Just Grow Something | Evidence-Based Home Gardening

Most beginning gardeners struggle with growing full-sized bulb onions for a number of reasons: they don't understand there are different onions for different growing situations and that the nutritional needs for onions at different stages of growth are different from other root vegetables. I struggled with all of this plus not growing the correct type of onion for long-term storage. In this first crop-specific episode of season three, we’re jumping into everything onion, including background information, cultivation both in-ground and in containers, pests and diseases, harvest and storage. Let's dig in!

Free Download: Onion Growing Fact Sheet

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Resources:

(PDF) Traditional and modern uses of onion bulb (Allium cepa L.): A systematic review (researchgate.net)

Onion History - National Onion Association (onions-usa.org)

Nutrition Information for Raw Vegetables | FDA

Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides - Growing Guide

Growing Onions: Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Onions | The Old Farmer's Almanac

Onion Planting Guide - Dixondale Farms

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Welcome back, my gardening friends, to another Focal Point Friday episode all about proper airflow for the seedlings you may be starting indoors. These quickie episodes are either an important highlight from a previous episode or a quick focus on a current event in the food and agriculture world that I think we should be talking about.

Think of these episodes as a way to tickle your brain with one or two ideas to ponder while you’re planning or planting or digging in the garden this weekend. Without further ado, let’s get down and dirty. Enjoy!

Reference episode: Ep. 77 - Five Tips to Successful Seed Starting

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It’s often difficult to know exactly how much of each crop to plant, even for experienced gardeners. You’ve had to have been pretty meticulous with keeping track of your harvests to have a firm grasp on how much each of the plants you grew last year actually produced. And then need to average that out over a few years, figure out whether that’s enough for your needs, and then decide on how many plants you’ll need this year based on that average.

But how do you figure out how many of something you’ll need if you’ve never grown it before? And if you’re a beginner, where do you even start to figure this all out?

That was one of the biggest problems I faced as a new gardener. So, in today’s episode we’ll briefly cover a couple of different ways you can use to figure out how many plants you’ll need to meet your harvest goals this year. It is not exact and it will require some time and patience to get through, but once you have a starting point it gets easier from there. Let’s dig in!

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My garden planning course, Plan Like A Pro, is open for registration through February 2nd, 2023! Go to https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/pro to get all the details and get started right away on planning your best garden yet!

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RESOURCES:

Transplanted Vegetable Crops | Plant Quantity & Average Yield Chart + Feet of Row per Acre | Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com)

Direct-Seeded Vegetable Crops | Seed Quantity & Average Yield Chart | Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com)

Vegetable Crop Yields, Plants per Person, and Crop Spacing (harvesttotable.com)

Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides

Vegetable Planting Calendar | MU Extension (missouri.edu)

How Much Should I Plant? Vegetable Yields Per Plant – Bonnie Plants

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Welcome back, my gardening friends, to another Focal Point Friday episode. On this week’s quickie episode, I am introducing you to my brand-new garden planning course, Plan Like A Pro. I have been working around the clock for almost two months now on videos and downloads and building an online community and I want to give you all the details before we launch next week.

It's the time of year when we should be planning our gardens and I want you to have the best garden year yet! Listen as I walk you through everything that is included in this course and how to get on the waitlist for the early bird bonuses.

Let’s get down and dirty!

Get On the waitlist: Plan Like A Pro

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If you like to start your own seeds for your garden but often struggle with the amount of space it takes up, you’re definitely not alone. Or maybe you’ve wanted to start your own plants but are put off by all the indoor growing requirements? Having the space, the lighting, fans for strengthening the seedlings, keeping a watering schedule, getting them hardened off … starting transplants from seed indoors can feel intimidating or overwhelming. Even for me, someone who has an entire room dedicated to seedlings, with shelves and lights and fans and water systems, I run out of room every single year and need to adhere to a strict schedule to get plants rotated out to the greenhouse to make way for more plants in the basement.

Which is why the concept of winter sowing intrigues me. I always wondered why we couldn’t just plant the seeds we wanted to grow out in the garden in the winter and let them naturally come up on their own? Apparently, about 30 years ago someone else had that same question and she came up with a modified way to approach it with great success. Her name is Trudi Davidoff. Trudi refined the winter sowing process, worked with the USDA to coin the terminology and the method and then created a non-profit and spent more than 20 years teaching the Wintersowing Method to anyone and everyone who wanted to learn. I joined the Winter Sowers group on Facebook and watched YouTube videos and read posts from Trudi herself and I am ready to start winter sowing as a way to germinate some of my own seedlings this year.

This episode, we’re going to go over the technique of winter sowing, the do’s and don’ts, the basic list of supplies you’ll need and how to get started. It’s meant to be inexpensive and easy. There is really nothing technical about this and I think we can all do this with both vegetables and flowers for our gardens. Let’s dig in!

RESOURCES:

Winter Sowers | Facebook

Links for this episode:

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Welcome to this Focal Point Friday episode featuring the top three reasons why you should be growing your own food in your own garden, even if that "garden" is a pot on a windowsill in your kitchen.

Think of these episodes as a way to tickle your brain with one or two ideas to ponder while you’re planning or planting or digging in the garden this weekend.

Without further ado, let’s get down and dirty. Enjoy!

Related episode: Ep. 3 - Why Grow Your Own and How to Preserve the Nutrients if You Don't

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As we start to plan our gardens for this year, we may realize that we don’t have enough room for everything we want to grow. This is where intercropping and succession planting come in. We’re planting different plants with each other to make the most of our space or we’re planting them one after each other, sometimes with some overlap. And lots of times you will hear these terms used interchangeably or in conjunction with each other. But is intercropping and companion planting the same thing, or do they serve different purposes? To my way of thinking they are two sides to the same coin, each serving their own purpose but in very much the same manner.

In today’s episode we’ll dig into the principles of both intercropping and companion planting, explore the differences and similarities between both, and talk about how we can use both methods to our benefit in our gardens. Let’s dig in!

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Get 10% off with code JUSTGROW at Truly Garden

Companion Planting Chart | Just Grow Something with Karin Velez (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Plan Like A Pro | Just Grow Something with Karin Velez (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Resources for this episode:

Tomato N Uptake (ucdavis.edu)

CDFA - FREP - CA Fertilization Guidelines - Lettuce Nitrogen Uptake and Partitioning

Nitrogen fixation in peas (Pisum sativum) (lincoln.ac.nz)

Agronomy | Free Full-Text | Synergistic Effects of Agronet Covers and Companion Cropping on Reducing Whitefly Infestation and Improving Yield of Open Field-Grown Tomatoes (mdpi.com)

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Welcome to the first Focal Point Friday episode of season three.

Think of these episodes as a way to tickle your brain with one or two ideas to ponder while you’re planning or planting or digging in the garden this weekend. This week, it's all about the easiest crops to grow for beginners.

Without further ado, let’s get down and dirty. Enjoy!

Related Episode: Ep. 2 - Garden Talk Tuesday: The Basics

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Welcome to season THREE of the Just Grow Something podcast! We’re going to kick off this season with an in-depth look at how to figure out what size garden bed is ideal for you and your gardening space. I have run the gambit of different sizing on beds, both in-ground and raised planters and I’ve finally landed on my preferred sizing and spacing for both. And, guess what? It’s different for both situations! I prefer my in-ground beds to be one size and configuration and I prefer my raised planters to be another in most cases, but there are instances where I change that up, too.

So how you do you know what size beds you should be creating? It took me a lot of years to finally land on what my preferences are and what works best for me and if I had asked myself the right questions when I was first starting out, I probably would have landed on those answers a whole lot sooner. Today we’ll talk about the different things you should consider for raised planters and the ones to think about for in-ground beds. And it’s not always the same for both. Let’s dig in!

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Throughout the month of December, we’ve been doing little something different around here where I’ve been treating you to episodes of other podcasts where I was invited to be a guest. This week is the final week of having some honest conversations about different topics related to farming and gardening with other podcasters within the Positively Farming Media podcast group on their shows.

And you can’t get any more honest than the Barnyard Language podcast. This one will be a little different than the Drink and Farm episode from last week. If you missed that one, I highly encourage you to go back and take a listen. Caite and Arlene from Barnyard Language focus on issues revolving raising kids on a farm and the struggles that can go with that and they invited me on to talk about gardening with kids. I will warn you their episodes are marked explicit and this one is no exception because if you’ve ever worked in a barnyard, you know the expletives sometimes fly. And with all three of us being on rural internet, some of the audio staggers a little but it’s well worth it to listen to this conversation because there are some really good insights in there. I will link to the Barnyard Language podcast in the show notes so you can find more of Caite and Arlene when you’re through here. Let’s dig in!

Barnyard Language: https://barnyard-language.captivate.fm/episodes

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Last week you heard my interview with Ashely Constance of the A Little Self Reliant podcast all about compost. This week, we change it up a little bit. We’re going to hear an episode of the We Drink and We Farm Things podcast, affectionately known as Drink and Farm. This podcast is hosted by Bev Ross and Sam Bolton. Sam is on hiatus and Bev invited me and a few others onto the show to talk about some farming firsts. You’ll recognize Ashley Constance in this episode along with our friend Erica Leniczek from the Rural Mindset podcast. These are some great stories and I think you’re going to really enjoy this episode. Of course, I will link to the Drink and Farm podcast in the show notes so you can find more of Bev and Sam when you’re through here. Let’s dig in!

Podcast — We Drink & We Farm Things (wedrinkandwefarmthings.com)

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Throughout the month of December, we are doing little something different around here. I am treating you to several episodes of some other podcasts where I was invited to be a guest. These will be some honest conversations about different topics related to farming and gardening with other podcasters within the Positively Farming Media podcast group on their shows.

Last week you heard my interview on the Rural Woman Podcast with Katelyn Duban and if you missed it, I highly encourage you to go back and listen. This week, I’m Ashley Constance of the A Little Self Reliant podcast! You may remember Ashley from episode 98 all about getting started in homesteading no matter where you are. During my episode on Ashley’s podcast we talked all about compost. She asked some great questions and I’m super happy to share that episode with you. Of course, I will link to the A Little Self Reliant podcast in the show notes so you can find more of Ashley when you’re through here. Let’s dig in!

Free Garden Planning Basics Download

A Little Self Reliant Podcast

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Throughout the month of December we’re going to do something a little different around here. I am going to treat you to several episodes of some other podcasts where I was invited to be a guest. I hope you’ll enjoying hearing some honest conversations about different topics related to farming and gardening as I speak with other podcasters within the Positively Farming Media podcast group on their shows, some of whom you’ve heard interviewed on this podcast.

So, without further ado let’s jump into this week’s episode. You heard Katelyn Duban of the Rural Woman Podcast on this show back on episode 88, where we talked about the ups and downs she went through while expanding her garden as a new gardener. I was a guest on Katelyn’s show talking at length about how I got started in gardening and farming and I’m super excited to share that episode with you here. I will link to the Rural Woman podcast in the show notes so you can find more of Katelyn when you’re through here. Let’s dig in!

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The Rural Woman Podcast

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Let's do a Q & A! We’ll talk about whether or not market gardening is worth it, both from a personal satisfaction standpoint and from a monetary one, explore whether or not it’s too late in some areas to plant garlic, find out how to tell when your strawberries have gone dormant, and talk about a very interesting tip I learned about growing fruit trees in colder climates. You bet I’m going to be taking advantage of this little tidbit of information!

Let’s dig in.

Grow Guide Podcast E146: Inspiration For Adding Figs, Lemons and Olives to Your Northern Garden with Steven Biggs — The Grow Guide (thegrowguidepodcast.com)

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‘Tis the season! We’re moving into the time of the year when gift giving is on everybody’s mind. Whether you’re looking for gift ideas for the gardeners in your life or if your loved ones are asking for gift ideas for YOU, I’ve got a bunch of ideas in a variety of price ranges. Some of these are things that are on my own wish list and some of them are things I already own that I swear by or I upgraded to this year. This is a fun episode and hopefully you’ll come away with some great gift ideas for your favorite gardeners and maybe even yourself.

Let’s dig in!

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This week we’re talking about how to use less water in the garden. We are still in drought conditions here in west central Missouri, it was a hard gardening year for sure, but I also know when I lived in northern California that water conservation was always a topic of discussion and that was 30 years ago. Many of you live in areas where water is just naturally scarce, and restrictions are always in place. So how do we, as gardeners, balance a need to grow our own food and in some instances food for others with the need to use less of a very precious resource. We’ll talk about tips, tricks, and techniques to keep your garden growing with less water input from the gardener.

On that same note, the question of the week involves choosing drought-tolerant varieties of plants and whether or not that benefit has any drawbacks, specifically how well the plant is then able to tolerate very wet conditions. So, if your garden is full of drought-tolerant plants and you’re suddenly inundated with several days of rain are you sunk?

And in the DRL, it’s serious freeze protection, the Moth, and a flashback to the 80s.

Let’s dig in!

Resources:

Book: “How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth”

Soil Texture Analysis “The Jar Test” | Home & Garden Information Center (clemson.edu)

80’s Pop Playlist on Spotify

Ep. 108 - Basics of Saving Seeds

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There’s something to be said for military life. It’s regimented. There’s a strict hierarchy, there’s a chain of command, there are orders to follow, and you know day in and day out what your duties are. And if you’re someone who fits well into that sort of lifestyle and the mindset that’s necessary to take on the demands of being in that lifestyle, it can often be very, very difficult to transition back to civilian life where those things don’t always hold true.

There are a lot of military servicemembers who have seen and done things that make it almost impossible to functional in regular society. Working in agriculture in some way, whether it’s with crops or livestock or machinery or whatever, can help with the transition. It’s been proven.

In today’s interview we talk a little bit about why the unexpected parts of farming, that just don’t seem to meet the definition of a regimented lifestyle, actually fall right in line with what a veteran may be comfortable with.

Let’s dig in!

RESOURCES:

FARMER VETERAN COALITION (farmvetco.org)

Veterans & Beginning Farmers – National AgrAbility Project

Veterans to Farmers | Turning Protectors Into Providers

Veteran's Farming Initiative (veteransfarming.org)

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This episode is the second of two parts talking about growing for farmer’s market. This week we’re digging into changes to your garden plan and other considerations around planning, planting, and pricing the produce you want to take to market. When I first started, I really thought it was just a matter of increasing the volume of what I grew, but it turned out to be a little bit more complicated than that. It’s not hard, but the amount of space you have to work with is going to dictate what you grow and how you grow it and that requires planning. Then once you get to harvest, how the heck do you decide what to charge?

Let’s dig in!

Resources:

Vegetable Crop Yields, Plants per Person, and Crop Spacing (harvesttotable.com)

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This episode we’re going to get started with selling at farmer’s markets. This subject will be a two-parter. Planning a garden with the intention of selling some of it is different than just selling the extra you happen to grow, and we’ll talk all about all those details in part two. Today we’re going to walk through all the things I didn’t take into consideration before I started selling our produce in our CSA program and at multiple market stands. This is quite literally a “I did it all wrong so let me tell you how not to do it” episode!

In the question of the week, we’re talking green sweet potatoes. And in the DRL, it’s vintage camper life, crawdads, and a vegan running coach. Let’s dig in.

Camping, Campgrounds & Campsites | Camping Reservations | KOA

Podcast - The Planted Runner

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This episode we’re digging into how to use cover crops in our home gardens. I kept saying I needed to do a full episode on this and we’re doing it today. This is not reserved for just big farms with thousands of acres of land. Using a cover crop in the home garden is beneficial in all kinds of ways and can be tailored to what you need: improving soil structure, preventing erosion, as a living mulch, to add nutrients back into your soil, or all of the above. This is effective for both in-ground beds and raised planters. What you plant and when you plant it, and what you do with it when it’s done all depends on what you want to get out of it, so we’ll cover all the options and techniques for planting and terminating those crops and which crops work best for our individual garden needs.

And the question of the week is a two-parter! It’s about pruning nectarine trees and when to apply copper sprays or dormant oils. And how do you tell if a tree is dormant versus maybe, just dying? Let’s dig in!

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Black Rifle Coffee Club!

Cover Crop Collection for Planting - 9 Packets of Popular and Hardy Cover Crops

Blend of Gardening Cover Crop Seeds: Hairy Vetch, Daikon Radish and More

COVER CROP Premium Blend- Hairy Vetch, Crimson Clover, Peas, White Oats

Resources:

Terminating Cover Crops | Southern Cover Crops Council

Using Cover Crops and Green Manures in the Home Vegetable Garden – Wisconsin Horticulture

Tips for Planting Cover Crops in Home Gardens (psu.edu)

Cover crops and green manures in home gardens | UMN Extension

Farm Seed & Cover Crops | Comparison Chart (PDF) | Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com)

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This episode we are digging into growing cut flowers in our garden. I am not a flower farmer, I’m a mediocre flower grower at best, but I love having cut flowers in my house and I’m determined to grow my own at some point. And since right now is the time we should be preparing our beds for the spring, and flower beds would be no exception, I thought it was the perfect time to talk to an expert.

Kathy Gormandy is a cut flower farmer and the owner of P and K Farms, a 3-acre farmstead in southern Alabama. P and K Farms is a small sustainable family farm offering seasonal cut flowers, arrangements, and event work and Kathy got her start selling flowers at the farmers market just as a way to attract attention to her vegetable stand. She quickly realized the demand for those flowers outpaced any vegetable she could grow, and her flower farming journey began.

I sat down with Kathy to get advice on the easiest flowers to start with, perennials make good cut flowers, tips for how to keep blooms coming on all season long, the best soil conditions for growing flowers, and more. I got so much good information from this conversation and already have my wish list going for what I want to plant here for my own homegrown bouquets. Get ready to take notes because Kathy is a wealth of information and a joy to listen to. Let’s dig in!

P&K Farms (pkfarmlife.com)

Get the book - David’s Farm: Healthy Soil

Kathy Gormandy (@kathyzitnik) • Instagram photos and videos

P&K Farms | Facebook

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Asparagus is a fantastic perennial, with healthy beds lasting as long as 30 years. Asparagus crowns are planted in spring, but the fall is when you want to prepare the bed. So, today we’ll go over everything you need to know about planting and growing asparagus so you can get your beds prepped in time and place those orders for spring crowns.

In the question of the week, we’re talking another favorite perennial – strawberries! Lots of questions around winter requirements these juicy beauties, so I’ll give you the lowdown on what you should be doing for them on the off season. In the DRL we’re talking down time, Southern Living, and Elyse Myers; and I’ve got a correction from last week. Let’s dig in!

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Resources:

Funny Cuz It's True with Elyse Myers (chtbl.com)

Episode 60 – Fall Planted Strawberries

asparagus | Description, Major Species, Vegetable, & Facts | Britannica

NParks | Asparagus officinalis

Asparagus Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (verywellfit.com)

Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Vegetable Growing Guides - Growing Guide

Asparagus - Wikipedia

Harvesting asparagus | UMN Extension

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Depending on where you garden you may have just had your first frost or even a hard freeze. If you are one of my warm-climate gardeners, you’re steadily marching toward the time of year when plants begin to go dormant or, if you don’t have a Persephone Period, the time of year when growth slows dramatically. Now is the time to take advantage of that period of time to either put the garden to bed for the winter or to get it ready for spring, or both!

Today we’re talking about what to do to get your garden ready for winter slumber, even if you’re overwintering plants in those beds, and how doing these activities now will absolute get you to a better start in the spring. It took me many years to realize just how much better my season starts in spring if I do some of the prep work now. My mental state and my garden soil both thank me for it.

We’re also chatting about the question or comment that I’ve gotten the most this fall from gardeners at the market stand and, of course, since this is Missouri, it obviously has to do with growing tomatoes…or maybe not growing tomatoes. I’ll weigh on why this year was such a horrible year for growing tomatoes here and what you can do in your own garden to give yourself a better chance at harvesting your most loved fruit or veggie. Let’s dig in!

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Resources:

Vegetable Planting Calendar | MU Extension (missouri.edu)

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This episode we’re going to tackle one way to grow onions for spring, depending on our location. We haven’t done a full onion episode yet and I promise we will because there’s a lot to unpack there, but since now is the time to get some types of onions in the ground depending on your goals, we’ll cover some of the basics and the how and why for overwintering.

We’ll also review the Question of the Week, which is actually more of a discussion than a question surrounding the difference between hardiness zone and climate and how growing degree days are affected by each of those. Understanding each of these terms and how your garden will react to each can go a long way toward better timing of your succession plantings in the garden. Let’s dig in!

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References:

Hardiness zone - Wikipedia

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

DK Earth: Climate Zones (factmonster.com)

Map & Key Features of Long-Day, Intermediate-Day & Short-Day Onions (johnnyseeds.com)

Choosing Onions – Short Day or Long Day? - Farm Homestead

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This week we’re back to preserving our harvest! This episode we’ll talk about ways to dehydrate your fruits and veggies and how to use them when you’re ready, the basics of cold storage including temperature, light, and humidity requirements, and look a little bit at fermenting your garden goodness and whether or not that’s a viable way to actually store produce or just good for our gut health.

I respond to a comment I got on TikTok about pressure canning: spoiler alert, opinions are not backed by science. And in the DRL we’re talking hydroponic lettuce, succession planting, and doing hard things. Let’s dig in!

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Resources:

Book: Plant, Grow, Harvest, Repeat by Meg McAndrews Cowden

Podcast: We Can Do Hard Things

Food Dehydrator Options

What Are Fermented Foods? - Heart Foundation

How To Ferment Vegetables (the Ultimate Guide) - Fermenters Kitchen

Fermented Food Recipes Archives - Fermenters Kitchen

Fermenting Kits

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Karin's voice is shot! So, instead of talking about preserving our harvest through cold storage, dehydrating and fermenting like promised, this episode will be focusing on something shorter and sweeter: can you safely modify a recipe for preserving fruit in a water-bath canner by using less sugar? We'll also talk about why and how to prune or "top" your tomato and pepper plants as we get closer to first frost or the Persephone period. The goal is to save some energy for those developing fruit to get to maturity before the season ends. Let's dig in!

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Resources:

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving

The Ball Jar Store – Jars, Appliances, Accessories

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

NCHFP Complete Guide to Home Canning

Home canning without sugar - MSU Extension

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Okay, here we go. The big beast: pressure canning. I know it can seem scary to have a giant pot on your stove that you think could explode at any moment and that fear probably stems from pictures you’ve seen of pressure canners doing just that: lids embedded into ceilings and exploded contents all over the walls.

I’m here to tell you pressure canning is perfectly safe if you follow the instructions. And modern pressure canners have all kinds of safety features designed to keep you from destroying your kitchen even if you do screw something up. I’ve been pressure canning for about a decade and I’ve never had an incident in my kitchen. Ever. Even when I was first starting out and didn’t have a clue what I was doing and was just reading the instructions from a book.

There are a lot of reasons you may want to pressure can, not the least of which is the much wider variety of things you can preserve over water-bath canning. You don’t need to worry about acidifying foods before preserving them and you can actually can whole meals in a jar for emergencies, if you’re so inclined. My favorite thing to pressure can? Green beans, plain and simple. But this year I’m going deeper into beans and meats and all kinds of stuff to hedge my bets against winter power outages in our rural area. And I’m super excited to try new things.

So, before you decide that pressure canning isn’t a viable option for you or if you’ve just been too scared to try it because it just seems dangerous, hang out with me today while we go over the basics of pressure canning, do’s and don’ts, the must haves and the nice-to-haves, and all the resources you could ever need to do it all safely and effectively. Let’s dig in.

Question of the week: multiple questions! Garlic and Why Is My Garden Suddenly Dying?

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RESOURCES:

Use Code JUSTGROW for a free bottle of Bloom Juice from Elm Dirt

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving

The Ball Jar Store – Jars, Appliances, Accessories

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

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Last week we talked about the basics of freezing your garden harvest or your extra haul from the farmer’s market and that’s definitely an easy way to get started. But, if you’re really serious about preserving your food and hedging your bets against power outages or you just enjoy the texture of canned foods over frozen, the entry-level process for canning is the boiling water bath. This type of canning only requires a few special pieces of equipment that are readily available and relatively inexpensive. The process of water-bath canning is pretty straightforward, but food safety is always important so we’ll talk about what equipment you need and what are nice-to-have, the process of canning, what is safe to can in boiling water and what needs pressure canning, and lots of resources to help you find safe, tested recipes to get you started on your canning journey. Let’s dig in.

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RESOURCES:

Use Code JUSTGROW for a free bottle of Bloom Juice from Elm Dirt

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving

The Ball Jar Store – Jars, Appliances, Accessories

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

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This time of the gardening season is likely the time you’re seeing a bounty of goodness coming from your garden, especially if you’re in a climate where the summer heat is starting to wane just a little bit. This usually signals to my garden that it’s time to make one last hard push to reproduce, so the tomatoes and peppers and other summer plants start to push out all kinds of fruit. This is also the time when later planted warm-weather crops start to put on their fruit. I planted my Amish Paste tomatoes late this year purposefully in order to delay the onset of fruit until I would be more prepared to handle preserving.

But that’s not to say there haven’t been periods over the gardening season where I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of produce coming in the house and my go-to method for preserving during the hottest and busiest time of the garden season is freezing. (This is also a good way to preserve a bounty that you find at the farmers market unexpectedly and maybe you don’t have your canning game together yet.) Freezing is like the entry level way to preserving your harvest because it’s the easiest, it can be done in very small batches, and it doesn’t require anything in the way of special equipment.

There are pros and cons to every preservation method and freezing is no exception, but if you need a way to put something up quickly and easily, you really can’t go wrong here. Today we’ll review the basics of freezing, what you’ll need to freeze produce successfully, the reason behind blanching and which veggies can maybe skip the hot water bath, and more. Let’s dig in.

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RESOURCES:

Use Code JUSTGROW for a free bottle of Bloom Juice from Elm Dirt

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu)

Save 20% on your Black Rifle Coffee Club subscription

The Freelance Fairytales Podcast — The Freelance Fairy (alexfasulo.com)

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Freezer Storage Containers

Freezer Storage Bags

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This is the time of year when most gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere begin preserving their harvest. Summer's bounty is giving one last push and the cooling temperatures mean the fall garden is ramping up. Over the next few weeks, we'll talk about preserving that harvest, and this week is no different. But, instead of talking fruits and veggies for eating we're talking seeds for growing.

Saving seeds from our own gardens can have many benefits. Not only are we ensuring we have enough seeds for next seasons garden, hedging your bets against shortages (see also: The Year That Shall Not Be Spoken Of), but seeds we save and replant year after year will also be better suited to our unique climate and gardening situation.

But knowing which seeds to save can give us a little trouble. Will it produce the same fruit we harvested it from or something different? Did it cross-pollinate with something else or is it self-pollinating? And how long will they last in storage before I need to refresh my seed stash? We dig into all this and more while talking the basics of saving seeds on today's episode.

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RESOURCES:

Episode 62 - Properly Saving Seeds in Your Garden (This one is a deeper dive into some of the minutia of saving seeds)

Episode 63 - Proper Seed Storage: Moisture levels, storage conditions, containers and more (prepare to geek out!)

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On Tuesday we talked all about the benefits of composting with worms and the basics of how to get started. Today, we talk to an expert. Lauren Cain is the founder and owner of Elm Dirt, a local Kansas City area company specializing in worm castings and products derived from those worm castings. Lauren’s company got its start in an unexpected way and, like all things at the beginning of 2020, took a turn she did not expect. From vermicomposting in her home to worm farming in a warehouse, her company and its products have grown leaps and bounds in just two years and with very good reason.

I’ve gotten to use the products Elm Dirt sells and have been so fascinated by and impressed with the results that I’m ready to start my own worm bins here at home. I’m confident this conversation will absolutely have you convinced that worm castings and the products made from them should be an essential part of your garden plan going forward. Let’s dig in.

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RESOURCES:

Get a free bottle of Bloom Juice with any purchase by using code JustGrow at checkout: Elm Dirt

Etsy Elm Dirt Worm Bin Plans

Book: Worms Eat My Garbage

From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste (epa.gov)

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One thing I’ve been interested in starting for quite some time is vermicomposting, or worm farming, or composting with worms. Whatever you want to call it, composting with worms is a fantastic way to get rid of any food scraps out of your kitchen while creating a beautiful soil amendment for your garden.

Having a worm bin in the basement where it can be easily accessed is a great way to give those scraps from the kitchen a purpose much more quickly than if we were adding them to a big compost pile outside.

Today we talk all about the basics of worm farming: how to build a bin, what to add, how many worms and what type, and more!

Question of the week: How to time the tomato harvest (spoiler alert: it depends!).

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Resources:

USDA ARS Online Magazine Recipe for Flavorful Tomatoes

How to Make Your Tomatoes Taste Better Instantly | Glamour

How to Create and Maintain an Indoor Worm Composting Bin | US EPA

Elm Dirt

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The last couple weeks we’ve focused on selecting your fruit tree, preparing the soil and, finally, planting. Now it’s time to talk about maintaining that tree. Just like anything else in the garden, your fruit tree is going to give you a much greater harvest if you give it some attention. I will be the first to admit I am lousy at this. It’s not that I don’t know what to do and how to do it, it’s just that I don’t get around to doing it at the appropriate time. Some of my trees haven’t minded this at all and produced boatloads of fruit with no problem. My most recent trees, however, are suffering for it. It’s something I intend to fix, so not only will we talk about pruning and pest management in this episode, but I’ll share with you what I plan to do in my garden to be sure I’m out there doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done so I can finally get the harvests I want from my trees and maybe it will help you in maintaining your fruit tree.

The DRL: fall planting, hydroponics, and the Two Acre Homestead podcast.

Question of the week: How do I know when my watermelon is ready to pick?

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Last week, we talked all about how to choose the right fruit tree for your garden. We covered things like climate, available space, and the time it takes to maintain a tree. This week, we’ll dig into how to actually plant that tree. This is going to change, of course, based on what you’re planting and where you’re planting it, but the basics of it are pretty similar no matter the tree or the gardening space. Planting your tree the right way and avoiding some common mistakes will put you well on your way to getting years of fruit out of whatever tree you choose. And, trust me, I have made some mistakes when planting our fruit trees. We’ll talk about picking the spot for your tree, the best time of year to plant, and what to do to prepare the space for best results.

Question of the Week: Why didn't I get pumpkins from my plants last year?

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If you’ve ever dreamed of walking out into your yard and picking fresh, ripe fruit whenever you wanted, you’re not alone. Many of us are fruit lovers and wish we could have even just one tree that would produce our favorites. But the thought of whether or not a fruit tree would even fit in your yard, the care involved, whether or not you’d need a pollinator, how long it would take to get your first harvest and all those other questions may have stopped you in your tracks in the past.

Let’s demystify the process of deciding on a fruit tree for your garden. Yes, there are a lot of factors to consider but the good news is there are many options for types, sizes, varieties, years to maturity, and level of maintenance that different fruit trees need. There’s bound to be something out there that fits your space and your gardening style, even if that space is a balcony or your gardening style could be defined as less-than-attentive. So, before you give up on the idea of having your own fruit tree or trees in your garden, let’s talk about what you should consider before making your final decision.

The DRL: Talking about summer garden burnout

Question of the Week: Problems with potatoes rotting at the stem.

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What’s better than putting a plant out in the garden, tending to it lovingly, and then reaping the reward of a harvest at the end of the season? Planting that plant one time and reaping the rewards year after year after year, of course! That’s the beauty of a perennial fruit, vegetable, or herb. Plop that puppy into the ground one year and give it a little attention each season and it can continue to provide for years or even decades.

Today we’re going to talk about the difference between an annual that readily self-seeds and a perennial and we’ll go over the most suitable perennials for each hardiness zone. This won’t be a deep dive, instead just a quick overview so you know what to plan for and what to shop for so you can get in on the perennial game in your garden. Let’s dig in.

This week's DRL: planting fall potatoes, "Scratchman" by Tom Baker, Plantrama podcast

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It may be blistering hot where you are, I know it is here, but now’s the time to plan that fall garden. The biggest mistake I see with most fall gardens is they get planted too late. I did that many years in a row when I first started gardening. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to be planting cool season crops in the heat of the summer and I would wait until September to get them in the ground. But, our first frost here is mid-October, so an early September planting date only gives me 6 weeks of growth on frost sensitive plants and that’s often not enough time to get a harvest or to really take advantage of the full harvest window of many of the plants you can harvest in the fall.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, you want to get those plants or seeds in the ground early enough for them to actively be growing as the weather starts to cool down AND to be mature well before your first frost date or your Persephone period so you can actually get them harvested. Today we’ll touch a little bit on how to plan out your fall seed starting and planting schedule and then talk about the plants that typically are good for a fall harvest in most areas. Let’s dig in.

This week's DRL: tending tomatoes, harvesting, fall seed starting; "Scratchman" by Tom Baker; the Barnyard Language podcast.

Question of the Week: Scraggly herbs not performing well at this part of the season. What to do and how to manage them.

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Gardening with kiddos w/ Karin Velez - Barnyard Language (captivate.fm)

Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew Concentrate

Captain Jack’s Copper Fungicide

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This is it. 100 episodes! When I first started this podcast back in February of 2021, I did it because I wanted to share the knowledge I had gained while studying for my horticulture degree. Other than helping our farm business, I didn’t really have any plans for utilizing my degree after graduation. And, honestly, using it to help the farm would absolutely have been enough. There were things I learned in school that I hadn’t learned through experience in my own gardens yet, so gaining that knowledge and then getting to put it into practice has absolutely been invaluable. And I think that’s why I wanted to do something more with it, share it in some way.

I am so excited to be sharing this journey with you and sharing our collective knowledge as we work toward our most productive dream gardens. This episode we are celebrating with some input from you telling me all about what you wish you knew when you started gardening, and I’ll share some of my hard-learned lessons, too.

Spoiler alert, I’m still learning. And every time I learn something new, I’m sharing it with you. Let’s dig in to our 100th episode!

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If you grow tomatoes, it’s very likely you’ve had some sort of disease attack your plants. In our area of west Central Missouri, it’s usually some early blight followed by Septoria leaf spot with maybe some powdery mildew thrown in just for fun. We may even experience tomato leaf curl if it’s a bad year for whiteflies. Every area has their own tomato diseases to contend with. On today’s episode we talk about the eight most prevalent tomato plant diseases, how to prevent them, how to spot them, and how you can treat for them, prevent the spread and, hopefully, save your harvest. And even If you’ve never experienced a disease problem in your tomatoes, count yourself lucky, but you should also know what to look for because there’s always a first time for everything.

This week's DRL: Japanese Beetles, the Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers, and The Epic Gardening Podcast (joined by our friend, Marion Whitehead!).

Question of the Week: How to time planting for fall harvest.

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Resources

Ep. 93 - The Stories Behind Plants with Marion Whitehead | Just Grow Something

The Epic Gardening Podcast - Epic Gardening

Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew Concentrate

Captain Jack’s Copper Fungicide

Eliot Coleman Four Season Harvest Books

Sunset and Sunrise Times

Tomato Diseases & Disorders | Home & Garden Information Center (clemson.edu)

10 Common Tomato Plant Diseases (and How to Heal Them) - Garden and Happy

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Just because you live in town or don’t actually want to do all the things doesn’t mean you can’t learn to do just a little bit more for yourself and your family in this modern globally connected world. It doesn’t matter where you live or where you are in life, you can be a little more reliant on yourself and your local community to make yourself a bit more secure in a very uncertain world.

My guest today is the perfect example of that. Ashley Constance is a first-generation homesteader who moved from the big city to a little acreage in March of 2020. I mean, talk about timing, right? Along with her husband, dog, cat, and a gaggle of other critters, Ashley raises as much of her own food as possible while working to empower others to do the same.

Join me for a fantastic conversation about homesteading where you are, with what you have, and maybe making the leap to something bigger.

In January of 2022, Ashley launched her podcast and her website, A Little Self Reliant, which is aimed at inspiring others to embrace a bit more self-reliance no matter where they're at. Ashley discusses things like gardening, raising animals, preserving, DIY, supporting local growers, embracing sustainability, and more.

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A Little Self Reliant: 90 Homesteading Skills to Build in the City on Apple Podcasts

90 Homesteading Skills to Build in the City - A Little Self Reliant | Podcast on Spotify

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When you think of homesteading, what comes to mind? Ma and Pa Ingles out on the prairie trying to build a home and raise a family with their own resources on a large plot of dusty land? Maybe you think of the early pictures of covered wagons crossing dangerous territories on their way to stake a claim out west. Yeah, me too! But, in reality, modern homesteading is nothing like that.

Today, homesteading can happen just about anywhere. Because modern homesteading isn’t about relying only on yourself. It’s also about having a community and relying on resources close to home for the things you can’t produce yourself. And that home can be anywhere – in the city or in the country. It’s just a matter of taking the steps to figure out what you can reasonably provide for yourself and what you can glean locally to make yourself a bit more self-sufficient. Just because you live in a suburban neighborhood doesn’t mean you can’t hone many homesteading skills and become a homesteader.

Homesteading in our modern, globally connected world doesn’t mean all or nothing. So, if you’ve ever had the idea that you’d like to rely a little less on the outside world and a little more on your own backyard, today’s episode is for you. Let’s dig in.

What am I listening to? "Into the Garden with Leslie". Find it here: Into the Garden Podcast (lhgardens.com)

Question of the Week: How do I tell the difference between Tomato Leaf Curl Virus and plant stress?

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This podcast is a proud member of the Positively Farming Media Podcast Network

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Resources:

https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/gardening/what-makes-tomato-leaves-twist-or-curl/

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/tomato/tomato-leaves-curling.htm

Hunter-Gatherer Culture | National Geographic Society

Why do communities exist? For internal or external purpose? Or both? | by Fabian Pfortmüller | Together Institute | Medium

Homesteading | Simple Self Sufficient Off-Grid Living

Can You Homestead In the City – Country Family Homestead

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I have a confession. When I was a teenager and young adult, I hated fresh green beans. I was used to eating them out of a can and, to me, fresh green beans were “fuzzy”. I definitely was tuned to the smooth, soft, already cooked texture of a canned green bean. I maintained that I didn’t like fresh green beans even after I started growing my own garden as an adult. It wasn’t until my third year of gardening that I gave it a try and learned to love the flavor and texture and freshness of fresh green beans and the difference in home canned green beans over the commercial type.

So, let’s talk about growing green beans. I really believe they should be a staple in everybody’s garden for diversity and nutritional value. They’re a crowd pleaser, for sure. They are relatively easy to grow in almost any situation, but there are some pests and timing the harvest is often the trick to successfully growing green beans. Let’s dig in.

Doing: Seed-starting ... again!

Reading: Looking for suggestions from you for audio books!

Listening to: "Two Can Play That Game" podcast.

Question of the Week: "How do I know when my garlic is ready to harvest?"

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Ep. 40 - Growing Garlic | Just Grow Something

Ep. 67 - When and How to Plant Your Garlic, Plus Tips for Warmer Climates | Just Grow Something

Ep. 27 - Preserving the Harvest, Part One | Just Grow Something

Ep. 31 - Preserving the Harvest, Part Two | Just Grow Something

Garden Will Insect Bird Barrier for the Garden

Resources:

Introduction to Green Beans - Food Gardening Network (mequoda.com)

https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-green-beans

Phaseolus vulgaris - Wikipedia

Phytohaemagglutinin - Wikipedia

Green bean - Wikipedia

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In most places in the U.S. there are multiple agencies that work with other agencies to get excess food into the hands of those who can best use it. Whether they work directly with food banks, social service organizations, shelters, and churches or if they have their own collection and distribution system, these agencies often run into a similar problem. They have a ton in the way of non-perishable, boxed or canned goods and less in the way fresh fruits and vegetables. Sometimes this is because they just don’t have a way to store or distribute it. Other times, it’s simply a lack of donations of these items. One way to help your local agency is by growing a row, or several, or even a full garden, specifically for them. Today we’re going to talk about the logistics behind this, what items are often the best to grow, how to make it practical for you, and how to successfully deliver the harvest to the people who need it the most. And, sometimes, that might just be your neighbor up the street. Let’s dig in.

Question of the Week: "Should I prune my tomatoes?" The answer: it depends!

Don't forget to send me your submission for our 100th episode! Who are you, where do you garden, and what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started gardening and why?

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Resources:

Donate Produce » After the Harvest (aftertheharvestkc.org)

U.S. Hunger Relief Organization | Feeding America

Home - Harvesters

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Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite things to eat and, subsequently, to grow. I can eat sweet potatoes baked, fried, mashed, chipped, like tater tots, as a pie, you name it, I’ll eat them. And it only takes a few plants to give you a really good harvest, so they’re perfectly suited for smaller garden spaces. Despite the name, they actually aren’t potatoes and what we eat isn’t a tuber, it’s a root. They are a tropical crop that needs at least four months of warm weather and warm soil, but there are many short-season varieties of sweet potato available today and they will grow in cooler-climate areas given the right circumstances. And, bonus, they are drought- and heat-tolerant and they don’t have a ton of pests or diseases, so they’re great for beginning gardeners, too. We’re getting the beds ready right now for planting our sweet potatoes, so I thought it’d be a good time to drop a little knowledge on you and get you into the sweet potato game, too. Let’s dig in.

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Resources:

Identifying Nutrient Deficiencies in Your Garden Plants | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Indicators of Nutrient Toxicity in Garden Plants | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Ep. 18 - Garden Talk Tuesday: Plant Nutrients and Why You Need to Know Them | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Ep. 22 - Garden Talk Tuesday: Plant Nutrient Deficiencies and Toxicity | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Ep. 91 -Transitioning Your Plants into Your Garden | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Ep. 55 - Identifying Insects in the Garden | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

Common Names of Plant Diseases (apsnet.org)

Pest Database | IRAC (irac-online.org)

Sweet potato - Wikipedia

Plant Sweet Potatoes | How to Grow Sweet Potatoes – Bonnie Plants

Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams: What’s the Difference? | Mississippi State University Extension Service (msstate.edu)

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On Tuesday, we talked all about preserving our culture and our heritage through our food, which includes the plants we grow. Today, I’m joined by Marion Whitehead who is just as passionate about plants and their stories as a I am, maybe even more. I mean, I’ve not been known to write poetry about my plants, but Marion has! And she is uniquely qualified to do so, since she is immersed in plants, both native and exotic, in her work at the Blue Mountain Botanic Garden in New South Wales, Australia.

Being raised by two science teachers, Marion was always interested in the natural world and went on to study the same botany degree as her mother and grandmother at University of Sydney. Marion also majored in history, and it was this double major that piqued Marion’s interested in, not just the science of plants and how they work, but the cultural and historical importance of them.

This was such a fun conversation. We talked about her journey into botany at a young age that was sidetracked into television marketing for a while before leading her back to horticulture through her love of plants and their stories. And there are certainly some interesting stories. Join me and dig a little deeper into the stories behind plants with Marion Whitehead.

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Merch Shop!

Blue Mountains Botanic Garden

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Do you have a favorite food from childhood? Do you have a favorite recipe your grandmother passed down to you from her grandmother? The history of our food is important to preserving our cultures and our heritage. Many times, the ingredients that go into those foods are very regional. But, what if the knowledge of those ingredients was lost somewhere along the way? What if nobody remembered how to grow or forage for the main parts of some of our traditional family and cultural dishes?

Today we’re talking all about why traditional foods are important and what happens when a culture is unable to or restricted from passing on that knowledge to the next generation. Let’s dig in.

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Resources:

Pre-order Jenna Kutcher's "How Are You, Really?" Book Today!

Ethnobotany - Origin and Evolution of Life (brainkart.com)

The Sioux Chef – Revitalizing Native American Cuisine / Re-Identifying North American Cuisine (sioux-chef.com)

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I know many of you have already been planting your gardens and many more have transitioned from spring plants into warmer weather summer crops. But I also know there are plenty of you that haven’t started planting yet at all, whether your climate conditions aren’t right, or your garden space isn’t ready or whatever. And, honestly, planting is a season-long activity. We start with cold crops in spring, move into summer crops, then right back to cold crops and the stuff we want to overwinter. And I’ve spent the last two Saturdays at farmer’s market and online answering questions about how and when to put those plants into the ground. This episode I’m going to cover the things you need to remember when finally moving those plant babies to your gardening space. And I’m not just talking about hardening off your plants, either, although that’s part of it. Things like acclimating the plants you bring home from other growers into your gardening space, watering and spacing requirements, and special considerations for my indoor growers. Let’s dig in

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Positively Farming Media Playlist

Resources:

Ep. 28 - Garden Talk Tuesday: Tomatoes | Just Grow Something (justgrowsomethingpodcast.com)

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The whole idea behind starting this podcast was to give you the information you need to grow your own food, no matter how much space you have. Most of what I’ve covered on this show has been toward in-ground gardens and containers, only briefly touching on growing indoors. That’s about to change. Whether you have no access to an outdoor growing space, you want to expand on what space you do have by growing more inside, or you want to extend your season by using your indoor space for gardening, I’ve got you covered. This episode we’ll go over the basic requirements for growing fruits, herbs, and vegetables indoors, the different systems you can use to get the most from your space and your plants and the bonus pieces you can splurge on to take your indoor gardening over the top. Let’s dig in.

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Resources:

Plant Juice – Elm Dirt

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One of the crops I really thought would be easy to grow that turned out not to be for me was peppers, specifically bell peppers. Turns out not only do peppers really prefer a lot of heat, they also prefer more water than I typically use in my gardens and in my fields. And peppers are one of those plants that I get asked about all the time in messages and at the farm stand. Because once you get the hang of it, you can grow boatloads and we bring lots of beautiful peppers to market and it gets people talking. It’s also one of those vegetables that is a mainstay in many people’s kitchens and they can be expensive at the grocery store, so knowing how to grow your own is high up on the gardening wish list for a lot of people. So, today we’ll talk all about peppers, both sweet and hot, how to get them to germinate, their feeding requirements, planting, spacing, harvesting and all the usual basics. By the end of this episode, I hope you can fill in the gaps of what’s been going on with your peppers to get you some success or give you the confidence to give them a try if you’re new to the capsicum scene. So, let’s dig in to growing peppers.

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Resources:

Capsicum annuum - Wikipedia

Pharmacological importance of an ethnobotanical plant: Capsicum annuum L - PubMed (nih.gov)

Capsicum annuum (Grossum Group) (Bell Pepper, Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Sweet Pepper) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox (ncsu.edu)

Bell Peppers 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits (healthline.com)

Chili Peppers 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Effects (healthline.com)

6 Ways to Use Epsom Salt in the Garden | Epsom Salt Council

Capsicum annuum (Grossum Group) (Bell Pepper, Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Sweet Pepper) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox (ncsu.edu)

Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers.

Reader’s Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening, 1978

Damrosch, Barbara; The Garden Primer. Workman Publishing, New York. 1988

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On Tuesday we talked about expanding your gardens and today I’m talking with my new friend, Katelyn Duban from the Rural Woman Podcast. Katelyn had never gardened before moving to her husband’s family farm in rural Alberta and she had never intended to garden even after moving. But after embracing the rural lifestyle, Katelyn dove into growing her own food beginning with a few pots of lettuce on her front steps and ending with a spaghetti squash monster and a new love for gardening. Katelyn expanded her garden in 2021 and we talked all about modifying expectations, the importance of knowing how to grow your own food even if you don’t have to, gardening as a way clear your head, and so much more. I know you will enjoy this conversation and come away with a great feeling about expanding your own garden, too. Let’s dig in.

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The Rural Woman Podcast with Katelyn Duban – Growing a Garden from the Ground Up with Karin Velez

Katelyn Duban: Facebook | Instagram | Website | Twitter | The Rural Woman Podcast

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