Episodes - The Daily Gardener

August 23, 2019 Cutting Back the Garden, the Patron Saint of Gardeners, Alexander Wilson, Eliza Sullivant, Hazel Schmoll, Rose Kingsley, The Prickly Pear Cookbook by Carolyn Niethammer, Spring Plant Swap Prep, and the 1942 Michigan Botanical Club Meeting

Sometimes I think cutting your bangs are a great analogy for pruning in the garden. You know how when your bangs are growing out – maybe a little past your eyebrows – and you think, “I am gonna grow these bangs out. I’m gonna have amazing hair.” Then, they start to go past your…

August 22, 2019 My Mullein, the White Rose of Scotland, Edward Beard Budding, Jacob Weidenmann, National Eat a Peach Day, Cecil Day-Lewis, Herbal Healing for Women by Rosemary Gladstar, Sprucing Up Ironwork, and a Story about Elephant Ears

At the cabin, a Mullein has seeded itself in one of my beds and I’m letting it grow. (I was touring gardens in Washington DC a few years ago and the garden had a section for Mulleins. It was so pretty.) On more than one occasion, I have had to rescue it -…

August 21, 2019 Living Mulch, the Patron Saint of Olives, George Celery Taylor, Adelbert van Chamiso, Dorothy Cadberry, Mary Bowerman, August Prose, Medicinal Herbs by Rosemary Gladstar, Cardinal Flower, and Taking an August Break

How do you start adding living mulch to your garden? One of the simplest ways, is just to look for the spots in your garden that are bare. Look for the open areas and start there. Look under your shrubs. Look along the edges of your beds. Instead of adding…

August 20, 2019 Pass-along Plants, the Patron Saint of Beekeepers, Edward Lee Green, Gettysburg Milkweed, the Plant Quarantine Act, Robert Plant, Edgar Albert Guest, Rose Recipes from Olden Times by Eleanor Sinclair Rhode, Pick Herbs, and Nerine undulata

“You don’t have a garden just for yourself. You have it to share.” – Augusta Carter, Master Gardener, Pound Ridge, Georgia Pass-along plants have the best stories, don’t they? They have history. They have personal history. One of my student gardeners had a grandmother who recently passed away from breast cancer. …

August 19 National Potato Day, Jane Webb, Phlox from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Ellen Willmott, Willis Linn Jepson, Henderina Scott, Ogden Nash, Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman, Fall Herbs, and a Letter From Elizabeth Lawrence

Today is National Potato Day. Here are some fun potato facts: The average American eats approximately 126 pounds of spuds each year. And, up until the 18th century, the French believed potatoes called leprosy. To combat the belief, the agronomist Antoine Auguste Parmentier became a one-man PR person for the potato. How did Parmentier get the…

August 16, 2019 Zucchini, Magness Holman, François-Andre Michaux, Serviceberry, Francis Darwin, Kenneth Woodbridge, Sylvia Plath, Sara Baume, Sue Monk Kid, Plant Parenting by Leslie Halleck, Bee Balm, and the Secret of Stourhead Garden

Are you swimming in zucchini yet? Emily Seftel, of The Tennessean, wrote an article in 2006 that was titled Gad zuks! – which I think is hilarious; we don’t use that term enough, do we? Anyway, the article started out this way: “Zucchini, the summer squash, is the Rodney Dangerfield of the…

August 15, 2019 Garden Turmoil, Karl von Schreibers, Elias Magnus Friesz, John Torrey, Walter Crane, Geoff Hamilton, W.H. Auden, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson by Judith Farr, Pickerel Weed, and Sylvia Edlund

Last week was one of turmoil in my garden. We decided to put new windows and siding on the house. Then we decided to enjoy the ravages of a hail storm which dumped ping pong ball sized hail on the garden for about five minutes – the entire storm lasted 30 minutes. …

August 14, 2019 Saint Werenfrid’s Day, the Liberty Tree, Forest and Stream, Ada Hayden, FTD, Edgar Walter Denison, Thomas Gunn, Tulipomania by Mike Dash, Lined Pots, and the Canning Lid Shortage of 1975

Today, August 14, is Saint Werenfrid’s Day. Werenfrid is the patron saint of vegetable gardens. He is often portrayed as a priest holding up a ship with a coffin in it or displayed as a priest laid to rest in his ship. Werenfrid is also invoked for gout and stiff joints; which,…

August 13, 2019 Nasturtiums, Peter Kalm, the Snowberry, Edward August Von Regal, Benedict Roezl, John Gould Veitch, Tove Jansson, The Orchid Hunter by Leif Bersweden , Add More Groundcover, Albert Ruth and the Twinflower

Boy, nasturtiums are such wonderful plants aren’t they? August is a time when your nasturtiums look fabulous; even after a summer of blooming their hearts out. Right about now, you’re nasturtiums will bloom better if you remove a few of the center leaves. Opening up the plant a little bit will promote airflow -…

August 12, 2019 Sweet Onions, Thomas Andrew Knight, Sir William Jackson Hooker, Clarence Birdseye, Ray Bradbury, The New Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman, Seeds for Fall Crops, and Jefferson’s Tuberoses

If you’re looking to grow an onion that won’t make you cry and give you that bad breath, Sweet Onions are your thing. If you buy them in the store, they’re usually more expensive than the regular onions. Sweet Onions are sweet because the sugar and water content are higher. That’s the upside.…

August 9, 2019 Plant Surprises, Ludwig Winter, Walden, George Vasey, Helen Duranc, Bunny Melon, Richard Combe Miller, Holistic Herbal, David Hoffman, Black Lace Black Elder, Flame Tree, and San Francisco

Every now and then, plants can surprise you. In this case I’m talking about more than just a beautiful bloom or general survival. I’m talking about variations that could lead to exciting new varieties. This topic was covered in the newspaper out of Richmond Indiana on this day in 1938. Here’s what it…

August 8, 2019 Hummingbirds, Carl Peter Thunberg, Julia Wilmotte Henshaw, John Henry Twachtman, Raymond A. Foss, Herbs by Judith Hann, Peonies, and Lace Cap Hydrangea

John Tabb wrote: “A flash of harmless lightning, A mist of rainbow dyes, The burnished sunbeams brightening From flower to flower he flies.” He’s talking of course about the hummingbird. Gardeners are enthralled by hummingbirds and will do next to anything to attract them to their garden. One of…

August 7, 2019 Queen Anne’s Lace, Andreas Marggraff, Henry Perrine, MS Swaminathan, Henry David Thoreau, John Ruskin, The Evening Garden by Peter Loewer, Mulch, and Lucy Cranwell of New Zealand

There’s that lovely saying that goes something like, “One man’s weed is another man’s wildflower”. This is especially true in the case of Queen Anne’s Lace. In the Facebook group for the show, listener Danny Perkins shared how much he enjoyed allowing Queen Anne’s Lace to reign all over in his garden. I…

August 6, 2019 Harvesting Tomatoes, Frank Cabot, Andy Warhol, David Fairchild, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Flora’s Dictionary by Kathleen Gips, Fall Sowing, and John Stewart Blackie

Well, the time we’ve waited for all year is here; it’s time to harvest tomatoes. I want to give you just a quick word of caution when it comes to harvesting your tomatoes. As gardeners, sometimes we wait too long to harvest them. Sometimes that can be unintentional, and other times, we think that…