The Garden Mixer

They’re deer resistant, drought resistant, and boredom-resistant — and they’re not without controversy. Ornamental grasses might be the magic texture your garden has been missing all these years. Whether you want to ‘blur and merge’ as per Grasses for Gardens and Landscapes author Neil Lucas, or ‘punch and soften’ as per the more violent of your two co-hosts, Marianne Willburn — using ornamental g...

You’d like to go on vacation. Your family wants you to go on vacation. But you don’t know how to leave your garden. So you don’t go on vacation. Wrong answer. You NEED a vacation. You just need to prep your garden and make it Vacay-Ready. This week Leslie and Marianne dive into what it really takes to leave your garden without the guilt. From prepping your plants to prepping your mindset, they wan...

Welcome back! The girls are rested, refreshed, reenergized, and ready to tackle the overgrown gardens that await them with the tools they love this week. From can't-be-without pruners to surprising new finds, Leslie and Marianne dish the dirt on the implements that help them dig it. Are brand names important? What’s a seckie? How do you pronounce Okasune? And what on earth is Marianne’s problem wi...

Waaaayy back when this podcast was just Leslie doing Into the Garden with Leslie, Marianne was a frequent flyer even though she was just a guest at that time. In this episode, Marianne and Leslie team up with Scott Beuerlein to talk about their "Dear Gardener" correspondence on Garden Rant. Next week Leslie and Marianne, are back, tanned rested and ready for the summer garden and they will be talk...

This week we reach into the archives to bring you the first ever time Leslie interviewed Marianne on her podcast Into the Garden with Leslie. You can tell by the stilted convo and awkward silences that we didn't really hit it off, and we've been faking it ever since. Actually, we hit it off so well that as an apt preview of what was to come, we go completely off of whatever topic Leslie had planne...

This week the girls mix dry humor and deep honesty with Doug Oster, Emmy award-winning garden broadcaster & author from Pittsburgh. This, unbeknownst to Marianne, makes him a Yinzer — and that does not mean he enjoys a Yingling from time to time. For years, on television, radio, newspapers and social media, Doug has been an outspoken champion for organic gardening, and for the passion and pers...

So. The garden is chaotic and you’ve either got guests coming, or you’re in danger of having an ever-so-mini breakdown each time you glance outside. How can you make it Bikini-Ready in a fairly short space of time? The answer: you can’t. But you can definitely make it look decent in a one-piece. This week, spurred on by one too many Ad-stagram promises to change your skin, hair, and body just in t...

This week we decided to come clean and admit that, based on some of the amazingly detailed emails we’ve received since starting The Garden Mixer, our listeners are very much smarter than we are. We’re dipping into a few of these [surprisingly polite] messages to bring their plant picks, techniques, and general wisdom to everyone. Featured: Garden writer Kathy Purdy from Upstate New York, Paul West...

This week, the girls welcome Linda Vater to the Mix and try to stay focused on important topics like Marianne’s new topiary snail. Linda Vater is a blogger, garden designer, stylist andlifestyle influencer with a penchant for grabbing shears and a gin and tonic and going after defenseless shrubs who don’t know how much they’re going to love their new look. She has gardened for decades in Oklahoma...

This week we're mixing up indoor/outdoor lines with a #houseplantvacation . Do you allow your hard-working houseplants a little time off during the growing season to be the plants they were born to be? Just as we could all use a little time soaking up the sun, getting the drinks in, and feeling fresh air on our faces, our houseplants could too. What a shame that time outside doesn’t make us lo...

For those who begin to garden in May with the aid of a smoking credit card, an SUV, and a minion or two, very little goes wrong as the spring garden joyfully romps towards summer. But for those who started partying hard as early as February, the super-sized hangover is real. Where did the color go? Where did the time go? Why do I have a headache? The strength of spring is equaled only in its spect...

In One More Sip of the Garden Mixer, episode 13 1/2, Marianne and Leslie give you the lowdown on this burning garden question.

When the spring erupts in tones of yellow, lemon, gold, and that weird orangey-mustard that you’re not sure you love, it’s time to bring on the blue. Leslie Harris and Marianne Willburn have suggestions for how to achieve that in your garden, and dip briefly into the controversy surrounding the [almost] universally loved daffodil. From blue bells in the woods to blue spells when you're pulling...

Welcome to One More Sip (of The Garden Mixer) …a short form 15-minute episode for in-between weeks where Leslie & Marianne try — so far, successfully — to discuss one random topic that deserves some attention. But not necessarily agreement.   This week we're talking gardening click-bait . The good, the bad, and the what-the-actual-hell?   There have always been hucksters, shysters, snake oil s...

It's a wild mix of topics this week on The Garden Mixer. Along with their guest, author and speaker Brie Arthur, Leslie and Marianne talk plant propagation, foodscaping, blooming shrubs, maintenance-hungry perennials, and lifechanging illness. Turns out Brie is not just an expert on making baby plants, but can also share a thing or two about physically & mentally dealing with tick borne di...

Much like days when you intend to start tomato seeds and end up digging the outline for the new pond, our bi-weekly conversations mix up topics, plants , and guests, and keep us on our toes. We love that mix, but this week, we're experimenting with One More Sip -- a short form episode for in-between weeks that deals with one topic only. At least that's what Marianne promised. This week we're talki...

How much can you learn about pruning when your loppers are older than most Influencers? It turns out, quite a lot when you’re taught by the right people. This week, Leslie grills Marianne on her recent trip to the UK and the Great Dixter Symposium where pruning was on the menu (along with some incredible food thanks to Claire Rooney @thelayeredcook Now's the time to get into the garden and prune,...

We’re clinking glasses this week with Erin Schanen,  YouTube’s Impatient Gardener , and we’re not asking her about her tomatoes. That’s right, who needs to eat when June is a feast for the eyes? We’ll be interrogating Erin on the flower seeds she practically starts in her sleep, the ones that need a little more attention, and the favorites she would never be without. First, there are a couple topi...

After an ill-advised foray into AI generated humor, the girls toast another conversation with a large glass of Cheeky Red and an expensively-bittered Old Fashioned, and turn their attentions to getting organized in the face of seed starting chaos, adding some healthy crunch to your winter sandwiches, and painlessly and trendily composting when you don’t have chickens, time, or balcony space for a...

This week the girls mix inappropriate metaphors with vague certainties, and come up with yet another episode to amuse and inform their eight listeners. Without an ounce of humility, Leslie jumps out of the gate with nonsense about a distillery (possibly illegal) where she condenses her vast garden experience into enviable, crystal-clear drops of purity…and assumes Marianne does likewise. Marianne...

Chickens in broth and chickens in gardens are under the penetrating Garden Mixer gaze this week as Leslie Harris & Marianne Willburn move past their respective Christmas viruses and valiantly into the new year.     Suffering her way through a strong cup of homemade broth while Leslie goes back to the red wine, Marianne makes a case for why chickens have made sense for her soil, plants, and kit...

Leslie Harris and Marianne Willburn mix old books, new coats, and the usual laughs in the first episode of 2025.  In response to a listener’s request, Leslie is forced to indulge Marianne’s book recommendations for the winter months; and adds a surprising number of titles herself – pondering the secret sauce that makes a book capture her otherwise 8-minute attention span.  True to her nerd identit...

In this episode of the newly logo'd and newly music'd The Garden Mixer, Marianne tries her hand at interviewing Leslie -- posing transparently self-serving questions about Leslie's transition to a tiny garden in order to make herself feel better about the future. In her  (self-described) "penetrating and 60 Minutes-esque style", Marianne is after information that all gardeners secretly wonder abou...

This week on The Garden Mixer, Leslie Harris, Marianne Willburn, and their guest, Scott Beuerlein from The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, continue to wrestle over the big topic of bulbs for the benefit of listeners who still have bags of obligation awaiting them in the garage.    Big ones, little ones, early ones and late ones are discussed on their merits and – as Marianne is involved – th...

In this week’s episode of The Garden Mixer, Leslie Harris & Marianne Willburn stir up a spirited two-part discussion about all things bulb with their inaugural guest, Scott Beuerlein of The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Horticulture Magazine, and GardenRant. Whether you’re going for naturalistic layers or the hypnotizing effect of thousands  en masse , there’s more than one way to make...