Hey, sluts, I'm Jonathan.

I'm Jeanette.

We're two old high school friends, current.

Geriatric millennials who took different paths living in different gardening zones.

I'm 6A.

And I'm 42D. Sorry, I mean, 8B.

But we eventually found ourselves in the same place.

On our knees in the dirt, obsessed.

With plants, ready to gush and bitch about gardens.

Think of us as your green besties.

We're here to talk about plants, but not in the usual pre t. Do this grow.

That way you may know as much as we do.

Or you may not know the difference between choke berry and chokecherry.

Coming to you from Salem, Oregon, in.

The USA and a rooftop in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

We're plant Sluts.

We're plant Sluts. Hey, sluts, what's been happening in your garden?

I had to beg Nathan for his pee all week.

Did you?

Yeah, I wanted him to pee in my watering can. You. I know I could have peed in it, but it's harder as a girl to, like, figure out how to get the pee in the can. So I was like, can you please go pee in the can? And finally he did, because what happened is I'm realizing I'm not having any growth on my raised bed on the side of my house. And also in this section in the front yard that I created last year, not no growth, but, like, I've had these cucumbers that have been like, two leaves for over a month and watermelons as well. And I am just not seeing anything happen. And none of the tomatoes are producing tomatoes versus other tomatoes in the backyard are. Are, you know, going crazy with tomatoes. So there's something stunting the growth.

Right.

And I think I figured out what it was. Last year, in an effort to kind of save water, I put mulch down.

Okay.

And I think the wood mulch has been, like, depleting the nitrogen from the soil.

Right? Yeah. Okay. So you put mulch on that part where you're having difficulty.

And I've been fertilizing, but I think it's just, like, really low on nitrogen. So I found out that urine brings nitrogen to the soil. So I was like, nathan, I need you to pee in the bucket. And then. And I had him water it because I didn't want to touch it.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Because I've thought about this a lot because. Because on my roof, my rooftop garden, I do not have a bathroom. And I've thought. And I live on the first floor, and this is on the third Floo. So I've thought so many times about peeing, but I wonder. Okay, and maybe you can answer this. Does it smell?

No. And it's out. I mean, it's so far outside. But you also dilute it.

Yeah. Okay.

You don't, like, fill up your watering can to the brim? That would be crazy.

I don't drink that much water. I mean, I do drink a lot of water, but not enough to fill up one of those cans.

The mulch, too. I was a little bit, like, naive. I just thought I could buy wood mulch. And then obviously, like. Like anything. You go on the Internet and you find out everything you've done was horrible and you're, you know, a bad person. And it failed because the mulch was dyed. There's probably, like, arsenic in it. Who knows? Like, it's a whole thing.

And I have heard what you're talking about with, which is. Well, in general, right. When you put things in your garden that have not yet degraded in the decomposition of the material, it steals nitrogen from the soil and then, yeah, supposedly re. Releases it back into the soil after a certain amount of time of activity or whatever. It's interesting that that's something that you've been able to observe. I mean, that's kind of.

It was like, why here? Why is nothing growing here when everything in the back is just, like, doing great? And the only difference I could think of was throwing that mulch down on everything. When you're gardening, I feel like, especially when you're starting, you go, like, by problem, like, oh, the water is evaporating. Right. Don't want to use as much water. Then you see, go online and, like, oh, put mulch down. So you go to the store, you buy mulch, and then you find out, you know, I think it's like, a year or so later. Oh, no. You actually just, like, poisoned everything?

Yeah, I'm. I'm curious. I'm curious, like, what. What your verdict would be in a few weeks. See what. What comes of it.

So what's been going on with your garden since last time?

Oh, Jeanette, my garden is a little bit crazy right now because I ended up traveling a bunch, so I've had to get people to take care of the garden. Yeah. Coming to terms with the fact that I don't trust anybody. So, like, when someone's like, who's gonna take care of your garden? I'm like, I don't know. And then, you know, my mom will be listing off my friends, like, what about this person? What about this person, I'm like, no, no, they don't. She doesn't know. No, no. Oh, my God, no. She would never be able to. You know, And. And some of it is obviously like my own preconceived notions about my friends, but some of them is actually based on evidence. Okay. I have. I have. I have instructed friends how to water my cucumbers. And they have been like, no, I'm just gonna water it like this and that'll be it. And it's like, no.

Well, I have had that with. When I. I was gone for like a week. And I had Nathan with written instructions how to water everything. And I came killed a Spanish lavender. He just watered it like it was a, you know, a tomato plant. You can't explain and write in detail every single plant you have. Even though I appreciate he kept everything else alive.

People you live with are even worse because you trust them more.

They're like, you just go out there and play.

Well, you trust them more because you're like, you've seen what I do. You've seen, like, don't you see me? Hello? Me and my skimpy dress out, like, bending over, watering the tomatoes, no bra.

That's all he sees.

Me and my kimono.

Yeah. Like the hours and hours of us not, you know, hanging out because I'm out here with my plants, my real family. So what happened?

So, yeah, things kind of got a little bit crispy. It's been. It's been pretty hot. It's been pretty sunny. And, you know, I have some automatic irrigation stuff set up, especially in the greenhouse, but when the water level is low, then it kind of stops. And not everybody is as diligent to look, you know, look inside the barrel where the water comes from and, like, make sure it's full. I just got back yesterday from Greece.

You're so tan.

Thank you. You know, I'll go into a little bit of the information. You know, my experience in Greece, garden and plant related. Don't worry, I'm not just going to talk about, you know, the beaches.

Well, how much of it is the plants and how much is it the sluts?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, that's. That's for the only fans, Jeanette.

That's right. That's right.

I went and I harvested a whole bunch of the vegetables and I made myself a really nice lunch. Pasta with all the, you know, like, zucchini, all the cherry tomatoes that are already kind of blistered. And I'm actually leaving a couple days ago, camping. So I'm just trying to, like, consume. It's like the next couple days will be, yes, doing laundry so I can go on my next trip, but then also, like, consuming all of the food that I. Yeah, it's my own fault because I planted all this stuff. But, you know, it's. I made the bed and now I'm eating it too. So. Yeah, Greece was. Greece is really nice. And I don't know if you have this, like, when you're traveling, and I think you do, because I think you've sent me. You sent me messages about this, you know, where you kind of start to look at all the different plants and stuff like this. And yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that the climate in Canada is way different than the climate in Greece. But it's just like, it's so beautiful just to be in this different. In a completely different climate and to look around and see all these different things growing. Things growing together that you didn't know, you know, would grow together. You know, you take your phone out and you start snapping pictures. I use the Seek app, so it tells you, like, what. You know, what you're looking at, what the plant is or what the. It's like for plants, insects, and I think even mushrooms and all that. And then the. I'm, like, super excited. And then it's like eating. Eating the different things, like, things that you're like, ooh, I've never had this, like, amaranth leaves, you know, which I've. I've obviously eaten amaranth as a grain because I think if you buy, you know, if you go into a natural food store, usually you get like, I don't know, like, cereal with amaranth flakes or that kind of shit. When you're using Google Translator, I'm like, ooh, they have amaranth leaves. And so I ordered a bunch of amaranth leaves, and they were. They were exactly like spinach.

One of my favorite things I remember when I lived in Japan was like, oh, my fucking God, there's new fruits that I've never heard about. Or like, when I visited you in Vietnam, it was like a whole new type of, like, apple or, you know, and to be like, in your. Your adult life and be like, of all the fruits I thought existed, there's new ones. And I always thought it was so exciting. Anytime I found, like, a new fruit, a new vegetable, it seems like there's a finite amount. But then when you travel, suddenly there's. Yeah, yeah, there's like, brand new things. You've never Even heard of.

Another thing that I ate was spiny chicory, which doesn't actually look at all like chicory. It looks like that Japanese. Oh, wakame. It looks like wakame. Seaweed. You know, you have like a. I think wakame. I don't know. You lived in Japan. Tell me, is it. Is it the actual seaweed or is it the salad? It's like the.

Yeah, it's a type of seaweed.

It kind of looks like that. And it even has that texture where when you bite into it, it's juicy inside. From the research that I did, you know, on my phone while I was eating it, it seems like it grows in really arid environments, which is exactly what the, you know, what the climate is in Greece and this area of the Mediterranean especially. And it's mostly dormant, and then when the rains come, they sprout and grow up and almost like a succulent holding a lot of the moisture.

What's it called again?

Spiny chicory. And it is in the chicory family. That was a really interesting highlight. Also carob.

Don't you have a. No. Is it you that has a bad backstory with carob, or am I thinking my husband?

Anyone who grew up in the 90s and had, you know, a family member or. I don't know, my mom was a little bit of like one of those, like, natural food store people and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, or. Or if you're a dog, you have trauma with carob, which is that, you know, people try and pass it off as chocolate and it tastes nothing like chocolate. They use carob flour in a lot of breads, so I. I guess it cuts. It cuts the flour in a certain way. But it also adds a lot of. A lot more depth to it. Like a bit of nuttiness and protein in the bread. But also, I found carob syrup. I bought two bottles and brought it home, and I. I just tasted it this morning and, you know, it gave me a little bit of a flashback of, like, 1990s health food store.

Diet culture.

Yeah, diet culture. And, you know, the soy milk that tasted like beans and wasn't sweetened. Oh, God.

Like the texture on your tongue of the crumbled beans.

Yeah, it just kind of like I got all these, like, flashes of, you know, like, what it was like to be on. Yeah. A natural diet.

Yeah.

In the 90s, because my mom thought it would reduce my, like my. My attention deficit disorder that, you know, probably I didn't even have.

Yeah.

Carob is a nitrogen fixing plant. Because it's in the bean, it's in the Fabaceae family, and it's extremely drought resistant. So it's kind of a good thing to grow in this area. I also saw pistachio trees, which is the first time I was like, what the hell is this? And I used the seek thing to find out that it was pistachio. And they, they look quite cute, you know, like the nuts as they're growing or the fruits as they're growing on the tree have, are. Are a light lime green, but they have a blush, a little bit of a red blush on them. They're. They're. They're actually pretty beautiful. And then of course, just like olive trees, fig trees, and even mulberry trees that they have as street trees. And.

Wow.

I thought it was strange because mulberries are like, super messy, but I think what they're using are male mulberry trees that don't produce any fruit. Because I was looking around, I was like, this looks like a mulberry tree. And I'm looking around for evidence, and there was none. I'm. My ass wasn't stained red and there was no staining on the ground. But I did a bit of research and found that, you know, ornamentally, they have often male male mulberries.

Well, that sounds like a fun little, like, botanical adventure.

Yeah. Oh, and I did go to the botanical garden as well, but there's nothing to report there. No, honestly, I don't understand. Sometimes I feel like there's many different types of botanical gardens, right? There's some that have a more research orientation and more like presenting plants to the public as a learning component, you know, but the, the Botanical garden Athens was free to go in and it really had nothing. It was huge and it was really impressive. I even saw a parakeet nest, which I've never seen before. It was high up in this tree canopy. And I guess they build what looks like almost like gigantic wasp nests, if I could describe it in that way. And they were just really loud and, and popping their head in and out. But. But yeah, I was looking for information like, what is this? Oh, beautiful. Is this a. I don't know, fill in the blank mulberry.

But you have to just use your phone the whole time and like, exactly. Search what everything is. I also went to a botanical garden since the last time we talked into the Oregon gardens for the first time, which is near here in Silverton. It was interesting. It had like the vibe of an amusement park with no rides and different Sections. There was like a section of, like, everything we grow here. Like a garden section. There was a rose garden. There was a little koi pond.

Well, see, that's nice.

And I also did the tour so that they explained, like, there was a tree that smells like peanut butter. And the lady gave a very sexy, like, you rub it between your fingers and it smells like peanut butter. And Nathan was repeating that the entire rest of the day.

So wait, do you remember what this plant is?

The peanut butter tree.

Yeah.

Harlequin gloryboer. It's cultivated in the US you love.

Things that smell like things are not supposed to be.

I know. I just bought two things.

You should get a peanut butter tree.

I might, I might, I might, I might.

What did you buy?

Okay, in honor of this episode, I bought mint that smells like lavender yesterday. Yeah. And catnip. This smells like lemon.

Somehow you are enabling yourself. Like, how did this happen? I don't know.

It's just like, I already have mint, but do I have mints that smell like other things? Not yet. And now I'm trying to find pots for all this mint because you can't plant it anywhere. It'll be exciting for tea. It will be a fun, flavorful tea. Lavender, mint, and all the chocolate mint.

On the subject of tea, time to grab a mug, pick some herbs, and spill the tea. I think you have some tea you want to bring to this episode, right?

Yeah. Just a little update from our rose episode. I talked about Elizabeth Lord and Edith Shriver. So they worked as landscape design miners from the early 1900s in Salem. I kind of wanted to find out more, so I went back to their house. Are they best friends?

Scissors sisters?

Partners? Well, they're business partners. But were they lovers? Kind of like wandering around. The tour guide came out and started talking, and I, like, bundled up all my courage and I was like, I have to ask about if they were lovers or not.

Yeah.

And so even though this, like, very nice, like, garden lady, I'm just like, so is there any story of, like, if they were together?

Like, lovers?

Partners? Lovers. I don't think I said lovers because I try to avoid saying lovers at most, most of the time. But the woman was super nice and explained that they'd really don't know. And it's what's considered a Boston marriage, which is something from the early 1900s where it was like, long term, committed relationships between women living together.

A Boston marriage?

Yeah, it was common in New England. They were sometimes romantic or sexual, sometimes platonic.

And this is same set. This is always women. A Boston marriage is always women.

Yeah, yeah. And educated, independent women can live outside, not get married to a man, but also have that, like, partnership and probably some stability in, like, housing and things like that. The woman I spoke to also said that Edith was taking care of her elderly parents for a long time nearby. And so, typically, if you're the daughter that's taking care of the parents, back then, you weren't getting married. Basically, they don't have any personal diaries. It was all given over to the University of Oregon, and they have gotten a lot back. And she just said, they just don't have anything to say one way or the other. So then I was like, well, let me in the house. And so I went in the house. It's interesting. It's like, a very historic place. It's, like, quite small. Like, if you compare it to, like, going to Texas and touring someone's house, you know, it's like an old house.

Yeah.

We. We looked around. We saw a lot of their design plans were up on the walls. And then went upstairs, looked at the bedrooms. They have separate bedrooms.

Okay, well. Which was common in a marriage back then anyways. Right. Like, even heterosexual marriages, like, people often slept in separate rooms.

Exactly. I feel like they died in, like, the 80s.

Oh, really?

So there's still people who know them, who are alive, who've come by.

Jeanette, Jeanette, can this be the subject of your PhD? Can you. Can you please. Can you please turn this into a PhD dissertation?

Yeah. And I just, like, interview everyone who's ever met them and be like, well, did you ever notice? I don't know. I think without documents, but also, like, we're not in, like, San Francisco or New York. We're in Salem, Oregon. One of their parents was a governor. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if, like, all the letters are burnt. And why would you even write letters if you live together anyway?

And maybe this is a bit earlier, but, you know, when people would travel, they would have to travel. It would take weeks for them to travel somewhere. So, you know, if I. I think. Were you saying that one of them was from the East Coast?

Yeah, one of them's from, like.

So. Yeah. Like, you know, she's going off to her brother's wedding or her take care of her mother, and it takes her three weeks to get there. You know, Oregon Trail.

I think by the early 1900s, they have a little more than that.

Dysentery. Crossing the. I don't know what else. But, you know, maybe that. That would Be when they write letters to each other.

Yeah. And I would think with women who have a legacy like that, you know, could it be possible that someone or even one of them particularly destroyed any of that kind of evidence because they didn't want to, you know, have that cloud.

Yeah. Cloud of shame.

Yeah. But it might be something. We'll just. We'll just never know. Okay, John. Fuck, Marry, Kill Plant edition. Okay, first one sensitive plant, the mimosa purisa.

That's the one that when you touch it, it, like, moves, right?

Yeah. Tropical pitcher plant. And corpse flower.

Corpse flower, yeah. Oh, corpse flower. That's the meat. That's the meat flower, Right? The one I'm gonna give you for your birthday. Yeah. Oh, my God. Okay. So sensitive plant is definitely a positive thing. Because, I mean, it's. Okay, it's sensitive, you know, physically. Like, when you touch it, it kind of responds to you, but also, like, maybe it's sensitive emotionally. Right. Which is. Which is, like, good and bad. That's me. I'm. I can't be. Can't marry someone who's sensitive. That would be just, like, too much.

Because then everything you do, like. Oh, it's a big thing. Every. Every disagreement. Every. Every. Oh, can you help me with this? Oh, my God. If you really wanted me to, you should have.

You know, that's how I am. Yeah. Okay, so I would definitely. Sensitive plan because, like, that kind of sensitivity and emotion like you want when you're having sex. Yeah. Like, you can have a little like. Like, you know, SOB after sex. That's fine. But none of that. None of that in our marriage, because that's my role. And I can't have you. I can't have you overpower me. Pitcher plant.

So that's the carnivorous one with the hanging pitchers that eats all the bugs.

Yeah. Yes. That is definitely something I want to put a ring on. Because. Because it's able to manifest things. It's able to bring. It's. It's basically the breadwinner, right?

It's an alpha male.

So it's like. It's attracting. Yes, it's like. It's attracting all of the things that you need, all of the resources that you need. It's just like, bring aiming in, and all you have to do is, like, you know, hang out in the swamp.

Is it a bit of a peacock, though? Are you gonna worry too much about bringing in everybody? You know, like, going out and suddenly, like, has tons of guys just hanging off of him?

Or, like, bring them.

Okay.

Oh, bring them Home. Like, bring them. Bring them home, you know? And then meat, flour. I mean, come on. You gotta kill that thing. Like, I don't eat. I don't eat meat. I don't like the smell of corpses. What?

Yeah, kill that fuck. Sensitive plant. Marry tropical pitcher plant and kill corpse flower. Got it?

Yeah. Jeanette, are you ready for your Fuck Mary kill?

Yeah.

So the first one would be tarot, colocasia esculenta. The next one, maidenhair fern, Adantium capillus veneris. It's the fern that you often find in bathrooms. And it kind of has these roundish, rounded leaves. They're very, like. They're very soft and. And very delicate.

Okay.

And the third would have to be prickly pear cactus, which is the cactus that, you know, has these fruits on it. The flesh is usually pink, I think, like a. Like a pinkish color in the middle.

Okay, well, so tarot, for me, makes me think of, like, wholesome comfort.

Okay.

And then maiden hair is, like, graceful. Likes to be in the bathroom. Loves moisture, high humidity. Now, I don't like to be humid, but I do like to be in the bathroom. I'm not, like, taking a bath. I like to take baths. And then the prickly pear is, like, cool. But it would be hard to, like, touch. I think I'd have to.

It's also drought. Drought tolerant.

Oh. Whereas the maiden here needs all this water.

Sorry, I made it really hard. I feel like this is a really hard one.

I know. I think I'd marry the taro because I just. I am a, you know, a potato fan. A starchy. It's so comfortable. Like, that's what I want around me all the time. Definitely. The maiden hair in the bathtub. Yeah. Like a little romantic getaway. Maybe a hotel.

Yeah. Is there water in this bathtub?

Yeah. Wait, why?

Okay. Just. I'm just curious.

I like to soak in a tub. Well, yeah. And then the maiden hair can go be pretty, you know, for other people somewhere else. And then I have to kill the prickly pear because if I don't, it will kill me first. Probably I'll try to poke the. Poke the fuck out of me.

And that's not a good. Not in a good way.

Yeah, exactly.

I like the idea of a prickly pear.

Sure.

I once went to a party and.

You fucked a prickly pear.

And I fucked a prickly pear.

Wow.

The people who were hosting it had. I don't know how they got access to prickly pears or something, but they were making prickly pear Wine. Homemade prickly pear wine. This was in, like, 2005, before people knew how to make things at home. Pre Covid and I didn't get sick, and it was actually really delicious. But every time I think of a prickly pear, I think of that party. Jeanette, it's your turn to pick the plant of the episode. So what slutty plant have you chosen?

My slutty plant this episode is lavender. I realized I was growing a lot of it, and I was kind of obsessed with it. I just kept planting it, and right now I have at least 12 lavender plants. I don't want you to think I'm bragging because they don't do well. I just have them. It's very easy to buy them. As I was, like, planting my, I don't know, 8th, 9th, 10th lavender plant, I realized maybe my garden was trying to tell me something. Right now I'm on summer break. I don't know when this comes out. I might be back at school, but it was during school while I'm working that I was planting them. And I think it's, like, maybe a subconscious response to stress. Just, like, filling my house and my garden with lavender. Buying dry lavender. I don't know. I just got super into it, eating it, like lavender syrups, stuff like that.

Yeah.

My dream is to turn my front yard just into a lavender. You pick. But I'll have to deal with the clay soil and figure all that out first.

Those are super popular right now. I see. Or not so much. You pick as a Insta. Instagrammable spot. Right. Like, people love, like, nowadays. I mean, your whole marketing has to be around. Can people Instagram this place?

Yeah.

And Instagram the hell out of this place.

With farms, you know, their margins of profit are so small. Like, if they get people to come in, you know, buy an overpriced essential oil, sit and take a picture and eat a picnic, then they're going to make a little bit more money than they will probably wholesale selling, you know, lavender oil. I actually went to a lavender farm for my birthday that's only about 10 minutes away here in Salem called Arrowhead. The field's not huge, but it is a U pick place. They have a big store, and they had a ton of varieties of lavender that you could purchase.

When you. You pick lavender, you're just cutting the stems.

Yeah.

To make arrangements.

Yeah. They had a class to make wreaths. I didn't join that, but. And then they also sell, like, the oils and different products. I saw they had, like, lavender hot Chocolate. They had lavender lemonade.

Oh, nice.

They had the hydrosol, which is the water after you make an essential oil.

I've grown some lavender before, mostly in pots, and I know that there's Spanish and French lavender. There's all these different kinds of lavenders. Do you know anything about, like, what the difference is between all of those or which ones do you grow?

Yeah, I have all of them. And lavender actually doesn't like pots. After, like, two years, just FYI, you want to put it back in the ground.

Oh, oh, I know.

Okay.

Because they're dead.

Got it. So, yeah, there's French, English, Spanish, Dutch lavender. Those aren't botanical names. Sometimes it's the country that it's planted in. Not always. Historically, hundreds of years ago, there's been English lavender being grown in the south of France back, you know, before photographs, people just kind of called things lavender. Knowing what type it was was all very, like, confusing, and the names were mixed up. So if you hear English lavender, French lavender, it doesn't necessarily mean the place. So English lavender, Lavandela augustifolia. And you know English lavender because it'll have those really narrow, silvery green leaves. It's smooth. It's the typical one you've probably seen when you think of lavender. Small, tightly packed purple or bluish purple flowers. But there's also pink and white varieties. They have the long, slender spikes, and they're blooming, like, early to mid summer.

Okay.

It has, like, the most classic lavender scent.

Okay. So they all also have distinctive smells.

The classic scent. You can also have different types. I think it would be cultivars like Rosea has soft pink flowers, and alba is the English variety with white flowers. And I. I'm growing some of that.

That's what you have?

Yeah. And I think I have the roseate, too, because I have two pink ones. Then there's the lavandula by intermedia, and that's the Dutch variety. They have long, gray leaves, and they're slightly fuzzy. They have big flower spikes, and they're kind of bushier, more robust. They're taller, maybe more dramatic. But they bloom from mid summer to late summer. Those ones also have a camphor smell.

Oh. Oh, I like that. I like camphor.

Yeah. Some people are really sensitive to. To lavender, but, like, if you try different varieties, you might find one that you actually like more.

But. But if you're buying something that has a lavender scent, usually it would be the English lavender. Is that what you're kind of saying?

Okay, yeah. Or like the. I believe the Provence lavender is An English lavender.

Don't tell French people.

And Spanish lavender is known for having those, like, rabbit ear petals. Have you seen those kinds of lavenders where it's like a big ball and then there's two little, like, wings on top?

No, I don't think so.

I have a couple of those. I've seen them a lot more at nurseries lately.

Yes. I'm just looking it up. Yeah.

Have you seen it before?

All right, yeah, I've seen those. Yeah. I don't think it. I wouldn't say it's the most common one around here, though.

I feel like it's becoming more popular.

Yeah. Well, it does look cute. I think it. It's just that it looks unique, I guess.

And I think the one I really like is Lavendula dentata or French lavender.

Okay.

Dentada kind of describes the toothed leaves if you see it. I have one that's doing really well. So I have to backtrack on me saying I kill all my lavender.

And when you say toothed leaves, what, what does that mean? Exactly?

Yeah. Imagine a kind of like a tooth leaf would be like if you were drawing a picture and you just did like a squiggly line. In and out, in and out.

Oh, right, right. I have a disclaimer.

Yeah.

Russian sage. Does this say anything to you?

Russian sage?

Yeah, Russian sage. So what I find is quite common around here is people plant Russian sage as a lavender like plant. So it really does look like lavender. And for the longest time I think I thought it was lavender until finally, you know, I. I came to my senses and did some research and I was like, wait a second, this isn't lavender, so beware.

Yeah, I see a lot of that too. I think it might be the hardiness zones, like where I am. It's so dry in the summer that lavender does really well. It somehow survives our really wet winters. And we just pulled up a bunch of hostas that were getting sunburnt and just replaced it with a bunch of lavender that we bought at that Arrowhead lavender farm. Because lavender's not going to get sunburnt. You know, it's going to do really well when it's dry and sunny, really drought tolerant.

So good. Post apocalypse for sure.

Because it does a lot of stuff too. If you're interested in, like, using lavender. The essential oils are in the leaves, in the stems and in the buds. So we talked about how, like, I was getting ready to distill things, but, like, haven't researched it. But I looked it up and Home distillers started about 200 and, like maybe 600 for a good one. So I think if you were doing this, you'd really want to be like, sure, yeah, like doing it for like a business or something. But you don't have to get a distiller for $200. You can kind of infuse in almond oil or olive oil. Just fill the mason jar with the leaves, make sure the flowers are lightly bruised.

Okay.

And then pour it over the top, let it steep for about a month, shaking it occasionally. And then just like strain it through a cheesecloth.

And that oil you could use for making cosmetics, soaps. Like a skin moisturizer.

Yeah, just like massage oil or rubbing it all over yourself.

Oh, massage oil. Yeah.

Yeah. One thing I read in this other book I was doing research from, she said you can sprinkle lavender buds directly on carpet and the foot traffic will release the aroma. She said it's really good for pet odors. Except you can't do this if you have pets around the house because lavender is toxic if they eat it. So I don't know.

Yeah, Lavender is a good thing to plant in your garden if you want to keep the cats away.

Oh, I do.

Yeah. Well, because cats are not dumb like dogs.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna get hate meal. Most cats know, like, when something is poisonous, they avoid it. So unlike dogs that you usually eat everything. And so if you. If you plant the lavender, it'll. It'll keep them away.

My dogs, when they're eating my plants, they're. They don't just eat indiscriminately. I remember once Arlen was eating something and I looked it up and it was like it could be used medicinally for stomach discomfort. I forget what it was exactly. And I was like, oh, little herbalist.

Like mother, like son. Well, I mean, maybe you have well behaved dogs, but.

No, I don't.

A lot of dogs just kind of. It's true. You don't. It's true. It's true. What am I thinking?

One cool tip you can try, if you do have lavender already, is draping your sheets or clothes over it so the oil will infuse it with the fragrance. And you have to be careful because, you know, you can get the oils on it, but I don't know. I thought that was cool.

So you would drape your laundry over the actual plant?

Yeah. Like your bed sheets if you had big, robust lavender, which I don't. So medicinally, it's been used for headaches, minor burns, insect Bites like every medicinal plant. And Queen Elizabeth is said to have used it for headaches. And the reason might be that the chemical compounds can help slow nerve impulses. Just kind of the same thing of why people say it makes you a little relaxed or sleepy. If you have lots of lavender or you have the buds, you can make a mask to put on your eyes to help sleep.

That's what you see lavender advertised as everywhere. Like all these sleep little tiny pillows for you to put under your pillow. All this lavender mist for before bed, right?

Yeah. My aunt was having nightmares and she asked me for something, so I gave her a little lavender sachet to put under her. Under her pillow to help her. She said it helped. So you can also put lavender oil and alcohol to make lavender water, which has been used for century as a tonic against weakness, fainting and giddiness.

Water. It's interesting that they would call it lavender water.

Yeah. It's just a lavender cocktail. So if you're out with your friends, you're getting a little too giddy, you're about to get kicked out. Just be like, can I get a lavender cocktail?

Absolute lavender.

You can use it to cook, to like desserts, teas, spice blends. I've really been into lavender syrup. Do you like lavender flavor, John?

Medium. I think it really just depends on what it's used for and how strong it is. I have made once pears poached in a lavender vanilla syrup, which I thought was really nice. The lavender was not very strong.

Yeah.

I think that once when flower scents like lavender are too strong in your food, it just tastes like you're eating perfume.

Yeah. And it's interesting because lavender used to be a really popular dessert flavor and then vanilla kind of overtook. We started using it for more like soaps and lotions. So then it started reminding us of that.

Yeah.

Kind of like how some people can't have like mint ice cream because it reminds them of toothpaste.

I love mint flavored things.

Do you?

Yeah. Like mint, chocolate and mint cigarettes. I mean, back in the day.

I love mint too. I feel like I'm moving from my lavender era to my mint era. And I think buying that lavender mint is really like pushed me. It's like the, the moment where I'm super into mint right now and the flavors, the smell. So if you want to grow lavender, some of the kind of tips I got from books and talking to people. Too much moisture causes root rot, but you also need to water it that first year. So it needs really well draining soil or you can put, like, rocks underneath to just make sure those roots can stay dry. It doesn't have any known pests. If you don't like having to go out and like, you know, get rid of bugs by hand, slugs, aphids, then. Then lavender is a great one. It prefers full sun, thrives in those Mediterranean like conditions.

Like me.

Exactly.

Mediterranean like conditions.

Don't we all thrive in Mediterranean like conditions? You don't need super rich soil. A little alkaline, a little compost on top should be enough. Fungus can develop if the leaves are wet. And then avoid mulching because it can retain too much moisture. But if you do want, like a mulch, just visually, you could do something like sand or pebble pebbles. And the pebbles, like a white pebble, would reflect back some light onto the plant. Maybe if you don't have very, very, very strong sun. Pruning is super tricky with lavender, as well as other kind of, like, bushy herbs. They get woody. You don't want to get like, woody. A woody lavender. So a lot of people say to cut the flowers when you buy it from the store. The. The farmer here said they keep the flowers so people know what they're buying because they wouldn't buy it if there were no flowers. So they keep one or two flowers. But if you cut the flowers the first year, it'll help the energy go to the leaves and the roots. You should always just prune lightly about a third of the plant.

So does lavender kind of get woody like a sage?

Yeah, or like rosemary.

Okay. I never actually looked at a lavender bush up close. I think I thought it was herbaceous and that it kind of died back and then re. Emerged the following spring.

No, it's definitely like, it's a. It's a real tricky one. It's worth, like, being careful when you start pruning them so you don't mess it up. Because I have a. Of my 12 lavender plants, a couple of them were over pruned when we first moved in and. And are very woody and. But, you know, I keep them because I. I love them.

What do lavender seeds look like?

They're tiny. They're. They're a. Okay. I've tried. I've tried because, you know, I love just buying more and more lavender. So I'm like, I'm gonna do it from seed. I have one that. Okay, two germinated. One has survived, and it's just as small as when it germinated, like two months ago. But the seeds do have low germination. Rates. Honestly, if you're like super inspired to get a lot of lavender in your yard, I wouldn't bother with seeds unless you're some sort of seed guru. It's really hard. To me it's like basil. A lot of people don't like trying to plant basil from seed, so.

But, so you can't, you can't reproduce them through cuttings or can you?

You can. You can. Yeah.

That would probably be the easier route than if you, if you want a lot.

Yeah.

In a short period of time.

A lot of people use cuttings and I just started some cuttings and those will produce exact clones of the parent. So if you really like how the lavender looks, this is a great way to do it. It's faster, it's more reliable.

Would you have to do cuttings from non woody stems? Is that it? You would just put it in water and let it root and then pop it into some soil.

You find like a small 6 inch branch and pull from the tip. Don't cut. Pulling kind of gives it some, I think like fibers at the bottom that help roots.

Okay, cool.

So you take off the lower leaves, keep the upper ones wet it, put it in some rooting powder and then stick the cutting in a hole, leaving about an inch above ground. I have a little pot with about eight of them right now that I put the root powder and have them in there. So we'll see if they grow some roots. And that would be the easiest way to like for me to start my front yard. U pick is just to do cutting. You can also do layering which is kind fun. Have you ever done layering?

No, but I've, I think it's really neat and I've, I've seen. Well, there's like air layering and ground. I don't know if it's called like or horizontal layering.

Yeah, I think this is horizontal.

Like you put, let it touch the ground and you weigh it down.

Yeah.

And then it makes new roots.

Yeah. You bend the branch, dig a little small 3, 4 inch deep trench. Put any rooting powder on, any wound on it. Use a pin or rock to keep the stem in place. And then later, like if it's spring, later in the fall, check for root growth, remove the pin and then you can have another plant.

What kind of magical powers do they have? Tell me about lavender from that perspective.

Like the zodiac, lavender is masculine. Its ruling planet is Mercury. It's an air sign. So it's kind of associated with Gemini. So this is not my sign or your Sign. We're not Geminis, but I thought, what if I check our charts and see what's in our Gemini, Me and you.

And lavender, like, that's it. Like our throttle.

On your astro chart, you have every sign, and sometimes you have different planets in each sign. Sign. So your son is in Gemini because we're not sun Gemini signs, but we have other things in our Gemini, and we actually have something in common with our Gemini. Gemini is all about communication, adaptability, learning, curiosity, intellectual exploration. So for me, I have my true node and Chiron in gemini in the 10th house. So that means, like, my destiny is through, like, to have communication in my career.

Like teaching?

Yeah, like teaching. I'm a teacher. Like podcasting.

Podcasting, exactly.

But Chiron is your wound, like, your core wound, and mine's in gemini in the 10th house as well.

Does that have to do with, like, your core wound, meaning almost, like, trauma related?

Yeah. My life path is to, you know, communicate. I also have a lot of, like, baggage around it, Like a wound around communication. Maybe feeling unheard, misunderstood. Maybe I felt, like, dismissed or had a hard time articulating what I want to say. I could have been like, yeah. Shamed or silenced early in my life and had a lot of doubt about my intellect or voice.

Yeah.

You know, we don't have to go too far into if that's how. How true that is.

I know all of a sudden this is turning into a. Into a therapy.

Yeah.

Podcast.

I have this wound of, like, feeling like I'm not smart enough or articulate enough or credible enough, which I. I think rings true for me a lot. Even though I'm an actual genius.

Or that's what motivates you in pursuing a career that helps you communicate and articulate as a way to heal that wound that you have about feeling like you. You innately have a difficulty with it.

Yeah. And, like, being an expert in the things that I pursue in my career is important for me. But then for you, John, your Charon is also in Gemini, so we both have Chiron and Gemini. So we both have our deepest wound in communic.

Oh, my God. Yes.

And I. I don't know how to tie in lavender. Except lavender is Gemini. Like, you know, maybe it will help.

So all those things that you were saying about you, fearing that you come off as not knowledgeable and lack of confidence in communicating and that kind of thing, like, that would also apply to me, kind of.

Except yours is in the 11th House, which represents not work, but groups, friends groups, groups of people. So while My wound might be more about my career. Yours is communication within groups, friends, communities, social circles. And you might have felt very misunderstood, ignored or out of place when sharing your ideas or trying to connect intellectually with other people. You might have felt excluded or struggled to express yourself in social settings, or maybe not taken seriously. It's a similar thing, but since the house is different, it's a little bit like.

Yeah, it's like applied. It's like a different context.

Yeah, yeah.

Similar circumstances, but within a different context.

Exactly. So, but then putting us together, like, how does it work that we're both, you know, doing this podcast and, and have this similar Gemini wound.

I can only imagine how much, how these things could manifest.

Well, like, like wounds are always potential for growth. And we're so old now, so hopefully we've grown. We can kind of complement each other. You might feel more validated or uplifted by my like, confidence or career driven confidence around communication, but you, you could help me build kind of community or speak my truth more clearly. So when I was looking this up, it says so potential collaboration. The first thing that comes up is co create a project that brings people together. Like a podcast event or blog.

It says like a podcast.

It says like a podcast.

That's so funny.

We can help amplify each other's voices. Well, I'll step into leadership and you'll ensure the message is thoughtful, human and community aware. And then we can heal each other by, by me finding my voice publicly and you feeling heard and needed in the group.

And the, the group being like the general gardening community? I think so.

I mean, in this one, it's like our podcast listeners or even just feeling, feeling heard on, on this podcast when we talk with each other. That's kind of the, the zodiac thing I came up with for lavender. But there's also a little bit of folklore I want to talk about with lavender. In 1912, Lady Northcote wrote in a book, Book of Herblore, that in Spain and Portugal, lavender was used as a strewing herb on the floors of churches and was tossed on a bonfire to avert evil spirits on St. John's Day. Oh, John. When is St. John's Day?

It's June 24th.

Did. Is it really?

Yeah.

I've never heard of it.

Look it up.

I've never heard of it.

Look it up.

I figured you would know. Well, next.

Look it up.

Next.

I want, I want to see our face.

I believe you. I like if, if there was a St. Jeanette's Day, I think I would know about it. Even if they did add an extra h, it is June 24.

But the reason why I know is not because my name is John, because my name is actually Jonathan, is because it's the national holiday of Quebec, St. John Baptist Day. So it's June 24th. It's like the national holiday of Quebec.

Well, throw lavender on your floor on that day to avert evil spirits. Okay, next. Jam. Jam. So I have two kind of uses for lavender. One, I really forced myself to create this because you know how I like. I don't finish anything. And so when I saw this lavender vinegar recipe in the book that I used to research this, I was like, I'm gonna make this, and I'm gonna make it before we record. And I did it.

And you did.

I did it. So the reason I was really into it is because it had purple in the recipe, and I've been growing purple basil, and I don't know why I'm growing it or what I'm going to do with it. So I was like, finally, something for purple basil. But it's a very simple recipe. For lavender vinegar, use white vinegar, purple basil, two stems of lavender, a stem of rosemary, and six fat blueberries. Sterilize your. Your bottle. I used a mason jar. Pour about, like, 8 ounces. I doubled it. I did 16. And then fill it almost to the top. Cut the herb stems so they fit upright so you're not breaking them down or. Or cutting them, and put them in the bottle. Let it set for two weeks before using it, shaking it occasionally. And so that purple basil will infuse the vinegar with, like, a rosy glow, and then you keep it refrigerated.

And what kind of vinegar do you use?

Just white vinegar.

Just a plain white vinegar.

Yeah. And it says, keep refrigerated. So I don't know if I'm supposed to keep it refrigerated from when I make it or from when I open it again. I think I'll just refrigerate it now.

Yeah, I would refrigerate it because the acidity might change if you're putting blueberries.

Yeah.

Whole blueberries in it. So might as well put it in the fridge.

Yeah. In this book, too. Besides that, I also found a recipe for lavender honey pound cake. It was like a. So I bought the book used from thriftbooks.com and it was funny because I was in the back. And then the little, like, old newspaper article came out, and it was a cutout lavender honey pound cake from whenever people still had newspapers. I Don't think people, like, write down recipes from podcasts. So basically, just if you're gonna make a pound cake, a honey pound cake, think add some lavender to the dry parts, like the salt.

So the lavender flowers are kind of, like, baked into the pound cake?

Yeah, about a teaspoon of lavender flowers. And then the glaze has 2 teaspoons butter, tablespoon of lavender honey, and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, which sounds really good. I'm really into, like, lavender lemonade right now.

I'm so hungry right now.

I know. Me too.

Awesome. Thanks, Jeanette, for all your knowledge on lavender.

Yeah. Well, last thing.

What, John.

Lavender zero to Xanax.

So the score would be valerian in that, you know, you had said that the scale isn't actually.

Yeah, it's not a scale.

You know, it has a very subtle kind of effect. Yeah, right. So calming. Yeah. Does it work? No, but, yeah, it could be. It could be that it works for you.

Yeah. Yeah. I give it a. I think I give it four stars and not so much that it works that, you know, if I, like, sniff a little bit, I fall asleep and I don't have a panic attack. But for me, the stuff that comes along with lavender, the gardening, the, you know, propagating, the harvesting, making my vinegar, you know, all of that is just, like, very relaxing. And there must be something in me that, during that really stressful time, made me keep buying lavender, only to realize I was doing it to, like, calm down somehow. Calm down. So four stars.

It's a pretty high or low.

It's out of 100.

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Bye, sluts. Wait, I hate my voice.

Bye, sluts.