Before You Garden...

The 2023 Pantone color of the year is Viva Magenta. The color magenta in gardens has had a controversial history. The well-known garden writer - Gertrude Jekyll despised it whereas an American garden writer Louise Beebe Wilder loved it when paired with the right surrounding colors. Learn about this history and find ten magenta flowers that you could add to your garden this year to be on trend with the color of the year.

Do you know what seeds you are going to sow in your garden this spring. Get some inspiration and advice from passionate gardener and garden author, Jenny Rose Carey as she discusses what seeds will be sown at Northview Garden this year. Accompanying photos are found at Beforeyougarden.com

In this episode learn about how to grow snowdrops and other handy tips about this wonderful winter-blooming flower. For accompanying photos go to beforeyougarden.com

Have you ever wanted to grow seeds but don't want to buy lots of expensive equipment to do it - try winter seed sowing. Using old plastic milk jugs that you would otherwise recycle you can create mini greenhouses. This podcast episode and the accompanying photos found at Beforeyougarden.com will teach you how to grow hardy annuals and perennials from seed. It is cheap, easy and fuss-free. No lights, no greenhouse - it is done outside. The resulting seedlings and plants are tough and already adapted to the conditions in your climate. Have a go!

Some of my favorite gardening books from the last few years. These would make great holiday gifts for yourself or some other lucky gardener on your list

Plants that produce large quantities of seeds are useful in the garden to create what jenny Rose Carey calls 'bargain fullness'. In this episode she explains how to get this free-flowing type of planting that is sometimes called cottage-garden style. Learn about her favorite self-sowing or volunteer plants and see photos of them on the accompanying blog at beforeyougarden.com.

Dahlias are fabulous flowers for the late summer and early autumn garden - both in the garden and as a cut flower. In this episode jenny Rose Carey takes you through the process for digging up the dahlias and storing them in a frost-free place for winter - so that you will be able to re-plant them outside in the spring. Accompanying photos are at beforeyougarden.com.

Growing flowers from seed is one of the best ways to have a flower-filled garden. In this episode, I describe my top self-sowing flowers and how to grow them in your garden. From poppies to larkspur, foxgloves to columbines - choose your favorites and get started with these tips for finding the right area to sow the seeds, editing out excess seedlings, and enjoying the blooms. Northview Garden wouldn't be as floriferous as it is without these volunteer plants. Using the inspiration and ideas in this podcast you can have success with self-sown flowers in your garden too. Book of the month is 'A Gentle Plea for Chaos' by the English Garden Writer - Mirabel Osler - one of my favorite gardening books.

In this first episode, Jenny Rose Carey takes you to the nineteenth-century roots of wild gardening. The garden writer - William Robinson - encouraged gardeners to move away from the formulaic carpet bedding craze where annuals were planted out in patterns towards a freer style using hardy, frost-tolerant plants. This wild or naturalistic style is making a comeback and Jenny Rose Carey takes you on a tour of some of the gardens that she has visited recently that use this style. See the Beforeyougarden blog to see the accompanying photographs and Jenny Rose's website at jennyrosecarey.com. Follow her on Instagram @NorthviewGarden.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://beforeyougarden.com/2022/07/26/the-wild-garden/

In this episode, Jenny Rose Carey describes the nineteenth-century origins of the wild gardening movement and how it has changed in the time since then. She discusses how the trend towards wild gardening continues to grow in a pandemic-influenced world. On the related blog check out photos of some of the gardens that Jenny Rose visited to form her ideas.

Website jennyrosecarey.com

Instagram @Northviewgarden