Plant Inspired Vacations

01/28/25 • 55 min

1 Listener

Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care

Did you know you can use your plant passion as inspiration for how and where you go on vacation? I'm sure many of us have already done this on a small scale. Maybe you've been on a trip and kept taking pictures of plants that look just like the ones you have at home. Or perhaps you've insisted on visiting a local plant shop or botanical garden while on vacation (guilty as charged!). But plant friends, that can be just the beginning of how you travel and botanize for your plant passion.

And we're going to dive into everything you need to know about it today with my horticulturist bestie Leslie Halleck, who has been on the show many times, and Marcia Castro Rosenberg, listener-turned-plant-shop owner and also a dear friend of mine.

Leslie and Marcia have actually teamed up to create a once-in-a-lifetime trip called Botany & Betterment in The Amazon! It's a seven-day riverboat and jungle adventure on the Rio Negro River in Brazil this August 2025.

In this episode, we learn:

[03:40] Get to know Marcia
[07:51] Leslie’s botanizing trips
[11:32] What is botanizing?
[15:17] Support sustainable gardening with Espoma Organic’s premium gardening products!
[16:52] Bring nature back to your garden with Kelly Norris's Your Natural Garden
[18:55] What are their most memorable botanizing experiences?
[25:37] What are the botanizing basics?
[30:14] Where can you find plant keys & field guides
[34:57] On creating the ultimate Amazon trip: ‘Botany & Betterment’
[39:23] Hiring local guides for your trip
[43:50] Building community and personal growth
[49:45] Where can you find more info about Leslie and Marcia

Mentioned in our conversation:

To know more about Leslie and Marcia's botanizing adventures,

check out the full show notes and blog here!

Follow Leslie:

Follow Marcia:

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

Espoma Organic

Visit espoma.com to find your local Espoma dealer or check my Amazon storefront.

Quarto: Your Natural Garden by Kelly D. Norris

Grab a copy of Your Natural Garden by Kelly Norris at your favorite local bookstore, bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, quarto.com or amazon.com to get inspired and take action on your garden.

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

Order my book: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Party Community Platform & App AKA the plantiest and kindest corner of the internet! Get your FREE 2-week trial

In this episode, we learn:

[03:40] Get to know Marcia
[07:51] Leslie’s botanizing trips
[11:32] What is botanizing?
[15:17] Support sustainable gardening with Espoma Organic’s premium gardening products!
[16:52] Bring nature back to your garden with Kelly Norris's Your Natural Garden
[18:55] What are their most memorable botanizing experiences?
[25:37] What are the botanizing basics?
[30:14] Where can you find plant keys & field guides
[34:57] On creating the ultimate Amazon trip: ‘Botany & Betterment’
[39:23] Hiring local guides for your trip
[43:50] Building community and personal growth
[49:45] Where can you find more info about Leslie and Marcia

Mentioned in our conversation:

To know more about Leslie and Marcia's botanizing adventures,

check out the full show notes and blog here!

Follow Leslie:

Follow Marcia:

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

Espoma Organic

Visit espoma.com to find your local Espoma dealer or check my Amazon storefront.

Quarto: Your Natural Garden by Kelly D. Norris

Grab a copy of Your Natural Garden by Kelly Norris at your favorite local bookstore, bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, quarto.com or amazon.com to get inspired and take action on your garden.

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

Order my book: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Party Community Platform & App AKA the plantiest and kindest corner of the internet! Get your FREE 2-week trial

Previous Episode

Easy Houseplant Care, Houseplant Pest Control, and Motherhood and Plants

If you’re a plant lover, you’ve probably come across Chantel, the brilliant mind behind @channygrayhome on Instagram. Over the past few years, she has built a community of over half a million plant enthusiasts. But there’s so much more to her than her incredible follower count.

In this episode, I’ll take you behind the scenes of my chat with Channy—where we talked about her plant history, her love for DIYs, her big move from the Arizona desert to lush Iowa, and how she juggles being a plant mom and a mom to three kids.

In this episode, we learn:

[03:15] How Channy and I met at a Botanical Garden
[07:28] What has Channy’s plant journey been like?
[15:14] Add serenity to your life in 2025 and beat the winter blues with Wind River Chimes!
[16:56] Start your kitchen garden today by grabbing a copy of Kitchen Garden Living by Bailey Van Tassel
[19:10] What does pest prevention mean for Channy?
[21:12] Channy’s new plant soap for pest control!
[23:57] What does a bubble bath for plants look like?
[25:07] How to balance motherhood and plant care
[28:17] Top tips to make plant care easy and fun!
[30:06] Decorating with plant cuttings
[32:03] Lechuza pon vs LECA
[33:54] How did Channy get into DIY projects?
[35:30] Moving to Iowa and preparing for changes
[38:02] What does Channy’s family think of her plant collection?
[40:38] What it feels like to have 500k+ followers
[43:00] What are her future plans for Channy Gray Home?
[44:30] Where can you find Channy on social media?

Mentioned in our conversation:

Growing Joy Ep 240: How to Move with Houseplants with Becca De La Plants
Growing Joy Ep 226: How to Repot Houseplants
Growing Joy Ep 109: Passive Hydroponics 2.0 and the LECA VS PON Debate
Plant Soap by Channy Gray Home
LECHUZA-PON Plant Substrate
LECA

Learn more about Channy's top houseplant care tips,

check out the full show notes and blog here!

Follow Channy Gray Home:

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

Espoma Organic

Visit espoma.com to find your local Espoma dealer or check my Amazon storefront.

Quarto: The Water-Smart Garden by Noelle Johnson

Grab a copy of Kitchen Garden Living at your favorite local bookstore, bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Quarto.com, or Amazon.com to get inspired and grow organically.

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

Order my book: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Party Community Platform & App AKA the plantiest and kindest corner of the internet! Get your FREE 2-week trial here!

Take the

Next Episode

Water Saving Techniques for Your Garden

How can we conserve water while maintaining healthy, attractive gardens, no matter what climate you're in? Record-breaking heat waves, devastating droughts, wildfires scorching millions of acres, floods turning streets into rivers—we've seen it all this year. As climate extremes test our resilience, our gardens are feeling the impact too. How do we ensure our gardens not only survive but also grow in these unpredictable conditions? Let’s talk about water-saving techniques and strategies to keep your garden lush and sustainable with Noelle Johnson, aka the “Arizona plant lady.” She’s a horticulturist, landscape consultant, and the author of the new book, ‘The Water-Smart Garden.’

In this episode, we learn:

[02:53] How Noelle became a plant expert
[04:36] Why water conservation is important
[07:27] What does water conservation look like?
[08:27] Identifying drought conditions
[09:56] Water-saving tips for renters
[10:49] What are the plants great for different plant zones?
[13:43] Drought-tolerant plants
[15:28] Espoma Organics’ premium gardening products
[16:58] AHS Essential Guide to Perennial Gardening
[18:52] Why you should go to a local nursery
[20:34] Making soil more efficient at water retention
[23:32] How mulch and ground cover help with water retention
[26:36] What are ollas for water saving?
[30:46] What are different ways of saving rainwater? (rain barrel, swale, creek beds, etc)
[36:32] What is xeriscaping?
[40:33] How can you reduce the water your lawn needs?
[44:14] Smart irrigation controllers
[45:30] Beginner tips for water conservation
[47:20] Advanced water conservation strategies
[49:14] ’The Water Smart Garden’