Garden Girls Podcast

Frost is here and your tomato plants are still loaded with green fruit. Before you pull them, listen to this: green tomatoes are a second crop, and there’s a lot more you can do with them than wait for them to turn red. In this episode we cover how to ripen green tomatoes indoors and what the breaker stage is. We share 8 ways to use the ones that won’t ripen. And we get sidetracked by grunts, slumps, buckles, and hootenannies, because fruit desserts have the strangest names in the kitchen.What’s your favorite green tomato recipe? Tell us in the comments. We have a lot of tomatoes to get through.🍅 Garden Girls Tea Party Retreat in Maine, August 26 to 29, 2027. Join us: http://gardengirlspod.com/pages/tea-garden-retreat🌿 Garden Girls website and merch: http://gardengirlspod.com/🌿 Patreon https://www.patreon.com/GardenGirlsPodcast🌿 Find us at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival in February 2027🌿 Meg: @MegGrowsPlants🌿 Dagny: @TheCottagePeach

This week we’re digging into the history of calendula, the cheerful orange flower that’s been in gardens, kitchens and medicine cabinets for centuries. From the Romans naming it, to medieval cooks tossing petals into the soup pot, to Civil War doctors using it on battlefield wounds, this little “pot marigold” has seen it all.In this episode:How calendula got its name, and why it’s called pot marigold“Poor man’s saffron”: using the petals to color cheese, butter and foodCalendula on the Civil War battlefieldWhere the name “marigold” (Mary’s gold) may come fromWhy it’s still one of our favorite easy flowers to grow🌼 Join us at the Garden Girls Tea Garden Retreat in Maine, August 26 to 29, 2027: gardengirlspod.com/pages/tea-garden-retreatOur website:https://gardengirlspod.comOur main accounts:@meggrowsplants @thecottagepeach Listen on Spotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-garden-girlsFollow us on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/garden-girls-podcast/id1763113032Follow us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gardengirlspod/Follow us on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@gardengirlspod***Links***Dagny's Tea Garden E-Book:https://shop.thecottagepeach.com/products/growing-your-own-tea-garden-ebook-copyMeg's Planting Calendar:https://meg-grows-plants.myshopify.com/collections/allSupport our podcast and get exclusive bonus content:https://www.patreon.com/c/GardenGirlsPodcastEpic Gardening:https://shop.epicgardening.com/GARDENGIRLSCode for 5% off!GARDENGIRLS*These codes are affiliate links that we receive commissions from and help to support the podcast!*

Most flowers sulk when it gets cold. Hardy annuals are the ones that actually like it.This week we’re talking all about hardy annuals: the flowers that can handle frost, grow roots through the cool months, and bloom earlier and bigger than anything you plant in spring. We cover what makes an annual “hardy,” how timing changes in a warmer zone like Meg’s 8a versus a colder garden like Dagny’s, and our favorites to start with, like snapdragons, sweet peas, larkspur and bachelor’s buttons. If you’ve only ever planted flowers in May, this one might change your whole garden calendar.🎧 New podcast episodes every week.Our website:https://gardengirlspod.comOur main accounts:@meggrowsplants @thecottagepeach Listen on Spotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-garden-girlsFollow us on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/garden-girls-podcast/id1763113032Follow us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gardengirlspod/Follow us on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@gardengirlspod***Links***Dagny's Tea Garden E-Book:https://shop.thecottagepeach.com/products/growing-your-own-tea-garden-ebook-copyMeg's Planting Calendar:https://meg-grows-plants.myshopify.com/collections/allSupport our podcast and get exclusive bonus content:https://www.patreon.com/c/GardenGirlsPodcastEpic Gardening:https://shop.epicgardening.com/GARDENGIRLSCode for 5% off!GARDENGIRLS*These codes are affiliate links that we receive commissions from and help to support the podcast!*

Pumpkins should be extinct. Wild squash was so bitter that only mastodons could eat it, and when the mastodons died out, the only animal left to save it was us.This week on Garden Girls, we dig into the surprisingly wild history of pumpkins. Botanically, there's no such thing as a pumpkin: it's five squash species sharing one nickname, and it's technically a berry. We go back 10,000 years to a cave in Oaxaca, follow the squash bees north, and land in colonial New England, where people had "pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon" and one Connecticut town moved Thanksgiving over a molasses shortage.Then the fun stuff: why the first jack-o'-lanterns were terrifying carved turnips, what's actually in your can of pumpkin, how nutmeg once beat Manhattan, why the pumpkin spice latte had no pumpkin in it for twelve years, and the giant pumpkin growers chasing a 2,819-pound world record. 🎧 New podcast episodes every week.Our website:https://gardengirlspod.comOur main accounts:@meggrowsplants @thecottagepeach Listen on Spotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-garden-girlsFollow us on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/garden-girls-podcast/id1763113032Follow us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gardengirlspod/Follow us on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@gardengirlspod***Links***Dagny's Tea Garden E-Book:https://shop.thecottagepeach.com/products/growing-your-own-tea-garden-ebook-copyMeg's Planting Calendar:https://meg-grows-plants.myshopify.com/collections/allSupport our podcast and get exclusive bonus content:https://www.patreon.com/c/GardenGirlsPodcastEpic Gardening:https://shop.epicgardening.com/GARDENGIRLSCode for 5% off!GARDENGIRLS*These codes are affiliate links that we receive commissions from and help to support the podcast!*

This year our friend Kelsey ( ⁨@sproutsnstories⁩ ) went to more garden festivals than most of us go to in a lifetime, so we had to sit her down and get ALL the details. 🌷In this episode we chat about which festivals were actually worth the trip, the best plant hauls, what to bring (and what to leave at home), and the one festival she'd go back to in a heartbeat. If you've ever wondered whether a garden festival is worth the drive, this one's for you. Grab a coffee and hang out with us!🎧 New podcast episodes every week.Check out Kelseys Podcast: Garden Like PodcastOur website:https://gardengirlspod.comOur main accounts:@meggrowsplants @thecottagepeach  ⁨@sproutsnstories⁩  Listen on Spotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-garden-girlsFollow us on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/garden-girls-podcast/id1763113032Follow us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gardengirlspod/Follow us on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@gardengirlspod***Links***Dagny's Tea Garden E-Book:https://shop.thecottagepeach.com/products/growing-your-own-tea-garden-ebook-copyMeg's Planting Calendar:https://meg-grows-plants.myshopify.com/collections/allSupport our podcast and get exclusive bonus content:https://www.patreon.com/c/GardenGirlsPodcastEpic Gardening:https://shop.epicgardening.com/GARDENGIRLSCode for 5% off!GARDENGIRLS*These codes are affiliate links that we receive commissions from and help to support the podcast!*