February 11, 2025 โข 33 mins
Welcome to Season 3 of the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast!
Studies have shown that gardening provides significant physical and mental health benefits and have found that regular gardening can lower risk of developing age related cognitive issues and lower oneโs risk of cardiovascular disease when compared to non-gardeners. Additionally, research has demonstrated the superior nutritional value of homegrown fruits and vegetables compared to store-bought produce including providing more natural vitamins and antioxidants in their homegrown state.
Incorporating gardening into your healthy lifestyle is a good way to improve your physical and mental well-being, for better overall health.
On today's episode, Dr. Shayla will be joined by a special guest, Karen Creel and they will be spilling โ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐งโ.
Karen Creel is a Retired Nurse and seasoned Gardener with over 30 years of experience cultivating her own backyard vegetable gardens. Through her company, Gardenchick, as a certified garden coach, she shares her passion for gardening by offering personalized garden consultations, private coaching, and local gardening workshops. She has developed a signature online garden course โThe No Fuss Gardenโ which provides clear and concise guidance for beginners looking to grow their own vegetables without the overwhelming complexity often associated with gardening. Karen's expertise lies in simplifying the gardening process, and empowering busy individuals to create thriving gardens.
Synopsis:
- Discover the best โeasy-to-growโ plants and how to get started as a new gardener
- Explore options for Gardening even when you have limited spaces using specified growing methods
- Understand the physical and mental benefits of growing and consuming your homegrown produce
- Get Karenโs โrooted teaโ in the best ways to avoid common mistakes and achieve success from the moment you get started on your garden
Connect with Essence of Health:
โ FREE Nourish & Flourish 5 Day Challenge: www.DrShayla.com/NFchallenge
โFREE Class โDitch The Diet: Mindful Strategies for Lasting Metabolic Healthโ: www.DrShayla.com/DTD
โLearn more about Essence of Health Wellness Clinic & Coaching: www.DrShayla.com/EOH
โClick the SUBSCRIBE button on your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss a moment of the Essence of Health Tea Time Podcast!
โFREE "Healthy Tips For A Healthy Lifestyle" Guide to get you started on your health and wellness path. https://essenceofhealth.link/e-book
โFollow Dr. Shayla on social media at Essence of Health Wellness Clinic on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and at DrShayla on TikTok.
โ-----------------------------------------------------------------
Connect with Karen Creel:
Website: www.Gardenchick.com
Get your FREE Seasonal Planting Guide at https://gardenchick.myflodesk.com/gardenguide
Instagram: @thegardenchick
The Essence of Health is in You!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Essence of Health Tea Time Podcast.
(00:12):
I am your host, Dr. Shayla Toons-Whitthead.
As a double board certified family and obesity medicine physician with over 12 years of experience
in medicine, I teach motivated individuals how to achieve their desired quality of life
while preventing and reversing chronic diseases.
(00:33):
It's Tea Time!
What part of your health journey is most challenging?
Is it the actual effort of sticking to a plan?
The cooking and the meal planning?
The exercise routine?
Not enough time for everything you think you need to do?
Or the confusion of it all?
(00:54):
If you said yes to any of these obstacles, then keep listening to learn how you can smash
these problems just by checking your email.
You check your email inbox every day already, but what if checking your inbox brought you
better health instead of the stress it sometimes can bring?
Well, I have news for you.
(01:15):
You can improve your health, get a jump start on improving your health conditions, and start
to feel like a better version of you just by checking your email inbox over the next
five days when you join the free Nourish and Flourish 5 Day Challenge.
You'll get health tips, actionable videos, a goal and habit tracker, and healthy recipes
(01:38):
every day for five days.
Better health is the best investment you'll ever make, and this is only a small investment
of your time.
You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.
The Nourish and Flourish 5 Day Challenge was designed to set the foundation for healthy
habits for life.
(01:59):
Say yes to yourself today and sign up now at drshayla.com forward slash nfchallenge.
I'll also place these details in the show notes.
The essence of health is in you.
See you in your inbox.
On today's episode of the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast, I have a special guest.
(02:21):
Karen Krill is a seasoned gardener with over 30 years of experience cultivating her own
backyard vegetable gardens.
After a successful career as a nurse, Karen decided to share her passion for gardening
by becoming a certified garden coach.
Through her company Garden Chick, she offers personalized garden consultations, private
(02:43):
coaching, and local gardening workshops.
Karen has created her signature online garden course, the No Fuss Garden, which provides
clear and concise guidance for beginners looking to grow their own vegetables without the overwhelming
complexity often associated with gardening.
Karen's expertise lies in simplifying the gardening process and empowering busy individuals
(03:07):
to create thriving gardens.
Welcome to the show, Karen.
I'm excited to have you here today.
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, awesome.
Awesome.
So we'll dive right in here.
Now as a fellow healthcare person, what motivated you to start gardening yourself?
And then how has that even transformed your personal approach to health and wellness?
(03:31):
I think back in the 70s, I'm dating myself, but my oldest son was young.
And that was when they first started, you know, Earth Day.
So I started growing my vegetables then as a way to teach him and now his younger brother
how to grow their own vegetables.
But I also became a little concerned about what was going in our food and just the impact
(03:59):
of vegetables getting from, say, California all the way to your grocery store.
So this was a way for me to have a little bit of impact on that as a way to supplement
what I did buy.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
And you know, you mentioned that really it was your child who was that motivating factor
(04:22):
for you and even with them, you know, part of my own health journey as well.
It was after having kids that I really wanted to even take better care of myself.
And it's just so funny how as parents and moms you do, you strive to do these things
to give your kids even more than what you had or what you knew to impart these things.
And so I think that's really great that you did that.
(04:43):
And then also, you know, even just incorporating vegetables for children.
We know that they are important for them to eat, but sometimes that can be challenging.
But I'm sure if you can tell us more about that, how was that introducing by them having
grown their vegetables to eat them more?
Yeah, it's a good way to encourage kids.
Because they're in the process of planting and tending the garden and then being able
(05:06):
to harvest that because most kids do really don't know where their food comes from.
They go to the grocery store and there's a tomato.
So they have no idea how it gets there.
So that was another good way.
And yes, I agree with you as you start to have children.
You know, I came from the generation where I remember my dad gardening and there was
(05:28):
no organic principles at all.
It was, you know, seven dust all over everything.
And so I really didn't know a different way.
And once I started having kids, I thought, wait, I'm not sure if I want all of that to
be on my kids food.
Right, right.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, even going more into that, explain the difference for us.
(05:51):
You know, you mentioned about the grocery store produce versus things that you freshly
pick.
So just explain, you know, from a nutritional standpoint, what you found those differences
to be.
Well, for example, let's just take a tomato.
When you go and pick a tomato off of the vine in your backyard or your deck, it's what they
call nutrient dense.
(06:13):
It's absolutely full of vitamins and minerals and all sorts of good things.
And then when you compare that to a tomato that you go to the grocery store, most of
the time, especially if you're doing that in the winter, when it's not natural to have
tomatoes where we live, those have been shipped about 1500 miles, usually from California
(06:36):
or Mexico or South Florida.
Well, they they want to be able to preserve that.
So those tomatoes are actually sprayed with something to keep them from ripening and they're
stored.
Once they're ready to travel to us, they are then sprayed again with something called ethylene
gas, which is what tomatoes naturally put out to ripen.
(07:02):
And then they are ripened and sent to the stores.
So those tomatoes on your shelf could be weeks and weeks old.
Wow.
Wow.
That's amazing.
So you know, you've lost a lot of the right a lot of those nutrients.
Yeah.
And it also explains to you know, when you see them, they have kind of this pretty color,
but they've probably been sprayed, you know.
(07:23):
Absolutely.
And they spray them with wax and all sorts of things.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've heard that about the wax as well.
And then, you know, you can taste the difference though.
Oh, nothing is good.
Right.
Yeah.
You get one of those fresh juicy tomatoes from the sun that's been out there that you've
grown versus one in the store.
Definitely.
(07:43):
Absolutely.
Yes, you just has a lot more lots more nutritional value.
And not only that you have control over what has gone on that tomato.
I garden organically.
And I have for years and I've never had to spray anything on any of my plants because
I do some companion planting and things like that.
(08:06):
So yeah, that's great.
You know, you mentioned even with the example of the tomato about how you know, it may not
even be in season where you live and you have this this fruit or this vegetable now in your
grocery store.
So why is it even important to have a seasonal produce?
Well, for one thing, again, it's because it's not natural.
(08:29):
You know, I live in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area.
So right now, it's cool season.
So that means I could plant all of the tomatoes I wanted and they're not going to grow.
So in order to have a tomato in November, then I do have to get it from fifteen hundred
miles away.
(08:50):
So when you eat seasonally, for example, again, this is the cool season.
So we're looking at leafy greens, spinach, arugula, lettuce, Swiss chard, collard greens,
mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage.
All of those things are you are growing.
(09:11):
So once again, they are more nutrient dense.
You have control over what goes over them.
And then you go into the warm season.
And for us, it's always wherever you live.
It's always right.
It's after your your last frost.
So for me, they can put all the tomato plants they want in the garden center in April.
(09:34):
I will not grow tomatoes until a couple of weeks after May because they will not tolerate
cool weather.
So when you eat seasonally, you are providing yourself with all of those vegetables and
get all the benefits of those nutrients that you're not going to get.
Really optimizing.
Absolutely.
(09:54):
Because you can still get a tomato in December.
But we all know how those tomatoes, to me, they're like pink.
There's never a good, never a good red tomato.
And so you're sacrificing nutrition.
I just rather not have a tomato.
Right.
I just learned that I won't have a tomato on my salad in October or November.
(10:19):
I can go to my garden and get spinach and lettuce and arugula and Swiss chard, but I
will not have a tomato.
That salad will be made without a tomato.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that makes a lot of sense as well.
Yeah.
If you're frustrated with your weight, taking more medications than you like to have been
told that you are at risk for the development of a chronic preventable disease, or just
(10:43):
are not feeling in the best of health, then I'm talking to you.
Why?
Because you're tired of fat dieting.
You know it's time for a change and you want a sustainable plan to improve your health.
If you have found yourself at this place in life, well, I have developed a program that's
just for you.
It's called The Essence of Health and it's your prescription for transformation.
(11:08):
My goal with this program is to give you the tools needed to create sustainable lifestyle
changes within a group coaching setting, along with one-to-one individualized coaching to
give you a personalized path to help.
That's just for you.
The benefits are priceless.
So join today.
Head on over to eohcoaching.com to learn more.
(11:33):
The Essence of Health is in you.
And now I know that you work with busy professionals and I know that we have a lot of busy professional
listeners to the Tea Time podcast here.
And so for those folks who are looking to start a garden, what are your top three recommendations
for low maintenance plants that offer high nutritional value?
(11:54):
Well, for one thing, I always tell people to kind of start small because that's what
happens.
People get so excited about gardening and they make the decision they're going to grow
their food and they have this idea.
And I see this sometimes with my coaching clients.
I'll do a little interview sheet and I'll say, why do you want a garden?
(12:15):
And they'll say, I want to provide all of my vegetables, you know, and preserve it
and can.
I'm like, oh wait, whoa, let's slow down.
There's going to be a lot.
There's going to be a lot.
So let's just start out with a few things.
So the very easiest things to plant are things that I'm planting in my garden now.
(12:35):
Those are leafy greens.
You don't have to go with broccoli.
I'll go buy a transplant, but everything else is just put some seeds out, keep them watered.
And in 30 days, you're going to have more lettuce and spinach than you can eat.
So those are the very easiest things.
And then a lot of people may not believe it, but for summer vegetables, tomatoes are very
(12:59):
easy to grow and they're prolific.
I mean, I had a little salad tomato that went over an arch between my two garden beds.
And I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I had hundreds of little tomatoes.
So they're very easy.
But the other thing I always encourage too, when I do gardening classes, as I say, pick
(13:23):
three things, just three, there's a hundred out there, but pick three, decide what you
want to eat and what you can get at the farmer's market.
And then learn all you can about that vegetables and how easy it is to grow what you need to
do.
So start small, pick easy stuff, and then the next year get larger.
(13:46):
Yeah.
And that makes sense.
That makes sense too as well.
Yeah.
To start small.
I will be the first to say I'm definitely not a green thumb kind of person.
And I was one of those people, my husband, bless him, he will typically grow our garden
and he would ask me, he's like, well, what do we want to grow in the garden this year?
And I'm one of those people, just like you mentioned, I'm like, well, I want this and
(14:08):
that and that and that, you know, about five or six different things.
And he's like, whoa, wait a minute.
Yes.
Let's narrow this down.
Yeah.
And see what will grow.
The other thing we found that was actually pretty easy was zucchini to grow.
And it really grew really well, more than we expected.
There was one time we had zucchini, it felt like just growing out of our ears.
(14:30):
There was just so much of it that we had not planned for.
So that's one of the things I encourage people to, if you have a friend who wants to garden,
zucchini is planted by seed, go get one packet of zucchini and then share it.
And then, you know, don't go out and buy three or four zucchini plants, just get you a $2.29
(14:51):
pack of zucchini.
Plant your first zucchini the middle of May and then about two weeks later, plant some
more zucchini.
That way you don't have an abundance come in at one time.
And I also tell people when they first start out to do that one zucchini plant and learn
how much you can get from it.
(15:14):
Like people go out and buy, I mean, five of the little salad tomatoes, where you'd have
500 tomatoes.
So just start small and learn how much you get to harvest.
And then you may decide next year you really don't need five different tomato plants.
Right.
Yeah, that's definitely valuable.
(15:36):
Yes.
Now you can be very excited.
Yeah.
You briefly mentioned about broccoli being a transplant, a type of vegetable.
Tell us more about what that means.
That means if you're going to, I've got broccoli in my garden right now and broccoli can take
about 80 to 90 days to mature.
(15:58):
So I have two choices.
I can in July, start my own seeds indoors, which I don't do, or I can wait till they
come out in the garden center.
And wherever you live, that's one of the ways that you're going to know if it's time to
plant something, your garden center is going to have it out when it's time to plant.
Oh yeah, that's a good idea.
(16:19):
Yes.
Because if I go to South Florida, they're not going to have broccoli.
It's too hot and it's cool season.
But for large vegetables and that's anything like cauliflower, broccoli, I also buy collard
greens as a transplant.
Now that means that somebody else has done all the work and got it started for you and
(16:44):
it will mature before we get a freeze.
If I went out there right now and stuck two broccoli seeds, it wouldn't survive because
then December would hit and it would be a little tiny plant and it would freeze.
So in the summer, I choose tomatoes and peppers or eggplants to buy my transplants.
(17:06):
But everything else, zucchini, squash, okra, all of those things are just seeds.
And one of the ways to kind of cheat, if you'll just go to the garden center and look on the
back of a packet of seeds, that broccoli seed packet will say, start indoors.
(17:27):
So that will show you that this is one of the things that's going to be a lot easier.
I don't buy broccoli seeds instead, I just go and buy the, and you know, buy two, three,
I think I have four broccoli plants.
But also know that some areas like where we live, you have a long growing season.
(17:47):
So I'm doing cool season vegetables starting the end of August versus September.
And then I can turn right around and do it again in March.
So for people who have short growing seasons, they may not have the two seasons to grow,
but luckily I have three.
So if I buy a bunch of lettuce seeds, and they're left over, I'll just use them again
(18:11):
in the spring.
You can keep seeds, you know, a couple of years.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Well thank you for that.
Now for someone who may be in a limited space, you know, folks who may stay in apartments
or even condos even, what are some tips that they can still, you know, start with a small
garden with?
(18:31):
I know you mentioned some of the plants that are indoors, but are there even some things
that they can just mostly keep indoors or put out on a patio?
What do you usually suggest?
Yes, if you have, this is one of the things that is non-negotiable when you're growing
plants and especially those summer vegetables that are sun-loving, you have to have at least
(18:56):
six hours of direct sunlight.
And by that, I always tell my clients, because I was surprised someone told me they had sunlight
and they didn't, they thought it was sunny outside.
They had enough sunlight.
That doesn't mean it's sunny where you are.
Right.
So I told her afterwards, I said, just imagine yourself out on the beach and there's nothing
(19:19):
around you.
There's no umbrella to cast shade for, you know, hours on that space.
So you have to have direct sunlight.
They have to have sunlight for photosynthesis, especially tomatoes and peppers have to have
like eight or 10 hours to grow fruit.
So the first thing you want to do, it's okay.
(19:40):
It doesn't matter where you do that.
You can do it out on your patio.
My little brick patio has eight hours of sun a day if I wanted to use it.
So just be sure that wherever you want to do it has eight hours, six to eight hours
of sun.
The next thing is I think the gardening industry has heard that people do not have big, huge
(20:03):
yards or they don't have time now.
So they've heard that and they're making more and more container friendly.
So again, for an example, if you go to the garden center and you're looking at carrots,
you can pick up three or four different packets, but one of those right in the corner will
may have like a little, looks like a little terracotta pot and it will say container friendly.
(20:29):
And so what they're doing is they're making them smaller so people can put them in a container.
I have seen tomatoes that way where they'll have the container friendly.
Yes, and they just do not get as large because that's another thing.
I don't think people realize that better boy tomato that's delicious that you slice will
(20:50):
get to be seven feet tall.
Oh wow.
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
So if you put it in a container and it doesn't have a big cage around it or I have one client
that what she did, it gets a lot of sun and she put it up against a wall that she put
a trellis on.
(21:10):
Okay.
Because they do need to grow up.
So yeah, if you don't have a lot of space, just try to, that may be one of the things
that you can grow all the lettuce and spinach and carrots.
You can grow peppers in containers, but you're going to go to the farmer's market and get
your tomatoes.
You may just have to decide that's not one of the things that I can grow.
(21:33):
But things like jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, those all do great in a container.
And I've actually grown on myself just to have more space in my garden.
Things like bell peppers, you may want to get at the farmer's market.
They do get heavy and they'll have a tendency to fall over if you don't put a cage around
them.
But yeah, I think one of the other things that are easy to grow are herbs and herbs do
(21:59):
great in containers.
I have herbs directly in my garden beds, but I also have things like mint in containers.
One of my coaching clients had a sunny deck that when she came out of her kitchen and
so she had her tomatoes and things.
But what we did is she had those, you know, over the real baskets.
(22:21):
You've seen those that people put flowers in.
Right.
That was her herbs.
She grew oregano and chives and basil.
And they just hung right over her rail and she could walk right out of her kitchen and
get those.
So sometimes you have to just compromise or improvise a little bit, but there's lots of
(22:42):
ways to be able to grow anywhere you live, just about.
Right.
Which is nice.
So even like you mentioned, even if you have to supplement some by going to the farmer's
market or the grocery store, at least you can still get some things that'll be fresh
and you can still get some of those nutrients that we know are so important to consume and
have within our diet as well.
So that's great.
(23:02):
Well, I know I do not have enough space for corn and I love corn.
So that's not one of the things I'm going to grow.
Right.
And I found a miniature okra this year.
So I actually planted okra this year.
That's usually one of the things I'll discover the farmer's market.
I encourage you to go to the farmer's market instead of the grocery store, because those
(23:27):
people have brought it right out of the fields and look for organic growers.
And there's more and more of those.
And it's great to support your local farmers.
Absolutely.
You're still getting the local seasonal produce.
You know, you mentioned all those benefits for our listeners.
So I definitely agree with you.
Yeah, definitely.
Go support your local farmers market there.
And even a lot of times, as you mentioned, they will have organically grown the produce
(23:52):
for you without, you know, slapping and having to slap all the labels and, you know, do things.
And I think more I think more and more people just like the gardening industry who started
doing more container plants.
I think most farmers now are seeing that that's what people want.
So they're having to change with that.
(24:13):
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Agree.
Yeah.
And you mentioned one of the mistakes that, you know, new gardeners make in terms of,
you know, having too many seeds and growing just an overabundance of what they need.
What are some of those other common mistakes that you've seen over the years with your
coaching clients?
And you can just tell us how to avoid some of those.
(24:34):
One of the things is, and I get this a lot, people ask me, they'll say, I planted this
squash and I have all of these pretty blooms, but I didn't have any squash.
Well, you don't have any flowers around to attract the bees and the butterflies to pollinate
it.
Those have to be pollinated.
(24:54):
So one of the things I teach is if you're growing it, let's say you're growing it in
a container, not a raised bed like mine.
If you're growing it in a container, put a pot of zinnias just beside it to draw in those
pollinators.
You know, I would have never thought of that, but that you're right.
You know, they are flowers, the squash blossoms.
(25:16):
Well, and you know, if you think about it, you know, there's all of those talk about
how the bees just about got all of the insecticides and pesticides damaged the bee population
and how that was affecting, you know, farmers.
And farmers actually bring in hives of bees to place next to their crops to pollinate
(25:37):
it.
Yeah, it has to get there somewhere.
So that way, you know, I've been gardening for so long and been doing it for a long time
that I already have a lot of those in place.
So they just seem like they just keep coming back year after year.
But for new clients who maybe when we go look at their garden space and there's nothing
around, then we have to incorporate those things.
(26:01):
And then I guess a big question I get is about pests.
They'll say I planted my broccoli and it was eat up in three days.
Well, it will be.
You have to cover it with insect netting.
Don't worry about pesticides.
And that's one of the things that you learn as you grow as you start growing.
(26:21):
And that's why I tell people if you want to grow broccoli this year, here's what you need
to do to have a successful.
You're going to have to cover it with insect netting or you're going to go out there in
four days and this little cabbage moth has done her reproduction thing where she's got
100 little eggs on there.
(26:41):
And now you've got 100 little green worms.
So that's why you just need to learn what they have passed.
When I go to the importance to individuals like yourself and, you know, having someone
who's an expert on board on your team.
Well, and that's what I tell people when they say, you know, you said I have I don't have
(27:03):
a green thumb.
Well, you really do.
You do.
I don't know about that.
Even a house plant is challenging.
You still like my friends who this morning I told them to be sure and bring their house
plants in and one of them said, I don't have any outside.
I forgot to water them.
I'm like, yeah.
But yeah, so I mean, it is it.
(27:31):
And I mean, I wasn't always this way when I started out.
I grabbed a tiller.
I did row gardens.
I just bought weeds all summer long.
They got eat up.
So it just took a little time.
And yeah, it takes work as with anything.
It does not a whole lot.
It goes out, I raise a garden and raise beds, and that's one of the things that I encourage
(27:55):
people to do.
Yeah, that's great.
Now, mentioned for us, you know, a little bit about those physical and those mental
health benefits that you or even some of your coaching clients may have found just from
the actual activity of gardening.
Well, I think one thing about about gardening is, I mean, again, I don't bring out the tiller
(28:17):
and I get out there and do a lot of physical exercise.
But just and I have raised beds after 42 years.
I'm, you know, nursing my back's not what it used to be.
So I have raised beds.
It doesn't require that I've been way over and do things.
So I get out there and, you know, every morning I walk out to my garden.
(28:38):
I look around to see if there's any pests.
I just kind of water and it just gets some movement in there.
But I think the biggest benefit is sunlight and fresh air.
As we all, you know, especially better than me.
But like with vitamin D, how important sunlight is and how as we get older, like me, it's
(29:02):
good for my bone health.
It's also good for depression and, you know, increases, I think serotonin.
One of the things I was reading the other day and I started doing is after I get up
in the morning and I have to have my coffee or I wouldn't be able to.
Nobody can live with me.
I take my coffee out on my deck and I sit for about 10 minutes because studies have
(29:27):
shown that 10 minutes of sunlight in the morning kind of resets your circadian rhythm.
It does.
It helps you sleep better at night.
So there's physical benefits to gardening just because some people are, you know, never
get out and out in the yard and walk around.
But I think there's also the emotional benefits and also the physical benefits.
(29:52):
Yeah, yeah, you're certainly right.
And I'm glad you shared those.
And as you mentioned, I often even share with my clients as well, you know, the exercise
is good.
And take it up that next step and get that movement outdoors.
You'll naturally get more of those benefits because of the sunlight that helps to release
those happy hormones within our brain.
(30:14):
And then that oxygen you're breathing in that fresh air and you're opening even, you know,
the way you mentioned setting your circadian rhythms and important for your balance and
your sleep.
When you go out in the sunlight, it triggers to your brain, hey, it's time to be awake.
And so that by the time it's time to go to bed and it will have you on a nice, healthy
rhythm there for your body as well.
(30:37):
So I've noticed one thing if I'll just start early in the morning and like, see, I have
chickens, so I have to go let my chickens out too.
But I have found that once I walk across my backyard and just get that movement going,
then sometimes I'll be out there for 30 minutes, you know, go to the then I'll go back and
(30:59):
I'll see if I can get in the yard and I actually have a neighbor across the street that he
and his wife walk up and down their driveway.
So there's no reason I can't get in a thousand steps.
If I'm walking circles in my backyard, you know, yeah, but once just getting started
(31:19):
is all you need.
And sometimes your garden will kind of be the, I guess the impetus for that.
But you're out there, it's like, oh, I think I'll just stay a little longer.
Right.
I put my earbuds in a lot of times and listen to your podcast podcast.
So yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
(31:40):
Great.
Well, I just, you know, enjoy chatting with you and having you on the podcast today, Miss
Karen.
Now, before I let you go, can you share with the audience how they can connect with you?
I think the best way is to go to my website.
It's garden check, all one word, C-H-I-C-K, garden check dot com.
(32:01):
And the first thing to do is just sign up for my newsletter.
That's where, that's where you're going to get all, all of my good gardening tips.
My website's also a blog.
So just scroll down through there and see all the things that garden related that I've
written.
But I think that's the best thing to do is just sign up for the newsletter and I send
it out once a week and give you some good information in there if you'd like to garden.
(32:26):
Awesome.
Awesome.
And listeners, as you can see, she is just a wealth of information here.
So definitely go and sign up for that newsletter and get those tips for sure.
And I'll share those in the show notes.
So for anyone listening or watching, you'll be able to also grab those direct links to
garden check so that you can get started on your garden this year.
Okay.
(32:47):
All right.
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Thank you for joining me today on the essence of health tea time podcast.
Click the subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss a
moment of the essence of health tea time podcast.
Check out the show notes to obtain your free tips for healthy living guide to get you started
(33:11):
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(33:31):
Well head on over to www.eoh coaching.com.
The essence of health is a you.
Welcome to the Essence of Health Tea Time Podcast.
(00:12):
I am your host, Dr. Shayla Toons-Whitthead.
As a double board certified family and obesity medicine physician with over 12 years of experience
in medicine, I teach motivated individuals how to achieve their desired quality of life
while preventing and reversing chronic diseases.
(00:33):
It's Tea Time!
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Is it the actual effort of sticking to a plan?
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(01:59):
Say yes to yourself today and sign up now at drshayla.com forward slash nfchallenge.
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On today's episode of the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast, I have a special guest.
(02:21):
Karen Krill is a seasoned gardener with over 30 years of experience cultivating her own
backyard vegetable gardens.
After a successful career as a nurse, Karen decided to share her passion for gardening
by becoming a certified garden coach.
Through her company Garden Chick, she offers personalized garden consultations, private
(02:43):
coaching, and local gardening workshops.
Karen has created her signature online garden course, the No Fuss Garden, which provides
clear and concise guidance for beginners looking to grow their own vegetables without the overwhelming
complexity often associated with gardening.
Karen's expertise lies in simplifying the gardening process and empowering busy individuals
(03:07):
to create thriving gardens.
Welcome to the show, Karen.
I'm excited to have you here today.
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, awesome.
Awesome.
So we'll dive right in here.
Now as a fellow healthcare person, what motivated you to start gardening yourself?
And then how has that even transformed your personal approach to health and wellness?
(03:31):
I think back in the 70s, I'm dating myself, but my oldest son was young.
And that was when they first started, you know, Earth Day.
So I started growing my vegetables then as a way to teach him and now his younger brother
how to grow their own vegetables.
But I also became a little concerned about what was going in our food and just the impact
(03:59):
of vegetables getting from, say, California all the way to your grocery store.
So this was a way for me to have a little bit of impact on that as a way to supplement
what I did buy.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
And you know, you mentioned that really it was your child who was that motivating factor
(04:22):
for you and even with them, you know, part of my own health journey as well.
It was after having kids that I really wanted to even take better care of myself.
And it's just so funny how as parents and moms you do, you strive to do these things
to give your kids even more than what you had or what you knew to impart these things.
And so I think that's really great that you did that.
(04:43):
And then also, you know, even just incorporating vegetables for children.
We know that they are important for them to eat, but sometimes that can be challenging.
But I'm sure if you can tell us more about that, how was that introducing by them having
grown their vegetables to eat them more?
Yeah, it's a good way to encourage kids.
Because they're in the process of planting and tending the garden and then being able
(05:06):
to harvest that because most kids do really don't know where their food comes from.
They go to the grocery store and there's a tomato.
So they have no idea how it gets there.
So that was another good way.
And yes, I agree with you as you start to have children.
You know, I came from the generation where I remember my dad gardening and there was
(05:28):
no organic principles at all.
It was, you know, seven dust all over everything.
And so I really didn't know a different way.
And once I started having kids, I thought, wait, I'm not sure if I want all of that to
be on my kids food.
Right, right.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, even going more into that, explain the difference for us.
(05:51):
You know, you mentioned about the grocery store produce versus things that you freshly
pick.
So just explain, you know, from a nutritional standpoint, what you found those differences
to be.
Well, for example, let's just take a tomato.
When you go and pick a tomato off of the vine in your backyard or your deck, it's what they
call nutrient dense.
(06:13):
It's absolutely full of vitamins and minerals and all sorts of good things.
And then when you compare that to a tomato that you go to the grocery store, most of
the time, especially if you're doing that in the winter, when it's not natural to have
tomatoes where we live, those have been shipped about 1500 miles, usually from California
(06:36):
or Mexico or South Florida.
Well, they they want to be able to preserve that.
So those tomatoes are actually sprayed with something to keep them from ripening and they're
stored.
Once they're ready to travel to us, they are then sprayed again with something called ethylene
gas, which is what tomatoes naturally put out to ripen.
(07:02):
And then they are ripened and sent to the stores.
So those tomatoes on your shelf could be weeks and weeks old.
Wow.
Wow.
That's amazing.
So you know, you've lost a lot of the right a lot of those nutrients.
Yeah.
And it also explains to you know, when you see them, they have kind of this pretty color,
but they've probably been sprayed, you know.
(07:23):
Absolutely.
And they spray them with wax and all sorts of things.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've heard that about the wax as well.
And then, you know, you can taste the difference though.
Oh, nothing is good.
Right.
Yeah.
You get one of those fresh juicy tomatoes from the sun that's been out there that you've
grown versus one in the store.
Definitely.
(07:43):
Absolutely.
Yes, you just has a lot more lots more nutritional value.
And not only that you have control over what has gone on that tomato.
I garden organically.
And I have for years and I've never had to spray anything on any of my plants because
I do some companion planting and things like that.
(08:06):
So yeah, that's great.
You know, you mentioned even with the example of the tomato about how you know, it may not
even be in season where you live and you have this this fruit or this vegetable now in your
grocery store.
So why is it even important to have a seasonal produce?
Well, for one thing, again, it's because it's not natural.
(08:29):
You know, I live in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area.
So right now, it's cool season.
So that means I could plant all of the tomatoes I wanted and they're not going to grow.
So in order to have a tomato in November, then I do have to get it from fifteen hundred
miles away.
(08:50):
So when you eat seasonally, for example, again, this is the cool season.
So we're looking at leafy greens, spinach, arugula, lettuce, Swiss chard, collard greens,
mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage.
All of those things are you are growing.
(09:11):
So once again, they are more nutrient dense.
You have control over what goes over them.
And then you go into the warm season.
And for us, it's always wherever you live.
It's always right.
It's after your your last frost.
So for me, they can put all the tomato plants they want in the garden center in April.
(09:34):
I will not grow tomatoes until a couple of weeks after May because they will not tolerate
cool weather.
So when you eat seasonally, you are providing yourself with all of those vegetables and
get all the benefits of those nutrients that you're not going to get.
Really optimizing.
Absolutely.
(09:54):
Because you can still get a tomato in December.
But we all know how those tomatoes, to me, they're like pink.
There's never a good, never a good red tomato.
And so you're sacrificing nutrition.
I just rather not have a tomato.
Right.
I just learned that I won't have a tomato on my salad in October or November.
(10:19):
I can go to my garden and get spinach and lettuce and arugula and Swiss chard, but I
will not have a tomato.
That salad will be made without a tomato.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that makes a lot of sense as well.
Yeah.
If you're frustrated with your weight, taking more medications than you like to have been
told that you are at risk for the development of a chronic preventable disease, or just
(10:43):
are not feeling in the best of health, then I'm talking to you.
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(11:08):
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(11:33):
The Essence of Health is in you.
And now I know that you work with busy professionals and I know that we have a lot of busy professional
listeners to the Tea Time podcast here.
And so for those folks who are looking to start a garden, what are your top three recommendations
for low maintenance plants that offer high nutritional value?
(11:54):
Well, for one thing, I always tell people to kind of start small because that's what
happens.
People get so excited about gardening and they make the decision they're going to grow
their food and they have this idea.
And I see this sometimes with my coaching clients.
I'll do a little interview sheet and I'll say, why do you want a garden?
(12:15):
And they'll say, I want to provide all of my vegetables, you know, and preserve it
and can.
I'm like, oh wait, whoa, let's slow down.
There's going to be a lot.
There's going to be a lot.
So let's just start out with a few things.
So the very easiest things to plant are things that I'm planting in my garden now.
(12:35):
Those are leafy greens.
You don't have to go with broccoli.
I'll go buy a transplant, but everything else is just put some seeds out, keep them watered.
And in 30 days, you're going to have more lettuce and spinach than you can eat.
So those are the very easiest things.
And then a lot of people may not believe it, but for summer vegetables, tomatoes are very
(12:59):
easy to grow and they're prolific.
I mean, I had a little salad tomato that went over an arch between my two garden beds.
And I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I had hundreds of little tomatoes.
So they're very easy.
But the other thing I always encourage too, when I do gardening classes, as I say, pick
(13:23):
three things, just three, there's a hundred out there, but pick three, decide what you
want to eat and what you can get at the farmer's market.
And then learn all you can about that vegetables and how easy it is to grow what you need to
do.
So start small, pick easy stuff, and then the next year get larger.
(13:46):
Yeah.
And that makes sense.
That makes sense too as well.
Yeah.
To start small.
I will be the first to say I'm definitely not a green thumb kind of person.
And I was one of those people, my husband, bless him, he will typically grow our garden
and he would ask me, he's like, well, what do we want to grow in the garden this year?
And I'm one of those people, just like you mentioned, I'm like, well, I want this and
(14:08):
that and that and that, you know, about five or six different things.
And he's like, whoa, wait a minute.
Yes.
Let's narrow this down.
Yeah.
And see what will grow.
The other thing we found that was actually pretty easy was zucchini to grow.
And it really grew really well, more than we expected.
There was one time we had zucchini, it felt like just growing out of our ears.
(14:30):
There was just so much of it that we had not planned for.
So that's one of the things I encourage people to, if you have a friend who wants to garden,
zucchini is planted by seed, go get one packet of zucchini and then share it.
And then, you know, don't go out and buy three or four zucchini plants, just get you a $2.29
(14:51):
pack of zucchini.
Plant your first zucchini the middle of May and then about two weeks later, plant some
more zucchini.
That way you don't have an abundance come in at one time.
And I also tell people when they first start out to do that one zucchini plant and learn
how much you can get from it.
(15:14):
Like people go out and buy, I mean, five of the little salad tomatoes, where you'd have
500 tomatoes.
So just start small and learn how much you get to harvest.
And then you may decide next year you really don't need five different tomato plants.
Right.
Yeah, that's definitely valuable.
(15:36):
Yes.
Now you can be very excited.
Yeah.
You briefly mentioned about broccoli being a transplant, a type of vegetable.
Tell us more about what that means.
That means if you're going to, I've got broccoli in my garden right now and broccoli can take
about 80 to 90 days to mature.
(15:58):
So I have two choices.
I can in July, start my own seeds indoors, which I don't do, or I can wait till they
come out in the garden center.
And wherever you live, that's one of the ways that you're going to know if it's time to
plant something, your garden center is going to have it out when it's time to plant.
Oh yeah, that's a good idea.
(16:19):
Yes.
Because if I go to South Florida, they're not going to have broccoli.
It's too hot and it's cool season.
But for large vegetables and that's anything like cauliflower, broccoli, I also buy collard
greens as a transplant.
Now that means that somebody else has done all the work and got it started for you and
(16:44):
it will mature before we get a freeze.
If I went out there right now and stuck two broccoli seeds, it wouldn't survive because
then December would hit and it would be a little tiny plant and it would freeze.
So in the summer, I choose tomatoes and peppers or eggplants to buy my transplants.
(17:06):
But everything else, zucchini, squash, okra, all of those things are just seeds.
And one of the ways to kind of cheat, if you'll just go to the garden center and look on the
back of a packet of seeds, that broccoli seed packet will say, start indoors.
(17:27):
So that will show you that this is one of the things that's going to be a lot easier.
I don't buy broccoli seeds instead, I just go and buy the, and you know, buy two, three,
I think I have four broccoli plants.
But also know that some areas like where we live, you have a long growing season.
(17:47):
So I'm doing cool season vegetables starting the end of August versus September.
And then I can turn right around and do it again in March.
So for people who have short growing seasons, they may not have the two seasons to grow,
but luckily I have three.
So if I buy a bunch of lettuce seeds, and they're left over, I'll just use them again
(18:11):
in the spring.
You can keep seeds, you know, a couple of years.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Well thank you for that.
Now for someone who may be in a limited space, you know, folks who may stay in apartments
or even condos even, what are some tips that they can still, you know, start with a small
garden with?
(18:31):
I know you mentioned some of the plants that are indoors, but are there even some things
that they can just mostly keep indoors or put out on a patio?
What do you usually suggest?
Yes, if you have, this is one of the things that is non-negotiable when you're growing
plants and especially those summer vegetables that are sun-loving, you have to have at least
(18:56):
six hours of direct sunlight.
And by that, I always tell my clients, because I was surprised someone told me they had sunlight
and they didn't, they thought it was sunny outside.
They had enough sunlight.
That doesn't mean it's sunny where you are.
Right.
So I told her afterwards, I said, just imagine yourself out on the beach and there's nothing
(19:19):
around you.
There's no umbrella to cast shade for, you know, hours on that space.
So you have to have direct sunlight.
They have to have sunlight for photosynthesis, especially tomatoes and peppers have to have
like eight or 10 hours to grow fruit.
So the first thing you want to do, it's okay.
(19:40):
It doesn't matter where you do that.
You can do it out on your patio.
My little brick patio has eight hours of sun a day if I wanted to use it.
So just be sure that wherever you want to do it has eight hours, six to eight hours
of sun.
The next thing is I think the gardening industry has heard that people do not have big, huge
(20:03):
yards or they don't have time now.
So they've heard that and they're making more and more container friendly.
So again, for an example, if you go to the garden center and you're looking at carrots,
you can pick up three or four different packets, but one of those right in the corner will
may have like a little, looks like a little terracotta pot and it will say container friendly.
(20:29):
And so what they're doing is they're making them smaller so people can put them in a container.
I have seen tomatoes that way where they'll have the container friendly.
Yes, and they just do not get as large because that's another thing.
I don't think people realize that better boy tomato that's delicious that you slice will
(20:50):
get to be seven feet tall.
Oh wow.
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
So if you put it in a container and it doesn't have a big cage around it or I have one client
that what she did, it gets a lot of sun and she put it up against a wall that she put
a trellis on.
(21:10):
Okay.
Because they do need to grow up.
So yeah, if you don't have a lot of space, just try to, that may be one of the things
that you can grow all the lettuce and spinach and carrots.
You can grow peppers in containers, but you're going to go to the farmer's market and get
your tomatoes.
You may just have to decide that's not one of the things that I can grow.
(21:33):
But things like jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, those all do great in a container.
And I've actually grown on myself just to have more space in my garden.
Things like bell peppers, you may want to get at the farmer's market.
They do get heavy and they'll have a tendency to fall over if you don't put a cage around
them.
But yeah, I think one of the other things that are easy to grow are herbs and herbs do
(21:59):
great in containers.
I have herbs directly in my garden beds, but I also have things like mint in containers.
One of my coaching clients had a sunny deck that when she came out of her kitchen and
so she had her tomatoes and things.
But what we did is she had those, you know, over the real baskets.
(22:21):
You've seen those that people put flowers in.
Right.
That was her herbs.
She grew oregano and chives and basil.
And they just hung right over her rail and she could walk right out of her kitchen and
get those.
So sometimes you have to just compromise or improvise a little bit, but there's lots of
(22:42):
ways to be able to grow anywhere you live, just about.
Right.
Which is nice.
So even like you mentioned, even if you have to supplement some by going to the farmer's
market or the grocery store, at least you can still get some things that'll be fresh
and you can still get some of those nutrients that we know are so important to consume and
have within our diet as well.
So that's great.
(23:02):
Well, I know I do not have enough space for corn and I love corn.
So that's not one of the things I'm going to grow.
Right.
And I found a miniature okra this year.
So I actually planted okra this year.
That's usually one of the things I'll discover the farmer's market.
I encourage you to go to the farmer's market instead of the grocery store, because those
(23:27):
people have brought it right out of the fields and look for organic growers.
And there's more and more of those.
And it's great to support your local farmers.
Absolutely.
You're still getting the local seasonal produce.
You know, you mentioned all those benefits for our listeners.
So I definitely agree with you.
Yeah, definitely.
Go support your local farmers market there.
And even a lot of times, as you mentioned, they will have organically grown the produce
(23:52):
for you without, you know, slapping and having to slap all the labels and, you know, do things.
And I think more I think more and more people just like the gardening industry who started
doing more container plants.
I think most farmers now are seeing that that's what people want.
So they're having to change with that.
(24:13):
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Agree.
Yeah.
And you mentioned one of the mistakes that, you know, new gardeners make in terms of,
you know, having too many seeds and growing just an overabundance of what they need.
What are some of those other common mistakes that you've seen over the years with your
coaching clients?
And you can just tell us how to avoid some of those.
(24:34):
One of the things is, and I get this a lot, people ask me, they'll say, I planted this
squash and I have all of these pretty blooms, but I didn't have any squash.
Well, you don't have any flowers around to attract the bees and the butterflies to pollinate
it.
Those have to be pollinated.
(24:54):
So one of the things I teach is if you're growing it, let's say you're growing it in
a container, not a raised bed like mine.
If you're growing it in a container, put a pot of zinnias just beside it to draw in those
pollinators.
You know, I would have never thought of that, but that you're right.
You know, they are flowers, the squash blossoms.
(25:16):
Well, and you know, if you think about it, you know, there's all of those talk about
how the bees just about got all of the insecticides and pesticides damaged the bee population
and how that was affecting, you know, farmers.
And farmers actually bring in hives of bees to place next to their crops to pollinate
(25:37):
it.
Yeah, it has to get there somewhere.
So that way, you know, I've been gardening for so long and been doing it for a long time
that I already have a lot of those in place.
So they just seem like they just keep coming back year after year.
But for new clients who maybe when we go look at their garden space and there's nothing
around, then we have to incorporate those things.
(26:01):
And then I guess a big question I get is about pests.
They'll say I planted my broccoli and it was eat up in three days.
Well, it will be.
You have to cover it with insect netting.
Don't worry about pesticides.
And that's one of the things that you learn as you grow as you start growing.
(26:21):
And that's why I tell people if you want to grow broccoli this year, here's what you need
to do to have a successful.
You're going to have to cover it with insect netting or you're going to go out there in
four days and this little cabbage moth has done her reproduction thing where she's got
100 little eggs on there.
(26:41):
And now you've got 100 little green worms.
So that's why you just need to learn what they have passed.
When I go to the importance to individuals like yourself and, you know, having someone
who's an expert on board on your team.
Well, and that's what I tell people when they say, you know, you said I have I don't have
(27:03):
a green thumb.
Well, you really do.
You do.
I don't know about that.
Even a house plant is challenging.
You still like my friends who this morning I told them to be sure and bring their house
plants in and one of them said, I don't have any outside.
I forgot to water them.
I'm like, yeah.
But yeah, so I mean, it is it.
(27:31):
And I mean, I wasn't always this way when I started out.
I grabbed a tiller.
I did row gardens.
I just bought weeds all summer long.
They got eat up.
So it just took a little time.
And yeah, it takes work as with anything.
It does not a whole lot.
It goes out, I raise a garden and raise beds, and that's one of the things that I encourage
(27:55):
people to do.
Yeah, that's great.
Now, mentioned for us, you know, a little bit about those physical and those mental
health benefits that you or even some of your coaching clients may have found just from
the actual activity of gardening.
Well, I think one thing about about gardening is, I mean, again, I don't bring out the tiller
(28:17):
and I get out there and do a lot of physical exercise.
But just and I have raised beds after 42 years.
I'm, you know, nursing my back's not what it used to be.
So I have raised beds.
It doesn't require that I've been way over and do things.
So I get out there and, you know, every morning I walk out to my garden.
(28:38):
I look around to see if there's any pests.
I just kind of water and it just gets some movement in there.
But I think the biggest benefit is sunlight and fresh air.
As we all, you know, especially better than me.
But like with vitamin D, how important sunlight is and how as we get older, like me, it's
(29:02):
good for my bone health.
It's also good for depression and, you know, increases, I think serotonin.
One of the things I was reading the other day and I started doing is after I get up
in the morning and I have to have my coffee or I wouldn't be able to.
Nobody can live with me.
I take my coffee out on my deck and I sit for about 10 minutes because studies have
(29:27):
shown that 10 minutes of sunlight in the morning kind of resets your circadian rhythm.
It does.
It helps you sleep better at night.
So there's physical benefits to gardening just because some people are, you know, never
get out and out in the yard and walk around.
But I think there's also the emotional benefits and also the physical benefits.
(29:52):
Yeah, yeah, you're certainly right.
And I'm glad you shared those.
And as you mentioned, I often even share with my clients as well, you know, the exercise
is good.
And take it up that next step and get that movement outdoors.
You'll naturally get more of those benefits because of the sunlight that helps to release
those happy hormones within our brain.
(30:14):
And then that oxygen you're breathing in that fresh air and you're opening even, you know,
the way you mentioned setting your circadian rhythms and important for your balance and
your sleep.
When you go out in the sunlight, it triggers to your brain, hey, it's time to be awake.
And so that by the time it's time to go to bed and it will have you on a nice, healthy
rhythm there for your body as well.
(30:37):
So I've noticed one thing if I'll just start early in the morning and like, see, I have
chickens, so I have to go let my chickens out too.
But I have found that once I walk across my backyard and just get that movement going,
then sometimes I'll be out there for 30 minutes, you know, go to the then I'll go back and
(30:59):
I'll see if I can get in the yard and I actually have a neighbor across the street that he
and his wife walk up and down their driveway.
So there's no reason I can't get in a thousand steps.
If I'm walking circles in my backyard, you know, yeah, but once just getting started
(31:19):
is all you need.
And sometimes your garden will kind of be the, I guess the impetus for that.
But you're out there, it's like, oh, I think I'll just stay a little longer.
Right.
I put my earbuds in a lot of times and listen to your podcast podcast.
So yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
(31:40):
Great.
Well, I just, you know, enjoy chatting with you and having you on the podcast today, Miss
Karen.
Now, before I let you go, can you share with the audience how they can connect with you?
I think the best way is to go to my website.
It's garden check, all one word, C-H-I-C-K, garden check dot com.
(32:01):
And the first thing to do is just sign up for my newsletter.
That's where, that's where you're going to get all, all of my good gardening tips.
My website's also a blog.
So just scroll down through there and see all the things that garden related that I've
written.
But I think that's the best thing to do is just sign up for the newsletter and I send
it out once a week and give you some good information in there if you'd like to garden.
(32:26):
Awesome.
Awesome.
And listeners, as you can see, she is just a wealth of information here.
So definitely go and sign up for that newsletter and get those tips for sure.
And I'll share those in the show notes.
So for anyone listening or watching, you'll be able to also grab those direct links to
garden check so that you can get started on your garden this year.
Okay.
(32:47):
All right.
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Thank you for joining me today on the essence of health tea time podcast.
Click the subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss a
moment of the essence of health tea time podcast.
Check out the show notes to obtain your free tips for healthy living guide to get you started
(33:11):
on your health and wellness path.
Follow me on social media at essence of health wellness clinic on Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube and that doctor.tw at EOHWC on tick tock interested in becoming a member of the
essence of health coaching program.
(33:31):
Well head on over to www.eoh coaching.com.
The essence of health is a you.
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