Garden Gab Podcast

Grab your sparklers, pour yourself something fizzy, and report to the backyard—because this year's Fourth of July celebration comes with a guest list straight out of American history. While we go hard for America’s 250th birthday, make sure you stick around for an exciting chance to get more info on joining us for our first Garden Gab Club Field Trip, perhaps across the pond to the Motherland?! In...

Welcome back to the Garden Gab Club people! It's the lazy, hazy days of summer... and we are loving it. The garden has entered that glorious, slightly chaotic point in the season where the zucchini won’t stop coming, the weeds are winning (until they’re not), and every day seems to hold a small excuse to stay outside just a little longer. In this episode, we’re settling into the rhythms of midsumm...

The girls popped a cold one today because the pod is officially 21 people! They are settling into summer with a proper catch-up episode, or should we say… just a good ole fashioned gab! This week, Tessa shares what she's learned from opening her own garden for workshops. They discuss why waiting for the "perfect" space might be keeping us from doing the things we dream of right now. What if people...

Welcome back, garden gabbers. This episode is a little more reflective as Molly and Tessa remember Nigel Dunnett who was a giant in ecological planting design and someone whose work deeply shaped both of their own work as designers. In the wake of his passing at the end of April, it only feels fitting to pay tribute to a man who deeply influenced so many.  Molly shares stories from her time workin...

The time has finally come! Tessa and Molly discuss the final three Main Avenue show gardens for the 2026 Chelsea Flower Show… and let’s just say this last batch has some big expectations on their shoulders! Can Tom Stuart Smith raise Best in Show once again? Will Kazuyuki Ishihara defend his 2025 sweep of Best in Show AND People’s Choice Award? The girls also unpack what it takes to get a gold med...

Garden Gabbers… did we forget to tell you that we are going to have on the ground correspondents at the 2026 Chelsea Flower Show?! It’s not Tessa…. and not Molly… IT’S DON AND JANICE, Molly’s beloved parents. Although it is rude they are not taking Molly with them, we can put that aside and live vicariously. So stay tuned for a post show recap with our boots on the ground. The girls review the nex...

Welcome back Garden Gabbers for Episode 19, our final episode in our teenage years! And let’s just say in the words of Tessa Pinner, mama’s hot! The girls jump straight into the woes of a hot and dry spring, which has Tessa pinning for… a plunge pool baby!  You know it's officially the kick off are gardening season with talk about drought, strawberry picking, and the ever-present feeling of being...

Hello Garden Gabbers!! Tessa and Molly are back with more plant talk and hope that you are joining with them by basking fully in the glory that is spring!! The girls dive straight into all things Down Home and Out-and-About including fairy garden parties, strawberry picking and a new way of spending park time. After a quick horticultural hormone check-in (let’s just say the girls are feeling botan...

Hello there Garden Gabbers! On this episode of the pod, Tessa and Molly spare no speck of enthusiasm whilst introducing what some might declare as the Super Bowl of the gardening world... The Chelsea Flower Show! On the episodes leading up to the best week of the year, Tessa and Molly are discussing this year's main show gardens, what we are expecting, and (since Molly is involved...) there is cha...

Welcome back Garden Gabbers! Tessa and Molly cover a lot of ground today... from what's happening down home in the garden this spring, to what gardening has in common with improv comedy and seed dungeon joys and scalp hammers! As always, buckle up for a wild garden ride! However, the girls really park it in the newly introduced Task Team Report. Do you ever have looming tasks that feel paralyzing?...

Welcome to Episode 15, which is 1/4 of the way to 60 episodes as Molly points out on today's show! They kick off new business with Tessa's trip to an arboretum + seed sowing endeavors, as well as Molly's British besties visiting Bham + her very delayed seed order! As motions from the floor come to order, pull up a chair Garden Gabbers... because it's time for a front porch chat with Tessa and Moll...

Live from Greenville, South Carolina... it's the 14th episode of Garden Gab!! Molly and Tessa enjoyed a weekend together in Tessa's homeland of South Carolina speaking at the Greenville Master Gardeners Annual Symposium with over 500 enthusiastic gardeners from across 10 states! If you were not in attendance, never fear! Molly and Tessa give the run down of all the best takeaways including (but no...

Well hey there Garden Gabbers! Love is in the air in this episode. With all the ice and emotionally distressing temperatures Molly and Tessa hath been enduring in the South, they pretty much jump straight into the reason we are all here... GAMES! *Botanical* dating games to be exact. Molly the *Botanical* Game Master has conjured up some horticultural love exercises starting with Plant Matchmaking...

What's up Garden Gabbers?? Were you expecting the normal Out and About update?? Well, in today's episode you will learn that Molly and Tessa are leaning hard into hibernation this January, so Out and About is getting the ole boot! But never fear, there is lots of gab about what you can be doing Down Home in your garden this winter! Does pruning feel like a daunting task?! Think again! Dreaming of...

The Garden Gab girlies are back in action baby! In this episode Tessa kicks us off with a porch chicken update (murder mystery style) and lessons are learned about *protection.* Then it is time to swing straight into Out and About because Molly is back from her Kiwi Christmas adventure with stars in her eyes and tales of magical mossy hikes, Fjordland tromps, and anecdotes from two weeks driving o...

Deck the halls with Tessa and Mollyyyy, fa la la la laaaa la la la laaaaa!!! Our gift to you this holiday season is gabbing some Christmas decorating gab in a special breakout session! While earlier this fall we divulged that we both aren't huge seasonal decorators, all bets are off when it's holly jolly season!!! Now there are some very deep questions the girls are asking... are you a real tree o...

Alright Garden Gabbers, the pod has officially entered the double digits... aka... the dawn of Garden Gab's pre-teen years!! In today's episode Tessa and Molly review their family Thanksgiving festivities which included pecan whacking research, Pauline the porch chicken update, and dahlia dividing and storage insights. Molly makes a motion from the floor to celebrate their 10 favorite things about...

Gird your loins, it is pecan whacking and turkey season Garden Gabbers!! Today on the pod Tessa and Molly *finally* announce the giveaway winners (congrats Kim and Bailee!) They also announce that the Garden Gab Gift Guide is now LIVE on the show substack, which you can subscribe to below to get inspired for all your garden gifting needs! The ladies also unpack their time down home... For Tessa it...

Calling the eighth Garden Gab Club meeting to order! Today, Tessa and Molly step up on their arboricultural soapbox to proclaim the virtues of all things trees! If you have found yourself swooning over the burst of this year's fall color or have pondered "how would I even go about planting a tree..." then today's meeting is for you!! Tessa was recently a part of a fundraiser for Trees Upstate, an...

Dearest Garden Gab Clubers, Molly and Tessa were reunited in Charleston and it was good for the soul, and Molly’s immune system! They know you all were on the edge of your seat waiting to hear the live experience of Molly’s inaugural Fire Cider baptism, and it delivered. In this club meeting Molly and Tessa also dive into their favorite question as a designer… how do you know what stays and what g...

Welcome back to the Garden Gab Club! Today Tessa and Molly are discussing everything from apple picking to our **funky fall feelings** As our girl Bridget Jones once said, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.” We couldn't agree more Bridget. Everyone needs an existential crisis every once in a while, right...

Well dear listeners, we gabbed a little too hard on the Italy front in episode 5... So, in true Italian fashion, we decided to serve an extra course with a BONUS Breakout Session to sneak in all those motions from the floor! In "Inspiration Station," Molly basks in her deep love of pro tennis and explains what in the world that has to do with garden design. As we enter spider season, Tessa enlight...

Ciao bella! In this fifth meeting of the Garden Gab Club, the girls dive straight into the deep end of Molly's recent trip to Bergamo, Italy for the International Landscape Festival. Although Molly is still slurring her words a bit from jet lag, they manage to have intelligent conversation about a number of big topics. And dear listener, while they might not have all the answers, there sure is a l...

Yo VIP, let's kick it! This episode of Garden Gab is all about stripes, stripes baby!! But before we venture into all things striped, Molly and Tessa discuss the merits of having green outside a hospital window, and Tessa walks us through a Japanese inspired pond screen she designed this week. Tessa is also waving farewell to her summer edibles and gearing up for some fall veg planting. As for the...

Welcome back to the third meeting of the Garden Gab Club! While Tessa and Molly do not claim to be geologists, they do spend a good portion of today's episode discussing the merits of a good 10 ton boulder. If you are less mineral and more interested in the herbaceous... there is also a heavy dose of tulip talk, weed battles, and admiration of a good multi-trunk serviceberry tree. But maybe you ar...