club, and owner of a micro flower farm, Wild Hill Farm, in Deep River CT. She is here today to talk about the 2026 CT Compost Conference March 19, at Wesleyan University sponsored by the CT COMPOST alliance. Finally continuing with the subject of composting From the aforementioned Park city compost initiative, (PCCI), I have with me Tim O’Connor Executive Director of Park City Compost Initiative. Since then Tim has secured certification for Solid Waste Facility operations from CT DEEP, the Master Composter certification from UCONN and the Compost Operations Course by US Compost Council. As Executive Director of Park City Compost Initiative , Tim is all about PCCI's mission to Educate and Activate around aerobic composting. Tim has served for the past two years on the organizing committee of the CT Compost Alliance who have planned and arranged the March 19th 2026 Ct Compost Conference at Wesleyan University .