Garden Thoughts as We Bid Adieu to August

Season 4, Episode 43, August 31, 2022

Carol’s Japanese Jacinth is just beginning to bloom now.

Where to begin? Dee and I talked for longer than normal on this week’s episode which we recorded in the afternoon instead of the morning so Dee could garden a bit while it was still cool.

Though cool is relative. It was probably still in the low 90s when she was out there weeding and seeding. She spent about an hour, which was really two hours, reclaiming her garden from those plants trying to take it over.

I didn’t do any gardening before recording. Instead, I went to the grocery store after a quick walk through my garden to check the rain gauge and my fall-planted cole crops — broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts.

No, I did not buy green beans at the store. Thanks for asking. I have plenty. We will discuss why next week. (That’s a teaser!)

I still find people watching on weekdays at the grocery store interesting even though I’ve been “retired” for over six years. Why are these people at the grocery store on a Monday morning and not at work? Some are clearly old enough to be retired, some are young mothers with kids in tow, and I’m sure others might not work a traditional Monday-Friday day shift and thus can be at a grocery store on a Monday morning!

And then there is me! I still don’t think I look old enough to be retired, but we’ll talk more about age next week because Dee has that milestone birthday coming up in early September! (Another teaser!)

Onward!

We started this week’s episode with some wisdom from a listener, Acres Abloom on Instagram, who posted some encouraging words for Dee. Thank you, Acres Abloom, who I think is also the one who suggested “violas” when I posted on Instagram about wondering what to plant in my empty garden bed. Good answer!

I’d now like to apologize to Dee. I noticed while editing the audio file that I did not comment on her comment that elderberries, which she recently picked, are poisonous until cooked. Sorry about that, Dee! I did not know that, and I would like to know more about it. She’s going to make elderberry syrup with her harvest. Cooked. Which is good. I heard somewhere that elderberries are poisonous until cooked. Now, who said that?

We also talked about our blog posts this week. I wrote a Green Bean Story, and Dee posted about fall bulbs.

For our flower topic, we talked about the concept of perpetual spring which means plant flowers that bloom at different times so something new is always blooming in your garden.

In my garden, Barnardia japonica (Japanese Jacinth) which I got as a passalong plant from the gardener at the Elizabeth Lawrence House and Garden in Charlotte, NC, is just starting to bloom. I included a picture of the flowers with this post. They are hard to find for sale, but you can buy seeds for them from Hayefield. Note that Nan suggests you should be an experienced seed sower to sow seeds for this flower.

I also talked about Persian Violets, Cyclamen hederifolia, blooming for the first time in my garden this week. I posted a picture of them on Instagram the other day.   

For Dee, fall means one of her new big grasses is blooming: Blackhawks Big Bluestem Grass, Andropogon, available from American Meadows. She also loves helenium, goldenrod, and of course, we both love mums and asters.

In the vegetable garden, we had “the soil talk” about enriching your soil with cover crops. Botanical Interests has a nice article on cover crops (affiliate link). Both Dee and I are sowing cover crops this fall. I’m sowing fall peas where the corn was growing. Dee is planting crimson clover in a clover mix, which her bees will love.

On the bookshelf this week Dee talked about  The Gardener’s Palette by RHS and Jo Thompson (Amazon link). If you are looking for a book about color in the garden and ideas for various color combinations, Dee recommends this book. Our friend Mary Ann convinced her to buy it, and Dee in turn convinced her to buy The Chef's Garden by Farmer Lee Jones (Amazon link) while they were both in England. They ordered them up so they’d be waiting for them when they got home, as one does!

 For our dirt, we delve into the article: Gardeners' World’s Monty Don blasts show’s ‘gardening mafia’. Don’t get us started…

By this time in the episode, we realized how long we’d been talking, so we didn’t spend too much time on our rabbit holes. Dee went down a compost rabbit hole to find out more about the JS bioreactor for composting…. here are three links if you want to follow her down there: link to a manual on how to build one, an article about it, and Bioreactor - Regeneration International. It’s a deep rabbit hole!

I did some more research on Gert Schley, the charming German gardener on Gardener's World, Episode 23, who wowed us all with his Somerset gardening smock and his method of gardening. Comfrey, anyone? People went nuts on social media about his smock and hat so if you can find that episode on YouTube or via Britbox, watch at least Gert’s segment. It’s near the end. I did some more online searching and discovered his connection to Haddon Wood.

And that’s pretty much the episode. The usual links follow but before you scroll down and head out, we have a question for you! How long is too long for an episode? We usually go on for about 35 minutes, but today’s episode is slightly over that at around 45 minutes. Comment and let us know what length you prefer when you listen to podcasts. Or email us and let us know.

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 any time 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.

Don't forget to sign up for our newsletters via our websites!