Mind Body Garden

The last week has been extremely wet here in Ohio and yesterday we got a few inches of snow ❄️ Despite spotty winter weather, we have had an extremely mild winter - warm temperatures and lots of moisture. In today's episode I talk about the effects this will have on the spring and summer gardening seasons and discuss a few ways that I plan on using to manage the pest populations naturally, organically, and using beneficial insects as much as possible 🐞🥊🦟

I talk a lot about my morning routines, but this week I have been focusing less on the time I wake up and more on the quality of the time I spend sleeping. Rather than force myself to get up and function on 6 hours of sleep, I have forced myself to set my alarm to allow for 7 and a half hours of sleep. Every single morning I have woken up before my alarm clock and have felt extremely refreshed & highly energetic and happy through the day. Aside from sleep I also casually slip in a little rant on the meaning of life 😁 hope you enjoy and would love to hear any feedback you have for the podcast - what do you wanna hear me rant more about?

Last week I planted the first seeds of the season and they're already popping up like crazy in the various trays I planted them in. In this episode I talk about the different seed starting soil mixes I'm using including Berger BM2 and PittMoss Plentiful. Pitt Miss is a super interesting product where they replace peat moss with recycled paper. It's a much more sustainable alternative to peat and seems to produce some healthy onion seedlings so far! And although I like the sustainability value prop of the Pitt Moss, I am obsessed with the quality and consistency of the Berger BM2 germination mix. I also talk about the various trays that I'm using for propagation including 72 and 288 cell plug trays, plus some more hydroponics-type of seed starting supplies such as the HydroFloat and Grow Plugs, and the Oasis Rootcubes.

Wow. Today was a rant for the books. I'm not sure what got into me but when I started talking about my new theme for the year, "Make America Garden Again", I got off on a tangent about putting in the work and then about doing things that you enjoy. Hope you enjoy this little rant and would be super humbled by your support for Gardening 4 Gains by purchasing a make America Garden again t-shirt from my website 😁🙏💪🌱

Don't you love those mornings where you actually wake up early & have time to do the things you wanna do? Today was one of those mornings for me. I kicked it off with Morning Pages while guzzling coffee, then I got down to business and started some seeds 😁 It's technically still a little early to start seeds, but I'm banking on a warm, mild spring, planting cold-tolerant crops, and I will be utilizing frost blankets and low tunnels once I plant everything outdoors. Something about this season feels so different - in a good way. I have a super clear plan, I've got the experience from the past few seasons, and more than anything, I believe in the mission and can't wait to get digging in the dirt this spring! 👨‍🌾💪🌱

Today's podcast was meant to be a focus on the seeds that I'm planting for the CSA today, but as per usual, I went off on a tiny tangent at the beginning of the episode - but a much-needed one! In the rant I talk about my Morning Pages milestone - today was day 50 of starting my day off with writing 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing. This practice has helped elaborate on half-baked thoughts or assumptions and actually tease out the truth. I think that so often in our lives we build up these false beliefs from our fears & judgements, but we don't question them. Morning Pages has helped me cut through the noise and has given me permission to be creative and to spend time on developing myself. After my rant, I talk about my big plans for the garden today - planting broccoli, lettuce, spinach, greens and other early-season veggies. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel of winter and it begins with the seeds we plug today 💪🌱 Plug walk! 😂👨‍🌾

In today's episode I talk about my big weekend project - collecting all of the ideas I have written in various notebooks, notepads, notes apps, or scraps of paper and FINALLY gathering them into one conglomeration of content & ideas. From here I can pick and choose from a vast list of ideas or I can begin to build a framework and a blueprint for my content topics moving forward. What this means is that I am finally creating instead of just collecting ideas into lists - the most important thing to is act on your creative urges, be the change you want to see in the world, create the content that you can't find. This all distills down into providing content that adds value to people's lives through information, entertainment, and inspiration 🧘‍♂️🏋️‍♂️👨‍🌾💪🌱

In today's episode I talk about prioritizing your work and your day - and really the importance of doing things for YOU instead of doing things to seek approval. We live in a world with a whirlwind of demands placed on us by society and by our Self. Listen in to hear how I deal with that distinction between what goals I have set and what is expected of me - and some hacks to make everyone happy 🤓

In today's podcast I talk about cultivating your interests into passion - and my take on how things develop from hobbies into side gigs and obsessions. My current obsessions revolve around Mind, Body, and Garden and in this episode I talk about how I have taken them from an interest into something that I want to improve upon for the rest of my life 💪🌱

It's been 60 degrees in Ohio for the past couple days but today we're back to snow & ice - but that isn't killing my excitement for spring, it's just fueling it! In today's episode I talk about the mild winter we have been having and how it's tempting me to get leafy greens and cold hardy crops planted out early. It can be done with the help of low tunnels and frost blankets, but if you screw up, you could lose your whole crop 😭 Right now I'm thinking about getting lettuce, spinach, arugula, mizuna, and other Asian greens started in seed trays so that we can jumpstart the CropBoxes this year and maybe even get a few earlier-than-expected harvests 🥬 And BTW - this is the first call for all CropBoxers or people interested in receiving a subscription box of fresh veggies & herbs from the Garden of Gains 💪🌱 if you're in the Piqua area and looking for fresh, organically-grown produce - let me know, spots are limited!