Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

Itching to get a bit more dirt under your fingernails during the cold, wet months ahead? Do it indoors, growing microgreens. Some call it vegetable confetti. Microgreens are a perfect topping for salads, soups, stews, tacos and a lot more. What’s in microgreens? They’re leaves…small, colorful vegetable, herb and flower leaves, that pack a wallop of good nutrition.  Plus, they grow quickly and easi...

Those of you in milder climates may still have a few tomatoes clinging to your shivering vines. More than likely, they are probably green tomatoes. You might be wondering, will they ripen? Our favorite college horticulture professor (retired) Debbie Flower says, “It depends how green they are.” She has tips for determining which ones are most likely to ripen, and how to ripen them indoors. Just in...

If you're staring at the picture accompanying this episode, you might be wondering: "Where is the edible succulent in this spinach-cherry tomato-feta cheese salad?" It's those little green nuggets on top, the leaves of Portulacaria afra, also known as Elephant's Food plant. It's a succulent that you can grow in the drier, milder areas of USDA Zone 9, or in a greenhous...

If the idea of growing cool season vegetables makes you yawn, we’re going to wake you up today with interesting, unusual, colorful and tasty varieties of fall and winter vegetables that you may not know about, that are worth a try in your garden. Unusual radishes (such as the "White Icicle" radish, pictured) and beets, colorful lettuce and cabbage varieties, different, easy to grow brocc...

So, you want to grow an avocado tree? Can’t say it’ll work where you live. But what the heck, you gotta try, right? We’ve got tips for you to give it a good start , no matter where you are. It’s Fabulous Fruit Friday, and today we tackle the persnickety but popular avocado, with fruit expert Ed Laivo from Tomorrow's Harvest . And horticulture professor Debbie Flower fights off the spider mite...

Maybe you’ve got a large lot. Maybe you’ve got a few acres. Maybe you’ve been hankering to get yourself a tractor. Before you spend your children’s inheritance on a piece of machinery, you need to ask yourself some questions. We talk backyard tractor basics on today’s show. Also we discuss less toxic weed killers. And, how the change of seasons - and the change of the clock this weekend - may not...

Fabulous Fruit Friday is back, and today, Ed Laivo of Tomorrow's Harvest tells us about an early bearing fruit with a long hang time on the tree, the White Diamond Nectarine. Plus, Ed has tips for improving the chances for your new fruit trees to succeed…by checking the soil drainage before you plant. Can you grow a fruit tree from a seed? Professor Debbie Flower says…it depends. It’s Episode...

If you’ve been bit by the gardening bug, it won’t be long before you’ll be craving a hobby greenhouse . With a greenhouse, you can get a jump on spring planting, keep tender plants from freezing in the winter, and, perhaps most fun of all, starting all sorts of delicious fruit and vegetable varieties from seed, varieties you possibly wouldn’t find at a nursery. And there’s no reason why you can’t...

It’s Fabulous Fruit Friday, and today we talk with Ed Laivo of Tomorrows Harvest about a delicious, sweet, crunchy white peach, the Ivory Angel. And, Ed explains why your fruit trees need cold winter weather .  Master Food Preserver Laura Doyle tells us what to do with all the apples you might be harvesting this month: make some apple jelly.   Plus, she goes over the basics of using a water bath c...

Why should we, here in the warm, sunny areas of the United States, have all the fun growing citrus? If you're in snow blower tune-up mode now, you could also be growing citrus trees such as lemons, limes and more…indoors! We talk with the man who literally wrote the book on citrus, Lance Walheim , about how to successfully grow citrus inside your house during the winter. You’ve heard me yamme...

It’s Fabulous Fruit Friday! Ed Laivo of Tomorrows Harvest tells us about one of the most peach leaf curl resistant varieties of a peach or nectarine that you can grow at home: the Frost Peach . Plus, Ed and I do a deep dive into the mulch pile, singing the praises of topping your garden with wood chips, tree trimmings and more. Don’t worry, we won’t sing. But we do harmonize on how mulch can make...

If you have a pollinator friendly garden, you have all sorts of beautiful flowering plants. Why not bring some of that outdoor splendor indoors? Today, on the Garden Basics podcast, the appropriately named horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, offers tips on how best to harvest and prepare cut flowers for an indoor display (that's a combination of zinnias with garlic & onion flowers in t...

Thinking about buying a rototiller? How about purchasing a chipper/shredder instead? It’s a machine that will make easy work of chopping up your garden clippings, including tree limbs, into the greatest mulch you could possibly own. The latest research shows that rototilling your soil actually damages soil structure and the soil biology. On the other hand, the end result of using a chipper/shredde...

We continue our discussion of easy to grow cool season vegetables with Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour. Last episode, we discussed the easy greens to start in your garden now in USDA Zones 7, 8 and 9. This time, we talk about easy root crops to grow, like carrots , turnips , beets and radishes . Plus tasty fall and winter above ground vegetables like sugar snap peas, snow peas an...

Looking for easy care, tasty, cool season vegetables to plant now? Look no further than all the nutritious, green leafy crops that love the fall weather. Today, we’re talking the basics for growing lettuce , spinach, chard , cabbage , Chinese greens, and kale, with great growing advice from Master Gardener Gail Pothour, who's also a vegetable expert. And we are introducing a new segment to th...

The hot trend of spring is back, this time for fall. The trend? The home-based, back-to-the- land movement, where more and more people are starting a garden. Just as what happened in the spring, nurseries right now are seeing cool season vegetables and flowers flying off the shelves, especially for USDA Zones 7, 8 and 9. For those of you in colder climates, it might mean putting the backyard garde...

Horticulture expert Debbie Flower rejoins us for Part 2 of Understanding the Language of Seed Packets. This time around, she has good planting instructions for what to do if that seed packet says things like, "darkness aids germination" or "requires light for germination". And, when it says "keep seedbed evenly moist, but how much water do you apply? And, just about every...

A seed packet might say, “Plant in spring, but if you live in a mild climate, sow in fall.” What is a mild climate? Do you live in a mild climate? You might think so, but the folks at that seed company might disagree. On this episode of Garden Basics, our favorite retired College horticulture professor Debbie Flower tackles that as well as what can be other very confusing terms on a seed packet. T...

Ripping out your summer garden to make room for the fall vegetable and flower garden? Before you stick one broccoli plant or calendula flower in that space, you need to improve your soil. It’s tired! How do you perk it up? One way: let a portion of your garden lay fallow for the summer, as is that bottom raised bed in the picture. But the soil is being replenished, courtesy of all the mulch on top...

Can there be too much of a good thing? Yes, indeed, if we are talking about fertilizer for your outdoor fruit and vegetable plants . In fact, too much fertilizer can actually reduce the production of fruits and vegetables. Professor Debbie Flower tells us why. Every state in the union can grow table grapes. And this month, you just might have too many grapes, waiting to be picked. Unless you are a...

For those of you who live in the West, the South, parts of the Midwest and mid-Atlantic states, (USDA Zones 7, 8, and 9) we get down to specifics in this episode on the best varieties of vegetables to grow during the cooler months of fall and winter:  lettuce , spinach , Swiss Chard , cabbage , Chinese cabbage , cilantro, broccoli (pictured), cauliflower, beets , snow peas , fava beans , carrots ,...

Many gardeners are still enjoying the summer vegetable garden. But get ready…the days will be getting shorter and cooler this month and those vegetables may start to go into decline. Now is time to be planning and planting your second garden of 2020, the fall and winter vegetable garden. Our favorite college horticulture professor (retired), Debbie Flower, has tips for getting your lettuce , spina...

Welcome back to our little insecticidal soap opera, "Who’s Eating My Tomatoes?" College horticulture professor Debbie Flower joins us for our big finale of this three part series, which looks at the insect critters that don’t necessarily chew the tomatoes, but they sure make them look ugly and unappetizing. It's the sucking, piercing, rasping insects of tomatoes that get our attenti...

We continue our conversation with retired horticulture professor Debbie Flower about the critters that are munching on your backyard tomatoes . Last time, we discussed the smaller pests: hornworms, fruit worms, fruit beetles, snails, slugs, earwigs. This time we tackle the larger interlopers who are getting into your tomatoes: rats, squirrels, birds, possum, raccoons, and, of course, deer. Plus, w...

How many times have you gone out to your backyard tomato patch, reached in to harvest what looks like a big, juicy, ripe, red tomato…only to have your fingertips realize…someone’s been eating my tomatoes. Who’s the culprit? Our favorite college horticulture teacher (retired), Debbie Flower, rounds up the suspects and interrogate them one by one. There’s so many possible offenders, it will take us...