Richard Mata is a listener and member of the Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Group and he is here to tell us about his gardening journey in Nampa, Idaho!  Richard is a great experimenter and inspirer and shares his passion for creating a greener world while growing some great tasting food!

Neighborhood Gardeners of Idaho Facebook Group

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

I specifically remember this day. I think I was probably around 6-7 years old. I was in my grandpa & grandma’s yard. Had a pretty good garden. They had a lot of corn, and it was taller then me and my older sister. We ended up playing tag through the corn and my grandpa came out and was like “Get out of there!” and it was like a giant corn maze, when you’re young you can’t really see anything and it was really cool. It was like the first experience I had in the garden and I remember!

My grandma picked the tomatoes! Right off the vine! It so awesome! So that always stuck with me throughout my years, growing up stuff like that. 

Where my mom and my dad never had … My dad was in the military, we moved around a lot. WE lived in apartment building mostly…. We moved to Germany twice… basically I’m an army brat… first we lived in North Carolina, then we went to Colorado, back to Germany again for 6 years… then moved back to the states then we lived in Texas in El Paso, close to San Antonio and then the Navy said they’d pay for one final move so we ended up here in Nampa, ID! 

So I was gonna ask is that where you were with your grandparent in North Carolina?

They were actually in Texas in San Antonio

me and my older sister were playing tag in that cornfield

we never had a garden

right after we moved up here to Idaho

my parents finally had a house and some land

I helped them with that

a couple of years after that

went to college for a little while I thought as soon as I get my own place I’m gonna start a garden.

Now you have kids yourself? or foster kids?

I used to live here in Nampa Idaho, I met this gorgeous woman, my wife! Anyways I met her and we ended up getting marry, had adopted 3 boys from a prior marriage and they basically became my boys and we’re just one big family and we foster as well, whenever there are kids out there that need help. We just foster. That’s basically it. 

My boys they love to help! They help me in the garden they love being in the garden, they love to help. They’re always asking When are we gonna weed? When are we gonna do this? When are we gonna do that?

How old are they?

15, 11, 8 …

They grow fast! I know how that goes! I can’t ever keep up with my grandchildren!

How did you learn how to garden organically?

My parents just went ahead and gardened just like everybody else, I think they might have gardened using chemicals unfortunately on some of their stuff. When I did mine. I just learned off the internet, I just searched and educated myself.

There’s a popular saying, my wife and brother-in-law say frequently “Google is your friend!”

All  you have to do is type in whatever question you got!

Educate yourself on anything you want to know… I find everything online. And listening to podcasts. I only listen to like 2 podcasts and yours is one of them!

I have to say that’s cause of my wonderful guests like you now, who share their story and teach us their tips!

Tell us about something that grew well this year.

My tomatoes are doing actually better then my peppers. Some of my peppers didn’t make it. One of my beds, I actually left my sprinkler on and I think they drowned. I’m trying to get them to recover. I have a few tomato plants and pepper plants. 

My cherry tomatoes my rapunzel tomato plants are doing pretty good. Can see some ripe ones…they’re doing surprisingly well… I didn’t think their were gonna do that well but they’re doing really good.

What do you think is the success with them?

IDK, I did I know I’m watering correctly, Last year I ended up watering too much, I watered the whole plant they say not to water the whole plants. I’m not watering the leaves, trying not to get the leaves too wet. Trying to train them on the trellis a little bit, trying to get them to stay on the string trellis. IDK they’re just  just doing really well, maybe the type… they’re doing really cool!

Are they in pots or are they in beds?

They’re in beds. Planted 3 of them right next to each other. I planted them a little too close to each other in the bed. It’s not too bad. tehy have enough room. They’re growing pretty good. I have other tomatoes in there too! I have some purple cherokee tomatoes, not quite as good as the other ones I can see some tomatoes forming.

Excited about the tomatoes!

II know mike was yelling at me the other day not to get water on the green beans, I thought you just had to worry in the sun, but I guess your nots supposed to get them wet at all and always get the base.

I didn’t even know that till this year, I used to just water everything…. I just turned the sprinkler on.. .that’s the learning process of everything.

I thought we just watered the base of the plants not to waste it but he said the other day don’t get the water on the leaves they don’t like that.

Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?

Next year, I guess I’m excited garlic …

Gonna try garlic this year, I’m excited about that

Hopefully tomorrow gonna plant some turnip seeds… I got some seeds from my mother in law.d

Mother in law gave me a bunch of seeds

even though I love food! I don’t know many recipes

with turnips

The other day he was laughing at me because I bought some turnips but they were actually a turnip green. It’s kind of a cross between a potato and an apple kind of. I love turnips! What I love to do with them is just salt and pepper.

Can you eat the greens then?

Idk really because the seeds I bought are just specifically for the greens. And I guess don’t grow the actual turnips?

I think you’ll like those!

See if they come in tomorrow? IDK if you saw my Instagram feed yet? I just posted them?

Mike said do you think we should put another packet of broccoli seeds directly in the soil? I was like YEAH! What the heck? What’;s a packet of seeds? $2-3? And what will we get if it works and maybe it will!

I have beets planned to plant tomorrow. IDK if you saw my Instagram I posted a couple of my seeds I’m gonna plants…

I planted some

It’s been a tricky year, it was super hot in June then cool wet…. 

Tell me about something that didn’t work so well this season.

My bell peppers they just didn’t make it, I’m kind of bummed out about that. Some of them didn’t make it into the ground,DIK  id I overwatered them, or I waited too long. I had one little one and he didn’t make it I was like hey little buddy, prove me wrong. I was like poor guy. I put him out next to the tomatoes… he ever got more then four inches high…

I think you have to have 2 plants to pollinate. 

I think, IDK about all the plants. I had an old peach tree in my backyard, one of my father-in-law’s said I think you need one other type of peach tree to pollinate it… it kind of gave up on me and I had to take it out too that was kind of a bummer… peach trees are not my forte necessarily, I wish I could have an orchard of peach trees. a couple of apple trees would be cool too… it’s gonna be all garden for me.

That’s funny you say that, I have this one pear tree that I sit under all the time, and the other tree a few feet away from it, I was like has that ever produced pears? He was like no that’s the pollinator tree! I think it produce flowers too but maybe it doesn’t produce pears? 

Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden.

Mmmm well let me see… I love gardening all of it basically, I think I have

I call it the 3 ws

• watering
• waiting
• weeding

Weeding is not so bad now, I looked online, IDK where I found it someone put newspaper down and put compost on top of it, and wet it and the weeds don’t grow there at all! You keep the soil nice and moist so you don’t have to water it as much

I did it just to see, I didn’t want to do it in both of my beds, I was afraid, it might not work, but it was amazing! It’s so cool, you hardly have to weed at all! Just put the newspaper down and it works! Don’t have to pick out or anything, it just helps the soil, decomposes! IT’s really cool! It was a really neat idea!

That will help with the weeding and sometimes the watering. I want to make my own drip system, something so I don’t have to go out there every time and stand there and wait! 

I hear ya! Sometimes at the end of a long day, when you only have a limited bit of time, it doesn’t seem like it takes long, sometimes it can be, moving the hose around, to get it to go where you want it to go, and it gets stuck on a rock, or running over the baby plants… lots of times on a hot sunny day,… putting the compost and straw down not only does it supress the weeds it doesn’t require as much water!

What’s the W?!!!

While your waiting?

I KNOW IT takes a long time! I’m like how do you have the patience?

I know you have your veggies coning on all at once, then when it ready it comes on all at once… today we finally made it down to the garden and picked the cherries, but am I gonna get a chance to actually pit them? And then bake them? 

What is your favorite activity to do in the garden?

Harvesting! I think, harvesting is probably my most favorite thing to do. I love to get the boys out there and they get so excited! Look at the size of that tomato! There’s another pepper! They ask is it ready to pick? and I’ll be like yeah go for it?!!

At the beginning of the season, getting everything ready. getting the soil ready, if you have to get fertilizer, or buy soil? Or seed packets?

funny! I remember, beginning of the year, IDK where i was at home depot or some store with the seeds and there’s no way I could plant them all! I took a selfie, oh boy its’ happening!!!

I TOTALLY know what you mean! I always get sucked in and excited and then at the end of the spring when the plants are on sale and I’m like oh I need one of these and these and one thing I was better about this year was not planting everything at the same time I spread them out a little more then usual and that worked good for my lettuce and stuff.

I definitely get better at doing that! I think, I planted I had like 20-25  pepper plants I gave like 8 of them away. That’s the problem, I had so much, I wanted to plant them all, it was too early to plant them, I didn’t  have any time. I was working lot, getting off lateI was exhausted, my job is very exhausting. So I think the lesson was waiting too long, I learned my lesson, I’m gonna build more raised beds during the winter so I have them ready for the spring time. Some people are already eating their tomatoes, full sized. Mine are still really small? Im thinking I have to start my seeds even earlier? I have to look, that up?

I was gonna say maybe their using some kind of nasty chemical. 

Is miracle grow ok?

No, I don’t trust any of their products even if it says organic on it. 

Peggy Ousley one of my first guests talked about if you get manure from horses that have been fed “weed-free” hay they have actually been eating food that has chemicals on it to make it weed free and that can wreak havoc on people’s gardens.

I still think composting is the best, just mixing in your scraps etc. Working at the restaurant has been really nice because they let me take all their scraps home and our compost has been growing so incredible. 

When I got into composting! I kind of went nuts. I think it’s so fascinating, it’s so neat, kind of like planting, that you can grow, you have control over that little plant and it produces fruit

it’s for me it’s awesome! Same with composting that you can turn all that garbage and that leftover stuff to make rich soil and It helps to grow your plants even bigger and bigger?! 

IDK why its such an awesome thing for me and growing plants it’s such a satisfying thing to me!!!

No, I was just thinking, what make people if I was more successful I would maybe do more of it, composting is something I’m successful about it, it’s very forgiving, sometimes it helps to liet it sit and then it gets a darker color, it’s an easy, you don’t have to worry about if you didn’t water every day in the hot of summer. For me it’s something I can be successful at, and people like wheat they are successful at… 

What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?

It’s funny, the best advice I probably received is don’t overdo it, don’t plant too much!  Don’t try to grow too much!

I did it 3 years in a row! You can’t help it! Maybe next year I will pull in the reigns, be a little bit more picky. And try not to overdo it!

I had so many seedlings! 

popping up with so many different varieties

I’m gonna plant tomatoes

You don’t realize a different types of tomatoes

I’m gonna plant some of these,

before you know it you have like 10 different varieties of tomatoes and 50 trays etc! IT’s crazy it’s addicting!

I remember Mary St Jacques saying remember to take a picture at the end of the year that your squash plants are gonna get THIS BIG!!! IT seems like you forget how much things are gonna grow!

I actually did that, I gave a ton away! I put a few of the plants in to my compost and a few weeks later something was sprouting, Idk if it was

whatever you...