October 17, 2024 • 31 mins
Join Janey and Jason for Part Two of their Question and Answer session! They’ll be tackling even more questions from Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat subscribers and fans. Learn about options for getting compost delivered to your property and what to consider when evaluating them. They’ll also discuss plans for the now infamous zig-zag planter, how to tell when a plant is truly established, and more! Don’t miss another fun conversation as Janey and Jason answer questions from you!
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Love what you’re hearing?
Make sure to check out more from Janey:
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Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat is produced in association with Caloroga Shark Media. Hear other shows from Caloroga Shark along with subscription info and Merch with free shipping here!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Support for this podcast comes from Proven Winners, the plant
brand that gardeners of all experienced levels trust the most,
and the brand that I have personally trusted in my
own gardening journey since twenty twenty. Proven Winners selections, including annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, bulbs,
and even houseplants, are simply amazing and all are trialed, tested,
(00:22):
and specifically chosen for one purpose and one purpose only
to ensure gardener success. Visit Provenwinners dot com and find
your next favorite plant today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Callarogashawk Media.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hi everyone, Janie here, Welcome back to my garden and
welcome back to the Dig Plant Water Repeat podcast. Today
on the podcast, it is part two of a Q
and A session with Jason very special guests.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Jason, my husband, Good, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I'm all right?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Tell everybody where we're at right now.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
We're in our living room at our house. This is
so bizarre.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's bizarre.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We got oh my god, I almost called Monty Stanley.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Oh, Stanley is our old dog. He passed away a
year ago, eight years ago. We've got Manty here chewing
on a bone. So if you hear that in the background,
that's what it is. So last week Jason and I
answered a couple of questions from you guys that you submitted.
We asked them on the community page on the YouTube
channel and also Instagram, and we had so many questions
(01:45):
we decided to split it up into two parts. So
if you didn't hear last week's podcasts, stop this, go
listen to that first, and then come back for session
two or part two of the Q and A with
Jason and I. All right, Jason, so the first question
and I have is from Instagram. It's from Lorianne, Hi, Lourianne.
She asks where do you buy your bulk compost? Some
(02:07):
county landfill organization to offer it, do you recommend use?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So we have done it a couple of ways, right.
We have gotten it from a landscape supply what do
you call it? Yeah, yeah, landscape supply business in the area.
And they, you know, the advantage there is they can
bring huge dump truck fulls of ten or twenty yards
(02:32):
or more of you know, woodschips or compost or whatever
and put a huge pile in our yard. And that's
super quick, but it costs significantly more than the other option,
which is our dump nearby, and you could talk about
the specifics of it, but basically the dump nearby, you
can come and you can load up small amounts yourself
for free through the end of October. Is that right both?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah? I think for now it's three through October thirty five.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Our local like landfill that composts all of the green
waste from the city basically, right, yeah, And so you
can load it up for free if you want to
do all the scooping and shoveling and stuff yourself, or
like what I just did recently is I just drove
in with our pickup and parked and they just get
one big scooper takes a big old scoop and dumps
(03:21):
it in the back and you know, you're out of
there in like two minutes. And then that does cost money,
but it's like twenty bucks a ton. It's it's super cheap.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Honey's on the dogs.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It's like twenty percent of the cost of buying it
at the landscape supply place.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, So basically your pain for the ease the delivery
at the landscape supply place which you are playing for
the delivery is in addition delivery charge recharge also, so
you're pain for the ease of it if you get
it from a landscape supply place. The one thing that
I will say, Loriane, is check your local landfill and
(04:02):
see if the compost there is STA certified. And so
what STA certified is is US Composting Council's.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Seal of Testing Assurance.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And what that means is they will come and they
will test the compost at your landfill in you know,
random time periods, and they are giving them the stamp
of approval saying that there's a limited amount of pathogens
and a limited amount of metals in that compost. And
(04:35):
so that's really what you want to see. You want
to see that your your facility is STA certified. If
it is STA certified, that's basically just as good as
purchasing landfill at a landscape supply excuse me, purchasing composts
at a landscape supply place. So we live in central California.
(04:57):
We live in like the Red basket of the world. Basically,
we have so many farms around here, and there's so
much produce grown around us. And I was looking into
it and our landfill actually provides compost for those farms, right, Yeah,
So you know, the food that you guys are eating
wherever you are in the United States, the fruits and
(05:19):
vegetables that you guys are eating might have compost from
my landfill on it and was used to.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I know?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
But when I read that, I just thought, Okay, well,
if it's good enough for that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It's good enough for you.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
If that's the case.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, I don't have an organic garden. I don't need
about I don't need to worry about anything about that.
I do have a compost system in my backyard, the
three bin composter system.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It just you know, it takes a really long that's
a very slow process.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's a very slow process, and we need so much
more compost. So we got to be able to get
it somewhere else. And we live on about an acre
and we're just looking for the biggest bang for our buck.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah right, yeah, and yeah, we just couldn't. There's no
way we could compost enough of our own stuff to
make any kind of a dent in what we need.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, you know, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, to answer your question, yes, I use my county landfill.
I've done my research and I've looked, and I've found
that they are STA certified, So I would say that's
the first thing you have to do, and then number
two is check and see if your landfill will deliver
or if you have a pickup and a shovel. You know,
you kind of got to think about that as well. Otherwise,
(06:31):
just a landscape supply place and they will deliver it
for you, all right. Carrie Sue fifty one asks please
talk about fall slash winter plans for the Zigzag garden.
When and what will you plant? So when soon? Right soon?
We were supposed to do it last week it was
(06:51):
too hot.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, that would have been not very nice to plant
plants in the one hundred and five degree heat.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, So you guys are probably listening to this two
weeks later, but right now it is the second week
of October and we're still in triple digit temperatures here.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It's going to be about one hundred to day again.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What I want to do with my zigzag planter right now?
For those of you who don't know, we have a
planter in our front yard and it is in the
shape of a litteral zigzag. It's the funniest thing. And
when we moved into this property. My immediate inclination was
to take it out because.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It's pretty ugly.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, we thought it was horribly ugly.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It is horribly ugly, but when you paint it and
when you plant plants in it, it kind of gets
some character to it. So we've decided to keep it
at least for now, and we've been planting in it.
And the stuff that we planted in it, I mean
it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Right, Yeah, stuff grows great in that thing, and.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The Zigzagniss gives it some It.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Gives us some interest, like some dimension or some depth
or some something.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's so funny.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
It's kind of a hit, like people like it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So last winter I plant did a daffodil blend mix
that I wasn't a huge fan of.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I didn't love that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I would try something different this time.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So the I don't remember the name of the last
year's but it's like bloom Factory or something like that.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Or is it Springloaded or is that one you do?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I think Springloaded was the one I did the year before.
So we're talking about color blends dot com. They have
bold mixes and I've done a lot of daffodil bold mixes.
And last year, I'm pretty sure it was bloom factory
that I planted.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
That sounds right.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It was fine, It was okay, it was just fine.
I didn't love it.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
It wasn't it meant to be like having different ones
that bloomed kind of at different times, so it was
kind of staged or is that wrong?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, it was meant to be such a huge, massive
blooms that you couldn't even see the foliage.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
No, it didn't.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And that's that's the reason why I don't think I
loved it, because it was the yellow ones or the
white ones bloomed first, and then the yellow ones bloomed
after it.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And that's why I thought it was supposed to be staged.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
No, it wasn't supposed to be like that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So anyway, the reason why I'm bringing that up is
to answer your question is this winter, as soon as
we can transplant the pink cashmeir superbina and the purple
fountain grass that we have in the Zigzag planter, as
soon as it cools down a little bit, I will
be planting more daffodil bulbs in. But the daffodil bulbs
that we're planting are just the regular daffodil bulbs.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, but those are the best, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I know, they're so beautiful, they grow so well.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And they're bigger too. I know. It's nice, big yellow,
beautiful flowers.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
So the variety that we're talking about is called Dutch
Master daffodils, and they're like the classic all yellow, really
big beautiful daffodils, and those I mostly planted those in
my last property and they did really well. They naturalize
really well for us here in northern California in Zone
nine B.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And my plan is is just to plant a massive
amount of those in the zigzag planter.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
That'll be fun, that'd be pretty. And then I'd love
to plant some alyssum in between. Oh wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
So white? Right?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, and so I think but they have purple. I
think I'm a plant purple lissmer oh, because purple and yellow.
So we're basically just waiting for the weather to kind
of cool down a little bit before we're going to transplant.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Uh. And then next year I already know what I'm planting.
Do you know what I'm planting? What annual?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
No? Wait, I should know you said, I don't remember,
but I know you told.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Me it's a new one.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, it's the new Tiara pink.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just I love it so much.
We have it planted in our backyard and it is just.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
A rock stuff pink Supertunia.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Super Tunia super Tunia Tiara pink. It is an absolute, beautiful, beautiful,
bright pink flower. Yeah, so as of right now, you know,
of course, things might change, but as of right now,
that's my plan is to plant Tiera pink, which will
be this huge just oh my gosh, that's going to
be so bright, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
That'll be awesome. And then you're going to plant something
like something else in there as well with those.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Probably some grasses and some trailers and stuff like that.
But yeah, that's that's kind of the main one. So
very exciting. Thanks for asking that question, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It will be fun. It's a really fun thing.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
At our last house, we had our front swoop, which
was kind of the same thing. It was a little planter,
but it was kind of in an arc shape and
we would change it up every year. And it's always
so fun to change things up like that because you
get to think about what you want to do different
year to year. So if you guys have a spot
in your garden where you can kind of dedicate to annuals,
it makes it really really fun. It makes it so
(11:41):
that you can kind of, you know, look forward to
what's coming next. All right, Michelle asks, do you have
any recommendations for the brands for soil from local store
like Low's, Home Depot, Ace or Walmart?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Do you have any recommendations for soil for soil backed soil?
Not really, Michelle, You're not gonna like.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
My answer for this one. I'm not a huge fan
of the soils you can get there. Oh yeah, we've
tried them many.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Times, we've had them. I just don't know, nothing stands
out as like that we've settled on and that we like.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, well, I don't, you know, I don't want to
say bad about any particular brands, but I know I've
got one brand from a big box store, the Orange
big box store, And oh my god, I hated that soil.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It was terrible.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
It's the ones that we put in the stock tanks
at our last house. Oh yeah, oh my goodness, it
was absolutely terrible. So I've tried a couple different ones,
and the one that I'm most likely to use would
be the straight Miracle grow kind, right, Like, if I
had to get a bag of soil at a big
box store, that's probably what I would grab. If I
(12:54):
could get the Miracle Grow without the fertilizer, I would
grab that. But I think almost all of them comes
with the fertilizer. But my favorite soil comes from a
local independent garden center. It's called Green All, and it's
I mean it's just the best. It's so it's such beautiful,
beautiful soil.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
They don't sell that at the big box stores at all,
huh uh.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I mean they might sell it at ACE. I know
they sell Ebstone at ACE, so they might sell Check
and see if they sell green All at your ACE, Michelle.
But that, you know, the really really big brands, I'm
just not a huge fan of. I just can't find one.
I'm kind of picky about my bag soil. I don't
like it too barkie, Like you know.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
You definitely complained about too much bark and so yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, And that's the thing is that, you know, soil
has to work for your climate. We have a very
very dry climate. And bark is going to encourage draining.
And so I don't like my soil to be too
barkie because then it's funny too barkie, because then it's
not going to retain water.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Well.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Right, you have to think of like a cactus mix
has mostly bark in it.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Right, So if you live somewhere like in the Midwest
where it rained all summer, then you might want that.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It might be a great great soil for you, right.
So you kind of just got to try them all
figure out which one works best for your climate.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
But for me, I just I really love the green
all soil.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah, I's the one we typically have.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Huh, green all potting soil. I just I love that stuff.
So there you go. So next question is from Julie.
Julie asks, so you were able to turn your love
of gardening into a career. Do you have any advice
or job recommendations for those of us that want to
turn our love of gardening into a career slash job
(14:35):
slash side hustle.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Jason, I think this might be a good question for
you to answer.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
This is a Jane question, all right, Julie, So.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Job recommendations, you know, figure out what you love to do,
and because you can.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Go a lot of different ways with if you like gardening,
you can be a content creator like you are, or
you could I mean, there's just like a million things
you could do, right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It could be ye, a garden assistant. You could be
so funny. Michael Glassman always talks about he would love
to have somebody he could call on that like really
knows how to garden. So instead of calling someone just
to mow a lawn and to blow off the sidewalks,
to call on a gardener to come and prune or
to fertilize or to you know, check for bugs and
(15:25):
take care of pests and stuff like that. I don't
know what you call that much.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I feel like there would be a demand for somebody
like that. I don't know that it exists, and maybe
it does, but like like, yeah, like a gardening business
that's not just like yeah, mow and blow, but like
somebody that will come in really actually take care of
the plants in the yard.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, I mean I think that would be.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
It seems like that would be. It seems like there
if you were in an area with enough population, I
feel like you could make a business out of.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
That, Yeah, I think that would be a great job.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I'm sure there's people out there that are doing that.
I just haven't cut across it, and either has Michael Glassman.
Michael Glassman is a landscape designer.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
He's been on this.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Podcast before and he's he just we talk about it
all the time, how he's always looking for someone that
can do that. So that would be job recommendations. There's
so many different aspects of gardening, vegetable gardening, flower gardening,
cut flower gardening, if you want to be a cut
flower farmer, if you want to be an educator, if
you want to be a content creator.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Just whatever speaks to you for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And then the one thing that I would have to
say that I feel pretty strongly about is gaining the
confidence that you need. I am a self taught gardener, right,
I learned from YouTube, watching Garden Answer, watching Monty Dawn,
you know, like like that's how I started off gardening.
But then what I decided to do is to take
(16:50):
it a step further and I actually trained in the
Master Gardener's program. And I think that that decision to
become a master gardener made all the difference in the
world because I kind of knew everything in gardening. I
kind of knew all the concepts, but I didn't have
the confidence behind it where I would answer a question
(17:12):
I you know, it was kind of like, well, I
think you want to use this, or I think you
can do this. But after I went through the Master
Gardner's Program, I got my confidence and I really understood
the purpose behind why you would use this spray or
why you would prone at this time.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And it just made such a difference.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
For me in my career because I had the confidence
that I needed. So when opportunities arose, I was confident
enough to say, yeah, I got that, I can do that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
No problem.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So finding some type of whatever it is that's going
to give you the confidence. For me, it was going
through the Master Gardener's Program. For some people it might
be taking an online course or going back to school.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Whatever it is to give you.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
The confidence you need, I think is what's what's going
to make the difference between success.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And I feel like aster Gardener program really to help
you out a lot, just because even if you kind
of knew like this is how I care for this plant,
and this is what works, now you know why that
stuff works? Yeah, right, Yeah, kind of give you the background,
and so you get a lot of Yeah, then you
feel more confident to teach other people or tell other
(18:20):
people what to do and why, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And it gave me more confidence to say I don't know.
Sure that's true, Like I felt better saying I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
There's still like a million and one questions that could
come up in gardening that you won't have an answer to.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Somebody knows everything.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
But now that I know, I don't know, that's just
that's just it's a new thing to me, or I
haven't I haven't learned that concept yet, or you know,
it just made me feel better to say I don't know. So, Julie,
I think that if you're looking to, you know, make
this a job or a side hustle, do what you
need to do to get the confidence for it, you
might already have it, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, you might not need this advice at all.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, And then, like any job, kind of be willing
to work hard. I suppose, yeah, you know, because it's
not like this came easy, like you had to work
hard at this.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
This is not an easy job. I love it, but
it's not an easy job. All right, Ellen asks how
do you know when your new plantings are well established.
So what Ellen is talking about is, you know, when
you plant a plant, it has its roots in the
root ball, and you need to wait for that plant
(19:28):
to extend its roots out into the surrounding soil, the
native soil, for it to really get established and to
really show its true colors, show how it can handle stress,
how it can handle water, how well it can bloom,
how it can flourish, you know, and it takes a
while for some plants to get established. And Ellen, my
answer to that is like the mantra, I say this
(19:51):
to myself all the time, you know, in the garden,
I walk through the garden, I say, okay, sleep, creep leap, Sleep,
creep leap. That's kind of an easy way to tell
yourself whether or not a plant is established. And basically
it's the average it takes about three gardening seasons for
a plant to really get established. In the first year,
(20:11):
it's going to be all the roots are growing, and
then the second year you're going to start notice some
foliage growth and some flower growth. But the third year
you can pretty much know that that plant is established
and you're really going to see a huge difference in
that plant. So I usually think it's about three years.
Another way, like if you're talking about a tree or
something like that, you can go up to the tree
(20:32):
or go up to the plant and kind of rock
it back and forth a little bit. And if it's
really easy to rock back and forth, obviously that plant
is not rooted in. You still need to treat it
like a baby plant, and you need to take care
of it, like its root system is not developed enough.
If it's pretty darn stable and you really can't rock
that tree back and forth, you know those roots have
expanded out into the surrounding native soil, and you know
(20:55):
it's starting to get itself pretty well established at that point.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So have you or does that apply to all plants?
I've heard you talk about the sleep, creep and leap
with vines specifically like clematis. I know you've talked about it. Yeah,
but like, does that actually apply to basically everything?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
I didn't know that, Yeah, yeah, so a lot of things.
I mean, of course it's a generalization, right, but if
you take a shrub, you plant to shrub one year,
it's going to sit there and it's going to do nothing,
and then the second year, it's going to grow a
little bit and it's going to be like, oh, that's nice, Okay,
I don't have.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
To prune it.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I don't have to do anything. And then the third year,
you're probably going to have to get your pruners out right,
and you're probably going to have to size it, and
it's going to grow like crazy, and it's going to
beautiful and it's going to show.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's true colors.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Right, and then as time goes on, it'll keep growing
and all that kind of stuff. But it's usually about
the third year where it starts leaping and you're really
going to notice growth of that plant because that plant
has become established, its root system has become established, which
is a wonderful thing. Okay, for the last question, this
(22:07):
is going to be from a Olsen. He or she says,
thanks to the wonderful and informative content, Janie, you're welcome.
Thank you for saying thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I am wondering about two things. One, to improve your
soil in your existing garden beds, do you pull back
your mulch and add three or so inches of compost
and then move the mulch back into place. And then
two is it normal to have roaches in your soil.
So I'll answer the first one first. So to improve
your soil in the existing garden beds, do you pull
(22:37):
back your mulch.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
We haven't.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
We haven't because we are using wood chips as mulch
and we have pretty dense clay soil, and so I
like adding the organic matter of the wood chips into
my soil. So my plan, and the reason why this
is my plan is because I'm doing the no till
method or sheet mulchi method of gardening, which is I'm
(23:02):
basically layering on.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Organic matter. I'm layering on.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Compost, then I'm layering on woodchips. Then I'm layering on
more composts than more wood chips, and so on and
so on and so on, and they're eventually going to
break down and incorporate with each other and create some
really loamy, beautiful soil. So in my garden, I am
not pulling.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Back the mulch. Now, in my last garden, we used
bark mulch that was actually colored black.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, that was beautiful, nice.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
It's not the best option for the healthiest garden, but
that's okay.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I'm not judging anybody that mulch I would.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Not want to incorporate into my garden soil that mulch
I pulled back added compost and then pushed it back
over or got new bags, right, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, we remember raking that mulch off and then get
new mulch actually, yeah, because it kind of loses it,
it fades after a while, yeah and stuff, and yeah,
it's not.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
The most environmentally friendly option. Yeah, but I'm so pretty
it was very Yeah, So it kind of depends on
what type of mult you have, Right, If you have
a you know, a fine mult that's going to work
into your compost really well, then again I would just
just top it. I would top it with a compost
(24:27):
and and appreciate the extra organic matter. It's really important
to have different sizes of organic matter, you know, wood
chips and leaves and all the other stuff that you have,
because that helps those microbes break it down a little
bit better, you know, allows for different air pockets and everything,
which is which is one of the components of breaking
down compost and getting everything to mix together properly. So
(24:51):
if you have small enough bark and natural bark, organic bark,
I would say, mix it in, use it.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Can you address You get questions fairly off about how
the bark robs nitrogen and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Oh yeah, so actually that is like a misconception, Like
people always say that, and people ask me that a
lot when I use my woodchip, when we get woodchips delivered.
But I mean it's it's so, how do you say
the word negligible? Negligible?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
The effect is minimal.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Basically, effect is.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Minimal, right, And so what can happen is if you
have a tree that you cut down and it's fresh
and it's decomposing, right, you can you can have some
of the nitrogen in your soil, uh get taken up
by then by the woodchips in the decomposing process. And
(25:46):
you know, it does happen, but it would just happen
on like the very top layer of that woodchips, so
you would barely notice a difference with your plants.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
It is so bad that the time you get to
twelve inches underground where the roots are, there's no difference,
there's no different, it's not really happening. And so a
lot of people are super super concerned about this. But
it's been the myth has been busted. So it's like, yes,
it does happen, but no, it doesn't make a difference, right.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, so there's no reason to kind of freak out
about it or worry about it. And besides a lot
of I mean, if you get arborous woodchips chip drop,
then you are going to have some pretty fresh woodchips.
But they're they're going to decompose pretty darn quickly right
when you get them all spread out into your gardens.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And only even if you're being generous, the top inch
or two of soil is going to be affected by
that at most anyway, is that right?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Barely that and not even that.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I mean, okay, you guys, this is what I learned
in Master Gardeners. So do your own research and all
that kind of stuff, but it basically what I learned
is that it's so negligible it's it's nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
To be concerned.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
That question comes up all the time, it does any
almost any time that we put new woodchips down, we
get that question.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I think it's one of those old wives tales that
everybody heard and everybody so afraid of. And I see
where it comes from. When you have fresh compost, right,
Like if you have fresh horse manure that people will
use as compost that can burn your plants really easily
because it has too much nitrogen in it. You want
to let your compost sit and age, right, But when
(27:19):
it comes to the wood chips, it's just so it's.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
No. Yeah, And so that's the type of thing is
like I can't say that it doesn't happen, because it
does happen, but it's so minimal, and it's going to
affect your plants so little, you know, I just I
wouldn't worry about it. And the benefits that woodchips.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Give to your garden anyway is just so much better.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
So the next part of the question is is it
normal to have roaches in your soil? Does roaches in
your garden bed mean your soil is bad? No, So
roaches are usually a major pest. Like when you talk
about IPM integrated press management, you think of roaches in
the house as being really bad because it's gross and
they and they bring you know, pathogens into your house
(28:08):
and in the kitchen and everything like that. But in
the garden they don't really They don't really do much, right,
they don't really eat your plants. They're not bad bugs
to have. They're just kind of there. So I don't
think it's a it's a good thing or it's a
bad thing. If you do have a lot of roaches
in your garden, particularly your vegetable garden, you might want
(28:28):
to think about cleaning up the food that you know,
the fruits and veggies that have dropped, or if you
have like an orchard, you might they're attracted to the
food basically, so if you have a lot of them,
you can clean up the food so that you don't
have as many attractants there. That's the same thing that
they say for roaches and ants in your home. You
have to you have to clean up your mess.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So that they're not attracted.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
That's step one, right, not saying that you have food
all over your garden, but you obviously have something in
your garden that they like eating. So if the roaches
are you know something that that bothers you, cleaning up
your garden will definitely help. But to answer your question,
they're not bad. They're not going to do anything. They're
not going to like eat your live plants or anything
(29:13):
like that they'll just eat the stuff that fell down
onto the ground.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
So the roaches won't actually damage any plants at all.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Really, No, they're not a bad bug or anything like
that or not. They're not counted as a bad bug.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
So, but they're not beneficial because they don't eat any
bugs either. They're eating like old food fruit.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Well, I guess they're beneficial because they clean up the mess.
I mean, I don't know, you know, it depends on
how you look at it. Some people might look at
it as they're beneficial because they clean up the mess.
So anyway, you know, to answer your question, it's it's
not a bad thing. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Sometimes I'll find roaches in my garden. Actually I have
found roaches in my garden and it's just freaked me out.
(29:52):
But that's about it, all right, you guys. So that
is it for our Q and A session. This is
part two. We got some really great questions, right, was fun. Yeah,
it was really fun. So thank you all for submitting
your questions. I appreciate it. And then hopefully Jason and
I will bring back the Saturday Coffee chat videos.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
We want to soon.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Ish we want to, but it's a timing thing.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
You only have so much time in the day, especially
in the soccer season.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
So anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this, and I
hope you all have a chance to get in your
garden today. Thank you so much to my podcast sponsor,
Proven Winners. Visit your local garden center today and look
for the white containers featuring the Proven Winner's logo. There's
a reason they're the number one plant brand that gardeners
(30:45):
like me trust the most. Visit Proven Winners dot com
for tips, ideas, and so much more. Dig Plant Water
Repeat is produced in association with Klaroga Shark Media. It
was written and hosted by me Janie sant with marketing
and production assistants from Courtney Clark.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Please consider subscribing and.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Watch us on YouTube or follow us on your favorite
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And hey, if you liked the show, give us a
review and hit those five stars on Apple. Executive producers
are Mark Francis, John McDermott, and Janie Santos.
Support for this podcast comes from Proven Winners, the plant
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own gardening journey since twenty twenty. Proven Winners selections, including annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, bulbs,
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(00:22):
and specifically chosen for one purpose and one purpose only
to ensure gardener success. Visit Provenwinners dot com and find
your next favorite plant today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Callarogashawk Media.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hi everyone, Janie here, Welcome back to my garden and
welcome back to the Dig Plant Water Repeat podcast. Today
on the podcast, it is part two of a Q
and A session with Jason very special guests.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Jason, my husband, Good, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I'm all right?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Tell everybody where we're at right now.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
We're in our living room at our house. This is
so bizarre.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's bizarre.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We got oh my god, I almost called Monty Stanley.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Oh, Stanley is our old dog. He passed away a
year ago, eight years ago. We've got Manty here chewing
on a bone. So if you hear that in the background,
that's what it is. So last week Jason and I
answered a couple of questions from you guys that you submitted.
We asked them on the community page on the YouTube
channel and also Instagram, and we had so many questions
(01:45):
we decided to split it up into two parts. So
if you didn't hear last week's podcasts, stop this, go
listen to that first, and then come back for session
two or part two of the Q and A with
Jason and I. All right, Jason, so the first question
and I have is from Instagram. It's from Lorianne, Hi, Lourianne.
She asks where do you buy your bulk compost? Some
(02:07):
county landfill organization to offer it, do you recommend use?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So we have done it a couple of ways, right.
We have gotten it from a landscape supply what do
you call it? Yeah, yeah, landscape supply business in the area.
And they, you know, the advantage there is they can
bring huge dump truck fulls of ten or twenty yards
(02:32):
or more of you know, woodschips or compost or whatever
and put a huge pile in our yard. And that's
super quick, but it costs significantly more than the other option,
which is our dump nearby, and you could talk about
the specifics of it, but basically the dump nearby, you
can come and you can load up small amounts yourself
for free through the end of October. Is that right both?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah? I think for now it's three through October thirty five.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Our local like landfill that composts all of the green
waste from the city basically, right, yeah, And so you
can load it up for free if you want to
do all the scooping and shoveling and stuff yourself, or
like what I just did recently is I just drove
in with our pickup and parked and they just get
one big scooper takes a big old scoop and dumps
(03:21):
it in the back and you know, you're out of
there in like two minutes. And then that does cost money,
but it's like twenty bucks a ton. It's it's super cheap.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Honey's on the dogs.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It's like twenty percent of the cost of buying it
at the landscape supply place.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, So basically your pain for the ease the delivery
at the landscape supply place which you are playing for
the delivery is in addition delivery charge recharge also, so
you're pain for the ease of it if you get
it from a landscape supply place. The one thing that
I will say, Loriane, is check your local landfill and
(04:02):
see if the compost there is STA certified. And so
what STA certified is is US Composting Council's.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Seal of Testing Assurance.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And what that means is they will come and they
will test the compost at your landfill in you know,
random time periods, and they are giving them the stamp
of approval saying that there's a limited amount of pathogens
and a limited amount of metals in that compost. And
(04:35):
so that's really what you want to see. You want
to see that your your facility is STA certified. If
it is STA certified, that's basically just as good as
purchasing landfill at a landscape supply excuse me, purchasing composts
at a landscape supply place. So we live in central California.
(04:57):
We live in like the Red basket of the world. Basically,
we have so many farms around here, and there's so
much produce grown around us. And I was looking into
it and our landfill actually provides compost for those farms, right, Yeah,
So you know, the food that you guys are eating
wherever you are in the United States, the fruits and
(05:19):
vegetables that you guys are eating might have compost from
my landfill on it and was used to.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I know?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
But when I read that, I just thought, Okay, well,
if it's good enough for that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It's good enough for you.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
If that's the case.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, I don't have an organic garden. I don't need
about I don't need to worry about anything about that.
I do have a compost system in my backyard, the
three bin composter system.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It just you know, it takes a really long that's
a very slow process.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
It's a very slow process, and we need so much
more compost. So we got to be able to get
it somewhere else. And we live on about an acre
and we're just looking for the biggest bang for our buck.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah right, yeah, and yeah, we just couldn't. There's no
way we could compost enough of our own stuff to
make any kind of a dent in what we need.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, you know, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, to answer your question, yes, I use my county landfill.
I've done my research and I've looked, and I've found
that they are STA certified, So I would say that's
the first thing you have to do, and then number
two is check and see if your landfill will deliver
or if you have a pickup and a shovel. You know,
you kind of got to think about that as well. Otherwise,
(06:31):
just a landscape supply place and they will deliver it
for you, all right. Carrie Sue fifty one asks please
talk about fall slash winter plans for the Zigzag garden.
When and what will you plant? So when soon? Right soon?
We were supposed to do it last week it was
(06:51):
too hot.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, that would have been not very nice to plant
plants in the one hundred and five degree heat.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, So you guys are probably listening to this two
weeks later, but right now it is the second week
of October and we're still in triple digit temperatures here.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It's going to be about one hundred to day again.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What I want to do with my zigzag planter right now?
For those of you who don't know, we have a
planter in our front yard and it is in the
shape of a litteral zigzag. It's the funniest thing. And
when we moved into this property. My immediate inclination was
to take it out because.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It's pretty ugly.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, we thought it was horribly ugly.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It is horribly ugly, but when you paint it and
when you plant plants in it, it kind of gets
some character to it. So we've decided to keep it
at least for now, and we've been planting in it.
And the stuff that we planted in it, I mean
it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Right, Yeah, stuff grows great in that thing, and.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The Zigzagniss gives it some It.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Gives us some interest, like some dimension or some depth
or some something.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's so funny.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
It's kind of a hit, like people like it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So last winter I plant did a daffodil blend mix
that I wasn't a huge fan of.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I didn't love that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I would try something different this time.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So the I don't remember the name of the last
year's but it's like bloom Factory or something like that.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Or is it Springloaded or is that one you do?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I think Springloaded was the one I did the year before.
So we're talking about color blends dot com. They have
bold mixes and I've done a lot of daffodil bold mixes.
And last year, I'm pretty sure it was bloom factory
that I planted.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
That sounds right.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It was fine, It was okay, it was just fine.
I didn't love it.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
It wasn't it meant to be like having different ones
that bloomed kind of at different times, so it was
kind of staged or is that wrong?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, it was meant to be such a huge, massive
blooms that you couldn't even see the foliage.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
No, it didn't.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And that's that's the reason why I don't think I
loved it, because it was the yellow ones or the
white ones bloomed first, and then the yellow ones bloomed
after it.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And that's why I thought it was supposed to be staged.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
No, it wasn't supposed to be like that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So anyway, the reason why I'm bringing that up is
to answer your question is this winter, as soon as
we can transplant the pink cashmeir superbina and the purple
fountain grass that we have in the Zigzag planter, as
soon as it cools down a little bit, I will
be planting more daffodil bulbs in. But the daffodil bulbs
that we're planting are just the regular daffodil bulbs.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, but those are the best, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I know, they're so beautiful, they grow so well.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And they're bigger too. I know. It's nice, big yellow,
beautiful flowers.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
So the variety that we're talking about is called Dutch
Master daffodils, and they're like the classic all yellow, really
big beautiful daffodils, and those I mostly planted those in
my last property and they did really well. They naturalize
really well for us here in northern California in Zone
nine B.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And my plan is is just to plant a massive
amount of those in the zigzag planter.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
That'll be fun, that'd be pretty. And then I'd love
to plant some alyssum in between. Oh wouldn't that be nice?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
So white? Right?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, and so I think but they have purple. I
think I'm a plant purple lissmer oh, because purple and yellow.
So we're basically just waiting for the weather to kind
of cool down a little bit before we're going to transplant.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Uh. And then next year I already know what I'm planting.
Do you know what I'm planting? What annual?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
No? Wait, I should know you said, I don't remember,
but I know you told.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Me it's a new one.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, it's the new Tiara pink.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just I love it so much.
We have it planted in our backyard and it is just.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
A rock stuff pink Supertunia.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Super Tunia super Tunia Tiara pink. It is an absolute, beautiful, beautiful,
bright pink flower. Yeah, so as of right now, you know,
of course, things might change, but as of right now,
that's my plan is to plant Tiera pink, which will
be this huge just oh my gosh, that's going to
be so bright, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
That'll be awesome. And then you're going to plant something
like something else in there as well with those.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Probably some grasses and some trailers and stuff like that.
But yeah, that's that's kind of the main one. So
very exciting. Thanks for asking that question, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It will be fun. It's a really fun thing.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
At our last house, we had our front swoop, which
was kind of the same thing. It was a little planter,
but it was kind of in an arc shape and
we would change it up every year. And it's always
so fun to change things up like that because you
get to think about what you want to do different
year to year. So if you guys have a spot
in your garden where you can kind of dedicate to annuals,
it makes it really really fun. It makes it so
(11:41):
that you can kind of, you know, look forward to
what's coming next. All right, Michelle asks, do you have
any recommendations for the brands for soil from local store
like Low's, Home Depot, Ace or Walmart?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Do you have any recommendations for soil for soil backed soil?
Not really, Michelle, You're not gonna like.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
My answer for this one. I'm not a huge fan
of the soils you can get there. Oh yeah, we've
tried them many.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Times, we've had them. I just don't know, nothing stands
out as like that we've settled on and that we like.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, well, I don't, you know, I don't want to
say bad about any particular brands, but I know I've
got one brand from a big box store, the Orange
big box store, And oh my god, I hated that soil.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It was terrible.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
It's the ones that we put in the stock tanks
at our last house. Oh yeah, oh my goodness, it
was absolutely terrible. So I've tried a couple different ones,
and the one that I'm most likely to use would
be the straight Miracle grow kind, right, Like, if I
had to get a bag of soil at a big
box store, that's probably what I would grab. If I
(12:54):
could get the Miracle Grow without the fertilizer, I would
grab that. But I think almost all of them comes
with the fertilizer. But my favorite soil comes from a
local independent garden center. It's called Green All, and it's
I mean it's just the best. It's so it's such beautiful,
beautiful soil.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
They don't sell that at the big box stores at all,
huh uh.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
I mean they might sell it at ACE. I know
they sell Ebstone at ACE, so they might sell Check
and see if they sell green All at your ACE, Michelle.
But that, you know, the really really big brands, I'm
just not a huge fan of. I just can't find one.
I'm kind of picky about my bag soil. I don't
like it too barkie, Like you know.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
You definitely complained about too much bark and so yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, And that's the thing is that, you know, soil
has to work for your climate. We have a very
very dry climate. And bark is going to encourage draining.
And so I don't like my soil to be too
barkie because then it's funny too barkie, because then it's
not going to retain water.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Well.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Right, you have to think of like a cactus mix
has mostly bark in it.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Right, So if you live somewhere like in the Midwest
where it rained all summer, then you might want that.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It might be a great great soil for you, right.
So you kind of just got to try them all
figure out which one works best for your climate.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
But for me, I just I really love the green
all soil.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Yeah, I's the one we typically have.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Huh, green all potting soil. I just I love that stuff.
So there you go. So next question is from Julie.
Julie asks, so you were able to turn your love
of gardening into a career. Do you have any advice
or job recommendations for those of us that want to
turn our love of gardening into a career slash job
(14:35):
slash side hustle.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Jason, I think this might be a good question for
you to answer.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
This is a Jane question, all right, Julie, So.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Job recommendations, you know, figure out what you love to do,
and because you can.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Go a lot of different ways with if you like gardening,
you can be a content creator like you are, or
you could I mean, there's just like a million things
you could do, right.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It could be ye, a garden assistant. You could be
so funny. Michael Glassman always talks about he would love
to have somebody he could call on that like really
knows how to garden. So instead of calling someone just
to mow a lawn and to blow off the sidewalks,
to call on a gardener to come and prune or
to fertilize or to you know, check for bugs and
(15:25):
take care of pests and stuff like that. I don't
know what you call that much.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I feel like there would be a demand for somebody
like that. I don't know that it exists, and maybe
it does, but like like, yeah, like a gardening business
that's not just like yeah, mow and blow, but like
somebody that will come in really actually take care of
the plants in the yard.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, I mean I think that would be.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
It seems like that would be. It seems like there
if you were in an area with enough population, I
feel like you could make a business out of.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
That, Yeah, I think that would be a great job.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I'm sure there's people out there that are doing that.
I just haven't cut across it, and either has Michael Glassman.
Michael Glassman is a landscape designer.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
He's been on this.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Podcast before and he's he just we talk about it
all the time, how he's always looking for someone that
can do that. So that would be job recommendations. There's
so many different aspects of gardening, vegetable gardening, flower gardening,
cut flower gardening, if you want to be a cut
flower farmer, if you want to be an educator, if
you want to be a content creator.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Just whatever speaks to you for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And then the one thing that I would have to
say that I feel pretty strongly about is gaining the
confidence that you need. I am a self taught gardener, right,
I learned from YouTube, watching Garden Answer, watching Monty Dawn,
you know, like like that's how I started off gardening.
But then what I decided to do is to take
(16:50):
it a step further and I actually trained in the
Master Gardener's program. And I think that that decision to
become a master gardener made all the difference in the
world because I kind of knew everything in gardening. I
kind of knew all the concepts, but I didn't have
the confidence behind it where I would answer a question
(17:12):
I you know, it was kind of like, well, I
think you want to use this, or I think you
can do this. But after I went through the Master
Gardner's Program, I got my confidence and I really understood
the purpose behind why you would use this spray or
why you would prone at this time.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
And it just made such a difference.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
For me in my career because I had the confidence
that I needed. So when opportunities arose, I was confident
enough to say, yeah, I got that, I can do that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
No problem.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So finding some type of whatever it is that's going
to give you the confidence. For me, it was going
through the Master Gardener's Program. For some people it might
be taking an online course or going back to school.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Whatever it is to give you.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
The confidence you need, I think is what's what's going
to make the difference between success.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And I feel like aster Gardener program really to help
you out a lot, just because even if you kind
of knew like this is how I care for this plant,
and this is what works, now you know why that
stuff works? Yeah, right, Yeah, kind of give you the background,
and so you get a lot of Yeah, then you
feel more confident to teach other people or tell other
(18:20):
people what to do and why, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And it gave me more confidence to say I don't know.
Sure that's true, Like I felt better saying I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
There's still like a million and one questions that could
come up in gardening that you won't have an answer to.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Somebody knows everything.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
But now that I know, I don't know, that's just
that's just it's a new thing to me, or I
haven't I haven't learned that concept yet, or you know,
it just made me feel better to say I don't know. So, Julie,
I think that if you're looking to, you know, make
this a job or a side hustle, do what you
need to do to get the confidence for it, you
might already have it, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, you might not need this advice at all.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, And then, like any job, kind of be willing
to work hard. I suppose, yeah, you know, because it's
not like this came easy, like you had to work
hard at this.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
This is not an easy job. I love it, but
it's not an easy job. All right, Ellen asks how
do you know when your new plantings are well established.
So what Ellen is talking about is, you know, when
you plant a plant, it has its roots in the
root ball, and you need to wait for that plant
(19:28):
to extend its roots out into the surrounding soil, the
native soil, for it to really get established and to
really show its true colors, show how it can handle stress,
how it can handle water, how well it can bloom,
how it can flourish, you know, and it takes a
while for some plants to get established. And Ellen, my
answer to that is like the mantra, I say this
(19:51):
to myself all the time, you know, in the garden,
I walk through the garden, I say, okay, sleep, creep leap, Sleep,
creep leap. That's kind of an easy way to tell
yourself whether or not a plant is established. And basically
it's the average it takes about three gardening seasons for
a plant to really get established. In the first year,
(20:11):
it's going to be all the roots are growing, and
then the second year you're going to start notice some
foliage growth and some flower growth. But the third year
you can pretty much know that that plant is established
and you're really going to see a huge difference in
that plant. So I usually think it's about three years.
Another way, like if you're talking about a tree or
something like that, you can go up to the tree
(20:32):
or go up to the plant and kind of rock
it back and forth a little bit. And if it's
really easy to rock back and forth, obviously that plant
is not rooted in. You still need to treat it
like a baby plant, and you need to take care
of it, like its root system is not developed enough.
If it's pretty darn stable and you really can't rock
that tree back and forth, you know those roots have
expanded out into the surrounding native soil, and you know
(20:55):
it's starting to get itself pretty well established at that point.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So have you or does that apply to all plants?
I've heard you talk about the sleep, creep and leap
with vines specifically like clematis. I know you've talked about it. Yeah,
but like, does that actually apply to basically everything?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
I didn't know that, Yeah, yeah, so a lot of things.
I mean, of course it's a generalization, right, but if
you take a shrub, you plant to shrub one year,
it's going to sit there and it's going to do nothing,
and then the second year, it's going to grow a
little bit and it's going to be like, oh, that's nice, Okay,
I don't have.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
To prune it.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I don't have to do anything. And then the third year,
you're probably going to have to get your pruners out right,
and you're probably going to have to size it, and
it's going to grow like crazy, and it's going to
beautiful and it's going to show.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's true colors.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Right, and then as time goes on, it'll keep growing
and all that kind of stuff. But it's usually about
the third year where it starts leaping and you're really
going to notice growth of that plant because that plant
has become established, its root system has become established, which
is a wonderful thing. Okay, for the last question, this
(22:07):
is going to be from a Olsen. He or she says,
thanks to the wonderful and informative content, Janie, you're welcome.
Thank you for saying thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I am wondering about two things. One, to improve your
soil in your existing garden beds, do you pull back
your mulch and add three or so inches of compost
and then move the mulch back into place. And then
two is it normal to have roaches in your soil.
So I'll answer the first one first. So to improve
your soil in the existing garden beds, do you pull
(22:37):
back your mulch.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
We haven't.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
We haven't because we are using wood chips as mulch
and we have pretty dense clay soil, and so I
like adding the organic matter of the wood chips into
my soil. So my plan, and the reason why this
is my plan is because I'm doing the no till
method or sheet mulchi method of gardening, which is I'm
(23:02):
basically layering on.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Organic matter. I'm layering on.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Compost, then I'm layering on woodchips. Then I'm layering on
more composts than more wood chips, and so on and
so on and so on, and they're eventually going to
break down and incorporate with each other and create some
really loamy, beautiful soil. So in my garden, I am
not pulling.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Back the mulch. Now, in my last garden, we used
bark mulch that was actually colored black.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, that was beautiful, nice.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
It's not the best option for the healthiest garden, but
that's okay.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I'm not judging anybody that mulch I would.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Not want to incorporate into my garden soil that mulch
I pulled back added compost and then pushed it back
over or got new bags, right, yep, yep.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, we remember raking that mulch off and then get
new mulch actually, yeah, because it kind of loses it,
it fades after a while, yeah and stuff, and yeah,
it's not.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
The most environmentally friendly option. Yeah, but I'm so pretty
it was very Yeah, So it kind of depends on
what type of mult you have, Right, If you have
a you know, a fine mult that's going to work
into your compost really well, then again I would just
just top it. I would top it with a compost
(24:27):
and and appreciate the extra organic matter. It's really important
to have different sizes of organic matter, you know, wood
chips and leaves and all the other stuff that you have,
because that helps those microbes break it down a little
bit better, you know, allows for different air pockets and everything,
which is which is one of the components of breaking
down compost and getting everything to mix together properly. So
(24:51):
if you have small enough bark and natural bark, organic bark,
I would say, mix it in, use it.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Can you address You get questions fairly off about how
the bark robs nitrogen and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Oh yeah, so actually that is like a misconception, Like
people always say that, and people ask me that a
lot when I use my woodchip, when we get woodchips delivered.
But I mean it's it's so, how do you say
the word negligible? Negligible?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
The effect is minimal.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Basically, effect is.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Minimal, right, And so what can happen is if you
have a tree that you cut down and it's fresh
and it's decomposing, right, you can you can have some
of the nitrogen in your soil, uh get taken up
by then by the woodchips in the decomposing process. And
(25:46):
you know, it does happen, but it would just happen
on like the very top layer of that woodchips, so
you would barely notice a difference with your plants.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
It is so bad that the time you get to
twelve inches underground where the roots are, there's no difference,
there's no different, it's not really happening. And so a
lot of people are super super concerned about this. But
it's been the myth has been busted. So it's like, yes,
it does happen, but no, it doesn't make a difference, right.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, so there's no reason to kind of freak out
about it or worry about it. And besides a lot
of I mean, if you get arborous woodchips chip drop,
then you are going to have some pretty fresh woodchips.
But they're they're going to decompose pretty darn quickly right
when you get them all spread out into your gardens.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And only even if you're being generous, the top inch
or two of soil is going to be affected by
that at most anyway, is that right?
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Barely that and not even that.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I mean, okay, you guys, this is what I learned
in Master Gardeners. So do your own research and all
that kind of stuff, but it basically what I learned
is that it's so negligible it's it's nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
To be concerned.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
That question comes up all the time, it does any
almost any time that we put new woodchips down, we
get that question.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I think it's one of those old wives tales that
everybody heard and everybody so afraid of. And I see
where it comes from. When you have fresh compost, right,
Like if you have fresh horse manure that people will
use as compost that can burn your plants really easily
because it has too much nitrogen in it. You want
to let your compost sit and age, right, But when
(27:19):
it comes to the wood chips, it's just so it's.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
No. Yeah, And so that's the type of thing is
like I can't say that it doesn't happen, because it
does happen, but it's so minimal, and it's going to
affect your plants so little, you know, I just I
wouldn't worry about it. And the benefits that woodchips.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Give to your garden anyway is just so much better.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
So the next part of the question is is it
normal to have roaches in your soil? Does roaches in
your garden bed mean your soil is bad? No, So
roaches are usually a major pest. Like when you talk
about IPM integrated press management, you think of roaches in
the house as being really bad because it's gross and
they and they bring you know, pathogens into your house
(28:08):
and in the kitchen and everything like that. But in
the garden they don't really They don't really do much, right,
they don't really eat your plants. They're not bad bugs
to have. They're just kind of there. So I don't
think it's a it's a good thing or it's a
bad thing. If you do have a lot of roaches
in your garden, particularly your vegetable garden, you might want
(28:28):
to think about cleaning up the food that you know,
the fruits and veggies that have dropped, or if you
have like an orchard, you might they're attracted to the
food basically, so if you have a lot of them,
you can clean up the food so that you don't
have as many attractants there. That's the same thing that
they say for roaches and ants in your home. You
have to you have to clean up your mess.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
So that they're not attracted.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
That's step one, right, not saying that you have food
all over your garden, but you obviously have something in
your garden that they like eating. So if the roaches
are you know something that that bothers you, cleaning up
your garden will definitely help. But to answer your question,
they're not bad. They're not going to do anything. They're
not going to like eat your live plants or anything
(29:13):
like that they'll just eat the stuff that fell down
onto the ground.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
So the roaches won't actually damage any plants at all.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Really, No, they're not a bad bug or anything like
that or not. They're not counted as a bad bug.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
So, but they're not beneficial because they don't eat any
bugs either. They're eating like old food fruit.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Well, I guess they're beneficial because they clean up the mess.
I mean, I don't know, you know, it depends on
how you look at it. Some people might look at
it as they're beneficial because they clean up the mess.
So anyway, you know, to answer your question, it's it's
not a bad thing. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Sometimes I'll find roaches in my garden. Actually I have
found roaches in my garden and it's just freaked me out.
(29:52):
But that's about it, all right, you guys. So that
is it for our Q and A session. This is
part two. We got some really great questions, right, was fun. Yeah,
it was really fun. So thank you all for submitting
your questions. I appreciate it. And then hopefully Jason and
I will bring back the Saturday Coffee chat videos.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
We want to soon.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Ish we want to, but it's a timing thing.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
You only have so much time in the day, especially
in the soccer season.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
So anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this, and I
hope you all have a chance to get in your
garden today. Thank you so much to my podcast sponsor,
Proven Winners. Visit your local garden center today and look
for the white containers featuring the Proven Winner's logo. There's
a reason they're the number one plant brand that gardeners
(30:45):
like me trust the most. Visit Proven Winners dot com
for tips, ideas, and so much more. Dig Plant Water
Repeat is produced in association with Klaroga Shark Media. It
was written and hosted by me Janie sant with marketing
and production assistants from Courtney Clark.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Please consider subscribing and.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Watch us on YouTube or follow us on your favorite
podcast app of choice to get alerts on all new episodes.
And hey, if you liked the show, give us a
review and hit those five stars on Apple. Executive producers
are Mark Francis, John McDermott, and Janie Santos.
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