Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

'Tis the season for expectant backyard gardeners. You’ve begun to sow seeds of warm season annuals and vegetables indoors, especially pepper and tomato seeds. But when will those little seeds begin to show their heads above the soil? As always, it depends. On today’s Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, our favorite retired college horticultural professor, Debbie Flower, has tips for speed...

In USDA Zones 8, 9 and 10, it’s Rose Pruning Season! And soon enough after frost season passes, everyone else across the country will be faced with the challenge of tackling an overgrown, aging, rose bush. How best to prune that rose bush to regain maximum rose production? We talk with a Master Rosarian who knows. We’ve got rose pruning tips, as well as advice for the best pruning tools to use and...

You can grow them indoors and outdoors; they’re easy to care for; and, are very unique and colorful! But which ones are the easiest to care for? We’re talking about succulents today with renowned expert Robin Stockwell. Starting a school garden, or even a home school garden? Which plants and concepts should you consider before turning that first shovelful of soil? We’re going back to school, with...

Welcome to the new year, and our latest Greatest Hits episode, featuring those segments that you spent the most time enjoying,  in record numbers in 2021. Among the top listened to segments last year included a lot about tomatoes. In fact, the top 5 listened-to segments on the garden basics podcast had to do with tomatoes. That makes this 2021 Greatest Hits episode of the Garden Basics with Farmer...

Eat less sugar. Eat more fiber. Eat out of the garden more! Have you set your New Year’s resolutions yet?  We’ll talk with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Andrew Bunting about some good gardening habits to start in 2022. The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden’s Superintendent Emeritus, Warren Roberts, ushers in the New Year with a plant that just might be putting on  a show right n...

Life, as I am fond of saying, is too short to put up with a problem plant. Today, the very alive Debbie Flower, who is no problem at all, talks about when to pull the plug on the dying plants in your garden, including some organ harvesting tips when it comes to tomato plants who have overstayed their welcome at your garden party. Plus, we have tips for choosing and storing those cool season fruit...

A listener in St. Louis wrote in to ask, “Is it OK to put the stems and leaves of what’s left of the summer vegetable garden in a compost pile?” Retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower answers: it depends! We take a deep dive into composting basics today. The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden ’s Superintendent Emeritus, Warren Roberts, tells us about the Plant of the Week. For some...

Did you ever pull a sick, root-bound plant out of a too-small plastic or ceramic container and look at the root ball? All those thick roots, going round and round, along the sides and throughout the bottom? All those thick roots are impeding the flow of water and fertilizer throughout the plant’s root zone, which may be why that plant was sick! We talk with Smart Pots   president Kurt Reiger about...

Farmer Fred Garden Rule #1 : Bermudagrass is forever. You think I’m kidding? Ask any gardener who is battling this triple threat weed, which can reproduce and spread via seed, stems and rootstocks. Retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower gives us some ideas for control and suppression tactics when battling bermudagrass (please note, I did NOT say, eradicate).  The UC Davis Arboretum a...

One gardening trend that is beginning to take hold throughout the country is reducing the size of your lawn. What is our attraction to lawns in the first place? We talk with author Thomas Mickey. He wrote the book,  " America’s Romance with the English Garden" .  Retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower discusses a nasty weed, especially disliked by barefoot children and moun...

Just as all gardening is local, all weeds are local, too. And we are hearing from many of you about your yard’s nightmare weeds, especially ones that can be mistaken for clover, and you let it go…until it starts taking over. It’s oxalis, and its close relatives, creeping wood sorrel, and bermuda buttercup, and another weed that crashes the oxalis family parties, bur clover. Debbie Flower and I fee...

Some of you, especially in USDA Zone 9 where freezing temperatures haven’t occurred yet, you may still have green and partially red tomatoes, clinging to life, in your backyard garden. Will they ripen? And as always, the answer is: it depends. One listener from Virginia wants to know if that pile of mulch near her maple tree can be moved. Her concern: the roots of the tree have invaded that mulch...

Today we feature two garden crops that may still be lingering at your place, outdoors or indoors. It’s popcorn and pumpkins. The Plant of the Week is that Halloween decoration that’s collecting mold on your front porch: pumpkins. But it’s more than something to be used as an October 31st ornament. UC Davis Arboretum Superintendent Emeritus Warren Roberts discusses the history of the pumpkin and th...

Gardeners everywhere have a certain weed that drives them up the wall. Today, we talk about one that can literally climb a wall: field bindweed.  Although it's in the morning glory family, don’t be fooled by its pretty, white flowers. Field bindweed needs to be controlled as soon as you see it. We have tips for tackling field bindweed. Power outages hit both the west and east coasts recently,...

Today we tackle a question from a listener who asks, why were my tomato seedlings last spring so skinny? Debbie Flower and I run through all the possibilities, and it turned out to be a very good tomato seed planting primer, something to keep in mind when you’re starting tomato seeds indoors next January, February or March. The Plant of the Week is a colorful, warm season annual that will be widel...

Late October may be your last, best opportunity for overseeding a poorly performing lawn here in USDA Zone 9. Your next opportunity across the U.S. will be next spring. In either case, we tackle a listener’s questions about the best way to go about the process of rehabbing your lawn. College Horticulture Professor (retired) Debbie Flower has some great tips on that topic. Also, we discuss a great...

Today we tackle a widespread beautiful weed whose cousin is a rather desirable plant. The weed? Salt Heliotrope, a close relative of the widely cultivated common heliotrope. And you don’t want the salt heliotrope growing around your desirable plants. One of the showiest plants right now is 'Autumn Joy' Sedum. We’ll tell you all about this, the Plant of the Week. And a primer on using liv...

Master Gardener and Professional Houseplant Expert Lori Ann Asmus of Emerald City Interior Landscape Services talks about the pros and cons of fertilizing your houseplants, as well as problems you might face using some tap waters on your houseplants.  College Horticulture Professor (retired) Debbie Flower sheds light on one listener’s dilemma: great looking pole bean plants, but no beans this year...

Major League Baseball playoffs have started, and you know what that means? It’s time to harvest your popcorn! However, it’s still not ready for eating. How do you know when it’s ready to be popped? We have the popcorn harvesting tips for you today. The Plant of the Week is widely adaptable throughout the West, the South, and up through the Carolinas and Virginia. Salvia, the sage plant. In particu...

Is wood ash good for the garden soil? Our favorite college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, answers decisively with, “it depends”. She has tips to help you decide if your soil will benefit from the addition of wood ash. She also tackles the topic of ash from nearby wildfires falling on your garden. Good or bad? And we talk with Organic Gardening expert Steve Zien about how you can achieve be...

If you have a lot of leaning trees and shrubs on your property, chances are there’s an ill wind blowing around your home. Our favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, has some ideas on helping your plants survive, even thrive, is areas with persistent winds.  UC Davis Arboretum Superintendent Emeritus, Warren Roberts, tells us about a popular, fall-blooming Plant of the Week...

About a year ago, on Episode 52, retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower gave us a beginning class on having a cut flower garden. Today, we graduate to more tips on successful cut flower care, including how to cut an outdoor plant to bring indoors so that it will last a long time. Plus, Debbie has a homemade recipe for a floral preservative that will help that display last even longer...

Pull one nutsedge weed from your lawn or garden, and nine more will come to the funeral. Nutsedge, also called nutgrass, is tough to control. And one of the worse things you can do is to pull it out of the ground. Former college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, has some better ideas on how to control this wide-spread weed. UC Davis Arboretum superintendent emeritus Warren Roberts tells us ab...

One Garden Basic we need to stress more on this podcast is this: to head off major plant problems, observe your garden, carefully. Retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower talks about some mental exercises she taught her students to become better observational gardeners. Plus, we discuss growing avocado trees in marginal climates. And, tips for moving giant pumpkins that might be takin...

If you live in a mild winter climate, mid-September through mid-October is the best time to care for or renovate your lawn. We get organic lawn care tips from organic landscaper, Steve Zien. And, the Plant of the Week: it’s a dependable, blooming perennial from late spring through mid-fall in warm climates. Warren Roberts tells us about the Gaillardia. It’s Episode 139 of the Garden Basics with Fa...