Just Grow Something | Evidence-Based Home Gardening

I spent the better part of my afternoon on Monday pulling Johnsongrass from my tomato field and in between my pole beans, which is what prompted today’s episode. That Johnsongrass is a perennial weed that reproduces both by seeds and by rhizomes and it’s been an aggressive problem for us in one particular field and I thought it would be helpful to give some tips on controlling all types of weeds i...

Tuesday we talked about tomatoes that perform well in short seasons or challenging conditions. I had several listeners reach out and ask about growing in containers and small spaces. There are lots of options for this! On this Focal Point Friday episode, we talk container growing, the different categories of compact tomatoes, and varieties that perform well in just about any small space. Reference...

For many gardeners the ultimate vegetable to grow is the tomato. There really is something special about the flavor of a fully ripe tomato picked from the vine and brought straight to your plate. Unfortunately, growing tomatoes can be a challenge if you live in an area with a short season. For those of you living in colder regions your growing season for warm-weather crops may be very, very short...

Does pruning your tomatoes in a certain way increase the yield? Does it really matter? Are there other more important factors involved? I get asked all the time if we prune our tomatoes, how we prune them, how many tomatoes a gardener should expect to get from one plant, etc. Folks tend to get frustrated when it’s not a straightforward answer. Your tomato yield is likely to boil down to a number o...

For as long as I can remember I’ve believed that marigolds were the best companion plant for everything. Despite the naysayers touting time and time again that it was all conjecture, I stood by the research I could find that proved otherwise. If you listened to last week’s Focal Point Friday episode you understand the position I’ve found myself in after all these years of companion planting marigo...

Companion planting is a great way to deter pests in our garden, specifically for summer squashes. Some plants repel pests like aphids, whiteflies, melonworms and pickleworm. Others are better suited as trap crops, attracting aphids, squash vine borerers, squash bugs and cucumber beetles so we can remove them from the garden and destroy them before they get to our zucchini or yellow squash. It's im...

Summer squashes are a staple in most summer gardens. Whether you call them zucchini, courgette, or marrow, they can be easy to grow and very prolific, so they are a great introduction to a successful harvest for new gardeners. Unless you live in an area where pests and diseases are the name of the game: squash vine borers, squash bugs, cucumber beetles, drought, powdery mildew and bacterial wilt c...

Whether we grow our garden from seeds directly in the soil or start out with transplants, there are some distinct advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Today let's break down the five main factors to consider when making this decision. As always, find more gardening information on the Just Grow Something website . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for informatio...

The gardening "advice" we get may not always be accurate. Bury a whole egg under your tomato plants? Make a tea from banana peels? What advice is legit and what is bogus? Let's look at the scientific research behind common kitchen scraps that might also be used as garden amendments: banana peels, eggshells, teas leaves and spent coffee grounds. Say Thank You! Just Grow Something Gardening Friends...

This is the time of year when we not only start to have a lot of yard waste and garden waste but we generally have food waste coming out of our kitchens year round, so now is the perfect time to put all that waste to good use. The average American produces about 1,600 pounds (726 kg) of garbage a year and approximately 75% of this garbage is organic material. That means 1200 lbs of the 1600 pounds...

Last summer we talked a little bit about growing extra produce in our gardens specifically for donation. I will leave a link to that episode in this episode description. This week I have the pleasure of interviewing two folks from After The Harvest, an organization here in the Kansas City Metro area that rescues fruits and vegetables from going to waste and donates them to agencies that serve hung...

In this timely flashback episode, we go back to episode 91 and talk about hardening off our plants to move them into our garden spaces. Whether we've started them from seed ourselves or we've purchased plants and brought them in, our plants need some time to acclimate. The process is a little different in both cases. And if we're growing plants indoors, we have a different set of circumstances to...

One of the best flavors of the summer has to be sweet corn right from the stalk. If it’s picked at the right time and eaten right away, you really don’t need anything on it. It’s just that good. If you’re lucky to find some at the farmers market and can get it home and eat it right away, it’s almost as good. But we can absolutely grow our own even in smallish spaces. And what about growing our own...

It's spring planting time in areas of North America, or getting close to it, and many of us have the danger of a late frost hitting our gardens after we've spent so much time putting tender annuals in the ground. Let's revisit some options for frost protection in the garden, using both purchased items and those we can find around the house. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz...

How do we know as gardeners when the appropriate time is to plant those seeds or transplant our seedlings? There are guidelines on the backs of seed packets and tables and charts online and in books that tell us the supposed correct date to plant those seeds. But this generic information is usually based on the average last frost date for our area. If you’re in an area that doesn’t often get a fro...

Let's round out our mushroom discussions with some good 'ol compost! What is mushroom compost, is it good for our gardens, and how do we use it? Can we use the substrate from our own homegrown mushrooms and how is that different from the commercially available bags in the store? Spend a few minutes with me today to discover mushroom compost. Resources: Mushroom Compost: The Bad, The Good and The B...

Last week we talked all about growing mushrooms but that was all based on research and nothing to do with my own personal experiences. Even though my husband has always wanted to create a “fungus of the month club” to go along with our CSA program, we’ve never quite gotten there. I have worked with multiple mushroom growers over the years as vendors at our local farmer’s markets and have yet to ev...

On this week's Focal Point Friday episode, we're revisiting the basics of plant nutrients. Good plant growth is directly correlated to good plant nutrition. The efficiency with which a plant uses the nutrients in the soil varies greatly according to the composition of your soil, water availability, soil temperatures, and so much more. But it’s important to know how the most essential nutrients wor...

This week, we’re digging into a topic I have been asked numerous times to cover and really couldn’t because I’d never grown them! With names like puffball, stinkhorn, enoki, paddy straw, shaggy mane, and more, I didn’t even know where to begin to research how to grow them much less do a deep dive into the ethnobotany of the crop. I’m talking about mushrooms. This is not going to be my typical crop...

Welcome back, my gardening friends, to another Focal Point Friday episode. Let’s spend just a few minutes together reviewing a snippet of info from a previous episode, highlighting a new topic, or quickly focusing on a current event in the food and agriculture world. This week's focus is weed management. The main strategy to keep weeds out of the garden: prevention! Say Thank You! Just Grow Someth...

Foliar feeding has been the subject of a little bit of debate over the years, both in the horticultural space and as far as online gardening information goes. The practice of foliar feeding or foliar fertilization essentially involves applying water-based nutrients to the leaves of our plants to enhance their nutrition. In the home garden this can be done with a spray bottle or a pump sprayer or b...

What exactly does that name on the plant tag or seed packet mean? How does that affect what we plant and how or where we plant it? On this Focal Point Friday, let's go way back to Episode 6 to demystify plant nomenclature and the differences between open-pollinated, heirloom, and hybrid. Say Thank You! Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Pa...

Did you know that poor diet is the leading cause of disease worldwide? Diets low in fruits and vegetables contribute significantly to some of the world’s most widespread and debilitating nutrient-related disorders. Which is why many of us garden. We want to include those fruits and vegetables in our diet. And, if we have limited space, we need to be particular about what we’re planting. When I hel...

On this week's Focal Point Friday episode, I'm following up with questions and comments I got about some recent episodes about phytoremediation, commercial compost, and using manure in the garden safely. Say Thank You! Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon Follow me on Instagram JustGrowSomethingPodcast.com Merchandise | Just Grow Som...

Celery is a cool-season crop that can be a bit finicky about its growing conditions. If carrots are divas, then consider celery Goldilocks: not too hot, not too cold, but just right! On today’s episode I give you the lowdown on growing your own celery at home and this includes those of you who live in warmer climates. The main consideration for celery is it takes a really long time to grow from se...