The Garden Mixer

Besides talking about various goings on in my early August garden, I chat with Erin Schanen, the Impatient Gardener, about her hopes and dreams for her summer, but this was recorded back before the peonies bloomed! The Plant of the Week is the perennial Allium, particularly 'Millenium'. 

No guest this week, just little me answering some questions and sharing some experiential wisdom on deer control. I bought a new toy: a pond vacuum, so we dig a little into that scum. Follow up on No Mow May and the use of Round Up too. The Plant of the Week is the Hydrangea paniculate 'Little Lime' and I have a big announcement for you in this episode!

Geum was first runner up for Plant of the Week, but since that's more of a spring plant, I went with the Madagascar Vinca. Brad Johnson and I discuss Geum, his DIY green house, using Round Up responsibly and his favorite tool, a step edger. I follow up on Jumping Worms and coming back from 3 weeks away from the garden. 

This week Roxana Snediker of Soil and Margaritas Instagram and YouTube fame joins us for a general discussion of her gardening in general, but we accidentally did a deep dive into tomatoes so I made that the plant of the week. At the beginning of this episode I am traveling home after 3 weeks and wondering what my garden will look like upon my arrival. I follow up at the end of the show by telling you what I found after I got home. 

What happens when you ask some great gardeners what their fave plant combos are? You get some great ideas! Listen as Kelly Lehman, Lizzie Rose, Steph Green, Jenks Farmer, Marianne Willburn, Serome Hamlin and Linda Vater tell us what they think goes together well and why!

Possibly the very first plant that Marianne Wilbur and I drooled over when we first got to Great Dixter for the May Symposium was the Persicaria 'Purple Fantasy' so it is appropriate that Persicaria is our Plant of the Week. Marianne and I chat about our week together with Fergus Garrett and the gang at Great Dixter, and why immersing ourselves into the experience was so good for our gardens and for our souls. I also touch on two other garden enhancements that we learned about that week and they are coppicing and meadows. 

Weeds are inevitable, so don't get excited that I indulged in outrageous hype for the title of this episode. But if you garden with with weeds (and if you garden, you have weeds) intelligently, you may pick up some information on how, why and when to control them. Tasha Greer's new book, "Weed Free Gardening" may sound too good to be true, but the subtitle "A Comprehensive and Organic Approach to Weed Management" is a great description of what we will learn from her in the podcast. The Plant of the Week is the Pelargonium that everyone calls Geranium, and I round up some Great Dixter information as well as give the low down on my No Mow May experiment. 

Maria Failla, the voice of Bloom and Grow Radio, has written a book called Growing Joy. She and I discuss the positive aspects about growing and that when you help a plant to live, you are really helping yourself with time in reflection and nature, all the while not being near a screen. Our Plant of the Week is the Kalmia latifolia, or Mountain Laurel, and I deal with questions on native bog plants, amending soil, and pruning Japanese maples. 

Our Plant of the Week is the Rose, which is far far too big a topic to do well, so instead I offer some of my growing hacks. It's not that I grow them well, it's just that I have figured out how to enjoy them well without growing them perfectly well. Janice Groves of Jay's Garden Journal got my attention because of sheet mulching, but our talk rambled all over her sun baked, cheerful garden. Garden answers to questions like how to tidy liriope, when to cut back bulb foliage and what is a strimmer are included too!

John Robinson is the neighbor and listener who answered my plea for help with the podcast, and in this episode I talk to him about his small but amazingly diverse garden. He is a champion of sustainable gardening and is very knowledgeable about natives. Plus, he handy enough to have designed and built his own chicken coop. Our Plant of the Week is the Aquilegia vulgaris, or columbine, and I talk about Peony Bud Blast. Doug Tallamy contributed to an answer to a question from a listener about Oak tree hybrids. 

If you did your homework assignment, this is good follow up information on the gardens of Great Dixter and the symposium that Marianne Willburn and I will be attending next week! Not only do we talk about the gardening opportunity, but we also touch on the idea of saying yes to something it would have been far easier to say no to. The plant of the week is the Fringe Tree, and I also talk about No Mow May, getting rid of invasive Nandina, and the Joe Gardener podcast episode with Dave Goulson about his book 'Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse'. 

Renée Clermont of Second Nature Designs in Martha's Vineyards talks design, containers, weather, and running a business up in a summer paradise. The Plant of the Week is the Peony, and I talk about roses, including tips on taming and transplanting them on this episode. 

Our plant of the week is having its spring moment and sticking its beard, or tongue, out at everyone in the prettiest way. In trying to get a better definition of a rain garden, Landscape Architect and I went down the garden path on that, plus Interpretive Gardens and Trauma informed Gardens. Lots of good listener questions are answered, including two on how to deal with invasive plants. 

Page Dickey, author of Uprooted and many other garden books, talks to me about her new garden and the elements of design and nature that molded a very different space from her long time Duck Hill garden. Azaleas are hogging all the bandwidth in my garden right now so they are the plant of the week. I talk about deadheading bulb flowers, late season mulching and recalcitrant Hydrangea macrophylla in The Play List.

Clare Foster is a garden writer and editor who gardens in the UK. We chat about several of her books and gardening in general. The Plant of the Week is the Serviceberry (Amerlanchier canadensis), and various other garden topics such as mulch around trees and seed sowing are under discussion too. In this episode I ask my listeners if they might know of someone who can help me out with this podcast-- marketing, editing, ect. I believe the job could be remote. Write me at LHarris@LHGardens.com if you are interested. 

Claus Dalby of Denmark comes Into the Garden with Leslie about his latest book, which is his first book in English. "Containers in the Garden" gives the total lowdown on Dalby's famous aesthetic. Leslie chose one of his favorites flowers, the tulip, as her Plant of the Week and besides talking about all the things that she did not get done in the garden this week, she explains the consulting part of her business, LH Gardens.

The Plant of the Week is Bloodroot, or Sanguinaria canadensis. I chat with podcaster (GardenDC) and magazine editor (Washington Gardener Magazine) about the new book she has co-authored with Teri Speight called 'The Urban Garden'. There is follow up information on last week's Plant of the Week, the Virginia Blue Bell, and I talk about how I will, in theory, if it warms up, prune my Camellias this week. 

Diane Blazek of the National Garden Bureau and All America Selections walks us through some of the best new plants of 2022. Tips on cold frames, rejuvenation pruning of shrubs, and bringing indoor plants back outside. The Plant of the Week is Mertensia virginica, the Virginia Bluebell. 

Linda Vater of Potager Blog joins me to talk about her new book, "The Elegant and Edible Garden". Before I herald the beautiful spring bulb the Hyacinth, I defame the alien invasive tree that is looking deceptive beautiful this time of year, and that is the Callary Pear. There are tips about growing Camellias, including the difference between the Camellia sasanqua and the Camellia japonica. Do snow damage daffodils? We discuss, and there is good news about snow and early spring bulbs. 

Stephanie Rose is a prolific gardening author, and in this episode we discuss her 11th book, "The Regenerative Garden". The Plant of the Week is the Eranthis hyemalis, or Winter Aconite, and although I threw 'pruning climbing roses' into the title, there are lots of additional hands on seasonal gardening tips in this episode, such as cutting back liriope, dethatching your lawn, how to plant and prune lavender (okay, that's not seasonal, but someone wanted to know). 

This week's Plant of the Week is a house plant for most, in honor of our guest, Author of "House Plant Warrior" Raffaele Di Lallo. Lots of questions from listeners this week (REAL listeners) spring clean up in the garden and more-- tips on Boxwood pruning too. 

The Plant of the Week is the Paper Bush, an early spring bloomer, and Karl Gercens talks with us about Longwood Gardens, where he is the Manager of the West Conservatory, which is the only conservatory at the moment. Gardening tips about spring clean up in the garden, and forcing daffodils, and a couple of my garden fails. 

This is the video version of the interview of Episode 53. Tanya Anderson of Lovely Greens discusses her new book, A Woman's Garden. 

Tanya Anderson of Lovely Greens has written a book about crafting with plants. She features her soap making and 7 other woman gardeners and the way they use their plants to do more. I talk a little about a plant I don't know, the Hepatica, and a bit more about one I do know, Helleborus foetidus. The Play List includes the basics of boxwood pruning. 

A year of Into the Garden with Leslie! That went fast... 

This week I celebrate the early tiny Snow Drop (Galanthus) that is blooming in my garden.  Emma Biggs, who wrote Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun joins me and we discuss her garden, gardening in a small space in Toronto, and her book written at age 15 to get kids into gardening. I finish my Hyrdrangea pruning series with tips on Hydrangea arborescens, and although I have not yet how to avoid the flops with my favorite Annabelle, there is some good pruning information there. 

I couldn't resist paying homage to an outdoor plant that made me so happy while I was hanging out all smug in Horticultural zone 10 for a few weeks, but I will be happy to get back to my zone 7B indoor orchids. Serome Hamlin tells us all about his miniature Enchanted (but not Fairy!) Gardens (8:45) and after chatting about the evils of Nandina and the virtues of the native (to Virginia and other SE states) Camassia scilloides, I discuss how you could, but you really don't have to, prune an Oak Leaf Hydrangea. 

Because this is the FIFTIETH episode of Into the Garden with Leslie we celebrate by choosing the Golden Alexander as the Plant of the Week. Amanda the Ever Hopeful Gardener talks to us about compost (6:40) and we go on to the NEXT type of Hydrangea, the paniculata type, (45:16) with pruning tips. Remember-- you never have to prune! 

I had no idea that the Ficus incorporates so many different type of plant (including epiphytes) and is even the name for a type of sea snail found near Singapore. But in the episode I concentrate on plants-- house plants mostly. I have a chat with the delightful Nanny Noo (Julie Hart) of Launceston, Tasmania and before going into the normal gardening topic of pruning Hydrangea macrophylla (which you don't even have to do) I take a medium dive into the topic of doggie doo. There's more to it than you would think. Doomsday thinking from the EPA and more hopeful information from the USDA. Yes, it can be composted, but you REALLY need to know what you are doing. 

This week I choose a huge plant that is right outside of our Florida rental as the Plant of the Week (2:18) and it is the Live Oak. Kelly Lehman and I chat about her flower farm, social media success and hydrangea pruning tips (6:30) and in The Play List I start what will be a series of winter pruning tips that I love to employ in cold weather. 

This week is all about a plant I hadn't known much about until I heard from Jenks Farmer (Augustus Jenkins Farmer III) and heard about his book, titled Crinum: Unearthing the History and Cultivation of the World's Biggest Bulb. The Crinum is also the Plant of the Week, and on the Play List I talk about getting the heavy snow off of your evergreens (sometime you don't have time to be gentle) and I go on a bit of a rant about Oasis, that floral foam that breaks down into nano plastics and ends up places we don't want it to end up. 

A baker's dozen of my best guests, including a special one from Launceston, Tassie, who my listeners haven't even been acquainted with, tell us what they are up to in 2022. Kelly D. Norris, Jenny Sioux Hopkins, Christy Wilhelmi, Brie Arthur, Andy Brand, Bunny Williams, Scott Beuerlein, Dean Norton, Marianne Willburn, Lizzie Fox, Erin Schanen, Steph Green and Julie Hart, aka Nanny Noo, will fill you with inspiration for the next gardening season!

Merry Christmas to all! This week I explore 4 plants that are commonly in people's homes this time of year, including my favorite type of tree, the Frasier fir. My sister Kim of Canine Connection in Alexandria teaches about how to enjoy our new Covid pups, and all dogs, in the garden. And in terms of listening, it's to your family this holiday season, and all that they may have to offer you. 

Besides learning that the Amaryllis is actually, in most cases a Hippeastrum, you will hear my rationalization for enjoying those bulbs without trying to get them to re-bloom the next year. I chat with Ellen Zachos about foraging for food (and cocktail enhancements!) in your own backyard: why you would even want to do this, and how to do it safely. Tips about planting spring bulbs in pots and thoughts on cleaning up your perennial bed. Do you have to. No, you do not. 

Tim Schipper, owner and founder of ColorBlends gives us the low down on bulbs-- what the 'blends' are, ideas on how to keep them coming back or not to worry if they don't and planting times. ColorBlends is my favorite bulb source and I just love how you get a brown scaly golf ball in fall and it becomes a magical flower a few short months later. The Plant of the Week is the Big Leafed Magnolia, whose offspring are blowing around in my yard right now like sails, and in The Play List we talk about bulb placement tips and leaving the leaves-- not just for habitat, but for soil enrichment, as I heard on Tom Christopher's  conversation with Eric Fleisher of F2 Environmental Design December 1 podcast. 

Plant of the Week is the Winterberry or Ilex verticillata, and I chat with Carolyn Mullet of CarexTours, which gets interested American gardeners to the most amazing European gardens! My head cold brings several sections of this episode down a half octave or so, but I still enjoyed making it! 

Steph Green of Contained Creations of Richmond helps us to figure out how to wow with Holiday Containers. Lots of great tips, whether you tend toward glitz or nature. The Cornus sericea, or Red Twig Dogwood, is the Plant of the Week and I talk about choices on fall clean up in your garden, rejuvenation pruning vs winter snips, and The Play List feature Johnny Mathis, with me accompanying (don't fret, it's very short) on 'It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas' 

In this episode, I give a fox update, answer questions about trugs and indoor plants (don't laugh! I knew the answer!), and interview Landscape Architect Anthony Bellomo of Millbrook, NY about his pivot to open the lovely Orangerie garden store and his garden at Clove Brook Farm. I also give you some ideas garnered from Christie Wilhelmi's YouTube about Fertilizer vs Compost.

I highly recommend you get your fall fiesta from the native Acer saccharum instead of that other colorful thing that is taking over our native forests: Burning Bush or Eonymus alatus. Erin Schanen the Impatient Gardener and I talk about most anything and everything, including her new naturalistic garden. And I take you through some basics of perennials division, planting a tree, and what to do with compost (not much, right now!)

After a scintillating fox update (if you follow me on Instagram, you know that's a thing) I choose the Silver and Gold, or Ajania pacifica as the Plant of the Week. Sister Sue and I delve deep into how to plant bulbs, and maybe what bulbs to plant, and I deal with questions on Vinca minor, moving peonies and what to do in the garden this week. Shout out to the Home Grown National Park-- $20 for 20 million acres. It's not a great real estate deal, but it's a great cause. 

The color that most Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves turn this time of year reminds me of a fine red wine sipped by the fire, so that means it has to be the Plant of the Week. You are going to be charmed by Lizzie Fox, a young woman in Norwich, England, who is turning seed shopping a shiny, beautiful and new direction, and other details include pruning hydrangeas, watering chores (at this time of year? maybe...) and the Brooklyn Bridge Park, as listened to Rebecca McMackin on Tom Christopher's Growing Greener pod. 

Because we haven't featured a native Plant of the Week for a while, and because I could not ignore the Honorine Jobert in my yard, we double dip with both the Japanese anemone and the Anemone virginiana, which, although it isn't blooming now like our Asian friend, blooms in spring and is pretty too!

Christy Wilhelmi and I flit around the garden topics, touching down on compost, no dig gardening, managing fruit trees in a small space, and mini meadows. Basically, I asked her about some of the wonderful tips she gets on HER podcast, Gardenerd Tip of the Week.

And lastly on The Play List I talk more about compost, answer some listeners' questions, and talk about what to do in the garden this week.  

This week the author of Tropical Plants and How to Love Them, Marianne Wilburn, takes us through steps on what plants we may want to over winter, and how to make them happy. This is Marianne's second visit because she is so fun to chat with! The Plant of the Week is the Rex Begonia, and I also talk about some trees I have planted recently, more on composting, and one of my favorite tools, the soil knife. 

This week we get all pumpkin spicy autumnal with the mum as our POW, some dried hydrangea and dahlias cutting tips, and a long chat with sister Sue Ann about what is happening in her garden, mine, and others of which we are jealous. Timely information about bringing indoor plants back in NOW is a great preview for next week's visit with Marianne Wilburn. 

Gregory Britt, "That Nice Guy Who Creates Epic Floral Artistry" joins me for a wandering (literally, as I chase him around the studio with my lame microphone and we battle traffic noise) chat about flowers, gardening, and house plants. I have collected good basic (read: for idiots like me) info on the Asian Jumping Worm and the classic Zinnia is the Plant of the Week!

Following up on the very successful Episode 32 with Steph Green of Contained Creations, we explore fall containers with her (7:35) after getting you primed for filling them with the Plant of the Week, the Pansy! Special live concert with Rusty Gear (41:42) is a bonus!

This week, writer and gardener Marianne Willburn joined me on the pod. She is a monthly columnist for the American Gardener Magazine, as well as a writer for Garden Rant. You can also find her personal blogs here. We talk about all things plant marketing, plant sharing, even the native vs. nonnative debate and the oh-so-controversial Lawn. You can also read MY blog here! I publish a post to go along with each episode of the podcast.

I visited Peggy Cornett, and lots of cicadas, hence the ambient noise, at The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Tufton Farm, about two miles from Monticello. We chat about plants that Jefferson grew or otherwise historic plants, including the interesting annual Euphorbia marginata, or Snow on the Mountain. Since that sounds like a country song, it is, but from Australia, where it doesn't snow all that much!

This week I visit Dean Norton, Director of Horticulture at George Washington's Mount Vernon (@ 5:47) and recommend Andrea Wulf's 'Founding Gardeners' in The Play List. The Plant of the Week really has nothing at all to do with the General, I cannot tell a lie, but it is a versatile and useful plant that I am propagating the heck out of these days, in order to improve my garden once the dog days wane. 

The Dahlia is the showy strumpet of the late season border, and she is a high maintenance diva that is so attractive she is worth all of the effort. We learn the ins and outs of growing the Dahlia from spring planting to lifting and dividing. Did you know that there are 17 different flower forms? Other topics include English Ivy and how I loathe it, late season pruning on low and crazy branches, and a podcast named "Tiny Vampires". 

Traveling Garden Correspondent Leslie Harris is in hot and humid Hilton Head, South Carolina, picking apart why her mother-in-law's garden looks so darned good right now. Garden writer Scott Beuerlein of Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Horticulture Magazine and Garden Rant fame joins me on some other August ideas. Fall is coming, but let us indulge in a bit of self-pity, day dreaming, and plagiarism while we wait for it.