The Garden Mixer

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 [email protected] 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.