Garden Guys

Happy Birthday, America! 250 years old and you don't look a day over 200! We fire up the (veggie-oil-fueled) copter and head over to the SOIL Garden in Durango. We talk about all things gardens, how plants make kids grow (see what I did there?), and why places like SOIL should be in EVERY town and city in this great county we call America.

Love us a site visit, especially when we see someone else's garden doing better than ours! This week our intrepid duo travels (by bio-fuel helicopter) to a site visit in La Plata County where Sean Stewart (Red Cliffs Pottery) has developed his own ecosystem of food gardens.  The discussion during the garden tour ranges from his multi-layered selection of growing methods to his highs and lows a...

Darrin's on vacation (what do you expect - he's a government worker) so we go back to the summer of '23 when the season sure felt similar. AND: the word of the week!

The good, the bad, and the ugly. Thank you, Mr. Eastwood. Glass half-full: it hasn't really been that hot. Yet Glass half-empty: it hasn't really rained south of Hermosa. For a long time. We talk about irrigation, all things alliums, sad seed situations, and trying to play catchup in the garden and how that can be an uphill battle.

Really, I'm not even sure we talked about butterflies. But we should have - everyone loves them (and ladybugs). However, we are seeing how a changing climate, season abnormalities, human movement, and insect (and earthworm) activity intersect, and the outcomes aren't always positive. Some are down-right spooky. That led us delving into the benefits and learning opportunities of observing t...

Today our intrepid duo continue their interview with New York Times best-selling author Jo Robinson.  This is part two of an interview that started in the last episode on finding the best nutrition in our food. This week Jo delves into the various benefits of grass-fed animals and how that nutrition starts with plants - to find out more check out her book Pasture Perfect .

You all are in for a special treat: We have a phone interview with Author Jo Robinson, an investigative journalist specializing in science and health. Her book “Eating on the Wild Side” is a New York Times best seller and it details methods to find the most nutritious varieties of fruits and vegetables. Along with her book on grass-fed animals ( Pasture Perfect ) , she has a wealth of science-base...

Season still feels like we are 4-6 ahead of schedule: check. Deer still love Darrin's yard: check. Weeds still grow fine without water: check. Except mallow. David Attenborough could be God: check. Yep, that sounds like a full show.

Growing seedlings inside under lights can be an affordable - albeit sometimes frustrating - endeavor. But this won't stop the intrepid Garden Guys! Tom and Darrin debate the pros and cons of using plastic cels and soil blocks, with greater discussion on Tom's first attempt at the Seed Snail.

Despite the upside of Darrin giving Tom "birthday presents", we have to talk about the early season challenges - from constant drought concerns, to cold temps and early flowering trees, to wet (and cold) soils... well, thank goodness for birthday presents! But there will hopefully be some tidbits for our listeners on the potentially detrimental effects of planting seeds in wet soils foll...

Start serious, end light. Start serious, end light... mantra for the week. Yup, we are talking about the Strait of Hormuz. Why on earth would the Garden Guys do that? You wonder…well, sometimes world events intrude on food production, and this is one of those times. So, we discuss it like adults. Ish. But then we end it critiquing the top 10 veggies according to the latest poll, like we're kid...

Just when you thought it was safe to change the channel… The Garden Guys are back talking plants, the never-winter, and how to garden smart with less water. Plus, a bold move into the public eye at the Durango Botanic Gardens' speaker series on Wednesday. Same voices, same faces for radio—don’t miss it.

The Garden Guys are digging into a topic that’s growing faster than mistletoe takes over a tree:  artificial intelligence . We’ll explore what AI actually is, what it  isn’t  (no, it can’t weed your garden… yet), and how it might show up in the gardening world. We’ll also talk about the limits of AI, why it still can’t replace dirt-under-the-fingernails experience, and how gardeners can use techno...

Happy Thanksgiving to all you gardeners, farmers, and food geeks out there! Yes, the Garden Guys are still alive! Darrin and Tom are on another site visit this week with Jude Schuenemeyer, co-founder of  MORP   (Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project), and we were lucky enough to catch an earful of wonderment on all things' apples. So much so, that we have a special 1-hour episode for the holid...

This is a special one. Tom and Darrin love site visits (think: field trips without the sack lunch) and we go visit a special gem just outside of Durango. But as you will hear, it's not just about the garden; we feel the family, the history, the generational romance of what growing your own food can mean. Who knows, after listening you may feel the Italian sun on your face!

After waxing poetically about the present environmental state of affairs, we get deeper into the multiple layers of growing alliums. That magical, healthy family of plants that support our cooking and immune systems. We go over some details on several plants from the allium group, including bulbing onions, bunching onions, leeks, garlic, chives, and shallots. They all grow well in the four corners...

HOT damn we're back! Ever feel like you are trying to garden while attending Burning Man? Well, that's what it was like trying to grow some veggies here in the SW corner of the state this summer. Hot. Dry. Windy. Grumpy. Those are our adjectives - what are yours? Oh, and we talk about fences - Darrin took his (275 foot) fence down and invited all the town deer to their front yard; Tom had...

Everyone still have their fingers? Let's hope so, 'cause there's weedin' to be done! We compare present day gardening to what it was like in 1776 when this whole experiment got started. Many garden varieties have carried through unchanged, but our collective cultural involvement in growing food has been altered dramatically. Tom and Darrin also have a “whine fest” and then suggest...

All about rain. Visualize it. So many benefits. An encore edition from June of 2022: what can you do to direct that rain as it falls on your garden? Why is rain so beneficial? And for all of us that will get rain, it can also come as a frozen package of hail. Indiscriminate, soulless hail thrashing a garden. Take the good with the bad, but visualize moisture in your future.

It's June, and it's hot. And not just outside. Darrin's house registered 89 degrees at 5pm, which only means one thing: he's cranky. Fortunately, we give some ideas on how to get those plants through the rough month, as we all start looking north and west for those summer monsoons. And just for you all and those summer cocktail parties: the history of food through the B.C. years -...

This was a special one! The Garden Guys took the helicopter (aka Toyota RAV4) to Pine River Shares ' Community Food Farm in Bayfield, where we heard from Pam and Chris about all the absolutely amazing work they are doing there (and all over the Pine River foodshed). Prepare to be inspired, awed, and hopefully wanting to engage with them - as a volunteer or a donor (or both!).

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.” George W. Bush must have been thinking about gardening, as it's not uncommon to repeat our mistakes. But it's usually someone else's fault...

Just like your favorite NPR shows - maybe "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" or "This American Life" - we here at Garden Guys like to give you an "encore" show. Think of it like "Throw Back Thursday", but on a Saturday. We take listeners' questions on topics such as: when to use inoculant; whether or not to reuse potting soil; can home gardeners use tighter spacings then what the seed packet tells us; a...

It's go time in the garden - so much so that I forgot to upload this until Sunday. Ack! Sorry! Darrin and Tom focus on some key gardening tips that can help busy people focus on the priorities in the garden and keep ahead of the wave of expectations. Let’s grow some food!

Once again, Tom and Darrin get drawn to bees. We give you the "Daily Buzz" as I'm pretty sure we both have "Hive Vibes" and Darrin may or may not be a bit "Buzzed". Did you know there are over 900 different native bees in Colorado?  It’s not just the ol' honey bee flying around out there! Tom also educates us on the benefits of double-digging your garden (just...