The Mediocre Gardener Edel Howlin

I hope you’ve had a productive growing journey with this podcast and that you’re starting to realize that you can be a gardener too and that it’s something you enjoy. Maybe in the beginning though, you felt a little scared because you didn’t know what you were doing. Here’s a secret, none of us do, until we start somewhere. And when you do try, sometimes we get it wrong, and that’s okay. This episode is all about mistakes and we’re going to hear from lots of gardeners, just like you and me who got something wrong. For the full episode head on over to www.mediocregardener.com and you can always reach out by emailing dearmediocregardener@gmail.com. I can't wait to hear from you! 

Welcome to Episode 5, you made it this far, well done! We’ve tried a bunch of things this growing season, good, bad, and I’m sure ugly. How would you say this year’s gardening adventure went for you? Did anything you planned come out the way you thought it would? Did anything not work out and what did you learn from it? That's what this episode is all about. If you want to see what I learned this growing season head on over to this episode on the Mediocre Gardener website. 

 If you want to share what you learned with me, then email me a voice message of what went wrong for you this year, what you learned from it, along with your name and location to dearmediocregardener@gmail.com. We’ll get to those mistakes in our next and final episode for this season. Thank you! 

Where you can learn how to start plants from seed whether you want to do it by using a pot in a window (like my daughter suggested in this episode) or go extra like me and get heating pads, grow lights and seed trays. You may want to take notes on what you need. You'll also learn about hardening off which is the practice of getting the plants ready for the outdoor elements. Good luck and enjoy! Let me know if you give it a try next growing season. Email me at dearmediocregardener@gmail.com and visit mediocregardener.com to see my seedling setup! 

When I was planning this episode, I was going to talk about how containers can be a garden too and lean on the expertise of my mother to walk us through that. However, once I got chatting to her, via FaceTime, in the height of lockdown 2021, I let the audio recorder capture it all and we just chatted about my mother's gardening journey. It is one of my most favorite things that I've ever recorded and edited. I can't wait for you to hear it! Let me know what you think by emailing dearmediocregardener@gmail.com. To see pictures of my mother and her garden, click here. 

This episode of the podcast is all about working with what you've got and making a plan based on that. No garden is a blank slate, even if it looks completely empty to you. You're always dealing with soil, weather, and sometimes pest conditions. For those of you who do have some things planted already, rather than move them, let's work around them for now at least until you feel more comfortable with more ambitious projects in your garden. For the purpose of this episode, I'm going to use my garden so you can get a feel for how to think about your space.

The beauty of gardening can be making it up as you go along, getting it wrong, and learning as you go. Let me know how you get on. Send your email to dearmediocregardener@gmail.com or find me on Instagram @mediocregardener. There are no wrong ideas, just judgmental gardeners! To see pictures of my garden head on over to the Mediocre Gardener website, click here. 

In this episode of The Mediocre Gardener podcast I want you to have three takeaways!


What types of gardens or green spaces inspire you?
Where to look for other inspiration?
Picking a plant, tree, flower or shrub that you absolutely love and planting it in the ground.

There is no magic trick to gardening, you learn as you plant or kill as you plant in my case but that's part of being mediocre too, remember mistakes welcome! Plant what you love, send me a picture to dearmediocregardener@gmail.com, I can't wait to hear all about it! You can find more episodes of this podcast or images of my favorite green spaces at www.mediocregardener.com.