Off the Gardening Rails

Season 6, Episode 49, October 23, 2024

Dee’s favorite this week is her tatsoi, which she says is too cute to eat.

For this week’s episode, our plan was to talk about shrubs with fall interest, two cookbooks for vegetables, a lead poisoning mystery, and a new book, Plants for the Winter Garden: Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to Add Interest in the Cold and Snow, by Warren Leach. But as sometimes happens…

We went off the rails a bit and ended up also talking about Frank Sinatra, big high schools, and The Aeneid by Vergil, but honestly, we mostly stayed on track and covered our topics.

First up, let me just say that I really wanted to call this episode ‘Violets for your Furs’ but that’s a rather cryptic title, and besides, neither Dee nor I have fur coats, as far as I know.

My favorite this week was Japanese anemone, probably Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'

Anyway, before this newsletter goes off the rails too far, let’s dive into some links and additional information.

Our big announcement at the beginning was about how Dee and I will be the MCs for National Garden Bureau's Book Authors Talk Gardening webinar on Nov. 14 at 7:00 pm Eastern time. We’ll be asking questions of the authors of four new gardening books. Use this link to register. It’s free! Plus, if you are there when we are live, you can win one of the books.

We are also happy to give a shout-out to Seed Savers Exchange, which is a great source for seeds and bulbs. Dee bought more garlic from them and I think some seeds slipped into her cart, so listen to find out about those.

For our flower topic, we discussed shrubs with fall interest. Here’s the list with links for more information on each one:

Spicebush - Lindera benzoin.

Witch Hazels - Hamamelis vernalis and Hamamelis virginiana

Southern or Rusty Blackhaw - Viburnum rufidulum   

Chokeberry - Aronia species

Chokecherry - Prunus virginiana, 

Buttonbush - Cephalanthus occidentalis

Oakleaf Hydrangea - Hydrangea quericfolia

What are your favorite fall color shrubs? Leave a comment if you have an outstanding shrub for fall color that we didn’t profile.

For our vegetable topic, we highlighted two cookbooks for vegetables. Long-time listener and friend of the show, Basil Becky, sent me her extra copy of A Midwest Gardener’s Cookbook, by Marian K. Towne, Illustrations by Ellen Walsh (Amazon Link).

Dee profiled a new cookbook she bought after trying one of the recipes of the author. It’s The Ambitious Kitchen Cookbook: 125 Ridiculously, Good for You, Sometimes Indulgent and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day , by Monique Volz (Amazon link). The author’s website is also called Ambitious Kitchen.

Do you have a favorite cookbook of mostly vegetable recipes we should check out? If you do, you know what to do. Leave a comment or send us an email.

We both had frost this past week. My nasturtium did not like it one bit!

On the bookshelf, we were pleased to get review copies of Plants for the Winter Garden: Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to Add Interest in the Cold and Snow, by Warren Leach. This is a beautiful book and one to have by your side all winter so that when you look out at your garden, and it looks bare and boring, you can turn your attention to this book for inspiration.

For our dirt, Dee found some articles about turmeric lead poisoning and how they solved the mystery of where it originated. Check out the NPR article and Turmeric’s unexpected link to lead poisoning in Bangladesh.

Now, here’s some final links that might be of interest, and yes, some of them are a bit off the gardening rails!

Carol’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day Post

Dee’s article on How to Grow Rosemary

The latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Zila A. Robbins

The Aeneid by Vergil

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Invincibelle Sublime’

and

Violets for Your Furs

That’s it for this week. Listen to the episode to hear more. We promise, we stayed mostly on the gardening rails.

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For more info on Carol visit her website.  Visit her blog, May Dreams Gardens and check out her new weekly newsletter, In the Garden With Carol.
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