Relished Garden

4: Garden Maintenance Without the Overwhelm: Simple shifts to reduce work and make space for joy

If you’ve ever found yourself dreading garden maintenance or wondering why it’s starting to feel like a burden, you’re not alone. In this episode, I’m talking about what happens when we shift the way we think about maintenance and why it doesn’t have to feel like a never-ending to-do list.
Instead of aiming for perfection or pretending you’ll suddenly have hours every weekend, I want to help you build a garden that works with your life as it is now. We’ll talk about setting a maintenance budget, how to limit high-maintenance plants, and why focusing your energy in just a few high-impact areas can free you up to enjoy the rest. With a few smart swaps and honest expectations, you really can reduce the overwhelm and still love what you see outside your window.
In this episode, I cover:
How to shift your mindset around garden maintenance so it feels less like a chore
What a maintenance budget really means and how to plan your garden around the time you actually have
Smart plant choices and placement strategies that help reduce ongoing upkeep
How to prioritize high-impact or high-traffic areas for the most impactful use of your time
The role of editing in garden design and why removing what’s not working creates more ease
Why only 10 percent of your plants should be high-maintenance divas, and smart swaps to hold a space with less work
Connect with Us
Relish Gardens Website
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on YouTube
If you loved this conversation, make sure to subscribe. We’ve got new episodes every week.
And if you know a gardening friend who’d love this, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.
Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.
 

3: Not Loving Your Garden? How Observation and Data Can Help Fix What Feels Off

Have you ever stood in your garden and thought, “Something feels off" or "This just isn’t working anymore”? Whether it’s subtle discontent or full-on frustration, that nagging feeling is often a sign that something needs to shift. In this episode, we’re diving into how to observe your space more critically, using both aesthetic cues and horticultural data, to understand what’s not serving you and what to do about it.
You’ll also hear from Stevie, one of our longtime Relish horticulturists, about how we assess gardens in the field, from overgrown chaos to subtle color clashes. Together, we’ll walk through how to look with intention, ask the right questions, and start making meaningful, doable changes.
In this episode, we cover:
How stepping back and observing can shift your perspective and make more analytical decisions in your garden.
Practical ways to evaluate plant health, layout, and color palette so you can make confident choices in your garden
How life transitions often trigger the need for a garden reassessment
How we use data and observation in the gardens we care for.
Connect with Us
Relish Gardens Website
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Youtube
If you loved this conversation, make sure to subscribe—we’ve got new episodes every week. 
And if you know a gardening friend who’d love this, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.
Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish. 

2: Fall in the Garden - Maintenance Tasks and Seasonal Rituals We Return to Every Year

Welcome back to The Relished Garden Podcast. Today I’m joined by Stevie, my right hand and a horticulturalist at Relish Gardens, as we talk about why fall isn’t the end of the gardening season, and is actually the start of next year's garden. We’re sharing insights from the gardens we care for, how we approach seasonal transitions, and what you can do now to shape your garden for next spring. Think of this as your nudge to not head inside just yet. Fall is the time to assess your space while it’s still fresh and make changes that will set you up for a garden you love next year.
In this episode, we cover:
Why fall is "go time" in the garden and how it sets the foundation for seasons ahead
What maintenance tasks we focus on in the fall, from mulching and transplanting to editing and assessing your space
How we like to refresh our containers in the fall
The seasonal rituals we love most this time of year, from dried flower arrangements to turning garden harvests into soup, and how these simple acts can bring people together
Resources Mentioned
Get our Free Fall Gardening Guide
Connect with Us
Relish Gardens Website
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Youtube
If you loved this conversation, make sure to subscribe—we’ve got new episodes every week. 
And if you know a gardening friend who’d love this, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.
Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish. 

1: My Gardening Philosophy for Growing a Beautiful Life

Welcome to the very first episode of The Relished Garden Podcast! I’m Claire, and I’m so glad you’re here.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing the path that led me to start Relish Gardens, where we build and maintain beautiful gardens in the Seattle region. In this episode, I reflect on how early creative obsessions like building Barbie dream houses, rearranging my bedroom, and watching Martha Stewart shaped what it means to create a beautiful life. I walk through how beauty, food, and community shaped my philosophy of living a garden-centered life, and why gardening still feels like a form of play.
In this episode, I cover:
The way a childhood love of fashion, design, and creating beautiful spaces eventually led me to garden design
What it was like growing up in Northern California with access to homegrown food, and how that sparked a lifelong love of edible gardening and seasonal eating
Why gardening feels like play, and how it gives me the same sense of satisfaction I got from playing as a kid
How reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver helped reshape my ideas about homesteading and led me toward a more community-sufficiency approach to growing food
Why creating beautiful spaces has always felt essential to me, and how early influences like Martha Stewart helped me see the power of everyday aesthetics
Connect with Us
Relish Gardens Website
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Youtube
If you loved this conversation, make sure to subscribe—we’ve got new episodes every week. 
And if you know a gardening friend who’d love this, send it their way. Sharing the show helps grow our little garden-loving community.
Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish. 

Welcome to the Relished Garden Podcast!

Join us weekly for discussions about garden design, seasonal garden maintenance, food preservation, and how to create a garden that supports how you actually live. 
Hosted by Claire Lidell Hanna, an award-winning designer and founder of Relish Gardens, this podcast is for real people growing real gardens, without the pressure or overwhelm. Let’s dig in.