Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Epcot Pre Flower and Garden And The Land With Host Jeremy

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Hello Travelers! Join host Jeremy this week for a meandering walkabout through Epcot future world, and take a ride on Living With The Land.   We are listener supported - contribute to the Dole Whip Fund via Google or Apple Pay. Thanks!   Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok   Visit us at walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi.

Hello, travelers, welcome back to walk about the world. An Epcot Center. Currently under the shade of spaceship Earth at the entrance to the park, and we were here today slightly before the opening of Flowering Garden Festival. Just a few days in the future. Let's take a stroll. We've crested the top of the hill here, looking down on World Celebration Gardens. To our left is the very end of spaceship Earth, and you can see through the windows the atomic-looking, very 60s-looking light fixtures in the new lounge up there.

World Celebration Gardens directly in front of you now, where you can set with Walt, if you so desire. Connections and creations off to your left. Communicor Hall off to our right. A little something new that I have noticed is that on the pathway that leads down towards Communicor Hall, there are now lots of low bench seating options. And that's both very un-epcott and very welcome. Nice to have places to set. I can hear music just starting from beyond Communicor Hall.

But for now, let's walk down through the gardens. Oh, and less you were wondering, yes, all of the beautiful flowers, all of the topiaries, everything is already out for flower and gardens. Less crowd, more flower. It's a good time to be here, that's what I'm saying. Quite windy today. Off to our right, the what appear to be rusted metal sculptures that resemble tree trunks. You ever just stop? and look at a trash can when you're in Epcot.

Shout out to Norm Disney, I know he does. Sometimes I just take a look at the trash cans because they just, they look so beautifully themed. This one has the old school Epcot logo. It's in white and blue. Okay, now we're at the bottom of the gardens area, headed off to the right towards, sorry, I had to stop and gulk.

I shouldn't be a guard. I shouldn't be a gawker. I see like a full-on video production happening here by a creator. And I also see security discreetly swarming. This is why we can't have nice things. Don't get arrested in the park with your giant tripod and camera gear. All right, Communicor Hall directly ahead. Mickey and Friends, stand by 15.

You can meet the boss. Music of Encanto. starting to become visible. And we're over here in front of opening bites. The little store that is part of the Communicore building. And I think probably the best seating. All of the seating is built around the trees. So all of the planters are really nice seating areas.

They're all kind of like counter-high. counter-top level high. You know what I mean? And they even have lots of plug-ins over here for phones and other electronic gear, like perhaps giant cameras with tripos. We're just chilling. Listening to some in-park music.

Signage above the band says La Calle. I don't know if that's... The street, the name of the band or the area that they're playing? I'm not sure. I don't know what you say, but what I say is let's head over towards the land area. Do what she do? As you can no doubt tell by the decibel change, we are around the other side of the building. Communicor Hall coming up to our left.

These new planter beds, I know I'm a plant fanatic, but these new stone planter beds here beside Communicor some of the most beautiful additions already blooming with pink cana lots of palm all right sign here Communicor Hall says sunlight to star bright in Spikes Garden I don't know what that is I do have to tell you that we had a really really hard freeze here in central Florida that's really unusual for us unusual for us to have a freeze of any length at all, but we had a very low, like, high 20s freeze for probably about 12 hours. And so many things here in Epcot are showing that they have been decimated. Lots of trees that are brown, lots of plants that have been chopped to the ground by the horticulture team because they've been roasted. still beautiful

but the poor horticulture team I'm sure has been nonstop trying to get things beautiful again for flower and garden all right the land pavilion is ahead of us journey of water

to the right along with the seas and then off to our left imagination we're going to mosey on up here towards the land I enjoy myself a good mozy. Now these large curving circular and semi-circular beds over here by the land area

of some of the oldest planters in the park. And I love how they do monolithic planting here where it's just like all one plant, all one flower, all one color. And this bed in particular surrounding this beautiful tree is bright, like fluorescent yellow, the entire bed. Just beautiful. Spaceship Earth. In the distance behind us and in front of us I see my first topiary yet. And that is one Donald Fitzgerald Duck.

We're going to get up to him here in a moment. To the left here, this is kind of new and unusual to me anyway. Is a garden that they have put together in one of these old circular beds and it, oh, you know what? No. It's not new. It's just relocated. This is the prehistoric garden. It's got the little metal sculptures of the dinosaurs

in there with lots of ferns and prehistoric looking plants. Sort of a marshy garden space. Beautiful. Rocks that look like they have fossils in them. Lots of ferns, lots of brimliads. Welcome to plant talk with host Jeremy. There's a squirrel here. All I can see is his tail and his ass sticking out of the flowers.

He's no doubt searching for a nut or two. Oh man, he is burrowed underneath a bunch of these beautiful plants. The horticulture team is not going to be. pleased with him. Here's a Velociraptor. Rusty metal sculpture. Brontosaurus to his left. Bronto better watch it. I don't know. Velociraptor. I don't know if they could take one of those down. So to set the placemaking here, I have... Okay, so the land was straight ahead of us. And I veered off of that main trail just a little off to one of the side trails that goes underneath the monorail tracks. and I'm surrounded by these beautiful beds of flowers

and in front of me is the waterways with with a little floating barrels of plants and them I can see a festival booth slightly off to my left over towards imagination that's the first one I've seen and Norm there is a wow can you guys hear the wind Wow.

Norm, there's a trash can over here, bright, bright green and white. Apparently this is just trash can and plant day. Oh, here comes Monorail teal. Listen closely. Coming right overhead. Three, two. I am 50 years old. And no matter how old I get, when the monorail goes by, I stop whatever.

I'm doing, probably no doubt annoy the people who are walking behind me and stop and stare at the monorail because I just feel like a kid. And the monorail goes by. A little kid in me says, stop. It's the, it's a chew-to train. I'll wander over here towards a little secluded water feature. Come on. Five large magnolia trees now to our left, sitting in the planter beds full of birds. squawking away. Can you hear the water feature? Now I admit this this episode is pure me because I I get it. I am a I'm the spoiled local at this point. Feels weird to say that but when I come to Epcot this is why I come. I'm sitting here and I'm just soaking it up. Whatever's going on in your world and you're weak. I hope that you like me can come in here

and let it fade away just a little bit, just to be present in the parks and look at the plants, listen to the water features and the guest passers-by, setting on concrete that was poured in 81 and 82, and just chill. Deep breath in and out. Would you guys listen to an Epcot Therapy podcast? I would.

Maybe this is one. Let's walk over towards the land. Come on. So much wind, I'm sorry. Let's go investigate the Donald topiary. Right now in the middle of the waterway, bridge going across the water space here. I'm looking straight off to my right,

which is the seas with Nemo, or the living seas, if you're old school. I'm rounding the bend here to look at Donald. Oh man, you can smell some of these flowers also. Listen, old school, Epcot, Amiens. It's 1982. You can walk up to the land sponsored by Kraft Foods. I love it.

There's no internet. There's no cell phones. No selfies. No vloggers. No weird podcast guys. And here we are. are Donald himself covered in beautiful vine and low-growing plants. He's got a seed sack over his shoulder and a garden implement in his hand.

I was about to say which garden implement that was, but it was going to sound really weird. So I self-filtered. I was going to say it's Donald with his... And then I'm like, no, that's not going to work. Let's stroll over to the land sign that is a water feature. Like, that is just the confluence of many great things. The land, a beautiful sign with stonework and a water feature, all at the same time. Can you hear it?

The land featuring Soren, absolutely surrounded. by what looked like almost glowing bromeliads, prehistoric-looking plants where the actual stems of the plants themselves are bright like colors. Land pavilion itself directly ahead, subject of minion art. And because it's Florida, all of the plants that are surrounding the land pavilion are now leafing out. It's not even March yet, but that's... the way things work in Florida. I'm just taking another little brief hit

of the original land ambience here before we marked on. Now, let's take a vote by raise of hands. Should we ride the land today? Or should we continue walking? I'll give you a moment. And I'll look around the room. Okay. Vote

is counted. Who are the weirdos that... Why would you say keep walking? Yeah, almost all of us said, and let's ride the land. So that's obviously what we're going to do because obviously that's what we're going to do. So let's go ride the land together and look at lettuce.

Discovery and awareness of the richness, the diversity, the often surprising nature of living with the land. Our journey begins as dramatic and sudden changes are sweeping over the land. The approaching storm may seem violent and destructive to us, but to nature, it's a new beginning in the site. Hymn beneath the surface of the land, roots who trap water from the flowing mud, extracting precious nutrients and minerals. These elements, when combined with sunlight, create the diverse living systems of our planet.

One of those living systems is the rainforest, home to the most amazing concentration of life on our planet. These dense and beautiful forests cover only a tiny portion of the Earth's surface, But they contain more than half of its plant and animal species. Rainforests are also extremely rich and productive living systems, providing us with oxygen, food, medicines, and other elements essential to our lives. In the desert, nature has created a very different but no less beautiful living system. And while this arid landscape may seem lifeless, it is very much alive. The plants and animals that have learned to survive in these harsh conditions,

make use of what little water they can find and avoid the scorching rays of the relentless sun. Of all the forces at work on the land, humans have had one of the most profound effects. The need to produce food for a growing world led to the enormous use and sometimes overuse of the land. In our search for more efficient ways to grow food, we often failed to realize the impact of our methods. Today, we're learning to live with the land, discovering better ways to grow food that will assure both human and environmental well-being. Out there are cities, desert sea costs by crops that thrive on salt water, that by mixing weeds and other living materials. Welcome to our living laboratories, where scientists from Epcot and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are exploring innovative ways. to produce bountiful harvests now and into the future.

The tropics are home to the greatest diversity of plants on the planet. Many of the buildings like papaya, bananas, cacao, coffee, and rice are well known around the world. These are just a few of the edible plants that have been an important source of nutrition for people living in the tropics. Many are rich in vitamins and minerals, while others are well adapted to growing in less than ideal conditions. Some, like the water lily, thrive in wet, swampy areas and waterways. All parts of this plant, even the flower petals, are edible. The starchy root of the plant has long been used to make flour for baking. One day, many of these lesser-known tropical plants may be as important as the bananas

growing on both sides of the boat. More than 28 million tons of bananas are eaten annually, making it the most popular fruit in the Greenhouses represent just a fraction of the work being done worldwide to produce bountiful harvests for our growing population. Scientists, farmers, and even backyard gardeners are doing their part to improve the quantity and quality of foods that we all rely upon. Together, we can continue to find more ways to increase food production and protect our precious natural environment.

that will be living with the land. All right, I hope you enjoyed some snippets of living with the land. Basically like Walk About the World comma, Living with the Land podcast. I've always thought this ambience was so weird. Very, very 80s. We're back down at the bottom of the hill here, near Donald again, and let's head over towards the seas. Absolute thousands of the mountains of

of new plants here in the area surrounding the waterway leading over to the seas. Can't imagine how long it takes to do that. Thousands of them. To our left is a brilliant, like glowing almost yellow blooming tree called a tababooia. Sorry, pausing for the ambience again here. Tababooia tree. Weird name, absolutely beautiful. Josh has one growing in his yard.

And it means spring to us here in Central Florida. Let's head on over to the seas. The birds that say mine, mine, mine, oh, there they go. They're here. I don't see the water. No water feature. No water effects today in the sea's entrance. That's kind of weird, right?

The birds are still doing their thing. All right, let's head over here to the journey of water with Moana, and that is where we will wrap up our little, our little mozy, our little stroll. Lots of fellow travelers over here. Thank you so much for joining us this week. Hanging out with your old buddy host Jeremy for a little while in one of our favorite places.

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Send us a message via DM on Instagram or via email at contact at walkabout the world.com. We always read and respond to everyone. We share it with every single member of the crew. One of our favorite things ever is connecting with you guys. It's so cool in here. wherever you are I hope you're well if you're not well

I hope you get well I want you to know we're thinking about you you guys mean the world to us that's why we come out here and do this and from here from here in Epcot surrounded by the journey of water I'll end the way we always do

with the hope and the promise that there's a great big beautiful tomorrow out there for each of us and we'll see you from one of those tomorrow's on another episode of Walk About the World. Bye, everybody.