298 The Greatest Garden Basics Hits of 2023, Pt. 1

Show Transcript

Ep. 298 2023 Greatest Garden Hits, Pt. 1 TRANSCRIPT

Farmer Fred

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. It's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred

As 2023 closes and 2024 begins, I like to look back and check out which topics and episodes of the Garden Basics podcast really hit home with our listeners. What were the episodes, and what were the parts in those episodes that attracted the most downloads and listeners? So I’d like to share those with you now. They just might be topics that you missed the first time around or you want to refresh your memory on a certain garden topic that got a lot of attention. This episode includes info on how to grow vegetables, including tomatoes, squash and onions, how to start a garden, how to irrigate your garden, and tips for garden success…11 tips, to be exact.  And it’s amazing what you can learn with a repeat listen. I listen to each Garden Basics episode at least four times, and I learn something new each time. So, here is Part 1, entitled, 2023’s Greatest Garden Hits. Part 2 will be next week.

We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory, it’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Let’s go!

THE TOP HOMEGROWN VEGETABLES Pt. 2 (originally aired in Ep. 264)

Farmer Fred

The National Gardening Association conducted a survey, asking what are your favorite garden vegetables to grow? The NGA, along with the Rapid City South Dakota Journal newspaper, came up with 10 backyard favorites, from coast to coast. Well, that sounds like a good topic for a garden podcast! So, Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour and myself set out to discuss those top 10 and how to grow them, along with our favorite varieties. There’s no surprise that the topic gathered so  many listeners to make it rank in the top 10 Garden Basics podcast episodes of 2023. What was surprising, were  the vegetable choices that piqued the curiosity of the most listeners in that two part series, that aired in episodes 263 and 264, and is presented here: zucchini and onions.

Farmer Fred

Last week on this Garden Basics podcast you may recall we were talking about the top 10 garden vegetables to grow at home. Gail Pothour was with us and we went through tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, beans and carrots and we ran out of time. So this week we're on to part two of the top 10 most popular garden vegetables to grow. It includes summer squash, onions, hot peppers, lettuce and peas. That is according to the National Garden Association and the Rapid City, South Dakota Journal newspaper. Gail, let's get going on six through 10.

Gail Pothour

Yes, let's do that.

Farmer Fred

Moving on to number six in the most popular garden vegetables to plant at home. I laugh because who hasn't had way too many zucchini or summer squash. And zucchini is just one form of summer squash. There are all sorts of summer squashes.

Gail Pothour

Oh yeah. In fact, some of my favorites I my favorite heirloom zucchini, another heirloom is I'm interested more in heirlooms for tomatoes for the flavors. But there are some other crops that have heirlooms that are really good. It's called Ortolana di Faenza. I don't know how to say it in Italian, but it's a light green zucchini instead of that dark black green that a typical zucchini. It is  real prolific and so I grow that every year. And then there's your yellow crookneck or there's scallop or the Patty Pan. So there's a lot of different ones. I love Butterbelly, that happens to be a hybrid yellow crookneck. And I grew it up a pallet last year. It's a bush variety, but I wanted to get it up off the ground. So I propped up a pallet and grew it up the pallet and it saves space. And it was easier to pick and it was an outstanding variety. It was new new for me last year. Zephyr is always a good one. It's a yellow crookneck with green at the bottom, kind of a light green color. And then my favorite scallop is Sunburst. It is the yellow patty pan with a green button on the bottom. And that happens to be an All America selection winner.

Farmer Fred

Among the scallops that are recommended by UC Davis - and these are varieties  you'd probably find at your local nursery if you're wanting to plant them from transplants, but they're really best planted from seed. But refer back to our story of why you don't want to cram the roots.

Gail Pothour

Oh yeah, just like cucumbers. They don't want their roots disturbed. Yeah.

Farmer Fred

That's why it really is much easier from seed to grow summer squash. But  among the UC recommended varieties are Peter Pan hybrid, sunburst, scallopini, early white Bush, those are the scallop recommendations. Among the yellow summer squashes, they like early prolific straight neck, Sundance, early golden summer crookneck, and Dixie.  Among the zucchini,  their favorites include aristocrat, Grayzini, Ambassador, Gold Rush, and Burpee Fordhook.

I think a lot of the problems that people have with summer squash is the lack of a killer instinct. First of all, they're doing the right thing by planting from seed. And usually the recommendations of planting by seed say, “Mound the soil up about eight inches tall and about 12 inches wide, sort of like a plateau. Use really enriched soil, maybe mix some manure in there. And then in that plateau that is 12 inches across, put six seeds in a circle. And then wait. And then when they germinate, they don’t thin them out to one per hill. Honestly, if you have, let's say, two mounds of zucchini seeds planted, and you've got 6 seeds in each and you have a normal sized garden and you don't want too much zucchini, thin it out to one per hill. Good luck on that.

Gail Pothour

Yeah, I am sort of hesitant in that I'm going to grow two different squash varieties this year. Generally I do one. That's plenty from for me and my husband. But I'm going to grow my favorite zucchini, Ortolana di Faenza, and the yellow, the yellow crookneck the Butterbelly, I'm going to do two different plants. And I'm thinking that might be crazy, because it's probably twice as much squash as I need. I've already been collecting recipes on what to do with all that squash. But yeah, it's very prolific. And if you keep harvesting them when they're small, that will keep them producing if you want to stop the production, let them grow to a baseball bat. And that'll slow them down a little bit.

Farmer Fred

Okay.  ideally, for best flavor, zucchini is best harvested when they're eight inches or less. Right?

Gail Pothour

Yeah, they will get too seedy whey they are huge. Otherwise, when they start to get over-mature, they'll get really seedy inside, yeah.

Farmer Fred

A lot of people  plant the zucchini seeds or the squash seeds in May. And by June they are complaining, “Look, look at the fruit that's coming out. It's stunted. It's short, it doesn't look right, what's going on?”. It's usually incomplete pollination because of the fact that they have separate male and female flowers, and they don't produce male and female flowers necessarily on the same day, especially if it's too hot or too cold. And the bees sometimes don't help out very much. But usually it's that incomplete pollination. But if you are just patient, if you just wait, you'll get normal sized zucchini. The weather will even out and you will have more zucchini, then you know what to do with.

Gail Pothour

Exactly, yeah, and generally the male flowers start out first. And so you'll have all these flowers and you think I have no fruit? Well, the female flower will have a little immature fruit at the base of it. And so you can tell the difference. And they the male start first and the females when they need to get in sync with each other in the morning to do this. Generally they're viable in the morning, and it takes a while and the weather can disrupt that. So yeah, you just got to be patient.

Farmer Fred

As the University of California Davis says: under good growing conditions, fruits are ready for first harvest 50 to 65 days after seeds are planted. And in the world of summer vegetables, that's pretty darn quick.

Gail Pothour

It is quick. Yes.

Farmer Fred

Moving on in our list of the 10 most popular garden vegetables to grow at home: Number seven is onions. And onions, Gail, take patience.

Gail Pothour

Oh, absolutely. And I find growing bulbing onions, a typical big onion, to kind of be a challenge. So I rarely grow onions in my own garden. If I do grow them, I'm going to grow one variety, and it's called Stockton red. And it's getting a little more difficult to find seeds for Stockton Red, but that's one that I really like. But onions are daylength sensitive. So you need to grow a type of onion, whether it's long day, short day, intermediate day or day neutral, depending on your latitude. I think that's where a lot of people have problems, they are growing a variety that maybe isn't suited for their latitude. And so they either bolt prematurely or they don't bulb at all. So with Sacramento being in about a 38 degree latitude, we are an intermediate daylength, so choose varieties that say they are intermediate day, or that are day neutral. Day neutral means it doesn't matter. Anybody can grow them. So that's kind of the key and where I've run into problems. If I buy sets or something, they don't necessarily tell you if they're long day, short day, intermediate day, whatever. And so I'm buying the wrong variety. Stockton Reds, I know, will do well here. So that's an intermediate day, but onions can be a challenge. And so let's just say I don't grow them that often. I'll grow green onions I'm currently growing Egyptian walking onions but bulging onions I don't do too often.

Farmer Fred

Generally onions are planted in late summer or early fall here in USDA zone 9. September October, and aren't harvested until June or July, if you're growing the bulbing onions. Now green onions are a different story, green onions or scallions. You can grow those year round here. Varieties like evergreen white, Southport white, white sweet Spanish, white Lisbon, Tokyo Long White, which I planted for the first time this year. And if you use a lot of green onions in your recipe preparations, always have a pot of onions growing.

Gail Pothour

That's what I found. Green onions are something that I use more. Well, I use regular onions a lot too. But I use a lot of green onions. And so those are easy to grow, I can grow them in a container. I can grow them practically any time of the year. If it's too hot, I can move them into the shade. So yeah, that's a good one to grow.

Farmer Fred

Yeah, unfortunately, by the time they are ready to harvest. It's not like you can take the onions out and plant something else. Actually, you could. When the onions are harvested, reinvigorate the soil, and you could probably put in zucchini or another summer squash or a winter squash.

Gail Pothour

Or  set that space aside for planting your fall crop. Because some of those can go in August or September. They like to have warm soil to germinate, but they need a cool climate to mature. So a lot of our cool season crops we would start growing when the soil is still warm, but we want them to mature when it's cooler out. So once you took those onions out, you could then plant something for the fall.

Farmer Fred

Among the onion bulbing varieties recommended by the University of California Davis, their Vegetable Research and Information Center, are Grano, Granex, California Early red, Fiesta yellow, sweet Spanish white, sweet Spanish, Southport white globe, Southport red globe, and the Stockton yellow globe.

Gail Pothour

No Stockton Red on their list. We actually did an onion Variety Trial almost 10 years ago at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, where we grew several varieties of long day, intermediate day and short day onion varieties to see how they would do in our climate. And all the long day onions bolted. And some some of the short day onions did as well. But that's what's critical, was to grow the right type. And what I mean by long day, intermediate day length, short day:  if you look at a map and you see your latitude, long day are going to be up north, so they need 14 to 16 hours of daylight in the spring and summer in order for the bulb to start. intermediate days, 12 to 14 hours, short days, 10 to 12 hours, that's down south. So it does have a lot to do with your latitude.

Farmer Fred

Exactly. If you live in Edmonton, you can grow long day onions.

Gail Pothour

And we did grow them here and we found they don't do that well.

Farmer Fred

I am not surprised about that.

THE 2023 TOMATO PREVIEW SHOW (from Ep. 259)

Farmer Fred

Also making the 2023 Greatest Hits list among listeners to the Garden Basics podcast was a conversation we had about new tomato varieties back in March, with nursery owner Don Shor. It originally aired in Episode 259.

Farmer Fred

I was just reviewing my notes for my 2022 vegetable garden. And on September 30th, I made this note: shortest tomato season ever. Well, all gardening is local. And here in Northern California, we had one heck of a heatwave in late August and early September last year, with record high temperatures. And that's why it became the shortest tomato season ever. So I am extremely optimistic about 2023. I hope Don Shor is as well. He owns Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California. And Don, how was your 2022 tomato season?

Don Shor

Well actually, it was very good. But I have to say that the plants took a lot more water than usual. I was deep irrigating those vines, I was giving them 10 to 12 gallons of water a week, generally all at once if I possibly could, because I'm out in an open field. It’s a normal, garden-farm type situation. There are no raised planters, such as what you deal with. And as long as I kept them going and kept the plants vigorous, they did well. But  I have to agree with you that the heatwave did a lot of damage to a lot of varieties. If their fruit was exposed on the morning that I knew was gonna get over 110 degrees, what I would do  is pick it and bring it in, so that I knew that that particular fruit wouldn't get sunscald or sunburn as typically happens when tomato fruit that's close to ripe is hit by 95, 100, 105 degree temperatures. You know you're gonna get some injury on that side of the fruit. 116 degrees, which we recorded two days in a row in the Davis area is an absolute record. Not just for the month, but the all time record, followed by five more days over 105. Yeah, it kind of finished up the crop for a lot of people, especially if their plants were drought stressed.

Farmer Fred

I did put in an optimistic note after I wrote, “shortest tomato season ever” back on September 30. I pointed out that the Gardeners Delight tomato, the Sweet Million, the Sungold, the Valley Girl, all have flowers. Maybe they will bear fruit. And then I turned the page to October, and on October 25 I wrote, “removed remaining tomato plants. the shortest tomato season ever.” Thanksgiving tomatoes are commonplace here. Christmas tomatoes aren't that unusual.

Don Shor

But last year a lot of them finished up early, and that heat just finally took its toll. I did have a couple of varieties that really impressed me for their ability to continue later on. Usually there's a half dozen varieties that will keep setting fruit, keep fruiting, all the way through October and into November.  I do want to mention one all time top 10, the Champion tomato, just kept on going. I was still picking those in early November. And I've got to bring this one in: New Girl. the New Girl is giving Early Girl a run for the money because it was continuing to fruit all the way through October.

Farmer Fred

New Girl was one of my better performers while tomato season existed in 2022. I will be planting New Girl again, as well as its sibling, Valley Girl.

Don Shor

Yes, these are all competitors to the throne of the one of California's absolute favorite varieties, the Early girl. That has been an all purpose hybrid tomato here since the 1970s. It's very, very popular and for good reason. It sets early. It holds and ripens early, and then  we don't typically get a lot of fruit on it through the hottest part of the summer. You almost always get that late August early September set, however, when we get cooler periods which we do. And they'll ripen here, since we have such a long season, it is usually sunny and warm all the way into the middle part of October. You'll still often be picking Early Girl  as late as well as you know, even as late as Thanksgiving. Because of that, there have always been breeders out there looking to be the next Early Girl. And I think we've got a couple of them that are actually good contenders for that now.

Farmer Fred

Last year, in 2022, the Seed company “Seeds N Such” - because I must have ordered some seeds from them - they sent me a complimentary package of a hybrid tomato called “Early Doll”.  I saw that sitting there in the box of seeds this winter and I go, “Well, I'll try that this year.” it germinated, as I would expect, even though it allegedly was packaged for the year 2022. However, packaged tomato seeds can last, what, four or five years? So I have high hopes for Early Doll, although I don't see it in their latest catalog. But they do have it online. Maybe that's why it was part of 2022 free seed giveaway. It says online: “it's one of the earliest tomatoes we have ever offered. 55 days from planting to fruiting”.

Don Shor

Early Doll. Well, yeah, 55 days is great. And we'll certainly see if that one gets into their list. I mean, this company has come up with a couple of really good ones. And you and I both know that the one that they sent out as a freebie three years ago, we all gave him great feedback on that one.  They've now labeled it, “It’z a Keeper”, which is very productive. It set well, it set early, had very firm fruit and I'll mention that one took the heat very well, as well. So  we gotta keep trying these. I have a feeling, I'm not sure why, that there's gonna be more hot spells in our future. It might be advisable for us to make notes, not just about what sets early, and what produces well into the season, but also what takes direct hot sun on the fruit, and also note the vigor of the vine. I mean, this is something that future gardeners may wish to know about our experiences with extreme heat as things change.

Farmer Fred

So last year, I tried three new tomato varieties. For me, I tried the “It’z a Keeper,” “Big Beef Plus” and “Bodacious”. And I noticed that in my notes throughout the spring and summer, I didn’t mention them anymore. So I'm not so sure that I would plant them again.

Don Shor

Bodacious has done very well for me three years in a row. And it did very well last year. It's actually one of my top producers of all the new varieties that I've been trying. So I do urge people to try that one, you're only going to be able to get the seed for that I believe from Burpee Seed Company, I think it's theirs. Yes, it's not something you're going to find at most garden centers, I do know a small nursery in Davis that is likely to have it. Not everybody around is going to because the seed is not cheap.

Farmer Fred

Let me tell you, now that you're taking us on a nice scenic bypass that has me scratching my head. I was at a big box store, at the garden center portion of the big box store. And I was looking at those poor, young sacrificial tomato plants, the ones that are one inch, or two inches tall, that people are buying now even though like I said, we're waiting for our first 80 degree day. Heck, we would settle for a 70 degree day. So I feel sorry for those tomato plants. But, to their credit, the garden center had a good supply of cool season vegetables, which still makes a lot of sense to plant in USDA zone nine, in March and April. Because you're gonna get two more months - unless the heat sets in extra early - of outstanding growth. But the price!  The price, Don, of that four inch tomato plant! It was going for $5.95. And a six pack of cool season vegetables, small babies, little ones? They were $6.98. It's like the price doubled overnight.

Don Shor

Maybe I better raise my prices. That sounds pretty good. Yes, the prices have definitely gone up. And there's a reason, a couple of reasons, that are fairly obvious for that. One is the cost of heating greenhouses. You don't get tomato seedlings available in March, if you don't have a heated greenhouse. As you know, if you do it at home, you've got to do them indoors, move them out, move them back in, move them back out. They're not doing that in big wholesale growing yards. They're using propane or natural gas to heat those greenhouses. Plus, greenhouses aren’t very effective when it's cloudy. So we've had a lot of cloudy days, like say 50-70% of our days have been cloudy from January, February, and into March. So the area’s wholesale greenhouses weren't working real well. Anyway,  the cost of seed is definitely going up. And what you'll find is that there's a lot of growers that just aren't going to take on a brand new, untested, untried variety, no matter how exaggerated or, let's say, retail-oriented the claims in the catalogs are, because of the cost of the seed. I've got one grower that tells me he's not going to grow anything that cost more than a nickel of seed. But some of these are closer to 50 cents or more a seed. I'll try them. You'll try them. I'll see if they do well. Coming back to “Bodacious” that one has been very consistent for me now, including during extreme heat. To me, it's the best alternative to a beef steak that you're going to get here in the Sacramento Valley or regions like the valley where it gets so hot in the summer. It takes the heat much better than a beef steak type and it's a similar slicer you can slice it with it's got a lot of that connective tissue that holds together for a sandwich, it makes great sauces and salsas, things like that. But I do have a rule. I don't recommend a variety until I've grown it for at least two seasons, preferably very different seasons. We just went through a very hot summer. We've had cooler summers, and it is never the same. This variety is consistent with very few exceptions. “Bodacious”. So far , it is a real winner for me. I'm not sure whether yours was just a fluke or something but I do suggest trying it again and then test it for two or three seasons before you rule it out. Big Beef is a good example. First year I grew it , it was great. 30 to 35 fruits, close to a pound a piece, I thought  that we got a winner here. The next year I grew it, it only had 10 fruit. So that does happen. You need to test them for a couple years under a range of conditions.

Farmer Fred

This may be the reason why, because of fear of the weather - you might say - that I probably am leaning this year to smaller tomatoes that will ripen quicker, so I'm guaranteed some tomatoes, at least. The tomatoes I've chosen - I think the biggest one might be eight ounces - is a “Better Boy” which is about eight ounces.

Don Shor

There's a whole bunch of red tomatoes that are classic and reliable: Better Boy, Champion, Red Delicious, Whopper. Those are four that I find very similar in how we use them generally, very similar in their performance. The most consistent, year to year, has been Champion, which has an easy to remember name. But all those are good. Better Boy has been very consistent over the years. When you get into the really big ones, you are taking some gambles. It seems to me, from experience, that there's more issues of blossom end rot, for example, when you have a very large tomato. When you get it in early and it gets going and it sets fruit, you get all excited. And then you notice that the bottom is discolored on the fruit. And that it was going to be gushy on the bottom, and no good. That's probably  a temperature and moisture related phenomenon. But it does seem to hit the bigger ones worse or maybe it's just that it's more disappointing when it does, I'm not sure. The key is: diversify your portfolio. Yes, good advice across the board. Get some interesting sauce tomatoes, because in my experience, a lot of those are just very consistent. There’s reliable cherry tomatoes. You can't go wrong with cherry tomatoes. Juliet, that's a sort of an in-between one that's cherry size, but firm, textured, incredibly popular, and could be a little hard to find this year. So look around for it. But try to get a whole bunch of different kinds and a couple of early varieties are very good plan. And make sure you get something interesting out there. So you can test some new varieties. But you're right. I think the big ones you're just you're asking. I don't do nothing but oversized tomatoes. Let's put it that way. I grow the Big Zack hybrid. The one that's grown actually has a championship sized tomato. I've had great years. One year I got 35 fruit , all of them were over a pound. They're all beautiful. One year I got three. And you know, that's a pretty big range. If it was the only one I planted, I would have been a little disappointed.

Farmer Fred

You bring up a good point too. For one thing, all gardening is local, as we're kind of talking about here. And everybody's results are going to be different. But one thing that you've talked about in the past that makes a heck of a lot of sense is buy local. Buy those tomato seeds that were developed where you live. And we've often used the example of that classic heirloom tomato, Brandywine, which I imagine, does fine in Brandywine, Pennsylvania, but not here in California.

Don Shor

Pennsylvania, I think, is a fairly mild climate, as far as I can tell, at least compared to what we have here. There's a seed breeder up in Maxwell, California, that's been introducing some phenomenal tomatoes. Maxwell is about as valley as you can get here in the Sacramento Valley. They certainly get as hot as we do, if not hotter up there. Most people go by Maxwell on Highway 5 and don't really notice it. But there's a really good deli there.

Farmer Fred

There is a golf course there, too.

Don Shor

There is the breeder of the tomatoes, the Chef's Choice series. they have all been introduced by a company up in Maxwell, and every one of them, so far, has been a real winner. Particularly I've mentioned it many times on your program, Chef's Choice Orange, one of the first ones they came out with. It is a top performer for me year after year, big fruit, very firm. Now they have a yellow and of course red and pink and striped and purple and I think it was even a white one and then a black one. Several of these have won the All America selection designation which I think you can explain better as to having been tested in a wide range of circumstances.

Farmer Fred

Exactly. They have test gardens from coast to coast and in many different climates. They have national winners, they have regional winners, as well. And if you go to All-AmericaSelections.org you can find their complete list and be prepared to download a large PDF of all those winners. If you go by that, that's not a bad barometer to use for choosing tomato varieties. How about among your customers? What have they been raving or pooh-poohing about in the last year?

Don Shor

Juliet continues to be extremely popular. Sungold is the top cherry tomato. There's always new ones coming along to try to challenge Sungold for that position, and there are some really good cherry tomatoes out there. But that one continues to be just one of the favorites. By the way, one of the favorites everywhere. When I posted the question on our Facebook group of nursery professionals what are your top five tomatoes? Sungold was on almost every single list as was Early Girl, those are consistent. Champion continues to be very good. I do have a lot of older customers. I'm not sure why they seem to really like Ace. And these older guys and their Celebrity. I'll tell you, you and I aren't huge fans of Celebrity, but there are some people out there that just clamor for it. So it's a good producer. I've had issues with sunburn on it and other things, but I have to bring it in for those guys. You know how these old gardener guys are? They can be kind of grumpy.  The other thing is a lot of them are still asking about heirloom types. I've gradually gotten to the point where if someone walks up with just heirloom tomatoes to the counter, I say, “I suggest you try a hybrid to just to see how it performs compared to those.” Because you mentioned Brandywine, that's a good example. It’s very popular, but rarely produces more than one or two fruit here. That has been my experience. It doesn't take the heat well. There's other heirlooms out there that are worth trying. Mortgage Lifter does reasonably well, most years for me. Cherokee Purple has done extremely well. For me, it was my top producer in 2021 of all my tomatoes, the largest number of fruit was Cherokee Purple of all things. So it's a good one for the valley and good one for hot climates. But you've got to try different things and be sure to get at least one or two in there that are hybrids and preferably they have that hybrid built-in disease resistance that can be very important in some areas.

Farmer Fred

The heirloom that has done well for me consistently over the past probably 15 years is “Gardeners Delight.” It's not as small as a cherry tomato, it's more like a plum size or a little bit bigger than a cherry tomato. And it does produce throughout the season. And it's usually my latest performer as well, “Gardeners Delight”. And as far as good cherry tomato that I've always grown, it seems. and I still grow it because it keeps performing is “Sweet Million.”

Don Shor

Sweet Million, Super Sweet 100. These are all in the same category of just very, very heavy producers. Now most cherry tomatoes don't have hybrid disease resistance built in. Cherry tomatoes in general had not had that. And if you're listening in an area where diseases are prevalent, you might look for the disease resistance listings on the label of some of the newer hybrids because that can be a problem especially in places where people have rainfall during the summer. But I would say that the Sweet 100, Sweet Million crowd, you can't go wrong with them. And in general, cherry tomatoes of course are very, very successful. I do want to mention one there's a local favorite over in the Davis area because we've got an older gentleman who has been advising the Master Gardeners here for years and he's absolutely right about “Fourth of July”. Fourth of July is a consistent performer. You will have fruit by the Fourth of July even if you planted on or about the first of May, as I've done, to test that. It's a very pretty, bright red color. Good flavor. Small, three to four ounce fruit. Very productive, relatively compact plant, it's actually described as being determinant. But my experience is it continues after that first wave of fruit and continues to produce later into the season. It's been a very consistent performer and I find myself recommending it to novice gardeners along with a cherry tomato and a good hybrid and maybe one heirloom that catches their fancy because of the name or something like that. And that's three or four plants. That should give you enough tomatoes for a summer if you're just a first time gardener.

Farmer Fred

Coming up, it is no surprise that one of the most listened to Garden Basics podcast episodes had to do with watering your garden. Effective Irrigation tips, after this.

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Farmer Fred

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SOIL IRRIGATION BASICS (from Ep. 265)

Farmer Fred

The Garden Basics Greatest Hits of 2023 continues with an answers to the question every gardener wonders about at one point or another: how long should I water my flowers, fruits and vegetables. From Episode 265, it’s soil irrigation basics, featuring organic garden expert and soil pedologist, Steve Zien.

Farmer Fred

It's been a wet winter and a wet spring for much of the western United States. But the fact of the matter is…downpours, heavy rains, or atmospheric rivers can happen in just about any portion of the country. And sometimes it's followed by a bout of warmer weather. And you start feeling hot. So, you think, “Oh, my plants are hot, I shouldn't give them water.”

Whoa. Before you do that, let's cover some irrigation basics. What should you do, especially after a wet winter? Farmers are tackling this problem throughout the western United States right now. Home gardeners should be tackling it as well. How do you handle your soil after a full wet winter and early spring? We're talking with Steve Zien, our friend, our organic Horticulture Educator and longtime organic gardening specialist. Steve, let's cover some irrigation basics here. And I know that the number one answer, of course… it depends. Because when people say, “How long should I run my irrigation system?” It depends. But I think the first step would be to check your soil moisture before you turn on your sprinklers or your drip irrigation system.

Steve Zien

Exactly. And a lot of people, when they check for soil moisture, they look at the surface of the soil. And after one sunny day, that surface to the soil will look bone dry. But you go a quarter of an inch below that in the soil, it can be either moist or wet. The first thing you have to realize when you're trying to determine the soil’s moisture is to ignore what the surface looks like, you need to actually dig down into the soil. And there's a specialized tool, there's actually two, really great tools to help you  dig into the soil, pull up a column of soil, so that you can examine six,  8, 12, 18, 24 inches down. The tool is called is a soil probe. If it's a 12 inch soil probe, it's basically most often a stainless steel or chrome tube, and then about half of it on the side is open and exposed. So you push it into the ground, turn it, you pull it out, and you will be actually be able to see and touch the soil that's in the tube. And you'll be able to see whether that soil is moist or dry.

Farmer Fred

Soil probes are nifty tools that every gardener should have. Regarding soil moisture meters, we'll get into that in a minute or two. But with soil probes, it's shaped like the letter, T. So you have a very sturdy handle to hold on to, that helps you plunge it into the soil. And the reason you want to go down eight inches, 12 inches, that's  the root zone where your plants are growing. What we're trying to do here is making sure that the root area, which is the area that absorbs the water, is functioning correctly.

Steve Zien

Exactly. You want to know  the size of the plant, especially young seedlings, when you're just putting them in. The roots might go down just a couple of inches. But as those plants grow during the season, if it's an annual like a vegetable, the roots can go down 12 inches, 18 inches, or you know in some cases, if you've got really nice loose soil, 24 to 36 inches. Tree roots go down numerous feet, but there's very limited research as to how far the roots go down. I like to water my large shrubs and trees for a long time. We will use a drip system for hours to get that water down about six feet or more. A lot of people say, “you're wasting water.” If you get the roots down that far, you don't have to water as frequently, because you can let the top six inches or 12 inches go dry. Because the the feeding roots are down below that.

Farmer Fred

Yeah, it's all about the roots. It's all about the soil as far as determining where and how long you should water and also, soils are different. You got heavy clay soils, you have sandy soils. And for those of you who are saying, “No way could I push a soil probe down 12 inches in my crappy soil because of clay, hard pan, or rocks.” There are options available. And the old fashioned way was to basically hand dig down into the root zone. Go down eight to 12 inches, grab a handful of the soil that was down at that level, make a ball of it in your hand and squeeze it. If water rolls down your arm, the soil is too wet. If, on the other hand, it falls apart as soon as you opened up your hand, it's too dry. On the other hand, if you squeezed that ball of soil and broke it up with a little bit of effort, that is what is called “field capacity moisture”, which is the ideal amount for whatever you might be growing.

Steve Zien

That basically means you've got different size pore spaces in your soil. And if you have good soil structure, if you got a healthy soil, you have a diversity of different size pore spaces. And the large pore spaces allow the water in the air and the fertilizer and the roots  to move through the soil fairly effectively. What's really nice is we have to realize that the life in the soil, which includes our plant roots, and the beneficial soil biology and worms and all the other critters that live down there, they need air as much as they need water. And so when you irrigate, and if that soil is saturated, like a lot of the soils were during these atmospheric river events, the large pore spaces are filled with water. But in time, when we don't have the atmospheric rivers moving through, and typically throughout the year, after you irrigate for a short period of time, the water will drain by the force of gravity out of those large pore spaces. So you have air remaining, a necessary component. And that's one of the reasons why you don't want to irrigate too frequently. If you're irrigating too frequently, you're going to always be filling up those large pore spaces with water and depriving the life in the soil of oxygen and air. And you will be encouraging disease organisms.

Farmer Fred

And that brings up another very good point, too. After a heavy rain, don't be tromping on your garden soil because that compacts the soil, which also removes those very necessary air pockets.

Steve Zien

Exactly. You want to avoid compaction. And one of the easiest ways to avoid compaction is stay off the soil when it's wet. The easiest way to figure out whether it's too wet or not, is to judge a handful of soil. Take your hand trowel and dig up a little bit of soil, roll it in your hand, and then drop it onto a hard surface like a piece of concrete or a stepping stone. And if it just goes splat, and flattens like a pancake, then it's too wet. You’ll know when it hits the ground. It should kind of break apart a little bit.

Farmer Fred

As opposed to if it's too dry. It wouldn't even reach the ground in one piece.

Steve Zien

Yeah, it would shatter more than crumble.

Farmer Fred

Now one reason I liked the soil probe is it doesn't require batteries, there's nothing on there really, that's going to break. And because you've got that open slot on the side, you plunge that probe into the soil, give it a quarter turn, lift it back out. And then you can examine the soil that has been taken by that probe. You'll see the soil in the side, what should you be looking for? What should you be feeling for in that sample?

Steve Zien

When you're talking about irrigation moisture, one of the nice things is you can pull it out, you can you can roll it up in a ball, squeeze it, and moisture comes out. You'll be able to tell. It takes a little bit of time. But for most plants, you want that soil in that probe to be somewhat dry before you irrigate, unless it's a plant that needs moist soil. But for most of our plants, you want that soil to dry out a little bit in between irrigations.

Farmer Fred

And that brings up the other good question: When is the best time to use a soil probe or a soil moisture meter? And that's before you turn on the drip irrigation system or the sprinklers.

Steve Zien

Exactly. A lot of people also ask, not only when should I irrigate? But they ask how much? And again, there's that magic phrase, “it depends”. Everybody's soil is different, the environmental conditions are different. And so what I typically tell people to do is to first, use the soil probe, make sure that the soil is somewhat dry and needs irrigation. Then, run your irrigation system, maybe half or maybe even a quarter as long as you normally do. Then you turn it off, wait an hour. In that time frame, gravity will pull that water down as far as it's going to go. And then you push in that soil probe again, turn it, and pull it out. And you will actually be able to see and feel how far down that water is gone. And if it's gone down four inches, and you know the roots of your plants are going down 12 inches, you've got to water three times longer.

Farmer Fred

How many probes do you need to do on a sample size? Let's say it's 200 square feet. And maybe there's a bit of a slope to it. Do you take that probe and stick it in at the top of the hill or the bottom of the hill? How do you do it?

Steve Zien

But you're best taking about 10 cores, randomly throughout the area. And it's really a good idea to pay attention to what the soil looks like. And more importantly, take some of the soil out of the soil probe and play with it in your hand. And you're going to want to kind of get a feel for what's called the texture of the soil, which is the percentage of sand, silt, and clay. And sand will feel gritty, silt will feel like flour. And clay, when it is moist, will be slippery. When it's hard, or when it's dry, it will feel hard. Pay attention maybe to the amount of organic matter, and the color. Typically, the more organic matter that you have in the soil, the darker it will be. And you sometimes will find that the soil on the top of the hill is dramatically different from the bottom of the hill. If you're using raised beds, one raised bed might be dramatically different from another because the soil that you brought in was brought in from two different sources. Wherever you find that the soils are different, they may need to be irrigated differently.

Farmer Fred

I received an e-mail from a listener who stumbled upon the Farmer Fred Rant blog page. And most of those little newsletters are about 20 years old. And I think in one of them, I was mentioning how I water with drip irrigation in one of my raised beds, one of my original raised beds, back in the mid-1990s. And I pointed out that with drip irrigation on a raised bed, you need, as you mentioned earlier, you need to run it for a long time. And I was talking about hours at a time. The one thing I've learned over the years about soil and raised beds: that initial soil that you put in there is going to drain swiftly. And it will be in a very small footprint, almost like a cylinder. But the more you change the soil by adding compost and mulch, the darker that soil becomes. And the richer the soil becomes and the more water-holding capacity it has. And I've found over the years, as the soil improved, I didn't have to run it for as many hours as I used to run it, on a raised bed. You mentioned the nice, rich, black earthy tone of the soil and the wonderful smell of it. And of course, all the worms working through it. Well, that's what I have now. And I can get away with maybe a couple of hours of irrigation, twice a week, in the heat of the summer.

Steve Zien

It always amazes me when I read folks’ comments in various blogs, or on Facebook groups, where people say that drip irrigation doesn't work for vegetables, or it doesn't work for trees. And because the water doesn't get down deep enough, well, the only reason the water doesn't get down deep enough is you don't leave it on long enough.

Farmer Fred

And they're putting it in the wrong place. So many people will keep a drip irrigation emitter right next to the trunk. And that's fine when you plant it. But as that plant grows, it's sending roots out. And by putting your drip lines in a concentric circle extending outward from the plant, you're encouraging the roots to go even more outward. So as your plants grow, you need to add on to that drip irrigation system.

Steve Zien

This is true with most plants. As the plant grows, there's what's called a “drip line”.  Assume the foliage is like an umbrella. And then it rains. The water that falls from that umbrella, when it hits the ground, that is called “the drip line”. And a lot of people think that's where the end of the roots are. And that's maybe where you should be irrigating and fertilize it. And that actually is in the middle of the root zone. The root zone actually extends two to three times beyond that. And so we need to be irrigating and fertilizing and putting compost and worm castings and mulch two to three times beyond those outermost branches.

Farmer Fred

I've discovered, too, with drip irrigation lines, you need more parallel lines that run the length of a four foot by eight foot bed. I remember on my first raised beds, I had three lines running parallel, not realizing that it would be a very narrow cylinder of water emitting from each emitter. It finally dawned on me, after much experimentation, that you need more parallel lines. So now in the raised beds, I will usually run, in a four foot bed, I will run five parallel lines the length of the bed. So there's maybe eight, nine inches, maybe a little bit more than nine inches apart from each line. But the footprint of the water is going to be wider because the soil has improved over the years. So you've got that over overlapping effect that guarantees that all portions of the raised bed are going to get water.

Steve Zien

It's kind of like soil texture, your soil texture determines the how, why and when of irrigation. Irrigation from a drip source like a drip emitter, where will that water go, when that water hits the soil, in a clay soil, it has primarily smaller pores, and the water actually gets sucked into and through the soil. And not only will it get sucked down, but it'll get sucked out. And so when you're talking about your raised bed, being improved, you're getting more diversity in the pore spaces. And it will allow the water to move laterally  as well as just down. Typically, you're sandy soils, if you're actually out in the garden, that water's going to primarily go straight down from your drip emitters. If you're using drip emitters on a clay soil, that's going to spread out pretty far. And so what I generally recommend is, if you're doing your vegetable garden and  are starting to use a drip system, put a line out there, run it for a couple of hours, and then wait an hour and see where that water is going. And how far out from this line that water is traveling laterally. You can’t judge that by just looking at the surface. It’s going to look like it's not moving sideways very far at all. Again, you've got to use that soil probe and go down several inches to see whether it's spreading out and how far it's spreading out.

Farmer Fred

A narrow water cylinder in very sandy soil might only be a few inches wide, maybe seven, eight, maybe nine inches wide, if that. For a heavy clay soil, it could be moving laterally 18 to 20 inches. For a loamy soil, it's somewhere in between that.

Steve Zien

Exactly.

FALL GARDEN BASICS (from Ep. 279)

Farmer Fred

Visit any nursery in the waning days of summer or early autumn, and you’ll see the signs that say Fall is for Gardening. Why is that, and what should you consider before starting a cool season garden? That topic attracted enough listeners to launch that episode to one of the Top 10 most listened to Garden Basics podcast episodes in 2023. And it didn’t hurt that it featured the advice of America’s Favorite Retired College Horticultural Professor, Debbie Flower.

Farmer Fred

We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. Farmer Fred here. Debbie Flower is here, America's favorite retired college horticultural professor, you are here, right?

Debbie Flower

I am here. Good. Yes.

Farmer Fred

Let's answer some questions. Marina writes, and actually she texted us from Santa Cruz, California , which is along the coast. Santa Cruz is a wonderful beachfront city with a great old wooden roller coaster. But it is an area of the coast that has many climates because the ocean front is maybe one or two miles wide before it starts to go up hill immediately.

Debbie Flower

Right. very many different microclimates as a result.

Farmer Fred

And this will all make sense to you, when I tell you what Marina is asking. She says, “This fall I will be moving into a small apartment with some college friends, and plan to start my very first food garden to provide fresh produce for the four of us. I got some free seeds from my University of California Santa Cruz Life Lab garden internship, including bok choy, lettuce, spinach, arugula and radishes. I also got two onion varieties, parsley, larkspur, and stock to plant for the spring. I will only be living in the apartment for one year. So I'm looking for advice on small area, temporary, first time gardening strategies, including soil and containers, pest control, watering and what I should and should not plant. Thank you.

Debbie Flower

She doesn't ask for much at all there.

Farmer Fred

Well Marina, you know what I really liked. The fact  it's not fall yet. And she's already thinking about fall planting, as a good gardener should.

Debbie Flower

Yes, she's planning ahead. That's wonderful.

Farmer Fred

Yeah, and especially since it doesn't make sense at all that in the heat of the summer, you're actually could be starting your fall garden. But yes, you could. In a lot of situations you might be starting seeds indoors. The nurseries don't realize it's fall until about September or so, and then they'll start getting in the cool season plants. But seeds are out there already.  And for gardeners who like to try different varieties, and especially in the world of Chinese cabbages, such as the bok choy, there are just so many varieties that are worth trying. So you're off to a good start there Marina, by doing some planning. I think at the Garden Basics podcast, you could probably find some episodes that we've talked about in the past that you would find helpful. I know episode number 12, “Your first garden” could be helpful. Also, since this is a temporary garden, I imagine you'll be doing it in containers. I didn't see that though.

Debbie Flower

She's looking for advice on that, including soil and containers.

Farmer Fred

All right. So we don't know. It might be a mix of a small plot there at the apartment and containers. So there's that. We do have a good episode that we did on containers, Episode 256 called “Container Gardening Basics” that you may want to check out. I like her selection of easy to grow crops that she has. She has a lot of root crops and greens, and those are easy to grow.

Debbie Flower

Right. And she has them separated pretty much as they should be, for the seasons. The boy choi, lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes, onion from seed. You've done that before. Start in fall.

Farmer Fred

Yes.

Debbie Flower

Parsley. larkspur, stock. Stock is a flower as is larkspur. They will definitely do well. I would plant them now for the fall also, but they could be a spring crop as well.

Farmer Fred

And with some crops you do get them started in the fall, even though the harvest might not be until much later. For me it was today with onions that I planted last October.

Debbie Flower

And you planted them from seed. So it does take a while.

Debbie Flower

Some crops do take awhile. So she's gonna be there a year, she should be able to get a crop out of those onions. But the first thing I thought about was location. Where should she grow these edibles and flowers? Many gardens that were started by first time gardeners were in full shade. And that's not going to work for these crops. So they need to be in a place to get six to eight hours of full sun. So unobstructed sun, no shade from a tree above or from the house or anything like that. But only six to eight hours out of the 24 hours that we call one day.

Farmer Fred

My concern with it being Santa Cruz would be marine influence, where your sunlight might be limited due to morning fog.

Debbie Flower

yes. And that that will. So if you have lots of fog, you need to double those hours. If it were foggy all day long, you would want them in a sunny place as sunny as you can get for 12 to 16 hours.

Farmer Fred

You should point out that's really only for certain crops. A lot of the greens that she suggested could be grown in the shade.

Debbie Flower

True. They can produce with less sun. Actually everything - the bok choy, lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes - everything except the flowers. Cool season flowers can take less sun, the shorter end, the six hour end, of that sun exposure.

Farmer Fred

Good. Generally root crops aren't too picky.  So being that she was an intern at the UC Santa Cruz gardening lab,  she has a good start.

Debbie Flower

She knows some things. Yeah. So that's a good thing. So besides looking at the sun conditions, the other couple of things I like to think about when I'm locating a garden: is it near water? Because you're gonna have to water these now. Not as much as we may have to in the valley here. Because Santa Cruz is a foggy place. but she's still going to need to water them. And the plants should be someplace where you can see them on a regular basis from inside the house. So that you remember, “Oh, yeah, look, they're wilting. I better get out there and water.”

Farmer Fred

In an apartment house, it might be on your way from the car to the apartment,  to remind you to get out there and do something.

Debbie Flower

Or they might be on a deck or a patio.

Farmer Fred

And if you are in container, your least expensive source of a potting soil might be the bagged soil. I wouldn't use soil from the parking lot.

Debbie Flower

Correct. For a container, you want to use what's called soilless mix, right? And you can make your own. And that might require too many inputs for somebody who's going to move quickly, because you're going to need a big bag of several things. But if you make your own, it's a one to one to one ratio which means one part of an organic component, which would be peat moss or coir or compost. Then one part of a rock component, perlite or pumice or sand. And then one part of vermiculite. Vermiculite is kind of an unique product. And for me, I like to definitely include some vermiculite. And you mix them together and that's your media, then you'll need some nutrition.

Farmer Fred

And that would not be leftover beer. It sounds like it's a college apartment house.

Debbie Flower

or close to it. Yeah. Yeah, no, no beer. You want fertilizer. If you're using peat moss, you'll have to add a little bit of lime. Garden lime, the oyster shell lime, was one type to add to the mix to adjust your pH. But fertilizer is needed only once they have germinated from seed. They don't need fertilizer to germinate. But once they're growing, they will need nutrition, they will need fertilizer.

Farmer Fred

Being that Santa Cruz is a fairly organic place, I would think manure might be readily available. But I would be very cautious about your source of that manure. And what were those animals were treated with? And what was sprayed on the pasture they ate to control weeds?

Debbie Flower

Right. Were you thinking fresh manure?

Farmer Fred

I don't know.  I was thinking that there may be a petting zoo on the campus in Santa Cruz or something along those lines. I don't think they have a petting zoo. But you never know.

Debbie Flower

But cattle, chickens, goats all have that would be something you'd have to research. They have their horses too. Their manure all has different qualities to it. And yes, you need to know what they've been eating because what they've been eating is comes out in the poop and if they've been eating stuff that has been treated with herbicides that can also come out in the poop and can ruin your garden.

Farmer Fred

Yes, especially if it's fresh manure. And I would say that if you have availability to manure, probably the best place to put it would be in a hot compost bin.

Debbie Flower

And yes, and leave it for a while till the smell goes away and it has broken down.

Farmer Fred

So Marina, if you wanted to, you could give up your parking space there at the apartment house and convert it to a three bin composting system.

Debbie Flower

Oh, there you go. I thought you're gonna say you're gonna have the manure delivered there. I had that done in my driveway. When I first had a house in Portland, Oregon. And the guy who came with it was from a dairy farm. He didn't want to drop it off because I was at work.  Because apparently that's a joke people do: order manure for someone else's house. But he did. Eventually. My neighbor convinced him I was the type of person who would want this. Yes.

Farmer Fred

You know, one nice thing, though, if you had the space there to build a raised bed would be the ease with which you could attach a translucent top made of glass polyethylene or fiberglass and have a cold frame, just in case it gets a little too cold for whatever you might be growing in the wintertime.

Debbie Flower

Yes, you could trap some heat. You know, you could do it with containers, you would have to group them together, and then use a heat blanket, which is typically sold here. I'm thinking of Santa Cruz being so close to the ocean. I don't know how readily available that would be, but it certainly would be available mail order. Yeah. And when you use a heat blanket, and it's not that heavy, not as heavy as I think of blankets being it's, it's something different, you need to spread it all over the plants and all the way to the ground, because you're trapping the heat that's coming out of the ground. Now, if this is a second story apartment, and you're on a deck, it's not going to be as helpful.

Farmer Fred

When you say heat blanket, can I say frost cloth?

Debbie Flower

Yes, you can.

Farmer Fred

Okay. Same thing. Right? So, frost cloths come in different thicknesses. And I wouldn't get the lightest, but maybe one of the thicknesses that's in between that and the thickest one. For most mild areas those are sufficient, you're just looking for two to three degrees of protection. It doesn't take much. And  you may not need them, in fact, if they are in containers, you could probably bring him inside.

Debbie Flower

if you had to. Bring them closer to the house anyway. That gives them less exposure to the coldness outside.

Farmer Fred

All right. fertilizers. Yes, for a container you would have to because if you're watering it, you're also leaching out nutrients.

Debbie Flower

So your containers are going to have holes in the bottom, they have to have drainage, and the water is going to go through and out. And when you plant into the container, you want some what's called head room. Which means that the media does not come all the way to the top of the container, you have a half inch or an inch between the top of the media and the top of the container, so that when you water, you water thoroughly, meaning you fill up that whole headroom, that space between the media and the top of the container completely, and then let it go through. And you do that maybe again, so that you're getting some water out of the container. it's called the leaching fraction, some water out of the bottom of the container. And yes, it will contain nutrients that the plant has not used. And that's a good thing, because if those unused nutrients build up in the container, it raises the media's pH or alkalinity, and it can limit the growth of the plant.

Farmer Fred

As far as fertilizers go to replenish the plants. I like single digit fertilizers. By that I mean those three numbers you see on the front of the box or the bag or the bottle of fertilizer. They should be single digits, your nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium content. Like a 5-1-1, which is typical for fish emulsion. Or a triple four or something along those lines. You would have to do it probably more regularly than you would if it was planted in the ground. I have this nagging memory in the back of my head of creating a problem in an apartment, thousands of years ago, where I was watering plants on the little outside deck of my second story apartment and didn't think twice about where the water was going. Well, it's going to leave the pot and then where is it going to go? Oh, it's going to stick around the wood of that second story deck, which eventually rotted, right? So you might have to get pretty creative when it comes to thinking about how are you going to drain the water away.

Debbie Flower

Right?

Farmer Fred

And how are you going to protect the surfaces of something you don't own?

Debbie Flower

I like to have all my containers on a rolling platform. They sell smaller ones at the garden centers. They're not cheap. You can make your own out of wood.  Skateboards would work yeah. I like to have wheels on it so I can move the plant around easily. But I also liked that it lifts  the container and the platform off of the deck or whatever it is, so air can get underneath and that will help it dry out and prevent this rotting you're talking about. And then on top of that, I like to have a dish,  to collect the water because maybe my neighbor below is sitting on their deck and I'm watering and down comes this water. And then so it could be a cache pot with no holes. A pretty pot that you put around the outside of the planted container. Maybe the cache pot doesn't have drain holes, and allows whatever comes out the bottom to collect, but then you have to empty that water out of that where it's collected in the container under your grow pot. And a turkey baster works well for that purpose.

Farmer Fred

Yeah, that's a good idea too. But you just can't take that container of water that's draining there and throw it off your balcony.

Debbie Flower

Unless you really have a strong throw and can get very far away from any humans or other structures or vehicles nearby.

Farmer Fred

Marina was a little concerned too about pest problems, she wanted some tips for pest control. Fortunately for the fall and winter garden, it's not as bad as it would be if it was the spring in the summer, you'll probably get aphids.

Debbie Flower

That's where your discussion of a single digit fertilizer comes in. If you use too strong of a concentration of nitrogen, meaning that that number is not just a single digit or you apply that single digit fertilizer too often. Nitrogen is the first number in those three that are on a fertilizer bag. If you apply it too often, you get lots of green growth, but it's young and thin, and it is aphid candy, and you get so many aphids on it.

Farmer Fred

In a container garden, you could probably get away with just removing them by hand or a hard stream of water if you have access to a hose and it's not going to make everybody all wet. You have to be kind of careful when that goes. But I was thinking in terms of building the “good bug hotel” along with the vegetable garden too. And by putting in plants that attract beneficial insects.  And so I liked the idea that she had like larkspur and stock in there. But I would add some other winter bloomers that also attract beneficial winter bloomers. And of course now we're in Santa Cruz, you know what blooms in the wintertime in Santa Cruz? Australian plants. They have a wonderful botanical garden there. They have a beautiful Australian section, which is resplendent in December and January. But for annual flowers, probably calendulas. Thinking of flat, daisy-like flowers that might attract more of the good guys that you want.

Debbie Flower

Sweet alyssum. Sweet alyssum. That's easy. It grows year round and it's attractive to the beneficials that they need. Besides eating the aphids which is their protein meal, they need some sugar, and so they need to go to a flower that's going to give them some of its of its sap,  its nectar. And that's what they get through the flower.

Farmer Fred

I like that idea. Because sweet alyssum, if it's in a big enough pot, you could ring the pot, it would include the alyssum and whatever edible plant you'd have.

Debbie Flower

So the size of the pot is going to be important. It's something that you want to be able to move physically, but you don't want it to be too small. If it's too small, then the plant will be limited and it will become a very difficult plant to manage, because the roots will quickly fill it up, and you're gonna have to water all the time and it's gonna get crowded, and it's going to suffer. I like what we call fifteens (15 gallon container). A 15 is about 18 inches tall and wide approximately. They're black plastic, and that's a problem. But other things to use would be like half wine barrels, but you do have to drill half-inch to three-quarter inch holes in the bottom. The benefit of  those barrels: they have nice oak bottoms, and you can just screw the wheels into the bottom.

Farmer Fred

If they're big enough wheels.

Debbie Flower

if they're big enough wheels, yeah.

Farmer Fred

I would suggest if you're using a half barrel, use a furniture dolly.

Debbie Flower

Yes. You said that once before. That's a great idea.

Farmer Fred

There's a lot of winter bloomers that can be planted in Santa Cruz. I mean, if you go to your local nursery, or even a big box store, you're gonna see a fine selection of winter blooming annuals, but again, they're probably not going to get them in stock until September or October. And so those places are where you can buy seed and get started right away.

Debbie Flower

The sweet alyssum is very easy from seed, it comes in colors. And so you have the big pot you have maybe a crop of chard and I don't think she mentioned chard but that's a nice green to grow in the winter. And around the edges you have, or next to the chard plant, you have some sweet alyssum.

Farmer Fred

if this is all in containers, you can safely plant mint in a few pots to to attract beneficials and it's not going to get out of control.

Debbie Flower

But don't plant it with other things in the same container. The mint will take over.

Farmer Fred

But yeah, I like that idea of sweet alyssum.  I think that's a fine entry for the mild climate good bug hotel.

Debbie Flower

And  temperature in the container is not such a problem in Santa Cruz in the winter. But if she's starting now, let's say within the next month, those black grow pots could heat up tremendously. And so that causes the media to become very hot, temperatures of 140 degrees in as little as a half an hour have been recorded. And that means you've got dead roots. Wherever that part of the pot is being hit by sun, you need to prevent that. And to prevent that media from heating up, you can do a bunch of basic things, you can wrap it in that frost cloth we were talking about if you have any leftover.

Farmer Fred

Which is also good for pest control. Yes, like keeping them from landing in the first place.

Debbie Flower

They can't get to the plant. Secure the plant with some clothespins or tape, tape it around the pot, you can put aluminum foil on the sunny side of the pot, and it will reflect the sun off, you can get some spray paint and I've done this with students and just clean the pot off with a nice rag and then spray that side that's going to be facing the sun or spray the whole thing. So you have options. And that reflects enough light that it doesn't allow the roots to get that hot.

Farmer Fred

Your favorite colors?

Debbie Flower

We used light colors, but I got silver and gold and white and pink and yellow and let them do whatever they wanted on their pot.

Farmer Fred

Okay. Did it bring down the soil temperature? Since you were teaching a class, there had to be soil thermometers involved in this?

Debbie Flower

No, there weren't, unfortunately, oh, yeah, that would have been a good check. But nothing burned.

Farmer Fred

Okay. All right. That's good. I think really, the big question though, is Marina, are your food habits the same as the people you're living with? Will it be their food habits as well? In other words, you want to plant food crops that everybody is going to enjoy.

Debbie Flower

Right. That you're actually going to eat.

Farmer Fred

You don't want to waste them. Unless you could have a worm bin inside. you could feed them the leftovers. But Marina is off to a good start here. And I think she will be successful.

Debbie Flower

I think so too. Just don't do too much, too fast.

Farmer Fred

All right, Marina. Thanks for writing in. Debbie. Thanks for your help.

Debbie Flower

Oh, I'm pleased to have helped Fred.

Farmer Fred

Coming up after this, we have 11 tips for garden success, as we continue with the 2023 Garden Basics Greatest Hits, Part 1.

DAVE WILSON NURSERY

Farmer Fred

The weather may not be perfect for outdoor gardening, but now’s the time to plan the what and the where of you want to plant for the future. To help you along, it pays to visit your favorite independently owned nursery on a regular basis throughout the fall and winter, just to see what’s new. And coming soon to that nursery near you is Dave Wilson Nursery’s excellent lineup of Farmers Market Favorites of great tasting, healthy, fruit and nut varieties. They’ll be already potted up and ready to be planted.

And we’re also talking about a great selection of antioxidant-rich fruits such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, Goji berries, Grapes, kiwi, mulberries, gooseberries, figs and pomegranates.

Wholesale grower Dave Wilson Nursery has probably the best lineup of great tasting fruit and nut trees of any grower in the U.S. Find out more at their website, DaveWilson dot com. While you’re there, check out all the videos they have on how to plant and grow all their delicious varieties of fruit and nut trees. Plus, at dave wilson dot com, you can find the nursery nearest you that carries Dave Wilson plants. Your harvest to better health begins at Dave Wilson dot Com.

11 TIPS FOR GARDEN SUCCESS (from Ep. 271)

Farmer Fred

During 2023, Debbie Flower and myself hit the road, talking gardening with garden groups throughout Northern California. But only one of those live appearances make it to the top 10 of Garden Basics podcast listeners. It was recorded last May at the Lincoln Hills Garden Club, and played back in Episode 271. Unfortunately, Debbie was on vacation at that time, and it was just me and a Power Point presentation, talking to a jam packed auditorium about the 11 Tips for Garden Success.

11 Garden Tips for Success: The Abbreviated Transcript

1. ALL GARDENING IS LOCAL. In your own yard, there are microclimates where certain plants will have a better chance for success. For example, monitor the morning low temperatures in various areas of your yard to find the warmest home for citrus trees. Just moved to a new home and wondering what grows well there? Take a walk through your neighborhood. Mimic the garden successes that you see.

2. KNOW YOUR SOIL. A complete soil test will let you know what nutritional elements your soil is missing, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. For the do-it-yourselfer, there are variety of test kits available for monitoring nutrient and pH levels. Check your soil moisture with a soil probe, moisture meter, trowel, or screwdriver.

3. RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE. In our area, roses won’t bloom in full shade and many tomato varieties won’t produce fruit. On the other hand, winter daphne, impatiens and hydrangeas will croak in full sun. Know the sunlight requirements for your plants in your location. The Sunset Western Garden book is a good source for finding out how much sun or shade your plants need where you live.

4. MULCH, MULCH, MULCH. Mulch retains soil moisture. It keeps soil temperature constant, reducing plant stress. Mulch suppresses weeds. It gradually increases soil organic matter while feeding the soil. Attracts beneficial organisms that improve soil fertility and porosity. Mulch encourages healthier plants!

5. MOTHER NATURE BATS LAST. When you apply broad-spectrum synthetic insecticides, the bad bugs will eventually find a way to overcome that issue, usually developing a resistance to that chemical. The same is true of weeds, treated repeatedly with the same herbicides. To battle the bad bugs, lend Mother Nature a helping hand. Limit the use of insecticides and provide the right plants for the food and shelter needs of the beneficial insects, such as ladybugs. Build it and they will come.

6. WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN. Growing heirloom fruits and vegetables is not a passing fad. A University of Texas study showed that older varieties of vegetables are more nutritious than their newer, hybrid counterparts. Beneficial insects are attracted to the fragrance of older, heirloom flower varieties.

7. EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. In the 1940’s & 50’s, DDT was available to home gardeners as a pesticide. Turns out, it caused cancer and killed birds. In the 1960’s-1970’s, the Modesto Ash was considered the “perfect shade tree” for the Central Valley of California. Turns out, it is susceptible to anthracnose, mistletoe and is no longer recommended. In the first decade of the 21st century, the pesticides Diazinon and Dursban were taken off store shelves. Today’s solution could become tomorrow’s problem. Be open to change.

8.  IF IT WORKS FOR YOU, FINE; BUT KEEP AN OPEN MIND. If you're using safe gardening techniques that others frown upon - and those techniques are working, who are we to tell you to stop? New research, techniques, or equipment may make your chores a lot easier and satisfying.

9. READ AND FOLLOW ALL LABEL DIRECTIONS. The instruction label on all pesticides is the law. Don’t assume that an insecticide or herbicide will kill a bad bug or weed if it is not listed on the label. Follow the instructions for when and how to apply the product.

10. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO PUT UP WITH A PROBLEM PLANT. Become familiar with the euphemism, “Shovel-Prune.”

11. BERMUDA GRASS IS FOREVER. Bermuda grass produces stolons on top of the soil, rhizomes beneath the soil, prolific seed heads, and roots that can live for decades, just waiting for a bit of light. Instead of thinking "eradication" of Bermuda grass, think "control.” Bermuda grass is married to your yard. Just as in any marriage, you must pick your battles. Call this one a draw.

This was just a portion of Episode 271, 11 Tips for Garden Success. By the way, these 11 tips will also be part of today’s transcript of this episode. Next week, it’s part 2 of 2023’s Greatest Garden Basics Hits.

Farmer Fred

The Garden Basics With Farmer Fred podcast comes out once a week, on Fridays.  It’s brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. The Garden Basics podcast is available wherever podcasts are handed out, and that includes our home page, Garden Basics dot net, where you can find transcripts of most episodes, as well.  Thank you so much for listening…or reading.