The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Gardening

Season 4, Episode 51, October 26, 2022

(Some images only make sense after listening to our podcast episode. The same is true with titles.)

I had several thoughts about what to call this particular episode. One of those ideas was “Goal: A Quiet Life in the Garden.”

Truly, are any days quieter in a garden than the waning days of autumn? Okay, yes, a garden covered with fresh snow is also quiet, but I’m thinking about when the weather is still nice enough that you want to be out in the garden enjoying the quiet. Those are the kinds of fall days we all enjoy.

But then, as you can see, I chose another sound-related title. Dee gave me the idea for it with her mention of the upper pasture on her property. Now, if you will all encourage her… maybe someday there will be a video with that same title?

Until then, on this week’s episode, recorded one week before Halloween, Dee and I discuss soft stem cuttings, growing sprouts, and a new book with a fresh approach to garden design, before sharing some dirt and rabbit holes.

For our flower segment on soft stem cuttings, Dee prefers to use Clonex rooting gel, available from Amazon. She also mentioned her love of the Van Houttei salvia, Salvia splendens ‘Van Houttei’ which she took cuttings from.

Before Dee talked about this salvia, I always associated “Van Houttei’ with a spirea by that name. You have no idea how many times I’ve written “spirea” instead of “salvia” while crafting this paragraph and gone back and corrected it. (And then I went down a little bitty rabbit hole to find out more about Louis Van Houtte who has all these plants named after him.)

I also did some online searching for all of us to find the Van Houttei spirea salvia that I now want and you want too. Select Seeds may have it next spring.

For our vegetable segment, we talked about growing sprouts. Do you grow the hippie kind or the Asian cuisine kind? Or do you grow them at all? No matter your answer, check out this Botanical Interests article about sprouting seeds, then go choose from their assortment of seeds for sprouts and check out their seed sprouter kit. (Those are all affiliate links).

As always, we welcome your suggestions for other vegetable topics you’d like us to talk about, especially this winter. (And tell us if you grow sprouts!)

On the bookshelf, we talked about a new book coming out on December 6th, Field Guide to Outside Style: Design & Plant Your Perfect Outdoor Space, by Ryan McEnaney. (Amazon Link). Dee spent quite a bit of time reading through it and loved it. We both think it would be great for anyone who wants to improve the design of their outdoor space, and it would be a wonderful gift for new homeowners who have a new outdoor space to garden in.

And then we explain how pre-ordering a book is like giving yourself a present. Try it with this book and see what we mean!

For Halloween week, we have some appropriate-to-the-season dirt, including some weird spider info that Dee found and a couple of articles about giant pumpkins, including one on how to grow giant pumpkins and another one about the new record for a giant pumpkin that I found.

Before fall ends, all too soon, we also think you should check out The Science Behind the Aroma of Fall on PBS, then go outside and smell it, and enjoy the quiet of it.

Down in our rabbit holes, Dee found Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy on Discovery Plus and has a confession to make about canned tomatoes. I’m waiting for my rabbit hole book-buying-binge purchases to show up, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying a website that allows you to listen to forest sounds from around the world. And in the spirit of Halloween, I’m offering Haunted Forest Sounds with Ghostly Murmurs.

During this episode, we also mentioned two great organizations that listeners may be interested in: GardenComm International and American Horticultural Society.

And that’s it. Here’s the usual stuff at the end!

Affiliate link to Botanical Interest Seeds. (If you buy something from them after using this link, we earn a small commission at no cost to you. This helps us continue to bring this podcast to you ad-free!)  Book links are also affiliate links.

Email us anytime at TheGardenangelists@gmail.com 

For more info on Carol and her books, visit her website.  Visit her blog May Dreams Gardens.
For more info on Dee and her book, visit her website.  Visit her blog Red Dirt Ramblings.

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