Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn today’s newsletter podcast, Master Rosarian Debbie Arrington waxes rhapsodic about the new rose varieties that will be at nurseries in 2026. In USDA Zone 9, those roses may already be available locally. If not, they’re usually available from rose catalogs. For paid subscribers, Debbie talks about 12 new rose varieties (it’s 6 varieties for free subscribers). Paid subscribers also have access here to the transcript of the podcast, which features pictures of all the roses as well as links to where you can find them online.After the paywall (in the middle of the transcript, below), there are pictures and chat about 6 more new roses for 2026; and, Debbie has tips for bringing cut roses into the house, preserving their aromatic nature. Plus, tips for what to look for when shopping for roses.Here’s the transcript of our conversation about 2026 roses with Debbie Arrington of the Sacramento Rose Society, along with pictures and links:==========Farmer Fred: I was looking up the term “shovel prune”, trying to find out its origin. If you’re a gardener, you may be familiar with the term shovel prune. It basically means to remove a plant, in a polite way. And the first time I heard it, it was from a rosarian. In fact, the only people I know who use the term shovel prune are rosarians. And so I figured, well, it must have some sort of rose background. But unfortunately, I hit too many dead ends. But I will just assume that shovel pruning is a Rosarian term, because you need to make room for all the new roses that are coming out right now. It’s a great habit to get into. (FREDNOTE: This article is not quite the dead end for a definition for “shovel pruning”… and it’s entertaining!)Rosarians love new roses. They love to try new roses. They love to smell them, as well. And one Rosarian has a nice bully pulpit here in the Sacramento area.Debbie Arrington is a master rosarian with the Sacramento Rose Society. She knows her roses. She and Kathy Morrison publish, every day of the year, the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter that’s sent to your email inbox, if you’re a subscriber (it’s free). There’s a lot of good information in that. Even if you don’t live in Sacramento, you could open a free subscription to the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter and get all sorts of good gardening information.For instance, in a recent newsletter, she talked about the new roses for 2026. This is similar to what automotive magazines publish for car enthusiasts every fall. Automotive fans love to see the new cars when they come out in the fall. Well, Rosarians are like that in January, which makes January the time for shovel pruning. Because you have to plant something else, something new, perhaps. So we’re going to find out what’s new for 2026. What has got the Rosarians a-flutter?Let’s sell some roses here. Debbie Arrington, have you purchased any of these roses that we’re going to talk about?Debbie Arrington: Not yet, but they are on my list. I have to figure out how much room I have to get some roses in. And you’re right about shovel pruning. It is the pruning of last resort when you’ve done everything you can to that rose and it still isn’t performing. It either has to move or has to go. And that’s how you do it, is you dig it out. As some Rosarians say, the way to make sure a rose has a better season is to just show it the shovel and somehow they’ll wake up and have a lot more growth that year.(FREDNOTE: perhaps a more genteel expression than “shovel pruning” when approaching an offending rose is “shovel ready”.)What happens is that over the years, a rosebush can lose its vitality and just start not performing as well as it should. And by losing its vitality, it atrophies. It gets less juice out to the end of its canes. It stops putting out new canes. And if it doesn’t put out new canes, then it will stop putting out roses. And a rosebush that doesn’t bloom is just a pile of thorns. So it’s time to move on to something else. And fortunately, there are still rose hybridizers and rose breeders and rose nurseries and people that are willing to grow new roses and introduce them. And the roses that we are getting now are brand new roses of 2026. We’re actually go back to 2016 or earlier when these roses were originally bred because it takes about 10 years for a rose to come to market after they first discover that seedling. So these roses have been in the works for a long time, but they all represent trends that have been going for most of this new century.Farmer Fred: What are the common threads on the popular new roses? What are rose growers looking for?Debbie Arrington: It’s like they say, everything old is new again. People want roses that smell like roses. They want roses that look like roses. And they want roses that have all those good traits, but in a very easy care format that doesn’t need spraying. In fact, doesn’t need much care at all. And roses naturally tend to be on the low water use side. You can get by with irrigation twice a month easily here in Sacramento, which is saying something for a water-wise plant. That’s the standard. If you can do that, then it’s drought tolerant. And these roses, the ones that are being introduced now, have very good foliage. It’s very clean, fungal-resistant, disease-resistant, and looking very pretty to frame those beautiful new blooms.Farmer Fred: You pointed out in the newsletter that some now are even self-cleaning blooms, that no deadheading is needed. I find that hard to believe.Debbie Arrington: But it works. And it’s particularly true of what they call the landscape roses and your low-growing ground cover or shrub roses. These plants just put out masses of blooms, hundreds of blooms at once. And to go through and deadhead that would be quite a chore to keep those going. So instead, what happens is the flowers die back to the little stem that holds it onto the end of the cane or where it comes out of the cane. And that just dries out, and then it just falls off. And it never forms any rose hips because of the way these flowers die back. And because they die back that way, it just drops off. And then a new bloom comes out of the next leaf, one down, from where that comes out. And so what ends up happening is these plants stay very short, under one foot tall, and they just keep putting on more and more blooms. So they’re just constantly covered with flowers. And they call them carpet roses because they form like a carpet of blooms along the ground.Farmer Fred: So these landscape or ground cover roses, these carpet roses. This sounds like a rose that would do well in just about any part of the United States.Debbie Arrington: Yes, it would. That’s part of their charm and their sell-ability is that they not only are very clean and easy care, but they’re also cold tolerant and heat tolerant. So they can do both extremes. A lot of these roses are hardy down to under 20 degrees, even colder. And then they also can tolerate temperatures in the 90 or over 100. So you’ve got this wide range of growing conditions and looking beautiful all through spring, summer, into fall.Farmer Fred: So landscape roses are basically the Toyota or the Honda of the rose world. But when new rose introductions come out, it’s like cars. These new roses are the sports cars. They’re the big SUVs. They are roses that stand out. It’s the Hummers of the rose world, if you will, that we’re going to be talking about. I don’t see any landscape roses on this list.Debbie Arrington: No because most of the landscape roses are sold by color and they’re a series of roses like one of the popular ones from Star roses is the Drift series and they form drifts of roses and they’re low growing carpet roses and they’re sold by color so there’s apricot Drift, pink Drift, yellow Drift, white Drift. Each one has a little bit of its own personality, like the apricot Drift, which I have, peach Drift and apricot Drift. The peach Drift has a much more ruffled flower to it, a semi-double, with about 12 petals. And the flower is small, about two inches across. But the plant is covered with just dozens and dozens of these blooms. So it just looks like this whole mound, you know, of roughly peach-like looking blooms, while the apricot one has a little bit more substance to the flower.RUFFLED ROMANCEFarmer Fred: Well, you said the magic word ruffled, and that is one of the roses that is included in the new rose introductions for 2026, Ruffled Romance. And this is a floribunda, and I guess we better define our terms here.Debbie Arrington: Yes, yes. Because there’s lots of rose terminology that tends to confuse people. But we’ll break it down the easy way. Most people, when you think of roses, you think of the roses like you get from the florist. And those are hybrid teas. And a hybrid tea rose, generally they have a formal look to them with a high point in the middle. And they look the way people imagine a dozen red roses to look. That sort of formal look. Floribunda, on the other hand, those are like a bouquet on a stem. Instead of one stem, one flower, you have bunches of flowers together on that one stem. And the name floribunda comes from the Latin for abundance of flowers. So that’s where floribunda comes from. Floribundas also tend to be shorter plants, most of them. And hybrid teas typically will grow bushes that are four and a half to five feet tall, while most floribundas stay under three feet. There are several exceptions to that, but they tend to be lower growing. And because they have a growth structure where the stems are shorter and the leaves are closer together, the distance between nodes where the leaves come out or the blooms come out is much shorter. You can prune floribundas with a hedge clipper.Because anywhere you cut them, it will be okay because there’s not much dieback on the stems. And they will produce lots and lots and lots of flowers. And

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comWe are entering the shivering season for the Central Valley, Bay Area and low foothills of California, along with other mild winter states, especially those that grow citrus. Late November through mid-February is the most critical time here for protecting frost-susceptible plants.This is especially true for citrus tree owners, who are anxiously keeping an eye out on the upcoming weather f…

Growing onions can be confusing and try your patience, as listening to the above podcast will demonstrate. As our resident vegetable expert, Master Gardener Gail Pothour, knows first hand, growing green onions is a snap. But bulbing onions? Gail has more or less given up on trying to grow bulbing onions.If you listened to the podcast before you started reading this, it should be pointed out that the bulbing onion trial conducted at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center more than 10 years ago that Gail mentions had some drawbacks, including starting from seed (which requires a lot of patience and the results can be widely variable), and, they were all started at the same time - in August - and not transplanted into the raised beds until November. That’s three months that it took for those onion seeds to produce seedlings to get to a transplantable size, about the thickness of a pencil. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIf you spend good money on good-quality hand pruners that have replaceable parts, they can last for decades IF you take care of them: cleaning, oiling, and sharpening after every use. My Felco #2 hand pruners have been alive, well, and cutting since the 1990’s.So, how do you sharpen the blades of pruning tools? Sacramento County Master Gardener Bill Black offers step by step instructions in today’s newsletter podcast. His tips are available for all subscribers. And, he has a how-to-sharpen video.Also in today’s newsletter podcast (available for paid subscribers), Debbie Flower - America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor - and I do a deep dive into garden tool care and selection, including the must-have tools that should be part of every gardener’s arsenal for backyard fun.

(Note: this post was sent early this morning, but only a few people received it. I’m not sure what the problem is at Substack, but I’m sending it again. Hope you get to read and listen to it!)Don’t give up on certain seed varieties that seem to really take their time, germinating and growing indoors. Among the warm season vegetables that are frustratingly slow to germinate are onions, peppers, parsley, basil, and dill. To make the wait even more maddening, it can take 8 to 12 weeks for certain vegetables to grow before they can be transplanted in the garden, including onions, parsley, eggplant and celery. Add to that the seeds of flowering plants that take awhile (8 to 12 weeks, or more) to germinate and grow to a transplantable size: snapdragons, begonias, vinca, lisianthus, strawflower, impatiens, statice, geraniums, petunias, rudbeckia and coleus.No wonder we talk about Seed Starting Tips in early January!In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, offers five great hints on starting seeds of vegetables and flowers, including peppers:• How soaking pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide can speed up germination; and, how seeds germinate. • Why seeds don’t need fertilizer.• How to know when to transplant those seedlings into larger containers. • Why seedlings need a light period and a dark period each day.• The importance of air movement and the development of reaction wood* for the young seedlings.Slow-to-germinate pepper seeds can take up to three weeks to show their first set of true leaves. And, several other vegetables, especially some herbs, take weeks to sprout. Among them are celery, parsley, rosemary, asparagus, lavender, artichoke, What you’ll need for successful seed germination and growth, according to Debbie:• Small, clean seed trays or containers with drain holes.• A soilless seed starting mix. (We offer up several homemade recipes, too)• The benefit of soaking pepper seeds for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide.• Bottom heat via a propagation mat.• Consistent moisture.• Lights, once the seedlings appear.• Air movement.• Transplanting those seedlings into bigger containers once roots pop out of the bottom.Debbie Flower is a horticultural treasure. Just one listen to what she has to say isn’t enough. She is offering up so many great tips for gardeners in our “scenic bypasses”, that it really pays to either listen a couple of times or read the entire transcript (below, for paid subscribers). I am amazed at all I am learning from her; and, I’m listening to what she has to say at least four times (the original interview, two editing sessions, proofing the final) and polishing the transcript. And reading and editing that transcript, although last on the list, reveals more great gardening information that I had missed before.We also discussed the importance of gentle watering of seedling trays, so as not to dislodge the seeds (Debbie’s favorite is the Dramm 1000 shower nozzle). We have different ideas about the best sort of gentle watering equipment to use. A list and links of all the seed starting implements that we discussed, including watering equipment, is here**:Grow lightsDramm Water Breaker nozzlePump Pressure Water SprayerMulti Head hose-end sprayer with Mist settingSeed Starting trays, kitsIndoor GreenhousesOutdoor GreenhousesSeed Starting Mix* The phrase, “reaction wood”, awakens the thirteen year-old boy in me. I wonder how many giggling scientists it took to come up with the explanation of the importance of air movement in the development of reaction wood among young plants. According to this scholarly presentation, the answer would be: 10.** Most, if not all, of those germination product links lead to Amazon, mainly so you can see what they look like and a few details about them. I do not receive any remuneration from Amazon for these mentions or purchases (not allowed by Substack). Buy them from whoever you want. Shop around online or at actual stores. There are probably better prices out there than what the Amazon robots are showing you.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete posts, access to past newsletter editions, and help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.GERMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR VEGETABLE AND HERB SEEDSSource: Germination Requirements for Annuals and Vegetables (Iowa St. Univ.)(By the way, check out that site for a list of flower seed starting tips!)Germination Temperature (°F) : The ideal air temperature for germination.Light conditions during germination are critical for many annual flowers and vegetables. The seeds of some plant species require light for germination, and others require darkness.L = Require Light for Germination. After sowing these seeds, lightly press them into the germination medium, but do not cover them.D = Require Darkness for Germination. Cover the seed with the germination medium (usually 1/4 to 1/2 inch - precise depth outlined on the seed packet)L-D = Lightly Cover Seed. Do not place these seeds too deep in the soil. Lightly cover the seed, leaving the seeds as close to the soil surface as possible.Days to Germination: The number of days to expect the seed to germinate and emerge.Weeks Sowing to Planting: The number of weeks needed to get seedlings/transplants large enough to plant outside. Use this number to determine when to sow seeds indoors. If you intend to plant outdoors on May 15th, then the sowing date indoors would be the number of weeks listed in this column before May 15th.This planting calendar also can be applied to other USDA Zone 9 areas:TRANSCRIPT FOR TODAY’S INTERVIEW SEGMENTSVegetable Seed Germination Tips / Use Old Seeds? TRANSCRIPTFarmer Fred: Well here it is, the dead of winter. And you know what that means for us here in USDA zone nine. It’s pepper seeds starting time. Yay. It’s spring! It’s spring! We can start pepper seeds!Debbie Flower: I wouldn’t say it’s spring; but yes, we can start pepper seeds.Farmer Fred: Thank you for that. Debbie Flower: is here, our favorite retired college horticultural professor. And why is it necessary to start pepper seeds in January or February?Debbie Flower: They’re slow to germinate.Farmer Fred: Yeah, they’re slow to germinate and slow to get up to a transplantable size.Debbie Flower: Yes, like 12 weeks.Farmer Fred: Here in California, basically, it’s if you want tomato seeds to germinate and grow to a transplantable size, start the seeds near the end of February. They’ll be ready by the end of April. And I know in this day and age of climate change, you’re saying, “No, I’m planting mine the first week of March.”Debbie Flower: Then you got to start sooner. So nine weeks, I would say for tomato seeds.Farmer Fred: Yeah. And anything more than that, it’s going to get root bound. And it’s going to be jungle-like wherever you’re growing them, or terribly skinny. And you don’t want that either.Debbie Flower: Skinny unless you work that stem. Yeah, make it move.Farmer Fred: Well, we’re here to talk peppers, not tomatoes. We’ll talk tomatoes at a future time. Probably a month from now. But let’s talk peppers. I brought out my, as you can see here if you’re looking at the picture on this podcast on your phone, my pepper collection seed packets from last year. And obviously every year you don’t start the whole packet. There’s always some left, right. So these are from last year. They should be good this year.Debbie Flower: Yes. Seeds in general, if they’re kept dry and cool, should last two years, minimum.Farmer Fred: So, my favorites from last year that I grew were some heirloom pepper seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. And they included Blot, Jimmy Nardello, which is one of my favorite Italian style peppers.Debbie Flower: He’s got some friends you know, Jimmy.Farmer Fred: The Ozark Giant, Zulu ,and the one that lasted the longest. One that we harvested the last one two weeks before Christmas. The Nadapeno. With a name like “Nadapeno” you’re thinking well, it does looks like a jalapeno.Debbie Flower: Yeah.Farmer Fred: Nada. Okay, that’s the source of the name.Farmer Fred: It’s this jalapeno-like pepper that has no heat to it. And they’re very small. They’re maybe two inches long. But like I say, they lasted a long time, perfect for salads or stir fry.Debbie Flower: And that picture shows a young boy holding green pepper. No pepper is green forever.Farmer Fred: The Nadapenos did turn purple, in November. So there is that. Some of my other favorites that have done well for me either last year or the year before that include Big Red, which is a sweet pepper. All these by the way are sweet peppers. I’ve given up my hot pepper ways. My body objects.Debbie Flower: Yeah, I understand that.Farmer Fred: The tequila is one of my favorites sweet peppers. It’s a beautiful shiny purple. With just the best aroma of any sweet pepper I’ve ever cut into. The Tequila. It’s an all America selections winner, too. The Gypsy. I plant this every year, I probably have planted Gypsy sweet peppers for 20 or 30 years, because it has outstanding yield year after year after year. It starts off with sort of a pale yellow color, then it gets orange, red, and then very red. And it’s very sweet when ripe. But you can harvest it when it’s that pale yellow color. So it’s one of the earliest to start using from the garden, the Gypsy. The Giant Marconi is one of my other favorites, too, that I plant year after year. It gets fairly large. But like the name would imply, about eight inches long or so. And then of course I got to try something new. What’s it going to be this year, Fred? Well, from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, I’m ordering something called the Super Shepherd sweet pepper. Okay. Don’t know anything about it. Yep. Gotta try it though. All right. And also be planting an old favorite of mine, it’s a sweet red pepper, the Corno de Toro. Which translated is the horn of the bull. It looks like a bull’s

Don’t give up on certain seed varieties that seem to really take their time, germinating and growing indoors. Among the warm season vegetables that are frustratingly slow to germinate are onions, peppers, parsley, basil, and dill. To make the wait even more maddening, it can take 8 to 12 weeks for certain vegetables to grow before they can be transplanted in the garden, including onions, parsley, eggplant and celery. Add to that the seeds of flowering plants that take awhile (8 to 12 weeks, or more) to germinate and grow to a transplantable size: snapdragons, begonias, vinca, lisianthus, strawflower, impatiens, statice, geraniums, petunias, rudbeckia and coleus.No wonder we talk about Seed Starting Tips in early January!In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, offers five great hints on starting seeds of vegetables and flowers, including peppers:• How soaking pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide can speed up germination; and, how seeds germinate. • Why seeds don’t need fertilizer.• How to know when to transplant those seedlings into larger containers. • Why seedlings need a light period and a dark period each day.• The importance of air movement and the development of reaction wood* for the young seedlings.Slow-to-germinate pepper seeds can take up to three weeks to show their first set of true leaves. And, several other vegetables, especially some herbs, take weeks to sprout. Among them are celery, parsley, rosemary, asparagus, lavender, artichoke, What you’ll need for successful seed germination and growth, according to Debbie:• Small, clean seed trays or containers with drain holes.• A soilless seed starting mix. (We offer up several homemade recipes, too)• The benefit of soaking pepper seeds for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide.• Bottom heat via a propagation mat.• Consistent moisture.• Lights, once the seedlings appear.• Air movement.• Transplanting those seedlings into bigger containers once roots pop out of the bottom.Debbie Flower is a horticultural treasure. Just one listen to what she has to say isn’t enough. She is offering up so many great tips for gardeners in our “scenic bypasses”, that it really pays to either listen a couple of times or read the entire transcript (below, for paid subscribers). I am amazed at all I am learning from her; and, I’m listening to what she has to say at least four times (the original interview, two editing sessions, proofing the final) and polishing the transcript. And reading and editing that transcript, although last on the list, reveals more great gardening information that I had missed before.We also discussed the importance of gentle watering of seedling trays, so as not to dislodge the seeds (Debbie’s favorite is the Dramm 1000 shower nozzle). We have different ideas about the best sort of gentle watering equipment to use. A list and links of all the seed starting implements that we discussed, including watering equipment, is here**:Grow lightsDramm Water Breaker nozzlePump Pressure Water SprayerMulti Head hose-end sprayer with Mist settingSeed Starting trays, kitsIndoor GreenhousesOutdoor GreenhousesSeed Starting Mix* The phrase, “reaction wood”, awakens the thirteen year-old boy in me. I wonder how many giggling scientists it took to come up with the explanation of the importance of air movement in the development of reaction wood among young plants. According to this scholarly presentation, the answer would be: 10.** Most, if not all, of those germination product links lead to Amazon, mainly so you can see what they look like and a few details about them. I do not receive any remuneration from Amazon for these mentions or purchases (not allowed by Substack). Buy them from whoever you want. Shop around online or at actual stores. There are probably better prices out there than what the Amazon robots are showing you.Beyond the paywall:• A second podcast interview, also featuring Debbie Flower, who explains how you can tell if those old seeds that you have are worth planting (or not). • A nifty vegetable chart from Iowa State University listing the ideal germination temperature range, the light requirements for newly planted seeds, days to germination, and the number of weeks it takes to go from sowing the seed to outdoor planting for 17 varieties of veggies and herbs.• A transcript of today’s podcast interviews.• And my Vegetable Planting Calendar for Northern and Central California.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete posts, access to past newsletter editions, and help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.GERMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR VEGETABLE AND HERB SEEDSSource: Germination Requirements for Annuals and Vegetables (Iowa St. Univ.)(By the way, check out that site for a list of flower seed starting tips!)Germination Temperature (°F) : The ideal air temperature for germination.Light conditions during germination are critical for many annual flowers and vegetables. The seeds of some plant species require light for germination, and others require darkness.L = Require Light for Germination. After sowing these seeds, lightly press them into the germination medium, but do not cover them.D = Require Darkness for Germination. Cover the seed with the germination medium (usually 1/4 to 1/2 inch - precise depth outlined on the seed packet)L-D = Lightly Cover Seed. Do not place these seeds too deep in the soil. Lightly cover the seed, leaving the seeds as close to the soil surface as possible.Days to Germination: The number of days to expect the seed to germinate and emerge.Weeks Sowing to Planting: The number of weeks needed to get seedlings/transplants large enough to plant outside. Use this number to determine when to sow seeds indoors. If you intend to plant outdoors on May 15th, then the sowing date indoors would be the number of weeks listed in this column before May 15th.This planting calendar also can be applied to other USDA Zone 9 areas:TRANSCRIPT FOR TODAY’S INTERVIEW SEGMENTSVegetable Seed Germination Tips / Use Old Seeds? TRANSCRIPTFarmer Fred: Well here it is, the dead of winter. And you know what that means for us here in USDA zone nine. It’s pepper seeds starting time. Yay. It’s spring! It’s spring! We can start pepper seeds!Debbie Flower: I wouldn’t say it’s spring; but yes, we can start pepper seeds.Farmer Fred: Thank you for that. Debbie Flower: is here, our favorite retired college horticultural professor. And why is it necessary to start pepper seeds in January or February?Debbie Flower: They’re slow to germinate.Farmer Fred: Yeah, they’re slow to germinate and slow to get up to a transplantable size.Debbie Flower: Yes, like 12 weeks.Farmer Fred: Here in California, basically, it’s if you want tomato seeds to germinate and grow to a transplantable size, start the seeds near the end of February. They’ll be ready by the end of April. And I know in this day and age of climate change, you’re saying, “No, I’m planting mine the first week of March.”Debbie Flower: Then you got to start sooner. So nine weeks, I would say for tomato seeds.Farmer Fred: Yeah. And anything more than that, it’s going to get root bound. And it’s going to be jungle-like wherever you’re growing them, or terribly skinny. And you don’t want that either.Debbie Flower: Skinny unless you work that stem. Yeah, make it move.Farmer Fred: Well, we’re here to talk peppers, not tomatoes. We’ll talk tomatoes at a future time. Probably a month from now. But let’s talk peppers. I brought out my, as you can see here if you’re looking at the picture on this podcast on your phone, my pepper collection seed packets from last year. And obviously every year you don’t start the whole packet. There’s always some left, right. So these are from last year. They should be good this year.Debbie Flower: Yes. Seeds in general, if they’re kept dry and cool, should last two years, minimum.Farmer Fred: So, my favorites from last year that I grew were some heirloom pepper seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. And they included Blot, Jimmy Nardello, which is one of my favorite Italian style peppers.Debbie Flower: He’s got some friends you know, Jimmy.Farmer Fred: The Ozark Giant, Zulu ,and the one that lasted the longest. One that we harvested the last one two weeks before Christmas. The Nadapeno. With a name like “Nadapeno” you’re thinking well, it does looks like a jalapeno.Debbie Flower: Yeah.Farmer Fred: Nada. Okay, that’s the source of the name.Farmer Fred: It’s this jalapeno-like pepper that has no heat to it. And they’re very small. They’re maybe two inches long. But like I say, they lasted a long time, perfect for salads or stir fry.Debbie Flower: And that picture shows a young boy holding green pepper. No pepper is green forever.Farmer Fred: The Nadapenos did turn purple, in November. So there is that. Some of my other favorites that have done well for me either last year or the year before that include Big Red, which is a sweet pepper. All these by the way are sweet peppers. I’ve given up my hot pepper ways. My body objects.Debbie Flower: Yeah, I understand that.Farmer Fred: The tequila is one of my favorites sweet peppers. It’s a beautiful shiny purple. With just the best aroma of any sweet pepper I’ve ever cut into. The Tequila. It’s an all America selections winner, too. The Gypsy. I plant this every year, I probably have planted Gypsy sweet peppers for 20 or 30 years, because it has outstanding yield year after year after year. It starts off with sort of a pale yellow color, then it gets orange, red, and then very red. And it’s very sweet when ripe. But you can harvest it when it’s that pale yellow color. So it’s one of the earliest to start using from the garden, the Gypsy. The Giant Marconi is one of my other favorites, too, that I plant year after year. It gets fairly large. But like the name would imply, about eight inches long or so. And then of course I got to try som

If you think mulch is beautiful, too, become a subscriber! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIt seemed like a simple enough garden question to answer. The writer of the email, Steve, said: “I have never cared for a young peach tree or any other variety so I don’t know what to do since I got it in the ground. Now what?” Steve included a picture of the tree, which you can see here.America’s favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, and I ended up having more questions and comments after closely studying the picture. The end result? An episode mostly dedicated to how to plant a fruit tree to insure success. This was originally recorded for the Garden Basics podcast in July of 2020, thus the reference to a hot summer and the muffled sounds of us talking with mandatory masks on.Paid subscribers get full access to all newsletters and podcasts, and we’re having a holiday sale!TRANSCRIPT Q&A: How to Plant and Care for a Young Fruit TreeFarmer Fred Let’s delve into the mailbag, more mail coming into Fred at farmerfred.com here on the garden basics podcast. And we bring in Debbie Flower, retired horticultural professor at many universities and colleges, and she owns a peach tree too. So this is right up her alley. Steve writes in and says, “I have never cared for a young peach tree or any other variety. So I don’t know what to do now that I got it in the ground and mulched. I was given good info and how to put it in the ground. And I believe I was successful. But now what? The tree came in a typical pot with all its roots and dirt, I’m watching online videos, and it’s left me unsure of what to do and when.” Well, Steve was very kind to send along a picture of his new peach tree that he just planted. It’s a little difficult to say how tall the tree is currently, but it looks like…well, let’s just play, ‘what’s wrong with this picture’, Debbie? What’s wrong with Steve’s picture of his peach tree? I see several issues there.Staking Techniques for Young TreesDebbie FlowerWell, the first thing that jumps out at me is that the stake is taller than the peach tree. We only want to stake a tree, even a newly planted one, if it is unable to stand up on its own. If it is unable to stand up on its own, then we want to tie it. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like it could be tied at two locations. Not sure if that lower one is really there.Farmer FredI think that’s a big branch down there.Debbie Flower Okay. Oh, yes. So we only want to tie it as low as we can, to make it stand up straight. He has it tied nearly at the top of the tree.Farmer Fred That’s a very good point you’re making there is that when you’re staking a tree, you want the tie to be at that point where the tree would actually bend. So what you do, you run your hand up the trunk of the tree and at that point where you can get the tree to stand up, that’s where you would tie the top loop.Debbie Flower Exactly, but he can’t tell if it’s going to fall over because if you look right down at the bottom, it is still attached to the nursery stakes. Nursery stakes are used to get that initial upright growth out of the stem, but it prevents the tree stem, fruit tree or otherwise from moving in the wind and from developing strength. And so you need to take it off . I think of it as trees in bondage. When they’re tied this close to the stake, it’s very useful in the nursery, employees can pick up the tree and move it and throw it in a truck and take it out of the truck and the upright part of the tree stays stable, but it is not what we want for the ultimate life of the tree. We want that trunk to strengthen. In order to do that the trunk has to move in the wind just like we have to use our muscles in order for them to strengthen. That trunk has to move in the wind to strengthen, so take it off of that nursery stake and take it off of the very tall stake and see what happens and it is very likely to fall over, not right onto the soil; if it falls over and hits the soil you dig it out and take it back to the nursery. That means there’s a root problem. Somewhere along the length of that tree, that trunk will curve and the top of the trunk of the tree will bend down toward the earth. And that’s when you do what you said, which is run your hand up from the bottom of the tree and at some point the top of the tree will zing back up in the air. That’s the point at which you want to attach the trunk of the peach tree to the stake. Preferably you have two stakes, one on either side of the trunk and you want them a distance from the trunk of the tree, maybe a foot. The reason for that is you don’t want the tree when it is moving in the wind to rub against those stakes and you don’t want them any taller than you need them to be. So the height of the stake would be just maybe five inches above that, about the height of your hand on that trunk. Maybe it’s three inches, just a few inches above, so that you have room to tie. You’re going to tie the trunk to both stakes at about the same location on the tree trunk to each stake, so it looks like one line across from one stake to the tree and back and then from the other stake to the tree and back. It appears when you look at it to be one line across. Does that makes sense?Farmer Fred Yes, it makes perfect sense. And again, he would want if the tree needed to be staking and that goes back to see if the tree can stand up by itself. But if the tree needs staking you would use two and to his credit, Steve did use green tape that’s like tree tie tape, It’s called. And what we don’t know because we can’t see into the foliage of how he’s tied it to the tree. If it’s a figure eight or wrapped, really tightly around the tree, it shouldn’t be wrapped tightly on the tree, it should be sort of a loose figure eight configuration, right?Debbie Flower Right. And that’s part of using two stakes. Because if it’s loose, then the tree may fall toward the stake. If you have one loosely pulling it toward the stake on the other side, then that corrects that problem.Farmer Fred To Steve’s credit, he’s done a lot of things right here we can see that the tree is located in full sun. It looks like he has mulch underneath the tree but the mulch is not touching the trunk of the tree.Pruning New Deciduous Fruit TreesFarmer FredBut I want to go back even further to when he planted the tree. It looks to be a five or six foot tree. Now if he bought this fruit tree, what they call bare root, which would be before it leafed out, and they used to sell fruit trees basically plunked into sawdust and you would go and you’d pull it out of the sawdust and they’d wrap it up a newspaper for you to take it home. Now even though it’s still called bare root, most fruit trees that are sold are come in pots. So we don’t really know if the tree had leafed out before he bought it or if it was still dormant when he did buy it, but the fact of the matter is, when you get a bare root fruit tree home, one of the first things you need to do is basically cut it off at the knee so you get lower branching, this one doesn’t look like it was cut off at the knee.Debbie Flower Correct. Some people may Saturday here that you cut a fruit tree off at the knee. But that is to keep the fruit bearing branches low to the ground so that you don’t have to stand on a ladder to take care of them. It’s a really wonderful way to grow fruit.Farmer Fred Exactly and and you’re not inhibiting the production of fruit at all. You’d still have plenty of fruit is just going to develop some lower scaffolding to make it easier for you to pick fruit. What’s great about starting with a new tree is it makes it Much easier for keeping that tree at a height that’s manageable. So you never have to get on a ladder. And basically, you stick your hand as far in the air as you can. And you don’t let the tree get any taller than that.Debbie FlowerRight? The height of the tree is is where your hand and the pruning shears when you raise your hand above your head, the highest it goes. That’s how tall you want the plant to be.Farmer FredIf he’s only planted the tree, could he cut it back in half now? Or should he wait until the dormant season? And can you even cut it back one year into its growth?Debbie FlowerPruning to fruit trees can happen during the growing season Yes, but right now we’re in the maybe thick of summer. It’s hot,Farmer FredIt’s hot.Debbie Flower It’s very sunny. We wear sunscreen and hats and things to protect our skin. If we cut that young tree back now, branches would be exposed to the strong sun that have never seen the strong sun before and they will sunburn, and you could lose the tree from that. So I would recommend waiting until it goes dormant.Farmer Fred Now that is a hard thing to do, if you’ve ever done it, you’ve probably done demonstrations of cutting back bare root fruit trees in front of a crowd and it always gets gasps of horror. Whenever you take your pruners and cut a six foot stick back to a two and a half or three foot stick. Yes. And in Steve’s case, he’s going to be cutting off a lot of growth that had leaves and he’s going to feel really bad doing it. But he should.Debbie Flower He should. And what those leaves are doing for that tree right now is feeding the roots. It’s has no flowers or fruit on it that I can see. And so the the food that’s made in those leaves and that’s where plants make their food goes to a couple of places. One is the tips of those branches for new growth. And the other is the roots and a newly planted plant needs food to make roots. All plants need food to make roots. But it’s especially important when the plant is new to the garden, because it only has the roots that were in whatever container you bought it in. And that’s a very small amount and it’s also a very narrow sized root system and can make the plant unstable if the roots just stay in that little tiny area. So he wants the leaves to grow the leaves to make food send them to the roots, the root syste

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comHoliday Special! For the rest of December 2025, get an annual subscription to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast for 40% off the regular price. Just $30 a year!In this episode, Farmer Fred connects with Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery to reflect on the 2025 tomato growing season, sharing their experiences and insights while evaluating the performance of various tomato varieties. Farmer Fred ranks his 2025 tomato season as one of his worst, only second to the scorching summer of 2022, yet he notes that the overall weather conditions this year were quite favorable.Don shares insights from his own experience, noting that several of his trusted varieties, such as Rugby and Bodacious, underperformed this year, likely due to the dry start to the season affecting irrigation practices. They delve into critical topics such as soil moisture levels and root development, emphasizing the importance of watering practices in achieving healthy tomato yields.As the conversation progresses, they discuss the other plants in their gardens, including peppers, onions, edible pumpkin seeds (Pepitas), and cucumbers. Don highlights the successful lemon cucumber, which flourished without issues of mildew, noting the significant yields from this variety. They also explore the common pitfalls of cucumber cultivation and the importance of managing watering strategies to ensure plants remain productive through the growing season.From irrigation practices to soil health and the excitement of trying new varieties, this episode offers an engaging and informative wrap-up of the tomato growing season. Farmer Fred and Don conclude with hopeful notes for the next planting season, reinforcing the lessons learned and anticipating the joys of gardening and fresh produce in the coming year. And as always, a transcript of the podcast is attached for paid subscribers.2025 Tomato Review Show…and More! TRANSCRIPTFarmer Fred:[0:00] So how was your 2025 tomato year? Well, you get to hear my sob story, and you can hear about all the successes from Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California, for the next few minutes. And we’ll talk about other plants as well that did well or didn’t do well in the way of peppers and cucumbers. And who knows which way the conversation will go, but we’ll certainly cover tomatoes. I have to rank the 2025 tomato growing season in my own yard as the second worst ever. Don, you may remember the first worst, which was that summer two or three years ago when in September it got up to, what, 115 degrees?Don Shor:[0:40] Yes, two days at 116, two at 110, and three at 106 over here in the Davis area. That was quite epic in September 2022. We’ll talk about that one for a long time to come. Yeah, it did impact yields late in the season, that’s for sure.================CHEF’S CHOICE ORANGE TOMATOFarmer Fred:[0:54] And this year, the weather here in Northern California was excellent. It didn’t get too hot for too long. I’m sure it got over 100, but not by much. And there weren’t extended days of over 100 degrees. It was a very, very nice summer. But I see in my notes here, the first full size tomato I took out of production was on September 27th, the Chef’s Choice Orange Tomato. I harvested 30 ripe tomatoes, but it was the end of production, and I needed the space anyway. But let me tell you about one success, though, and it’s a thing that you told me about to do, and it really works. One of the tomatoes I planted this past year was the Bush Early Girl, that I grew in a container, and I started it (from seed in the greenhouse in early February) and planted it outside on April 6th. And it produced early and often, come June. And by the end of July, it was done for, but it gave me those early tomatoes. And I think that’s a great idea to get an early ripening tomato off to a good start in an area that has warm soil to begin with, like a large container, like a half barrel, and just enjoy your harvest until the big boys come home to roost later on in the summer. But yeah, I’ll give the Bush Early Girl an A for its production. And Chef’s Choice Orange, well, I think that’s going to get an F since it came out in September. Sorry about that.Don Shor:[2:23] It’s not an F. Wait, wait, wait. It gets a C. You took it out after harvesting 30 tomatoes.RUGBY TOMATOFarmer Fred:[2:26] All right. Yeah, I know. Okay, I’ll change that to a C because it did produce some very beautiful Chef’s Choice Orange tomatoes throughout the season. And they were very tasty. And we ended up making some relish with it. So it’s very pretty, too. One of the surprise failures in my yard this year was the Rugby, which up until this year has been doing great. But it went kaput as far as production goes on October the 8th.Don Shor:[2:55] And generally, it’s a good, generally a good late producer for us. I had good results with Rugby, but it was middle of the pack in terms of total yield. Yeah, this was a mediocre year for a lot of people. Obviously, I don’t give everything an F or a C or an A, but there are a lot more lower graded fruit in terms of total yield.BODACIOUS TOMATODon ShorBodacious, for example, which I’ve done very well with for several years, only gave me about 15 or 20 fruit. Yes, they’re wonderful. They’re big, they’re firm. They were for slicing. I went out there, there’s three on there right now. We are recording this in early December. So, okay, I’ll brag about that one a little bit. But overall, in terms of the total yield, it wasn’t spectacular. And I think it goes back to actually how dry things were at the start of the season. We had our last significant rain fall on our side of the valley, first week of March. We had another light storm in April. But when people went out to plant, the soil was actually drier than usual. And all of our conversations with people who are having trouble with their tomatoes, not all of them, but let’s say 98% of them had to do with how they were irrigating. I’m reasonably sure that you know how to irrigate. So I don’t think that was your problem necessarily, but a lot of people use a drip irrigation system, they set it, and they leave it that way. And then we get to ask 20 questions with them. How often are you running it? How long are you running it? And they were not watering deeply enough. And in particular, this year, the tomatoes just never got their roots down in some cases. The soil was dry down further. And ordinarily, when you plant in March, well, you shouldn’t be planting in March. But when you plant April or May, there’s still enough moisture from the winter rains down there. And if you give them a good soaking, get them started, they can tap down and tap into some of that stored moisture. It just wasn’t there this year. So we were having a lot of conversations about plants that weren’t growing vigorously.CHARLIE’S MYSTERY RED DELICIOUS CHERRY TOMATOFarmer Fred:[4:44] This is only the second year where I have not had tomatoes on the Thanksgiving dinner table because I ended the production of the Jetstar and the Dr. Wyche, back on October the 29th. The last full size tomato to go out was Cupid. Plants were cut out. But the one that lasted the longest was a gift seed from our friend Charlie in Brooklyn. It was his mystery red delicious cherry tomato that hung on until mid-November. But for us not to have a tomato on the table on Thanksgiving is a defeat. What really broke my heart, too, is that I did harvest some breaking tomatoes, the ones that are turning yellow after being green for a while. So, you know, they’re going to ripen. And I harvested those in early November and I set them way back in the corner in the kitchen counter, hoping to preserve them until Thanksgiving. But somehow they all managed to get used before Thanksgiving.Don Shor:[5:46] Oh, I see. The problem wasn’t that they spoiled. The problem was that your household residents ate them.Farmer Fred:[5:51] Yes.Don Shor:[5:52] Okay, well, that’s a problem to have, yeah. Well, I just went outside earlier, getting ready to have this conversation with you, and there are six in my garden that are still fruiting. Admittedly, the turkeys and the squirrels are helping themselves to the ones down at the end of the garden.MARZINERA TOMATODon Shor:[6:08] But I’m going to mention one that, boy, I was really impressed with this year, Marzinera. And there’s probably a dozen fruits still on this plant out there. Marzinera is one of the, Heirloom marriage tomatoes, these are where they’re hybridizing two heirloom varieties to get a, well, now it’s a hybrid that hopefully has the characteristics that made each of those heirlooms so desirable. And Marzinera, part of it is San Marzano. Now, San Marzano tomato has its own following, no question. But it’s got some issues. To me, it’s not the most useful tomato. There’s better sauce tomatoes. It’s kind of hollow and skinny and yields well. I mainly stock that one as a retailer just for my old Italian customers. But there’s Marzinera. He’s a bigger fruit, firmer, meaty. It’s a lot more like Roma, but on a plant that is indeterminate and extremely productive. And it was one of my first to produce. My notes through the season show it is good production. And there’s still probably a dozen that the turkeys haven’t gotten at out there that I could harvest right now. So that’s one that I’m watching for next year. I’ve never grown this one before. But these heirloom marriage tomatoes are kind of fascinating me. I did two of them this year. That one in particular did extremely well and is still producing late in the season.Farmer Fred:[7:18] Whenever I think of San Marzano, I immediately think blossom end rot. How did that do?Don Shor:[7:24] Well, that was one of the comments on many of the online resources about Barzinera. I did not have blossom end rot problem with it. I don’t generally get a lot of blossom end rot, a

Thanks for reading Beyond The Garden Basics! This post is public so feel free to share it.Visiting a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm or any of the corner lots or nurseries filled with already chopped cedars, pines and firs this weekend, in search of the perfect holiday tree? Here are some tips from the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Departments of Horticulture and Forestry to keep your December living room centerpiece intact through the holidays:• You may cringe at this first tip, but it is one of the most important if you plan to keep the tree in the house for longer than two weeks: Keep the tree in a cool, sheltered location until a few days before Christmas, such as an unheated garage or carport. Otherwise, the warm, dry air of your living room or den can hasten needle drop. Storing it in an environment that more resembles a forest as long as possible will keep the branches more pliable. Take off a half inch to an inch from the base of the tree and keep it in a large bucket of water.• Before bringing the tree indoors, shake it vigorously to dislodge any loose needles or hitchhiking bugs. Check for ants, too.• Before you set up your Christmas tree, make a fresh, straight cut across the base of the tree and place the tree in a stand that holds a gallon of water or more. The end should be re-cut each day before it is placed in the stand. Make a straight cut across the trunk, removing a half inch or more from the bottom.• Cut Christmas trees will absorb a surprising amount of water, particularly during the first week. As a rule, for each inch of stem diameter the tree will need a quart of water per day.• Beware of stands that are too small for the tree. Try to find a tree stand with adequate water-holding capacity for your tree, between one and two gallons. The water capacity listed on a stand’s label or box can be misleading. Usually, they list the capacity of the reservoir when the stand is empty, but you also need to allow for water that will be displaced when the tree trunk is put in the stand.• Keep the tree away from dry, blowing heat. Position the tree away from direct sunlight, fireplaces, heaters, and other heat sources to prevent it from drying out.• Use LED lights. LED lights are cooler to the touch and less likely to dry out the needles.• Turn off the lights when you’re not there. Unplug the lights before you leave the house or go to bed.• Check your tree stand daily to make sure the container has enough water. Refill it often to make sure the water does not fall below the level of the trunk bottom.• What about additives to the water to make the Christmas tree last longer? Based on university studies in Washington and North Carolina, plain water is best. Some home concoctions such as bleach and aspirin cause heavy needle loss and should be avoided. Clean water and plenty of it is the only essential ingredient for success.Tips for a Living Christmas TreeIf chosen wisely and treated correctly, a living Christmas tree can thrive in your yard for generations. The main thing to remember when choosing a living Christmas tree: pick a variety that will flourish in your area.As with everything to do with gardening, all Christmas conifers are localized. Choose one from a reputable local nursery or home center. They will have the best selections for your area. Usually.Among the conifers available at nurseries that will do well outdoors in most areas of USDA Zone 9 after their indoor holiday use:• Italian Stone Pine. A good choice for the interior valleys of USDA Zone 9. Can take heat and drought when established. Has a moderate rate of growth to 60 feet. • Aleppo, Mondell or Afghan Pine. Also called Pinus eldarica or Pinus halepensis. These evergreens can take sun and wind. As an added bonus for those who own acreage, these pines are good for windbreaks and erosion control. Rapid growers, these pines with gray-green needles can get to 30 to 60 feet tall with a 20 to 30 foot spread. They aren’t that thirsty, either; a deep, twice a month watering is all they require during the summer.• Colorado Blue Spruce. Can take sun, shade and cold, but is susceptible to spider mites. Likes most soils, as long as they’re well-drained. This tree with the bluish needles is a slow grower that will eventually get 60 to 80 feet tall with a 40 to 50 foot spread.• Deodar Cedar. A tree that actually prefers clay soil, as long as there’s no standing water. This evergreen can take sun, wind and heat. It’s a rapid grower that will reach 50-80 feet with a 40-foot spread. Aptly known as, “The California Christmas Tree”.• Incense Cedar. Not a true cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), but this California native tree will truly perform well in many USDA 9 yards. Although a slow grower at first, the incense cedar can get 80 feet tall, with a 15 foot spread at the base. It can take hot summers and poor soil, and doesn’t require a lot of water. It’‘s best characteristic: the wonderful aroma on a hot summer day.• Coast Redwood. Give this tree plenty of room in the yard, if you dare. The coast redwood can get 70 feet tall with a spread at the base of 30 feet. It can take our sun, but to thrive needs frequent, deep watering. Better suited to the cooler areas of USDA Zone 9 where there’s more coastal influence (fog, low clouds).Some tips for caring for a living Christmas tree:• Don’t keep it in the house for more than a week.• Keep it away from heating vents, wood stoves and fireplaces.• Water the tree every day while it’s in the house. A good way to insure a slow, thorough watering is to dump a tray or two of ice cubes into its container.• Decorate it with the smaller, cooler, flashing bulbs.• The tree can remain in a large container for a number of years, but you may need a furniture dolly to move it in and out of the house.• Marginal Living Christmas Trees:Given a little care, the dwarf Alberta Spruce can survive as an outdoor living Christmas tree in USDA Zone 9. Give it afternoon shade for best results.Limber Pines (Pinus flexilis), native to mountainous areas, tend to revert to rounded tops as they age. The exception is the “Vanderwolf Pyramid” variety, which keeps its Christmas tree shape.Another one to be wary of is the Grand Fir (Abies grandis). This tree could soon overwhelm a small yard, reaching heights of 200 feet.Other borderline trees that may have trouble here in USDA Zone 9 include the Tempelhof cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) and the Blue Point Juniper (doesn’t like too much water or slow draining soil).At the top of Santa’s horticulturally naughty list is the Monterey Pine, which is better for coastal environments; even in its native environment, Monterey pines are in decline due to pine pitch canker. Here in California’s Central valley, the Monterey pine is susceptible to pests and diseases, and sulks in our summer heat. Another Christmas-tree type plant that is widely available is the Norfolk Island Pine. Known as the Hawaiian Christmas Tree, this is best planted outdoors...in Hawaii. In most of the continental U.S., it makes a good house plant year round. When is a Christmas tree not really a tree? When it is a Rosemary plant, an evergreen shrub that’s been pruned into a pyramidal shape. This herb is a great addition to your outdoor garden for its culinary and bee attracting qualities (blooms in the winter and spring), but would require constant shearing to keep it looking like a Christmas tree...uh, bush.Transcript of today’s PodcastCHRISTMAS TREE CARE TIPSFarmer FredSo are you moving the new Christmas tree around? Or do you have one tied to your car right now, while you’re listening? Are you going to put it indoors? Where are you going to put that Christmas tree? And how do you keep a basically dead tree looking green? It just so happens that in a recent article in the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter, Debbie Arrington and Kathy Morrison, came up with some ideas on how to keep your Christmas tree looking green. Debbie Arrington is with us. And Debbie, how do you keep your Christmas tree looking healthy, merry and green?Debbie Arrington Think of your Christmas tree like you would any cut flower: it needs water. And the way to get water is to put it in a sturdy stand that can can hold about a quart of water, at least. The taller the tree, the more water it needs. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, you need one quart of water for every inch of trunk diameter. And so make sure that the stand can hold that much. And then check it every day. Because if the trunk dries out, resin starts forming and it blocks the uptake of more water. And the tree will just dry out like a flower would dry out if the vase ran out of water.Farmer Fred What about additives? Do they do any good?Debbie Arrington Apparently, research that the National Christmas Tree Association shared shows that clean water works best. Home remedies, like adding aspirin or bleach or corn syrup or sugar or a can of 7-Up or whatever didn’t make any difference. And in fact, the corn syrup and other stuff attracted bugs.Farmer Fred If you are driving home from the Christmas tree lot right now, with that tree tied to the roof of your car, one thing you need to do before you bring it in the house is to shake it out and get all the bugs off. But also maybe cut off a half inch or an inch off the bottom of the tree to allow some clean uptake from that water.Debbie Arrington Yes, because that resin can block the flow, the uptake of water. It’s already stopping its flow where that tree was sitting in a lot, waiting for somebody to take it home. The National Christmas Tree Association actually says that you should cut off at least one inch to restore the flow and let the water come back up.Farmer Fred And that water monitoring isn’t just an occasional check. That’s something that you have to check every day to make sure that the basin is full.Debbie ArringtonYes, check it every morning. And you’ll be surprised how much water that tree took up.Far

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn this week’s podcast, Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All America Selections (AAS), tells us about the upcoming 2026 gardening season’s latest award-winning plants. We highlight standout varieties like the Bada Bing tomato, Treviso basil, Majesty purple pole bean, and RubyBor kale, each recognized for their adaptability and exceptional qualities. Diane also introduces the Butter Lamp winter squash and Sun Globe coreopsis for ornamental gardens, and shares tips on plant care and spacing. Visit aaswinners.com for a complete list of top varieties and inspiration for your 2026 garden!Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts, get access to the entire newsletter library, listen to complete podcasts, and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you.For those of us who prefer to read instead of listen, here’s the human-corrected transcript of today’s podcast (with pictures):Farmer Fred:[0:00] So by now, you’re probably looking at gardening catalogs, or scrolling online, trying to figure out what are you going to plant in 2026 among vegetables or flowers. One good place to start is with All America Selections to figure out… what are the winners? What are the good ones? All America Selections is an independent nonprofit organization that tests new, never before sold varieties for the home gardener. There’s a whole season of anonymous trialing that goes on by volunteer horticultural professionals, and only the top garden performers are giving the AAS winner award designation for their superior performance. And all the AAS proceeds go into conducting the trials and promoting AAS winners, both old and new. And there’s a lot of old AAS winners. This is an organization that goes back decades. Here to tell us more is Diane Blazek, the executive director of All America Selections. And golly, it’s getting close to 100 years of AAS winners, Diane.Diane Blazek:[1:05] Yes, it is. We were founded in 1932, so it’s not too much longer. We’ll be celebrating our century.Farmer Fred:[1:13] And it has expanded, I guess, to include a lot of other types of winners, like regional winners and gold medal winners.Diane Blazek:[1:21] Yes. So when the organization was founded, everything was grown from seed and it really was just annuals and edibles. So what we’ve done now is not only expanded from seed, but we also include vegetatively propagated annuals and perennials. And we also now have regional winners, as you mentioned. And what that means is if we get an entry in and it has some very specific regional benefits, when we look at the scores, we notice that it didn’t do well all over North America, but it did well in the Southeast or the Northeast or the Southwest. And that’s how we determine regional winners.Farmer Fred:[2:01] And you also have a category called gold medal winners, but there aren’t too many of those, are there?Diane Blazek:[2:08] No, no. There were way back in the beginnings in the 1930s and 40s, because that was considered, it had to be a breeding breakthrough, like just light years ahead of everything else that was being trialed or the comparisons. So we had quite a few in the beginning, and then we went through a lull. There was about 15 years we didn’t have any gold medal winners. And then just recently, we’ve started to have a few more, and we do have two to talk about today. So I will wait until we introduce those. Yes, there are two in this batch of AAS winners.========================BADA BING TOMATOFarmer Fred:[2:44] All right. Well, let’s get started then. Let’s talk about vegetables first. Now, of course, my priority this time of year is looking for interesting tomato varieties to try. I always try a couple of new ones as well as some old proven varieties that usually get repeat performances in my yard. And you do have a tomato in the 2026 vegetable winners list called the Bada Bing.Diane Blazek:[3:13] Yes, the tomato, Bada Bing. So it is a large cherry tomato. So we just put that notation in there in case people look at it and go, well, this is like a cocktail tomato. It’s kind of in between a cherry and a cocktail size. The main thing is it’s disease-resistant, but I don’t want to disregard the taste, the texture, the fact that it’s very, very crack-resistant, nice and juicy like you would expect from a cherry tomato. So we keep calling it the more bang-for-the-buck tomato.Farmer Fred:[3:49] It looks like, because it has an overall height of just 40 inches, with a large container, you could grow the Bada-Bing tomato.Diane Blazek:[3:57] Yes, you could. We did not trial it in containers, but you definitely could. In fact, just this morning, I placed an order for a trade show. I’m going to the summer and we always want to show our new winners. So I went ahead and ordered it in a either a 14 or 16 inch container. So hopefully it will be fine for that size plant.Farmer Fred:[4:19] And I guess if people were saying, well, what tomato variety is it like? I guess it’s pretty close to maybe the Sweet 100.Diane Blazek:[4:27] Exactly. Yeah, that’s one. And then there’s another AAS winner from a couple of years ago called Crockini, and it was compared against those two, the Sweet 100 and the Crockini. All right.Farmer Fred:[4:38] And again, like you pointed out, it has resistance to septoria leaf spot, early blight and late blight. Blight’s a big problem, especially in humid climates.Diane Blazek:[4:49] Exactly. Yeah. And this one did win in the southwest and the southeast, as well as the Great Lakes and Heartland that has a lot of humidity, seeing as how I live there. So we do know that it did perform very well in those regions.Farmer Fred:[5:05] How many days is it to harvest on this one?Diane Blazek:[5:08] That was something else I just went over this morning. From transplant, it would be 65 days. So I’m thinking if you’re sowing straight from seed, probably 80 to 90 days.Farmer Fred:[5:20] Okay. Yeah, usually, the good part about planting tomatoes from seed is they come up fairly quickly, usually within a week to 10 days, unlike pepper seeds. And once they’re up, they start growing fast. So it’s only a few weeks after they’re up and growing that you’d be able to transplant them.Diane Blazek:[5:37] Correct. Yes.Farmer Fred:[5:39] All right. So that again, the Bada Bing tomato. Now it’s not a national winner, but it sure sounds like it would be fairly adaptable across the country.Diane Blazek:[5:49] Exactly. It was four regions. And so, you know, usually when it gets to four regions, it’s very close to being a national winner. So, yeah, this one, you know, I would feel pretty confident in pretty much everywhere. We just know that it did superbly well in those four regions.After the paywall, paid subscribers get more words and pictures about the 2026 All-America Selection plant winners.

Today’s Podcast: Debbie Flower and I tackle the problem of a slow draining lawn. There are lots of strategies for improving a soggy lawn!Where does the water go?”That’s a question I frequently ask myself while bicycling throughout the region, staring at rain-soaked suburban yards. This is also a question homeowners should ask themselves before, during, and after the rainy season.One of the best pieces of advice I can offer any new homeowner: before you spend any time and money on landscaping projects or a garden, live with the existing property for a year. This allows you to take monthly pictures of the area where you want a future garden, perennials, shrubs and trees.When we moved to our new home nine years ago, that’s what we did before we embarked on a totally redesigned landscape. Taking a series of pictures on a regular basis on sunny days, especially at different times of the day (9am, 1pm, 5pm), will remind you how much shade your future plants will be dealing with, and you can plant accordingly.A plant labeled for “full sun” will need at least six hours (preferably eight hours) of direct sun a day. “Part Sun/Part Shade” plants, 4-6 hours of sun per day. “Shade” should be reserved for those plants that get little direct sun (less than four hours) and preferably dappled sun, such as protection from an overhanging deciduous tree.However, the more important reason to live with that new yard for a year before embarking on outdoor landscaping projects: figure out where water goes, both after regular irrigation and after rainstorms. In our case, we discovered that few of the yard sprinklers worked fully or accurately, and that a heavy downpour of rain ends up in the garage. And the basement would flood.As a result, the price of our landscape rehab zoomed upward, to include a complete drip irrigation system for both the front yard and backyard, as well as an underground hard pipe drain system to move roof gutter water away from the house and garage to another part of the yard. Home and Garden Pests That Sing in the RainThe other problem with wet weather: some home and garden pests love it when it’s wet; and others will seek refuge in drier quarters, such as in your home.The authors of the University of California Ag and Natural Resources publication, “Pests in the Urban Landscape,” offer some “Wet Weather Do’s and Don’ts” to ward off problems:• Check for snails and slugs. They like it moist and will sing in the rain. Unfortunately, their singing sounds a lot like, “chomp, chomp, chomp.” These garden leaf and flower munchers don’t like it too wet. They may be easily found headed for dry land – sidewalks and driveways – during a deluge. Find them under loose boards, as well. That’s the time for hand-picking or stomping them. Chemical controls for these mollusk family members are ineffective in the rain.• Remove weeds and unwanted plants. When the ground is wet, pulling them out goes much more quickly. Among the winter weeds spreading here right now are oxalis, nutsedge and groundsel. You may have other cool season weedy invaders in your yard.• Dump standing water. This wet winter is already favoring a big mosquito season ahead. Deprive breeding mosquitoes of water-nesting sites such as flowerpot saucers, wheelbarrows, buckets, clogged storm drains, and roof gutters.• Check for ants, cockroaches, and earwigs. These pests may invite themselves into your home when flooding or heavy rains make the outdoors unappealing to them. Seal any cracks or openings in your home. Outdoors, check the perimeter of your home as well as around doors and windows for insect entryways. Weather stripping, door sweeps, and traps placed beneath eave-protected walkways can help keep them outside. Indoors, keep food tightly sealed and the counters clean, especially near electrical outlets that might provide an entryway.• Remove yard mushrooms. Mild temperatures and wet soil are a combination that mushrooms and other fruiting bodies of fungi love. The good news is they are not harmful to your lawn and garden. The bad news? They can be poisonous to children and pets, when consumed. Rake them up.• Don’t apply outdoor fertilizer or pesticides now. Both are easily susceptible to being washed off the soil or plants and into our waterways. Wait for several days of dry weather before applying any sprays, dusts, liquids, or granules.• Avoid pruning plants unless it is to remove broken or damaged branches. Rainfall and open wounds in the winter on plants is a recipe for spreading diseases. Apricots, cherries, and olives should never be pruned during cool, wet, conditions, advises UCANR.• A common site on sidewalks after a rainstorm are worms, struggling to get out of the wet soil and onto dry land. If you have easy draining soil, you may see their mounds in lawns and gardens as they come up temporarily for air. Those mounds are a great fertilizer: worm castings. Just knock them down with your foot or a rake to feed the soil.• Tread lightly through the garden during or just after a rainstorm. Avoid walking, driving, or moving heavy equipment across wet soil. This compacts the soil, removing necessary air pockets, which are vital for healthy trees, shrubs, and other plants.• One other tip: if you have slow draining areas of your yard after a deluge, mark them. Stick a small stake or object on top of those areas to let you know that the area needs drainage help after the rainy season. Avoid planting in consistently wet areas. Consider putting in a drain system to move that water to another part of the yard to make it more habitable for plant life. Or, consider placing a large container or raised bed in that area for a successful garden.PODCAST TRANSCRIPT - LAWN DRAINAGE TIPSFarmer FredWe like to answer your garden questions. Debbie Flower is here, America’s favorite retired college horticultural professor. Evan writes us from San Jose, which is south of San Francisco, a very mild climate that used to be an area of a lot of fruit orchards, way back when. Now it’s the tech hub with million dollar, two bedroom homes. All right. Go figure. Anyway, Evan writes, “I live in San Jose and in my backyard, I have a very small patch of grass that is around 200 square feet. I want to keep this patch because my daughter practices her gymnastics on it. But in the rainy season, it becomes a swampy bog, so I have to fight the moisture for a few months. During that period, I tend to aerate it with my fork quite a bit. Usually I spend 15 minutes aerating it each week to help it dry out and de-compact it. I usually only disturb the top four to six inches of the soil. But I’m starting to worry that I’m doing too much. Is it possible to aerate the lawn too much? Can you recommend any non-destructive ways to fight moisture and compaction? On a small lawn?” My first comment to Evan is, if you’re using a fork, you’re not aerating the soil. You are compacting it.Debbie FlowerYeah, you’re creating holes, but pushing the soil to the side which is causing compaction on either side of that. And maybe creating more of a drainage issue. I assume he’s having success, or he wouldn’t be doing this over and over and over again.Farmer FredWell, he says it’s a fork, but doesn’t give details about the fork.Debbie FlowerI’m picturing a garden fork. Yeah. And that’s just just tines. Yes, aeration should be done with tubes, hollow tubes that take out a chunk of the soil and whatever roots are in it. And they look if you’ve ever seen goose poop, what they take out of the hole when they’re aerated with a hollow tine aerator looks like goose poop.Farmer FredYeah, if you want to aerate, I still like the idea of renting a power aerator because as it picks out those cores of soil, the device also eject them on top of the soil. And you want to be able to do that. I think with a hand aerator, it’s two motions. You punch down, and then when you bring it back up, you have to eject the cores of soil.Debbie FlowerIt’s a lot of work.Farmer FredIt’s a lot of work and Evan, you’re working too hard.Debbie Flower Right. You use a hollow tine aerator of some sort to aerate the soil. Then you want to collect those goose poops, that are about the size of my pinky finger, perhaps three inches long and maybe a quarter to a half an inch across. Then smash them up so that they’re just loose soil and then rake them in over the top. Or rake in some sand. Something that would hold those holes open and allow air and water to move through them.Farmer Fred And I guess you could do that with a spreader of some sort. I know that in a lot of situations where you’re rehabbing a lawn, and you’re dethatching and aerating, that’s the other thing you might consider, too, is dethatching your lawn. But people who have a rhizomatous... is that a word? Thank you. Rhizomatous or stoloniferous lawn... that can tend to build up a lot of dead material below the surface that you don’t ever see, until you bring in a dethatcher. And all of a sudden you’ve got two cubic yards of dead lawn material to dispose of. And that can help drainage quite a bit as well.Debbie Flower So those typical grasses that would have that problem are bluegrass, Bermuda grass, and creeping red fescue.Farmer FredYes, that’s why it’s usually a creeping grass. Exactly.Debbie FlowerYeah, they fill in really well. If you’re a golfer. You would love that because it fills in your divots you make but it’s a harder grass to maintain because of those stems that crawl across the surface and under the surface of the soil.Farmer FredFortunately Evan, it’s only 200 square feet. And maybe you can get through what you’re calling the aeration process in 15 minutes a week. But I have a funny feeling you’re just compacting the soil.Debbie FlowerRight. My first question after reading his question is what’s causing the flooding? Is the lawn in the lowest part of that landscape so that water is flowing to it? Is it clay soil, so it just takes a longer time to drain? We’re getting more

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn today’s newsletter podcast, we chat with Renee Shepherd of Renee’s Garden seed company about the worldwide journey of garden seeds, rising seed prices, and seed availability for 2026. We explore factors influencing market changes, including tariffs and supply chain issues.The discussion highlights the logistics of seed packaging and the importance of quality standards. She also differentiate between hybrids, heirlooms, and open-pollinated varieties, along with the complexities of seed saving. As we wrap up, Renee ends on an uplifting note, celebrating the joy of gardening and encouraging listeners to explore the diverse seeds available while enjoying their growing experiences.2026 Seed Prices Go UpThe good news: the 2026 seed catalogs are beginning to arrive! The bad news: you’ll be paying more for garden seeds.Just as the Halloween decorations are packed away at stores on the morning of November 1, the Christmas lights, trees, and wreaths start jamming the aisles. Don’t fret about Thanksgiving, though: there are usually a few shelves dedicated to inflatable front yard turkeys, and an end cap with flour, sugar, pumpkin pie filling, and canned cranberries to honor the Thanksgiving cook.And it seems that garden seed catalogs are arriving sooner than ever, with the first one hitting our mailbox this year in the second week of November.As you’re ogling the colorful, new hybrid seed and plant introductions for 2026 in those catalogs, your hair might turn a bit gray(er) when you glance at the prices for mail order seed packets (plus shipping). Yep, they’re up. So are the prices of the 2026 seed packets on racks at your local nursery and home centers. The discerning gardener will also note that those 2026 packets, although physically the same size as in years past, may contain fewer seeds.That discerning gardener may also need to brush up on their eighth grade math. Those seed packets can be measured in a number of ways, including ounces (rare these days), grams (getting fewer), milligrams (more common), and the most mind-bending of all, fractions of an ounce (1/64th of ounce! really?). Unfortunately, fewer seed varieties are sold by the actual number of seeds in the packet. And, for a good reason: not all seeds of one variety are necessarily the same size or weight. Still, for the backyard gardener, knowing the number of seeds you’re working with seems like a more common sense approach.So, let’s update our garden math book for when you’re comparison shopping:1 ounce = 28 grams1 gram = 1000 milligrams (mg)1/64th of an ounce = 443 mg1/16th of an ounce = 1.7 gramsHow much are prices going up? In the 2024 edition of one garden catalog company, the price for 1/64th of an ounce of Shishito pepper seeds sold for $5.55. In the 2026 catalog, that price - for the same weight - jumped to $6.55, an 18% jump.A flower example: “Golden Yellow” zinnia, in 2024, was $3.75 for 1/32nd of an ounce (that’s 886 mg, for those of you at home keeping score). In 2026, that same zinnia variety is selling for $4.15 for 1/32 of an ounce, about a 10% increase in price.Why, you ask? The cost of everything is up. Add to that, tariffs. Add to that, shipping charges. Who among us have purchased a seed packet of a coveted vegetable or flower variety, and ended up paying more than the packet price in shipping and handling charges? ✋✋✋An understanding of the seed market is necessary, and after you read what’s below, you will quickly come to the conclusion: those seeds you’re taking out of the packet could have originated from any number of countries.One seed company executive, Andrea Tursini, the CEO of High Mowing Organic Seeds, explained the price jump in the 2026 edition of their catalog:“Last spring, when new tariffs were announced by the Trump administration, we shared the confusion and frustration of many consumers and small businesses. We also promised you transparency as we figured out what this meant for our independent seed company. This past summer, we began seeing the first of those tariff charges rolling in, and as a result, you’ll notice some price increases in our 2026 catalog.First, an important note about the global nature of the organic seed industry. At High Mowing, we’ve scoured the world in search of partners who share our values and commitment to organics. These relationships - and the seeds that come from them - allow us to continuously update our collection, offering improved varieties that meet the needs of our growers. These global relationships and not easily replaced.A reminder that tariffs are fees that American companies pay when importing goods; they are not paid by the exporting company. For example, when we buy tomato seeds from the Netherlands, we pay a 15% tariff. When we import broccoli seeds from Switzerland, we pay a 39% tariffs.Tariffs can be hard to track, showing up on carrier bills long after receiving the seed. This has required additional time and attention for us as a company. Which brings up back to our pricing. We did our best to minimize the increases, and in most cases passed on only a percentage of the increased costs to you.”Coming up after the paywall break:• The Top 10 countries that export seeds.• A deeper dive on how seeds get from a farmer - anywhere in the world - to you.• A chart that approximates the number of seeds of various vegetables per gram in a seed packet.• A library with an ongoing seed swap program.• A transcript of our podcast chat with Renee Shepherd, including which seed companies to avoid online; the decrease in diversity of varieties of flowers and vegetables; two ways to preserve your own seeds, for the short term and the long term; and, three mistakes that beginning gardeners make that can be avoided.

Today’s Podcast We interview climate scientist Daniel Swain, who, besides being a University of California Ag and Natural Resources employee at the California Institute for Water Resources, is well known on social media. Swain runs the Weather West website as well as his frequent presentations talking about extreme weather conditions in California and the west on YouTube, Bluesky, and other social media outlets.TIPS FOR SETTING UP A HOME WEATHER STATIONOne common topic when two gardeners meet: the weather. Gardeners are usually grousing about some aspect of whatever is happening with the current weather: the heat vs. their tomatoes; the threat of frost to their citrus or succulent plants; gusty springtime northerly winds drying out the soil prematurely; and let’s not forget comparing plant damage due to a freak hailstorm.Many gardeners are amateur meteorologists, with a yard full of devices that measure the air temperature, the rainfall, the humidity, the wind, and more. According to University of California Ag and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain, more care is needed as to where you place those weather sensors. After all, that thermometer that’s hanging outside your kitchen window may be reading much warmer than what is happening in your garden.“There are genuine microclimates that can vary over that distance. If the thermometer is attached to your house, it might be warmer,” says Swain, who runs the informative Weather West YouTube page and on other social media outlets. “Presumably if it’s a cold night, you have the heater on inside. Some of that’s going to bleed outside a little bit near your house. If you have it hanging on a wall or an eave somewhere, it is going to exert perhaps a bit of a warming effect. And irrigation can affect the reading. Most people who are farmers or gardeners know that once you put water in the soil, once you put water on the plants, you kind of dampen the range of temperatures that you’re going to experience. By having moisture in some places more than others, you’re also going to actively, in some cases, create a temperature differential that’s different than where you might be measuring at your house or out on the driveway.”Swain says more thought needs to go in to where you place that thermometer sensor for the most accurate readings for the plants of greatest concern.“You’re measuring, technically, the temperature of a small increment of air immediately surrounding that thermometer device,” says Swain. “Imagine two different scenarios, the same parcel of land, the same home, and two thermometers within, five feet of each other. There’s not really a meaningful meteorological difference between the temperature across those five feet under normal circumstances. The numbers should be the same. But imagine that one of those thermometers is just sitting out there in direct sunlight. Maybe you’ve mounted it on a pole above a dirt field or over a concrete or asphalt driveway. That thermometer is going to read some awfully high values in the daytime and potentially some awfully low values in the nighttime. And that’s because you have the sun directly shining on the thermometer, heating the thermometer itself because of the sunlight is landing on the device itself. That thermometer is going to read a very high value. On a hot day, you might even get a value of 120 degrees on that thermometer. But as we define the surface temperature, the temperature at two meter height, so right around the top of my head, since I’m a little over six feet tall, that’s kind of a standard meteorological temperature measurement that’s used not just in science, but also for practical purposes and in agriculture and any number of applied purposes, that temperature is actually supposed to be a shade temperature. What you’re measuring is something different than the number that you’re comparing to everyone else’s numbers. When you go to the National Weather Service website and get a temperature forecast or you look at observations from official weather service certified meteorological stations, the temperatures you’re seeing are taken at the six-foot height in the shade.”Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. Some editions are free, some have a paywall. Your paid subscription helps keep the good gardening information coming your way. Thank You!TRANSCRIPT: Home Weather Station Setup Tips with Daniel SwainFarmer Fred:If you’re a longtime gardener, you just might be a weather nerd. You may want to know what’s happening, especially around your garden area and greenhouse, about many things, such as what’s the high temperature? What’s the low temperature? What about humidity, wind, soil temperature, rainfall, evapotranspiration rate?Plus, there’s chill hours, growing degree days, heat index, UV radiation, and a lot more that can be affecting you and your plants. And your meteorological equipment right now may be as simple as a thermometer hanging outside your kitchen window, which may not be the best idea. We’ll have more about that in a minute. Or it could be as complex as a really nifty weather station that set you back $1,000 or $2,000 that sends a myriad of data to your computer or phone or your in-house monitor. So if you’re considering upgrading your backyard weather equipment, you also need to consider the placement of those various devices in your yard to get more accurate readings about what is really happening in your garden area, especially near your food crops. And you know something else? That upgrade that you’re thinking about with your weather equipment just might be a great move because of the recent cutbacks at the National Weather Service, where personnel and working hours have been slashed, including throughout a very wide swath of California.Today, we’re going to get some answers to those questions from Daniel Swain. If that name sounds familiar, you may know him as the man behind WeatherWest.com. He’s a climate scientist focused on the dynamics and impacts of extreme events, including droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires. Daniel holds joint appointments as a climate scientist within the California Institute for Water Resources, which is part of the University of California Ag and Natural Resources, as well as the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. And he’s a research fellow at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. He’s an alumnus of Davis and Stanford, and he completed postdoctoral work at UCLA. And again, his Weather West blog is excellent reading wherever you might be on social media, especially Twitter, Blue Sky, and YouTube, where he does presentations all the time about upcoming weather events. I’ve been a fan of his for years. Daniel, I’m finally glad to be able to talk to you in person. Welcome to the Garden Basics podcast.Daniel Swain:Yes, thanks for the invitation to be here today. It’s great to be on the show.Farmer Fred:All right. I’d be curious about your own home weather setup. What’s that like?Daniel Swain:[3:30] Ah, yes. I actually am based physically in Boulder, Colorado these days because of that NCAR appointment, despite the primary one with the University of California. So we don’t own a home here. So I’m somewhat limited when I can personally install on this side of the Rocky Mountains. But back in California, back when I was in high school, believe it or not, I installed a weather station on my parents’ home in the North Bay. And that is something that I have maintained over the years on their roof. It’s still there. It still gets maintained. And I’m still trying to use, to the best extent possible, best practices for meteorological station sighting on that one.Farmer Fred:I understand completely. I think when I bought my first large parcel of land, I got myself a Davis Instruments weather station, which was at the time one of the best you could buy. And that let me know a lot of things like wind direction, the high temperature, the low temperature, rainfall amounts, things like that. But it has gotten so much better over the last 20 or 30 years. And the data is much easier to comprehend as well because of either in-house monitors or the data is shot straight to your phone or your computer, it makes it a lot easier. But as they say in the computer world, garbage in, garbage out. So where you put that home station, no matter what kind it is, where you put it in your yard is very important, isn’t it?Daniel Swain:Oh, it’s incredibly important. And this is actually something that I think is not always as obvious for a lot of folks as it might be to some meteorologists, although perhaps not even to all the meteorologists in the world who haven’t worked a lot with actual physical instrumentation. And I think this is because, as you say, exactly where you put these devices and where they are relative to other things that might be in the immediate vicinity can make a huge difference into the numbers of the data you’re actually seeing in front of you. And, as you mentioned, there’s any number of different companies that manufacture weather instrumentation or packages of weather stations.Daniel Swain:For my part, just as was the case with you, the one I installed was indeed, I think it was one of the Davis Vantage Pro stations, sort of the best consumer grade ones that they offered for many years. And it’s still there. It’s still chugging along. It’s been recalibrated a couple times over 20 years at the factory, but it is still the same original hardware from 20 years ago, and it’s still going strong with that careful maintenance. But the bigger issue, I think, is indeed where we put it. And the main reason for this is think about what you’re actually measuring, for example, with something as simple as a thermometer. You’re measuring, technically, the temperature of a small increment of air immediately surrounding that thermometer device, whatever the device is. If it’s an electronic one or an alcohol-based t

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comToday’s newsletter podcast features an arborist discussing ways you can spot when your trees may be in danger of falling, especially in a wet, windy winter (recorded as the California drought was ending). Also: Consulting Arborist Michael Santos tells us about online resources for homeowners to get more information about the trees in their yard.More information about what was discussed in the podcast can be found at the University of California Ag and Natural Resources publication, “Inspect Your Landscape Trees for Hazards”.How to (Possibly) Thwart Tree Damage Before a StormDuring or after a particularly violent fall or winter wind/rain/snow storm, TV news crews usually rush to the most photogenic damage during these rare occasions: downed trees, usually leaning against a house or crushing a car.Without the correct care of the trees on your property, winter storms and trees will not get along. Most susceptible are the trees that keep their leaves year round, including broadleaf evergreens, such as eucalyptus and camphor. Add the conifer family to that list: pines, firs, redwoods and cedars. All that mass of greenery acts as a sail in a heavy wind, bending trees at ridiculous angles. Another cause of winter tree failure is crown rot, which despite its name, refers to the deterioration of the root system near the base of the tree. Combine that with a couple of inches of rain onto already saturated soils, and you have tree roots heaving towards the surface, leading to pictures, such as the one above, popping up on the TV news.If this is the view from your window, the day after a major rain and wind storm is not necessarily the best day for the homeowner to tackle the hazardous task of cleaning up the remnants of trees, shrubs and other plants that took a beating. If wind and rain is still in the forecast, the prevalence of slippery conditions and the chance of more falling debris should limit your cleaning chores to dragging broken branches away from the scene of the crime. It is not a good day to be climbing ladders or scrambling into trees while balancing a chain saw. Leave that to the professionals.Signs of Potential Tree FailureArborists offer this good piece of advice for those surveying the fallen aftermath of a major storm: Limb failure is largely a product of poor tree maintenance over time. Take care of your trees, or they may take care of themselves in ways you won’t appreciate. According to the University of California publication, “Inspect Your Landscape Trees for Hazards”, a nice day in autumn (or winter, spring or summer, for that matter) is the time to take an inventory of any possible future tree damage before you, your house or your car becomes the next victim of a falling tree or branch.Leaning Trees: Are your trees not as upright as the result of recent heavy winds? Can you see newly upheaved roots or soil around those trees? Then, immediate action is required: call in a professional, certified, bonded and insured arborist to do an onsite inspection and offer a solution (find one near you at treesaregood.org). Newly leaning trees are an imminent hazard. If you have a tree that has leaned for a number of years, that tree can still be a hazard during wet, windy weather. Taking periodic photographs can help you determine if a greater lean is developing.Multiple Trunked Trees: This co-dominant condition can result in breakage of major tree parts during storms. Usually, these trunks are weakly attached. Inspect the point where the two trunks meet; if you see splitting beginning, call in an arborist.Weakly Attached Branches: Trees with many branches arising from the same point on the trunk are prone to breaking during wind storms. Prune out any split branches. Thin out multiple branches.Hanging or Broken Branches: If you see storm damaged branches hanging from the tree, remove them as soon as possible. This includes removing any completely broken branches that may be resting elsewhere in the tree’s canopy.Cracks in Trunks and Branches: Measure the depth of any cracks with a ruler. If those cracks are more than three inches deep, call in an arborist to determine the best course of action.Dead Branches/Trees: Branches or entire trees that have completely died are very likely to come tumbling down in a storm. Dead branches are most noticeable in the summer when the tree is in full leaf.Cavities and Decay: Large, open pockets where branches meet the trunk, or at the base of the trunk, can mean big trouble. The presence of mushrooms on the bark or on exposed roots may indicate wood decay. Call in an arborist.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Arbor Day Foundation website has this guide to proper pruning techniques.Also: Tips for Hiring an Arborist. Beyond the Paywall:• Tree Pruning Advice• The Three-Cut Method for larger branches• Small Trees for Small Yards, Medium-Sized Trees for larger Suburban lots• How to Successfully Plant a Tree• The podcast transcript

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comAre you thinking about buying a rototiller? How about instead purchasing a chipper/shredder? Now, that’s a machine that’s going to make easy work of chopping up your garden clippings including tree limbs. it’s going to make it into the greatest mulch you could possibly own. The latest research shows that rototilling your soil actually damages soil structure and doesn’t do anything good for the soil biology. On the other hand, the end result of using a chipper/shredder is going to provide you with a quality of mulch that we like to call, “gardeners’ gold”.Northern California Organic Gardening Consultant Steve Zien has some rather strong thoughts on this subject. Go back and listen to his comments back in Episode 89 of the Garden Basics podcast, from 2021.Thinking that perhaps his opinions may have mellowed on the chipper-shredder vs rototiller choice over the last four years, I recently asked for his thoughts. Nope. No change. Here’s what he had to say (in bullets):Chipper shredderPros:• Eliminates or dramatically reduces green waste• Helps eliminate the need for a rototiller• Provides material for mulch or compost• When shreddings are applied to soil surface:• Feeds soil biology – resulting in improvements in:• Soil structure (pore space diversity)• Improve movement in soil by water, air, roots, soil biology• Soil water holding capacity (drought resistance)• Nutrient holding capacity• Biological diversity of soil microbes• Greater variety of nutrients, vitamins etc. available to plants• Improves pest resistance• Plant health improves (drought resistance, pest resistance)• Nutrient availability to plants improve• Availability of natural growth hormones, vitamins improves• Nutrient content of vegetables improves• Sequesters carbon – contributes to the reversal of climate change• Weed management benefits• Mulch created by chipper/shredder moderates soil temperatures• Erosion protection (mulch slows the force of falling rain)• Mulch created by chipper/shredder repels some pestsCons:• Expensive• Hard work. And, when done, you then have to apply the mulch to soil surface• Don’t chip diseased materialRototiller:Pros:• Get to smell actinomycetes• Mental connection to past horticultural practices (although no longer recommended)• Creates fine seedbed – but soil quickly becomes compacted making it difficult for sprouts to developCons:• It’s hard work• Expensive• Destroys soil structure• Compacts soil (reducing aeration, drainage, limit root development)• Fine clays quickly fill in pore spaces• Increases runoff – transporting soil, nutrients and pesticides into our waterways• Kills beneficial soil biology• Makes it harder for your plants to grow• Harder to obtain water, nutrients, growth hormones, vitamins• Increases pest susceptibility due in part to:• Reduced crop health• Pest management provided by soil biology• Reduces nutrient content of food crops• Results in the need for additional irrigation, fertilization, pesticides• Mother Nature’s natural rototillers (earthworms) are killed by the blades.• Creates biological imbalance - abundance of bacteria vs. fungi (raises pH)• Loss in biological diversity in the soil• Reduction of soil health (results in reduction of plant health)• Reduces ability of soil to function• Releases greenhouse gasses (CO2) to atmosphere – contributing to global climate change• Reduces organic matter content• Reduces soils water holding capacity – need to irrigate more/more runoff….• Makes plants more susceptible to drought• Reduces food for soil biology• Reduces soil productivity• Reduces soil cover• People feel they need to till every spring because previous tillage created a compacted, dead soil below• Brings up weed seeds so they can germinateObviously, Steve has a bleak future as a salesman at Troy-Bilt.What About Electric Chipper/Shredders?For that, we turn to Debbie Flower, who owns an electric chipper-shredder, the 15 amp Sun Joe. Her review:My chipper is a Sun Joe 15 amp Electric Wood Chipper/Shredder plug-in, model #CJ602E. I have had the pleasure of using it a few times. It is a compact, easy to store machine. The 6” wheels and light weight make it easy to move around the yard.Debbie has a lot more thoughts about her electric chipper shredder, including the downsides of electric. Listen to today’s newsletter podcast to find out more.My thoughts about electric-chipper shredders are closely aligned with Brad Gay’s opinion (paid subscribers will hear his comments in the podcast). Reviewers of this electric chipper shredder say they have issues including the shredding problems mentioned by Debbie, and the overheating problem she mentioned. As Brad said, it’s cheaper to replace a belt on a gas chipper/shredder when the machine gets overwhelmed to the point of freezing up with material jammed in the hopper, than it is to replace a burned out electric motor. And make sure you plug the unit into a 20 amp outlet, not 15, to avoid tripping either the house circuit or the overload circuit on the machine. And as with any outdoor electric-powered garden implement, make sure you have the right gauge extension cord which is determined by the power pull of the unit as well as the length of the extension cord.Reviews of Sun Joe chipper shredders by owners on Amazon also complained about the unit’s inability to chop thin branches, as well as the difficulty to replace the blades, which need to be sharp to do an effective job. Still, most reviewers were very satisfied with this particular Sun Joe 15 amp chipper-shredder. One reviewer did offer a helpful suggestion to avoid clogging situations: “If you feed large branches up to 1” (or more) you really have to hold on to them and only let it take a little at a time, pull it up off the cutter (still inside the safe area) then feed more. One reason it jammed is that when it passes the safety cover it’s still several inches long, which is good safety wise, but it will fall over onto the cutters when you’re no longer holding on to it. That ends up turning that 1” diameter stick into a 1 1/2” + oval. (turn a cylinder on an angle and it’s a long oval) Feed something small along side it and it will keep it vertical. That can help. I learned to just chip smaller stuff.”Below the paywall, here’s what awaits paid subscribers:• Why choosing a chipper-shredder with the right sized flywheel is so important.• Replaceable exit chute screens can give you the size mulch you want.• How to protect yourself when shredding long vines, such as grapevines.• Information on PTO-powered chipper shredders.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comWhen it gets hot, the ants start marching indoors. When it rains, in come the ants. Too cold? The ants know where its nice and cozy: your kitchen, bathroom and pet food bowls. Outdoors, pet food and garbage cans are also ant attractants. Argentine ants, those busy little black ants, are in march formation year round.In years past, we would reach for the spray can and douse those little scavengers. But not anymore. Many of those spray pesticides are only effective with direct contact on the ants. And the stronger sprays, with residual action to thwart the next wave of ants, is potentially harmful to you, your kids, your pets.So, here is what we are doing now: following the recommendations of the UC Davis Integrated Pest Management Project for Ant Control.That includes:• Determine what the ants are attracted to and remove the food source• Vacuum trails, wipe them with soapy water, or spray with window cleaner• Locate entry points and caulk openings or plug with petroleum jelly• Put out bait stations with liquid ant bait or apply gel bait at entry points• Baits take time to work so continue to clean up trails• Indoor sprays are not usually necessary.• Avoid products packaged as granules that contain the active ingredients cyfluthrin or permethrin. Although these products may be mistaken for baits, they are actually contact insecticides that rapidly kill foragers and do not control the colony.Before wiping up (or wiping out) the little critters, follow their trail. Note their entry point into the house. Seal it up. We have found ants entering the house in a variety of small avenues: beneath moulding, cracks in the window frame, behind electrical outlet plates...and one of the ants’ favorite entries: that large holes beneath the sink where the pipes enter the house.According to the UC IPM page on ant control, “If ants can be thoroughly washed away and excluded from an area, an insecticide is probably not necessary. Vacuuming up ant trails or sponging or mopping them with soapy water may be as effective as an insecticide spray in temporarily removing foraging ants in a building because it removes the ant’s scent trail, especially if thorough cleaning is done at the entry points. Some soap products such as window cleaners can kill ants on contact but leave no residual toxicity. Certain plant-based oils are also applied for this purpose, but their odor can be offensive.”Coming Up After the Paywall• Highly effective liquid boric acid products for ant control.• How to control ants in a raised garden bed.• Debbie Flower’s home recipe for ant control• How outdoor ants are ecologically beneficial.

One of my frequent bicycling routes takes me by a local food bank. Over the years as I pedal by in the morning, I’ve seen the line of cars increase while waiting for the 10 am food bank opening. Lines of a half block or more were common during the age of Covid (2021-2022).Lately, the line of cars has not only increased in length, it’s now 2 lanes of traffic stretching down the road waiting for a bag or two of food. Fortunately, the road widens out as it approaches the food bank, and the employees there have adopted the Dutch Brothers Coffee / In-and-Out Hamburger traffic facilitating tactic of walking the lines of cars, and getting the information they need (I’m still trying to figure out what Dutch Brothers is putting in their $6+ coffee drinks that brings in such a large crowd. Is it the sugar?).The number of households living paycheck to paycheck has risen dramatically - up to two-thirds of all households in the U.S. living on the edge - according to one report. There’s more hurt on the way because of recent job losses due to AI, governmental shutdown of services, increased food costs due to tariffs, housing costs, and all the other reasons that you don’t want to be reading about in a gardening column.GARDENERS CAN HELPStill, gardeners can help out their neighbors by donating their excess backyard produce - vegetables and fruit - to a nearby food bank or food pantry. For example, right now in late October, here in USDA Zone 9 (and I know I am not alone in this bounty), there’s a lot of sweet peppers waiting to be harvested - definitely more than we can eat or process into relish. And what are those bright orange orbs staring at me from that tree outside my window? Oh yeah, Fuyu persimmons, also more than we can eat or dehydrate, that will be ready to harvest in a week or two. Definitely, these are the prime mid-Autumn candidates for transporting to the local food bank. Coming up in winter, it will be the cornucopia of citrus - oranges, mandarins, lemons - that will be heading to the food bank, along with fresh greens.Don’t know where you’re nearest food bank is located? Go to AmpleHarvest.org, and find the food banks in your area. It’s quick, easy, and as far as I can tell in my own area, accurate. Your local food bank would probably welcome your donation of healthy, homegrown food (always check first).In this week’s newsletter podcast (above), Gary Oppenheimer, the founder of AmpleHarvest.org, talks about the need for more, fresh, wholesome foods getting into the hands (and mouths) of those who can’t afford to eat healthy, but want to. Give it a listen, or read the transcript, below. Thanks.There’s no paywall on today’s newsletter/podcast episode, because that would be counterproductive to helping get your excess garden harvest to the hungry. Still, thank you for your paid subscription to Beyond the Garden Basics!TRANSCRIPT Interview with Gary Oppenheimer of AmpleHarvest.org (recorded in 2020)Farmer Fred:[0:00] Every day in every corner of the United States, children and adults are worrying about finding enough food to put on the dinner table while thousands of pounds of food are being thrown away from backyard gardens, from small farms. Millions of Americans are unable to get enough fresh food to maintain proper health. The United States has a malnourished population that needs more than processed foods in order to thrive. So many incredible food banks, pantries, and other hunger organizations are working tirelessly to alleviate hunger in our communities, but they consistently lack in donations of fresh produce. Luckily, you can help. By making regular donations of unused fresh produce to your local food pantry, you can be a part of the solution to increase the health of people in your neighborhood. And you can donate food that you grow or food that you buy. It’s easy.Farmer Fred:[0:55] The trick is finding the food pantry nearest you, and you can do that through an incredible site called AmpleHarvest.org. We’re talking with Gary Oppenheimer. He’s with AmpleHarvest.org. He’s the founder. It’s a unique nationwide resource that is eliminating the waste of food, the outcome being a reduction in hunger and malnutrition, along with an improved environment. There’s something like 42 million Americans who grow food in home gardens, community gardens, and their small farmers as well, who could easily donate their excess harvest to one of over 8,600 registered local food pantries spread across all 50 states. And Gary, I want to tell you, first of all, about my experience with your website, ampleharvest.org. There is a page there where you can go and find the food pantry nearest you. And I set a search of 15-mile radius around my house. And up popped, I’m counting, 14 food pantries I never knew existed, including one that is within walking distance. And it’s amazing how easy it could be for people who have an excess of tomatoes or squash or peppers or melons or fruit, where to take it to and how convenient that is. What was your inspiration, Gary, for starting ampleharvest.org?Gary Oppenheimer:[2:17] That’s a great question, actually. There are two things, two pieces of inspiration. One was I grew up hearing, “don’t waste food”. My grandparents always told me, you know, finish what’s on your plate. Kids are starving in Europe. So not wasting food was always inculcated into me. But as an adult and a master gardener, I was growing more food than I can use, and I couldn’t, I didn’t want to go to waste. My wife said, you can’t forget any more of this stuff in the house.Gary Oppenheimer:[2:42] And I struggled to find a place to donate the food to. It turns out I found a battered woman shelter in my town. I’m in Northern New Jersey. But when I had gone on Google to find out where their food pantries, Google said the nearest one was 25 miles away in another city. And I had an epiphany in March of 09. And I realized, wait a minute, this is an information problem. This is not a food problem. People aren’t hungry because America doesn’t have enough food. We actually throw away half the produce, never gets consumed. The problem gardeners across America have always had was miss and missing information. The misinformation was what we were all told at food drives, that you can only donate jars or cans or boxes, but no fresh food. We gardeners took away from that. You can’t donate the extra tomatoes. The missing information was where is a food pantry and what’s a good day of the week and time of day to donate it. When I realized that this was the information problem, I realized the solution was a web-based, an internet-based program that would both educate gardeners about their capacity, that they can indeed donate food.Gary Oppenheimer:[3:50] And to where to donate it near them, and the optimum day of the week and time of day. And that timing is super important because if a food pantry, for argument’s sake, was distributing food to hungry families on Sunday afternoons, the ideal time for you to bring it in is Sunday morning, which means the ideal time for you to harvest is either Sunday morning or Saturday night. So the food would go from your garden to the food pantry to a hungry family in hours, Number one, the food pantry didn’t have to buy refrigeration. And number two, the hungry family was getting food fresher than you and I can buy in a supermarket. It’s truly garden fresh food. And the whole thing came together for me in a one four-hour session on my computer. And seven weeks later, with the help of two volunteers, May 18, 2009, Ample Harvest Road rolled out. And it’s been growing in reach and impact ever since.Farmer Fred:[4:46] We’re going to be using a couple of terms here that people may get confused. I find it confusing as well. Maybe you can explain it. We will be talking about food banks and food pantries. What is the difference?Gary Oppenheimer:[4:57] Well, this is a fun question. All right. For most of America, for all of America, a food bank is a large industrial warehouse type operation, around 200 of them in America. They’re part of the Feeding America Network. These are large warehouses where large amounts of food come in and large amounts of food are then redistributed out to the local programs where hungry families go. So those local programs where hungry families go, there are around 33,500 across America, are usually called a food pantry and in some states a food cupboard or food shelf or food closet. The exception, as far as I know, was Oregon and Washington where those local programs are also called food banks. And you said a little bit ago that I think in Sacramento, they’re also sometimes called food banks. So in the vernacular, in the common language of food banks where a hungry family gets food, but in the real system, there’s a distinction. And the reason I had to create ampleharvest.org was because when the food went from a food drive to a food bank or a food pantry, it took too long. But when it went from a food drive or my garden, for that matter, to a food pantry, it could happen in 15 minutes. So this was an architectural discussion. This is great for a linguistic nerd, but it’s... If people want to use the word food bank, that’s perfectly fine. But I’ll use the word food pantry just to be more correct.Farmer Fred:[6:25] Ampleharvest.org is geared to a wide range of gardeners. You’ve got home gardeners, new gardeners, farmers and food producers, Master Gardeners, and school gardens. And boy, I’m thinking about food waste and all of a sudden, wow, school gardens. I wonder what they’re doing with all that excess food that they’re growing in their little school, especially when it may be happening in the summertime and there isn’t anybody there to harvest it?Gary Oppenheimer:[6:51] School gardens, you’re absolutely right. It’s also camp gardens, by the way. But a school garden, you’ve planted the stuff and then the kids are gone for the summer and who’s harvesting? Or the camp. The camp had a

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn the warm winter areas of the country, the calendula is the go-to source of bright garden color on those cold, cloudy, foggy days. In cooler growing zones, the calendula is a blooming staple during the summer. In the podcast (above), we explore the enchanting world of calendulas with Diane Blazek, the executive director of the National Garden Bureau, as we celebrate 2025 as the Year of the Calendula. We discuss their historical significance, medicinal properties, and culinary uses, while clarifying the confusion surrounding their classification as pot marigolds. Diane shares practical gardening tips for successfully growing calendulas, including seed sowing strategies for different climates and the benefits of dense planting for attracting pollinators. We emphasize the ease of growing these flowers, making them ideal for novice gardeners and families. The episode also highlights the best sources for high-quality calendula seeds.According to the National Garden Bureau:* Calendulas need at least 6 hours of daily sunshine to witness its radiant blooms unfurl.* Finding the Perfect Soil: Well-draining soil is key. While Calendula isn’t fussy about soil type, it prefers a slightly acidic to neutral pH. (6 to 7 pH)* Planting for Success: In colder areas of the country (USDA Zones 3-7) sow seeds directly outdoors, in spring, about an inch deep, after the last frost. In the warmer zones (7-10), plant them in early autumn. Space them 12-18 inches apart for ample room to flourish.* The Secret to Continuous Blooms: Regularly remove spent flowers (deadheading) to encourage new growth. This keeps your plant looking tidy and stimulates more blooms.* Natural Pest Control: Calendula is naturally resistant to pests, but keep an eye out for occasional visitors like aphids or caterpillars.* Garden Harmony: Calendulas act as a natural pest deterrent, attracting beneficial insects to your garden because of their easy to reach flower parts.* Harvesting Your Bounty: Pick Calendula flowers when fully open, preferably in the morning for the most concentrated oils. Dry them for later use in teas, salves, or potpourri.* Edible Delight: Surprise your palate! Calendula flowers are edible with a subtle peppery flavor, adding a vibrant touch to salads, soups, and stews.* DIY Potpourri: Dried Calendula blossoms infuse your space with a beautiful fragrance.* Soothing Salves: Calendula’s calming properties make it a popular ingredient in homemade salves.Calendula’s easy to reach flower parts attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, and pest predators such as ladybugs, lacewings, and hoverflies. These insects help control pests like aphids, whiteflies, and caterpillars.By attracting ladybugs, lacewings, and hoverflies, calendula helps control pest populations naturally. Acting like a trap crop, calendulas can attract pests like aphids, which then attract the beneficial predators.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete new posts and podcasts, and have access to the entire catalog of over 200 Beyond the Garden Basics newsletters, consider becoming a paid subscriber.Coming up after the paywall:Calendulas undergo “nyctinasty” every day, a visible change in the plant. We explain what that is in the newsletter and why it is so important for the calendula’s survival.Despite winning competitions internationally, why have there been no calendula winners in All-America Selections trials in its 90+ year history?The popular calendula varieties in California and USDA Zone 9.The popular calendula varieties in the midwest and east.And, the complete transcript of the Calendula podcast, which includes links and videos for more information!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIf you have a worm bin, and are harvesting the worm castings (yes, it’s worm poop), and you’re spreading those castings around your outdoor and indoor plants, you are helping to create some powerful soil, teeming with microbiology, that will supercharge your plants. According to Cal Recycle, the process of vermicomposting, which uses worms to break down organic material such as food scraps, will turn them into a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can nourish your house plants or garden.Some wormy facts:* Worms break food waste into compost faster, over 8-12 weeks. Traditional composting, on the other hand takes 6-9 months.* You can worm compost in your apartment or house, even under your kitchen sink. You can also vermicompost at school or the office.* Worms like to feed on food waste.* Worms break down food scraps efficiently.* Worms eat over half their body weight a day.* Worm manure contains beneficial microbes and nutrients for plants.What will worms eat?Worms eat a variety of organics, such as:* Paper.* Manure.* Fruit.* Vegetable.* Grains.* Coffee Grounds.* Ground Yard Wastes.Do not feed worms:* Meat.* Dairy.* Oily food.* Citrus scraps (toxic to worms).What Do Poop-Happy Worms Need?* Moist, organic bedding as damp as a wrung-out sponge, in a location that has a temperature range of 55-77 degrees F.* Darkness – they are sensitive to light.* Because they have no teeth, add 1 Tbs of grit, such as clean soil, sand, rock dust or oyster flour in bedding to help the worms grind the food.* Clean soil, sand, rock dust, or oyster flour with no foreign organisms.From the Fresno County Master Gardener publication, “About Worm Castings”:Castings contain rich microbiological colonies that help fight soil-borne plant diseases and repel insects.Worm castings are water-soluble allowing plants to quickly and easily absorb essential nutrients and trace minerals. When the manure passes through the worms digestive tract, it forms a coating around the grain which allows for the nutrients to “time release” into the soil. Nutrients are readily available to plant material over a greater length of time and will not burn even the most delicate plants.Analysis of earthworm castings reveals that they are rich in iron, sulfur, calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK rating: 5.5.3). They are much richer in nutrients than bulk compost, therefore application rates are much lower. Improved Growth: Extensive University testing has been performed by Ohio State, Cornell University, UC Davis and the Australian SIRO to prove the worth of worm castings. The tests have shown improved flower size, bloom quantity, quality and color. Fruit and vegetable tests have resulted in yield improvements from 57% to over 200% as well as improvement in taste and appearance.Worm Castings Are Great For Your Garden!Nutrient-rich soil: Worm castings, or vermicast, are rich in water-soluble nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as micronutrients like iron, zinc, and magnesium. These nutrients are in a highly bioavailable form that plants can readily absorb, boosting their growth.* Improved soil structure: Worm castings improve the physical structure of the soil, increasing its ability to retain moisture and improving aeration, which is crucial for root development.* Beneficial microorganisms: The castings contain beneficial bacteria and enzymes that help develop a strong immune system in plants, making them more resistant to pests and diseases.For a deeper dive into the benefits of worm castings, check out this excerpt about vermicomposting in the publication, “Microbes at Work”.After the paywall break:Are commercially bagged earthworm castings as good as homegrown or worm farm-purchased castings? In the podcast (above), America’s Favorite Retired Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, and Sacramento-based organic soils expert, Steve Zien, tackle that question (that portion only available to paid subscribers of the Beyond the Garden Basics) .Plus, after the paywall break, a complete transcript of today’s podcast!