Carrots are divas! Carrots can either be a complete failure or a rousing success and 90% of that depends on your soil composition. One little bump in the road and your carrot will do a quick swerve and you end up with wonky roots. No worries! On today's episode we'll cover how to amend your soil to perfect diva status, how to grow carrots in containers, what diseases and pests to watch out for, harvest tips and more. So come one, let's grow carrots!

The Gardening as Therapy episode has been corrected, too. The link below takes you to the Anchor page for the corrected audio.

Ep. 39 – Gardening As Therapy

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group

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Resources:

A Look into the Powerful Medicinal Properties of Wild Carrots

Carrot – Botanical.com

Carrot Nutrition Facts

Carrot Growing Guide, Cornell University

Working in the garden in the heat can not only be dangerous if you’re not careful, but it can also make it difficult to stay on track with what you’re doing. It can be a bit of a distraction, we don’t work nearly as efficiently, it can be an actual health risk. So, here are 6 ways you can beat the heat in your garden this summer.

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group

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Send in those gardening questions to [email protected]or by leaving a voice message through the link below.

Resources:

Hydrating foods: The top 20 and their benefits

16 Herbs to Help You Beat the Heat, Plus Health Benefits and Recipes

17 Simple Ways to Beat the Summer Heat

Warning Signs and Symptoms of Heat-Related Illness

Are you having harvest envy over all the photos of gardeners and their beautiful garlic? Have no fear! This Garden Talk Tuesday we're talking all things garlic - hardneck vs. softneck, how to prep the bed, when to harvest, how to store, and more. Let's take the mystery out of planting this wonderful, universally loved crop and Just Grow Garlic!

Check out the Facebook group of fellow gardeners and food lovers at Just Grow Something Gardening Friends.

Enjoying this podcast? Support us on Patreon! This labor of love costs real money and you can help cover those expenses with a monthly contribution that allows me to continue creating new, valuable content. Head over to our Patreon page to find out more.

Don't forget to send those gardening questions for our next Can You Dig It? episode. Leave a message at the link below or email me to [email protected].

Resources:

Extracts from the history and medical properties of garlic

6 health benefits of garlic

The difference between hardneck and softneck garlic

HOW TO IDENTIFY AND CONTROL GARLIC PESTS

Garlic Diseases

This episode is totally unscripted. No notes, no ads, just a conversation between me and you, my gardening friends. And this episode we are talking a little about gardening as therapy. It's been a rough week or so around here and the roller coaster isn't over yet, so we're talking all the ways gardening is good for your mental health. From pulling weeds, to quiet observation, to feeling the ground beneath your bare feet, your garden can and should be a place where you can relieve some stress and anxiety, even if only for a few minutes to clear your headspace.

Join our Facebook group to talk with other gardeners about growing things, using our spaces as therapy, and check out what Karin is attempting to mimic in the kitchen garden: Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group

Check out the Patreon Page

Resources:

Gardening for health: a regular dose of gardening

Gardening can influence and benefit your mental health

Therapeutic Gardening

Horticultural Therapy

This Can You Dig It? episode features articles on Arkansas Black apples versus Black Diamond apples, a TikTok video featuring a no-tears way to dice onions, and questions about cabbage, cauliflower, and tomatoes.

Did you know this is the start of Plastic Free July? Karin has taken the pledge for the month (and for life, really) to reduce her plastic use and invites you to do the same. Check out the link below.

We've also got a new Facebook community! The Just Grow Something Gardening Friends group on Facebook is all new and we hope it will be a great way to connect new and experienced gardeners without any judgement and a way for folks to ask questions about and discuss issues in the food and ag space without any fear of retribution. Come check it out at the link below!

Resources:

Black Diamond Apples Cost at Least $7 Each—Here’s Why

TikTok Onion Hack

https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group

Support this podcast by becoming a patron via Patreon: https://patreon.com/justgrowsomething

Whether you call it a garden planner, journal, notebook, or whatever, a garden journal can be as little or as much as you want it to be. There are some key items, though, that I would recommend every gardener keep in their journal to help them be successful in the garden and to reduce some of the frustration that sometimes comes with gardening.

Your journal can be anything you want it to be! It can be both a planner and a log, a place for notes and a place for reflection, or any or none of the above. My version of a garden journal has evolved into what it is and it works for me, but it may not necessarily work for you. So, as I go through what I like to keep in my planner in this episode, take from this list what you think you could benefit from and toss the rest. Use it for a season, then add or subtract from it during the next season based on your results. I’ll certainly tell you along the way which components I think are most important but, just like in the garden, it’s your dream. Cultivate it as you wish!

So, let’s dig in to what I keep in my garden journal.

Check out our Patreon page to see all the ways you can support this podcast: https://patreon.com/justgrowsomething

Send your garden questions to [email protected] to have it answered on our next Can You Dig It? episode and for the chance to win a free Clyde's Garden Planner. You can also leave a message at the link below!

One of my goals with this podcast is for us all to grow a deeper connection with where our food comes from, and that includes me. In an effort to shed light on some of the most common misconceptions we have about our food systems, I wanted to dig into the subject of agricultural subsidies. This is NOT an easy subject to tackle, even at a high level, because of the myriad of complexities and the different number of programs.  But, I’ll do my best here to share what I’ve learned and maybe help give you a better understanding of what, and who, is being subsidized.

Like what we're doing here? Support us on Patreon! Your monthly contribution goes a long way toward helping us develop new content, book guests, upgrade equipment, and more. Head to https://patreon.com/justgrowsomething to see how you can support this podcast while getting a little something in return.

Don't forget to send in your gardening questions for our next Can You Dig It? episode! Email your question to [email protected] or leave a voice message at the link below.

Resources in this episode:

Federal Crop Insurance Corporation

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/risk-management/government-programs-risk/

https://www.ers.usda.gov/agricultural-act-of-2014-highlights-and-implications/dairy-livestock/

Federal farm subsidies: What the data says

https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AgriculturalSubsidyPrograms.html

https://farm.ewg.org/cropinsurance.php

https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/agriculture/subsidies

https://www.thebalance.com/farm-subsidies-4173885

https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45868/17034_err47b_1_.pdf

Growing winter squash can be such fun because there are so many sizes, types, and varieties to choose from! No matter which you choose, Karin talks about how to plant and cultivate them, whether in the ground or in containers, the pests and diseases you might face and how to avoid them, and how to harvest, cure, and store your winter squashes when all is said and done. This episode will inspire you to try a few winter squash of your own this season - it's not too late to plant!

Support this podcast by becoming a Patron: http://patreon.com/justgrowsomething

Resources:

https://aihd.ku.edu/foods/squash.html

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cucurbita+maxima

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_squash

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170490/nutrients

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/food-features/winter-squash/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9N85WDmwho

https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/insects-and-diseases-cucumber-pumpkin-and-squash

Have you heard the story? The one where the farmer destroys her own crop, just to get a check from some agency? Or the one where the dairy farm dumps all their milk when they should have donated it all? People make a lot of assumptions about what happens with our food and its production and a lot of it is just plain wrong. On this episode, Karin talks a little about what ticked her off with one of her farming friends last week and how we can be a little more responsible about the assumptions we make and the information we spread.

Resources in this episode:

Wild Rose Farmer and The Rural Woman Podcast

Ross Roost Farm

The Joy Farmer Podcast

We Drink and We Farm Things Podcast

Support this podcast on Patreon

Email your gardening questions: [email protected]