Winter IS for Gardening

Season 7, Episode 8, January 22, 2025

and

Jan 21, 2025

On this week’s episode, which you can listen to right now by clicking this link, Carol and I expounded upon milkweed, peas, another new cookbook, and much more!

One of Carol’s favorite this week is her *Helleborus niger* with big flower buds

We opened by talking about Squishmallows, again, believe it or not. If you want to see the corn and the Christmas rose ones, I’ve linked to them. I’m no expert on these 2025 “Beanie Babies,” but I’ll admit, they are stinkin’ cute.

Carol talked about her new blog post about seed math. I can’t wait to read that.

In my garden update I shared about how I’m reducing the garden. I made an Instagram reel about removing the beds that face the street. I also showed how I’m reducing the back garden by about a third.

My veggie garden and greenhouse in the snow.

We had two questions this week. The first was about watering with melted snow. Here’s some good information from Better Homes & Gardens. I’ve never though about watering with snow, but I don’t usually get that much snow.

Carol was also asked whether winter sowing Verbena officinalis ‘Bampton’ worked. You’ll have to listen to see if it worked. Here’s more information about this plant from the RHS. You may not remember, but I first saw ‘Bampton’ when I visited England a few years ago.

These are some of my favorites this week. I think houseplants help us get through winter.

In case you wondered, Carol’s recollection about bad children and snow from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is in chapter 8 of that book:

“For reasons unfathomable to the most experienced prophets in Maycomb County, autumn turned to winter that year. We had two weeks of the coldest weather since 1885, Atticus said. Mr. Avery said it was written on the Rosetta Stone that when children disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other, the seasons would change: Jem and I were burdened with the guilt of contributing to the aberrations of nature, thereby causing unhappiness to our neighbors and discomfort to ourselves.”

Our flower was National Garden Bureau's Year of Asclepias. That’s milkweed to all of us. I also brought up Honeyvine milkweed, which is a whole different genus. Here’s more info on that from Iowa State University.

Here is beautiful common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, in my garden.

I also wrote a blog post on how to plant milkweeds so that monarch butterflies can see it… we promised to link to it! We also discussed How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids by Carol Pasternak (Amazon link.)

As we do every year this time of year, we discussed peas because we love them, and it’s National Garden Bureau's Year of the Pea. We mentioned ‘Masterpiece’ peas from Burpee and ‘Patio Pride’ pea, an All-America Selection for containers. I might grow it, but it’s a big maybe. The seeds are pricey.

Another favorite for Carol this week is blooms on her “garage geraniums.”

On the Bookshelf was: JoyFull: Cook Effortlessly, Eat Freely, Live Radiantly (A Cookbook), by Radhi Devlukia-Shetty (Amazon link), a lovely cookbook I received from my daughter, Megan, for Christmas.

Our dirt shows that anyone can benefit from the love of gardening. We featured a prison garden in Oklahoma (on FB)

Our rabbit holes were extensive.

I found French Teas on Amazon. They are delicious. I like the cotton teabags too.

Carol found the Basically About Basil website, and she’s trying to talk me into growing some of these rare ones. Will she convince me?

Carol also read The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit (Amazon link) which she finished over the weekend. She also brought up the Grey Gardens documentary on Amazon and the history of Grey Gardens on Wikipedia. Listen to find out why.

Carol also mentioned GardenComm’s Winter Webinars for writers, speakers, and influencers, you might be interested, even if you don’t write much about gardening.

Whew! That’s it!

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