It's Gardener's Choice!
Season 6, Episode 23, April 24, 2024
For this week’s episode, Dee and I talked about a new flower book, growing veggies in containers, Sarah Raven's new book on container plantings, a woodworker’s Instagram account, and then there were rabbit holes…
Honestly, I’m surprised we managed to talk about so many far-reaching topics in just one hour. If you made notes as I did, you’ll have a page worth and then some. You might even catch the part that gave this episode its name, “It’s Gardener’s Choice.”
Because it really is “gardener’s choice” when it comes to your garden. You should plant what you love and make it a place that gives you joy. And by all means, plant when you want, based on when you think your area is frost-free, but if you are now covering stuff at night like some people in my area, I get to say, “Told ya it was too soon!”
But it’s never too soon to listen to another episode of The Gardenangelists. Whenever you listen is the right time.
How’s that for a transition to a list of links and other helpful information about this episode?
Up first, as always—well, after garden updates and favorites of the week—is our flower topic. This week, we talked about a new book we asked to review: Floral Folklore: The Forgotten Tales Behind Nature’s Most Enchanting Plants, by Alison Davies and illustrated by Sarah Wildling. (Amazon link). We love stories about flowers, and did we mention how pairing them with beautiful illustrations makes this an enjoyable book to read?
For our vegetable topic, we talked about growing vegetables in containers. Burpee sent me seeds and containers to grow Cucumber Quick Snack and
Basil Bonsai in six-inch containers. I’m going to try growing both of them! Listen to the podcast to hear some of our tips for growing vegetables in containers.
On the bookshelf, Dee arranged for us to get review copies of A Year Full of Pots: Container Flowers for All Seasons, by Sarah Raven (Amazon link) and lavishly photographed by Jonathan Buckley. Gosh, this is a gorgeous book. For all things “Sarah Raven,” check out her website.
For our dirt, Dee shared about Justin Davies’ woodworking on Instagram. He makes vases out of in-VASE-ive trees, like Bradford pears, and also makes a wooden U.S. map using trees from different states.
Throughout the podcast, we mentioned several other posts, articles, etc. that you might like to check out including Dee’s blog post about easy plants for containers and my Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post.
You might also want to check out my post about gardener’s math and take a look at the Dramm watering wand Dee loves.
If you think you might be interested in Elizabeth Goudge’s books, you can check out the Elizabeth Goudge bookclub I found online. And maybe you might want to read a post about my latest lost lady of garden writing, Mrs. L. L. Huffman.
And did I mention that Dee got us talking about salvias again? She did!
She particularly likes Salvia farinacea, of which ‘Victoria Blue’ is the most commonly found variety. And I figured out that the perennial salvia blooming outside my window is ‘Blue by You,’ which turns out to be an All-America Selection!
Alrighty then! I think this episode will keep you busy for a bit, especially if you follow us down some of those rabbit holes. Or maybe you think we don’t have enough going on and would like to suggest a book, a rabbit hole, or a plant for us to explore. Please do so in a comment or shoot us an email!
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For more info on Carol visit her website. Visit her blog, May Dreams Gardens.
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