Speaker 1: I'm not a big resolution person, but every year around
Speaker 1: this time, I like to check in and see where
Speaker 1: I'm at on my own journey for self improvement. Am
Speaker 1: I drinking enough water? If coffee counts his water, then yes?
Speaker 1: Am I getting enough exercise? If trying to herd the
Speaker 1: kids onto their online zoom classes counts as exercise, then maybe?
Speaker 1: And am I keeping the plants alive? Surprisingly? Yeah, most
Speaker 1: of them. I managed to not kill most of my
Speaker 1: house plants, from a monstera to a money tree, to
Speaker 1: a jade plant to a pathos. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of green things on our shelves that are pretty and
Speaker 1: hardy and have somehow managed to survive the weather. But
Speaker 1: the backyard garden, I think it's safe to say we'll
Speaker 1: have some serious replanting to do. I'm still new to
Speaker 1: the gardening life, and looking out a window at the
Speaker 1: snow covered yard, I'm not hopeful that everything is thriving
Speaker 1: out there. But if I've learned anything from last season
Speaker 1: is that you've got to start planning a lot sooner
Speaker 1: than you think. So as we finish out February and
Speaker 1: enter March, spring is definitely on my mind, even though
Speaker 1: it still feels like January in Brooklyn. Hey there, I'm
Speaker 1: Mongais Articular, co host of Part Time Genius, one of
Speaker 1: the founders of Mental Flaws, and this is Humans Growing Stuff,
Speaker 1: a collaboration from I Heart Radio and your Friends and
Speaker 1: Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this the most
Speaker 1: human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way,
Speaker 1: we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your
Speaker 1: plan addiction, and just enough science to make you sound
Speaker 1: like an expert. On today's show, we're going to get
Speaker 1: ready to spring ahead and start planning for planting. I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk to some new experts and some old
Speaker 1: friends about the most resilient seeds for early spring and
Speaker 1: how to keep them safe from late snowfalls. Chapter nine,
Speaker 1: Forget the Groundhog, I'm Ready for Spring. Last season on
Speaker 1: this show, we had everyone's favorite plant influencer, Jade the
Speaker 1: Black Plant Chick, give us her tips for moving your
Speaker 1: plants indoors ahead of the fall in winter chill. As
Speaker 1: we get a jump start on spring planting, I asked
Speaker 1: her to share some of the good habits around plant
Speaker 1: care that we should bring into spring. Hello, everybody is
Speaker 1: Jade the Black Plant Chick and These are my three
Speaker 1: good habits to bring into screen. Number one, clean your windows.
Speaker 1: Give your plants all the light they deserve. They gain
Speaker 1: a lot of dirt over the months, and it's important
Speaker 1: to give your plants the light they need to thrive.
Speaker 1: So get in there, wipe those windows down, even clean
Speaker 1: the blinds a bit. Trust me, your plants will love it.
Speaker 1: Number two, welcome new growth with repotting. Yes, get rid
Speaker 1: of all of that old dirt and give your plant
Speaker 1: a fresh start with new soil. Number three, develop new
Speaker 1: watering habits. Last year, the plant community saw a tremendous
Speaker 1: amount of new plant parents coming in and a lot
Speaker 1: of us struggled with over watering. But this is the
Speaker 1: opportunity that you have now to start fresh. Try using
Speaker 1: a moisture meter or even bottom watering. What is bottom watering?
Speaker 1: It's simple. You get a tub filled up with water,
Speaker 1: place your plant, which is still inside of that planter,
Speaker 1: into that tub, and it drinks the water that it requires.
Speaker 1: It won't take too much or too little, it will
Speaker 1: drink exactly what it needs. You'll be amazed at how
Speaker 1: happy your plant is after bottom watering. Until next time,
Speaker 1: you guys, love peace and propagate years ago, when I
Speaker 1: was on a study of broad trip to Nepollon, Tibet,
Speaker 1: my friend Dave and I decided to try our hands
Speaker 1: at brewing a local barley wine. It's called chong, and
Speaker 1: there's a superstition. Once you put the grains in big
Speaker 1: containers and let them sit to ferment, you're supposed to
Speaker 1: tape this large chili pepper to the top of the
Speaker 1: bin to stop evil spirits from ruining your brew. We
Speaker 1: followed the directions to a t and we taped a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of chilies to the top, and sadly, the
Speaker 1: wine still turned out terrible. But trying to follow all
Speaker 1: these superstitions it made the whole exercise so much more fun.
Speaker 1: So I've been thinking about all the myths and superstitions
Speaker 1: in the garden and which ones we might want to
Speaker 1: indulge as we move into spring. Like sure, we could
Speaker 1: use science to explain the world and all the seasons
Speaker 1: around us, but isn't it more fun to think about
Speaker 1: the Greek goddess Persephone sneez picking up from the underworld
Speaker 1: for half a year and bringing all the great weather
Speaker 1: and harvests with her. Or to wonder how much truth
Speaker 1: is there to some of these old sayings, Like my
Speaker 1: producer Molly told me about one that goes oak before ash,
Speaker 1: We're in for a splash, but ash before oak, we're
Speaker 1: in for a soak, Which I guess is this Northern
Speaker 1: Irish lore that claims if the oak trees bud before
Speaker 1: ash trees, it will be this dry spring. But if
Speaker 1: the opposite happens, you need to break out your ponchos
Speaker 1: and wellies. Of course there are tons of these, but
Speaker 1: which of these will actually signal to start a spring?
Speaker 1: Should I look for a robin or trust the groundhog?
Speaker 1: Should I plant my potatoes on St. Patrick's Day or
Speaker 1: is it better to wait till Good Friday? And do
Speaker 1: I really need to hose these crops with holy water
Speaker 1: to get them to grow? Probably not, But I wanted
Speaker 1: to hear which spring traditions to put some stock in
Speaker 1: if aenny, So I called up my friend Aaron Shannon.
Speaker 1: She's a Master gardner, volunteer, and creator of the blog
Speaker 1: and YouTube channel The Impatient Gardener. Aaron's no stranger to
Speaker 1: cold winters as a gardener in Wisconsin, so I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask her the skinny on early planting strategies and
Speaker 1: how she knows that spring is around the corner. Aaron,
Speaker 1: are you there, I'm here, Hi, Hi, it's so nice
Speaker 1: to have you on. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: So I am such a fan of the Impatient Gardener site.
Speaker 1: It is truly funny and charming and informative. So I
Speaker 1: know over time you've become a master gardener master gardner volunteer,
Speaker 1: and we hear that term a lot on the show.
Speaker 1: Can you explain what that is and how people get
Speaker 1: that title? Oh, it's such a good question because there's
Speaker 1: so many people sort of misunderstand that and it's kind
Speaker 1: of gotten all misconstrued. So master gardener, the Master Gardener
Speaker 1: program is a program that has run through public university
Speaker 1: extensions and there's an education component to it, but at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's really a volunteer program.
Speaker 1: And then you can volunteer on behalf of a Master
Speaker 1: Gardener organization. Then your job is to help the public
Speaker 1: become better gardeners. And what's your favorite advice for frustrated gardener?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, you're etically asking, because like I'm just asking
Speaker 1: for a friend friend. So, so I think that there
Speaker 1: is a tendency to get a little too serious and
Speaker 1: to bog down in details with gardening. I mean, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, plants really want to grow,
Speaker 1: so we don't have to jump through so many hoops.
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly it's good to have some information, know
Speaker 1: what's going to grow aware, but I think this sooner
Speaker 1: in your gardening journey that you accept that every gardener
Speaker 1: kills plants and probably kills a lot of them, and
Speaker 1: like you're just you're just part of the club. At
Speaker 1: that point when you start killing plants. I think that
Speaker 1: that makes it I'm a little bit more accessible. So
Speaker 1: this episode is about getting excited for the spring. And
Speaker 1: I know you're located in Wisconsin, which I think is
Speaker 1: still in the middle of some heavy snowfall. So one
Speaker 1: of our questions is when do you know it's spring there.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting because if I was in
Speaker 1: like a coma, I could wake up and I could
Speaker 1: look outside and I would tell you pretty much within
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks what time of year it is,
Speaker 1: because you know, there's all these little clues that we're
Speaker 1: all paying attention to, even if we don't realize that
Speaker 1: we're paying attention to them. So there is something with
Speaker 1: the first robin, although there are Robin's kind of around
Speaker 1: your round sometimes, but Robbin's more bird activity for me.
Speaker 1: I walk out into our little wooded area outside her house,
Speaker 1: and when I see the skunk cabbage coming up, which
Speaker 1: will be in only about a month or so, skunk
Speaker 1: cabbage is is really cool plant that actually produces heat,
Speaker 1: So it has this ability to melt the snow around
Speaker 1: it and create its own heat. So when I see
Speaker 1: the skunk cabbage coming up, I know, all right, we're
Speaker 1: all good. We're gonna make it through another winter. So
Speaker 1: what should we be doing in this in this period
Speaker 1: right before the spring happens? What should we be doing
Speaker 1: to prep for our gardens? So I think the number
Speaker 1: one thing you can do is actually something you can
Speaker 1: do regardless of the weather, which is just planned for
Speaker 1: your garden. Anytime you have a plan going into a
Speaker 1: gardening season, things go a lot smoother and you're not
Speaker 1: running out trying to find seeds which you can't find somewhere.
Speaker 1: If it's a vegetable garden, planning out where you're going
Speaker 1: to plant everything, what varieties you're gonna grow, what I'm
Speaker 1: going to start inside, what I'm going to direct. So
Speaker 1: in a perennial garden, it's sort of identifying places where
Speaker 1: I need to change things a little bit, or um
Speaker 1: I need another plant. Pictures from the previous year's garden
Speaker 1: come into play big time on that. For me, it
Speaker 1: helps me so much to be able to go back
Speaker 1: and look at pictures to get a feel for what
Speaker 1: it looks like and what I can do to make
Speaker 1: it better. Even though that was only not even six
Speaker 1: months ago, four months ago or whatever, I've already forgotten
Speaker 1: what last year's garden looked like, So it's a it's
Speaker 1: good to have those photos to go back to. As
Speaker 1: soon as the snow is gone and the sort of
Speaker 1: top very top layer soil starts to loosen up, you
Speaker 1: can actually get out there and start doing some weeding.
Speaker 1: I know that's not a fun job for anyone, except
Speaker 1: that after a long winter, even weeding is fun to do.
Speaker 1: Somehow that goes away quickly. But once you have that
Speaker 1: plan ready, then you get right into moving on to
Speaker 1: especially vegetables, because there are some things that can go
Speaker 1: in really quite early and you don't want to miss
Speaker 1: that window. Yeah, so you've described yourself as having a
Speaker 1: seed stash and I'm curious, what's in your stash right
Speaker 1: now and what are you most excited about growing. I
Speaker 1: can't even adequately describe my seed stash to you because
Speaker 1: it's it's completely it's completely absurd. I I actually have
Speaker 1: to They're almost like suitcases that I keep these things,
Speaker 1: and one for flowers and one for vegetables. I am
Speaker 1: always excited to grow. In terms of flowers, sweet peas
Speaker 1: were sort of my gateway plant to growing flowers from seed.
Speaker 1: To me, they're just this old fashioned hour that I
Speaker 1: take a lot of pleasure in growing those, and so
Speaker 1: those are always very fun for me. In terms of vegetables,
Speaker 1: I mean, I have my tried and truths that I
Speaker 1: always have to grow, and I'm always going to have tomatoes.
Speaker 1: I am perpetually in search of the world's perfect tomato.
Speaker 1: But I also love to try new varieties. This year,
Speaker 1: I'm going to grow ginger in the vegetable garden because
Speaker 1: I figured, I mean, I have grown that in a
Speaker 1: pot before, but I thought, well, that would be kind
Speaker 1: of fun to grow in vegetable garden and see how
Speaker 1: that goes. And it's a very pretty plant. So I'm
Speaker 1: always in for anything that's beautiful as well as productive
Speaker 1: when we're in the vegetable garden. What are some of
Speaker 1: your favorite beautiful and productive plants. I would say top
Speaker 1: of the list for me is Swiss shard. I actually
Speaker 1: think that Swiss shard is one of the most beautiful
Speaker 1: plants there is, regardless of whether you're talking about vegetable, ornamental,
Speaker 1: or flower or foliage. It's just beautiful. Especially there's a
Speaker 1: variety called bright Lights that has all these it's a
Speaker 1: mixture of shards with all these different stem colors, so
Speaker 1: you can have have this rainbow of colors and they
Speaker 1: get these bright, glossy shiny leaves, and I think you
Speaker 1: can't beat that. In fact, I think that's a plant
Speaker 1: that I have seen that planted in ornamental containers, and
Speaker 1: I think it looks beautiful there because big bold leaf,
Speaker 1: it's it's gorgeous. Last I think there's also ornamental ways
Speaker 1: to plant things. So last year I made sort of
Speaker 1: a design out of basil plants. I grew a tall,
Speaker 1: skinny basil called Everleaf Emerald Towers, and then I surrounded
Speaker 1: that with a Greek basil, which is a real short,
Speaker 1: squatty basil around it in like a diamond pattern and
Speaker 1: it's just basil. By planting in an interesting way. It
Speaker 1: just was very beautiful to look at as well. And
Speaker 1: what's what's the difference in the flavors of this The
Speaker 1: everleaf emerald towers basil is a very sort of traditional
Speaker 1: sweet basil. The Greek basil is a much sharper, very
Speaker 1: strong sort of Italian flavor to it, even though it's
Speaker 1: Greek basil, but it's a stronger, more pungent flavor. M So,
Speaker 1: one of the things we were wondering about is whether
Speaker 1: you have to start your garden from scratch every winter
Speaker 1: since the weather they're so destructive, or if you have
Speaker 1: any tricks that keep things safe through the whole winter.
Speaker 1: I really like to rely for my ornamental garden. I
Speaker 1: really love to rely on perennials. These are the plants
Speaker 1: that will come back every year. They die to the
Speaker 1: ground and then they come back with fresh new foliage
Speaker 1: every year. You've also got annuals, and those are the
Speaker 1: plants that do their whole life cycle in one year.
Speaker 1: So they're going to grow leaves, they're gonna grow flowers,
Speaker 1: and then those are going to die at the end
Speaker 1: of the year. Now, sometimes some of those annuals will
Speaker 1: produce seed, and those will actually do you a favor
Speaker 1: and spread that seed around your garden on your behalf.
Speaker 1: You don't have to touch them. And then there's this
Speaker 1: really crazy type of plant. I say crazy, it's not crazy.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of a an in between category called
Speaker 1: a biennial. And biennials are plants that will grow just
Speaker 1: their foliage the first year and then they flower of
Speaker 1: the second year. So one of the biennials that I
Speaker 1: grow is Angelica gigus. It gets these big flower heads
Speaker 1: on it. It will produce seed in those flower heads,
Speaker 1: which then falls to the ground, and that seed becomes
Speaker 1: the next year's little plants, which will grow foliage that year.
Speaker 1: The following year they grow flowers, and after a couple
Speaker 1: of years of this, you have that plant in your
Speaker 1: garden because you always have different plants in different stages
Speaker 1: of growth, and so it just sort of works its
Speaker 1: way around your garden, and in that way, it sort
Speaker 1: of behaves like a perennial in that you always have it.
Speaker 1: So perennials are great, and that lowers the workload because
Speaker 1: really most perennials are not that much work. And obviously
Speaker 1: it lowers the budget, and it's just less you have
Speaker 1: to do in your garden. And then, as far as
Speaker 1: vegetables go, there are perennial vegetables that I think people
Speaker 1: forget about, things like rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish. You have to
Speaker 1: be a little careful with horse rash. It can get
Speaker 1: a little carried away on you. But those are all
Speaker 1: things that are perennials, and so you can plant those
Speaker 1: once and then you can harvest from those forever. Basically,
Speaker 1: you're saying asparagus made me think back. Our dog used
Speaker 1: to jump into our vegetable garden and eat all the asparagus.
Speaker 1: It was a regular thing that, oh my god, sneaky.
Speaker 1: For some reason, she was very attracted to it. Thomas
Speaker 1: Got Fancy Taste. My producer, Molly and I are obsessed
Speaker 1: with your two new fees that you have, your your
Speaker 1: puffs that keep showing up on your Instagram and YouTube,
Speaker 1: and we're wondering, how do your dogs add to your
Speaker 1: gardening experience? Well, you know, I wish I could. I
Speaker 1: wish I could say they were particularly helpful in some way,
Speaker 1: um which they aren't really accept that. When I'm outside gardening,
Speaker 1: if I spend a whole day in the garden. It
Speaker 1: is so great to have a companion out there. So
Speaker 1: I love just hanging and they just hang out and
Speaker 1: you know, follow me around the garden. Do they ever
Speaker 1: chase the rabbits out of your yard? You know, if
Speaker 1: only they would be so helpful. They do a very
Speaker 1: good job of recognizing that there are rabbits or deer
Speaker 1: in the yard, but I wouldn't say that they are
Speaker 1: particularly effective in doing anything about it. In fact, I
Speaker 1: fear that the deer that frequent our yard are actually
Speaker 1: mocking them. At this point. They can get within like
Speaker 1: twenty ft of a deer, and a deer will just
Speaker 1: stand there and look at them like, I know you're
Speaker 1: not gonna catch me. It's fine. They are adorable. So
Speaker 1: are there any other spring gardening myths you might want
Speaker 1: to depunk on the show for us? There are a
Speaker 1: lot of spring gard There's a lot of spring gardening
Speaker 1: myths out there. I think some of them are kind
Speaker 1: of warm and fuzzy, and it's sort of nice to
Speaker 1: think about them. But I think anything that involves an
Speaker 1: animal telling you what the weather is going to be,
Speaker 1: you should probably just take that for amusement, and not
Speaker 1: whether that's a squirrel or a groundhog or anything else.
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, that's not going to tell you a lot
Speaker 1: about what's coming. I think that most of these myths,
Speaker 1: you know, there's some truth to them, but rarely for
Speaker 1: the reason that the myth sort of perpetuates. So April
Speaker 1: showers bring main flowers. It's true in that you need
Speaker 1: water in order for flowers to bloom, but what you'd
Speaker 1: rather have is a warm april to really get some
Speaker 1: good may flowers. There's also things like, um, there's a
Speaker 1: saying out there that you should plant your peas on St.
Speaker 1: Patrick's Day, and that is absolutely true for some place
Speaker 1: in some years. You know, like there are somewhere where
Speaker 1: the day that you should plant your peas is St.
Speaker 1: Patrick's Day, but that obviously the climate is much different
Speaker 1: across all these places where people are growing, so obviously
Speaker 1: that doesn't hold true. So you know, all these things
Speaker 1: are things you can kind of take into account, and
Speaker 1: there's some truth behind all of them. But you know,
Speaker 1: I would say, apply a grain of salt to most
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, that makes sense. So last fall I
Speaker 1: got way too late in the gardening, and I learned
Speaker 1: that you have to plant pumpkins in spring or early
Speaker 1: summer to have them in time for Halloween, Like you
Speaker 1: can't plant something in September and expected by the end
Speaker 1: of October. But I saw that you were attempting to
Speaker 1: grow one of the world's largest pumpkins on your site,
Speaker 1: and I was curious what your experience with pumpkins was
Speaker 1: this year and what it takes to grow a giant pumpkin.
Speaker 1: So I actually just tried to grow a regular size pumpkin.
Speaker 1: But it was the first time I've ever grown a pumpkin.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, I have never grown a pumpkin. And
Speaker 1: I too planted mind too late, except that I planted
Speaker 1: mine at the end of June, so you were really
Speaker 1: late if you were in like September. So I got
Speaker 1: one pumpkin. It was approximately the size of a tennis ball.
Speaker 1: But I did do a little research as part of
Speaker 1: this into what goes down into creating. You know, you
Speaker 1: see these these world's biggest pumpkin competitions, and it is amazing.
Speaker 1: These people spend up to like six hours a day
Speaker 1: taking care of their pumpkin. Those pumpkins are putting on
Speaker 1: as much as what is it fifty pounds a day
Speaker 1: or something. It is unbelievable. They it's water and nutrients,
Speaker 1: and then you have to shade them a certain way
Speaker 1: from the sun or also gets scourged and it is
Speaker 1: like having an infant. I think it's about the level
Speaker 1: of care that goes into growing these giant pumpkins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the fact that they're spending six hours on this, and
Speaker 1: also that they're so secretive about their techniques, it's really
Speaker 1: fascinating to me. Well, yeah, this. People who grow the
Speaker 1: world's biggest name the vegetable, are very interesting people and
Speaker 1: they are extremely dedicated. But yes, I think there are
Speaker 1: secrets that go to the grave with those people if
Speaker 1: they don't have some errors to pass them down to.
Speaker 1: And certainly the seeds that come out of the vegetables
Speaker 1: that they grow are probably locked away in like a
Speaker 1: safety deposit box or something. That post was so funny
Speaker 1: that you wrote, and the fact that the pumpkin only
Speaker 1: turned out the size of a tennis ball is is
Speaker 1: so wonderful to me. I hate to say, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is an easy way for me to say. I
Speaker 1: totally flubbed that, but I do think it's helpful for
Speaker 1: me to talk to gardeners and say, look, I can't
Speaker 1: grow pumpkin, but you've probably growing a pumpkin, so you know,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. If not everything is a success,
Speaker 1: it's not the end of the world. It was just
Speaker 1: a pumpkin. It's really nice to know that you make mistakes.
Speaker 1: To oh, I think and everybody does. And if that's
Speaker 1: one message that I want to get across to everybody
Speaker 1: all the time, it's just that everybody screws something up,
Speaker 1: don't ever take it personally. So, speaking of messages to
Speaker 1: new gardeners and people who are going to give this
Speaker 1: gardening thing a shot for the first time this year,
Speaker 1: where and how do you recommend they get started, like,
Speaker 1: no matter where they live. So I think the thing
Speaker 1: to do is to start a start at a reasonable size,
Speaker 1: starts small. It's really easy to get overwhelmed if you
Speaker 1: plant a garden that's too big right from the get go,
Speaker 1: because all of a sudden you go from never spending
Speaker 1: any time in the garden to like suddenly you're like,
Speaker 1: I need to spend an hour a day in the garden.
Speaker 1: Are you getting me? Where am I going to find that?
Speaker 1: Even if it means a few containers. You can grow
Speaker 1: anything you want a container, and then after that I
Speaker 1: would go for varieties that don't ask a lot from
Speaker 1: a gardener. Even though we all love a tomato, I
Speaker 1: don't think tomatoes are necessarily the easiest thing to grow. Now,
Speaker 1: if you love a tomato and that's what you want
Speaker 1: on your garden, by all means, plant yourself a tomato
Speaker 1: if you don't love it. I mean, that's what you
Speaker 1: should be doing, is planting the things that you love.
Speaker 1: But things like lettuce are so simple to grow. Anyone
Speaker 1: can plant them anywhere. Basically, um, you have to pay
Speaker 1: a little bit of attention to how warm it's getting.
Speaker 1: Lettuce isn't gonna love hot areas. You can always push
Speaker 1: lettuce into a little bit of shade. Actually appreciates that
Speaker 1: a little bit. In a very short period of time,
Speaker 1: you're eating lettuce that you grew, and it tastes nothing
Speaker 1: like the stuff you buy in the grocery store, and
Speaker 1: you wonder what you've been doing all these years. That
Speaker 1: really sounds delightful. You know, this show is called Humans
Speaker 1: Growing Stuff, And I'm always curious, what do you think
Speaker 1: plants can each is about being human? I think that
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that we can kind of learn from
Speaker 1: a plant is that plants are tough. Plants are resilient
Speaker 1: plants and want to grow. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: good lesson for humans because I always think that we
Speaker 1: are more resilient and tougher than than maybe we think
Speaker 1: we are. Sometimes even a delicate flower, if you look
Speaker 1: at what that had to do to grow and become that,
Speaker 1: that's resiliency. And so I think that that if you
Speaker 1: look at a plant and you realize it just kind
Speaker 1: of was programmed to do that and it's going to
Speaker 1: do that same thing for humans, that's a really nice answer.
Speaker 1: How does gardening make us better humans? Or do you
Speaker 1: think gardening makes us better humans? Oh, gardening makes us
Speaker 1: better humans. Certainly. There is something about first of all,
Speaker 1: being a part of nature, playing an active role that
Speaker 1: I don't know that you can get in very many
Speaker 1: other places or other hobbies. Understanding at and understanding that
Speaker 1: you're part of this larger world, part of the larger ecosystem.
Speaker 1: When you look and you see, you know, whatever, butterfly
Speaker 1: come to visit your flowers, I mean, I am still
Speaker 1: sort of honored when I see a monarch butterfly come
Speaker 1: through my garden and it wants to stop in my garden,
Speaker 1: or a little tree frog sitting on a little dahlia
Speaker 1: in my garden because that means that I'm doing something right.
Speaker 1: It wants to be in my garden. And I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of a privilege to be able to see
Speaker 1: that part of the world right in your own backyard,
Speaker 1: right in front of your face, and you created the
Speaker 1: opportunity for that to happen. Yeah, I love that. I
Speaker 1: love the way you talk about both the importance of
Speaker 1: the diversity in the backyard and how all of that
Speaker 1: contributes to make a more beautiful environment, and then this
Speaker 1: understanding of your place and sense in the world. And
Speaker 1: there's something really lovely about all of that. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think this idea that we can just kind of get
Speaker 1: out of our own heads for a little bit, that
Speaker 1: is again another one of those things that is harder
Speaker 1: and harder and harder to find in this world. So
Speaker 1: I think working in the garden and being a part
Speaker 1: of this bigger system and a bigger world and recognizing
Speaker 1: them what you're doing is making a difference. All those
Speaker 1: are all good things to carry over to other parts
Speaker 1: of your life. That's really lovely Aaron Shannon, the Impatient
Speaker 1: Gardeners the website, thank you so much. I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: chatting with you. I was wonderful to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. Humans growing stuff will be
Speaker 1: right back after a short break. And now for another
Speaker 1: poetry corner. This poem is called groundhog Day. When the
Speaker 1: groundhog sees a shadow, we complain how the te pictures
Speaker 1: will go low, but that little vermin can't predetermine a
Speaker 1: polar vortex or El Nino. Thank you. Hello everyone, I'm
Speaker 1: Ja the Black Plant Chick, and I'm here to share
Speaker 1: with you three plant affirmations to get you through this spring.
Speaker 1: Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, take a
Speaker 1: deep breath in and now out, and repeat after me.
Speaker 1: Spring a time where, no matter what's in my wallet,
Speaker 1: my home will be filled with plants. Take another deep
Speaker 1: breath in and now out. With every new leaf that
Speaker 1: grows in the spring, my heart is filled with joy
Speaker 1: and abundance. M take another deep breath in and now out.
Speaker 1: The more plants I have, the happier I am. Take
Speaker 1: these with you, say them whenever you need to, and
Speaker 1: like seeds, they will grow. And until next time, Love,
Speaker 1: peace and propagate. I don't know about you, but this
Speaker 1: winter wasn't easy. My family got COVID, the kids kept
Speaker 1: getting their hopes up about going back to school in person,
Speaker 1: and like Charlie Brown's football, it just kept getting yanked away.
Speaker 1: I've missed my parents and my in laws deeply. I
Speaker 1: missed Thanksgiving and Christmas and just getting to hang out
Speaker 1: with my friends. And to be honest, gardening just feels
Speaker 1: like a bright spot right now because I've just been
Speaker 1: looking forward to having something to get excited about. There's
Speaker 1: snow in my backyard, but I'm ready for spring. And
Speaker 1: after hearing from Aaron about all of the joy she
Speaker 1: gets from planning her garden out early, I've been dreaming
Speaker 1: of all the possibilities, dreaming of what we might plant.
Speaker 1: Do we have enough light to grow veggies? What sorts
Speaker 1: of perennials can we find at our local nursery? Now?
Speaker 1: What sort of birds will the kids and I attract
Speaker 1: with this birdhouse we just built. What sorts of flowers
Speaker 1: would bring his joy and perfume the air? In my
Speaker 1: haste for spring, I was also thinking about how little
Speaker 1: I trust the groundhog and his Groundhog Day predictions. According
Speaker 1: to mental floss punk satani Fils accuracy rate is a
Speaker 1: dismal thirty nine per cent. What's worse is all the
Speaker 1: leash we give him. We let him live in a
Speaker 1: town library for free. He has a staff of fifteen
Speaker 1: people serving him paw and foot. Can we feed him
Speaker 1: a special groundhog punch to make sure he's in great spirits?
Speaker 1: And even when he's wrong, and he's clearly wrong all
Speaker 1: the time, we claim that he's always right and that
Speaker 1: we've misinterpreted his groundhoggiaes. Seriously, that's the language. The town
Speaker 1: claims he speaks groundhog ease, So groundhogs aside. What's a
Speaker 1: better way to know when spring is coming? In the
Speaker 1: book The Gardener's Year, author Carol Chpeck suggests two truly
Speaker 1: foolproof methods. Look for when the gardening catalogs arrive in
Speaker 1: the mail, and then slightly look across the fence for
Speaker 1: any sign of neighbors. When you see them sporting old
Speaker 1: trousers and waving their gardening spades in the air, talking
Speaker 1: about the weather, that's when you can be sure spring
Speaker 1: is here. I'm excited for a new season, I'm excited
Speaker 1: to be in the garden and I'm so I did
Speaker 1: to be here with you. That's it for today's episode.
Speaker 1: Don't forget, no matter what season it is or where
Speaker 1: you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources
Speaker 1: waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time
Speaker 1: on our show, we're going to explore bringing the farm
Speaker 1: to table experience to your backyard. If you like what
Speaker 1: you heard, don't forget to rate and review the show
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable struggles or growing questions.
Speaker 1: Tag us in your post or tweet using the hashtag
Speaker 1: Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised if you hear
Speaker 1: your story featured on an upcoming episode. Humans Growing Stuff
Speaker 1: is a collaboration from My Heart Radio and your friends
Speaker 1: at Miracle Grow. Our show is written and produced by
Speaker 1: Molly Sosha and me Mongy Chatiguler in partnership with Rhinovadia,
Speaker 1: Daniel Ainsworth, Haley Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of Banter. Until
Speaker 1: next time, Thanks so much for listening. Two