Garden Tips For INSIDE And OUTSIDE 🪴🏡

Join Linda Vater as she shares her favorite late-summer garden hacks, affordable DIY landscaping tips, and clever ways to save money in the garden—like turning trash into treasure and asking for compost as a gift! From kale chips in the kitchen to organizing for fall and even discovering a signed letter from JFK, this episode is packed with charm, practicality, and surprises.

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Okay, at the end of summer, two things happen. Our plants start looking less than their best, and we get really sick of watering. And so, this project is going to address both of those issues. And here’s how we’re going to do it. I bought at the beginning of the year, I bought two of these pots of angel wing beonas or dragon wings, whatever they are. And I have just had them in baskets like this. Okay, these are some of my coobo baskets from QVC that sadly are not available anymore, but and they have pretty much made it all through the summer, but now they’re starting to just look a little bit peaked and I’m getting tired of watering them. And I also notice that the in these plastic pots, it’s really been hard for them to hold on to the moisture. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to take them out of their pots and I’m going to transplant them into a bigger pot. And that bigger pot will be able to hold more moisture. It will make a more impressive display. I won’t have to water it as much, obviously. But the other thing is I will then cut these back, give them a really, really good feed, and that will improve their appearance. So, just as the temperatures begin to cool, this will really come into all its glory. Now, I know sometimes it’s hard to cut off flowers when they get leggy like this, but I promise you, it’s really worth it to go ahead and take uh take that risk, if you will. That’s information you have to know because you’re just not going to because you’re not going to do it. No, you’re not going to do it instinctively because it’s kind of scary. Now, I’m sitting here on this mat. You guys know I this is I use this almost daily. I keep it under my sink because it just really helps me contain mess. The other thing addresses one of the questions that someone asked me earlier about how much of this do I do myself? And this is a perfect example. So, this pot was partially filled with soil about half full. In other words, it was pretty heavy. And I wanted it to move from down on the lower level to up on the upper level. So, I had a neighbor help me. He I help him on different things and he was happy to help me. So, he carried this up for for me. I did not mind asking. And then to replenish the soil that was already in there, I just added some new soil to it. And in this case, I’m just using a Miracle Grow potting mix. And you may ask me, well, what potting soil do I like to use? And typically, that’s Hub’s job. Hubs goes and and picks up uh picks up potting soil for me or whatever, and it’ll just be whatever is convenient for him. This isn’t inground stuff, so I am just not that concerned about it being organic. And Hubs just gets whatever is easiest for him to find. And what’s easy for him is always better for me because that means he will do it. Okay. So, I’m going to take this. Well said. Yes. Yes. Well, it’s true. It’s true. We It, you know, we all have to live together. Okay. Okay. So, now I’m going to take this one and plop it in there. And immediately I can see how this is really going to fill this out. I’ll kind of spread it out a little bit. Don’t let your plants boss you. And then I will add whatever additional soil I need to add to fill in those gaps. And I normally in these kind of things I might add osmmaote but I’m not going to because this is Miracle Grow and it’s got a slowrelease fertilizer in it. I want to really press that down in there. Just filling in all the voids. I don’t want any air pockets. And sometimes too, what I’ll do you guys is is, and you know this, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, is I’ll water it and then the soil will settle and then I’ll notice that I have to add a little bit more. Oh, yeah. Because the soil will settle and then Well, I water my pots, my little potted plants by my sink at home and over time. Yeah, there’s less dirt in there. Some of it washes away. some of it gets compressed. Um, and when you’ve got an established container and in the spring you want to top dress it or whatever, then having a little bit of room like that is not necessarily a bad thing. Okay. Looks like one big plant. Now it looks like one big plant. It will make more of a statement. I didn’t want it to be on those shelves anymore because I’m kind of rethinking how I want my plant terraces to look. I can then take these back and I can recycle these. These were big beonia. Beonia big. That’s just a mounting annual. That’s all it said. That’s all the tag said. And I And you can see that I bought them. Here’s another way to save money. I bought them on sale. So you can see how there’s a line crossed through them. I bought them on sale. Okay. So now you ask, how will I cut these back? Well, I start out by just removing anything that’s brown. So there’s lots of flowerheads that have browned. And see like right there, obviously. Show them where again on the next. Yeah. Okay. Like just right here. And I don’t even really have to cut it. they just fall off. So, I’m just going to remove those. And that will immediately make the presentation a little bit more appealing. And then one thing I’m going to do, and I think sometimes there’s a tendency to fi to find a difficulty in finding the right balance between overwatering and underwatering these because some of the some of the leaves are even showing signs of being overwatered. And that’s because it’s just difficult in these plastic pots to get consistent consistent moisture. So then I’m going to cut off just some of the most egregious leaves that just are really marring the appearance of the plant. And then I’ll come back in and I’ll assess, okay, which one ones of these do I want to cut back and root to turn into new plants? And that’s exactly what I did with all of these over here. All of these are cutings from former plants. And these, by the way, I have moved from one location to another location because, yes, don’t let your plants boss you. Pots can be moved. And I moved these to where they were a little bit happier. They’re still not quite as happy as they were a couple of months ago, but nevertheless, they’re doing pretty well. Both of these were cutings off of a major plant and all of these were as well. So, the cutings are definitely something that um that have merit. Pretty soon I’m going to be all this mess over here will be abolished because I’m going to be as part of my organizational uh frenzy is I’m going to be switching out that shed into an outdoor entertainment shed and all of my other practical things are going to go in a different place. So Stuart, let’s come over here. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to cut back some of the especially long ones. You can see right here. I’m going to cut it back just to above a leaf node right there. Almost got it. There we go. Got it. Uh, yeah. Okay. All right. Bugs, mosquitoes. Yeah. Yeah. And I might I might do several of these. In fact, I might just be really aggressive and continue with almost the whole plant. And then by the time the temperatures improve, weather conditions improve, and my attitude improves about spending more time outside. This will be flush and beautiful again. So, just water it in. And there you go. There is a quick and easy way to make the end of summer a little bit easier. Okay, you can tell I’m already starting to think about fall. I planted these red fountain grasses in pots a little while ago, and this one is still looking it’s still looking pretty. It was probably probably too large for this pot, and I’m taking that into account. But here’s another end of season thing that will help you not have to water so much, and it’s using what you have um and just working with what you’ve got. So, I had two pots of this fountain grass that were up here and I noticed that they were starting to struggle and that they were turning brown and I got tired of watering them up here and I was too lazy to move them down because of course pots can be moved. And then I thought, you know what? I am really liking the way they look in this brown state because that looks very prairie to me. It looks very um it looks very autuminal. So, I decided I’m gonna quit watering them. I’m gonna let them brown completely and then in the fall I’m gonna stick in lots of orange gourds and things in here and that will really pop against this gray fence and I think it’ll be kind of fun and very seasonal. And it’s got seed heads and things. So, this is another way to make the end of another quick and easy way to make the the end of summer a little me less tough on you. And that’s just not only reduce the amount of watering you have to do by planting things in larger pots, but then just quit watering some things altogether. Okay, these I have been eating non-stop all summer long. Compliments of a lot of kale I’ve been getting from my friend Jen at Bricks. She gifts me the kale and I immediately transform them into kale chips which are let’s just say a kind of a healthy knockoff on potato chips. So I am going to dawn my cute little apron that my friend Angie made for me and let’s do it. We’ll put the screenshot this of the recipe up in case you guys want to try to do it yourself. [Music] [Music] [Music] That was Will you tell us how much the flag stone costs you? This follower wants to make sure it is something that might be doable for them before they proceed. Okay. So, a lot of times I think this is once you get into gardening, you become very opportunistic and you start seeing trash along the side of the road. Um, you start seeing buildings that are being demolished. Um, you see something that’s been put out for big trash day and you ask your neighbor, “Do you need that?” Um, I’m constantly just looking around my own property for things that I could use to stabilize um, stabilize a raised bed or to stabilize a pot or to equalize something out. So, sometimes what you want is already around you. We just have to look at it in a certain way. Um, I am not someone that is shy about um picking up something. If I see a large boulder or something in the middle of the road and it’s just there, it obviously doesn’t belong to anyone. If I can press it into service in some way for use in my garden, I will. If I go over to Stuart’s house and he and I’ve done this before and he has something and he said he’s getting rid of it or whatever and I think, “Oh, I can use that in my garden.” then I ask for it because to me that’s that’s being responsible about turning trash into treasure. As far as flag stone goes, you can go to Lowe’s and you can get pieces of flag stone that are about this big for about $3. If you can’t afford it all at once, then you just buy one at a time when you go. Ask for it for Christmas presents. Um ask for it uh you know for Mother’s Day gifts. Um and and while you’re at it at it um in the attic, look to see if there’s anything up there that you might be able you might be able to use. And whenever possible, this is something that I I would do with my kids and that I and that I have done. And that’s that I don’t only want this thing. I want the labor associated with it. So, I have asked for bags of compost or bags of manure for gifts and I ask for them to deliver it to me and to lift it up to the, you know, the top level, whatever. Just be resourceful. Don’t be embarrassed. And there are so many things that I got to ask, did any of your kids get you a bag of poop for Mother’s Day? A bag of poop for Mother’s Day? Actually, yes, they have. Yes. Actually, actually they have that’s what Santa leaves in your stocking. That Santa leaves in your stocking. And you know, ask for ask for coupons in your stocking for labor for for things like that. But a lot of it is just opening your eyes, being opportunistic, find it at Goodwill, find it, you know, if you see it lying around um in a brickyard someplace and there’s somebody standing there and said, “Are you getting rid of this?” Because if you are, I I you know, there’s a way that I could use it. And so I’ve done that for years. So it’s one of the reasons that I think I’ve been able to in a pretty especially at my other house budget-minded way create a garden. Um a lot of the bricks and some of the pieces of stone I took from um from my mom’s house in Indiana. I’ll ask Kayla if she’s got any trash just laying around um her her property. She lives on a great big like farm, you know. I could ask Ben at at Ralph’s Ranch to a construction site. Go to a construction site. Um, a lot of it is just being aggressive and being resourceful in a nice way. Okay, last one. Okay, in that vein, this follower asks, “How much have you spent on plants alone to landscape your front and back gardens?” Okay, well, that’s where I would say I am very fortunate because again, this is my job. This is the industry that I’m within. And so because of that, I have bought many Southern Living plants, but Southern Living has given me many, many plants because I’m a spokesperson for them. Um, I am friends with landscapers in the business. my friend Roger, my friend John, if they are working on other landscapes and there are plants that are um not perfect enough for some of their clients and they’re going to be removed or if they just have excess or something, sometimes they will gift those to me. Um I am always happy to accept plants from others. I have so many friends that we exchange plants together. Uh, my friend Carolina Elizabeth, I’ve told you before, she will start a bunch of seedlings and she’ll bring some to me and I will give her seeds. My friend Jen, same thing. So, I will take their their plants, their starts, and I will grow them on. So that is definitely um I I’ll take starts from other people, cutings from other people, and before you know it, they can turn into something that is really a substantial contribution to your garden. You’ve seen how I’ve taken on sale $2 misshapen boxwood and transformed them into topiary. So that is a way to save money. Um, how much I have spent overall, I’m not really sure, but part of it was quite frankly from the proceeds that I made off of the sale of my other house because we had lots of equity in that house and I knew that when I changed I wanted to start another garden and so I reserved some of that budget for that. Um, but again, I did this this garden I did overnight because I’m old now. My other garden I built over 30 years and it didn’t look like it, you know, it didn’t look mature immediately. And so some of that is just having time and patience. Some people think that I love the look of the front yard. I think it’s quintessentially cottage. Some people think it’s overgrown and and too busy. In that case, then if that’s your style, you wouldn’t plant as much, so you wouldn’t need as much plant material. Sometimes something will die and I don’t replace it. Um, so I can’t answer that specifically. I did bring a lot of plants from my other house. A lot of plants were gifted to me. Uh, but did I have a substantial investment in, you know, in some of the infrastructure and things initially? Yes. But I I just feel like that was a cost of doing business and moving moving into another old house. So, uh, that pretty much wraps it up. Is there any more any more questions, Leah? Um, yeah, one more question. You guys always seem to like the befores and afters and it’s important for me too to see how far we have come, not so how far we have to go yet. Um, and so Stuart, let’s put a couple of before shots right here and contrast it to how much stuff has matured over time. It amazes me still. Thank you for the wonderful crew that I had to help me and thank you, Mother Nature, for cooperating. [Music] Okay, I’ve been wanting to point this out to you guys for a long time. You know my obsession with my pumpkin plant over here. And yes, I have some that are really growing up to be big guys. I’m so excited. Lookie there. There’s one there. There’s a gourd. I’ve got some little ones in other places. So, it’s really fun. And what I’ve been able to do, as you recall, the very the very sad event where one of them, you can see it right there, was on the ground and it Yes. And it started getting eaten up by roly polies, which just really devastated me. So I decided that I needed to get more of these vines up off the ground and climbing over this tutour and really even into one of my trees. It looks it looks a little sad over there. But one thing that has helped me, and this is what I’ve been wanting to tell you. So, this is one of my five quick things. These clasps, these clips that I got online are wonderful. You can get big ones and small ones. I bought one set a while back and I’m definitely going to get another set because they are so easy to use. They come in large and small. Here’s some of the large ones right here. Oh, okay. And they help secure the vine not only to the tutour but also they can secure the vine to another vine in another area. And I’ve done I’ve used those there but look over here. Well, they kind of have a nice size to them. They have multiples. Yes. Yes. And and what I love about them is that they’re so easy to use. Unlike ties that you have to kind of manipulate, these just clip on and off. And recently I sec I started uh some trellusing here some a wire grid to climb my rows on. And this is a way that I can secure the rose to the wire. It’s loose enough so it doesn’t strangulate it. It doesn’t cause any abrasions at the point of attachment. And I think it’s really brilliant. So we will put a link for you guys. But these are one of my favorite gardening things for this year. Well, I just got back not long ago from Target and I saw that all of the back to school stuff is absolutely everywhere and I always like to check out the back to school items in case I want anything. But another thing, here’s a tip is I always check if at the end of summer I don’t care about whether or not bathing suits are on sale or bathing suit covers or things, but what I always do look for and that is are straw hats on sale? because sometimes at the beginning of the year, straw hats and straw bags too can be a little bit pricey, but at the end of the season, they’re at a great price point. And I like to have not only hats for myself because I’m a hat kind of gal, but I also like to have them just for people who come to visit. So when Leah comes here, if we’re working outside, she’s forgotten her hat, it’s really hot, she just knows that she can just pick one up off of anywhere and she can put it on. They’re all really nice and cool. Yeah. And Yeah. and and you well you can see over here look how many I’ve got over there on that hat rack. Yes. Yes, I am I am a girl that um that likes hats. Okay, so the other day I showed you how I’ve been in an organizational frenzy before my sbatical. I was rearranging my now entertainment closet and when I showed it to you last I didn’t have all of well I had ordered some shelves and some other organizational things. didn’t have all of that there when I shot the video and I can’t remember if I alluded to that or not. A lot of you were concerned about how much weight that I had up above, particularly since Oklahoma can be prone to earthquakes. And I really felt it would have been fine up there, but since I was waiting for another rolling cart, I did receive it. And a lot of that china has now moved down to this rolling cart. So, I can now roll this one out. I can roll this one out. And I have other pieces that are more lightweight up on top. And I’ll put a link to this cart if you guys are interested. Now, someone else suggested, well, maybe I should put all of my my napkins and linens and things up here and all of the china down there. And I could have done that, but for me, I use all of these napkins, these cloth napkins on a regular basis. And I really wanted them to be very, very accessible. Not only so that I can just pull them off and use them easily, but also because after I wash them and fold them, sometimes I I’m don’t like to put them away. If I have to go to any kind of expenditure of energy to put it away, I’m less likely to do so and then it just sits around and it contributes to clutter. So this way, all I have to do is just toss them on here and it’s really I think it makes it it easy. Some of you were concerned about whether or not my linens would fade in in this closet. And these windows have a bubble treatment on them, which reduces the amount of glare. But quite frankly, even if these do fade some, that doesn’t bother me a bit because, as you guys know, I like things that are kind of aged. Um, the other thing is is I can rotate them in and out, but I but again, that doesn’t bother me very much. So, it’s it’s another question of just to know thyself and whether or not an organizational strategy will work. If I think it’s going to start bothering me, then all I have to do is just put some kind of cloth on there and I can protect them. But I like seeing them there. I like seeing how they are all how they are in display and what I have available when I’m getting ready to entertain. So, I think that’s kind of fun. And then the lights and things that we use when we shoot, they’re just in here and easy to grab. Now, when we come back, I’m going to share with you two more things. One of which is kind of exciting and something that we discovered in our process of decluttering. Well, this is a testament to not being overly aggressive when you’re decluttering. We still have boxes and boxes of things that we need to go through. a lot of it in in the way of paperwork that belonged to Jaime’s parents. Some of it belonged to mine. And we’re trying to kind of methodically go through it, discarding what we don’t find valuable or need, and keeping the rest. And this morning, my husband came in and in the process of going through one of those boxes. He said, “Well, this is interesting.” And this is a letter signed by JFK to Jamie Hub’s father who at that time lived in Enid and worked on the Kennedy campaign. And this is a thank you note from JFK and I think it’s so I think it’s so cool. It would have been after he won the presidential election but before he actually took office. This is from December 16th, 1960. And we feel fairly certain that this is an original signature, but we are going to have it authenticated. We also have the envelope. And in either case, it definitely is a fun thing to have and to possess. We’ll probably frame it and hang it on. So that’s just like I say, be careful when you’re going through lots of papers because you never know what you will find. and and he his dad he his father was on the state board of regents for Oklahoma University of Oklahoma and he has lots of commendations lots of things like that he was in the military so there’s just all sorts of things he was a B7 bomber pilot so there’s all sorts of things like that to go through and some of it is worth keeping and some of it not but this definitely was a keeper okay something else I wanted to share with you uh because since I started rethinking I love this kind domino thing. I I I think of it as just kernels of popcorn. One starts popping and then all the other kernels start to pop. And once this entertainment closet kernel popped, it made me start thinking about Thanksgiving, which ones of my linens I wanted to use, how I was going to accommodate people this year because I am the Thanksgiving house. And Hubs and I were talking about it. And I think what we’re going to do this year, last year we set it up in here and that actually worked out fine. I had wanted to have it outside, but that that didn’t come to fruition. But so many of you originally when when we moved into the cottage, you said, “Oh, that this should be a dining room.” And I I did not want it at that point in time to be a dining room because it seems weird for the front door to enter the dining room. And we use it as a parlor far more than we would as a dining room. However, that doesn’t mean um along the the lines of my philosophy about using every area of your house in whatever ways possible over time, it kind of falls into that category. And I thought, well, it doesn’t have to be a permanent dining room, but it can be a a seasonal dining room or an occasional dining room. So, I think what we’re probably going to do is I’m going to get two six- foot long tables and put them in here back to back to make one massive table. I’ll then use these chairs on either end. I will move the seti out into here in front of that table and use the bench in here for seating. And then I’ll temporarily relocate this chair to another area. And this will be a very, very spacious area then for dining. I’ll have two full six-foot tables here to use. So, I’ll be able to have uh be able to do that kind of grand centerpiece that I I kind of miss being able to do at my other house and that I typically do for Thanksgiving. And then I can also just temporarily relocate. You know, if you do it for Christmas, if you relocate furniture and things like that to accommodate a Christmas tree, why can’t you do it at Thanksgiving? So then I can just relocate some of these books and things and this can be my dessert bar or whatever and my main buffet bar can be on the island. So tell me your thoughts on that if you think it’s something that could be workable. I also just thought, okay, how imminently charming would it be to have the little fireplace going and we’re sitting in front of the fireplace on Thanksgiving with my my mantle all decorated with pumpkins and things. I think it could just really be exceptional. So, if you can visualize that, too. Um, this is my question of the day. Put your comments in the link below. Um, you know what? It may work, it may not, but why not? Because it’s it’s my parlor and and I think all my guests are going to be pleased no matter what. But it is the dead of summer, so why not think about Thanksgiving? Well, thanks for hanging out with me today. But there is one final question that I think is really crucial for this time of year and it is okay. This follower says, “Linda, it’s time to order tulips. Have you ordered yours? And what is inspiring your order this year?” Okay, so yes, I am. I just placed my order with Color Blend. Some of you have wanted to know what I am ordering and we’re going to try to on the screen here thanks to some of the images on color blends put up some of the the uh specimens that I’ I’m ordering. I’m ordering more uh alium ambassador. I am ordering some miniature tulips. I can’t remember the name of them, but I ordered some miniature tulips um for along Lemon Lane. Obviously, lots of tulips. French Rose Blend, Menon, um, yeah, Menon, uh, Dordonia, um, and let’s see. And for the back, then I’m going to still go with my Iva. I think it was Ivan Gutenoff or something in the back because they’re going to be red and gold. Those kind of colors that I like to use in the back versus the front. And then probably the biggest category that I’m going to be using is the Vid the Vidal bedspread collection. And it’s all whites of different types. And I used that at my other house. It was absolutely brilliant. So you can anticipate that next spring there will be a lot more white representation in my tulip blends and probably in my pansies and things than there has been in the past. So, if we can, Stuart, let’s put up some of the images of those. But hopefully that answers your question. Is it time? Yes. Uh, but some things are starting to sell out. If your favorite uh blend is sold out, then I recommend just getting one that’s close to it or creating your own. Or better yet, when you call color blends, you can say, “I would like the look of say French rose blend, which typically sells out pretty fast. Where can I get that look with something that’s still available?” And they with all of their expertise will be able to come up with a suggestion for you that not only mimics that blend in terms of of color palette, but will also mimic it in terms of progression and longevity of bloom. Some will bloom early, some will bloom mid, and some will bloom late. So, there you go. There you go, guys. You guys have a great Saturday. This is the last Saturday before my sbatical begins next month. We’ll still be putting up information. It just won’t be really new content. Um, but I think we all deserve a break. So, see you next time. [Music]