Lull in Your Garden? How to Fix It!
Season 8, Episode 21, June 10, 2026
Another week, another episode, and of course, another newsletter. If you came here for the links, I put them way at the bottom so you’ll have to work to get to them! And while you are down there, hit the like button and leave us a comment.
Garden Updates:
We both had busy weeks in the garden, getting stuff done! No sitting around for us. Dee, of course, had a couple of new roses to plant, sent to her by Jackson & Perkins Roses. Check out Ruffled Romance on their website. What do you think? Pretty, isn’t it?
Playing Favorites:
It’s that time of year when it is hard to pick out just one favorite. For Dee, it’s her Truffula Pink gomphrena. See the pic above for why anyone would love that flower in their garden. For me it is my Spigelia marilandica, known as Indian Pink. It did something special, which we talk about on the podcast. I put it at the top of this post!
Question of the Week:
Our question of the week was sent by a listener and is about salvia. This gave us a chance to mention Salvia ‘Blue by You’ which is repeat blooming in my garden for the second time, and is supposed to repeat bloom about five times. Proven Winners has it as do others.
Insect of the Week:
Speaking of blue, a happy coincidence is that we also talked about Shiny Blue Beetles. Blue bugs are interesting when you see them, and not that usual, at least in my garden. How about in your garden?
Flowers:
For our flower topic, we talked about the lulls in the garden, when it seems nothing new is blooming and everything that was blooming is fading. We offer some suggestions about how to fill those gaps. We’d love to hear your ideas too!
Vegetables:
Staying on theme, we talk about the calm before the big harvest, and why you want it. We also talked about small harvests you might be enjoying know if you remembered to plant early. In my garden, I’m picking peas! How about you?
On the Bookshelf:
We reviewed a new book, The New Garden Designer’s Handbook: How to Design Useful Gardens from Start to Finish, by Daryl Beyers, Illustrations by Elara Tanguy. Thank you to Timber Press for the review copies. If you are struggling with your own garden not feeling like it’s coming together, or has too many lulls, this is the book for you.
Dirt:
For the dirt, we talked about poison hemlock. It’s once again time to make sure you know how to identify it, not because you are going to mistake it for carrots, but because it is deadly poisonous. See this reel on Instagram. Plus check out this post on Instagram with a pick of the four white flowers that look alike: Queen Anne’s Lace, Poison Hemlock, Hogweed, and Wild Parsnip.
Rabbit Holes:
We were both a bit too busy for deep rabbit holes, but I finished listening to the audiobook of Land by Maggie O’Farrell. Definitely five stars from me.
Garden to Visit:
This week, we featured Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s Garden, in Charlottesville, Virginia. If you’ve never been, it’s time you went, especially to see the huge vegetable garden. Don’t forget to tour the house.
Thank you
That’s it for this week! As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter!
And here are the promised links: To watch this episode on YouTube, click here. To listen to this episode, click here. Don’t forget to like and comment!
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If you're planning to visit Monticello, check out the schedule for the nearby Monticello property, Tufton Farms. This is where all the PLANTS are and they have an Open Days scheduled four times a year and also a plant sale. There is a Heritage Rose garden there and it is available for group tours if you make arrangements.