The Garden Mixer

Heather and I met at a speaking gig in North Carolina last fall. Her mantra is Garden Thoughtfully. What a coincidence because my presentation at that Master Gardeners symposium was called Thoughtful Gardening. We are on the same page in terms of gardening with both beauty and habitat in mind.

Did you feel the dog days of summer WAY earlier than you usually do? Marianne Willburn and I talk about climate change in the garden and some good strategies to learn from what your plants are experiencing, without succumbing to the doom and gloom that generally accompanies the topic.

Podcasters often host interesting experts in the field on which they love to talk. This episode is no different, but because the expert, Scott Beuerlein, Director of Horticultural Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, does a monthly column interviewing all kinds of interesting people in horticulture, you are going to get a bigger bang for your buck. Scott and I talk about a lot of the different people in the industry that he and I find interesting and here's a bonus: Scott is very interesting all by himself!.

Marianne and I are home from our travels and in this episode we talk about the very successful first garden tour put together by Marianne and Andrea Gasper. So many fabulous English Gardens-- Rousham, Kiftsgate, Wisley, Blenheim, Waterperry, and that's just the half of it.

After a month away, I would like to re-introduce myself as the not serious and American garden Podcaster, Leslie Harris. I'll catch you up on how my garden fared with not much attention for over 30 days; what worked well in terms of planning for leaving it, and what didn't work as well.

Summer is coming and so are vacations. How do we prepare our gardens to get along without us? Marianne Willburn and I discuss tips and tricks on this topic and we also preview the fabulous garden tour in England that she and Andrea Gaspar have organized and I am attending!

What's the most important gardening tool? Your body, silly, which, if you are like me, isn't quite the same as it used to be. Is there a resource where you can learn about how to improve and maintain this tool? Yes, and it's the PBS show called Garden Fit. Can you have sneak peaks at other people's fabulous gardens at the same time? Oh yes, you can. Listen to Madeline Hooper tell us about this fabulous combination of physical maintenance and envy inducing garden surveillance.

Hydrangea pruning, bulbs (tulips... are they worth it? of course), transplanting polygonatum, tchotchkes in the garden (MA thinks no, Les likes a bit of whimsy), and quite a long side path of Magnolia discussion. Oh, and the MOST important spring "chore"? Pretty easy: Look. Every. Day.

A DOZEN plants of the week here, as Katie Dubow of the Garden Media Group and I discuss their favorite new plants. And listeners, I DID write a blog post with links, but now my website is down. :(

Still a great podcast episode and you can link to the new plants right here!

Just trying to make it clear that because Marianne toured my garden I didn't take very long. The plant of the week is a weeping Salix and I throw you a few early spring seasonal tips just in case you thought I was totally selfish.

Each year, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society comes out with a list of trends that we should be on the lookout for in the gardening world. Erin the impatient Gardner and I break down this list and go through all 10 points, offering opinions, critiques, and support for some wonderful gardening ideas. You may be interested to know that halfway through our interview, there's a knock at the zoom door, and Marianne Willburn sort of lets herself in. Well, I did send her the link…. Lots of laughs and lots of good gardening information on episode 117.

Linda Vater of Potager Blog and I discuss her new Garden Journal, hellebores are the plant of the week, rose pruning tips.

Susan and I talk about GardenRant.com because of course that's a great blog of which she is a founding member, but we also touch on her hometown of Greenbelt, Maryland, her website of Good Garden Videos, and, of course, hula hooping, which is part of every good garden conversation.

Jennifer Rauschmayer of Edible Landscape Design of Plano, Texas and I talk about the ins and outs of running a business doing what you love: gardening. From getting your first paperwork done, finding clients, cultivating client and crew relationships, subcontracting, how and what to bill-- we cover it all in this long conversation. Back to regularly scheduled NOT business for the next episode, but we hope someone out there can benefit from this information that helped us as we got started doing what we love for a living!

The Spoonmores created a gardening app called From Seed to Spoon, but more recently they have married AI and gardening with the latest app, called Grow Bot. Listen to the fascinating story of how they started out gardening for themselves, but have become app creators who are helping all gardeners with their wonderful ideas.

Winter gardening... How could you? Why should you? Because you love it, basically, and there is no reason to not love it in winter if you have the right gear, attitude and projects. Marianne tells us her tips and tricks-- there is no reason not to get into it!

Poisonous plants, sharp tools, noxious chemicals (hopefully not in YOUR shed) and a place to compost the body-- gardens are perfect places for murder. Marta McDowell has compiled the tools, motive, detectives and authors in her latest book Gardening Can Be Murder, and you could be surprised how many laughs we have over this deadly topic.

What do you think of when you hear the term moon garden? White flowers can set a good scene, and summer nights filled with scents are enticing, but there are so many more good ideas to consider. Listen to my interview with Jarema Osofsky, who wrote a book on the topic!

What's better than quick and good (and maybe sometimes a bit soil infused) garden tips from someone who just seems like they would be a good garden pal? Nothing, and I found out for sure that she would be.

Tiffany of @QuickandDirtyGardens is knowledgeable, fun, and a great teacher about garden basics and foraging for mushrooms. Get in on this fun conversation!

Kathy Jentz of Garden DC has written another book: Groundcover Revolution: How to use sustainable, low-maintenance, low-water groundcovers to replace your turf - 40 alternative choices for: - No Mowing. - No fertilizing. - No pesticides. - No problem!

Author of "The Ultimate Flower Gardener's Guide" and "Glorious Shade", Jenny Rose Carey is a fount of information on how to grow. In her 4.5 acre garden north of Philadelphia, called North View, Jenny has shade, sun, dry gardens--

even a stumpery! Come into Jenny's garden and learn some good tips and information.

Laura Boissonault of How's it Growing and I have a good old garden chat about her New Jersey creation, complete with green house.

So brief because you know how moving is… But I just wanted to say hello and I'll be back in two weeks' time with a more normal episode.

Back to unpacking!

How about a book that gives you a plethora of suggestions on how to garden sustainably or regeneratively? Chris presents a wide range of ideas in her book "The Good Garden" but no mandates and no guilt about the choices you have as you care for your land.

Two interviews about new gardens! Here are edited versions of Episodes 62 and 14, which were very helpful for me to re-visit with my impending move!

...even though it appears that this is the 101st and counting is not my strong suit. Listen to Jen describe her booming business in Houston Texas (but willing to expand!) that sets up clients with ready to go raised beds for veg, herbs and pollinators.

Garden Writers, Ranters, Speakers and friends, Marianne and Scott join me to talk about garden travel (past AND future) and the correspondence that they treat us with on the blog Garden Rant.

I named this episode as #99 because somewhere along the line I must have lost count-- seems like it may instead be the big 1-0-0!

I chat with Kevin Graham and Dragan Kurbalija about their farm in King George's County, Virginia. More news on my move-- we have found a place and it is tiny! How do you curate a ton of plants and containers?

I interview Nick McCullough, horticulturist, nurseryman, designer, speaker and author, about his new book, written with his wife Allison and Teresa Woodard. Titled American Roots, the book explores some of the best of our gardens, and gardeners, right here in America. After last week's announcement of us moving away from this garden, I begin to talk about HOW I will choose plants to take or leave and the process of ending one garden and starting another.

In this very short episode (laryngitis!) I have a special announcement about my garden.

Binx and Andrew announced their engagement in March of 2022, and the great day is June 10, 2023. If you had over a year to make your garden look amazing for a wedding, how would you do it? Listen to my conversation with Robin Stafford-- tips, tricks and timing!

"Nature's Best Hope" was the first Doug Tallamy book I read, and although it points out some dire facts such as mass extinction, it does give hope to the situation of each property owner all over the world being able to help remedy the current insect and bird loss. Now it has been re-written for children, who have more time to truly be nature's best hope --although Dr. Tallamy points out that we can't wait for them to grow up; these individual and simple changes to the way humans interact with nature need to start now. The Plant of the Week is the Zizia aurea, and I talk about how to deal with bulb foliage and the end of peony season.

Marcus Bridgewater, known as Garden Marcus, author of "How to Grow: Nurture Your Garden, Nurture Yourself" talks about his book and how positivity and balance can help us to be better people and gardeners. The Plant of the Week is the common clover, which is colonizing all over my lawn these days. Also included: what is happening in the early May garden.

Brie Arthur is a horticulturist, author, speaker and now an Air BNB hostess! She has created the Carolina Garden House in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, outside of Raleigh. I talk to her about her new, almost completely native garden, which is next-door to her longtime personal garden. The Plant of the Week is the Aronia melanocarpa or chokeberry, and I give tips on daffodils.

Probably everybody's favorite butterfly is the Monarch, and Kate Daly has formed a group of Instagrammers who are teaching us what we all can do to help this wonder of nature. She and I discuss how to help out and also talk about the flower farm she is starting down in Alabama. The Plant of the Week is the Myosotis sylvestris and you will hear Scott Beuelein and Marianne Willburn talk about their writing relationship on Garden Rant and their trip to California to see the latest plants breeders have dreamed up.

I chat with Jenny Williams, who gardens in northern Wales (@thelaundrygarden). Jenny and I chat about the origins and development of her garden, and the challenges and joys of having it open to the public via Instagram, UK Open Days, and the Retreat accommodation. The Plant of the Week is the Bougainvillea (I know; incongruous, but I visited Jamaica), and The Play List talks about what is going on the in garden right now.

Besides the soul sucking noise of mowers and blowers in your neighborhood, are you aware that the internal combustion engines that make these machines run contribute more than their fair share of pollutants to our air? Matt Berry of Dos Amigos Landscaping is doing something about it. Every time a piece of equipment needs to be replaced, Dos Amigos is adding another electric battery powered tool to their arsenal. They have two electric vehicles and plan to get more. What if YOUR landscape crew could do this? What if EVERY landscape crew could? I hope you listen to this episode, but more than that I hope you share it. 

The Plant of the Week is the Daffodil, and in the Play List you will hear a little primer on rose pruning. 

The Philadelphia Flower Show and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society pre-date the Chelsea Flower show and the Royal Horticultural Society. If that weren't impressive enough, the money raised because of this important event goes to community service efforts all over the state of Pennsylvania. Seth Pearsoll, the Creative Director of the show, fills us in on the history and behind the scenes information on what it takes to put on something of this scale. The Plant of the Week is the Crocus, and spring is coming!!

We all garden a little bit differently and I love to check in on Amanda the Ever Hopeful Gardener on Instagram to see what she's up to because she's always trying something new. In this episode we discuss compost tea and why you may or may not want to go to the trouble to make some. We also have a regular old garden chat about just about anything that occurs to us. In addition, I summarize four gardening presentations I heard at the Piedmont Landscape Association from Thomas Rainer, Cole Burrell, Peggy Cornett, and Doug Tallamy. The Plant of the Week is the Galanthus, or Snow Drop. 

This is a long one, but worth it in terms of information gleaned about some of the best perennials you can choose. Richard Hawke runs the famous evaluations at the Chicago Botanic Garden and in this episode he talks about the evaluations and what they mean and how they can help any gardener to know WHICH darned plant to choose. We talk about the process and then I insist that we go over the ones that I was basically forced to buy after hearing him talk at Speaking of Gardening at Asheville last summer. Forced is strong-- how about 'Unable to Resist'? 

Apropos of nothing other than a little vacation I took in Florida recently, the Plant of the Week is the Banyan Tree (Ficus benghalensis), and in The Play List I talk about seed starting and winter pruning.  

I asked some of my favorite gardeners to share sustainable practices that they employ in their gardens. We get contributions from Linda Vater, Erin Schanen, Julie Hart (Nanny Noo), Amanda the Everhopeful Gardener, Emma Biggs, Marianne Willburn, Bunny Williams and Tasha Greer about what they do (or don't do) in their gardens to make our earth a bit happier. 

Looking for last minute Christmas decoration ideas for your containers and front door? Susan Nock of Thistle Containers gives us those goods plus ideas for inside, and maybe grander ideas for future decoration ideas if this year is a busy one for you. The Plant of the Week is an incongruous choice, but you will understand why I chose it once I explain. What to do in your garden right now is a compact list-- less is more at this time of year. 

What if all mulch were free? What if the trees and branches that are chewed up every time an arborist works in your neighborhood could be distributed on your garden beds (you have to do that part) or added to your compost pile, or simply kept on your property to break down to become a seed and potting medium? That is what wood chips can do for you-- they aren't just for lining your paths or the bottom of your swing set. I chat with Ben Raskin author of The Woodchip Handbook, to get to the bottom of how gardeners can use chips, and wood chip myths are dispelled, so listen up! The Plant of the Week is the Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine' and as always, I talk about what you could be doing in your garden right now. 

I get to talk to a guy who's been gardening at America's largest home, the Biltmore, for decades and he is now the Head Horticulturist there. Bill Quade gives us the ins and outs of what it's like to garden at a Frederick Law Olmsted home creation and keep it true to its original intent. The Plant of the Week is the Hedychium coronarium, and we talk about Monarch butterflies, bulb planting and more. 

Author and Speaker Joseph Tychonievich gives us a glimpse into the many presentations that he gives nationally, including topics such as Plant Breeding, Plant Pollinators and Why They Matter, and Dealing with Your Hosta Addiction. Author of four books including his latest, a comic book guide on how to grow tomatoes, Joseph makes his elevated understanding of horticulture and plant biology accessible to all. Other topics include the sugar maple and why that orange makes me happy this time of year, the alien invasive vine oriental bittersweet, and how to plant bulbs.

Besides an interesting conversation with Consi Palmer and Carol Carter, who explain what it's like to start up a botanic garden, and besides talking about six great fall plants because I simply was not able to choose a Plant of the Week, I am all over the map on this episode. Here's a little list of what I talked about... changing out beds, working with your landscapers to improve issues like excessive noise and unnecessary fertilizers, plants that will make up my new tropical bed, how I didn't know Annabelle Hydrangeas can develop nasty tap roots, putting away your hoses for winter, what 20 orange azaleas can do for you, and more. 

Both the New England Aster and the Chinese Tartarian Aster are making merry in my garden right now, so those are our Plants of the Week. I chat with Steph Green of Contained Creations who has begun an exciting new website that can have us all re-creating and enjoying her magical container combinations. Other topics include expert input on the question of Asclepius curavassica from Doug Tallamy and some science about mulching from an article written recently by Charlie Nardozzi. 

Marian Boswall is a UK Landscape Architect and Horticulturist who believes that sustainable gardening ideas add to the beauty of gardens. In this episode we discuss her ethos and how it came through in her book, 'Sustainable Gardening' via projects and ideas that every gardener can carry out. The Plant of the Week is the Blue Mist flower, or Conoclinium coelestinum, and I talk about how to divide perennials. 

We all get aches and pains occasionally, but Madeline Hooper has found out a bit of magic-- we don't have to. She enlisted Personal Trainer Jeff Hughes to help her out, and the results have been pain free gardening for her, and an entire PBS television series for all of us. Garden Fit takes us to lots of different gardens and gardeners, showing us plants, design, beautiful spaces, and 'fixes' for what ails the gardener. The Plant of the Week makes the perfect filler in a container: Carex 'Everillo', and I talk about good fall plants, and what to do in your garden at this time of year. 

Bunny Williams and I chat about her garden, new favorite plants and her birdhouse meadow, and also her new line of garden furniture, called Treillage after her former store. The Plant of the Week is the Hosta, which is polite enough to have the same common and botanical name. Various other topics include wood chips, leaving pulled weeds (hidden) in your beds, and Sir David Attenborough's 'A Life on our Planet'.