The Benefits of Gardening Buddies and Other Glorious Spring Topics

Welcome to our gardening podcast, where we dive into the world of greenery and growth. In this episode, we'll be chatting about everything from propagating plants to the excitement of watching our gardens flourish.

Join us as we explore the joys and challenges of gardening. From separating seedlings to the anticipation of new growth, we'll share our experiences and tips for nurturing a thriving garden. We're harvesting and dividing rhubarb. We're propagating rhododendrons. There is so much to do in the spring garden!

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Transcript

I've been excellent. It's fine. I feel like I'm finally gardening. Now. I'm actually the last few days I started would you call them up pot in my tomatoes. Because whenever I start I put two or three seeds in each pot and sometimes non German germinate sometimes all three germinate. So I'm at the stage now where my pots are like tripling because I've had to separate them all. Luckily, I have every single thing outside I have no more plants inside. So I have them. On a patio table I have this rack that I go from my wine store that they were thrown out last year and I have everything stacked up. I've separated a bunch I've even been brave enough to put some things into the ground. My eggplants were looking so gorgeous so healthy then a one things that has grown really well so I planted three varieties I have in the ground as what I'm Turkish eggplant, Turkish Delight eggplant, and giant green Cambodian eggplant. I still have two varieties that I'm waiting on that are really too tiny. But you know the temperature has been in the upper 70s all week. It's gonna drop in the 60s but I just not going to bother dragging that stuff back inside everything staying outside and I at the moment I don't really need to cover the stuff that I have outside but I've been doing it anyway just in case over each eggplant I put empty pot over them at night just to keep them nice and cozy. Because they plant should be really warm and in the night it does drop it has been dropping down to the 50s so that's okay but just because the new and the roots probably you know haven't developed properly in that part is yet I've decided to play safe and I covered them. Um, what else did I do outside? I think those are the only things I did that I did stop my cucumbers, okra seeds though. Last year I I direct Oh, I know what else I put in the ground. My long Asian beans my long thin Asian beans. Yeah, I direct so those so you know I dug a line and they're all in there. Nothing has sprouted as yet. That's it's only been two days to today's the third day since I did him. So yeah, I knew I do. I did two things in the ground. So I did my eggplant and I did my long beans. And I sewed some okra, but not direct. So I did it in a pot, okra cucumbers and two varieties of bitter melon. And that's it.
That's quite a lot. I was just overtures house. And even with a small yard. She has so much going on. It's really inspirational. There's no it makes me think there's no excuse wherever you are, you can grow food because she's got pots all over the place all over the place on her fence on her desk. You know, the back and
I haven't even started yet. There's no peppers in those pots is yeah, there's no like last year, as soon as somebody came out my kitchen door onto the deck, they'd be like, Oh my God, it's like a jungle out here. There's so much stuff. And I have of course, you know, plants gardenias three pots, three big plants of high viscous. I have two types of Jasmine. I'm what actually I have five high biscuits because I have two smaller pots to those are the big ones one huge tree and then to this about three or four feet tall, but then I have I have a pink and orange is pretty small. You probably didn't even notice those. And she has a gorgeous lilac. Oh my god. Yeah, I'm so excited about it. It's not even three years old as yet and it's
just gonna Yeah, he's really got my
peonies button. Yeah, it's an exciting time right now in the garden. It
is I love going out. This this particular this time of April. It's like every day there's something new and every day something's grown more and yesterday something was brown today it's green. It's so the change is so quick and and vivid. Well, your
garden, your plants. Your seedlings look way better to the mind. I think your peppers are dig they look so amazing. And
wonder if they had more light than yours because I had them out. And I had the Grow lights on them. Yeah, that's way more than mine. Yeah, I think That really helped. I don't think the sun porches enough and they also all of them keep leaning towards the windows and it makes them more leggy so that I do I still put the Grow lights on them. Yeah. So
I am I have put in my tomatoes. So right now they look so tiny, they look like the two inches. And it's kind of upsetting to me because normally I start my plants so much earlier. And normally by now my tomatoes are a good six, eight inches and I'm ready to get those things in the ground. And now I look at them. I'm like, Oh my God, these things are so tiny. I'm not going to have any tomatoes this year. It's kind of scary. It's a complete opposite to what I normally have. I remember coming here last year, and seeing your tiny ones and said, Oh my God, they're so small. Why are they so small? Mine's like this big. Yeah, mine a tiny
every year is every year is different. And there's so many times when you can't, you just can't explain why you don't know. But, um, now last year, I had a mixed year, some of my tomatoes did really well and some didn't. But I don't think it was because they started out small, I really don't. Because once you get them out there, in my experience, they catch up because I've had both, you know, planted something that's pretty mature and next to it, something that's not mature at all. And in about three or four weeks, they're the same. I've
never experienced that for me, because I've always started early. And I've always been big, but I have seen it with my friend. Now I used to say the same thing to her because she would always start late. And I'd go to her house. I'm like, What's those piddly little things? What is that when you're going to get those a Christmas? I would tease her like that. And then the next thing you know, I'll go back in a month or so. And they're as big as my ones. Yeah, so I've definitely seen it happen with other people, hopefully happened to me this year, because I think so tiny. Yeah,
well, my peppers are due. So I've had mine out too. Last week, I put everything out on the carport that was covered. So they were shaded. But my house is very windy, all that I'm at the foot of the mountain there and all the wind comes down the mountain, and it comes right up my road right into my front yard. And I do have a hedge that that is a windbreak, but it's still really windy around here. So I just started. That's how I start them out. I think it's probably smart. So they're not to stress. First thing they have to face is the wind. And they all need that. And then after a few I waited about five days of that, then I started gradually moving them into the sun. They got a little bit of morning sun, and then after a couple of days, and I would rotate them. I did not bring them in inside because there hasn't been that coal. Yeah. And even if it had I would have covered them
up. Yeah, exactly. Mine and not seen inside again. Yeah,
no, that's the part about the hardening off. really dislike. So having this kind of gradual ease into warm weather is really good, I think for hardening off and I looked at the forecast, we don't have any 30 degree knights coming up, we have a couple of 4041. So that might be we'll see. Yeah, I'll cover that. But right. So after a week of that, then I moved, I moved a table out under my tree right next to my garden. And I put things put everything on the table. So the way that it works with the table, the whole table gets morning sun, and then it gets midday shade. And then it gets early afternoon sun only on the end. And then late afternoon on the ground. So I can just keep moving things to the ground and moving things up the the the table, so I'll have a whole process there that I think is going to work really well. I'm
excited about that. Whatever you're doing, it's working because they look really good. Well, I've
been you know, the thing also about hardening off is knowing you have to get to if you're new to your house, you have to get to know where's the sun, the strongest where's the wind where you have to know all that. So now that I'm been here, this is my fourth growing season. I've got it all figured out. So there's something to that, that trial and error, figuring out how your land how your land works your yard. So I've got it finally figured out. But
so Karen we just because of course every time we come to each other's house, we have to walk each other's garden and see what's going on. Karen has like every herb under the sun. Like I'm like what's this? What multiple Yeah, she has like six of each of them. But it smells so amazing. back then.
I herbs are great pollinators. Pollinators love herbs. So I've got all the flowers that I you know, that I like, but also the herbs. I grow so many because I want to let 1/3 of them go to flower. Yeah, and so many of them you know, once they go to flower, you don't want to pick them they don't taste the same. So I pretty much have two thirds for me 1/3 For the for the pollinators. I also have elderberries. I have three of them
in a huge, like, what is that bush?
It's the second year it's the third year for the big one. It's the second year for the two other ones but those are catching up. So I also decided to let one of those go to the birds So that's why I grow so much. And if you in having birds is wonderful because they're there to eat your caterpillars, which are there to eat your plants.
Oh my God, my bird, I have so many birds in my backyard and every year they build a nest of my front door like I don't know if you notice all the straw on the mat today. So I have to go then sweep it up in like from the inside. There's a glass window at the very top. So I'll throw something up there. But they do it every year. And they love my backyard.
I see that on Facebook. A lot. People are on next door people putting pictures of birds nesting in their wreath on their front door. Oh, yeah. Happens a lot. Yeah, we have to do on the ledge on top. Yeah, we have tons of bushes, so they don't really need to come you really need to use the doors. But we have birds everywhere.
That's funny doing it on a reef.
I love birds. I'm seeing more and more birds every year. Used to be when we first moved here was just blue jays. And they're like, they're like the rats of the bird world. As far as I'm concerned. I don't like Blue Jays. And they they fight off. They're very territorial and they fight off all the other birds.
I don't know what my now but there's a ton of them all different kinds. Yeah, I've seen so many more. Last year, there was one a black, a yellow and black one in the sunflower. And it was only because it was moving. I could tell that it was a bird because it was the same color.
Yeah, I'm growing sunflowers too and I'm gonna let oh my god probably like no said I'm good. Are
you doing a huge sunflowers? I do I have a have you done already. Because I have a couple I can give started. Okay, if you want you can take them out. Because I don't need those massive thing 911 showed up in my tomatoes last year. And it was like 15 feet tall. And then the other day, I looked at one of the pots that's in front of it. And I saw these two plants. And I wondered what they were I use my app on the phone and it said, large sunflower. I was like oh my god, so I need to get rid of them. Remind me something like that. Yeah, I'll dig them up for you.
And Mexican flower. It could be that that's a big one.
Did you see the one I had last year now? Huge. Okay, whatever it was. It's massive. Yeah. So you can have those? Yeah, I
have. I have mammoth. I have Mexican. And then I have, I can't remember the name of it. That is a perennial one. And I just planted it, it's coming up. And then I have a bunch of smaller ones. Somebody gave me a seed packet. I don't know what they're gonna be. But I planted those, so they'll be great. And I saved a few sunflower seeds. And those are
save some as well. But I'm not planting any I'm sure those two are not going to be the only two that's going to come right. Because it's probably going to Yeah, there's going to be a ton because the birds used to eat them all the time. So they fall in their bed where my tomatoes are going to be. That thing was massive. I couldn't believe the head was like the size of a plate. There'll
be all over downtown Frederick because those birds are pooping everywhere. Yeah.
Oh my god. Yeah, don't let me forget to pick those up and give Yeah, we
keep on running list. Of all the swaps. Yeah, again, why it's so much fun to be buddies with a gardener or be part of a community of gardeners.
Absolutely. I love it. I love it. So um, I forgot to show you my rhubarb when you were there. My rhubarb it looks so healthy. I got it last year friend just dug it up because she had so much just dug it up and put it in a pot for me to bring with me and I never did any I just lived in Nepal. Last year I grew and I didn't cut any and then this year it came back it's looking so nice and healthy. It's probably about eight inches tall at the moment and I noticed you had separated yours. Yes,
I made the decision because mine all of them keep trying to flower and I did a little research and the crowns have been buried and that's not good when I first planted them the crowns were above the ground. We know price levels need to check what yes rhubarb. So they kept flowering and flowering and you shouldn't let them flower if you want to get some rhubarb so I finally noticed they're just buried too deep. They weren't when I planted them but the ground sunk I believe and so I I harvested 1/3 of the rhubarb and mine are further along than yours because we're over 12 inches are much better than mine. So I harvested things that were between 12 and 18 inches you know nice size mature and then I split them up. So out of two rhubarb bushes, I got eight and I replanted them kind of all or so now I have a whole patch
so now you're gonna have a big like next year you'll have eight hubs are you gonna do it for like rhubarb
I'm gonna make a rhubarb strawberry rhubarb jam. I'm gonna make pie. I love it I love I love the mix of the tart and the sweet. I love things that are tart anyway, and I'll experiment with and do with a bunch of things but I froze mine because I'm still waiting. You know I'll have to wait for the strawberries so
you froze your so when you defrost it does it is it watery at all. I would Yeah, it was what I thought it would be watched it. Yeah, those stems have a lot of water in. So do you have to drain them off?
I will just cook them down with the strawberries when I make my jam.
So you use all the water. Oh, cuz that's all that flavor
and nutrition. Now if I was, if I was making a pie, then I probably would just put a little more thickener in there, too. But I don't. You could drain them, but I wouldn't. I don't know. I've never I've never cooked rhubarb. Now. I also last year I dehydrated crumble though. Yes, I dehydrated some last year, so I'll probably throw that into. And that actually might absorb some of that. Liquid. I don't know, I'll play around with it. Experiment with it. My my kitchen is actually a laboratory more than it is a kitchen.
So those are you just separated? Are you expecting to get any more out of those issues?
No, no, you're gonna have to cover and I was worried maybe I'd done them in. But then I left yesterday, my master gardeners class. And I'm excited to talk about this was and we'll talk about how excited I am later because that's a whole nother issue. But we learned how to propagate. We had a class about propagation and I've done propagation here and there. I've done seed saving. I've done a few things here and there. But I was reassured that springtime is the best time to propagate to you know to cut and you should always propagate new growth. So like if you're going to I'm going to propagate my Rhododendron, you want one don't you?
I want hydrangea but I'll take road traffic probably get both. Do you have God in us?
Yeah, I do. I have one that we're trying to kill. Oh, you're trying to kill us to the house? Oh,
well, I was gonna say do you want to propagate because I have a nice one. I was gonna say yeah,
I'm gonna propagate mine so I can put it somewhere else where it belongs. Oh, okay, great. It's overground and they cut it down. But it's still coming up, you know, way too close to the house, where you can just dig it up and move it. It's huge. The stump is like eight inches in diameter. Oh, unbelievable. But yeah, I'm gonna propagate my Rhododendron, too. And now that you mentioned it, but you always Pink Pink, okay, lovely. You always propagate new growth. And all it's so easy. You just put it in, cut it, put it in the root hormone, rooting hormone, and then stick it down in dirt in potting soil, and a nice four inches of potting soil. And then, of course, you have a chopstick or something or a wooden spoon to put the hole in and then put your plant in. So you don't rub off all that rooting hormone. You don't even really need that much rooting hormone. You wet the stem, put it in. And I have done that before. And sometimes it's been successful. Sometimes it hasn't. You just have to keep it moist. And you know, keep it inside your house. What
color's your hydrangea?
It is blue. And you know, it depends. Yeah, and it depends on the soil. Yeah, right. But it's blue and
Rhododendron. Yeah,
I'm glad you're writing that down. Well forget God, when we're doing our podcast, it's we come up with so many ideas, and things like on the spot because we're talking with each other. And again, the fun of talking about a garden. Anyway,
um, do you have azaleas? Ideal? Okay, because I have a pink azalea now, maybe this will be the third year in a pot. So I didn't know if you wanted to take piece of that. And now I have Yeah. Okay.
Anyway, so yeah, propagating and of course, saving seeds, it's, most things are pretty easy to save seeds. It's really not that difficult. But you know, all the stuff that I believe in and zealous about and excited about. The wonderful thing about propagating and seed saving is if you have something that your favorite, especially like, for me, this house that I have is, is 64 years old, it's older than me. And a lot of these things have been here for a long time. And they've done really well. So I want more of them. If Yeah, if they say yes, I love living here, then I'm going to reproduce them or even in somebody else's yard. Yeah. Same with the vegetables. Same with everything. You save so much money, so much money, you know, a new plant a new bush in the store and see Yeah.
Have you propagated any of your figs tried profit propagate? I mean, I've I have to say I've had no luck propagating. I tried figs and hydrangea friend, another friend who I get eggs from. We did so many different cuttings from figs and hydrangeas and not one survived
my mother successfully air. It's called Air rooting.
I know what that is. Yeah, true. Yeah,
I have not tried it. She's done it. Um,
I have a friend who did that. So I don't know she had this like plastic cap thing and filled with dirt. And you just clip it around.
Do you scrape off you have to scrape off the bark around that area. Maybe
she did that? I don't know. But I know. And or the other thing I did do once at my friend's house and it worked. You can take a lower branch, a branch is low to the ground, yet put it dig a little hole kind of into did put that branch down into there, then cover it with and pull it to hold it down like a little break or something or rock or before and prong. Yeah, yeah. And it will route
certain things do that raspberries, of course, oh, my God. All over,
I just cut it back like lavender.
That's how you you can do that with lavender. Oh, okay. And a lot of times, you know, when a plant is ready, because it'll, it'll get really laggy. And it'll throw out some outer branches. And that's its way of reproducing because it wants to reproduce further away from itself. I never realized this, but I learned this yesterday. So it'll throw out a branch, you know, maybe it's a two foot Bush, it'll throw it a branch about four feet. And then it'll, it'll get heavy and it'll go to the ground. Because it wants to reproduce two feet away. It doesn't want to reproduce right next to themself, right. Yeah. So I found this. It's, it was it was a link that was actually on the extent Maryland University of Maryland Extension website, where you can look up soil temperatures in your area, and I think this is fantastic. If you're wondering, can I plant this yet? I think soil temperatures are much better. Indicator is just as good as your weather app to two week forecast, green cast online.com. And they have tools and it's a soil temperature. So you plug in your zip code. So I sure have a zip code is to once I'm no one. So I plugged it in. And what it tells me is that, let me let me refresh it because it's constantly updated. Alright, so right now, it in our time of day, the soil temperature in her zip code is 67 degrees, the 24 hour hour average is 65.3. And the five day average is 62. That's what the soil temperature has been. So now you're wondering, well, how do I know? So I went over, I open it up a google search window, and I searched correct soil temperature to plant cucumbers and I put edu at the end of my search. I've mentioned that before because you're gonna get real, legitimate information, you're not gonna get somebody's blog who has an opinion, which
is fine. Like us. We're full of opinions. And our blog has lots of opinions. But
I want to know, something, you know, factorial. So right up on the first page of Google, it says in big letters, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you're wondering, should I plant my cucumbers? Yeah, you can go ahead and plant your cucumbers. And then keep an eye on the forecast. And and if and if we get a freak freeze or a cold night, go cover them up, or go cover it
up. Now, if we do have a freeze, and we cover the actual plant, but what about the soil the soil is going to be too cold though.
It'll, it'll Yeah, the soil will cool down a little. But it no remember they say the daytime temperature of the soil should be this or whatever. So it will cool down a little bit but then it'll warm right back up in the sun. Yeah, so and I think putting the shade cloth or the sheet Yeah, blanket will also help keep the that particular soil warm. So I would be generous with the blanket. I would put it all around. Yeah, whatever you're trying to cover up. Yeah, I really liked this tool, I think yeah, I really liked it. It's gonna make a difference help people know. And now if you want to play it safe, just wait till Mother's Day. I mean, no big rush. But if you're you know if you work full time and you're on a time crunch and you're trying to space and you're trying to have a big garden like me and you're trying to space things out, then you know start with the things that are a little more cold hardy like I'm gonna certainly going to wait till Mother's Day for the tomatoes yes is going to do that and the pepper
reminder so bloody small, I have no choice but to wait. I might have to wait till fourth July. The graph
right. So anyway, that's a great tool. Let's look something else up.
Look up okra. Okay. I know it has to be too cold to put okra in the ground right now.
When we look up okra it says between 75 and 90 degrees
Fahrenheit. Ways to go right? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I added I'm in the, in the, in the process of adding a new page to the website. That's called resources. I'm just going to keep listing all of the websites, the whatever, whatever we're putting out there, whatever we find whatever our friends find. There's so much information out there. There's just there's a lot of guide
I sent you that has all the varieties of tomatoes is 19,000. Yes, and I only have about 500 I have a long way to go. Okay. It's not a goal forever. It's just a list 19,000
There was about four or 5000 That's heirlooms or open. Oh, and pollinate.
I don't remember which one it was. No, it can't be hybrids. No. But yeah, 19,000 I mean, a lot of them have to be the same just have different names. Yeah. Yeah, we think they have to be this they have to be. And we don't know enough to tell the difference, right? Because we don't know the 19,000 varieties. So if we have one cool majesty, and then another one called Bluebird, and you don't happen to have the two of them, you know, you're not going to know. It's, it's so many.
And I wonder, you know, a lot of times things get a little cross pollinated maybe, yeah,
yeah. On that group, tomato lovers collective a lot of them are doing crosses themselves. Yeah, yeah. So that would be fun. Yeah, that'd be fun to do down the road.
Down the road. i No. One can dream. All right. So I think that's it. Yeah, definitely you guys hardening off and getting things going? I hope so. I hope so. And even if you're not it's not even if you are interest planting now. It's not too late. No. And even if you want to wait to plant in the ground, that's great, too. Well, no
tomatoes, but Well, a lot of stuff the right way to put a lot of stuff. Yeah, well, yeah, that's what I mean. Did you do squashes?
I did. I planted two candy. What are they called? I'm doing Oh, this is so fun. I'm doing a three sisters garden in one race bed. I've got corn planted on both sides. And then I've got squash at one end so they can travel down the other side and then I've got beans in the middle. Oh,
I've never done squash I'm not I eat like butternut squash. Like I can eat sweet squash like that if someone gave it to me, but I don't have room to waste growing squash and watermelons and things that take up so much room.
These are wonderful and they are going to take a lot of room I've probably overdone it even but I'll probably have one of them grow out at the end. But the the squash come out like 12 inches or more. I think I had one about 14 inches last year. And they're sweet. They're a little bit sweet so they can pass for you can put them in a pie or they can react or like a sweet potato type of a dish. They were really good. My neighbor gave me the seeds. I can't remember the name but I'm doing spaghetti squash which is my favorite. I absolutely adore spaghetti squash.