Scott Beuerlein, Author at GardenRant

Scott Beuerlein

For over twenty years, Scott Beuerlein has published hundreds of articles for several publications and online. Apart from his contributions to Garden Rant, Scott writes two columns for Horticulture Magazine–the (hopefully) humorous and/or insightful Deep Roots column and also the Garden Views column in which he interviews some of the green industry’s top professionals. Scott has received nine gold and silver medals from Garden Communicators International, including two for Garden Rant. None of this has made him rich.

Scott hosts the radio program/podcast Let’s Garden with Scott Beuerlein. This airs on 52 stations around the country, live streams on the iHeart app, and can be found as a podcast whereever podcasts can be found.

Scott’s day job is Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. In 2024, Scott joined the Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum’s Board of Directors as an advocate for its legacy of tremendous horticulture. Scott is also the Chair of the Boone County Arboretum Collections Committee. He is the Founder and past-President of the tree planting initiative Taking Root, past-President of the Cincinnati Flower Growers Association, and past-President of the Northern Kentucky Urban and Community Forestry Council. None of this has made him rich, either.

Scott is married to Michele and has been for 40+ years. They are empty nesters living a pretty good life based on hard work, good food, travel, and wine. A lot of wine. Their garden is best described as over-sized and under-maintained, which, actually, is also a pretty fair description of Scott.

As a self taught, late to the party, second career horticulturist, Scott is proud of being an OGIA Certified Landscape Technician and an ISA Certified Arborist and has repeatedly defeated the efforts of both organizations to expel him from their ranks in court.

Articles by Scott Beuerlein

Muddy March Gardens, Flagrant Power Tool Violations, Heresy, Arson, & More: A [Belated] Letter from The Midwest

Muddy March Gardens, Flagrant Power Tool Violations, Heresy, Arson, & More: A [Belated] Letter from The Midwest

By Scott Beuerlein|April 24, 2022|

After returning home, I went into a power tool-fired, panic-driven, spring cleanup, trying desperately to wipe ugly out of my garden but, truth is, only some of what I did made anything look even slightly better. The real cure for March is April, and the cure for April is May. Anyway, I went into a string-trimming frenzy, slashing back sedges, grasses, perennials and slinging dirt, sticks, gravel, plant labels, cigarette butts, beer cans, and whatever else all over creation anywhere I went. I consider myself kind of a performance artist when it comes to using a string trimmer. And a pretty innovative one at that. A lot of what I do with it would show up very prominently in the DO NOT section of the operating manual if manual writers had anything like the imagination I've got.

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Confronting Humor and a Lack of it from Every Angle: A Letter from The Midwest

Confronting Humor and a Lack of it from Every Angle: A Letter from The Midwest

By Scott Beuerlein|February 16, 2022|

And dark and mysterious people like me hate being called “affable.” In fact, even affable people even hate being called “affable.” Which, I’m certain you knew. And why you said it. And, guess what, I forgive you. Yes, I forgive you. Because sometimes you’re a good person.

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Dynamic Horticultural Group Exposed! Secrets to Success Revealed!

Dynamic Horticultural Group Exposed! Secrets to Success Revealed!

By Scott Beuerlein|January 18, 2022|

I think you can have a really great club or society that requires at least some rules of order, but if you’re going to pry young and/or young at heart people out of their busy lives to spend time at a meeting, you had better also give them a bona fide “night out.”

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Twenty Overused Plants

Twenty Overused Plants

By Scott Beuerlein|December 26, 2021|

Boxwoods: The plant you turn to when you’re out of other desperate and have no other options. Maybe in the next life there will be another choice for deer-proof, shade tolerant, evergreen, can grow anywhere, can be shaped like anything, smells like cat pee.

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Buy This Book or Kevin the Canna Dies!

Buy This Book or Kevin the Canna Dies!

By Scott Beuerlein|December 15, 2021|

It’s comprehensive, quirky, effective, funny, fun, and a worthy addition to the library of any gardener who wants to grow tropical plants. More than that, it should be required reading for idiot gardeners like me who need to be goaded into trying them.

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Tripling Down on Zinnias

Tripling Down on Zinnias

By Scott Beuerlein|November 17, 2021|

So let's be more careful about labeling plants our grandparents grew as old-fashioned because, let's face it, Rick Danko was way the hell cooler than Taylor Swift and your grandmother was way the hell cooler than you. In fact, there's no possible way that the world's coolest millennial, or GenXer, or GenYer, or BroodXer, or whatever is even half as cool as the least cool person at Woodstock. If you exclude all the members of Sha Na Na. So don't give me no shit about Zinnias being old-fashioned. You should be so lucky to be that kind of old-fashioned.

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Weepers Are the Pedal Steel Guitar of the Garden

Weepers Are the Pedal Steel Guitar of the Garden

By Scott Beuerlein|October 20, 2021|

Any weeping katsura is not only proof that God exists but one will also answer any other hard questions you might have. ‘Amazing Grace’ weeping katsura, however, does all that and also makes you rich.

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Gauging Horticulture’s Place in the General Public’s Consciousness: A Letter From The Midwest.

Gauging Horticulture’s Place in the General Public’s Consciousness: A Letter From The Midwest.

By Scott Beuerlein|October 17, 2021|

One of the challenges horticulture faces in proving its importance is that it does most of its best work at the subconscious level.

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Putting Words of Wisdom into the Mouths of Strangers

Putting Words of Wisdom into the Mouths of Strangers

By Scott Beuerlein|September 26, 2021|

Over the years, I have found that putting words into other people's mouths can be a lot of fun. And it can get one into big trouble. But I've never [...]

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Getting Hosed in the August Garden; Another Letter from the Midwest

Getting Hosed in the August Garden; Another Letter from the Midwest

By Scott Beuerlein|August 18, 2021|

But, until I actually get around to planning a reptilian vacation, I'm dragging hoses. And hoses are the work of the devil! Evil, terrible products. Horrendous inventions from the very beginning.

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On Wild Mushrooms, Bears, and Teenage Girls: A Letter from The Midwest

On Wild Mushrooms, Bears, and Teenage Girls: A Letter from The Midwest

By Scott Beuerlein|June 28, 2021|

If you insist on traipsing around in the hollers of Virginia like Lewis and Clark, out there randomly meandering about along with all the various drug runners, moonshiners, and village psychopaths. Making yourself subject to the mood, hunger, and whims of every snake, spider, bear, and cougar loose in the woods. Completely vulnerable to things like quicksand, booby traps, landmines, and God knows whatever else, then at least be smart. Bring a teenage girl with you! Which, in fact, is what Lewis and Clark did. They knew.

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Brood X Cicada Observations, Unenlightened and Free of the Usual Facts

Brood X Cicada Observations, Unenlightened and Free of the Usual Facts

By Scott Beuerlein|June 16, 2021|

This won't be one of those cutesy, fawning posts that all the shiny, happy cool kids seem to be writing on Facebook and in blogs all over the Western world. And don’t expect any facts either--just observations. My observations, and, yes, I fully admit that I'm nothing more than a very tired and intellectually lazy horticulturist who is living under a dome of cicadas for the fourth time.

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