Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to forty five Forward with host, journalist and speaker
Ron row Out. Ron's mission is second half of life,
even better than your first. Most of us are just
approaching our half life when we reach the mid forties,
with many productive years ahead. Ron is here to help
(00:28):
prepare us for this kind of longevity by providing vital
strategies to shift the traditional waiting for retirement model to
a continuous, evolving journey of compelling life chapters. So now
please welcome the host of forty five Forward, Ron row Out.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Welcome everyone to forty five Forward on Bold Brave TV.
This is Ron ra Well, your host. Now, yesterday was
Earth's Day, and as most of you know, and like
every year, it seems to come for me at almost
exactly the right time that the buds are bursting, the
flowers are really coming out, and to me it's like
opening day for the home gardening season and to us
(01:27):
in this season. I'll be talking today with Brian Zimmerman,
who is the owner of Whole Yard Consulting, and he's
Brian is going to offer a ray of tips about
how to start and maintain your garden, including some unusual
ones you might not expect. So Brian is the author
of Gardening My Way. He'll explain his philosophy of sustainable
(01:47):
gardening using native plants and not too gardens and perhaps
getting rid of lawns. But much more on that coming up.
But he'll also talk about the importance philosophical about changing
our food system to more localized system growing fruits and
vegetables and incorporating into our landscape concept heek calls food scaping.
(02:11):
So now let's meet our guests, Brian Zimmerman and learn
much more about Gardening His Way in Our Way. So, Brian,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Oh, thank you, Ryan, it's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, great to have you. So, as I said, it's
opening day, so let's let's talk a little bitout But
but before you know, before we get into actually a
lot of your thoughts about gardening. Part of my show
is about the people on the show and as well
as the topics we cover, and you've had a very
interesting pass. I always like to sort of emphasize that
people's lives are a matter of chapters, and they evolve
(02:43):
and you learn from each chapter. So give us just
an encapsulation a little bit of some of the things
you've done I notice you've, you know, in looking at
your buyer, you are a conservationist, a farmer, a chef,
an entrepreneur, and a writer. So talk a little about
how you got to where you were today.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh it's a long and winding road, isn't Yeah. No,
I started off after high school. I decided, you know,
I wanted to be a chef. So I went to
culinary school. I thought it was fantastic. I loved it,
but it's kind of a burnout type of, you know, profession.
So I've always had an interest in conservation, in farming,
(03:19):
so I went to ag school and I got a
degree in agroundom me. So then I started working for
the Parks Department in New York State Parks. And then
I went to Cornell Extension Service, working for them on
their county farm. And then I worked for the federal
government working for them in conservation planning. So I helped
plan a lot of the farms out on the island.
I worked in Riverhead, upstate and throughout New York. And
(03:42):
then that was a great career. Worked for the state
in the conservation district and from there, you know, I
was like, you know, what what we need to do?
Is we need to make beer on Long Island and
grow grains. And I started working on trying to get
a malt house on Long Island, which is an amaze. Wow, yeah,
(04:02):
it's fun. And then all my experiences taught me it's
like I got to use these in some certain way
and show people what we're doing. So I said, let's
write about it, let's talk about it. Let's start our
business so we can help promote sustainability and landscapes. And
that's why that one book came about. And then I
decided to write another one on children's issues, and it's
(04:25):
just snowballing since then. It's been a great, great ride.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Let's put it that way, and it's still going. So
that's great. So let's start a little bit. Let's dive
a little bit into your notion of gardening. Your gardening
our way. And everyone talks about sustainability, but what we
talk about what that really means, you know, especially at
a local level.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
No, sustainability, basically to me and to everybody else, is
working with nature more than it is working against nature.
So right now a lot of people are not working
fully with it. They're there, they're you know, doing lawns,
they're they're planting the same old kind of shrubbery that
you see. You drive down a Long Island street, you
(05:08):
see the same ye bushes, uanimous, you see uh, pine trees,
you see the same old thing, and sometimes underneath you'll
see some marigolds or some impatience, and there's not much
there to help promote the natural environment that we're born into.
So sustainability to me is really working with nature, getting
(05:31):
things together where we're gonna help the pollinators, the bees
and everything that's around us, instead of fighting it by
having to having to you have a great, big lawn
instead of having some plants in there.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, yeah, no, So I have some lawn. But I
have discovered over the years that you know, lawns and
trees aren't always good mix. And something I didn't really
think about. We have some you know, big, you know,
old older trees, you.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Know they're magnificent.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Uh. And then what I discovered is that, hmm, roots
just don't go down, they go across. So there are
lots of these surface roots and it's just say, well,
this is not I can't have a lawn that So
I mean, so what I've been trying to think about
is how I can curb the lawn. You know, there
(06:26):
are certain uses of it. One for our backyard. There's
a certain aesthetic if you want to have parties and
so forth, it's useful. But I agree that that's that
there are ways that we can use less lawn And
you've actually done some research about really what the cost
is of lawns, you know, and from a sustainability perspective.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Oh, absolutely, lawns launs to me, and they're kind of
a waste of time, energy and money really when you
come down to it, if they have to be in
the right spot. Lawns really started a long time ago
in France and England. Really, somebody had told me years
ago that on the biggest states that the lawns were
(07:08):
put in basically to show like, you know, we're rich
enough where we don't have the farmer land, you know,
we can leave open spaces and there it is. It's
just there. It looks beautiful and I'm not using it.
And so they move that here to America. Some of
the designers think about the parks we have. Central Park
has a great lawn or even Greenwood Cemetery, and a
(07:31):
lot of the parks that were developed even Brooklyn parks
have the lawns in them. So people looked at those
and said, wow, that's great. I like that. I need that.
And so it's simple to put in you know, you're
just put in grass your level, your ground. You put
in grass, they grow, you water it, you fertilize it,
you put in pesticides, and you have your lawn. Part
(07:51):
of suburbia is a lawn. I remember growing up, well,
you know, we had a lawn. It's basically it's like, okay,
go out and play, you know, go on playing the
lawn and throw the ball around and have a great
time on the lawn. Yeah. Right, But now it's a
little different. You know, the kids can play on the
back lawn, but the front lawns or even part of
(08:12):
a loan, we can shrink them a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I looked up some of the costs because I went
writing the book. I was like, you know, how do
we change and what's the cost of actually having a lawn, right,
So I looked it up that you know, you as
a homeowner, you'll throw down maybe a couple pounds of
you know, past aside to get rid of some weeds
or some bugs or something or a landscape or will
(08:37):
and then you'll put down some lime and fertilizer. You're like, Okay, great,
my lam looks great for the year. I'm feeling pretty
good about that. But overall in the United States, when
I was researching, I was like this, these numbers are outrageous. Here,
here's a couple of them. Americans in a year put
(08:57):
down sixty seven million pounds of peaceize fertilizer, ninety million
pounds of fertilizer a year, and that all comes from
petroleum products, most of that. So it's we're also using
our gas. We're using all of that energy to create
that to synthesize the fertilizer. But here's the thing that
(09:20):
really gets to me that in one year Americans, overall
there's millions of you know, thousands of acres of lawns
in America. They use nine billion gallons of water on
their on their lawn a year. Water is a finite
resource that we really should preserve. In Long Island, we're
(09:44):
a soul source aquifer. So that means, you know, we're
getting all our water from right below us, all that pesticide,
all that fertilizer, it has to go somewhere if it's
not being utilized, it's going straight to our aquifer or
running off into you know, running off into the bays
or streams, and we know how we love our bays
(10:06):
and streams along the island.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, so it is there's a cost
to it, and uh, you know again can't change everything overnight,
and there's some use to launch. But I think, you know,
in my case for example, it's just like, well you
can you know that they are the corners where where
the shade trees come up like this, Let's redevelop those
corners and you know, repopulate them with plants. So that's
(10:32):
what I would.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, and there are a lot of plants that can
be used for that. You know, they're adaptable plants that
can grow in those kind of conditions. It's just yet
you have to have somebody to you know, call them
look at your either that or do your own research.
You can find out that there are like in a
shady conditions, there's some herbs or so lariope it's cold,
(10:55):
or some other plants that will thrive in those kind
of conditions. Don't use any pesticides or fertilizer on because
they're living where they belong right right.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So before we talk a little bit more about these
kinds of options, Brian, So my show is forty five forward,
and you know, I like to think about what people
can do in their later chapters of life. And one
of the things that a lot of people do is
they get older, is they love gardening and they want
to do more of it. So before we talk about
the actual planting, what are some of the I mean,
I know there are some benefits, but what are some
(11:26):
of the caveats Because some of I've discovered too is
like you know, people get involved in pickaball and like
all of a sudden, their knees go, you know, so
you have to be You've got to be careful about gardening, right,
I mean you've got to think about, you know, how
you do it and do it safely for yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Oh absolutely, Yeah. You have to ease into it, you know,
you can't just go for it. Then there's plays to
do that. If you're a senior, older, you have a
disability or something. There are benches that they're like three
foot high you can fill with soil and do all
you're planting in that so you can walk up to
it instead of doing a lot of bending, which is
(12:05):
a big issue for a lot of people as they
get older. But I think the benefits kind of of
any kind of gardening outweigh that if you have a
good garden inside, or you're healthy enough, you can you know,
grow things in your garden. You know, bend down or
use the right tools to hoe, or just put a
plant in and see how it goes, or trellis plants.
(12:28):
So there's ways you can manage to get into gardening
in a senior level. But the benefits to me outweigh
the negatives for it. Because I just went to a
senior center and I did a talk over there, and
they're doing wonderful work over there. They have benches lined
up for the people who can't bend too much. They
(12:51):
have a section where they can actually you know, the
people who are a little more energetic can actually plant
in the ground and do their work that way. So
they get a whole community aspect of it. You know,
they're in a garden club. There's like twenty five people.
They have talk and discussions. They get out there and
they enjoy their time together. Right and you're outside, you're exercising.
(13:15):
It's helping your mobility. So there's a lot of positives
to do in the gardening when as you get a
little older.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, there are. People just talk a lot about
you know, being outside, being with nature, or just being
you know, you know, getting your hands in the soil.
We'll talk about soil more later about the.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Importance soil, one of my favorite subjects.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, so, you know, and for me when I
go out and you know, even when i'm you know,
sometimes pulling up you know, not not weeds, but extraneous
you know, stuff in the garden, it's just you know,
it forces your mind out of doing what we usually do,
which is sitting in front of a computer.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Now we have to do now.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But but it really it takes your mind away and
I think really does things in a very positive way
to get yourself in a different space. And you know,
it's relaxing, it's you know, it's it's you've been mindful
and you're you're just working and physically and and your
mind is just released. So I really I'm talking to
(14:20):
do more about this. I'm glad that the weather is
broken because I like to be outside more so.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Oh absolutely, And relaxation is a really good point and
it relieves the stress. As you said, your mind just
goes in another direction. When you're out and the energy
out in the sun, you get the sun's energy. The
soil has microbes that are supposed to be really good
for your you also, so it's I know a woman
who actually she's really health conscious into wellness. When she's
(14:48):
feeling a little stressed, she'll take her shoes off and
walk in the soil and in the dirt and says
it really re energizes her and makes her feel a
little better. And she did some research and said, yeah,
you do that for a few hours, nine hours, a
few minutes a day, that can really relieve somebody's stress too.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah. Great, okay, so listen, this went quickly, So Brian,
we need to take a short break. Folks. We're going
to take a few minutes off to sneak in a break.
But when we come back when we're talking much more
with Brian Zimmerman, So don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
sits birth, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer, including two seconds, two.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Thirds, and two fourths.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
He also won the Veterans Folk Style Wrestling twice at
one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all these tournaments,
he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich a creative
spirit whose talents have taken her to the stage and
into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father, a
commercial artist, who shared his instruments with his daughter and
(16:04):
helped her fine tune her natural abilities, influenced her decision
to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed a
fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings at
twelve Eastern with the Nancy and Mike Show for heartwarming
stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse.
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent, but you're not sure
how I'm Famila d Wilson. Join me for the Caring
(16:48):
Generation radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings,
six Pacific, seven Mountain, eighth Central, and nine Eastern, where
I answer these questions and share tips for managing stress,
family relatelationships, health, wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of
The Carrying Generation are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com,
(17:08):
plus my Caregiving library. Online caregiver support programs and programs
for corporations interested in supporting working caregivers.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Help, hope and support for.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
Caregivers is here on The Carrying Generation and Pamela d
Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Welcome back, folks to forty five Forward. I'm your host
Ron Rowell. Again. We're talking with Brian Zimmerman, the owner
of hold Yard Gardening and Yes, Whole Yard Gardening. Right okay,
and before the break we were talking about some of
Brian's ideas about how to sustain your property. You're landscaping.
(18:02):
I want to talk about a few of your tips
and then we'll talk more broad food scaping. But the
idea of you know, some things like uh, you know,
using native plants or rotating you know, colors and perennials.
What are some of your tips just about the live
in the landscape without you know, while sustaining it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Okay, yes, stainability. As we talked about earlier, is you know,
working with nature. So each plant has its it's best
conditions where it likes to grow to summer in shade,
summer and sun. Some like a little bit of both,
and the soil has a lot to do with that.
So there there's a lot of tips and tricks you
(18:45):
can use. I mean, there's a lot of gardening websites
you can go to, But what I like to do
is look at look at the conditions that I do have.
If there you know, if it's a you get six
hours of sun or or less, you're going to want
to get something a little less, you know, a little
more shade tolerant six or eight hours and more. You
(19:07):
can plant you know, vegetables and have a great vegetable
garden and fruit goes very well that way. Native plants
is something that is in our gardens. There's something we
should put in our gardens because what native plants do
is they're adapted to our conditions, to our soil, and
they're gonna bloom. You can get a variety of those
(19:29):
plants that will bloom spring early, and there's some that
will bloom a little later and some that will actually
bloom into fall. Like there's some that I like. Butterfly
milkweed is something a beautiful orange plant, great pollinator, and
it goes a little later in the season, which is
fantastic for those late eas and pollinators. We need to
(19:52):
use them that way, so you can use time. You
can use herbs in your garden as well, and they'll
bloom at different times. Who I have in this scard
and a little patch of herbs and I have cat
mint in there, and the cat meant beautiful blooms amazing.
The cats love it. They don't come to it, but
the cat we have at the house will go there
(20:14):
and kind of pick some leaves every once in a while.
But it does grow well. And I've had some amazing
amount of pollinators on that, and that blooms a little earlier.
So there's a lot of different blooming times you can
look at. There's a chart that I use and I
look at then I'll give you that information. It's really
important to try and get the whole gamut. Of pollinators
(20:37):
from ones that are just coming out now. And one
of the things that I try and tell people is
is leave leave the dandelions, because they're one of the
first pollinator plants that they really do enjoy.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Great, so you're helping pollinators amazingly, but it's hard to
convince some people. I did a talk at a library
and said, you know, they're coming out the dandelions a
little bit. People were kind of like, ass oh, no,
I can't have them in my lawn. I'm like, well,
they come for a while and they go, but they
do help the pollinator species, So you got to work
(21:14):
with nature that way, and that's one of the ones
that I like to tell people to keep on your lawn.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah. So the pollinators we're talking about essentially our bees.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Well there's bees. Yeah, there's honey bees, but a lot
of the bees we have are our loan bees. They
kind of live in the ground, so they're overwinter in
the ground. So that's why I'm also you know a
lot of people are into leave the leaves basically, instead
of cleaning up in the fall, clean in the spring
after the temperatures get to be about fifty degrees because
(21:47):
lightning bugs, bees, They all live in that leaf litter.
They also bury into the ground and when they come
up that you know, if there's nothing there or nothing left,
they can freeze, they can die and losing our pollinators, right,
you know. So that's something that's very important is leaving
those leaves. You don't really need to get rid of
(22:08):
them in the spring and in the spring and the
fall because you're not really doing anything with your lawn
mostly in the and beads in the in the winter time,
so might as well just leave them and start cleaning
up later in the season.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Right. So let's move on to this notion of food scaping,
because I think that this is an interesting idea and
you know, so a lot of us think about what
we have our garden and then we have our vegetable patch.
But you talk about actually having more integrated design to
your property. So talk a little about that, Brian.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Oh oh yeah, oh no, this isn't an idea I
came up with that all. There's a whole group of
a whole group dedicated to food scaping out there throughout
the country, and there are practitioners of it. But it
didn't start with this group or it start with me.
It actually started years ago, a couple hundred years ago actually,
(23:04):
And funny I went to just recently, I went to Sagamore,
Hilly Roosevelt's house and gardens. It was amazing. He did
have a farm dedicated to the animals, dedicated to eggs
and chickens, but he also had a three acre site
there that was for relaxation for his wife and children.
(23:29):
Three acres and it was basically a food skate. They
had flowers, they had planted fruit trees, they had planted bushes,
and within some of the crags they would plant vegetables. Also,
they had Swiss charred and kale, and they had all
sorts of other things growing just within those paths. And
Missus Roosevelt would go in there and just wander around,
(23:51):
sit and just enjoy the company of nature. Really basically,
but it's not just me, But basically it's started with
You have your landscape. It doesn't have to just be plants.
I mean, eggplants are a beautiful plant. Peppers are amazing
with a lot of flowers on them. But you also
get some vegetable and some use out of it. It's
(24:14):
not something you want to you should separate. I think
it would be great to put maybe blueberry bushes in
there and maybe elderberry bush or some kind of fruit
tree on the edge, so it makes like a nice
little path and you can actually get something out of
your garden and landscape.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah. Yeah, So as you're talking, I'm just reminiscing that
when my family moved to Long Island from Brooklyn years ago,
my father cleared the land and he did plant a lawn,
but he kept many trees. He was loved with trees,
and i've been I do remember early on there was
(24:55):
just a you know, the front lawn was just smaller,
and on the edges were blueberry patches.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I just love those blueberry patches and you know, and
you know, being able to pick them, you know, and
make homemade pies. And I know you have a raspberry
You had a raspberry patch right as well yourself.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Oh yeah, absolutely when when the family moved out from Queens,
when out from Brooklyn or from Queens, we moved out
there to Belmore and in the back edge there was
a raspberry patch. And there's old pictures of me as
a little child, like two years old with that raspberry
packs and I remember eating those right going back to
(25:36):
the back edge and picking those raspberries, and I still
have those canes right now. I moved and moved to
massapig Right now, I've still got those canes growing in
different areas because you can't give them up. It's greate fruit.
And it's a great memory to have to have those vegetables,
that that fruit is still around.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, yeah, I speaking of memories. You know, we were
chatting before and during the break about this, which is
that you know, part of the joy of the garden
and the landscape is that you know it grows, it
grows with you. So it's a sense of over the years,
a sense of history, right that that you that's there
and you can see the progress and you can see
(26:17):
the changes over the years, and you know it it does,
you know, literally and figuratively ground you, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Oh absolutely, And that's I have a memory of a
lot of memories of the garden. You know. In Belmore,
even when I was little, we have a little vegetable
patch and I still remember going back and picking whatever
we had. The fresh tomatoes tasted better than any tomato
I have ever had, because maybe it's just a memory
(26:46):
of it, but the way we grew just something special
about it. Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah. And so this, you know, leads us into sort
of broadening the notion of local food escaping and in
terms of creating you know, local communities of gardens. And
I think that this is something that you've written about
and talked about, and then you're talked about tomatoes. Reminded
me of it, because that's one thing clearly that you know,
(27:15):
I think we all experiences like the difference between winter
and summer tomatoes is just incomparable, you know, they're just
two different things. So talk about some of the of
you know, that sort of need to localize food. And
it can't be done, as you point out, everything takes
some time and bit by bit, but the importance of
(27:36):
trying to do that when we can.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Right, oh, absolutely, you know it comes down to Lately,
I've been seeing a lot of articles and even through
the winter time about you know, food recalls. There's been
so many food recalls out there. I can't believe there
was cucumber recall or atlantis or a submanage recall like that.
(27:59):
Is is ridiculous. If you had that local, you really
wouldn't have that problem because a lot of our food
that we're getting comes from an average of fifteen hundred
miles away. I mean, we're getting our stuff from California
or from Florida or Georgia, and a lot of that
food has grown on basically factory farms. You know, the
(28:21):
local farmer you know, went out of business and they
just the farm community got condensed that way, right, So
there's a lot of big farms out there producing what
we eat. So if we bring that all back to local,
we're not going to have those issues. It's a decentralized
part of you know, way of eating. You know, it's
(28:43):
we're not you know, you're going to know your farmer,
You're going to see where it's grown. You're going to
have the fresher vegetables. It's not going to be you know,
trucked fifteen hundred miles away and picked early and not ripe,
so it doesn't have this sweetness or the flavor you
get when you have a local or homegrown tomato. There's
(29:06):
a lot of things they do to those tomatoes and
fruit that come our way that you're like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe they're doing that. They ripen them on
the way by you know, gasing them or changing them,
or they have to preserve them in certain ways, you know,
put them in a CO two container and then send
them over because lack of oxygen, no oxygen, they're gonna
(29:29):
you know, they're not gonna rot. So we get them
that way. So a lot of energy, a lot of
things go into that. With our local foods, I mean,
we're looking at fresher, we're looking at a decentralized part
of it. Our transportation is less, you know, our CO
two footprint is less. Doing that. We also help the
(29:49):
local economy with local foods. I know, it's a hard thing.
It's one of those things. Farmers' markets are all over
now and we used to do that. When I did
f they were great. A lot of people would come
and they just enjoyed the stuff we had that much
better because the flavor was so much better. And it
(30:11):
also helps the local economy too, because if you have
a farm, you know, a farmer local to you and
you buy his produce, that farmer needs somebody to you know,
fix his equipment. So you have those ancillary type of
businesses and they're gonna you know, work for that farmer
(30:32):
and then they're gonna need something to eat, so they'll
go to the deli of the supermarket. So you're bringing
everything back local to where you are. And I think
that's really important to do.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, I agree, and I think that people really enjoy
it too, being having that connection, being able to go.
You know, we have a guy down the street who
has you know, homegrown honey.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You know, okay, great, that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But yeah, and I just yeah, you know, I again
memories of being kids doing more of that, just going
out every and it does require some time, you know,
going out and getting stuff fresh every couple of well,
but this is you know, what was you know, back
to the future, right, this is what we did every day.
You know when when our grandparents are doing this, they
(31:18):
would go out every day and they get fresh bread,
and they'd go out and they get fresh vegetables or
fresh meat. So you know, it's not like this is again,
it's we're returning to our roots in certain ways. We're
not like changing, you know, upending the system. The system
I'll ended us basically trying to re establish it. And
(31:38):
I get it that you can't do with everything. I
understand that for certain things. Now I happened to love mangoes,
which my mother introduced. My mother was Cuban and she
introduced it to us when we were kids, when nobody
knew what mangoes were, you know, in New York, you know,
and avocados. So that's difficult to do here. So, I mean,
(31:58):
there are certain exceptions of to you know, understand the transported,
but there are lots of things that we can do
better here, you know, and we don't need to transport
them fifteen hundred miles absolutely.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
And part of it also is, you know, there used
to be a push on for restaurants and things to
eat seasonally, you know, so if there are you know,
once if the carrots come in or the tomatoes or
egg plants, it's it's that's what's gonna be on the menu.
It's not going to be oh, look, okay, it's dead
of winter and we're gonna have you know, we're gonna
(32:32):
have tomatoes or we're gonna have peppers in there in
our cooking, you know, kind of reduce that and eat
more seasonally. The swashes are coming in winter, okay, let's
find recipes to use for that. And that's what they
used to do back in the day. Also, they used
to you know, eat seasonally. Now we got kind of
(32:52):
you lazy about it, and we can buy anything anytime,
right right, So that brings it all back home.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, so listen, we need to take another short break,
but folks, we have much more talking about with Brian
Zimmermann about gardening our way in his way together. So
when we come back, we'll be talking much more. Don't
go anywhere, We'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Doctor RC will share extraordinary resources and services that promote
educational success as well as making a difference in the
lives of all social workers as well as the lives
of children, adolescents and teens of today. She will have
open discussions addressing many of the issues that we face
about our youth and how being employed in the uniquely
skilled profession of social work for over eighteen years has
(33:45):
taught invaluable lessons through her personal experiences. She will also
provide real life facts, examples and personal stories that will
confirm that why serving as a child advocate is extremely
beneficial when addressing the needs of the whole child. Listen
Live to Dare to Soar Saturdays, ten am Eastern on
the BBM Global Network. And tune in radio as Doctor
(34:07):
RC will provide thought provoking information that will empower, encourage,
and strengthen students, families, and communities across our nation.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
You can also visit.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Her at Soarwithkatie dot Com. Author, radio show host and
coach John M. Hawkins reveals strategies to help gain perspective,
build confidence, find clarity, achieve goals.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
John M.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Hawkins' new book Coached to Greatness Unlock Your Full Potential
with Limitless Growth, published by I Universe, Hawkins reveals strategies
to help readers accomplish more. He believes the book can
coach them to greatness. Hawkins says that the best athletes
get to the top of their sport with the help
of coaches, mentors, and others. He shares guidance that helps
(34:59):
readers reflect on what motivates them. We discover and assess
their core values, philosophies and competencies, find settings that allow
them to be the most productive, and track their progress
towards accomplishing goals. Listen to John hawkins My Strategy Saturdays
one pm Eastern on the BBM Global Network and tune
(35:20):
in radio.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Welcome back, folks, We're talking today with Brian Zimmerman, who
was the owner of Whole Yard Gardening. We've been talking
a lot about different aspects of gardening, a lot about sustainability,
about local farming, local gardening, local gardens, and sustainable gardens.
So I wanted to just you know, but before I
(35:46):
even get back to with Brian, I want to just
tell you folks, listen if these are If you missed
our live programs, don't worry. You can always find replays
on my playlist on Bulgrave TV's YouTube channel. So click
on my forty five to forward playlist and you can
listen to the show. If you miss it, tell your
friends they can still hear it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
(36:09):
most major streaming platforms. So just keep that in mind.
So back to Brian, let's talk about some of the
other aspects of local gardening and foodscaping people don't think about.
We talked about the importance of water, but also about soil.
You know that's soil is the is the essential component,
(36:33):
and people don't think about it does dirt. So let's
talk about your notion about why why the soil is
so important and how we can really cultivate it and
preserve it.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Oh, absolutely, soil is that it's so essential to your garden.
It From what I was teaching and people have taught me,
is healthy soil, healthy vegetables, healthy person, because everything really
comes from the soil. A lot of what you're getting
from you know, the farmed commercial farms and things, or
(37:06):
it's not nutrition. It's not full of nutrition or a
balanced nutrition for everybody i've been, I've looked up things
on what the nutrition values were on different crops from
fifty years ago to now. They say that fifty years
ago there was ford it for to fifty more minerals
(37:28):
and proteins and nutrients in the food back then than
it is now. And that really comes from a number
of reasons. It comes from the soil. You know, soil.
Now they're you know, putting a lot of pesticides, they're
putting a lot of fertilizer onto that to make their
crops grow. They're beating the soil a little bit more
(37:49):
without adding organic matter to it. So what I espouse
is no till gardening or no till vegetable gardening. You
don't need to till it. Basically, what you're doing when
tilling it is you're breaking up the soil, you're breaking
up the roots. You're exposing organic matter to the air,
(38:10):
which you know kills it. It dissipates it, so you
don't have that. The carbon is being released also, which
the plants do. The roots do need. So if you
have that healthy soil and you don't till it, you're
gonna have a healthier crop. You're not gonna need as
much fertilizer or pesticize either, because in there there's everything's
(38:32):
battling each other, the good versus the bad. If you
have a lot of good natural biota, it's gonna overtake
the bad stuff that's going to affect your plant there.
So yeah, you have to really treat your soil with reverence,
treat it with like the gold it is. I really
think people should look at it. Do pH testing. Make
(38:54):
sure you have the right pH, which is the amount
of hydrogen there. Too much pH makes it an acidic soil,
which is not going to let the nutrients release. So
you should balance your soil and work with it to
have that garden grow.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Well yeah, okay, so let's so no killing, check the
pH of the soil. Very fun and any other thoughts
on how you can care for your soil and cultivate it,
you know, and to its maximum nutritional value.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Oh yeah, no, absolutely, Adding organic matter is great. You know,
I've been you know, working with some people there. My brother,
you know, he had a good garden up here. We
worked together. He moved down to Tennessee. When I, you know,
went down there, I was like, holy cow, it's got
I don't know if you've been to Tennessee or now South.
It's kind of a heavy red clay type of soil
(39:53):
and we're trying to dig it. We're like, oh my gosh,
what are you trying to plant in?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Do?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So I did was I was like, you know what,
let's make a plan. Let's do something here. So he
went let a no kill type of you know garden.
It takes a little while, but no till I had
him plant cover crops which is a rye, a cereal rye,
and put some nitrogen fixing crop within that, like a clover.
(40:20):
And what happens is those roots go down there and
they're adding organic matter. They're living, they're dying, they're breaking
up the soil, creating pathways for the water to go into.
It's adding beautiful richness and organic matter. To it. So
now I just spoke to him on the phone. This
is perfect timing, and he's like, I was like, oh, yeah,
(40:42):
I just did this. I you know, put the cardboard
on top to kill the cover crop, which is you know,
now he can plant into it. I was like, oh,
by the way, how is the soil. He's like, you
won't believe that the changes that happened from not turning
it over or trying to move it, it's just organic
matter and letting that soil sit and breathe and get
(41:06):
its natural living organisms back to indolence again.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Right. So basically when we talk about no tilling, its
is basically not turning over the soil, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Right right, it's just leaving the soil where it is.
It's not moving it. You're not actually if you don't till,
you're not bringing up weed seeds either. So that's something
to look at. Once you get the weeds off the top,
you're not really bringing up the weed seeds and giving
them the condition that they're they're going to want to grow.
You know, within the top inch or two they're going
(41:40):
to get light air and they're going to say, hey,
i'm growing. Let's do this let's do the job we're
supposed to do, which is basically cover the ground. But
we don't want them there. We want to plant what
we want to plant. You can out compete it with
cover crops.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah. Interesting, because you know, I have to be honest.
I had this notion that we were supposed to till
and that was you know, I mean, that was part
of the ritual of tilling every spring. But you're saying,
don't do that.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah, yeah, no, that is And what that does it
It kind of beats the soil. If you look at
a soil that has no telling of roots in it,
or you haven't done anything in a while, you'll see
it clumps up. There's structure to it. But once you
till it, you move it your row to till it,
or you know, even like a plow, what you're doing
is breaking up all that structure and there's going to
(42:28):
be no room in there for air, water, nutrients, anything
to really function properly. So it takes a little more
effort for the plants to grow and a little more
effort on your part to add things to it to
make it to make it a lively garden.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Again m hm, And what about mulching, and you know,
I mean there are certain I think aesthetic aspects who
have I've done it. I also try to compost. I
do try to. You know, got some few piles and
it still needs to basically decompose. But uh, I think
(43:07):
that's an important part. I'm going to taking that stuff
not out of the garbage and putting it in the compost.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
I think, oh one percent agree with you. Ron.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
It's a little it's a little thing, but.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
It is little. But you know, every little bit counts.
Let's put it that way.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
I have a garden and we started a few years ago,
and I have a compost heap too, and it's amazing
how rich that stuff gets when you turn it over
and aer rate it enough. It's really and I've noticed
my garbage has gone so much. I reduced my garbage
amount so much from doing it that way, and that
(43:46):
does help. Any little bit does count. No tilling, planting
natives in a section of your garden. I'm not saying
do the whole garden. Maybe start small and see how
you like it, then move ahead aver that and see me,
oh I love this plant, Let me plant more, or
let's change up a little bit yeah, don't go whole
hog on changes. Maybe just do it slowly, and I
(44:09):
think that'll help your garden and how you garden and
how you think about your garden.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Right, yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's the way to go.
I mean I think that there there are lots of
dimensions of this, and one of them we also talked
about is that you know, as you do this, and
you know, you try to do this with your neighbors,
trying to that, it's a really become a you know,
you're putting to other community. And you've mentioned to me
it's a I think I saw on one of your
(44:34):
blog it's like, you know, talking about your garden with
your neighbors is much more effective in terms of connecting
than just waving to them as they Why.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Oh absolutely, And that's happened to me here too. There's
a section of our yard up front that really it's
it's hard to manage. It's right on the street. So
in snows you get the snow, you get the ice
and you know, salt on there and it doesn't really
grow asked, really well, so we decided to you know,
till it up. And you know, I had a tail
(45:06):
to get rid of the grass and the weeds, and
we planted it to wildflowers, put bolts in, put wildflower,
patched it. My neighbor across the street was you know,
came over like, well, that is so beautiful. How did
you do that? So we got in a conversation about
maybe they can do it in the yard. So we
actually started to do it in part of their yard
(45:26):
as well. My neighbor next door, oh my gosh, I
love what you're doing there. Yeah, how can you? And
we started putting in some you know, mind talk daisies
and different things in their yard that they didn't have.
So it does start a conversation and people see it
and they want to know, wow, that's amazing, how did
you do that? Let's do it again? Yeah, And that
(45:49):
happened in Belmore with my brother. We changed up his
whole front yard into a sustainable garden kind of thing.
And he'd say people would walk by, never saw them before,
and they say stop them all and say, that is wonderful.
I love what you did. Let's do that again. And
every time he'd may make new friends doing it that way.
(46:09):
So garden can be something to bring communities and people together.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, yeah, you don't even need a community garden. You
just need a community to visit your garden and visit
their individual gardens and talk about it.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
Oh, that's so great. That's a great way of putting it.
Absolutely the community.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, your garden bills the community as well as having
a community garden to bring the community together. Wow. Okay,
so we we we have to take our final break,
but again it'll be a short one. When we come back.
We're talking much more on our final segment with Brian Zimmerman.
So don't go anywhere, folks.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in Greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
six birth, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer, including two seconds, two.
Speaker 5 (47:03):
Thirds, and two fourths.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
He also won the Veteran's Folk Style Wrestling twice at
one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all these tournaments,
he was the only blind competitor.
Speaker 5 (47:15):
Nancy Zurich a creative.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
Spirit whose talents have taken her to the stage and
into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father, a
commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter and
helped her fine tune her natural abilities influenced her decision
to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed a
fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings at
(47:38):
twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for heartwarming
stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 6 (47:50):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly pairentss and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent but you're not sure how.
(48:10):
I'm Pamela d Wilson. Join me for the Carrying Generation
radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings, six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships, health,
wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of The Carrying Generation
are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com plus my
(48:34):
Caregiving Library. Online caregiver support programs and programs for corporations
interested in supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and support for
caregivers is here on the Carrying Generation and Pamela d
Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Welcome back, folks. We're in our last segment with Brian
Zimmerman who was talking about gardening his way in our
way and sometimes a new way. Uh. But in our
last few minutes, I would like to just shift a
little bit because Brian has done a lot of things
and in his subsequent chapters, which are in the current ones,
(49:31):
he's also been doing writing children's books and besides the
Gardening My Way books, So talk about that, Brian, how
did you get? Why did you do it?
Speaker 3 (49:40):
You know?
Speaker 2 (49:41):
What do you what's your your dream?
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Oh? Okay? Yeah. The book is called One Confident Duck.
It's basically the story of gaining confidence as you're growing up.
It starts as a little chick and then it goes
to a full fledged duck and the adventures of of
that duck in her mind kind of figuring out, you know,
I'm good enough and I don't need to change, you know,
(50:04):
and all those experiences showed her what she wants to,
you know, how she wants to move forward with her
life as a confident duck. So it relates to you know, kids.
You know, it's written for a child about between five
and seven or eight. It started I was, you know,
always wanted to write, and I was talking to my
(50:25):
friend who's an artist, and she's like, I always wanted
to illustrate. I'm like, well, maybe we can do something together,
you know, and this story came to me and we
consulted on it. She's like, I love to do something
like that, and so we got together. I wrote, she
got it together. Amazing artwork. Her name's Brandy, Beautiful artwork.
(50:50):
And I think it came out really well. It's been
well reviewed. People who read it and look at it
says it's really good and their kids love to work
their way through. It also has a little environmental bent
to it because I do mention. I do mention different
plants and different you know, birds and different aquatic life
(51:10):
that they do. And you know, so it's a learning
book as well as you know, helping somebody to learn
to read and gain confidence.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah. No, no better way to learn than through stories, right, So, oh, absolutely,
and so, and you said you're working on some other
books as well. Now you've uh oh, children's books as.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Oh yeah, ones a children's book. I have that one
partly written already. That's because people have lost in kids especially,
have lost touch with farming. They don't know really where
their food comes from, you know. I mean hopefully they're
you know, the parents, or somebody's going to have a
garden in their backyard or something where they know, you know,
(51:51):
where the fruits and stuff comes from. But a lot
of people have lost touch with a garden. When I
was growing up, I remember going to Farmingdale, you know
college there when they actually had a farm on it, right,
And you know, I was a little kid and we'd
wander around, look at the horses, look at the cows
and everything growing, and there was a little touch to
the farming. But now I don't see anybody being able
(52:15):
to do that. So this book is basically following the
adventures of a child on a farm as she starts
her chores, her and her dog. She does the chores
and her dog does all the little mischief as she's
walking around doing your chores. Right, it's going to go seasonally.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yeah, Okay, So where can people find her books? Are
they on Amazon? I assume on you're on your website.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Oh, they're on my website. They're on Amazon. Also, if
you want to go to my website and you want
to sign copy, you can, you know, message me and
I can get get out of signed copy for you.
Have some copies here. That way you would personalized for
you or whoever you want to give it to. What's
your website? What's the the website is. You can look
(53:00):
up Whole Yard Consulting www dot Hooleyardconsulting dot com and
that'll bring me right up and there's a message me
section and you can message me. You can get your
book right out.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Okay, so you can mess you on. Any other way
to contact you through email or just go to the
website that you.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
Can go to the website or email is Brian to
thirteen A at gmail dot com. Okay, that's a direct
way you can contact me over my email.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Okay, great, Okay, Well we've come to the end of
our show quickly quickly than I thought. But it's been
a wonderful conversation. I wanted to thank you Brian for
a terrific show. We'll have to leave it that for today,
but we'll come back and perhaps talk more about your
books and what you've learned from your adventures. So folks,
(53:56):
let me just mention that I'll be I appreciate having
spent the time with you on Bulbrave TV. We'll be
back next week the same time on Wednesday at seven
o'clock o'clock. I want to thank again Brian and also
my terrific engineer Alex, who guides me through every show.
(54:19):
So I'll leave you with one of Brian's thoughts that
I read from him, which is we can be an
agent of change, one garden at a time. So with that,
I'll see you next week at seven pm when ILL
be talking with Braman McDougal and Lisa Cooper were the
publishers of quite literally books, It's a Women Owned Heart Express,
(54:43):
which they started in their fifties together after being childhood friends.
Yeah about women American authors who share, to share forgotten
books by American authors, to share with the new generation
of book lovers. So then, folks keep moving forward. Forty
five forward.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
This has been forty five forward with host Ron Roell.
Tune in each week as Ron tackles the many aspects
of health, finance, family and friends, housing, work, and personal pursuits,
all as part of an integrated plan and to take
charge of your unretiring life during these uncertain times. Wednesdays,
(55:30):
seven pm Eastern on the Bold Brave TV Network, powered
by B two Studios
Welcome to forty five Forward with host, journalist and speaker
Ron row Out. Ron's mission is second half of life,
even better than your first. Most of us are just
approaching our half life when we reach the mid forties,
with many productive years ahead. Ron is here to help
(00:28):
prepare us for this kind of longevity by providing vital
strategies to shift the traditional waiting for retirement model to
a continuous, evolving journey of compelling life chapters. So now
please welcome the host of forty five Forward, Ron row Out.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Welcome everyone to forty five Forward on Bold Brave TV.
This is Ron ra Well, your host. Now, yesterday was
Earth's Day, and as most of you know, and like
every year, it seems to come for me at almost
exactly the right time that the buds are bursting, the
flowers are really coming out, and to me it's like
opening day for the home gardening season and to us
(01:27):
in this season. I'll be talking today with Brian Zimmerman,
who is the owner of Whole Yard Consulting, and he's
Brian is going to offer a ray of tips about
how to start and maintain your garden, including some unusual
ones you might not expect. So Brian is the author
of Gardening My Way. He'll explain his philosophy of sustainable
(01:47):
gardening using native plants and not too gardens and perhaps
getting rid of lawns. But much more on that coming up.
But he'll also talk about the importance philosophical about changing
our food system to more localized system growing fruits and
vegetables and incorporating into our landscape concept heek calls food scaping.
(02:11):
So now let's meet our guests, Brian Zimmerman and learn
much more about Gardening His Way in Our Way. So, Brian,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Oh, thank you, Ryan, it's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, great to have you. So, as I said, it's
opening day, so let's let's talk a little bitout But
but before you know, before we get into actually a
lot of your thoughts about gardening. Part of my show
is about the people on the show and as well
as the topics we cover, and you've had a very
interesting pass. I always like to sort of emphasize that
people's lives are a matter of chapters, and they evolve
(02:43):
and you learn from each chapter. So give us just
an encapsulation a little bit of some of the things
you've done I notice you've, you know, in looking at
your buyer, you are a conservationist, a farmer, a chef,
an entrepreneur, and a writer. So talk a little about
how you got to where you were today.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh it's a long and winding road, isn't Yeah. No,
I started off after high school. I decided, you know,
I wanted to be a chef. So I went to
culinary school. I thought it was fantastic. I loved it,
but it's kind of a burnout type of, you know, profession.
So I've always had an interest in conservation, in farming,
(03:19):
so I went to ag school and I got a
degree in agroundom me. So then I started working for
the Parks Department in New York State Parks. And then
I went to Cornell Extension Service, working for them on
their county farm. And then I worked for the federal
government working for them in conservation planning. So I helped
plan a lot of the farms out on the island.
I worked in Riverhead, upstate and throughout New York. And
(03:42):
then that was a great career. Worked for the state
in the conservation district and from there, you know, I
was like, you know, what what we need to do?
Is we need to make beer on Long Island and
grow grains. And I started working on trying to get
a malt house on Long Island, which is an amaze. Wow, yeah,
(04:02):
it's fun. And then all my experiences taught me it's
like I got to use these in some certain way
and show people what we're doing. So I said, let's
write about it, let's talk about it. Let's start our
business so we can help promote sustainability and landscapes. And
that's why that one book came about. And then I
decided to write another one on children's issues, and it's
(04:25):
just snowballing since then. It's been a great, great ride.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Let's put it that way, and it's still going. So
that's great. So let's start a little bit. Let's dive
a little bit into your notion of gardening. Your gardening
our way. And everyone talks about sustainability, but what we
talk about what that really means, you know, especially at
a local level.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
No, sustainability, basically to me and to everybody else, is
working with nature more than it is working against nature.
So right now a lot of people are not working
fully with it. They're there, they're you know, doing lawns,
they're they're planting the same old kind of shrubbery that
you see. You drive down a Long Island street, you
(05:08):
see the same ye bushes, uanimous, you see uh, pine trees,
you see the same old thing, and sometimes underneath you'll
see some marigolds or some impatience, and there's not much
there to help promote the natural environment that we're born into.
So sustainability to me is really working with nature, getting
(05:31):
things together where we're gonna help the pollinators, the bees
and everything that's around us, instead of fighting it by
having to having to you have a great, big lawn
instead of having some plants in there.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, yeah, no, So I have some lawn. But I
have discovered over the years that you know, lawns and
trees aren't always good mix. And something I didn't really
think about. We have some you know, big, you know,
old older trees, you.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Know they're magnificent.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Uh. And then what I discovered is that, hmm, roots
just don't go down, they go across. So there are
lots of these surface roots and it's just say, well,
this is not I can't have a lawn that So
I mean, so what I've been trying to think about
is how I can curb the lawn. You know, there
(06:26):
are certain uses of it. One for our backyard. There's
a certain aesthetic if you want to have parties and
so forth, it's useful. But I agree that that's that
there are ways that we can use less lawn And
you've actually done some research about really what the cost
is of lawns, you know, and from a sustainability perspective.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Oh, absolutely, lawns launs to me, and they're kind of
a waste of time, energy and money really when you
come down to it, if they have to be in
the right spot. Lawns really started a long time ago
in France and England. Really, somebody had told me years
ago that on the biggest states that the lawns were
(07:08):
put in basically to show like, you know, we're rich
enough where we don't have the farmer land, you know,
we can leave open spaces and there it is. It's
just there. It looks beautiful and I'm not using it.
And so they move that here to America. Some of
the designers think about the parks we have. Central Park
has a great lawn or even Greenwood Cemetery, and a
(07:31):
lot of the parks that were developed even Brooklyn parks
have the lawns in them. So people looked at those
and said, wow, that's great. I like that. I need that.
And so it's simple to put in you know, you're
just put in grass your level, your ground. You put
in grass, they grow, you water it, you fertilize it,
you put in pesticides, and you have your lawn. Part
(07:51):
of suburbia is a lawn. I remember growing up, well,
you know, we had a lawn. It's basically it's like, okay,
go out and play, you know, go on playing the
lawn and throw the ball around and have a great
time on the lawn. Yeah. Right, But now it's a
little different. You know, the kids can play on the
back lawn, but the front lawns or even part of
(08:12):
a loan, we can shrink them a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I looked up some of the costs because I went
writing the book. I was like, you know, how do
we change and what's the cost of actually having a lawn, right,
So I looked it up that you know, you as
a homeowner, you'll throw down maybe a couple pounds of
you know, past aside to get rid of some weeds
or some bugs or something or a landscape or will
(08:37):
and then you'll put down some lime and fertilizer. You're like, Okay, great,
my lam looks great for the year. I'm feeling pretty
good about that. But overall in the United States, when
I was researching, I was like this, these numbers are outrageous. Here,
here's a couple of them. Americans in a year put
(08:57):
down sixty seven million pounds of peaceize fertilizer, ninety million
pounds of fertilizer a year, and that all comes from
petroleum products, most of that. So it's we're also using
our gas. We're using all of that energy to create
that to synthesize the fertilizer. But here's the thing that
(09:20):
really gets to me that in one year Americans, overall
there's millions of you know, thousands of acres of lawns
in America. They use nine billion gallons of water on
their on their lawn a year. Water is a finite
resource that we really should preserve. In Long Island, we're
(09:44):
a soul source aquifer. So that means, you know, we're
getting all our water from right below us, all that pesticide,
all that fertilizer, it has to go somewhere if it's
not being utilized, it's going straight to our aquifer or
running off into you know, running off into the bays
or streams, and we know how we love our bays
(10:06):
and streams along the island.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, so it is there's a cost
to it, and uh, you know again can't change everything overnight,
and there's some use to launch. But I think, you know,
in my case for example, it's just like, well you
can you know that they are the corners where where
the shade trees come up like this, Let's redevelop those
corners and you know, repopulate them with plants. So that's
(10:32):
what I would.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, and there are a lot of plants that can
be used for that. You know, they're adaptable plants that
can grow in those kind of conditions. It's just yet
you have to have somebody to you know, call them
look at your either that or do your own research.
You can find out that there are like in a
shady conditions, there's some herbs or so lariope it's cold,
(10:55):
or some other plants that will thrive in those kind
of conditions. Don't use any pesticides or fertilizer on because
they're living where they belong right right.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So before we talk a little bit more about these
kinds of options, Brian, So my show is forty five forward,
and you know, I like to think about what people
can do in their later chapters of life. And one
of the things that a lot of people do is
they get older, is they love gardening and they want
to do more of it. So before we talk about
the actual planting, what are some of the I mean,
I know there are some benefits, but what are some
(11:26):
of the caveats Because some of I've discovered too is
like you know, people get involved in pickaball and like
all of a sudden, their knees go, you know, so
you have to be You've got to be careful about gardening, right,
I mean you've got to think about, you know, how
you do it and do it safely for yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Oh absolutely, Yeah. You have to ease into it, you know,
you can't just go for it. Then there's plays to
do that. If you're a senior, older, you have a
disability or something. There are benches that they're like three
foot high you can fill with soil and do all
you're planting in that so you can walk up to
it instead of doing a lot of bending, which is
(12:05):
a big issue for a lot of people as they
get older. But I think the benefits kind of of
any kind of gardening outweigh that if you have a
good garden inside, or you're healthy enough, you can you know,
grow things in your garden. You know, bend down or
use the right tools to hoe, or just put a
plant in and see how it goes, or trellis plants.
(12:28):
So there's ways you can manage to get into gardening
in a senior level. But the benefits to me outweigh
the negatives for it. Because I just went to a
senior center and I did a talk over there, and
they're doing wonderful work over there. They have benches lined
up for the people who can't bend too much. They
(12:51):
have a section where they can actually you know, the
people who are a little more energetic can actually plant
in the ground and do their work that way. So
they get a whole community aspect of it. You know,
they're in a garden club. There's like twenty five people.
They have talk and discussions. They get out there and
they enjoy their time together. Right and you're outside, you're exercising.
(13:15):
It's helping your mobility. So there's a lot of positives
to do in the gardening when as you get a
little older.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, there are. People just talk a lot about
you know, being outside, being with nature, or just being
you know, you know, getting your hands in the soil.
We'll talk about soil more later about the.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Importance soil, one of my favorite subjects.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, so, you know, and for me when I
go out and you know, even when i'm you know,
sometimes pulling up you know, not not weeds, but extraneous
you know, stuff in the garden, it's just you know,
it forces your mind out of doing what we usually do,
which is sitting in front of a computer.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Now we have to do now.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But but it really it takes your mind away and
I think really does things in a very positive way
to get yourself in a different space. And you know,
it's relaxing, it's you know, it's it's you've been mindful
and you're you're just working and physically and and your
mind is just released. So I really I'm talking to
(14:20):
do more about this. I'm glad that the weather is
broken because I like to be outside more so.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Oh absolutely, And relaxation is a really good point and
it relieves the stress. As you said, your mind just
goes in another direction. When you're out and the energy
out in the sun, you get the sun's energy. The
soil has microbes that are supposed to be really good
for your you also, so it's I know a woman
who actually she's really health conscious into wellness. When she's
(14:48):
feeling a little stressed, she'll take her shoes off and
walk in the soil and in the dirt and says
it really re energizes her and makes her feel a
little better. And she did some research and said, yeah,
you do that for a few hours, nine hours, a
few minutes a day, that can really relieve somebody's stress too.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah. Great, okay, so listen, this went quickly, So Brian,
we need to take a short break. Folks. We're going
to take a few minutes off to sneak in a break.
But when we come back when we're talking much more
with Brian Zimmerman, So don't go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
sits birth, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer, including two seconds, two.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Thirds, and two fourths.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
He also won the Veterans Folk Style Wrestling twice at
one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all these tournaments,
he was the only blind competitor. Nancy Zorich a creative
spirit whose talents have taken her to the stage and
into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father, a
commercial artist, who shared his instruments with his daughter and
(16:04):
helped her fine tune her natural abilities, influenced her decision
to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed a
fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings at
twelve Eastern with the Nancy and Mike Show for heartwarming
stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse.
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly parents and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent, but you're not sure
how I'm Famila d Wilson. Join me for the Caring
(16:48):
Generation radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings,
six Pacific, seven Mountain, eighth Central, and nine Eastern, where
I answer these questions and share tips for managing stress,
family relatelationships, health, wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of
The Carrying Generation are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com,
(17:08):
plus my Caregiving library. Online caregiver support programs and programs
for corporations interested in supporting working caregivers.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Help, hope and support for.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
Caregivers is here on The Carrying Generation and Pamela d
Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Welcome back, folks to forty five Forward. I'm your host
Ron Rowell. Again. We're talking with Brian Zimmerman, the owner
of hold Yard Gardening and Yes, Whole Yard Gardening. Right okay,
and before the break we were talking about some of
Brian's ideas about how to sustain your property. You're landscaping.
(18:02):
I want to talk about a few of your tips
and then we'll talk more broad food scaping. But the
idea of you know, some things like uh, you know,
using native plants or rotating you know, colors and perennials.
What are some of your tips just about the live
in the landscape without you know, while sustaining it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Okay, yes, stainability. As we talked about earlier, is you know,
working with nature. So each plant has its it's best
conditions where it likes to grow to summer in shade,
summer and sun. Some like a little bit of both,
and the soil has a lot to do with that.
So there there's a lot of tips and tricks you
(18:45):
can use. I mean, there's a lot of gardening websites
you can go to, But what I like to do
is look at look at the conditions that I do have.
If there you know, if it's a you get six
hours of sun or or less, you're going to want
to get something a little less, you know, a little
more shade tolerant six or eight hours and more. You
(19:07):
can plant you know, vegetables and have a great vegetable
garden and fruit goes very well that way. Native plants
is something that is in our gardens. There's something we
should put in our gardens because what native plants do
is they're adapted to our conditions, to our soil, and
they're gonna bloom. You can get a variety of those
(19:29):
plants that will bloom spring early, and there's some that
will bloom a little later and some that will actually
bloom into fall. Like there's some that I like. Butterfly
milkweed is something a beautiful orange plant, great pollinator, and
it goes a little later in the season, which is
fantastic for those late eas and pollinators. We need to
(19:52):
use them that way, so you can use time. You
can use herbs in your garden as well, and they'll
bloom at different times. Who I have in this scard
and a little patch of herbs and I have cat
mint in there, and the cat meant beautiful blooms amazing.
The cats love it. They don't come to it, but
the cat we have at the house will go there
(20:14):
and kind of pick some leaves every once in a while.
But it does grow well. And I've had some amazing
amount of pollinators on that, and that blooms a little earlier.
So there's a lot of different blooming times you can
look at. There's a chart that I use and I
look at then I'll give you that information. It's really
important to try and get the whole gamut. Of pollinators
(20:37):
from ones that are just coming out now. And one
of the things that I try and tell people is
is leave leave the dandelions, because they're one of the
first pollinator plants that they really do enjoy.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Great, so you're helping pollinators amazingly, but it's hard to
convince some people. I did a talk at a library
and said, you know, they're coming out the dandelions a
little bit. People were kind of like, ass oh, no,
I can't have them in my lawn. I'm like, well,
they come for a while and they go, but they
do help the pollinator species, So you got to work
(21:14):
with nature that way, and that's one of the ones
that I like to tell people to keep on your lawn.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah. So the pollinators we're talking about essentially our bees.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Well there's bees. Yeah, there's honey bees, but a lot
of the bees we have are our loan bees. They
kind of live in the ground, so they're overwinter in
the ground. So that's why I'm also you know a
lot of people are into leave the leaves basically, instead
of cleaning up in the fall, clean in the spring
after the temperatures get to be about fifty degrees because
(21:47):
lightning bugs, bees, They all live in that leaf litter.
They also bury into the ground and when they come
up that you know, if there's nothing there or nothing left,
they can freeze, they can die and losing our pollinators, right,
you know. So that's something that's very important is leaving
those leaves. You don't really need to get rid of
(22:08):
them in the spring and in the spring and the
fall because you're not really doing anything with your lawn
mostly in the and beads in the in the winter time,
so might as well just leave them and start cleaning
up later in the season.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Right. So let's move on to this notion of food scaping,
because I think that this is an interesting idea and
you know, so a lot of us think about what
we have our garden and then we have our vegetable patch.
But you talk about actually having more integrated design to
your property. So talk a little about that, Brian.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Oh oh yeah, oh no, this isn't an idea I
came up with that all. There's a whole group of
a whole group dedicated to food scaping out there throughout
the country, and there are practitioners of it. But it
didn't start with this group or it start with me.
It actually started years ago, a couple hundred years ago actually,
(23:04):
And funny I went to just recently, I went to Sagamore,
Hilly Roosevelt's house and gardens. It was amazing. He did
have a farm dedicated to the animals, dedicated to eggs
and chickens, but he also had a three acre site
there that was for relaxation for his wife and children.
(23:29):
Three acres and it was basically a food skate. They
had flowers, they had planted fruit trees, they had planted bushes,
and within some of the crags they would plant vegetables. Also,
they had Swiss charred and kale, and they had all
sorts of other things growing just within those paths. And
Missus Roosevelt would go in there and just wander around,
(23:51):
sit and just enjoy the company of nature. Really basically,
but it's not just me, But basically it's started with
You have your landscape. It doesn't have to just be plants.
I mean, eggplants are a beautiful plant. Peppers are amazing
with a lot of flowers on them. But you also
get some vegetable and some use out of it. It's
(24:14):
not something you want to you should separate. I think
it would be great to put maybe blueberry bushes in
there and maybe elderberry bush or some kind of fruit
tree on the edge, so it makes like a nice
little path and you can actually get something out of
your garden and landscape.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah. Yeah, So as you're talking, I'm just reminiscing that
when my family moved to Long Island from Brooklyn years ago,
my father cleared the land and he did plant a lawn,
but he kept many trees. He was loved with trees,
and i've been I do remember early on there was
(24:55):
just a you know, the front lawn was just smaller,
and on the edges were blueberry patches.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I just love those blueberry patches and you know, and
you know, being able to pick them, you know, and
make homemade pies. And I know you have a raspberry
You had a raspberry patch right as well yourself.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Oh yeah, absolutely when when the family moved out from Queens,
when out from Brooklyn or from Queens, we moved out
there to Belmore and in the back edge there was
a raspberry patch. And there's old pictures of me as
a little child, like two years old with that raspberry
packs and I remember eating those right going back to
(25:36):
the back edge and picking those raspberries, and I still
have those canes right now. I moved and moved to
massapig Right now, I've still got those canes growing in
different areas because you can't give them up. It's greate fruit.
And it's a great memory to have to have those vegetables,
that that fruit is still around.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, yeah, I speaking of memories. You know, we were
chatting before and during the break about this, which is
that you know, part of the joy of the garden
and the landscape is that you know it grows, it
grows with you. So it's a sense of over the years,
a sense of history, right that that you that's there
and you can see the progress and you can see
(26:17):
the changes over the years, and you know it it does,
you know, literally and figuratively ground you, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Oh absolutely, And that's I have a memory of a
lot of memories of the garden. You know. In Belmore,
even when I was little, we have a little vegetable
patch and I still remember going back and picking whatever
we had. The fresh tomatoes tasted better than any tomato
I have ever had, because maybe it's just a memory
(26:46):
of it, but the way we grew just something special
about it. Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah. And so this, you know, leads us into sort
of broadening the notion of local food escaping and in
terms of creating you know, local communities of gardens. And
I think that this is something that you've written about
and talked about, and then you're talked about tomatoes. Reminded
me of it, because that's one thing clearly that you know,
(27:15):
I think we all experiences like the difference between winter
and summer tomatoes is just incomparable, you know, they're just
two different things. So talk about some of the of
you know, that sort of need to localize food. And
it can't be done, as you point out, everything takes
some time and bit by bit, but the importance of
(27:36):
trying to do that when we can.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Right, oh, absolutely, you know it comes down to Lately,
I've been seeing a lot of articles and even through
the winter time about you know, food recalls. There's been
so many food recalls out there. I can't believe there
was cucumber recall or atlantis or a submanage recall like that.
(27:59):
Is is ridiculous. If you had that local, you really
wouldn't have that problem because a lot of our food
that we're getting comes from an average of fifteen hundred
miles away. I mean, we're getting our stuff from California
or from Florida or Georgia, and a lot of that
food has grown on basically factory farms. You know, the
(28:21):
local farmer you know, went out of business and they
just the farm community got condensed that way, right, So
there's a lot of big farms out there producing what
we eat. So if we bring that all back to local,
we're not going to have those issues. It's a decentralized
part of you know, way of eating. You know, it's
(28:43):
we're not you know, you're going to know your farmer,
You're going to see where it's grown. You're going to
have the fresher vegetables. It's not going to be you know,
trucked fifteen hundred miles away and picked early and not ripe,
so it doesn't have this sweetness or the flavor you
get when you have a local or homegrown tomato. There's
(29:06):
a lot of things they do to those tomatoes and
fruit that come our way that you're like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe they're doing that. They ripen them on
the way by you know, gasing them or changing them,
or they have to preserve them in certain ways, you know,
put them in a CO two container and then send
them over because lack of oxygen, no oxygen, they're gonna
(29:29):
you know, they're not gonna rot. So we get them
that way. So a lot of energy, a lot of
things go into that. With our local foods, I mean,
we're looking at fresher, we're looking at a decentralized part
of it. Our transportation is less, you know, our CO
two footprint is less. Doing that. We also help the
(29:49):
local economy with local foods. I know, it's a hard thing.
It's one of those things. Farmers' markets are all over
now and we used to do that. When I did
f they were great. A lot of people would come
and they just enjoyed the stuff we had that much
better because the flavor was so much better. And it
(30:11):
also helps the local economy too, because if you have
a farm, you know, a farmer local to you and
you buy his produce, that farmer needs somebody to you know,
fix his equipment. So you have those ancillary type of
businesses and they're gonna you know, work for that farmer
(30:32):
and then they're gonna need something to eat, so they'll
go to the deli of the supermarket. So you're bringing
everything back local to where you are. And I think
that's really important to do.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, I agree, and I think that people really enjoy
it too, being having that connection, being able to go.
You know, we have a guy down the street who
has you know, homegrown honey.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You know, okay, great, that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But yeah, and I just yeah, you know, I again
memories of being kids doing more of that, just going
out every and it does require some time, you know,
going out and getting stuff fresh every couple of well,
but this is you know, what was you know, back
to the future, right, this is what we did every day.
You know when when our grandparents are doing this, they
(31:18):
would go out every day and they get fresh bread,
and they'd go out and they get fresh vegetables or
fresh meat. So you know, it's not like this is again,
it's we're returning to our roots in certain ways. We're
not like changing, you know, upending the system. The system
I'll ended us basically trying to re establish it. And
(31:38):
I get it that you can't do with everything. I
understand that for certain things. Now I happened to love mangoes,
which my mother introduced. My mother was Cuban and she
introduced it to us when we were kids, when nobody
knew what mangoes were, you know, in New York, you know,
and avocados. So that's difficult to do here. So, I mean,
(31:58):
there are certain exceptions of to you know, understand the transported,
but there are lots of things that we can do
better here, you know, and we don't need to transport
them fifteen hundred miles absolutely.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
And part of it also is, you know, there used
to be a push on for restaurants and things to
eat seasonally, you know, so if there are you know,
once if the carrots come in or the tomatoes or
egg plants, it's it's that's what's gonna be on the menu.
It's not going to be oh, look, okay, it's dead
of winter and we're gonna have you know, we're gonna
(32:32):
have tomatoes or we're gonna have peppers in there in
our cooking, you know, kind of reduce that and eat
more seasonally. The swashes are coming in winter, okay, let's
find recipes to use for that. And that's what they
used to do back in the day. Also, they used
to you know, eat seasonally. Now we got kind of
(32:52):
you lazy about it, and we can buy anything anytime,
right right, So that brings it all back home.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, so listen, we need to take another short break,
but folks, we have much more talking about with Brian
Zimmermann about gardening our way in his way together. So
when we come back, we'll be talking much more. Don't
go anywhere, We'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Doctor RC will share extraordinary resources and services that promote
educational success as well as making a difference in the
lives of all social workers as well as the lives
of children, adolescents and teens of today. She will have
open discussions addressing many of the issues that we face
about our youth and how being employed in the uniquely
skilled profession of social work for over eighteen years has
(33:45):
taught invaluable lessons through her personal experiences. She will also
provide real life facts, examples and personal stories that will
confirm that why serving as a child advocate is extremely
beneficial when addressing the needs of the whole child. Listen
Live to Dare to Soar Saturdays, ten am Eastern on
the BBM Global Network. And tune in radio as Doctor
(34:07):
RC will provide thought provoking information that will empower, encourage,
and strengthen students, families, and communities across our nation.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
You can also visit.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Her at Soarwithkatie dot Com. Author, radio show host and
coach John M. Hawkins reveals strategies to help gain perspective,
build confidence, find clarity, achieve goals.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
John M.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Hawkins' new book Coached to Greatness Unlock Your Full Potential
with Limitless Growth, published by I Universe, Hawkins reveals strategies
to help readers accomplish more. He believes the book can
coach them to greatness. Hawkins says that the best athletes
get to the top of their sport with the help
of coaches, mentors, and others. He shares guidance that helps
(34:59):
readers reflect on what motivates them. We discover and assess
their core values, philosophies and competencies, find settings that allow
them to be the most productive, and track their progress
towards accomplishing goals. Listen to John hawkins My Strategy Saturdays
one pm Eastern on the BBM Global Network and tune
(35:20):
in radio.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Welcome back, folks, We're talking today with Brian Zimmerman, who
was the owner of Whole Yard Gardening. We've been talking
a lot about different aspects of gardening, a lot about sustainability,
about local farming, local gardening, local gardens, and sustainable gardens.
So I wanted to just you know, but before I
(35:46):
even get back to with Brian, I want to just
tell you folks, listen if these are If you missed
our live programs, don't worry. You can always find replays
on my playlist on Bulgrave TV's YouTube channel. So click
on my forty five to forward playlist and you can
listen to the show. If you miss it, tell your
friends they can still hear it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
(36:09):
most major streaming platforms. So just keep that in mind.
So back to Brian, let's talk about some of the
other aspects of local gardening and foodscaping people don't think about.
We talked about the importance of water, but also about soil.
You know that's soil is the is the essential component,
(36:33):
and people don't think about it does dirt. So let's
talk about your notion about why why the soil is
so important and how we can really cultivate it and
preserve it.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Oh, absolutely, soil is that it's so essential to your garden.
It From what I was teaching and people have taught me,
is healthy soil, healthy vegetables, healthy person, because everything really
comes from the soil. A lot of what you're getting
from you know, the farmed commercial farms and things, or
(37:06):
it's not nutrition. It's not full of nutrition or a
balanced nutrition for everybody i've been, I've looked up things
on what the nutrition values were on different crops from
fifty years ago to now. They say that fifty years
ago there was ford it for to fifty more minerals
(37:28):
and proteins and nutrients in the food back then than
it is now. And that really comes from a number
of reasons. It comes from the soil. You know, soil.
Now they're you know, putting a lot of pesticides, they're
putting a lot of fertilizer onto that to make their
crops grow. They're beating the soil a little bit more
(37:49):
without adding organic matter to it. So what I espouse
is no till gardening or no till vegetable gardening. You
don't need to till it. Basically, what you're doing when
tilling it is you're breaking up the soil, you're breaking
up the roots. You're exposing organic matter to the air,
(38:10):
which you know kills it. It dissipates it, so you
don't have that. The carbon is being released also, which
the plants do. The roots do need. So if you
have that healthy soil and you don't till it, you're
gonna have a healthier crop. You're not gonna need as
much fertilizer or pesticize either, because in there there's everything's
(38:32):
battling each other, the good versus the bad. If you
have a lot of good natural biota, it's gonna overtake
the bad stuff that's going to affect your plant there.
So yeah, you have to really treat your soil with reverence,
treat it with like the gold it is. I really
think people should look at it. Do pH testing. Make
(38:54):
sure you have the right pH, which is the amount
of hydrogen there. Too much pH makes it an acidic soil,
which is not going to let the nutrients release. So
you should balance your soil and work with it to
have that garden grow.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Well yeah, okay, so let's so no killing, check the
pH of the soil. Very fun and any other thoughts
on how you can care for your soil and cultivate it,
you know, and to its maximum nutritional value.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Oh yeah, no, absolutely, Adding organic matter is great. You know,
I've been you know, working with some people there. My brother,
you know, he had a good garden up here. We
worked together. He moved down to Tennessee. When I, you know,
went down there, I was like, holy cow, it's got
I don't know if you've been to Tennessee or now South.
It's kind of a heavy red clay type of soil
(39:53):
and we're trying to dig it. We're like, oh my gosh,
what are you trying to plant in?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Do?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So I did was I was like, you know what,
let's make a plan. Let's do something here. So he
went let a no kill type of you know garden.
It takes a little while, but no till I had
him plant cover crops which is a rye, a cereal rye,
and put some nitrogen fixing crop within that, like a clover.
(40:20):
And what happens is those roots go down there and
they're adding organic matter. They're living, they're dying, they're breaking
up the soil, creating pathways for the water to go into.
It's adding beautiful richness and organic matter. To it. So
now I just spoke to him on the phone. This
is perfect timing, and he's like, I was like, oh, yeah,
(40:42):
I just did this. I you know, put the cardboard
on top to kill the cover crop, which is you know,
now he can plant into it. I was like, oh,
by the way, how is the soil. He's like, you
won't believe that the changes that happened from not turning
it over or trying to move it, it's just organic
matter and letting that soil sit and breathe and get
(41:06):
its natural living organisms back to indolence again.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Right. So basically when we talk about no tilling, its
is basically not turning over the soil, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Right right, it's just leaving the soil where it is.
It's not moving it. You're not actually if you don't till,
you're not bringing up weed seeds either. So that's something
to look at. Once you get the weeds off the top,
you're not really bringing up the weed seeds and giving
them the condition that they're they're going to want to grow.
You know, within the top inch or two they're going
(41:40):
to get light air and they're going to say, hey,
i'm growing. Let's do this let's do the job we're
supposed to do, which is basically cover the ground. But
we don't want them there. We want to plant what
we want to plant. You can out compete it with
cover crops.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah. Interesting, because you know, I have to be honest.
I had this notion that we were supposed to till
and that was you know, I mean, that was part
of the ritual of tilling every spring. But you're saying,
don't do that.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah, yeah, no, that is And what that does it
It kind of beats the soil. If you look at
a soil that has no telling of roots in it,
or you haven't done anything in a while, you'll see
it clumps up. There's structure to it. But once you
till it, you move it your row to till it,
or you know, even like a plow, what you're doing
is breaking up all that structure and there's going to
(42:28):
be no room in there for air, water, nutrients, anything
to really function properly. So it takes a little more
effort for the plants to grow and a little more
effort on your part to add things to it to
make it to make it a lively garden.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Again m hm, And what about mulching, and you know,
I mean there are certain I think aesthetic aspects who
have I've done it. I also try to compost. I
do try to. You know, got some few piles and
it still needs to basically decompose. But uh, I think
(43:07):
that's an important part. I'm going to taking that stuff
not out of the garbage and putting it in the compost.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
I think, oh one percent agree with you. Ron.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
It's a little it's a little thing, but.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
It is little. But you know, every little bit counts.
Let's put it that way.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
I have a garden and we started a few years ago,
and I have a compost heap too, and it's amazing
how rich that stuff gets when you turn it over
and aer rate it enough. It's really and I've noticed
my garbage has gone so much. I reduced my garbage
amount so much from doing it that way, and that
(43:46):
does help. Any little bit does count. No tilling, planting
natives in a section of your garden. I'm not saying
do the whole garden. Maybe start small and see how
you like it, then move ahead aver that and see me,
oh I love this plant, Let me plant more, or
let's change up a little bit yeah, don't go whole
hog on changes. Maybe just do it slowly, and I
(44:09):
think that'll help your garden and how you garden and
how you think about your garden.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Right, yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's the way to go.
I mean I think that there there are lots of
dimensions of this, and one of them we also talked
about is that you know, as you do this, and
you know, you try to do this with your neighbors,
trying to that, it's a really become a you know,
you're putting to other community. And you've mentioned to me
it's a I think I saw on one of your
(44:34):
blog it's like, you know, talking about your garden with
your neighbors is much more effective in terms of connecting
than just waving to them as they Why.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Oh absolutely, And that's happened to me here too. There's
a section of our yard up front that really it's
it's hard to manage. It's right on the street. So
in snows you get the snow, you get the ice
and you know, salt on there and it doesn't really
grow asked, really well, so we decided to you know,
till it up. And you know, I had a tail
(45:06):
to get rid of the grass and the weeds, and
we planted it to wildflowers, put bolts in, put wildflower,
patched it. My neighbor across the street was you know,
came over like, well, that is so beautiful. How did
you do that? So we got in a conversation about
maybe they can do it in the yard. So we
actually started to do it in part of their yard
(45:26):
as well. My neighbor next door, oh my gosh, I
love what you're doing there. Yeah, how can you? And
we started putting in some you know, mind talk daisies
and different things in their yard that they didn't have.
So it does start a conversation and people see it
and they want to know, wow, that's amazing, how did
you do that? Let's do it again? Yeah, And that
(45:49):
happened in Belmore with my brother. We changed up his
whole front yard into a sustainable garden kind of thing.
And he'd say people would walk by, never saw them before,
and they say stop them all and say, that is wonderful.
I love what you did. Let's do that again. And
every time he'd may make new friends doing it that way.
(46:09):
So garden can be something to bring communities and people together.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, yeah, you don't even need a community garden. You
just need a community to visit your garden and visit
their individual gardens and talk about it.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
Oh, that's so great. That's a great way of putting it.
Absolutely the community.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, your garden bills the community as well as having
a community garden to bring the community together. Wow. Okay,
so we we we have to take our final break,
but again it'll be a short one. When we come back.
We're talking much more on our final segment with Brian Zimmerman.
So don't go anywhere, folks.
Speaker 4 (46:47):
Mike Zorich a three time California state champion in Greco
Roman wrestling at one hundred and fourteen pounds. Mike blind
six birth, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a
six time national placer, including two seconds, two.
Speaker 5 (47:03):
Thirds, and two fourths.
Speaker 4 (47:04):
He also won the Veteran's Folk Style Wrestling twice at
one hundred and fifty two pounds. In all these tournaments,
he was the only blind competitor.
Speaker 5 (47:15):
Nancy Zurich a creative.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
Spirit whose talents have taken her to the stage and
into galleries and exhibitions in several states. Her father, a
commercial artist who shared his instruments with his daughter and
helped her fine tune her natural abilities influenced her decision
to follow in his footsteps. Miss Zurich has enjoyed a
fruitful career doing what she loves. Listen Saturday mornings at
(47:38):
twelve Eastern for the Nancy and Mike Show for heartwarming
stories and interesting talk on the BBM Global Network.
Speaker 6 (47:50):
Are you struggling to care for elderly parents or a spouse?
Do you wonder if being a caregiver is making you sick?
Are you worried about taking time off work to care
for elderly pairentss and balance work life and caregiving? Has
caregiving become exhausting and emotionally draining? Are you an aging
adult who wants to remain independent but you're not sure how.
(48:10):
I'm Pamela d Wilson. Join me for the Carrying Generation
radio show for caregivers and aging adults Wednesday evenings, six Pacific,
seven Mountain, eighth Central and nine Eastern, where I answer
these questions and share tips for managing stress, family relationships, health,
wellbeing and more. Podcasts and transcripts of The Carrying Generation
are on my website Pamela Dwilson dot com plus my
(48:34):
Caregiving Library. Online caregiver support programs and programs for corporations
interested in supporting working caregivers. Help, hope and support for
caregivers is here on the Carrying Generation and Pamela d
Wilson dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
Welcome back, folks. We're in our last segment with Brian
Zimmerman who was talking about gardening his way in our
way and sometimes a new way. Uh. But in our
last few minutes, I would like to just shift a
little bit because Brian has done a lot of things
and in his subsequent chapters, which are in the current ones,
(49:31):
he's also been doing writing children's books and besides the
Gardening My Way books, So talk about that, Brian, how
did you get? Why did you do it?
Speaker 3 (49:40):
You know?
Speaker 2 (49:41):
What do you what's your your dream?
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Oh? Okay? Yeah. The book is called One Confident Duck.
It's basically the story of gaining confidence as you're growing up.
It starts as a little chick and then it goes
to a full fledged duck and the adventures of of
that duck in her mind kind of figuring out, you know,
I'm good enough and I don't need to change, you know,
(50:04):
and all those experiences showed her what she wants to,
you know, how she wants to move forward with her
life as a confident duck. So it relates to you know, kids.
You know, it's written for a child about between five
and seven or eight. It started I was, you know,
always wanted to write, and I was talking to my
(50:25):
friend who's an artist, and she's like, I always wanted
to illustrate. I'm like, well, maybe we can do something together,
you know, and this story came to me and we
consulted on it. She's like, I love to do something
like that, and so we got together. I wrote, she
got it together. Amazing artwork. Her name's Brandy, Beautiful artwork.
(50:50):
And I think it came out really well. It's been
well reviewed. People who read it and look at it
says it's really good and their kids love to work
their way through. It also has a little environmental bent
to it because I do mention. I do mention different
plants and different you know, birds and different aquatic life
(51:10):
that they do. And you know, so it's a learning
book as well as you know, helping somebody to learn
to read and gain confidence.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah. No, no better way to learn than through stories, right, So, oh, absolutely,
and so, and you said you're working on some other
books as well. Now you've uh oh, children's books as.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Oh yeah, ones a children's book. I have that one
partly written already. That's because people have lost in kids especially,
have lost touch with farming. They don't know really where
their food comes from, you know. I mean hopefully they're
you know, the parents, or somebody's going to have a
garden in their backyard or something where they know, you know,
(51:51):
where the fruits and stuff comes from. But a lot
of people have lost touch with a garden. When I
was growing up, I remember going to Farmingdale, you know
college there when they actually had a farm on it, right,
And you know, I was a little kid and we'd
wander around, look at the horses, look at the cows
and everything growing, and there was a little touch to
the farming. But now I don't see anybody being able
(52:15):
to do that. So this book is basically following the
adventures of a child on a farm as she starts
her chores, her and her dog. She does the chores
and her dog does all the little mischief as she's
walking around doing your chores. Right, it's going to go seasonally.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yeah, Okay, So where can people find her books? Are
they on Amazon? I assume on you're on your website.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Oh, they're on my website. They're on Amazon. Also, if
you want to go to my website and you want
to sign copy, you can, you know, message me and
I can get get out of signed copy for you.
Have some copies here. That way you would personalized for
you or whoever you want to give it to. What's
your website? What's the the website is. You can look
(53:00):
up Whole Yard Consulting www dot Hooleyardconsulting dot com and
that'll bring me right up and there's a message me
section and you can message me. You can get your
book right out.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Okay, so you can mess you on. Any other way
to contact you through email or just go to the
website that you.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
Can go to the website or email is Brian to
thirteen A at gmail dot com. Okay, that's a direct
way you can contact me over my email.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Okay, great, Okay, Well we've come to the end of
our show quickly quickly than I thought. But it's been
a wonderful conversation. I wanted to thank you Brian for
a terrific show. We'll have to leave it that for today,
but we'll come back and perhaps talk more about your
books and what you've learned from your adventures. So folks,
(53:56):
let me just mention that I'll be I appreciate having
spent the time with you on Bulbrave TV. We'll be
back next week the same time on Wednesday at seven
o'clock o'clock. I want to thank again Brian and also
my terrific engineer Alex, who guides me through every show.
(54:19):
So I'll leave you with one of Brian's thoughts that
I read from him, which is we can be an
agent of change, one garden at a time. So with that,
I'll see you next week at seven pm when ILL
be talking with Braman McDougal and Lisa Cooper were the
publishers of quite literally books, It's a Women Owned Heart Express,
(54:43):
which they started in their fifties together after being childhood friends.
Yeah about women American authors who share, to share forgotten
books by American authors, to share with the new generation
of book lovers. So then, folks keep moving forward. Forty
five forward.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
This has been forty five forward with host Ron Roell.
Tune in each week as Ron tackles the many aspects
of health, finance, family and friends, housing, work, and personal pursuits,
all as part of an integrated plan and to take
charge of your unretiring life during these uncertain times. Wednesdays,
(55:30):
seven pm Eastern on the Bold Brave TV Network, powered
by B two Studios
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.