Rooting for You | Beginner Edible Gardening

S7E7 Tess and Alyce talk about growing dahlias. The ladies both agree that the dahlias, in all their varieties (except the single leaf) are a beautiful plant and what's great is they are good both on the plant and as a cut flower inside. Flowering for a whopping FIVE months of the year this really does sound like a winner! Listen in for all the tips from where to grow, what to grow and how to care...

S7E6 Tess and Alyce discuss rocoto chilli. This variety of chilli is a little different from the general chilli chat they had last week. A super easy grower and a very cool plant! If you want to drop Tess a rocoto seedling, please do :) In this episode the ladies discuss what’s special about the variety, tips for growing from seed, how to grow and prune them. Stay tuned for an episode in Autu...

S7E5 Tess and Alyce discuss growing chillies. Surprisingly a perennial stay in the ground all year round AND can be grown in small spaces, pots or even inside! Tune in for the ladies’ favourite varieties and all of Alyce’s tips for success! ~~~   Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com/rooting-for-you-pod or email...

S7E4 Tess and Alyce chat about one of Alyce's favourite seed hacks. Not for everyone but great if your costs conscious, want to get your seedlings going early or love gifting plants.  ~~~ Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com/rooting-for-you-pod or email us at rootingforyou@alycealexandra.com Tess and Alyce ackno...

S7E3 Tess and Alyce chat about growing zucchinis. Zucchinis are one of Alyce's favourite crops for beginner gardeners (well all gardeners really!). They are easy growers and can be absolutely prolific. The ladies chat about growing from seed or seedling, Alyce's favourite varieties (including Tromboncino), all the tips for caring for your zucchini plants and a bunch of ideas for cooking and eating...

S7E2 Tess and Alyce answer a listener question all about ensuring you've got good soil quality. This listener has a couple of raised garden beds she's filling up, she's got a couple of tonnes of organic compost blended with coco coir, perlite and chicken manure plus the contents of her bokashi bins and some store bought worms. She says "I'm scared that my soil will lack nutrients to grow strong he...

S7E1 Tess and Alyce chat about Tess' Spring garden. Tess is a beginner gardener with a mid-sized suburban garden in Melbourne with two planter boxes in her south-facing backyard and room for pots in her north-facing front yard. In this episode, find our Tess' plans for her Spring garden plus all of the tips from Alyce on making it a success!  EPISODE NOTE: literally every time we say succession pl...

S6E12 Tess and Alyce chat about the expiration dates on seeds. What do they mean? Are they a 'use by' or 'best before'? They chat about how to use your seeds best once they've passed their expiry date (hot tip: don't throw them out!) plus the best way to store your seeds to ensure longevity.  ~~~ Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://w...

S6E11 Tess and Alyce chat about heat mats... and not just handy in the garden either! Listen in for why you might want to use a heat mat, how to use it and some trouble shooting problems to ensure the best chance for your seeds.  ~~~ Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com/rooting-for-you-pod or email us at rootingforyo...

S6E10 Tess and Alyce chat about things that might be keeping you busy in the garden in the last few weeks of Winter, from crops that you can still get in the ground before Spring to getting your Spring garden started. ~~~ Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com/rooting-for-you-pod or email us at rootingforyou@alycealexa...

S6E9 Tess and Alyce chat about fruit salad trees. Not quite a cool as a tree that grows apples, pears, strawberries, bananas and a watermelon, but it's pretty close! Fruit salad trees are created when different types of the same fruit tree are grafted together, like a citrus tree growing lemons, limes, oranges - it's pretty incredible! Listen in to hear all about the pros and cons and tips for gro...

S6E8 Tess and Alyce discuss succession planting. Succession planting is one of those fancy gardening terms you hear thrown around from time to time. Here at Rooting for You we’re all about breaking down those gardening barriers and giving it to you straight, so in this episode we’re talking about succession planting. Crops that are great for succession planting are: radishes, lettuces, sprouting b...

S6E7 Tess and Alyce talk about growing asparagus. Asparagus is a little like a rhubarb, perennial stay in the ground all year round AND grows from a crown. This crop takes a bit of time and effort to get started but once you’re going, you’ll have asparagus for 30 years! Asparagus crowns are planted in winter so nows the time to get it in the ground. This episode is jam packed full of fun asparagus...

S4E7 No idea what we’re talking about? Well this this is the episode for you!! NPK is gardening shorthand for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are three super important ingredients for helping your plants flourish and if they don’t get all three, they might be in big trouble! In this ep, we’ll tell you what each one of these chemicals does and help you decipher nursery-fertilizers - an in...

S6E6 Tess and Alyce discuss hot composting. Hot composting is the process of turning your waste into new soil in only a few weeks! By creating the right environment, your compost pile will heat up and expedite the transformation process, turning garden waste, cardboard and paper, foot scraps into brown gold. This topic was partly inspired by our recent conversation with @compostable.kate and altho...

S6E5 Tess and Alyce discuss what's keeping them busy in the garden plus what they're eating from their gardens. A lot of people are warmer month gardeners (nothing wrong with that!) but this episode will hopefully give everyone a taste and some inspiration for gardening in the cooler months.  A few of the topics covered and where to find more info:  - Sophie Thomson (Sophie's Patch) TEDx...

S6E4 Tess and Alyce discuss cold frames, frames to use in the cold weather, not frames that are cold! They chat about what the benefits are to using cold frames, ideas for how to create a cold frame and also tips for plant care while they're under the frame.   ~~~  Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com/rooti...

S6E3 Tess and Alyce tackle a tricky topic, crop rotation! The reasons why you should be rotating your crops, how to do it plus Alyce's cheat guide for simplifying this kinda complex topic!  ~~~  Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com/rooting-for-you-pod or email us at rootingforyou@alycealexandra.com  Te...

S6E2 Tess and Alyce discuss growing rhubarb, a great crop for beginners! Getting started, splitting an existing plant or buying a crown from a nursery, how to plant the crown, ongoing maintenance and harvesting.  PLUS a bunch of ideas for what to do with this plentiful crop.  ~~~  Rooting for You is hosted by Tess and Alyce, artwork by @lorynjanene You can find us at https://www.alycealexandra.com...

S6E1 Help! My Brussels sprouts aren’t sprouting!! Today’s episode is a little different because we’re trouble shooting. Are you growing Brussels sprouts this season and don’t have sprouting heads yet?? This episode is for you! Or even if you’re not growing them this season (because they are not actually a beginner crop!) then listen in before you put them in next summer. Alyce runs through all the...

Part 2 of our conversation with @compostable.kate - Tess, Alyce and Kate get into the nitty gritty of a bunch of different composting systems.  Kate gives us her recommendations for beginners making their composting system choice. We discuss Kate's composting fails and Kate gives us her easy advice for overcoming these. Plus tips for worm farms, tips for tumblers and an introduction to hot co...

In Part 1 of our interview with @compostable.kate - Tess, Alyce and Kate discuss how Kate first became interested in composting, how composting fits within the fight against climate change and how empowering and exciting that is! Kate tells us all about her experience with Share Waste when living in Sydney, tips for getting involved with composting if you are a city-dweller, all of Kate’s advice f...

S2E1 Tess and Alyce discuss all the activities that might be keeping you busy in the garden this winter - from easy tasks like planting bare rooted fruit trees to the more advanced activities like pruning. Spotted a good looking plant and want to know how to grow genetically identical plants?  We discuss growing from cuttings and dividing plants.  As Alyce says, there is heaps to plant in Winter s...

S5E12 Tess and Alyce discuss Autumn ‘last chances’, what is it not too late to get into the ground to have food to eat through Winter. It isn’t too late!! Plus a quick tip to get an empty bed ready for Spring, a fabulous suggestion on flowering bulbs and a friendly reminder to go get those Autumn leaves before someone else does. Alyce mentioned a bunch of crops that it isn’t too late to plant:&nbs...

S5E11 This is a fun ep! Tess and Alyce discuss the easiest and cheapest way to create new garden beds, maybe not this year for the beginners among us but certainly aspirational for all of us keen as mustard for maximize our growing potential!