012 First Garden? Tips for Success! Gardening Can Be Your "New Normal" for Health and Happiness.

Show Transcript

Ep. #12 First Garden TRANSCRIPT

Farmer Fred  0:12  

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information well you've come to the right spot. Those of you who are familiar with my garden radio shows here in Northern California, which I've been doing since 1982. might be wondering, well, what's the reason for this podcast? Well, even though I'm fond of saying all gardening is local Garden Basics with Farmer Fred will be reaching out to gardeners wherever they may happen to be. With garden tips and growing advice that apply just about anywhere, we'll strive to explain garden jargon and terms anyone can understand. And we'll be talking to garden experts from throughout the world who will share their vast plant and soil knowledge with us. And we'll be answering your gardening questions. Think of us as your one room schoolhouse for growing your backyard garden of fruits, vegetables, and oh yeah flowers that attract the garden good guys, beneficial insects and pollinators. And we'll have some fun too.

Farmer Fred  1:15  

Are you new to gardening, or maybe you just want to learn some better ways to garden? Well, this is the episode for you. College horticulture Professor Debbie Flower has tips to make your first garden a Successful Garden. And for you more experienced gardeners, we have tips that can make your garden more productive. Or actually, to put it more bluntly, you're going to be learning from the previous mistakes of two gardeners with over 100 years of experience. Also, there's a lot of worry and concern about what will become our new normal way of life for 2020 and beyond. Well, we're going to suggest a new normal for you. It can ease your worries and keep you smiling. Oh get your imagination out of the gutter. It involves gardening. it's Episode 12 of Garden Basics with Farmer Fred and We're gonna do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.

Farmer Fred  2:07  

Here on the garden basics podcast we know a lot of you are gardening for the first time Welcome to the show. Let's help you out and get that first garden off to a good start. I guess we could call this episode Do as I say not as I do or learn from our mistakes and that's what you'll be doing you're gonna be learning from our mistakes our being myself here and our in house college professor of horticulture Debbie Flower is here, sheltered in place, but but here is as close as can be. Right? All right.

Debbie Flower  2:39  

Hi, Fred.

Farmer Fred  2:40  

Debbie. Let's get people off to a good start on their garden. And I think one of the main things just like real estate, its location, location, location.

Debbie Flower  2:51  

Yeah, that's really really really important. Because you to keep it top of mind. So you need to see it on a regular So the place you put that garden needs to be somewhere that you're going to see it regularly, like daily.

Farmer Fred  3:08  

put it where you can see it out a window of a room that you're in frequently a kitchen, a dining room a patio, don't don't put it behind the garage, or you're not going to see it and forget about it. You want to be able to see it to remind you to go out and do something,

Debbie Flower  3:21  

right. Especially if it's your first because you're not you're not in the habit of checking on it every day.  And it's easier to harvest from there as well.

Farmer Fred  3:30  

Yeah, exactly. Location also includes Well, how much sun does that area get? most food crops if you're growing for food and even for most of flowers that attract pollinators and beneficial insects, so theylike lots of sun.

Debbie Flower  3:45  

Okay, sure do.

Farmer Fred  3:46  

But exactly what is lots of sun?

Debbie Flower  3:49  

Yeah, the sun comes in all kinds of qualities, doesn't it?

Farmer Fred  3:52  

Yes, it does.

Debbie Flower  3:53  

The rule of thumb for when you're growing something that you want to produce seed, so That's going to produce a fruit like a tomato or a cucumber. You want to receive eight hours of unobstructed sunlight, so there are no shadows in that sunlight. If you're growing for the root like a carrot or a beet, or you're growing for the greens, like a lettuce or even beet greens then six hours of unobstructed Sun is important. A lot of the places especially in summer, a lot of places in the US get more than that. And more than that is okay in many cases, but in some very hot climates, you may you may even want to consider some afternoon shade.

Farmer Fred  4:38  

That's a very good idea. I have fried more than one tomato plant by having it up against a south facing fence and also having a Western exposure.

Debbie Flower  4:48  

Yes, that's something to consider is not just the sun that's coming from the sky but the sun that may be reflecting off of in my case I have a stucco, light colored stucco wall on the exterior of my house. And that reflects, it faces south and that reflects right into the garden and has caused more than one shriveled up vegetable on the vine. All gardening is local and your yard is different from my yard, which is different from the yard down the street, you will have things go wrong. And think of those things, I still have things go wrong. Think of those things as as learning experiences.

Farmer Fred  5:25  

Yeah, exactly. And it's, and even, you know, we may sound like we're hectoring you about eight hours of sun or six hours of sun, maybe you don't quite get six. Give it a try anyway, see what happens. I mean, if you want to grow tomatoes, and you know you don't have eight hours of sun, maybe it is five or six hours, we'll try cherry tomatoes, they usually can thrive in less light,

Debbie Flower  5:50  

right. There are many, many different kinds of tomatoes and sometimes the name of that tomato can really help you decide if it's going to work in your garden. If it's called Polar Bear read are something which is an would be an odd name, but the idea of having polar bear and it would indicate to me that it's going to grow better and cooler environments. And what would be a name for? I don't know if there is a name for one that grows particularly well in a hotter climate, but there are tomato cultivars, they're called that grow better in different environments, more sun, less sun, colder places, colder soils, warmer soils,

Farmer Fred  6:30  

there are a lot of good low growing tomato varieties too. For those of you who want a garden and maybe you don't have a regular backyard, maybe all you have is a patio and you want to grow on the patio you certainly can in large containers with good potting soil and a patio that gets again, good sun six hours, eight hours sun for main seasons, summer crops. You know, that's okay. Just think about your patio and think about drainage and where the water is going to go.

Debbie Flower  7:00  

And you mentioned that container, large container largest, you know, a relative term, and bigger is better. In this case, I save the containers when I buy a plant and put it into my landscape and containers come in sizes. People call them one gallon, it's just really a number one, or number two, or number five, or a number 15, I would go right to that 15 or to the half wine barrel. If I were going to grow a tomato in my garden, and I'd make sure that it has drain holes. And if it's black plastic, I would paint it white, or wrap it in aluminum foil, because that black plastic will absorb that sun that that tomato is needing to grow and make that media that is in the container very hot and the roots will die on that side of the pot.

Farmer Fred  7:52  

I think we've all had that experience of forgetting to water on a really hot day and we've you know it dawns on us that, Oh yeah, you can get 140 degrees in that soil if it's getting unobstructed sun on 100 degree day and it doesn't take much to kill that plant,

Debbie Flower  8:08  

you know about a half hour of that and that at least half of that the root system has gone. something to consider.

Farmer Fred  8:14  

either like you say painted a lighter color or surround the pots with something, other pots or cardboard or something just to protect the black plastic from getting hit direct by the sun's rays.

Debbie Flower  8:26  

Yes, very important.

Farmer Fred  8:28  

All right. So we've learned we can grow on a patio, we've learned that we can grow in garden soil and out and out in the open. And for those who may have poor soil, they may want to build raised beds and I think that's a fine idea. But don't overdo it.

Debbie Flower  8:45  

Meaning?

Farmer Fred  8:46  

meaning don't make them too wide or you want to be able to reach halfway across the bed. And in my experience, a raised bed can be any length you want, but keep it at three or four feet wide. That way you can easily sit on the edge if you make it out of wood. You can sit on the edge and pull weeds or pull the crops from the middle of the bed without us having to step in the bed.

Debbie Flower  9:09  

Yes, very important. Having paths when you're going to set up a vegetable garden, designating paths is a good thing to do. I only have my first official raised bed in my current garden. I'm in my seventh decade of life. All this time I've had gardens everywhere I've lived but all I did was shovel the soil out from what I designated the path and up onto the growing what I used is the growing bed so it was a little bit raised. That helps with drainage, it helps and when the soil is well drained, the roots are happier and the soil warms up a little bit more quickly. It extends the growing season just a hair earlier in the spring and later into the fall. Then I know exactly where my paths are there, this this lower spot between them and that confines my footsteps to that location. And then I can design the space around that

Farmer Fred  10:02  

I'm a functional guy too. And when I build raised beds, I make sure there is at least four feet between each of the beds. So I can easily move a wheelbarrow through or to be able to put a ramp on the side of one of the raised beds and be able to wheelbarrow up compost or new soil into that bed.

Debbie Flower  10:21  

So you have raised beds that are on your field soil on your regular yard soil, didn't you buy more soil to bring in or how did you fill your bed?

Farmer Fred  10:30  

I spent money on decent soil because of the fact that I'd say 50% of my soil is rocks and you know rocks really have very little nutritional value for plants. So I bought good soil but I was sure to mix in a couple of inches of that new soil with the existing soil so that there would be better drainage.

Debbie Flower  10:53  

So you created a transition zone between the soil you purchased and put on top of your soil. soil that exists on your property by tilling in a couple of inches of your new soil into the into your field soil. Right?

Farmer Fred  11:09  

Actually I did it by hand with a spading fork, which is a which is a handy tool to have a spading fork is just as the name would describe it has thick tines, usually three or four tines that are maybe an inch or so wide. And it's great for clay soil for getting in and digging in clay soil. If you have clay soil, you know how hard it is to dig with a shovel, especially in the dry summer months. And a spading fork makes much easier work of that.

Debbie Flower  11:36  

And it also goes around rocks more easily than say a regular shovel.

Farmer Fred  11:40  

right yeah, so it's it's a very handy tool to have. But getting back to the drainage issue. If I hadn't mixed the two soils together what would happen?

Debbie Flower  11:50  

the water would enter the top of your raised bed, work its way down to the bottom if you applied enough and it would just come out at the bottom and puddle on the ground around the raised bed,

Farmer Fred  12:01  

so it wouldn't be going any deeper into the existing soil. And that means the roots wouldn't be going any deeper on those plants.

Debbie Flower  12:09  

correct? Yes, yes. So you can take advantage of your raised bed doesn't have to be really tall. In order for you to have deep roots. deep roots are protective for the plant, the deeper the roots go, they'll only go where there's enough water and oxygen, but if they can go feet deep on a tomato plant, if the water and oxygen are there, and that the deeper they go, the more moderate the temperatures are in the water conditions and so it's an easier place for the roots to grow and the plant has a much less stressful life. So deeper roots, encouraging deeper roots in the vegetable garden is a really positive thing

Farmer Fred  12:48  

for you Germans listening who want more details and as a German I understand what you're talking about. Yes, you want details about raised beds. Well, mine are 16 inches high. They run anywhere from either four feet long to eight feet long. I've had raised beds in the past that were 20 feet long. But again, none of them were more than three or four feet wide, used 2"x8" redwoods and secured them every five feet with four by four posts. And then topped those two by eights with two by sixes to have a comfortable place to sit. And it's so you if you have a party in your garden, you've got a place for people to sit if we're allowed to have parties in the future.

Debbie Flower  13:30  

Yeah, yeah, I don't have the cap on mine. That would be very nice. Mine are very similar.

Farmer Fred  13:38  

The one I think drawback to raised beds and you have to consider it is when you're watering it you're going to have to apply water over a greater area especially if you're using a drip system. Because water in a raised bed is going to go down very narrowly. the footprint it leaves may only be eight or nine inches in diameter per one gallon emitter, whereas in your regular soil, if it's got some clay into it, that footprint could be up to 18 inches wide. So don't skimp on the lines that run the length of your bed. If you're using drip irrigation lines, I would suggest one per foot.

Debbie Flower  14:17  

Yeah, that's the pattern of that drip, that wetting front, from that drip line is dependent on the texture of the soil. And when you purchase topsoil, it's often as much as 20% organic matter. And that's lots more organic matter than is found in most fields, soils, and field soils run if we're lucky two to 3% organic matter. Unless a crazy gardener has mulched there for years and years. But there aren't that many of us out there are there? So typically, my raised bed is made primarily with field soil.

Farmer Fred  14:56  

Well, yeah, yours are mounds, right?

Debbie Flower  14:58  

Well, no, this one is a raised bed. As the first one I've ever had raised bed with wood with Redwood, my old ones were all field soil, and I would just mulch on top it would introduce organic matter on the as mulch. In this case, we dug soil out of a hole, dug a hole in the yard, I needed that for drainage for another reason, and pile that soil up and mixed in probably again about 20% organic matter by hand with a shovel and then formed the bed out of that. But I'm using I'm using a micro emitter to water in my garden but I'm using a spray micro emitter so that I get a pattern over all of the surface I get water over the entire surface of the raised bed.

Farmer Fred  15:41  

Yeah, that's a good that's a good answer to that issue. We brought up the micro emitters of this they set out either send a little fingers of water or a spray of water it could be 180 degrees or 90 degrees or a 360 degree pattern and it puts out a lot more water than your typical drip irrigation system. one gallon emitter puts out as you would guess one gallon per hour whereas the sprayers can put out anywhere from eight to 12 gallons per hour, which still is much better than your typical sprinkler system

Debbie Flower  16:11  

and it keeps it low keeps it low to the ground.

Farmer Fred  16:14  

It's always a good idea though of two or three times per season to open up the end caps on any drip irrigation system open up the end caps run the system for five minutes to flush out any impurities that might be in the system especially if you have calcium in the water that can start clogging up heads eventually but get in the habit of flushing a drip irrigation system on a regular basis.

Debbie Flower  16:38  

Yes, places like Minneapolis said have lots of calcium in the water might have trouble with that kind of system. Never want to use treated water. I'm aware that in the Minneapolis area, almost all domestic water is treated is softened is and the softeners use salt to displace the calcium it takes the place of the calcium in the chemical structure of the water. And the problem is that the salt used to soften quote unquote soften the water will kill plants. So there has to be a different source of water. And often there's the outside spigots are not attached to the water softener system, and then the irrigation system will have to accommodate that buildup of calcium. And people might be cringing about this talk of drip systems. They might use soaker hoses, the ones I've used with that look like they're made from tires and ooze water. The bed has to be incredibly flat, because the water all the water comes out in the low spot. Yeah, it's not low to your eye. As soon as you turn on that water you'll see that problem and I just use those to establish new plants in the landscape for the first few weeks while the while the roots are still in the container soil and needing more water than the field soil around them. likes them for vegetable gardens because they have to be so flat.

Farmer Fred  18:03  

Okay, I think we've done enough nuts and bolts here let's talk about nuts I guess no well we can talk about peanuts I guess but let's talk about fruits and vegetables here and picking out the plants. I think most beginning gardeners probably have eyes bigger than their tummy. And these plants are right there the plants are so small They're so cute and you've got a six pack well golly I might as well plant them all. I think I've heard this from enough nursery people that the biggest mistake that beginning gardeners make is putting in plants too close to each other.

Debbie Flower  18:36  

I would agree with that. I have seen it as well. And and I have done it I am guilty. Also, in the vegetable garden. I put the ornamental plants in and think oh, somebody's going to outdo somebody else and I'll come back and remove one. in the vegetable garden and the edible garden you won't get a crop if your plants are too close together. There's too much competition and that would be a real shame to put whole season and just get leaf on a tomato plant or some such thing and fungal diseases. Right then when the plants are close together, it traps water whether that's rainwater or dew water or irrigation water, it traps water and that allows both fungus and bacteria to grow. Both fungus and bacteria need what's called free water or a water droplets in order to germinate their spore on the plant and infect the plant. And so they when leaves are all on top of each other and crowding each other, the sun and wind can't get in there and dry them out in time and then fungus and bacteria have a chance to establish so you end up with a lot more disease and you end up with a lot more insect type pests as well because they can hide from  what we would call the beneficials. The things that eat them and you don't find them until they've consumed or damaged a huge portion of the plant.

Debbie Flower  19:56  

I like to measure my tools. I like to measure my trowel. The metal part of the trowel is about six inches long, the handle is about six inches long. So the whole trowel is about a foot long. And if it says space the plants three feet apart then the stem of one tomato plant, which needs to be at the nose of the trowel, and then I need three whole trowel lengths both handle in and the middle part. And before I put in the next stem of the tomato, it's hard to do because they look it looks sparse when you do it. Yeah, but it's really important for the health of the garden and for production.

Farmer Fred  20:29  

Yeah, come back in two months and see what it looks like it's filled in, don't worry about them. But one thing I've learned to do over the years is to keep cats out of the raised beds. And because you don't want cats pooping in raised beds, you want you want high quality food. One way to do that is to use concrete reinforcement wire, it's six inch mesh sheets that they sell at most of the big box stores. they're four feet by five feet or so by the way, they make great tomato cages to when you make a circle out of it. but lay flat and you can put them on a raised bed. So if you make your raised beds, four feet wide, then they fit perfectly across the bed. And as long as there's about an inch, inch and a half space between that wire and the soil, the cats won't go in there. They don't like tippy toeing around in that kind of environment. And because it is a six inch grid of wire, perfect for spacing, you can just count the squares and and space your plants correctly. And generally speaking about three feet between tomato plants, 18 inches between pepper plants?

Debbie Flower  21:35  

Yes, I would agree with all of that keeping the cats out and using the wire and doing the spacing. Absolutely.

Farmer Fred  21:42  

And yes, we all learn from our mistakes. And actually, four years ago when we moved from where we used to live for 27 years and I had 27 years of experience with raised beds there and all of a sudden I got a chance to do it from scratch. It's almost like a Gift from God saying, okay, start over don't make the same mistakes. And the one thing I insisted upon in each of the raised beds was an on off valve in each raised bed so I could turn off the water in each bed. For example around here, onions tend to mature in June you want to shut off the water to onions and garlic, usually in early June so that they don't get too waterlogged. And you can't do that if you've got tomatoes growing in the same bed. So by having your your plants isolated like that, according to their watering needs, it makes it a lot easier and having individual on off valves in each bed is a dream.

Debbie Flower  22:42  

And do you have a timer on each bed or a timer for the whole thing.

Farmer Fred  22:45  

There's a timer for the whole thing. So it's the raised beds are on their own separate timer because we're on their own separate valve I should say because raised beds need to be watered more frequently, just like containerized plants need to be watered more frequently

Debbie Flower  23:01  

different environment, right?

Farmer Fred  23:03  

So you can't have on the same circuit as your lawn sprinklers, for example, right? Boy, you know, we're running out of time here and I'm thinking, Well, yeah, we've barely scratched the surface. We haven't even gotten to talk about pretty plants.

Farmer Fred  23:19  

Exactly. Yeah. Well give us give us a few good tips about choosing. I think what like we sort of inferred at the beginning is don't plant too much. Maybe what one plant per person for the household. In other words, if you got four people in your house four tomato plants, or four pepper plants,

Debbie Flower  23:38  

assuming that all those people eat tomatoes, and all those peppers, yeah,

Debbie Flower  23:42  

yeah. grow with you, like, don't grow too much of it. There's harvest and then there's, oh my gosh, there's harvest. Now, I do. And I would for my first garden, I would limit my crop choices to three or four different things. Maybe Tomato, pepper and zucchini. And that's all. It's very exciting upfront and, and there's lots of hope in it. But as you get down the road and more things happen and the plants grow and it becomes more and more complicated and it can become discouraging. So if you just concentrate on a few crops the first time, I think you'll be more satisfied and happier with the results.

Farmer Fred  24:26  

If you go to Farmerfred.com, you can click on links that can help guide you to various varieties that probably will do well where you live especially a click on the terrific tomato tips section and then you can find that at farmerfred.com or at the Farmer Fred rant blog page. And if you just, you know, scroll around on either of those sites, you're going to get a lot of good information about basic garden tips. So do that because you're because we ran out of time here.

Debbie Flower  24:57  

Oh my,

Farmer Fred  24:58  

I gotta I gotta go. Water the seedlings time of year. Yes it is. Yeah. And it's gonna be the wind is picking up which means it's gonna dry out quicker so I need to get my little seedlings happy.

Debbie Flower  25:14  

Yep.

Farmer Fred  25:15  

Don't forget if you've got basic garden questions get into us you can of course call us at 916-292-8964 send a picture via email to Fred at farmerfred.com or leave us a question at the get growing with farmer Fred Facebook page or @farmerfred on Twitter, or @farmerFredHoffman on Instagram. The choice is yours 21st century America. Debbie Flower, Always a pleasure. Thanks for getting our first garden going here.

Debbie Flower  25:45  

Oh, such a pleasure. I love gardens. I hope everybody else enjoys them too.

Farmer Fred  25:55  

As the world attempts to leave behind our shelter in place rules well There are other rules that will take their place rules that will make the immediate future look rather strange to us. Strange until there is an effective proven safe vaccine for the Coronavirus COVID-19. And that could be up to a year away. Thinking about the possible new normals can be overwhelming for the foreseeable future. They might include sporting events inside empty sports stadiums, eating at restaurants where every other table is filled with well dressed mannequins, clear plastic barriers between us and everyone else. We encounter businesses at grocery stores, restaurants, schools, airport lines, schools and airports. And probably all public travel modes are going to take on a new normalcy as well. Online Education may become the norm not the exception, depriving us and our children of social interaction when we need it the most. The largest college system in the country, the California State University system has already said That all their classes will be held online for the fall semester. So going away to college just might become a quaint idea. Heck, office buildings may become a quaint idea, with companies insisting that more and more workers convert spare bedrooms into office space. Will people jump back on airplanes in 2020? I kind of think people will be leery of exposing themselves to the petri dish of airborne germs for several hours. For that matter how many countries or states will allow travelers from somewhere else to freely roam their country, there might be fewer places to go. Even here in the United States in Hawaii, you have to be in isolation for two weeks as soon as you land before you can stick your toe in the ocean at a public beach. There's going to be a lot to get used to in the new normal of 2020. changes that might not sit well with all of us. But there is one normal that won't change: tending to your garden. There's no need for social distancing between you and your plants, no masks or plastic shields are necessary. Actually, you might want a plastic shield. If you're using a gas string trimmer, you want to protect your face from flying debris. There's no video conferencing necessary in the garden. It's one experience that'll always be a hands on experience. It's rewarding, it's calming, it'll make you smile. Plus, you get good food and pretty flowers for your efforts. That's not a bad deal. So when the future has you furrowing your brow, get outside tend to the furrows in your soil instead, grow something, it feels good, and you can do it for a lifetime.

Farmer Fred  28:48  

Thank you for listening to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. I appreciate your ears. How about a subscription? you can get the podcast wherever podcasts are given away such as Apple, Spotify, Google, Iheart, Stitcher, and many more.