Embracing a Season of Change In and Out of the Garden

Season 5, Episode 52, November 8, 2023

and

Nov 07, 2023

My saffron crocuses! Way more than one bloom!

On this week’s episode, since it is our last episode of this season, we decided to look back over shows from the past year and talk about some of our favorite flowers, veggies, and books. We also went down a few rabbit holes. But before we get to those, there are a few topics that raised some questions!

Is a plaid shirt with equal amounts of blue and green a blue shirt or a green shirt?

Is Dee’s orange tree finally, really, truly gone?

Why did Carol say “Thanksgiving” instead of “Halloween and why didn’t she fix that in editing?”

Can a plant’s color make up for it having spikes?

Dee’s Greenway Euphorbia, all tucked in for the winter in her greenhouse!

And what does Dee do to clean up her garden?

Most of our quotes this week were about embracing change and optimism. I think Dee and I are both optimists! We seem to be always ready to change it up in our gardens, even when we grow the same things year in and year out.

So you won’t be surprised to hear that the flowers we talked about the most were violas, pansies, and zinnias, which we both grow a lot of and a late surprise, monkshood, which neither of us grows.

Where can you find some of the flowers we talked about? Look for the Delta Pro pansies at your local garden center this spring. If you want to try Zinnia angustifolia, look for the Crystal Series from True Leaf Market. Keep a watch on Floret Flowers for the possibility of seeds becoming available for ‘Heavy Metal’ zinnias. Dee has given all of us an assignment related to these. Listen to find out what it is. Check out Sunflower Steve to pre-order Van Gogh’s Fantasy Mix sunflower seeds. If you want to know where to get any of the other flowers we talked about, comment or send us an email.

Oh, and Alnwick Gardens and poisonous plants! Here’s a link to one of many YouTube videos about it.

On to the vegetable garden, where we talked about tomatoes, especially ‘Purple Galaxy’ tomatoes from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Dee already bought a bunch of seeds for different tomatoes from Carmel Bella Farm. And we also talked about microgreens. I wrote a blog post with my tips for growing them!

We pulled several books off our bookshelves that were our favorites from this year. They include:

Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers by Marta McDowell (Amazon Link)

The Story of Flowers and how they changed the way we live by Noel Kingsbury (Amazon link)

The 30-Minute Gardener, Cultivate Beauty and Joy by Gardening Every Day, Gred Loades. (Amazon Link)

The Cottage Garden by Claus Dalby (Amazon Link)

Plus, we are still thinking about Tropical Plants and How To Love Them by Marianne Willburn (Amazon Link), even though it was published a few years ago.

Are you still here? Good!

Our dirt was ladybugs! Check out this Family Handyman article about the differences between Asian and native ladybugs. (I did not write it!)

Down in the rabbit holes, I talked about German Cheese Plant, and Dee is drooling over John Derian designs, sometimes available for a reasonable price at Target.

If you are interested, on November 9th, National Garden Bureau is hosting a free webinar featuring four gardening books and their authors.

That’s it!

Next week, we start Season 6!

“There are far better things ahead, than any we leave behind.” - C.S. Lewis

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