September 30, 2024 • 21 mins
Fall is here, and Janey is excited to welcome Sean and Allison McManus from Spoken Garden! Tune in as they share their journey to becoming (or maybe always being?) proud “plant nerds” and the unique joys of gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Sean and Allison only garden in containers, hear them chat about some of the perks and challenges of only container gardening and be sure to catch the next episode where they’ll be back with essential fall planting tips!
About Sean and Allison:
Sean and Allison McManus, owners of Spoken Garden, love teaching about all kinds of plants and flowers, including plant care, pruning, and bulb care. They garden in Washington state (zone 8b/9a) and teach gardeners through their YouTube channel, Instagram account, their quick “DIY Garden Minute” podcast, their Spoken Garden website, & their first book “The First-time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers." Inventors of The Little Dibby and The Dibby XL (winner of the 2023 NGB 'Green Thumb Award') dual-purpose seed-sowing and transplanting tools. Sean is an Environmental Horticulturist and Allison is a former National Board-Certified Science teacher.
For more from Sean and Allison:
Their Book
YouTube
Instagram
Website
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!
About Sean and Allison:
Sean and Allison McManus, owners of Spoken Garden, love teaching about all kinds of plants and flowers, including plant care, pruning, and bulb care. They garden in Washington state (zone 8b/9a) and teach gardeners through their YouTube channel, Instagram account, their quick “DIY Garden Minute” podcast, their Spoken Garden website, & their first book “The First-time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers." Inventors of The Little Dibby and The Dibby XL (winner of the 2023 NGB 'Green Thumb Award') dual-purpose seed-sowing and transplanting tools. Sean is an Environmental Horticulturist and Allison is a former National Board-Certified Science teacher.
For more from Sean and Allison:
Their Book
YouTube
Website
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):
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,
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(00:22):
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your next favorite plant today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Callarogashawk Media.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hi everyone, Jane here, Welcome back to my garden and
welcome to the Dig Plant, Water Repeat Podcast. We are
officially in fall and I couldn't be happier. The days
are starting to cool down, the garden is starting to
slow down, and it's on its way to sleep. So
I'm here today with my friends Sean and Alison McManus.
(01:13):
They're from Spoken Garden, and we are talking about how
much we love fall in the garden and especially fall
in the Pacific Northwest. I have to say Sean and
Allison are from Washington State. They teach gardening through their
YouTube channel, Instagram website. They have a book their podcast
DIY Garden Minute. You guys are just Garden nurs Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
That was such a nice introduction.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Thanks well, thank you guys so much, so much for
being here today. I can't believe it's taken this long
to get you guys on the podcast, because you're like, oh, yeah,
of course I got to get Sean and Allison on.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Oh we're just so excited to be here. Thank you
for I'm just glad the stars a ligne and we
were able to get the date and thanks for so
thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So it's the weather starting to change up there in Washington.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
It is yep, it's starting to cool off, typical pnws,
especially a Puget Sound area where the mornings it's foggy
and then in the afternoon it burns off and it's
nice and sunny, maybe a little crispy, a little on
the hotter side, and then a.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Cools rule right down.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
You know. I have to say, though, like your intro,
you were just saying, I we're so excited it is fall.
I mean, it's just like fall season is there's just
something magical about fall, right, I just.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, it really, I mean it really like once we
start getting there that I'm just like a pumpkins spice
latte planting my paradeal. It's such a good time. Yeah,
such a good time. So you you both you're married, correct?
Married partners? How are both of you such fanatic gardeners?
How did you guys? How did you both get started
(02:47):
in gardening?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
We are gardeners? You go ahead, Well I started. I
mean really, I have my parents to blame, and it
really blames not the right word, right. They just instilled
a love of gardening and nature, really being outside. I
remember being so little and they would just kind of
put me to work, you know, like probably a lot
of gardeners, you know, they were telling me to you know,
go read over there, go do this, go do that,
(03:09):
and I would just kind of I just had to
be outside, you know, all the time, and it just
turned into that passion. I don't I didn't really get
into really loving gardening myself until probably like when I
had my first house. I think I had some containers,
you know, in different places I lived, but I Sean
and I ended up buying my grandparents house, and well
we can talk about that horn a minute, but that's
(03:32):
when I really started loving the gardening. You know, because
I had the yard, and I remembered all the tips
my parents had told me and taught me, and that's
when it just sort of started coming together.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
So that's fun about Sean. You were you were the
gardener as what you were a gardener before you met
or did Alison bring you in?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Oh yeah, total nerves.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So I started gardening basically with my mom. My mom
was a fanatical, phenomenal gardener, so like she would just
always basically like Alison, just hey, come out and help
me in the arden, you know, kind of lightening the load,
you know, more hands, you.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Know, light and the load.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
So I'd go out there, I'd pick up all the
debris and I'd help her weed and eventually started mowing
the lawn. But when I was five years old, my
parents bought a road or dinner for what and yeah,
they they got a little dinner and farm and so
I started around five years old, you know, dipping and
sticking road of dinner and cuttings, mixing soil. You know,
(04:24):
I was driving little tractors. Not a fun yeah, probably
or ten years old, you know, I was driving you
know Jaunder tractors, pulling you know, halland loads of soil
and plants and things and so through that process and
that's how I really got into plants and wanted to
study of the more.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So I went.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
I went to school for at WSU, and I was
going to take over the business. It didn't work out,
but I continued on. And so, yeah, just the continuation
of loving plants and lots of degree.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, you're a horticulturist, do I say, how do I
always mist pronounce that environmental?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's okay, be a while to get the hang of
that work.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Too, So you are right, you are that word.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I love plants. I mean, and
so I studied environmental work culture, and so it's always
from the standpoint of, you know, plants needs in the environment.
How can it thrive, what's debilitating it, what's affecting it?
How do we how do we improve it? You know,
it's always from that standpoint, and it makes you really
think a lot differently about plants than you might.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I would love it well, And I have to say,
like Sean continues to teach me like every day, because
I didn't come from the background, you know, like a
lot of people did. I was a teacher, so I
was just like this nerd in the classroom teaching science,
and I loved you know, I kind of had that
background of nature. But once we moved in together and
he's really started teaching, he literally would go around the
(05:48):
yard and show me all like we had to move
everything I planted pretty much because I put it in
the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Or like we all do that, you know, right, I mean, hey,
And that.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Helped popularn right, so many mistakes that I definitely could
learn from. But I just I thank you because you
really he really inspired me to keep like upping my
game and like instilled passion in me.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I guess if that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
And Alison helps me speak a lot clearer about all
the things in my head because I know what I mean,
and you know, I get a little more technical. I
used to do a lot more, and now Allison's helped
me kind of you know, let's.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Let's drink that down. What does that mean? Use? Use?
Don't use such technical words.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
So as that's you being able to teach it, I'm
the translator. I just love that. And now you guys
are just an unstoppable team, especially up there in the
Pacific Northwest. All of you gardeners up there, like you
guys are like your own little clan up in the
you know. I was at the UH Northwest Flower Garden
(06:50):
Festival and I was just like, you guys, can I
be a part of your group?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
You are the group and we're excited to do there
because such a fun and surprise, like we didn't. I mean,
it was like Jandy, oh my god. And there are
so many fun people just up in this area.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
So it was neat.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It's neat to network and just kind of get to
know everybody.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And that was Yeah, So tell me what it I mean,
I love the Pacific Northwest. What is the best part.
What do you guys think is the best part being
from there? What do you think is the best part
about gardening up in PNW.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
There's so many things, It's what I mean, It's just like, well,
I feel biased because this is where we both were raised,
you know, so it's kind of like all it's all
I know about gardening really, but I just feel like
there's the climate and it's just so conducive to growing
so many things, so many different plants to grow here.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Yeah, there is you know a lot of people don't
know this, but in the Pacific northwest least and Washington State.
We have we have all almost all the different climates
of the world except so well, let me put it
to this way.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
We have we can grow things and have the environments
in different zones.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
For subarctic all the way up to subtropical, just in
the state of Washington. So we have high yeah, we
have high desert, we have rainforests, we have you know,
lowland valleys. Of course, we have a lot of different
bodies of water here in the and you know, there's
ocean bodies of water, there's lake you know, and it
just it runs the gamut from you know, elevation all
(08:20):
we have mountains. I mean, you know this, but I
mean we have all these different microclimates too, so we
can literally grow pretty much almost anything around the world,
from subarctic to sub tropic.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Like that's amazing in different areas of the state and
kind of I mean again I'm biased because we're from
the western side of the state, but it's like the
growing opportunity here is just so much fun. I'm sure
that the east side of Washington State it is beautiful,
never grown over there.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You have, yes, you've done both. Yes, well, you know
in Jennie two just here.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
And you know, if you talk about the Pacific Northwest,
the Puget Sound area, so that's Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Even evert up north.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
I mean, it all has a very similar climate where
it's a very maritime climate. It's very some people would
say it's even mediterrane in different places because it can
be so moderate. So we can grow a lot of
different things that some people just can't grow. And that
includes even like cording lines, but we can grow. We
have a great climate for bulbs, just a wonderful climate.
(09:21):
It doesn't matter really wear up and down Huget Sound
on the west side of the state from the mountains
where you're growing those bulbs. You can literally grow the
bulbs pretty much anywhere up and down the west side
of the state.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So you can do grown on the other side of
the state too.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
But and you guys have the is it Scadget or
Scagget Valley, Skadget Valley, So tell us about Scadget Valley.
I'm talking about bulbs.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I know florret right floret is located up in Scadget Valley.
It's a very like prime area for bulbs. They have
just very fertile soil. That's just the climate is just perfect,
the weather's perfect. They can over like we can as well.
We can overwinter most of our summer bulbs. We don't
have to pull them up out of the ground so
that it gets cold enough but not too cold. I
(10:06):
guess that's so. It's just the thing you want to
add to it.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
No, that's a really beautiful Yeah, it's a beautiful area.
It's a it's a very agricultural area too, and it's
very it's a lot more spread out than people might realize,
but it's yeah, it's it's picturesque with just mountain vistas
but just completely flat land right up to you know,
the mountains themselves of the foothills.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It's just it's really beautiful. I've been there for a
tulip festival. That was oh yeah, that was absolutely and
it was I mean, it was incredible. What I'm sure
the Netherlands probably is better, but having never been to
the Netherlands, this was incredible.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
It is incredible. That reminds me we haven't been to
that in a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, it was such fun.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You definitely need to go. Hey, you guys, we got
to take a quick break to hear a message from
our sponsor. We'll be back in just a second. Okay, okay,
we are back today on the podcast. I'm talking to
(11:10):
Sean and Alison McManus from the Spoken Garden. We are
talking about our love of the Pacific Northwest. You guys
live in Washington State and it is just it is
just amazing up there. I love it. So now it's
the first week of fall. What are your plans for
the garden this season? In the fall? You what are
you guys? What are you guys doing in the PNW?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Oh my gosh. We are laughing because we our list
keeps growing like every day, probably like a lot of gartners, right.
It's just there's so many things to do. A lot
of our work for a lot of our upcoming work
for fall involves planting and transplanting. One thing we didn't
I don't know if we mentioned this to you yet,
but all of our plants are growing in containers right now.
(11:55):
So we have bulbs, we have trees, shrubs, I mean,
you name, it is all in containers. We have a
lot of potting and repotting and potting up oh yeah
this fall.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, and not only the repotting.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
But I mean when we do this, we want to
make sure we're taking care of the plants. So we're
revitalizing the soil with composts, We're doing some root pruning
and not a lot of reprunting. You know, a lot
of people think, oh my gosh, you know, they pull
it out and you got the circling roots. But when
you're when you're keeping a plant in the same container,
but you're just kind of revitalizing things and raising it
back up because it's settled down, so you're putting more soil.
(12:28):
You just want to prune the roots just a little bit.
You don't want to take a whole bunch off like
a lot of people do right before they.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Plant it in the ground. So there's there's a little
bit of a difference.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So if you're a container planting shown if you're both
of you guys, if you if you grow things in
a container, do you want to repot every year to
revitalize the soil or can you wait a couple of years?
Like how often should we be doing that?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Good good question. That's a good question.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
It kind of depends on what you're growing, what its
needs are, and what you started out with with the soil.
If you started out with like a like a potting soil,
just a regular I know, potting soil. Was it per
light peat moss or yea per lite peat moss and bark.
You want to you want to add some new nutrients
to that with compost. If you can pertilize, it's okay,
(13:12):
But compost is better you can sely probably yeah, yeah, yeah,
because it doesn't come with any nutrients, right, it's it's
sterile soil, and most of your your potting soils like
that or sterile, so adding a little bit of compost
into that is good.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You can mix it.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Up before you plant the plant, so then it starts
out with that, or if you're starting off, if you
already have a plan and the container with that soil,
you can just put a little dressing on top of
about an inch or two of the compost as evenly
as possible, and then just lightly work it into the soil,
till it in with a you know, a trowel or
even a horry organ and then water it in and
over time all the little particulates, all the little nutrients
(13:47):
will actually filter down to the roots. They'll go down
the soil profile and then the plan will be able
to take that.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Up over time and to maybe add on to that
what we're noticing kind of to get back to the
prow of your question, like, yeah, like you said, you
just need to kind of keep an eye on the plant.
We're noticing some of our plants have been in the
same container for way too long, like probably going on
three years now. I mean for a couple of our
beautiful big hydranges, they desperately need new soil, new composts,
(14:16):
some biotone you know, really get those roots kind of
just re established. And yeah, so we're kind of going
after a lot of that this fall. It's kind of
a big project because they're big, you know big.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
You guys have an interesting fall because you guys do
all container planting. It's really interesting to hear that.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Yeah's it is.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So can you talk about why you're all container planting?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Well, what happened is so about two years ago we
sold our house in Tacoma and we really wanted to
kind of get out of the city and find somewhere
a little quieter and spread out. The true story is
we literally ran out of her I mean, like we
had nowhere else to go. We were already, like Sean
built all these beautiful raised beds. We took over our
(14:57):
driveway with raised beds. I mean, we just we we
had nowhere else to go, and it was like you know,
and it was a landlad, you know, so we just
made a snap decision. We're like, we want to get
out of the city.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
We're going to go.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So we kind of implemented this plan and it involved
containery all of our plants, moving them into my mom's
backyard while we search for property. So that's kind of
where we're kind of have had. We've kind of been
on a holding pattern, I guess for a couple of
years now, and it's been great actually because we've been
able to really learn, I mean, we already had a
lot of containers, but it really forced us to like
(15:31):
learn really well how to manage all of our plants
and their sizes. And you know, we're growing everything from
small bulbs all the way up to trees, you know,
I mean, everything's in containers. Is kind of it's kind
of crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It's so cool though, how many people like are in
rental properties or no maybe maybe have to move for
their job. You know what, I mean, and you guys
are showing people, Oh, look look what you can do
in containers. You can grow a tree and a container, right,
I mean, I just think that that's really really neat
you guys that you do that.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
It's yeah, it's been kind of crazy because you know,
for me, I get really frustrated sometimes I'm not going
to lie because I you know, I want to see
the hydrange that get as you know, it's mature size.
But I'm just it's a patience, it.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Is scable, and it's changing up. When you're growing in.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Nothing but containers, you got to change up how you
think of the plants too, because, like.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Allison said, the maturity of the size of.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Like a hydrangea, A lot of the hydrangees we have
they want to get five six maybe eight feet tall
and even wide, but they're in like a twenty or
twenty six inch container. If they got that big, that'd
be okay, but the root system down below would be
immense and just writ down. So there's almost like you're
controlling the growth of the plant by containing.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Its root size, but it still wants to grow big.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
So even though it's in that that contained area, So
you got to prune it. You got to do it
a little bit. You got to think about a little
bit differently. The maintenance is different. And a lot of
people right now are talking about don't prune your hydranges.
Don't prine your hydrange. It's like, well, under the right,
perfect circumstances, yeah, don't bring your hydranges. But for us,
we have to do now to keep them controlled in
(17:06):
the space, in that growing space. So it makes it
a lot more challenging. You got to think about your
plants a lot, I.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Think really quick. A takeaway for people though that are wondering, Yes,
you can grow hydranges and containers, and even the big ones,
like you said, they'll just be ready for that care
you know, y control their size.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I would love to have you guys back on to
do it, to do an episode about going high rages
and containers, because I have so many questions right now. Sorry, Sean,
go ahead, beautiful, No, No, it's fine.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
It was just making me think too of you know,
growing and containers. It's challenging, but it's also fun because
if you're not sure about where you're growing your plants at,
growing containers is fun because you can find that sweet
spot for every specific plan for its sun needs for
you know, does it does it actually need a lot
more air circulation or does it not?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
You know, so you can move it around. It's really cool.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
I mean, you have very movable plants where if you
growing containers, I mean you put them on the ground.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
They're there, that's it. So you really got to get
it right.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
So if you have containers, it makes it a lot
easier to position and get the right sun needs and
shade needs and all that from the planet kind of think.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, you kind of just use it as a practice round,
you know, even if you're just moving into a new
garden and you're like, I don't know if I want
this there, so keep it in a container. Try it
out for a year or two. It's kind of a
lot of.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Work, but I mean it's smart because I have I
have a garden bed here that I was calling my
secret shade garden. Turns out my secret shade garden barely
has any shade at all. So I planted all these
shape plants and now I'm sitting here thing I should
put those in containers. So it's yeah, that would have
been a great idea. So are you guys going to
(18:50):
be planting bulbs like fall bulbs and containers too.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh yes, we definitely are. We kind of have a
mess of bold right now. Because what happened is we
well we I say we It was me took all
our fall bulbs out of every container that I could
find so I could use the containers. That's another thing
is having enough space for everything.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
So or she didn't find the bulls or the bull.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
I totally knew that there was.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Totally in the way of a pal on top of
the ball. So it was a different kind of.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Beautiful African daisy with tulips growing through it. That didn't
really work out to But so we have bulbs kind
of scattered that we were kind of testing seeing if
they're even viable, and we need to replant all of those.
And we have some brand new rinunculous bulbs that we're
so excited to get planted. So that'll be fun. That's
a new writing.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Will you guys, We are out of time for this episode,
but would you guys be willing to stay on for
another episode and maybe we can talk about some of
your fall planting tips fall tips in the garden, Would
that be okay?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Absolutely, awesome. Allright, everyone, I will leave a Spoken Garden.
I will leave all of your links, including the link
to your book. Congratulations. Yeah, I'll We've got your description
down below, and then stay tuned for next week for
another episode of Spoken Garden where we will talk more
about fall in the garden and planting in the garden.
(20:18):
I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you
all have a chance to get in your garden today.
Thank you so much to my podcast sponsor, Proven Winners.
Visit your local garden center today and look for the
white containers featuring the Proven Winner's logo. There's a reason
they're the number one plant brand that gardeners like me
(20:39):
trust the most. Visit Proven Winners dot com for tips, ideas,
and so much more. Dig Plant Water Repeat is produced
in association with Calaroga Shark Media. It was written and
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(20:59):
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Speaker 2 (21:21):
Calarogashock 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 (00:52):
Hi everyone, Jane here, Welcome back to my garden and
welcome to the Dig Plant, Water Repeat Podcast. We are
officially in fall and I couldn't be happier. The days
are starting to cool down, the garden is starting to
slow down, and it's on its way to sleep. So
I'm here today with my friends Sean and Alison McManus.
(01:13):
They're from Spoken Garden, and we are talking about how
much we love fall in the garden and especially fall
in the Pacific Northwest. I have to say Sean and
Allison are from Washington State. They teach gardening through their
YouTube channel, Instagram website. They have a book their podcast
DIY Garden Minute. You guys are just Garden nurs Welcome.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
That was such a nice introduction.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Thanks well, thank you guys so much, so much for
being here today. I can't believe it's taken this long
to get you guys on the podcast, because you're like, oh, yeah,
of course I got to get Sean and Allison on.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Oh we're just so excited to be here. Thank you
for I'm just glad the stars a ligne and we
were able to get the date and thanks for so
thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So it's the weather starting to change up there in Washington.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
It is yep, it's starting to cool off, typical pnws,
especially a Puget Sound area where the mornings it's foggy
and then in the afternoon it burns off and it's
nice and sunny, maybe a little crispy, a little on
the hotter side, and then a.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Cools rule right down.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
You know. I have to say, though, like your intro,
you were just saying, I we're so excited it is fall.
I mean, it's just like fall season is there's just
something magical about fall, right, I just.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, it really, I mean it really like once we
start getting there that I'm just like a pumpkins spice
latte planting my paradeal. It's such a good time. Yeah,
such a good time. So you you both you're married, correct?
Married partners? How are both of you such fanatic gardeners?
How did you guys? How did you both get started
(02:47):
in gardening?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
We are gardeners? You go ahead, Well I started. I
mean really, I have my parents to blame, and it
really blames not the right word, right. They just instilled
a love of gardening and nature, really being outside. I
remember being so little and they would just kind of
put me to work, you know, like probably a lot
of gardeners, you know, they were telling me to you know,
go read over there, go do this, go do that,
(03:09):
and I would just kind of I just had to
be outside, you know, all the time, and it just
turned into that passion. I don't I didn't really get
into really loving gardening myself until probably like when I
had my first house. I think I had some containers,
you know, in different places I lived, but I Sean
and I ended up buying my grandparents house, and well
we can talk about that horn a minute, but that's
(03:32):
when I really started loving the gardening. You know, because
I had the yard, and I remembered all the tips
my parents had told me and taught me, and that's
when it just sort of started coming together.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
So that's fun about Sean. You were you were the
gardener as what you were a gardener before you met
or did Alison bring you in?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Oh yeah, total nerves.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
So I started gardening basically with my mom. My mom
was a fanatical, phenomenal gardener, so like she would just
always basically like Alison, just hey, come out and help
me in the arden, you know, kind of lightening the load,
you know, more hands, you.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Know, light and the load.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
So I'd go out there, I'd pick up all the
debris and I'd help her weed and eventually started mowing
the lawn. But when I was five years old, my
parents bought a road or dinner for what and yeah,
they they got a little dinner and farm and so
I started around five years old, you know, dipping and
sticking road of dinner and cuttings, mixing soil. You know,
(04:24):
I was driving little tractors. Not a fun yeah, probably
or ten years old, you know, I was driving you
know Jaunder tractors, pulling you know, halland loads of soil
and plants and things and so through that process and
that's how I really got into plants and wanted to
study of the more.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So I went.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
I went to school for at WSU, and I was
going to take over the business. It didn't work out,
but I continued on. And so, yeah, just the continuation
of loving plants and lots of degree.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah, you're a horticulturist, do I say, how do I
always mist pronounce that environmental?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's okay, be a while to get the hang of
that work.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Too, So you are right, you are that word.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I love plants. I mean, and
so I studied environmental work culture, and so it's always
from the standpoint of, you know, plants needs in the environment.
How can it thrive, what's debilitating it, what's affecting it?
How do we how do we improve it? You know,
it's always from that standpoint, and it makes you really
think a lot differently about plants than you might.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I would love it well, And I have to say,
like Sean continues to teach me like every day, because
I didn't come from the background, you know, like a
lot of people did. I was a teacher, so I
was just like this nerd in the classroom teaching science,
and I loved you know, I kind of had that
background of nature. But once we moved in together and
he's really started teaching, he literally would go around the
(05:48):
yard and show me all like we had to move
everything I planted pretty much because I put it in
the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Or like we all do that, you know, right, I mean, hey,
And that.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Helped popularn right, so many mistakes that I definitely could
learn from. But I just I thank you because you
really he really inspired me to keep like upping my
game and like instilled passion in me.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I guess if that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
And Alison helps me speak a lot clearer about all
the things in my head because I know what I mean,
and you know, I get a little more technical. I
used to do a lot more, and now Allison's helped
me kind of you know, let's.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Let's drink that down. What does that mean? Use? Use?
Don't use such technical words.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
So as that's you being able to teach it, I'm
the translator. I just love that. And now you guys
are just an unstoppable team, especially up there in the
Pacific Northwest. All of you gardeners up there, like you
guys are like your own little clan up in the
you know. I was at the UH Northwest Flower Garden
(06:50):
Festival and I was just like, you guys, can I
be a part of your group?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
You are the group and we're excited to do there
because such a fun and surprise, like we didn't. I mean,
it was like Jandy, oh my god. And there are
so many fun people just up in this area.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
So it was neat.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It's neat to network and just kind of get to
know everybody.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And that was Yeah, So tell me what it I mean,
I love the Pacific Northwest. What is the best part.
What do you guys think is the best part being
from there? What do you think is the best part
about gardening up in PNW.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
There's so many things, It's what I mean, It's just like, well,
I feel biased because this is where we both were raised,
you know, so it's kind of like all it's all
I know about gardening really, but I just feel like
there's the climate and it's just so conducive to growing
so many things, so many different plants to grow here.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Yeah, there is you know a lot of people don't
know this, but in the Pacific northwest least and Washington State.
We have we have all almost all the different climates
of the world except so well, let me put it
to this way.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
We have we can grow things and have the environments
in different zones.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
For subarctic all the way up to subtropical, just in
the state of Washington. So we have high yeah, we
have high desert, we have rainforests, we have you know,
lowland valleys. Of course, we have a lot of different
bodies of water here in the and you know, there's
ocean bodies of water, there's lake you know, and it
just it runs the gamut from you know, elevation all
(08:20):
we have mountains. I mean, you know this, but I
mean we have all these different microclimates too, so we
can literally grow pretty much almost anything around the world,
from subarctic to sub tropic.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Like that's amazing in different areas of the state and
kind of I mean again I'm biased because we're from
the western side of the state, but it's like the
growing opportunity here is just so much fun. I'm sure
that the east side of Washington State it is beautiful,
never grown over there.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You have, yes, you've done both. Yes, well, you know
in Jennie two just here.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
And you know, if you talk about the Pacific Northwest,
the Puget Sound area, so that's Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Even evert up north.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
I mean, it all has a very similar climate where
it's a very maritime climate. It's very some people would
say it's even mediterrane in different places because it can
be so moderate. So we can grow a lot of
different things that some people just can't grow. And that
includes even like cording lines, but we can grow. We
have a great climate for bulbs, just a wonderful climate.
(09:21):
It doesn't matter really wear up and down Huget Sound
on the west side of the state from the mountains
where you're growing those bulbs. You can literally grow the
bulbs pretty much anywhere up and down the west side
of the state.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
So you can do grown on the other side of
the state too.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
But and you guys have the is it Scadget or
Scagget Valley, Skadget Valley, So tell us about Scadget Valley.
I'm talking about bulbs.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I know florret right floret is located up in Scadget Valley.
It's a very like prime area for bulbs. They have
just very fertile soil. That's just the climate is just perfect,
the weather's perfect. They can over like we can as well.
We can overwinter most of our summer bulbs. We don't
have to pull them up out of the ground so
that it gets cold enough but not too cold. I
(10:06):
guess that's so. It's just the thing you want to
add to it.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
No, that's a really beautiful Yeah, it's a beautiful area.
It's a it's a very agricultural area too, and it's
very it's a lot more spread out than people might realize,
but it's yeah, it's it's picturesque with just mountain vistas
but just completely flat land right up to you know,
the mountains themselves of the foothills.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It's just it's really beautiful. I've been there for a
tulip festival. That was oh yeah, that was absolutely and
it was I mean, it was incredible. What I'm sure
the Netherlands probably is better, but having never been to
the Netherlands, this was incredible.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
It is incredible. That reminds me we haven't been to
that in a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, it was such fun.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
You definitely need to go. Hey, you guys, we got
to take a quick break to hear a message from
our sponsor. We'll be back in just a second. Okay, okay,
we are back today on the podcast. I'm talking to
(11:10):
Sean and Alison McManus from the Spoken Garden. We are
talking about our love of the Pacific Northwest. You guys
live in Washington State and it is just it is
just amazing up there. I love it. So now it's
the first week of fall. What are your plans for
the garden this season? In the fall? You what are
you guys? What are you guys doing in the PNW?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Oh my gosh. We are laughing because we our list
keeps growing like every day, probably like a lot of gartners, right.
It's just there's so many things to do. A lot
of our work for a lot of our upcoming work
for fall involves planting and transplanting. One thing we didn't
I don't know if we mentioned this to you yet,
but all of our plants are growing in containers right now.
(11:55):
So we have bulbs, we have trees, shrubs, I mean,
you name, it is all in containers. We have a
lot of potting and repotting and potting up oh yeah
this fall.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, and not only the repotting.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
But I mean when we do this, we want to
make sure we're taking care of the plants. So we're
revitalizing the soil with composts, We're doing some root pruning
and not a lot of reprunting. You know, a lot
of people think, oh my gosh, you know, they pull
it out and you got the circling roots. But when
you're when you're keeping a plant in the same container,
but you're just kind of revitalizing things and raising it
back up because it's settled down, so you're putting more soil.
(12:28):
You just want to prune the roots just a little bit.
You don't want to take a whole bunch off like
a lot of people do right before they.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Plant it in the ground. So there's there's a little
bit of a difference.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So if you're a container planting shown if you're both
of you guys, if you if you grow things in
a container, do you want to repot every year to
revitalize the soil or can you wait a couple of years?
Like how often should we be doing that?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Good good question. That's a good question.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
It kind of depends on what you're growing, what its
needs are, and what you started out with with the soil.
If you started out with like a like a potting soil,
just a regular I know, potting soil. Was it per
light peat moss or yea per lite peat moss and bark.
You want to you want to add some new nutrients
to that with compost. If you can pertilize, it's okay,
(13:12):
But compost is better you can sely probably yeah, yeah, yeah,
because it doesn't come with any nutrients, right, it's it's
sterile soil, and most of your your potting soils like
that or sterile, so adding a little bit of compost
into that is good.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You can mix it.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Up before you plant the plant, so then it starts
out with that, or if you're starting off, if you
already have a plan and the container with that soil,
you can just put a little dressing on top of
about an inch or two of the compost as evenly
as possible, and then just lightly work it into the soil,
till it in with a you know, a trowel or
even a horry organ and then water it in and
over time all the little particulates, all the little nutrients
(13:47):
will actually filter down to the roots. They'll go down
the soil profile and then the plan will be able
to take that.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Up over time and to maybe add on to that
what we're noticing kind of to get back to the
prow of your question, like, yeah, like you said, you
just need to kind of keep an eye on the plant.
We're noticing some of our plants have been in the
same container for way too long, like probably going on
three years now. I mean for a couple of our
beautiful big hydranges, they desperately need new soil, new composts,
(14:16):
some biotone you know, really get those roots kind of
just re established. And yeah, so we're kind of going
after a lot of that this fall. It's kind of
a big project because they're big, you know big.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
You guys have an interesting fall because you guys do
all container planting. It's really interesting to hear that.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Yeah's it is.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
So can you talk about why you're all container planting?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Well, what happened is so about two years ago we
sold our house in Tacoma and we really wanted to
kind of get out of the city and find somewhere
a little quieter and spread out. The true story is
we literally ran out of her I mean, like we
had nowhere else to go. We were already, like Sean
built all these beautiful raised beds. We took over our
(14:57):
driveway with raised beds. I mean, we just we we
had nowhere else to go, and it was like you know,
and it was a landlad, you know, so we just
made a snap decision. We're like, we want to get
out of the city.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
We're going to go.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So we kind of implemented this plan and it involved
containery all of our plants, moving them into my mom's
backyard while we search for property. So that's kind of
where we're kind of have had. We've kind of been
on a holding pattern, I guess for a couple of
years now, and it's been great actually because we've been
able to really learn, I mean, we already had a
lot of containers, but it really forced us to like
(15:31):
learn really well how to manage all of our plants
and their sizes. And you know, we're growing everything from
small bulbs all the way up to trees, you know,
I mean, everything's in containers. Is kind of it's kind
of crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It's so cool though, how many people like are in
rental properties or no maybe maybe have to move for
their job. You know what, I mean, and you guys
are showing people, Oh, look look what you can do
in containers. You can grow a tree and a container, right,
I mean, I just think that that's really really neat
you guys that you do that.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
It's yeah, it's been kind of crazy because you know,
for me, I get really frustrated sometimes I'm not going
to lie because I you know, I want to see
the hydrange that get as you know, it's mature size.
But I'm just it's a patience, it.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Is scable, and it's changing up. When you're growing in.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Nothing but containers, you got to change up how you
think of the plants too, because, like.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Allison said, the maturity of the size of.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Like a hydrangea, A lot of the hydrangees we have
they want to get five six maybe eight feet tall
and even wide, but they're in like a twenty or
twenty six inch container. If they got that big, that'd
be okay, but the root system down below would be
immense and just writ down. So there's almost like you're
controlling the growth of the plant by containing.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Its root size, but it still wants to grow big.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
So even though it's in that that contained area, So
you got to prune it. You got to do it
a little bit. You got to think about a little
bit differently. The maintenance is different. And a lot of
people right now are talking about don't prune your hydranges.
Don't prine your hydrange. It's like, well, under the right,
perfect circumstances, yeah, don't bring your hydranges. But for us,
we have to do now to keep them controlled in
(17:06):
the space, in that growing space. So it makes it
a lot more challenging. You got to think about your
plants a lot, I.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Think really quick. A takeaway for people though that are wondering, Yes,
you can grow hydranges and containers, and even the big ones,
like you said, they'll just be ready for that care
you know, y control their size.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I would love to have you guys back on to
do it, to do an episode about going high rages
and containers, because I have so many questions right now. Sorry, Sean,
go ahead, beautiful, No, No, it's fine.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
It was just making me think too of you know,
growing and containers. It's challenging, but it's also fun because
if you're not sure about where you're growing your plants at,
growing containers is fun because you can find that sweet
spot for every specific plan for its sun needs for
you know, does it does it actually need a lot
more air circulation or does it not?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
You know, so you can move it around. It's really cool.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
I mean, you have very movable plants where if you
growing containers, I mean you put them on the ground.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
They're there, that's it. So you really got to get
it right.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
So if you have containers, it makes it a lot
easier to position and get the right sun needs and
shade needs and all that from the planet kind of think.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, you kind of just use it as a practice round,
you know, even if you're just moving into a new
garden and you're like, I don't know if I want
this there, so keep it in a container. Try it
out for a year or two. It's kind of a
lot of.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Work, but I mean it's smart because I have I
have a garden bed here that I was calling my
secret shade garden. Turns out my secret shade garden barely
has any shade at all. So I planted all these
shape plants and now I'm sitting here thing I should
put those in containers. So it's yeah, that would have
been a great idea. So are you guys going to
(18:50):
be planting bulbs like fall bulbs and containers too.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh yes, we definitely are. We kind of have a
mess of bold right now. Because what happened is we
well we I say we It was me took all
our fall bulbs out of every container that I could
find so I could use the containers. That's another thing
is having enough space for everything.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
So or she didn't find the bulls or the bull.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
I totally knew that there was.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Totally in the way of a pal on top of
the ball. So it was a different kind of.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Beautiful African daisy with tulips growing through it. That didn't
really work out to But so we have bulbs kind
of scattered that we were kind of testing seeing if
they're even viable, and we need to replant all of those.
And we have some brand new rinunculous bulbs that we're
so excited to get planted. So that'll be fun. That's
a new writing.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Will you guys, We are out of time for this episode,
but would you guys be willing to stay on for
another episode and maybe we can talk about some of
your fall planting tips fall tips in the garden, Would
that be okay?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Absolutely, awesome. Allright, everyone, I will leave a Spoken Garden.
I will leave all of your links, including the link
to your book. Congratulations. Yeah, I'll We've got your description
down below, and then stay tuned for next week for
another episode of Spoken Garden where we will talk more
about fall in the garden and planting in the garden.
(20:18):
I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you
all have a chance to get in your garden today.
Thank you so much to my podcast sponsor, Proven Winners.
Visit your local garden center today and look for the
white containers featuring the Proven Winner's logo. There's a reason
they're the number one plant brand that gardeners like me
(20:39):
trust the most. Visit Proven Winners dot com for tips, ideas,
and so much more. Dig Plant Water Repeat is produced
in association with Calaroga Shark Media. It was written and
hosted by me Janie Santos, with marketing and production assistance
from Courtney Clark. Please consider subscribing and watch us on
(20:59):
you 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 (21:21):
Calarogashock Media
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