Dakota Growing Ep. 49 - Adventure, Plants of the Year and Mulch More

Kelsey Deckert & Tom Kalb talk about growing plants with special guest, Jaden Deckert.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Dakota Growing.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm Kelsey Deckert, your horticulture agent here in Burley County,
joined in the radio Access studio by my co host
Tom Cobb, and you see extension horticulturist.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
And we have a guest speaker today.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
That's right. We're very excited. Repeat on core performance.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We got Jaden Deckert with Burley County Soil Conservation District.
He is your urban conservationist.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Thanks, I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Good to have you here.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Gee, everything going good, everything.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
New year doing great start so far.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Bringing a guest speaker for show of the color.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
You're really moving up now, I'll tell you that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Got some good topics for today, I think everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Of course, nothing but the best for our watchers, our
viewers and listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's right. Should we just dive to talk about today?
So I always like to talk to you about this.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
But new Year, and in our Chinese calendar that's coming up, right,
the lunar lar calendar that officially starts in like.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
A couple of weeks in Asia. There's more than just China.
Sorry to lunar calendar that they's coming up. Yeah, it's switch,
it's like right, it's like tomorrow night. I think tomorrow
the next day.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Okay, So do you know what year it is this year?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yes, it's it's it's not a good one really. Uh.
Year of the Snake.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, you're the snake.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
There's not gonna be a lot. Oh there you go.
So there's not gonna be a lot of new babies
this year in Asia.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Not like last year with the You're the dragon.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
You're the dragon, like my little Kevin. Definitely. Uh, that's
a that's a big one because a dragon is, you know, power,
symbol of royalty, the king leader. So you want to
have a dragon, boy?

Speaker 1 (02:16):
So what do you know about snakes? Then?

Speaker 3 (02:18):
What do you think? Snakes are kind of sneaky, clever?
I don't know what they Everybody has their own thought
about it. What do you guys think about it? What's
a snak?

Speaker 4 (02:28):
They're nice for keeping pasts out of the garden. I
will say that.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
They'll eat pass nothing nice.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I hate snakes.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
I can't trust them.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Probably, Well you said a couple of the things.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
So they definitely say that snake means wisdom, charm, elegance.
I don't know how that one fits, but I would
say the biggest thing that people talk about with snakes
is transformation.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Should they all layers?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
So a new year your transformation for people like a resolution.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Sure take off the old bad stuff and start a
new become a new person.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
So with that, I'm yes, we're moving over to that.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Like I've talked in the past couple of years, our
National Gardening Bureau always names plants of the year, so
I'm going to highlight two. And to start off, we
got Year of the milk weed. What do you think
of milk weed?

Speaker 4 (03:32):
I like that one.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's toxic, great, yeah, a little bit, a little bit.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
It's not really good milk for you at all. It's
a weed, isn't it like action?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
We are right, but anything could be a weed.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well, it depends. You know. Weeds is an unwanted plant,
but milkweed's can be quite an evasive plant, and it
is a noxious weed in a few counties in North
Dakola County.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
You're right right, not stay listed though, I'm.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Kind of looking negative. I guess sorry about that.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeahs, try to ship positive.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Big thing to know about milkweed is our monarch caterpillars
completely rely on it for survival. That's the only way
they're going to morph into a beautiful butterfly.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Is milk weed is milk sock damn milk?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and then it deters birds and predators away from them.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Full of toxins.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Toxic yep, that's right.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Stellar pollinator plants not just for our monarchs but others,
and so milkweed oil seed oil is also featured in
some body care products.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Don't ask me which ones, but apparently they are.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Some other facts is milk weed floss is used as
a hyper allergetic filling for pillows and comforters. And then
the genus you can try to pronounce that you go
is named for the Greek god of healing. Do you

(05:07):
know anything about the Greek godki?

Speaker 3 (05:10):
That class.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Me too.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Toxins in moderation have healing properties.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Right right, like poppy seeds, right, I need a ton.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Of alls, all right?

Speaker 2 (05:25):
So if you're going to grow milk weed, so one
thing to know this is a you would want to
select a native species. There's about ten in North Dakota.
And I'm sure, Jaden, you talk about this a lot
when you talk about pollinators. You are going to commonly
find these in ditches and sunny areas, but like Tom said,
it can become.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Very aggressive and weedy.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Uh, the best selection if you have like a smaller
garden or you want to add in the garden is
going to be your swamp milk weed. That's just not
going to spread like by the rhizomes where common does.
And it's also taller, so it's going to be preferred
by those adult females for laying their eggs. Yeah, so

(06:07):
good choice for smaller swamp milk weed.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
And I's said showy milk weed, that's not a good one.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, I'm gonna talk a little bit. I grabbed our
chart actually off of one of our great publications out there,
and so here's just some of our common ones. You
can see when they bloom, so most of them are
going to be around that July to end of the summer,
some a little bit earlier.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
You can look at some of those varying.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Flower colors, what they like, what their height is, and
then the risk is spread on there as well.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
But just to kind of show you the.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Popular ones, showy milk weed, you're gonna see kind of
that star like flour on that. There's your swamp milk
weed in your in your common and then butterfly weed
as well. So I think butterfly weed's nice to have
a pop of very beautiful yeah pop of orange. That
one too, isn't so aggressive.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Abous are common, so it's a magnet for butterflies. They
really love it. It is just common. Milk weeds probably
the only one to be a little bit concerned about, right,
we want to support the pollinators in the monarch. So
milk actually, no wonder, it's a plant of the ear.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
There you go. Do you guys grow that at minilcan?

Speaker 4 (07:18):
Oh, yeah, we have a few of them.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
I actually like the swamp milkweed because I really like
the waxy leaves it has. It puts a little bit
of a sheen to it, So I think that's kind
of a cool looking plant.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
And what do you all get for pollinators on it
throughout the.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
Oh, we've gotten bees, butterflies, you name it. We've actually
got some kind of native bees that you don't see
a lot of, like a rusty belt bumblebee.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
We've seen a few of them.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
So it's kind of cool just looking in all the
different insects you can see.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Outdoor garden or rain garden. Where's that one located?

Speaker 5 (07:50):
So we have a couple of them in our rain garden,
we have some in our outdoor garden, and actually in
our high tunnel as well.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
We add a little bit of milkweed.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
With some other pollinators, trying to draw the insects in
to help pollination within the high tunnel as well.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
So how does that work when you guys close the doors.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
We only close the doors at night.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Typically they're open every day, so we'll try to leave
them open unless it's really windy or.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Something, then maybe we'll just shut one.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
But always try to have a frame of flowers just
to help that pollination in there, because with it being
in a building, you don't really have much for pollinators,
especially when winds not even that much of a factor
in there.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, and you got to keep it a little bit cool.
It can be very hot during the day, huh, So
that's why you need some air movement during the day.
And bees aren't generally active at night, so you can
close it up at night.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
So just get an automatic lock in there.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
I could just grow plants that don't need pollination.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
That guy could do that too. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Sorry, So just to wrap up kind of milkweed is
of course, there are concerns, Like we've alway already stated
it is an aggressive spreader, has some levels of toxicity
in it, and like I said, it isn't a state
listed noxious weed, but it is in some counties. So
you work a lot with producers and farmers or answers

(09:14):
and farmers. Do you get when people come out and
tour a lot of questions about that?

Speaker 4 (09:19):
We do.

Speaker 5 (09:20):
We get a lot of questions like, well, is it
going to kill macows? That obviously you have a picture
of cows. We hear that one all the time. And
I guess honestly, cattle are a lot smarter than we
give them credit for. They're only going to eat that
plant if they don't have any other choice. They know
what's not good for him or what is good for them.
So as far as that, it's really not a concern
because but we do get a lot of questions. That's

(09:42):
probably the number one because everybody knows it's.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Toxic, so farmers don't want it spreading into crop land
and everything is one right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
So if a cow, but if the stupid cow in
the herd takes a bite, then can cows talk to
you try and say, hey, eat that stop that idiot.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
I'm not an expert, but they might be able to.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Or they say, kind of, Tommy ain't here, and Joe,
what should I do? Should I go get a drink
of water? Personal leo quid eating the milkweed? Can they
talk to each other like that?

Speaker 4 (10:17):
And they might?

Speaker 3 (10:18):
I think birds do that. They can give distress calls.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
What to stay away from.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I guess they'd have to, like well, like we've said,
you'd have to ingest quite a bit, I think to
see some of those levels actually come up and affect
your cattle.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
So okay, Greig problem.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
So my other one that I wanted to feature today.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Is a year of dogwood. It's the year of the dogwood.
Tomm you like dogwood?

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yes, I think dogwood is a beautiful shrub, especially like
the one you show here with the variegated leaves and
the red twig. Dogwood is beautiful in the winter time.
You often see it like in swamps where the milk
weed were in the summertime, I guess. And but dogwood
is it's nice because it's got some fruits that are

(11:06):
that birds appreciate. But the one issue with dogwoods a
couple of things. One I think is generally likes moist soil,
so that's you know, most in North Quota, it's not
that moists. Like we're right on the edge of a
drought right now for example here, and so you got
to put it in the right spot, like a low

(11:28):
lying spot or are a spot that you can water it.
That's I think that's the biggest issue with that. And
make sure you get the right dogood because some dogwoods
are not hardy for here.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
No.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, like there's a lot of really popular flowering dogwoods
that are popular like in Virgini and stuff, but they're
just they won't make it here in brutal North Coral.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
So some fun facts about them. Actually, they have found
fossils resembling today's dog woods that date back over sixty
million years for those of you who are interested in
that kind of stuff. The wood is used for tool
handles and golf club heads. They are native to North

(12:11):
America but also found in Asia and Europe, and Native
Americans use dogwood trees to make arrows, daggers, and toothbrushes,
so kind of some interesting things. And just continuing, Their
flowers are actually bracts, so similar to like a point
setto when we talked about those last month. Like you said, Tom,

(12:33):
the berries do have a source of nutrition for at
least thirty six different bird species. Their roots are used
to make brightly colored dyes of reds, blacks.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
And yellow.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
So I thought that was kind of interesting that people
dig those up to use, and then some species will
produce fruit that actually can be used in wines and
preserves as well.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
I don't think we got any of those here.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Problem is to birds like it, they're going to beat you.
They beat you to it. You just turn around one
day and they're all gone. All dogwood like the great dogwood,
those those white the white berries, and there's red berries
and blueberries on dogwoods. So yeah, but I never wanted
I've never been that hungry either that or swamp milkweed.

(13:22):
I just never developed a taste for that. I would
probably especially after this episode.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, all right, so dogwood in the landscape, dogwood is
like you said, it's as long as you find the
right spot.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
It is pretty easy to grow.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
It's going to be hardy, maybe a little bit more
on the short lived side for a shrub, very low maintenance.
You talked about that winter and interest, so here's that
red twig in the photo for you guys.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
The maturity can be anywhere from three.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
To ten feet tall, and it's going to go grow
best in that full sun, maybe a little bit partial shade.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
The one thing that's nice too is it's similar.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
To like lilacs or karganas that if they are overgrown,
you can cut them all the way back to the
ground and they're gonna come right back and look great.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
You guys getting dogwood out there.

Speaker 5 (14:13):
Oh yeah, and our retom we have a little bit
of everything. So there's definitely some dogs.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oil Conservation carry those as the which do you know
what varieties?

Speaker 4 (14:22):
I don't offhand, but I know we do carry something.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Those in for their cashier program or Ye Surplus sailor
even our tree order on our website.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, it's very popular. So what do you guys think
of plants of the year? Good ones? Besides, there's such
initiative though out there.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
For you know, monarchs and everything and those coming on
endangered less.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, everybody's that's so worried about. So that's that, that's
that's why the uh, that's why the milk weed was
a plant of the year, a weed and uh, but
you know, dogwoods are good for the north here, just
got to you know, kind of a moist spot but

(15:13):
very easy to grow. Who am I to complained? You know?
Every you know, they didn't. I didn't get a vote.
Did you get a vote on?

Speaker 1 (15:20):
No, I didn't. I don't know who actually I didn't.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Just you know, one year I voted for creeping Charlie's
Plant of the Year, and after that they took away
my vote.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
So makes sense.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
I thought Canada thistle was a beautiful plant, but that
was That's the last time I got that vote. That
belt and the mail.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
That's right. Well, like I said, these are only a couple.
There are more.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
If you want to check out their website, you can
easily do a Google search and you can see some
other ones out there. I believe they usually select a
vegetable plant and then also a house plant. So there's
a couple more out there to learn more and see
if you're interested in doing something new and adding a
plant in So I think with that, I'll let you

(16:07):
educate us on something today.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
All right, what do you got for us?

Speaker 5 (16:14):
So today I got mulches is what I'm going to
talk about. Greatious, So we're important it is, and we're
kind of gearing up for the growing season. I know
a lot of people are starting to get the garden
plans together and trying to figure out what they're going
to do and what kind of vegetables we're looking at
growing or even flower beds. So I figured we'd visit
about this a little bit. So the benefits of mulching,

(16:37):
regardless of the kind, typically you reduce erosion, do you
want to preserve moisture and to reduce weed pressure. So
with that we got to really kind of consider our goals.
We'll talk about a couple of different types of mulches,
so when you're looking at implementing a different type of mulch,
you really kind of have to have this goal in mind.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
Because that can help you select your mulch.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
So, whether it's feed the soil, prevent erosions, press weeds, aesthetics,
that's a big one. I know everybody wants to have
a beautiful yard, temperature regulation, plant protection, and water conservation
or preserving that water because like Tom said, we kind
of are on the brink of a drought. Even though
I'd be okay if it'd be a drought till about April.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
You are so right. I'm with you one percent.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Do you want to elaborate just on feeding the soil, Like,
what do you mean by that for our listeners and viewers?

Speaker 5 (17:33):
Okay, So we'll talk about that a little bit more
when I get into our organic mulches. What I mean
by that is it's going to break down, it's going
to provide some form of nutrition for the soil. It's
going to be food for your microbes that are within
your soil.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Okay, So we'll.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
Get into that a little bit more when I hit that,
but first we'll talk about our inorganic mulch type so
rock plastic landscape fabric.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
And I'm just gonna lay it all out there.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
I honestly don't love every single one of these mulches,
and I'm sure my co hosts feel the same way
about certain ones.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
So what a controversy today, Let's try.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
A little bit.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
So I was kind of excited to bring it to
you and see what you guys had to say as well. So,
all right, our interorgantic mulches.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
The benefits. It has the potential to last many years.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
It's less labor because typically it's just one application or
once every few years. It'll save you time and money.
It's kind of the same reason because typically you can
apply it and depending on the mulch, you can get five, ten,
fifteen years out of it, depending on the amount of
maintenance you put in. So our first one, the first
controversy right off the bat. I know I've heard Kelsey

(18:44):
talk about this a little bit. But the benefits I
had to put esthetically pleasing because there are a lot
of people that think it looks beautiful. I'm not a
big fan of it. Other benefits it's wind resistant, low maintenance.
Disadvantages Number one, it's a heat trap, so in the
heat of July it really does a great job of
absorbing that heat. And then you might even see some

(19:06):
scorch on trees or rather perennial plants. Uh, you must
clean out the litter. So at the end of the year,
you're gonna have to clean out any dead litter because
Mother Nature is always trying to turn any dead litter
back into soil. So you're just asking for weed problems eventually,
and weeds will eventually come through. They're tougher than you

(19:28):
think they should be, so they can withstand some of
those rocks.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
How about so you guys are horse people? Do you
believe in horse whispers? Is there such a thing as
a person who's a horse whisper can communicate.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
With whispering or just really good with horses?

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, I don't know how they put their face right
next to the ear the horse and behaves right. Isn't
that so it really works, there's horse whispers.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
I think there's people who can really connect and work
very well with horses that would be considered a horse whisperer.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
You see the reason why I've heard a plant whisperer,
aren't you? That's why I'm that's I am a plant whisperer.
And I see this picture and I can feel the
pain of that plant in that rock mulch. It's crying
to me. It's like, why are you doing this to me?
I'm burning up? I got these rocks are doing nothing

(20:29):
for me. They do nothing. They're not it's not you know,
if if you care about plants, okay, I question if
it's aesthetically pleasing, if you care about plants, Yeah, it
won't blow away, that's true, But like how about also
in springtime it's it may cause premature bloom, and so
that can have I could lose my I can lose

(20:49):
my fruits my apple tree if it's under rock molting,
because all the blooms come out too early because it's
a heat trap, like you say, Jaden. And so as
speaking of a plant whisper, I am I think rock mulches.
I call it mulch madness. That's just my.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
This his thumbs down, it's my thumbs down.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
But who am I say?

Speaker 5 (21:14):
Oh, I agree with you one hundred percent. And like
I said, I'm here to talk about the good, the bad,
and ugly.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
So bad you start with the worst one here, I know.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
Well, I can only go off from here, I said
earlier on that. So our next one plastic mulch. Depending
on the situation, I'll give you a little background on
how we utilize it. Actually, your spring fever form gave
me the idea.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Tom Uh.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
You had an individual on that was talking about the
only I think study done on watermelon. I think it
was back in the fifties and they had used clear
plastic mulch to grow their watermelon through. And we did it,
and actually we compared it to a couple other mulches
and it yielded significantly better. But benefits is a capture

(22:00):
heat reduces the weed pressure, and it'll reduce erosion around
your plants. Disadvantages it's not water permeable, So, like I said,
what we had to do when we grew watermelon, we
actually had to run a drip line underneath it in
order to get water into the ret zone. It's only
good for one growing season and it's kind of a
bugger to remove in the fall. So that's kind of

(22:23):
the advantages and disadvantages. But the year we did try it,
it seemed to really help our watermelon out.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Anyways, I would say, like that's obviously a picture you
guys are sharing or you're sharing from growing it and stuff,
But you wouldn't have to necessarily run that drip line.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
You could cut a bigger hole.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
And the great thing about melons is once they get started,
they're going to do a great job shading.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Out those weeds.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
So, right, you could have a larger hole just to
be able to actually get like a soaker holes or
where you're not running a drip line and adding more
expense to your garden.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
Absolutely, it's just a little bit easier for us when
we're running our drip lines instead of having to go
handwater stick of sil girl was across the top, so the.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Next one here.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
Again, this isn't one of my favorite ones, but I know,
especially I work a lot in the Hotail garden arena,
so a lot of people like utilizing this. The weed
barrier fabric, it comes in a couple different styles. Sometimes
it's an actual fabric, sometimes it's more of a plastic
weaved type fabric. So the benefits it's permeable so when

(23:31):
it does rain, the water is going to soak into
the soil. Once again, that one helps reduce weed pressure.
Does a really good job at that, except it just
amazes me they always seem to find every little hole.
If you put a staple in there to hold it down,
a weed's gonna find it. I mean, that's truly kind
of amazing that they can find that little spot and
then it can last up ten years. Some really good

(23:52):
applications for this as tree ros. I know, we sell
a lot of it out in the when we're doing
our custom planning out in the county. Disadvantages you have
to clean the residue off, especially in a garden scenario,
because there again it's just going to build up or
be it tripping hazard, you.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Need a few extra tools.

Speaker 5 (24:09):
So you're gonna if you have the plastic weave style,
you're gonna want a torch to burn your holes in
there instead of cutting it with a knife, because that'll
prevent frame. And I know you guys are both from
North Dakota. Correct me if I'm wrong, But we get
wind once in a while here. Yeah, sometimes, and then
after several years, especially in a garden scenario, if you're

(24:30):
just reusing the same hole, you are going to create
compaction within the rest of the garden. Whether it's from
walking on it or just not there being a rut
system in that particular area, you are going to compact
that soil.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, I got to say, I'm looking forward to using
it in our gardenless here as much grassy weeds as
we dealt with in the thistle. And then I talked
about on the show how I had enough and just
had to kill it off early.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
No, I'm looking forward to having it over the top.
See how it goes.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
No, it'll definitely prevent weeds, there's no question. All right.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
So now we're going to move into our organic mulches,
and I'll start off with this slide here, This is
just to kind of be a good reference for everybody
out there. The first one is your ideal microbial diet.
So the reason I throw this in there is because
this is a really good gauge.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
On how long that mulch is going to last. It's
not true with everything, but it'll help you kind.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
Of decipher that that's what they want to eat, that's
ideal to them. So the more carbon you have in
your mulch, the longer it's going to last. The more
night or the less carbon, the quicker it's going to
go away. So it's always kind of to make sure
that aligns with our goals when we're selecting our organic mulches.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
How does somebody measure that?

Speaker 5 (25:51):
So as if you want to get an official measurement,
you can send it off to a lab and get
it tested. There's a lot of different like this online
that'll give you a range. And like even woodchips, I
mean four hundred parts carbon to six hundred parts carbon. Well,
it depends on the type of wood chips that you're utilizing.
I mean, if it's a hardwood, it'll last longer. If

(26:13):
it's softer like a cottonwood, it'll go away a little
bit quicker.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Yeah, But the big picture here you're staying is like
the high carbon sources like woodchips and cardboard will last
much longer as a mulch than the low carbon materials
like let's say cocoa shells or grass clippings exactly.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yep, those will break down a lot quicker. So our
first one woodchips. I personally don't mind woodchips. I think
they're esthetically pleasing. They are a lot of maintenance. You
do have to clean them out once in a while,
and they are gonna they're organic, so they're gonna try
to break down, so you might have to reapply and

(26:53):
add once every couple of years. So I really like
woodchips personally, especially in like a pollinator bed or just
even a flower bed. I think they look nice around
a house. That type of thing.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Can get lots of colors these days.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
Yep, you can get a lot of different colors. But
one thing, especially with these higher night or higher carbon
mulch is that you have to be concerned about depending
on what you plant in them and how close you get,
that nitrogen is going to in your soil is going
to get tied up trying because nature is always going
to be trying to break them down as effectively as possible.

(27:33):
So you might have a shortage of nitrogen, so you
might have to amend accordingly depending on your mulch type.
So just something that kind of keep in mind too.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's right. So plants will just look a little bit
pale and slightly yellow. That'd be a sign of nitrogen deficiency.
But you can easily remedy that, which is, you know,
some miracle grower fertilizer to help provide that food that
the plant needs exactly right.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
So our next one is cardboard. I really really like
utilizing cardboard. It's a great way. It's really hard for
weeds to come through. I will caution those certain plants
do not like germinating through cardboard. We've kind of had
our struggle with pumpkins trying to come through cardboard.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
And actually I did get.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
Them to grow here that's what I had planned here,
or this was right after I had planned.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
They did end up coming through, but I cut a
big old hole.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
I have about an eight inch hole, so I had
a little extra weeding within them holes that I had
to do. But cardboard does do a nice job, and
from my personal experience depending on if you get like
cardboard from a bigger box that a refrigerator came in,
that's thick enough, it'll last about two years, so you
can get about two growing seasons.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
Out of it.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
See, my grandma would definitely say that looks like garbage out.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
There's no thanks on that one. That looks garden.

Speaker 5 (29:03):
Yeah. This was my first year with that, and we'll
get into it a little bit later. It gets better,
I promise. So this one I really liked. It's a
little bit more labor intensive, but we utilized paper mulch.
You can get this at any local hardware store. This
did a really nice job for us. It kind of

(29:24):
reminded him took me back to elementary school school because
it came in the whole four foot rolls. You know,
when you'd sneak into the teacher's lounge and there'd be
the big cart with the rolls of paper on it.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
So that's why you're just stealing those back.

Speaker 5 (29:38):
I should be using them for this, But no, this
did a great job for us. It really reduced the
weed pressure. It did a nice job of absorbing water
and the rainfall. The only thing I didn't like about
this particular paper. We got some different stuff, but it
was really thin. So what we had to do I

(30:00):
tried staple in it down and our wind would just
blow the paper around and tear the staples out. So
we actually took compost and where the seams where we
covered it with composts to hold it down. So it
was a little bit more labor, but it did really
nice job this particular year. It lasted about to the
first week August for us, which by then all our

(30:21):
plants are far enough along that there's really nothing that's
going to hander.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Production at that point. If that's our goal.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
Our next one, and I know Tom's heard me talk
about a little bit with this is straw. We've utilized
this for potatoes and other plants. Honestly, straw is not
my favorite mulch, and there's a couple of reasons for it. One,
it's really high in carbon, so it takes a long
time for it to break down, and I've had people
actually tell me that their plants didn't do as well

(30:49):
because of that nitrogen cycle they didn't amend correctly. And
then the other thing is is it's so light and fluffy,
so it really doesn't take much for this to blow
all over your yard and just really get everywhere and
make a mess. So you can look in the picture,
they're actually putting net wrap over the top of it
just to hold it down. So, like I said, good

(31:11):
bed and ugly and straw's definitely not on my top tens.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
The mulch is to use.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
It's going to bring in mice. Well, that's what I
think of.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
I think that labor intensive putting that netting down.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah, keeps so cool in the spring, it does do that.
So I don't like that because I you know, I
want my plants to start jumping out of the ground.
So usually we put our straw on after the once
the summer's really going hot, and that's when the plants
appreciate the straw, like our tomatoes would appreciate straw that time.

(31:44):
So and it's natural it breaks down, you know. Generally,
I'm a big fan of organic. Anything that's organic and
is better than the inorganic like the plastic or said
it goes like rubber mats or you know, rocks. But yeah,
that's a good covered it.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Well, sir, all right, So next we were going to
talk about warm season cover crops. So if you remember
when I was talking about the paper. I said that
it broke down and it was kind of done by August. Well,
to prevent more weeds, I took the perfect opportunity to
plant the cover crops. So you can actually see my
tomato cages in those photos right up front of big

(32:26):
beautiful basil plant and some corn in the background. So
I just broadcasted the cover crops right around my plants.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
I really didn't.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
I mean, it's cover and it's just adding to the
soil health, so I didn't really care about walking on it.
That really wasn't a concern. I wasn't concerned about damaging
the cover crops. And then the picture next to it,
I just wanted to show this, if it really goes
wild like it did here, what a great snow trap.
That's extra moisture that we're able to, you know, really

(32:55):
collect and give our gardens a little bit of a
head start. And then I understand that ninety percent of
the viewers aren't able to do this, but I was
able to graze that cover crop as well with sheep,
So I'm just adding a little bit more fertility into
that garden while they're grazed and it's coming out their
back end, So that's just another added bonus that I'm
able to utilize it. So in the spring, obviously you

(33:19):
see the one with the snow, what I'm going to
end up having to do is I'm going to take
a lawnmore and I'm going to mulch it up real nice,
and then I'll either plant right into that residue or
depending on I might cover that too to prevent with
like a weed barrier fabric that type of a thing too,
so but it will break down underneath that as well,
since it's in contact with the soil. And then since

(33:44):
we're on cover crops, I figured I'd follow up with
the cool season cover crop. So this is something that
you'd want to utilize in September, so kind of after
a lot of our vegetable plants are done and growing,
and maybe when we want to clean out the garden.
But we don't want all that bare ground to go
all over the or to blow all winter, so we'll
use something like rye or even clover. Is that type

(34:07):
of a thing. There's a little bit more management. If
you utilize rye, typically September fifteenth when you want to
plant it, it'll actually germinate it'll come up, it'll grow
for probably till the end of October, and then it'll
go dorm it over winter, and then it'll come up
in the spring. And the benefit of that is is
this harvesting that's CO two and sunlight and putting it

(34:29):
off into our soil kind of prep in the stage,
if you will, for the following year.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
So that's kind of one of the benefits.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
But because it's a biennial, we're going to have to
kill it in order to plant what we want to grow,
so we'll actually cover it with weed barrier fabric and
starve it as sunlight for ten to fourteen days. You
can obviously use as a herbicide as well, but it
really provides a nice green maultch to cover our soils
for the following year. And then in the picture to

(34:56):
the right you can kind of see just how long
it last because that's a pretty high carbon crop too,
so we'll get a full year out of that, or
a full growing season anyways, to cover in our soils.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
All right, So now I have finished compost.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
Some people consider this a mulch, some people just consider
an amendment. I threw it in here just because there's
a lot of benefits to utilizing compost as a mulch.
Some of the detractions is it's not going to prevent erosion.
If we have that big gully washer rain that's gonna
run just as quick as the soil will maybe quicker.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Yet, if you utilize too much.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
It'll actually be hydrophobic, so it's not going to absorb
the water like we want it too for our plants.
But as far as a nutrient amendment, it really does
a nice job. It breaks down, it works well with
the biology.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
All in all.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
I really kind of like utilizing compost in any situation.

Speaker 4 (35:54):
I just kind of limit my mouns. I don't want
to use too much. Next one is alfalfa. I really
like alfalfa.

Speaker 5 (36:04):
It basically acts the same as straw, except our nitrogen
contents a heck of a lot higher, so it's gonna
give us a little bit more of a nitrogen component.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
And the other thing I like about it is a
lot denser, so it's not gonna blow as much as straw.
Woud either.

Speaker 5 (36:18):
This you don't even really need to cover. If you
just put it right on top of the soil, it'll
stay there. So that really does a nice job. I
know another person or a few other people like utilizing manure.

Speaker 4 (36:32):
This one.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
I like it better than an inorganic mulch, but once again, it's.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
Not my favorite. You can get a lot of weeds
with it.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
You can get really high nitrogen levels, so that can
cause some burn on some of your plants. So I mean,
i'd use it sparingly or better off, I would try
to compost it and break it down and let it
kill some off some of those weed seeds. So that's
just something to be aware of. Cocoa shells, this is

(37:03):
a really popular one, especially.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
In flower beds.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
This is a little bit higher than nitrogen, so this
will break down. I'd say it's good for about a season.
Certain people complain about mold. I don't know if you've
been anybody said anything to you about that, tom But.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, sometimes it can get some slime mold on it,
but generally it's not. It's not a major problem. Nothing
toxic for the.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
Plants, right, So but all in all, that's a pretty
good mulch.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
I know a lot of people and it's just good.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Dogs don't like it, huh, dogs.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Well, they say there's a lot of like I think
we've talked about this a little bit in the past,
just because I do like this mulch a lot. They say, yeah, like,
you gotta be careful with dogs, but I've never seen
a dog go over to which do Yeah, Like, I
don't know, maybe that the dogs that are eating socks
or something yet too are eating these ones, right, Yeah,

(37:59):
I think it's I think it's great. Unfortunately I haven't
been able to find it here locally in the last
few years, but it's very to me, smells good, it's
esthetically pleasing, and it does break down. Keep mentioning the mold,
I know, like after year or two and stuff. I
just always kind of go in and like break it
up a little bit, and if I do see some spots,

(38:21):
I kind of get that. I definitely as it's breaking down,
you'll see a little bit of that and add some
over the top. So this is definitely one of my
favorite mulches.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
So moving on to grass mulch, this one it's a
good nitrogen source. But once again I want to let
people know if you spray your lawn, do not put
it in your gardens. You can really cause a lot
of herbicide injury. So that's one of the main reasons
I put this one on. It is a nice mulch,
but if you spray your lawns, do not put it

(38:53):
in your gardens. Okay, So now we're going to get
into a couple of the different ones. Wool pellets. This
is something new that we tried this year. They actually
take sheeps will impenetalize it, and it's really a great mulch.
It's a slow released nitrogen fertilizer. It does a nice
job of absorbing water and then releasing it back to
the plant. It's actually got a four to one carbon

(39:14):
and nitrogen ratio, so it's really high in nitrogen. And
the only reason it lasts as long as it does
is because there's a lot of keratin within that will
so it's a lot slower to break down. But you
can purchase this in a lot of different places.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
I found it online.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
University of Pennsylvania Extensions actually done some studies with us
that are pretty interesting. So it really does a nice job.
And then we're going to talk about the combinations of
the Hugo culture, or that we utilize in the Hugo culture.
So I figured a lot of people wouldn't know what
that is, but Hugo culture itself is more or less maulch.

(39:50):
You start off with hard logs and then a hardwood
log than soft wood logs, and you just create a
pile and then you actually take grass or hey, we
use prairie, and you just kind of layer it up.
It's very similar to Lasagna gardening without the bed. So
we created that pile. And since I had that loose dirt,
if I would get a gully washer, it would wash

(40:11):
a lot of my dirt and compost off. So then
I went and planted their eye. That's what the picture
of the cardboard was earlier. And I let that rye
grow up, and I once again it was more of
an erosion prevention. I know it's not the most ecsthetic
or esthetically pleasing, but it did do the job. And
I cut that two three times throughout the summer. Every
time it would throw a seedhead, and then eventually I

(40:33):
covered it with alfalfa, which is a lot prettier. And
this is kind of what it looked like. We actually
had some beautiful pumpkins.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
Girl.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
We planted the North Atlantic Giant variety.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
And boy, oh boy, did they get big. We had
a lot of seventy pound pumpkins this.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Year kind of reminds me of our miner pile in the.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Corral that we had cords growing out of.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
This the old parrel garden. It worked out.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
I don't think I would pick this one as a
top choice.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
So that's what I have.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
All right, Okay, now I move along here my talk
this morning it's going to be about the Garden Adventure
of twenty twenty five. So the adventure begins temperature in
the forties, day is getting longer. Yeah, it's time for

(41:30):
us to start making plans. So in our adventure, what
kind of adventure are you? Guys?

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Are you try something new?

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Topic? For example, if if you want Musk said you
want to, I'll give you a free trip to the
moon pass free to pass?

Speaker 1 (41:48):
What's wrong pass? You're afraid of heights, afraid of going
into space? I'll tell you that much.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
I know.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'm jump on that trip with the rover. Yeah you can,
you can drive all around a little bit.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
You know. That just seems like a risky thing if
I balance, like, what the risk factor is?

Speaker 1 (42:12):
What's the chances of meaning not coming back? I'm want
to pass.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Come on, a lot of people pay to go up,
but they paid to go to Jeff.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
People who don't know what to do with their money.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Well it's too much for you. How about this if
I offered you a free trip skydiving out of an airplane.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
That one might for that, would you go for that?

Speaker 3 (42:35):
I'm not you See, there's different kinds of people in
this world. Yeah, there's three types of people of adventurer scale.
One is explorers. Explorers are the people who just want
to try new things. They're gonna take chances, they're gonna
see things that nobody else sees, you know, like going
up to the moon or jumping out of a plane.

(42:56):
And then the next then the least adventures people I
call settlers. There are people who just I'm okay with
where I am. I'm just going to settle down here.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
I don't need to be comfortable.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
I'm not going to explore anywhere. I'm happy right here.
That's a settler. I'm comfortable where I'm at. That's you.
I have to say yes. But then there's another level
up in intermediate that's a pioneer. A pioneer doesn't want
to be the first person who tries it. Yeah, they're like,

(43:28):
you know, they didn't want to they weren't on Christopher
Komus's boat for yea, but once they heard about it,
they say, Okay, I think it'd be safe, so then
i'll give it a try. So those are pioneers, So
maybe James something more like a pioneer two.

Speaker 5 (43:43):
Yeah, I don't want to be number one. I'll watch
the first guy jump out. I'll be a number three
or four.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
After you make sure the first person survives.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, I be missed out on all that excitement unpredictability. Okay,
how about if I gave you a free trip to
the Florida and you can watch sharks and a shark cage?

Speaker 4 (44:04):
What do you go for that one?

Speaker 1 (44:06):
I might bite on you might bite on it.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Fighting. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Okay, so now we're starting to see what kind of
adventure you are in your garden. How about what you like?
Do you like to go on those amusement park rides?

Speaker 4 (44:21):
And oh yeah, I love those?

Speaker 2 (44:24):
See I see something, I'll do a roller coaster that's
up and down, none of that, like let's go upside down?

Speaker 3 (44:30):
Yeah, okay, you're definitely you guys.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Like I'll sit on the sideline with you, Tom, we'll
watch Jane and go up there.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
You know what, I've taken a lot of chances in
my life. I think you know, in my heart, I
am a settler, but I have trailed all over the
world and developing countries. So I have kind of bitten
the bullet and gone for it. But how about you guys,
like horses, would you hop on a bucking bronco one buck?

Speaker 1 (44:58):
No? But have I gotten on ones that have balked
on me? Yes?

Speaker 2 (45:02):
But not willingly, like hey, this is one of our
best buckers. No, you know when you get older and
stuff that hitting the ground is not as fun.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
And then I also have my little girls.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
I got to think about, like could they live without mom?

Speaker 4 (45:17):
That's right, you would go right away. You're not necessarily
going to die.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
No, But I'm just saying, like, yeah, I could be
a paraplegia.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Like it could be a good mother on a wheelchair,
you can.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah, But I want to live my life yet too,
not from a wheelchair if I don't, if I have
a say in it.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Okay, So now we've got a pretty good perspective what
you guys are all about. As far as your adventures,
none of you are really uh explorers, But it's good
to know your limits. So now we talk about garden,
So like one of your first choices in the garden
will be like how much of adventure you want to
do a plant in your garden? And what what variety

(45:58):
are you going to select? Some people they just go
I'll go to Walmart and get whatever they got there.
But you know, I have to say that you can
do so much better than that. There's so limiting their choices.
They have so few hybrids. You know, a lot of
these varieties have been around longer than me. And I'm
you know, I'm not the youngest guy there is. And uh,

(46:22):
I can find you varies easily that will give you
more productive and will resist diseases naturally and give you
more secure crop. And so that's why you know, I
get lots of seed catalogs. I love going out to
my mailbox this time of year and getting my catalog
and what we do. I look for some of the
most promising ones. Ones that ripen very early, ones that

(46:45):
resist diseases naturally, ones that are productive, one can tolerate
more drought, and we come with testing them in our
home Garden Variety trial program. And for those who got
the website right there in the bottom. But for those
you on the rate Yo, it's NDSU dot AG slash

(47:06):
Home Garden Trials. So these are the North Dakota Home
Garden Variety Trials and DSU dot AG for Agriculture slash
Home Garden Trials. And we task over a hundred varieties
every year, and some people take chances and some people
are more reluctant. But I want to tell you just
some vrieties that would I encourage you to be a

(47:30):
pioneer and to try varieties that you may not be
able to find at Walmart. For example, go for the
super sweet corn. This corner will have three times the
sweetness of a standard corns. Outstanding quality. Just get vrieties
that can germinate in cool soil. And they'll say that

(47:50):
when it describes the variety, like the extra tender varieties
are very good for that. And burplus cucumbers. Don't limit
yourself to the standard cucumbers. Burpless types. There's types that
are earlier ripening, resist diseases, just great qualities, smooth skin,
thin skin, almost no seeds. And these are the types

(48:13):
of writings I'm talking about now that in our trials
I'll work with over three hundred families every year. And
after these, after everybody tries these one time, they won't
go back to those old varieties. Here's a snacking cucumber
called green Light that you harvest it when it's only
like four six inches long, Just crisp, delicious, almost no seeds.

(48:38):
A real winner. How about Cole Robbie. You guys ever
eat Cole Robbie? Did you like Cole Robbie.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
It wasn't my first choice, the first choice.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
It's an acquired taste. My story, my introduction Cole Robbie
came as a kid when that was let's say fifty
years ago. And this was before there was computers or
smartphones and so like almost no TV channels, and so
like what do you do and got nothing to do? Well,

(49:08):
I would just go outside and shoot hoops in my backyard.
Hoop played basketball for an hour, and you know, I
would just pretend you're like, oh, there are five seconds left,
Tom called, he's got the he's got the ball, he's
ready to take a shot, win the championship. And then
I throw up a wild shot and unfortunately, sometimes a
lot of times the ball just went everywhere, and it

(49:28):
often went to my neighbor's garden and uh, you know,
damage some of his plants, and I always kind of
feel bad about that. And one day the gardener such
a nice guy, he was Dan, mister Manning, just the
kindest guy. He said, Tom, can you come over here please?
And I thought, oh my god, I'm going to get

(49:49):
my I want to get my butt shoot for that basketball.
I said, Tom, have you ever seen this vegetable here?
And I said no. I was scared, but I said no, no,
And look at that. Well it looks like a spaceship.
He goes, yeah, here, let me cut some for you, Tom,
And it tastes just like a very mild, crisp cabbage.

(50:11):
So that's Cole Robbie. It's easy to grow. And there's
some purple varieties. They're just so vibrant. And there's a
new one called Constance's Share. I want to try so
mister Manning talk. It's the kindest man I ever met.
And I always apologize for hurting his zucchini plants with
my basketball shooting. No wonder I never made the team.

(50:34):
Romaine Vettis that's another on. People think so fancy, but
it's very easy to grow. There's some heat tolerant fridays
like blue Rocks infusion. Those are great. You gotta try
romaine lettuce, look for ones that can take the heat.
And a lot of people don't know about snappeas, but
snap peas are great because you don't have to shell

(50:55):
them and you can eat the whole pod, and they're
so crisp and juicy. Sugar ann is a tremendous variety.
It's so easy to grow again, don't have to trolls
it and just crisp sweet pods. Sugar ann. I encourage
you to explore and try that this year.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Is that one of the less stringy varieties.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Yeah, sugar ann does have a little bit of a string,
but the rest of the qualities make it so good
that I'll do a test with this and four to
five gardeners will take sugar an over a stringless type
just because it tastes so good and it's so productive,
real it's a real winner.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
That's what our daughter said to try. They get through
school vegetables and fruits, so you can try a new
fruit and vegetable. And she had snap peas a week
or so agoing man, she said, they are so good.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Mom, have you ever tried it.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
I said, yes, I know they are good. So she said,
we have to put those.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
In the garden.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
Oh, so listen, listen to Kelsey's daughter there, yeah, potatoes.
I'm encourage you to explore and try this purple potato.
It's our most popular one in our troughs called purple Viking.
Maybe just if your kid's a football fan, they might
want to grow it. But it's just a It tolerates drought,
it tolerates scab disease, which is our number one disease

(52:23):
in our among our potato plantings. And it's got these
beautiful purple rose marbled skin and pure white flesh that's
great for baking.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
So it almost looks like a rock.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
We grew a few of those out at the farm
last year.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
I've seen that and be like, oh.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Look at that. Very popular, and order them now before
the seed always runs out early. Okay, I encourage you
to try these orange cherry tomatoes or golden cherry tomatoes,
sun gold or sun sugar. They have such an intense
sweet flavor, you know, like you say, kids, kids just
gobble these things up. So again, explore is what I'm

(53:04):
trying to tell you today. In our garden adventure. Let's
try some new things and you might be rewarded with
some just gold in the garden there. And then how
about delakotta squash. People like to grow sweet potatoes, but
I say, why don't you just grow a squash that
tastes like sweet potatoes, And that's delakotta squash. It ripens

(53:27):
very early and you don't have to cure it. You
can eat it right when you harvest it in the fall.
You can even hit the skin. So this is a
sweet potato squash. It's very easy to grow and it
doesn't take the vines. They have some varieties that are
bush types. They don't take up your whole garden.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Is this your favorite variety? You've said in the.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Past, it's one of my favorites. I like the butter
cup squashes are my favorite, but this is definitely. This
is definitely especially in an urban setting where you don't
can't let your vines take old. I want to go
back to some peppers instead of just the bell peppers,
try some of these Italian frying peppers, like Carmen. They're

(54:11):
super easy to grow and super productive and they're great
for slicing and frying.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Are they more like a bell belly.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Yeah, but they're easier to grow, but explore. And the
last one. Sometimes our explorations we have a few Titanic situations,
and so I'll just end on a Titanic situation. This
was a comosuna. So we tried this last year in
our trials and it's a wonderful green because it's so

(54:44):
dark green and flavorful and it can take the heat
so you can it can grow all summer. The problem
was our gardeners thought it was a little too flavorful
and like bitter tasting, and if you're not really in
the mustard, you know, this is like one of our

(55:05):
Titanic situations. So it just happens. And the other thing
is you may not like it, but flea beetles love
it so like it's like a flea beetle magnet. So
so that's one thing about research trials. Sometimes you win,
sometimes you lose. Okay, where do you get this stuff?
I encourage you to go to our website. There is

(55:28):
again NSU dot ag slash Home Garden Trials and you
can download our varieties that we recommend for North to
go to. These are the ones that hundreds of gardeners
have tested, and I have a list of seed sources
and I'll just highlight a few seed sources. I really
think everybody should get the seed catalog of Johnny's selected seeds.

(55:52):
A wonderful breeding program produces a lot of winners. But
mainly I don't care if you buy your seeds from
them the cattleg because it's full of great information. They'll
tell you, you know, when to sow the seed, how far
apart to put the plants, here's the bugs to worry about,
here's the diseases to worry about. You know, here's how

(56:13):
you harvest it. It's a great garden resource. If you're
an organic grower, I encourage you to get the High
Mowing High Mowing Organic Seed Catalog and it's all organic seeds,
and they offer hybrid varieties that perform very well in
our trials, so High Mowing. That's a great seed company

(56:36):
if you're an organic gardener. And the last organic gardener
is is one from North Dakota, Prairie Road Organic Seed.
Prairie Road Organic Seed based out of North Dakota, and
they develop varieties that do well in North Dakota and
it works that we test their varieties. They don't offer

(56:58):
hybrids though, but they have organic seeds that you can
save yourself if you want. But they're winners. They have
a good quality writings that really do well in North Dakota.
It's a great family, the Potal family there, and I
encourage you to support them. So with that being said,
here we are. The trail of our garden season is

(57:21):
just beginning. It's gonna be a whining trail. Look out
for those bugs, and let's pray for a lot of rain.
So good luck on your venture this year.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
What would you say like for people who do go
to those seed sources, like how early should they be
ordering their seed? Because I do know, like I've looked
on a couple websites of different things already and it's
like out of stock, out of stock, out of stock.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
That's right, yesterday would have been the best.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
So no, But if I recommend you you go to
our website, get our list of recommended varieties, okay, and
on the back we got the seed sources, okay, and
just and request their free seed coutts, or you can
order online and most most if you shop around almost
all varieties you can you can still find so.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
I actually I order most of my seeds in February
and March, and maybe one or two verties I didn't
catch in time. But you're going to be okay.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
And how about for listeners who are interested in doing
the Home Garden Variety trials? When could they expect catalog
and ordering?

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Right? So, first of all, first step is to go
our website and sign up to get our catalog, and
our catleg will be out in about a month and so,
and we encourage everybody to join our team. We have
We had three hundred and sixty five families cement results
from their trials last year. And you don't have to
be a fancy grower, you can just be a just

(58:56):
even be a kid who wants to garden. You know,
everybody's welcome to So, yeah, it's a real fun project
and we'll be testing about hundred fridays and it's a
really it's a roaring success. We get one hundred percent
of the people who tried the program last year said
they would recommend it to a fell gardener. That's not bad.

(59:22):
There's always one trouble maker. So that's what I got today, guys.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Very good. Any other last thoughts? From either of you,
not me, I was gonna say it good to go oh.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
We just want to thank everybody for tuning in on
this episode of t A Coda Growing, those who are
joining us on the radio or the podcast platform as well,
and of course we hope that you've joined us for
future episodes. Thank you Jayden for coming in and being
a guest speaker.

Speaker 4 (59:53):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
We'll see everybody next episode. The Code of Growing is
a gardening show brought to you by Dakota Media Access
and NDSU Extension. We discuss a variety of timely topics
pertaining to your landscape, along with giving you tips and
advice for your lawn, garden and trees. If you have questions,
call seven oh one two two one six eight sixty

(01:00:15):
five or email NDSU dot Burley dot Extension at NDSU
dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Dakota Growing airs on Radio Access one O two point
five FM, Community Access Channel twelve or six twelve HD,
or online at free tv dot org.