Get it on Google Play

Garden Inspired Cocktails and Mocktails for Joyful Living

Garden Inspired Cocktails and Mocktails for Joyful Living

Author: Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness August 4, 2026 Duration: 1:06:19
Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care
LeisureEducationGardenHealthHealth & FitnessHome

We often talk about garden-to-table, but what about garden-to-glass? AKA how to grow plants for garden inspired cocktails, and all the ways to turn a harvest into something delicious, regardless if you drink alcohol or not. I spent a full year not drinking, first through fertility treatments and then through pregnancy. And I learned that the mocktail section of most menus is a trap. Everything is so sweet that you finish it in about 90 seconds. And then I met Belinda and Venise at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. They're sisters, they're plant ladies, and they run a garden-to-glass syrup company called Simple Goodness Sisters. They also wrote the book called Drink Your Garden. In this episode, they share different ways you can enjoy your garden harvest in easy yet delicious cocktail and mocktail recipes. Let's dive in!

 

In this episode, we learn:

  • [02:46] Meet Belinda and Venise of Simple Goodness Sisters!
  • [03:26] How did their syrup business begin?
  • [06:29] Venise's homesteading story
  • [10:49] What the farm grows for the business vs. for their families
  • [13:52] What counts as a cocktail garden?
  • [15:29] Home Greenhouse Revival by Leslie Halleck
  • [17:07] How to use edible flowers
  • [18:18] Which edible flowers are easiest to grow?
  • [21:33] What actually belongs in a cocktail garden
  • [22:41] Why purple sage and mojito mint taste better in drinks
  • [23:49] Rows vs. interplanting, reusable mulch
  • [27:05] Building a bar cart from your garden
  • [29:32] Why they wrote the book they couldn't find
  • [30:34] What is a syrup and how do you make one?
  • [32:06] Their favorite syrups
  • [36:09] What is a shrub and how do you drink it?
  • [38:57] Beet shrub showstopper
  • [40:05] How to make a blue mocktail for a baby shower
  • [40:48] Tinctures vs. bitters
  • [42:42] How an infused spirit becomes a liqueur
  • [44:59] Buzz button gin, cherry bourbon, and Midnight at the movies
  • [49:03] Travel syrups hack!
  • [52:06] Cordials, and balancing sweet, sour, bitter, and spirit
  • [53:00] What to gift a gin-obsessed dad, and why you might just dislike tonic
  • [55:00] How to make your own compound gin at home
  • [56:38] Garnishing like a container garden (thriller, filler, spiller, and powdered rims)
  • [58:30] Braided chives, pickled garnishes, and drinks you can snack on
  • [1:00:10] Where to find Belinda, Venise, the book, and the Farm Club subscription box!
  • [1:02:47] The herbal lemonade and blue spritz I served at my baby shower

 

Mentioned in our conversation:

 

For Belinda and Venise's scrumptious cocktail recipes,

check out the full show notes and blog here!

 

Follow Simple Goodness Sisters:

Website
Instagram
YouTube
Recipes

 

Thank you to our episode sponsor:

Quarto: Home Greenhouse Revival by Leslie F. Halleck

Home Greenhouse Revival is available for pre-order now at quarto.com and launches in September. Pre-order your copy wherever books are sold or through your local bookstore.

 

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

Order my book: Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants)by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

Take the Plant Parent Personality Quiz (Get the perfect plants, projects and educational resources for YOUR Lifestyle)

Support Growing Joy with Maria by becoming a Plant Friend on Patreon!

Instagram: @growingjoywithmaria

Tiktok: @growingjoywithmaria

Subscribe to the Growing Joy YouTube channel! /growingjoywithmaria

Website: www.growingjoywithmaria.com

Pinterest: @growingjoywithmaria


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.


There’s a quiet, accessible kind of wellness waiting for you on a windowsill or in a patch of soil. Growing Joy with Plants explores that very idea, moving beyond basic tips to examine how our relationship with the natural world directly nurtures our mental and emotional health. Hosted by Maria Failla, a self-proclaimed Happy Plant Lady and author of "Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness," this podcast feels like a warm conversation with a knowledgeable friend. Maria guides you through the practicalities of keeping your houseplants alive and thriving, but the discussion always circles back to the deeper connection-how the simple acts of watering, repotting, or simply observing growth can become anchors of calm in a hectic day. Each episode digs into how gardening and engaging with nature, even in small urban spaces, offer tangible tools to manage feelings of anxiety and overwhelm. This isn't about achieving a perfect indoor jungle; it's about finding moments of peace and genuine happiness through the process of care. The underlying message throughout the podcast is a powerful and gentle reminder: tending to your plants is fundamentally an act of tending to yourself. You’ll come away with not just better plant care knowledge, but a refreshed perspective on cultivating joy in your daily routine, learning that the serenity you might seek on vacation can be rooted right in your own home.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Official website RSS
instagramyoutubetiktokspotify
Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care
Podcast Episodes
All My Plants are Dead [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:31
So, plant friends… all my plants are dead. Well, not all of them. But MANY of them. I had a baby in June, and my houseplants did not survive my postpartum era. What’s interesting is that I've heard from listeners who wen…
Motherhood, Seasons of Life and Changing Plant Passions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:54
Did you know that Becca from Becca De La Plants and I delivered our babies 24 hours and 3 minutes apart?! We didn't plan that. We've been friends for almost 10 years now, and the first time we hung out, she was planning…
Listen to This Before You Buy a Greenhouse! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:59
Have you fallen down the greenhouse rabbit hole yet, plant friends? If you've had plants for more than a year, you're probably like me, who's started Googling "how to put a greenhouse in my backyard" already. And I learn…
The Secret Language of Flowers Every Plant Lover Should Know [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:15
How can we use flowers to further connect with nature and with the world? My mom once photocopied an entire flower dictionary for me from the thick pages of The Language of Flowers. I loved that she did it, but then I ne…
Elevate Your Interior Decor with Plants: A Plant Design Crash Course [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:14
What if the fewer the plants, the bigger the impact? Right now my house is a construction zone, and my plants are on their own. I have an eight-week-old baby, a '70s house we gutted mid-pregnancy, and a carpeted garage.…
How to Tell Time with Your Garden (And Not a Watch) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:51
Is it possible to tell time with your garden? Apparently, birds and plants can tell us what time of day it is! When we recorded this episode, I was in my third trimester, so sometimes I would be up at 2 AM whether I like…
How to Propagate Pothos and Other Vining Indoor Plants [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:29
We're going back to basics today on how to propagate pothos, plant friends! It's one of the simplest things you can do as a plant parent. And pothos is probably the easiest plant to propagate, which is exactly why it's w…

12345»