Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson, and you
are in the garden here on news radio six '
ten WTVN talking about yarding. Boy. I'll tell you what,
one more week of February, it's out of here and
we're going to cruise in the month of March, and
then look at it next week. Temperature finally starting to
warm up a little bit. Looks like we're going to
be forties, fifties, maybe even sixty. Get rid of that snow.
(00:22):
I don't know about you, but I am ready. I
enjoy the winner and I enjoy the snow and all
of that, but I'm done. I've had it. I get
it out of here. I am ready to garden as
I promised. As usual during this time of the year,
we talk about a lot of the books that I
was able to read that I really enjoy, that I
would like to share with you that I think you
(00:44):
would enjoy as well. In the book we're going to
talk about this morning. I may have talked about this
two or three times over the last twenty years or so,
because they keep coming out with new editions, and if
they keep coming out with new editions, you know it's
a darn good book. They just keep updating it, new information,
new pictures and all. And it's a really good book.
(01:05):
And it is it's called the All New square Foot Gardening.
You've heard of that before, and if you have it,
we're going to tell you about it. It's the fourth
edition is put out by the square Foot Gardening Foundation.
And for you more mature, older gardeners like myself, you
probably remember the man who started all this way back when,
back in the I think it was back in the
early seventies, and I think the first book came out
(01:27):
in the early eighties or whatever, but was Mel Bartholomew
and had this first book about square foot gardening. Will
tell us more about the fourth edition. Happens to be
one of the he's a master gardener, square Foot Gardening
expert member of the square Foot Gardening Foundation. As a
matter of fact, you can see some of his guarding
videos as well on their website at the Squarefootgardening dot org.
(01:49):
Rick Bickling, Rick, good morning, Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Good morning, Royn. Thanks for having me on the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Hey, it's my pleasure. I tell you what I was
kind of kiddnapped. But you know, a book that's been
around for forty years, it's got to be something to it.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, it's it's sold over three million copies and all
of its different editions, and I think, I know you've
read the book, the new edition and the old ones,
and there's a lot of stuff in here that's truly
pertinent to today's gardeners. You know, the yards aren't as big,
people don't have as much space or time. It's they
did a really good job with it. I was a
contributing editor, so I guess I played a small role
(02:25):
in it too.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
There you go way, And I think that's what's been
so cool about this book through all of the editions.
And I think I had Steve on the last time,
who was Mel's son talking about I guess it was
a third edition. But you know is that every time
this gets updated, it's it's still you know, the square
foot gardening, but it's like, you know, it's today's square
foot guarding. So the pictures change, the new projects, new
(02:49):
things that you know, research have shown different things like that,
So it just continues to update, but absolutely wonderful tips.
Whether you're a brand new gardener or you're an experienced gardener,
you're gonna get you're gonna get some tips and information
out of this book either way. Now, for folks that
maybe are new to this and aren't familiar with square
foot gardening, just basically, what are the principles behind this process?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, the whole point of it is it's a technique
that lets you almost anyone grow a garden almost anywhere
in no matter how much space you have or what
kind of soil in my case, if any you may have,
so you can grow more food and less space with
less waste.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And again and literally we're talking about growing plants in
a square foot area, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, you start off with a raised bed and a
lot of people have raised beds and just kind of
dig up some dirt from the yard and chunk that
in there. But you never know what you're going to
get there, and does it have nutrients, does it have rocks?
Does it have that flip flap the dog buried last summer?
So what we do is we kind of take the
guesswork out of it and we use what's called mels mix.
It's three parts equal parts by volume of peat moss
(04:01):
for mikulate in composts. So really it provides all the
nutrients or plant. It's need. It's light and friable, so
seed lig emergence, root penetration, air infiltration is great, and
it can absorb and hold twenty times its weight in water,
So cats down a lot of this, not beside space,
but also water too.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, and because most of these when you're when you're
building these, if you look at all of the we
talk about raised beds, most of these are typically what
eight inches deep or so.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, you can make it a different any size you want,
as far as lengthen with, although we recommend you don't
make any wider than four feet because anyone can kind
of reach in two feet from either side. But really
you're right. When you use the Mels mix, all you
need is six to eight inches of the MELS mixed soil,
So you don't need a big three foot bed or
anything like that. And if you want to grow some
root vegetables, you know, potatoes or carrots, you can put
(04:55):
a little basically we call it a top head. It's
just a little square piece that you put on top
that you can put more Mels mix in that makes
that one little square a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah. So again, if you want some root crops, you
need a little bit more of depth.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's a great and it adds you know, it actually
adds a different look to your garden as well, because
it gives you a little up and down and a
little more depth to it.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Exactly. Yeah. It's the thing I like about square foot
Gardening besides its productivity, is it lets you do a lot.
It kind of combines the you know, the practicality of
raising a garden with the beauty of being able to
go out, kind of position your beds and have trellises,
have some covers, have a top hat, and then you know,
let's make it more of a living area and not
(05:38):
just a mighty garden in the back corner of the yard.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Most definitely talking with Rick Bickling. He is from the
square Foot Gardening Foundation. And of course, again like I said,
you can see Rick and doing videos and lots of
other great things on their website. It's a square Footgardening
dot org. Be sure and check it out. The book is,
of course, square Foot Gardening the fourth and I'll tell
you what it is, tremendous. I like when I was
(06:04):
reading through this, I like your sample garden plans because
I think, you know, once you get these things built
and you get it laid out and you've got your
square foot grid. You know, then it's a matter of
how do I know what to put in, where to
put in, rotate and all you give what I'm guessing like,
there's about fifteen or twenty different layouts that you can
do from spring to through the winter, even depending on
(06:26):
where you live or if you want to cover it up.
So you kind of just guide you right on through.
And it basically says here, just plant, even from the
shade garden to the fruit garden.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, I think those are really helpful. It's easy to
kind of say, go build a garden and tell you
how to build it, but then you're sitting there with
a bed and you don't know what the plant, when
the plant, how many the plant, how far do you
put them apart? And that. So we've got some really
good thorough charts on here to tell you all that
information for every vegetable or earth you might want. You know,
(06:59):
when's the best time to planet, how the deep should
you plant it, how many how close should you plant
them together? And then we even give some charts about
how do you tell when it's rely to harvest?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, as a matter of fact. You yeah, you work
everybody through wind the plant, tell all about it, the
temperatures that it likes, and then of course harvesting, wind,
the harvest and even a little bit as far as
preservation tips as well. So it takes you from the
very beginning to the very end, there's no doubt. And
by the way, we're going to take a break here.
You can do this square foot gardening also in an
(07:34):
elevated square foot garden box. It's great for senior citizens.
It's great for those that may be in wheelchairs or
disabled that aren't able to do raise bed gardening. This
is a really cool way to do it as well.
We'll talk more about that. We'll talk about Rick's courtyard
garden and a whole lot more here on news radio
six to ten WTVN. The name of our book today
(07:57):
is the all New square Foot Gardening, fourth Edition, and
talking about it is Rick Bickling. He's a master gardener,
square foot Gardening Expert and a member of the square
Foot Gardening Foundation and you can see his videos on
their website to check it out. He's got some great
information for you there square Footgardening dot org. You know,
before we went in the break talking about that elevator
(08:18):
square foot garden box. I know a few people have
done this for themselves or for their parents who happen
to live in the assisted living or senior community, or
have someone that's disabled that maybe in a wheelchair or
something like that. This table garden box, it's the same
as what would be on the ground, but up in
the air and makes it so much easier because it
puts gardening right at their fingertips.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, we found that exactly right. If you're in a wheelchair,
you're not real good at benning over which I think
older gardeners like us are getting to that point. Like
you said, run it's very helpful and it is just
a regular raise bit not super big, but you put
it up on legs and there it is. You can
stand up or in your wheelchair, get in there and work.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And again four feet why you can make them four
feet square. Makes it really easy to work with and
again using Mel's mix, that special mix, uh, makes it
perfect for growing in and again right there at your
fingertips as well. Great on the patio looks cool because
it looks like a table and then you just have
things growing on top of which I think is outstanding. Again,
the name of the book is the All New square
(09:22):
Foot Gardening, fourth Edition. The other one I liked in here,
I thought was really cool. Sometimes folks are faced with
just that kind of having a sloped yard. The picture
of the one in here, the square foot gardening on
a hillside, that is pretty darn cool.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, it's a physically matter what what kind of slope
you have or you know, as long as you make
the top of the box level, it'll work great. And
it looks cool too. You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, that's that's a really nice look. Now, tomatoes happens
to be one of the most populars, you know, vegetables
to grow in our gardens. And you might talk to
me about growing tomatoes, I say, you know, I don't
grow anything less with a oh maybe a five gallon
bucket or larger, because I want as much soil as
I can. So what about growing tomatoes in our square
(10:11):
foot gardens?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So one of the things that besides the ridge bit
and the mels mix the early set square foot gardening part,
and I think we kind of alluded to it earlier,
is we put one by one foot square grid over
the top of it. It's kind of if you can
imagine a checkerboard without the checkers on it, without the
lines on it. We just placed this grid over there.
So now when you go to plant, instead of planting
(10:36):
a row of green beans or a whole bunch of tomatoes,
kind of randomly, you've got in a four by four
foot bit, you've got sixteen one by one foot squares
as far as tomato, and you know, you plant stuff
based on there fully grown with sure size. So you know,
tomatoes start off smow, you get that cute little plant,
and then you plant it and then it gets to
(10:57):
a certain science. So for me, I found that a
tomato in like every one square or about one and
a half one to one and a half feet apart,
that's pretty good. Something like carrots you can actually put
sixteen tarrots in one square foot, well, green bans you
can put nine in there, lettuce something like that, maybe four.
(11:20):
And we've got a whole chart that talks about every
single vegetable or you know, how many do you put
in the square? How do you draw you know, how
do you put them in there? How do you space them?
So we kind of take all the guesswork out of it.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, and you know, I've put together a list for
the nursery that was putting a list together to grow
more of the dwarf varieties of vegetables that are out
there today. And you don't have to use dwarf varieties
in your square foot gardening, but they are available. And
it's amazing some of the improvements that they've done with these,
especially in the tomatoes over the years that are still
(11:53):
good producers, but stay a lot smaller, and you got
cabbage and just everything in the world seems like there
is now a dwarf selection. And you know, as I
was reading this book the other night, it's like, you know, boys,
some of these dwarf wrieties are perfect for square foot gardens.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, they really are. And the next thing about square
foot guarding, and what we recommend people do is just
start small. Make maybe one four by four foot dead
right kind of put in stuff you like, maybe try
something new, But that way you don't end up with,
you know, half an acre of tomato plants or six
hundred bushels of green beans, and that's like, well, I
(12:31):
can't eat all that if you start giving away to
the newspaper. Boy in lieu of paying for your descriptions.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
He was.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
He's not gonna be happy about that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
No, he might, you never know.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, there you go, and then I like you you
really get into winding plants, you know, growing up rather
than just growing in the box. You know, all of
the trellises and the archways and all of that that
if you created with these uh these the square foot
gardening really cool look and very effective.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, there really are. It's the first thing you want
to do is you want to put your bid were
it receives full sun. And then if you could have
maybe one side of the bed with a trellis that
goes up maybe six to eight feet, you can make
it out of anything, tattle panel, the little birdenating and
we've got a lot of suggestions and ways to do that.
(13:25):
And you want to put the treillis on the north
facing side of the bed so that way it's not
putting shade on the rest of the bed. But in
one square now you can grow your your green beans,
I grow squashed I grown tomatoes. Just a lot of
stuff will grow up that way. It's not spreading out
(13:46):
over the whole full horizontal area. It grows up.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Sure, you know the one thing. The other thing I
like that this is you know you were talking about
making the twelve inch square grids, and in most cases
here it's a better grid made out of wood that
you put on top of the bed and then course
marks off your squares. I did like that one where
you guys use the PVC pipe that made the squares,
but it also served as the irrigation system.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, that's that's something that a lot of people do. Actually.
Back in twenty eleven, and I put mine in, I
knew I wanted to drip irrigation, and I knew I
had had to make a grid, so I kind of
I thought, well, why not combine them. So I've got
drip irrigation lines that go across and make my one
by one foot grid, and then I just plug in
the hose and let it drip and kind of kill
(14:35):
two birds with one stone.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, what a great idea. Talking with Rick Bickling. He
is from the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. The book is
called the All New Square Foot Gardening fourth Edition, and
it is it's the world's most popular growing method to
harvest more food from less space. I'll tell you what,
You're going to get some great ideas from this one,
no doubt about it. Before we finish up here, I
(14:57):
do want to say that if you get the book,
and you should, I'm telling you you'll see Rick's garden
as well. Now you live in Austin, Texas, and this
is called Rick's Courtyard garden. And from what I understand,
you had a couple of sons who loved to play basketball.
I'm sure you played basketball with them as well, and
you had that courtyard in all nine yards, and you
(15:20):
turned that in to one really cool looking, uh square
foot gardening garden.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, I sure did. It's you know, it was great
when the boys are at home, but when they left,
and when as my knees kind of started to put
up a fight about hey, maybe you shouldn't go shoot
baskets on concrete, I had to do something with it.
I wanted a bigger garden, and that was really the
one place in the yard that got full sun. So
I didn't know if I was going to have to
tear it up or anything. But I did a lot
of research and I found, as you did the first
(15:49):
Square Foot Garden book by melbar follow you, and so
if I can grow a bunch of stuff on concrete,
anyone can grow just about anything anywhere.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, no doubt. And I'll tell you it's a good
looking garden. As I told you earlier, I said I
would rather go look at gardens like this than to
go look at flower gardens or landscape gardens, because it's
always so cool the things you can do. That's a
pretty that's pretty cool, cool garden. But I had to
ask the question as I was looking at this and
trying to see all the things you were growing there,
and you've got a greenhouse in it, in the whole
nine yards. I see you left the basketball hoop.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
In the back I did, and I have to admit
there is no horticultural reason for leaving that there.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
It's just I thought I thought you were going to
grow something on it.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I wish I could say there's a secret, you know,
master gardener secret that the backboard reflects the sun or something.
But no, I just left there. It's kind of cool
to look at and go. Man, we used to shoot
baskets out there. Now we've got the gazebo of the
greenhouse and I'm twelve score foot garden bids and I'm
growing on my vegetables and herbs there. So just just
from memories and a good story.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
That's the name the Courtyard Garden. Rick Bickling, Great having
you on the show with us this morning. This book
is again it just gets better and better every time
you guys come out with a new edition. It's called
The All New Square Foot Gardening, the fourth edition. Be
sure and check it out and of course go to
their website as well, square Footgardening dot org. Appreciate you
spending time with us this morning. Great book. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Thank you. Have a good day.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I take care, Rick Pickling and again the All New
Square Foot Gardening. And I did I met Mel Bartholomew
as a matter of fact in this book, and I
didn't saying about it, but they have have it here
in front of me. They have pictures of Mel back
in there, black and white from when he first got
started with us, and you can see his own garden
with the squares, and he looks like he squared it
off with I think just rope at the time, and
(17:39):
that's where he learned how to do all of this.
And I met him as he was older, but with
his first book, and I'm pretty sure was a signed one,
and I've got it somewhere, but I wouldn't able to
find it this week, but I know it's somewhere in there.
But anyway, you can see some of the things he
did early on as he was developing the square Foot
Gardening and again it was it was you know it
(18:01):
when at first he first started presenting this, well, I
think a lot of folks looked at it went now
I don't think so, but it just has continued to
get more popular and more popular and more popular, especially
with our gardens becoming smaller or gardening spaces.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And of course this is something you can do. You
know again, this is why I like container gardening, and
that is because you could do this process, you know,
on a patio, a deck of balcony can be done
with a smaller version of this or right up, you know,
the regular make your whole garden a square foot garden.
But great book. You'll get some great ideas out of it.
I did. It was a joyable read and great pictures
(18:39):
as well. It's called the all New Square Foot Gardening,
fourth Edition by the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. Thank you
Rick for spending time with us. All right, quick break,
we come back. Phone lines are open for you at
eight two to one WTVN eight hundred and six to
ten WTVN. Here on news radio six ' ten WTVNY.
I want to put a quick shout out some of
(19:00):
the folks that emailed this past week. I want to
say thank you to Matt Stutter and Matt send me
a picture of his arrow garden which he had gotten
for Christmas. And he's got lettuce now and dil and
a few other goodies that are ready for harvest. And
in his zero garden one two, three for five, six
six seven. I think it has eight places in each
(19:21):
one has a like groll light over the top of
very easy to do. And he said, look at me
doing very well. So he's getting ready to harvest the greens.
So I thank you for that. Also, I got an
email somebody was asking about so they're get interested in
getting some broccolini seed and also aspara brock hybrid broccoli?
(19:44):
Is that broccolini? What's it is? Rob the same thing?
What's the difference? I'm getting confused? And what kind of
asparagus do you recommend? Asp brock or a spa brock
or however you want to pronounce it? Is another name
for broccolini. Which is actually a hybrid crow, so it
is the same thing. Rob By, the way, is not
actually broccoli. I think that's in actually in the turn
(20:07):
Up family, if I'm not mistaken, But they have similar flavors.
They're even kind of the same way, kind of grown
the same way, but they are different plants. As far
as the asparagus, you know, the most popular that you're
going to see out there asparagus sold, whether it's in
the packages with the you know, the bare root crowns,
or sometimes growing in containers you'll findly grown in the
(20:28):
six eight inch pots is probably Martha or Mary Martha.
Mary Washington probably still the queen of asparagus out there,
probably the most popular sold. Pretty common does a great job,
you know, good disease resistance and all. But if you're
looking for really high production, what we are seeing more
(20:49):
and more now are the Jersey selections. And now these
Jersey selections that are really starting to gain in popularity
because of that high production are male plants, so they
don't produce seeds, so you get much more production. And
then the asparagus itself is a little bit larger than
(21:10):
you would get out of Mary Washington. But Mary is
probably still the tops of the asparagus that you see
most popular sold out there today, but the Jersey selections
are getting more and more popular all the time because
of their high production. And question was can I is
it better to start those from seed or from crowns
and the starts? And I would rather do it from
(21:32):
the crowns of the starts versus doing it from seed.
You can grow from seed, It does work that way,
but I think that's the better way for you to grow.
It's a little easier to start. Also, going to thank
you from Tammy who said you were talking about the
Johnny's Seed catalog. We ordered one, got it and it
is absolutely wonderful. She said, it's just a big wow
(21:56):
with exclamation points, great information. Said, well hang on to
this one for years to come, just because of the info.
So you're welcome for that. And one last thing before
we go to the guarding phone lines. Last week when
we were done at the Central Iole Home and Garden Show,
a young lady called in talking about getting rid of
crab grass that the lawn care company couldn't get rid
(22:16):
of growing out of her landscape beds, et cetera, et cetera,
and the question was, and we're still not sure yet
getting a positive id on what that is, because it
didn't sound like crabgrass to me. Crabgrass is an annual
dies out over the wintertime, comes back from seed, doesn't
(22:37):
come back from the root system, comes back from seed,
and typically easily controlled using pre immersion herbicides or killing
it before it goes to seed, getting rid of it.
Once you get rid of it's an annual, it's dead,
usually pretty easy to take care of. And unfortunately the
lawn care service that she had, she was telling him
(22:58):
it was crabgrass. I'm not sure, And the whole point
was finding out what it is, to make sure we
know what it is and then we know how to
treat it, because what they were doing obviously wasn't taking
care of it. And she started talking about these long
rhizomes and things running out into the yard, running through
the landscape bit, which is where I brought up. Maybe
it's one of the one of the southern grasses like
(23:20):
bermuda grass. Zoisa grass would fall into that category as well,
kind of a woody rhizome that rose along. And if
that's what it is, that's a totally differ and that
shuts down over the winter, and you've seen rye grass
or the zois of grass turned brown during the cold
times of the year. You can't get rid of it
when it's gone dormant like that. Yeah, we have to
(23:42):
wait for it to green up, and then we have
to attack it differently than we would something like crab grass.
And so my point was, you know, make sure you
get it identified, so hopefully when it starts to regrow,
we'll get a picture of it and identify it and
help her out as far as getting rid of it.
And it's if it's if it's the bermuda grass or
the zoize grass, that can be a tough one. But
(24:06):
during that time I was looking I don't know, I
was looking up something about lawns and I have a
reference book. It's almost like this square foot gardening book
that was written geez a long long time ago. And
you'll recognize the name when I say it. Columbus Columbus
Boy Ashton, Ritchie Ashton, Ritchie and Nick Christians put out
(24:30):
a lawn care book through Scott's many many many many
years ago and it's still I think one of the
best ones that's out there today. That's just a generic
walk you through cool seasoned lawns, care mowing, weed identification.
(24:51):
The pictures are phenomenal and again, and I think that's
the reason I looked at him, because I was trying
to find a source for her to go look at
to help IDENTI what this possibly could be. It's still
one of the best. Well, I went online to see
if you can still buy it, because I know it's
out of print, and you still can find it out
there that's used and new there. You know, some people
(25:14):
have one or two here and there for whatever reason,
but it is still available. It's Scott's Lawns, Your Guide
to a Beautiful Yard by Nick Christians and Ashton Ritchie.
And so I email brother Ashton Ritchie and said hello,
And I said, could you want to come on come
back and say hot everybody in Columbus. So we're getting
back on here in a couple of weeks and let
them say hello to everybody. But yeah, it's still out there. Well,
(25:36):
they updated that one. It's a second edition and it's
kind of the same book but updated just like the
Square Foot Gardening. Scott's Lawns Your Guide to a Beautiful
Yard second edition, and that's available also if you go
online to buy it. So if you just want a
good generic has the pictures in it to show you
(25:58):
what the weeds are and what the grass is like,
and some just a really good general information on how
to take care of your lawn. I how doly recommend
these books? And there, like I said, one is just
an update of the other one. But if Scott's Lawns,
your Guide to WF Yard, Scott's Lawns, your Guide BEAUTI
four Yard first edition, second edition, and they're still out
there for you to buy on Amazon, so google it
(26:21):
and you will find it. Before yeah, before we take
a break, Dennis, good morning.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Day, Good morning mister w Yes, sir, Hey, you're doing
a fantastic show. I mean I've been listening to you
for years.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Quick question. I usually put my line down in the fall.
Of course, I was out of town in the fall,
and I know it's frozed. Is it too late to
do that?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
No, let me ask you, No, it's not. And once
we start to warm up, I wouldn't put it down
while it's frozen. But once the lawns the soil start
to thaw out and you're able to get out of work,
then I would go ahead and get it down. And
are you gonna do anything as far as uh seeding
or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Oh yeah, I always try to. I get my plants. Sorry,
I just got my seeds sent to me, so I'll
plant those.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I got a little.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Greenhouse and stuff, so I get those gone and I'll
put my little plants down and stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Okay, Well, the reason I ask is that you want
to you want to do stuff like that as many
weeks in advance of planting seeds that you can. So
if you you know, if you can get that down
three or four weeks before you're going to be doing anything, Uh,
that's the best best way to do it. Don't wait
any longer to get it down. Let me ask you.
The second question, Dennis, is that you're lining on a
(27:49):
regular basis. Is it because your soil is really low
in pH?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
No, I don't line on.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
A regular basis. I mean my soil has been okay.
I'm bringing in some new top soil and stuff too. Okay,
I'm going to get it prepared, right.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Got it. And the only reason I as the only
reason I asked, Dennis, is that, uh, you know, watch
the pH of your soil because usually in our area
it's about seven four and that's kind of alkoling, and
of course lime will make it even more alkalin, so
we don't want to mess up that exactly. So you know,
(28:24):
check the pH of the soil. You can buy a
just a regular pH tester or have there you go
and just see where you are before you put that down,
just to be sure.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yes, so well, I appreciate your time, and you do
a great job. I appreciate it. I listened to you
twice every day six ten and then one on ninety eight,
three towns.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I appreciate that very much. Thank you, good talking with you,
Good luck with everything. Thank you all right, by bye,
And again that's putting down line. That's I I personally
uh and you for me say it before. I. I
never recommend lining unless you know you need the lime.
Always have your soil tested first, check the pH and
(29:08):
that's one of the things we never check. The pH
of the soil, very very important. And if it's you know,
if it's a high pH, which we typically are, you
got to be careful. You don't want to put down
the lime. You don't want to put down those wood
ashes from the fireplace because it's just like the lime,
it'll change the pH right away. So you got to
be cautious about using that, and if you do need
(29:30):
to use it, use it well in advance of planting,
especially in a vegetable garden, of planting any seeds or
vegetables or whatever it may be, because you want to
get that worked into the soil way in advance before
you want to do any planting. All right, quick break,
we come back. Phone lines. You're open few at eight
two to one WTV in here on news radio six
to ten WTVN talking to your rd NAY going news
(29:50):
Radio six to ten WTV And of course, thanks again
to all the folks at the Central Ohio Home and
Garden Show last Saturday. We had a great time. The
Columbus Trees obviously hosting us there at their booth. If
you have to go out today or tomorrow this is
the last that will be the last two days of
the Home and Garden Show, be sure to stop by
(30:11):
their booth. Also thanks to Brandon Burns, our good friend
from Circa Seeds Circa Plants with all their heirloom seeds
that they do. That man and he and his wife
are so passionate about this it's it's so much fun
to sit down and talk to him. You just you know,
it'd be I could do a whole show with him
(30:32):
talking about heirloom varieties and how he, you know, is
passionate about it, learning the stories and growing the seed.
And now they've gotten to the point where they pretty much
that's all they do, uh, is develop the grow these
heirloom seeds and have them available for you and me
to buy. And one of the things that he brought
there when we were talking together was the fact that
a tomato, and he said, he's not a big tomato eater,
(30:53):
but one of the tomatoes that he grew last year
for the first time in an heirloom is called big
and of course that's kind of weird, contradicting, huh, big
dwarf heirloom tomato. And it's an open pollinated heirloom variety.
And they said it's been unchanged since nineteen ten, all right,
(31:16):
since nineteen ten, and so it's been around a while.
It's a determinant, all right. It's a determinant, and it's
listed as a determinant in most if you go to
look it up to learn about the history behind it.
In all zones four through ten on the whole nine yards.
But Brandon actually put it as a dwarf indeterminant. In
(31:38):
other words, his point was, this thing stays short, it
stays stocky, really sturdy stems, nice size slicing tomatoes, very meaty,
very solid tomatoes. Kind of a pinkish red, a little
bit more on the pink side as it is across
from the Ponderosa, I believe, which was a pink and
Dwarf Champion or something like that. But but it's a
(32:01):
pinkish red more towards the red, but a little bit
of pink in there, but really meaty tomato. Said it
was great, the flavor was outstanding, heavy production, real strong,
bushy plants. But he said, you know, it continued to
flower and set fruit through the entire summer season, so
it wasn't like it like a determinant that would just
(32:22):
produce to a certain point. They all ripen, they're done,
no more tomatoes. This continued on, So you will see
it listed depending on where you go to learn about
it as a determinant, But he actually listed as a
dwarf indeterminate. And I'm looking forward to growing this when
it's a as I've said earlier, I'm always looking for
these more dwarf for the smaller space gardens. Dwarf varieties
(32:46):
that have really changed over the years. Plant breeders have
done such a great job coming up with these dwarf
varieties of vegetables that really are high producers for the
size of plants that they are, including tomatoes. And it
used to be you get these small dwarf tomatoes and
they would be you know, they would get you know,
eight ten twelve inches tall, produce one little sun of
tomatoes and they were done and it was fun. But today,
(33:09):
some of these selections that are out there today continue
to produce well into the summer, including this one, so
looking forward to it. We have added it to our
growing lists for the plants. So I'm looking forward to
growing this one, especially in containers. But it's called the
Big Dwarf. So if you happen to be at the
(33:30):
Central Ohio Home and Gardens Show today and tomorrow, go
to Circus Seed booth. You will love. It's right around
the corner from Columbus Trees. By the way, right around
the corner. You will spend half an hour one because
they're always packed. There's a bazillion people in there looking
through just reading and look at some of the seed
packs that they have. There's phenomenal tobacco, all kinds of
(33:53):
heirloom plants that you can't imagine. As a matter of fact,
I think I wound up last Saturday buying probably bought
twenty or thirty packs of different types of airloom seeds
for friends that I give special thanks to and all that,
but anyway, and for myself as well. But check it out.
And they do have the new Big Dwarf Tomato seeds
there in the packs, and I think they're two eighty
(34:16):
two a pack, which comes out to three dollars. But again,
that's my new one. That's the one I'm looking forward
to trying this year, especially growing in containers.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And I'll keep you posted on that one. If you
get it or you grow it, you know, let me
know how it does for you as well. Big Dwarf Tomato.
And again Brandon highly recommend it. He's not a tomato eater,
but he likes growing tomatoes, and he said that one
was outstanding. Earlier on they were talking about some of
the emails that I had gotten, and this is another
(34:48):
one that came up that very timely as far as
the question, and a good question as well. We're asking
saying that last they overseated their lawn in twenty twenty three,
didn't treat for grubs last year, had some grub damage
in front of their house, saw the grubs when they
were planting trees and a few other plants. I guess
(35:08):
later in the summer they were able to see some
grubs in there. Want to know what's the best option
for grub prevention or to take care of these grubs,
especially this spring, and he's going to reseed the bare spots,
you know, what about timing of the dormance, seating and
all of that. Which what do you recommend? And the
thing to remember about grubs if you find them. Anytime
(35:31):
you're digging in the landscape beds and the vegetable garden
wherever it may be, you'll probably dig up a grub
or here in there, especially in the lawn. I don't
think you could ever have a grub free wand one
hundred percent I think there's always going to be grubs somewhere.
It happens. But the kicker is, you know, is that
when the lawns stint out, or you have a drought
(35:54):
and or the grub populations build up. You see some
of the damages in late summer because a healthy lawn,
a good healthy lawn can really withstand and the numbers
are all over the board, but ten twelve grubs per
square foot without showing much damage, and that's a good, healthy,
well rooted, thick lawn. But it does happen sometimes. So
(36:15):
if you have grubs and you see the damage late
in the summer, it's really good to go after him
at that time with a grub killer to try to
get rid of them before we go into the fall season,
because once the temperature start to cool down, they move
down into the soil over winter and then come back
up in the springtime. So trying to treat for them
in the springtime is not as effective with a grub killer,
(36:37):
is not as effective as the fall treatment because you
win is the right timing because they move up depending
on soil temperatures, et cetera, et cetera. And if they're
still down deep in the ground you put the grub
killer down, chances are may not get down to them.
And you have to make sure you water these in
by the way, and you may not have a very
(36:58):
good kill, so you know, if you want to put
it down, you can. Timing is a little bit weird,
but I don't know. You kind of guess late March,
early April, depending on the weather and watered in well,
and then they can come back, you know, anytime. Then
you can come back anytime like mid to late June
through July, mid August and put down the grub preventer
(37:22):
at that stage to take care of any of the
beetles that have come into your yard laid the eggs.
It'll take care of those at that point. Dormant seating
is good. Spring seating obviously would be next. If he
wants to do this spring grub killer application, give it
about two weeks and come back and sow the seed
after you put the grub killer down. They usually ask
(37:43):
on the label about two weeks before you put new
seed down. So hopefully that helped you out. Thanks to
our callers, thanks our sponsors, Thanks of course to l
our producer, because without Ella, none of this stuff would happen.
Now springs right around the corner. Things are going to
start happening. Get your plans in place, get out your
little local garden center, see what's going on, and like
I said, get your plans in place and by all
(38:05):
means make this the best weekend of your life. See ya,
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson, and you
are in the garden here on news radio six '
ten WTVN talking about yarding. Boy. I'll tell you what,
one more week of February, it's out of here and
we're going to cruise in the month of March, and
then look at it next week. Temperature finally starting to
warm up a little bit. Looks like we're going to
be forties, fifties, maybe even sixty. Get rid of that snow.
(00:22):
I don't know about you, but I am ready. I
enjoy the winner and I enjoy the snow and all
of that, but I'm done. I've had it. I get
it out of here. I am ready to garden as
I promised. As usual during this time of the year,
we talk about a lot of the books that I
was able to read that I really enjoy, that I
would like to share with you that I think you
(00:44):
would enjoy as well. In the book we're going to
talk about this morning. I may have talked about this
two or three times over the last twenty years or so,
because they keep coming out with new editions, and if
they keep coming out with new editions, you know it's
a darn good book. They just keep updating it, new information,
new pictures and all. And it's a really good book.
(01:05):
And it is it's called the All New square Foot Gardening.
You've heard of that before, and if you have it,
we're going to tell you about it. It's the fourth
edition is put out by the square Foot Gardening Foundation.
And for you more mature, older gardeners like myself, you
probably remember the man who started all this way back when,
back in the I think it was back in the
early seventies, and I think the first book came out
(01:27):
in the early eighties or whatever, but was Mel Bartholomew
and had this first book about square foot gardening. Will
tell us more about the fourth edition. Happens to be
one of the he's a master gardener, square Foot Gardening
expert member of the square Foot Gardening Foundation. As a
matter of fact, you can see some of his guarding
videos as well on their website at the Squarefootgardening dot org.
(01:49):
Rick Bickling, Rick, good morning, Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Good morning, Royn. Thanks for having me on the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Hey, it's my pleasure. I tell you what I was
kind of kiddnapped. But you know, a book that's been
around for forty years, it's got to be something to it.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, it's it's sold over three million copies and all
of its different editions, and I think, I know you've
read the book, the new edition and the old ones,
and there's a lot of stuff in here that's truly
pertinent to today's gardeners. You know, the yards aren't as big,
people don't have as much space or time. It's they
did a really good job with it. I was a
contributing editor, so I guess I played a small role
(02:25):
in it too.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
There you go way, And I think that's what's been
so cool about this book through all of the editions.
And I think I had Steve on the last time,
who was Mel's son talking about I guess it was
a third edition. But you know is that every time
this gets updated, it's it's still you know, the square
foot gardening, but it's like, you know, it's today's square
foot guarding. So the pictures change, the new projects, new
(02:49):
things that you know, research have shown different things like that,
So it just continues to update, but absolutely wonderful tips.
Whether you're a brand new gardener or you're an experienced gardener,
you're gonna get you're gonna get some tips and information
out of this book either way. Now, for folks that
maybe are new to this and aren't familiar with square
foot gardening, just basically, what are the principles behind this process?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, the whole point of it is it's a technique
that lets you almost anyone grow a garden almost anywhere
in no matter how much space you have or what
kind of soil in my case, if any you may have,
so you can grow more food and less space with
less waste.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And again and literally we're talking about growing plants in
a square foot area, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, you start off with a raised bed and a
lot of people have raised beds and just kind of
dig up some dirt from the yard and chunk that
in there. But you never know what you're going to
get there, and does it have nutrients, does it have rocks?
Does it have that flip flap the dog buried last summer?
So what we do is we kind of take the
guesswork out of it and we use what's called mels mix.
It's three parts equal parts by volume of peat moss
(04:01):
for mikulate in composts. So really it provides all the
nutrients or plant. It's need. It's light and friable, so
seed lig emergence, root penetration, air infiltration is great, and
it can absorb and hold twenty times its weight in water,
So cats down a lot of this, not beside space,
but also water too.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, and because most of these when you're when you're
building these, if you look at all of the we
talk about raised beds, most of these are typically what
eight inches deep or so.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, you can make it a different any size you want,
as far as lengthen with, although we recommend you don't
make any wider than four feet because anyone can kind
of reach in two feet from either side. But really
you're right. When you use the Mels mix, all you
need is six to eight inches of the MELS mixed soil,
So you don't need a big three foot bed or
anything like that. And if you want to grow some
root vegetables, you know, potatoes or carrots, you can put
(04:55):
a little basically we call it a top head. It's
just a little square piece that you put on top
that you can put more Mels mix in that makes
that one little square a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah. So again, if you want some root crops, you
need a little bit more of depth.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
That's a great and it adds you know, it actually
adds a different look to your garden as well, because
it gives you a little up and down and a
little more depth to it.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Exactly. Yeah. It's the thing I like about square foot
Gardening besides its productivity, is it lets you do a lot.
It kind of combines the you know, the practicality of
raising a garden with the beauty of being able to
go out, kind of position your beds and have trellises,
have some covers, have a top hat, and then you know,
let's make it more of a living area and not
(05:38):
just a mighty garden in the back corner of the yard.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Most definitely talking with Rick Bickling. He is from the
square Foot Gardening Foundation. And of course, again like I said,
you can see Rick and doing videos and lots of
other great things on their website. It's a square Footgardening
dot org. Be sure and check it out. The book is,
of course, square Foot Gardening the fourth and I'll tell
you what it is, tremendous. I like when I was
(06:04):
reading through this, I like your sample garden plans because
I think, you know, once you get these things built
and you get it laid out and you've got your
square foot grid. You know, then it's a matter of
how do I know what to put in, where to
put in, rotate and all you give what I'm guessing like,
there's about fifteen or twenty different layouts that you can
do from spring to through the winter, even depending on
(06:26):
where you live or if you want to cover it up.
So you kind of just guide you right on through.
And it basically says here, just plant, even from the
shade garden to the fruit garden.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, I think those are really helpful. It's easy to
kind of say, go build a garden and tell you
how to build it, but then you're sitting there with
a bed and you don't know what the plant, when
the plant, how many the plant, how far do you
put them apart? And that. So we've got some really
good thorough charts on here to tell you all that
information for every vegetable or earth you might want. You know,
(06:59):
when's the best time to planet, how the deep should
you plant it, how many how close should you plant
them together? And then we even give some charts about
how do you tell when it's rely to harvest?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, as a matter of fact. You yeah, you work
everybody through wind the plant, tell all about it, the
temperatures that it likes, and then of course harvesting, wind,
the harvest and even a little bit as far as
preservation tips as well. So it takes you from the
very beginning to the very end, there's no doubt. And
by the way, we're going to take a break here.
You can do this square foot gardening also in an
(07:34):
elevated square foot garden box. It's great for senior citizens.
It's great for those that may be in wheelchairs or
disabled that aren't able to do raise bed gardening. This
is a really cool way to do it as well.
We'll talk more about that. We'll talk about Rick's courtyard
garden and a whole lot more here on news radio
six to ten WTVN. The name of our book today
(07:57):
is the all New square Foot Gardening, fourth Edition, and
talking about it is Rick Bickling. He's a master gardener,
square foot Gardening Expert and a member of the square
Foot Gardening Foundation and you can see his videos on
their website to check it out. He's got some great
information for you there square Footgardening dot org. You know,
before we went in the break talking about that elevator
(08:18):
square foot garden box. I know a few people have
done this for themselves or for their parents who happen
to live in the assisted living or senior community, or
have someone that's disabled that maybe in a wheelchair or
something like that. This table garden box, it's the same
as what would be on the ground, but up in
the air and makes it so much easier because it
puts gardening right at their fingertips.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, we found that exactly right. If you're in a wheelchair,
you're not real good at benning over which I think
older gardeners like us are getting to that point. Like
you said, run it's very helpful and it is just
a regular raise bit not super big, but you put
it up on legs and there it is. You can
stand up or in your wheelchair, get in there and work.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And again four feet why you can make them four
feet square. Makes it really easy to work with and
again using Mel's mix, that special mix, uh, makes it
perfect for growing in and again right there at your
fingertips as well. Great on the patio looks cool because
it looks like a table and then you just have
things growing on top of which I think is outstanding. Again,
the name of the book is the All New square
(09:22):
Foot Gardening, fourth Edition. The other one I liked in here,
I thought was really cool. Sometimes folks are faced with
just that kind of having a sloped yard. The picture
of the one in here, the square foot gardening on
a hillside, that is pretty darn cool.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, it's a physically matter what what kind of slope
you have or you know, as long as you make
the top of the box level, it'll work great. And
it looks cool too. You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, that's that's a really nice look. Now, tomatoes happens
to be one of the most populars, you know, vegetables
to grow in our gardens. And you might talk to
me about growing tomatoes, I say, you know, I don't
grow anything less with a oh maybe a five gallon
bucket or larger, because I want as much soil as
I can. So what about growing tomatoes in our square
(10:11):
foot gardens?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So one of the things that besides the ridge bit
and the mels mix the early set square foot gardening part,
and I think we kind of alluded to it earlier,
is we put one by one foot square grid over
the top of it. It's kind of if you can
imagine a checkerboard without the checkers on it, without the
lines on it. We just placed this grid over there.
So now when you go to plant, instead of planting
(10:36):
a row of green beans or a whole bunch of tomatoes,
kind of randomly, you've got in a four by four
foot bit, you've got sixteen one by one foot squares
as far as tomato, and you know, you plant stuff
based on there fully grown with sure size. So you know,
tomatoes start off smow, you get that cute little plant,
and then you plant it and then it gets to
(10:57):
a certain science. So for me, I found that a
tomato in like every one square or about one and
a half one to one and a half feet apart,
that's pretty good. Something like carrots you can actually put
sixteen tarrots in one square foot, well, green bans you
can put nine in there, lettuce something like that, maybe four.
(11:20):
And we've got a whole chart that talks about every
single vegetable or you know, how many do you put
in the square? How do you draw you know, how
do you put them in there? How do you space them?
So we kind of take all the guesswork out of it.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, and you know, I've put together a list for
the nursery that was putting a list together to grow
more of the dwarf varieties of vegetables that are out
there today. And you don't have to use dwarf varieties
in your square foot gardening, but they are available. And
it's amazing some of the improvements that they've done with these,
especially in the tomatoes over the years that are still
(11:53):
good producers, but stay a lot smaller, and you got
cabbage and just everything in the world seems like there
is now a dwarf selection. And you know, as I
was reading this book the other night, it's like, you know, boys,
some of these dwarf wrieties are perfect for square foot gardens.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, they really are. And the next thing about square
foot guarding, and what we recommend people do is just
start small. Make maybe one four by four foot dead
right kind of put in stuff you like, maybe try
something new, But that way you don't end up with,
you know, half an acre of tomato plants or six
hundred bushels of green beans, and that's like, well, I
(12:31):
can't eat all that if you start giving away to
the newspaper. Boy in lieu of paying for your descriptions.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
He was.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
He's not gonna be happy about that.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
No, he might, you never know.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, there you go, and then I like you you
really get into winding plants, you know, growing up rather
than just growing in the box. You know, all of
the trellises and the archways and all of that that
if you created with these uh these the square foot
gardening really cool look and very effective.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, there really are. It's the first thing you want
to do is you want to put your bid were
it receives full sun. And then if you could have
maybe one side of the bed with a trellis that
goes up maybe six to eight feet, you can make
it out of anything, tattle panel, the little birdenating and
we've got a lot of suggestions and ways to do that.
(13:25):
And you want to put the treillis on the north
facing side of the bed so that way it's not
putting shade on the rest of the bed. But in
one square now you can grow your your green beans,
I grow squashed I grown tomatoes. Just a lot of
stuff will grow up that way. It's not spreading out
(13:46):
over the whole full horizontal area. It grows up.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Sure, you know the one thing. The other thing I
like that this is you know you were talking about
making the twelve inch square grids, and in most cases
here it's a better grid made out of wood that
you put on top of the bed and then course
marks off your squares. I did like that one where
you guys use the PVC pipe that made the squares,
but it also served as the irrigation system.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, that's that's something that a lot of people do. Actually.
Back in twenty eleven, and I put mine in, I
knew I wanted to drip irrigation, and I knew I
had had to make a grid, so I kind of
I thought, well, why not combine them. So I've got
drip irrigation lines that go across and make my one
by one foot grid, and then I just plug in
the hose and let it drip and kind of kill
(14:35):
two birds with one stone.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, what a great idea. Talking with Rick Bickling. He
is from the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. The book is
called the All New Square Foot Gardening fourth Edition, and
it is it's the world's most popular growing method to
harvest more food from less space. I'll tell you what,
You're going to get some great ideas from this one,
no doubt about it. Before we finish up here, I
(14:57):
do want to say that if you get the book,
and you should, I'm telling you you'll see Rick's garden
as well. Now you live in Austin, Texas, and this
is called Rick's Courtyard garden. And from what I understand,
you had a couple of sons who loved to play basketball.
I'm sure you played basketball with them as well, and
you had that courtyard in all nine yards, and you
(15:20):
turned that in to one really cool looking, uh square
foot gardening garden.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, I sure did. It's you know, it was great
when the boys are at home, but when they left,
and when as my knees kind of started to put
up a fight about hey, maybe you shouldn't go shoot
baskets on concrete, I had to do something with it.
I wanted a bigger garden, and that was really the
one place in the yard that got full sun. So
I didn't know if I was going to have to
tear it up or anything. But I did a lot
of research and I found, as you did the first
(15:49):
Square Foot Garden book by melbar follow you, and so
if I can grow a bunch of stuff on concrete,
anyone can grow just about anything anywhere.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, no doubt. And I'll tell you it's a good
looking garden. As I told you earlier, I said I
would rather go look at gardens like this than to
go look at flower gardens or landscape gardens, because it's
always so cool the things you can do. That's a
pretty that's pretty cool, cool garden. But I had to
ask the question as I was looking at this and
trying to see all the things you were growing there,
and you've got a greenhouse in it, in the whole
nine yards. I see you left the basketball hoop.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
In the back I did, and I have to admit
there is no horticultural reason for leaving that there.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
It's just I thought I thought you were going to
grow something on it.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I wish I could say there's a secret, you know,
master gardener secret that the backboard reflects the sun or something.
But no, I just left there. It's kind of cool
to look at and go. Man, we used to shoot
baskets out there. Now we've got the gazebo of the
greenhouse and I'm twelve score foot garden bids and I'm
growing on my vegetables and herbs there. So just just
from memories and a good story.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
That's the name the Courtyard Garden. Rick Bickling, Great having
you on the show with us this morning. This book
is again it just gets better and better every time
you guys come out with a new edition. It's called
The All New Square Foot Gardening, the fourth edition. Be
sure and check it out and of course go to
their website as well, square Footgardening dot org. Appreciate you
spending time with us this morning. Great book. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Thank you. Have a good day.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I take care, Rick Pickling and again the All New
Square Foot Gardening. And I did I met Mel Bartholomew
as a matter of fact in this book, and I
didn't saying about it, but they have have it here
in front of me. They have pictures of Mel back
in there, black and white from when he first got
started with us, and you can see his own garden
with the squares, and he looks like he squared it
off with I think just rope at the time, and
(17:39):
that's where he learned how to do all of this.
And I met him as he was older, but with
his first book, and I'm pretty sure was a signed one,
and I've got it somewhere, but I wouldn't able to
find it this week, but I know it's somewhere in there.
But anyway, you can see some of the things he
did early on as he was developing the square Foot
Gardening and again it was it was you know it
(18:01):
when at first he first started presenting this, well, I
think a lot of folks looked at it went now
I don't think so, but it just has continued to
get more popular and more popular and more popular, especially
with our gardens becoming smaller or gardening spaces.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And of course this is something you can do. You
know again, this is why I like container gardening, and
that is because you could do this process, you know,
on a patio, a deck of balcony can be done
with a smaller version of this or right up, you know,
the regular make your whole garden a square foot garden.
But great book. You'll get some great ideas out of it.
I did. It was a joyable read and great pictures
(18:39):
as well. It's called the all New Square Foot Gardening,
fourth Edition by the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. Thank you
Rick for spending time with us. All right, quick break,
we come back. Phone lines are open for you at
eight two to one WTVN eight hundred and six to
ten WTVN. Here on news radio six ' ten WTVNY.
I want to put a quick shout out some of
(19:00):
the folks that emailed this past week. I want to
say thank you to Matt Stutter and Matt send me
a picture of his arrow garden which he had gotten
for Christmas. And he's got lettuce now and dil and
a few other goodies that are ready for harvest. And
in his zero garden one two, three for five, six
six seven. I think it has eight places in each
(19:21):
one has a like groll light over the top of
very easy to do. And he said, look at me
doing very well. So he's getting ready to harvest the greens.
So I thank you for that. Also, I got an
email somebody was asking about so they're get interested in
getting some broccolini seed and also aspara brock hybrid broccoli?
(19:44):
Is that broccolini? What's it is? Rob the same thing?
What's the difference? I'm getting confused? And what kind of
asparagus do you recommend? Asp brock or a spa brock
or however you want to pronounce it? Is another name
for broccolini. Which is actually a hybrid crow, so it
is the same thing. Rob By, the way, is not
actually broccoli. I think that's in actually in the turn
(20:07):
Up family, if I'm not mistaken, But they have similar flavors.
They're even kind of the same way, kind of grown
the same way, but they are different plants. As far
as the asparagus, you know, the most popular that you're
going to see out there asparagus sold, whether it's in
the packages with the you know, the bare root crowns,
or sometimes growing in containers you'll findly grown in the
(20:28):
six eight inch pots is probably Martha or Mary Martha.
Mary Washington probably still the queen of asparagus out there,
probably the most popular sold. Pretty common does a great job,
you know, good disease resistance and all. But if you're
looking for really high production, what we are seeing more
(20:49):
and more now are the Jersey selections. And now these
Jersey selections that are really starting to gain in popularity
because of that high production are male plants, so they
don't produce seeds, so you get much more production. And
then the asparagus itself is a little bit larger than
(21:10):
you would get out of Mary Washington. But Mary is
probably still the tops of the asparagus that you see
most popular sold out there today, but the Jersey selections
are getting more and more popular all the time because
of their high production. And question was can I is
it better to start those from seed or from crowns
and the starts? And I would rather do it from
(21:32):
the crowns of the starts versus doing it from seed.
You can grow from seed, It does work that way,
but I think that's the better way for you to grow.
It's a little easier to start. Also, going to thank
you from Tammy who said you were talking about the
Johnny's Seed catalog. We ordered one, got it and it
is absolutely wonderful. She said, it's just a big wow
(21:56):
with exclamation points, great information. Said, well hang on to
this one for years to come, just because of the info.
So you're welcome for that. And one last thing before
we go to the guarding phone lines. Last week when
we were done at the Central Iole Home and Garden Show,
a young lady called in talking about getting rid of
crab grass that the lawn care company couldn't get rid
(22:16):
of growing out of her landscape beds, et cetera, et cetera,
and the question was, and we're still not sure yet
getting a positive id on what that is, because it
didn't sound like crabgrass to me. Crabgrass is an annual
dies out over the wintertime, comes back from seed, doesn't
(22:37):
come back from the root system, comes back from seed,
and typically easily controlled using pre immersion herbicides or killing
it before it goes to seed, getting rid of it.
Once you get rid of it's an annual, it's dead,
usually pretty easy to take care of. And unfortunately the
lawn care service that she had, she was telling him
(22:58):
it was crabgrass. I'm not sure, And the whole point
was finding out what it is, to make sure we
know what it is and then we know how to
treat it, because what they were doing obviously wasn't taking
care of it. And she started talking about these long
rhizomes and things running out into the yard, running through
the landscape bit, which is where I brought up. Maybe
it's one of the one of the southern grasses like
(23:20):
bermuda grass. Zoisa grass would fall into that category as well,
kind of a woody rhizome that rose along. And if
that's what it is, that's a totally differ and that
shuts down over the winter, and you've seen rye grass
or the zois of grass turned brown during the cold
times of the year. You can't get rid of it
when it's gone dormant like that. Yeah, we have to
(23:42):
wait for it to green up, and then we have
to attack it differently than we would something like crab grass.
And so my point was, you know, make sure you
get it identified, so hopefully when it starts to regrow,
we'll get a picture of it and identify it and
help her out as far as getting rid of it.
And it's if it's if it's the bermuda grass or
the zoize grass, that can be a tough one. But
(24:06):
during that time I was looking I don't know, I
was looking up something about lawns and I have a
reference book. It's almost like this square foot gardening book
that was written geez a long long time ago. And
you'll recognize the name when I say it. Columbus Columbus
Boy Ashton, Ritchie Ashton, Ritchie and Nick Christians put out
(24:30):
a lawn care book through Scott's many many many many
years ago and it's still I think one of the
best ones that's out there today. That's just a generic
walk you through cool seasoned lawns, care mowing, weed identification.
(24:51):
The pictures are phenomenal and again, and I think that's
the reason I looked at him, because I was trying
to find a source for her to go look at
to help IDENTI what this possibly could be. It's still
one of the best. Well, I went online to see
if you can still buy it, because I know it's
out of print, and you still can find it out
there that's used and new there. You know, some people
(25:14):
have one or two here and there for whatever reason,
but it is still available. It's Scott's Lawns, Your Guide
to a Beautiful Yard by Nick Christians and Ashton Ritchie.
And so I email brother Ashton Ritchie and said hello,
And I said, could you want to come on come
back and say hot everybody in Columbus. So we're getting
back on here in a couple of weeks and let
them say hello to everybody. But yeah, it's still out there. Well,
(25:36):
they updated that one. It's a second edition and it's
kind of the same book but updated just like the
Square Foot Gardening. Scott's Lawns Your Guide to a Beautiful
Yard second edition, and that's available also if you go
online to buy it. So if you just want a
good generic has the pictures in it to show you
(25:58):
what the weeds are and what the grass is like,
and some just a really good general information on how
to take care of your lawn. I how doly recommend
these books? And there, like I said, one is just
an update of the other one. But if Scott's Lawns,
your Guide to WF Yard, Scott's Lawns, your Guide BEAUTI
four Yard first edition, second edition, and they're still out
there for you to buy on Amazon, so google it
(26:21):
and you will find it. Before yeah, before we take
a break, Dennis, good morning.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Day, Good morning mister w Yes, sir, Hey, you're doing
a fantastic show. I mean I've been listening to you
for years.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Quick question. I usually put my line down in the fall.
Of course, I was out of town in the fall,
and I know it's frozed. Is it too late to
do that?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
No, let me ask you, No, it's not. And once
we start to warm up, I wouldn't put it down
while it's frozen. But once the lawns the soil start
to thaw out and you're able to get out of work,
then I would go ahead and get it down. And
are you gonna do anything as far as uh seeding
or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Oh yeah, I always try to. I get my plants. Sorry,
I just got my seeds sent to me, so I'll
plant those.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I got a little.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Greenhouse and stuff, so I get those gone and I'll
put my little plants down and stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Okay, Well, the reason I ask is that you want
to you want to do stuff like that as many
weeks in advance of planting seeds that you can. So
if you you know, if you can get that down
three or four weeks before you're going to be doing anything, Uh,
that's the best best way to do it. Don't wait
any longer to get it down. Let me ask you.
The second question, Dennis, is that you're lining on a
(27:49):
regular basis. Is it because your soil is really low
in pH?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
No, I don't line on.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
A regular basis. I mean my soil has been okay.
I'm bringing in some new top soil and stuff too. Okay,
I'm going to get it prepared, right.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Got it. And the only reason I as the only
reason I asked, Dennis, is that, uh, you know, watch
the pH of your soil because usually in our area
it's about seven four and that's kind of alkoling, and
of course lime will make it even more alkalin, so
we don't want to mess up that exactly. So you know,
(28:24):
check the pH of the soil. You can buy a
just a regular pH tester or have there you go
and just see where you are before you put that down,
just to be sure.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yes, so well, I appreciate your time, and you do
a great job. I appreciate it. I listened to you
twice every day six ten and then one on ninety eight,
three towns.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I appreciate that very much. Thank you, good talking with you,
Good luck with everything. Thank you all right, by bye,
And again that's putting down line. That's I I personally
uh and you for me say it before. I. I
never recommend lining unless you know you need the lime.
Always have your soil tested first, check the pH and
(29:08):
that's one of the things we never check. The pH
of the soil, very very important. And if it's you know,
if it's a high pH, which we typically are, you
got to be careful. You don't want to put down
the lime. You don't want to put down those wood
ashes from the fireplace because it's just like the lime,
it'll change the pH right away. So you got to
be cautious about using that, and if you do need
(29:30):
to use it, use it well in advance of planting,
especially in a vegetable garden, of planting any seeds or
vegetables or whatever it may be, because you want to
get that worked into the soil way in advance before
you want to do any planting. All right, quick break,
we come back. Phone lines. You're open few at eight
two to one WTV in here on news radio six
to ten WTVN talking to your rd NAY going news
(29:50):
Radio six to ten WTV And of course, thanks again
to all the folks at the Central Ohio Home and
Garden Show last Saturday. We had a great time. The
Columbus Trees obviously hosting us there at their booth. If
you have to go out today or tomorrow this is
the last that will be the last two days of
the Home and Garden Show, be sure to stop by
(30:11):
their booth. Also thanks to Brandon Burns, our good friend
from Circa Seeds Circa Plants with all their heirloom seeds
that they do. That man and he and his wife
are so passionate about this it's it's so much fun
to sit down and talk to him. You just you know,
it'd be I could do a whole show with him
(30:32):
talking about heirloom varieties and how he, you know, is
passionate about it, learning the stories and growing the seed.
And now they've gotten to the point where they pretty much
that's all they do, uh, is develop the grow these
heirloom seeds and have them available for you and me
to buy. And one of the things that he brought
there when we were talking together was the fact that
a tomato, and he said, he's not a big tomato eater,
(30:53):
but one of the tomatoes that he grew last year
for the first time in an heirloom is called big
and of course that's kind of weird, contradicting, huh, big
dwarf heirloom tomato. And it's an open pollinated heirloom variety.
And they said it's been unchanged since nineteen ten, all right,
(31:16):
since nineteen ten, and so it's been around a while.
It's a determinant, all right. It's a determinant, and it's
listed as a determinant in most if you go to
look it up to learn about the history behind it.
In all zones four through ten on the whole nine yards.
But Brandon actually put it as a dwarf indeterminant. In
(31:38):
other words, his point was, this thing stays short, it
stays stocky, really sturdy stems, nice size slicing tomatoes, very meaty,
very solid tomatoes. Kind of a pinkish red, a little
bit more on the pink side as it is across
from the Ponderosa, I believe, which was a pink and
Dwarf Champion or something like that. But but it's a
(32:01):
pinkish red more towards the red, but a little bit
of pink in there, but really meaty tomato. Said it
was great, the flavor was outstanding, heavy production, real strong,
bushy plants. But he said, you know, it continued to
flower and set fruit through the entire summer season, so
it wasn't like it like a determinant that would just
(32:22):
produce to a certain point. They all ripen, they're done,
no more tomatoes. This continued on, So you will see
it listed depending on where you go to learn about
it as a determinant, But he actually listed as a
dwarf indeterminate. And I'm looking forward to growing this when
it's a as I've said earlier, I'm always looking for
these more dwarf for the smaller space gardens. Dwarf varieties
(32:46):
that have really changed over the years. Plant breeders have
done such a great job coming up with these dwarf
varieties of vegetables that really are high producers for the
size of plants that they are, including tomatoes. And it
used to be you get these small dwarf tomatoes and
they would be you know, they would get you know,
eight ten twelve inches tall, produce one little sun of
tomatoes and they were done and it was fun. But today,
(33:09):
some of these selections that are out there today continue
to produce well into the summer, including this one, so
looking forward to it. We have added it to our
growing lists for the plants. So I'm looking forward to
growing this one, especially in containers. But it's called the
Big Dwarf. So if you happen to be at the
(33:30):
Central Ohio Home and Gardens Show today and tomorrow, go
to Circus Seed booth. You will love. It's right around
the corner from Columbus Trees. By the way, right around
the corner. You will spend half an hour one because
they're always packed. There's a bazillion people in there looking
through just reading and look at some of the seed
packs that they have. There's phenomenal tobacco, all kinds of
(33:53):
heirloom plants that you can't imagine. As a matter of fact,
I think I wound up last Saturday buying probably bought
twenty or thirty packs of different types of airloom seeds
for friends that I give special thanks to and all that,
but anyway, and for myself as well. But check it out.
And they do have the new Big Dwarf Tomato seeds
there in the packs, and I think they're two eighty
(34:16):
two a pack, which comes out to three dollars. But again,
that's my new one. That's the one I'm looking forward
to trying this year, especially growing in containers.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And I'll keep you posted on that one. If you
get it or you grow it, you know, let me
know how it does for you as well. Big Dwarf Tomato.
And again Brandon highly recommend it. He's not a tomato eater,
but he likes growing tomatoes, and he said that one
was outstanding. Earlier on they were talking about some of
the emails that I had gotten, and this is another
(34:48):
one that came up that very timely as far as
the question, and a good question as well. We're asking
saying that last they overseated their lawn in twenty twenty three,
didn't treat for grubs last year, had some grub damage
in front of their house, saw the grubs when they
were planting trees and a few other plants. I guess
(35:08):
later in the summer they were able to see some
grubs in there. Want to know what's the best option
for grub prevention or to take care of these grubs,
especially this spring, and he's going to reseed the bare spots,
you know, what about timing of the dormance, seating and
all of that. Which what do you recommend? And the
thing to remember about grubs if you find them. Anytime
(35:31):
you're digging in the landscape beds and the vegetable garden
wherever it may be, you'll probably dig up a grub
or here in there, especially in the lawn. I don't
think you could ever have a grub free wand one
hundred percent I think there's always going to be grubs somewhere.
It happens. But the kicker is, you know, is that
when the lawns stint out, or you have a drought
(35:54):
and or the grub populations build up. You see some
of the damages in late summer because a healthy lawn,
a good healthy lawn can really withstand and the numbers
are all over the board, but ten twelve grubs per
square foot without showing much damage, and that's a good, healthy,
well rooted, thick lawn. But it does happen sometimes. So
(36:15):
if you have grubs and you see the damage late
in the summer, it's really good to go after him
at that time with a grub killer to try to
get rid of them before we go into the fall season,
because once the temperature start to cool down, they move
down into the soil over winter and then come back
up in the springtime. So trying to treat for them
in the springtime is not as effective with a grub killer,
(36:37):
is not as effective as the fall treatment because you
win is the right timing because they move up depending
on soil temperatures, et cetera, et cetera. And if they're
still down deep in the ground you put the grub
killer down, chances are may not get down to them.
And you have to make sure you water these in
by the way, and you may not have a very
(36:58):
good kill, so you know, if you want to put
it down, you can. Timing is a little bit weird,
but I don't know. You kind of guess late March,
early April, depending on the weather and watered in well,
and then they can come back, you know, anytime. Then
you can come back anytime like mid to late June
through July, mid August and put down the grub preventer
(37:22):
at that stage to take care of any of the
beetles that have come into your yard laid the eggs.
It'll take care of those at that point. Dormant seating
is good. Spring seating obviously would be next. If he
wants to do this spring grub killer application, give it
about two weeks and come back and sow the seed
after you put the grub killer down. They usually ask
(37:43):
on the label about two weeks before you put new
seed down. So hopefully that helped you out. Thanks to
our callers, thanks our sponsors, Thanks of course to l
our producer, because without Ella, none of this stuff would happen.
Now springs right around the corner. Things are going to
start happening. Get your plans in place, get out your
little local garden center, see what's going on, and like
I said, get your plans in place and by all
(38:05):
means make this the best weekend of your life. See ya,
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