March 28, 2026 • 40 mins
Dr. Gary Bachman, known as the Urban Nano Farmer, is featured as Teresa’s guest on Better Lawns and Gardens today. Gary offers “Real World” gardening advice for cultivating thriving, vibrant tomato plants in containers. Teresa discusses the Dirty Word of the Day, which relates to the Florida Wildflower and Garden Festival, and responds to your questions about spring gardening.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning, Welcome back to the second hour of Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. I'm a landscape designer,
garden author, horticulturist, consultant. I love helping people with their yards,
their landscapes. I love designing landscapes. And it's just a
wonderful place here in Florida to be for gardening. And
(00:29):
if you have gardening questions, this is where you can
come and ask and we love to have you in
with us, and we love gardeners of all kinds.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So I am going to start.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Usually the first part of the program is the Dirty
Word of the Day, and now it's time for the
Dirty Word of the Day on the Better Lawns and
Gardens with Teresa Watkins. And the Dirty Word of the
Day is in celebration of the Florida Wildflower Festival. It
is native and related words. So Native plan is the
(01:00):
official US government definition given by the Natural Resources and
Conservation Service. It defines native plants as a plant that
is part of the balance of nature that has developed
over hundreds of thousands or thousands of years in a
particular region or ecosystem. The word native should always be
(01:22):
used with a geographic qualifier that is native to Florida.
Only plants found in this country before European settlement are
considered to be native. In native to the United States,
we can discuss that later. Now, a non native plant
is a plant that was introduced with human help to
a new place or a new habitat where it was
(01:43):
not previously found. A naturalized plant is a non native
plant that does not need human help to maintain itself
over time in an area where it is not native.
Naturalized plants are not native plants. Cultivar cultivar means a
(02:04):
plant that was selected by plant breeders for certain characteristics
that are maintained during propagation. So remember a cultivar does
not come true to seed and needs continued human mediated
propagation to continue. You can tell a cultivar by its
scientific name, which begins with its genus and that's the
(02:25):
Latin name for it, followed by its species and then
its cultivar name in quotation marks. Examples are Rosa Mister
Lincoln or Rosa Julia Child. Now, a native ar is
a new word, and it is a cultivar of a
native plant. For example, there is the dwarf firebush Amelia
(02:49):
pattens calusa or Amelia patents compacta. It provides a tighter
compact form as compared to the native firebush. A hybrid
is a plant produced by crossing genetic materials from two
different species. They are not cultivars, but you can have
cultivars of a hybrid. For example, lavender x intermedia is
(03:14):
a hybrid cross between lavender angustifolia, which is English lavender
and lavender latifolia, which is Portuguese lavender.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Lavender.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Lavandula x intermedia Grosso and Lavendula x intermedia province are
two cultivars of Lavondula x intermedia and A mutation plant
mutations are also known as sports or chimeras. They are
genetic changes that may affect the appearance of the foliage, flowers, fruit,
(03:49):
or stems vegetation. Vegetative propagation is used to maintain desirable characteristics.
Plants are often prone to reversion, meaning that part or
all of the plants revert to its original form. An
example of a mutated plant could be Camellia flowers with
(04:09):
specs and stripes. So the native word of the day
and others are natives and I will list those on
Facebook later on today, definitely.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And so if you'd like to give us a call,
wait till the end of the half hour. We have
one of my most favorite people coming on today. I've
known Gary for a long time. He is tremendous. He
is amazing. He has wonderful plant knowledge and he keeps
it real. That's what I like about it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And he's really honest about it too. He's like, yeah, no,
that's not.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Going to work.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And I'm just like, oh, thank you so much for
being honest with.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Me, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And so he is coming on. We're going to be
talking about tomatoes. If you want to grow amazing tomatoes
and containers, then you want to stay tuned for Gary Baukman.
So the newsletter is coming out this next week, April Newsletter.
If you would like to get it. It is free
and I do not spam, and I do not you know,
(05:10):
uh you know, uh sell your email addresses. So you
can go to my website which is www dot she
s h E DASH Consulting dot com and when you
get on it, it will say, uh, subscribe to the newsletter,
and you just put in your email and your zip
code and you are set to go.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And you'll receive next month's newsletter.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Also too, on Facebook, we would love for you to
like our page and give us a five star rating.
That would be wonderful. Uh, and let more and more
people know about Better Lawns and Gardens. Tell your friends
and tell your family. And you could also Lizzie, where
can they hear if they miss any of any show?
Where can they hear the podcast?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
If you go to Better Lawns dot com, you can
play all of the episodes that we've had. It's very simple.
If you have the iHeart Radio app, you can download
that and search Better Lawns and Gardens. But yeah, the
website is Better Lawns dot com and it's at the bottom. Also,
I put up Teresa's newsletter as after she's already released it,
(06:19):
but I put I do little clips, so it's not
the whole newsletter, but at the bottom of each article
you can click to actually go on and sign up
for Oh, that's the newsletter.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So you'll get what I put in the newsletter is
my plant to the Month, Teresa's plant of the Month.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I give you design tips.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I give you what to do each month in your
garden and landscape and then also my landscape malpractice, how
to know when to fire your landscaper. So we're going
to be back with doctor Gary Bachman, Real world gardening,
the urban or the Heritage Urban Nano Farm.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
We're going to be right back.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens,
I'm Teresa wat.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Because and this is Florida's Talk at Inner Network.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Joining us right now is doctor Gary Bachman. Gary holds
at BS and an MS from Clemson University, and he
earned his PhD in horticulture from the Ohio State University.
Along with his wife, Katie, Doctor Backman is now retired.
He now resides in Mississippi where they manage the Heritage
Cottage Urban Nano Farm. They're dedicated to educating others for
(07:38):
cultivation and preserving local grown produce as urban farmers. Doctor
Backman advocates for sustainable living and preparedness for a zombie apocalypse.
He offers expert advice online and the Internet for both
small scale and large space gardening, including container gardening and
(07:58):
harvest preservation. I saw one of Gary's videos quick one
minute videos last week that I thought was brilliant, and
I asked Gary to come on today to share his
extensive experience, real life wisdom with better lawns and gardens
and we get to discuss the new chili variety at
his house. Good morning, Gary, how are you?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Good morning Teresa. It is fantastic to talk to you
and of course Lizzy this morning.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I so appreciate that you're just a wonder. I'm always
amazed at what you get into and what you do.
And so let's start off though, how did your nano
farm urban nano farm do this winter?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Everything with the freeze and tho, we had low twenties
and everything except some of the citrus that couldn't make
it into the garage because I had too many citrus
and containers and I just didn't have room, and so
some of them it was kind of survival of the
fittest for a few days. Had to do some pruning.
Looks like every buddy survived.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
A Okay, oh that's wonderful news. That is great.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So I've subscribed to your YouTube channel and I find
that thank you. The Gary Groves videos such entertainment and
it's fun and you learn a lot. How do you
decide what to film and assist gardeners?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
With Well, Teresa, there really is a grand game plan.
It's really my videos are what I'm doing in my garden,
and it just happens to be whatever particulary. Some of
the videos aren't aren't posted, you know, you know immediately
(09:41):
as I go through editing and things. But it's all
just my general garden activities and just to try to
share you know, at hey, I'm a regular gardener too.
You know, I fail sometimes, I succeed a lot of times,
but you know, I share everything. And that was the
goal of that, to make guarding approachable and easy. And
(10:04):
I always say, not killing plants, you're not gardening there.
You got everything's your lives. That's kind of my philosophy
out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Well, they are great, and I liked your tomato seedling
video last week. I used to think extra seedlings should
be discarded, but your approach was amazing. Why did you
stop snipping your new tomato plants?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Well, I'll tell you, I grow so many, and it
was I got to the point of, you know, how
can I grow more in limited space? And so I
saw a tip by Joe Lample of densely planting tomato
seedlings and sells and how to take those those dense
(10:49):
plantings out and separate them, plant those and be able
to grow more tomatoes or peppers starting off in a
smaller footprint.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It was really all it was, Well, they're great, So
tell us what you do with your tomatoes.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
What will they see on the video?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Well, what I do with the tomatoes are I'm producing
seed for my seed store, heritage cottage seeds, and right
now I'm in the evaluation mode of micro or dwarf tomatoes.
I'm fascinated by grow tomatoes these small plants, both size
(11:32):
and plants that's only eighteen inches by eighteen inches, way
easier to take care of than a big, climbing cherry
tomato plant. And they're perfect for patios and porches and
anybody whatever. That's kind of my goal is how can
you maximize a small garden space and still have a
(11:54):
big garden.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I think that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Is important information because people don't know what size containers
to use, so not everybody buys a new container. And
recycle containers are great. But with your recent video, you
said it size matters, and so how deep should a
tomato or a pepper container be?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I think personally a tomato needs about one cubic foot
of space for the roots per plant, and the example
I gave in that video was a five gallon bucket
is perfect. I also showed, hey, a seven container is
(12:40):
even better, but a five gallon bucket is a perfect
way to get started growing tomato. And you learn that
maybe that's big enough for your garden, but I think
if you can grow in a bigger pot, it's always
the best solution.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So, so how many seeds would you put in a
five gallon bucket?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Oh? Well, I wouldn't start off in a five gallon bucket,
start off in six packs, but just a singland in
a five gallon bucket.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Okay, so you.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
And that's for peppers or tomatoes.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Okay, So could they use Dixie cups or something like
that for seeds.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Starting to start off with? Oh yes, I'm in some
pepper growing groups on social media where people swear by
red solo cups. That's the only way that you need
that you can use to start pepper plants.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh that that's a great idea. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Now, so what about vining egg plants because they're going
to get taller, and so what size of container would
you use for those?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Again, it's that that minimum of a five gallon container
list and whether it's a whether small tomato or big tomato,
it's kind that's kind of like that, that kind of
that magic volume. I think the five gallon volume for
the reach is perfect if you've got a binding tomato,
(14:12):
binding eggplant determine it. You know, tomatoes, I don't think
it matters, but that that reach zone environment is the
important part.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Wonderful.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So tell us Gary, what are some of your best
management practices for growing healthy spring vegetables.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Oh, first of all, wait to plant until after your
frost date. I always wait until we get to the
ninety percent foss free date, which is coming up here
on April first, okay, and that's when I'm going to
be planting tomatoes. Second, consistent watering if you're in if
(14:52):
you're growing in containers, that plant relies on you, and
so you need to keep that reach zone consistently moist.
Especially important for tomatoes because if it's if that plant
goes through wet dry cycling, you're going to get blossom
endropped yea. And one of the best things you can
(15:13):
prevent blossom endro is to keep that a root zone
consistently moist, not stopping wet, and not dry consistently moch
That means maybe you have to water every day. Right,
That's the beauty of growing in a big container. It
holds more water and you may not have to water
as often as if you're growing that tomato in a
(15:34):
one gallon container.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Right, Because I'm telling people if you if your.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Plant is wilting every day and and it seems like
it needs more water, you may not have enough potting
soil or soil in the container.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And so what should they do? What should they do
if a container's root bound? How do they know that?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Well, you gave a great example. The plant could be welting,
you know, very frequently at a lot of times. What
you can do with that, especially in the spring of
the year. Pop that plant out of that small container
and put it in a big container and the solution
could be as easy as that.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
I'm also the correct potting mix. Don't put a soil
regular dirt in a container and expect to have success.
I always recommend professional potting mixes or container mixes like
pro Mix, Metro Mix, Funshine, anything that you can get
primarily you're going to get these from your independent garden center.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Now, So just for clarification, because we talked a little
just we just touched on it. So your last or
your earliest or your latest frost date. Let me say
that your latest frostate is April first, but that's because
you're in zone eight and then.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
We're in zone nine to eight here on the Mississippi coast.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, because our early our latest frost date is March
fifteenth here in Orlando.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Right, Yeah, Now, March fifteenth for us is a fifty
percent chance of frost, right, And I don't like to
roll the dice, and I'd rather wait two weeks and
be pretty much assured I'm going to have to worry
about covering, right.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And So anywhere in the country where they're hearing this,
contact your local extension office and they will tell you
what zone you're in, or you can just google your
city and say heartiness zones, zones, this last frostate and
they'll get that information.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
So that's correctly.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So last week I was talking about pest nematodes and
leaf miners and how can gardeners who use containers, how
can they keep the insects from getting from you know,
being a pest in their in their container garden.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Well, you know that that's just the thing. Whether you
grow in the ground or in the container, you're still
going to have the same past pressures. So growing containers
doesn't make you immune from leaf miners or or the
other pests. It's being observant and being aware and watching
for signs of that pest and then treating appropriately. You know,
(18:11):
you talked about the leaf miners and they make the
little trails in the leaf. When you start seeing that,
it's the perfect time to go out and use spinosa.
I love Captain Jack's dead bug Bruce. Spinosa's is organic,
but it's also translaminer, where it will give you about
(18:31):
twenty one days of effective prevention or control of leaf
miners versus BT, which has a longevity of one or
two days because it photoed degrades.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So, Gary, I have a couple more questions. Can you
stay through the break? We've got a heart break coming up?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, super happy to Okay, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
So give us your website where they can see the
videos and tell them how to contact you.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Okay, the video The easiest is on YouTube. My YouTube channel,
which is Real World Gardening. There's way too many Gary
grows out there, so I had to come up with
a name that was kind of unique, but Real World Gardening.
Facebook is Gary Grows at Heritage Cottage and my email
(19:19):
is Gary at gary death Grow. Top is the easiest
way to go.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
There you go. I'm going to put all those links
on Facebook.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
But I've got a few more questions to ask you
about vegetables and chili and we're going to be right back.
If it's Saturday morning from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back
(20:02):
to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm talking with doctor Gary Bachman,
Heritage Cottage Urban Nanofarm. He has wonderful, uh great varieties
of heritage cottage seeds and plants as knowledge is amazing.
We've been talking about tomatoes, growing tomatoes in containers and
other vegetables, so Gary, I wanted to just touch on
(20:24):
the containers and talk about drainage. When we're talking about
using five ors five gallon buckets, we need to make
sure that it has good drainage.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
How do we do that?
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Primarily, I'll tell you it's using the proper container mix.
In your neck. You know that there's a lot of
a lot of you know, advice out there to put
rocks and styrophoam and cans and things in the bottom
of your containers to increase straine. What it really doesn't
work that way if you if you have the right
(20:54):
container container micks. When we put it this way, professional
container mix is engineered to have the proper water holding
capacity for containers. It's called professional container mix. If you
don't want to fill a big pot with it's expensive.
I'll just be honest with him. You can What you
(21:15):
can do is you can put large chip pine bark
in the bottom and the good potting mix on top,
and that stratifies the container. And that's what a lot
of big nurseries are doing now. Some of the newest
container media research is talking about stratification of the mix
(21:36):
in big pots. And so some of my bigger pots,
I put big chunk pine.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Bark in the bottom, right, Okay, that.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Does that doesn't That doesn't improve drainage. That's that's all.
It just does. Root zone health wise. That's that's all
that is.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Okay, super So.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Now in January, you wrote about a fruit variety that
is named after three Central Florida cities, and I would
love to briefly talk about growing them and how they're
doing now after the freeze.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So you talked about line quots, So tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Okay, line quotz. I first heard of line quats about
four years ago from my old classmate Shanks Farmer. You've
had him on your show, yes, and he was selling
line quots. No, I'm good, I'm collecting citrus. I'd never
heard of a line cloth, and it fruited and it
(22:32):
was like a little oblong clou quat that tasted like
a lime. It was orange. And then I started doing
some research on it, and then I found another variety
called Eustace and the Eustace line cloth. And evidently back
in the early nineteen hundreds, the USDA at the Eustace
(22:55):
Research Center that they had they were breeding or crossing
come quants with key lines trying to increase cold hardiness
and key limes, and they came up with three selections. Eustace,
which is round and kind of like it looks kind
of like a key lime. They came up with Tavares,
(23:17):
which was the variety that I got from Jenks, which
is a little long oblong in orange. And then there
was a third one called Lakeland, and I've been searching
for Lakeland for several years and I finally found a
source of that. So I've got all three of these
really old selections in the USDA there and from Central
(23:38):
Florida growing in the growing in my art. And the
nice thing about it is the kumquat part of that
equation gives the key lime some cold hardiness. And you know,
for whatever reason, you know, as far as you know marketability,
you know, they really did and take off from a
(24:01):
production standpoint. But they're out there and I think it's
a it's a cicrus curiosity, let me let me put
it that way, and something fun to grow. And I'm
probably the only person in Mississippi that have all three
of these selections grow growing in my yard. So I
like to think I like to think that at least,
let me put it that way.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
And so you get you do get line quots from them.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
You get line quots. They they all they all look
a little different. They have they have different you know, appearances,
and you want some, they all they all taste like wine.
And because of the tumb quat and the tongue quat
variety that they use was nagami. The the peel is
also edible, which tastes like tastes like wine. So so
(24:47):
it's fun.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Margueritea is here we come. That's that's wonderful. Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
So now Heritage Cottage sells chili seeds of different varieties
of peppers.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But you have a new chili in your household. Let's
talk about chili.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
A Well, there's there's I'm trying new varieties of chili's
all the time for Heritage Cottage Seeds to kind of
expand on on the you know, the unusual types.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
But what about the fur type?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, so you have a live one inside your house,
now a new one.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You're chili a lot alive.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Good man, that just went right over my head. I'm
in plant mode. Now. The new chili that we have
growing inside is my is my new rescue dog named Chili.
I finally decided after after we lost Pansy, who we'd
(25:51):
had for thirteen years, last fall, it was time to
get to get another dog and so, so Chili is
our new rescue dog. She has her own Facebook page
called Chili the Heritage Seed Farm Dog, so you can,
so you can, so you can check that out. And yeah,
it was time. She She's a handful, let me tell
(26:13):
you that. And I'm getting way more than ten thousand
steps today walk in her. But but it's nice to have,
you know, the tiki tag of nails in the house again.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yes, I'm so sure.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
She is so sweet looking and so I was really
pleased to see that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
And does she eat peppers?
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Do you know? I don't, I don't know. I know
that she has been on the hunt for Noley's this
week out in the yard. So I mean she maybe
maybe she's not vegan or anything, you know, or vegetarian,
so she could be out hunting for her own dinner.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
But well, she is Maya Maya Scottie Ashila.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
She would go out to the garden and I was
at the kitchen sink when and I looking down and
she's eating she's pulling the Scotch bonnets off of the
peppers and she's chomping down on the Scotch bondets and
she liked them.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Oh my goodness, gracious.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
It was something so Gary, tell us tell everybody where
they can find your YouTube channel and where they can
get more videos, and your website and seeds.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Sure Sure the seeds is Heritage Cottage Seeds dot com.
We're pretty straightforward there. The videos I'm kind of concentrating
on YouTube now and my videos. You can go to
Real World Gardening and you can see all the videos
including my ten tomato rules the shorts that I posted
(27:45):
going through day by day. Facebook is Gary Grows at
Heritage Cottage. My website is Garydashgrows dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Thank you so much, Gary, We appreciate it. Give a huggig, Katie.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It's Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens.
I'm Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network,
and welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. If you
(28:28):
have a gardening question, we'd love to talk to you
one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Let your friends and family know about Better Lawns and
Gardens and go to our Facebook page and just clip
like and give us five stars.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We would love to have that, and so I wanted
to tell hey, thank you to Gary Buckman. We had
to clip it right there. We had a hard break.
But doctor Gary Buckman is wonderful. You can catch his
YouTube channel videos. They're they're amazing. His ten tips for
growing tomatoes and containers is wonderful, and you can go
(29:05):
to his website Gary dash grows dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Garydashgrows dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And I will be posting the links on Facebook to
everything we talked about today, so that will be cool.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Let's go to Aileen in Polk City. Good morning, Eileen.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
How are you morning, Teresa?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
How are you? I am great?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Sorry for all we had a long segment there, and
so how is your garden looking right now?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Right now?
Speaker 5 (29:31):
I have roses on the left hand, right hand side
of my porch.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Oh nice, Yes, so.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
They're doing good. In the backyard, they're fine, except for
my copper plant. I will be getting another one.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Okay, it did not make it to me.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
A picture of her azalia that to that it throws
because she didn't cover anything lazy behind. But so I'm
going to be getting one of those. Excellent, got of
(30:14):
that loath excellent. I wanted to tell you about the
rosebush I got. Okay, it is called swift a sweet rose,
and it's in pink, a very pretty dark pink.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Nice. And it's a drift rose.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yes, okay, boy does it smell.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh that's what smells good.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Yeah, and it smells really good. And I was walking
down the stairs, so I decided to come up because boy,
or they crow, and they're all crowing this morning.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Oh wonderful.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
Yeah, I love you. I'm trying to get rid of them,
the Mexicans.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
All right, so great, So are you did you fertilize
them or how are you taking care of your jephrosis?
Speaker 5 (31:10):
I'm going to put them in black cow.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Excellent, excellent, all right, I take care. Thank you for calling.
Let's go to Bill an Ormond Beach. Good morning Bill,
how can we help you?
Speaker 6 (31:22):
Good morning Theresa. I've got this desert road that had
some soft areas due to the cold, and so I've
cut back. It's been in my garage for a while.
I thought i'd cut back enough, but you know, feeling
it today, it is Okay, it's a little soft there,
so I just cut it off and put cinnamon on
(31:43):
the cut. Okay, is there anything else? Should I just
kind of I guess let it caught x or I
mean not cott ex but hardened over before I put
it on dirt.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, So what I would want to make sure is
that it's getting enough full sun. Okay, so it needs
totally full sun. I would ease up on the water
a little bit. If you're watering it and the cinnamon's good,
that's gonna prevent the infection or fungus to start. And
just fertilize it. You may want to give it some
fertilizer just to give it a little push.
Speaker 6 (32:15):
Okay, because it's been you know, sitting on its own,
no dirt, no nothing in the garage for weeks.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Well, once you put it in the dirt, it's gonna
then start to produce roots.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But it's something that could grow outside, you know, it could.
It doesn't need the soil per se. It's an epiphyt
or you know, it's and the succulent too as well.
So we can stay out of the pot for a
little while. But once you put it in a pot,
put it in full sun for at least eight hours,
it'll start to just take off.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
Okay, same thing with plumarios. I mean, if I feel
soft I definitely have to cut those off.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah, I would cut them diagonally. I would because that's
just gonna it's not gonna harden back up again. Okay,
So you know, I would.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Just want to just travel down the stem right exactly. Yeah,
that's okay, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You're welcome. Nice to talk to you. That's great. That's
Bill for Mormon Beach and he has.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Some wonderful plant collections and so we definitely want to
thank Dana Vendrick for coming on in the first hour
talking about the Florida Wildflower and Garden Festival today nine
am through three pm this afternoon. That is downtown Main Street,
the land which has lots of beautiful restaurants, vintage stores,
(33:30):
antiques and clothing. It's a great a great place to
visit with. Also the Outdoor Art Festival too is going
on at the same time. Free parking, free admission, plenty
of plant vendors. If you would like to get native
plants and native seeds, which is very hard to come by,
the native seeds are wonderful. You can go and get
(33:51):
them today. We have lots of great speakers on today
from the University of Florida, Velusia County all the environmental agencies.
It's going to be a great day for getting educated
on growing native plants and growing sustainably. Dana's talking about
gardening at home and he'll be on early just in
a few minutes there, Uh, he'll be he'll be getting
(34:11):
on talking. I am speaking at eleven o'clock for you know,
Florida pollinators gone wild and lots of great information that
I'll give you today. And I'd like to see you
because you know, putting a face with with the voices
always really helps. That I love when we went down
to Peterson's Nursery last week that we got to see
(34:32):
some of our listeners in Ira, so Ira and then
Brenda and so just it was wonderful to put together
some of the faces with the names.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
One hundred percent. Yeah, that's always good to see.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
And so my newsletters coming out and if you would
like to uh to get the newsletter, it's free. I
do not spam or sell it and you can go
to she Dash Consulting dot com, she Dash Consulting dot
com and and just sign up for it. There also
to uh if you would like to know any more
(35:05):
about our art and garden tours, Art and bloomgardentours dot com,
Art and Garden Tours, garden art and bloomgardenours dot com.
There you go and there and so uh you can
go on to it. Just google treats of what it's
an art and bloom and it'll come up. But we
have wonderful garden uh tours still available for this year.
(35:27):
We're sold out of the Revolutionary Garden Tour and the
Chelsea Flower Show. We have a couple of seas left
uh spaces on our Newport and then also uh the
uh Buffalo Garden Walk and France. We're going to the
Artista Gardens of France in August, and then uh we're
going to the Brandywine Valley in September and then New
(35:50):
Orleans in October, which will be lots of fun and
it's art and bloomgardentours dot com.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Yes, then you get all your price in there. And
and see, I need a passport because one of them
that we are y'all are going to slide into Canada.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, we're going to Buffalo, New York.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
You need a passport and go on to Canada.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
We're going to uh the Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah, I mean I don't know if you can still
get in with your ber certificate. But then you're looking
at you need a pass for three hour wait no, no, no,
from what I understand, yeah, we need you need a
passport to go now, so we just go and get
right through.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
It's it's wonderful, So we'd love to have you join us.
We go to some beautiful gardens, some private gardens, and
we're already getting our waiting list for twenty twenty seven,
so we just want to get in there and we'd.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Love for you to travel with us.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Now, when will you be releasing the twenty seven So
I say.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
They'll be They'll be coming out probably in the next
month or so to get on the waiting list. Okay,
so by the by May first, May first, and uh
and then too. I also want to thank doctor Gary
Bachman for coming on. And it's so funny that he
named his dog Chili and he thought we were talking
about chili pepper seeds. That was sweet that I love it,
so sweet. So she is just a wonderful dog. You
(37:09):
can go onto Facebook and see it. But Gary dot,
I mean sorry, garydash grows dot com. Garydash grows dot
com is the website and I'll be posting them on
our Facebook page to it.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Today is a beautiful day. So and we're suposed to have
a lot of wind either this afternoon or tomorrow. So
look around your yard and kind of pretend that a
little bit of its like almost like a hurricane season.
So if you see stuff that can blow around, you
may just want to go ahead. We're just having a
tornado or hurricane per se. But it's supposed to get
like thirty mile an hour winds.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Even higher on the coast. You're talking about that.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
So and it's a good time to look at your
your trees and everything too as well for a hurricane season.
Get it done now before hurricane season gets here. So
we are going to have some storms this year, but
we need the rain and so we need tropical storms
in the rainfall moked so much because of the drought
we've had for the last two years.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, and right now is a good time to go
through if you have any of your hurricane supplies left
from last year, if they're going to expire by the
end of this year. You know what we do is
we go through and we donate them to like a
local church, and then I start buying. You know, a
case of water each week starting in April is usually
what we do for our family.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So that is so true. So we are coming up
on April and what to do in the month. Next
week we'll be talking about that, what to do in
your landscape. Just remember that if your irrigation goes on
after you've had a couple of rainy events, that you
need to make sure that your rain shut off device
is working. Okay, Watering more and watering often is not
(38:44):
good for the landscape. So those of you that are
new to Florida, you only need an inch and a
half of water or rainfall a week for your landscape.
You do not need the inches and inches. And you
do not need to be watering or irrigating every day,
or even three times a week, even two times a week.
You don't need to do it. So the less you
(39:05):
can water your lawn, the healthier it's going to be.
And so we appreciate it. We'll see you here next week.
Come see me at the Florida Wildflower Garden and Festival
in DeLand this week. So I'm Teresa Watkins. If it's
Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns and gardens.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
That's it. I gotta go. Cup of tea time. This
is Florida's talk and Entertainment network.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
If you missed any of the share i Wanner recap this,
you can at better Lawns dot com. That's better lawns
dot com.
Good morning, Welcome back to the second hour of Better
Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. I'm a landscape designer,
garden author, horticulturist, consultant. I love helping people with their yards,
their landscapes. I love designing landscapes. And it's just a
wonderful place here in Florida to be for gardening. And
(00:29):
if you have gardening questions, this is where you can
come and ask and we love to have you in
with us, and we love gardeners of all kinds.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So I am going to start.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Usually the first part of the program is the Dirty
Word of the Day, and now it's time for the
Dirty Word of the Day on the Better Lawns and
Gardens with Teresa Watkins. And the Dirty Word of the
Day is in celebration of the Florida Wildflower Festival. It
is native and related words. So Native plan is the
(01:00):
official US government definition given by the Natural Resources and
Conservation Service. It defines native plants as a plant that
is part of the balance of nature that has developed
over hundreds of thousands or thousands of years in a
particular region or ecosystem. The word native should always be
(01:22):
used with a geographic qualifier that is native to Florida.
Only plants found in this country before European settlement are
considered to be native. In native to the United States,
we can discuss that later. Now, a non native plant
is a plant that was introduced with human help to
a new place or a new habitat where it was
(01:43):
not previously found. A naturalized plant is a non native
plant that does not need human help to maintain itself
over time in an area where it is not native.
Naturalized plants are not native plants. Cultivar cultivar means a
(02:04):
plant that was selected by plant breeders for certain characteristics
that are maintained during propagation. So remember a cultivar does
not come true to seed and needs continued human mediated
propagation to continue. You can tell a cultivar by its
scientific name, which begins with its genus and that's the
(02:25):
Latin name for it, followed by its species and then
its cultivar name in quotation marks. Examples are Rosa Mister
Lincoln or Rosa Julia Child. Now, a native ar is
a new word, and it is a cultivar of a
native plant. For example, there is the dwarf firebush Amelia
(02:49):
pattens calusa or Amelia patents compacta. It provides a tighter
compact form as compared to the native firebush. A hybrid
is a plant produced by crossing genetic materials from two
different species. They are not cultivars, but you can have
cultivars of a hybrid. For example, lavender x intermedia is
(03:14):
a hybrid cross between lavender angustifolia, which is English lavender
and lavender latifolia, which is Portuguese lavender.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Lavender.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Lavandula x intermedia Grosso and Lavendula x intermedia province are
two cultivars of Lavondula x intermedia and A mutation plant
mutations are also known as sports or chimeras. They are
genetic changes that may affect the appearance of the foliage, flowers, fruit,
(03:49):
or stems vegetation. Vegetative propagation is used to maintain desirable characteristics.
Plants are often prone to reversion, meaning that part or
all of the plants revert to its original form. An
example of a mutated plant could be Camellia flowers with
(04:09):
specs and stripes. So the native word of the day
and others are natives and I will list those on
Facebook later on today, definitely.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And so if you'd like to give us a call,
wait till the end of the half hour. We have
one of my most favorite people coming on today. I've
known Gary for a long time. He is tremendous. He
is amazing. He has wonderful plant knowledge and he keeps
it real. That's what I like about it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And he's really honest about it too. He's like, yeah, no,
that's not.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Going to work.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And I'm just like, oh, thank you so much for
being honest with.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Me, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And so he is coming on. We're going to be
talking about tomatoes. If you want to grow amazing tomatoes
and containers, then you want to stay tuned for Gary Baukman.
So the newsletter is coming out this next week, April Newsletter.
If you would like to get it. It is free
and I do not spam, and I do not you know,
(05:10):
uh you know, uh sell your email addresses. So you
can go to my website which is www dot she
s h E DASH Consulting dot com and when you
get on it, it will say, uh, subscribe to the newsletter,
and you just put in your email and your zip
code and you are set to go.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And you'll receive next month's newsletter.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Also too, on Facebook, we would love for you to
like our page and give us a five star rating.
That would be wonderful. Uh, and let more and more
people know about Better Lawns and Gardens. Tell your friends
and tell your family. And you could also Lizzie, where
can they hear if they miss any of any show?
Where can they hear the podcast?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
If you go to Better Lawns dot com, you can
play all of the episodes that we've had. It's very simple.
If you have the iHeart Radio app, you can download
that and search Better Lawns and Gardens. But yeah, the
website is Better Lawns dot com and it's at the bottom. Also,
I put up Teresa's newsletter as after she's already released it,
(06:19):
but I put I do little clips, so it's not
the whole newsletter, but at the bottom of each article
you can click to actually go on and sign up
for Oh, that's the newsletter.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So you'll get what I put in the newsletter is
my plant to the Month, Teresa's plant of the Month.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I give you design tips.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I give you what to do each month in your
garden and landscape and then also my landscape malpractice, how
to know when to fire your landscaper. So we're going
to be back with doctor Gary Bachman, Real world gardening,
the urban or the Heritage Urban Nano Farm.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
We're going to be right back.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens,
I'm Teresa wat.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Because and this is Florida's Talk at Inner Network.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Joining us right now is doctor Gary Bachman. Gary holds
at BS and an MS from Clemson University, and he
earned his PhD in horticulture from the Ohio State University.
Along with his wife, Katie, Doctor Backman is now retired.
He now resides in Mississippi where they manage the Heritage
Cottage Urban Nano Farm. They're dedicated to educating others for
(07:38):
cultivation and preserving local grown produce as urban farmers. Doctor
Backman advocates for sustainable living and preparedness for a zombie apocalypse.
He offers expert advice online and the Internet for both
small scale and large space gardening, including container gardening and
(07:58):
harvest preservation. I saw one of Gary's videos quick one
minute videos last week that I thought was brilliant, and
I asked Gary to come on today to share his
extensive experience, real life wisdom with better lawns and gardens
and we get to discuss the new chili variety at
his house. Good morning, Gary, how are you?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Good morning Teresa. It is fantastic to talk to you
and of course Lizzy this morning.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I so appreciate that you're just a wonder. I'm always
amazed at what you get into and what you do.
And so let's start off though, how did your nano
farm urban nano farm do this winter?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Everything with the freeze and tho, we had low twenties
and everything except some of the citrus that couldn't make
it into the garage because I had too many citrus
and containers and I just didn't have room, and so
some of them it was kind of survival of the
fittest for a few days. Had to do some pruning.
Looks like every buddy survived.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
A Okay, oh that's wonderful news. That is great.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So I've subscribed to your YouTube channel and I find
that thank you. The Gary Groves videos such entertainment and
it's fun and you learn a lot. How do you
decide what to film and assist gardeners?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
With Well, Teresa, there really is a grand game plan.
It's really my videos are what I'm doing in my garden,
and it just happens to be whatever particulary. Some of
the videos aren't aren't posted, you know, you know immediately
(09:41):
as I go through editing and things. But it's all
just my general garden activities and just to try to
share you know, at hey, I'm a regular gardener too.
You know, I fail sometimes, I succeed a lot of times,
but you know, I share everything. And that was the
goal of that, to make guarding approachable and easy. And
(10:04):
I always say, not killing plants, you're not gardening there.
You got everything's your lives. That's kind of my philosophy
out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Well, they are great, and I liked your tomato seedling
video last week. I used to think extra seedlings should
be discarded, but your approach was amazing. Why did you
stop snipping your new tomato plants?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Well, I'll tell you, I grow so many, and it
was I got to the point of, you know, how
can I grow more in limited space? And so I
saw a tip by Joe Lample of densely planting tomato
seedlings and sells and how to take those those dense
(10:49):
plantings out and separate them, plant those and be able
to grow more tomatoes or peppers starting off in a
smaller footprint.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It was really all it was, Well, they're great, So
tell us what you do with your tomatoes.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
What will they see on the video?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Well, what I do with the tomatoes are I'm producing
seed for my seed store, heritage cottage seeds, and right
now I'm in the evaluation mode of micro or dwarf tomatoes.
I'm fascinated by grow tomatoes these small plants, both size
(11:32):
and plants that's only eighteen inches by eighteen inches, way
easier to take care of than a big, climbing cherry
tomato plant. And they're perfect for patios and porches and
anybody whatever. That's kind of my goal is how can
you maximize a small garden space and still have a
(11:54):
big garden.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I think that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Is important information because people don't know what size containers
to use, so not everybody buys a new container. And
recycle containers are great. But with your recent video, you
said it size matters, and so how deep should a
tomato or a pepper container be?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I think personally a tomato needs about one cubic foot
of space for the roots per plant, and the example
I gave in that video was a five gallon bucket
is perfect. I also showed, hey, a seven container is
(12:40):
even better, but a five gallon bucket is a perfect
way to get started growing tomato. And you learn that
maybe that's big enough for your garden, but I think
if you can grow in a bigger pot, it's always
the best solution.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So, so how many seeds would you put in a
five gallon bucket?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Oh? Well, I wouldn't start off in a five gallon bucket,
start off in six packs, but just a singland in
a five gallon bucket.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Okay, so you.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
And that's for peppers or tomatoes.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Okay, So could they use Dixie cups or something like
that for seeds.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Starting to start off with? Oh yes, I'm in some
pepper growing groups on social media where people swear by
red solo cups. That's the only way that you need
that you can use to start pepper plants.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh that that's a great idea. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Now, so what about vining egg plants because they're going
to get taller, and so what size of container would
you use for those?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Again, it's that that minimum of a five gallon container
list and whether it's a whether small tomato or big tomato,
it's kind that's kind of like that, that kind of
that magic volume. I think the five gallon volume for
the reach is perfect if you've got a binding tomato,
(14:12):
binding eggplant determine it. You know, tomatoes, I don't think
it matters, but that that reach zone environment is the
important part.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Wonderful.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
So tell us Gary, what are some of your best
management practices for growing healthy spring vegetables.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Oh, first of all, wait to plant until after your
frost date. I always wait until we get to the
ninety percent foss free date, which is coming up here
on April first, okay, and that's when I'm going to
be planting tomatoes. Second, consistent watering if you're in if
(14:52):
you're growing in containers, that plant relies on you, and
so you need to keep that reach zone consistently moist.
Especially important for tomatoes because if it's if that plant
goes through wet dry cycling, you're going to get blossom
endropped yea. And one of the best things you can
(15:13):
prevent blossom endro is to keep that a root zone
consistently moist, not stopping wet, and not dry consistently moch
That means maybe you have to water every day. Right,
That's the beauty of growing in a big container. It
holds more water and you may not have to water
as often as if you're growing that tomato in a
(15:34):
one gallon container.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Right, Because I'm telling people if you if your.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Plant is wilting every day and and it seems like
it needs more water, you may not have enough potting
soil or soil in the container.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And so what should they do? What should they do
if a container's root bound? How do they know that?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Well, you gave a great example. The plant could be welting,
you know, very frequently at a lot of times. What
you can do with that, especially in the spring of
the year. Pop that plant out of that small container
and put it in a big container and the solution
could be as easy as that.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
I'm also the correct potting mix. Don't put a soil
regular dirt in a container and expect to have success.
I always recommend professional potting mixes or container mixes like
pro Mix, Metro Mix, Funshine, anything that you can get
primarily you're going to get these from your independent garden center.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Now, So just for clarification, because we talked a little
just we just touched on it. So your last or
your earliest or your latest frost date. Let me say
that your latest frostate is April first, but that's because
you're in zone eight and then.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
We're in zone nine to eight here on the Mississippi coast.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, because our early our latest frost date is March
fifteenth here in Orlando.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Right, Yeah, Now, March fifteenth for us is a fifty
percent chance of frost, right, And I don't like to
roll the dice, and I'd rather wait two weeks and
be pretty much assured I'm going to have to worry
about covering, right.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And So anywhere in the country where they're hearing this,
contact your local extension office and they will tell you
what zone you're in, or you can just google your
city and say heartiness zones, zones, this last frostate and
they'll get that information.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
So that's correctly.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So last week I was talking about pest nematodes and
leaf miners and how can gardeners who use containers, how
can they keep the insects from getting from you know,
being a pest in their in their container garden.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Well, you know that that's just the thing. Whether you
grow in the ground or in the container, you're still
going to have the same past pressures. So growing containers
doesn't make you immune from leaf miners or or the
other pests. It's being observant and being aware and watching
for signs of that pest and then treating appropriately. You know,
(18:11):
you talked about the leaf miners and they make the
little trails in the leaf. When you start seeing that,
it's the perfect time to go out and use spinosa.
I love Captain Jack's dead bug Bruce. Spinosa's is organic,
but it's also translaminer, where it will give you about
(18:31):
twenty one days of effective prevention or control of leaf
miners versus BT, which has a longevity of one or
two days because it photoed degrades.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So, Gary, I have a couple more questions. Can you
stay through the break? We've got a heart break coming up?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, super happy to Okay, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
So give us your website where they can see the
videos and tell them how to contact you.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Okay, the video The easiest is on YouTube. My YouTube channel,
which is Real World Gardening. There's way too many Gary
grows out there, so I had to come up with
a name that was kind of unique, but Real World Gardening.
Facebook is Gary Grows at Heritage Cottage and my email
(19:19):
is Gary at gary death Grow. Top is the easiest
way to go.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
There you go. I'm going to put all those links
on Facebook.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
But I've got a few more questions to ask you
about vegetables and chili and we're going to be right back.
If it's Saturday morning from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back
(20:02):
to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm talking with doctor Gary Bachman,
Heritage Cottage Urban Nanofarm. He has wonderful, uh great varieties
of heritage cottage seeds and plants as knowledge is amazing.
We've been talking about tomatoes, growing tomatoes in containers and
other vegetables, so Gary, I wanted to just touch on
(20:24):
the containers and talk about drainage. When we're talking about
using five ors five gallon buckets, we need to make
sure that it has good drainage.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
How do we do that?
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Primarily, I'll tell you it's using the proper container mix.
In your neck. You know that there's a lot of
a lot of you know, advice out there to put
rocks and styrophoam and cans and things in the bottom
of your containers to increase straine. What it really doesn't
work that way if you if you have the right
(20:54):
container container micks. When we put it this way, professional
container mix is engineered to have the proper water holding
capacity for containers. It's called professional container mix. If you
don't want to fill a big pot with it's expensive.
I'll just be honest with him. You can What you
(21:15):
can do is you can put large chip pine bark
in the bottom and the good potting mix on top,
and that stratifies the container. And that's what a lot
of big nurseries are doing now. Some of the newest
container media research is talking about stratification of the mix
(21:36):
in big pots. And so some of my bigger pots,
I put big chunk pine.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Bark in the bottom, right, Okay, that.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Does that doesn't That doesn't improve drainage. That's that's all.
It just does. Root zone health wise. That's that's all
that is.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Okay, super So.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Now in January, you wrote about a fruit variety that
is named after three Central Florida cities, and I would
love to briefly talk about growing them and how they're
doing now after the freeze.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So you talked about line quots, So tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Okay, line quotz. I first heard of line quats about
four years ago from my old classmate Shanks Farmer. You've
had him on your show, yes, and he was selling
line quots. No, I'm good, I'm collecting citrus. I'd never
heard of a line cloth, and it fruited and it
(22:32):
was like a little oblong clou quat that tasted like
a lime. It was orange. And then I started doing
some research on it, and then I found another variety
called Eustace and the Eustace line cloth. And evidently back
in the early nineteen hundreds, the USDA at the Eustace
(22:55):
Research Center that they had they were breeding or crossing
come quants with key lines trying to increase cold hardiness
and key limes, and they came up with three selections. Eustace,
which is round and kind of like it looks kind
of like a key lime. They came up with Tavares,
(23:17):
which was the variety that I got from Jenks, which
is a little long oblong in orange. And then there
was a third one called Lakeland, and I've been searching
for Lakeland for several years and I finally found a
source of that. So I've got all three of these
really old selections in the USDA there and from Central
(23:38):
Florida growing in the growing in my art. And the
nice thing about it is the kumquat part of that
equation gives the key lime some cold hardiness. And you know,
for whatever reason, you know, as far as you know marketability,
you know, they really did and take off from a
(24:01):
production standpoint. But they're out there and I think it's
a it's a cicrus curiosity, let me let me put
it that way, and something fun to grow. And I'm
probably the only person in Mississippi that have all three
of these selections grow growing in my yard. So I
like to think I like to think that at least,
let me put it that way.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
And so you get you do get line quots from them.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
You get line quots. They they all they all look
a little different. They have they have different you know, appearances,
and you want some, they all they all taste like wine.
And because of the tumb quat and the tongue quat
variety that they use was nagami. The the peel is
also edible, which tastes like tastes like wine. So so
(24:47):
it's fun.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Margueritea is here we come. That's that's wonderful. Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
So now Heritage Cottage sells chili seeds of different varieties
of peppers.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
But you have a new chili in your household. Let's
talk about chili.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
A Well, there's there's I'm trying new varieties of chili's
all the time for Heritage Cottage Seeds to kind of
expand on on the you know, the unusual types.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
But what about the fur type?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, so you have a live one inside your house,
now a new one.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You're chili a lot alive.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Good man, that just went right over my head. I'm
in plant mode. Now. The new chili that we have
growing inside is my is my new rescue dog named Chili.
I finally decided after after we lost Pansy, who we'd
(25:51):
had for thirteen years, last fall, it was time to
get to get another dog and so, so Chili is
our new rescue dog. She has her own Facebook page
called Chili the Heritage Seed Farm Dog, so you can,
so you can, so you can check that out. And yeah,
it was time. She She's a handful, let me tell
(26:13):
you that. And I'm getting way more than ten thousand
steps today walk in her. But but it's nice to have,
you know, the tiki tag of nails in the house again.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yes, I'm so sure.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
She is so sweet looking and so I was really
pleased to see that.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
And does she eat peppers?
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Do you know? I don't, I don't know. I know
that she has been on the hunt for Noley's this
week out in the yard. So I mean she maybe
maybe she's not vegan or anything, you know, or vegetarian,
so she could be out hunting for her own dinner.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
But well, she is Maya Maya Scottie Ashila.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
She would go out to the garden and I was
at the kitchen sink when and I looking down and
she's eating she's pulling the Scotch bonnets off of the
peppers and she's chomping down on the Scotch bondets and
she liked them.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Oh my goodness, gracious.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
It was something so Gary, tell us tell everybody where
they can find your YouTube channel and where they can
get more videos, and your website and seeds.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Sure Sure the seeds is Heritage Cottage Seeds dot com.
We're pretty straightforward there. The videos I'm kind of concentrating
on YouTube now and my videos. You can go to
Real World Gardening and you can see all the videos
including my ten tomato rules the shorts that I posted
(27:45):
going through day by day. Facebook is Gary Grows at
Heritage Cottage. My website is Garydashgrows dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Thank you so much, Gary, We appreciate it. Give a huggig, Katie.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It's Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens.
I'm Teresa Watkins and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network,
and welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. If you
(28:28):
have a gardening question, we'd love to talk to you
one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Let your friends and family know about Better Lawns and
Gardens and go to our Facebook page and just clip
like and give us five stars.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We would love to have that, and so I wanted
to tell hey, thank you to Gary Buckman. We had
to clip it right there. We had a hard break.
But doctor Gary Buckman is wonderful. You can catch his
YouTube channel videos. They're they're amazing. His ten tips for
growing tomatoes and containers is wonderful, and you can go
(29:05):
to his website Gary dash grows dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Garydashgrows dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And I will be posting the links on Facebook to
everything we talked about today, so that will be cool.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Let's go to Aileen in Polk City. Good morning, Eileen.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
How are you morning, Teresa?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
How are you? I am great?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Sorry for all we had a long segment there, and
so how is your garden looking right now?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Right now?
Speaker 5 (29:31):
I have roses on the left hand, right hand side
of my porch.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Oh nice, Yes, so.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
They're doing good. In the backyard, they're fine, except for
my copper plant. I will be getting another one.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Okay, it did not make it to me.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
A picture of her azalia that to that it throws
because she didn't cover anything lazy behind. But so I'm
going to be getting one of those. Excellent, got of
(30:14):
that loath excellent. I wanted to tell you about the
rosebush I got. Okay, it is called swift a sweet rose,
and it's in pink, a very pretty dark pink.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Nice. And it's a drift rose.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yes, okay, boy does it smell.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh that's what smells good.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Yeah, and it smells really good. And I was walking
down the stairs, so I decided to come up because boy,
or they crow, and they're all crowing this morning.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Oh wonderful.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
Yeah, I love you. I'm trying to get rid of them,
the Mexicans.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
All right, so great, So are you did you fertilize
them or how are you taking care of your jephrosis?
Speaker 5 (31:10):
I'm going to put them in black cow.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Excellent, excellent, all right, I take care. Thank you for calling.
Let's go to Bill an Ormond Beach. Good morning Bill,
how can we help you?
Speaker 6 (31:22):
Good morning Theresa. I've got this desert road that had
some soft areas due to the cold, and so I've
cut back. It's been in my garage for a while.
I thought i'd cut back enough, but you know, feeling
it today, it is Okay, it's a little soft there,
so I just cut it off and put cinnamon on
(31:43):
the cut. Okay, is there anything else? Should I just
kind of I guess let it caught x or I
mean not cott ex but hardened over before I put
it on dirt.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, So what I would want to make sure is
that it's getting enough full sun. Okay, so it needs
totally full sun. I would ease up on the water
a little bit. If you're watering it and the cinnamon's good,
that's gonna prevent the infection or fungus to start. And
just fertilize it. You may want to give it some
fertilizer just to give it a little push.
Speaker 6 (32:15):
Okay, because it's been you know, sitting on its own,
no dirt, no nothing in the garage for weeks.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Well, once you put it in the dirt, it's gonna
then start to produce roots.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But it's something that could grow outside, you know, it could.
It doesn't need the soil per se. It's an epiphyt
or you know, it's and the succulent too as well.
So we can stay out of the pot for a
little while. But once you put it in a pot,
put it in full sun for at least eight hours,
it'll start to just take off.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
Okay, same thing with plumarios. I mean, if I feel
soft I definitely have to cut those off.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yeah, I would cut them diagonally. I would because that's
just gonna it's not gonna harden back up again. Okay,
So you know, I would.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Just want to just travel down the stem right exactly. Yeah,
that's okay, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You're welcome. Nice to talk to you. That's great. That's
Bill for Mormon Beach and he has.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Some wonderful plant collections and so we definitely want to
thank Dana Vendrick for coming on in the first hour
talking about the Florida Wildflower and Garden Festival today nine
am through three pm this afternoon. That is downtown Main Street,
the land which has lots of beautiful restaurants, vintage stores,
(33:30):
antiques and clothing. It's a great a great place to
visit with. Also the Outdoor Art Festival too is going
on at the same time. Free parking, free admission, plenty
of plant vendors. If you would like to get native
plants and native seeds, which is very hard to come by,
the native seeds are wonderful. You can go and get
(33:51):
them today. We have lots of great speakers on today
from the University of Florida, Velusia County all the environmental agencies.
It's going to be a great day for getting educated
on growing native plants and growing sustainably. Dana's talking about
gardening at home and he'll be on early just in
a few minutes there, Uh, he'll be he'll be getting
(34:11):
on talking. I am speaking at eleven o'clock for you know,
Florida pollinators gone wild and lots of great information that
I'll give you today. And I'd like to see you
because you know, putting a face with with the voices
always really helps. That I love when we went down
to Peterson's Nursery last week that we got to see
(34:32):
some of our listeners in Ira, so Ira and then
Brenda and so just it was wonderful to put together
some of the faces with the names.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
One hundred percent. Yeah, that's always good to see.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
And so my newsletters coming out and if you would
like to uh to get the newsletter, it's free. I
do not spam or sell it and you can go
to she Dash Consulting dot com, she Dash Consulting dot
com and and just sign up for it. There also
to uh if you would like to know any more
(35:05):
about our art and garden tours, Art and bloomgardentours dot com,
Art and Garden Tours, garden art and bloomgardenours dot com.
There you go and there and so uh you can
go on to it. Just google treats of what it's
an art and bloom and it'll come up. But we
have wonderful garden uh tours still available for this year.
(35:27):
We're sold out of the Revolutionary Garden Tour and the
Chelsea Flower Show. We have a couple of seas left
uh spaces on our Newport and then also uh the
uh Buffalo Garden Walk and France. We're going to the
Artista Gardens of France in August, and then uh we're
going to the Brandywine Valley in September and then New
(35:50):
Orleans in October, which will be lots of fun and
it's art and bloomgardentours dot com.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Yes, then you get all your price in there. And
and see, I need a passport because one of them
that we are y'all are going to slide into Canada.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Right.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, we're going to Buffalo, New York.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
You need a passport and go on to Canada.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
We're going to uh the Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah, I mean I don't know if you can still
get in with your ber certificate. But then you're looking
at you need a pass for three hour wait no, no, no,
from what I understand, yeah, we need you need a
passport to go now, so we just go and get
right through.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
It's it's wonderful, So we'd love to have you join us.
We go to some beautiful gardens, some private gardens, and
we're already getting our waiting list for twenty twenty seven,
so we just want to get in there and we'd.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Love for you to travel with us.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Now, when will you be releasing the twenty seven So
I say.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
They'll be They'll be coming out probably in the next
month or so to get on the waiting list. Okay,
so by the by May first, May first, and uh
and then too. I also want to thank doctor Gary
Bachman for coming on. And it's so funny that he
named his dog Chili and he thought we were talking
about chili pepper seeds. That was sweet that I love it,
so sweet. So she is just a wonderful dog. You
(37:09):
can go onto Facebook and see it. But Gary dot,
I mean sorry, garydash grows dot com. Garydash grows dot
com is the website and I'll be posting them on
our Facebook page to it.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Today is a beautiful day. So and we're suposed to have
a lot of wind either this afternoon or tomorrow. So
look around your yard and kind of pretend that a
little bit of its like almost like a hurricane season.
So if you see stuff that can blow around, you
may just want to go ahead. We're just having a
tornado or hurricane per se. But it's supposed to get
like thirty mile an hour winds.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Even higher on the coast. You're talking about that.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
So and it's a good time to look at your
your trees and everything too as well for a hurricane season.
Get it done now before hurricane season gets here. So
we are going to have some storms this year, but
we need the rain and so we need tropical storms
in the rainfall moked so much because of the drought
we've had for the last two years.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, and right now is a good time to go
through if you have any of your hurricane supplies left
from last year, if they're going to expire by the
end of this year. You know what we do is
we go through and we donate them to like a
local church, and then I start buying. You know, a
case of water each week starting in April is usually
what we do for our family.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So that is so true. So we are coming up
on April and what to do in the month. Next
week we'll be talking about that, what to do in
your landscape. Just remember that if your irrigation goes on
after you've had a couple of rainy events, that you
need to make sure that your rain shut off device
is working. Okay, Watering more and watering often is not
(38:44):
good for the landscape. So those of you that are
new to Florida, you only need an inch and a
half of water or rainfall a week for your landscape.
You do not need the inches and inches. And you
do not need to be watering or irrigating every day,
or even three times a week, even two times a week.
You don't need to do it. So the less you
(39:05):
can water your lawn, the healthier it's going to be.
And so we appreciate it. We'll see you here next week.
Come see me at the Florida Wildflower Garden and Festival
in DeLand this week. So I'm Teresa Watkins. If it's
Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawns and gardens.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
That's it. I gotta go. Cup of tea time. This
is Florida's talk and Entertainment network.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
If you missed any of the share i Wanner recap this,
you can at better Lawns dot com. That's better lawns
dot com.
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