Shall We Garden? Shall We Read? Shall We Explore a Mystery or Two?

Season 5, Episode 48, October 11, 2023

Dee’s favorite thing this week is her floppy ‘Bluebird’ asters

On this week’s episode, Dee and I talked about poisonous plants in the garden, a new vegetable garden planner, and the new book Gardening Can Be Murder.

And we seasoned it all with talk of violas here and there, as one does. Or at least I did, but now that it’s fall and getting colder, understandably, one does turn one’s attention to pansies and violas again, doesn’t one?

That’s what’s called a rhetorical question that doesn’t need an answer!

Now, why should you listen to this episode? That’s a question that has so many answers. Let me give you a few of them!

For our flower topic, we discussed poisonous plants in the garden because it is fall, and we are getting closer to Halloween. Plus, we were both excited about the book we read this week, which gave us the idea. Listen to discover the one poisonous plant we both agree we won’t put in our gardens. Can you guess what it is?

Then we settled down a little bit and discussed a new book for keeping records of your vegetable garden. It’s The Vegetable Garden Planner: A Crop-by-Crop Guide for Planning and Tracking Your Garden Bounty Each Year, from Seed Starting to Harvest by Lynn Bcyczynski (Amazon), which comes out October 17th. (Thanks to Storey for the review copies!)

This could have sent us off down a rabbit hole of Seeds from Italy because Lynn and her husband own that seed company. But instead, Dee confessed something about herself, and you need to listen NOW for special instructions from her.

My favorite thing this week was finding violas for sale.

Then, on the bookshelf, we finally got a chance to review Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers by Marta McDowell (Amazon). We’ve been waiting all summer for it. We both love it! (Thanks to Timber Press for the review copies!)

Male Monarch (See those scent glands?) on ‘Will’s Wonderful’ mum.

For our dirt, we briefly discussed an article Dee found: The Beautiful Flower That Keeps Mice Out of Your Home and Garden. Guess what it is? Hint: See above. We don’t know if it’s true or not, but it can’t hurt to try it!

Finally, I was in a rabbit hole of mystery books, and Dee decided to pile on a few more for me. She’s helpful like that. She found an article, The 7 Creepiest Manor Houses in Mystery, which fits with October and mystery books. I think we both have toppling piles of mystery books to read now… enough to keep us busy and out of too much trouble for quite some time!

I’m sorry I don’t have links to all the mystery books, but if you get Marta McDowell’s book, you’ll have a list of most of them.

And that’s another week, another episode!

Now, the boring housekeeping affiliate stuff at the end…

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For more info on Carol, visit her website or blog, May Dreams Gardens.
For more info on Dee, visit her website, Red Dirt Ramblings.

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