Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, Hello, this is incredible. They're literally packed to
Speaker 1: the walls. I'm Emily Dalton Smith. I lead the threads up,
Speaker 1: and I am delighted that we get to have Martha
Speaker 1: Stewart here for an event with us talking about gardening,
Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite topics. I have a
Speaker 1: burning question for later, but we have an incredible room
Speaker 1: of influencers and creators, which is so fitting since Martha
Speaker 1: is the original influencer and I think has influenced all
Speaker 1: of us. And she published her one hundred first book,
Speaker 1: The Spring Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook, which is an encompassing
Speaker 1: how to guide for the beginner to the advanced gardener,
Speaker 1: so we're very excited to get to talk about that.
Speaker 1: She's also more recently added the Martha Stewart Podcast to
Speaker 1: her empire, where she talks to guests like Pamela Anderson
Speaker 1: and and Glenn Powell. And we're just so lucky to
Speaker 1: have her here as our guest today, answering our gardening
Speaker 1: questions live here and teaching us how to hone our
Speaker 1: green thumb. So thank you Martha very much for joining us.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to thank Emily for introducing us.
Speaker 3: That was very nice, and I also want to thank
Speaker 3: Errett Gottessman and all of my friends here at Threads
Speaker 3: and at Meta for hosting this garden party and live podcast.
Speaker 2: I've been an avid.
Speaker 3: User of Threads since it launched, and I've also been
Speaker 3: a very avid user of Instagram since twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: I'm happy to be.
Speaker 3: Here today talking about my new book, Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook,
Speaker 3: and answering your questions about gardening.
Speaker 2: And to help me.
Speaker 3: Here is the chief creative officer for my company, who
Speaker 3: is also my friend, Kevin Sharky.
Speaker 2: So Kevin, if you've read.
Speaker 3: The magazine or know anything about me, Kevin's very close
Speaker 3: friend as well as colleague and work together for how
Speaker 3: many years.
Speaker 4: We're going on thirty two?
Speaker 3: Only thirty two years more than half his life.
Speaker 2: Sadly, only about a third of my life.
Speaker 4: Not half of my happy life. So we're here talking
Speaker 4: about one hundred and one books or the one hundred things,
Speaker 4: only only about this book.
Speaker 5: Just came back, literally, I came back yesterday from Dubai.
Speaker 2: And why were you in Dubai?
Speaker 5: I was in Dubai because Martha is opening stores in Dubai.
Speaker 5: Freestanding Stewart stores, first time ever.
Speaker 4: We're super exciting. But it's not just Dubai. It's all
Speaker 4: over the GCC. So pretty soon there were going to
Speaker 4: be stores everywhere with Martha Stewart's name on the Wow.
Speaker 4: Very excited.
Speaker 5: But anyway, somebody asked me while I was there, how
Speaker 5: does Martha spend all of her time? And I said, well, Martha,
Speaker 5: she were here, she would tell you that cooking is
Speaker 5: her job, but gardening is her passion.
Speaker 3: Well, I have been gardening since I was since I
Speaker 3: can remember when it's about three years old, and father
Speaker 3: Dad big ed. He would put me out in the
Speaker 3: garden with a little tan cultivator and a little shovel
Speaker 3: and actually there were no children's tools in those days,
Speaker 3: and you had the big, heavy adult shovel in the
Speaker 3: adult cultivator and a screwdriver to weed the little cobblestone
Speaker 3: path that he had built in our little fifth of
Speaker 3: an acre garden.
Speaker 2: We lived in Nottley, New Jersey.
Speaker 3: I got my first Blue ribbon when I was in
Speaker 3: sixth grade for a lily I grew at the at
Speaker 3: the Milk the Nutley Garden, a big pink lily.
Speaker 2: It was so pretty.
Speaker 3: I just did one stem with it had actually had
Speaker 3: about seven lilies on it.
Speaker 4: So your dad you start.
Speaker 5: Your dad started your journey with gardening and with Alexis.
Speaker 5: I know that you used to play this game.
Speaker 3: We made songs up of the Latin names of all
Speaker 3: the plants. This is my Alexis and my daughter and
Speaker 3: we had a little cottage in the Berkshires on fifty
Speaker 3: acres where we gardened every single moment that we could.
Speaker 3: And I had beautiful little I had visited Williamsburg and
Speaker 3: I loved the Williamsburg gardens with the brick paths, and
Speaker 3: I recycled a lot of old bricks up in Massachusetts,
Speaker 3: and I built my paths and planted all the Williamsburg
Speaker 3: y kind of gardens.
Speaker 2: It was very pretty.
Speaker 4: And Jude and Truman you also taught them how to garden.
Speaker 3: And Martha's grandchildren, yeah, the two New York grandchildren who
Speaker 3: do grow a lot of things. And Jude has windowsills
Speaker 3: filled with she steals with that she asks, but she
Speaker 3: also takes.
Speaker 2: Small, perfect curiates, the perfect.
Speaker 3: Plants for my greenhouse. They all have to be small
Speaker 3: kind of miniature plants. And she has up matching clay
Speaker 3: pots on her windowsill, all with the perfect saucers underneath,
Speaker 3: and every plant is meticulously cared for. And she's going
Speaker 3: to be my gardener, and she's inheriting the farm because
Speaker 3: she's already I've already put her name on the wheel
Speaker 3: because she she has that, she has, she has the
Speaker 3: gardening bug. We have been picking really virtually pounds and
Speaker 3: pounds and pounds of asparagus from my new raised bid
Speaker 3: garden which we established last year, and that the asparagus patch.
Speaker 3: If you read about asparagus is growing, you will know
Speaker 3: that it really once you get the big asparagus roots
Speaker 3: and you get the mail order generally, or you can
Speaker 3: probably find them at home depot and stuff, and three
Speaker 3: or four in a bag. You plant them and they
Speaker 3: tell you to wait for three years before you start
Speaker 3: harvesting so that the roots can get established.
Speaker 2: So I called up mister Spear last year. Mister Spear is.
Speaker 3: In California and the northern California, and he supplies me
Speaker 3: with my special asparagus and my special artichokes for Easter,
Speaker 3: and I said, do you have any extra roots? And
Speaker 3: he sent me roots about this big. Each root was
Speaker 3: that big, and so now and it's this ninety foot
Speaker 3: long asparagus bed. I have been harvesting so many second year.
Speaker 5: But if you're a normal person, I'm a normal person,
Speaker 5: you're not an I am.
Speaker 3: And my initial bed that I have in my old
Speaker 3: flower garden at Bedford, Bedford's my farm in Bedford. It's
Speaker 3: about fifty miles from here. It's a beautiful one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty six acre farm right there in Bedford, Katona
Speaker 3: Cross River.
Speaker 2: It's all a little town. And I tested all the
Speaker 2: soil when I moved there, remember that. And the first
Speaker 2: thing I planted was.
Speaker 3: An asparagus bed, and that is still very prolific. So
Speaker 3: that's twenty that's about twenty three years later. I am
Speaker 3: getting great asparagus from that garden. Even though that that
Speaker 3: asparagus bed is now taken over by flowers for the
Speaker 3: most part, it's still producing asparagus, all right.
Speaker 5: So we have a bunch of questions here that we
Speaker 5: can jump into. The first one is from one of
Speaker 5: our favorites, Seth Myers from Late Night. He wrote a.
Speaker 4: Question he did well, he has a person that he's
Speaker 4: going to We're going to look at it.
Speaker 2: I've been on Seth Meyers Show so many times, and.
Speaker 4: We had him on the Gardening Show to remember that.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he came and stayed the night he lived.
Speaker 3: He stayed in the hayloft, and his parents stayed in
Speaker 3: the guest house.
Speaker 4: And his brother is also and his brother is also.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were such nice guests.
Speaker 4: Hey, Martha, I have a question.
Speaker 2: What is the worst insect to see in your garden?
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a very good question, answer off air. Okay,
Speaker 3: that's a very very good question. Now, two years ago,
Speaker 3: the ash beetle came and it's a very terrible and
Speaker 3: it has killed every ash tree in the Northeast.
Speaker 4: That's why you have a bird sanctuary.
Speaker 3: Now, yes, because we had to cut down all the
Speaker 3: ash trees because they are all dead.
Speaker 2: It's the ash borr and it is horrible.
Speaker 3: Green beech a climbs up underneath the bark and loosens
Speaker 3: all the bark and kills the tree. And we're not
Speaker 3: going to have any more baseball bats. Did you notice
Speaker 3: that the Yankees have this new bat that's kind of
Speaker 3: a different shape. They're trying to make bats out of
Speaker 3: other kind of wood.
Speaker 5: Now, I bet people didn't know that baseball bats were
Speaker 5: made out of ashwood.
Speaker 3: Yes, now there is another insect that is is attacking
Speaker 3: and killing the massive beach trees, all the American beach
Speaker 3: trees and the European beach trees. So you know that
Speaker 3: whole grove of beach trees and you got to take
Speaker 3: a look at them next week when you go up
Speaker 3: to the farm. Not good, and I'm taking I'm trying
Speaker 3: to take care of them by injecting the roots with
Speaker 3: all kinds of different foods. Oh yeah, but we don't spray.
Speaker 3: We're in an organic farm, so you know, there's nothing
Speaker 3: to kill these these terrible invasive bugs.
Speaker 2: But and nobody knows.
Speaker 4: What to do for the beach so what's okay?
Speaker 2: So that's bad?
Speaker 3: And so that those are the sa to answer your question,
Speaker 3: it's anything that is killing of things.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I can put up with a butterfly, it's that's a bug,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't really hurt anything.
Speaker 4: Put up with most people of flies. I can put
Speaker 4: up with a tolerate.
Speaker 3: I could put up with all the pollinators very nicely,
Speaker 3: but but I can't put up with things that are
Speaker 3: killing trees.
Speaker 5: Okay, what was that bug that it looked like a
Speaker 5: prehistoric animal prey man?
Speaker 4: No, not that I like them.
Speaker 5: No, the one that was in the vegetable garden when
Speaker 5: it was up where the flower gart is.
Speaker 4: Now, what was that thing?
Speaker 2: It was like, Oh, that's that's a vowle. That's I
Speaker 2: don't know what. That's a rodent. Oh, they're different from insects.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know you should know what a bowl is.
Speaker 4: I thought a bowl was like a squirrel.
Speaker 2: No, it's like a mole that lives under the ground.
Speaker 5: Okay, that I did not know. Oh, we have questions
Speaker 5: from the audience, So if you want to ask Martha
Speaker 5: a question to make sure you identify yourself. First of all, all.
Speaker 4: Right, Talia, this is this is thank you very much.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 4: How are you Hi? I'm fine, Thank you.
Speaker 7: I'm right that.
Speaker 2: My question is for Martha.
Speaker 1: Are there any overlooked gardening tasks that you think people
Speaker 1: should embrace more, especially ones that bring unexpected joy.
Speaker 3: Overlooked gardening tasks? Well, I think it depends on where
Speaker 3: you live and what kind of garden you have.
Speaker 2: You sort of have to find your niche.
Speaker 3: If you're a city dweller, the windowsill is a very
Speaker 3: nice place to grow certain things.
Speaker 2: The terrace is very nice.
Speaker 3: I do not suggest fire escapes because of danger and congestion.
Speaker 3: You don't want to block people's egress or your own
Speaker 3: or your ingress in case you want people to use
Speaker 3: your fire escape, you know. But everywhere I think that
Speaker 3: your love of gardening just develops. You You see something
Speaker 3: and you think, oh my gosh, I want to have that.
Speaker 3: Visiting botanical gardens, I think is a very nice way
Speaker 3: to learn what you like and what you don't like.
Speaker 3: Visiting fair We just went to a fair on Sunday.
Speaker 3: I had a gardening book book signing up at the
Speaker 3: Lime Rock Lime Rock Racetrack up in Connecticut. And they
Speaker 3: also have Trade Secrets, which is a charitable organization up
Speaker 3: there that raises money for battered women and homeless women.
Speaker 2: And it's their twenty fifth anniversary and I've gone to this.
Speaker 3: They attract thousands and thousands of people every year because
Speaker 3: they also attract the best plants men in the Northeast
Speaker 3: and people from all over the country actually come to
Speaker 3: this wonderful Trade Secrets fair. Lots of garden antiques, but
Speaker 3: mostly wonderful plants. So you learn a lot when you
Speaker 3: go to something like that, and they develop, as I say,
Speaker 3: your own taste level for different kinds of things. If
Speaker 3: you're gonna you love pumpkins, and you need a little
Speaker 3: bit more land to grow some pumpkins, but you can grow.
Speaker 3: Once you grow one kind of pumpkin, then you get
Speaker 3: sort of like the bite and again that you get bitten,
Speaker 3: and you want to grow every kind of pumpkin.
Speaker 2: And that's what happened to me.
Speaker 3: I just started to grow everything, and I do grow
Speaker 3: pretty much everything I want to grow now.
Speaker 4: One hundred and fifty six acreds. You have a plenty
Speaker 4: of skras.
Speaker 2: I have plenty of room to grow things. I just
Speaker 2: need a few.
Speaker 5: More one hundred gardeners to maintain it all. Maybe there
Speaker 5: are some contenders here in the audience, all right, So
Speaker 5: thank you Talia for that question.
Speaker 4: So we have a one from Eddie there.
Speaker 8: Eddie, I got a house recently upstate, about two years ago.
Speaker 8: I ran a restaurant here in the city, so I'm
Speaker 8: hardly upstate, but I left to garden, and I wanted
Speaker 8: to see what three things are easy to garden, like
Speaker 8: vegetables that don't need as much tender and care because
Speaker 8: I'm not up there all the time.
Speaker 3: Oh, so, ruth crops, root crops, are crops that grow
Speaker 3: under the ground, like beets, like onions, like carsnips, carrots,
Speaker 3: celariac or anything that is, you know, a hearty vegetable
Speaker 3: that withstand a little neglect.
Speaker 2: But I would also suggest.
Speaker 3: You know, put in putting in a few, you know,
Speaker 3: really hardy tomato plants, so that you'll have those on
Speaker 3: the weekends when you go up there.
Speaker 2: Do you go up every weekend? Oh? You wish you? Oh?
Speaker 2: Once a month? Oh?
Speaker 3: So I stick stick to the hardy root crops, I think.
Speaker 2: And uh.
Speaker 3: And also berries, because when you get up there you
Speaker 3: can pick blueberries or you can pick raspberries.
Speaker 2: I have every kind of berry imaginable.
Speaker 4: Now right, you net them?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: Because I have a lot of birdberries, aren't they Well?
Speaker 3: Sometimes this year I was thinking of not because last
Speaker 3: year we got so many bloberries. I thought maybe they
Speaker 3: could share with the cards, you could share, you know.
Speaker 3: And this year, this year, I have such a crop
Speaker 3: of strawberries.
Speaker 2: Where is it a green point? That's nice?
Speaker 3: Don't crow lettuce, don't grow anything that grows real fast,
Speaker 3: and you will never you know, you will never see
Speaker 3: the rabbits will eat it before you get there.
Speaker 5: All right, Next one I'm supposed to read this one.
Speaker 5: This actually is from our other friend. This is from Serena,
Speaker 5: Serena Williams.
Speaker 2: You have to say her last name. Nobody knows we
Speaker 2: know Serena.
Speaker 4: I just assume I say Serena. You know what I'm talking.
Speaker 2: Serena and I were in a movie together. Remember I
Speaker 2: remember that, that stupid little movie.
Speaker 4: I do remember. I do remember Serena's fun.
Speaker 2: Neither of us made it as actresses.
Speaker 4: You've compensated in other ways.
Speaker 5: Okay, Serena says, I've had a hard time growing carrots.
Speaker 5: They always come out of the ground small and misshapen.
Speaker 5: What am I doing wrong?
Speaker 3: Well, I think that Serena is not preparing her soil appropriately. See,
Speaker 3: you have to double dig, double dig your soil.
Speaker 4: So what does that mean? I know what that means.
Speaker 2: But okay, you take.
Speaker 3: Out the first shovel and put it over here, take
Speaker 3: out another shovel and put it over here. Then you
Speaker 3: take this shovel and put it in back in the ground.
Speaker 3: Mix it with a little bit of sand. If you
Speaker 3: want to grow the best carrots a little bit of sand.
Speaker 3: You need to lighten up your soil and get all
Speaker 3: the clumps out, and you have to really cultivate it nicely.
Speaker 3: Then put your other top soiled back in and then
Speaker 3: plant your carrots. You will have and and raised bid
Speaker 3: would solve the problem if she would only make all
Speaker 3: raised bids because all the soil is fresh, so.
Speaker 4: You have to double dig I know you don't have
Speaker 4: to because.
Speaker 2: It's a brand new soil.
Speaker 3: When you when you make your raizor bids, you make
Speaker 3: them out of wood or brick or stone. Ryan Murphy
Speaker 3: just did the most beautiful race, gorgeous in my neighborhood.
Speaker 3: Of course he has to come in and watching.
Speaker 4: You be jealous for me to see that.
Speaker 3: I can hardly house now. And he put like as
Speaker 3: big as this room is vegable. He has an eight
Speaker 3: foot wall made out of stone, and then every bed
Speaker 3: is stone about this high.
Speaker 2: Stone walls of every bed.
Speaker 4: King Charles doesn't have a garden like that.
Speaker 3: He has a pretty nice one.
Speaker 2: Remember that beautiful garden. But he doesn't have it's pretty nice.
Speaker 2: It's what's the name of that place that he lives in.
Speaker 5: Is double digging specific to carrots or is that just
Speaker 5: in general with vegetables you need to know about double da.
Speaker 2: Oh, then you're you're all set.
Speaker 4: He's a success.
Speaker 3: And you could also if you're worried about varmits and
Speaker 3: put a little wire around, you know, a little chicken
Speaker 3: wire or anything.
Speaker 4: Okay, we have another question.
Speaker 5: This one's from Jenna Bush.
Speaker 2: Where did all these celebrities come from? Martha, I'm an
Speaker 2: amateur gardener.
Speaker 9: I'm really obsessed with the cutting of the flowers and
Speaker 9: I'm ranging. One thing that I'm thinking about is starting
Speaker 9: an herb or vegetable garden. What herbs should I grow
Speaker 9: to make the best cocktails?
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, you should should learn how to
Speaker 3: say herb.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, okay, one second, hold on, hold on, So
Speaker 5: explain that because people come.
Speaker 3: To say herbert. Do you when you talk to your
Speaker 3: friend herb, you say herb?
Speaker 2: So who got the idea.
Speaker 3: That herbs were herbs? You have to say herb. That's
Speaker 3: the appropriate wate look it off. It's it's the English pronunciation.
Speaker 5: So, but I doesn't say herb when they leave this room, jets.
Speaker 2: So, so, oh, there's mint. First of all, mint, but make.
Speaker 4: Which is easy to grow?
Speaker 3: Well, it's it's rampant and it's invasive. And so make sure.
Speaker 3: I was going to just tell her to make sure
Speaker 3: you put it in the spot, in its own little
Speaker 3: raised bed so it doesn't go anywhere else, because pretty
Speaker 3: soon you'll have mint everywhere.
Speaker 4: Is a mint?
Speaker 2: Nepa is a cat mint and that's only but.
Speaker 4: It is classified as a mint.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, it's a mint. Yes. And I would.
Speaker 3: Grow basil because that makes beautiful basil mojitos and I
Speaker 3: love basil mohitos. And then you should also grow rhubarb,
Speaker 3: which is not a herb, but rubarbar.
Speaker 4: Is a bit huh really for a cocktail?
Speaker 2: Yeah, rubart?
Speaker 4: Oh is that what aparls made out of.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what's apparrels made out of it. And you
Speaker 3: can see you're somehow you're remembering something.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not driving, but rubarb.
Speaker 2: I love rubarbi and oh I love rubarbi.
Speaker 4: So what how do you prepare rubarb for a cocktail?
Speaker 3: I mean you stew it with sugar and little water
Speaker 3: and then you strain it and you have that syrup
Speaker 3: and that makes it makes delicious drinks that will make
Speaker 3: a really good to margarita.
Speaker 2: And I had one the other night. I was salt
Speaker 2: basil mint.
Speaker 3: Time is also good if you will you know time well,
Speaker 3: you know in a bloody mary you can put time
Speaker 3: if you want, and you know the sprig of rosemary
Speaker 3: is nice and you can make you can find a
Speaker 3: use for pretty much any herb in your garden for
Speaker 3: a cocktail.
Speaker 4: Good question. Okay, meet some Hi.
Speaker 10: So I actually interviewed you on Threads with my interview
Speaker 10: series Loose Threads, and you talked about your book for
Speaker 10: the first time. But I would just like to know.
Speaker 10: I think gardening, much like recipe defining, and the trial
Speaker 10: and araa that goes into that, uh, is kind of
Speaker 10: the same as gardening. So I want to know, is
Speaker 10: there any gardening trial and era that you've discovered that
Speaker 10: you've you know, messed up on and you improved things yesterday?
Speaker 3: Every day every day you just every day you do
Speaker 3: something wrong and have to correct it.
Speaker 2: You really do. I don't anymore because I'm now I'm perfect.
Speaker 3: But Matt Matt OReGO, he's he just joined our little
Speaker 3: team up in Bedford from the New York Botanical Garden.
Speaker 3: But he went through the whole professional gardener's school at
Speaker 3: the New York Botanical Garden and came highly recommended.
Speaker 2: But yesterday he.
Speaker 3: Was planting a lot of expensive plants that I had bought,
Speaker 3: perennials that I had bought at the Trade Secrets, and.
Speaker 2: He was not watering them as he put them in
Speaker 2: the holes that he prepared.
Speaker 3: He prepared nice holes for them and took I saw
Speaker 3: him take them out of the the pots nicely, but
Speaker 3: he did not water them because he probably thought, well,
Speaker 3: it's going to rain.
Speaker 2: And you know what, that is not a substitute.
Speaker 3: It is not a substitute for watering as you plant.
Speaker 3: I mean, my father would have killed me if I
Speaker 3: hadn't watered every plant.
Speaker 2: Water your plants as you plant.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's drink rules that you have to follow
Speaker 3: and and they're important rules, and you want success. And
Speaker 3: no feeding and no drink and no watering is is
Speaker 3: akin to you not eating or drinking for a long time.
Speaker 5: I think people who aren't thinking assume that plants are
Speaker 5: somewhat self sufficient, and they're not there.
Speaker 3: They are not and and and that's really the no
Speaker 3: watering or overwatering or overfeeding or not feeding really is
Speaker 3: torture to a plant. And I hate torture, right, And
Speaker 3: I think I think if you think that way, it's
Speaker 3: good think that way.
Speaker 5: I don't think a lot of people think that I
Speaker 5: ate or I drank today, and so should the plant.
Speaker 4: So it's a good it's a good way.
Speaker 2: It is a good it's a good way. It is
Speaker 2: a good good thing.
Speaker 5: I think there's a there's a false level of security
Speaker 5: that plants take care of themselves, and they don't, especially
Speaker 5: if they're potted. I've noticed because I I live in
Speaker 5: New York and I have a terrace.
Speaker 2: And I get all his dying plants.
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 5: I am one of the largest contributors to the Marthas collection.
Speaker 3: My greenhouse is about maybe maybe a quarter full of
Speaker 3: Kevin's failures failure anyway, which come back nicely as they
Speaker 3: are fed and watered.
Speaker 4: Correct. Okay, So the next question is, Oh, it's from you.
Speaker 1: Hi, Hi, still Emily good. Can you help me understand
Speaker 1: partial son? I live in northern California, and I live
Speaker 1: in a little canyon, and I cannot, for the life
Speaker 1: and may figure out how much sun I actually have?
Speaker 1: And how do you know what is like a lot
Speaker 1: of partial sun or.
Speaker 4: A little partial definition of what it means?
Speaker 2: Well, like, how do you figure it out in your yard?
Speaker 2: You know? Shadows?
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, yeah, you can figure it out with the
Speaker 3: shadows and you can time it. So when there's no sun, start,
Speaker 3: you know, just start. Why don't you start with the
Speaker 3: sun first? This place, Oh, there's a sudden there's sunlight
Speaker 3: on the ground and it makes a shadow. Okay, but
Speaker 3: you're standing right there. Then follow the sun and measure
Speaker 3: how many hours is the that area is sunny.
Speaker 2: Just you can do that.
Speaker 5: Well, I've never actually heard anybody say shadows like that,
Speaker 5: honestly that I'm hearing it that for the first time.
Speaker 4: That actually makes sense.
Speaker 3: If you have shadows, yeah that's a shady garden. But
Speaker 3: if there are no shadows and its bright sun, it's
Speaker 3: a sunny garden.
Speaker 2: But you can see see.
Speaker 3: With the movement of the the you know, the earth
Speaker 3: is rotating around the sun.
Speaker 5: In your Instagram the other day, you you were talking
Speaker 5: about the hosta garden. Martha has these metasachoias. Yeah, shade
Speaker 5: that are underplanted with hostas. And you mentioned dappled light
Speaker 5: and partial shade. I didn't know exactly. I mean, I
Speaker 5: know what dappled light means, because you know, when you're
Speaker 5: a stylist and stuff like that, and you're working with photographers,
Speaker 5: you have to know what that is. But until partial
Speaker 5: shade is kind of ambiguous, and that can mean different
Speaker 5: things to different people. So to hear shadows that kind
Speaker 5: of makes it simple defies it, which I think is
Speaker 5: really helpful.
Speaker 2: Okay, good Bill, I'm glad you learned something heaven I did.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 5: The next question comes from Threads, so I'm gonna read
Speaker 5: this is Jack Gimmes and it said, what's the best
Speaker 5: way to revive a basil plant that has seen some
Speaker 5: things and would prefer not to talk about it.
Speaker 3: But basil plants, if you allow them to go to flower,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, basically on its way to being
Speaker 3: going to seed, they get weak, They get weak and leggy,
Speaker 3: and you cut off the you know, you cut it
Speaker 3: down and see if it re sprouts.
Speaker 2: If that will save your basil.
Speaker 4: When you say cut it down, like cut it.
Speaker 3: Down halfway, just try it halfway? Yes, And we just
Speaker 3: remember basil is an annual. It's not going to grow forever.
Speaker 3: So that means it's one one year old, one season.
Speaker 5: Oh, this is our young Gravy so you know him
Speaker 5: from mister Clean hit song mister Clean.
Speaker 4: But he's got a question for you.
Speaker 11: Hey, baby, it's young gravy, Martha, I miss you, just
Speaker 11: wondering favorite flowers.
Speaker 2: Three flowers, my three favorite then he's going to send
Speaker 2: them to me.
Speaker 4: I don't want them to be strategic strategic.
Speaker 3: He came to my house. He had never seen the
Speaker 3: Kentucky Derby. His his his producer lives around the corner.
Speaker 3: So then he sent him over to my house to
Speaker 3: see the Kentucky Derby there, and you.
Speaker 2: Know we were there, Yeah, I remember, And I made him.
Speaker 3: I made him my special mint jewels and everything got
Speaker 3: so drunk. And and he's very, very very tall.
Speaker 2: Remember how tall he is.
Speaker 4: So what are your three favorite flowers?
Speaker 2: Three favorite flowers at present?
Speaker 3: It's the tree peony as opposed to the arbacious and
Speaker 3: the herbaceous Paoni's number two, Yeah right now, because that's
Speaker 3: what's the And the Martha Stewart rose, which is in
Speaker 3: full bloom excellent.
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, okay, young Grady mar Rose for everybody
Speaker 5: who doesn't know it.
Speaker 2: A rose grower wanted to name this.
Speaker 3: He gave me actually a choice of different roses, and
Speaker 3: I chose this beautiful pink center fol of.
Speaker 2: Your rose based on what why did you choose that scent?
Speaker 3: Very beautifully scented, beautiful color pink sort of fading into
Speaker 3: a kind of an orange yellow in the center. And uh,
Speaker 3: it's full and beautiful and strong and glossy leaves and
Speaker 3: it just as a beautiful rose bush.
Speaker 2: So I finally got my got.
Speaker 4: It color scent?
Speaker 2: And what's the third color scent? And strength?
Speaker 4: Strength?
Speaker 2: Yes, and it blooms a lot.
Speaker 7: Hi and Ali, so good to meet you. You're an icon.
Speaker 7: Thank you for being such an inspiration. I wanted to
Speaker 7: ask you. You know you have a lot of neighbors.
Speaker 7: You've talked about them today. Has any neighbor had such
Speaker 7: obscene landscaping and gardening that you've had to say something
Speaker 7: or just go?
Speaker 2: Have you done it yourself?
Speaker 3: Oh? I live in a kind of farmy area Bedford.
Speaker 3: Bedford's kind of casual and but behind the walls it's
Speaker 3: not so casual.
Speaker 2: And I have friends who.
Speaker 3: Have exquisite formal gardens, and it's it's outside the walls.
Speaker 3: You don't know what's coming down the driveway and that anyway,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't ever comment.
Speaker 2: On somebody's guard. I just encourage, I do. I encourage theming.
Speaker 3: Like one man down the road on Route twenty two,
Speaker 3: last year, he had a display of daffodils along outside
Speaker 3: his stone wall that were so beautiful and Forcythia behind them,
Speaker 3: and I stopped to take.
Speaker 2: Pictures, and he came out of his house. What are
Speaker 2: you doing? And I just said, I was so beautiful here.
Speaker 2: I just want you to want you to know. And
Speaker 2: he was.
Speaker 3: So happy, you know, because you know, he did it
Speaker 3: not just for it for himself, but he was doing
Speaker 3: it for the neighborhood too, and I thought that was
Speaker 3: really nice.
Speaker 5: We were just Martha and I were just at a
Speaker 5: fundraiser not that long ago, and Ralph Lauren's son in
Speaker 5: law was speaking to me, and he didn't he Martha
Speaker 5: wasn't part of the conversation. He said, you know what,
Speaker 5: I just the best part of my day every day
Speaker 5: is he lives next door to Martha. And he said
Speaker 5: when I jog up and Martha had this year has
Speaker 5: planted the outside of her walls with hundreds of thousands
Speaker 5: of small bults, and he said, my day starts off
Speaker 5: on the best possible start.
Speaker 2: Because that's nice.
Speaker 5: She put that out there, and I made I dragged
Speaker 5: him over to her, and I was like, you have
Speaker 5: to tell her what you just told me because a
Speaker 5: lot of thought and effort goes into that.
Speaker 4: So Kayla, Hi, my name is.
Speaker 9: Kayla Star Simmons, and my question for you is, what's
Speaker 9: one gardening tip that you think every beginner should know?
Speaker 3: Well, know your limits and don't be over ambitious to starch.
Speaker 2: That's true, but.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's one because people sometimes get so enthusiastic and
Speaker 3: they'll go to the home depot and they'll buy everything
Speaker 3: in sight, and then it'll all sit in the garage
Speaker 3: or in the basement and never get used.
Speaker 2: So start by reading a book like this.
Speaker 3: And I don't mean to promote that so much, but
Speaker 3: it's a good book and it.
Speaker 2: Will really encourage you.
Speaker 3: So do that first and then and then you'll you'll see,
Speaker 3: you know, what what areas you might be encouraged to
Speaker 3: to pursue.
Speaker 5: It's interesting to hear you say give that advice, because
Speaker 5: I've heard you say in multiple areas, whether it's like
Speaker 5: throwing a dinner party or something like that, you always say,
Speaker 5: understand where you're at before you get to where your
Speaker 5: potential is. But you can't read.
Speaker 4: I know, it's like.
Speaker 5: Really good for well, No, I mean, I've heard this
Speaker 5: before and it's really interesting because it just helps you
Speaker 5: understand where you could get to. If you understand where
Speaker 5: you're at, it's nice anyway. The next one is, uh,
Speaker 5: I can't believe.
Speaker 2: Malibu, Barbie, Malibu Barbie.
Speaker 5: What is your best advice for taking care of rose bushes?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 4: This is good considering we're.
Speaker 2: Talking about well that too.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: Read the chapter on roses and learn learn how to
Speaker 3: take care if you're going to plant roses, learn how
Speaker 3: to take care of them. Learn what magnesium sulfate or
Speaker 3: ebs and salts are going to do for your rose.
Speaker 3: Understand what rose tone is. Understand do you have to
Speaker 3: spray or don't you have to spray? Where should you
Speaker 3: put them in the shade, in the canyon or maybe
Speaker 3: in the sunny spot? You have to know and so
Speaker 3: before you start anything like that. And things are not
Speaker 3: inexpensive nowadays gardening has become so popular and prices have.
Speaker 2: Gone way way up.
Speaker 3: You know, a rose bush can cost you one hundred
Speaker 3: dollars and you don't want it to die. You want
Speaker 3: you want to take care of it. So no know
Speaker 3: what it entails before you go in.
Speaker 5: And it's not particularly complicated.
Speaker 4: All you just have to know you got it.
Speaker 5: I did a TV show with Martha and part one
Speaker 5: of the segments was we were actually planting one of
Speaker 5: Martha's rose gardens and understanding what bear root is and
Speaker 5: the technique of how you plant it and the gully
Speaker 5: around it and all that was.
Speaker 4: Really it's a remarkable thing.
Speaker 5: Okay, this is great for anybody who loves vander Pump Rules.
Speaker 5: We have a video question from Stacy.
Speaker 12: Hi, Queen Martha, it's Stasi. I know we don't know
Speaker 12: each other yet, but this is very exciting for me,
Speaker 12: and I have a question for you. I am newly
Speaker 12: in my gardening era and I wanted to know what
Speaker 12: you think The most low maintenance plant is early flower.
Speaker 12: That would make me look like I have my together.
Speaker 2: Thank you. That's I don't know where she lives.
Speaker 4: I don't know she lives in California.
Speaker 5: She does, I would assume because she's on that show us.
Speaker 4: Oh that's easy. Yeah, it's not a flower, but I mean,
Speaker 4: but succulence have flowers flower?
Speaker 3: Say if if she's in California where there is a
Speaker 3: water shortage, and you're a beginner, succulents are such.
Speaker 5: So if a succulent succulent flowers. Does that mean is
Speaker 5: that like its version of going to see.
Speaker 4: They're not dying.
Speaker 3: It might be dying. It might be going answer the
Speaker 3: next phase. That doesn't mean going to see. It might
Speaker 3: be that it's sending out the babies underneath. Succulents usually
Speaker 3: multiply that way by sending sending.
Speaker 4: So there's an opportunity to propagate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is another from another audience member.
Speaker 2: Are you Harry, I'm Harry.
Speaker 11: My question for you is if you could be any
Speaker 11: gardening tool, which one would you be? And why this
Speaker 11: is a loaded question you have.
Speaker 3: Let's see, I guess I would be a horry horry.
Speaker 3: What he said, Let's see here.
Speaker 2: I'll show you back up, I'll show you what is
Speaker 2: this is a horry hurry.
Speaker 3: I would be a horry hurry because this digs, so
Speaker 3: that's very useful. It cuts with the serrated edge, and
Speaker 3: you can scarify anything. When you have a root ball
Speaker 3: and you want to loosen the roots, you scarify with
Speaker 3: this grat. Yes, this will also cut a rootball. And
Speaker 3: you can divide plants. So say you have a hostile
Speaker 3: plant that has like four four eyes on it, you
Speaker 3: can cut it nicely with that and.
Speaker 2: You can kill someone with this you ask this stupid question.
Speaker 4: You can also.
Speaker 3: That that's a really it's called hor hory, which means
Speaker 3: dig dig.
Speaker 5: You can also get it a QBC and it has
Speaker 5: a bottle opener on it too, so if you need
Speaker 5: a bottle of beer while you're gardening, it's there.
Speaker 3: All my gardeners carry this in the holster. It comes
Speaker 3: with a holster which is missing from their self.
Speaker 2: Oh. The other, the other really great tool I might.
Speaker 3: As well is this. This is otherwise known as a
Speaker 3: tomato knife. You know, a little serrated knie that really
Speaker 3: spices tomatoes so nicely.
Speaker 2: But I had found that if I have.
Speaker 3: A lot of agave's, tropical agovi's are gigantic and you
Speaker 3: cannot cut those agave leaves with anything but this, and
Speaker 3: you just itus right through those heavy, heavy leaves.
Speaker 2: And so I now love this tool.
Speaker 3: And anything, any big, heavy leafed plant can be cut
Speaker 3: with this.
Speaker 5: What people don't understand is like in agave looks like
Speaker 5: a giant succulent for someone who doesn't know, and if
Speaker 5: you're trying to cut through those leaves, you think it's
Speaker 5: going to be a smooth cut, but it's actually not,
Speaker 5: which is why they call it a tomato knife because,
Speaker 5: and I remember distinctly when this happened, Martha was putting
Speaker 5: in a succulent in one of her faux block planters,
Speaker 5: not unlike what you see here, which you can also
Speaker 5: buy a QBC by the way, and Martha said, go
Speaker 5: to the kitchen and get me a tomato knie, because
Speaker 5: the leaves had been sort of damaged in transport. And
Speaker 5: I didn't know what a tomato knife was first will
Speaker 5: at the time, but I went into the kitchen, I asked,
Speaker 5: and they told me, and I got it, and I
Speaker 5: brought it out and she just sliced right through it,
Speaker 5: cutting through a tomato. You know, a tomato has a
Speaker 5: very thin, delicate skin, and if you want a clean cut,
Speaker 5: you need a really sharp blade, serrated and so that
Speaker 5: does that. So it's not just a silly, you know whatever,
Speaker 5: lofty garden tool. It's actually practical and it really does
Speaker 5: make a difference. So I'm glad we asked about that.
Speaker 5: So Peter's question was I want to plant a pair
Speaker 5: espalier in my garden. What is the best condition for
Speaker 5: them in terms of light and placement and soil, and
Speaker 5: is it worth it but before you answer the question,
Speaker 5: I would ask that this is me adding on to it.
Speaker 4: Explain what an espalier is, because.
Speaker 3: Not everybody else is a tortured tree that is pruned
Speaker 3: to resemble something other than it is. So it usually
Speaker 3: is a trunk and then they take the chew bottom
Speaker 3: bottom branches and they they they it's basically tortury and
Speaker 3: they force them outwards with a bamboo.
Speaker 4: So you're manipulating it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're manipulating the shape of a tree. Then you can,
Speaker 3: and they're very complicated, and then the leader of the tree,
Speaker 3: then the next branch goes this way, and the next
Speaker 3: branch goes that way.
Speaker 2: So that's just a simple espy.
Speaker 3: And then you can get much more complicated and take
Speaker 3: branches go up and you can make them they can
Speaker 3: you can make them go this way.
Speaker 2: You can do all kinds of things in an er.
Speaker 3: But was the intention to actually sun sun full sun
Speaker 3: more if you want to if you're raising it.
Speaker 4: For for fruit, always to maximize.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So to answer his questions, so, what are the what's
Speaker 5: the conditions in terms of light and placement and soil?
Speaker 3: Yeah, sunny, sunny, rich soil. Okay, right, orchard tree got it.
Speaker 2: Are those Asian pairs that I have? No, I mean
Speaker 2: I put I put a.
Speaker 3: Beautiful by a whole row of these sys right to
Speaker 3: block off the goose yard in my in my garden,
Speaker 3: and it's so pretty there, and.
Speaker 4: With them on my apartment outside, and they took and
Speaker 4: all that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, filled chill is the next question from the threat.
Speaker 4: I have a few buckets planted with tomatoes. What would
Speaker 4: be a good way to keep that soil fertile.
Speaker 2: By feeding it with what food?
Speaker 3: Like miracle grow and and you can add compost every year, okay,
Speaker 3: compost or rich organic potting soil.
Speaker 4: So do people use coffee grinds for what?
Speaker 3: Not?
Speaker 2: For that? Don't don't do that.
Speaker 3: Roses those are for that's for acidic loving plants, and
Speaker 3: you don't. You don't want to and you don't want
Speaker 3: your garden to smell like coffee. Use the use the
Speaker 3: coffee grounds in the autumn and to enrich some of
Speaker 3: your soil if if you have acid loving shrubbery or something.
Speaker 4: Okay, so miracle grow for tomatoes, yeah.
Speaker 2: It works really well. Okay, the organic miracle grow.
Speaker 4: Okay, Podma has a question, Martha.
Speaker 6: It's Padma Lashni and My question is what edibles do
Speaker 6: you recommend to plant when someone doesn't have a lot
Speaker 6: of space, like if they're living in an apartment in
Speaker 6: New York City, if they only have pots or window troughs,
Speaker 6: or maybe they have limited space, so.
Speaker 3: Edible flowers, and it is best if you if you
Speaker 3: have this pension for serving people flowers instead of real food,
Speaker 3: you can That was.
Speaker 4: Just so you know.
Speaker 5: That was code for Mark that does not think that's
Speaker 5: a good idea.
Speaker 2: It's you can. You can grow nestershams.
Speaker 3: They're very nice and they need full sun and you
Speaker 3: can eat the leaves of Nestersham and they're selling them
Speaker 3: in the stores now, but you can get a whole
Speaker 3: little box of Nestersham leaves.
Speaker 2: But I never buy. I never buy.
Speaker 4: I've never seen you serve anything that has.
Speaker 3: One thing that I do serve, and it's usually in
Speaker 3: a drink, is boradge flowers, right, because they're bright blue.
Speaker 2: It's one of the few really true blue flowers.
Speaker 3: And they're also they're just pretty and they look like
Speaker 3: blue stars and comes from a plant called borage, which
Speaker 3: is a herb.
Speaker 2: But I don't really like putting a lot of flowers
Speaker 2: in my salon. And stuff. I just think it's kind
Speaker 2: of contrived.
Speaker 4: It's also a little on set.
Speaker 3: And I use herb leaves, I use basil leaves, I
Speaker 3: use parsley leaves, I use coriander leaves, I use time these.
Speaker 3: I use all the leaves of the herbs, which really
Speaker 3: add a lot of fabulous flavor for a salad.
Speaker 2: And the flowers don't taste so good. I mean, they
Speaker 2: really don't.
Speaker 4: I don't think people want this.
Speaker 5: I don't think they're like incentivized to eat a flower
Speaker 5: like I wouldn't want to eat a marigold.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for your great questions today, and
Speaker 3: special thanks to Threads and Meta for hosting this lovely
Speaker 3: garden party which should have been outside, but of course
Speaker 3: the weather is non precording. Be sure to follow me
Speaker 3: on Threads at Martha's Stewart forty eight. That's my personal instagram.
Speaker 3: There is another Martha Stewart Instagram also, which gives you
Speaker 3: lots more retro stuff. Mine's the real thing. The forty eight,
Speaker 3: all
Speaker 4: Right, is a lie.