Plantrama - plants, landscapes, & bringing nature indoors

Ellen and C.L. start this episode out by discussing painted rocks. Are you painting them this summer? Are your kids painting on rocks? Do you love finding a rock with a message on it when you go to the beach or woods, or do you hate this practice? Next we talk about powdery mildew: what it is and when to treat or ignore. We end by answering a question about bringing cannabis into bud.

:30 Just For Fun: Painted rocks…love them or hate them? 4:11 Eat/Drink/Grow: Powdery Mildew 18:52 Love Letters and Questions: Cannabis flowering.

After C.L. and Ellen discuss hailstorms, summer pruning and landscape fabric you'll be ready to just relax with a summer cocktail and consider foraging. Ellen gives a recipe for a "Bear Bait" cocktail that contains milkweed, and C.L. encourages listeners to use other herbs instead of mint in a traditional drink.

:33 What's for dinner: Summer Cocktails – foraged and garden.

5:28 Insider Information: Hail! What to do when pellets of ice have damaged your garden.

8:18 Eat/Drink/Grow: Summer pruning. Is it smart to cut in July?

13:25 Did You Know: Landscape fabric smack-down!

20:38 Love Letters and Questions: What do people commonly ask about foraging?

Ellen and C.L. talk about the insect pest known as whitefly, and discuss several ways of controlling summer weeds. We end by answering Robie's question about how to know when an underground crop is ready for harvesting.

:30 Plant Noob: Whitefly. What this insect is, what it does, and which plants it often attacks.

7:46 Eat/Drink/Grow: Weeds: No Easy Way Out! Various methods of weed control.

18:20 Love Letters and Questions Robie asks how you know when to harvest potatoes.

We start this episode with information about roasting vegetables, and C.L. claims that roasted garden green beans taste as good as French fries. We then go on to trash the idea that mothballs can be used to repel animals in the garden, and talk about bacteria…the good, the bad, and the ugly. The episode ends with Chelsea's question about growing plants in clay.

:35 What's for dinner Roasted vegetables and foraged edibles 5:21 True or False: Use mothballs to repel animals from your garden? 7:48 Eat/Drink/Grow Bacteria…the good, the bad and the ugly 15:01 Love Letters and Questions: Chelsea asks about gardening in clay.

Ellen and C.L. ignite the plant equivalent of fireworks in today's episode. We revisit how pesto doesn't have to be made only from basil, talk about harvesting garlic, and answer Vincent's question about wildflower gardens.

:32 Just For Fun: Fireworks in the garden

6:32 Eat/Drink/Grow: Pesto revisited

12:42 Insider Information: Harvesting garlic

17:32 Love Letters and Questions: Wildflower garden

Ellen and C.L. discuss garden or foraged ingredients that can swing both ways (sweet or savory), we discuss how to respond to a plant crisis, and examine the practice of putting coffee grounds in the garden.

:31 sweet or savory

4:17 coffee in the garden

8:35 don't panic!

18:16 garden tours

Link to the blancmange recipe that Ellen speaks about.

Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival ~ ten days of garden tours Cape-wide.

GardenWalk Buffalo ~ a weekend of hundreds of open gardens.

In this episode Ellen and C.L. talk about keeping your containers flowering and looking great all summer. You'll learn about diagnosing plant problems, favorite product picks and sand in the compost.

:31 annual container maintenance

7:02 diagnosing plant problems

19:31 favorite product picks

26:08 sand in the compost

Product Picks:

Presto Bucket

Excalibut Dehydrator

Push/Pull Hoe

MaxSea Fertlizer

C.L. and Ellen debate whether duct tape can be used to fix broken branches, discuss radishes, help a listener deal with a garden thug that's disguised as a popular herb, and talk about the importance of mycorrhizae.

:30 radishes and milkweed

4:38 duct tape

8:37 mycorrhizae

19:49 lawn full of mint

Ellen and C.L talk about how to make ornaments for your garden from rocks or sticks you can find locally. We discuss what plants you can include in your perennial garden that are also edible and give tips for avoiding ticks and tick borne diseases. The episode ends with a question from Kelly about transplanting in June.

:32 Just For Fun: Foraged garden ornaments…accent your landscape for free!

6:12 Eat/Drink/Grow: The edible perennial garden.

16:44 Insider Information: ticks and tick borne illnesses

23:36 Love Letters and Questions: Kelly asks if it's too late to transplant?

Listening to this podcast will help you choose some great plants for mixed containers. You'll find out why peat moss doesn't make good mulch and why you'll want to give every young person you know that book Gardening With Emma. And you'll discover that just because a plant or product isn't labeled "organic" doesn't mean that it's necessarily problematic.

30 Did You Know: Does peat moss make good mulch?

5:41 Eat Drink Grow: Planting beautiful containers.

19:48 Review: Gardening with Emma, a book about plants for young people.

24:33 Love Letters and Questions: Kip asks if non-organic plants, seeds and products contain poisons.