Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women In Agriculture

By Mary LewisSociety & Culture

Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women In Agriculture episodes

January 05 The Health Insurance Dilemma
In this episode, Mary and Leah dive into the realities of the U.S. healthcare system and why it is deeply personal—especially for women, families, and those in agriculture.
From navigating insurance as self-employed ranchers to the loss of rural healthcare access, they share lived experiences, hard truths, and honest frustration with a system that often feels broken. This conversation covers affordability, pre-existing conditions, delayed care, and the emotional toll healthcare decisions place on women who manage family wellbeing.
Rooted in rural values, the episode also highlights resilience, community care, personal responsibility, and small ways families can take control of their health while advocating for better solutions.
This is not a political debate—it’s a real conversation about real people, and why healthcare must work better for everyone.

00:00
Mary and I'm Leah and welcome to Grit and Grace in the Heartland. Good morning Leah, how are you? Good morning Mary, I'm great. Good. um So the second episode is going to be about the health care situation in the US right now and I don't know how to introduce it very well so that's my introduction to the to the episode for today. um
00:25
One thing I want to say before we really dig in is that healthcare is definitely a women's issue. We are the ones who birth babies. We are the ones who might not want to birth babies. And we're the ones who keep the, I don't have a word, the population growing because we're the ones who produce the next generations. for women, this is a very hot topic and
00:55
I didn't really think about the fact that this situation with the Affordable Care Act was such a big deal because my husband has a job and we get our health insurance through his employer. And when Leah and I were talking back on an episode a while ago on the other podcast, Leah mentioned that because they are self-employed, they don't have
01:23
anything offered to them for health insurance outside of uh the Affordable Care Act and we all know what's going on with that right now. So Leah's going to be really generous and talk about her experience with this.
01:37
Thanks, Mary. Oh, goodness, it's such a complicated conversation. And over Christmas, our family was reminiscing like people often do when they're gathered. And we were talking actually about some of the traumatic events that have happened on the ranch over the last 40-some years, including when I was a child and I required uh emergency medical care with a broken leg. my parents saying, you know, back then,
02:03
you just went to the emergency room or to the clinic and you had business taken care of if it included being admitted or just treated and released and then you got a bill in the mail. And while it was considered expensive, of course, it didn't ever feel unmanageable or impossible. We can all agree that certain families probably have more dynamics of like trying to
02:30
diagnose yourself and use your own cures and treat things. But people didn't just avoid going to pursue healthcare treatment because they were afraid of it as they are now. That it means the decimation of anything you've ever had and saved and worked for and people avoiding care or delaying treatment. And 40 years really isn't that long. We've evolved and changed so much. And when we moved home back to the ranch and left our
03:00
great jobs with great health insurance. Even then in 2012, we weren't afraid of becoming self-employed and joining legions of other friends who were self-employed, not just in agriculture, but really anywhere where you were purchasing your own health insurance. How quickly things have already changed in the last 13 years. So we're self-employed. We are on our own for purchasing our
03:26
healthcare coverage, whatever type of coverage we need. We don't have a pool of employees at the ranch. So uh yeah, indeed on our own. And it became a job each year doing the research, investigating what kind of things were available to us. I'm thankful for sometimes crisis is what brings about the most entrepreneurial new ideas where we have
03:55
now providers who are cash pay like the old days or health share kind of companies that are there. There are a couple of private health insurance companies out there, but they're not easy to work with, especially have pre-existing conditions. And then there is the marketplace where millions and millions of people go to shop for a plan that's available that they can afford if they meet those income requirements.
04:24
And the end of 2025 leaves me discouraged because I feel like, you know, which crisis of the day do you want to talk about for this country? But the wellbeing of our healthcare industry has to be a priority in my mind. A healthy America is a strong America. And there are lots of facets and components to that. em But ultimately we're at a... uh
04:51
at a stalemate, in my opinion, we've made no positive movement or progress. And this issue doesn't align with any particular party at all. This is an American issue and we have to do so much better. I will not pretend to have the answers for you. at all. That's not my forte. I just believe that Americans need and deserve access.
05:21
to healthcare. And what we see in rural Nebraska is the opposite. We have providers leaving practice. They're frustrated by working with insurance companies. So much red tape, so expensive. Hospitals that can't justify their operations. For instance, ours no longer delivers babies. The nearest place to deliver baby now is 70 miles away. And so this is not a workable solution at all.
05:50
The thing about being self-employed is you're so busy running your business, whether it's livestock, farming, or any other self-employed business, you're focused on the work of the day and oftentimes left with very little time to invest yourself in bigger issues that not just affect you, but millions and millions of people. And I do feel like this one is going to be on the backs of the self-employed people of America just rise up and say,
06:19
we need better solutions. Now, I know people who are also on their employer's healthcare, and it's also getting unreasonably expensive where, let's all just use the example of my local school district who functions by way of tax dollars paid by property taxes. The insurance for the teachers is now becoming ridiculously expensive. And so how is the school district supposed to keep providing that as well? So the system is broken all the way.
06:48
I don't know anybody who is like happy innately with what they have. And that's a sad statement about what the business of insurance is. I don't blame providers. I think this rests within the political realm and the insurance companies and all Americans are suffering and this is no good. We have to see this. And change is hard. I don't want to understate that.
07:17
It may be very painful to completely start over, and start over. I really don't have another solution. I don't know how you can fix what is already smashed into a million shards of glass. There's nothing that's working well, that I know of. Nothing is working really well. No, no, it's not. And back in the old days, because I really like saying that phrase, back in the old days.
07:45
people used to pay their town doctor with eggs or a side of ham or a deer they killed and butchered. It was an exchange between the person who needed care and the doctor. And now it's an exchange between the person who needs care and the insurance company and the place that the doctor works at and then the doctor. Yeah.
08:13
they're not playing fair with those providers. I know that because of family and healthcare where the reimbursement rates are less than what the procedure cost or the test cost. So then they're losing money as a provider and we can't have that. Why would anyone go to medical school to be told you're going to have a half a million dollar in student loans and you're not even going to be able to afford to set up your practice and make a profit to
08:40
start paying down your student loans. It's so senseless. Yes, and I actually have a relevant story about all of this that I love to tell. When my youngest child was born, I went into labor, well, real labor. I was in labor off and on for a week last baby. And uh I left my home at 630 in the evening, got to the hospital at 10 minutes to 7 in the evening.
09:08
He was born at 712. So 22 minutes from the minute I stepped in the door of the hospital until he was on the bed. They didn't even have time to break down the bed. Not only that, but they didn't have time for the doctor to get there to deliver my kid. nurse Robin, will never forget her name, was my angel. She helped me deliver my youngest. And she said it was the most violent controlled birth she'd ever seen.
09:38
I did not scream, I did not holler, I didn't even use a swear word, which is very unusual for me. And uh she said that was the fastest, easiest birth I've ever seen. And I said, how many have you seen? And she said at least 150. She was probably in her late 20s. She said, and it's one of the few that I did myself. So she was fantastic. Love her.
10:04
Literally took my kid who had green meconium in his hair and washed his hair half an hour after he was born That was gross. I'm so glad she got to do it and I didn't have to but the doctor walked in and my baby was all wrapped up in the bassinet next to me and He walked in gowned up and said let's have a baby and I said you are too late He's already here. This is and I was smiling. I swear to you. I was smiling. My voice was a lot lighter and uh He said oh
10:34
And I said, yeah, I warned you that pain was not going to be an indicator for me to come in. He said, well, you were right. I said, hmm, yes, I was. And so I looked him in the face and I said, so does nurse Robin get paid the going rate for delivering a baby? And there was a very long pause. And he said, unfortunately, no, because she's a nurse.
11:02
And I said, funny, she performed the job of an obstetrician for me. And I was getting more and more irritated because I was so thankful to her. uh she said, Mary, she said, unfortunately, she said, not only do I not get the fee, she said, he still does.
11:23
ah That was 24 years ago, as you said. Yeah. And I looked at him and I said, are you going to get paid for a service you did not perform? And he said, yes.
11:38
And I said, I can't even form a sentence right now to tell you how much this makes me angry. And he said, as long as you don't come flying out of the bed at me, we're all good. And I said, I don't think we're all good, but I'm not flying anywhere. I just gave birth to a baby when you were not here. And he said, you're angry. I said, I am incensed.
12:01
I said, this is not okay, this is wrong. I said, and there is something really wrong with our medical situation in this country. I said, I am not mad at you, doctor, I am just angry about the situation. And he said, I understand. And I said, okay. And I don't think he really did understand, but that's all right. So yeah, that happens.
12:27
people get charged for services that they are not actually provided in this country for healthcare. And that is absolutely unforgivable. Well, when we were not sure what we were going to do as things got murkier and murkier after government reopened in November, I did, for the sake of giggles or whatever you want to call it, decided to get quotes on the private coverage available in Nebraska. There only a couple of options.
12:57
And it was so discouraging because my melanoma skin cancer is now considered a pre-existing condition because it was two years ago. it matters not that I was um being assertive in seeking care. It matters not that I moved right into having it treated. By the way, I paid cash for that because at that time our marketplace
13:24
company didn't work already with that set of Catholic hospitals in Nebraska, is where the only place I could get in without a long, long wait and I wanted to move on it and have it taken care of. So I paid cash already and I did negotiate a cash rate. Again, what a joke is that that I can negotiate a cash rate cheaper than going through insurance, but I did that considered fully cured, considered uh that I am very assertive with
13:53
twice a year, skin checks still. And then they call me pre-existing. Yeah, here's an offer. Here's a plan for you, Leah, but you can't afford it. my response to the lovely agent who's only the messenger is I better off to be uninsured or to divorce my husband or to not have a job so I can be Medicaid eligible. What is this?
14:22
You're absolutely making a hardworking American family who's always paid their share feel like we don't want you. You don't matter. like no one cares. eh That's the part that just makes me nuts is that it feels like unless you are a millionaire at least, you don't matter.
14:53
And that's not true. Everybody matters. That's right. And I recognize there has to be cost limitations. I recognize the value of, for instance, being able to help with preventative and wellness. And it's so much less expensive than treating the heart attack or the cancer. It's just everything is so backwards, upside down, no one's listening. And we're making no progress. And so as a result, we have people who are not
15:22
seeking care, seeking treatment. They say they're not eligible, they can't find a provider, they're too far away. uh We're just talking about people dialing back from anything considered elective. like for instance, I need carpal tunnel surgery. I'm having trouble already with being able to grip and uh unscrew a jar lid for instance. Well, when you're a self-employed person, there isn't someone standing behind me to do the work.
15:52
that I cannot do, or even when I need the time to recover because I saved my money and I got the thing taken care of, we're already operating on a shoestring allowance of time and resources when you're self-employed. If you're going to couple that with making things way more expensive, you're hurting the business as a whole. And we can't have that. We cannot. Mm-hmm. Yep. It's not good all the way around.
16:20
and I don't know how to fix it either. I keep saying apply pressure, write your letters, contact your decision makers and leaders. They need to be hearing from everyone, even if you're in an okay situation, got to be advocating for others. But this, as I often say, this country does not belong to the decision makers in Washington, DC. This is our country. They work for us.
16:46
And if you don't like what is happening, you need to speak up, stand up, and do something about it. Of course, I don't envy anyone thinking about jumping in to take their places instead, but this is unacceptable. And we know it's just one thing in the list of problems we have going on in this country, but we have got to do better for our people. At the very least, we all can email our representatives and our senators or call them.
17:13
or however you want to contact them and put in your two cents because you're entitled to do that. Mm-hmm. A full cash price now for insurance is in the thousands of dollars per month for anybody. Thousands of dollars per month. I think about what we paid for our first home when we got married. I mean, it's just ridiculous.
17:40
I don't know people who have enough cash to pay those premiums. don't know anybody who does. um Thousands and thousands of dollars per month for not even great coverage. So what's that going to do for our economy? It certainly isn't going to help and it solves nothing. Yep. Certainly it does not. And the other question I have is...
18:07
I know that every time we go in to do our taxes in February, the tax person says, did you have health insurance for the year that we're doing taxes for? And we always say yes, because we always have. And with the Affordable Care Act, as far as I know, if you don't avail yourself health insurance, you get taxed. It's my understanding that they removed that penalty. they? Okay. That's my understanding. I have not done the work.
18:35
to verify that or greatly reduce that penalty. And I know a great number of people who are going to take the hit, whatever it is, because they simply can't justify um purchasing anything. And then they're going to, you like a membership type clinic or will just not go to the doctor. Yeah, unless you're dying. And by then it might be too late. um If they hadn't removed that tax, I was going to go from incensed to livid.
19:05
Because Libid's a good word for that kind of crap that is going on. Yeah, you can have lot of conversations about capitalism and profitability and what does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be a business? And I don't love overreach and legislation and limits and regulations. I love the idea of human beings being good human beings because that's what you're supposed to be.
19:34
And I don't begrudge people trying to make a profit. But my opinion is that healthcare insurance is not a business. It was never meant to be a business. It doesn't belong in the world of healthcare provision. And it is not a place to make people's dreams literally die. I'm disgusted by it. Yeah. And if you think about how much money the health insurance company
20:04
top tier people make a year, it is disgusting. It's not fair. It's ludicrous is what it is. don't... A healthy America is a strong America. again, it's multifaceted. need people to make better choices to live to be healthier. We have an obese country. We have an unwell country. We have so many challenges.
20:34
And I just don't, I mean, we have this whole thing, I think, happening where big, sick people is big money and big business. And there's a lot of people that love that. And that's not the American way to me. That has nothing to do with the principles of capitalism and profitability, not profiting off the back of sick people and denying care and access, all of that. That's not a good look at all. no, it's not.
21:04
So, in all of that gloom and doom that we just spread, I'm so sorry. There are some glimmers of hope here. You're shiny, but there are glimmers of hope. It sounds like our government is starting to realize they need to government again. So hopefully after the first of the year when everybody comes back to work, they will get on this and maybe get something passed so that...
21:32
the premiums aren't quite as high as you're all looking at right now. Well, of the people, by the people, and for the people, if you're an elected representative of the country, you still are that. You better have the same healthcare challenges that the rest of us do. Maybe that will be an incentive. Maybe that would be an incentive to do better if you were equally feeling the pain of Americans. And I don't, you you read all kinds of rumors about what they have or don't have.
22:01
But a representative who truly cares about their people will be immersed in hearing what is going on out on the ground amongst your constituents. You're not going to hear anything positive, and I hope that inspires real meaningful change real quick. Yeah, super freaking fast would be great. um The other thing that I would suggest is if you're looking for health insurance right now and you have to do it as a self-employed person.
22:29
There are people called insurance brokers and we had one for a while. We loved him and he quit. He is no longer our insurance broker. He wanted to do something else. He'd been doing it for over 20 years and he has a young family and he was just like, I gotta go pursue other things. Love him. He's great. He helped us find really, really good homeowners insurance.
22:54
vehicle insurance, if we needed health insurance, he would have been the guy to go to. you can check into brokers because basically they have their hands in all the information through a bunch of different insurance providers and they can find you the best deal. You still may not be able to afford it, but they're going to go out of their way to try to find you a really good price for insurance. I joked with ours that she's
23:22
She's also wearing the title of counselor right now because it's been brutal, but absolutely helped us find affordable dental insurance, helped us get some good vision coverage for all of the bad eyes in our home, talked about accident insurance, which is really important for people in agriculture in particular. I highly encourage you to have an accident insurance policy and then look at what is available healthcare-wise. And we feel better when we know there are choices. They may not be great choices, but...
23:52
to be informed and aware of choices is really, really important, more important than ever. Yeah, I don't know if you're like me. If I can't understand something, it makes me crazy. If I can find out information about the thing that I don't know about, it makes it less infuriating for me. Less scary, yes. Mm-hmm. So, and those are only two things I can say. I don't know.
24:20
I don't know what's going to happen with our government. if you can find a good, genuine, honest insurance broker, that's probably the first place to start. Well, I will take from the strength of my roots a couple of things. And they don't help me just with health care, but in all areas of life. I'm very grateful to come from frugal people who believed in saving for a rainy day.
24:48
And I hate that sometimes because it means your mind goes to the dark places. And many times we go to the dark places because we've been in the dark places. so doing best to be as financially responsible as possible to put some money away in the rainy day pot for the hard things that will come, inevitably they just will, is really important. And also, again, to lean in hard to family and community.
25:17
because those are who will be there for you when those dark days come. And there are brilliant people in every direction. And I know people who have avoided some medical catastrophe because some very, very wise women in particular um were aware of treatment options, ideas, looking at functional medicine doctors and chiropractors. There are lots of options out there. You just have to be equipped to ask.
25:46
questions that can be hard and then do your own research and hope for the best. Yep, and I will tell you right now every woman on a farm or a ranch or a homestead when their people leave the property and they say be careful, that's their version of I love you. 100 % and I would trust most veterinarians any day to deliver a baby if I needed to have another one, a fraction of the cost.
26:14
I was gonna say, it might be cheaper.
26:18
Their malpractice insurance probably wouldn't cover it, but you know, the stories from the past are shocking at times and didn't always go according to plan, but coupled with them are amazing, amazing stories of resiliency and overcoming hard things. And that came through people helping one another. And the old ways still work pretty darn well in many, many, many cases.
26:46
Look for the resources around you and you might be surprised with what you come up with. Yes, and the easiest resource solution, whatever you want to call it, it starts at home. Take care of yourself at home. Make sure you're hydrated. Make sure you get sleep. Make sure you eat a green vegetable more than once a month. 100%. I always say that food is medicine. Good food is medicine and I will.
27:13
carry that with me. I'm going to work on a batch of elderberry elixir because we're believers in helping uh use uh elderberry to resist cold and influenza symptoms. I just, I'm a believer. I've had enough experience that I've seen it help that I am a believer and other people have tried it as well. So there is good stuff that was created all the way around us that could be helpful. yeah, because nature is smart.
27:43
Absolutely. Nature wants everything to survive and thrive. And she's also mean. You know, if a baby animal is born and has a broken, messed up hip that can't be fixed on its own, it's going to die. Yep. That is one the hardest parts for those who don't experience or understand that. nature has a way of
28:14
Correcting humans in particular who try to think that they are the smartest thing that there is They will help she will humble you real quick. Sometimes it's in the name of a bomb cyclone Yeah for the for the The title of apex predator that we've all given ourselves. We're pretty dumb sometimes 100 % absolutely Sorry giggling quietly, um, so
28:41
So the reason we're even talking about this on a podcast about women in agriculture is probably because we really care. Women really, really care about our spouses, our partners, our children, our parents. And healthcare is one of the most important things out there that we worry about. is. It's in our nature, the way we were made.
29:06
to be caring nurturers and aware and women are the decision makers in the homes when it comes to vaccination schedules and school physicals and annual checkups and setting the family's appointments to be seen and things like that. So it is something I believe that begins in the home with women. And again, healthy America is a strong America, a healthy family is a strong family, healthy communities.
29:32
are important and we want the best for our people. So I believe it will be women who will inspire the change that needs to happen on behalf of us all. Because we are, for the first time I understand in quite a while, seeing age expectancy go down and that's not what anybody wants or should want. Families are having less children and that can be for a number of reasons, of course. But I think that this begins and ends with women.
30:02
and being empowered to demand real meaningful change to benefit everybody. Yes. And every time I hear the words women and demand in the same sentence, it gives me this little stitch in my chest because I always was taught that demand is a mean, nasty word. But men can use the word demand and they're just considered to be strong. Yeah. Loaded. It's a loaded word.
30:32
it seems and it shouldn't be.
30:36
Yep, we're going to talk about a whole lot of that on this podcast. know, I know it's coming. The other word I have a hard time with is deserve. I have a hard time with the word deserve when people say, I deserve a new car or I deserve a new house. like, um I wish you wouldn't use deserve. I wish that you would say, I have worked really hard and I have earned.
31:03
the right to make a choice about a new car or a new house. I have a hard time with the word deserve. do as well. According to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, what we deserve is pretty narrow in scope in this country. And it's important for people to remember that. Yeah. Then there is what is the right thing to do just because we're all human beings. So that's
31:32
It's long and complicated conversation, it seems, that shouldn't be. It's hard to even believe we're having this conversation. I'm not sure what our grandmothers would say to hear that people are avoiding having a child because they, quote, can't even afford the medical bills associated with it. Of all of the challenges and struggles that come with being an American, being able to afford
32:00
healthcare so that you can be a productive citizen and worker shouldn't be part of the conversation. That's my opinion. No, and I'm going to jump the track a little bit here. The conversation that has been going on around the SNAP benefits shouldn't even be a conversation in a country where food is being wasted every day. Yes, we are a country of waste. I could go on and on about that because I'm a kid.
32:31
who remembers the 80s farm crisis when there was pretty scant pickings to be had at the table. And so it's so disgusting to me. We have so much lack of education, lack of awareness and system breakdowns that lead to all of these things. It's so unnecessary. In fact, if we were to do away with food waste, we wouldn't even need SNAP benefits because we're wasting more food in volume and dollars than what we're doling out in SNAP benefits. Isn't that something? Isn't that wild?
33:01
Oh, and that just leads me into the next thing. The whole fact that people who have had access to SNAP benefits now have to reapply. Yeah, and talk about a bureaucracy. Like, what do they say? I've never met a problem the government couldn't make worse. It's just, again, you're going to devote labor and resources and time to an issue that is a small issue.
33:31
in comparison to massively more expensive problematic issues going on. I heard that people were going to have to reapply, I was like, how does that save us any money? It's mind boggling to me. So much of it is. Why don't we focus on fixing one problem at a time? You've got your resources spread all out in every direction.
34:01
in every front. Solving one problem at a time and not creating unnecessary problems beyond that. 100%. I think that's why we see that Americans feel fatigued, distracted, exhausted, worn, and somewhat without hope. And so that's why I say turn off your TV or take in 10 minutes of headlines a day and promise yourself that'll be it, like the news of our childhood.
34:29
Humans aren't meant to take in information constantly. The barrage of it feels mostly negative these days and it is not good for any of us. Back to our health, it is not good. So don't do that to yourself, it won't help. No, just, hits every em stress trigger in your body and there is some kind of
34:57
disorder where if you're stressed all the time, your hormones get all screwed up. I can't think of the name of it right now.
35:07
Your systems are a disaster. You're a lymphatic. You're adrenal. All of it. It's all a mess. It's something exhaustion. Maybe it's adrenal exhaustion, something like that. And it really, really impacts women. you can't survive it. I mean, you will live, but you will not be thriving feeling that. Or it will kill you. It literally will. Yes. I am concerned about the well-being of people with
35:37
dementia, heart concerns, and then of course addiction becomes a thing when people turn to something to try to alleviate symptoms of something else. So it's a chain, a rapid chain effect. And so I do know people who are wise enough to recognize for themselves, for instance, I'm getting rid of my TV or I'm shutting down my social media or I'm making myself walk every day or I'm going to go volunteer because I know that's good for my heart.
36:07
just different things like that because they are recognizing we've got to do some self-help here because help may not be coming for us. And I'm pleased, I've recognized that about myself. For me, it's rest and limiting news intake. And it's not because I'm choosing ignorance, it's just I can't, I'm a feeler of what's going on around me. So I do have to put some boundaries into place or I'll be a shell of myself.
36:32
a menopausal woman has already got enough issues. She's got to manage those heart palpitations as best as she can um because it's a real thing. Oh, it is. It is. I have so many feelings and words, but I'm not going to get into it right now. So you're showing yourself grace on all of this and so am I. trying to. um My thing is I really like sitting down with my husband in the evening and
37:02
watching a one, one YouTube video of a half an hour about people who are farming because we're growing things and we learn stuff all the time from people who are farmers. And farmers are full of great optimism and faith and that's what we need right now. The eternal optimist and we wouldn't be here if they weren't.
37:29
ran away from it all a long time ago. so that's why I do feel particularly protective of our people in agriculture um to the point where I get defensive sometimes and then I don't speak as clearly and plainly as I would like to because I'm busy being defensive. But to be an eternal optimist is something I hold really precious and dear. And it's hard to help others understand that, except I will say, take off your shoes and socks.
37:59
go stand in the soil, on the soil, in the grass, put your hands into it, breathe deeply, you'll start to understand it's a connection with something so much bigger than yourself. And that includes when Mother Nature is showing her ugly side, it's still a connection um to something greater than yourself, and that leads to that optimism. And I hold onto it um and guard it very closely for all of us.
38:29
Yes, I do too. And please don't ask me to take off my shoes and socks and go stand in the snow that fell yesterday. I'm not doing it. Yeah, winter can be pretty hard on me when I'm driven indoors. The older I get, the wind gets to me. But then I start feeling that loss of connection and then I'll go and there's just something aliving about turning your face into a sharp and bitter wind and seeing the animals that depend on you.
38:59
for care when it's hard especially, helps ground you and helps remind you of that purpose. And I wish that everyone could have an experience like that to help them feel why they matter and the role they can play and why tomorrow matters. so there's an idea, maybe put members of Congress to work somewhere out in a field and help them solve their disagreements while they're working and sweating and feeling.
39:28
and caring for these living things, it might help. Being reminded they're actually humans being. Yeah, that would be nice. uh one thing that we find ourselves doing is that by February, we're real tired of the ice and the snow. And my husband again is an avid gardener. And by the end of January, he's like, I'm going to go get some bags of dirt and bring them in and get the seed trays and we're going to start planting.
39:58
I help with that because that's at the kitchen table in a warm house. And I stick my hands in that bag of dirt and I just squish my hands in the dirt. And I'm like, oh yeah, this is my version of grounding right now. it's what I needed when I do the same thing. Yep. And when the seedlings start to sprout, when they're about, I don't know, half an inch tall and the whole tray is filled like basil or celery or whatever we're doing.
40:25
I run my hands over the leaves and I lean down and I smell the plants and I'm like, yep, okay, another couple months, it'll be warm out. So you can ground yourself even inside as long as you have seedlings or dirt. Yes, 100%. And it's one of the best things ever. I mean, it sounds so simple and so silly, but it really does work. Yeah, I think about my country school teachers that had to start plants.
40:54
in the end of winter like that. And I think they knew what they were doing and maybe didn't know what they were doing, but it helped beat the winter blues. We'd line the plants up in the south windows. um Seemed like back then it was long, cold winter, every winter. And we didn't have discipline problems at school, Mary, where I went to school, where we were hands and feet involved in service and care for things every day.
41:24
there's something there for our young people as a whole and our older people as a whole. em I can tell you when I worked helping with caregiving in the retirement home when we'd bring in baby goats in their little diapers, what it did for the mental health of the residents there. absolutely. The young woman I was talking to yesterday for the other podcast, she used to do um
41:54
Basically, she'd take her goats to daycares and senior living homes and birthday parties and things. And she fully swears on the fact that goats will brighten anyone's day. I believe it. I believe it. And more of that back to our health and well-being in this country. Some of it is, it's on us, each of us to recognize what we can do when you feel it.
42:24
When you feel like you're out of options, out of choices, there's just always something there. that optimism is that spark that says, I guess I'm limited to what's within my control, but there's always something. I just have to figure out what it is. And then it's looking to your left and right and saying, how can I help someone else? Yeah, absolutely. um When the bird flu went through real bad, what, a year and a half ago?
42:54
We upped our flock, not herd, flock, so that we could sell eggs to people in our community. And it was really funny because at first I wasn't sure that the eggs would sell. And then people found out we were selling them $5 a dozen and we couldn't keep eggs in the farm stand because people were coming to get our eggs or the store's eggs because the store's eggs were more expensive.
43:20
Every time somebody would buy a dozen eggs from us, I would just get this little ping in my chest of, I'm so glad we have the chickens. And it's a tiny little thing that we were doing, but it helped. And we're still doing it, but people are buying eggs at the store now more often too, because the prices have come down a little bit. If everybody would do something, we could cover all of the needs in this country. That's what I always say.
43:50
Yeah, and we've gotten so far away from it. um Yes, too far away. And you hate that it takes really hard times to rediscover that, but that's often what we have shown. That's often what is required. When things get really, really bad, really, really hard, that's when we rise from those things. And I had hoped the COVID effect would last longer. uh
44:17
positive COVID effect. I was hoping it would last longer than it did, but it did not, which shouldn't be that surprising for us Americans, but it's time for a revival. I am seeing glimmers of it in places because necessity is mother of invention and that helps encourage others to be creative like that as well, but we sure need a lot more of it and we need to hear about it instead of hearing about so much of the yuck.
44:42
I heard the word pandemic in a news report the other day with this new flu that's coming through. And I was like, hmm. So what's going to change in a year from now, like it did with COVID? So we'll see what the next pivot is. Yeah, it will be interesting. I'm to go into the new year with optimism and
45:14
try very hard to hold on to my peace. I think my word for 2026 is going to be resilient. It's the only one I can come up with right now. That's where I'm at too. I would say prayer, you can pray, but you got to work the prayer too. Yes, we are asked to do both.
45:43
Yeah, prayer rings hollow for me when I don't see action and I know action happens and I just don't see it sometimes, but it's meant to be coupled together, pray and then move your feet with that. um I'm very thankful again for my mother in particular, who's been a woman of faithful prayer and always has her hands and feet going to help lighten the burdens for others.
46:11
I'm glad that your mom is young enough, and I'm assuming she's over 60, but she's young enough and healthy enough to keep using her hands and feet to help. Yes, it brings her joy. So much joy. Awesome. All right, let's end this on a positive note. How was your Christmas? Was it great? Our Christmas was wonderful. It was quiet and it was warm and we spent time outside in t-shirts, which was
46:40
probably not the normal I uh should love. Of course, we're paying for it yesterday and today it's a shock to the system, but it was, I cherished it because it was small and quiet with our girls who are growing up on us and recognizing this is our last Christmas holiday season with our eldest in a predictable way of being at home. Next year, she will be gone as a young adult and will be in charge of her own schedule. So this was...
47:09
special and try not to be emotional about it. I just tried to soak it in and enjoy it moment by moment. she's back for Christmas next year. I think she will be here. She is a home girl. uh We just have traditions in the month of December for the Advent season, so she won't be here for those. she can take those with her and make them her own traditions if she wants to, where she goes. And I hold on to that.
47:41
Just so you know, there's a friend of mine, her mom gives her a gift bag for every day of Christmas, December 1st through December 25th. And they're just little tiny things that her mom finds for her during the year. So there's a small gift bag for every single day. That's 25 days. And you might want to...
48:04
consider adding that in as a new tradition for Maggie. And that way she has something from home while she's in South Dakota? South Dakota, that's a great idea. The other thing we tried to do, we tried to do every year, but this year was giving some extra love to those who are celebrating for the first time without someone, like our neighbor in particular, and giving him some extra love and care. And he was embracing his new normal.
48:34
holidays are loaded for people, know, load, can be loaded with lots of lots of complicated feelings that include the joy of the season, but also the hard. I think it's again, as I age, recognizing there isn't any one right way to do something. It's different for everybody. Being respectful of that is important to me and recognizing that everything can be complicated, even at Christmas, it can be so.
49:03
giving people grace and space and letting them have it be the way it is. Yep, understand completely. really do. is hard for me. My parents are far away. And every Christmas I'm like, it's gonna be Christmas. It's gonna be fun. And then it never is the same kind of fun I expect. Yeah.
49:26
So I kind of just go with the flow and see what happens. It's just easier than putting huge expectations on anything around the holidays. Yes, adjusting expectations. That's important conversation that families need to have and have with their children and all because we set ourselves up for all kinds of things in this life. And then when it doesn't happen that way, it can be crushing and paralyzing and that doesn't serve anyone very well either. No.
49:53
No, it does not because that's not how we're meant to live. Yes. All right. I think we're good on this one. um As always, you guys can find us at Cretton Grace in the Heartland, colon Women in Agriculture on Facebook for now. Thank you. And for those of you who are still searching for health care options, I encourage you to do as Mary recommended and you can go to Clear Creek Ranch Mom. I've shared some resources and conversations.
50:22
alongside of hundreds of comments from readers across the country and those were very helpful to us and encourage you to take a look as well. encourage you too because Leah is freaking brilliant and her followers are great. Thank you, Mary. All right. Have a great day, Leah. Thank you. You do the same. Bye.

51 min
January 02Women In Agriculture
Episode Summary
In the very first episode of Grit and Grace in the Heartland, hosts Mary and Leah kick off an exciting new podcast focused on women in agriculture - just in time for 2026, the International Year of the Woman Farmer.
They reflect on the whirlwind of recent years, explore why this moment matters so much for agriculture and rural America, and talk candidly about identity, language, community, and visibility in farming and ranching. From challenging stereotypes to celebrating modern women telling their stories online, this episode sets the tone for a year (and beyond) of lifting women up with honesty, resilience, and heart.
✨ What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Why 2026 is a powerful year to launch a women-in-ag podcast
The significance of the International Year of the Woman Farmer
How women have always been central to agriculture—even when unseen
Surprising podcast listener statistics (and what they might say about communication)
Farming vs. ranching vs. homesteading—and why labels can divide more than help
The danger of weaponizing words within agriculture
Why community matters more than independence
How storytelling can reduce isolation and strengthen rural resilience
🌱 Highlighted Voices & Inspirations
Laura Farms (Laura Wilson) – A Nebraska farmer using YouTube and social media to share the real, honest journey of agriculture, inspiring the next generation
Women in dairy and other ag sectors bravely sharing transparent, vulnerable stories
Generations of women - from homesteaders to modern ag professionals - whose strength built the backbone of rural America
🧠 Big Themes
Visibility: Women stepping out from behind the scenes in agriculture
Identity: Every role on an operation matters - from the tractor to the desk
Community: Humans weren’t meant to do this work alone
Storytelling: Sharing both the hard and the hopeful helps others feel less alone
Mental Health: Why connection and openness matter now more than ever
⏱️ Optional Episode Timestamps
00:00 – Welcome & reflections on entering a new year
01:22 – International Year of the Woman Farmer
03:19 – Surprising listener demographics
05:12 – Women’s evolving roles in agriculture
06:07 – Redefining “farmer,” “rancher,” and ag identity
10:23 – Why tearing others down hurts rural communities
11:22 – Spotlight on Laura Farms
17:02 – The unseen power of management, planning & budgeting
18:58 – Community, loneliness, and mental health in agriculture
21:48 – Looking ahead & closing thoughts
📣 Connect With Us
You can find and follow the podcast on Facebook:
Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women in Agriculture
Have a story to share or a woman in ag we should feature? Reach out—we’d love to hear from you.
Closing Thought
As Mary and Leah remind us: agriculture isn’t just about land and livestock - it’s about people. This year, and every year after, let’s show a little more grit and grace.
00:00
Mary and I'm Leah and welcome to Grit and Grace in the Heartland. Good morning Leah, how are you? Mary, almost happy new year, doing great. Yeah, I can't believe that 2025 is over in two days. Cannot. It's been, it's gone so fast and so slow at the same time. That's a great way to summarize it.
00:26
With everything that's happened this year, it seems like every day has just been another slog through craziness and impossibility. But I looked at the calendar yesterday and went, oh, oh, we're rolling in a new year in three days. Okay. I saw the funniest meme yesterday that said, I don't need 2026. How about a gently used version of 2013 or 2009? How about that? Just a gently used
00:56
I don't need a new year after what we've been through. I saw that and I giggled and then I was like, yeah, what is 2026 going to bring? And then I thought, I can't even think about it right now. I have to get through the next couple of days. um So before we decided to start this podcast together, I did not know that 2026 is the international gear of the woman farmer.
01:22
found that out last week and I thought what a great year to start this podcast. Do you agree? Absolutely. I appreciate the United Nations delegations and not only have been involved in International Year for the woman farmer or the woman farmer in agriculture, but it's also the International Year for range and pastoralists, which are a fancy word for people who love and appreciate the land. So I think it's perfect. know there are
01:52
celebrations and recognitions and education, things being planned all over the country and look forward to participating in what we're doing in Nebraska. Sometimes the universe just opens doors that you wouldn't even know it's opening for you. It's crazy. And 2020, 2026, sorry, is the 150th, no, 250th birthday of our country, Birthday of our country. And yeah, so
02:21
some exciting, neat things planned for arts and music and education and special recognition, doing some cool stuff just even in our own community, getting kids to audition to play the Star-Spangled Banner or sing it and just a whole bunch of different fun things planned to make it hopefully a very special meaningful year for all Americans. really hope that 2026 brings us all together and
02:49
gives us a reminder of what the forefathers and founders of our country had intended. That's what I hope for. Me too. Absolutely. It's time. We need it. Yeah. We need to remember why we're here. Instead of, instead of wondering why are we here and what are we doing, maybe we can remind ourselves that we're here for a reason. Amen. Okay. So, um, I found out some interesting statistics that I wanna, I wanna share. I was looking at
03:19
my Facebook, I don't know, the little thing that tells you about who sees your pages and who reads and what that does. And for my personal page and my A Tiny Homestead podcast page, more than 50 % of the viewers are male. Wow, And I was really surprised. I was really surprised at that.
03:46
And I did an interview with somebody for the podcast yesterday, my other podcast, and she had assumed that it would be more women listeners, and it's not, it's men. Mm-hmm, fantastic. And I'm so confused. I'm like, I thought it would be women. Maybe there's something for us to digest there about how men maybe like to take in information. Maybe they like to listen rather than read.
04:13
especially if they're on the go all the time. I love that podcasts are a way to take it with you for windshield time or working, you might be doing. You can't maybe give your eyes attention to, but they can listen. So I think that's fantastic. Yeah, the young woman I was talking to yesterday, she was very surprised at that statistic. I'm coming down to the fact that women are inherently the communicators.
04:42
And men are the people who listen to that communication and digest it and then move on from it. And so maybe it's just that we women have many, many words and we string them together in a way that is listenable. don't know. um So I want to make sure that we say in this very first episode that we are not bashing on men. We are just supporting our sisters in agriculture.
05:12
and that women have always kind of been the backbone and the behind the scenes people in Ag and now we're starting to step forward. And that's been for the last, I don't know, 20 years really that women are really stepping up and really making their presence known? Yes, they were always there doing these things. It's just that it's been more recently that
05:40
they've shared their stories or people are taking notice of that, of what they've been doing. So it's really been a great opportunity to recognize their contributions to agriculture and now get to celebrate all the amazing things they're doing and how they're empowering each other to get out there out in front and tell their stories. Yes. And when I think of the word rancher,
06:07
Because I'm 56 years old and I grew up thinking this because what my dad and my grandpa's both all thought is the guy who is flipping the calf over and tying its feet at the rodeo. You know, that's not necessarily ranching. Ranching, farming, it's a whole lot of steps and it's a whole lot of little steps that lead to bigger steps that lead to huge steps.
06:34
And so you can't just put one image in your head of what it means. And I feel bad that I did that for a long time. Well, Hollywood and popular books all participated in helping curate an image of what makes a rancher or what makes a farmer. And the joke I use is also, depends on which side of the Mississippi River you live on.
06:59
East of the Mississippi, if you have one cow or 5,000 cows, you call it a farm. If you live west of the Mississippi and you have cows, you call it a ranch. That's why I spend often a lot of time talking about how an image is just what your little perspective may be on any given day. And that can shift and change over time. And I'm guilty of it. And I'm thankful for the experiences I've had that have helped me.
07:28
see through different lens. you know why the east of the Mississippi is farmer and west is rancher? Is there a beginning for that? I don't know. You'll be surprised at this, Mary. Our technical name of our operation here is a corporation and it includes the word farm. My grandfather, who registered the name of the organization here, he did it because
07:58
the idealistic um big horse farms of the Southeast. And his dream, of course, was to raise race horses for a period of time. So we incorporated it. It's actually Cooke's Lees Clear Creek Farm, which is a joke because we don't call this place a farm. We call it a ranch. Huh. I didn't know that. That is funny. um And the other thing is, is I think that ranch implies
08:25
livestock and farm implies crops or produce. And gets really complicated for those who are diversified who have both. And in other countries, they use different words like in Australia, it's called a station. Where they have cattle, it's not called a ranch necessarily. So yeah, we get hung up on all of these titles when at the end of the day, it's really about the operation itself and the people there.
08:53
Yeah, when people ask me what I do, I laugh because I don't do any of the grunt work because I'm not capable and my husband loves it. So he does the grunt work. And I say, well, we grow a big garden of produce. We grow some fruit trees and we have chickens. I never say farm. I never say homestead. I never say ranch. I just say exactly what we do. And that way people can figure it out from there for themselves. I was just curious. I was looking up what the actual
09:23
technical definition of homestead is because it has been a word that is trending and I love that. And of course, when I think of homestead, I think of it meaning the beginning. So that can be used for lots and lots of people. Those who began in the beginning and some were crop only and some were livestock only. It's just funny how words become trendy and then go away. uh
09:52
come back. A house, a farmhouse, especially including outbuildings, historically used the beginning, those who settled the land. yeah, it's funny how we hitch ourselves to certain words and I'm still guilty of it. I still fight it oh because unfortunately, between some farmers and some ranchers, it can be kind of a word that's weaponized and used to diminish
10:23
or make fun of another and I don't like that at all. I don't participate in that and I call it out because no one is less than, they're just different. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe 2026 will be the year of people stopping poking fun at everything that's different from them. I would love that. It is one thing to tease somebody you love and they know that you mean it in a good spirit.
10:52
It is another to try to tear down other people. And I'm so sick of the tearing down. So we're going to lift at least women up. We're going to try with this podcast all year and hopefully further on than just 2026 and get women the recognition that they deserve. So to that end, um you and I have talked on my other podcast about Laura Farms. Laura,
11:22
Her last name is Wilson. I looked her up the other day. And she is a young woman who is in Nebraska, where Leah's from. And she and her husband have a farm. And I'm not quite sure what all they do. I know they grow crops. But uh it sounds like the farm is their only employment. I don't think either one of them have an off-farm job.
11:51
Laura is on Facebook, she has a YouTube channel, and she is pretty incredible considering she's only in her 20s, I think. Did you say that you know her or you know of her when we were talking? I know of her and I've listened to her speak and she did a workshop that my daughter attended last summer, which was particularly focused on what it's like to tell your story in a public way, which is what Laura has done and done well.
12:20
and to elevate these young people in this particular workshop about within their own thoughts of how they could do that and better tell the stories of agriculture. And she was phenomenal. And my daughter was telling me this just yesterday, that Laura is very open and transparent about the good and the hard. She is part of her family's operation there as well. They all work together, which is complex. uh
12:48
requires a lot of extra when you're working with family, as I know well. And lot of patients. Yeah, lots of patients. Of course, it's been difficult economically the last couple of years in row crop farming. I do think maybe they have livestock as well now. then again, just starting your marriage and being young and doing all of these things. It's a lot. So really admire.
13:17
her putting herself out there the way she has. do too. And one of the things that I told you is that the first episode that I saw on YouTube of her channel, I was not all that thrilled because she's very, very pretty and she was full face makeup and very girly. And I was like, oh no, it's another one who's putting on the show, but maybe not walking the walk. And as my husband,
13:48
watched more of them because he thinks that what they're doing is amazing. I would sit down and watch it with him. And as I've gotten to see what they're doing and how she is growing and changing, my favorite part of the whole thing is the discovery that she is going through. Because she is, she's totally open to every challenge that comes along and she's totally open to sharing it. And so
14:16
Not only is she discovering things for herself and about herself, she's opening up the door for other people to discover this way of life. Yeah, and it's not easy to be so vulnerable and share what you don't know or the mistakes that you've made, not just to be attention seeking, but to use it as an example of perseverance and resilience. And what I appreciate about Laura, again, given her age is
14:44
She is the face of what we need in not just in Nebraska, but across the Great Plains where we have record numbers of family farms and ranches selling because there isn't a next generation. And there are a whole bunch of reasons why kids are not returning to their family operations, but she's the example of what we need more of. And so if she can light that spark for others who
15:13
want to find a way. And again, you can say there's lots of hindrances to getting back into farming and ranching or to starting and blazing a trail. But she is that example that will hopefully inspire young people to go home to rural America or go there all by yourself and dig in and start. um
15:38
And she's the only one that I can really think of that has gained this kind of traction. I do know of any other women who are kind of doing the same thing she's doing that anyone would recognize the name of right now. There are women in places and a couple that really, I really admire and appreciate are within the dairy industry. Talk about a tough place to be.
16:05
And I put some names together, but I follow their pages. Nikki is, and then of course I only know people by their handles on social media, not their names, but Nikki is an example. She might be a little bit older than Laura, but she is so open and transparent and talk about vicious trolls that come after the dairy industry. I admire her much, so much. And there are other women who may be a little further down the road, but still fairly new in their...
16:32
their journeys because again, on a family operation, you don't necessarily get to jump right in when you're pretty young. You you patiently wait and take your turn until you get into some of those positions of decision making. But I also say that every single person on the operation plays an important part and a cog in the wheel. And I think about my mom in particular, who came to Nebraska in her twenties and did not have a back.
17:02
in ranching, jumped in, worked on the labor side of things, and then worked her way into some of the managerial work, which is the bookkeeping, for instance. And it's also important in this whole context about identity that we recognize that every single role is equally valuable. And some of the most successful farmers and ranchers are not the ones in the tractor and not the one on the horse. They're sitting on their behinds in a desk chair.
17:31
in front of a screen, planning and budgeting. And if we don't have that, we don't have a future. It's more important than ever to be on top of your marketing and planning and budgeting. And that can be, maybe that's the woman's role. So it doesn't always look just one way, that's for sure. No, and it never has. I mean, I know you are a fan of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.
18:01
And you were telling me that Laura's mom in one of your favorite book of the series, I can't remember what the story was, but that she was going to make darn sure that whatever bad thing was going to happen wasn't going to happen. And I look at the women in that generation and how strong and tough they were. Because you had to be. If you were going to live and make sure that your husband and your children survived, you had to be strong.
18:30
Yes, physically, emotionally, spiritually. And I have so much compassion for those, not just women, but anyone who mentally suffered and many did. And the stories are legendary in particular about women homesteaders going crazy or a little bit crazy with nothing to listen to but the sound of the wind on the grasses on the prairie.
18:58
and no family and no visitors and being shut away far from anyone and humans are not meant to exist in a silo alone. And it had to have been so lonely and women need fellowship in community. I really appreciate organizations like the National Women in Agriculture and all of the subsequent chapters because they recognize the importance of women getting together and having community and learning together, learning from one another.
19:27
even just taking off their titles and being women and needing that connection. it's something I'm equally passionate about. We've fallen away from it too much in recent years. We're so focused on being independent and self-directed that thinking we don't need that. But historically, we've always needed that connection and that community. And that makes me think of when my kids were little.
19:56
When my kids were 18 months to two years old, every single one of them would say, I do it. You know, I would say, do you want me to do that for you? I do it. Because they were gaining that autonomy and that independence. And that's really important. But as grown people, you can't do everything yourself. That's not how humans were built. We need community. We need helpers. We need that connection.
20:26
Because trying to build a home out of logs, you cannot do it by yourself. You need other people. And trying to grow a huge garden, you can't do it by yourself. I mean, you can try, but having many hands makes light work, as we all know, and having the many hands really helps when you're trying to create something bigger than yourself. Yes, and even sometimes, as I...
20:55
say over at Clear Creek Ranch, mom, the validation of saying me too is enough to help someone go on to the next day because it can be very lonely and isolating and many of us in agriculture do hold our hard things really closely. We're very proud, too proud and private people. this
21:17
this way of living and talking and sharing our stories, it makes some really uncomfortable because it wasn't until most recently that we began to share these things. But it's my opinion that it has been good for our community in making people feel less alone. And I hate using statistics to draw and say this is why it's necessary, but we only have to look at the mental health crisis within agriculture and how many have been lost to suicide to recognize that it matters more than ever.
21:48
Yes, and we need to do an episode about that in the future because that's a really important topic to cover. Okay, so I wanted to keep this first episode short and when we're at like almost 22 minutes. So this was great. I'm so excited to be doing this with you, Leah, and people can find us at our Facebook page for now. And it's grit and grace in the heartland, colon women in agriculture. That's where you can contact us for now.
22:16
I am honored to be here and thank you for thinking of me and I cannot wait to help tell these stories this year. am beyond excited. Like I am beside myself. It's ridiculous. uh It's so wonderful to have wonderful things to look forward to and to helping share these stories that I just said it matters more than ever. So I'm so excited. All right. In the meantime, everybody hang in there and show some grit and grace.
23 min
June 21, 2024 Permaculture - How you can use permaculture practices to improve your gardening
In this episode we discuss the rain Minnesota has been dealing with of late, and permaculture - what it is and why it's important.
You can find us on Facebook, and also join the Facebook group.
If you have a gardening question, please email Mary at [email protected] or Liz at [email protected]
00:00
Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow? Well, that all depends. But that's not really what this podcast is about. We're here to help you grow your garden. Welcome to Mary and the Master Gardener. Good morning, Liz. How are you on this not raining morning? Well, I'm doing all right. Hoping to get outside a little bit. Yeah, my son was out shifting all the quote unquote
00:28
dry wood to the end of the woodshed toward the wood burning boiler thingy we have for our wood for our furnace this morning because it was just dry enough to get on it because we have wet wood that needs to get moved over there and he was like I'm going to go do it now before it starts raining again. Smart. So why don't we chat about rain and what it is doing to whatever we have planted.
00:57
and why rain is beneficial, but what happens when there's too much.
01:02
Yes.
01:06
So what happens? Yeah, what happens when there's too much? Well, depending on where your plants are located, right? So if they're in a lower lying area coming down off of a hill, you're going to get a lot more water. But depending on how you're able to kind of secure drainage in a way.
01:32
And then maybe doing a little bit of protection too for some plants. Um, like my garden, half of it is kind of underwater right now. So trying to get just some of it is just allowing it to try to rebound naturally.
01:53
But then also making sure that you can put things down on top of it to help with some absorption, but some of it is taking your hits. Yeah, and some of our plants are doing great. Our onions are doing great. I'm guessing that's because onions like water because they need to make that big fat bulb. Right, and there are a lot of water-loving
02:23
plants that will do very well in this, right? So we've got the humidity, we've got a lot of rain, and then we are getting some intense sun when it is not raining. So a lot of perennial flowers love this. All of mine are doing magnificent, but that also means some of the weeds are doing just as well. Yes, gotta love those weeds.
02:52
They don't care. They're gonna grow whether it rains or it suns or it pours or it snows sometimes even. So yeah. Weds are great. Okay, so I know that we have little tomato seedlings in. They've been in for, oh my goodness, at least three weeks and they are pretty much stalled out and they're starting to yellow.
03:19
Does this mean we're gonna lose our tomato plants this year? No, not completely. If they're getting just too much water, if they're just getting too much, but I would start by maybe putting some mulch or something around it. And you can even do some of those, you know, like a, like a clutch to kind of cover them and protect them from some of that direct, that direct rain coming onto it.
03:47
And it'll give it a little bit of protection then from some of the pooling water as well. But take some of the leaves off, if you can, the lowest. That'll help. That'll help it a bit. And then yeah, allowing it to try to get some protection in those places. But I don't think they're lost. I don't think they're lost. Tomatoes like it too. They like the heat. They like the humidity.
04:18
Okay, good. I had looked at the AccuWeather forecast, you know, the long range forecast a week and a half ago. AccuWeather said that a week and a half ago was when all this constant daily rain was going to stop and it was going to get hot and dry. And they lied. I also talked to a lady from the old farmer's almanac on my other podcast weeks ago.
04:45
And I asked her what the forecast was according to the old farmer's almanac for our area. And she said, hot and dry summer. Today or tomorrow. Tomorrow is the first day of summer. Um, I'm hoping that she's correct because this, this daily rain is, is not really great for anybody right now. Yeah. And hopefully there's enough time in between that, that it's able to absorb into the soil, but yeah, it's.
05:15
It is good for plants that are trying to transplant or grow right now, but if it's too much, it's going to drown them. Yeah. Our garden is a part of our business. It is mostly my husband's favorite thing on earth to do, to decompress from work. And so he's going to keep going at it all summer long. He's going to do everything he can to make it go.
05:45
But I'm not going to lie, I'm very happy that the garden is not our sole source of income because I suspect we would not be making a lot of money this year.
05:56
Yeah, I think part of this too is, is, you know, kind of what we talked about in the last episode was like that being able to adapt. So what is kind of coming and then learning, it's a learning curve, right? You're you're learning as you go. I think, you know, things I've done in the past have been like, even put straw down in between to kind of absorb some of that and take it away from away from the plants. Yeah.
06:26
But even though that's not something I generally like to do, I don't like to put, you know, I'll do compost sometimes, but it's, it helps. But, and then figuring out too, like different places to plant that aren't going to be.
06:42
heavily watered. Yeah, where it's not gonna hold the water for as long. Mm-hmm, yep. Yeah, our issue here is that we dig down six to eight inches into beautiful black, healthy soil, and we hit gray clay. So the whole area where we garden is basically a pool if we get massive rain, because that clay doesn't let the water go anywhere. And...
07:11
we're not going to dig out the entire area where the garden is to dig out that clay and then backfill it with good compost and start again. So we're going to adapt and learn and figure it out and it will be okay. In the meantime, our radishes are doing great because radishes love water. The onions are doing fantastic and we have like, I think 200 onions planted. Oh, yummy.
07:40
So people at the farmers market are going to get onions this year and they're going to be gargantuan. So there are some benefits to this, but I know that everyone is concerned about the amount of water that is falling from the sky right now, especially if they are growers. So I thought we should probably hit on that. The actual topic for today's podcast is permaculture and Liz knows all about it. So Liz is going to tell us all about it.
08:10
Yeah, so I wanted to add a little bit on to, you know, what you were talking about with your soil issue. So you don't necessarily need to dig it out and backfill. You can add, so leafy compost is really, really, really good for earthworms. And the earthworms, as that, so as that compost goes down, those earthworms are going to be able to get into that soil and aerate it and create a
08:40
moisture flow, keeping it away from your plants. So that was just one thing I wanted to add while it was in my brain. Okay, before we jump to permaculture then, and that kind of leads into it, what kind of leafy compost, how would we do that? Because we have three huge compost piles right now, but leafy is not something I've heard before. Yeah, so leafy compost is fantastic.
09:10
I save all my leaves, they're incredible nutrient source, and I have a compost pile just of that. And then it can be added at any time. Because if you look at the layers of wet leaves, and I'm sure we've all done this as gardeners at one point, you picked it up, threw it off of something, but you look at those layers of leaves, and you can see in between the layers, it creates a lot of room for oxygen.
09:39
to get down into the soil. And it creates space for worms. And those worms then are gonna create those holes in that clayish soil that you have, and then continue to push those nutrient rich leaves into your soil.
09:59
Okay, all right. That makes sense. Okay, did you have anything else to add about that? Yeah, keep a compost pile just of your leaves if you'd like.
10:11
Okay, cool. I didn't know we could do that. Check box. Oh yeah. Matt, we're good. I don't bag leaves. I only, I will mulch them because that those nutrients are really good for your yard, anything growing.
10:26
Okay, I didn't, I had no idea. See, this is why I love talking to people who do things on a big scale and learn everything about it because I learned so much from you. It makes me so happy. Okay, so. And it saves you time, right? No one likes begging. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yes, that's a great plan. I like that a lot. So we had a question from, I can't remember who it was. I emailed you the question. Do you know who?
10:56
who I sent you the email from. I don't recall, but I can. Oh, I'll look it up. It's fine. I got it. I think. It's gonna be quiet for a minute, guys, because we're both looking at things on our computers.
11:13
I don't have it.
11:18
I just want to read the name of the person who posted on Facebook the question and then the question. Okay. Evan Binsfield asked, some info on permaculture design, specifically tree bush species for cold climate.
11:38
Most of the info that he's finding is on Zone 6 Plus, where they can actually have fruit trees. So actually you can have lovely, lovely fruit trees in Minnesota, in Zone 4, in Zone 5. I have tons of apple trees. I've got plum trees. They grow really well. Some of it is where you're planting.
12:07
and how close together they are. But these are some really good, like Minnesota, right, we know the Honeycrisp Apple. Everybody knows that one. And I have many of those. And those do amazingly well in our zones in Minnesota, even in northern Minnesota, up in the three.
12:38
So, some other species- How many zones are in Minnesota, actually?
12:44
Um, so I believe, you know, we range from three in Northern Minnesota and then I'm down in Southern Minnesota and, and I'm a five, although some, some maps say I'm a four, I'm kind of on that order, but, um, I think we have, we range from those, those three major. I'm not going to look that up to make sure, but. I'm sorry. Oh, no, no, no, no, no problem.
13:15
Okay, so I think creating, you know, permaculture is really, how do we work with the soil that we have? How do we work with the environment that we have without putting in a lot of different plants that aren't from our area, right? So really kind of natural, sustainable planting is what
13:41
I think the question is, or at least what the answer is for permaculture, especially in our shorter growing season. So managing your soil, composting, mulching, cover crops, because cover crops really put a lot of nutrients, structure, make the soil really nice and fertile, and it kind of prevents the erosion too of some of this water that we're getting too. And then harvesting rainwater.
14:12
I think that was another, it's another good practice. I don't water any of my plants from water from my home because I don't want anything that's gone through any kind of pipes. I don't want anything that's gone through a softener, anything like that. I want naturally sourced water, as much as you could get, right? So collecting rainwater, even though this rainwater definitely is pulling the atmospheric
14:42
unhealthy, I would say on the healthy atmosphere into your water, it's still better than likely the water that you're getting from your home. It's just natural.
14:55
Okay. Can we back up just a titch and define what permaculture means? Is it permanent culture? Is that where it's based from? Sure. So permaculture, they're designed to create sustainable, kind of self-sufficient ecosystems, agricultural ecosystems if you're trying to produce.
15:22
But otherwise, it's, you know, you see, if you drive through your neighborhood, I can guarantee that you're gonna find somebody with a permaculture yard, right? So they've got natural plants there that can prevent erosion. They've got natural plants there that just grow in our season. And you'll see those, those are the ones that don't need to be mowed. They've got these big, beautiful flowers and they keep coming back every year.
15:51
And that also helps kind of.
15:56
continue, it helps keep weeds down, it helps create continual feeding for insects, for birds, for all of these species that really kind of, you're not just creating an ecosystem for the soil and the plants, you're creating it for all things that live on it. Okay, yeah, because I mean I have a vague idea of what permaculture means, but not everybody does, so I thought we should probably
16:25
define that a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. Thank you for that. And then cover crops. I always hear cover crops in relation to big, big operations. Oh yeah, so most people think a big field, right? Yeah, like acres of corn or acres of soybeans or whatever. So if you're talking about a garden like
16:52
hours which is maybe 100 feet by 160 feet. We empty out the garden every fall when it's done. You know we take everything out and my husband tills it and then he puts some of the compost that's been developed over the summer from the big bins that we have and he lets that sit. And we also have chickens so he puts the chicken bedding with the chicken poop on the garden and lets that sit over the wintertime.
17:20
So we don't really do a cover crop. I mean, I suppose we could try a winter rye or something, but then it's covering where we want to plant again in the spring. So when you're talking about cover crops, how would that work for a situation like ours? Would it work at all?
17:44
Yeah, absolutely. So it doesn't have to be, you know, something that you're gonna, it could be something that you could even harvest right in the spring and continue, you know, allowing the farm to produce for you, right. So the big farmers, that's what they do, they're going to plant rye, they'll do winter wheat, there's all kinds of or alfalfa, right? alfalfa is fantastic, especially if you have animals to feed. So or you can sell it.
18:14
So allowing anything that you can kind of put in the soil when you're not utilizing it, and it's a little bit more work, but you're adding, if you think of it as treating your soil as you do in the fall, right? If you're putting that compost in, all of those other things, this would just be an additional step to create soil health and improve the fertility of it.
18:46
It prevents erosion.
18:49
And then you can always, you know, continue to just change crops also, or, you know, if you choose not to, you don't have to. But I think it could be a little bit more challenging too, if you don't have something to harvest it with.
19:08
Yeah, and you know, you really don't smaller farms that don't have. Yeah. So that that can be a bit of a challenge. But if you do have animals, or a way to pull it, you can always just till it in also in the spring, if that's something that
19:26
that is a practice that you do in the spring? We do, we till it in the spring because we have to break it up more than it's already broken up by the earthworms in the dirt. We have lots of earthworms, the chickens absolutely love the earthworms. Oh yeah, that's one of my favorite things to watch. Yeah, we kife a couple and throw them in the run and they lose their mind. It's very, very funny to watch. And honestly, chickens, if you live where you can have chickens, have chickens. They are entertaining as all hell.
19:54
They're great. Oh my goodness, yes. So, okay. So, did you have more you wanted to say about permaculture? I didn't mean to back you up too far, but it's one to hit on things that I didn't know about too. Yeah, no. And so I think the cover crop, even if you plant a cover crop, you decide that you can't harvest it. You can till it in because you're ultimately adding nutrients. You're changing that soil structure, right? So you're talking about clayish soil that you have. It's gonna kind of help break that up.
20:24
and create soil that is going to be able to regulate and conserve moisture in a healthy way. And disperse it in a healthy way because disperse the moisture is the thing we're having trouble with right now. Yeah. And if we want to go to that, right? So going to that subject, I think being able to kind of create like a berm.
20:52
to protect some of your plants that maybe might be getting too much water. That's things that I've done in the past. You know how you you amount different plants, right? So melons, things like that, that you you plant those in amount. You can also do that with some of you know anything else that you have at the garden that you really need to to keep away from that heavy moisture. Malt helps as well. Okay.
21:19
We're going to have to work on that Sunday when it's not raining, because it's going to rain tomorrow and it's going to rain Friday and it's going to rain Saturday. Go fig. I don't mean to sound so pissy about this, but I'm just over it. We need rain to make things grow, but I don't think we need buckets poured over our heads every day. Right. Yeah, I agree. Looking outside and seeing...
21:47
Even my yard flooded. I'm in a flood zone today. And I could look out at the neighbor's field and see Lake Monsanto. It's a little, it's a little troubling. That is so funny because, um, we have a useless garage that sits directly behind our house and there's a cement pad in front of it and every time it really rains, all the water pools in front of that garage and we call it Lake Lewis.
22:14
because my last name is Louis. So yeah, Lake Lonsanto, that's awesome. Okay, so with permaculture, I don't wanna beat a dead horse here, but we have a tree line that borders the left side of our property and the back side of our property. And we have two wild elderberry trees.
22:44
there we have wild plum and we have wild black raspberries and we have not messed with any of those trees because they were here when we got here. They are a natural source of food and we love everything about it. And my question is, because I got distracted by thinking about my tree line, if a wild version of a fruit grows on your land,
23:12
Does that automatically mean that a domesticated or cultivated variety will grow on your land? Not necessarily, right? I have a preference towards organic heirloom varieties, right? And anything that grows naturally, I tend to leave, unless it's something that's going to harm, anything else that I'm growing.
23:42
but you can always add to those too. I would leave them. I have elderberry growing in my grove as well. And I actually just bought yesterday 10 black elderberry plants to add to my farm. Because I love black elderberries. They're so good, so nutritious. But those kind of also, right? So elderberry gets huge. And that also will create kind of a natural windbreak. Because
24:10
Yes, they're they're big, they're leafy. So things tend to grow. Sometimes where they're beneficial for you. Yeah. You can add to those two, right? So you could try putting in a cultivated, you know, apple tree or plum tree, something like that, and see how it does. Because they, you know, apple trees, you need at least two varieties to pollinate. Yep.
24:43
Yep, we have, I think we have eight different varieties of apple tree growing that we've put in. I think it's eight. Oh, that's wonderful. And we have honeycrisp trees. We have two of them that we bought two years ago. And they were saplings when we bought them and they're finally starting to branch out and fluff out with the leaves. So we're hoping against all hope that we might get a few honeycrisp apples.
25:11
not this fall, but the following fall. Oh, yeah, it takes with most trees. I don't recommend people going out and buying giant expensive trees. Because if you have a sapling or you have a giant tree, those first two years, go towards root development. Yes, so it save your money, get yourself a little sapling and you could usually get them especially
25:40
If you're a farmer, through your county programs, there's county programs that offer big tree and shrub sales that are perennial to your area, that are natural to your area. And you can get them in bulk for very good prices. And I recommend putting a lot of those in.
26:05
Yes, and if you don't know how to find that information, I bet the University of Minnesota's Extension Services would probably be able to direct you. Absolutely, and most county, every county website is going to have their, it's usually their soil environmental kind of management program, and that's usually, at least in my county, Blue Earth County, that's where
26:31
that's where you would order it. And I kind of live on the border of Blue Earth and Brown County. And Brown County has their own program. The county my parents farm is in, they have their own. And you'll be able to get the plants that my mother can get are not the same ones that I can get in my area.
26:50
Is it because it's specific to that area? Is that why? Yes. Okay. Okay. Um, we also bought cherry trees and peach trees last year. And my husband brought home a supposedly cold, hardy, sweet cherry tree. And he bought two of the same kind. And
27:16
I figured that cherry trees were like apple trees and that they need another variety so they will pollinate. And I was like, bring me the tag from one of the cherry trees. And he did. And I looked it up to see what other cherry tree we would need to buy to actually get cherries out of these things. And come to find out the best one was the Rainier cherry. That was the one they recommended to use as a cross pollinator.
27:43
I don't know what you know about cherry trees, but Rainier cherry trees are expensive. So we ended up buying a $60 Rainier cherry tree sapling from somewhere, ordered it, it came in, it was healthy, it was fine, and we put it in. All three cherry trees bloomed this spring. I don't think we'll see cherries this spring because I'm assuming they need time to adjust their new environment as well as apple trees do.
28:11
but we're hoping that we'll actually have sweet cherries in a couple of years growing here. Oh, I'm excited for that. I don't have a lot of experience in cherries, cherry trees. I just, that is something though that I would love to learn about. Me too. And faith, oh my goodness. Yeah, I mean, all I've known about cherries.
28:40
All I've known about cherries my whole living existence in Minnesota, which is over 30 years now, is that the sour cherries do really well here. I didn't know you could grow a cold hardy cherry.
28:53
So yeah, we'll see. There's a lot of.
28:57
There's a lot of native that do really well and they make insane with crab apples. I want to say that too. There's some varieties of crab apples and most people think like I was crab apple. No, but you can make really, really good jams and jellies with them.
29:18
You don't, it doesn't have to be, you could use a lot of the native species that are growing.
29:24
Yes, and the wonderful thing about Minnesota, okay, I'm glad you said that. The state land that is around us everywhere. We talked with one of the rangers or whatever they're called here. I grew up on the East Coast, so I don't know what the people who patrol our forests are called. But they said that as long as you don't pick any plants from state land.
29:52
as long as you don't cut any plants from state land. You are allowed to harvest any fruit from state land you want to. So if there are wild plums growing and they're ripe and they taste good, you are more than welcome to take plums from state land. Asparagus, asparagus grows wild everywhere in Minnesota. If you want asparagus in the spring, ask anybody if they know of a patch growing somewhere wild.
30:22
Minnesota is one of the best states for foraging that I know of. It is. My daughter loves to go asparagus hunting in the spring. I have an asparagus patch, which I'm grateful for, but she's got these secret spots and mushrooms. So, I love to go look for mushrooms. I have a few species that grow in my own woods.
30:51
love to go look at different spots and I know them in my brain, I can get to them without having to, you know, without having a map, I just go there. And I love looking for morels and different, different fruits that are growing different things that I can harvest and enjoy and then create more out of right, you can, you can keep the spores for morels and create your own. Uh-huh.
31:19
Yep. And you want to collect your morel, any mushrooms actually, in a mesh bag so the spores can get dropped as you're walking out of wherever you picked them from because you want them to propagate. You want them to keep going. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. And we have an asparagus patch as well. We have a huge asparagus patch that we put in from crowns when we moved here. And
31:46
some guy pulled it, oh it was the propane dude, the propane guy that brings our propane fuel for our tank. And he saw, it was after they had all done their thing, so there were all these, I don't know what they're called. Asparagus is a grass, so it had gone to seed. And he was talking to my son, and he says, I see you have a very nice asparagus patch. And my son said, yes we do. He said, you know it grows wild all over the place here, right?
32:15
My son was like, yes. He said, you don't have to grow asparagus in your garden. And my son says, well, where are the patches around here? And the guy says, I can't tell you. Yes, that's a good word. My son said, well, that doesn't help us. I think we'll keep growing asparagus because at least we know where this one is. And the guy just laughed. So.
32:39
The reason I tell this story is some people are very, very secretive about their spots. We knew of an apple tree, like it had to have been over 100 years old, on state land up in, I think it was Scott County. And we stumbled on it because we were out driving around, big old apple tree full of beautiful apples. And we went and picked that tree clean because it was state land. We're allowed to pick apples.
33:09
And we did it two years in a row, picked hundreds of pounds of apples, made jelly, made applesauce, froze some for pies. Third year we went back and someone had cut that tree down. I cried, I sobbed. It was our secret tree and then it was gone. So yeah, it's really interesting how you find things and they're a wonderful resource.
33:37
on state property and then it may not be there anymore. Yes, this is true. And I don't know what variety those apples were. The closest I could get in doing my research was called a wealthy variety. Okay. But I have no idea what it really was. They were gorgeous. They were at least the size of my palm, you know, with my fingers wrapped around the outside. They were big
34:07
So anyway, we like that on my farm. When I moved here, there were two trees. One looked like a smaller honey crisp and then one was this massive, huge, like baking apple. And those ones always did just incredibly well, that tree. And I could never figure out what variety it was, but it...
34:34
It still does, produces massive huge apples and I've noticed they're best for baking. Apple crisp, making sauces, things like that. They're fabulous. We're going to have to do an episode just about apples. I agree. Let's do that. Let's put that on the list because I love fall and I love apples and my family actually has a branch that has an orchard in Maine still to this day.
35:03
And we don't really know that branch because my dad's mom passed away when he was two years old and he just didn't have any way to stay in contact with that side of the family. It's a long convoluted story. I don't know why everything happened the way it did. But we know that the bracket apple orchard in, I think it's Lemington, Maine is part of our family tree. So we're going to have to talk about apples on an episode. I think that would be really fun.
35:33
Yes, I agree. Yeah. And I know it's Minnesota, but Minnesota is a big apple growing state, just like Maine is. So I think we could, we could definitely do a deep dive on apples and how to grow them and what it takes and the different root stocks and all that. So yes, I'm going to put that on the list. Okay. So we're at 35 minutes and 41 seconds. I'm trying to keep the episodes to half an hour. So that's it for this one. Okay. Thank you, Liz. Thank you.
36:03
Bye.

37 min
June 21, 2024 Weeds - how to mitigate them OR encourage growth of the beneficial ones
In this episode we discuss weeds, both mitigation, and propagation. Some weeds are a problem, but some have beneficial properties
You can find us on Facebook, and also join the Facebook group.
If you have a gardening question, please email Mary at [email protected] or Liz at [email protected]
00:00
Mary Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well, that all depends, but that's not really what this podcast is about. We're here to help you grow your garden. Welcome to Mary and the Master Gardener. Today, Liz the Master Gardener is going to talk about how to keep weeds down or suppressed or gone, preferably.
00:24
Yes, as best as I can, as best as I can guide. Okay. Michelle Bellin asks, what's the best way to prevent weeds from taking over? Go ahead, Liz, tell me all the secrets. I don't know if there are any real secrets to weeds, but so here's a few methods that I use, and then there's methods that, right,
00:54
that are available to everyone. I don't use chemicals. I don't use herbicides. I don't use anything like that. I, I pull weeds. That's my method. But there's a lot of methods that you can use to get ahead of it, right? So so it's a big garden if you're doing vegetables, you know, using tilling sometimes can be
01:24
the best method at the beginning of the season. But if you're trying not to disrupt the ground too much, the number one would be mulching. So mulching using natural mulch, right? So straw, wood chips, shredded leaves, you can buy mulch at the store. It blocks sunlight, it prevents weeds from germinating and coming up.
01:53
you can also use weed barriers, right? So they make the landscape fabric that you can use. And it does a pretty good job, you know, of allowing air to come through, which plastic doesn't. So I don't recommend using plastic because it kills everything that's under it, right? It's gonna kill the worms. It's gonna kill all of this lovely ecosystem that you have going. So weed barrier is another
02:22
method and I've done that in my garden before. I go back and forth between that because it can be helpful especially if you're doing a lot on your own. But I think the number one is going to be mulching. Okay. Or staying ahead of it, right? Yes. I know it's the simplest and it's the most difficult.
02:48
because I always forget to lift with my legs and I always lift with my back and then the next morning I'm in pain and wondering what I did wrong. Yep, even though you know exactly what you did wrong, we all do it. It's so dumb, but we all do it. Right, yep, yep. Okay, so I have things to share on this too. In our newly built greenhouse, it's, I think it's 40 by...
03:16
18, 40 feet by 18 feet or 40 feet by 20 feet. We aren't necessarily gonna be growing anything in the actual dirt of the greenhouse. It's gonna be more seed starting and hanging pots and things like that. So my husband took the bags that our chicken feed comes in, cut them so they're flat, and he's laid those down in there to kill all the grasses and weeds that are still coming up because it was field. It was...
03:45
before the greenhouse was built where it is. And so we're not so concerned about screwing up the ecosystem in that soil because we don't intend to grow anything in that soil. And someone suggested to him that he use the feed bags because they're gonna cover the dirt, the sun won't be able to get to any seeds in the ground and nothing will grow anymore. So we're trying that for the greenhouse. I wouldn't try that for...
04:15
for a garden outside because it will ruin the soil. Right, yeah, that's true. So there's other methods too that are, I mean, go find some cardboard that you have laying around your house and you can put the box, unfold it, put it down, and that it allows oxygen to come through, it allows minimal sunlight, but it actually can be good bedding to create
04:45
different growth. That way you're not having to go and disrupt the soil in any way. You're just kind of creating a new layer, right? A new start. Right. The other thing that I wanted to mention is in Minnesota, I don't know if this grows everywhere, but I really noticed when we started our gardening 20 something years ago, there is a weed that grows in Minnesota called purslane.
05:13
It is a weed, but it's also really good for you. You can eat it. Yes, you can. And I've read up on it and it actually has more nutritional value than spinach does. Yes, it's very good. You can see the, the, you know, how the purslane leaves get kind of chunky. Like you can see the moisture in them and they do, they do really well. So that's kind of a natural ground cover, right? And there's.
05:44
ground covers that you can plant or plant spacing, right? Plant spacing and plant planning, right? So planting certain plants next to each other, companion planting, one might shade out the other so that one will grow on, I have chamomile all over and I have mint in a lot of the garden to kind of be that weed barrier, right? And it's edible.
06:14
So a lot of that too can be just how you, like I think about creeping Jenny, right? That beautiful little yellow plants that grows, it's a ground cover and you can put that down, that can be beautiful, keeps the weeds out. And then if it's overgrowing where you don't want it, pull it. Yep. And yarrow or yarrow, however you say it, I don't know if it's a...
06:41
if it's a narrow A or a big open A, but Y-A-R-R-O-W. Yep. That's a really good one too. And yarrow has some really good uses as well. Yes. And it grows naturally, at least in my area. It's all over. And it's really pretty. When it blooms, it's gorgeous. So there are weeds that are...
07:08
I don't want to use the word bad because no plant is bad except for maybe poison ivy. But there are weeds that are not beneficial and there are weeds that you actually do want to encourage the growth of. Yes. Yes. Some that are beneficial, right? And they're gonna keep other pests and other things. It'll protect the other plants as well. Yeah. Someone I talked to for the other podcast last week mentioned that she
07:37
grows comfrey plants under her apple trees as a way to keep the weeds down around the apples. And she said that it's excellent nutrients for the ground because as the plant dies off and compost basically rots on top of the dirt around the apple trees, it puts all this gorgeous nutrition back into the soil around the tree. Absolutely. And comfrey is absolutely a weed.
08:04
There's no doubt in my mind that it is a weed, but it can be a beneficial weed. So, so the big answer is no matter what you're trying to do to keep weeds from taking over, it's going to require work. It's either, it's either you have to be creative and use the weeds to your advantage, or you have to pull them by hand, or you have to put something down to smother them.
08:32
So it's going to be work no matter how you try to eradicate them. Yes. And you know, if you're trying to grow plants, you know, if, if, if you live in town and you, and you have the ability to have raised beds, um, that's, that's always easier to manage and control because you can determine what's in those boxes, but, you know, I think it, like you said, it, it comes back to.
09:00
you got to put some edible grease into it and make sure you get the root of the weed or it's just going to come right back. Yes. And while we're talking about weeds and beneficial versus not, we grew a garden at a neighbor's house five springs ago now because we didn't have our place where we live now five years ago. And she had these beautiful weeds.
09:30
that came up in our garden. And the blooms looked like the blooms on a potato plant, but they were not potato weeds. I don't know what these weeds were, but they were gorgeous. They were like cream with a burgundy center to them. And they looked like the bloom on a potato or an eggplant. Do you have any idea what those were? I am- Does this ring a bell? I am in my brain right now, trying to...
10:00
think of what it could be. They were sort of viney, but they weren't viney like a sweet potato vine. But they were beautiful. They were probably the size of a half dollar when they opened up the blooms. Oh.
10:20
I have been trying to find out. It wasn't night shade, was it? It didn't know. I don't think so. It didn't make the little berries that night shade makes. Okay, okay. So I don't know what they were, but they were beautiful. And I ended up cutting some and putting them in like a little dish, a little short dish, because I couldn't leave them there. They were too pretty. I had to bring them home. Yeah. I understand that. So.
10:47
I just didn't know if maybe it would ring a bell. But if you do happen to think of it at some point, let me know, because I would love to know what they are. They do not grow here where we are now. I have not seen them yet. So, okay. So that's pretty much the answer on what's the best way to prevent weeds from taking over. Work at it. It takes work. Yes, it takes work. I can go through kind of a checklist here, right?
11:17
mulching, ground covers, plant spacing. So spacing and putting in the right plants that are going to be able to help prevent the weeds from coming up because they're the ones that are there. The hand weeding, you know, you can use your hands, they have so many different tools now to pull weeds out. And I struggle with dandelions at my place. So I've got in, you know, in my flower beds, I've got
11:47
some tools that I don't have to lean over. I don't have to do any of that. I can stick it in the ground, turn it, and it pulls it out. So there's other methods. Killing, kind of that cultivating to allow the weeds to be pulled out once they're there, if that's the point that you're at. You can use like pre-emerging herbicides, right?
12:16
like what is the name of, I'm trying to think of the name.
12:23
of the of the pre-emerging herbicide that a lot of people like to use. It's kind of you sprinkle it down and then it stops. I have no idea. I'm sorry. That's the name of it. Okay. Yeah. So I know a lot of gardeners use prune. You can, it stops them from coming up, but also it's an herbicide. So you're putting that into the soil.
12:54
Yeah. Solarization, covering soil with, you know, like a clear either cloche or even something that's going to allow sun to get through, but not the weeds to pull out, right? So landscaping fabric, heat trapping kind of under under some
13:22
you know, like a poly plastic type of thing. So I know that there's a lot of people talk about using vinegar or salt solutions or boiling water to get rid of weeds. I have never done. I have tried it. It doesn't work well. Yeah. And for one, I've heard from people, it's not always the most effective method, but I
13:48
know, I know that sometimes some of this stuff can just get so out of control that it is very difficult to manage. So getting ahead, again that's number one, getting ahead of the weeds before they come is going to be the most important. Yeah. Okay. But these are all things you learn as you go, right? Yep. Yep. The worst weed that we have here on our property is the grass.
14:18
I don't know what kind of grass grows in the field that we till under every year, but I'm telling you, it doesn't work. We till because we have to get stuff in the garden. If we could do the no-till method, we would do that, but it doesn't work for what we're trying to do. And my husband, by the end of July, is just like, I can't pull any more grass. I just can't. And we're on our fourth.
14:48
we think 21, 22, 23, fourth spring here. And because he has tilled the garden every fall and every spring since we moved in, the growing area of the garden is now very good soil and we've amended it and we've made it really nice and it grows wonderful produce. The edges of the garden, grass everywhere to the point that you can't even see into the garden
15:18
by the end of August because the grasses are so tall. Because the mower doesn't get the very edge and he'll take the little hand scythe thing out and knock stuff down. But you know how hot last August was and the previous August was. By August, he'd just given up. He was like, I don't care. The stuff in the garden is doing great. I'm just gonna let the grasses grow. I said, okay, you do that. So.
15:46
So I guess the point is that when you're trying to do a garden plot or a raised bed or something where you want your stuff that you put in to grow, you do have to figure out a way to control the weeds because the weeds compete with the plants you put in and they don't do as well. Right. They steal nutrients and moisture from space. Yeah. But you can also cave.
16:16
at the end of the season and be like, okay, we've got one more month to go. Everything is established. It's not taking away from what we put in. Just let the weeds do their thing. You can do that too. Yes. So here, the problem with that though, is allowing any weed to go to seed. Once it goes to seed, it's going to be very difficult to get it out. It can take a lot longer. So if you can prevent.
16:46
any weed or anything from going to seed that you don't want. That is the best of it. Yep. Yep, that's the way to win the war, not the battle. Yep. Yep. Yep. The other thing that I was going to say is if you're not growing a big garden, we have peonies. Here, peonies. How are you saying? They're my favorite flower. The beautiful, the poor man's rose are my favorite
17:16
And peonies are great at keeping weeds down. Cause they shade out underneath. Yes. So I know. You need like a lot of sun. So you can always plant and I always plant either irises or some hostas around it. Because those are, yeah, the, the hostas are going to be lower and they're going to, they're going to shade out a lot of weeds as well.
17:43
Yeah, but they like shade. Yeah, right. They'll do well underneath a lot of that stuff. Okay. Yeah. I was going to say, I'm so silly. I get talking to you guys, you other people on the other podcast, and I realized that I'm being dumb about something we're doing here. We should be putting peonies around the outside of the garden because the garden gets sun all day long. Yeah. Anywhere. So I do a lot. I have a cut flower garden.
18:12
Um, and a lot of those taller, taller ones. So I have like the, the binaries that I grow and those very tall, those I'll plant next to, you know, I'll do all of the cut flowers kind of over there, but I'll do stuff in between some of that tall, those tall plants, just to make sure that nothing can come through and they're mutually beneficial.
18:37
I need to start checking Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and all those wonderful resources for free peony roots this fall. Those are going to be hard to come by. There's always some, somebody's splitting peonies somewhere in the area. They're hard to find for free, but I grow peonies, so I've got all of them. Mm-hmm. Yep.
19:01
I'm going to talk to my husband and be like, if you want to not have to deal with the grasses around the edge of the garden, let's put peonies all the way around the garden. Yeah. And then, and as those spread too, right? Because I, I've never thought of them as the poor man's rose. I've always, like they've always been one of my absolute favorite flowers. Forever. They, there's so many different varieties. I've got the fern, peony, the red, they're gorgeous.
19:29
There's some that smell wonderful, some that are bush, some that are tall, and they're magnificent. They make the most beautiful flowers.
19:41
Yes, you are preaching to the choir. I love peonies. They are my absolute favorite flowering plant to grow. Yes, and if you can get them, if you can get your husband to put those in the garden, those will continue to produce for years. They'll spread. You can move them, you can sell them, you can give them away.
20:05
Oh yes, absolutely. We have, I think we had 60 blooms this year from plants that were put in in the last three years. Isn't that lovely? I love perennials. I, I, oh my god, they're so wonderful because they're so easy. The problem with perennials is you have to wait because I know that for peonies, the first year is sleep, the second year is creep, and the third year is leech.
20:34
So basically you put in peony roots and three springs later, you will maybe have some flowers to put in a vase in your house. Yeah. I don't know if that's true of all rhizomes and, and bulbs. Is it true of all of them? Not always, right? I just planted some, some verniculus bulbs and they're coming up right away. So it really,
21:04
It depends. I'm not a fan of hauling bulbs in the fall. I don't like to mess with that. I like as much easy, beautiful gardening as I can get. So if something can come up every year naturally and I don't have to do as much work, that's what I'm going to go for. Otherwise, some of those things are best grown in pots.
21:27
Mm-hmm. Yep. We tried growing dahlias last summer. I'd never grown them before and After we put them in I realized that we're gonna have to take them out you know winter because they don't winter over and I decided to be a rebel and I was like I didn't like them enough to grow them again So we're just gonna leave them right where they are and see if they somehow do winter over They do not and I do not care because I'm never growing dahlias again
21:57
They're really pretty, but I don't love them enough to keep growing them. So, but those are bulbs and I don't wanna have to worry about digging them out and doing all the work to preserve them over the winter time. I know lots of people love it and do it and they do it really well. I am not one of them. Yeah, I've kind of been that person too. I know, and I've planted them.
22:25
You know, you can get them in the baskets with all the holes in it so that it's easier to pull them out in the fall. And still I'm like, uh, we'll see. Put some mulch on it. See what happens. Yeah. I didn't think they'd make it. And my husband said, do you want me to dig those out? And I was like, no, leave them. We're going to be rebel gardeners for the winter. We're going to see if they come back. I don't cut anything back in the fall. Nothing. I don't cut anything. Yeah. He said, you don't really like it.
22:55
Yeah, he said, you don't really like the dollies, do you? I said, nope, I would much rather grow peonies. They're easy, they're low maintenance, and they're beautiful. He said, okay, I will get you all the peony bulbs you want. I was like, really? Honest, can we make the whole property of peonies? He said, no.
23:11
I was very sad in that moment because I really wanted to make the whole property peonies, but he said no. Slowly accumulate. I'll work on him. It'll be okay. Especially when I tell him that if he plants peony plants all the way around the garden, it'll cut down on the problems with the grass coming in. So yeah, I planted mint around the garden and that has been doing a really, really good job of keeping and chamomile.
23:40
of keeping weeds coming and grass. Yeah, time too. Time is good because it's a lower to the ground plant and it's really thick. Yep, creeping time is really great for that.
23:55
Yeah, and actually culinary time too. We had some and we didn't have a single piece of grass coming up through the time because it was so thick.
24:05
So yeah, time can do it. The pineapple weed, I don't know if that's the real word for it, it's like wild chamomile or something. That grows here everywhere. And I would love to have my lawn be wild, a wild, sorry, pineapple weed. Because when you step on it, it smells so good. Yeah, it does. I have a wooly time all over because I love the smell of that and the texture of it.
24:34
Yeah. Yeah. So there are solutions here that are lovely and useful and smell good and are fun to talk about. So I'm really glad that our friend on Facebook asked on the gardening group that I pulled the question from asked the question because weeds are. Let's be honest. Weeds are a pain in the ass. Yep.
24:58
But if you can, if you can, I don't know, tame seems to be the wrong word. Corral them and direct the ones that you want to do things you want them to do for you, I think they can be fine. Absolutely. Oh, and I recommend anybody get like a weed app or an identifying, like a plant identifier app. I think Google has one. I know there's a app called Seek. And it's not always 100%, but if you're unsure about what something is, you pull that up.
25:27
open the app, it'll, it'll look at it and likely identify, you know, the genus species, all of those pieces for you. So you can, it'll tell you if it's, if it's got medicinal qualities, if it's natural, if it's invasive, those types of things. Because a lot of those things that we probably think are weeds that are like I, for years, I probably went in my woods and thought, you know, a lot of these things are weeds and then come to, to investigate that no, a lot of that is
25:56
natural and medicinal.
26:01
Yes, and one of the coolest ones is catnip. Oh, yeah, I have it everywhere. Mike, and that's probably why I have so many cats. I'd like to think that's the reason why. Uh huh. Yeah, we have catnip growing all over the property and catnip actually likes its feet wet. I didn't know this. So last summer, last, okay, last spring, I was so excited because I knew catnip grew, grew everywhere on the property. And I was going to.
26:31
harvest it when it started growing and I was going to dry it and put it in cute little bags and put a cute label on it and sell it at the farmers market for people who have cats. And then it dried out at the end of what? June last year? And all the catnip died. There was no catnip growing anywhere in our yard last year. I was like, well so much for making the cats happy this summer at the farmers market. Well, this year. Yeah, it was just so dry.
27:00
Hopefully, yeah, I haven't seen any yet, but who knows, we'll see what happens. That's not true. My cat, my barn cat, actually did find some catnip. She's crazy. Her name is Floof, and she found the only catnip that was growing so far this year, and she walked up to my husband with it in her mouth, and he split it off because she has...
27:29
We kept one of her kittens from last fall and he split the catnip and gave the other piece to the other cat and Chirp had never seen catnip before and she was crazy. After she ate it, she was running around our yard like she was on steroids. So our cats have benefited so far this spring from one place of catnip on the property. Oh my!
27:52
Well, you need some more. You let me know. So it's growing. I just gotta find it. I got it all over. Yes. I would love to do the cute little packets of it to sell. Because I think that, I think the catnip you get at the store is crap. We bought it for our cats before, you know, before we had our own source of catnip. And they would, they'd sniff it and bat at it and chew on it. But they didn't ever seem very happy with it.
28:22
The catnip growing here is so fresh that it's more intense. And so they love it. And the other thing that I didn't know about catnip is catnip has exactly the opposite effect on dogs. It actually mellows dogs out. I have not seen my dogs try to eat it yet, although maybe they have, but even the raw catnip, right, you pull a leaf off, my cats will go.
28:52
Crazy for it. Two on it, rub on it.
28:58
Yeah, when we had our dog spayed three years ago now, we had catnip dried from the first crop from the first year we were here. And I had read that catnip had a sedative effect on dogs. And the vet had told us that she absolutely should not be jumping at all because the incision would tear.
29:24
And she's a mini Australian Shepherd, so she's crazy. She's always jumping and running up the stairs and stuff. No. And so she immediately, the morning after she was spayed, she was trying to jump on the couch and jump on the bed and just be her normal self. And I grabbed some of the dried catnip because I knew she liked catnip. She was always sniffing it when we gave it to the cats. And I put some in my hand and I was like, Maggie, come here. And she walked over and I rolled my hand open and she stuck her nose in there and just like.
29:52
ate it out of my hand and went and laid down and was laid down for a good hour. And she wasn't passed out, but she was just actually being a good girl and being in a restful state. So anytime she wound up for the next few days, I would give her some catnip and she would go lay down. So apparently it works. Okay. We'll be harvesting that then.
30:16
I've got to... Yes, catnip is one of the best. My two big English mastiffs, I don't think I'd have to give them anything to just be chill. They're probably still in bed right now, actually. So while you were... Since we've been talking about weeds, and I know we don't have a whole lot of time left, I wanted to... Yeah, that's fine. I do a lot of research on herbal medicine. And...
30:45
I like to grow and use plants for their natural potential. And you were talking about comfrey earlier. So I pulled out my big book and started looking up the medicinal uses of comfrey that grows naturally here. So the self-help on it is
31:14
acne and boils fractures fungal skin infections healing wounds inflamed skin rashes and stiff and aching joints. And it does talk about clinical research that's been done. It was mostly done in Germany. But making like a poultice rates or an ointment out of out of the leaves had a let's see in a 2007 study.
31:42
Physicians rated that the efficacy of a comfrey leaf cream and healing abrasions was very good effective in 93% of cases and complete healing took four days with comfrey and seven days with a placebo. So it's known for its anti-inflammatory in osteoarthritis, back pain, sprains.
32:12
So that's, it looks like the leaves, the leaves are the best poultice are going to make the best, but you can make an infused oil also. So if you were to take comfrey and make a salve or an infused oil out of it, and then add honey, you would have antibacterial as well as anti-inflammatory.
32:35
That's interesting. I may have to look into this because I make stuff like that. Oh, I love it. Yeah. So that would be this one wouldn't be recommended for like, the retina gestion necessarily, right? Like, so there's some that you can write, you know, you can make a tincture, put it on your tongue. This would be you're going to make an oil to you know, like a if you think of like a tiger balm or you know, something like that, it's going to be something that you're going to want to put on your skin.
33:05
instead of, yeah, ingesting. Yes. So again, just prove the point that not all weeds are terrible things that need to not exist. We need some of this stuff. Yes, yes.
33:19
All right, awesome. All right, Liz, thank you so much. Thank you, bye. Bye.

34 min
June 20, 2024 Mary and the Master Gardener
Learn about Liz, the Master Gardener. How she got into gardening and what inspired her to help other gardeners. You can find us on Facebook, and also join the Facebook group.
If you have a gardening question, please email Mary at [email protected] or Liz at [email protected]
00:00
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well, that all depends, but that's not really what this podcast is about. We're here to help you grow your garden. Welcome to Mary and the Master Gardener. Today is the inaugural episode of Mary and the Master Gardener and the Master Gardener is Liz. Good morning, Liz. Good morning, Mary. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you for wanting to do this with me. I'm so excited.
00:29
So you are a master gardener. How did that happen? How did you get into it? Well, I learned about it from my mother who herself was a master gardener. And I didn't have a green thumb when I was younger to save my life. But as I watched her, I was always very envious of what she could grow and how beautiful she made it. And she always did all of this incredible.
00:58
giant work for such a little woman. And I kind of, once I moved out to a farm, decided that I wanted to be able to do something like that as well. And there were plants here that I couldn't identify. And so I think the idea may have been a little selfish in my own understanding, but it was also to be able to become good at what I do now.
01:27
So the process is going through your, in Minnesota, going through your county, your U of M extension office, and every county has one. You can sign up online. They, at the time when I did it, which is almost 10 years ago, you could do an in-person course. They had some courses over the weekend up at the Arboretum. And then you also get a free.
01:56
membership to the Arboretum as a master gardener, but you do your training. You learn everything from basic seeding to how to manage grass to managing deer coming in. It's pretty extensive in a short amount of time. And then you get to group up with these wonderful people within your gardening programs through
02:26
County Extension Office. And I was definitely the youngest one there. And I learned so much, so much. I learned how to graft plants. I learned how to judge at different county fairs, which was interesting.
02:44
Okay, so it's everything. Mm-hmm. You're volunteering your time. The first year that you do it, they want you to put in 50 hours. And that's people calling the Extension office asking for help with some problems that they have. You can go out there and you can consult. And you could have community gardens and kind of volunteer in ways like that.
03:13
And that's kind of what I ended up doing through actually my therapy practice was doing a lot of a lot of gardening teaching to people who were incarcerated.
03:31
Okay, cool. So I don't know how to ask this question right. Is it mostly learning by reading or is there a lot of hands-on as well? Yeah, so I did the online portion and that's a lot of reading, a lot of studying. You get this lovely book and you have all the resources. It provides you with
04:01
I suppose a semester or two of coursework in a short amount of time. But the goal is really that you're able to help find a resource to solve any problem or to learn something that you need to learn. All righty. So you've been doing this for eight years or 10 years? About nine. Nine. Okay. So in those nine years.
04:30
have you actually gotten phone calls from people and they're asking about, I don't know, the freaking potato bugs that eat potato plants? I got that more through the volunteering piece. I think I got maybe one call because I mostly dealt with vegetables and things like that.
04:56
there were, I didn't have a lot of availability at the time. I had an infant and a full-time job and the farm. So, but yeah, I definitely put my hours in learning those things as I was teaching gardening to lots of, lots of people. Yeah. Okay. So like I said, I don't know what I'm trying to get at here. It's a question that's...
05:25
that's bubbling. I guess what I'm trying to find out is like how much time do you spend now over the course of a month helping out people because you are a master gardener? Oh, it's constant. Yeah. Even this, right? Like I'm bringing this and trying to educate others on different aspects of gardening and growing.
05:52
I feel, yeah, I help friends out all the time. I've got farmer's market setups, you know, as I think you do too. And it's kind of constant, just answering questions and.
06:07
planning gardens and things like that. So it's just part of your everyday life at this point. Oh, absolutely. It's part of my dreams too. It's constantly in the brain. Yeah, here too. Because we are just now, last weekend, not this past weekend like yesterday, but two weekends ago, my husband finally was able to get into the garden and get stuff planted
06:37
two weeks straight because of all the rain we've had. Yeah, mine is right now. But yeah, it's, whenever you get it in, you get it in. Yes. Yes, and luckily, and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but we got our heated greenhouse built. It's been built for three weeks now. And so we picked up some of the buckets that the nursery...
07:02
has their potted plants in with the holes in the bottom already. A lady in Mankato was giving away a whole buttload of them. And so my husband and son ran down to Mankato and got these empty nursery pots and brought them home. And he is putting tomatoes and things in those for now, because it's now raining again. So we're trying to get the growth happening, even though we can't get them in the garden when we want to, because then once we can, they'll already be growing and budding or blooming.
07:33
Yep, that's what I do. I start seed early and get them out. Since I sell and doing the CSA piece, I need to be kind of stagger planting, right? And I do a lot of companion planting for pests and other diseases. So it feels like it's never ending. The seeding process is just constant. But then, I mean, you can extend the growing season for quite some time then and have several crops.
08:04
Yes, and I'm not even sure we're going to be doing potatoes this year because he hasn't, we usually put them in raised beds so we can add dirt to the, or soil to the boxes as the plants grow. So we get more potatoes, but he hasn't got those set up. I don't know if we're doing potatoes this year. Oh, that can be simple as getting some chicken wire, bending the bottom, putting a couple of rocks down, put your seed, put your potatoes in.
08:33
and then just put some dirt on top. It doesn't need to be anything fancy as long as you're not having to dig in the dirt to try to find them and then stabbing them. I've ruined a lot of craps doing it that way. Uh-huh. Yeah, I just, I haven't heard him say anything about getting the potatoes in. I don't think he's even bought seed potatoes yet. So I don't know if we're going to do potatoes this year. I should probably ask him later. I've got to cover them. I've got all of them. Yeah. Good.
09:02
As for extending the growing season, stagger planting helps, weather helps, obviously. And the greenhouse is going to help us immensely this fall because... Oh, you're going to have stuff all year. Yeah. Once it frosts, we're pretty much done up until now. So we're very excited about this and I've talked about it on the other podcasts a lot. So I don't want to get too far into it, except that this isn't brand new, different channels. So I thought I'd bring it up.
09:32
That's very exciting though. I would be over the moon about that. Yeah, the actual big issue with it right now is that it's been so warm that the greenhouse is at like 90, 95 degrees during the day. And so we have exhaust fans that blow the hot air out, which helps. If they're blowing, it brings it down to about 85.
09:59
So I suspect that the tomato plants and the peppers are going to do really, really well. Almost definitely. Mm-hmm. And the basil. The basil is very freaking happy right now. I bet. Yes, there's like 40, 40 basil plants out in the greenhouse right now in separate pots. And he said they're about a foot and a half tall already. Oh, lovely. I think I got all mine in the garden.
10:25
Yeah, we won't be lacking for pesto or bruschetta or any of that stuff over the summer. Yummy. Yes. And the other thing that I actually want to touch on just for a second is that if you're gardening produce, it's really good to actually use the produce. Lots of people will have a veggie garden and you know, they grab a couple of tomatoes now and then and a whole bunch go to waste because they don't actually cook, so they don't actually use them.
10:54
And I want to encourage people if they start a garden to make a plan to actually use the produce that comes in. And you can freeze tomatoes, you can freeze, you can't freeze cucumbers because they go to mush, but you can freeze squash, you can can. And so if people are going to start a garden, do the research and see how you can preserve your food for the winter. Oh, absolutely. And we could talk about
11:23
food preservation all day long too. I'm an avid canner, I'm an avid freezer of veggies. I've got three deep freezers on the farm. It's good. You can outsource a lot of that food also to feed others. You can donate to the food shelf, all kinds of things.
11:45
share it with your neighbors, sneak zucchinis into their cars. Yeah, exactly. Or all their horses. Put buckets of apples out next to their car. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Anything to get it to someone who might use it if you can't use it. Yeah. And even animals. My pigs, my horses, well, my goats will eat anything, but all of the animals really will take all that in, and then the next year you're going to find those seeds growing everywhere. Yep.
12:15
our chickens end up getting the extra kale and spinach and lettuce when there's just too much and they love it. Oh yeah. They go nuts. My husband just throws the greens in the run and the chickens come from everywhere they are in the run, just zoom into the pile of greens. Oh yeah. It's very funny. So, okay. So now that we know how you got into this and what you had to do.
12:43
How can people contact a Master Gardener in their area? Because I don't want you to get inundated with calls, but there are Master Gardeners for every county in Minnesota. So do you go out to the extension website to get hold of them, or how do you do it? Yeah, so your county will have an extension office. And 4-H usually runs out of that as well. There's a website. Let me try it up.
13:12
pull it up for my own. But every county has an extension office even through their county website. So if you're in Blue Earth County, it should be able to show up on the county site. And then there's usually a number to contact or an email. And there's always a coordinator. There's always somebody who's running that and is knowledgeable about all of these things. It is just an amazing program.
13:42
that our state offers. Yes, the only master gardeners I've ever chatted with in person were at the Arboretum. Yep, they train out of there. Is it Chaska or Chanhassen? I can't remember which city it's in.
14:01
Yeah, I think it's Chan. Okay, yeah. Yep, and fantastic people. There was a lady there, and it said Master Gardener in front of her on the little nameplate thing. And I bopped over and I was like, I need to talk to you. I didn't even say my name. I was just like, I need to talk to you. I was all excited. And she was like, what can I help with? And I don't remember what it was, but I was like, I have this thing happening in my garden. I don't know how to fix it. Do you? And she was like, I sure do. And talked to me for 10 minutes. She was great.
14:31
Now, I'm going to share a quick story about growing things because why not? Because we're both growing things. When we lived at our old house, we lived on a little city lot and the neighbors were real close together and I was fortunate enough to have my next door neighbor, who's my friend, she was two degrees short, sorry, not two degrees, two.
14:57
credits short of a horticulture degree. She didn't actually get the degree, but she was damn close. And it was really funny because she moved in a few years after I had moved in with my husband. And she is a gardening fanatic. I mean, her yard is beautiful. And she came over one day and she said, I don't understand something. And I said, what? She said, you have no background in gardening, no education. I said, no.
15:25
She said, but you just throw stuff in the ground and everything does really well. And I said, yeah, I put it in the ground. I talk to it, I say, please grow and it does. And she said, I spent all that money to try to get a degree and you just work your magic. And I was like, uh-huh. But I didn't know enough. And so anytime I did have a question, I would go to her. So one of the weird things that happened,
15:52
is I wanted to grow daffodils in my front garden that fronted on the sidewalk. And she had daffodils growing in her area that fronted on the front sidewalk. Same street, same south-facing light, same everything. I could not grow daffodils in my garden and she could. She could not grow blooming tulips in hers, but I could. It was the weirdest thing. So finally, I just picked out some really pretty
16:21
daffodil bulbs, they were cream with like a peach center. And I took them over to her and I said, will you please grow these for me and I will grow tulips for you. And that following spring, we just traded flowers for vases. Neither one of us ever figured out why we couldn't grow the one thing. It was the strangest thing. Do you have any idea why that might be?
16:51
bulb gardener. I'm still working on that piece, but I'm wondering if it's any kind of, it would have to be. If all conditions are the same, you'd need to check the soil would be my first go-to.
17:11
making sure that, you know, is there, does one require, you know, a certain pH level?
17:26
So I would check first with the soil.
17:32
Okay, well, I don't live there. I don't live in that house anymore. And I certainly can tell her that. Um, but it was so funny because we were both so frustrated and we finally figured it out that we just swap plants. It was, it was great. Um, okay. And I don't want to get too deep into anything today because this is kind of the introduction to what we're going to be talking about. What we're really going to be talking about on this channel is gardening.
18:01
and all the things that go with it and from, I assume, from the simplest to the most complex things that happen. Is that your take on it, Liz? Liz Huffman Yeah, absolutely.
18:17
Okay. So I guess since it's the first episode, is there anything that you can direct people who are just getting into starting a small garden? Like what's the simplest steps to take? Well, location. I know I've done backyard gardening when I lived in town and trying to figure out which plants will grow where.
18:46
knowing the amount of light that a plant needs and the amount of light that that area that you're trying to plant is going to get. And are you trying to grow plants that come back on their own every year? Are you trying to grow plants that are ready this year? Annuals.
19:10
So simple things like that, but you can always consult a master gardener, you know, knowing what you want to plant. Are you planting a vegetable garden? Are you trying to do flowers in your yard? So knowing just, you know, having a basic plan is likely your first step.
19:33
Okay, and what's the simplest plant to start with? Like if you've never garden in your whole life, you just want to grow something green to get your hands dirty or your feet wet as the case may be. What is the simplest thing to start with? Because I would venture that it's probably lettuce, but I might be wrong.
19:55
Yeah, I guess I go right to perennial plants. That's where my brain goes. Yeah. If I think about hostas and different perennial plants like that. But if we're thinking vegetables, yeah, I would say lettuce is fairly easy. Carrots aren't all that difficult, as long as you have the space and the depths. Oh, yes. OK. So.
20:23
Yeah, I think a lot of those early crops are pretty easy to start. Radishes, radishes are quite easy. And radishes are quick. Yes. Yep. Yes, they are.
20:39
like 30 to 35 days from seed two, actually, radishes you can eat. Yep, and those are all direct seed too. I just made pickled radishes last night from the first four out of the garden from the shift. And they were good. A quick pickle, not an actual canned pickle, but a quick pickle. Yep. So, yeah, I love radishes so much. Okay, well, that's the simple part. And...
21:08
I'm going to say that if you're new to gardening, don't jump in the deep end of the pool if you can't swim. I think that gardening is a very zen, very slow, very intensive learning curve and starting slow is probably the less stressful way to do it. Yeah, I agree. And also just patience.
21:37
I kill shit all the time still. Like, oops, that happened. Lesson learned. Continue on. I mean, that's how we learn and grow. So same when you're starting out. We can't master something until we experience it.
21:56
Yes. And like when we started, we had the city lot. We had like a, I don't know, 70 foot by 20 foot area to grow anything behind our house. And we rented a tiller from somewhere and we tilled up the backyard and got rid of all the grass because you can't eat grass. And we started with herbs. We started with herbs because herbs are easy.
22:27
Yeah. And then we put in lettuces and then we put in peas and we did some tomatoes and cucumbers, not many because we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't want to get the stuff and have it die. And we were pretty successful the first year. And once you're successful the first year, you get brave and you want to add things in. And so we added in winter squashes. We added in winter squashes, but we were growing them along the ground.
22:55
in a small backyard that doesn't work very well. So the following year we built trellises and grew them up instead of out. And that worked great for a small lot. So you can start out not knowing anything and then as you figure out what works and what doesn't, you just adjust. Absolutely. That's the beauty of it too. It's flexible.
23:19
Yeah, and this is why I wanted to do this with you, because I know just enough to chime in with things that worked for us, but you know what works for a lot of people.
23:32
Yeah, and that's part of it is learning and being able to at least help, try to help anyway, somebody who's experiencing maybe something similar. And I think this show is going to provide a really nice platform of people being able to ask questions and chime in and be able to collectively solve some problems possibly. Yes, and there will be a Facebook group for it so that people can come and leave questions. So that'll help.
24:01
And I had a thought and now it's gone. I, I'm not going to lie. I got a headache. It's driving me crazy. So I'm trying to do this. Not being quite with it. Um, Facebook group and people can know it's fine. And people can email me and Liz. Once I get Liz's email, if you have questions you want us to address. And the next episodes will actually be answering specific issues. Cause I already have some questions from people.
24:31
answers so that would be fun too. Oh that sounds wonderful. Yeah so welcome to Mary and the Master Gardener people and I hope it helps and I hope you enjoy it and Liz thanks for your time today. Thank you kindly I hope your headache goes away. Me too I was not gonna say anything but then I blanked out and I was like I sound like a dumbass I should probably say why. No I get migraines I understand.
24:59
Yeah, that's what it is. I've been fighting it since yesterday. So, all right. Thank you so much, Liz. Thank you. Bye.

26 min

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Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women in Agriculture is the podcast celebrating the strength, resilience, and wisdom of women who work the land and feed our communities. Through honest…

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Grit and Grace in the Heartland: Women In Agriculture

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