Welcome to the Inside Outside podcast. I'm Jessica Mernan, author, horticultural therapy practitioner

and founder of Basker, where I help people use gardening

in nature for mental, emotional, physical, and social well-being. As much as I need to be in the

garden. I also need to watch TV, read books, go down Reddit rabbit holes. So I merge my two loves,

the outside and the inside together each week

with my guest. Before we get to today's guest, as always, I share a reason why I like to grow

and in no particular order. Reason number six of why I like to grow things. It saves me so much money on plants and flowers.

If I were to go to a nursery and pay for all the things in my garden, couldn't do that.

I was spending like a grand each season, but I can buy a pack of seeds for anywhere between

two and five dollars or trade seeds with a friend for free.

And if it's a cut and come again flower, I might be able to get a hundred flowers out of a pack of seeds.

I mean, obviously, time to nurture it and things like that.

That's a fun part.

And then after they've grown, I can go outside and cut a bouquet for

gifts, which also saves me money. So reason number six of why I like to grow, it saves me so much money on

plants and flowers. All right, today's guess. Karen Azulai, she is so smart. I love her book so much. We'll be talking about that. She is

Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based artist and author. Her projects have been featured in New York Times,

New Yorker, hyperalurgic and vogue. Her book Flowers and Their Meanings, The Secret Language and History of

600 Blooms, was selected by Barnes & Noble's as one of the best books of 2023.

One of the huge reasons why I wanted to have Karen on, I mean besides that she's awesome,

she truly knows so much about flowers, but she doesn't have the space to have a garden herself.

So she explores her love of flowers and plants in different ways, which she shares about in this episode.

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