Just Grow Something | The "Why" Behind the "How" of Gardening

It is November, which means we are firmly seated in fall and many of us have seen the total demise of our gardens. In fact, some of us have had several weeks since we saw anything green out there and it’s kind of depressing! Have no fear, there is a way to get a fresh green pick-me-up in the kitchen even when the outside seems bleary – three ways, in fact! Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to cover three ways to grow nutritious greens indoors. This can absolutely be done year-round, but it’s especially poignant in the late fall and through the winter. Especially if you live somewhere like I do where it’s a bit bleak and dreary outside and your body is just craving something fresh. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: (some links are affiliates and I'll earn a small commission ... thank you!) Get 20% off a Magic Mind subscription with code GROWSOMETHING20 Simple LED grow lights: https://amzn.to/3UMqN5k Hydroponic net pots: https://amzn.to/3Cm8fSW Coconut coir plant starter pellets: https://amzn.to/3YK0xth Organic liquid plant food for hydroponics: https://amzn.to/3UO1fEO pH test strips: https://amzn.to/3Co6Efq Inexpensive air bubbler: https://amzn.to/3O3Gpxj Variety pack microgreens seed: https://amzn.to/3O4eddS Elm Dirt: https://www.elmdirt.com/?rfsn=6809035.8aa23a5 Microgreen Basics - Ep. 169 Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Buy Me A Coffee!

If you’ve been watching my social media accounts you’ve seen me posting about my recent trip to Puerto Rico. I was hoping to see what backyard gardeners were growing in a tropical region and also get an idea of what crops are economically significant to the region and I was actually surprised by what I learned. Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to talk about what crops are prevalent in Puerto Rico and how we can duplicate some of that in our own homes even if we live somewhere that is decidedly NOT tropical. We’ll also reveal your answers to the October question of the month: what was your biggest failure in the garden this year? Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Insect Netting: https://amzn.to/3CeUkOs (aff) Bird Netting: https://amzn.to/3NV6oag (aff) Free Download: Onion Growing Fact Sheet Beginner's Guide to Growing Onions All About Puerto Rico Coffee - History and Best Brands | Puerto Rico & Caribbean Travel News Coffee Obsession: More Than 100 Tools and Techniques with Inspirational ... - DK - Google Books Most Common Papaya Plant Pests: Identification and Treatment Guide | Live to Plant Food Security and Debt: Rebooting Puerto Rican Agriculture as a Path Out of Crisis | Journal of Public and International Affairs Regrowing Puerto Rico's Agriculture - WWF - Environment & Disaster Management ‘A National Call for Food Production:’ Sustainable Farming Seeks Revolution in Puerto Rico | Pulitzer Center

Adding the right soil amendments in the fall is a great way to set up your garden for success in the spring. By incorporating amendments now, you give them time to break down and integrate into the soil, providing nutrients and improving soil texture for the next growing season. Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to breakdown the best amendments for addressing specific nutrient deficiencies, as well as general-purpose options that we can add to our soil now to benefit our garden in the spring. Let’s dig in! Question of the Month: What was your biggest failure in the garden this year? References and Resources: Get 20% off a Magic Mind subscription with code GROWSOMETHING20 Focal Point Friday: Plant Nutrient Basics Using Manure in the Garden: What's Safe and What's Not? How and when to use manure as fertilizer. How and Why to Perform a Soil Test for Nutrients and Texture High quality single-ingredient (alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, bone meal, etc.), all-purpose, and mineral amendment resource: https://amzn.to/4f32Nmo (aff) New Merch! Just Grow Something | Patreon Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com)

Last week we talked onions, this week it’s another allium, garlic. The timing on planting onions in the fall is just about the same as when we plant our garlic for overwintering and garlic spends just about as much time in the garden as those fall-planted onions do. Just like our onions, there are specific considerations for growing garlic – the right variety, the right soil, specific planting depth and spacing, planting time, and nutrients. If this all sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because those are all the same things we said are important for growing onions. Amazing how plants in the same family have some of the same concerns! Today on Just Grow Something we’re talking tips for planting garlic by climate type. Whether you’re in zone 3 or zone 10 you can grow garlic, but what kind and when and how you plant will be vastly different and will greatly affect your success. Let’s dig in! References and Resources My Women in Podcasting Award and Acceptance Speech! Ep. 40 - Growing Garlic Ep. 67 - When and How to Plant Your Garlic, Plus Tips for Warmer Climates Growing Garlic in Warm Climates - Focal Point Friday Growing Garlic as a Perennial - Ep. 168 How to Choose a Garlic Variety to Grow - Ep. 214 How to Know When Your Garlic is Ready to Harvest Find Seed Garlic: https://amzn.to/3BOX30U (aff) New Merch! Just Grow Something | Patreon Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com)

This is the episode so many of you have asked for and now is the perfect time because, in most locations, this is the time to be planting onion sets or seedlings to overwinter and harvest the next summer. Successfully growing full-sized onions for fresh eating and for storage seems to allude many of us, I had trouble with it the first few tries, for sure, and I think it boils down to a couple of things. First is planting depth and spacing, second is soil texture and nutrients, and third is the timing of the planting. Bonus points if you actually know which type of onions you should be planting in terms of long-day and short-day or day-neutral. If none of what I just said made any sense to you, you’re not alone. So, today on Just Grow Something we’re going to review the very basics of growing onions but then dig deep into the techniques you can use for getting them planted now to successfully harvest those nice full fat onions in the spring. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Save 20% on a Magic Mind Subscription: https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING20 and use code GROWSOMETHING20 Ep. 133 - Growing Onions Beginner's Guide to Growing Onions YouTube video on planting fall onions Save 20% at https://heirloomroses.com using code JUSTGROW at checkout. Order now, save now, deliver later! Just Grow Something Merch: https:/justgrowsomething.com/shop Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com)

The fruits and veggies coming from our gardens are not the only things we can dry and store in the off-season. Think about the vibrant colors from the flowers in our yards and containers. We can absolutely preserve that beauty to use year-round, or at least to display through the dreary winter season, by simply air-drying them. There are lots of ways we can use those cut flowers, ornamental grasses, and even edible flowers and herbs in our home décor and pantry. Yes, you’ve got the typical dried flower arrangement in the form of a bouquet, but what about centerpieces, wreaths, swags or other purposes like tea blends or simmer pots? Today on Just Grow Something we’ll talk about the conditions we need to properly dry our florals and other cuttings from the garden, when and how to properly harvest them specifically for this purpose, how to properly store them so they retain their color, and some usage ideas. Why shouldn’t we use all the colors of our summer garden to brighten up our indoor spaces as we move through fall and into winter? Let’s dig in! Question of the month: What was your biggest failure in the garden this season? References and Resources Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com)

As we start to wind down the summer gardening season it’s a great time to be adding compost to your beds to help give the soil a boost. Letting the compost break down over the winter gives it adequate time to become activated with all the little microorganisms that are so important for delivering nutrients to our plants in the soil. But, purchasing compost, especially really good compost, can be pricey and the bigger your garden, the higher the price tag! It’s hard to justify sometimes because some of us are growing our own gardens so we can save money on our food budget, not pay more to amend the soil than it would cost us to just buy our veggies at the grocery store. And if we opt for budget compost we may find not only is the texture and quality definitely fit the price point, but our plants aren’t getting much out of that soil the following season which is a complete waste of money. I also understand that not everybody has room for a big compost pile in their yard, you may not even have a yard and are gardening in containers on a patio or porch, but you still want the best amendments for your soil and everybody has kitchen waste that can be used to feed our garden soil. So, today on Just Grow Something we’re going to talk about the absolute easiest and least messy ways to build a small compost pile or composting system for your garden regardless of where you are. It may not be everything you need to add to your garden, depending on the size you’re working with, but it will absolutely reduce the need for having to purchase as much and you’ll be diverting waste from the landfill and helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process. Let’s dig in. References and Resources: Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com) Ep. 80 - Creating and Managing a Compost Pile Ep. 106 - Introduction to Vermicomposting (Worm Farming!) Ep. 107 - Worm Farming with Lauren Cain of Elm Dirt

As the fall season is practically upon us and the pumpkin spice gods are already blessing us with their bounty, it’s time to get your garden ready for the changing weather. Fall gardening can look very different depending on your climate, but no matter where you live, the changing season means there are some important tasks to attend to for the success of your garden now and into the spring. Today on Just Grow Something we’re tackling your fall garden checklist. Whether you’re buttoning up your garden for winter, transitioning into a cool-season planting cycle, or continuing to harvest year-round, today’s episode breaks down fall gardening tasks for three different groups of gardeners: Zones 3 and 4, Zones 5 through 9, and Zones 10 and 11. Let’s dig in! Question of the Month: What was your biggest success in the garden this season? References and Resources: Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Bonus content for supporters of the Just Grow Something Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com) Heirloom Roses: Use code JUSTGROW for 20% off! Through Oct. 31st, 2024 Getting Started with Cover Crops - Ep. 166 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map | USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map Frost Dates: First and last frost dates by zipcode - Garden.org

Last week on the podcast we talked about which seeds we should be saving from the garden, how mature the fruits need to be when we harvest seeds and a bit about how to dry and test them. This week, we’re focusing on storing them properly. When we get seeds from a catalog or other seed supplier, they’ve often gone through a set of steps that we may not be duplicating at home with our own saved seeds. Seed suppliers are required to test their seeds not just for germination percentage, but also for diseases and moisture content. These tests ensure that we’re not brining outside diseases into our gardens and make sure the seeds we get will maintain their integrity in storage without spoiling. Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to talk about how we can achieve the same results in our own seed collection. If you garden where certain diseases are prevalent you certainly don’t want to saving that disease to plant again with your seeds the next year. We also want to be sure our seeds remain intact in storage and we don’t open up a fuzzy, moldy mess when it’s time to plant in the spring. Let’s dig in! Question of the Month: What was your biggest success in the garden this season? References and Resources: Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Just Grow Something is Bonus content for supporters of the Just Grow Something Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com) Vegetable: Hot Water Seed Treatment | Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at UMass Amherst

Saving seeds from our gardens to use the next spring it is a great way to not only help our budget out a little bit but also to give ourselves some food security and doesn’t sound like it should be a very difficult task. At that point we’re not relying on someone else to grow our seeds for us that we have to buy over and over again. Just collect the seeds from whatever you want to keep, rinse them, dry them, and pack them away for next year, right? Well, yes, but also, no. The method I just described can absolutely mean you’ll have beautifully preserved seeds that have fantastic germination the next season and yield a bounty of exactly what you thought you were planting. But it’s equally possible that you’ll open the seed packet the next season to find fuzzy gray fungus or black moldy growth on your seeds, or seeds that don’t sprout properly, or maybe they sprout and you get midway through the gardening season and the fruit on the plant look nothing like the ones you saved the seeds from. So, today on Just Grow Something we’re going to dig into which plants you should and shouldn’t be saving seeds from, how to properly collect, clean, and dry those seeds in order to best guarantee your success the next season, and how to quickly test them before you store them to know if they’re viable. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Buy Me a Coffee! Hot Water Treatment for Seeds – Louisiana State University How To Save Vegetable Seeds – Farmers Almanac

If you have intentions of growing garlic for next year, now is the time to be ordering your seed garlic. Garlic needs about six months in the ground to get to maturity so, here in the northern hemisphere, we may be planting our garlic as early as mid-September in some areas. With the plethora of catalogs and websites and garden centers offering garlic to gardeners, how do you know what variety of garlic to choose? And should you be choosing hard neck, or soft neck, or that look-a-like Elephant garlic? Today on Just Grow Something we’re gonna' figure it out. We’ll talk about the differences between the types of garlic, and what might make you want to choose one variety over another – whether it’s to do with flavor, storage, disease resistance, or something else entirely. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Just Grow Something | creating a podcast and gardening videos | Patreon Just Grow Something is Bonus content for supporters of the Just Grow Something Podcast! (buymeacoffee.com) How many types of garlic are there? - Chef's Resource (chefsresource.com) Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides - Growing Guide Garlic Variety Descriptions | The Dyer Family Organic Farm Garlic | The Buffalo Seed Company

If you didn’t plan for a fall garden and maybe have changed your mind a little bit and want to give it a go, you might be looking for something you can very quickly put into the ground and grow directly from seed. Enter beets. They will happily germinate in almost any temperature of soil and they greatly appreciate the cooler days of fall when they are coming to maturity. They’re not fool-proof, because there is a little effort needed in terms of thinning in most cases and they do need a nice, loose soil to produce those beautiful round roots, but there is nothing that beats the flavor in the fall of a sweet, roasted beet alongside other root vegetables. Or, my go-to snack or addition to my salads, pickled beets, and my new favorite, beets roasted in air fryer. Even my husband admits those are good and he swears beets taste like dirt. So, today on Just Grow Something we’re talking beets! How to grow them, what type to grow for your area, and why does it seem that even when we carefully space our beet seeds out in the garden that we end up having to thin them anyway? So many seedlings! Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides - Growing Guide ⁠Garden Insect Netting⁠ (affiliate) ⁠Garden Frost Cloth/Row Cover⁠ (affiliate)

I do searches online for gardening topics all the time. I will search key phrases to see if I can come up with topics that people seem to be searching for or gardening questions that may be trending. I even search specific ideas to see if there is new information or research that I’m not aware of. And more and more frequently I’m noticing a disturbing trend. As I look at the search results, often times I will see multiple pages in a row, usually sponsored results, that have the exact same key phrases as the meta description, the little blurb you see under the link that tells you what’s on the page before you click it. When I click on one of those pages I find the page to be full of ads, with very little substance in terms of gardening know how. And the verbiage and style of writing is very mechanical, disjointed, and generic. If I click another one, the page layout is exactly the same and so is the wording. These pages are all designed to look like legitimate gardening blogs or how-to sites, but they all have two things in common – they are meant to earn money from the overwhelming number of ads being displayed and they are all written by artificial intelligence. Today on Just Grow Something we’re diving into AI and gardening advice. Can AI be helpful when asking questions in the garden? Are those answers accurate? And how can we determine whether a source is reliable or not? Let’s dig in. References and Resources Vote for me in the Women in Podcasting Awards! Save on a Magic Mind Subscription with code justgrowsomething20 Just Grow Something Website (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

There is something very satisfying about growing your own food, for sure, and being able to walk out into the garden to pick your lunch or your dinner. But, in the dead of a Midwest winter, the ability to be able to “shop” your own pantry for the things you eat the most, that you grew, that is a whole other level. So, today on Just Grow Something we’re going to talk about the basic necessities you need for starting your own canning adventure. We’ll mostly focus on boiling-water canning and what can be safely canned in that manner, but since I jumped head first into pressure canning just a year after I started water-bath canning, we’ll touch on some of the differences in case, you too, are big on confidence but maybe a little shy on knowledge. Let’s dig in! References and Resources Vote for me in the Women in Podcasting Awards! Home Page - National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu) Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (Updated Edition)

Over the past decade or so there has been much debate about whether open-pollinated and heirloom varieties should be the preferred choice for gardeners over hybrids. And there's been even louder discussion (arguments) over GMOs or genetically engineered plants. Why all the fuss? We're getting a bit sciencey today. I mean, more than usual. We're discussing the difference between all these types of plants, when and how they are appropriate to use in our home gardens, and what, if any, implications genetic engineering has on our choice of food at the grocery store and the farm stand. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Vote for me in the Women in Podcasting Awards! Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Save on a Magic Mind Subscription with code justgrowsomething20 Hybrid or Open Pollinated - Garden.org https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/files/ef130.pdf Choosing Bt Sweet Corn Varieties | University of Maryland Extension (umd.edu) The True Story of Golden Rice, the Genetically Modified Superfood That Almost Saved Millions (foreignpolicy.com) Transgenic Virus-Resistant Papaya: The Hawaiian 'Rainbow' was Rapidly Adopted by Farmers and is of Major Importance in Hawaii Today (apsnet.org) Pinkglow® pineapple (pinkglowpineapple.com) In Search of the Real Jersey Tomato (Part I) (Archived) Rutgers 250 Tomato | Rutgers Research

Mother Nature has opened the blast furnace door on west central Missouri. I recorded this quick episode on the fly in the gardens to share with you a little wisdom about what our plants are doing in the heat and how to avoid further damage to things like tomatoes by overwatering. Let's dig in! You can find the video version of this podcast on Spotify and YouTube!

Back on episode 200, the Ask Me Anything episode, someone asked if I would do an episode on growing Brussels sprouts. I said no at the time because I hadn’t yet successfully grown them but indicated it may be soon because Brussels were having a moment in my garden this spring and it was looking good. Well, here we are and we’re talking Brussels because I managed to successfully grow and harvest a summer crop from a spring planting and have round two of seedlings started already for planting soon for a fall harvest. So, today on Just Grow Something, we’re talking Brussels sprouts! The background of the plant, how to grow it, what pests and disease plague it, and how to harvest and store. It’s a full blown crop specific episode that will hopefully demystify growing these teeny cabbage look-a-likes in your own garden. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: The Great Marigold Debate - Ep. 147 Weather History & Data Archive | Weather Underground (wunderground.com) Health Benefits of Brussels Sprouts Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides - Growing Guide Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Follow me on Instagram JustGrowSomethingPodcast.com Merchandise | Just Grow Something

Maybe you’ve heard the origin story of how I started gardening and then came to be a market farmer which lead to me getting a degree in horticulture which led to me doing this podcast. The short story is I had a really successful, very large, garden and I was sick of being stuck inside all the time working my day job and tried to find a way to make some side money from the garden, and the rest is history. Maybe you’ve been in the same position. A lot of gardeners do really, really well a couple seasons in a row and realize just how much they enjoy being in the garden and growing things and daydream about setting up a little stand at the end of the driveway once a week or going to the local farmer’s market. Would you believe me if I told you selling the produce from your garden isn’t the only way to make money from it? Today on Just Grow Something we are talking ten different ways you can make money from your garden and only a couple of them involve selling the actual fruits and veggies. This is a very high-level look at the options you have so you can start thinking about what might actually fit into your lifestyle. Because, let me tell you, after 17 seasons of selling every week at the farmer’s market, it is hard work, and there are definitely other options available to you. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Save on a Magic Mind subscription or one-time purchase with code JUSTGROWSOMETHING20 at MagicMind.com/justgrowsomething Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Follow me on Instagram JustGrowSomethingPodcast.com Merchandise | Just Grow Something

It’s the middle of July and it’s the time of year when heat stress in plants can be a significant challenge for gardeners. If you’re gardening in the peak of summer or in a region with consistently high temperatures, heat stress can lead to wilting, reduced yields, poor fruit quality, and even cause plants to just up and die. But, we can do something about it. Lots of things, actually. Today on Just Grow Something we’re talking effective management of heat stress in our plants, including preventive measures and actions to take after our plants are affected. We will talk all the strategies we can take to help maintain a healthy garden despite the heat. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Save on a Magic Mind subscription or one-time purchase with code JUSTGROWSOMETHING20 at MagicMind.com/justgrowsomething Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Follow me on Instagram JustGrowSomethingPodcast.com Merchandise | Just Grow Something

If you are in any gardening group, whether an in-person club or online, you likely see countless home remedies for everything that ails our plants. Gardeners tout everything as a miracle cure for something in the garden, from putting tums in the soil to burying fish, making weed killer out of vinegar and salt (please don’t) to using dawn dish soap as an insecticide (again, please don’t). One that pops up over and over again is using Epsom salts, either sprinkled or added to the soil or used as a foliar spray when diluted in water. I’ve seen it recommended for blossom end rot, boosting plant growth, germinating seeds and other random maladies. But, is it really good for your plants? Does it help with any of that stuff or is it just another case of correlation over causation? Today on Just Grow Something we’re digging into Epsom salts. What they are, if they can help in the garden, and, if so, with what exactly. That way next time someone recommends Epsom salts for curing the yellowing leaves on your plant you’ll be able to decide for yourself whether that’s an effective plan. Let’s dig in! References and Resources: Ep. 18 - Garden Talk Tuesday: Plant Nutrients and Why You Need to Know Them Ep. 22 - Garden Talk Tuesday: Plant Nutrient Deficiencies and Toxicity Focal Point Friday: Plant Nutrient Basics   Photosynthetic activity and onion growth response to compost and Epsom salt: International Journal of Vegetable Science: Vol 26, No 6 (tandfonline.com) IMPACT OF EPSOM SALT APPLICATION ON BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN BEETROOT (Beta vulgaris L.). | Agricultural Research Journal | EBSCOhost Effects of Epsom (magnesium sulfate) salt on growth performance of water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) in nutrient film technique and media-based aquaponics systems | Aquaculture International (springer.com) Effects of foliar and root application of epsom salt on aquaponics beetroot (Beta vulgaris) production in confined condition | Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research (banglajol.info) The Response to Epsom Salt Sprays of Mature Apple Trees of Three Varieties on Two Contrasting Rootstocks: Journal of Horticultural Science: Vol 43, No 4 (tandfonline.com) Fertilize with Epsom Salts - Garden.org Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Follow me on Instagram JustGrowSomethingPodcast.com Merchandise | Just Grow Something