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Ep.52: The Kindest Garden: Regenerative Gardening & Sustainable Design with Marian Boswall
2.3k Plays30 days ago
How can we create gardens that are both beautiful and beneficial to the planet? In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we sit down with award-winning landscape architect and author Marian Boswall to discuss the power of regenerative gardening and sustainable landscape design. As the founder of Marian Boswall Landscape Architects and co-founder of the Sustainable Landscape Foundation, Marian has spent decades transforming gardens into thriving ecosystems. We explore her new book, The Kindest Garden, which shares practical tips for designing gardens that nurture both nature and the soul. Whether you're a backyard gardener or dreaming of a sustainable landscape, this episode is packed with inspiration!
In this episode, we discuss:
- What is regenerative gardening?
- How to design a garden that benefits biodiversity and soil health
- Practical ways to introduce regenerative principles in small garden spaces
- The importance of working in harmony with nature for long-term resilience
- Highlights from The Kindest Garden and Marian's approach to thoughtful garden design
🎧 Tune in now and learn how to create a garden that flourishes with kindness!
🔗 Connect with Marian Boswall:
- Marian’s book, The Kindest Garden: https://bookshop.org/a/2182/9780711289437
- Follow Marian On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marianboswall/
- Follow Marian Boswall Studio: https://www.instagram.com/marianboswallstudio/
- Marian Boswall Landscape Architects: https://www.marianboswall.com
📚Read For The Love Of Soil By Nicole Masters: https://bookshop.org/a/2182/9780578536729
Show Notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2025/03/26/ep-52-the-kindest-garden-and-regenerative-gardening/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Backyard Bouquet Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet Podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens. I'm your host, Jennifer Galizia of The Flowering Farmhouse. I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon.
Encouragement to Grow and Support Local
00:00:17
Speaker
Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The Backyard Bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice. All right, flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
Special Offer from Northwest Green Panels
00:00:55
Speaker
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00:01:13
Speaker
Their high-quality, custom-built greenhouses are perfect for everyone. from backyard gardeners to full-scale flower farms. And right now, they're offering an exclusive deal just for my listeners, $750 off plus $500 in free accessories, or 5% off your total, whichever is greater.
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Speaker
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Meet Marian Boswell
00:01:45
Speaker
Welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
00:01:48
Speaker
I'm absolutely thrilled about today's guest, Marian Boswell. If you're passionate about gardening, sustainability, and the way landscapes can heal both the earth and our souls, this episode is for you.
00:02:02
Speaker
Marian is an award-winning landscape architect, garden designer, and author known for her expertise in regenerative and sustainable design. As the founder of Marian Boswell Landscape Architects, she has spent decades transforming gardens and landscapes into biodiverse, beautiful and meaningful spaces that honor both nature and history.
00:02:23
Speaker
She is a fellow of both the Landscape Institute and the Society of Garden Designers, as well as the co-founder of the Sustainable Landscape Foundation. Her new book, The Kindest Garden, is coming out on April 8th, 2025, and I cannot wait to dive into its inspiring message.
Designing Sustainable Gardens
00:02:42
Speaker
Today we're talking about how we can design gardens that are not only stunning, but also deeply connected to the land, fostering biodiversity, sustainability, and a sense of harmony with nature.
00:02:55
Speaker
Marian, welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'm so excited to chat with you today. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's lovely to see you It's lovely to meet you. im I've been looking forward to this episode for a while. As soon as I saw your book, The Kindest Garden, coming out, i just knew that I really wanted to chat with you. So thank you truly for being here today. You are calling or chatting with us from the UK.
00:03:22
Speaker
Yes, I am. We've got quite a time difference. It's got dark here already in you're still the morning, which is a, I love the idea that we can be across the world and because of tech, we can still speak. It's pretty amazing.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yes, I love it.
Marian's Journey into Landscape Architecture
00:03:34
Speaker
So to get started, can you share a bit about your journey into landscape architecture? What first drew you to the field? Yes. So started I fell into landscape architecture really. i um, I garden as a child and, um, if I start right at the beginning, when I was four, I remember sleeping outside in a den with my sister ah and I woke up in the middle of the night, a den, you know, a sort of place that we'd made to to sleep the night.
00:04:08
Speaker
And I woke up terrified in our garden because it was dark and, um I didn't really know how I was going to get there to the house. And as I peeked outside of the den, I saw that my grandmother was sitting there on a chair with a rug over her knees under all these roses.
00:04:27
Speaker
And she'd been sitting there to look after us through the night. And the feeling of her love and protection just fill the whole garden with a completely different atmosphere.
00:04:38
Speaker
And suddenly it became a magical space, a space of scents of roses and the feelings of all the creatures there. And I was able to really feel every single moment of it.
00:04:50
Speaker
And that feeling of love and belonging and something deeper is something that I've tried to re-conjure in all of the gardens that I've designed.
00:05:01
Speaker
That gave me goosebumps. I love that so much that you were four years old and there he was your grandmother looking over you and protecting you and creating this magical space that literally seeds were sown at that moment that have shaped your entire life.
00:05:19
Speaker
They really have. And sometimes I think we go back to these. I mean, you asked my journey. I didn't immediately you know know that that's exactly what I wanted to do. I i did other things along the way. i um I studied languages at Oxford. I was a management consultant.
00:05:35
Speaker
um I was a buyer. i did I did other things, but actually it became apparent that um the garden was the place for me and I came back to that.
00:05:45
Speaker
And it has been solace and a joy, but also a place of great purpose. I feel that if we can garden regeneratively and with the land, then we are doing ah We're doing exactly what we need to be doing, what I need to be doing right now.
00:06:04
Speaker
It really does feel that way when you're working in harmony with nature. So I love that. What was it that made you make that switch from your career in management and consulting and buying to becoming a landscape designer?
00:06:20
Speaker
Well, it's um is ah quite it's a personal story. I'm very happy to share it because I think we all have these moments of extreme pressure or portals, if you like, that it that sort of explode us into another another life.
00:06:34
Speaker
So i was I was working very hard as a management consultant. And back in the 80s, I don't know if any of your listeners will remember that long ago, but ah there weren't very many women in my career, in my in what I was doing.
00:06:47
Speaker
And I had friends who were day nannies and night nannies and weekend nannies, who had day nannies, night nannies and weekend nannies. And i um my second daughter was born early and sadly died.
00:06:59
Speaker
And I think that extraordinary ah sort of shock, if you like, made me rethink my whole life. I thought, actually, I'm not going to subcontract my whole life to all these nannies. I'm going to go home.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I thought I'd be stay-at-home mother. ah mother But of course, um curiosity gets the best of us. And i was i but I began to garden and to love ah my garden, which I had always done before, and to garden with the children as they got bigger.
00:07:29
Speaker
And um i I got more and more curious about how things ah were designed and how they should be designed. looked after and I got deeper and deeper into it until lo and behold, 20 years later, have a career in a studio and um and now design large scale landscapes as well as gardens for for other people.
00:07:53
Speaker
So like many tough things in life, it was a gift. i want to first just say I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been. But the fact that you found the garden and that healing you returned to something from your childhood is so beautiful. And thank you for that vulnerability and sharing that with us because I know that so many people have experienced loss and it's amazing how the garden can become that place of healing for us.
Healing Properties of Gardening
00:08:24
Speaker
It really is. And I think it's one of those things that we were perhaps brought up to not not speak about some of these things, but it's so much easier when we do and when we share um our experiences, but also when we share them with the garden.
00:08:39
Speaker
So these days I would go outside if something was um troubling me and I would ah tell the trees, you know, and I would ah connect with the land. And now I understand Now I understand how incredibly healing the land is and plants and I mean, I love you your job.
00:09:02
Speaker
ah So flowers, you know, if somebody sends you flowers. Is there any better feeling in the world? And I think they call it being bunched, don't they? and you You know, somebody sends you some flowers. You just think, wow, someone loves me.
00:09:14
Speaker
um But not only does somebody love you, but the flowers themselves are full of all these healing properties, particularly they're grown without pesticides and without peat and without plastics. But we can get into all of that.
00:09:27
Speaker
But I think the essence of the flower, And the way that it is grown has a huge impact on our spirit as well as on our physical being. I completely agree, which leads me to my next question that I had for you.
00:09:41
Speaker
Your work is deeply rooted in sustainability and regenerative practices. Was there a particular moment or experience that shaped your passion for this approach
Sustainable Gardening Practices
00:09:52
Speaker
to gardening? Absolutely.
00:09:54
Speaker
Well, it's rather lovely in a way because um sometimes you can become fashionable with without meaning to. And I started off um after i did I did a landscape architecture degree. So after I started, um i had my children and I started looking after a garden.
00:10:11
Speaker
Then I wondered how it should be designed. So I did. horticulture. did garden design and then landscape architecture. Then I was invited back to teach historic garden conservation.
00:10:23
Speaker
So in the yeah UK, we have lots of ancient, as you know, historic buildings and their gardens are highly regulated by planning laws. So you have to be very careful how you design and look after them.
00:10:34
Speaker
So there's not much room for ego. So I would be designing in the steps of Capability Brown or Bridgman or one of those amazing great people. So I would be very much linking what I was doing to what had gone before and respecting both the craft and also the planting and the what had happened to the to the land before.
00:10:56
Speaker
So that was really the the beginning of what turns out to be a sustainable approach. I um was always interested in looking after the their plants and the soil, but I only really understood about the impact of looking after the soil when I um met Nicole Masters, in fact.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I know that you know who who she is. um So just before I met Nicole, I had suddenly, um somebody had mentioned to me about the properties of of soil.
00:11:33
Speaker
And I got her book, For the Love of Soil, and I was listening to it. and Amazing book. It's an amazing book, yeah. And it's even better to listen to it because she reads it herself, which is so special. um But she was saying about the re the microbes, and I remember driving along the motorway and just rewinding and rewinding.
00:11:50
Speaker
What? What is a protozoa? It does what? You know, I mean, it was just a whole new world. And when you realize that that's all going on under the ground and you know I never knew it.
00:12:03
Speaker
I did biology at school, but I never knew that. link I don't think any of us really knew that much detail of of how important the soil is um and how important it is to the plants.
00:12:15
Speaker
The plants do this extraordinary alchemy of changing sunlight into food. uh, and to grow nutritious food ah for us. But then they give up to half of that, those sugars away to the microbes in the soil in order for the microbes to give them the nutrients, which they then put in the plants, which we then eat.
00:12:35
Speaker
And it's just amazing. And then the way that they speak to one another underground and, um, these chemical interactions, the way that a mother tree can look after other trees. I know i know you know all of this and perhaps your' many of your listeners do as well. But for me, when i um when I read or listened to and then read Nicole's book, I was just like, I need to meet this woman.
00:13:02
Speaker
I need to know everything she can tell me. And I did the Create course, which is a fantastic program she does, which basically teaches you um It teaches you how to look after soil. It's an agroecology coaching course, but it also teaches you about mindset and how to really challenge the historic mindset that we've had about soil, about plants, but also about weeds, which is very interesting.
00:13:28
Speaker
And how we can, yeah, how we can kind of make ourselves a lot healthier and happier by working in sync with nature. So you just sparked a question for me.
00:13:40
Speaker
um But first I want to say, Nicole's book, I will link to it in today's show notes for the love of soil. I listened to it on audiobook also. I'm pretty sure I listened to it two or three times last summer because there's so much good information to absorb and soak in.
00:13:54
Speaker
And with our new field, I'm so curious to really dive into the soil health with our new farm. You mentioned though, in this course you took, that there's a portion on the weeds?
00:14:08
Speaker
Is it to get rid of the weeds or is it to help them? No. So um as um as Nicole says, weeds i'll beat oh should be renamed as the doctors of the soil.
00:14:21
Speaker
the um the The portion that we were talking about and that I also talk about in my um my book is that when you're looking at a garden, really the first thing I do as a designer as well, I'm always i'm looking at the layout and the energy and the how it works with all the different aspects. But if we're diving straight into growing, then you're looking at what's there already.
00:14:45
Speaker
So what is growing there and what are they indicating to us? So some weeds will be telling us that we have compacted soil, for example, and they will be doing an extraordinary route. So some things will have ah like a dandelion will have a long taproot, for example, which is breaking up that compaction and is doing an amazing job um at yeah being the doctor of the soil.
00:15:12
Speaker
And then some other um sort of more creeping things like a chickweed, for example, might show us that we've got a very rich, fertile soil. And others might be telling us like a horsetail that we've got poor, drained or high acidic soil.
00:15:27
Speaker
So by seeing what's there already, we can work with it. And we can either work with the weed or if we need to, if we want to get rid, for example, of the weed, then what we need to do is to apply what the weed is bringing up.
00:15:45
Speaker
So let's say, for example, If it's heavily compacted, what does that mean? So if it's ground oil or if it's nettles, for example, it might mean that it's bringing up calcium.
00:15:56
Speaker
So what can you do then? You could apply, it may be the same for natweed, you can apply a very dilute um milk solution or you could apply eggshells, ground eggshells, which have been soaked in them.
00:16:10
Speaker
um, cider vinegar, these sorts of things, which then release the calcium, which these plants are bringing up. So then you don't need them anymore. And then the plant themselves will, will no longer need to be there. So it'll go.
00:16:22
Speaker
So they, they do this wonderful thing of, um, yeah really telling us what's happening and so that we can work with them. And of course, then they're also good for us. So nettles are are fabulous to, to add to, um, to water for our own health.
00:16:40
Speaker
um as is cleaver, which is something which um we have a lot of just coming up just now, which is a great time ah in spring to to clean out our system so we can add those to water or to a tea to drink.
00:16:52
Speaker
So yes, the weeds are brilliant indicators and and don't need to be got rid of completely. Obviously, if you're growing flowers, then you don't want them in your exact spot where you want the flower, but they can be in the paths, you know, they can be nearby. um And then perhaps you just cut them off before they flower so that the goodness ah stays in the soil and doesn't go into the um the seeding.
00:17:16
Speaker
Absolutely. I love what you just said, because I've had multiple people out to our new farm and everyone's response is you're going to need some chemicals. You're going to have to spray these. so And I keep saying, no, I'm not going to. I'm like, I've read Nicole's book and...
00:17:33
Speaker
And i've I've spoken with her a couple times. She was actually in New Zealand at the same time I was. And I was so bummed because she was doing a soil health conference. And I could have attended had I known in advance.
00:17:44
Speaker
um So I reached out to her and I was like, I just need to get you on the podcast. So um it's in the works, hopefully later this year, and because she's such a wealth of knowledge, just like yourself. But I keep saying, no, I know in this book that these weeds are serving a purpose. I'm not going to throw chemicals down this land.
00:18:03
Speaker
And I think Charles Dowding is another wonderful person to to listen to and talk to. He he has the whole no-dig methodology. And he um he would have you put down cardboard and wood chip or cardboard and compost, which is something which we also do.
00:18:18
Speaker
And the wood chip, of course, will raise your fungal levels and so will help so from that point of view. So wood chip paths are amazing between growing um areas as well for increasing fungal levels and and soil moisture and locking up carbon.
00:18:35
Speaker
All these, yeah, just getting there. And of course, doing just getting the balance right. And of course, doing your own compost is another fantastic thing ah to do So you personally advocate for regenerative gardening rather than just sustainable gardening.
00:18:52
Speaker
Can you help us understand the difference and why it is so important? Yes.
The Importance of Regeneration
00:18:58
Speaker
Yes. So I think that um every garden might seem small, but actually we each have a pivotal role in our sort of regeneration of the earth.
00:19:09
Speaker
And sustain obviously in my first book was called Sustainable Garden. ah So why have I written another one? Because um i think this is the next step. So sustainability is about not doing any more harm, whereas regeneration is about really learning to work with nature.
00:19:29
Speaker
We are nature. So how can we be in harmony with ourselves as well as with the land? And I think the... the Regeneration is about putting back. So it's about a syntropic relationship rather than an entropic relationship.
00:19:47
Speaker
It's about having a purpose. Personally, for me, it's about having a purpose and it's about thinking about how I can do the most good in terms of the soil, but also in terms of my life in general.
00:20:01
Speaker
um And how can we regenerate ourselves? I think a lot of us running are running on empty, even if we're doing the most beautifully um thoughtful ah career.
00:20:16
Speaker
It might be that we're giving so much that we burn out. And so many people are burnt out, be spend too much time on on screens or on social media or um in thinking we're not good enough or in comparing ourselves to other people.
00:20:30
Speaker
Whereas really, to love yourself has to be the beginning of regeneration. If we could just be kind to ourselves, and I think the gut but the reason for writing the the book called The Kindest Garden was that if you can grow a garden, it might just be the kindest thing you can do for yourself.
00:20:51
Speaker
And the title was inspired by a great friend of mine, Sophie Neville, who's a um psychotherapist amongst other things. And she would ask a client, what's the kindest thing you can say to yourself?
00:21:03
Speaker
And so this is an extension of that. What's the kindest thing you could do for yourself? And really, if nature is an extension of ourselves, then if we can be kind to ourselves and blur the boundaries between us and our gardens,
00:21:18
Speaker
then we can blur the boundaries between our gardens and the rest of the world. Once we understand how food is grown and we start to take care of our own little patch, once we understand all the creatures that come to visit our garden and learn how to love them, by extension, we're going to want to look after the rest of the creatures in the world as well.
00:21:40
Speaker
So I think it's ah it's a way of starting small to do something really big. I love that so much. That's such a beautiful concept. And I really think that people are hungry for that right now. You talk about people running themselves dry.
00:21:56
Speaker
And I think this is perfect time of year because a lot of our listeners are gardeners or flower farmers. And so this is a busy time of year where there is a lot happening and a lot of people's cups fill empty already as they're starting out the season with so much going on in the news.
00:22:16
Speaker
i I heard a word earlier today and now it's leaving my mind, but it's basically talking about mindless scrolling, how we're just spending so much time tuning things out when instead we could be doing something like what you're saying and going out and getting our hands in the soil and feeling connected again.
Mindfulness and Nature Connection
00:22:35
Speaker
They say that you should spend 20 minutes with your hands in the soil. And if you're too busy, you should spend longer. Ooh, I like that. Yes. Cause it's, yeah, you feel so good. Don't you?
00:22:47
Speaker
mean, I do, um, ah something called Qigong, which is a lovely practice outside. It's only just warm enough that it's outside. Now we have been very frosty recently. Um, but it's, uh,
00:23:02
Speaker
A lovely mindful practice. It's um it's a bit like ah tantric yoga or Tai Chi type thing. And and's there's a little picture of it and there's some website, not me teaching it, but other people teaching it in the back of the book. um But all those sorts of mindful, quiet, bringing yourself to pause,
00:23:24
Speaker
It's so useful. And I think the extraordinary thing is that we think sometimes we're wasting time when we stop, but it's a bit like a page which is scribbled all over. If you can just rub out a little corner and make a bit of space by clearing your mind, then there's so much more room for everything else.
00:23:42
Speaker
And Nia, who is a lovely person on the crate Create course, gave me a great gift when she said to me, Marianne, rather than asking if you've done enough to rest, ask yourself if you've rested enough to do what you need to do.
00:23:57
Speaker
And I think I've really taken that, particularly at weekends when I'm minded to, oh, go and do this, go and do that. i think actually, I'm resting. Yes, which is a a funny concept, isn't it? Resting. And we all think that perhaps we shouldn't do it unless it's for seven or eight hours in bed, but actually resting during the day ah which is not looking at a telephone or a television or radio. It's actually just being rest in nature is, yeah, it's a real gift.
00:24:27
Speaker
That's so great. um That's something that I've been learning this last year is i I had a coach who asked me when we lost our last growing space that we'd been leasing. And i it was it was a lot of work to clear it out.
00:24:40
Speaker
She said, well, how are you going to recover afterwards? what are you going to do for your body? And I had never had that mindset before. It was kind of like, well I'm just going to go on to the next thing. And she's like, no.
00:24:51
Speaker
Your body needs to recover before you can go on to the next thing. And so we ended up at the end of this last growing season, we took a trip as a family and we spent time hiking and visiting places that we'd been wanting to go that was on our bucket list. And I came back so much more recharged. And it was the first time I've taken a trip where I even said to my husband, i'm like, none of us got sick after this trip.
00:25:16
Speaker
because we truly let our bodies recover. um so I love that you just said that. And it's that kindness, isn't it? You were kind to yourself. And then your body learns to trust. So I think that's the other thing.
00:25:28
Speaker
We have to teach our bodies to trust them. I used to think that my my mind was dragging my body out to play sometimes when I got really tired. Come on, oh no, I need to rest.
00:25:39
Speaker
But actually, if our bodies learn to trust that there will be rest, then they don't get sick. It's just like all the microbes inside our tummies are so similar to the microbes in the soil. And if we can feed them what they want and look after them, then we don't get sick.
00:25:56
Speaker
Absolutely. Okay. I love this idea of being kind to ourselves. How does someone listening get started with this? With being kind to themselves.
00:26:07
Speaker
And incorporating the garden piece of it, of course. Yes. Yes. Well, it depends how interested they are in things like meditation. So I'll give you a very practical way to be kind to people and then I'll give you a more meditative way if you'd like.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yes. The practical way of being kind to yourself, I would say, is so ways to ditch guilt. So we all carry guilt, particularly, well, I can't really speak speak for the male population because I'm not male, but it's ah it's quite a feminine thing to do to carry guilt um and multitask.
00:26:43
Speaker
So I like to stop feeling guilty about food by composting and by feeding the the earth. so If we have to waste food, and and sometimes we do because we bought too much, it feels fantastic to put it in a wormery or a bokashi bin and create a compost pile and hot compost or Johnson's Sioux, which I show how to do it in the book, but I'm sure many people will have other ways, but it's a really fast, effective way.
00:27:17
Speaker
um then you're giving back to the land. You're creating a closed loop system. You're not paying for a rubbish truck to take it away, compost it and bring it back or take it away and put it into landfill.
00:27:30
Speaker
So that for me just makes me feel great. Obviously it's a shame if you've bought some lovely food and cooked it not to eat it, but sometimes that's what happens. The other thing would be to only buy really nutritious food.
00:27:47
Speaker
So I know Dan Quittridge is doing amazing work with looking at and high density nutrition for food, ah high nutrient density if you like. um But if we can buy food which has is either organic or pesticide, and less pesticides or pesticide free and which is grown to avoid peat, microplastics,
00:28:16
Speaker
um all those things. And if the pigs, there's a lovely book called The Marvelous Piginess of Pigs, do you know? don't. But it's all about allowing animals to express themselves and to be the animals they'd like to be, so not keep them in those horrible big food lops ah if you're going to eat meat.
00:28:34
Speaker
So I think those things, if we if we put into our bodies beautiful things, we're going to feel that we've really taken care of ourselves. Yeah. So I think those are the, how I would be kind to myself in my garden in a practical way. So what I'm putting into my body and then in the garden itself, um it would be to make sure that I have um places for insects to forage and to live.
00:29:02
Speaker
So it's great to have flowers, but they also, the the um pollinators also need to have places to live. So old tree stumps or trees,
00:29:16
Speaker
um areas of brash or mess, if you like, a little bit messy, so that pollinators can live there. And to think not only of honeybees, but in the UK, we have 270 different species of bees. I don't know how many you have in the States. wow We have tiny, tiny bees as well as big bumblebees. So looking after all of those, and that means avoiding neonicotinoids and avoiding spraying and Yes, then looking after the birds. so but and And on it goes, so creating dead hedges so you can have mammals, and bringing in the owls as your pest control, bringing in the birds as your pest control for aphids, um and then making sure you have water so that you're changing the ecosystem and...
00:30:00
Speaker
You're allowing the creature somewhere to live. And once you've got an ecosystem, it's amazing how all the pests disappear. So you don't then have an aphid problem. You don't have a slug problem, um all those sorts of things, because somebody is eating each of them.
00:30:17
Speaker
So that's that's the um very physical way, I would say, i would start to be kind to the garden. I love those. if there was a ah more If I've got time, I got time? Absolutely.
00:30:34
Speaker
yeah um and more spiritual, if you like, way of being kind to oneself and to the garden, it would be to connect and then you actually don't need to do any gardening at all. And this is a beautiful practice to do before your gardening day, really. It's a bit like the ah thinking meditation in that you would walk outside, but rather than walking outside, compiling a to-do list, which we're all quite capable particularly you can see a garden and it can just always fill you with guilt. You can think, oh, I should have done this. I should have pruned those. I should have cut this. really
00:31:12
Speaker
All those sorts of things, rather than filling yourselves with shoulda, coulda and to-do lists, just to appreciate the extraordinary beauty that's there without us.
00:31:23
Speaker
And I love to go outside and notice how the birds are there without me having invited them. I mean, obviously I've mentally invited them, but they're just there doing their own thing.
00:31:34
Speaker
and um how the insects are there doing their own thing and the trees are growing. I mean, now the trees are growing. Nobody's gone out there with them like a conductor stick. No human has gone out there and said, okay, trees grow.
00:31:47
Speaker
They know to grow and they know what they're doing. So to go out with that sense of awe and wonder and and remember that, because I think we can all get so caught up with the day job, particularly if we've turned our passion into a job which so many of us do don't ma I'm sure you became a flower farm because you love farming and you love flowers but all of a sudden it mature so it's the same with with me that I need to go outside and remind myself of the extraordinary beauty that has nothing to do with me and does not rely on my to-do lists at all and I can just enjoy it for free
00:32:26
Speaker
And I think if we can just enjoy it for free, then we make that amazing connection, which fills us with joy and really is then our fuel to get through the rest of the day and any tricky customers and any tricky, I don't know, silly things like money and all that that we have to deal with.
00:32:46
Speaker
I look at that as a gratitude mindset. I know with our new farm, we're not living on site yet. And every time I drive down the driveway, It's a long driveway.
00:32:57
Speaker
I'm just in awe. I mean, the scenery, we're in the Columbia River Gorge, which is one of the few national scenic areas in the United States. So we live in a very picturesque spot, but on one side of our property is what's called Middle Mountain. And there are these tall evergreen trees and And then the highway separates the hillside from our farm.
00:33:19
Speaker
And here's this huge open field. And then on the other side is the Hood River. And you can hear it, especially this time of year. We don't have river frontage on our property, but we back up to it.
00:33:31
Speaker
And there's a forest in between. There's an old oak grove forest. And so the animals pass through. So like I'll be working and behind our deer fence, you'll see the deer coming or there's blue jays that will swoop down from the trees. And we have these huge hawks soaring overhead. And just as we're getting started, there's, and maybe it's because there's nothing there.
00:33:51
Speaker
yet with these massive to-do lists, my mind's instantly going to look at this beauty that we're surrounded with. And it just sets that tone for what you're talking about of just feeling so good about what you get to do.
00:34:05
Speaker
Isn't that beautiful? i love that. And bringing that energy in. So I think when, so when I'm designing spaces, I'm looking to those sorts of energetics outside and I would be inviting, I wouldn't be inviting the deers to come and eat my roses, but I be inviting the deer energy and the mountain energy and the and the tree energy to support my land.
00:34:28
Speaker
So it's the same really from what you're saying, it's the gratitude. And then how can you work with the, how can you support the amazing gifts which are already there? How lovely. Yeah.
00:34:40
Speaker
That is so amazing. So tell me, how do you balance the aesthetics of building a garden or a farm with the ecological responsibility that comes with designing the garden or the space, the the land?
Balancing Aesthetics and Ecology
00:34:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think... Beauty she is in the eye of the beholder. And I always say, um i love the ethical Scott Fitzgerald quotation, um she was beautiful but not like the girls in the magazines.
00:35:12
Speaker
And i always think that, I mean, ah my my gardens are very luckily in, have been photographed for magazines and that's that's very lovely. And that's often down to the um brilliance of the photographer and the ah angle that they take the picture.
00:35:27
Speaker
But actually the beauty is in the feeling when you're there. And you know how you can meet a person and their features might not be ah construed on their face in a magazine beauty way, but they might have a real inner glow and you might just meet them and think, oh my word, you are a beautiful person.
00:35:48
Speaker
Sometimes you see sort of old Indian or ethnic, I don't know what who they would be, but it just photographs of people with really craggy faces, grandmothers from anywhere really.
00:36:00
Speaker
And you just think, wow, you are a beautiful person. It just shines through. So I think in a garden, that energy love, the garden being loved, the people there that are looking after it and the energy of that land can just shine through. In the same place the same way, sadly, if this a land is traumatized and bad things have happened there, sometimes you can arrive somewhere and you can think, oh gosh, this feels like an uncomfortable place to be.
00:36:27
Speaker
So I think those sorts of energies can and exist. So if I am designing a garden I'm looking to work with the, um, the strengths that are there and to support them. And this is really quite a biodynamic, um, approach.
00:36:46
Speaker
So Jean-Michel Florian, who's an amazing guy from the Gotham Institute, um, he is biodynamic Institute. He talks about, um,
00:36:59
Speaker
the support that you give to the strong energies. And that's what we do. So we would walk around a site and we could say, okay, for example, like you, the mountains, you have the ah trees, you have um the the river, you have the creatures, and then you might have a blank canvas. So in that blank canvas, how are you going to draw those energies in?
00:37:18
Speaker
And it might be in the shape of what you put on the ground. It might be the facing, even facing the mountain with your pathways, working towards them, emulating the river. So you're of that place.
00:37:31
Speaker
What you're not going to do is put down a great big square of astroturf and, um you know, some, and well, I won't say what you're not going to do because it's I don't want to go there. I don't want to spend my energy on on that. but um so yeah And then you'll look at the natural flow. So where does the wind come from?
00:37:51
Speaker
um Where are the underground sources of of water, if there are any? ah When do you get rainfall? Where is the sun rise? Where does the sun go down? How much sun do you have? How much topsoil do you have? How much work?
00:38:03
Speaker
what's What's the type of um geology below you? um So all of those things make for a healthy garden. And then really the aesthetics come from that.
00:38:14
Speaker
mean, obviously, i will, when I'm designing, I say obviously, maybe it isn't obvious. When I'm designing, I will always design in layers. So I would always have a ground cover to look after the soil.
00:38:26
Speaker
I would always, it could be a mulch or it would be a growing ground so cover, which would be better because you get the roots in. So maybe a clover or something like that, but you would which fixes nitrogen as well, but something as a ground cover. And then I would plant my first layer through that Then I would have an emergent layer, the interesting things which come up now and then, would pop up like a symphony through the year.
00:38:47
Speaker
And then I would have the shrub layer, which um hold the structure through the year and provide perching places for for insects and for for birds. And then a taller tree layer, which if I was growing um flowers, might not be in the middle of the field, but they'd be nearby. So that they we're having the underground mycorrhizal network going and holding onto the water, holding onto the carbon.
00:39:12
Speaker
So always in those layers um and always really mindful of how the roots work together as well. So there's what you can see above ground, then there's what you can see below ground. So making sure you have complementary root structures, some tap roots, some sideways roots, some mat roots, so that you can the different plants can be um getting different nutrients from different places.
00:39:38
Speaker
That is such great advice. And I didn't even think about the root system, which I totally should have because we have this whole underground network below. Gosh, I wish you could just come and help me design our farm.
00:39:52
Speaker
and I love what you're saying. Very well. i'm sure you'll be fine. Yeah. And the water, of course, water, very important. We have so much water on our property right now.
00:40:04
Speaker
dear. but Because of the hillside. And then our property is about 1,200 feet long and there's an 80-foot slope. So it's a pretty gradual slope. But because the soil is so compacted and it's been fallow for so many years, water just sloughs off. It finds the easiest path.
00:40:22
Speaker
down to the river because right after our property, there's about a hundred foot drop down to the river. um And we have a creek, but the creek meanders some of the water and capture some of it. But right now, so much of the water is just sloughing off the property. So we're looking at, what I love about this is we're looking at, because we have 20 acres, we don't want to farm 20 acres. So we want to have space that we farm, but we want to have these regenerative gardens that intermixed throughout the farm.
00:40:54
Speaker
love to do some scrapes. You'll be digging some, because all of that sloughing off is stealing your topsoil, isn't it? Sending you the river to somebody else. Yes. I'm not sure we have any topsoil left on our our land.
00:41:06
Speaker
ah Well, then you'll be composting. Yes, we will be. And it's so expensive. We'll be doing our own. ah Scrapes and ponds and ah channels. i mean, that's we we try to return a lot of water down to the aquifers, but whilst you have that compaction, it's not going to get down.
00:41:24
Speaker
um I'm on heavy clay so the amazing thing about that is it cracks in the summer and that is not incredible that that's nature's way of getting the water down as quickly as possible to the roots once it it rains yes yeah amazing but yes we you know on other land for plants we always would dig scrapes and ponds yeah Yes, we have some, we've dug out seven contour lines. So we've gotten along the contour lines of the earth and we have water in one section that we're restoring a native habitat.
00:41:56
Speaker
And so we have the water redirecting back to the creek. And it's amazing how much the creek is now flowing because of this area that we're redirecting the water to. Oh, beautiful. Well, I'd love to come just to see.
00:42:09
Speaker
but Please, anytime. we would love to have you. happy I'd love to know what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about creating a sustainable or regenerative garden?
00:42:20
Speaker
think it's about control. think people are afraid of losing control um and that it will be too messy for them.
00:42:35
Speaker
I know there's an issue in the UK with rewilding. People say, ah rewilding, you're going to bring in ragwort and it's going to kill my horses, you know things like that. um But I would say that um working sustainably, regeneratively, rewilding, it's it's a sliding scale, if you like, and we only each need to go as far as we're comfortable.
00:43:00
Speaker
Yeah. And some people's tidiness threshold is ah much closer to very tidy than others.
00:43:10
Speaker
So I think if you are a very tidy person, you'll find it extremely difficult not to have a striped lawn and not to irrigate your lawn. In which case, I would say, have have a smaller patch of lawn,
00:43:25
Speaker
Don't fertilize it or use pesticides, but if you need to irrigate it, make sure that you're going to use rainwater only, not mains water, which has been treated and, um, yes, all all of those reasons.
00:43:39
Speaker
Um, and let it grow. we we have this thing called no mo may in the UK, but let it grow sometimes so that you can, um, allow pollinators, but also let the sides grow. Let it be a bit shaggy around the sides or have some wildflower patches or squares. or ah If you're very tidy as well, I think it can be fun to have like a chessboard, a checkerboard and have some bits longer, some bits shorter. So it feels comfortable.
00:44:08
Speaker
doesn't feel wild, but you're coexisting with nature. So I think that's some people's misconceptions and worries are about letting go and never being able to get it back.
00:44:20
Speaker
And I think they feel like it would make more work if they don't keep on top of it. So they probably think, well, ah somebody said to me, but if i don't have the sheep in that field, won't it just go straight to scrub? And then how am I going to get it back?
00:44:36
Speaker
um So then people are sort of seeing future work. I think things like that are what people are mostly afraid of. um Those, i I would say, would be the misconce misconceptions and that it has to be all or nothing.
00:44:52
Speaker
Really, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. We can take the minimum steps, which would be to avoid poisons because they go into our guts and our children breathe in and we get many more illnesses because of that. So poisons are number one, which includes pesticides, insecticides, glyphosate.
00:45:12
Speaker
Those sorts of things. um Try to avoid plastics because those go into the soil and then into our guts. Same issue. ah Try to avoid peat. I don't know if people use peat in the States. Is that a thing? it a Peat moss is still pretty widely used in the States.
00:45:28
Speaker
Yeah. So to avoid that because its it takes longer to create than it takes to, then we can um replenish it. Yeah, so those would be the sort of starting points. And after that, think about your water.
00:45:43
Speaker
And really, then you can carry on having a smart lawn and a smart house and smart garden if if smart is your idea of of comfortable.
Misconceptions in Regenerative Gardening
00:45:53
Speaker
But I also think not worrying about other what other people are saying is the biggest key to freedom. So whilst I love having my gardens in magazines, I don't think any of us should listen to magazine to-do lists and magazine um pictures.
00:46:10
Speaker
And it's a bit like when you look at models, and I'd love to look at those models. It's not going to make me happy. It's not going to make anybody else love me more if I look like a model. And it's not going to make me love my garden anymore.
00:46:23
Speaker
if my garden looks like a model's garden or a model garden. So I think coming to terms with that is is a very kind thing to ourselves. Oh, that's such good advice.
00:46:34
Speaker
um You made me think of the quote, comparison is the thief of joy. yes you're right. And when we start comparing our gardens, it takes the joy out of them.
00:46:47
Speaker
We've spoken a lot about kindness. In your new book, The Kindest Garden comes out this April. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this and what we can expect inside your book? Yes. So the inspiration was, um they say that you should um write the book you want to read.
00:47:04
Speaker
And when I started on many, many facets of journey, really. The spiritual journey, I was fascinated by soil, what soil means to us in a very deep, atavistic way, not just physically, ah but how we can look after it.
00:47:20
Speaker
was really interested by that. I was also very interested by the regenerative movement in the UK. And we have some wonderful people like Andy Cato from Wild Farmed and so on, who are trying to show that we can grow at scale without poisons and how we can really look after our food.
00:47:43
Speaker
um And I wanted to apply that back, some of those lessons back to the smaller scale. So I'm an agroecology coach. And so when I look at and i looked at how large scale wheat was grown, I was shocked.
00:47:59
Speaker
um So then ah how do we peel that back to the garden and think how that that can but So that was the inspiration, really. It was to say there are amazing things going on, very forward-thinking farmers, rewilders.
00:48:13
Speaker
um Obviously, we have the organic movement as well. And yet we had been lagging behind a bit in the garden because we're still, people still killing slugs. They're still putting down ah pellets, which can hurt other wildlife as well. They're still using peats and so on. How can we put back in the same way? Because there's so many of us, there's 33 and a half million gardeners in the UK. I have no idea how many in the States, it'd be, you know, many, many more, but we are,
00:48:44
Speaker
really impactful and gardeners are really good people so it seemed like a below hanging fruit really to speak to the gardeners first it's like hey guys we we can do this you know we can have a real impact in the way we look after ourselves our families our own backyards and then the impact that we have in in our buying power we could really change things and that that made me really excited Well, I love that as gardeners and farmers, especially the flower farmers and cut flower gardeners that are listening to this podcast, it's not just making a difference, but it's adding beauty to the world as well.
00:49:26
Speaker
Yes, and a beauty which is more than skin deep. Because if you're given rose which has been grown and you know in a hot house with a load of sprays and so on, it's not the same as being given something which has been grown with love.
00:49:41
Speaker
in a way that's put back into the soil, that's looked after the creatures that have landed on it fed it from its nectar. And then you're being given this amazing piece of power. And it comes it's amazing because it comes from the sun.
00:49:56
Speaker
And that is the miracle, isn't it? That all of this energy comes from the sun. And it's extraordinary. i love sunrises. It's extraordinary that the sun comes up every day.
00:50:08
Speaker
I mean, wow.
00:50:11
Speaker
It's all such a miracle. In today's fast-paced world, we often forget to pause and appreciate that beauty or those sunrises. And we've talked a lot about kindness.
00:50:24
Speaker
How do you see our gardens as places of kindness that go beyond just nature and ourselves, but also our communities?
Gardens as Community Builders
00:50:34
Speaker
yeah I think the way that we can share and build community is a huge thing.
00:50:40
Speaker
And seeds, I think, and gardeners are very generous generous people. We're generous with knowledge. We're generous with sharing our food, and our produce. Things have been picked. Yeah. we're also generous with seed serving saving and seed sovereignty is a big thing over here. And I know as well with you, in fact, in Oregon, just recently, there was a whole seed program.
00:51:00
Speaker
And my great friend, Holly Sylvester, also from the Create program wass was over. um So I know that you have a fabulous movement over there, but how can we save seed and use seed in an empowered way.
00:51:15
Speaker
and That's a great community builder. And also to volunteer, to have events together, um to plant trees together. We also have a lovely thing in the UK where you can buy like a cherry tree But it's on a farm, but then you can go and pickicnic pick a picnic underneath it and pick the cherries, which is a ah wonderful thing. Yeah.
00:51:38
Speaker
So I really like that. Also sharing um knowledge. So one of the things um which I talk about in the book is measuring our impact. And I think that's been a huge swell ah sea change in over here and in the States, which is um understanding how um you can measure things like bricks, which is less, don't know if it's less important for flowers. I know it's important for fruit and vegetables, maybe for flowers as well, but it shows how healthy your plant is.
00:52:08
Speaker
And so then you know, if you need to apply um more compost or all those sorts of things. So, yes, measuring our impact, I think that's a ah great great way of of building um community by talking about it and, yeah, getting together and It's a lovely practical thing. is a lot There's a lot of chat and worry about what is happening on a really big scale and what politicians are doing.
00:52:36
Speaker
But actually, if we can talk about what we are doing as a community and as a family and come back to that local level, then I think we can feel much kind of safer really in the world.
00:52:51
Speaker
Oh, that's such great advice. I love that these are things that you talk about in your book, The Kindest Garden. What are some of the principles that gardeners at any level can apply to their own spaces that they'll learn from your book?
00:53:05
Speaker
Well, gosh, ah lots of principles. I think, yeah, we touched on a few of them. Um, So water we started with. um Water, looking after water, reducing mains water use, um harvesting rainwater, slowing the flow talked about with, and also for our own guts.
00:53:28
Speaker
So we have, our water has chlorine and chloramine in it. So if we can filter water, that's a great way of um making sure that that doesn't get into our guts. Using permeable hard surfaces rather than Soil recycling on site using Bokashi, using no approach. Avoid compacting soil with heavy machinery.
00:53:46
Speaker
soil recycling recycling on site using bakashi using nod dig approach um avoid compacting soil with heavy machinery Keep the carbon and the nutrients in the soil, lock up the carbon. That helps with, obviously, the greenhouse.
00:54:03
Speaker
um Using the layered planting. So we talked about the, ah yes, how to plant, plant for your situation. And it probably does work for flower farmers as well, although there must be a little bit about that what people want to buy but also I think perhaps educating people as to what is growing and in season and what they should want to buy having climate resilient planting which can withstand drought and downpours um
00:54:31
Speaker
Sourcing materials responsibly, perhaps less important for flower farming, but if you are creating landscapes, um sourcing things which are FSC registered, if they are wood, so forest um carefully forested, if they are stone, making sure it hasn't come from too far away, because of course all the carbon footprint is usually in travel, making sure it hasn't been created with child labor, which can can happen.
00:55:02
Speaker
um Loads of lovely things for ecology. um Yeah, but on pollution and energy, things like avoiding leaf blowers and using a rake, and it's really good for our bodies as well, things like that.
00:55:16
Speaker
um And then using your integrated pest control. So by the time you've got your e ecosystem going, you don't need to spray because you'll have a whole host of creatures who are working with you.
00:55:27
Speaker
I think of the Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when you have her... um going along the road and all the creatures are flying up with her. I think it was you go in the garden and all the creatures are there helping you to, to garden.
00:55:41
Speaker
So I think that is, um, a lovely image that you're, you're working alongside all those other natural things. And finally yourself. So looking after yourself, allowing time for rest and allowing time to be kind to yourself and knowing that you are enough and your garden is enough.
00:56:00
Speaker
Um, And the microbes that work with us are enough. Wow, that is so much valuable advice that we can find inside your book, especially as climate change continues to be a topic for all of us that we all must address and face.
00:56:21
Speaker
It just sounds like there's so much in your book that can help us make small steps and small changes in our backyards and in our farms. And I can't wait to get a copy of your book.
00:56:34
Speaker
I'm curious, you have wrapped up this book. It's about to be available for the mainstream for all of us to get our hands on. What's next? what What projects are on the horizon for you? Mm-hmm.
00:56:48
Speaker
Um, well, uh, maybe a bit of rest. but That's a good one. a bit of rest. I am ah talking, so I'm sharing.
00:56:59
Speaker
The reason for writing the book was to share the messages in it. So, um, that is I'm so pleased that it has been incredibly well-received so far and so very kind words by Isabella Tree and Satish Kumar and gardeners and so on So um I'm really grateful to that. So a bit of rest, lots of speaking.
00:57:20
Speaker
And I'm also working on a large-scale nature recovery project in the yeah UK where we're linking lots of land with nature corridors two allow farmers to link together to ensure that everything they can do on their own little plot is then linked to the next plot and the next plot so that creatures have somewhere to go after their own area. So that's really exciting because that's after you've been kind to yourself, kind to your garden, kind to your farm, then you're kind of kind to your county. If you see what I mean, it gets bigger and bigger.
00:57:55
Speaker
That's for the animals or for the farmers? Well, both. ah But yes, the the idea is it's nature recovery for the animals. So yes, so for the insects, the birds.
00:58:07
Speaker
So for example, how can we increase hedgerows? How can we have contiguous hedgerow and and contiguous... areas of woodland so that ah ah the worst thing would be if the animal has to cross a highway is there some way of helping them to get across the highway or to make sure that it's not too like 50 meters I think is the maximum so is that five times three 150 feet is about the max that A small creature can go in the open.
00:58:37
Speaker
So how can we do all of that linking up so that um we can, yes, have nature recovery on a larger scale? Oh, that is amazing. We have a grant application in right now to put in a wildlife corridor on our property. So I love that you're doing that.
00:58:55
Speaker
Yes, we are part of a huge wildlife corridor because we have the river and the mountain. And so prior to our farm, the animals would cross through our property because there wasn't any fencing. And we didn't know that at the time.
00:59:07
Speaker
So now we're trying to solve that and make it accessible for the elk and deer and coyotes and cougars and animals. bobcats and everything to be able to cross safely because we are on a major highway.
00:59:19
Speaker
Fabulous. And you have such more exciting animals than us. We don't have bobcats or cougars or anything like that. It's brilliant. Well, I'd be really happy if we didn't. Always kind of looking around and and wonder of the deer of awe of them, but always thinking, I really hope there's not a cougar out there. Yeah.
00:59:37
Speaker
Oh, yes, but I suppose it's all Netflix, isn't it? that's the You need the cougars, they don't have too many there. yeah Exactly, yes. um Wow, this has been such a wonderful conversation with you. I have so many more questions, but I want to be respectful of your time. So maybe what I can do is leave the door open to have you back on the podcast again at a later date.
01:00:01
Speaker
Well, you're very kind and I'd love to be speaking to you Yes, of course, I would come back. And and when you come to the in England, then you must come and have a look at some of the things we're doing here. and bassor That would be a dream. i would love to do that.
01:00:14
Speaker
Before we say goodbye today, I do have a couple of quick questions for you. The first one maybe isn't quite as quick, but that is, what do you hope people take away from your book?
01:00:25
Speaker
I hope that they take away a bit of inspiration, bit of hope, and some unanswered questions that they would like to explore themselves.
01:00:39
Speaker
Because I think we all ah thrive on curiosity. And I think if the books spark some curiosity as well as inspiration and hope, then there'll be all those lovely rabbit holes that people can go down just as I did when I was writing it.
01:00:57
Speaker
I love that. i I had an opportunity, thanks to you, to look through your book, and I definitely have my own little rabbit holes and ideas that are spinning around in my head now. So um I'm so excited to get my hands on a physical copy of your book. And thank you for writing this book for all of us. You have put so much kindness out into the world. And I know that so many of my listeners are going to want to get their hands on your book and to
Connect with Marian and Exclusive Offers
01:01:23
Speaker
follow you. So can you share where can we find you and how do we get a copy of your book?
01:01:29
Speaker
So the book is, um, online and I think, do you have an equivalent like book bookstore.org where people can buy and the money goes to independent books shops?
01:01:39
Speaker
We do. yeah I will link to that. That's great. So, and it's online in all the usual places other than that. Um, and, um, What was the other question? Oh, yes. Where can they um follow me? So I'm on Instagram. I'm not really on the other ones. um And on Instagram, I'm just at Marian Boswell.
01:02:00
Speaker
And my studio is at Marian Boswell Studio. um and if people are private, I'm always a little bit ah reluctant to follow them back in case they don't want me to. So they need to wave and ask me to follow them back if they're private people.
01:02:12
Speaker
Yeah. Gotcha. Perfect. Well, I will include show links to both of your um Instagram handles so that people can follow the work that you are doing. This has been such a delight. Marian, thank you so much for taking time this evening to chat with me and talk about your connection to the garden and being kind to ourselves and to nature. um This is really an exciting time to be growing.
01:02:39
Speaker
ah well, our audience growing flowers, but anyone working in the soil and getting our hands, I think there's so much healing of the earth that we can do right now. So thank you for having this amazing conversation with me.
01:02:50
Speaker
Well, thank you. I really look forward to hearing how your farm develops and following that as well on social media. That would be lovely. And i agree. It's a very exciting time to be alive.
01:03:04
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. We'll talk to you again soon, I hope. If you've been thinking about adding a greenhouse to your garden, there's no better time. Northwest Green Panels builds top quality, custom greenhouses to fit your growing needs.
01:03:18
Speaker
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01:03:35
Speaker
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01:03:45
Speaker
Thank you, flower friends, for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today.
01:03:56
Speaker
Whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer, you're contributing to the local flower movement. And we're so happy to have you growing with us. If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
01:04:15
Speaker
I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends. Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.