Shownotes
I’m happy to be here to talk about gardening and some other things.
I’m in Pennsylvania
Tell us a little about yourself.
I enjoy gardening with my wife and I am a free lance writer so I spend most of my time behind the computer.
When I’m not behind the computer I’m out there doing yardwork like crazy and I’m taking care of weeds!
Tell me about your first gardening experience?
It’s hard to nail down what the first was, just seems like in some capacity I have been doing it my whole life.
One of the earlier memories is just a neighbor with a great garden!
He had flowers everywhere, I just got to know my neighbor I must have got the bug from him. Helped him out there, listening to music.
I like that because when I very first started my podcast I wanted to ask the questions what do you listen to but my first few guests were all like, I usually listen to the birds and nature etc. I don’t listen to music so I took it out. So what kind of music do you listen to?
Well, at the time that was like 1980s we were gardening outside so we had Pink Floyd the Wall blasting much of the time, kind of hard to explain but did seem like the perfect sound track.
I could see that some of those songs that could seem more relevant today then back then even.
How did you learn how to garden organically?
that neighbor I learned to garden
the organic part of it didn’t hit me to my wife several years ago.
- grow your own medicines
- she really introduced me to the organic garden
A lot of other people I grew up with, this might be controversial with your audience, they would use Miracle grow
that stuff is not really good for your garden really bad stuff in it, so stopped doing that
Started making the soil very rich and healthy
miracle grow thing is kind of like you can use that to grow plants to grow plants really fast and really big or the other option is to
- take your time
- amend your soil
- make it really healthy
- then you won’t need that it will grow on it’s own
That’s the perfect thing to say on my show, what are you doing to amend your soil? Are you composting?
Composting is a passion of mine
big thing for a couple of years now
we have a half acre
this past season I created a compost pen sort of thing with wood pallets stuck together into stalls
Anytime I mow the grass
clippings go in there
- rake the leaves
- table scraps
- fruit and vegetable left overs
It can sit in a great big pile for several weeks then you turn it and get that smell that great smell!
everything’s breaking down
love the whole composting process
main way we get our dirt doing great
We had sunflowers that grew about 10 feet tall! Which surprised us!
I love to make compost too! I’m so curious people have been telling me, compost is so messy, we get bugs and animals. So I’m curious what do you collect it in the house.
We have the same problem that everybody else has, I don’t think there is any really good solution.
We have 2 buckets on the door part of our freezer, anytime there is a banana peel we put it the bucket in the freezer.
I’m having a really hard time now that there’s no recycling of plastic in Montana, I used to feel like we’d reuse it a few times and then we’d recycle it, but now I’m thinking about quitting coffee ~ My mom has this ceramic one with a charcoal filter, she puts it in a plastic bag and then she puts it in the freezer.
You’re the first one who said that on the show, so already dropping golden seeds. We have a bucket for chicken scraps on the counter and then coffee grounds and egg shells go on the porch, we have skunk who gets in that every once in a while, but that’s no big deal. We have several bins with pallets.
attract
it works really good you
I’m passionate like you are, I think even if you are not gardening you should create compost. I used to think like you it would help in the landfill but then I found out it actually creates like a noxious gas so we don’t want it in the landfill anyway.
Tell us about something that grew well this year.
this year seemed to be the year for squash
we had squash, tomatoes
potatoes
not food related
morning glories
took off like crazy
we had a very wet summer but it was also hot and humid when it wasn’t raining
constant moisture
squash and morning glories really took off because of that
Did you ever eat squash blossoms? My mom used to make these delicious squash flower fritters with just blossoms in a basic flour batter with just salt and pepper
my wife might have had those
I haven’t had those
Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?
there’s always new stuff to try
hugelculture
I heard about it after I first started my podcast.
I would like to try that
building those mounds with all the sticks
large compost piles really, you can grow things directly on them and plant directly in them. We’ve got
- tons of sticks
- tons of wood
Tell me about something that didn’t work so well this season.
well, I mean, there were a few things,
groundhog problem
pet groundhog
- stealing our tomatoes
- bean sprouts
- things like that
that’s what didn’t work out well.
What do you do about him? He’s a pet?!
not a pet
He comes in under the fence
We like to let small things like rabbits, so we don’t want to close the holes under the fence completely.
main strategy
he’s got some and we get some
You don’t worry about the rabbits taking your food too?
rabbits don’t seem to bother the things we’re growing, they seem more interested in the grasses around here.
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Now Let’s Get to the Root of Things!
Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden?
yeah, probably like a lot of people
that would be weeding
that no matter what I do is take care
What is your favorite activity to do in the garden?
making compost
What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?
yeah, that’s a tough one!
I’ve gotten so much of it, that’s really hard, it kind of goes along with good advice
grow your own medicine
Is there anything in particular?
just in general
what ever you need you can find in your garden in your grass
anything specific
when you need something
I just posted a great episode with Matthew Zoeller about edible plants
A favorite tool that you like to use? If you had to move and could only take one tool with you what would it be?
there are probably
be a hard one
a metal rake
there’s this one rake that I have
3-4 prongs for every thing
so much you can do with it
rake the leaves
weed, really weedy patches of garden
aerate the soil
metal rake
A favorite recipe you like to cook from the garden?
yeah, there are several recipes
she likes to make fresh salsa with tomatoes
squash soup
my wife handles that stuff, I don’t really have the recipes
yellow squash soup
A favorite internet resource?
yeah, we generally like any of the Pinterest gardening stuff
permaculture related sites
probably the Pinterest organic gardening
A favorite reading material-book, mag, blog/website etc you can recommend?
I’m usually too busy working online
we feature gardening things
shopping site that has unique things
random internet website
curated by me
sharable things
you can choose either a random internet website
really funny videos
games
It’s kind of like a product review, it’s kind of like a game. I found this really cool lock box for when you have packages delivered. And you can choose to buy it or the other links are to fun games. A lot of the things you can find are things that you wouldn’t find anywhere. There was that giant cabbage blanket. It’s kind of like novelty stuff. There were those vegetable towels gardeners might like that have like Kale Yeah!
If you have a business to you have any advice for our listeners about how to sell extra produce or get started in the industry?
electric lawn-mower
its basically goes back to my love of compost
I was going to talk about how you can use the lawn mower with
exactly
I’ve got so many leaves
there just seems more and more
if you go and buy a leaf mulcher
I just figured at one point I’m just gonna start mulching with the lawn mower
you don’t necessarily have to buy the expensive
one of those things
they have a bag on the bottom
essentially it’s a fan blade
cuts them interrupt
just compost
compost for a healthy garden
I like that cause I was kind of shocked this summer because both my mom and then I talked to this business coach, she was like why are you starting with compost? And I don’t know it’s so easy to me, and I’m as passionate about it as you are and then I’m always into clean garden tasks and I consider it one of them, so IDK what they are all talking about? I feel like I’ve found all these people this summer who are resistant to it and I think composting is so important that needs to be done whether you have a garden or not.
I think people think it is a lot harder then it really is. The ingredients are just
- greens
- browns
- your scraps
And I think air! To me the big thing was when we had lots of air. The one thing I did notice definitely if you are just composting fruit, that’s what the kids had a lot of in the classroom, pears, watermelon, etc where as I’m such a vegetable eater, I always have lot of greens to go with it, so I think that’s where we had a lot of flies or if we put a lid on it
Final question-
if there was one change you would like to see to create a greener world what would it be? For example is there a charity or organization your passionate about or a project you would like to see put into action. What do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either in your local area or on a national or global scale?
I mean, I think I always lean towards a couple of different things with this sort of topic
I would love to see people stop mowing their lawns. Stop with the well trimmed...
