Celebrating 200 Episodes: Ask Me Anything! - Ep. 200

[00:00:00] Welcome to the 200th episode of the Just Grow Something podcast, my gardening friends.

[00:00:05] I launched this podcast back in February of 2021 as a way to pass on the gardening knowledge that

[00:00:11] I had gained from my experiences on our own homestead and farm and what I had learned as

[00:00:16] I worked my way through my horticulture degree at Oregon State University. I've continued to

[00:00:21] learn along the way and try to pass on as much of that to you as I reasonably can in

[00:00:27] the 30 minutes or so a week that we spend together here, as well as through reels and TikTok videos

[00:00:32] and the articles that I write over on the website and the Facebook group and probably a few other

[00:00:37] places that I am forgetting about. Getting into the rhythm of coming up with a topic each week

[00:00:44] and then recording and editing and publishing that episode plus trying to put creatives

[00:00:49] together to post to social media to promote those episodes definitely took some time and I

[00:00:54] still don't always get the social media part of it right. Heck, sometimes I don't get the

[00:00:58] recording editing and publishing of it right. Some of you have been along for the ride since day

[00:01:03] one. Some of you are brand new. No matter where you fall on that scale, I am sincerely happy

[00:01:09] that you are here and we can all be learning and growing as gardeners together. This season,

[00:01:14] I've been asking you a question each month to send in your answers to but today you are

[00:01:20] asking the questions and I am doing the answering. To celebrate 200 episodes, I didn't ask me

[00:01:26] anything and you all had some great questions. Some about gardening, some about the business

[00:01:31] of farming, some personal and I am here to answer them all. Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen.

[00:01:37] I started gardening in a small corner of my suburban backyard and now 18 years later,

[00:01:41] I've got a degree in horticulture and operate a 40-acre market farm. I believe there is power

[00:01:46] in food and that everyone should know how to grow at least a little bit of their own.

[00:01:51] On this podcast, I share evidence-based techniques to help you plant, grow, harvest and store all

[00:01:56] your family's favorites. Consider me your friend in the garden. So grab your garden

[00:02:00] journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something. We took it all. We brought

[00:02:16] them to this night. Ember hot and icy cold, the rage of the earth. We made this curse.

[00:02:31] We did not see we could not, but she did. And in the end, what will I become?

[00:02:40] Play it now with Game Pass. So if the audio sounds a little bit different today,

[00:02:45] it's because we snuck away this weekend after farmers markets on Saturday to do some

[00:02:49] camping before the heaviest part of the market season begins. We've been really busy so far with

[00:02:56] one market per week and one day open on the farm plus a delivery day. So the rest of those

[00:03:02] days have been spent with planting the summer crops and harvesting the spring stuff, but now

[00:03:07] we're moving into three markets per week plus deliveries plus Fridays on the farm plus harvesting

[00:03:13] the summer stuff will start very soon and we're still pulling greens and bok choy and cabbage and

[00:03:18] other spring stuff like crazy. And we still have to finish getting the melons and the okra and

[00:03:23] the other heat lovers into the ground. So if that all sounds like a lot, it is, which is

[00:03:29] why we escaped this weekend to get a little calm before the chaos. So if you hear cicadas

[00:03:35] in the background or maybe the air conditioner from our little mini RV kick in whatever,

[00:03:40] it's because I am recording at the lake and then I'll have to go find somewhere that I can

[00:03:45] get signal enough to be able to use my hotspot and upload this bad boy. So we'll see how that goes.

[00:03:50] So let's jump into your questions. I may not read everybody's names and where the questions

[00:03:55] came from this time just because some of you had the same questions as each other and some of

[00:03:59] you had multiple questions, so I'm just going to sort of go down the list in no real order

[00:04:05] here and we're just gonna answer some questions and jump into it. Okay, okay.

[00:04:10] First things first, Jennifer Caputo asked, do you do any stretches before going out in the

[00:04:17] garden to better prepare your body so that you aren't so sore the next day?

[00:04:22] So that's an interesting question and my answer is probably a little bit different than

[00:04:27] what yours might be because I am out there all the time. So this is my full-time job is

[00:04:34] working in my gardens and so it's a daily thing. It's not unusual to my body. It's sort

[00:04:41] of used to those actions. So during the busiest parts of the season, I don't really do any sort

[00:04:46] of stretching or anything. Also, I'm an endurance athlete so between running and weight

[00:04:52] training and other kind of sports activities, I'm moving a lot of the time anyway. If I were

[00:04:59] sitting at a desk all day or in an office somewhere or doing some type of a job where

[00:05:04] I was a little bit more sedentary, then I absolutely would be doing some stretches or

[00:05:09] something before going out into the garden especially if it wasn't something I was doing

[00:05:14] every single afternoon. If it was just the only time I had to do it was on the weekends

[00:05:18] and it was three or four hours at a time and then yeah you end up very sore the next day,

[00:05:23] then I absolutely would be doing some sort of stretching and not stretching in the terms or

[00:05:29] in the sense of what you traditionally think of a stretch because now with sort of sports medicine

[00:05:37] and sports science, we have seen it evolve to the point where we know that a dynamic stretch

[00:05:42] is actually the best thing to do prior to activity so that you're warming those muscles

[00:05:48] up. The stretch in and of itself isn't necessarily doing a whole lot for you in terms of getting your

[00:05:54] muscles ready to work so you want stretches that actually involve movement whether it's

[00:06:01] leg swings or doing you know air squats or something to warm up those muscles that you're

[00:06:05] going to be using especially anything that involves bending or stretching or reaching.

[00:06:14] I will say that I make it a point in the off season to do some strength training or continue

[00:06:22] strength training through the winter time because if I don't and I jump right back into

[00:06:29] the farming activities in the spring, I will definitely feel it. My husband and I both have

[00:06:36] commented about this you know you go from being a little bit more sedentary a little

[00:06:41] bit less active right into the farming season and you're moving and you're bending and you're

[00:06:45] stretching and you're picking things up and carrying heavy things around, we definitely

[00:06:51] will get sore so I try to preemptively nip that in the bud by keeping up on some weight

[00:06:58] training exercises and it's nothing fancy. I'm quite literally mimicking these same activities

[00:07:05] that I'm doing out in the gardens just in the gym with some weights or something or even

[00:07:09] just body weight to help keep myself prepared so that's kind of how I look at it. So I mean for me

[00:07:16] I don't necessarily do stretches because I don't have to but if I were more sedentary then I

[00:07:21] would absolutely be doing something to prepare myself. So another question that goes right

[00:07:26] along with this was one that came from Cathy Gormandy our friend over at PK Farm

[00:07:31] Flowers and she said, for the May ask me anything question I know you're a runner like

[00:07:37] Did you ever sustain an injury while running or during other activities that prohibited your

[00:07:43] normal farming and gardening routine? If so, how did you handle it? I broke my ankle while

[00:07:50] running one week before Mother's Day. As a flower farmer this was the worst possible timing.

[00:07:56] Thank goodness for a great team and family who rallied to pull it off. Harvesting and

[00:08:01] planting in a walking boot is still quite a challenge. I have to wear it for four and a half

[00:08:06] more weeks and the sad part about this message from Cathy is that I had actually seen her post

[00:08:13] that week of Mother's Day that she had all these things to do but first a little self

[00:08:19] care she was going for a run and that was the run where she broke her ankle. I felt so

[00:08:25] bad Cathy I'm so sorry and the answer to that question is not exactly. I've never actually

[00:08:33] injured myself doing any of my you know running or weight training or sports activities that

[00:08:40] prevented me from doing anything on the farm but I actually injured myself on the farm

[00:08:46] that prevented me from being able to do like some of my running activities. Last spring I

[00:08:53] had failed to keep up with my weight training in the off season and jumped right into the spring

[00:09:01] activities and actually gave myself an overuse injury out in the gardens that prevented me

[00:09:08] from being able to run for about three weeks and then I had to slowly work my way back

[00:09:15] into it with some PT exercises and such. And it's not like I really have a choice in the

[00:09:20] matter when it comes to the farming and gardening activities that's our livelihood so I needed to

[00:09:25] continue to do those which meant that my running had to take a back seat because I couldn't do both

[00:09:32] I would just risk further injury. So I kind of had the exact opposite issue and basically what

[00:09:38] it was was yeah the running had to take the back seat because it wasn't the priority obviously

[00:09:43] the farming and gardening was and thankfully if something like that were to happen where I

[00:09:48] injured myself in some way and wasn't able to perform my duties as a farmer, my husband works

[00:09:54] full-time here with us so you know that's he would have to pick up some of the slack but then

[00:09:59] we also do still have family in the area kids and grandkids who would likely rally

[00:10:06] and be able to come over and absolutely would help. So and we also have friends here in the

[00:10:10] farming community and stuff who have always said and we always say that to each other

[00:10:14] if you guys need a you know a hand if you have problems if you need to help we're right

[00:10:18] there to help you and I know they would do the same thing for us so thankfully haven't experienced

[00:10:22] that and hopefully I will not. So sorry Kathy. So Jennifer followed up with a semi-related side

[00:10:30] question that I've been meaning to ask when I first found your podcast I binged a bunch of

[00:10:35] older episodes somewhere in there I remember you talking about how we can forget to eat when

[00:10:41] we are out there for so long and there's actually a scientific reason for it. I really

[00:10:45] wanted to re-listen to it but I could not figure out which episode it was. Do you remember? So I

[00:10:52] remembered which episode this was but I had to go back and look and see which one it was it's

[00:10:57] episode 41 which is six ways to beat the heat in the garden. I think that might have been

[00:11:04] season one so probably July when we were talking about lots and lots of heat and the reason

[00:11:11] why we feel like we're less hungry or we sort of forget to eat while we're outside doing anything

[00:11:18] in the heat is because number one digesting food actually produces heat so it is likely that we

[00:11:27] have just evolved to eat less on hot days to help keep ourselves cool. When it's hot our

[00:11:36] body is already sort of working hard to keep us from overheating so it doesn't need the extra

[00:11:43] heat from digesting food. The other theory too is that the body may need to burn fewer calories

[00:11:51] to maintain its core body temperature when the exterior temperature is already high so as a

[00:11:58] result from this we may crave lighter foods like the fruits and vegetables. Well in that episode

[00:12:04] we talked about eating lighter fruits and vegetables or lighter foods like fruits and

[00:12:08] vegetables because of their higher water content that actually helps us to stay hydrated so all of

[00:12:15] these things sort of work together. So that's the answer to that and that like I said is

[00:12:19] episode 41 six ways to beat the heat in the garden if you want to go back and listen to

[00:12:24] that one. Next set of questions comes from Teresa she is actually one of our customers

[00:12:31] here locally with the farm and she said how often do I spray the tomato plants with copper sulfate

[00:12:41] peppers also so she's referring to the copper spray that we use to prevent foliar and fungal

[00:12:48] diseases specifically in our tomatoes here in west central Missouri but anywhere that you

[00:12:54] experience foliar diseases or fungal diseases in the spring usually as a result of heavy

[00:13:00] rains or really high humidity that spray is generally used every seven to ten days

[00:13:06] as a preventative but also can be used once you've seen signs of the diseases to help

[00:13:12] prevent the spread. Now if it rains really heavy then you need to reapply the spray

[00:13:18] and you really only have to continue using it until about the time when the humidity starts

[00:13:23] to get a little bit less extreme or you're not having as much rainfall but sometimes you

[00:13:28] have to use it all the way through the season so it just depends on your your current situation.

[00:13:33] Teresa also asks what can you use to destroy that white moss which is the destroyer of so

[00:13:40] many green leaf vegetables I believe she is referring to powdery mildew or downy mildew

[00:13:45] and once again this is going to involve using something that is going to change the pH

[00:13:52] of the leaf surface so that copper spray would probably work just as well but the easiest thing

[00:13:59] that I use is either first Saturday lime or you can use baking soda you can also make a spray

[00:14:06] out of water and milk you're just trying to change the pH of the leaf surface so that it's

[00:14:11] less hospitable to those mildews so they can't grab hold and keep growing on the leaf surface.

[00:14:20] She also asks is it too late to plant some strawberries and what is the best way to

[00:14:24] overwinter them if they're in a tower or a bucket container so you can actually plant

[00:14:29] strawberries at almost any time spring summer or fall I've done a couple of episodes one was

[00:14:34] on fall planted strawberries one was specifically just to strawberries in general. Spring plantings

[00:14:41] are generally going to be bare root strawberries unless you can find some actively growing ones

[00:14:46] that you can plant in the spring but bare root is it should only be planted in the spring because

[00:14:52] they are generally dormant when you get them and so if you're going to plant in the summer or

[00:14:57] in the fall then you want actively growing plants either started plugs or rooted plants from

[00:15:03] you know runners from somebody else's plants. You can plant them at any time just know that

[00:15:09] if you plant them in the middle of the summer depending on the variety that you plant

[00:15:13] they very well may not fruit the first season but they'll overwinter and they'll come back

[00:15:18] even stronger in the spring and give you a nice healthy crop in the spring. So speaking of

[00:15:22] overwintering again that question was what was the best way to overwinter them if they're in

[00:15:27] towers or in bucket containers what you really want to pay attention to is trying to keep

[00:15:33] that soil from freezing solid for weeks on end during the winter and that is what is going

[00:15:39] to damage those tender roots on the strawberry plants. The less volume of soil that we have

[00:15:46] in that container the more likely it is that it's going to freeze for long periods of time

[00:15:51] so what you want to do is try to protect that soil in some way when we do this in ground beds

[00:15:57] or in raised planter beds we're just using mulch to help this but when you're talking

[00:16:02] about a tower garden like a green stock planter or in buckets you want to move it up as

[00:16:08] close as you can to a building so your house your garage some place where it's going to help

[00:16:14] insulate it a little bit if you're in more extreme temperatures you may want to wrap those

[00:16:20] containers with something. If you have buckets and you can put them in the garage that's

[00:16:24] fantastic or if your your planters are on rollers and you can bring them into a garage

[00:16:28] then that's fine too that is going to help protect them but if you just can't get them

[00:16:32] indoors then wrapping those containers with some fabric row covers or frost cloth is going to help

[00:16:39] to insulate them to help keep that soil from freezing and then you know some some straw mulch

[00:16:45] or something in the the top of the containers themselves is also going to help that situation.

[00:16:50] Next question what is your favorite thing to show visitors to your garden?

[00:16:55] This I think is twofold. Number one would be showing them my raised garden planters

[00:17:04] and surprising them at how much food can be grown in one container so I have uh I'll show

[00:17:12] them one of my four by four planter box direct planters and show look I had 30 heads of lettuce

[00:17:19] in here and I had all of these green onions in here and then it transitioned into tomatoes

[00:17:24] and basil and zucchinis and then we're transitioning back into lettuce and other

[00:17:28] leafy greens for the fall. I think people really underestimate the amount of food

[00:17:34] that you can grow by volume or by weight in a very small space and that's sort of the reason

[00:17:41] why some people just don't get into gardening because they don't think it would be worth it

[00:17:45] if they only have one little planter and I completely disagree with that. You can grow so

[00:17:51] much food in a very small space. The second part of that is my other kind of favorite thing

[00:17:58] to show people which is how to interplant or intercrop their their crops and maximize

[00:18:06] this space that they are using in order to be able to get more out of it in terms of a

[00:18:11] harvest. Not to mention the benefits that the plants get from each other in terms of

[00:18:17] the keeping away of the insects and stuff that you know confusing that chemical signal so that

[00:18:24] the insects can't home in on one or the other they sort of get confused. I mean if you look

[00:18:29] in in nature there's never just one single thing growing right? So why do we try to do

[00:18:35] that in our gardens? You know you look into you know I'm sitting right here looking out

[00:18:39] at the lake area and you've got trees and then you have grasses and you have bushes in the middle.

[00:18:44] So all different heights all sharing the same space and they are all flourishing and there is

[00:18:48] no empty space in and around there and if there is empty space well it's going to be

[00:18:54] very quickly taken up by something. So that's how it should work in our gardens too. We

[00:18:58] should be utilizing all of that space pair the high or the tall growing plants with the

[00:19:02] low growing ones pair the fast growing ones with the slow growing ones so that all of that

[00:19:07] space is utilized and there's less opportunity for the weeds to jump in there in any of those

[00:19:12] empty spaces. That's why we use mulch. We're mimicking that leaf litter that falls on the

[00:19:17] ground out in nature and prevents that soil from eroding or being blown away or for weed seeds

[00:19:23] from being able to land. So those I think are my two favorite things to show people is

[00:19:28] how much food you can get in a small space and how to maximize the space that they're

[00:19:34] working with. Speaking of using leaves as mulch this question came from Matt Trusty in the

[00:19:41] gardening group on Facebook and he's in zone 8a in central Mississippi which I appreciate that

[00:19:48] information by the way if you're ever asking questions in any gardening group it's always

[00:19:52] a good idea if it's unless it's one that's just local to you for you to mention what

[00:19:56] zone you're growing in and what area of the country or the world you are gardening in

[00:20:00] because not only does it help the moderators figure out how to answer your question but it

[00:20:04] also helps your fellow gardeners who might be in the same area as you to be able to answer that

[00:20:08] question too because you guys have more insights because you're all growing in the same area than

[00:20:13] maybe somebody like me from the outside. I can give you general information but I may not know

[00:20:17] the tips and tricks for you know your particular growing area so Matt thank you for that

[00:20:21] information. He says question for the podcast I live in a neighborhood with tons of mature

[00:20:26] hardwoods rather than put the leaves on the street last fall I collected an obscene amount

[00:20:31] of leaves and put them in a chicken wire structure to create leaf mold for beds.

[00:20:36] Fast forward to this spring I shredded some of the leaves and mulched almost all the beds

[00:20:43] tomatoes peppers watermelon cucumbers etc are all mulched with leaves it's working beautifully

[00:20:49] we're already in the 90s and it's holding moisture in well my question is this when all

[00:20:55] of my summer crops crap out I would like to just turn these leaves into the beds for organic matter

[00:21:01] in the soil if I do that and plant brassicas right behind in the fall garden am I risking a

[00:21:07] depletion in nitrogen in the soil by doing so thanks this is a great question first of all

[00:21:15] kudos to you for using the leaves in that manner leaf mold is a fantastic mulch it's a

[00:21:21] fantastic way to add organic matter back into your soil the question that Matt is posing here

[00:21:28] is in relation to the fact that when you add carbon large amounts of carbon at one time to

[00:21:35] the soil the microbes that are responsible for breaking down that carbon into usable forms

[00:21:41] rely on nitrogen to do that work so that's not normally a problem it's just utilizing

[00:21:49] the nitrogen and that's still going to remain in the soil the problem comes when you're also

[00:21:54] trying to grow plants at the same time that also need that nitrogen so this is what we

[00:22:01] you know when we talk about oh it's stealing nitrogen from the soil well technically it's

[00:22:06] stealing nitrogen from the plants because the the microbes are going to utilize that nitrogen

[00:22:10] preferentially for breaking down that carbon versus what the plants are going to be able

[00:22:15] to access and so your plants may end up being starred with nitrogen until that carbon breakdown

[00:22:21] process is completed so when it comes to leaf mold it's really going to depend on how broken

[00:22:29] down that leaf mold is so in general terms if it was sitting all winter long and now it's

[00:22:36] also sitting on the top of your soil and is breaking continuing to break down while it's

[00:22:41] in contact with that soil then it should be broken down enough to where it's there's not so

[00:22:48] much carbon left in that leaf mold that it would steal the nitrogen from those plants

[00:22:53] but this is absolutely going to be a judgment call on your part to look at that leaf mold if

[00:23:00] you see that there are clumps of dry crispy leaves still in that leaf mold that is a good

[00:23:07] indication that there's still a lot of carbon left in that mold versus the much softer wetter

[00:23:14] consistency of an actual leaf mold so if it's if it's got any of that sort of crunchy dry

[00:23:21] stuff then no i would not turn it into the soil just yet because i think it absolutely

[00:23:25] would take more nitrogen to break that down your option really is to just leave that leaf

[00:23:31] mold in place pull your summer crops out pull the leaf mold back plant your brassicas and continue

[00:23:38] to use that leaf mold as a mulch and then after your brassicas have been harvested for

[00:23:44] the season at the end of the year then go ahead and turn that leaf mold down into the

[00:23:49] soil and let it sit for the remainder of the winter into early spring by then there should be

[00:23:54] no chance of the nitrogen being sequestered from that by that carbon and you should be able to

[00:24:01] plant directly into it right away in the spring without any problem and hopefully this year you

[00:24:07] will do the same thing you'll collect all those leaves you'll be able to put a fresh

[00:24:11] layer of leaf mold on top as your mulch and just sort of continue the cycle i love this idea

[00:24:20] roses often have a bad reputation for being fussy and hard to grow and i will admit i was

[00:24:26] one who agreed with that reputation but only because most big box store roses are grafted

[00:24:32] heirloom roses believes roses should be grown the way nature intended on their own roots with as

[00:24:37] little human intervention as possible with own root roses you can avoid the headache of dealing

[00:24:42] with rootstock and worrying about your rose not surviving the winter because own root roses

[00:24:48] are naturally stronger more disease resistant and have a longer life expectancy heirloom roses

[00:24:54] wants you to invest in your garden by choosing healthy roses on their own roots with over 900

[00:25:00] varieties to choose from and a one-year guarantee heirloom roses has every rose you could want at

[00:25:05] heirloom roses.com you can take 20 off all their roses with code just grow now through

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[00:25:18] save 20% with code just grow at heirloom roses.com okay so this one was just really funny this was

[00:25:25] rich flint also in the facebook group he said if i recall from the podcast the question of

[00:25:31] the month is ask me anything doesn't have to be gardening related so i'll start off with a

[00:25:36] joke i heard do you know how to tell if someone is a runner wait five minutes and

[00:25:41] they'll tell you as a recovering ultra runner i know how hard it can be to juggle the time

[00:25:47] needed to take care of daily mundane tasks such as work and household chores and still find time

[00:25:53] to train so my question is oh hell i don't have a question i just wanted to tell you that i run

[00:25:59] as well trails mostly but roads aren't as bad as we make them out to be happy gardening

[00:26:04] and happy running so i absolutely appreciated this i've already mentioned running at least once

[00:26:09] in this podcast and it is absolutely true you you know you always know if somebody's a runner

[00:26:14] because they will tell you next question comes from britney mccormick and she said when starting

[00:26:20] out your market farm what was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome and what is your biggest

[00:26:27] hurdle now to overcome that's a good question um i think the biggest hurdle when we were first

[00:26:38] starting out was trying to gauge exactly how much we should be growing so because we started

[00:26:49] out not necessarily intending to grow specifically for farmers market we were growing for

[00:26:55] our community supported agriculture program which was 15 families or couples that had signed up

[00:27:03] in the off season and then they had they had purchased a share of the harvest in the in the

[00:27:09] fall and we used that money as seed money to get the supplies and everything that we needed

[00:27:15] to start planting in the spring and then once the harvest began then they were going to get

[00:27:19] their share based on how much they had invested that was their return on their investment

[00:27:25] prior to this i hadn't really paid a whole lot of attention to how much i was planting in terms

[00:27:33] of how much i thought i needed i hadn't kind of figured that component out yet we were just

[00:27:37] growing for ourselves and i just knew that i had grown so much stuff that we were giving

[00:27:44] it away to friends and family who were coming over every weekend and i couldn't can it all and

[00:27:48] i couldn't freeze it all and i thought okay well this is a great way to make you know some

[00:27:52] side income but i hadn't paid attention to the yield that i was getting specifically like okay

[00:27:58] i planted x number of cucumbers and i got x number of pounds of cucumbers and therefore

[00:28:02] if i want to grow x number of pounds of cucumbers or you know harvest it then this

[00:28:07] is the number of plants that i have to grow i hadn't paid any attention to that

[00:28:10] so when we got to that next season when it was time to start planting and growing

[00:28:15] for somebody other than ourselves i had to figure that out thankfully i came across a

[00:28:22] guide that i still use to this day when i'm helping other people figure out what to grow

[00:28:28] from university of missouri extension and it had a breakdown of well if you are growing

[00:28:35] you know this particular vegetable then you need this number of plants or this number of row feet

[00:28:41] per person for fresh use and then this amount per person for preserving that was a huge help

[00:28:50] at least in getting started it gave me a starting point the the other part of that was trying to

[00:28:56] figure out initially the idea was we were just going to grow for csa and then they were going

[00:29:02] to pick up at the farmers market and then whatever extra we had that we'd harvested that

[00:29:08] week we would sell at the farmers market we very quickly realized just that first day

[00:29:14] that we were at market that the demand for what we were growing was really high and i mean we

[00:29:21] sold out of all the extras that we brought within probably the first 45 minutes of being

[00:29:25] there and this was you know a five-hour market so we sat there twiddling our thumbs

[00:29:29] the rest of the time with an empty table just waiting for our csa people to come and

[00:29:34] pick their stuff up so we kind of had to pivot really quickly and go oh we need to plant some

[00:29:39] more stuff so again it was trying to figure out how much do we plant how much do we anticipate

[00:29:46] people wanting every week because the crowd changes the customers change that probably

[00:29:54] took a few years to figure out i continued to use sort of that chart from mu extension

[00:30:02] to help me figure that out but then i was able to start using my own historical notes

[00:30:07] so keeping track after that of how much was planted how much was harvested and sort of what

[00:30:13] the weather conditions and stuff were too to help me figure out all right well this is this

[00:30:17] is how much we need to plant next year and also keeping track of sales records at the

[00:30:22] farmers market while i brought you know 30 pounds of zucchini and i sold out or i brought

[00:30:30] 25 heads of lettuce and i came home with five keeping track of that and knowing what the sort

[00:30:35] of seasonal demand was did help with eventually being able to figure all that out the biggest

[00:30:43] hurdle now to overcome is manpower or energy or a combination of both maybe you know all

[00:30:52] the kids have grown up they're off the farm there's nobody really helping us on a day-to-day

[00:30:57] basis for a while my mom was living with us and she was happily helping out on the farm

[00:31:03] and you know she she moved a few years back and so it's just my husband and i at this point

[00:31:09] with the occasional grand kid that might come over or you know the occasional like homeschool

[00:31:14] kid who might need some some hours during the week or whatever to work but it's nothing

[00:31:19] consistent it's there's nobody there with us day in and day out figuring all this out

[00:31:24] and so the division of labor is a little different now trying to figure out the tasks and what we're

[00:31:31] able to accomplish is a little bit different i still bite off way more than we can chew

[00:31:37] and i will fully admit that my garden plan every single year is astronomical and when we get

[00:31:45] to the point of the season where we're not only harvesting the early greens and the early

[00:31:50] spring stuff but now we're also planting all the summer stuff and and then we're still having to

[00:31:54] get in there and weed and everything else that is when i go okay something's got to let go

[00:31:59] some where something's not going to get planted or we're going to have to plant fewer of

[00:32:02] something because there just aren't enough hours in the day which is okay i've learned that

[00:32:10] that's not a failure i've learned that it's just you know we are two grown adult human

[00:32:15] beings who are now you know getting a little bit older i mean i turned 50 last year my husband

[00:32:21] is nine years older than i am and you know we both have already had previous fairly physical

[00:32:27] careers you know in the marine corps and elsewhere so um you know we're slowing down a

[00:32:31] little bit we're still both very strong but after a while maybe you don't want to do as much of

[00:32:36] that as you used to so it's the challenge now i think is just figuring out the labor

[00:32:42] figuring out how we can be more efficient and still accomplish what it is that we want to

[00:32:46] accomplish but also the realization that maybe we don't have to maybe we don't have to do as

[00:32:52] much or we don't have to sell as much or grow as much and you know we can let a little bit

[00:32:57] of that go so that's i think that's our biggest hurdle right now okay my garden homie cody she

[00:33:03] said i'm wondering you do the crop share the farmer stand consulting and the podcast do you

[00:33:10] do anything else in this vein that pulls an income what percentage of your income in each is

[00:33:18] each aspect and what percentage of your time also how about a day in the life take on each

[00:33:24] of those tasks what's it like to be a garden consultant is it only rich folks are they likely

[00:33:30] to do what you tell them needs to be done is it hard to collect on your crop share are you

[00:33:35] making much money from the podcast how do you do it all is your hubby still working or is he

[00:33:40] a full-time farm hand too if he works with you how do you not choke him i hear these long-term

[00:33:49] partners can be challenging to work closely with there's a whole whole slew of stuff to unpack

[00:33:55] there okay so let's start with the top um yes so the csa and the farmers markets so there's

[00:34:02] three farmers markets that we do during the week plus we've got the stand open on the farm

[00:34:07] on fridays now this year i do do the garden consulting i limit that to the spring and the

[00:34:14] fall obviously the podcast is year-round that is the extent so far of what we do to pull an

[00:34:24] income that is gardening or farming related with the exception of i do have the online courses

[00:34:30] that i'm working on so plan like a pro was my first one that i launched i'm working on

[00:34:34] several more smaller ones and we've just started doing classes gardening classes on the farm that

[00:34:42] we will also eventually pull income from so all of these things sort of are working together and

[00:34:47] diversified i would say in terms of percentage the podcast and the consulting you know the just

[00:34:57] grow something arm of things is a very very teeny teeny percentage it's it's more like

[00:35:04] you know what i pull in maybe pays for the podcast you know website hosting and that sort

[00:35:10] of thing and then maybe pays for some of my racing fees um or my new running shoes or

[00:35:16] whatever at this point like at this point it's not it's not actually contributing to the overall

[00:35:20] household budget although i would like for that to change i would like for there to be a

[00:35:24] little bit of a shift in that and it's getting there you know it's it's if i had more time to

[00:35:29] be able to focus on it it absolutely would get there which the farm portion of things

[00:35:35] i would say you know farmers market versus csa the income is about 50 50 there so direct

[00:35:44] sales to people versus them investing in the farm in the off season i think is probably more

[00:35:51] it's more like a 60 40 split i think 40 now comes from the csa and about 60 comes from

[00:35:57] selling at the farmers markets selling on the farm doing online orders for home delivery

[00:36:02] and that sort of thing um a day in the life on each of those tasks would be you know every

[00:36:10] morning there's there's chores that need to be done with the livestock we're slowly scaling

[00:36:16] that back in fact we're not going to be selling pork after this year so um that will scale back

[00:36:22] dramatically we have also scaled back the number of chickens we were raising because

[00:36:26] we used to sell the eggs we have decided not to do that anymore so this kind of all ties back

[00:36:31] into britney's question about you know the the challenges yeah this is one of the things

[00:36:35] is we're kind of scaling things back just a little bit to make it more manageable for us

[00:36:40] and also be able to do things like what i'm doing right now which was be able to escape for

[00:36:43] the weekend and go camping so um but the chores you know those chores get done first thing in

[00:36:48] the morning i will absolutely have my coffee first and then thankfully i walk out the door

[00:36:54] and i'm right there at work and so it's checking on everything that's in the greenhouse

[00:36:59] making sure everything is is properly watered and the early days like right now because it's

[00:37:06] warm the earlier i can get out there to do the harvesting the better because everything

[00:37:12] likes to be harvested first thing in the morning before the heat of the day has kicked in so every

[00:37:15] morning i've got about an hour and a half where i'm out there just doing harvesting

[00:37:20] and it what i'm harvesting will depend on you know the time of year obviously

[00:37:25] and then we move into sort of mid morning or mid you know i guess late morning is when i try

[00:37:33] to do the most of like the weeding and the trellising and that sort of thing

[00:37:37] once we get to the really hottest part of the day then i'm coming inside and it's either

[00:37:41] paperwork you know it's either updating inventory or doing bookkeeping or accounting or getting email

[00:37:48] marketing out for the farm or i'm taking notes for the podcast or i'm trying to put a reel

[00:37:55] together or editing a tiktok video or something like that to put out for the podcast or i'm

[00:38:01] writing up a garden consult and getting that sent off to a client or i'm doing a soil test

[00:38:07] or something that i can do indoors that it doesn't involve being out in the the hottest part of the

[00:38:13] day because i don't mind working in the heat but being in amongst the plants during during the

[00:38:19] hottest part of the day is not really the best for them so we try to stay out during you

[00:38:24] know those hours between two and four o'clock and then after four i go back out and usually

[00:38:29] around four thirty five o'clock i'll go back out double check everything in and around

[00:38:33] the greenhouse make sure nothing needs to be watered and then usually that's when i'm doing

[00:38:37] some planting so i like to plant the summer stuff especially when we start getting into the hotter

[00:38:42] days in the evening because it's the part of the day when the heat is starting to wane

[00:38:49] so yes it is it is still very warm outside but i can make sure those plants are really well

[00:38:55] watered before i get them planted and then water them in really well as i plant them and

[00:39:00] then they have the whole evening as the temperatures start to cool off into the

[00:39:04] overnights to sort of get themselves settled in and prepare themselves for the onslaught of heat

[00:39:09] the next day if i transplant them first thing in the morning i feel like they just don't get

[00:39:14] a really good chance to get settled in before they get blasted with that heat from that two

[00:39:18] to four o'clock time frame and they might tend to suffer a little bit so that's sort

[00:39:22] of how my day ends up going and then on certain days i'm preparing either for our

[00:39:30] deliveries or for market so if it's the day before you know delivery day then i'm

[00:39:37] packing up our shares i'm packing up the orders and getting those ready i am

[00:39:42] getting the maps our routes mapped out my husband and i split up our our routes

[00:39:49] so he'll go one direction i go the other direction so i have to map out all of those

[00:39:54] and get our lists in in place for checking off and making sure that we're hitting everybody

[00:39:59] and if it's a night before a market then i'm making sure that everything has been

[00:40:04] bagged and prepped and bundled and then we're you know putting them in all their containers

[00:40:08] and stacking them up to get ready to be loaded the following morning before we go to our

[00:40:13] farmers markets so that's sort of the day to day and in there you know in the early spring

[00:40:18] or in the in the late fall i will schedule you know usually only one consult per week

[00:40:25] just because i don't want to completely interrupt the rest of my my workflow for the week

[00:40:30] in terms of what it's like to be a garden consultant it's it's fun i really enjoy getting

[00:40:37] to go to people's houses look at what their garden situation is or help them figure out

[00:40:45] what their garden situation will be if they're brand new help them design a space help them

[00:40:51] put together a plan of what to plant and when sometimes they don't need a whole lot of help

[00:40:57] sometimes it's just hey we need to just do a soil test and figure out what's going on

[00:41:02] here's how you can do some inter planting and some companion planting this is maybe a better

[00:41:07] you know choice for you versus this other thing that you are growing and sometimes

[00:41:12] it's the full thing it's i'm designing a plan for them for the next four years including

[00:41:17] crop rotations and i'm helping them lay out their garden beds and that kind of thing and

[00:41:21] then there's you know somewhere in between so but it's super fun to see what people want to do

[00:41:27] with their gardens it's fun to see sort of what their goals are it's uh it's fantastic to be

[00:41:35] able to help somebody you know learn to be a little bit more self-sufficient even if it's just

[00:41:41] a hobby i mean they may not need it for their family it's just something they want to do and

[00:41:45] that's perfectly fine getting your hands in the dirt in any way shape or form is fantastic it's

[00:41:50] great for your health but also it's a skill that you know needs to be learned and it takes some

[00:41:55] practice and i like seeing where people start and sort of where they they get to and and

[00:42:02] watch their progress it's it's fantastic no it is not only rich folks i have several just

[00:42:09] sort of you know working class blue collar clients that really just desperately want to know how to

[00:42:15] better be able to feed their families i have i do have some folks that have you know a good

[00:42:22] amount of money and they and they want to do it either as a hobby or they have something

[00:42:27] very specific that they like to grow or they like to eat that they can't find locally a

[00:42:31] lot of the time and so you know it's it's everybody in between and i think part of it

[00:42:37] too is i'm not i'm not charging an arm and a leg for these services and i'm not doing like a total

[00:42:43] like landscape design it's not a you know total backyard makeover type of a thing i mean it's

[00:42:48] very utilitarian and so i think that lends itself to to almost anybody being able to

[00:42:55] afford my services so are they likely to do what you tell them needs to be done

[00:43:02] that totally depends on the client i mean i have some who absolutely do they follow it to a t

[00:43:08] they email me follow-up questions they'll send me pictures and i can give you know them responses

[00:43:13] to be able to help them get better then there are some who just you know maybe get the

[00:43:19] information and then i like literally never hear from them again which is kind of bizarre

[00:43:26] but that's just the way it is i mean everybody's lifestyle and everybody's

[00:43:29] way of managing things is completely different so but i mean as far as i can tell most of them

[00:43:34] generally you know do what i suggest or recommend and it generally works out pretty

[00:43:40] well for them so um oh is it hard to collect on your crop share so with the csa you know

[00:43:48] we have been doing this for so long we actually have not added any new customers

[00:43:56] since 2020 and the only reason we really added any new ones in 2020 was because

[00:44:03] people were having such a hard time being able to get food at the store or be able to get to

[00:44:08] the store we were in the middle of the pandemic and so we extended our csa that year we added

[00:44:15] more families um as part of like a summer a special summer share so that more people would

[00:44:21] have access and then we gave them the option the following year if they wanted to stay on

[00:44:25] that they could i don't know if it's because we've been doing this for so long or

[00:44:30] because people start with us and they just they really like how we do things we don't ever

[00:44:35] have anybody really drop out of the program unless they move or they just get to the point

[00:44:44] where they're sort of elderly and they're just not eating as much in the terms of fruits and

[00:44:49] vegetables anymore and so they really just don't need us anymore or they retire and they're going

[00:44:55] to be like traveling a lot and they just don't have a need for a weekly delivery of csa that's

[00:45:01] it other than that i mean once once you're in the program most of the time you are in the

[00:45:06] program for forever so we actually have people who have been with us from the very beginning

[00:45:13] the very first season and we are in our 17th year of doing this so in that regard i don't

[00:45:21] have any problem collecting our shares because we've made it very flexible for them you can

[00:45:28] either choose we start we open registration in october and when we haven't added any

[00:45:33] because we're not opening new spaces up so because again back to the previous question

[00:45:38] of what about our challenges are right now that part of the sort of downsizing has been

[00:45:44] we limited the csa we dropped it back to about 50 members instead of 75 at one point and we

[00:45:50] haven't like replaced anybody as they've dropped off so we've bounced around 48 to 50 or so

[00:45:56] for the past few years and we i mean these people have most of them have been with us for

[00:46:02] years and years and years and so they get the option in the fall of being able to pay it all

[00:46:06] up in one lump sum or they can just give me a $50 deposit and then i will bill them in four

[00:46:12] increments over the winter time so they just get to make four you know installment payments

[00:46:16] just so long as everything is paid up by i think march 1st so that i have plenty of time

[00:46:21] to be able to get the last of the supplies and stuff that i need and now we can automate

[00:46:26] it through things like square automated invoicing it just automatically sends and they can choose

[00:46:30] to have it automatically you know debited off of their card without having to do anything

[00:46:35] so that makes it easy on them so in that regard it's actually been very very easy

[00:46:39] and we've been we've been really fortunate too that we have just great families in our csa

[00:46:45] program and they're just as excited to be a part of the program as we are to have them

[00:46:50] and so payment has never really been an issue are you making much money from the podcast yet

[00:46:57] um i think i get a little bit more now in terms of the advertising because there are more people

[00:47:08] listening so the sort of automatic ads that are placed now actually are drawing some some kind

[00:47:14] of steady income every month um i also have had some sponsors come in and that have actually

[00:47:21] paid outright to have their ads you've heard heirloom roses being sponsored you know the

[00:47:25] past couple of months they came in they approached me and asked to sponsor which was

[00:47:30] fabulously flattering and so that has provided a little bit the patreon you know with a couple

[00:47:37] dollars here and there that i get from from people every month absolutely helps so it's

[00:47:42] sort of all ads together but it's still i mean i'm not going to be paying my mortgage

[00:47:47] anytime soon with what i make off of the advertising and stuff and that's okay um you

[00:47:54] know that wasn't that wasn't necessarily why i started the podcast i think the advertising money

[00:47:59] and the patreon funds help you know again to kind of make this to where it's at least a

[00:48:09] it's not running in the in the red i don't have to put out money out of pocket to host

[00:48:14] the website and to to do all these things or to you know to buy a new microphone or whatever

[00:48:19] it kind of pays itself um i also you know get enough to be able to pay for my coffee habit

[00:48:24] which is extensive let me tell you and so yeah now i'm making a little bit of money i think

[00:48:30] last year i might have drawn i think it might have been a total of 1200 out of everything so

[00:48:35] maybe 100 bucks a month through everything i mean if i'm being completely honest so

[00:48:40] you know again not a whole lot but hey i mean if you guys want to help out you can go

[00:48:44] join the patreon and you know two bucks three bucks a month or whatever to pay for my

[00:48:48] coffee i totally appreciate it you know and there's little things like the merch and that

[00:48:52] sort of thing so um and when you add in the consulting you know the consulting and then the

[00:48:58] the classes and things again multifaceted trying to do um you know variable streams of income

[00:49:06] to kind of add up into one one nice collective so eventually we'll get there maybe when we hit

[00:49:11] you know i don't know 400 episodes i can come back and say yeah now i'm making money off of

[00:49:16] we'll see uh how do you do it all i prioritize pretty well when it comes to what my goals are

[00:49:30] so if i have a goal of getting something done then it takes priority and something i know has

[00:49:36] to take the back seat um i do not lose any sleep let me tell you i spent 15 years with

[00:49:42] some chronic illnesses one of which greatly affected my ability to be able to sleep and now

[00:49:49] that i've had some surgery to be able to repair some of those problems i can sleep

[00:49:55] fabulously well i used to be able to barely get two or three hours of sleep now i can

[00:49:59] sleep eight or nine hours and i guard my sleep like crazy so i am not losing sleep over trying

[00:50:07] to get all of these different tasks done and i recognize that as my husband puts it some of

[00:50:13] these are self-inflicted so you know nobody else is expecting me to make sure that i get an email

[00:50:22] out every friday or that i post a new reel or that i'm you know doing something on youtube

[00:50:27] that nobody's expecting that but me and that's one of the benefits of not making a ton of

[00:50:32] money off of this right now is because i don't i'm only beholden right now to like one sponsor at

[00:50:38] the moment to make sure these episodes get out and that their ad gets out there's nobody on

[00:50:43] youtube who is paying me to do any of that kind of stuff you know so um it's only me that

[00:50:48] i'm answering to and i have learned to be pretty flexible with myself so it if it doesn't

[00:50:53] get done the day that i think it should have then it just gets moved to the next day's task

[00:50:59] and if it gets moved too many times then i have to go back and reevaluate and go

[00:51:03] all right well is that actually a priority because if not then it's just going to come

[00:51:07] off the list there's no reason to keep moving it is your hubby still working or is he a full

[00:51:12] time farm hand too no he actually this is our full-time gig um we both farm full-time i did

[00:51:20] it the first i think it was the first two years i did it mainly by myself and him coming

[00:51:27] home on the weekends or in the evenings and weekends and helping he came off active duty

[00:51:33] and was home for about six months and it was full time for both of us for about six months

[00:51:38] and we still had all the kids and we were still brand new at this and we weren't making

[00:51:42] enough money at it and so he went back to work he took a contract job that was supposed

[00:51:46] to be temporary and two years later he was still on that contract job but at that point

[00:51:53] we were ready to expand the farm and we were doing well enough that he came home and i said

[00:51:57] okay we have to make a decision either you continue to work outside of the farm

[00:52:05] and i run the farm by myself which means that we don't expand and we keep things just the same

[00:52:11] as what they are right now or you got to quit and you got to come work full time with

[00:52:16] me because i can't get any bigger at this if it's just me by myself you know with the kids

[00:52:22] and so the decision was made that he was going to quit and he was going to come

[00:52:26] work on the farm so we both work full time on the farm this is this is what we do and so

[00:52:33] how do i not choke him um we ask ourselves that a lot and we recognize that we are very unique

[00:52:43] in the fact that we you know can live together work together still want to go off and go

[00:52:50] camping together he has started running with me now not necessarily with me but he's you know

[00:52:55] sort of running as a as a way to get back into shape and that's kind of adjacent to what i'm

[00:53:01] doing so we we totally recognize that we are very unique in the fact that we're not at each

[00:53:08] other's throats all the time we're not arguing or not and i don't know why that is

[00:53:14] i think we both recognize that we each have our our specific strengths and specific weaknesses and

[00:53:20] so when one of us is good at something the other one just sort of steps out of the way

[00:53:24] and says okay cool you take this and vice versa and i also am not the type of a person

[00:53:31] who is a nag or who harps on things like i'll ask you to do something if it doesn't get done

[00:53:37] i might remind you a couple of times but at that point it's kind of like my to-do list if

[00:53:42] if i have reminded you and it hasn't gotten done either i just need to do it myself or it needs to

[00:53:47] come off the list because obviously it's not a priority to one or both of us at that point

[00:53:52] and then so i just it just kind of rolls off my back it's not that big of a deal and same

[00:53:57] thing with him i can tell when i'm getting on his last nerve and he just knows to walk away

[00:54:02] go get on his tractor go do something but we're also not always working side by side we're

[00:54:08] always working adjacent to each other you know he'll be you know off on the tractor somewhere

[00:54:14] you know moving compost around or whatever and i'll be in another field and i'll be you know

[00:54:18] planting you know whatever crop is going in at the time and then we come together when we need

[00:54:23] to work on tasks together and then at the end of the day it's like okay let's go in let's

[00:54:27] get dinner let's sit we'll watch a show we carve out time to just have it be downtime and

[00:54:33] not work time but then we also have our separate interests he'll go into his office

[00:54:38] and he will go and play his guitar and i will go into my office and i will record a podcast or

[00:54:43] you know whatever it is that i'm working on so that's how we uh that's how we don't choke each

[00:54:48] other so i appreciate all those uh those questions cody those were good we took it all

[00:54:59] we brought them to our land an endless night ember hot and icy cold the rage of the earth

[00:55:09] we made this curse

[00:55:15] we did not see we could not but she did and in the end what will i become senua saga

[00:55:23] hellblade 2 play it now with game pass okay shelly arusco from my email had a couple of

[00:55:30] questions um the first one was how do you maintain even temperature in your greenhouse

[00:55:37] i had my seedlings in the greenhouse with a small heater to keep them warm until i could plant them

[00:55:41] outdoors like you i'm in cask county missouri and as you know we had some crazy weather this

[00:55:47] spring when we had an early warm spell i went out to check on them and the temperature in

[00:55:51] the greenhouse was over 100 degrees i opened the front flap and some of the roll up windows

[00:55:57] to let in some fresh cooler air it was supposed to stay warm for a few days so i left

[00:56:02] the windows rolled up to keep it from getting too hot again it was during that time that we had a

[00:56:07] huge wind storm and apparently the windows let enough wind enter the greenhouse that it tried

[00:56:13] to fly away we're not in kansas anymore dorothy it's not an expensive greenhouse but it is a

[00:56:19] decent size 15 foot by seven foot by seven foot and fortunately the cover wasn't damaged

[00:56:25] we were able to reset the bent frame but will require some reinforcement before i can put the

[00:56:30] cover on this fall to extend the growing season so my question is how do i maintain the temperature

[00:56:35] inside the greenhouse so it doesn't get too hot or cold but doesn't act like a kite and try

[00:56:41] to fly away again thank you for all the great information in your podcast i've learned so much

[00:56:45] from you and i love the fact that you're in the same area as me and can give advice

[00:56:49] specific to the issues in our region thank you shelly um yeah i will tell you the very

[00:56:56] first greenhouse we had was actually like half of a a high tunnel or a hoop house so it wasn't

[00:57:02] like a traditional greenhouse um we had gotten it at an auction and we put it together and it was

[00:57:09] 48 foot long and 20 20 feet wide i believe maybe 25 foot wide and again just a just a hoop

[00:57:20] a hoop house and i had all my plants out there and i was acting using it as a greenhouse

[00:57:26] it was close enough to the house this is when we were on the five acres that i was able to

[00:57:30] get out there with water and and whatever i needed to and i had the fronts open i had

[00:57:36] the sides rolled up because you know again it was it was hot and that happens with these

[00:57:42] greenhouses it doesn't matter if it's a greenhouse if it's a hoop house if it's a

[00:57:46] high tunnel or even like a low caterpillar tunnel that you'll put out into your rows

[00:57:51] anytime you are covering something with plastic as soon as the sun comes out it doesn't matter

[00:57:57] how cold it is outside it is going to heat the inside of that hoop up tremendously and

[00:58:03] it will very easily get to over 100 degrees in just a matter of of hours and so i had

[00:58:09] the sides in the front up and sure enough all of a sudden we had a storm come through

[00:58:14] and i would i remember standing in my bedroom looking out the front window looking at this

[00:58:21] this greenhouse or tunnel and thinking to myself i wonder if i should run out there really quick

[00:58:27] and close those sides and no sooner did that thought cross my mind but we had a huge gust

[00:58:33] of wind and i watched that entire structure lift up out of the ground and then slam itself

[00:58:41] back down again and the top bars the rounded bars collapsed in on themselves and i went well

[00:58:50] there goes that thought and it was devastating and it was you know it was all the money that we

[00:58:54] could muster at the time to be able to buy this thing at auction and it had taken us i

[00:59:00] don't know how long to put the darn thing together again we were brand new at this and

[00:59:03] then get the plastic put on it was a whole other story and now in just one storm it had

[00:59:08] literally just practically crumbled now like you we were able to get the supports put back up

[00:59:14] and thankfully the the plastic hadn't ripped or anything and so we were able to salvage it and

[00:59:18] move on but i will say that anchoring those things and this one was it was anchored there

[00:59:26] was concrete blocks in the ground and that um they had basically come with and the poles were

[00:59:33] in there but the poles hadn't been completely secured and so it still it still was able to

[00:59:37] lift it up a little bit um our current greenhouse is definitely the poles are down deep in the ground

[00:59:43] it's not it's not lifting up it's not going anywhere and so that's that's the main thing

[00:59:48] and even with smaller greenhouses or even the pop-up ones that you put in your backyard which

[00:59:53] i've had a couple of those too it's really really important to make sure that they are

[00:59:57] staked down really well as best you can sometimes there's nothing you can do especially

[01:00:02] you know the win the wins are crazy and no cody i'm not going to sing for you again

[01:00:08] but when the winds come whipping down the plane it that can definitely cause those those you

[01:00:13] know greenhouses to to have some problems in terms of regulating the temperature

[01:00:19] in it is difficult especially if you don't have any sort of automation i would love to

[01:00:24] have one of those the greenhouses that's got the tops that open automatically based on

[01:00:31] the temperature that really helps dramatically in terms of venting but when you're doing

[01:00:37] everything manually it it is a bit of a game and trying to pull the sides up and open the front

[01:00:43] if you can run electricity in some way even if it's just a extension cord to get out there

[01:00:50] and run a fan to help circulate the air that is a huge help in terms of regulating

[01:00:57] that air temperature the other thing is shade cloths and so it's just black cloth sometimes it's

[01:01:04] gold they have varying degrees of light that they allow to filter in but that is an invaluable

[01:01:11] tool for being able to help cover the you can either put it on the outside or drape it on

[01:01:17] the inside to help filter some of that light to help shade some of the area in there that

[01:01:22] will also help to regulate those temperatures on the opposite end of that you know that it not

[01:01:29] getting too cold if you can use a space heater safely then that's the way to go we use a diesel

[01:01:36] heater that helps to warm that space and then i also do like secondary sort of hoops in the

[01:01:43] inside so it's like a tunnel within a tunnel in our greenhouse to help regulate those

[01:01:48] temperatures because i'm not going to go and you know get a big old you know wall-sized propane

[01:01:53] heater or whatever to heat that greenhouse up so we use a small diesel heater we also have a

[01:01:59] big wood burning furnace on the back side of ours that we can heat with wood so we've tried

[01:02:04] multiple ways of doing this over the years but you know if you don't have those options then

[01:02:09] just additional layers in the inside so a hoop within a hoop and then also putting frost

[01:02:15] cloth on those are the you know the best ways that you can you can help to sort of regulate

[01:02:20] the temperatures or maintain the temperature it is a challenge i mean there are days when it you

[01:02:23] know it can dry like you said go up to 100 110 degrees in there and then it might drop into

[01:02:28] the 40s overnight and which is not great for the plants so sometimes it may just be seeing

[01:02:34] if you can position your greenhouse in a place where maybe you've got some trees nearby that

[01:02:38] might be able to shade it in the afternoon when it gets to be the hottest. Shelly's second

[01:02:44] question was I searched your podcast and didn't see one on growing brussels sprouts i've tried

[01:02:51] them from seed and from store-bought seedlings and haven't had much luck but i love them and

[01:02:56] would absolutely love to grow some so in my experience with brussels sprouts which is very

[01:03:01] limited because i've never actually been able to grow a successful set of brussels sprouts

[01:03:07] mostly because i actually haven't taken the effort they've usually been sort of an afterthought

[01:03:11] for me but this season i actively have gone ahead and put them in in the spring at the same time

[01:03:17] i did my other brassicas and they look beautiful right now so of course we've had the benefit of

[01:03:22] this being a fantastic spring all the leafy greens and all the brassicas have been done

[01:03:27] really well just because we've had a lot of rain and it's been nice and cool but brassica

[01:03:32] the brussels sprouts number one take a really long time most of them are a 90 day if not 110 day

[01:03:39] crop and so just like with most of our brassicas they're going to prefer to be growing when the

[01:03:45] temperatures are cooler so if you can try them for a fall crop planting them in the late summer

[01:03:52] harvesting them in the fall they will get a chance to get to maturity during the time of year

[01:03:57] when the the temperatures are getting cooler versus planting them in the spring when they're

[01:04:04] growing and maturing when the temperatures are getting warmer so i say that those brussels

[01:04:09] sprouts that i've got right now are looking fantastic but that doesn't mean that three weeks

[01:04:15] from now that they don't start to look horrible because all of a sudden our temperatures have

[01:04:19] jumped up and they're staying you know in the upper 80s or low 90s and then suddenly

[01:04:24] they're suffering so my best advice is just try to modify when it is that you are growing them

[01:04:30] if it hasn't been successful in the spring then try it again for the fall so i think that's it

[01:04:39] i think that's all the questions of course that was an hour's worth of questions but

[01:04:43] um i appreciate you know you guys and your curiosity and giving me a chance to sort of

[01:04:49] chit chat with you a little bit on maybe not a specific topic but on a variety of topics and

[01:04:55] as always keep those questions coming i'm happy to answer them usually if you're sending me a dm or

[01:04:59] an email i will just directly answer you but if it's something that's of interest then i may

[01:05:04] actually turn it into a standalone podcast episode i mean i may have to do one specifically on

[01:05:09] brussels sprouts after i get through this season once i can say successfully that i have

[01:05:14] actually grown brussels sprouts then i might be able to offer some advice so thanks for

[01:05:18] hanging out with me today for this 200th episode of the podcast i have no intention of slowing

[01:05:24] down anytime soon despite all of the things that we're doing on the farm and all the

[01:05:28] things that are going on with just grow something as a brand this remains probably one of the

[01:05:33] most effective ways that i can get information out to gardeners who are just trying to learn

[01:05:39] how to grow their own food and i truly truly truly believe in the power in food and that

[01:05:46] everybody should just grow something of their own hence the name of this show so

[01:05:52] until next time my gardening friends keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk

[01:05:56] again soon thanks for listening to another episode of the just grow something podcast

[01:06:01] for more information about today's topic and to find all the ways you can get in touch with me

[01:06:05] or support the show go to just grow something podcast.com until next time my gardening

[01:06:10] friends keep learning and keep growing