Petal and Plot- Plant Stories and Garden Tips

Every fall they appear on our doorsteps, in our pies, and apparently in just about every coffee shop in America. But how did this ancient agricultural crop become the ultimate symbol of autumn, spooky folklore, and seasonal indulgence? Today we're digging into the surprisingly fascinating history of the pumpkin.You buy a beautiful evergreen that's hardy to minus 30 degrees. You plant it, admire it, and feel pretty good about your gardening skills. Then February arrives, the sun comes out, and suddenly your expensive little tree looks like it's been left in a tanning bed for three days. Today we're talking about winter injury that starts in the fall.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

Imagine walking through a quiet wetland. Sphagnum moss carpets the earth and tiny insects land on what looks like an ordinary green leaf. But this leaf is not ordinary. The insect has landed on a trap. Today we're exploring the origins of plant carnivore, traveling from the tropical rainforests of Australia to the bogs of Minnesota where some of these remarkable plants live much closer to home than you might expect.Every fall, gardeners face an identity crisis. One minute, we're out there to make the garden look like a magazine cover. The next, we're being told to leave the leaves, protect the insects, save the pollinators, and let nature do its thing. Apparently, the leaves aren't yard waste anymore, they're luxury winter accommodations for bugs.Today we're looking at the science behind leaving the leaves, where they do the most good, and how to support wildlife through without turning your backyard into an abandoned woodland property.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

The apple appears in ancient mythology, religious stories, paintings, poetry, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and even science experiments. We use them to represent temptation, knowledge, health, education, and even political rebellion. So today we're going to follow the apple from the wild forests of Central Asia.You know that path in the garden that looks beautiful in a photo, but in real life, nobody actually walks on it. Instead, everyone takes the shortcut through the lawn, Today, we're talking about garden pathways, how to figure out where a path should actually go. How wide it needs to be, what materials make sense, and how to make a path feel like it belongs in a garden instead of looking like you just dropped a sidewalk into the landscape.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

There may be no more politically complicated fruit than the tomato. The tomato has started arguments over botany, taxes, agriculture, food traditions, seed ownership, biotechnology, and even what counts as a vegetable. Today we're going to follow the tomato through history, from its wild ancestors to indigenous agriculture, European colonization, Italian cuisine, American politics, industrial farming, and finally into a controversial subject- why do we call a tomato a vegetable?You know that moment in spring when you look at your garden and realize your bulbs are standing twelve inches apart, like they're waiting for a bus, one yellow tulip here, one purple crocus there, and one lonely daffodil wondering where everybody went. And that's what I call floral punctuation. Today, we're talking about designing bulbs differently, using drifts, layers, naturalizers, and some seriously underrated bulbs to make spring look intentional from February through May.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

If you've ever visited a state fair in late summer, you may have had a pickle served on a stick, deep-fried, battered, stuffed, or wrapped. But pickles are more than just a fairground snack. They're one of humanity's oldest ways of preserving food. Today we're traveling thousands of years into the past to discover the history, science, and downright obsession with pickles.Have you ever looked at a garden bed you've spent years creating and thought, wow, I've made some choices. Nothing's technically wrong, the plants are healthy, but somehow you've got six things fighting for the same square foot, and a shrub that's now applying for its own zip code. Today we're talking about when it's time to edit, move, or completely remove plants from a mature garden, because sometimes the best thing you can add to a garden is less.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

Few flowers make a garden stop traffic quite like a dahlia. From tiny pom-poms to dinner plate-sized blooms, dahlias come in an almost unbelievable range of colors, shapes, and sizes. But behind those spectacular flowers is a gardener who knows the secrets of planting, feeding, staking, pinching, digging, and maybe even winning a ribbon or two at the county fair.Today we're talking to Kelly Reardon, an expert dahlia grower, to find out how this obsession begins and what it takes to grow those incredible show quality blooms, and whether there is actually such a thing as enough dahlias.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

Picture an early August afternoon in the Midwest. The sun is blazing, the air feels thick enough to wear. You step outside and within minutes your shirt is damp, your hair is sticking to your face, and the weather app tells you it's ninety two degrees, but it feels like a hundred and eight. Today we're talking about corn sweat.By August, the garden starts sending alarming group text. The hydrangea has yellow leaves, the peony looks dusted with powdered sugar, and something has punched holes in the iris. Five minutes later, you're standing in the pesticide aisle diagnosing root rot, mites, and emotional abandonment from the one blurry photo you gave. Today we're talking late summer plant forensics. How to tell ordinary seasonal decline from disease, insect damage.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

The sun hangs low and red, and the air smells faintly of burning wood. A summer afternoon looks more like an apocalyptic sunset and an air alert pop oops and an alert pops up on your phone. Air quality is unhealthy. Today we're heading north into the vast boreal forest to look into why all these wildfires are happening.By August, the hostas have lost a bar fight with the slugs. The daylilies are wearing yesterday's makeup, and half the garden has stopped returning emails. Meanwhile, perennial grasses arrive backlit, windswept, feeding birds, sheltering insects, and acting like they were booked for a fall-fashion campaign. Today, we're talking about the beauties, the floppers, and the native grasses doing ecological work while looking fabulous.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

Who was Joe Pye? Was he a real person? Why has this towering wildflower become one of the most beloved plants in pollinator gardens? And how did a plant once gathered for medicine become a centerpiece of modern landscape design? Let's discover the remarkable story of Joe Pye Weed.Today we're talking about shrubs that deserve way more attention than they get. If you've been to a garden center lately, you've probably seen rows and rows of hydrangeas, boxwood, Diablo Ninebark, and maybe some spirea. They're all fine. But there are so many incredible shrubs hiding in plain sight. Today we're introducing the all-stars that deserve a spot in your landscape.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.

Today's story begins on the sweeping grasslands of North America. Brilliant purple blooms with spiky orange cones that almost seem to glow in the summer sunshine. Today, these flowers are sold in pharmacies, planted in gardens around the world, and brewed into teas believed to help fight off colds. This is the story of Echinacea. You know what's funny? Every garden center in May is screaming buy me, buy me. Meanwhile, the plants that actually steal the show in August are quietly sitting in the corner looking like they just rolled out of bed. Turns out gardening is a lot like high school. The popular kids in May weren't always the ones everyone remembers in August.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.Eating foraged plants should only be done by experts, eating foraged plants may result in being poisoned. While the edibility of plants is discussed in this podcast, you should not consume foraged plants or mushrooms without the in-person advice from an expert.The Petal & Plot Pod features seasonal plant origin stories and seasonal garden tips. Hosted by Aneesa Adams and Eric Ketchum, owners of Petal & Plot Garden Design in Minnesota. Email garden questions to: [email protected] Follow us on Instagram: @petalnplotBook a consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠petalnplot.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme music by Mia Calhan Burgstede and CB Compton.