From Our Imperfect Gardens to Yours

Season 4, Episode 34, June 29, 2022

First our big news!

We won an award! Our podcast won a second-place award from the National Federation of Press Women in the category of “Web and Social Media - Podcast.”

Yes, I’m, too, struck by the irony that the category includes the words “social media” because as many of you know, Dee and I have both scaled back our social media use by quite a bit in the last few years, but that’s a story for another day. This award really is all about the podcast. Initially, our entry was judged by the Woman’s Press Club of Indiana. Since they gave it a first at the state level, it was sent on to be considered for an award at the national level.

And the winning episode was… We Almost Became a Math Podcast! Kidding!

(I also won a first-place for a personal blog post I wrote,  My New Gardening Admiring Service. But since this newsletter is about the podcast, I’ll write about that on my personal blog!)

On to this week’s podcast episode.

This week, we talked about Pentas. Dee got me to take a look at them after I’ve been ignoring them for decades. I write a blog post about them—or rather the garden fairies did—if you want to know the whole story. Dee’s favorite thing about them is that they flower all summer and attract butterflies.

Out in the vegetable garden, we talked about imperfection. As Dee noted, expect it and accept it and you’ll be a much happier gardener. For all of us, getting close to that perfect tomato requires us to accept a lot of imperfection around it.

On the bookshelf this week, we featured a book that came out last year,  Grow Your Own Mini Fruit Garden: Planting and Tending Small Fruit Trees and Berries in Gardens and Containers by Christy Wilhelmi (Amazon Link). So many people want to grow their own fruit these days, including my youngest sister. If you don’t know where to start or what to grow, grab a copy of this book and check out all the great info. While reading, drink some iced tea and maybe eat a delicious apple or a pear or some grapes or raspberries or whatever fruit you love, and learn how to grow them yourself.

In our dirt segment, we start with some fashion. No one in their right mind would take fashion advice from me or Dee (okay, maybe from Dee) but take our advice on the Piper and Ivy gardening T-shirts we’ve discovered. They’re soft, comfortable, and have fun gardening sayings on them.

Also, Dee sent me a link to this story about Frosted Elfins found in Oklahoma. My first thought was that I am happy to live in a world that has frosted elfins. I’m also happy to know that some companies are planting pollinator habitats, which beats by a long-shot having fields of grass to mow. And even though these frosted elfins were spotted in Oklahoma, I might also see a frosted elfin someday in Indiana. And I quote, “A lesser-known pollinator generally found in the northeastern United States, the frosted elfin butterfly’s population has been in decline in recent years.” I’m on the lookout. You should be on the lookout too.

In between and amidst all of our topics, we also talked about a documentary we found this past weekend, The Pollinators on Amazon. If you watch it, we’d love to know if it makes you want to change your own gardening habits or if it changes what you think when you look at traditional farms.

What else? Oh, the rabbit holes. I’m running too long here so listen to find out about those.

And that’s this week’s episode. Here’s the stuff we always put at the end of our show notes so you can support us, email us, and check out our websites.

Affiliate link to Botanical Interest Seeds. (If you buy something from them after using this link, we earn a small commission at no cost to you. This helps us continue to bring this podcast to you ad-free!)  Book links are also affiliate links.

Email us at TheGardenangelists@gmail.com 

For more info on Carol and her books, visit her website.  Visit her blog May Dreams Gardens.
For more info on Dee and her book, visit her website.  Visit her blog Red Dirt Ramblings.