The Garden Mixer: A Gardening Podcast
Leslie Harris and Marianne Willburn

Latest episode
199 episodes
- Every garden —even the smallest — produces dead things: the limbs that come down in a storm, the invasives you’ve finally pulled, the sticks that land in front of the door and sit there longer than you’d like. Sooner or later you have to decide what to do with them.
Today, Leslie and Marianne go through the traditional options, from the bonfire to the chipper to the bags on the curb; but would rather make the case for keeping it all where it fell — well, sort of. To do that, Marianne catches up with horticulturist Gregg Tepper, the man behind her beloved habitat nests — sculptures built from fallen branches that shelter wrens and beetles and look fantastic doing it. And Leslie discusses her experience working in neighborhoods with sharp-eyed HOAs to create her own mini-sculptures and dead hedges.
Happy Halloween. Let’s clear up the bodies.
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Full Show Notes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack
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“French Bistro” theme by Adieu Adieu. License D0LZBINY30GGTBBW - Gardening shouldn't be boring! Join Leslie Harris and Marianne Willburn for lively conversations, strong opinions, cocktails and plenty of laughs. From favorite plants to garden triumphs and disasters, there's always something to stir up.
New episodes every other week, with Barrel Aged One More Sip conversations in between. Follow The Garden Mixer and join the fun! - Welcome to a Barrel Aged episode of One More Sip.
One More Sip is our every-other-week deep dive on a single topic — released fresh to paid subscribers, and then, after a year of fine barrel aging, uncorked for the wider Mixer community.
You’re holding the bottle now. Enjoy!!
If you’d like to catch these episodes while they’re still young — and get all the show notes, the GM Chat, and Substack LIVE events that go with them — upgrading your free subscription is easy and costs less than a decent bottle of anything.
To those already subscribed: our gratitude is deep. Thank you for supporting our mission: Gardening Shouldn’t Be Boring.
Gardeners love a challenge, and they also like a deal. So when those two factors come together on the death racks of your local nursery or big box, it’s really hard to say no.
Should you? Today on One More Sip of The Garden Mixer, Leslie and Marianne find themselves at odds about the best way to handle your late-season plant hoarding tendencies.
Hit the YouTube subscribe button so we can keep you smilingwhile you hit the mess (your garden) out there.
The Garden Mixer Podcast https://episodes.fm/1561064602
Full Show Notes bonus episodes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’sSubstack
https://thegardenmixerpodcast.substack.com/
Socials – Pick Your Platform:
Follow us on Instagram @thegardenmixer
https://www.instagram.com/thegardenmixer/
Indulge us on TikTok @the.garden.mixer
https://www.tiktok.com/@the.garden.mixer
Spar with us on X @gardenmixerpod
https://x.com/gardenmixerpod
“FrenchBistro” theme by Adieu Adieu. License D0LZBINY30GGTBBW - Parking lot plants. The ones growing between the cart return and the McDonald’s drive-through. The ones shaved into meatballs and meatloaf and shapes that can’t be easily defined in meat terms. The ones that ask for nothing more than hard pan, cigarette butts & exhaust fumes — and deliver anyway.
These plants have a reputation problem. Not because they aren’t good plants, but because they’ve been used badly, repeated endlessly, and associated with the worst design instincts of the last fifty years. And yet: there is a reason they keep showing up. They work. They survive. And they look beautiful when they are transported out of the ninth circle of hell and brought to a garden where they can be the plants they’re meant to be.
Leslie and Marianne are here to raise a glass to them — and to make the case that the parking lot plant in your garden, handled with intention, is not a consolation prize. It’s a plant that has already proven itself under conditions your garden will never impose. So how about a little respect? Today on The Garden Mixer.
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Please hit the subscribe button so we can keep you smiling while you hit the beautiful mess [your garden] out there.
Full Show Notes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’s Substack
____________________
Socials – Pick Your Platform:
Follow us on Instagram @thegardenmixer
Indulge us on TikTok @the.garden.mixer
Spar with us on X @gardenmixerpod
“French Bistro” theme by Adieu Adieu. License D0LZBINY30GGTBBW - In this latest Barrel-Aged episode of One More Sip of The Garden Mixer, Marianne and Leslie talk about all of their worst gardening boo-boos over the years. The format is interesting-- this is a LIVE Substack video that took place a year ago. They bring up mistakes that range from planting the wrong thing to just plain planting wrong and one story involves the explosion of a rear window. Who knew gardening could get so violent? At least it's never boring when you listen to Marianne Willburn and Leslie Harris of The Garden Mixer.
If you are interested in being up to date with One More Sip of The Garden Mixer, which is our in between episode that comes out between bigger sips (regular episodes), head over to Substack to join our community and support the show.
And thanks!
Hit the YouTube subscribe button so we can keep you smilingwhile you hit the mess (your garden) out there.
The Garden Mixer Podcast https://episodes.fm/1561064602
Full Show Notes bonus episodes at The Garden Mixer Podcast’sSubstack
https://thegardenmixerpodcast.substack.com/
Socials – Pick Your Platform:
Follow us on Instagram @thegardenmixer
https://www.instagram.com/thegardenmixer/
Indulge us on TikTok @the.garden.mixer
https://www.tiktok.com/@the.garden.mixer
Spar with us on X @gardenmixerpod
https://x.com/gardenmixerpod
“FrenchBistro” theme by Adieu Adieu. License D0LZBINY30GGTBBW
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About The Garden Mixer: A Gardening Podcast
The Garden Mixer is a bi-weekly gardening podcast hosted by Marianne Willburn, garden author and columnist, and Leslie Harris, host of Into the Garden with Leslie.
Each episode blends practical gardening advice for beginners, thoughtful insight for experienced gardeners, and plenty of humor, as Marianne and Leslie mix opinions, strategies, listener questions, expert guests, and the occasional cocktail.
If you’re looking for a gardening podcast that’s honest, informative, and genuinely fun — not preachy or perfect — this is your place.
🌱 Gardening shouldn’t be boring.
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