The Gardenangelists: Flowers, Veggies, and All the Best Dirt

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Dee and Carol discuss favorite summer annuals, what to do I the veg garden in August, and many books.

For more information, check out our Substack newsletter

To watch us on YouTube, click here.

Links, etc:

Question of the Week:

What’s wrong with my tomatoes?  

Insect of the Week:

Black Saddlebags Dragonfly

Flowers:

Our favorite summer garden annuals. Branching out from perennials and native plants obsession.

Vegetables:

Timely reminders for August

On the Bookshelf:

In the Land of the Blue Poppies: The Collected Plant-Hunting Writings of Frank Kingdon Ward (2003) (Amazon, Bookshop)  

Dirt:

Hydrangea Pruning: What Stays, What Goes and When by Lorraine Ballato (Amazon)

Rabbit Holes:

The Churchill Sisters by Dr. Rachel Tretheway. (Bookshop, Amazon). 

The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made by Caroline Hallemann (Bookshop, Amazon) 

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench (Amazon, Bookshop). (Listen to Judi Dench recite Shakespear on Instagram)

 Adele Dawson, another Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

Dear Hugo by Molly Claverly (Amazon, Bookshop), and sloes, the fruit of blackthorn.  

 The Artist and the Feast by Lucy Steeds. (Amazon, Bookshop)  

Dee’s buying Bulgarian food  

A Garden to Visit:

Tulsa Botanic Garden

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Carol and Dee

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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Dee and Carol talk about mandevillas, veggie cookbooks and more in this week's episode.

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To watch us on YouTube, click here.

Insect of the Week:

Lily leaf beetle, prompted by a reader’s questions. Check Wisconsin Extension on how to identify and how to control. This site shows the range 

Flowers:

Mandevillas and Bougainvillas

Vegetables:

More recipes from the garden.

My New Roots: Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season: A Cookbook by Sarah Britton. (Bookshop, Amazon) Check out her website and her Instagram account

Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden (Bookshop, Amazon)

On the Bookshelf:

My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner (1899) (Bookshop, Amazon)

Dirt:

Chatsworth Garden Design Revealed in the Drought

Rabbit Holes:

The Botanist’s Assistant by Peggy Townsend (Bookshop, Amazon) Lots of interesting deadly plants mentioned. 

Also  Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster: Words that first appeared in print for the year you were born…

A Garden to Visit:

Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Carol and Dee

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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Dee and Carol talked about decorative beans to grow for flowers, beans to dry, and other gardening topics.

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To watch on YouTube, click here.

Links!

Verbena bonariensis 'Vanity’ from All-America Selections

Insect of the Week

June Beetles  Info from Wisconsin Horticulture Extension

Flowers:

Hyacinth beans - Lablab purpureus 

Scarlet runner beans - Phaseolus coccineus

Yardlong beans - Vigna unguiculata subsp. Sesquipedalis

Corkscrew vine beans, Cochliasanthus caracalla

Vegetables:

Alternative beans to grow - black beans, kidney beans, northern beans - mostly for drying. General info from the  Old Farmer’s Almanac. Seed sources for older varieties: Rancho Gordo, Seed Savers Exchange, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

On the Bookshelf:

Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste by Bill Best (Amazon Link)

Dirt:

Harkening back to last week’s episode on trees: Planting Trees at Waddesdon Manor

Rabbit Holes:

Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Danske Dandridge, 

The Garden at Rose Brake: Garden Writings of Danske Dandridge,  

Muv: The Story of the Mitford Girls’ Mother by Rachel Tretheway (2026)  

Slightly Foxed podcast.

A Garden to Visit:

Visit an All-America Selection garden near you! 

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Carol and Dee

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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Dee and Carol talked about trees, including what to consider when buying a tree, pawpaws and walnut trees around the veggie garden, a tree essay book, and more.

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To watch us on YouTube, click here.

A couple of miscellaneous links: Carol’s ritual of the first tomato blog post from 2006 and Play-Doh Blooms (Amazon)

Question of the Week:

Why did a big limb that looked healthy suddenly fall out of my tree? More info from Davey Tree Company

Insect of the Week:

Mimosa Webworms - Info from Purdue - a tale of two kinds of treatment.

Flowers:

How to choose trees for your garden 

Vegetables:

Pawpaw trees - Check them out at Stark Bros

Walnut trees - Info from Garden Professors Blog

On the Bookshelf:

Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree: A celebration of our connection with trees by David George Haskell (Amazon Link). Haskell also wrote How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries and The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature. Check him out on Instagram.

Dirt:

Judi Dench and her passion for trees. A clip/intro to her documentary My Passion for Trees

Rabbit Holes:

Dee: A new cookbook, The HIgh Protein Plate, by Rachael DeVaux, RD. 

Carol: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann (2005), a new biography about Katharine S. White (The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker, by Amy Reading), and a new Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

A Garden to Visit:

United States National Arboretum

Thank You:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Dee and Carol

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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Dee and Carol talk about coneflowers, share some new veggie recipes Dee is trying, discuss a book on wildflowers and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter. 

To watch on YouTube, click here.

Question of the Week:

How do I grow a wildflower meadow from seed?  Mini Meadows, by Mike Lizotte. He explains it well.

Insect of the Week

Blue Orchard Mason Bee. You can make nesting boxes for them or buy commercial ones

Flowers:

The Enterprise of Echinaceas, and why do we have so many varieties? We are speaking of Echinacea purpurea.

Watch out for aster yellows, a disease that can infect coneflowers. More info from Missouri Botanical Garden

Vegetables:

Let’s share some summer recipes!

Authentic Shopska Salad Recipe

Cold Yogurt Cucumber Soup - Tarator

Princesses (Bulgarian Ground Meat Sandwiches) Recipe - Food.com

Dee’s Zucchini Squash Challenge on her blog

On the Bookshelf:

A Naturalist’s Book of Wildflowers: Celebrating 85 Native Plants of North America by Laura C. Martin (2021) (Amazon)

Dirt:

Another dose of cuteness on Instagram, a farmer-gardener with his two young daughters, the two “supervisors”. Meet Jeremiah_Farmer .They also have pigs!

Rabbit Holes:

Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Katharine S. White. And Carol’s tips for getting your garden to produce more veggies. 

A Garden to Visit:

Dallas Arboretum. One hot place when we visited!

Thank you: 

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter!  If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links. 

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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Dee and Carol discuss rooting cuttings in water, mid-summer in the vegetable garden, and a new herbal book, plus discuss if ducks grow on trees.

To watch this episode on Youtube, click here.

For more information, check out our Substack newsletter.

Other links:

Insect of the Week:

Leaf cutter bees.  

Flowers:

31 plants you can root in water, from Epic Gardening

On the Bookshelf:

Collected Curiosities; more stories and recipes from the historical apothecary cabinet by Amanda Edmiston (Amazon)

Dirt:

Do ducks grow on trees? Dictionary Diva on Instagram

Rabbit Holes:

Rural Free: A Farmwife’s Almanac of Country Living by Rachel Peden (1961)

A Garden to Visit:

Tall Grass Prairie Preserve

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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This week, we talked about all the senses your garden awakens in you.

Here's  a link to watch us on YouTube. 

Favorites This Week

You can see Carol’s lilies on Instagram and on Substack. Dee’s favorite flowers include Calibrachoa ‘Lemon Slice’ and dwarf morning glory (Evolvulus glomeratus), also known by its cultivar names 'Blue My Mind' or 'Blue Daze,'

Insect of the Week

Awful, horrible Japanese beetles.

Flowers:

Touchable flowers

Article - How to Design a Healing Garden:

Veggies: 

Vegetable garden as a wellness garden

On the Bookshelf:

Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Good for Our Health by Kathy Willis (Amazon)

and

Botanicum: Welcome to the Museum by Kathy Willis, Illustrated by Katie Scott (Amazon)

Rabbit Holes:

Dee: American food week in Bulgaria on Instagram

Carol:  Carol’s secret source for UK published books… Blackwell’s

Another lost lady of garden writing, Caroline Dormon, friend of Elizabeth Lawrence.

Clarkson’s Farm

A Garden to Visit: Kew Gardens. 

Thank you!

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

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Dee and Carol talk about sound in the garden, inspired by a new book.

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

For more info and links, check out our Substack newsletter

I 

Fireflies or Lightning Bugs. Such a loved little beetle, it has its own website.

Flowers:

Listen to your garden to hear how healthy it is:

Vegetables:

You better hear the hum of bees because you need pollination for so many crops, including squash and cucumbers. 

On the Bookshelf:

Garden Voices: A Year of Gardeners’ Writing, Edited by Claire Masset (Amazon)

Dirt:

Control Mosquitoes with a Mosquito Bucket. (News Report)  

Rabbit Holes:

Carol revisited Elizabeth Lawrence to write about her as the latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

A Garden to Visit:

Longwood Gardens - Famous for their fountains.  

That’s it for this week! As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter!

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about how to fix the lulls in your garden, or not, plus a new book on garden design and more.

For more info and links, check out our Substack newsletter. 

To watch on YouTube, click here.

Salvia ‘Blue by You’, Proven Winners

Shiny Blue Beetles. 

On the Bookshelf:

The New Garden Designer’s Handbook: How to Design Useful Gardens from Start to Finish, by Daryl Beyers, Illustrations by Elara Tanguy

Dirt:

Poison Hemlock On Instagram,  Instagram

Rabbit Holes:

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Garden to Visit: 

Monticello - Thomas Jefferson’s Garden.

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Carol and Dee talk about British awarding winning plants, vegetable gardens and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter

 To watch on YouTube, click here

Links:

Flowers:

Winning flowers at Chelsea Flower Show. More info  RHS site

Hosta ‘Red Ninja’ if you want to buy it. 

All-America Selections! 

Vegetables:

The classic British vegetable garden… what do they grow:

On the Bookshelf:

My Gardening Life by Mary Berry (Amazon)

Mary Berry’s Country House Secret on PBS

Dirt: 

The tree growing grandmother from Yorkshire. Via Instagram. Also, this article

Rabbit Holes:

Louise Riotte, the last Lost Lady of Garden Writing. A Garden to Visit:

A Garden to Visit:

Sissinghurst

Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History: The Quest to Restore a Working Farm at Vita Sackville-West’s Legendary Garden by Adam Nicolson (Amazon)

Thank you for being a listener!

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram:  Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.