The Garden Mixer: A Gardening Podcast

Latest Episodes:

What to Do With Fallen Branches: Dead Hedges & Habitat Nests Oct 30, 2026

Show notes

Every garden —even the smallest — produces dead things: the limbs that come down in a storm, the invasives you’ve finally pulled, the sticks that land in front of the door and sit there longer than you’d like. Sooner or later you have to decide what to do with them.

Today, Leslie and Marianne go through the traditional options, from the bonfire to the chipper to the bags on the curb; but would rather make the case for keeping it all where it fell — well, sort of. To do that, Marianne catches up with horticulturist Gregg Tepper, the man behind her beloved habitat nests — sculptures built from fallen branches that shelter wrens and beetles and look fantastic doing it. And Leslie discusses her experience working in neighborhoods with sharp-eyed HOAs to create her own mini-sculptures and dead hedges.

Happy Halloween. Let’s clear up the bodies.

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Full Show Notes at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Meet The Garden Mixer: A Garden Podcast Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Gardening shouldn't be boring! Join Leslie Harris and Marianne Willburn for lively conversations, strong opinions, cocktails and plenty of laughs. From favorite plants to garden triumphs and disasters, there's always something to stir up.

New episodes every other week, with Barrel Aged One More Sip conversations in between. Follow The Garden Mixer and join the fun!

Barrel: Ugly Fall Clearance Plants (Barrel Aged One More Sip) Oct 23, 2026

Show notes

Gardeners love a challenge, and they also like a deal. So when those two factors come together on the death racks of your local nursery or big box, it’s really hard to say no.

Should you? Today on One More Sip of The Garden Mixer, Leslie and Marianne find themselves at odds about the best way to handle your late-season plant hoarding tendencies.

Welcome to a Barrel Aged episode of One More Sip.

One More Sip is our every-other-week deep dive on a single topic — released fresh to paid subscribers, and then, after a year of fine barrel aging, uncorked for the wider Mixer community.

You’re holding the bottle now. Enjoy!!

If you’d like to catch these episodes while they’re still young — and get all the show notes, the GM Chat, and Substack LIVE events that go with them — upgrading your free subscription is easy and costs less than a decent bottle of anything.

To those already subscribed: our gratitude is deep. Thank you for supporting our mission: Gardening Shouldn’t Be Boring.

Hit the YouTube subscribe button so we can keep you smilingwhile you hit the mess (your garden) out there.

The Garden Mixer Podcast https://episodes.fm/1561064602

Full Show Notes bonus episodes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’sSubstack

https://thegardenmixerpodcast.substack.com/

Socials – Pick Your Platform:

https://www.instagram.com/thegardenmixer/

Indulge us on TikTok @the.garden.mixer

https://www.tiktok.com/@the.garden.mixer

Spar with us on X @gardenmixerpod

https://x.com/gardenmixerpod

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Parking Lot Plants: Better Than You Think! Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Parking lot plants. The ones growing between the cart return and the McDonald’s drive-through. The ones shaved into meatballs and meatloaf and shapes that can’t be easily defined in meat terms. The ones that ask for nothing more than hard pan, cigarette butts & exhaust fumes — and deliver anyway.

These plants have a reputation problem. Not because they aren’t good plants, but because they’ve been used badly, repeated endlessly, and associated with the worst design instincts of the last fifty years. And yet: there is a reason they keep showing up. They work. They survive. And they look beautiful when they are transported out of the ninth circle of hell and brought to a garden where they can be the plants they’re meant to be.

Leslie and Marianne are here to raise a glass to them — and to make the case that the parking lot plant in your garden, handled with intention, is not a consolation prize. It’s a plant that has already proven itself under conditions your garden will never impose. So how about a little respect? Today on The Garden Mixer.

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Please hit the subscribe button so we can keep you smiling while you hit the beautiful mess [your garden] out there.

Full Show Notes at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Barrel: Our Biggest Gardening Mistakes, So Far (A Barrel Aged One More Sip) Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

In this latest Barrel-Aged episode of One More Sip of The Garden Mixer, Marianne and Leslie talk about all of their worst gardening boo-boos over the years. The format is interesting-- this is a LIVE Substack video that took place a year ago. They bring up mistakes that range from planting the wrong thing to just plain planting wrong and one story involves the explosion of a rear window. Who knew gardening could get so violent? At least it's never boring when you listen to Marianne Willburn and Leslie Harris of The Garden Mixer.

If you are interested in being up to date with One More Sip of The Garden Mixer, which is our in between episode that comes out between bigger sips (regular episodes), head over to Substack to join our community and support the show.

And thanks!

Hit the YouTube subscribe button so we can keep you smilingwhile you hit the mess (your garden) out there.

The Garden Mixer Podcast https://episodes.fm/1561064602

Full Show Notes bonus episodes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’sSubstack

https://thegardenmixerpodcast.substack.com/

Socials – Pick Your Platform:

https://www.instagram.com/thegardenmixer/

Indulge us on TikTok @the.garden.mixer

https://www.tiktok.com/@the.garden.mixer

Spar with us on X @gardenmixerpod

https://x.com/gardenmixerpod

“FrenchBistro” theme by Adieu Adieu. License D0LZBINY30GGTBBW

How to Build a Deer Fence when One Type Won't Do. Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Last December, Leslie and Marianne talked deer fences on the podcast — and Marianne’s imminent enclosure and ironic freedom. Somewhere in the middle of that episode, Founding Mixer and friend Erin Schanen, The Impatient Gardener, decided she’d had enough.

Not of the podcast. (uh, obvs!) Of the deer.

So she did what any reasonable person does when pushed past the breaking point by a herd of four-legged garden criminals: she went all in. Not with one kind of fence. With four. Simultaneously. On a suburban property with ordinances, a neighbor with opinions, a driveway that needed a gate and a woodland doubling as a deer maternity unit.

She is here to tell us how it went. And more importantly, how you might piece together a solution for yourself if you can’t just pick up the phone and call the local fencing company. Spoiler: She’s zapped herself three times on the electric fence. But her phlox have never looked better.

Join us as we discuss thinking outside the box to create a box. Today, on the Garden Mixer.

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Please hit the subscribe button so we can keep you smiling while you hit the beautiful mess [your garden] out there.

Full Show Notes at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Barrel: Garden Paths (Barrel Aged One More Sip) Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

What makes a good garden path? Gravel? Grass? Pavers? Wood chips? Flagstone? And why does something that looks gorgeous in one garden become a maintenance nightmare in another?In this Barrel Aged One More Sip, Leslie and Marianne head down the garden path—quite literally—to talk about the materials they’ve used, loved, regretted and sworn never to use again.Marianne is preparing to replace nearly 100 feet of struggling turf path with gravel, which leads to a conversation about pea gravel, stone dust, stepping stones, wood-chip paths, flagstone, edging and even those beautiful slices of tree trunk that look wonderful...until they start rotting.We also talk about how wide a garden path should be, choosing a surface that works with the style and scale of your garden, dealing with snow, weeds and wheelbarrows—and why landscape fabric under a path is one mistake neither of us wants to make again.Because a path isn't just a way to get from one part of the garden to another. It changes how you move through the garden, how you see it—and how much work you'll be doing to maintain it.And yes, gravel wins quite a few points. Whether Marianne still loves hers after installing nearly 100 feet of it remains to be seen.The Garden Mixer with Leslie Harris and Marianne Willburn.Welcome to a Barrel Aged episode of One MoreSip.

One More Sip is our every-other-week deepdive on a single topic — released fresh to paid subscribers, and then, after ayear of fine barrel aging, uncorked for the wider Mixer community.

You’re holding the bottle now. Enjoy!!

If you’d like to catch these episodes whilethey’re still young — and get all the show notes, the GM Chat, and SubstackLIVE events that go with them — upgrading your free subscription is easy andcosts less than a decent bottle of anything.

To those already subscribed: our gratitude isdeep. Thank you for supporting our mission: Gardening Shouldn’t Be Boring.

Hit the YouTube subscribe button so we can keep you smiling while you hit the mess (your garden) out there.The Garden Mixer Podcast https://episodes.fm/1561064602Full Show Notes bonus episodes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substackhttps://thegardenmixerpodcast.substack.com/Socials – Pick Your Platform:Follow us on Instagram @thegardenmixerhttps://www.instagram.com/thegardenmixer/Indulge us on TikTok @the.garden.mixer https://www.tiktok.com/@the.garden.mixerSpar with us on X @gardenmixerpodhttps://x.com/gardenmixerpod“French Bistro” theme by Adieu Adieu. License D0LZBINY30GGTBBW

Golden Hour in the Garden: Plants for Fall Color Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

With some surprise and not a little relief, the garden is hurtling towards late middle age by mid-September. The promise of spring and the relentless drive of summer have departed, and with them the cultural expectation that the garden needs to look good in a crop top and pretend that it’s still May.

There are some big bonuses to late middle age. With lowered expectations now the norm for those around you who don’t garden, your plot is well positioned to surprise and delight visitors with color, texture & not a little sass. It may be the Golden Hour, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rock it.

This week, Marianne and Leslie remain so dedicated to their craft and the proposition that ‘rock it’ is more than just a salad green, that they bring the Show with them on vacation to Normandy. (Or at least Leslie was on vacation when the girls recorded this episode — Marianne was working her derrière off).

However, since they had a fine coachload of exceptional gardeners whose ideas they could harvest for fall color ideas (including a group of professional container designers) they didn’t have to work too hard.

It’s LIVE-ish from Normandy, with a surprise or two — and don’t forget to check out the YouTube silliness. Today on The Garden Mixer.

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Please hit the subscribe button so we can keep you smiling while you hit the beautiful mess [your garden] out there.

Full Show Notes at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Barrel: Putting Your Best Friend Plants in Storage (Barrel Aged One More Sip) Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Gardeners in cold climates dabbling with tropical and subtropical plants in their summer gardens are about to come to a hard stop: First Frost.

If you’re a gardener who loves these plants outside, but doesn’t particularly want them rubbing shoulders with you over the winter, you may be interested in which ones Marianne terms “Best Friends” in her last book, Tropical Plants and How To Love Them — plants that can be stored in dark, dormant conditions in a frost-free location.

Today on One More Sip the girls discuss the plants that can take this kind of treatment, the ones that can’t, and encourage you to safely experiment to add even more to your list.

From digging those rhizomes to the details of storage — they’ll make it easier than ever to bring some of your favorite “Best Friend” plants through the winter so you can enjoy them in your garden for years to come.

Garden Center Secrets: Just in Time for Fall! Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

It’s planting season once again for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere – which of course means buying season, and splurging season, and did-I-really-need-that-many-clearance-plants season.

Need a strategy? Today we welcome Louisa Zimmermann Roberts, co-owner of Thanksgiving Farms in Frederick, Maryland who’s been watching the buying habits of customers for decades, and has more than a little insight on what you should be doing when you fill that cart.

She’ll have you examining that root system, squinting at plant tags, rethinking your potting soil, and generally becoming the smartest gardener on the block. Today on the Garden Mixer.

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Please hit the subscribe button so we can keep you smiling while you hit the beautiful mess [your garden] out there.

Full Show Notes at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

____________________

Socials – Pick Your Platform:

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Spar with us on X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gardenmixerpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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