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STEVEN BIGGS
Susan Poizner – from the BBC to fruit trees
PHOTO COURTESY STEVEN BIGGS
Icame back to Toronto and the media world had changed ,” says Susan Poizner as she talks about becoming a garden writer . She had been living in the United Kingdom , writing about Russia and international relations , doing feature stories , and working in radio .
Poizner ’ s passion is telling stories . “ I ’ m a journalist . I ’ m a filmmaker . I ’ m a communicator . And I ’ m a radio producer .” But the changes in the media industry and her newfound interest in gardening steered her away from journalism and storytelling . After she helped start a community group that hosted gardening talks and events , she studied landscape design and began work as a gardener .
STORIES OF ORCHARDS AND PEOPLE Today , through her business Orchard People , Poizner has combined her love of telling stories with gardening . Her focus is fruit tree care , education , and consulting .
As we speak , it ’ s spring , her busy season for in-person training , teaching and consulting . The in-person work includes site visits , consulting and workshops . Teaching in person is just one part of what she does . The other part is online communications through her website orchardpeople . com . She writes blogs , produces videos and creates online training .
Poizner feels that an informative blog and website — with videos and podcasts — is the way to convert browsers into buyers of her online training . “ My goal is to make sure that there is free content for people who can ’ t afford my training or who aren ’ t yet convinced that I have good stuff to offer .”
Poizner is very excited about using radio to tell gardening stories . “ One of my loves when it comes to journalism is radio . When I lived in the UK I worked for the BBC World Service and I love radio ,” she says . She now has her own program , Urban Forestry Radio , which runs online live on the last Tuesday of the month on RealityRadio101 . com . “ The fun part of this show is that I get to interview anybody I
Susan Poizner won a 2015 GWA Silver Award for Orchard People Winter and Summer Fruit Tree Pruning Online Workshop ( orchardpeople . com ); a 2014 Silver Award for her book , Growing Urban Orchards : The Ups , Downs and How-Tos of Fruit Tree Care in the City , and for Online Fruit Tree Care Education for the New Urban Orchardist .
want — all these fabulous experts who can teach me more and more and more about fruit trees ,” she says . For Poizner , the radio show is a powerful networking tool to connect with home and community orchardists from across North America .
FINDING A NICHE When Poizner came back to Toronto from the UK , she didn ’ t anticipate working in garden communications . One project — to turn an underused local park into a community orchard — changed that .
Through research , and with the help of extension and industry experts , Poizner and the other project members learned about winter and summer pruning , pests , diseases , soil management and tree selection . “ It took me three years of caring for these trees in our local park to figure out the answer to this one question : What is the minimum that I need to do in order to grow fruit trees successfully ?” she explains . “ Once I understood it for myself , I was very easily able to communicate that using
“ I joined GWA when I started realizing that my fruit tree work was bringing me back to my passion of communications ,”
— Susan Poizner
all of these skills that I had developed over my lifetime . As a journalist , I find the best way to learn is to write things down in a simple way that I can understand ,” she adds . Those notes were the starting point for her book , Growing Urban Orchards : The Ups , Downs and How-tos of Fruit Tree Care in the City .
Poizner ’ s next projects will be an intermediate-level fruit-tree care book and course . “ There are so many more fabulous stories I ’ ve encountered since I finished my last book ,” she says .
GWA AND THE BUSINESS OF COMMUNICATING
“ I joined GWA when I started realizing that my fruit tree work was bringing me back to my passion of communications ,” Poizner says . She considers the GWA Media Awards to be a very useful benefit . “ It ’ s wonderful to be able to put on my website that my stuff is award winning ,” she says , adding , “ That ’ s a very valuable thing that the GWA offers .”
GWA helps her meet subjects for storytelling too . “ I love meeting the people and sharing our stories and inspiring each other .”
Steven Biggs is a writer , journalist and speaker who explores the food chain : farm , food and garden .
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