September 23, 2024 • 23 mins
Janey has all the fall feels and is welcoming Heather Blackmore from Here She Grows to celebrate the upcoming season. They chat about Heather’s background including what led her to become a Master Gardener and her work as the midwest field editor for Better Homes and Gardens. Hear them discuss “season extending perennials”, Heather’s plans for her fall garden and the fall gardening tasks she will be tackling in her zone 5b/6a garden.
Heather has been gardening from a small suburban Chicago lot for over 20 years. She has written, photographed, styled and produced garden content for Better Homes and Gardens magazines and many more regional and national publications. But mostly as Heather says, “ I love sharing my experiences in the garden, good and bad, on my blog and social media channels. From flowers to veg and everything in between, there's nothing I won't try to grow in my cold climate!”
For more from Heather and Here She Grows:
YouTube
Blog
Instagram
Facebook
Love what you’re hearing?
Make sure to check out more from Janey:
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Facebook
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Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat is produced in association with Caloroga Shark Media. Hear other shows from Caloroga Shark along with subscription info and Merch with free shipping here!
Heather has been gardening from a small suburban Chicago lot for over 20 years. She has written, photographed, styled and produced garden content for Better Homes and Gardens magazines and many more regional and national publications. But mostly as Heather says, “ I love sharing my experiences in the garden, good and bad, on my blog and social media channels. From flowers to veg and everything in between, there's nothing I won't try to grow in my cold climate!”
For more from Heather and Here She Grows:
YouTube
Blog
Love what you’re hearing?
Make sure to check out more from Janey:
Store
YouTube
Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat is produced in association with Caloroga Shark Media. Hear other shows from Caloroga Shark along with subscription info and Merch with free shipping here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:37):
Callarogashawk Media.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hi everyone, welcome back to my garden and welcome to
the Dig Plant Water Repeat Podcast. It is getting cooler,
the air is getting a bit crisper, the leaves are
even starting to change, and I've got all the fall
feels and so today on the podcast, I have my
friend Heather Blackmore from here. She grows here with us.
She is a garden writer, a blogger, a content creator,
(01:16):
all based out of suburban suburban Chicago, where I'm sure
it's getting a little bit closer to fall than we
are here in California. Hi Heather, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Hi?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Danium good, how are you good?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
It's so good to see you and talk to you,
and I, you know, I feel like we live five
hours away from each other, but like we're friends. Yeah,
this is kind of how it works.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
I mean, you meet up with so many people on
social media and yeah, and it's just become friends with
this common interest.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, we just happened to live far away from each other, right.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Right, Very very different growing zones, very different clients.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, yeah, so what growings on? Are you in in
Chicago area?
Speaker 5 (01:54):
So I was five B but we were upgraded to
six A, but I still plan, you know, according to
five B.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
So I kind of treat that as an iffy thing,
you know.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, that's kind of what I hear from a lot
of people that got moved up, is that they're all
kind of like, I don't know if I believe it
quite yet.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, I don't want to have a false hope where
I can actually, you know, I do tend to push
zones too though, but you know, you get a little
false hope and you're like, oh maybe I can go
a little more tropical.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, okay, so tell everybody a little bit, Like, Okay,
so you have you live in a suburban home, right,
So it's I went too.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It's small, Like you say, you're garden small, but it's
not that small. So tell me how you got into gardening.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
And you know, yeah, my mom and dad had a
very modest vegetable garden and they grew beautiful roses. My
grandmother was British and she grew gorgeous roses.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
So I kind of just I loved.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I was just fascinated by all of that and just
got into like house plans when I was a teenager
and worked for garden centers and worked for nurseries. They
taught me how to grow, you know, grow from seed
plugs the whole nine yards. And then got into college
and I had house plants in college. And then it
wasn't really until I got married and my first home
(03:11):
was really just a dive.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I mean it was bad. So I didn't have a lot.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Of money, as most newlyweds don't, so I realized, you know,
I've got to do this myself. And so but I
connected with a nursery nearby that had really good reviews
and they happened to have a horticulturist landscape designer on
staff that was a really good mentor. And I told
him that I didn't want him to do the work
for me. I wanted him to educate me and tell
(03:37):
me how to do things, but I wanted to do
it myself.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I learned better on my hands on kind of person.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
So he was super helpful, helped me make good plant choices,
explained to me why they were good plant.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Choices because I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
So that was what twenty five, twenty six years ago,
and it just grew from there.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
And then when we left that house.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
I mean we updated the heck out of it from
the landscaping interior. I mean we had holes in the floor,
you know, carpenteriants.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
It was that bad. I mean it was that bad.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Yeah, So we literally had no kitchen for three months
because my husband had to gut it.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
It was a total wreck. But we rehabbed it.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Yeah, and then we sold it and we moved to
our new house, and I decided that, you know, we
had just like the cookie cutter landscape. We had a
we had shrubs in front of our front room windows
that were way too big. You know, the final size
was going to be too massive. There was for Scythia's
that should never have been planted there by the builder.
(04:34):
So I decided to become a master gardener, and I
was home with my babies and was able to go
to Master gardener class once a week and through the
University of Illinois Extension Office, and then educated myself that
way and then started making plant choices and designing based
on everything I had learned at Master Gardeners and just
a lot of trial and error.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
A lot of things have died, you know, at my hand,
in my hands.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's how you learn.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And then I just how you learn. Yeah, it is truly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
If you leave over that, I can't believe you went
through the Master gardener program with babies, Like how how
did you do?
Speaker 5 (05:10):
That's you know what I from being a writer. Yeah,
I have worked on deadline. I've worked from home as
a freelance writer since i've been home, you know, when
I had my first baby twenty three years ago, that's
when I decided to be home. And but I've worked
on deadline even when they were you know, I would
work through the night sometimes that was the only time
I could work. So I just learned how to do that,
(05:33):
and that's yeah, I made it work.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I mean it's like self guide, like you know,
self guided, like you you set your own hours. Yeah,
that's tough. So now you were a writer, but then
you became a garden writer after you got into gardening,
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Yeah, yeah, it was. So it was a serendipitous thing, Jane.
It was not something that I had ever planned to do.
It was like, it was the opportunity to take the
things that I loved, you know, the professional things that
I love to do, and combine them all into one giant,
wonderful thing. And it was my writing, my photography, and
my love of gardening. So I was doing my volunteer
(06:11):
hours at the Master Gardener office and one of the
ladies that worked there, she's a horticulturist. She came in
and she knew my background and you know that I
was a journalist. And she said she had a friend
who was the lead scout for she was the lead
field editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine in the Midwest,
and she was looking, Yeah, she was looking for an
(06:31):
assistant to help her scout and find locations.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
And I'm like, yeah, let's give it a go.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
And I'm thinking, you know, that moment of oh my gosh,
did I overextend myself? Because my knowledge wasn't as deep
as you know, when you're just starting out, you're intimidated
by people who know a lot, and you're afraid to
be like, I don't want to say anyth because I
don't want to look like this total neophyte. But yeah,
and it was wonderful, and I started scouting for her
and assisting her and learning the ropes. And then by
(06:58):
the time she retired, I became the Midwest field editor
for Better Homes and Gardens.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
So I was scouting producing. It was wonderful, but it
was not anything. You know.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
It all happened because I decided I just wanted to become,
you know, become a Master gardener volunteer, and then a
snowballed and it was just it was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah. So did you get to choose what you wrote
about for Better Homes and Gardens or did they give
you assignments?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
No?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
So what I would do is it's a long process
when you're producing content for magazines for print.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Because I would.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Scout and I knew kind of what they would give me,
like some details of things, content that they were interested
in subject matter, so I would really hone in and
reach out to landscape architects and designers and say, this
is what I'm looking for. Do you have any properties
that would be you know, that would fit this mold
And so then we would go in early in the morning.
(07:50):
I would do, you know, take photos of the places
that they showed me. And then usually that was you know,
summertime or there were some spring gardens and fall gardens too.
But then I would pitch the story to my editors
to all the different magazines. So Better Homes and Gardens
is the Umbrella magazine a company for well a lot
of magazines that are out of print now like Country Gardens,
Country Living, Deck, Patio Pool. A lot of my content
(08:11):
went to those smaller niche publications. So then we would
you know, they would say, yes, we want to do
that site. So then the following year when the garden
was at peak, and I'd have to estimate when based
on the plants that were in the garden when it
was going to peak, and it was stressful. Yeah, So
it's completely so you know, you're you're at the mercy
of the weather and depending on if you're having a
(08:33):
slow summer, slow spring, how those things are going to.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Bloom when they're going to bloom.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Then the photographer comes in with me and they do
the photoshoot based on my scouting shots. Then I write
the story up, but then it doesn't appear in print
for until the following year. So it's a two year
process from the time I locate a garden to the
time it makes it to print.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Holy cow. Yeah, it's a long process.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean, like you know, if you flip through those
magazines right or you look online the magazine and don't
I mean, I don't realize. I mean you and I
now create content for social media and I feel like
I do it and I get it out the next day.
So yeah, yeah, it's a big difference. Wow.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Yeah, and just the estimating, you know, being super keen
on weather changes. Okay, when when is all of this
going to come together? And when should I tell my
editor that, Yeah, let's call in the photographer because I
think we're going to peak right here, because you want
to nail it at peak, because other than otherwise, why
would you want to look at the article?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know, I can barely tell when my garden is
at peak, so I don't know how you can tell
when all these other gardens are at peak. It is
so interesting. Whether we have to take a quick break
to hear a message from our sponsor. We're going to
be back into a second.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Everyone, We're back with the Dig Plant Watery Peak podcast
and I have Heather Blackmore from here she grows with us.
Heather has been telling us all about her garden writing experience,
which is just so interesting. Heather, So tell you you
are in suburban Chicago, right pretty close to Chicago.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yes, yeah, I'm just about serving itself.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Okay, So you guys are probably a little further along
than we are here in California for the fall weather.
Is that right?
Speaker 6 (10:15):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
We woke up yesterday morning it was about fifty degrees
and so yeah, yeah, yeah, and things, you know, the
garden is looking pretty pretty toasty now and things are
you know, it's the light has changed, and yeah, things
are changing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I get you probably see things differently as a photographer
and as a writer. You know, like the light, the
fall light, everything, the leaves changing. You probably see it
differently than a lot of people do, which is really interesting. Now,
I've heard you say a couple of times that September
is your favorite month in the garden. Is that because
of the light or why why is September your favorite?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Well, you know, it's a number of things, and it
has to do with having a source, a nectar source,
you know that fall my of our pollinators coming through
this corridor in Illinois, and then making sure that I
have things for them to want to stop for and
fuel up before they continue on. So I've you know,
made that available to them. And then just having lots
(11:16):
of color and things of interest in the garden because
I feel like the light is so much it's so
much more beautiful in the fall landscape.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
It's just a softer light and the colors.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Are richer if You've planned your garden based on that,
and I've used you know, being so fond of autumn
like that. I really when I'm picking plants for my garden,
I'm very you know, keen on knowing what does that
plant do?
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Is it?
Speaker 5 (11:42):
I don't want a one and done plant. I want
to plant that How do you what do you do
in the spring? What do you look like in the summer?
And then do you look gorgeous in the fall? Which
is I really love my fall garden. So I think
of all those things. Yeah, I think about you know
what does the bark look like, what is the fall color?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Does they have interesting seed?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
And that's you know, applies to anything perennials, shrubs, trees.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, and you kind of really have to understand the
plant and understand, like we were saying, the peak time
to know when fall. I mean, I know, I fall
into the trap of I get so excited about spring.
I only think about spring blooming things. Oh yeah, then
come fall. My garden is.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Like well, and you know, the solution to that is
thinking about you know, and then I think that's a
lot of people fall into that trap, especially US cold
climate gardens, because as soon as those garden centers fill
up with plant flowers that have been forced to be
in color in April, you know when they should be
in color until like late May, June. Yeah, you fall
(12:44):
into that and it's easy to do. But when you
start looking at it from the scope of a broader scope,
like what are you going to look like later? Because
I want you to look good, Like my garden does
peak like i'd say the end of July early August,
but it never does that that aggressively, that fast downward
spiral that a lot of gardens do. That Are you know,
one dimensional. So I want my garden to be something
(13:08):
that I want to walk out, you know, in October and.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Go wow, yeah, it's really interesting. So when is your
first frost there?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Well around October fifteenth?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Okay, all right, so kind of getting close. Yeah, And
you've talked a lot about season extending plants, season extending perennials.
Do you have like a favorite season extender that that's
blooming right now?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Okay, so let's see.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
You know, I was just telling you I was just
talking to my girlfriend about this because at my roses
and I've never you know, roses can be tricky, certain varieties,
you know, and I've certainly killed a lot of roses.
But there two are Yeah, I mean, it just goes
with the territory.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
But there are some roses out.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
There right now that and it's been in my garden
for a number of years, and they are stellar performers.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Like I've got some gorgeous drift roses.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
I've got the peach drift out there that's fragrant and
doesn't doesn't ever say die, and it's it's pollinator friendly
and has the most beautiful habit.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
No disease issues.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
It's just wonderful and there's good now in September.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
My goodness, Jane, it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
A picture on your instagram.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I will, I will, I know. I just did it
on a YouTube channel.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
I just featured some of my snuff for that I
thought were really notable plants for this time of year.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
That are still you did that little that garden tour, right, Yeah, everybody,
I'm going to link Heather's YouTube channel and her instagram
and her blog in the description down below, so make
sure you check it all out. You have a gorgeous,
gorgeous garden. Okay, so you've got your drift roses anything.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah. Pygnanthema moodicum. That's mountain men.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
It's like a disease.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
You're staying a disease, you know, like when you say
being abn aiensis itself some sort of a disease too,
you know. But it's mountain men and that is super
pollinator friendly. It smells like expeeriment. It doesn't have the
aggressive natures, so it's a member of the mint family,
but doesn't have that aggressive nature. Does spread by rhizome,
(15:08):
so you can easily remove it if you have to.
But the Lori Garden in Chicago. Have you ever been there?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You know, it's all good list It is on my list.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
So they use this they plant it in mass and
it's a pollinator magnet. It's it looks like it's the
bracs on it look like they're frosted. They've got kind
of a like a chalky look to them. But there's
there's pollinators all over that thing. And it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yeah. And it's actually.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
The twenty twenty five Perennial Plant of the Year for
the Perennial Plant Association.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Oh that's fantastic. Yeah. And I don't think that plant
is I mean I don't maybe just me in California.
I don't think it's that well known. Mountain Mint.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Well, I'm wondering.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
I'm trying to remember what the heartiness is for it
if it's and I can't remember offhand.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I can't either Mountain Mint. I'm looking it up. Oh
it's three through seven.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Well, obviously at.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Harry about it.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, So are you nine? What are you?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I'm nine yeah, nine B yeah, and a hot nine
B too. Yeah. All right, So those of you who
are listening that are in zones three three through seven
check out Mountain Mien and then otherwise drift roses, which
I need to get some of those jeft roses in
my garden. I've been eyeing them for a really long time.
(16:29):
So do you have any big plans for your garden
this fall? Like, are you what's your what's your task
that you're going to do, because I know you always
have these really really interesting projects that you like to do.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, you know, nothing.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
After I built the side yard garden last well, I
built it last year, I dug it up and then
planted it this spring. Mostly it's editing now because I
tend to over I get I overplant. I just you know,
pack things in and then there's things that don't performs
as well as I think they should or look as
good as I had hoped. So I'll be editing, which
is a very difficult thing for me because I have
(17:04):
a hard.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Time throwing away plants. That's a challenge. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
And then with the veg garden cover cropping to you know,
replenish the soil. So that's something I do.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Everything you're going to use for cover crops.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
There's a P and O mixture that I get from
Botanical interests and I've used that every year and just
just to replenish the nitrogen in the soil and.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Just fix it. So yeah, it's stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
And then taking something that I think is very helpful
to any gardener, no matter how experienced you are, is
just taking pictures of your garden so that when you're
thinking about it in the wintertime, you have a frame
of reference and you can go back to be like, Okay,
this is why I wanted to fix that.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
So having huge photos is a big deal. It helps,
It's a huge deal. I completely agree with you because
I feel like you're you're you know, you're in winter
and you're kind of skewed anything. Oh everything did so
amazing and performed so yeah, and then you're like you go,
oh wait a minute, or or no, that one did
really really well.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So coming into fall, what do you think the most
being in Chicago and zone five slash six, what do
you think the most important fault gardening task is for
you to get done? That's a tough wea.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
The weading. Yeah, weading is big.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I've got a heck of a problem with bind weed,
so I'm constantly fighting that.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Oh yeah, it's bad.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah, And my biggest thing is I'm really into conifers
and they're so valuable in a landscape and then in
their lower maintenance too, So I'm kind of my focus
has changed a lot since when I first started guarding.
You know, you have that mindset when you just get
into something, You're like, I want all of it, you know,
and you want to throw it all in there because
(18:49):
you want.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
All of it. But I think it's as you.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Mature as a gardener, You're your tastes become more refined,
and you start and you get older, and you don't
have the stamina maybe to take care of all those
perennials and do all that work.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And that's for the conifers.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
And your you know, your beautiful shrubs come in trees
that have a lot more to offer and they don't
require a whole lot of work.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
So and then you.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Know, having that winter interest to with the conifers too,
and places for birds to hide out and that sort
of thing. So I've been really focused on introducing more
evergreens for smaller spaces.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, you have that beautiful conifer that you decorate for Christmas?
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, I love that thing. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
So pretty. I don't remember if I was last year
of the year before, but it was basically a Christmas
tree tour and here's miss Heather with this huge conifer
outside with lights on it, and I'm like, okay, you win, Heather.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Before Oh yeah, and before I had you know, they
make those special poles so you can pay lights.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
Well I didn't have one of those telescoping poles. So
I was out there when I first started decorating that
thing with a broom and I was balancing the string
lights on the edge of the spout and trying to
like festidicated.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Oh yeah, And I mean I dedicated.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
And then I got the extendable thing. My husband got
it from me. He's like, let's just use the favorite,
you know, to do the job.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Well make sure you guys check out
how there's huge confort because I think it's getting pretty big, right,
I mean it's that was Janie.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
That was the very first thing I ever planted in
my guard.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Don't you yet?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
That yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
So amazing?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah, And so it's special. It's really special. It's an
arbor widing.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
It was a frosted it was come like warning frost
I lost the tag on.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
It, but I think it was.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
But the problem with it was is that it lost
that white tipped variegation that it had and it reverted back.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I think.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I'm not sure, but it still has a perfect shape
and I absolutely love it because I didn't kill it,
and that was like one of the first things I planned.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's been a good spot.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I know you all can't see, but she's looking out
the window and yeah, that's where it is, right, it's
directly out right, I know, which is like the perfect spot.
So make sure you head over to Heather's YouTube channel
and check out her beautiful, beautiful garden. And then Heather,
where else can we find you? You're on YouTube?
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Yeah, you can find me on my blog here she
grows dot com.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
I'm on Instagram, is Heather here? She grows? Yeah, Facebook,
the same?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah? All over yeah, all over where. Well it's so wonderful.
I so enjoy talking about gardening with you because I
can just when you talk about it, your eyes like
light up and it's like, yes, oh.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Yeah, it's luckily, Yeah, it's an obsession. It's just a
passionate about it. And the thing I get the most
joy out of sharing it with other people and you know,
showing them from that sideyard garden that I'm aging. I
can't even tell you how many friends I've made from
the neighborhood who came over.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
They just wanted to talk because of the garden.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
I didn't have any idea who they were, and they
said they would deliberately walk by because they wanted.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
They loved watching the evolution of the space.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
And it's pretty cool, yes, wonderful. And then you also
shared it on your socials where you could inspire people,
you know, just in a side garden, you know what
I mean. Yeah, it's not anything I mean, it's just
your side garden, but you can really make it something huge. Well,
a huge, huge, thank you for being on the podcast today.
(22:23):
I appreciate it so much. I will put all your
links in this podcast description. Make sure you check out
Heather with here She Grows. I hope you all enjoyed
this and I hope you all have a chance to
get in your garden today. Thanks Jannie, thank you so
much to my podcast sponsor, Proven Winners. Visit your local
garden center today and look for the white containers featuring
(22:46):
the Proven Winner's logo. There's a reason they're the number
one plant brand that gardeners like me trust the most.
Visit Proven Winners dot com for tips, ideas, and so
much more. Dig Plant Water Pete is produced in association
with Calaroga Shark Media. It was written and hosted by
me Janie Santos, with marketing and production assistants from Courtney Clark.
(23:10):
Please consider subscribing and watch us on YouTube or follow
us on your favorite podcast app of choice to get
alerts on all new episodes. And hey, if you liked
the show, give us a review and hit those five
stars on Apple. Executive producers are Mark Francis, John McDermott
and Janie Santos
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Callarogashowk Media
Support for this podcast comes from Proven Winners, the plant
brand that gardeners of all experienced levels trust the most,
and the brand that I have personally trusted in my
own gardening journey since twenty twenty. Proven Winners selections, including annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, bulbs,
and even houseplants are simply amazing and all are trialed, tested,
(00:22):
and specifically chosen for one purpose and one purpose only
to ensure gardener success. Visit Provenwinners dot com and find
your next favorite plant today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Callarogashawk Media.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hi everyone, welcome back to my garden and welcome to
the Dig Plant Water Repeat Podcast. It is getting cooler,
the air is getting a bit crisper, the leaves are
even starting to change, and I've got all the fall
feels and so today on the podcast, I have my
friend Heather Blackmore from here. She grows here with us.
She is a garden writer, a blogger, a content creator,
(01:16):
all based out of suburban suburban Chicago, where I'm sure
it's getting a little bit closer to fall than we
are here in California. Hi Heather, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Hi?
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Danium good, how are you good?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
It's so good to see you and talk to you,
and I, you know, I feel like we live five
hours away from each other, but like we're friends. Yeah,
this is kind of how it works.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
I mean, you meet up with so many people on
social media and yeah, and it's just become friends with
this common interest.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, we just happened to live far away from each other, right.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Right, Very very different growing zones, very different clients.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, yeah, so what growings on? Are you in in
Chicago area?
Speaker 5 (01:54):
So I was five B but we were upgraded to
six A, but I still plan, you know, according to
five B.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
So I kind of treat that as an iffy thing,
you know.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, that's kind of what I hear from a lot
of people that got moved up, is that they're all
kind of like, I don't know if I believe it
quite yet.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, I don't want to have a false hope where
I can actually, you know, I do tend to push
zones too though, but you know, you get a little
false hope and you're like, oh maybe I can go
a little more tropical.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, okay, so tell everybody a little bit, Like, Okay,
so you have you live in a suburban home, right,
So it's I went too.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It's small, Like you say, you're garden small, but it's
not that small. So tell me how you got into gardening.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
And you know, yeah, my mom and dad had a
very modest vegetable garden and they grew beautiful roses. My
grandmother was British and she grew gorgeous roses.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
So I kind of just I loved.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
I was just fascinated by all of that and just
got into like house plans when I was a teenager
and worked for garden centers and worked for nurseries. They
taught me how to grow, you know, grow from seed
plugs the whole nine yards. And then got into college
and I had house plants in college. And then it
wasn't really until I got married and my first home
(03:11):
was really just a dive.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
I mean it was bad. So I didn't have a lot.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Of money, as most newlyweds don't, so I realized, you know,
I've got to do this myself. And so but I
connected with a nursery nearby that had really good reviews
and they happened to have a horticulturist landscape designer on
staff that was a really good mentor. And I told
him that I didn't want him to do the work
for me. I wanted him to educate me and tell
(03:37):
me how to do things, but I wanted to do
it myself.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I learned better on my hands on kind of person.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
So he was super helpful, helped me make good plant choices,
explained to me why they were good plant.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Choices because I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
So that was what twenty five, twenty six years ago,
and it just grew from there.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
And then when we left that house.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
I mean we updated the heck out of it from
the landscaping interior. I mean we had holes in the floor,
you know, carpenteriants.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
It was that bad. I mean it was that bad.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Yeah, So we literally had no kitchen for three months
because my husband had to gut it.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
It was a total wreck. But we rehabbed it.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Yeah, and then we sold it and we moved to
our new house, and I decided that, you know, we
had just like the cookie cutter landscape. We had a
we had shrubs in front of our front room windows
that were way too big. You know, the final size
was going to be too massive. There was for Scythia's
that should never have been planted there by the builder.
(04:34):
So I decided to become a master gardener, and I
was home with my babies and was able to go
to Master gardener class once a week and through the
University of Illinois Extension Office, and then educated myself that
way and then started making plant choices and designing based
on everything I had learned at Master Gardeners and just
a lot of trial and error.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
A lot of things have died, you know, at my hand,
in my hands.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's how you learn.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And then I just how you learn. Yeah, it is truly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
If you leave over that, I can't believe you went
through the Master gardener program with babies, Like how how
did you do?
Speaker 5 (05:10):
That's you know what I from being a writer. Yeah,
I have worked on deadline. I've worked from home as
a freelance writer since i've been home, you know, when
I had my first baby twenty three years ago, that's
when I decided to be home. And but I've worked
on deadline even when they were you know, I would
work through the night sometimes that was the only time
I could work. So I just learned how to do that,
(05:33):
and that's yeah, I made it work.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I mean it's like self guide, like you know,
self guided, like you you set your own hours. Yeah,
that's tough. So now you were a writer, but then
you became a garden writer after you got into gardening,
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Yeah, yeah, it was. So it was a serendipitous thing, Jane.
It was not something that I had ever planned to do.
It was like, it was the opportunity to take the
things that I loved, you know, the professional things that
I love to do, and combine them all into one giant,
wonderful thing. And it was my writing, my photography, and
my love of gardening. So I was doing my volunteer
(06:11):
hours at the Master Gardener office and one of the
ladies that worked there, she's a horticulturist. She came in
and she knew my background and you know that I
was a journalist. And she said she had a friend
who was the lead scout for she was the lead
field editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine in the Midwest,
and she was looking, Yeah, she was looking for an
(06:31):
assistant to help her scout and find locations.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
And I'm like, yeah, let's give it a go.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
And I'm thinking, you know, that moment of oh my gosh,
did I overextend myself? Because my knowledge wasn't as deep
as you know, when you're just starting out, you're intimidated
by people who know a lot, and you're afraid to
be like, I don't want to say anyth because I
don't want to look like this total neophyte. But yeah,
and it was wonderful, and I started scouting for her
and assisting her and learning the ropes. And then by
(06:58):
the time she retired, I became the Midwest field editor
for Better Homes and Gardens.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
So I was scouting producing. It was wonderful, but it
was not anything. You know.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
It all happened because I decided I just wanted to become,
you know, become a Master gardener volunteer, and then a
snowballed and it was just it was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah. So did you get to choose what you wrote
about for Better Homes and Gardens or did they give
you assignments?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
No?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
So what I would do is it's a long process
when you're producing content for magazines for print.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Because I would.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Scout and I knew kind of what they would give me,
like some details of things, content that they were interested
in subject matter, so I would really hone in and
reach out to landscape architects and designers and say, this
is what I'm looking for. Do you have any properties
that would be you know, that would fit this mold
And so then we would go in early in the morning.
(07:50):
I would do, you know, take photos of the places
that they showed me. And then usually that was you know,
summertime or there were some spring gardens and fall gardens too.
But then I would pitch the story to my editors
to all the different magazines. So Better Homes and Gardens
is the Umbrella magazine a company for well a lot
of magazines that are out of print now like Country Gardens,
Country Living, Deck, Patio Pool. A lot of my content
(08:11):
went to those smaller niche publications. So then we would
you know, they would say, yes, we want to do
that site. So then the following year when the garden
was at peak, and I'd have to estimate when based
on the plants that were in the garden when it
was going to peak, and it was stressful. Yeah, So
it's completely so you know, you're you're at the mercy
of the weather and depending on if you're having a
(08:33):
slow summer, slow spring, how those things are going to.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Bloom when they're going to bloom.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Then the photographer comes in with me and they do
the photoshoot based on my scouting shots. Then I write
the story up, but then it doesn't appear in print
for until the following year. So it's a two year
process from the time I locate a garden to the
time it makes it to print.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Holy cow. Yeah, it's a long process.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I mean, like you know, if you flip through those
magazines right or you look online the magazine and don't
I mean, I don't realize. I mean you and I
now create content for social media and I feel like
I do it and I get it out the next day.
So yeah, yeah, it's a big difference. Wow.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Yeah, and just the estimating, you know, being super keen
on weather changes. Okay, when when is all of this
going to come together? And when should I tell my
editor that, Yeah, let's call in the photographer because I
think we're going to peak right here, because you want
to nail it at peak, because other than otherwise, why
would you want to look at the article?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know, I can barely tell when my garden is
at peak, so I don't know how you can tell
when all these other gardens are at peak. It is
so interesting. Whether we have to take a quick break
to hear a message from our sponsor. We're going to
be back into a second.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Everyone, We're back with the Dig Plant Watery Peak podcast
and I have Heather Blackmore from here she grows with us.
Heather has been telling us all about her garden writing experience,
which is just so interesting. Heather, So tell you you
are in suburban Chicago, right pretty close to Chicago.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yes, yeah, I'm just about serving itself.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Okay, So you guys are probably a little further along
than we are here in California for the fall weather.
Is that right?
Speaker 6 (10:15):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
We woke up yesterday morning it was about fifty degrees
and so yeah, yeah, yeah, and things, you know, the
garden is looking pretty pretty toasty now and things are
you know, it's the light has changed, and yeah, things
are changing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I get you probably see things differently as a photographer
and as a writer. You know, like the light, the
fall light, everything, the leaves changing. You probably see it
differently than a lot of people do, which is really interesting. Now,
I've heard you say a couple of times that September
is your favorite month in the garden. Is that because
of the light or why why is September your favorite?
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Well, you know, it's a number of things, and it
has to do with having a source, a nectar source,
you know that fall my of our pollinators coming through
this corridor in Illinois, and then making sure that I
have things for them to want to stop for and
fuel up before they continue on. So I've you know,
made that available to them. And then just having lots
(11:16):
of color and things of interest in the garden because
I feel like the light is so much it's so
much more beautiful in the fall landscape.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
It's just a softer light and the colors.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Are richer if You've planned your garden based on that,
and I've used you know, being so fond of autumn
like that. I really when I'm picking plants for my garden,
I'm very you know, keen on knowing what does that
plant do?
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Is it?
Speaker 5 (11:42):
I don't want a one and done plant. I want
to plant that How do you what do you do
in the spring? What do you look like in the summer?
And then do you look gorgeous in the fall? Which
is I really love my fall garden. So I think
of all those things. Yeah, I think about you know
what does the bark look like, what is the fall color?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Does they have interesting seed?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
And that's you know, applies to anything perennials, shrubs, trees.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, and you kind of really have to understand the
plant and understand, like we were saying, the peak time
to know when fall. I mean, I know, I fall
into the trap of I get so excited about spring.
I only think about spring blooming things. Oh yeah, then
come fall. My garden is.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Like well, and you know, the solution to that is
thinking about you know, and then I think that's a
lot of people fall into that trap, especially US cold
climate gardens, because as soon as those garden centers fill
up with plant flowers that have been forced to be
in color in April, you know when they should be
in color until like late May, June. Yeah, you fall
(12:44):
into that and it's easy to do. But when you
start looking at it from the scope of a broader scope,
like what are you going to look like later? Because
I want you to look good, Like my garden does
peak like i'd say the end of July early August,
but it never does that that aggressively, that fast downward
spiral that a lot of gardens do. That Are you know,
one dimensional. So I want my garden to be something
(13:08):
that I want to walk out, you know, in October and.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Go wow, yeah, it's really interesting. So when is your
first frost there?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Well around October fifteenth?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Okay, all right, so kind of getting close. Yeah, And
you've talked a lot about season extending plants, season extending perennials.
Do you have like a favorite season extender that that's
blooming right now?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Okay, so let's see.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
You know, I was just telling you I was just
talking to my girlfriend about this because at my roses
and I've never you know, roses can be tricky, certain varieties,
you know, and I've certainly killed a lot of roses.
But there two are Yeah, I mean, it just goes
with the territory.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
But there are some roses out.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
There right now that and it's been in my garden
for a number of years, and they are stellar performers.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Like I've got some gorgeous drift roses.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
I've got the peach drift out there that's fragrant and
doesn't doesn't ever say die, and it's it's pollinator friendly
and has the most beautiful habit.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
No disease issues.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
It's just wonderful and there's good now in September.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
My goodness, Jane, it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
A picture on your instagram.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I will, I will, I know. I just did it
on a YouTube channel.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
I just featured some of my snuff for that I
thought were really notable plants for this time of year.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
That are still you did that little that garden tour, right, Yeah, everybody,
I'm going to link Heather's YouTube channel and her instagram
and her blog in the description down below, so make
sure you check it all out. You have a gorgeous,
gorgeous garden. Okay, so you've got your drift roses anything.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Yeah, yeah. Pygnanthema moodicum. That's mountain men.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I know, I know.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
It's like a disease.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
You're staying a disease, you know, like when you say
being abn aiensis itself some sort of a disease too,
you know. But it's mountain men and that is super
pollinator friendly. It smells like expeeriment. It doesn't have the
aggressive natures, so it's a member of the mint family,
but doesn't have that aggressive nature. Does spread by rhizome,
(15:08):
so you can easily remove it if you have to.
But the Lori Garden in Chicago. Have you ever been there?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You know, it's all good list It is on my list.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
So they use this they plant it in mass and
it's a pollinator magnet. It's it looks like it's the
bracs on it look like they're frosted. They've got kind
of a like a chalky look to them. But there's
there's pollinators all over that thing. And it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yeah. And it's actually.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
The twenty twenty five Perennial Plant of the Year for
the Perennial Plant Association.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Oh that's fantastic. Yeah. And I don't think that plant
is I mean I don't maybe just me in California.
I don't think it's that well known. Mountain Mint.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
Well, I'm wondering.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
I'm trying to remember what the heartiness is for it
if it's and I can't remember offhand.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I can't either Mountain Mint. I'm looking it up. Oh
it's three through seven.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Well, obviously at.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Harry about it.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yeah, So are you nine? What are you?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I'm nine yeah, nine B yeah, and a hot nine
B too. Yeah. All right, So those of you who
are listening that are in zones three three through seven
check out Mountain Mien and then otherwise drift roses, which
I need to get some of those jeft roses in
my garden. I've been eyeing them for a really long time.
(16:29):
So do you have any big plans for your garden
this fall? Like, are you what's your what's your task
that you're going to do, because I know you always
have these really really interesting projects that you like to do.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, you know, nothing.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
After I built the side yard garden last well, I
built it last year, I dug it up and then
planted it this spring. Mostly it's editing now because I
tend to over I get I overplant. I just you know,
pack things in and then there's things that don't performs
as well as I think they should or look as
good as I had hoped. So I'll be editing, which
is a very difficult thing for me because I have
(17:04):
a hard.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Time throwing away plants. That's a challenge. Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
And then with the veg garden cover cropping to you know,
replenish the soil. So that's something I do.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Everything you're going to use for cover crops.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
There's a P and O mixture that I get from
Botanical interests and I've used that every year and just
just to replenish the nitrogen in the soil and.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
Just fix it. So yeah, it's stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
And then taking something that I think is very helpful
to any gardener, no matter how experienced you are, is
just taking pictures of your garden so that when you're
thinking about it in the wintertime, you have a frame
of reference and you can go back to be like, Okay,
this is why I wanted to fix that.
Speaker 6 (17:46):
So having huge photos is a big deal. It helps,
It's a huge deal. I completely agree with you because
I feel like you're you're you know, you're in winter
and you're kind of skewed anything. Oh everything did so
amazing and performed so yeah, and then you're like you go,
oh wait a minute, or or no, that one did
really really well.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So coming into fall, what do you think the most
being in Chicago and zone five slash six, what do
you think the most important fault gardening task is for
you to get done? That's a tough wea.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
The weading. Yeah, weading is big.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I've got a heck of a problem with bind weed,
so I'm constantly fighting that.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Oh yeah, it's bad.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah, And my biggest thing is I'm really into conifers
and they're so valuable in a landscape and then in
their lower maintenance too, So I'm kind of my focus
has changed a lot since when I first started guarding.
You know, you have that mindset when you just get
into something, You're like, I want all of it, you know,
and you want to throw it all in there because
(18:49):
you want.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
All of it. But I think it's as you.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Mature as a gardener, You're your tastes become more refined,
and you start and you get older, and you don't
have the stamina maybe to take care of all those
perennials and do all that work.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And that's for the conifers.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
And your you know, your beautiful shrubs come in trees
that have a lot more to offer and they don't
require a whole lot of work.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
So and then you.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Know, having that winter interest to with the conifers too,
and places for birds to hide out and that sort
of thing. So I've been really focused on introducing more
evergreens for smaller spaces.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, you have that beautiful conifer that you decorate for Christmas?
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, I love that thing. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
So pretty. I don't remember if I was last year
of the year before, but it was basically a Christmas
tree tour and here's miss Heather with this huge conifer
outside with lights on it, and I'm like, okay, you win, Heather.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Before Oh yeah, and before I had you know, they
make those special poles so you can pay lights.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
Well I didn't have one of those telescoping poles. So
I was out there when I first started decorating that
thing with a broom and I was balancing the string
lights on the edge of the spout and trying to
like festidicated.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Oh yeah, And I mean I dedicated.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
And then I got the extendable thing. My husband got
it from me. He's like, let's just use the favorite,
you know, to do the job.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah yeah, yeah, Well make sure you guys check out
how there's huge confort because I think it's getting pretty big, right,
I mean it's that was Janie.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
That was the very first thing I ever planted in
my guard.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Don't you yet?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
That yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
So amazing?
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah, And so it's special. It's really special. It's an
arbor widing.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
It was a frosted it was come like warning frost
I lost the tag on.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
It, but I think it was.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
But the problem with it was is that it lost
that white tipped variegation that it had and it reverted back.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I think.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I'm not sure, but it still has a perfect shape
and I absolutely love it because I didn't kill it,
and that was like one of the first things I planned.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's been a good spot.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I know you all can't see, but she's looking out
the window and yeah, that's where it is, right, it's
directly out right, I know, which is like the perfect spot.
So make sure you head over to Heather's YouTube channel
and check out her beautiful, beautiful garden. And then Heather,
where else can we find you? You're on YouTube?
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Yeah, you can find me on my blog here she
grows dot com.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
I'm on Instagram, is Heather here? She grows? Yeah, Facebook,
the same?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah? All over yeah, all over where. Well it's so wonderful.
I so enjoy talking about gardening with you because I
can just when you talk about it, your eyes like
light up and it's like, yes, oh.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Yeah, it's luckily, Yeah, it's an obsession. It's just a
passionate about it. And the thing I get the most
joy out of sharing it with other people and you know,
showing them from that sideyard garden that I'm aging. I
can't even tell you how many friends I've made from
the neighborhood who came over.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
They just wanted to talk because of the garden.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
I didn't have any idea who they were, and they
said they would deliberately walk by because they wanted.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
They loved watching the evolution of the space.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
And it's pretty cool, yes, wonderful. And then you also
shared it on your socials where you could inspire people,
you know, just in a side garden, you know what
I mean. Yeah, it's not anything I mean, it's just
your side garden, but you can really make it something huge. Well,
a huge, huge, thank you for being on the podcast today.
(22:23):
I appreciate it so much. I will put all your
links in this podcast description. Make sure you check out
Heather with here She Grows. I hope you all enjoyed
this and I hope you all have a chance to
get in your garden today. Thanks Jannie, thank you so
much to my podcast sponsor, Proven Winners. Visit your local
garden center today and look for the white containers featuring
(22:46):
the Proven Winner's logo. There's a reason they're the number
one plant brand that gardeners like me trust the most.
Visit Proven Winners dot com for tips, ideas, and so
much more. Dig Plant Water Pete is produced in association
with Calaroga Shark Media. It was written and hosted by
me Janie Santos, with marketing and production assistants from Courtney Clark.
(23:10):
Please consider subscribing and watch us on YouTube or follow
us on your favorite podcast app of choice to get
alerts on all new episodes. And hey, if you liked
the show, give us a review and hit those five
stars on Apple. Executive producers are Mark Francis, John McDermott
and Janie Santos
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Callarogashowk Media
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