Sherva and Karen are in the thick of planting the summer garden! In this episode, they discussed a wide range of topics related to gardening, particularly focusing on planting, fertilizing, and companion planting. Here's a breakdown of the main points discussed:
- Planting: You both talked about your recent planting activities, including tomatoes, okra, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, bitter melons, and herbs. There was a discussion about the varieties planted, their growth stages, and your plans for succession planting.
- Fertilizing: The conversation touched upon the importance of fertilizing your plants, particularly with fish emulsion, and how it helps promote healthy growth. You also discussed the use of rabbit poop, horse manure, and other organic fertilizers to enrich the soil.
- Companion Planting: There was a detailed discussion about companion planting, especially using herbs like basil to ward off pests like tomato hornworms. You shared your anecdotal experiment about the effectiveness of companion planting in controlling pests.
- Garlic Growing: You mentioned a listener's question about growing garlic and shared your experiences with growing garlic in raised beds with fluffy soil. You emphasized the importance of patience and research in successful gardening.
- Learning from YouTube: Both of you highlighted the value of YouTube as a learning resource for gardening. You discussed how YouTube videos provide practical insights, tips, and techniques, allowing viewers to learn from others' experiences.
- Pepper Varieties and Cooking: The conversation veered towards pepper varieties, including hot peppers, and how you use them in cooking. You shared experiences with making harissa seasoning and experimenting with different pepper varieties in recipes.
Overall, the podcast conversation covered various aspects of gardening, including planting, fertilizing, companion planting, and learning resources like YouTube. It provided valuable insights and tips for both novice and experienced gardeners.
Thank you for joining us on another episode of "Grow it, Sow it, Cook it"! 🌟 We're grateful for your company and enthusiasm for the world of gardening and cooking.
If you enjoyed today's episode, don't miss out on future ones – hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of our gardening and culinary adventures.
For more in-depth articles, gardening tips, and mouthwatering recipes, visit our website at SowitGrowitCookit.com. There, you'll find a wealth of resources to enhance your gardening journey and elevate your culinary creations.
We appreciate each listener and the growing community we're nurturing together. Your support means the world to us. Stay tuned for more exciting episodes, and until next time, happy gardening and happy cooking! 🌿🍽️
Karen: I've been planting out all my seedlings and I don't even have any fingernails left!
Sherva: I've been planting too, but I haven't done much in the ground everything I've I've probably done 2325 Tomatoes, but they're all in pots at the moment. I still have I think like another 16 to go. Wow, I still have a lot of tomatoes to go. I haven't put any into two beds as yet. So, you know, I ran out of rabbit poop. So I I called my my egg lady and I asked her When is she coming down with eggs? And I said can you bring me some poop when she didn't say she said she will bring me some but she didn't say when so. I was hoping to get some poop by this weekend so I can get the rest of the stuff in a bit.
Well, I'm about to tell you I got a trash can full of donkey manure.
Like I'm cured one now. Oh, by the way to
my husband's cousin's daughter lives a mile down the road. And she has three horses, one donkey, two goats and a bunch of chickens. And we farm set for them. And so she repaid me with doggie manure. So I just dumped it out on a farm bed where I can't you know, it's not anywhere close and I can't smell it. But I'm gonna have to wait about six months probably so that'll be what I do in the fall. Oh,
well, that wouldn't be the fall isn't six months.
Well, I'll talk I'll dress everything in the fall because that's whatever winter okay,
yes, that's what I was hoping that you'd be able to use. I was gonna say, maybe you can use that when you do your stuff. But your full harvest needs to be planted in like July to Yeah, to get it in the fall. So I'm wearing what Muay Thai Yeah, so yeah,
so I'll let it let it age outside and yeah, I'll just put every put it on in the fall. So then, you know, my spring garden will it'll be all use up to
be usable for your spring garden. Right, but you're gonna plant stuff in the fall. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Now, actually, yeah, it might be good enough by then I'll have to, but that will only be like three months. Yeah, yeah, it's still better than nothing. Now she has aged manure out in the woods, but why don't you get some of that? I have to go get it and I don't have a truck or anything. So it was a one time Here take this. Yeah,
but you don't you don't have to take Why can't you just take like a tool bucket or black trash bag? Okay, yeah. Yeah, can go in the car is in a trash bag. Yeah,
I just might. I might go down back there. Let's
go today get some I'll get some to because then I'll use that instead of rabbit poop because I don't have the rabbit food.
Everyone should know a farmer. Of course person. The horse. Yeah, the horse manure would be good too. But the jockey evidently is really good. Oh, yeah.
I'm sure. Yeah.
So
you have chickens? Yeah, my friend has chicken poop as well. But that one's another one that needs to cure. And, you know, she she gardens a lot, but she has lots of rabbits and she'll give away rabbit poop. So
that doesn't even need to kill.
It doesn't eat you right? Yeah, yeah.
So it's good to know people. So what are we talking about?
We always grab your shit. Good to know people have lots of shit. She comes in handy. There's good shit and his bad shit. Normally we're dealing with bad shit but this is good shit. Yeah, right. Right. So what's been going on? Um, I started to direct direct so my Oh Chris. I do have three that some that's actual plants. They did start from seeds. I have one Alabama. No two Alabama reds. One Eagle Pass. And then last night I did. I did three Perkin door for something. And then today I did three baby Bubba's and three more Eagle Pass. I'm trying to do Oh Chris a don't grow to tool. Oh yeah. So um, I don't know if I'll do any in the ground. Maybe I might scatter a couple somewhere. But I'm doing the majority of them in pots. I love okra my goal every year is to have enough okra to last me a year. It hasn't happened so far. Last year was probably the best but then I also had my friends save some of her okra and give me so I use my last okra and maybe two months ago. So hopefully you're growing okra right?
I have one you have one just one Yeah, one red okra it's Oh, okay survived. And it's looking pretty sad out there. So okay, I don't know if it's gonna make it
so I mean, hopefully hopefully I get enough okra, all my peppers. All my hot peppers are planted real hot, sweet. Everything Oh, actually one isn't planted and the only reason that one isn't because it's still so small. I'm trying to give it let it grow a little bit more before I plant there. But okra is planted eggplants apply counted 20 Something tomatoes are planted about. I did two cucumbers, two Japanese cucumbers, then three actually, they're looking really good. All my bitter melons are planted. And then I have a couple more cucumber plants that I guess I don't know. I guess I'll plant them somewhere. Cucumbers don't do well for me and then I'm going to start cucumbers again in probably June succession.
Yeah, that's the way I have to do them. I think they, they give everything they've gotten
and yeah, they Yeah, my cucumbers die out very quickly, right? They do.
i And I've had actually squash bugs attack my cucumbers at times to the year last year when I didn't grow squash. It's like they come around. And if you don't have squash for them, they'll share opportunities. Right? So I was really disappointed with that. You're gonna be squashes dish, just my spaghetti squash. Oh,
it's a really nice recipe. Um, we're spaghetti squash the other day. What the hell was it? It looked really good though. And I thought
Do you love it? Yeah. And I saw a YouTube video and I've never thought about this before. I always cut them long ways. Yeah, and roast them. But if you cut them in half, and so that's like a bowl. I watched on YouTube, this woman cook it and then after it, it's roasted. You just take a fork in you or a spoon or anything and you swirl it in there and it comes right out. Oh to these nice. You don't have to like scrape it here. Yeah, the other way.
The recipe I sell doing it was lengthways and I've can't remember what you put in there. But everything looks freakin amazing. And
a lot of times they'll just put it in and use it as a bowl. Right? You
don't you didn't eat. Right. She ate it from the bowl. Yeah,
I've always scraped it out. Because if you don't do zucchini, now I didn't meet your tribe last year and the squash bugs just like obliterated it before I even got to I really
want to do butternut squash because I really liked butternut squash but they take room just like I want to do watermelon and stuff like that. I just don't have the room for it.
I planned it to the last two seats that I have for baby watermelon or watermelon baby. I'm not sure what it's a bit of a small one. Yeah, so we'll see. Last year I didn't do that. Well. They were really they were stay are small, and they just had no flavor. Oh really hoping if I fertilized then maybe they'll do better this year. So I'll try a little harder. And I have you know, it's always a learning process. We keep talking about that. And that is one thing I learned with some of those I you really do have to feed them if you want anything good out of them. So I'm gonna step up my Fisher motion. You know, yeah,
I notice everything that I planted in pots, I wanted him first and then gave them a dose of another sprinkle with fishy motion. It's
been what it's been raining so much I haven't but as soon as you know, we get a little break. I'm gonna do an official motion. But yeah, I planted everything pretty much I'm done. I just have a couple of herbs that are too small. And I have two hopes you still
need to grow you have like so much I do and everything already but
they're great companions. If I'm planting I think I'm planting 19 tomatoes. I want at least eight basals growing okay, because I want the companion aspect of it because they really do ward off the the tomato hornworm and those those kinds of things. I actually did an experiment the year before last, or maybe it was last year it was last year had a section further out of tomatoes that didn't have any herbs planted near the middle and then the I had a section closer to my house with tomatoes that I had for every two tomato plants. I had one herb, mostly basil, add some other herbs some time. That's always there. And it was true though, the further out that didn't have any companion plants. I got tomato hornworm I got some other insect damage. And the one closer in they were not perfect but didn't have any problems at all. So it was my little anecdotal experiment. Yeah.
To see, you know, an actual tomato hornworm I mean, I've seen them online. I've
never say I just see the damage of them. I don't really see them. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I'm I'm sold. So I do and basil is so easy to grow. And I save the seeds. And you just throw them in a pot and you they all come up and it's just a little late this year, but they're so easy. So I grow lots of them. And I love basil tea. Santi really oh my gosh, you gotta try it. It tastes like summer. It's so good. It's so refreshing. I'm
down to my last tiny jar of pesto. So yeah, I'm really ready to start making some more I plan to I went to sewed some I'm Basil, and I put them around my eggplants. My eggplants already looking like they're gonna flower. They have like each the Turkish and as well, they each have like one, bud, you know the kind of thing you get before the flower open. Yeah, each of them have one of those already, which is really early for eggplant. Yeah,
it is. Yeah, mine. I have two egg plants that you gave me planted in my raised bed. My 30 inch birdie bed and I'm just watching them. They're, they're live and they're okay. There are about six inches or six to eight inches now. So yeah, see? Yeah, but yeah, I've got it pretty much all planted. I've got a couple of more flowers, but I have run out of room believe it or not. And oh,
the tomatoes I'm planting over here that's starting to load. Maybe in another week or so. Okay, I'm getting them in the ground
do that. Yeah. Well, I've got two that you gave me. I've got the Curtis Creek and I've got the Russian Cooper's cheeks.
All right, I'm dying to see what they're coming out like that one. And
that Russian 117 that I have no room for so I'm actually just thinking I am growing up when myself put them in pots. I have some two really big pots. Yeah, you do. And then I was thinking I have these these six foot bamboo sticks. I'll put on either side and then I'll just kind of do a Florida we've Yeah, Florida. We've as they go up.
Yeah. We you can put both of them in the same pot right
now. Oh, yeah.
I got five gallon pots. Oh, five gallon is small for those. What is better than nothing? Yeah, we'll get tomatoes. Yeah. Now the Curtis cheek is kind of like a plum tomato, like a piece of tomato rather. And the the Russian 117. It's that kind of tomato too. But I believe it's like a yellow. It's a yellow heart shape. And you cut into it and add some red in it.
So they won't grow. They're not in determinants? No, they aren't. They are Yeah, they are in so they still need some view. That's the thing. I have room, but I've just run out of places where I have trellises Yeah, I have. So I bought I have a cattle panel. And I bought some T posts five tee pose. And I put the cattle panel on the tee post lengthwise. And I raised it up
so that you've got your contraption ready. I have to look at it. Yeah, that's
where all my climbers are. I've got 11 was a zip tie
strong. Yeah. Yeah,
it was. That's right. We went to get zip ties and I was deliberating over it. And the man at Home Depot was very helpful. But yeah, so I'm excited to orange
big bookstore. Yeah. Not HD the
big store? Yes. For a guy
that I don't know, maybe they can sponsor? Yeah. Oh, my God. So on our gardening page this week, because Karen and I run a local gardening page. And people get anxious about garlic. Now, because you're coming up to that time when you're going to harvest garlic. I mean, I don't have any, I don't have any to harvest. Because I tried two years in a row didn't have any luck, I will try again. But I really don't have the room to occupy that amount of space. You know, it takes up a lot of space. And by the time ugali comes out, which is like late June, your tomatoes needed to have been in the ground for a month. So I really don't have you know, when I win the lottery, and I I buy a house with lots of I'll have a bed for garlic, a bed for strawberries, a bed for brassicas, and all that stuff. But yeah, I haven't done it. But this poor woman had no idea what she was doing. And she was asking for advice. And I'm like, Well, I know this is what you're supposed to do. But I've never really had luck of garlic. So I tagged Karen because Karen does really well with garlic. And I thought she could advise her on what to do. So how did that end up?
Well, I you know, I mentioned that this is the growing season. So you planted it in the fall, hopefully. And so it's winter it over and now it's come up and it's starting to grow now so you've got to give it time for it to grow actually grow. So she went and dug it up. She was so eager. Yeah, eager. Let's say that. And she was disappointed. There was very little there. So this is the time that it grows. Now between now and the end of June or maybe some first of July. Yeah, it's gonna grow. It's gonna multiply, you're gonna get all that great, yummy garlic. So
you she hadn't even had escapes as yet. Right. Right. And it
just, it reminds me if you're going to grow something, you really should do some
research, research. I mean, there's so much information on lately. I'm on YouTube all the time. Yeah,
I don't even watch much TV anymore. I'm like going to YouTube because it's just like I tell people I attend the University of YouTube. And they laugh but it's really true. You can find so much information, often conflicting information, or not even conflicting information. It's someone's experience is different than someone else's experience.
Well, what I like about YouTube is you can you can see the videos, you can see the actual results. Whereas we can sit here and say anything, right? And, you know, my I had the best tomatoes and they weighed five pounds. And I use this special fertilizer. And then these four sons will run out and buy this fertilizer and then it killed all of my like on YouTube, you can actually see what they're doing. I love the ones like I watched somebody who did potatoes, do you ever day, and it was time lapse. So she did from the beginning. And then she checked in in a mountain. And the poor woman she hardly had any potatoes. But I'm glad I got to saw that, you know, I got to see what she the actual results. So that's what's so good about YouTube and you get to learn from them. You learn from their mistakes.
Yeah, so yeah, if people are really transparent, I mean, we're, we're committed to being transparent. Yeah,
we admit, like, you know, like I just said, I've had no luck with garlic. I tried garlic two years in a row. And it just, it didn't work for me. I'm gonna try again. But when
it worked for me is when I bought some really good starter clothes, and I bought them. I, me too. I did that too. Okay. And then I put them in a raised bed with nice fluffy soil. And I have done both ways. Just put them in the ground. And you know, in this area, we have that heavy clay soil. And they didn't do as well. They do really need a really fluffy soil so they can, you know, spread out from
today. All right, yeah. Oh, my God, I haven't been there. I'm excited to go. I
know that is the one one of the really fun things about this time of year. All of the garden centers are full. Yeah. And it's just really fun to browse and look around,
you know, if I go if they have the Shikou eggplant, the Japanese one that one always does really well for me. And this year, I decided I wasn't going to buy any eggs. I've only going to do a plant that I do from seeds. And I ordered some of those seeds. I ordered it a little late though. And then I tried it. And they came. did those come up? Yeah, they came up but they didn't. I don't know what happened. They were so tiny. And they stayed in survived. So I'll end up by one if they have it today. Yeah, my alright bound to do awesome though. We
always you know, we always talk about growing from seed, and we're really, you know, in favor of that. But honestly, if something doesn't work, it there's no shame in running. Absolutely not running a store and getting a seat.
Actually, it's funny on YouTube. Yesterday, I watched a video of a woman who I don't know what happened to her and she has a great garden. She has everything lots of land. And she said she doesn't know what happened to all of her peppers. They look really bad. She has a couple that still looks. You know, she's hoping she's keeping the fingers crossed that they'll make it but she wasn't sure that they would. So she's like, You know what, there's no shame I went out to the big bookstore and she brought back four of them and she said she still has a couple she's hoping we'll make it but if they don't she's like you know, I can't be I can't be with peppers. And she wanted to get all the different colors go green, yellow, purple.
Nice Yeah, yeah, I planted I think I counted 11 hot peppers. I've got those planted I'm so excited about all those varieties.
Oh yeah. Oh, my hope is gonna be and I'm excited. Yeah, last summer but not hot ones. Yeah, you're gonna stuff hot pepper. Yeah. Oh, well the only hot peppers that I stuff is jalapenos. Yeah, yeah. Can you get stuff any of them? Deals way too hot to stuff not for my husband. Really? Like what he's stuff for habanero. Oh, yeah. And ghost peppers
are not Ground goes peppers. Oh, wow. No, I made. Oh, you guys. I made this best seasoning. It's, you've probably heard of it. harissa.
Yeah. Yeah. Can Oh yeah. You made a Risa I
made it. I got I can't wait to do with my own homegrown but I bought some peppers, those dried peppers from the Mexican grocers. And what you do is you if a
rooster is Moroccan I think right? Yeah, yeah, Moroccan you. I
can't remember the US to peppers. I can't remember the names of them. But they're ones I got the Mexican grocers. And you take the stems off and you open them up and you d vein and take out the seats. And then you you roast them on a iron iron pan for like a minute or two years, just to bring out those flavors. And then you let them cool. And then you grind them up. And I use an old old coffee grinder. It's my dedicated spice grinder. And then so I had two different kinds of the hot peppers. One was milder. One was the really hot one. And then you grind up caraway seeds into it. And paprika. Smoked paprika.
was just so good. What did you use it on? I put it on chicken. Yeah, I can imagine. Yes. And then he did them on the grill. Yeah, he did. Really good. He
did. Mr Gardner cook them on the grill and he loves it he loves the spicy stuff but this was so much more interesting than just you know scalding here was very good so now I'm going to try a version of that with all these other different peppers I'm growing"
