The Garden Mixer

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".