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Relished Garden

Relished Garden

By: Claire Lidell Hanna
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Welcome to The Relished Garden, where we have conversations about the intersection between your garden and your life. Hosted by Claire Lidell Hanna, founder and award-winning designer of Relish Gardens, this podcast explores everything from garden design, seasonal maintenance, food, preserving, and creating spaces for connection.

Gardening doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. You can grow cut flowers without having a flower farm, preserve food without selling your house and moving to a homestead, and care for your garden while still making time for the rest of your life. We share real stories from the gardens we design and maintain for clients—plus practical, approachable ideas to help you create personal garden spaces that are beautiful, functional, and uniquely yours.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed or like your garden just isn’t coming together, this show is for you. Let’s talk about how to design a space you love—and how to truly relish your garden, season after season.

Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Episodes
  • 14: How I Unlock Garden Design Inspiration from Unexpected Places to Design Personalized Gardens

    14: How I Unlock Garden Design Inspiration from Unexpected Places to Design Personalized Gardens
    Jan 6 2026

    I've been thinking a lot about where inspiration actually comes from. Not just where I find it, but where anyone finds it. And here's what I keep coming back to: garden design inspiration doesn't have to come from other gardens or even from plants. Some of my favorite inspiration comes from totally unexpected places. A dress. A meal. A painting hanging in someone's living room. Because at the end of the day, gardens are personal, intimate spaces where life happens and memories are built. So today, I'm walking you through my actual process for finding design inspiration anywhere and translating it into gardens that feel unique to the people who live there.

    In this episode, I cover:

    • How to filter through the flood of New Year’s inspiration without wiping the slate clean or throwing out what you already love
    • Why looking beyond plants and gardens for inspiration and paying attention to what lights you up might be the key to designing spaces that feel personal
    • How the things you've curated in your home are clues to what you love, and why I start every design project by walking through my clients' homes
    • How to train your eye to see design elements everywhere by breaking things down into color, texture, shape, and line to distill patterns
    • Silly but intentional thought exercises (like designing a garden based on a Crunchwrap Supreme) that help unlock creativity and find inspiration in very unexpected places

    Resources:

    • The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden by Roy Diblik

    Shop our full list of favorite books at https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-relish-gardens. Every purchase supports independent bookstores.

    Some of the links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. We only share things we genuinely love, use, and trust in our day-to-day garden work.

    Connect with Us:

    • Free Winter Gardening Guide
    • Relish Gardens Website
    • Follow us on Instagram
    • Follow us on YouTube

    If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe. We've got new episodes every week. And if you know gardening friends who would 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.
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    18 mins
  • 13: The Garden Books I Return to Year After Year

    13: The Garden Books I Return to Year After Year
    Dec 30 2025
    We're in planning season, and this is when I pull out all my books and start developing ideas for the year ahead. I'm not a coffee table book kind of person. My books are dog-eared, written in, stuffed with pieces of paper. They're used and loved. Some came from my grandpa's collection, others I've picked up over the years, but if a book stays on my shelf, it's because I refer to it over and over, or because it's worth lending out. Today I'm walking through the books that have earned their permanent spot in my garden library, and the new ones I am currently reading through. These are the books that help me think more deeply about plants, connect ideas in the garden, and plan how I actually want to use my space. In this episode, I cover: Why I still choose books over endless internet searches, and what curated knowledge offers that Google can'tHow I've built a working reference library as a gardener and cook, and what makes a book worth keepingThe different roles books play: broad inspiration, deep plant-specific knowledge, and seasonal living guidesHow plant-obsessed authors give you a window into their passion and help you see familiar plants in completely new waysWhy seasonal cookbooks aren't just about food—they're about understanding what's happening in the garden and connecting to placeHow regional cooking traditions can mirror your own climate and offer unexpected insight into what grows well where you live Key moments: 00:00:00 - Why I Love Books The ritual of planning season, family influence, and why books are working tools that earn their place 00:05:01 - Essential Garden References The foundational books I return to: plant ID, regional guides, and maintenance basics 00:08:09 - Plant-Specific Deep Dives How books about roses and pansies help you see familiar plants in completely new ways 00:12:41 - Foraging: Learning About Plants I'll Never Grow Building a collection of foraging books from around the world and why I love them 00:16:22 - Cooking and Living a Seasonal Life Seasonal cookbooks that connect what's in the garden to what's on the table 00:18:47 - Closing Thoughts Pull out the books you already love and give them another look Books Mentioned: Shop our full list at https://bookshop.org/lists/favorite-books-relish-gardens Every purchase supports independent bookstores. Plant Identification and Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary by James G. HarrisPacific Northwest Month-by-Month Gardening: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year by Christina Pfeiffer and Mary RobsonTilth Alliance’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide from Seattle TilthCass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning: What, When, Where, and How to Prune for a More Beautiful Garden by Cass TurnbullPansies: How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas by Brenna EstradaRoses in the Garden by Ngoc Minh NgoGardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest by Arthur R. Kruckeberg and Linda Chalker-ScottThe Kitchen Diaries by Nigel SlaterThe Christmas Chronicles by Nigel SlaterSaving the Season by Kevin WestForgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina AllenEat Weeds: A Field Guide to Foraging: How to Identify, Harvest, Eat and Use Wild Plants by Diego Bonetto Some of the links are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. We only share things we genuinely love, use, and trust in our day-to-day garden work. Connect with Us Relish Gardens WebsiteFREE Guide - What to do in your winter gardenFollow us on InstagramFollow us on YouTube If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a fellow gardener who might be building their own library. And if you have garden books you love and return to, I'd love to hear about them—I'm always looking for new inspiration. Until next time, I hope you find something in your garden to truly relish.
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    20 mins
  • 12: Winter Garden Reflections: Rhythms That Anchor Us Through Time

    12: Winter Garden Reflections: Rhythms That Anchor Us Through Time
    Dec 23 2025

    There's something really grounding about returning to the same rhythms year after year. Showing up for the season. Showing up for yourself and the people around you. We set out to talk about seasonal rhythms in the garden, but what we ended up exploring is how those rhythms actually inform life, how repetition becomes ritual, and how those rituals anchor us through time.

    In this episode, Nicole (my podcast producer and Relish Gardens marketing extraordinaire) joins me to share how she uses nature-based activities to help her kids connect to the season.

    Winter is a good moment to reflect on which activities you keep in your life, which ones you prioritize, and why you value them. Because it's those small things, the ones you return to again and again, that create real connection.

    In this episode, I cover:
    • How traditions and seasonal rhythms ground us through the passage of time and connect us across years
    • The mindset shift from seeing storm debris as a chore to getting excited about materials for winter pots and bonfires
    • Nicole's approach to "microdosing anticipation" for her kids through nature-based advent calendar activities
    • How putting the garden to bed creates space for both reflection on the past year and anticipation for what's coming
    Resources
    • Free Winter Gardening Guide
    • Frog Pond Farm (Oregon)
    Connect with Us
    • Relish Gardens Website
    • Follow us on Instagram
    • Follow us on YouTube

    If you loved this episode, subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you know a gardening friend who'd appreciate this conversation, 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.
    Show More Show Less
    16 mins
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