The Gardenangelists: Flowers, Veggies, and All the Best Dirt

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about gardening for the birds.

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here. To read more about it, check out our Substack newsletter.

Question of the Week:

Good article on using manure from Iowa State Extension

Insect of the Week

Best insects for birds from birdlife.com

Flowers:

Simple Ways to Live a Bird-Friendly Life in and out of the garden (Advice from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

Tips for Feeding Birds from the Audubon Society

Vegetables:

How to keep birds out of strawberries and off your blueberries.

On the Bookshelf:

A Year in the Garden by Matthew Rice (Amazon, Bookshop) His website

‘Dirt:

T-shirts for bird lovers

Rabbit Holes:

Life is a Miracle by Wendell Berry (Amazon, Bookshop). Sharon Lovejoy on Instagram.

A Private Matter, new season on the podcast Bear Brook… on Instagram, plus another Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

Other books mentioned: Unearthing the Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett by Marta McDowell (Amazon, Bookshop)

A Garden to Visit:

Longwood Gardens

Thank You:

If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

Question of the Week:

How do you grow figs in the Midwest, Carol? Old Blog post: My Midwest Figs and How I Grow Them.

From a listener: a question for Dee and Carol. Is there any way to kill Canadian thistle without wiping out all my landscaping? My landscaper says pre-emergent chemicals won’t work on it.Thank you for your help. Linda Granat

He’s right, pre-emergents don’t work well. Carol has used carbolic acid spray (Captain Jack’s Deadweed Brew) on hers and it knocks it back, but she still just pulls them when she sees them. Plus that is nasty stuff the kills any plant in touches so be careful!

Insect of the Week:

Insects that like to come inside when it gets colder: lady bugs, squash bugs, spiders, etc. What do you do about them? (Carol kills them.)

“There is magic in the night when pumpkins glow by moonlight.” Anonymous

Flowers:

Let’s revisit the concept of Perpetual Spring as Dee plans more of her gardens.

Something blooming in every season.

Popularized by: Elizabeth Lawrence, Canon Henry Ellacombe, Sir Francis Bacon

The basic idea is to always have something in bloom.

• Keep a list of what’s blooming and when.
• Note when you don’t have much bloom
• Seek out flowers that will bloom during those times
• Plant those flowers

Favorite winter flowers:

• Snowdrops (not for Dee, however)
• Christmas rose - Helleborus niger
• Reticulated irises
• Japanese anemones
• Fall-blooming crocuses, and really early spring-flowering crocuses
• Early blooming witch-hazels - often blooming in February for Carol

“All plants are edible. Some only once.” — Gothic / Dark Botanical Saying

Vegetables:

Spooky Vegetable Decor and Snacks

“A pumpkin in pies we all of us prize; And surely no pumpkin a boy would affright. But a jack-lantern light is a terrible sight. And scares all the children that walk out at night. ~L. Frank Baum, Father Goose, His Book, 1899

On the Bookshelf:

The Cozy Commonplace Book by Miranda Mills (Amazon, Bookshop)

“When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling; When wild, ugly faces we carved on its skin, Glaring out through the dark, with a candle within...” — John Greenleaf Whittier (”The Pumpkin”)

Dirt:

Cutting up butternut squash. Be careful! If we looked hard enough, we could probably find statistics about how many people go to the ER after injuring themselves trying to cut a butternut squash open.

“Earth knows no desolation. She smells regeneration in the moist breath of decay.” — George Meredith

Rabbit Holes:

Dee:

Carol: Latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing is Sister Rose Agnes Greenwell.

Our Diaries, Ourselves: How Diarists Chronicle Their Lives and Document the World by Betsy Rubiner (Amazon, Bookshop)

Purdue’s expedition to find Amelia Earhart’s plane! I won’t tell the ending, you can look online for the info.

A Garden to Visit:

Continuing with our cemetery theme: The Secret Life of a Cemetery by Benoît Gallot (Author), Daniel Casanave (Illustrator), Arielle Aaronson (Translator) (Amazon, Bookshop)

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about plants for fall containers, pumpkin care, a new book on houseplants, and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter

If you’d prefer to watch us on YouTube, click here.

Insect of the Week:

We decided to feature milkweed bugs, and other insects you’ll find on your milkweed especially this time of year. Find out more from the Univ. of Illinois extension.

Flowers:

What would we put in a fall container? We have quite the list, or rather Dee does. I offered. few plants she forgot. Do you have a special fall combo for your containers? Tell us about it in the comments!

Vegetables:

We talked about how to care for pumpkins on the porch so they won’t rot out before Halloween. What do you do to keep your pumpkins from rotting out too early or becoming a critter’s dinner?

Also, check out the new world record for a giant pumpkin, on Instagram

On the Bookshelf:

More Than Just a Plant: How to Care for Your Plants as They Care For You by Krystal Duran, Creator of PlantswithKrystal (Amazon, Bookshop). The author is on Instagram with 1.1 million followers! Thank you to Quarto for review copies.

Dirt:

Uranium glassware for watering? On Instagram

Rabbit Holes:

Dee is watching Widow’s Bay on Apple TV,

Carol has been reading books including some that take place after World War II, including Our Noble Selvesby Kate Atkinson and The Dancing Bearby Frances Faviell (1954).

A Garden to Visit:

Visit an arboretum that people are dying to get into… cemeteries! Many of them are listed as arboretums because of their beautiful trees, including Cave Hill in Louisville, Spring Grove in Cincinnati, Crown Hill in Indianapolis, etc. Is there a cemetery arboretum around you?

Thank You!

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Hit the like button to let us know you were here!

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Carol and Dee talk about what you can plant in the fall, winter squash (again) and a commonplace book.

For more info and links, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch us on YouTube, click here.

Flowers:

What can you plant in the fall?

Vegetables:

We got another opinion on Winter Squash from Autumn Prairie Pumpkins, LLC

On the Bookshelf:

The Country Commonplace Book by Miranda Mills (Bookshop, Amazon) and The Cozy Commonplace Book (Bookshop, Amazon).

Dirt:

Have you ever heard of Birth Month Herbs. W

Rabbit Holes:

An Instagram post with one of the best readings of Wendell Berry’s poem The Peace of Wild Things

Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Violet Stevenson. .

A Garden to Visit:

Scott Arboretum,

Thank You!

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

This week, we talked about theme gardens, assessing your vegetable garden at the end of the season, a new book featuring Beatrix Potter’s plants and drawings, and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

Playing Favorites:

Dee’s greenhouse is finished! Of course that would be her favorite this week. For me it’s the combination of Verbena bonariensis and Signet marigolds around my mailbox.

Question of the Week:

Where did you go, Dee, and what did you see?

Insect of the Week:

Junk bugs info from University of Arkansas.

Flowers:

Would a theme garden help you out as you decide what to plant in your garden? It might. Also, check out Theme Gardens by Barbara Damrosch. (Amazon)

Vegetables:

It’s fall, so time to assess what went well and what didn’t go well in your vegetable garden this season. What will you change for next year? Tell us about it in the comments.

On the Bookshelf:

We were delighted to get review copies of Beatrix Potter’s Botanical: The Art of Flowers and Fungihttps://link.amazon/B05wtnrl6by Marta McDowell ( Bookshop, Amazon), which is coming out October 13th.

We also think you might enjoy Marta’s other book from 2013: Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tales (Amazon, Bookshop)

The video Dee talked about is this one: Beatrix Potter video Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit.

Dirt:

“I spent a week living like Beatrix Potter” on YouTube

Rabbit Holes:

Dee’s rabbit hole was doing a bit of research for her trip to Montreal.

My rabbit hole was for the next Lost Lady of Garden Writing coming up on Wednesday.

A Garden to Visit:

Dee tells us all about her visit to the Montreal Botanic Garden.

Thank You!

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about garden obsessions and more.

Links:

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter

To watch us on YouTube, click here

Insect of the Week:

Ambush Bugs (Univ of Wisconsin info)

Flowers:

Have you ever been obsessed with a flower?

Vegetables:

Vegetable garden obsessions

On the Bookshelf:

The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by Amy Stewart (Amazon, Bookshop))

Dirt:

Monty Don is leaving Gardener’s World!

Rabbit Holes:

Dee: Jujube fruits, aka Chinese dates.

Carol: Mary Mason Campbell, a new Lost Lady of Garden Writing

Also mysteries written by Anna Katherine Green. First one is The Leavenworth Case (1878).

A Garden to Visit:

Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about the health benefits of gardening

Question of the Week:

What’s wrong with Carol’s clematis? Clematis Wilt, most likely. More info on Epic Gardening

Insect of the Week:

Back to wasps… cicada-killing wasps are here!

Flowers:

Gardening for wellness. How gardens make us healthier.

Vegetables:

Why growing vegetables makes us healthier.

On the Bookshelf:

The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature by Sue Stuart-Smith (Bookshop, Amazon)

Dirt:

Green Colour Psychology: What it actually does to your brain and body

Rabbit Holes:

Dee: Crape Myrtle ‘Tightwad Red’

Carol: Rachel Peden, the latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing, (check out her books on Amazon, Bookshop) plus Wendell Berry. Check out the Berry Center website, where you can buy the 50th anniversary edition of The Unsettling of America. And What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman (Amazon, Bookshop)

A Garden to Visit:

Yew Dell BotanicalGardens, Crestwood, KY

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about buying and planting bulbs, garlic, and butterflies this week.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch us on YouTube, click here.

Question of the Week:

What’s really wrong with Carol’s Black-eyed Susans?

Septoria leaf spot, most likely. And particularly susceptible is ‘Goldsturm.’ Listen to Hans Hansen talk about it on Instagram.

Insect of the Week

Butterflies, and how now is a great time to see them in your garden. The adults are flitting and mating and moving on.

Flowers:

Bulbs.

Vegetables:

Garlic

On the Bookshelf:

The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World’s Favorite Insect by Wendy Williams (Amazon, Bookshop)

Dirt:

State Animals

Rabbit Holes

Carol: I listened to The Book of Margery Kempe, by Margery Kempe, and is working on the next Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

A Garden to Visit:

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, in Richmond, Virginia

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about flowers that shine in the waning days of summer, winter squash and more.

For more info and links, check out our Substack newsletter

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here

Insect of the Week:

Thread Waisted Wasp

Flowers:

Flowers and plants that peak or look great waning at the end of summer

Winning Zinnias from All-America Selections

Vegetables:

Winter squashes and why we don’t grow them

On the Bookshelf:

A Green and Pleasant Land: How England’s Gardeners Fought the Second World War by Ursula Buchan (Bookshop, Amazon)

Dirt:

People who read live longer: Instagram

Rabbit Holes

Another Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Alice Lounsberry.

A Garden to Visit:

Biltmore House and Garden, Asheville, NC

Thank you!

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Carol and Dee talked about refreshing container plantings for fall, new veggies for the vegetable garden, a book of garden columns, and more.

Check out our Substack newsletter for more info.

To watch us on YouTube, click here:

Insect of the Week

Great Black Wasp… a solitary pollinator.

Flowers:

Is it worth refreshing annuals in late summer for fall?

Vegetables:

It’s not too soon to plan for 2027.

All-America Selections Winners for 2026:

Tomato BadaBing! F1

Kale Rubybor F1

Pole Bean ‘Majesty’

Butter Lamp F1 Winter Squash

Basil Treviso-

New Varieties sent to Carol from Burpee

Akoya Small-Fruited Tomato

Sweet 150 Small-Fruited Tomato

Pick N Pop Orange Sweet Pepper

Monteverde Late Flowering basil

On the Bookshelf:

Back to the Garden by Ursula Buchan (2009) (Amazon for used copies)

Dirt:

The five plants every pollinator garden needs

Rabbit Holes:

Judi Dench’s Shakespeare: The Man Who Paid the Rent.

Carol’s blog post for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.

A Garden to Visit:

Holcomb Gardens at Butler University and the Indiana Native Plant Society (INPS)

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol discuss favorite summer annuals, what to do I the veg garden in August, and many books.

For more information, check out our Substack newsletter

To watch us on YouTube,click here.

Links, etc:

Question of the Week:

What’s wrong with my tomatoes?

Insect of the Week:

Black Saddlebags Dragonfly

Flowers:

Our favorite summer garden annuals. Branching out from perennials and native plants obsession.

Vegetables:

Timely reminders for August

On the Bookshelf:

In the Land of the Blue Poppies: The Collected Plant-Hunting Writings of Frank Kingdon Ward (2003) (Amazon, Bookshop)

Dirt:

Hydrangea Pruning: What Stays, What Goes and When by Lorraine Ballato (Amazon)

Rabbit Holes:

The Churchill Sisters by Dr. Rachel Tretheway. (Bookshop, Amazon).

The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made by Caroline Hallemann (Bookshop, Amazon)

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench (Amazon, Bookshop). (Listen to Judi Dench recite Shakespear on Instagram)

Adele Dawson, another Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

Dear Hugo by Molly Claverly (Amazon, Bookshop), and sloes, the fruit of blackthorn.

The Artist and the Feast by Lucy Steeds. (Amazon, Bookshop)

Dee’s buying Bulgarian food

A Garden to Visit:

Tulsa Botanic Garden

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Carol and Dee

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about mandevillas, veggie cookbooks and more in this week's episode.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch us on YouTube, click here.

Insect of the Week:

Lily leaf beetle, prompted by a reader’s questions. Check Wisconsin Extension on how to identify and how to control. This siteshows the range

Flowers:

Mandevillas and Bougainvillas

Vegetables:

More recipes from the garden.

My New Roots: Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season: A Cookbook by Sarah Britton. (Bookshop, Amazon) Check out her website and her Instagram account

Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden (Bookshop, Amazon)

On the Bookshelf:

My Summer in a Garden by Charles Dudley Warner (1899) (Bookshop, Amazon)

Dirt:

Chatsworth Garden Design Revealed in the Drought

Rabbit Holes:

The Botanist’s Assistant by Peggy Townsend (Bookshop, Amazon) Lots of interesting deadly plants mentioned.

Also Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster: Words that first appeared in print for the year you were born…

A Garden to Visit:

Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Carol and Dee

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talked about decorative beans to grow for flowers, beans to dry, and other gardening topics.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch on YouTube, click here.

Links!

Verbena bonariensis 'Vanity’ from All-America Selections

Insect of the Week

June Beetles Info from Wisconsin Horticulture Extension

Flowers:

Hyacinth beans - Lablab purpureus

Scarlet runner beans - Phaseolus coccineus

Yardlong beans - Vigna unguiculata subsp. Sesquipedalis

Corkscrew vine beans, Cochliasanthus caracalla

Vegetables:

Alternative beans to grow - black beans, kidney beans, northern beans - mostly for drying. General info from the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Seed sources for older varieties: Rancho Gordo, Seed Savers Exchange, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

On the Bookshelf:

Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste by Bill Best (Amazon Link)

Dirt:

Harkening back to last week’s episode on trees: Planting Trees at Waddesdon Manor

Rabbit Holes:

Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Danske Dandridge,

The Garden at Rose Brake: Garden Writings of Danske Dandridge,

Muv: The Story of the Mitford Girls’ Motherby Rachel Tretheway (2026)

Slightly Foxed podcast.

A Garden to Visit:

Visit an All-America Selection garden near you!

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Carol and Dee

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talked about trees, including what to consider when buying a tree, pawpaws and walnut trees around the veggie garden, a tree essay book, and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch us on YouTube, click here.

A couple of miscellaneous links: Carol’s ritual of the first tomato blog post from 2006 and Play-Doh Blooms (Amazon)

Question of the Week:

Why did a big limb that looked healthy suddenly fall out of my tree? More info from Davey Tree Company

Insect of the Week:

Mimosa Webworms - Info from Purdue - a tale of two kinds of treatment.

Flowers:

How to choose trees for your garden

Vegetables:

Pawpaw trees - Check them out at Stark Bros

Walnut trees - Info from Garden Professors Blog

On the Bookshelf:

Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree: A celebration of our connection with trees by David George Haskell (Amazon Link). Haskell also wrote How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionariesand The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature. Check him out on Instagram.

Dirt:

Judi Dench and her passion for trees. A clip/intro to her documentary My Passion for Trees

Rabbit Holes:

Dee: A new cookbook, The HIgh Protein Plate, by Rachael DeVaux, RD.

Carol: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann (2005), a new biography about Katharine S. White (The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker, by Amy Reading), and a new Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

A Garden to Visit:

United States National Arboretum

Thank You:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

And, if you have suggestions for topics for us to discuss, send us an email or leave a comment.

With a shared love of gardening…

Dee and Carol

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about coneflowers, share some new veggie recipes Dee is trying, discuss a book on wildflowers and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch on YouTube, click here.

Question of the Week:

How do I grow a wildflower meadow from seed? Mini Meadows, by Mike Lizotte. He explains it well.

Insect of the Week

Blue Orchard Mason Bee. You can make nesting boxes for them or buy commercial ones

Flowers:

The Enterprise of Echinaceas, and why do we have so many varieties? We are speaking of Echinacea purpurea.

Watch out for aster yellows, a disease that can infect coneflowers. More info from Missouri Botanical Garden

Vegetables:

Let’s share some summer recipes!

Authentic Shopska Salad Recipe

Cold Yogurt Cucumber Soup - Tarator

Princesses (Bulgarian Ground Meat Sandwiches) Recipe - Food.com

Dee’s Zucchini Squash Challenge on her blog

On the Bookshelf:

A Naturalist’s Book of Wildflowers: Celebrating 85 Native Plants of North America by Laura C. Martin (2021) (Amazon)

Dirt:

Another dose of cuteness on Instagram, a farmer-gardener with his two young daughters, the two “supervisors”. Meet Jeremiah_Farmer .They also have pigs!

Rabbit Holes:

Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Katharine S. White. And Carol’s tips for getting your garden to produce more veggies.

A Garden to Visit:

Dallas Arboretum. One hot place when we visited!

Thank you:

As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter! If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol discuss rooting cuttings in water, mid-summer in the vegetable garden, and a new herbal book, plus discuss if ducks grow on trees.

To watch this episode on Youtube, click here.

For more information, check out our Substack newsletter.

Other links:

Insect of the Week:

Leaf cutter bees.

Flowers:

31 plants you can root in water, from Epic Gardening

On the Bookshelf:

Collected Curiosities; more stories and recipes from the historical apothecary cabinet by Amanda Edmiston (Amazon)

Dirt:

Do ducks grow on trees? Dictionary Diva on Instagram

Rabbit Holes:

Rural Free: A Farmwife’s Almanac of Country Living by Rachel Peden (1961)

A Garden to Visit:

Tall Grass Prairie Preserve

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

This week, we talked about all the senses your garden awakens in you.

Here's a link to watch us on YouTube.

Favorites This Week

You can see Carol’s lilies on Instagram and on Substack. Dee’s favorite flowers include Calibrachoa ‘Lemon Slice’ and dwarf morning glory (Evolvulus glomeratus), also known by its cultivar names 'Blue My Mind' or 'Blue Daze,'

Insect of the Week

Awful, horrible Japanese beetles.

Flowers:

Touchable flowers

Article - How to Design a Healing Garden:

Veggies:

Vegetable garden as a wellness garden

On the Bookshelf:

Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Good for Our Health by Kathy Willis (Amazon)

and

Botanicum: Welcome to the Museum by Kathy Willis, Illustrated by Katie Scott (Amazon)

Rabbit Holes:

Dee: American food week in Bulgaria on Instagram

Carol: Carol’s secret source for UK published books… Blackwell’s

Another lost lady of garden writing, Caroline Dormon, friend of Elizabeth Lawrence.

Clarkson’s Farm

A Garden to Visit: Kew Gardens.

Thank you!

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about sound in the garden, inspired by a new book.

To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.

For more info and links, check out our Substack newsletter

I

Fireflies or Lightning Bugs. Such a loved little beetle, it has its own website.

Flowers:

Listen to your garden to hear how healthy it is:

Vegetables:

You better hear the hum of bees because you need pollination for so many crops, including squash and cucumbers.

On the Bookshelf:

Garden Voices: A Year of Gardeners’ Writing, Edited by Claire Masset (Amazon)

Dirt:

Control Mosquitoes with a Mosquito Bucket. (News Report)

Rabbit Holes:

Carol revisited Elizabeth Lawrence to write about her as the latest Lost Lady of Garden Writing.

A Garden to Visit:

Longwood Gardens - Famous for their fountains.

That’s it for this week! As always, we appreciate all of you for listening to our podcast and for reading this newsletter!

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Dee and Carol talk about how to fix the lulls in your garden, or not, plus a new book on garden design and more.

For more info and links, check out our Substack newsletter.

To watch on YouTube, click here.

Salvia ‘Blue by You’, Proven Winners

Shiny Blue Beetles.

On the Bookshelf:

The New Garden Designer’s Handbook: How to Design Useful Gardens from Start to Finish, by Daryl Beyers, Illustrations by Elara Tanguy

Dirt:

Poison Hemlock On Instagram, Instagram

Rabbit Holes:

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Garden to Visit:

Monticello - Thomas Jefferson’s Garden.

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Carol and Dee talk about British awarding winning plants, vegetable gardens and more.

For more info, check out our Substack newsletter

To watch on YouTube, click here

Links:

Flowers:

Winning flowers at Chelsea Flower Show. More info RHS site

Hosta ‘Red Ninja’ if you want to buy it.

All-America Selections!

Vegetables:

The classic British vegetable garden… what do they grow:

On the Bookshelf:

My Gardening Life by Mary Berry (Amazon)

Mary Berry’s Country House Secret on PBS

Dirt:

The tree growing grandmother from Yorkshire. ViaInstagram. Also, this article

Rabbit Holes:

Louise Riotte, the last Lost Lady of Garden Writing. A Garden to Visit:

A Garden to Visit:

Sissinghurst

Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History: The Quest to Restore a Working Farm at Vita Sackville-West’s Legendary Garden by Adam Nicolson (Amazon)

Thank you for being a listener!

(If you’d like to support us, check out our affiliate links here. Book links are also affiliate links.)

Support the show

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
On YouTube.