400 Top 4 Garden Topics of All Time

Show Transcript

400 Transcript FINAL

Farmer Fred

To celebrate this, the 400th episode of the Garden Basics podcast, today we’re running the most listened to garden chats from each of the 100-episode seasons, including starting a victory garden; growing caneberries; container gardening basics; and planting and growing shade trees.  It’s Episode number 400 of the Garden Basics with farmer fred podcast! We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. Let’s go! 

VICTORY GARDEN 2.0

Farmer Fred:

The Garden Basics podcast began during the early stages of the Covid crisis, back in April of 2020, when people were being warned to stay home. All of a sudden, there were tens of thousands of new gardeners, and we wanted to provide a little guidance, so they could be successful, new gardeners. So, it’s no surprise that the very first episode, starting a Victory Garden 2.0, was one of the most listened to episodes in our audio catalog. Here it is:

Farmer Fred:

When the Victory Garden Manual was first written in 1943, it was pretty easy to come up with reasons to grow your own vegetables. After all, it was wartime. Food was scarce. And the food that was available may not have been the healthiest or the freshest because a lot of that was going to the war effort. People responded. And in 1943, nearly 40 percent of all fruits and vegetables grown in the United States were grown in home and in community victory gardens. That's pretty darn impressive. Well, maybe it's time for Victory Garden 2.0. That's the thoughts of Diane Blazek. She's the executive director of All America Selections and the National Garden Bureau. And maybe in this time of coronavirus, Diane, we need to start our own gardens for many reasons, not the least of which is, hey, we might be sheltering in place. Give us something to do.

Diane Blazek:

You're exactly right. Yeah, it's not only something to do, but any of us who have been gardening for a long time know that just getting out in the fresh air is such a well-being type of thing. You get out, you're getting vitamin D, you're exercising, and it just makes you feel good. It gives you a sense of accomplishment to work in your garden and grow your own produce. So, yeah, there's many reasons why now is a perfect time.

Farmer Fred:

 It reduces stress. It increases the amount of healthy food that is available to you. You don't have to go to a grocery store for a lot of things now. So, yeah, and this is the perfect time to get started on a garden, isn't it?

Diane Blazek:

Oh, it really is. Yeah, I know that there are some areas of the country that have already been able to start. I'm in zone five I'm in Chicago so a couple weeks ago I started some seeds in my basement and it'll be a little while before I can actually harvest but, I think Audrey Hepburn had this great quote about gardening is a way that you're looking for the future. And I'm probably messing up her quotes and I apologize to her. But, yeah, I think in this time we need to be looking forward with a positive eye.

Farmer Fred:

Getting back to the whole concept of Victory Garden 2.0, we should point out that there was a book back during World War II called The Victory Garden Manual. And the author of that book has something to do with the National Garden Bureau.

Diane Blazek:

He certainly does. And it's such an honor to bring all this back and talk about it again. So Mr. James H. Burdett, he had worked for a seed company as well as being a newspaper journalist. He had the idea for National Garden Bureau back in 1920. So he launched this nonprofit organization as a way to disseminate gardening information to other journalists. And that is still the model we're using today. But then because the Victory Gardens came about in World War II, and then they had a resurgence in World War II, this book was published in 1943. So, you know, he had to start working on this probably about the time of Pearl Harbor and then published it in 1943. And it was just such a good guide for anybody who wanted to start their own victory garden.

Farmer Fred:

 And that's the place to start, even here in the 21st century, with some of the tips he wrote about in the Victory Garden manual. And probably not the least of which is, know where you are. You've got to garden according to your zone. And as this guy on the radio here locally often says, all gardening is local.

Diane Blazek:

It really is. Yeah, that's a good tip. And just from being on social media and talking to people, A lot of them don't even realize you need to know your growing zone and what that means. So we put that first and foremost as the number one thing you need to know. Subsequently, it means you need to know your last frost date, which we put that further down the list. And probably they should be together, but I was just trying to do it in order, like step one, step two. So know your growing zone and know your last frost date are two top tips that we wanted to start with.

Farmer Fred:

 One of the more accurate growing zone maps for California does not use the USDA zones. What they use are called the Sunset zones, and that would be from the Sunset Western Garden Book. And even though the Sunset folks are falling on hard times like a lot of publishers are, the book is still available. And it is really a necessary reference for gardeners here to find out what you can grow in your specific area of California. In fact, if you look around, you can find the Sunset National Garden Book, which lists the zones throughout the entire country, almost like the Western Garden Book. So if you can find that book, that's also a nice book to have on your garden shelf. I guess, too, when it comes to planning your garden, and this is the time of the year to plan your garden and maybe plant it here in California, it would be next month for summer vegetables in your part of the area. It's probably Mother's Day in May.

Diane Blazek:

Right.

Farmer Fred:

Probably for a family that's sheltering in place, make a list of the items your family enjoys eating.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. I gave an example to somebody else earlier that I said, you know, if your family's not going to eat spinach, don't plant spinach. Plant something else where, you know, the space is at a premium. So you really need to grow what your family will eat. And you think also, OK, when all this produce comes ready and it's being harvested, what if you have too much? Do you have people you can share it with? Can you freeze it? Can you can it? So just take all these items into consideration when you're deciding what to plant and how many to plant.

Farmer Fred:

 Oh, boy, you sure touched on a sore point with me as far as people who grow gardens and then watch it go to waste. If you grew it, eat it. And the only way you can eat it when it's out of season is to preserve it. And I'm so glad that California's Cooperative Extension Program has Master Food Preserver programs throughout the entire state. And they're a great go-to resource locally here for finding more information about to preserve what you grow.

Diane Blazek:

 They are an excellent resource. I heard them speak last summer, and I was just amazed at how progressive California's extension group is. They're very active.

Farmer Fred:

 And then, of course, you got to decide, do you want to grow it from seed or do you want to grow it from transplants? And for beginning gardeners, I always suggest, well, let's start off with the bike with the training wheels and do it from transplants. But you have some ideas as far as, OK, what plants do you choose that would be easier to grow than others?

Diane Blazek:

 Right. And maybe if you're a new gardener, you haven't heard the term direct sow. and thinking about is looking at some charts. And, you know, it was not available back in 1943, but we have a lot of good online tools now that shows planting dates and days to harvest. You can always research, go online and Google the number of days to harvest for a beef steak tomato and see what kind of numbers you get. They will vary. And it depends if you're planting with heirlooms or hybrids, some will be shorter, some will be longer. But yeah, that's very important. And I totally agree with you. It's a lot easier to just go to your local garden retailer and get transplants. But then there's other things that you may want to direct sow. And they would be quick crops, something like radishes or lettuce or spinach, something like that. So there's a lot of good options.

Farmer Fred:

 There are. And fortunately, the nurseries here in California, the retail nurseries are still open for business because they, too, are in the food business. And that's why they get to be open. And we're glad about that. Yeah, definitely. I would suggest, too, that if you're starting a vegetable garden for the first time, choose hybrid varieties over heirloom varieties. I mean, you can pick one or two heirlooms, but for the most part, keep it at hybrids because they usually will be more prolific, more productive, and they're easier to have success with.

Diane Blazek:

 Right. Because of the fact that I run the All-America Selections, we do plant trialing. And yeah, a huge majority of our new introductions are hybrids. And I say that same thing. For new gardeners, if you want to have more of a guarantee of success, plant the things that are going to be easier, that are going to be disease resistant. You don't want to put all that work and money into it and then just have them succumb to disease or something.

Farmer Fred:

 And as we mentioned, this is the perfect time to plan your garden. And what are some tips for planning your garden space?

Diane Blazek:

The old traditional victory garden was typically done in a garden plot or, you know, a certain size space in your garden. Not everybody has that anymore. So you really need to take a look at what kind of space do you have? Where is it located? Please, please, please make sure that it gets enough sun. I know that way too many people think, oh, maybe there's a little bit of shade and I can plant it there, you're probably not going to be as successful. You can research. Yes, there are some things, maybe some leafy greens that'll grow a little bit of shade. But for the most part, you definitely need some sun. And then you just have to decide for yourself, are you going to tackle growing this in ground? Do you have some raised beds? Do you want to buy or make some raised beds? Or do you just simply want to, okay, I have a window box or I have this 16-inch container and I want to grow a little determinate tomato. Those are the things to take into consideration and go from there.

Farmer Fred:

I guess we should define those terms because a lot of people get confused about it. Full sun is generally, ideally more than eight hours a day of direct sun. It could be six to eight hours. Partial sun is four to six hours and anything less than four hours is usually considered full shade.

Diane Blazek:

 Right, right, yeah. So, and I agree with you. That terminology and which plants you can grow where, I'm glad you're adding in the California aspect because we try to think nationally, which is kind of hard because it is, like you say, it's local. So it's hard to put in all those little asterisks for different locations.

Farmer Fred:

Two of your top 10 tips, you can almost combine into one. And you talk about companion planting and you also say, don't forget to plan for pollinator friendly flowers. And I tell you, a lot of your vegetables when it comes to fighting off pests, if you've got pollinator-friendly flowers and perennials that attract beneficial insects, they can go a long way to reduce your use of pesticides.

Diane Blazek:

Oh, absolutely. So you're you're killing a couple birds with one stone there by planting the flowers. But the reason we talk about the pollinator, I mean, yeah, the pollinators need our help. We need their help. And I think a lot of people might have gone too far in one direction saying, well, I'm just going to do 100 percent vegetables, forgetting that they need pollinators to pollinate certain of their produce. Exactly.

Farmer Fred:

 Of course, soil is always an issue if you have poor soil. And some people think they have poor soil, but it really isn't. It just needs perhaps to be amended. And that's where composting comes in.

Diane Blazek:

 Exactly. And so great time now. You're at home and you're using some of the produce from the store and you need to get rid of the peels of the core, whatever the case might be. Start a compost pile. Super simple. You'll be so happy you will. Your garden will be better off.

Farmer Fred:

And for the kids that like to play with worms, vermicomposting is catching on here in California, having a worm bin and then using all those kitchen scraps to feed them. And then what what comes out of the worms is called worm castings, which is a great soil amendment. Yeah.

Diane Blazek:

And there's a lot of great resources on how to build your own worm bins. I love that concept. If I had little ones, I would be all over that.

Farmer Fred:

 Anything else you want to mention here?

Diane Blazek:

Our website, ngb.org, tons of information, a lot of additional links on our Victory Garden 2.0 blog. So spend more time in your garden than on your website, but the website will definitely give you plenty of resources to be successful.

Farmer Fred:

Check local resources with the University of California Cooperative Extension. That would be the Master Gardener Program in your area and the Master Food Preserver Program. And you, too, can have a Victory Garden 2.0 to get us through this mess. Diane Blazek. She's the executive director of both the All-America Selections and the National Garden Bureau. Diane, thanks for a few minutes of your time.

Diane Blazek:

 Thank you very much and happy gardening.

GROWING RASPBERRIES, BOYSENBERRIES, BLACKBERRIES

Farmer Fred

One of the sweetest backyard garden treats to grow? Caneberries - including Raspberries, Blackberries and Boysenberries. In Episode 182, which aired back in April of 2022, Master Gardener Pam Bone took us step by step in how to successfully grow these berries. This, too, was one of the most listened to segments in the entire history of the Garden Basics podcast. Want to be a successful berry grower? Give a listen:

Farmer Fred    

We're at the house of Master Gardener Pam Bone here in Sacramento County. And she loves raspberries and you ought to see her raspberry garden. So today we're going to talk some raspberry basics. And Pam, this is a rather phenomenal stretch of raspberries you have here it looks to be about 25 feet long and about eight feet deep. But what I like is that you have incorporated rows between the raspberries so that you never have to reach more than two and a half feet to pick the berries. So that was smart thinking, putting the rows that you can walk on to be able to reach all the berries.

Pam Bone   

That is really critical. Actually, it's really difficult. Otherwise, you don't get into the middle to harvest; it's hard for pruning. Later on, it's hard for pest control, it's really important. So what we did is we have some raised beds, they originally were two by sixes, they've sort of disintegrated over the years, but the soil has built up and then between those raised beds, then we put down a lot of mulch. And over the years, it's raised up as well. And so what we have is pathways throughout the whole area. And you can get you can reach and pick and harvest. And it's really easy to get to it. And it makes it a lot easier than a big solid block. And that is really important.

Farmer Fred  

How adaptable are raspberries to the United States? Are there zone limitations?

Pam Bone 

Well, some people would tell you that they can't grow raspberries in Sacramento that they have a really horrible time. We've been growing raspberries here at our house for practically the whole time we've lived here, which is nearly 42 years and there are certain varieties for certain locations. So you have to know what will do well here. You also have to know the location they require, how much sun can they take. You have to have sun in order to produce the berry itself. But here in our area, we have been planting Heritage and Oregon 1030. And those are varieties that are adapted to the heat. And the Heritage variety is still available everywhere. My daughter grows Heritage in Washington in Pullman, Washington. So these are what we call the fall bearers or everbearers. And they are a little bit different variety than the kind that you put up on a trellis and all. Actually they're much easier to prune, just go to your local Cooperative Extension or your nursery and find out what varieties are adapted to your area and what are their growth habits. And do you want that kind of growth habit? How much work are you willing to do with training them and pruning them and everything? So we've adapted very well here and produce huge crops of berries.

Farmer Fred  

If you look at the picture that's with today's episode of Pam's raspberry bed you you see a lot of T posts sticking up with a lot of wires. And judging by the heights of the wires, it looks like these raspberries get maybe six feet tall?

Pam Bone   

Oh yes, definitely they will grow at least that far. And and then in fact sort of hanging over. So I'd say they might even be seven feet tall. They grow beautifully in our area in the location that we have and very vigorously and we found that this system maintains them without having to do a huge trellis system because what these are, they are pruned down not to the ground but to basically brown sticks in the winter months. And then the new spring growth comes up and then they keep growing and then New growth comes up from the base to produce a fall crop. What we found is that it's almost like creating a little playpen for them. All you really need are wires that go around, just to hold the berries inside, so that they'll be remain upright. So all we do here is you just move the berries as they grow into the wires. And then they're just held inside. And so we've got a center wire here just so they won't flop. And it's a really ideal system. We found it works really, really well for this type of everbearer or fall bearer raspberry.

Farmer Fred  

What's the spacing on these plants?

Pam Bone  

Well, what were what was the spacing on the plants originally?

Farmer Fred  

And what is it now?

Pam Bone  

We harvest a lot of plants that come up in between the rows, and we have another little nursery area, that's too much shade for very much  production. So we then harvest and and we replace plants that die out. And I would say they're probably about maybe a foot apart, or so they probably started out back in the day about two feet apart. But no, this  is a block system, it's okay for them to be a little bit crowded. But you can see there's some areas that are a little bit more open and other areas that it's a little bit more compact and that so I don't think you can really mess up with this system at all. And they can be fairly close together. Remember, raspberries send up nice little new plants all over the place. And so if you space them far apart, they're going to fill in on their own anyhow, so you don't have to crowd them when you first start.

Farmer Fred  

This is being irrigated by a drip irrigation system, you have lines and quarter inch tubing, it looks like the emitters are spaced eight or 12 inches apart. And the lines themselves are maybe a foot apart each to ensure equal soaking of the soil. Are raspberries a thirsty plant?

Pam Bone 

They are, they do need even watering, regular watering. And we did find out kind of the hard way we've always used a drip irrigation system. But back in the old day before they had pressure compensating in line emitters, we had this laser tubing, and it just really produced a lot of water and we want it to be more efficient. And so even though it was on a drip system, we wanted to change to these new lines. And we found out we've got to put a lot more of these in here because these plants are thirstier than we thought and that laser tubing was putting out a lot more water. Luckily, it puts it out very efficiently. But yes, I would say we do water these once a week. And when we do, they may have to run for four to six hours at a time. Depending on the heat and how hot it gets in the summertime, here or what kind of a hot spell we're having or whatever, we may then turn it on twice a week, and just not run it quite as long. So I adjust it. but right now it's set for once a week and I believe it's on for four hours. 

Farmer Fred   

Alright, it's springtime when we're recording this. So those  would be spring hours of irrigation.

Pam Bone  

Right. And we increase it. What we want to do is increase the amount of water that is put on at any one time so we're not doing any shallow irrigation. These roots are not extremely deep at all. Not like a fruit tree or anything. But you do want to wet the soil down at least a foot to 18 inches and keep it moist; and we mulch. Everything is mulch, mulch, mulch and a lot of compost over the top as the top dressing to save water, to keep the water into the soil. Try to be as energy and water efficient as we possibly can. But berries I will say just like any fruit crop in your landscape, if you really have to save water because you're in a drought or whatever, then get rid of your lawn because you can't get rid of your fruit trees. And unfortunately, fruit trees, berries and other things like that take just about as much water as a lawn if not more, but look at what you're getting out of it.

Farmer Fred 

You can eat the berries, it's kind of hard to eat grass.

Pam Bone  

That's exactly right. So we just keep reducing the lawn, if we feel like we need to save water.

Farmer Fred 

With all the compost and mulch you're using, what sort of fertilizer regimen do you need for raspberries? 

Pam Bone  

Actually, we don't have to do much of anything. But once a year in the spring, we do topdress with usually something with higher nitrogen, just like all fruit of all sorts and we grow a lot of fruits in our landscape. They need nitrogen to grow and to produce fruit. People think oh, you need phosphorus and potassium. But  we've done a lot of soil testing in our area. And I worked for the Cooperative Extension for many years and saw a lot of soil tests come by. And for the most part, we don't see a lot of phosphorus and potassium deficiencies in our woody plants and are fruit trees. Are berries, they might need a little bit more because they don't have as extensive as a root system. So what I usually generally do is just buy something that is an all purpose, higher in nitrogen fertilizer, as long as it doesn't have any kind of a weed killer in it. lawn fertilizer works just just as well.

Farmer Fred   

Yeah, exactly. There are a lot of good like starter lawn fertilizers that take their time to break down and can feed the plants for a much longer period of time. And actually, lawn fertilizers are fairly good choice for a lot of massive plantings like raspberries here. And also, there's like you say, as long as you avoid the weed and feed products, and just stick with the feed products, you're okay.

Pam Bone   

That's true. And actually, this year, we did put on a lawn fertilizer, we went out and purchased, we needed some more for the lawn itself. And so I thought, well, let me look for one that is high in nitrogen, but has a little phosphorus and potassium and little NPK in there. And that will be good for the berry plants. We also, in addition grow boysenberries as well. And so I needed something that we could do for those as well. And then we can just use the same old thing on our citrus and our apple tree and everything else. One fertilizer makes it a lot easier.

Farmer Fred   

Raspberries, Harvest time is when? And how do you harvest them? And how long can you store them?

Pam Bone  

Well, the berries, this particular variety, remember,  these are the two-crop variety, and a lot of people may grow raspberries that only produce a spring crop. This one also produces the fall crop, Heritage. Heritage is the one that you can find in the nurseries now. And it's it's pretty much everywhere. I think they sell it all over the United States, that particular variety. Then we'll start bearing a crop in late May, early June. And we'll get a pretty good crop then. In fact, actually, it might even be mid-May this year, it looks like some of the flowers are getting pretty well developed already at the ends. Now this is a flower-fruiting cycle, where these are the old canes from last year that were cut down. And then the new growth that you see here is all from last year, as soon as these bear here in about another month or month and a half or so, then they are going to die back and then all the new canes arising from below that are going to come up. They're going to produce then a fall crop. And I will say that it's kind of unpredictable, but most of the time are, quote fall crop and I should say fall with quotes around it because really the crop starts in August. And it'll go till Thanksgiving easily in our area unless we get a really cold snap.

Farmer Fred  

So when that stem has produced berries, that stem should be removed?

Pam Bone   

We usually wait until it starts to look like it's not productive at all. And then we  cut it out. And the reason is, we used to just leave them but we found out that we had that mite problem when we had a little bit of drought stress. And we found that if it's too crowded, you don't get the air circulation, the leaves get dusty and dry. And mites love that. And we just found that it was easier just to remove it, open it up and get rid of it. And then it left a lot of opportunity for the rest of the canes to come up and grow. And then  those come up, then they fruit and we get a great crop. I say the heaviest crop is mid August to the end of September, a great crop. And I put up a lot of jam. So my husband has to pick, he does all the picking. I do all the putting up. My husband calls himself the gardener. I'm the horticulturist, we used to work together on a lot of this stuff. But now he's got me in the kitchen, you know, putting all this stuff up, he then will harvest about every five days. Because if you don't, two things will happen, the fruit will get soft and mushy, and then they will stop producing. But the soft and mushy attracts a fruit fly that goes to our cherry trees, as well, here, and we haven't had a real problem the last few years if you're really careful with keeping it up. But sometimes if you let that particular fruit fly go wild here, it will infest the fruit with unknown little white maggots until you're making your jam and all of a sudden there they are. Especially the fall crops. So you have to be really careful and really religious about getting rid of any fruit that's too soft or decayed or whatever.

Farmer Fred  

Picking the raspberries. Can you pluck them or do you have to cut them?

Pam Bone  

These you just pull right off. They pull off very easily and are not a problem at all. And in fact when we get down to the boysenberries, it's the same thing, you can just pull them right right off. You don't have to cut anything. They're very easy to pick. They're a little bit thorny,  a little bit of prickles on them, but not too bad.

Farmer Fred    

What does Mike the gardener use to a store the raspberries as he's picking them? Does he have a big bag? Or is he just carrying a bucket?

Pam Bone 

 I like them to be in a colander, and so I have a lot of large metal colandars and some plastic colenders. That way, there's more broad surface area, he brings them into the house then. And I kind of make sure that they are well distributed because I put them in the refrigerator. And actually raspberries have a very, very long refrigerator life, they can easily stay in a refrigerator and without having to put them up or do anything with them for five to seven days, and not see any decay or anything as long as you've picked them without already having a problem with a soft fruit. I try to get to them though and put them up if I can within about two to three days. But if something happens, and I get a little behind, it's really producing heavily, I can leave some of them in there, it works out really well. 

Farmer Fred   

Anything else you want to mention about raspberries?

Pam Bone  

Well, I think raspberries are pretty easy to grow. And they're easy to prune and take care of. They produce a beautiful crop and make fabulous jam, you just have to be careful to attention for making sure you mulch, making sure that they don't ever  suffer any kind of a drought. Keep them irrigated evenly without too much water, they are sensitive to root rot. Our soil is a heavy clay soil. And we do have a type of Phytophthora in our soil that does infect our raspberries occasionally.  I've had it actually identified at a state lab to make sure. So what we do is we just make sure that we pull those out occasionally and then I really watch the irrigation, to make sure that we're not keeping it too wet or whatever. But we're still going to get a little bit of it because it's in our soil, and you've got a heavy clay soil and even just normal spri