Interview With Jill From The Beginners Gardener

Today was a huge treat. We got a chance to do an interview with a fellow gardener and podcaster, Jill Mcsheehy. She hosts The Beginner's Garden and our topic was gardening in small spaces and getting the most out of your garden. Jill had so much experience and knowledge to share. She also hails from an area we have little experience with but we have several listeners who live in similar areas so we hope to have brought some insight for them. Thanks so much Jill for joining us today!

Jill mentioned during the episode her partnership with Greenstalk. Use THIS link to get an additional 10% off.

Have you heard our two part series on saving money in the garden. Listen to part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE. The garden doesn't have to break the budget.

Transcript

Music is by Oliver Massa. It is called Weekend Chores

Recap

Gardening can be a fulfilling and cost-effective way to supplement grocery bills and contribute to a sustainable lifestyle.

The joy of homegrown produce and the impact of gardening on family legacy are significant motivators for many gardeners.

Succession planting and soil amending are valuable techniques for maximizing garden space and improving crop yield.

Gardening experiences and challenges vary based on climate, and the use of raised beds can offer greater control over soil fertility and reduce maintenance.

Gardening is a skill that can be learned and adapted over time, providing a continuous opportunity for growth and efficiency. Raised bed gardening offers organization and aesthetic appeal

Soil quality is crucial for maximizing harvest

Companion planting and vertical gardening can optimize small garden spaces

Gardening tools and resources are valuable for learning and improving gardening skills

Chapters

00:00 Raised Beds and Soil Fertility: A Gardening Perspective

20:44 The Benefits of Raised Bed Gardening

22:19 Optimizing Soil Quality for Maximum Harvest

25:33 Maximizing Small Garden Spaces with Companion Planting and Vertical Gardening

35:14 Gardening Tools and Resources

Transcript

Lauren (00:14.862)

Hello listeners. Here we are with our guest, Jill McSheehee. And we're really excited to have her on today. She's going to be our expert on this episode. And I think I'll just let her introduce herself.

Jill (00:40.573)

Hey you guys, thanks so much for having me. Yes, I am a gardener in Arkansas and I've been gardening for, well, this will be my 11th season and mostly I love to grow food, vegetables, fruit, herbs, and I've been putting some flowers in the last few years, but really focused on edibles. And I host the Beginner's Garden podcast to try to help other people learn how to grow their own food as well.

Lauren (01:07.022)

Cool. How did you get started? Or what drew your interest?

Jill (01:11.613)

 I was a full -time working mom and I just felt like I needed to be home and my kids were six and two at the time. What I was trying to do while my husband and I were working to pay off some things to be able to bring me home from my full -time job, I decided I wanted to do whatever I could to be able to contribute in some way. And back in 2012, 2013, that meant lots of couponing back when couponing was a big deal and I wanted to just, I wanted to grow a garden so that maybe I could supplement our grocery bill with homegrown produce. So it really began as a quest to be able to grow as much food as we could for our family to try to help mitigate the lessening income we were gonna have with me quitting my job and staying home and maybe help the grocery bill. So really it was all about trying to save money on groceries which honestly, here we are 11 years later and we're all trying to save money on groceries now, but for a different collective reason. Yes. So that the skills have definitely come in handy in that regard for sure. But I got started with that purpose, but then just fell in love with it and I'd never expected to, but it became a lifestyle for me that I can't imagine what life would be like without it.

Lauren (02:34.094)

Totally. I hate to be repetitive, but for me anyway, and I live in the northeast so gardening is slightly different up here, but that's pretty much the same thing for me. When I had my first baby is when I left off my full -time job and I again, yeah, I just wanted to contribute to the house and I grew up growing things as a family. And I just yeah, I wanted to continue that kind of legacy and have my kids grow up with that too. And I just I really love vegetables. I love the summertime. I know they do something bad to vegetables in the grocery store. But yeah, I do really enjoy the

Jill (03:19.229)

Yeah, there's nothing like homegrown.

Lauren (03:31.214)

fresh veggies in the sunshine and the smell of the garden and just working in the dirt. There's nothing more wonderful.

Jill (03:42.717)

Yes, it definitely became something that I didn't realize how much I would enjoy the working in the garden part. You know, I just wanted the produce, but like you said, there's so much more to it than that. And then the vegetables are so much more tasty.

Lauren (03:42.766)

This is Lauren, by the way.

Ellyn (03:56.007)

It's the getting your hands. This is Ellen. It's the getting your hands dirty. There's something about dirt that feels good and I just love it. My story is very similar to Lauren's. I don't know if you know this or if Lauren shared this with you, Jill. We're sisters. We both grew up in the same garden. Our parents were both avid gardeners and still are. Our dad still gardens even now.

Lauren (04:06.254)

Mm -hmm.

Jill (04:15.165)

I didn't know that.

Ellyn (04:25.543)

And when I started having kids, and for a while there I didn't garden, but as my kids got a little bit older, I really wanted that for them and for them to feel the dirt, the way I felt the dirt and feel the plants and the vegetables the way I felt about them. And so we actually, all three have very similar stories. And it's something that I want to share with,

Lauren (04:49.582)

We do.

Ellyn (04:55.111)

my own kids and hope that they grow up and want to be gardeners themselves. You know, it would be a four generation legacy because our grandmother was a big gardener as well. So it's something that we definitely want to share with the next generation. Hope that they pick it up when they head out on their own.

Lauren (05:15.694)

Yep, I think even if they don't pick it up at first, I feel like it always pulls you back. Like, you know what? I just want a fresh cucumber this year. So I'm going to throw a seed in wherever I can.

Jill (05:31.293)

Yeah, I think the difference probably, it sounds like both of you learned from your parents and my mom did do some vegetable gardening, but I did not pay any attention to it. I was not interested whatsoever. And she really didn't pull me into the garden to help all that much. She was a teacher. And so by the time the harvest came, it was time to go back to school. So she was just rushing around trying to get the harvest at that point. And I didn't learn really anything. The only thing I learned was how to, how to plant a transplant. But you're right in the fact that you come back to it. And at this point, I'm not sure that my kids are all that interested in gardening either, but at least if they want to at some point, and if things get to the point where they have to, then my hope is that they remember enough of it that they'll be able to take that back up again someday.

Ellyn (06:20.421)

Yep, very true.

Lauren (06:20.846)

They will. I believe that they will. And I also think, and I mean, I don't know what you've said in your podcast, but I think people make gardening harder than it has to be sometimes. And by that, I mean, anyone can learn it. It's a skill, just like many others, and one that's easy to acquire knowledge of just by doing. So okay, I planted this here last year, but I didn't realize in the late fall that it wasn't going to get as much sun. So I can't plant it here again. I'll have to plant it someplace else. I probably shouldn't plant here at all, any of my vegetables. And, you know, you just move on from there.

Jill (07:11.485)

I think the problem these days is that we don't give ourselves that permission to be able to learn because the social media is great and that you can learn so much about gardening when a lot of us didn't have parents who taught us. And so the internet's great for that. But I also think sometimes with social media, you see everybody else's successes and you assume that you have to look like that off the bat.

Lauren (07:34.03)

Mm -hmm.

Ellyn (07:35.46)

true.

Jill (07:38.141)

And then if you can't, or if you run into trouble, you just assume I've got a black thumb. I can't do this. But I think that when people realize that it, like you said, it is a skill that you can learn and it's really not that huge of a learning curve, but you got to give yourself patience to be able to learn it.

Lauren (07:56.27)

Yep, agreed. I mean, seeing pictures of other people's perfectly manicured gardens, they clearly don't have three kids that are under five, you know, playing in the yard with them while they're trying to do that. So I, I think starting small is huge, especially if you do have a lot of distractions or a job. And then just gradually increasing if you have the time and moving on from there, from year to year, we get a lot of summers in our lives, a lot of opportunity to learn. So.

Ellyn (08:34.181)

And I think as you learn also you get more efficient. So what took you two weeks to do last summer is only gonna take you a few days to do this summer, especially once you're getting started and you are amending your soil and you're learning about your own landscape. I feel like so much of gardening is learning about what you've got going in your own yard, like your sunshine example, and learning how to deal with your own difficulties that you've got going on inside your own garden and easier things also, not just the difficulties, but all the things inside your garden, just learning about how to deal with your own stuff.

Lauren (09:27.214)

Well, today we are going to be talking about how to deal in a very small place or a smallish place for your garden. And Jill's going to kind of guide us through that a little bit. Since at this time, I have my front yard garden, which maybe some people might think is a little strange, but it is the best place for a garden on my property. But I wouldn't really call it small. And I know sometimes people deal with a little plot, you know, at the community garden or at a church.  I would love some ideas because of course people ask me questions all the time about gardening and in smaller places. So I'm really looking forward to hearing some of your answers.

Jill (10:21.917)

Yeah. Well, let me just preface by saying I don't have a small area. I have as much room as I want to be able to grow in. We live on three acres, but, and I have a large, a large garden space. However, what I've learned, and this is something for beginners to, to take note of is that even if you have a huge space, if you use it all, it's going to be exhausting. And for me,

I have found myself going to simplifying and reducing the amount of space that I'm using to grow in and just trying to become more efficient in it because it's less work and I can, my goal is to get the same amount of produce, but with less space by using some different techniques to be able to do that. So I say that just to say that even if you do have a large space to work with, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a large garden you can have a smaller one and just learn to be more efficient with it. And for me, I've found that that brings me more joy when I don't feel like I'm behind all the time, yet I can still get a really good crop. So that's the one thing I want to make sure people know whether you truly have a small space to work with, or you just choose to have a small space to work with some of these techniques that, that I've learned would apply either way.

Lauren (11:47.662)

Hey, that sounds great. Yeah, maybe I'll learn a whole bunch from this episode too, because I do always feel like I'm behind.

Jill (11:57.309)

Well, I think the biggest thing that's the most significant difference for me has been to learn how to garden with the seasons and succession plant. Because when many people think about I'm going to grow a garden, they think that they just will grow one and they'll do it in the summer season, which is how we all get started. So, you know, no shame on that at all. But there's so much more opportunity when we realize that there are crops that love the warm weather and the heat. And then there are crops that don't and the crops that like the cool weather, they can be planted a lot sooner. They also can be planted again in the fall. And so what I like to do is, and this will vary based on your climate and your growing season, but I like to have a crop like a summer, a spring planting and then follow that with the summer planting and then follow that with a fall planting. And that's just, that's the simplest way to describe that. But when you learn what your climate is and you learn which crops are cool season and warm season, and you plan accordingly, that's one way to get three times the harvest out of the same space is simply succession planting and using your entire season. So that would be probably my biggest tip.

Lauren (13:19.598)

Do you have a greenhouse?

Jill (13:21.661)

I do have a greenhouse, but I did not get it until October of 2020. And I really don't use it to grow crops in as much as I do. I use it to like indoor seed start, and then I'll put them out in the greenhouse so that they can get warmth. And then I do have a heater, but initially the first couple of years, I didn't have a heater. So I don't use it like a nursery would use a greenhouse, but it definitely has helped to be able to expand the number of crops that I'm able to grow.

Lauren (13:55.598)

What's your growing zone, if you don't mind me asking?

Jill (13:59.677)

Yeah, I am newly in zone 8A. I've been 7B until the newest USDA zone changes happened late in 2023. But last year, I mean zone 8A, I don't think you're supposed to get below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. We got down to zero. So, you know, those are just averages anyway. So I really haven't changed how I grow since that's changed from 7B to 8A, but that kind of gives you an idea about how cold we get in the winter.

Ellyn (14:24.83)

I have to say I'm beyond jealous. I'm zone four. I'm like, my goodness, that would be amazing. But we just deal with what we've got here. And it's OK. We grow lovely kale all year, pretty much.

Lauren (14:28.782)

Yeah, that's really interesting. I didn't realize that.

Jill (14:50.621)

Yes, I think, you know, we all have, we all have our benefits and our drawbacks in our seasons because when your garden is going crazy in a good way in July and August, ours looks like it just visited the surface of the sun. Everything is brown and dry and diseased and all of that. So you can be jealous of me, you know, in April, March, April, May, I can be jealous of you in July and August.

Lauren (15:18.478)

Yeah. Well, I'm in 7A, so don't lump me in with the four. That's just crazy. But.

Jill (15:28.829)

What zone did you say you were in? Okay, so you're not far from the way I am.

Lauren (15:31.406)

7A.

Lauren (15:35.246)

No, I was really surprised. But I because I think of Arkansas being way down south and I guess it's not. Our hills make a difference.

Jill (15:43.549)

Hahaha.

Yes, yes. And I think most of Arkansas is either between like, I think 6B unless that changed. And then there's some, you know, most of the rest of it's 8A. So we're pretty close as far as the zones in Arkansas.

Lauren (16:00.974)

Yeah, it's close. I definitely have a, like, I view this as a long growing season because where I grew up, it was nothing like this. It was definitely a way shorter growing season.

Ellyn (16:15.931)

closer to like where I live.

Lauren (16:21.07)

Right. Brutal. And cold. Where there is snow!!

Ellyn (16:23.131)

So Jill, you were talking about planting, how you plant in the same little plot. Can you give us an idea of what that looks like? What would you plant first, like, and then second, and then third, all in the same plot?

Jill (16:41.405)

Yeah, let me give you an example of a bed I'm working on right now. So this is I created a new kitchen garden area this year. This was my goal to simplify this year was to bring my like right now my large garden is a little bit further away from my house. Not that it's that far, but I wanted to bring my garden as close as I could to my backyard. So we took out the trampoline. The kids are getting older and it was getting, you know I think I have five, I have six raised beds now and now in one of the raised beds, the first thing that I planted in that raised bed was broccoli, cabbage, and onions. And so I planted those in the later part of February. And then I just started and that was a little early. Normally I do it in the first part of March. And then I started harvesting the broccoli in the later part of April, and I just finished harvesting the cabbage this week in the late part of May. And then after I harvested those, then I started putting in okra, peppers, and watermelon. So those are the, those are the other, the crops that are going in for the summer. And then once those harvest, then I'll put in a fall planting, which would likely be something like.

carrots or beets or greens of some sort would go in after the summer crops. So that's just an example for one bed, but I can give you examples on all six of them, but that gives you an idea kind of what the rhythm is in my garden.

Ellyn (18:18.455)

And what do you do to spruce them up in between plantings? Do you re -amend your soil or what?

Jill (18:29.405)

Yes, I will put more compost on it. These are brand new raised beds, so they already have really good fertility because I've just started out with brand new compost and topsoil. And so once I harvested that broccoli and that cabbage, I just added another inch or two of compost to the top. And because they're brand new raised beds too, that soil settled. And so I needed to kind of top them off anyway. But what I try to do is add new compost at each planting if I can.

Ellyn (18:40.919)

Mm -hmm.

Jill (18:58.973)

If not, depending on how I'm planting them, then at least once a year. But if I can, I like to add new compost at each planting.

Ellyn (19:09.335)

Okay, interesting. Sorry, Lauren, go ahead with your question.

Lauren (19:12.686)

It's okay. Do you keep your own compost or do you buy it?

Jill (19:19.549)

both. I do have my own compost pile. It's what I call the lazy composting method because I just put it all in a pile and eventually it breaks down. But that's not the quickest way to do it. So I do buy bulk compost from a local composting supplier. It's actually a landscaping company and I use that quite a bit because it's already broken down and it's weed free as far as my own compost is going to have seeds in it because I don't hot compost. But

So that's what I use mostly to amend, but I do make my own compost as well. I do both.

Ellyn (19:58.294)

And did you say you have all raised beds?

Jill (20:02.269)

I have raised beds, ground beds and containers. I, right now this year, I'm not gardening at all in the ground. I have places in, I have a garden plot, but this year I'm letting it lay fallow for the year. So I'm not growing in the ground this year, but I do have space to grow in the ground and I've grown in the ground every year since I've begun. But I have found that I enjoy raised beds more. They're less work. I get more harvest out of them because I can control the soil fertility better. So I definitely am more raised bed than anything else. I think at last count, I think I have 26 raised beds. It might be 27, but I've definitely over the years done more and more raised beds.

Ellyn (20:42.198)

Wow.

Ellyn (20:47.669)

I'm a raised bed gardener too, and I've topped out on my space at, I think I have 10, and that's as many as I can fit. I get a lot out of my 10 little raised beds, but this is actually a point of contention between Lauren and I. She's an in -ground gardener and I'm a raised bed gardener. And so I think it's contentious.

Lauren (21:10.35)

public contention.

Lauren (21:15.214)

You can do whatever you want.

Ellyn (21:17.416)

But I enjoy raised beds too. I think that they're beautiful, first of all. I just like it to feel put together. And I feel like raised beds make it look more put together. 

Lauren (21:38.862)

It definitely looks more put together. My garden is a little more… hap-hazard. Less organized. There's something, you know, to be said for the organization of a raised garden plot.

Jill (21:54.493)

Well, and I think too, it depends on your native soil. Our native soil is very high in clay. It's naturally very acidic. The first time I did a soil test, it was 4 .8. And so I have been amending that soil every year using compost, using mulch, using cover crops, adding lime to try to raise the pH, but, and it has definitely gotten better. Don't get me wrong, but I mean, I'm 10 years in, so.

Lauren (22:19.662)

Mm -hmm.

Jill (22:20.317)

That's when I was able to see, wow, if I control the fertility in my raised beds, I can get way more as far as harvest out of them because the plants are healthier and the plants are producing more, which is another tip that I would offer as far as getting the most out of a small space is don't skimp on the soil. The higher quality soil you have, the more harvest you're going to get out of the same plant compared to just sticking something in the ground or in a container that doesn't have enough.

Ellyn (22:26.803)

Mm -hmm.

Jill (22:49.213)

nutrients to support the plant. So you I just found that because so many times I would plant rows and rows of tomatoes and they would give me a decent harvest, but I would get exponentially more out of the tomatoes that were in raised beds because of the soil, not necessarily because they were raised bed, but just because I could control the soil better. But if you have really good quality in ground soil, then I mean that to me it would be more probably more even.

But for me in my location, the native soil is a little bit more difficult to work with.

Ellyn (23:24.403)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (23:25.774)

I can't really say that my soil is high quality, but I have spent a lot of time amending it. Years from now when we have moved from this house and people start planting vegetables in their front yard, they'll know that I did a lot of work there.

Jill (23:44.733)

Yes.

Lauren (23:45.966)

future generations will benefit from this.

Ellyn (23:48.817)

For us, it's our soil is we live at the bottom of a hill. So we tend to be kind of boggy here. So for us, that was why we went with raised beds, because in a wet year, everything is just soaking wet here. So it just wasn't worth risking an entire harvest and all the work that went into it to then have a rainy season and lose everything. So that was our reason for going with raised beds. And honestly, I don't think I'll ever go back. I like it. It's a little easier on my old back.

Lauren (24:20.142)

And it is pretty.

Lauren (24:26.126)

You don't have to bend over quite as much. I spend a lot of time kneeling down in the garden. And now that I'm in my forties, I feel like that's going to get old after a while.

Ellyn (24:32.271)

Right.

Ellyn (24:43.247)

Mm -hmm.

Jill (24:44.733)

Yes, that, I mean, I would say that would be the case for sure. I've had one back surgery and then a close call last year. and obviously when you're tending a raised bed, even if it's just eight inches off the ground, it definitely makes a difference when you're tending to it.

Lauren (25:01.582)

Mm -hmm.

Ellyn (25:01.871)

Mm -hmm. It does.

Jill (25:04.541)

And I would say to going back to the, how you would you work with a small space and get the most out of it? Another thing that I do is I do companion planting and vertical gardening just because companion planting especially if you're gardening in a raised bed or in an equivalent amount of ground bed space, as long as you have plenty of nutrition and you have plenty of water, you can fit more plants in than you think.

especially compared to what this, the seed packet might recommend. And that way, if you companion plant and understand the role of shade, then you can get more crops in that space. And then also being able to grow vertically, you're able to get much more out of that one bed space. If you're able to bring your pole beans up and bring your cucumbers up and prune your tomatoes where they're going up and you can plant something below them.

Then you're able to get more crops out of that same space. If you're working with a limited space.

Lauren (26:06.638)

Yeah, I've definitely done with the like our dad taught us how to grow tomatoes. He's a champion tomato grower in the very short season. And honestly, my tomatoes have never looked like his. I don't know what he does. He prays a lot over them, I think. But yeah, he's really big on keep them off the ground and he builds like

Jill (26:25.693)

I'm sorry.

Ellyn (26:28.012)

Ha ha ha.

Lauren (26:35.438)

He was a carpenter, so he builds like a scaffolding for his tomatoes every year. And I think Ellen does something similar to that, don't you?

Ellyn (26:46.732)

I do, yes. My husband went and took specs off of dad's trellises and he spent one winter building me these elaborate trellises for my tomatoes. And they work great. I love them. And they do keep the tomatoes up off the ground. Because we are kind of wet here, I find that I keep more things up off the ground than maybe most gardeners in my area even would because things that are laying on the ground get wet, they get mushy and rotten. So if I can get stuff off the ground, it always helps me to have a bigger harvest.

Lauren (27:29.55)

Yep, agreed. And, and two, like you were saying, Jill, it keeps you from having to walk around quite as much because stuff is closer.

Jill (27:38.397)

Yes. And a lot of one thing too, I mentioned containers. I don't do a lot of container gardening in comparison to the raised beds that I have, but the green stock vertical planter, I have five of them. And if I were limited on space, if I only had a deck or the only sunny place in my yard would be the front driveway. That would be what I would focus on because that definitely those vertical planters give so much.

compared to the amount of labor, which is minimum or hardly any. You don't really have to weed. The pests aren't typically as big of a problem, but they yield so much more. So that's another area that small space gardeners have been able to do. And when I have friends who really kind of want to get into gardening, but maybe they're in a really busy season of life and they don't know that they'll have time to be able to do a whole lot, I always suggest that, partly because I know it's doable for them partly because I just want them to fall in love with gardening so that they'll love growing stuff and they'll want to, when they get more time in their life, they'll be ready to expand and be excited about it. So I think kind of what you said before, starting small and then kind of learning how you're going to be growing will put you in a good position where when you're ready to expand, you have the knowledge to be able to do that and do it well without getting too overwhelmed.

Lauren (29:03.086)

Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a really good point.

Ellyn (29:04.584)

Can you repeat the name of the vertical, whatever you call them, what's the name of them again?

Jill (29:13.181)

Yes, the ones that I have are the green stalk vertical planters.

Ellyn (29:19.016)

Okay, I'm actually going to write that down.

Lauren (29:20.686)

And can you describe them, please?

Jill (29:24.637)

Yes. Let's see, how do I describe it? They have their round and they have maybe a 18 inch diameter. I'm probably wrong on this because I'm really bad at estimating inches, but they're only very small diameter. They have six planting pockets per tier, so with each tier you can plant.

Jill (29:52.701)

either six single plants or some crops like greens or beans, you can plant, you know, three or more in each pocket. And then you have different levels. If you, you can have up to seven levels if you get one of like the more shallow tiers or you can get five levels if you get a deeper tier, which would be good for deeper rooted plants. But for my seven tier, for example, you've got seven tiers of six pockets each. So you have 42 planting areas.

And it just gives you a lot of growing space and you're using a potting mix. So you're not using garden soil. You don't have weeds that are native in there. And then it also has a patented watering system apart, a watering reservoir that all you have to do is fill up the top and it, and it fills it waters every tier evenly. That makes it easy. And it also sets green stock apart from any of the, the knockoffs that you might see on Amazon or at the dollar store. I see a lot of those from the dollar store. People are excited cause they got a great deal. And, in, in Arkansas, I'm like, those things are, they're not, you're not going to be able to keep them watered, but with the green stalk, it has that watering system that waters everything evenly. So that I think is a huge addition. And like I said, I have a huge garden.I don't need the green stalks because I have plenty of garden space but I love using them because they're so low maintenance. I can grow so much in them and then really be able to tend to other parts of my garden as well.

Lauren (31:29.006)

And you can probably start it a little bit different of a season, right?

Jill (31:33.117)

I'm sorry.

Lauren (31:34.318)

I said you can probably start those earlier, like especially in your greenhouse.

Jill (31:39.389)

I do. And in fact, last year I kept them, a couple of them in my greenhouse all winter. And with the exception of that zero degree night, pretty much everything survived, which a lot of the stuff survived that night too with the heater, but it was, it still got down to 20 degrees. So some things didn't make it, but we, I got strawberries in February, I think, because the greenhouse was so warm. So yes, that was, that was a really.

Lauren (32:01.326)

Nice.

Jill (32:04.765)

a good thing to be able to do and be able to, I was able to get greens throughout the winter time too, in the greenhouse, in the, in the green stock.

Lauren (32:10.926)

Mm -hmm.

Have you ever done any cold boxes?

Jill (32:17.533)

What are they called?

Lauren (32:19.022)

cold boxes. It's like a teeny tiny greenhouse that sits over a planted garden in the ground. Yeah, yeah.

Jill (32:29.181)

Okay, like a cold frame. Okay, yes. I actually have not mainly because in my zone, I really haven't needed to because we don't tend to get really cold until January. So I can grow most things, the cool season crops. I can grow good in a good part of December with cover.

Ellyn (32:31.298)

Yes.

Lauren (32:40.494)

Right.

Jill (32:51.549)

And I just use floating row covers typically. So I haven't used, haven't had to use cold frames. I feel like I probably do something similar with my greenhouse now, but I know a lot of people do use cold frames successfully.

Lauren (33:00.846)

Mm -hmm.

Lauren (33:05.23)

And I think I want to try those. And I just haven't seen free windows on the side of the road, which is really the only thing stopping me.

Jill (33:14.269)

Yes.

Jill (33:18.429)

I think the biggest thing with that, what people don't realize, and I didn't realize this either, is that the purpose of a cold frame or a cold box or a floating row cover, or even a greenhouse is to keep these crops living as long as possible in the fall and winter. But when the daylight dips below 10 hours, your crops are not going to be growing much more. That's, and so if, when you talk to people that.

Lauren (33:43.854)

Right.

Jill (33:47.774)

that get below 10 hours of sunlight a day, which applies to me too. They don't realize that plant growth is going to stop. And so the goal for me then is to get those crops to harvestable size before the daylight dips below 10 hours. And then you can use something like a cold frame or a greenhouse or floating row cover to keep them almost like nature's refrigerator out in your garden to be able to harvest for longer.

Lauren (34:19.566)

Well, Ellen, do you have any other questions that you want to ask?

Ellyn (34:25.184)

I don't think so. No, I think I'm a little set.

Lauren (34:29.614)

All right. I.

Ellyn (34:29.76)

Do you, Jill, do you mind? I'm sorry, I do have one. Do you mind if we stick a link to the Green Star vertical planters in our show notes?

Lauren (34:34.894)

Aha!

Jill (34:42.365)

Yeah, that's fine. 

Jill (35:21.949)

Okay. And if you're interested in getting that a green stalk vertical planter, or even just taking a look at what they are, you can go to journey with Jill .net slash green stalk. And if you have a purchase of $75 or more, you can use my code Jill 10 and that will give you $10 off.

Lauren (35:39.918)

Okay, Jill, would you like to tell us about your class really quick, your gardening class?

Jill (35:48.765)

Which one?

Lauren (35:50.35)

No, I don't know. I'm sorry. I only heard about one. I guess the one that you have coming up next

Jill (35:58.205)

Okay, yes. So what we've been doing this year, we've been having live workshops about every month. We're doing 10 for the 2024 year. And the next one coming up is about pest control. And it's coming up in June. It's called the Beginner's Guide to Organic Pest Control. And in this class, I'll be talking about how to...

grow an organic garden while you're also trying to fight off pests, whether you are a brand new organic gardener and you're just trying to figure out how to switch from conventional pesticides to organic, or you're wanting to do more advanced solutions to try not to have to spray anything. So this workshop is going to be all about trying to grow your crops in an organic way. And then we have workshops, like I said, all year. We've already had several that are available for replay. If you want to take a look at them, they're on seed starting, straw bale gardening. We just did one on herbs and then we have other ones for the rest of the year too, but they're live, but you also can with you. If you get a ticket, you can get the replay as well.

Lauren (37:03.982)

And where would our listeners find that?

Jill (37:08.06)

The pest control workshop is at journeywithjill .net slash pest workshop.

Lauren (37:14.606)

Okay, great. And we, Ellen and I, Lauren, also have a podcast named Wifestyle Hustle. And we talk about the journey of motherhood, wife being a good wife, and gardening. And we would love to have any of Jill's listeners that are listening interested, come and listen to us too. Give us a listen.

Jill (37:49.245)

Sounds great.

Lauren (37:50.862)

Ellen, do you want to say anything?

Ellyn (37:53.757)

No, it's been great talking to you today, Jill. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast.

Jill (37:59.197)

Thank you. It was enjoyable meeting you both and chatting, gardening and all the things. So I hope that this has been helpful for your listeners as well.

Lauren (38:07.502)

I'm sure it has been. Yeah, it's been really interesting.

Ellyn (38:07.549)

Absolutely.