Springtime is Go Time in the Garden

Season 5, Episode 23, April 19, 2023

and

Apr 18, 2023

(Dummen Orange’s *Salvia* ‘Saucy Red’ in Dee’s planter)

On this week’s episode, we talked about salvia, growing potatoes, a new wild bee book, and Smart Pots, but before we get to all those topics, let me just say that it is Go Time for Dee, and it is Not So Fast Time for me. I’m looking out the window at some heavy frost in my garden this morning (Tuesday.)

So while Dee is frost-free and planting out her tomatoes and peppers—and is a little late on planting her potatoes—I’m still looking at my extended forecast and noting that the entire rest of April looks chilly for me, except for the odd day here and there when it warms up.

So to gardeners everywhere… don’t be an April Fool. Watch your weather forecast and peek over the shoulder of experienced gardeners to see what they are doing before you rush out on a warm day and plant stuff you shouldn’t be planting yet.

(By the way, Dee has a few open times available to do some garden coaching in her area. She can help you make your garden the best that it can be. Check out her website for more info on how to hire her to be your garden coach.)

Now, let’s go through our topics.

Oh, wait! First, you must check out our two latest blog posts. I wrote a blog post about Spring Beauties, a lovely ephemeral spring wildflower in my area. Dee wrote a blog post about the Simpson wildfire that blew through her neighborhood.

Okay, now we can move on to more info on this week’s topics.

Dee is obsessed with salvias. It’s easy to become that way. Just ask the folks at Flowers by the Sea, a nursery that specializes in Salvias.

Dee went through so many salvias that I made her promise to write a blog post about them because it would be easier for me to link to one blog post than to all the varieties she’s growing.

Just to whet your appetite a bit, or rather to get your trowel to tingle, you can check out Salvia nemorosa ' Color Spires Pink Dawn' from Proven Winners and
Dummen Orange’s Salvia BODACIOUS Hummingbird Falls.

And about Salvia farinacea 'Augusta Duelberg'’ Dee was right that she got the name wrong as we were talking, but that happens on podcasts sometimes, especially when we stray from our notes or get really excited about a topic, like salvias. So it isn’t Alice, it’s Augusta!

We simmered down a bit after salvias to talk about potatoes, like 'Clancy F1' potatoes, an All-America Selection from 2019 that you can grow from seeds. Seeds are available from Botanical Interests (affiliate link).

Then it was on to the bookshelf, where Dee reviewed a new book on wild bees, The Wild Bee Handbook: The Amazing Lives of Our Wild Species and How to Help Them Thrive by Sarah Wyndham-Lewis (Amazon link). We both agree that even though the author is writing from England, all the great gardening info is useful wherever you garden, whether it be Oklahoma or Indiana, or any place else.

For our dirt, we talked about Smart Pots and why we love them.

Our rabbit holes? Dee’s rabbit hole was salvias. I do believe she ended up putting a few more on her list to buy. Mine was the Lost Ladies of Garden Writing. I’m trying to squeeze in time to do more research on them. If you ever run into a candidate to be included as a lost lady of garden writing, let me know via email or comment!

Whew! Go Time!

Thank you for reading this and for listening to our podcast.

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