Mind Body Garden

We're back to the Gardening Show 🎉👨‍🌾 Today we talk about why plants have different needs for water, light, care & just give some general tips for how to keep your houseplants alive 🌿 From there I talk about some of my favorite gardening tools & gadgets I use to make my gardening life 100x easier ✂️👨‍🔬 And it wouldn't be gardening without something else trying to get your veggies besides you, so I wrap this episode up with some of the ways we have kept our dogs out of the garden - and how we're trying to control those other 4-legged pests like rabbits and squirrels 🐰🐿️

So, I was planning on answering some gardening questions on today's podcast, but got severely sidetracked talking about our relaxing & recharging weekend. The weekends are my favorite because me and Kyla are able to get so much done. This weekend we just chilled, caught up on housework, lifted some weights, gardened, and made some amazing beef stew packed with veggies from the garden. I think that weekends with a mixture of hard work & hard relaxation set the tone for the week. I'm super recharged and ready to tackle the week and all the things I want to accomplish - starting with the podcast and who knows where else the motivation will flow 🌊

Testing out a new format for a Gardening Show around questions I am getting from people on the app Quora. If you're not familiar, Quora is an app where people ask & answer questions. There's so many questions that I want to dive in on but typing it out takes too long, so here's my thoughts on: Growing with Hydroponics, Raised Bed Gardening, Maximizing Vegetable Yield, Flowers in the Garden, and talking about Nightshade plants 🌱🌱🌱 Let me know what gardening questions you want answered on the next episode! 🙉

In today's episode I talk about my transition to my job as a Product Manager and some of the challenges that come along with it. I also dive into the Trade War with China and how that had disrupted supply chains and forced businesses to adapt to the ever-changing world. I think that the trade war has obviously hurt businesses in the short term, but I think it will also prove who the "real" businesses are in terms of how they adapt to the markets and are able to come out on top.

There's a lot covered in this short episode but I start off giving some quick updates on the garden & a test I plan on running with my irrigation system vs hand-watering plants 💦🌱🌿 Outside of the garden I talk about some of the anxiety involved with posting on social media and how it's about your mindset and your own personal happiness & goals, not the platform itself. It's easy to get caught up in thought of "what should I post" but just know it's as simple as being yourself. When you realize what you're posting is for YOU, to display your Passions or thoughts, and is not for anyone else to judge, then you'll post freely 🙏🙌

We had perfect weather this weekend to finish up some garden projects that I've been dragging out for far too long. The biggest one - completing the drip irrigation system. This allows us to provide targeted watering & fertilization to each Root Pouch - either with a gentle sprinkler-type of flow, or a slow drip. This is important because the water stays in the pots rather than running off into the ground, the plants are able to utilize more of the resources at the slow drip rate vs being overwhelmed by water from a watering wand 💪🌱 and we're able to inject fertilizers & microbial treatments straight into the irrigation system thanks to a simple fertilizer injector system called the Chapin Hydrofeed 💩🦠💦 In this episode I talk more about the benefits of this system, plans for the fall garden, & a Plant Lab update on growing Microgreens 🌱🌱🌱

We're inching closer to finishing up our irrigation system, but it keeps raining every single time I work on it! In this episode I dive into why I'm installing an irrigation system - to provide consistent and highly targetted nutrient and water levels and remove the complete reliance on Mother Nature. I also discuss the benefits of rain water, how pH helps with nutrient uptake, and planning for our Fall Garden. And even though the garden is bursting with growth, we're starting microgreens indoors again to jumpstart our CropBox offering and provide the most value we can for the remainder of the growing season. That leads into another big topic of Asking for the Sale and realizing you're bringing value, not being unrealistic or salesy. Really loving being back into the podcast flow! Let me know what other topics you want to hear some more about and I'll plug them into future podcasts!

I've been pretty quiet for the past few weeks and I'm about to explode, so I had to spill some thoughts on the podcast this morning. We start off discussing why I've been quiet, what I've been up to in the garden of Life and some of the goals & aspirations that are running through my mind about gardening and how I envision my business evolving and blooming into something that can eventually stand on its own 🙏

This summer has been a wild one so far. From buckets of rain to 100 degree days, you just never know what to expect 🤷‍♂️ In this episode I briefly talk about the impacts of weather on the garden, but then I talk about why I've been absent from podcasting for so long and how the passing of my Mam-maw has affected my perspective on life - in a good way. When someone lives a full life & leaves an amazing legacy you can't be depressed, you have to carry the torch to keep the flame alive 🗽

Vacation has almost become a bad word in our hardworking society, but it is completely normal and necessary to continue to be productive, allow yourself to recharge, and generally to keep your sanity. In this episode I talk about why it's important to disconnect from work for short stints and force yourself to explore passions outside of work - go for a hike, paint a picture, get lost in the moment and forget about time for a while. To end the episode, I got on a little bit of a rant on how Facebook & Snapchat will use VR (virtual reality) to improve communications in our digital world, and how I think it will help eliminate bias and discrimination. Would love to hear your thoughts on the episode!