This episode let’s reflect a little bit on our gardens this past year. What went well? What didn’t? I refer to these as wins and lessons, not losses, because every activity in the garden is a learning experience. Some are just a little bit less pleasant than others. Even though they may not have been productive in the sense of producing a harvest, they will always be productive in the sense of bettering our future gardens and gardening experiences. Today I will happily review with you what went well in my gardens this year, follow up with the results of a few experiments we had going on out here, and talk a little about some of those more difficult lessons. Let’s dig in, shall we?

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Episode 5 – Experimenting in the Garden

Episode 65 – Overwintering Plants Indoors: Production or Dormancy?

Johnny’s Seeds – Cegolaine, Rosaine, and Dragoon lettuces

You’ll notice my tone is slightly different today and that’s due to the nature and seriousness of the topic I want to explore with you. Specifically, regarding the recently unsealed 54-count indictment against an organized crime syndicate in the southern U.S. relating to the horrible treatment of people they brought across the border to work on farms and who, subsequently were treated as slaves. If you saw my stories on Instagram this week you got to see my rant on this topic and, honestly, this story struck a real nerve with me, so I thought I would take the time to give it some attention here on the podcast.

For those of you unaware of what I’m talking about, two dozen defendants have been indicted on federal conspiracy charges after a three-year investigation into a human smuggling and labor trafficking operation that brought workers from Mexico and Central America to work and live in brutal conditions on several South Georgia farms.

Farm worker conditions is nothing new in the news. We’ve heard before of migrant workers who’ve come here illegally to work being subjected to horrible working conditions because there’s nobody to hold the employers accountable: long hours in scorching sun without breaks or enough water, no access to medical services, inability to get decent housing or a decent wage. The victims in these indictments suffered all that and more and what makes it worse is they were brought here legally, using a federal program that allows for temporary work visas for foreign agricultural workers on U.S. soil. But, no matter how they get here, the people who are responsible for harvesting much of what we eat here in this country are constantly facing brutal conditions and I want to take today’s episode to remind us all, including myself, what the unseen costs of our cheap food are and try to talk through what we can do about it.

One of the problems of being a home gardener in many climates is that the season for salad greens can be short. Either you’re in a climate that gets way too hot in the summer to grow decent greens or you’re in a climate that has a very short growing season and it gets too cold too quickly. And, even if you’re in a climate where you can grow through the winter, you may not have enough space outside to get those greens to full size before your Persephone period hits and they stop growing. The answer to all of this is microgreens.

Microgreens can be grown year-round indoors with very little in the way of equipment or expertise. And there are so many different crops that make great microgreens, there’s bound to be some that fit the palate of everybody in your family. There is quite literally something for everyone. And not only are they delicious and versatile, they are exploding with nutrients. And they can add that nutritional value to so many foods – as a topping for pizza, a base for salad, added to pasta, in wraps and on sandwiches, and so much more.

So, this episode I’m going to dig in to what it takes to get started with growing microgreens, some of the easiest ones for beginners to grow, and what you need to know about selecting seeds to use for microgreens. Let’s dig in.

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Assessment of Vitamin and Carotenoid Concentrations of Emerging Food Products: Edible Microgreens

Way back in episode one, the introduction episode, I briefly mentioned that my love of gardening, and my naivety of how easy it was, was partly responsible for the beginnings of our farming adventures. During that episode I mentioned we started selling to the public through a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture program. I also mentioned I would eventually do an entire episode on what that is and, well, here we are 68 episodes later and I’m finally getting there!

So, what is a CSA? How is it different from a subscription box shipped to you from a company you found online or that found you through some data tracking algorithm? And why is a CSA a great way to support your local food system? We’re digging into all that and more on today’s episode.

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Episode One – The Introduction

The History of Community Supported Agriculture

The Untold History of CSA

LocalHarvest.org

As we start thinking about our gardens for next season, we may not just be looking at fruits and veggies and herbs. Many of us like to plant our landscape and the areas surrounding our vegetable gardens with plants that are beautiful to look at. Maybe they’re for cutting flowers and bringing into the house or maybe they’re just for some added color and beauty while we spend our time outside. It may also be for curb appeal.

Unfortunately, there are many species that get planted that are considered invasive in areas. No matter where you are, it’s likely that your region has plants that were introduced from another continent or even another area of your country that have escaped cultivation and gone on to propagate almost uncontrolled in the wild. We regard these plants as invasive species and today I’m going to dig in to what defines an invasive plant species, why they are a problem, and what we can do to prevent the spread of them. Then, I’ll talk about five of the most popular ones here in North America that are STILL being sold at nurseries and what alternatives you can choose to plant instead.

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Bradford Pear fact sheet – Clemson Univ. Extension

Invasive Plants – National Park Service

Invasive Plants – U.S. Forest Service

12 Common Invasive Plants

Native American National Day of Mourning – Live Stream

It’s that time of year! This evening I will be binge watching whatever show the Mean Farmer and I decide upon while maniacally separating clove after clove of garlic. We’re planting close to 15 pounds of garlic this year, a combination of both hard neck and soft neck varieties. Depending on the variety, that’s anywhere from 25 to 40 cloves per pound. Which all need to be separated from their heads to get ready to plant. So, we will be enjoying the smell of the stinking rose this evening while we partake of a few glasses of wine and some sci fi.

Because of that, I thought it would be the perfect time to give you a little refresher on planting your own garlic. In most regions the timing is perfect and even if you think you’ve missed the window of opportunity in your area, you’d be surprised at how flexible garlic can be. We'll cover soil conditions and timing, plus I'll share some tips and tricks for those of you planting garlic in the Southern U.S. and other warm-weather climates. So, let’s dig in to when and how to plant your garlic!

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Episode 40 – Growing Garlic

Soil Temperature Maps

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

The past few weeks we've talked about the fall garden and overwintering in the garden. Some of our gardens have already seen a hard freeze or snow, some a killing freeze but still have plants going strong, and some don't see a freeze at all but simply go dormant.

This week we’re going to talk about the three things to do at the end of your garden season to get you off to the best start NEXT year. These things are going to help you better prevent and manage pests and disease in the garden as well as helping build a better soil microbiome to improve your yield. And, I’ll finish up with one more thing I do here that many home gardeners don’t realize they can and should be doing in their own spaces, weather it’s in ground or in beds. So, let’s dig in to my three tasks you should not skip at the end of your garden season. 

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Positively Farming Media playlist

Cover crop seeds:

True Leaf Market

Johnny’s Selected Seeds

We’ve talked about cloning plants by taking cuttings to save our favorite garden specimens over the winter while taking very little space. But, what about bringing plants in to overwinter in a dormant state or even keeping them productive?

If you’ve got the space, there are several techniques for overwintering your most productive garden plants to either continue the bounty all winter long or to keep them alive and ready to go back outside in the spring to get a jump on the season and start producing all over again.

Karin also has a challenge for you if you want to try this over the winter. Let’s dig in!

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Winter Growing Tomatoes

Overwintering Pepper Plants

So, we talked last week all about saving seeds from your best garden specimens to use in your garden next season. But, what about that big, beautiful, healthy plant that's just produced loads of veggies for you all season long? Don't you wish you could bring it inside and then bring it back out next year? Well, you can! And you can do it without taking up the entirety of your window space indoors and without having a greenhouse.

The process of taking cuttings from a healthy, productive plant and propagating a new plant is called cloning and it's much easier than you think. You may have actually done it before by accident. So, let's figure out which plants are best for this type of propagation and talk about the different ways it can be done.

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This Focal Point Friday episode is the second in our two-parter on saving seeds. Tuesday’s episode focused on which plants you should be saving seeds from, how to properly collect and clean those seeds and how to hedge your bets against carrying over diseases on or in your seeds.

This episode focuses on seed storage, whether it's seed saved from your own garden or over purchased from a supplier. Leftovers from spring? No problem. We’ll talk about proper moisture level for saved seeds and how to get them dry enough to store, and what the best conditions are for storing seeds whether saved from your garden or store bought. We’ll also talk about the types of storage containers and how long each type of seed can be stored, based on plant family. So, let’s dig in to storing your seeds, shall we?

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Resources:

Collecting and Storing Seeds From Your Garden

Are My Seeds Dry Enough?