The Garden Mixer

Latest Episodes:

High Impact, Low Effort Flowers May 15, 2026

Show notes

HIGH IMPACT, LOW EFFORT FLOWERS THAT DO THE WORK FOR YOU

When the growing season is moving at breakneck speed, an easy win in the form of copious, gorgeous, hey-I-forgot-about-THOSE! flowers is not only cherished, but longed for. Even gardeners who insist on making things more difficult for themselves (ahem…Marianne?) can enjoy the guilty pleasure of high impact, low effort blooms that do a disproportional amount of the work, and make you look like you know what you’re doing.

In this week’s episode of The Garden Mixer, Leslie and Marianne share some of their favorite flower-power plants, and confess that sometimes, their best laid plans are made better by plants who showed up, grabbed a drink, and quietly got on with the business of being beautiful.

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The Big Fat Peony Episode May 01, 2026

Show notes

Flamboyant, sophisticated, blousy and beautiful - the peony tops the favorites chart of so many gardeners (and non-gardeners), that we had to devote a spring episode to them.

They are delicate, but tough, and can live for up to a century -– so it makes sense to figure out what you want and where you want it before you plant one. Leslie & Marianne start that conversation with their favorites today, on The Garden Mixer.

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Flowering Ground Covers: Beauty & Protection, or Future Regret? Apr 17, 2026

Show notes

Leslie and Marianne have ground to cover today. And possibly, so do you.

Spring hits, everything wakes up and suddenly your garden looks like it’s got a bad case of bedhead. Bare spots and awkward tendrils abound. What can pull everything together and literally connect the dots? Our suggestion is a strategic toupee in the form of a good ground cover that also protects the soil, cools the roots, & pampers the wildlife.

But which ones? Some ground covers don’t just fill in, they take over. And what makes a ground cover anyway? It’s time to expand our definition beyond the ubiquitous three-inch mondo grass.

Ground covers. The ones that behave, the ones that absolutely do not, and how to tell the difference before you plant yourself into a corner.

And what do eighties big hair and cheesecake pans have to do with gardening anyway? Today on the Garden Mixer.

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Spring Garden Panic with Erin The Impatient Gardener Apr 03, 2026

Show notes

Just when you thought winter would never end, spring comes and clobbers you with seeds, weeds, and a list that just won’t quit. Cue the panic. There is a TON to do — so how do we prioritize what’s important, what’s inconvenient, and what’s seriously not getting touched for a couple months?

Leslie and Marianne thought that the best person to tell them was friend and Founding Mixer Erin Schanen, The Impatient Gardener. With her down-to-earth Wisconsin wisdom and general smart-assery, she’ll get us all in good shape — or at least slap us around a little over a cocktail. Today on The Garden Mixer.

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Do Gardeners Still Have a Voice? The Native Plant Debate Mar 20, 2026

Show notes

Absolute certainties make Marianne’s Spidey senses start to tingle; Leslie simply ignores absolutes and does her own thing. Which means Leslie would have been much more fun in high school. But where do they come down on the native/non-native debate?

Bouncing off a recent article in GardenRant, where Marianne laid out the development of a powerful movement in US horticulture, the girls dig into the tension -- and once or twice, into each other.

In an industry where plants are happily termed ‘good’ and ‘bad’, invasive plants have now been joined in purgatory by the new baddie term of ‘emerging invasives’, and not a little zealotry informs policy decisions that affect what we can buy, grow, work with, and write about, can we afford to ignore the issue?

Have some thoughts? We would love to hear them AND read them on air in a future episode. Send them to comments@thegardenmixer.com or drop them in The Garden Mixer Chat on Substack with other Mixers from around the country.

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Pruning 101: Moving Past the Panic Mar 06, 2026

Show notes

It’s that time of year when we put blade to wood and help our shrubs and trees to become the best versions of themselves. Pruning is a big job and many gardeners are right in the middle of it by the beginning of March. Some of us are excited by the challenge. Others are dreading the many decisions still in front of them.

Leslie and Marianne aim to channel that excitement, alleviate any anxiety, and set you loose on another pruning season. It’s not rocket science. It’s not even weird science. It’s working boldly and courageously — throwing in a little curiosity, and having fun. They’ll tell you why, how, and with what. And they’re definitely going to need the Dixter bell. Today, on The Garden Mixer.

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The Dirt on Composting Feb 20, 2026

Show notes

Compost: it’s so misunderstood. Vilified by HOAs, and loved by gardeners, it’s been ignored, worshiped, blamed, blessed, and then quietly banished to the far corner of the yard. Yet this magical garden process keeps working anyway, taking our scraps, our weeds, our gardening mistakes, and even items that we should have cleaned out of the fridge last month and turning them back into organically rich soil.

What are the issues? What are the joys? What are the things that make the whole process easier? Leslie and Marianne don’t want you to overthink it, they just want you to start it — as they simplify and celebrate the compost pile, today on The Garden Mixer.

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A New Year for American Gardeners with Rochelle Greayer Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

They’re BAAAAAAAK!

Season II kicks off today — WELCOME if you’re new and welcome back if you’re not! Even Leslie and Marianne have been missing the weekly mix of seasonal relevance and irreverence — and a chance to raise a glass in support of our gardening audience all over the world who are dedicated to the proposition that gardening shouldn’t be boring.

The Garden Mixer is bringing you one of those gardeners today — Rochelle Greayer, the new editor of The American Horticultural Society’s American Gardener Magazine.

Are you an AHS member? We hope you will be by the end of this episode.

In a country of over 340 million people that covers over 3.7 million square miles of extremely confusing but necessarily detailed eco-regions, what exactly does it mean to be an American Gardener?

Are the characteristics of an American Garden as easy to recognize as those of a British, Italian or French Garden? What are we adding to the conversation around gardening, and where are we owning it? And why does the RHS get all the good press anyway? July 2026 marks a big birthday for this country of gardeners — perhaps it’s time to take the microphone back and celebrate our strengths.

We’re indulging our revolutionary tendencies today, on the Season II kickoff of The Garden Mixer!

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Gardening on Social Media: What's Real and What's Not with Amanda the Everhopeful Gardener Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

In the beginning, social media and gardening seemed meant for each other. After all, how better to teach than to show?

But it does feel like we might have lost our way in the last few years. Now we’re pushed towards viral moments, not moments of true discovery. Now we watch sexy six packs selling six packs; and find ourselves navigating a manufactured reality that makes everyday gardeners feel inferior, not empowered.

Are we doing more following than we’re actually doing gardening? We’re talking to gardener and garden influencer Amanda Nadeau of The Ever Hopeful Gardener today about who to trust, why to trust, and when to just let go and have fun.

Even Leslie’s cocktail is trying to be #authentic, today on The Garden Mixer.

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Deer Proof Your Garden: Where Deer Stop and Sanity Begins Dec 05, 2025

Show notes

Deer Damage. Few things crush a gardener’s spirit faster than to stroll outside and see that Bambi has invited himself for dinner.

Coincidentally, few things crush Marianne’s spirit more than referring to these four-legged agents of the Devil in cute terms such as ‘Bambi’.

What’s on their perfectly curated menu? Pretty much all of your favorite garden plants. Sprays, granular applications, and motion sensors can keep those deer at bay, for a minute or two. But what about the ultimate solution?

No, the other ultimate solution — a fence. Leslie’s been there, and loved it. But just how tall, how expensive and how ugly does it need to be to protect our plants?

The answer may surprise you. Today, the girls discuss the pros, the cons, and the many considerations of deer fencing, deer spraying, and all the things in between, as Marianne prepares to have her garden world rocked by the installation of a Bambi-blocking fence.

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