Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media welcome. It could happen here. I am
Speaker 1: Sophie Lecter when I am the executive producer of all
Speaker 1: of Cool Zone Media, and I didn't have time to
Speaker 1: touch grass today, so this is the closest I'm going
Speaker 1: to get to that. And here with me leading the
Speaker 1: conversation will be James Stout. And also here is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite people on this entire planet, Allie Conger.
Speaker 1: James take it away.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Sophie. Magnificent intro. As Sophie said, we're here
Speaker 2: today to talk about grass. So no, really grass, but
Speaker 2: it's just like plants in general. I wanted to do
Speaker 2: an episode on having a little garden because I think
Speaker 2: it is a thing that would make people happy, and
Speaker 2: also it's a way to have food for yourself. It's
Speaker 2: not free, but once the plants keep growing, you don't
Speaker 2: have to pay any more for the food, so it's
Speaker 2: a nice thing to do. I enjoyed to grow plants,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to share that with you. Do you
Speaker 2: have little gardens? Molly and Sophie.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Oh so.
Speaker 3: I moved to a new apartment last year and in
Speaker 3: sort of a rare and strange arrangement, my first floor
Speaker 3: apartment has like a little dirt patch. It's I think
Speaker 3: it was originally supposed to be where the HVAC units are,
Speaker 3: because it's like walled off by this sort of tall wall.
Speaker 3: It's this ten foot by ten foot pit, but the
Speaker 3: HVAC units are not there. So that's where I grow
Speaker 3: my tomatoes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my porch is currently a fruit garden. I have
Speaker 1: a bunch of things starting in pots. I've got a
Speaker 1: lemon tree. I've got a mandarin tree, which I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about. I grew a mandarin tree when I lived
Speaker 1: in California and then gifted to my dad and then
Speaker 1: he gifted it to a friend of his and it's
Speaker 1: still doing really well, so that's nice. I have a
Speaker 1: boys and berry plant. I have what did I just buy?
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think. I just bought another fruit thing. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's like some citrus hybrid thing. So my porch is
Speaker 1: filled with fruit things that should live for a very
Speaker 1: long time. And then my friend Sarah is on a
Speaker 1: gardening kick and so anything else we grow in her
Speaker 1: yard and she's growing literally everything that's good.
Speaker 2: Love to grow everything. Yeah, So if you want to
Speaker 2: grow everything, if you're listening and you're thinking, I would
Speaker 2: like to be like Sophia money and grow vegetables and trees.
Speaker 2: Trees are hard, especially if you're a renter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to start them in a pot and then,
Speaker 1: depending on climate, I bring mine inside during the cooler
Speaker 1: times and I have them under a grow bulb. It's
Speaker 1: not a quick commitment.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, it is an undertaking. And yeah, if you
Speaker 2: want to let them grow big, then you either have
Speaker 2: to get giant pots or put them in the ground.
Speaker 1: Did they put them in the ground? Which is hard
Speaker 1: when most people in this country can't afford to buy
Speaker 1: a home.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It sucks. And then you don't want
Speaker 2: to giving things to your landlord for free because fucking yeah. Well,
Speaker 2: let's talk about things that you can do in a
Speaker 2: smaller timeframe than trees. So I've just got a few
Speaker 2: bullet points here. We're going to go through them and
Speaker 2: you all can interrupt me with your experiences or questions,
Speaker 2: should you have any. If you're making a little garden
Speaker 2: for yourself, obviously you're gonna have to start out with
Speaker 2: choosing a spot for your garden. It depends, I think,
Speaker 2: on where you live. So if you're like on the
Speaker 2: fifth floor, and you don't have access to any ground
Speaker 2: yard garden soil. That could be your windowsill, right, it
Speaker 2: could be your balcony if you have a balcony. All
Speaker 2: you really need is somewhere that has good access to sunlight.
Speaker 2: All the other stuff you can bring in yourself. Right.
Speaker 2: You can bring the soil yourself. You can bring the
Speaker 2: water and all the nutrients that your plants need. But obviously,
Speaker 2: I guess you could make the sunlight in my kitchen.
Speaker 2: I have a little arrow garden which has its own
Speaker 2: little UV light bulb, and you can use those to
Speaker 2: grow some stuff. Or people have maybe some other hydroponic
Speaker 2: gardening experience.
Speaker 3: They have done elaborate setups for their tomatoes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you remember that. I think it was like
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen when everybody's relative gave them one of those
Speaker 1: like indoor herb garden kits that don't want the air.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sear a garden. I have one of They say work.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no no, not the expensive arrow garden one,
Speaker 1: but the knockoff ones. Everybody, Yeah, everybody got one of those,
Speaker 1: and then you saw them elsewhere.
Speaker 3: And that sort of commodification is so silly, right, because
Speaker 3: to grow like a little pot of basil. You don't
Speaker 3: need stuff. You don't need to buy a thing. You
Speaker 3: need a windowsill.
Speaker 1: I can't grow basil. Really, we're not compatible.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: I love basil. I use it constantly. I try to
Speaker 1: grow it. I kill it every time.
Speaker 2: What way is it dying?
Speaker 3: It just wilts.
Speaker 2: Basil doesn't like its feet in the water. It has
Speaker 2: to have quite dry soil.
Speaker 3: It wilts.
Speaker 1: And then I'll try again and I'll ignore it. It wilts.
Speaker 1: I'll try it again, and I'll give it a little
Speaker 1: bit of water.
Speaker 3: It wilts.
Speaker 1: I'll try it again. I'll give it a lot of water.
Speaker 1: It wilts. I'll try it again, and I guess how
Speaker 1: it ends.
Speaker 2: It wilt.
Speaker 3: I have an abundance of it because I'm constantly topping it.
Speaker 3: Because you want to top your basil all the time
Speaker 3: so that it branches instead of flowering. So when I
Speaker 3: top it, I'm like, why, I don't wan is this?
Speaker 3: I'll root these and I have, like, you know, seven
Speaker 3: hundred basils.
Speaker 1: What it's me?
Speaker 2: Maybe Molly could send one to Sophie and we can see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're welcome to some of my basil.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because pasta is one of the greatest things that's
Speaker 1: ever happened to anybody.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Oh you need this a little pine nut
Speaker 2: pine tree, I guess, and some basil and a little
Speaker 2: sheep and you can make pecorino cheese.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, and some anchovies.
Speaker 3: Of course, you just need your own sheep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone should have.
Speaker 1: Anderson would have the best time hurting one.
Speaker 2: Sheep that the poor sheep were probably not.
Speaker 1: I pictured it. It's really funny.
Speaker 2: You can't just have one sheep. They need friends sheep
Speaker 2: and not a solitary animal. Yeah, you have to get several.
Speaker 1: Well, Anderson will hurt them all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd love to see that. All right. So if
Speaker 2: you've selected your spot right where you have access to sunlight,
Speaker 2: the next thing you need is a vessel. So during COVID,
Speaker 2: lots of people start a garden. It's not that we
Speaker 2: are not also in COVID right now right, but during
Speaker 2: the lockdown twenty twenty, when everyone was working from home
Speaker 2: for the first time, people started their little guidance. And
Speaker 2: I think lots of folks who didn't start back then
Speaker 2: or you moved out since then, Like people just built
Speaker 2: lots of planters, often in that area between the pavement
Speaker 2: and the road, which has a name that I've forgotten now.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's one of those things that has a different
Speaker 3: name in every region of the US, and wherever you go,
Speaker 3: if you're calling it the wrong thing, people look at
Speaker 3: you like you're an alien.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what that's called in California.
Speaker 3: I think in New Jersey they call it the Devil's Strip.
Speaker 2: For real. I'm pretty sure we're going to call it
Speaker 2: the devil Strip in this podcast because that's a better
Speaker 2: name than I could have come up with. If you're
Speaker 2: gardening in the Devil's Strip, that sounds like a euphemism
Speaker 2: for growing weed, like when people call it the Devil's Letters. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're growing your Devil's letters and the Devil's Strip. That's
Speaker 2: a good place to build a planter, right generally, Like
Speaker 2: you should be able to obtain lumber for that somewhere,
Speaker 2: Like I don't think you should be paying for lumber
Speaker 2: in this day and age. Yeah, And they're pretty easy
Speaker 2: to build, right if you are building a planter some considerations.
Speaker 2: You probably shouldn't stain the inside of the lumber that
Speaker 2: you're using. There's stuff in there that you probably don't
Speaker 2: want it if you intend to eat the plants. I
Speaker 2: think it's a pretty bad idea. Or to get lumber
Speaker 2: which is pre treated, Right, If you get something which
Speaker 2: is naturally resistant to rotting, like a hot red wood
Speaker 2: or something like that, that's going to last a bit longer, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you should be able to find some
Speaker 1: kind of cedar or redwood around. I agree with your
Speaker 1: assessment that you should not have to pay for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: although it's not something that if you have like a
Speaker 1: good local hardware store, it's not something that's super expensive.
Speaker 1: But price it for you buy it, That's what I'll say.
Speaker 3: And it's certainly cheaper to just buy the wood than
Speaker 3: it is to buy like a pre made wooden plant.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The mark upon that is crazy.
Speaker 1: Incredibly overpriced for something that you would find at a
Speaker 1: big box store.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and crap too. There was one in one place
Speaker 2: I live that was like maybe a quarter of an
Speaker 2: inch thick and like it dovetailed together, but then like
Speaker 2: the dovetails kind of bulged out when they got too wet,
Speaker 2: and it was not a good figure. Don't don't buy one,
Speaker 2: build one. If you have decking screws in two by fours,
Speaker 2: you can build your own planet to it doesn't degree
Speaker 2: require a high level of carpentry knowledge. So then you're
Speaker 2: going to have to put some soil in your planter, right,
Speaker 2: You could grow plants in like likakers, like the clay composite.
Speaker 2: Have you seen this, like little balls? Yeah, but I
Speaker 2: think I have. Yeah, just to start off with, we'll
Speaker 2: we'll start with soil because it's the easiest thing to access.
Speaker 2: I think in lots of cities you can get free
Speaker 2: compost if you go to the tip. Don't know if
Speaker 2: that's the case where you guys live, but here you
Speaker 2: can get free compust if you go to the tip.
Speaker 1: I'm unfamiliar with that. But now I'm like, wait, can
Speaker 1: we do that because we should?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Have I been missing out on free dirt because I've
Speaker 3: been I've been paying for dirt.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, this is a huge life act. Do you
Speaker 2: have those green bins where you put like compostable rubbish?
Speaker 1: Of course? Oh no, we don't, so ifial lifts in Portland, yeah,
Speaker 1: and like I live in Portland, of course.
Speaker 2: Okay. So if you have that, I'm guessing your municipality
Speaker 2: is composting it, right, which would mean that it has
Speaker 2: a large amount of compost, at least in San Diego.
Speaker 2: I would be blown away if San Diego was leading
Speaker 2: the way and giving residents anything other than more cops
Speaker 2: for their taxpayer dollars. We can get free have a
Speaker 2: pickup truck. I think I can get too pick up
Speaker 2: trucks full of compost. You have to go and shovel
Speaker 2: it yourself right into your truck, and obviously you have
Speaker 2: to have some kind of vehicle to transport it. But
Speaker 2: it's a good way to get free soil, especially if
Speaker 2: you're like doing a project. Often, if you're planting vegetables
Speaker 2: in your garden, right, the soil that you're planting them
Speaker 2: into might not be good quality top soil, right. That
Speaker 2: top soil might have been taken away when you're building
Speaker 2: was constructed, or you might have all kinds of aggregate
Speaker 2: waste sort of mixed in there, right, gravel and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. It might not be the best quality growing soil.
Speaker 2: So if you can go into getting some of the
Speaker 2: free compost is the move. What I like to do
Speaker 2: when I'm starting a little garden and I've got my
Speaker 2: soil is to do a soil chemistry test. Have you
Speaker 2: guys done soil chemistry tests I have.
Speaker 3: My style of gardening is more just kind of vibing out.
Speaker 1: Okay, vibelides based Hey Portland as free compost.
Speaker 3: Is I get information overload really fast. When I first
Speaker 3: started my little garden, I thought, we like, I'm do
Speaker 3: some googling. I'm gonna do some researching. I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: to the agricultural Extension website and learn about my local soil.
Speaker 3: And then like, once i have seventy tabs open and
Speaker 3: I'm trying to consume the information, I was like, you
Speaker 3: know what, plants grow outside. They'll be fine, They'll be fine.
Speaker 2: It is true. There is a lot you can do
Speaker 2: and a lot that you don't have to do when
Speaker 2: it comes to gro own clients. My mother was a
Speaker 2: lecture in agricultural called it. Therefore, I'm bound to get
Speaker 2: a little home test kit and tests today. Do you
Speaker 2: know what the three essential nutrients are? To we turn
Speaker 2: into a quiz format for plants.
Speaker 3: Lash nitrogen, Yeah, a different element.
Speaker 2: That's correct. H These are things, These are real things.
Speaker 1: All I can think of is that that's right.
Speaker 3: Fat as a heat.
Speaker 2: If your plant isn't hitting its macros, it will not
Speaker 2: get swollen. Exactly one of the things about.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling my tomatoes creatine.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why they're hench as fun.
Speaker 1: Are we talking like magnesium close?
Speaker 2: Uh? That that too is an element?
Speaker 3: I had nitrogen though, that's right, Yeah, Molly is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Muddy got that one right. I'm trying to do
Speaker 2: it like a ratio. I couldn't work it out.
Speaker 1: Nitrogen phosphors, Okay, I was like almost there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're very close with magnesia.
Speaker 3: Are you growing a gardener blowing up a federal building?
Speaker 2: James porque, Nola's do Molly, I'm growing a guarden for
Speaker 2: legal and truth based reasons. I'm growing a guard You
Speaker 2: want nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Those are your three essential nutrient.
Speaker 2: There are fifteen other nicron nutrients. I guess that plants
Speaker 2: need vitamins. Yeah, the little you know omega threes for
Speaker 2: their joints. They need MP and K in different ratios
Speaker 2: depending on different plants. Right, So tomatoes need a lot
Speaker 2: of potassium obviously.
Speaker 1: Molly and I are like, we're here to talk about plants.
Speaker 1: Why are we in chemistry class? What's happening?
Speaker 2: James?
Speaker 3: I buy a bag that says tomato food and there's
Speaker 3: a picture of a cartoon tomato on it. That's what
Speaker 3: I know you're doing great.
Speaker 2: You can't go wrong with looking at the picture on
Speaker 2: the thing. I use this technique for all kinds of things.
Speaker 2: It's why I don't buy Quaker oats anymore. Very disturbing.
Speaker 2: I want to empower you to not have to buy
Speaker 2: the tomato man bag. In the case of tomatoes, right,
Speaker 2: you need a lot of potatum, especially to get the fruit.
Speaker 2: You can use a lot of nacuene early on to
Speaker 2: get the leaves. Then you need the potassium to get
Speaker 2: them to fruit. So you're going to seek to have
Speaker 2: the soil chemistry that suits the plants that you want
Speaker 2: to grow. Right. You can't really like improve your sign
Speaker 2: unless you know where you're starting from. So you're going
Speaker 2: to look at the NPK and the pH and then
Speaker 2: going from there. When you're buying commercial fertilizers, you can
Speaker 2: normally see the balance or set it on the bag
Speaker 2: or sit on the website, right, and you're trying to
Speaker 2: augment that soil to get the soil chemistry you want
Speaker 2: to grow the plants that you want to eat, or
Speaker 2: maybe not eat, maybe just have you can also add
Speaker 2: organic matters to your soil. If you're doing that, like,
Speaker 2: you're just gonna have to like test and test again
Speaker 2: kind of think, because when your cowshits, you don't get
Speaker 2: a bag which then gives you the amount of ninet
Speaker 2: gen phosphorus and potassium.
Speaker 3: That's why I buy the cowshit in a bag.
Speaker 2: James, Wow, that's a great business idea.
Speaker 3: No, they sell it at loss.
Speaker 2: They sell it lows cowshit in a bag. Okay, maybe
Speaker 2: that is a wonderful time to take a break for advertisements.
Speaker 3: Hopefully one of the advertisers is shit in a Bag.
Speaker 2: Shitt in a Bag. Longtime supporter of the show, I
Speaker 2: please enjoy this advert for shit in the Bag. We
Speaker 2: are back. We've returned from discussing things that we could
Speaker 2: pretend to shit in a bag, which we're not going
Speaker 2: to share with you. You'll have to guess. Okay, So
Speaker 2: I like to use chicken manure for mine, but you
Speaker 2: do have to rot it down right. If you're putting
Speaker 2: manure on your soil, it'll burn it if you just
Speaker 2: dump it straight on there. You can't just literally dump
Speaker 2: shit into your soil. This hopefully is not used to anyone.
Speaker 3: Got to age it like a fine wine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, it does improve with age. Buttlet up, cork
Speaker 2: it and put a vintage on it and then rotate
Speaker 2: it every few years so it doesn't get sediment as
Speaker 2: the bottom. If you can get a compost here and
Speaker 2: you can go after making your own compus, it's a
Speaker 2: fun thing to do. You get one of the barrel
Speaker 2: composters that you turn.
Speaker 3: I have one of those, yeah, oh yeah, because my
Speaker 3: dirt patch is like not really supposed to be a garden,
Speaker 3: and I don't have a lot of room for a
Speaker 3: compost heap. Love a compost heap, better way to do it.
Speaker 3: But because I just have patio space, m I have
Speaker 3: one of those big plastic compost tumblers and I love it.
Speaker 3: It works good, pretty fast. I was lucky enough last year.
Speaker 3: This was not intentional. I did not invite them. But
Speaker 3: I have black soldier flies in my car. Do you
Speaker 3: know those little guys. They're like pretty long, shiny black flies,
Speaker 3: but their larva are these like little grubs, And so
Speaker 3: I opened my compost. It was like, who the hell
Speaker 3: are all these grubs? But black soldier fly larva just
Speaker 3: devour organic matter and so they break down they break
Speaker 3: down your compost really fast. I love them so much
Speaker 3: that I just bought some. They came in the mail today.
Speaker 3: I got a box in the mail today that said, like, caution,
Speaker 3: live bugs. I dump dump those little babies in my tumbler.
Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah they thrive there.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they love it in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We had some lava. I didn't know what they were,
Speaker 2: but we had a compost heat that I moved a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago. When I moved it, the chickens
Speaker 2: had probably the best day of it, just chasing around people.
Speaker 3: Farm Black Soldier fly as chicken feed so that you
Speaker 3: can have this whole setup where you're growing them on
Speaker 3: purpose and then they sort of fall down the tray
Speaker 3: and the chickens eat them. I don't have any chickens yet.
Speaker 3: I think my apartment neighbors would not like that.
Speaker 2: Fuck the money to play rage against the machine as
Speaker 2: you install your chicken cube, I.
Speaker 3: Mean the dogs would love it. Buck has met a
Speaker 3: chicken before, and in his mind it is like the
Speaker 3: rawest chicken, right, Like this is the most tempting.
Speaker 2: Treat of the forbidden dog treat, the raw nugget. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then they give chickens can be pretty mean.
Speaker 1: Hey, Reese, featherspoon is a national treasure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, raised featherspoon is. She is not a mean chicken.
Speaker 2: She was just sitting on my lap earlier before we recorded.
Speaker 2: She sees a friendly chicken. She does. So if there
Speaker 2: is blood on me, she will attack even me her
Speaker 2: father and friend. So if you don't have any manure,
Speaker 2: that's fine.
Speaker 3: You can make your own dirt at home. I recommend it.
Speaker 3: It's great you can. It's very fulfilling to take like
Speaker 3: waste and turn it into something useful. You can do
Speaker 3: it on the city scale like Portland does, or you
Speaker 3: can do it on a home scale, which is fun
Speaker 3: and it's always nice to you know, reduce your amount
Speaker 3: of shit there, especially if they don't compost, Like if
Speaker 3: you don't have a green bin. It's less going into
Speaker 3: land for, isn't it. So that's always a good thing.
Speaker 2: So now you've you've got your vessel and you've got
Speaker 2: your soil, and you're going to have to decide about
Speaker 2: your plants. Right. One great resource to consult it's a
Speaker 2: USDA Plant Hardiness Map. Have you guys been browsy.
Speaker 3: Know your zone? Baby?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: You have to, or else you could just be committing
Speaker 1: plant masker.
Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot of debate right now in
Speaker 3: the in the community about the rezoning, the rezone, the
Speaker 3: USDA Plant Hardiness Map. Yeah, Like my mom buys all
Speaker 3: of her bulbs from this bulb farm and they put
Speaker 3: out a notice saying like, we are not using the
Speaker 3: revised map, We're staking the original, We're not changing the catalog.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Being a trad but for the USDA.
Speaker 3: Plant return to tradition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a USDA Plant hardness believer. And the climate
Speaker 2: is changing, So the ship that your grandparents grow might
Speaker 2: not work for you. If you have colder winters, especially
Speaker 2: right for the winter's getting colder where you are, that
Speaker 2: might be difficult for your plants. So consult that map.
Speaker 2: The map isn't going to tell you what to grow
Speaker 2: so much as what can make it through your winters,
Speaker 2: and so it's a good place to start. You're also
Speaker 2: going to want to think about plants that you can
Speaker 2: fit into your space. Right. If you want to grow
Speaker 2: yourself a sequoia, that's cool, but you know, if you're
Speaker 2: operating with a balcony, it's probably not going to be
Speaker 2: Maybe you can make a bond size sequoya. That was
Speaker 2: your thing, but you needed to plant the allfit with
Speaker 2: your space, right, definitely, If you want to grow plants
Speaker 2: that you want to eat, think about things that are
Speaker 2: high yielding, right, and perpetual spinach is a great one.
Speaker 2: If you're like a first timer, perpetual spinach you can
Speaker 2: cut and come again, so you pick some and a
Speaker 2: bit more cums and bit more cums. You don't have
Speaker 2: to like harvest it all at one time. Tomatoes are
Speaker 2: a classic, right. You can even grow them straight in
Speaker 2: one of those grow bags. Just cut a hole, put
Speaker 2: tomatoes in. If you've got enough depth, you can do
Speaker 2: root vegetables, so things like carrot, turnip, swedes you can
Speaker 2: get of course potatoes or a classic you can make
Speaker 2: a potato tower if you wanted to to the great
Speaker 2: way to have lots of potatoes in a relatively small space.
Speaker 2: So choose something that will also grow depending on the
Speaker 2: amount of climate window you have. Right, So, if you
Speaker 2: have short summers and you have something that needs a
Speaker 2: lot of sunlight to grow, you want something that will
Speaker 2: grow and mature in the amount of time you have
Speaker 2: right before the weather turns to shit again and it's
Speaker 2: too cold for that. Plant or choose something that's suitable
Speaker 2: for the climate you have. Like I just harvested some
Speaker 2: winter giant spinach because I agree that over the winter
Speaker 2: and it's very hardy and doesn't need quite as much sunlight.
Speaker 2: That was very good. And I'm about to start having
Speaker 2: my early girl tomatoes, which they arrive earlier than your
Speaker 2: conventional tomato. Like there's a tomato for everything, wherever you are,
Speaker 2: whatever you need, Like, there's a tomato for you.
Speaker 3: It's overwhelming. So like last year, like I said, I'm
Speaker 3: doing this five space, right, So I went to the
Speaker 3: garden store and I just picked out a couple of
Speaker 3: tomato plants that had names like that were funny.
Speaker 2: I think that's a great strategy.
Speaker 3: Right, that's very valid. But this year I was a
Speaker 3: little more selective, right, so because I grew fewer tomatoes
Speaker 3: this year, because I think last they were a little
Speaker 3: too close together. It was at overwhelming, a little busy
Speaker 3: in there. I want to do more cucumbers this year,
Speaker 3: so I only have five tomato plants. I have two
Speaker 3: different cherry tomatoes have a Cherokee purple. Oh gosh, who
Speaker 3: are the other guys? The other ones were just names
Speaker 3: I thought were interesting. I did it again. But the
Speaker 3: great thing about tomatoes is on the little tag it'll
Speaker 3: say how many days to maturity, So like you don't
Speaker 3: have to guess, you don't have to do a lot
Speaker 3: of homework or research. It'll stay right on the tag,
Speaker 3: like eighty five days to harvest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, going to the garden entry, they're going to sell
Speaker 2: stuff that's suitable for the climate you're living in, right,
Speaker 2: and then yeah, you can see how long it will
Speaker 2: take to harvest. Ideally you could space them out, right,
Speaker 2: so you don't just have a g loot of tomatoes
Speaker 2: and then no tomatoes for the rest of your life
Speaker 2: or the rest of the.
Speaker 3: Year producing, especially if you get indeterminates.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they will keep producing, you can, uh, I mean they'll.
Speaker 3: Keep producing till the first frost. So we had cherry
Speaker 3: tomatoes through November last year.
Speaker 2: Aweso, Wow, I thought you guys got cold.
Speaker 3: We're seven b but Charlotte feels kind of in a valley,
Speaker 3: so it stays warmer a little longer.
Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah, it's San Diego is of course, you can
Speaker 2: almost have this stuff yet around eternal summer. Well, we
Speaker 2: have winters now. The last two winters have been very wet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had to have a bit of a learning
Speaker 1: curve coming from California to Oregon within the different climates.
Speaker 1: And I have to say that with the things that
Speaker 1: I had in pots, bringing them inside with grow bulbs
Speaker 1: has been for older weather has been pretty successful for
Speaker 1: me at keeping things alive. Yeah, they're not as fruitful obviously,
Speaker 1: but they do not die.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a wind. If you're in Portland or somewhere
Speaker 2: feather north and like you know that your plant won't
Speaker 2: make it through the winter, that's a strategy, right. You
Speaker 2: can have a place set aside, you bring it in.
Speaker 2: You can have a grow bulb.
Speaker 1: And honestly a lot of lamps. They sell bulbs that
Speaker 1: are grow bulbs that can go directly in the lamps
Speaker 1: you already have, so you don't need to buy anything fancy.
Speaker 1: The bulbs are pretty expensive and they're sold at most
Speaker 1: local hardware stores, so you're really spending like five dollars
Speaker 1: on a bowl instead of spending you know, thirty dollars
Speaker 1: on some fancy contraption.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my mom has a shop light, you know the sort.
Speaker 3: It's like a metal lampshade, a clip. It's just a
Speaker 3: cheap shoplight that she clips onto a shelf to shine
Speaker 3: at her plants. Her version of oh yeah.
Speaker 2: That guy's demonstrating audio listeners.
Speaker 3: Her empty nesting has involved a whole grow situation, like
Speaker 3: there's no dining room at my parents' house anymore. There's
Speaker 3: more for us to eat when we go home to
Speaker 3: the dining room is a greenhouse. I love like tropical
Speaker 3: plants that have to live inside in the winter. She's
Speaker 3: got like a boogain vida that's like ten feet tall
Speaker 3: that comes in the house in the winter.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 1: I just bought some bougain via that I have been
Speaker 1: a pot right now because I grew up with bougainvilla
Speaker 1: in California, and I finally found a nursery that had
Speaker 1: it in an, Oregon, and I was.
Speaker 3: Like home because I always thought it was a potted
Speaker 3: plant until I saw it outside in a tropical environment.
Speaker 3: It's not a potted plant, not a potter.
Speaker 2: Not in San Diego. It is a plant that will
Speaker 2: take over your guide.
Speaker 1: In Sorry, James, we've gone off the rails. Back to
Speaker 1: what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, returning to the rails. I did want to
Speaker 2: plug native seeds. I love native sea search for finding
Speaker 2: different and exciting seeds and preserving indigenous people's horticultural traditions
Speaker 2: and like lifeways. I have grown lots of seeds from
Speaker 2: native seed search with great success, And it's cool in
Speaker 2: a world of increasingly like monocultural agriculture to preserve something
Speaker 2: that is part of someone's culture. Zapatistas will also send
Speaker 2: you corn. I'm sure anyone on the left who's over
Speaker 2: thirty years old is very familiar with zapatis to corn,
Speaker 2: I'm sure. But for the youth among us, you can
Speaker 2: order corn from the zapatistas that actually comes from somebody
Speaker 2: in San Diego who will send you some of this
Speaker 2: sort of heritage variety corn. And you're preserving this corn
Speaker 2: in a world where corn is increasingly commercialized. Right, things
Speaker 2: like Montstanto have a lockdown on some of these corn varieties. Right,
Speaker 2: they're like patented varieties. Right, even if you don't sew them,
Speaker 2: they're sort of invading the genome of these indigenous corn types.
Speaker 2: So keeping these varieties alive is a cool thing to do.
Speaker 2: To do this when I was like sixteen, this is
Speaker 2: like early activism. Me was like growing some zappaties to
Speaker 2: corn in my parents' greenhouse. But that's the thing you
Speaker 2: can do if you want cool corn.
Speaker 3: I think it's important too to look up what's native
Speaker 3: to your area, and not just because it is you know,
Speaker 3: the right thing to do, but it'll grow better where
Speaker 3: you live. The pollinators will be attracted to it where
Speaker 3: you live. I was just looking up like here in Virginia,
Speaker 3: the Department of Wildlife Resources will sell you native seeds
Speaker 3: for your area at a pretty good affordable rice. So, like,
Speaker 3: look up what wants to live where you are growing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3: A lot of things, like ornamental garden plants are highly
Speaker 3: invasive and destructive to your local habitat. So things that
Speaker 3: might look really nice in your yard are destructive to
Speaker 3: your environment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big thing that It's probably a big
Speaker 2: thing everywhere, but like in California, and we talk about
Speaker 2: like invasive mustard. Right when you see these big yellow
Speaker 2: hillsides in California, that's an invasive plant. Of course, there's
Speaker 2: the climate changes. What is indigenous to one area may
Speaker 2: no longer be suitable for growing there. It's definitely happened
Speaker 2: with some plants. I'll get a lot of plants as
Speaker 2: well from desert Survivors, which is a little nursery in Tucson,
Speaker 2: Arizona where I like to go and buy desert plants
Speaker 2: because I do not like to have plants that are
Speaker 2: extremely thirsty for water. This is my transition to our
Speaker 2: watering segment. You need to water your plants right. This
Speaker 2: is something that people probably know that some tips for watering.
Speaker 2: You want to water your plants regularly and consistently. Plants
Speaker 2: can get stressed if you have a lot of water,
Speaker 2: then no water, then a lot of water again. If
Speaker 2: you're using a vibe space watering strategy, you might be
Speaker 2: causing your plant excessive stress. So I like to water
Speaker 2: my plants morning or evening because in the heat of
Speaker 2: the day you're going to lose more to evaporation. If
Speaker 2: you're really going for it, you can set up a
Speaker 2: drip feeder, which is a pretty cool system where the
Speaker 2: little lines and they just drip water onto your plants.
Speaker 2: Those are a really great way to irrigate. You can
Speaker 2: also do what I often do, which is think a
Speaker 2: lot and then use your plants as an excuse for
Speaker 2: doing that. By taking the little glass bottles and making
Speaker 2: plant waters out of them, so you fill them up
Speaker 2: and then basically shove them in the ground as long
Speaker 2: as you can get a good plug of soil in
Speaker 2: the end of the bottle.
Speaker 3: I misunderstood where you were going with that. I thought
Speaker 3: you were pissing on your vegetables. No, so I've heard
Speaker 3: of putting urine in your compost tumbler, something about the
Speaker 3: urea and the nitrogen. But I don't think you're supposed
Speaker 3: to piss right on the tomatoes.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I was trying to understand what Molly's the gig face
Speaker 1: was really.
Speaker 2: Money is baffled by this bottle idea.
Speaker 3: I don't pee on my garden. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 3: sort of street facing. I think it would be sort
Speaker 3: of loud and lascivious.
Speaker 1: For the record, Molly does not pee on her garden.
Speaker 2: I want everyone to know that Molly's not a garden. No.
Speaker 3: But watering is a big issue for me, right, So,
Speaker 3: because it's not supposed to be a garden. There there's no.
Speaker 2: Hose, there's a water source, there's.
Speaker 3: No external like spigott for me to hook up a
Speaker 3: hose too. There's so I have to use a two
Speaker 3: gallon watering can that I fill in my bathtub and
Speaker 3: then take out one at a time, and so you
Speaker 3: know you're supposed to, like the equivalent of one inch
Speaker 3: of water per week is about average for a little
Speaker 3: vegetable garden, which is like zero point six gallons per
Speaker 3: square foot. So for my ten foot by ten foot,
Speaker 3: I'm looking at sixty gallons a week. So I every
Speaker 3: other day fill up my watering. Can you know ten
Speaker 3: or twenty times? It's an endeavor, good way, It's an endeavor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a commitment to the plants. You could like
Speaker 2: do a hose and run out your window from the tap.
Speaker 3: I looked into it. And so for people who live
Speaker 3: in apartments and have a lot of house plants, there's
Speaker 3: like an adapter you can get for your kitchen sink
Speaker 3: that you can screw a hose onto. But I do
Speaker 3: not have the right kind of faucet for that.
Speaker 2: Disappointing. I bet someone listening has a solution from moll
Speaker 2: they'se plants.
Speaker 1: But first it's time for advertisements.
Speaker 3: I hope it's an advertisement for pissing outside.
Speaker 2: That would be great. I would read advert for pissing outside.
Speaker 1: I just feel like that's what we're missing the world,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 2: Surely like Jocko or someone has done a like pissing
Speaker 2: outside Jordan Peterson that they've done sunning your balls, they
Speaker 2: must have done pissing outside.
Speaker 3: So if you ask the people that make the shi
Speaker 3: Wi a Fal sponsor the show, sure.
Speaker 2: We are back and we are now going to talk
Speaker 2: about and your versus perennial plants, a topic they know
Speaker 2: many of you have been wondering about. Would one of
Speaker 2: you like to explain? I'm sure you're familiar with annuals
Speaker 2: and perennials, which one of you like to take on
Speaker 2: the task of explaining them to our listeners?
Speaker 3: Sophie, what annuals just live for the one growing season.
Speaker 3: Perennials will come back next year, is the short of it.
Speaker 1: I definitely could have answered that.
Speaker 2: Well you didn't, did you, Sophie?
Speaker 3: So your tomatoes are annuals. Allegedly, my halapennia is supposed
Speaker 3: to be a perennial. She did not make it rip.
Speaker 2: We've had a couple of peppers over winter. I have
Speaker 2: a thie bird chili that made it from a couple
Speaker 2: of winters. Now it'll depend a little bit on where
Speaker 2: you are as well, if they'll make it through the
Speaker 2: and I think.
Speaker 3: I should have pruned it back earlier before the frost.
Speaker 3: I think they winter better if you prune them back.
Speaker 3: It was potted, I could have sunk the pot in
Speaker 3: the soil so the soil temperature would remain more constant.
Speaker 3: But I didn't do that. I about a new one.
Speaker 1: I respect that.
Speaker 2: So some other things to consider I'm going through. Things
Speaker 2: that you might need to add as your guide growth
Speaker 2: would be like frames for plants that creep or plants
Speaker 2: that climb. Some tomatoes will need a frame. For Molly's cucumbers,
Speaker 2: you're going to need a frame.
Speaker 3: Oh, I got a little a frame for my cukees
Speaker 3: this year. But I hate tomato cages. Those you've seen them,
Speaker 3: the round little at the bottom when they get bigger,
Speaker 3: the horrible round wire cages. They're ugly, They're hard to store.
Speaker 3: I live in an apartment. What am I going to
Speaker 3: do with that the other eight months out of the year.
Speaker 3: So what I did last year is a technique called
Speaker 3: Florida weave, where you use posts and twine and you
Speaker 3: sort of so you have the posts along the row
Speaker 3: and then you between the posts, you weave the twine
Speaker 3: on either side of the plants and It worked really
Speaker 3: well until my tomatoes became ten feet tall because I
Speaker 3: bought five foot posts. But it was good in theory.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how commercial tomatoes had grown.
Speaker 3: It was much more affordable than buying like something large,
Speaker 3: because I just went to tractor supply and bought Actually,
Speaker 3: the steaks I bought are for putting up electric fences,
Speaker 3: so they have clips every few inches along the post
Speaker 3: for so convenient to clip the wire into. So I
Speaker 3: used that to hold onto the twine and they were
Speaker 3: like a buck fifty apiece. So it's much more affordable
Speaker 3: and more storage friendly. So Florida weave them great idea.
Speaker 2: Love that, Yeah, I love that. Someone gave me a
Speaker 2: load of bamboo and I just made frames out of
Speaker 2: that and just it's fun to do a little a
Speaker 2: frame hitch and make little frame and then you can
Speaker 2: just collapse it because the a frame hitch, so it
Speaker 2: relies on the spreading of the bottom to give it attention.
Speaker 2: So you just you bring them together again and you
Speaker 2: can store it over the winter.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So there are a lot of solutions out there that
Speaker 3: don't involve buying a fifty dollars contrap. It blows, you know,
Speaker 3: like don't feel like you have to invest a lot
Speaker 3: of money in like objects and gadgets and things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think generally, Actually, there's a lot of shit
Speaker 2: that's marketed at trying to get your plants to grow,
Speaker 2: and like, the chances are if your plants you're having
Speaker 2: not as much success as you would hope. They're not
Speaker 2: getting enough light, they're not getting enough water, or they're
Speaker 2: not getting enough nutrients, or it's too cold or too
Speaker 2: hot for them.
Speaker 3: You don't need a big gadget.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't need to buy a thing. And it
Speaker 2: is one of those areas where you can find very
Speaker 2: useful information on the internet. So if you're struggling with
Speaker 2: a certain plant, there is almost certainly someone who's already
Speaker 2: had that struggle and you can find their solutions. There
Speaker 2: are some pretty good websites for searching up that stuff.
Speaker 2: The last thing I wanted to cover was pruning and
Speaker 2: weeding and pest management, which can be a bit of
Speaker 2: a mission. Right now, I'm fighting a uphill struggle against
Speaker 2: some gophers. They have targeted me.
Speaker 3: You have to shoot.
Speaker 2: This is a problem. I live in a relatively built
Speaker 2: up area. I am a person who grew up in agriculture.
Speaker 2: I know how to manage pets, and unfortunately all the
Speaker 2: things that I would have done are felony crime.
Speaker 3: Big government is interfering with your urban farm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, once again, the boot of the man is on
Speaker 2: my neck.
Speaker 3: I am at war with the squirrels here. That's weird.
Speaker 3: They didn't mess with me last year, I guess because
Speaker 3: you know, we had just moved in and they saw
Speaker 3: the dogs and they were concerned about the dogs. But
Speaker 3: this year they're feeling bold and they are digging holes.
Speaker 3: Every day. They're digging holes. They are burying peanuts in
Speaker 3: my garden, and I keep pulling peanuts out of the ground.
Speaker 2: I have a fucking peanut problem too.
Speaker 3: I'm not Jimmy Carter. I'm not farming peanuts.
Speaker 1: They're not afraid of Buccanatto.
Speaker 3: I guess because last year they didn't get got so
Speaker 3: this year they're feeling like.
Speaker 1: Ierson keeps the squirrels at bay. They know their place
Speaker 1: and that it is her yard.
Speaker 2: A buccanotto on patrol. Though. Are they able to access
Speaker 2: the pit?
Speaker 3: No, the pit is like not accessible to dog, but
Speaker 3: like sometimes you know, they're out on the patio bar.
Speaker 3: But the solution that I have found, because apparently I'm
Speaker 3: not allowed to shoot them A cayenne pepper.
Speaker 1: Yes, cayenne pepper is a great solution.
Speaker 3: I bought like several pounds of cayenne pepper in bulk,
Speaker 3: and I just sprinkle it on all of the surfaces,
Speaker 3: like on the surface of the soil along the wall
Speaker 3: around the pit because they don't want to like walk
Speaker 3: in it and smell it. So it keeps them off
Speaker 3: the wall so they don't end up down in the
Speaker 3: pit to dig.
Speaker 1: I do the same. You get some that some chili oil,
Speaker 1: a little bit of water, you put a spray bottle
Speaker 1: and it just keeps a lot of bugs away as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mace your plants.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Unfortunately I don't sprinkle into the wind.
Speaker 2: Oh no, Yeah, I've done the same thing. Money. I've
Speaker 2: maced myself trying to do that.
Speaker 3: As my strawberry start to ripe and I'm thinking like
Speaker 3: maybe I should stop macing the strawberries.
Speaker 2: No, just growing mace strawberries. Then you'll be immune. If
Speaker 2: you ate enough of them, you could become like the Hulk.
Speaker 2: You know, they spray you and you just get strong. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm doing mithrittism with police brutality.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that for you, like the guy who
Speaker 2: lets his snakes bite him a little bit all the time.
Speaker 2: And yeah, but for cops, I love that. There are
Speaker 2: lots of solutions for this which don't evolve like spraying
Speaker 2: your plants with a butt kind of round up or
Speaker 2: round up will probably kill them. But other pesticides, right,
Speaker 2: like don't display your plants is round up might kill
Speaker 2: you as well. But yeah, you have to first ascertain
Speaker 2: what pest you're dealing with, right, So for the gophers,
Speaker 2: one of the things you can do is, you know
Speaker 2: construction netting. It's like chicken wire, a bit thinner. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you can put that because the roots of the plant
Speaker 2: can still get through that. So you put that at
Speaker 2: the bottom of your planter right where it sits on
Speaker 2: the soil. The roots of the plant can still get through,
Speaker 2: but mister gopher cannot. Missus gopher, non binary gopher can't
Speaker 2: get through their netting, just like a physical block. I've
Speaker 2: heard people say that cat litter is something you can
Speaker 2: sprinkle and they think are cats around. You can also
Speaker 2: just make a little house for a cat that doesn't
Speaker 2: have one, so that it comes and lives near your plants.
Speaker 2: We have that for a while. Little neighborhoo cat came
Speaker 2: to date and it kept the rat problem to a minimum.
Speaker 2: You can use things like have you seen the ultrasound
Speaker 2: gopher preventers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't use one of those because I think
Speaker 3: it would bother the dogs, right like you would bother
Speaker 3: other small mammals.
Speaker 2: I have ones that I got on Jeffrey Bezos his
Speaker 2: website that are not in fact ultrasound. They're very much
Speaker 2: just regular sound, and I think I was missolved those
Speaker 2: so the worst trying. They are all sort of non
Speaker 2: lethal methods as well.
Speaker 3: You can get a plastic owl, yes.
Speaker 2: You can't if you've got a bird problem. You can
Speaker 2: also get bird netting if they're eating your berries. And
Speaker 2: I would suggest that you can get a variety of
Speaker 2: plastic animals.
Speaker 3: Actually, my mom has a coy pond, and so she
Speaker 3: got a plastic heron to scare away the real heron
Speaker 3: that eats the fish. And my dad misunderstood the purpose
Speaker 3: of the heron right. It was a functional plastic bird.
Speaker 3: It was to scare away the real bird that eats
Speaker 3: the fish. And so he thought like, oh, like we
Speaker 3: like fake birds now, and so he very lovingly bother
Speaker 3: a bunch of like different fake plastic birds for the yard.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so endearing.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's adorable, but it.
Speaker 3: Does not keep the hero in away. Yeah he's even
Speaker 3: the fish.
Speaker 2: Maybe you need a more intimidating classic harot. Keep buying
Speaker 2: until you find the one.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a really buff one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, buff one that's giving the middle finger.
Speaker 1: Because birds do that.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Hench herons do that and they're buff like that.
Speaker 1: What other pest management things do we recommend?
Speaker 3: Oh, I love knee oil for thrips and aphids.
Speaker 1: Snee oil rules.
Speaker 3: I don't put any poison on my plants because I'm
Speaker 3: I'm against it. But I have a spray bottle that
Speaker 3: I put a little bit of knee oil and a
Speaker 3: little bit of Don Dish soap in and then mostly
Speaker 3: just hot water. After that, shake that bad way up
Speaker 3: and spray them down.
Speaker 2: Lady birds, so a great one, lady bugs for the
Speaker 2: Americans in the audience.
Speaker 3: The only thing I use like is like, it's not
Speaker 3: really a poison, it's a bacteria. I don't know, debatable
Speaker 3: buy these bacillisitringiensis. I use that to keep the cattle
Speaker 3: pillars away.
Speaker 1: There's also like a lot of different plants you can
Speaker 1: plant with your crops to help keep a passive bay,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking like you know a lot of herbs
Speaker 1: which you would want to grow anyways, like mint and
Speaker 1: rosemary and lavender and catnip, and then also merry gold's
Speaker 1: always good lemon grass to trunella grass.
Speaker 3: Like coplant marrow golden basil with my tomatoes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks nice. Also, I wanted to mention in pruning, Yes,
Speaker 2: you do want to be pruning your plants. With tomatoes,
Speaker 2: you want to pull off the suckers, right If you
Speaker 2: imagine your tomato is like a V and then a
Speaker 2: third sprout coming up from the middle of the V.
Speaker 3: Because you should see what Jess is doing with his
Speaker 3: hands right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the several thousand people who are not in
Speaker 2: the room, I'm making a V with my hand and
Speaker 2: then an extra finger in the middle of the V.
Speaker 2: I can't do this without making myself.
Speaker 3: Laugh now, but yeah, pull off the suckers.
Speaker 2: You're generally going to want to prune your plants, right,
Speaker 2: This will encourage them to fruit instead of just growing.
Speaker 3: Yes, especially with your herbs, you want to top your
Speaker 3: herbs because once they go to seed they stop growing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh they taste like ass.
Speaker 1: Cut your rosemary off often.
Speaker 2: Give it a trim. People get really scared about pruning
Speaker 2: or poll adding. If you've got a tree, poll ad it,
Speaker 2: but it's really not that scary. Again, like depending on
Speaker 2: your plant, you'll find some good videos on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The last thing I wanted to talk about is rotating
Speaker 2: your crops.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, did you.
Speaker 2: Learn about this in school that we did or is
Speaker 2: this just a British.
Speaker 3: They cheat you guys about crop rotation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was not in any of my classes.
Speaker 2: Really, you didn't have the three field system.
Speaker 1: No, I learned that from like some nice YouTuber.
Speaker 2: Okay, well there's a niche for you there of your
Speaker 2: British person teach American people shit, they should have learned
Speaker 2: in school.
Speaker 1: On YouTube, it's going to take a long time. That's
Speaker 1: a long program.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're overestimating our education system so you can rotate
Speaker 2: your crops. So if you're growing the same thing in
Speaker 2: the same soil every year, it's going to pull the
Speaker 2: same stuff out every year, right, unless you're replenishing your soil,
Speaker 2: which you want to do. If you've got your annual
Speaker 2: plants right. You do want to erate your soil, turn
Speaker 2: it over. You can get a soil aerator.
Speaker 3: It's controversial.
Speaker 2: You don't believe in soil aeration, it's controversial. My belief
Speaker 2: is that you should augment and erate your soil, or
Speaker 2: you can rotate your crops right, which what you're doing
Speaker 2: there is not growing the same thing every year. And crucially,
Speaker 2: what you want to include in a corp rotation is
Speaker 2: a nitrogen fixing plant, which is to say, a laguminous plant.
Speaker 3: The squirrels are actually trying to help me by planting
Speaker 3: those peanuts.
Speaker 2: Yes, I guesse planuts are a lagome. I'd never thought
Speaker 2: of that from a country where peanuts wouldn't grow.
Speaker 3: I guess I should apologize to the squirrels.
Speaker 2: Yep, little farming squirrels. I like to do peas. They're
Speaker 2: a lagoome. A lentil. Everyone loves a lentil. It's kind
Speaker 2: of fun to grow a little lent do you, yes,
Speaker 2: I remember you said it's on Twitter. This is incredible
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 3: It's because biting into a lentil, the way that surface
Speaker 3: tension breaks when you bite it, to me, is exactly
Speaker 3: how I imagine it would feel to bite into an
Speaker 3: engorged tick.
Speaker 2: Just reading about someone who bit a tick.
Speaker 1: I just decided I am anti lentil, just based on that.
Speaker 2: We can't allow money to ruin lentils. Lentils are your friend.
Speaker 3: I know they're great. They are a great source of
Speaker 3: non meat protein. But I can't do it.
Speaker 1: Apparently, I no longer can do it.
Speaker 2: Either cook them enough and there's not the surface engine,
Speaker 2: or get split once you know the red lentils that
Speaker 2: are split and then you have the tension.
Speaker 3: I can do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, okay, we've agreed on I'm like fifty lentil
Speaker 2: by mass if I didn't have lentils, so, I don't
Speaker 2: know if I would make it. I make a big
Speaker 2: thing on lentils every single Sunday and then I eat
Speaker 2: them most of the week.
Speaker 3: It never even occurred to me, like what does a
Speaker 3: lentil plant look like? Which part of the plant is
Speaker 3: the lentil?
Speaker 2: It's the seed. I think, there's the lagoon.
Speaker 3: It's the that sounds labor intensive to harvest.
Speaker 2: It's not too bad. It's kind of fun. Because lentils
Speaker 2: plays such an important role in my life. I like
Speaker 2: to grow them. It's fixing night tune back. We could
Speaker 2: put any laguminous plant, right, we'd fix a nuturne back
Speaker 2: in your sword. And if you rotate those through and
Speaker 2: even leave your soil fallow for a while so they
Speaker 2: don't grow anything, right, if you have the space to
Speaker 2: do that, rotating your crops around, right, so you have
Speaker 2: like a fallow and then something else and then a
Speaker 2: lagom and then you just rotate them around every year.
Speaker 3: I just have the pit.
Speaker 2: You could segment off the pit. You could do pit
Speaker 2: quarters and you could rotate them around. You could have lentils,
Speaker 2: you could have tomatoes, basil and the little fallow patch
Speaker 2: for the dogs to run around it.
Speaker 1: I've just let you say tomatoes and basils entire time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so glad, thank you, thank you for not
Speaker 2: making me feel feel bad.
Speaker 1: I was thinking it. I want you to know, but
Speaker 1: I kept I held it in like a winter until
Speaker 1: the very end.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the very end, my grandmother says, Tomato Americans do. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Really, the ones I've met, I feel like they're either
Speaker 2: doing it. Sometimes people will meet me and then start
Speaker 2: talking like me incredible, it's not at all. It's really
Speaker 2: weird when you notice someone changing their vowels. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: very weird. I don't know if this happens to everyone,
Speaker 2: and it's just a thing that happens to British people.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's my message for you. Grow plants. Do
Speaker 2: not start speaking like me or anyone. Don't parrot people's
Speaker 2: action to just talk to where you talk. It's it's fine, but.
Speaker 3: Just like, don't overthink it. Just put some plants in
Speaker 3: the dirt, try it out. The worst that can happen.
Speaker 3: It doesn't work, it's okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're not very expected. I've get seeds grown up
Speaker 2: from the seeds.
Speaker 3: And never buy cut basil from the grocery store. You know,
Speaker 3: you spend six dollars with a little plastic blister pack
Speaker 3: of leaves. Don't do it. It's cheaper to buy the
Speaker 3: whole plant and then you have unlimited basil.
Speaker 1: Unless you're me who can't grow lest your sofia.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, just Sophie, please go ahead and buy
Speaker 2: cut basil.
Speaker 1: No, I'll just steal some from my friends who know
Speaker 1: how to grow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's another thing you can do. Steal.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's the other thing. Steal plants from your friends.
Speaker 1: Bring your friends cuttings, share your plants with friends.
Speaker 3: I don't consider it stealing to snap off little cuttings
Speaker 3: or seed heads.
Speaker 1: No, Like I don't either know.
Speaker 3: My fanny pack is full of like mysterious seed heads
Speaker 3: that I popped off of plants, and so I put
Speaker 3: some in the dirt because I couldn't remember what they were.
Speaker 1: That's also like a really fun game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think these are cosmos. We'll find out.
Speaker 2: Get some seeds and trade them with your friends and
Speaker 2: everyone gets a mystery plant. Be a fun thing to do.
Speaker 3: And don't forget to grow a flower too. Yeah, grow
Speaker 3: a nice flower, attract some beans.
Speaker 2: Grow some pollinators. This is a weird little anecdote to
Speaker 2: end on. So beyond the company who make the protective
Speaker 2: combat uniform for the US military, they also make some
Speaker 2: really nice clothing that I buy for work stuff. Sometimes
Speaker 2: I get afraid of being on fire, so I like
Speaker 2: to buy fire retardant stuff, And they send a little
Speaker 2: tag with all of their So you're buying your like
Speaker 2: fire retardant base layer to or under your plate carrier
Speaker 2: when you're working, and it comes a little tag that
Speaker 2: has plant seeds in it, and if you plant the tag,
Speaker 2: flowers will grow.
Speaker 3: That's beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's wonderful, isn't it. Yeah, it's very nice. And for
Speaker 2: that recent lene, they're my favorite purveyor of fireproof uniforms.
Speaker 3: Oh and get a sun hat. If you're outside gardening,
Speaker 3: get a big floppy sun hat. It really helps you
Speaker 3: get in the zone and it also protects you from
Speaker 3: the sun.
Speaker 2: It's a great tip. I think we should get end
Speaker 2: with that by by a sun hat.
Speaker 1: By a sun hat, wear sunscreen and listen to sixteenth
Speaker 1: minute of Fame, our newest caozon Media podcast, hosted by
Speaker 1: Jimmy Loftus. Ah.
Speaker 3: Wow, so true, so true.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, listen to it.
Speaker 1: Wow, gardening wearing a sun hat and sunscreen.
Speaker 3: I did that this morning.
Speaker 1: That's what I was doing this morning.
Speaker 2: So we had know.
Speaker 1: Oh Molly, such a legend.
Speaker 3: I was propagating my basil tops in my little sun
Speaker 3: hat an show.
Speaker 1: All right, the podcast has ended very well. It could
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Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com Slash sources. Thanks for listening.