March 15, 2025 • 20 mins
Ron talks to Kim Roman authro of - How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round: Ultimate Guide to Vertical, Container, and Hydroponic Gardening.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson, and
again I got another great book for you, especially if
you like the garden indoors. Now, if you've got to
you know, maybe you have a lack of space outside,
maybe the weather conditions aren't good, physical limitations. I got
a book for you that can. And you want to
grow your own edibles, right, well, I've got a book
(00:22):
here for you. They'll walk you through the process or
growing quite a selection of edibles indoors year round, and
she says it's really not all that hard to do,
especially if you follow her book. Who am I talking about, Well,
she is a Kim Roman. She's a speaker, writer, teacher.
She specializes in edible gardening. She's gardened all around the world.
(00:43):
She's part of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, and she
is with us this morning. Kim Roman, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Good morning Ron.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hey, good to have you on our show. Love the book.
First of all, thank you. How long have you been
gardening them? Pretty much all your life?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Absolutely not. I really didn't get started until my thirties
when we were stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, and I
was a community mayor where I was a liaison between
the command staff and the housing residents. And that's actually
where I found square foot gardening and we had a
(01:20):
great time. Our first garden was going well until we
found unexploded ordnance and had to abandon it.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's not good.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
They could have been ended in a bang.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's funny, see, and she has great sense of humor. Two.
So there you go. So you started back in the
thirties and you've done all kinds of gardening all around
the world. I know you have written a book previously
this called Growing Herbs. You've been into Growing Herbs for Health, Wellness,
Cooking and Crafts, which is an outstanding book as well.
So what got you more involved than with this gardening indoors?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, I volunteered for two different non profits. One of
them helped resettle refugees the guys and their families that
helped the American troops in Afghanistan. And the second one
was for a group called Gardens for Heroes. And what
(02:17):
we did is we provided gardens, of course for military
veterans and their families. And we were asked by an
assisted living specifically for veterans to work on something indoors.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So you took it from there. Started doing some indoor
and gardening, learning your own way through all of this,
became somewhat of an expert at it obviously. And now
I've written this book and it's absolutely outstanding. Let me
ask you this, and what an interesting way to get
started as well, working with the vets. And I think
that is absolutely outstanding doing that. Now, were you in
(02:55):
the military service and you're in, yes, okay, well we
thank you for yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I was, but I was, well, thank you. Actually, I've
learned a new phrase because that makes me uncomfortable that
the thank you for your service. What I say is
you were worth it. You were worth My service was
worth it to you. I you know, I appreciate people.
That's why, that's why we do it. I mean I
(03:19):
was actually born on a military base, and so my
mother was in during World War Two, my dad Korean War,
my brother Vietnam War, my husband in the Gulf Wars
in Panama, and I was a peacetime person.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Wow, lots of lots of military history there. Well, we
do appreciate your whole family and what they're doing as well.
Talking with Kim Roman, the name of her book is
How to Garden Indoors and grow your own food year round.
The ultimate guide through vertical container hydroponic gardening. So let's
kind of dive into this thing here as far as growing.
First of all, I guess my question is, and I'm
(03:55):
sure folks are asking, you know, growing house plants inside
can be a little bit difficult. Sometimes, what you know
is growing food indoors maybe a little bit more trickier
than doing house plants. You know, it's got to be
a little bit harder than growing them outdoors, or is it?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know, it's it's kind of funny because I kill
every houseplant, but they're both successful. No, I could kill
a cactus. I lived in Nevada for a while and
I could kill cactus. But it's it's not that it's harder,
it's just different in ways. It's easier in that you're
(04:33):
controlling the temperature, so you're not you're not running out
there covering, covering your raised beds like you would if
you get a cold snap. You're inside, it's nice and warm.
You just kind of have to mimic some things. So
like the winter, it's always very dry in your house,
(04:55):
You're going to have to add moisture with you know,
maybe a you know, a humidifier or something the like that,
or using an oscillating fan to mimic the breeze because
like something like tomatoes, they develop a stronger stem if
they're blown outside by the breeze. So you just have
(05:16):
to kind of mimic mother nature, all.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Right, So I guess the question then comes down there's
a lot of these foods that we would be growing
indoors that need pollination. Do we also become the bees
and the pollinators?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Absolutely? You know there are plants like tomatoes that and
a plants that are self pollinating, but they don't do
but they do better, much much better if you still
hand pollinate them. And that is as simple as using
like a cotton squab, cotton swab, a Q tip or
(05:53):
a little artists brush and you go from flower to
flower everything with the the cucumbers and stuff that have
a male and female blossoms, you just have to be
able to identify a male and female blossom. Did you
need me going into that?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
No, not really. And you know what's interesting though, and
of course you've got that in your book, and of
course it's How to Garden Indoors by Kim Roman. You know,
it's interesting sometimes even with folks that are growing cucumbers, melons, whatever,
may be outside for maybe the first time or whatever,
talking about how they get this vine and it's got
lots of flowers, but I'm not getting any fruit. And
(06:30):
you say, do you have male or female flowers? And
of course the answer is I'm not sure, And so
do you explain that to them? And then then you
figure out what it is. And we had a volunteer
pumpkins show up in our landscape bed last year and
it became the neighborhood project. I let it grow, which
I wish I hadn't later on because it went into
the yard and killed up part of the grass and
(06:51):
I couldn't take care of it then, right, So all
the kids were watching it, and so we learned them
female and the males, and then we watched the pumpkins
come and grow and all of that kind of crazy. Uh,
but yeah, you're right, you gotta you gotta know all that.
So you have to be the indoor pollinator. Now, do
you have special music to play in the background, maybe
a special wine that you drink when you're doing that, or.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, that's it's kind of funny because when I garden outdoors,
especially corn needs to be you know, you need to
fiddle around with that. And I tell my husband I'm
going out and having sex with the corn by.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
So, but he probably just shakes his head right and goes, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Fine, Oh there she goes again.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I love it talking with Kim Roman this morning. By
the way, her website, if you want to check it out,
is a s F G four you And that's a
square foot garden f s f G four the number
number four you, the letter you dot com a great website.
Did you actually get to work with mel Bartholomew.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I did. I. I was actually taking the home study
course when we were stationed in Germany. And the one
thing I could, dude, this is the way before internet,
you know, fine tuned, and I did not have a
way to send in a video of myself teaching a class.
So when we came back, I found that he was
(08:15):
going to be teaching. He was going to be teaching
in Utah, and so my husband and I went out
to Utah and I got to meet him. I became
one of his executive assistants for his last few years,
and he was just such a kind and generous man.
(08:36):
And when he passed away in twenty sixteen. He was
in the middle of the third edition of the all
New square Foot Gardening Book and they asked me to
finish it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Wow, what an honor there you go. Yes, I got
to meet him once at a Garden Center show and
we actually got him to come on our show, like
with you via the phone and same way. I just
what a what a really nice guy, And it was
all I think my question at the time. I think
he was working on the second edition or whatever is that.
You know, did you ever realize when you first wrote
(09:08):
the first edition that this would just be continuing on
and continuing on And you said, yeah, you know, it
makes a lot of sense, so you know, hopefully we
can keep passing along for generations and generations. And sure enough,
what are we up to the fourth edition now? Right?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
The fourth edition just came out and Kevin is Spiritu
was the one that helped with that one.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah and Kevin, Yeah, And Kevin's been on our show
and out standing as well, So we are honored to
have you on our show as well. It's Kim Roman.
The name of her book is How to Garden Indoors
and Grow your Own Food Year Round. Absolutely a tremendous
great book, lots of great illustrations, a lot of great pictures.
It's easy read and we'll take a break and come
back and learn more from Kim about growing your food
(09:48):
indoors year round. Here in the Garden with Ron.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
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hitting the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
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Speaker 1 (11:18):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson's special
guest this morning. Kim Roman has a new book out
and it's an absolutely wonderful guide on gardening indoors, how
to grow your own food year round indoors, Absolutely outstanding.
You will absolutely love it. And as you's shared some
time with us this morning to kind of give us
some tips on what you'll find in this book, and
(11:40):
you know, as you've experimented over the years and been
growing indoors, Kim, obviously lighting is very very important. You
were talked about some of the key factors you know,
and I you know, back in the old day, and
you probably did the same thing growing things under shop lights,
regular fullescent tubes. I still do it today. Microgreens and
greens are probably it's easy to do. But you know,
(12:02):
with the new lights that are out there today, the
new LEDs are they really the better way to.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Go, Absolutely LED and full spectrum lights because you don't
have to mess around with the red lights for your
tomatoes and fruiting crops and blue light for your lettuces.
Just get a good LED. It's not going to be hot,
it's going to be efficient for you to run, and
(12:29):
full spectrum. It gives you all the colors of light
that the plants need.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, and when we're looking at these, as I've watched
the prices of these, it's actually come down and not
as expensive as they used to be.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Absolutely, So that's it's great now.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Also when I look at indoor guarding, and I thought,
you obviously addressed both of these. The past, it was
always potting soil and containers and trays and things like that.
But today now we have we have some really cool
gardening hours and the pop up gardens and things like
that which are outstanding. They all use potting soil. But
now we're seeing more and more of the hydroponics making
(13:08):
its way into indoor gardening. I know the arrow gardens
been around forever, but I see more and more of
these hydroponics. Do you see a preference there, or maybe
a preference depending on what you're growing in soil versus
growing in water.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I've got to tell you, I did not like hydroponics
as much as I thought I would. And there are
six different methods or main methods of hydroponics. But those
plug and plays I love them. And you initially asked
me if it was worth it, the like the arrow
gardens things like that. Now, yes and no. If you
(13:48):
are looking for convenience, absolutely, they're so so much fun.
Some of them are small enough to fit on your counter.
Others are like a piece of furniture. They're about the
eyes of a medium sized book case. And they've got
like three levels. And and you can even have an
app on your phone that will tell you when the
(14:08):
water when to add fertilizer, you know, like, oh it
should be your keys should be ready for harvest soon,
and you know things like that, right, But with convenience
comes cost. So is it worth it? Yes and no,
it's worth it if that's what you like and you've
got the extra cash to do it. But I prefer
(14:30):
soil still good.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I'm glad to hear that you know what I experimented
several years ago. I tried one of the self contained kits.
I got it from oh I can't think of the
name of the company, but anyway, I played with it
for a while and I went right back to the
soil and doing the indoor gardening with soil versus the
hydroponics all though, was pretty cool. I know some of
them have even gotten into the aquaponics where you got
the fish tank, yes, and then you know the gardening
(14:55):
on the top, and they go through the it's fun,
like you said, And we have a listener that he
sent me some pictures. You bought an arrow garden, two
of them for himself for Christmas, and he has them
in the kitchen on counters and he every week he
shows me like basil and lettuce and things that he's
been growing in there. And it's been a lot of fun.
He's enjoying it. But again, I think, if you're going
(15:15):
to get into it on a larger scale, from what
I'm hearing from you, using the soils, probably the you
prefer anyway the best way to go well, I do.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Because you know, the typical one is an NFT nutrient
film technique and that's the one with the the PBC
pipes that go down zigzags, you know, higher than lower.
And what I don't like about them is you can
only grow vegetables that are that have the same nutrient needs,
(15:45):
so you cannot you would not be able to do
tomatoes and lettuces in that same system. You'd have to
do all lettuces or I'll tell you what. The one
thing it is worth doing is all strawberries because I
could eat strawberries day and night.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So you do what ever bearing's in there and just
have them. Oh yeah, yeah. A great way to get
kids involved with gardening too, absolutely, yeah, they'll they'll love
and that's be something they could do in their room
as well. Talking with Kim Roman. Her new book, and
it's absolutely outstanding is The How to Garden Indoors and
Grow your Own Food year round. It's the ultimate guide
to vertical container and hydro party gardening. Absolutely tremendously well written,
(16:24):
the pictures and illustrations phenomenal. You got the charge for
us in the back what to grow? Which foods that
we can grow that be fairly successful? Through all of
your years of trial and error, What have you found
that was really hard and you just don't try to
grow indoors.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, that's a great question. Anything that needs chill hours
do not grow in your house unless you want to
have your house at forty degrees or below for a
certain number of hours every year. That's just not likely
to happen. So I didn't have great success. Did not
have great success with garlic and like head cabbages, you know,
(17:06):
the even the little teeny tiny ones. I thought that
would be cute to grow those. But I did okay
with Napa cabbage. But that anything again, chill hours. If
it needs if it needs to be cold, don't grow
it inside.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Interesting talking with Kim Roman. Her website is s f
G the number four the letter you dot com s
FG for you dot com. That would be square Foot
Gardening for you dot Com. Be sure to check it out.
Great information there and of course you can touch base
with Kim if you if you would like to as well.
And again, the book is called How to Garden Indoors
and Grow your Own Food Year Round. It's absolutely an
(17:44):
outstanding book, and we're walking through just about anything and
everything you could ever imagine trying to grow things indoors.
What else is it going to? Oh, I know. The
vertical wall gardens I think are outstanding. We had a
talking last week with a book on how to propagate
indoors houseplants and all and using a propagation wall as
(18:05):
part of the aesthetics. The looks of it. I love
these vertical garden walls, and not only the you know
kind of a show. I always say, dinner and a show.
You know, it's a nice show, and you can eat
them as well.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Beautiful, beautiful, They are just fabulous. And part of the
reason to grow something up on the wall is to
take the weight off of your floor, because one of
the considerations you have to have wind growing indoors is
soil based systems are heavy and if you have the squeaky,
mushy floors, you're going to have to shore them up
before you can be doing a lot of gardening in there.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, and you're exactly right. Yeah, And again it looks great.
You know, you can get it across from a sunny
window or set up your lights just right, and it
looks absolutely wonderful and you can harvest from it, and
what an impressive thing. Have some folks over for dinner
and harvest your solid off the wall, right, yes, Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Could you turn around and a couple of strings of basils?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Need I need a little more basil in this? Could
you throw a little bit in there? So what do
you think is the easiest? You know, I've always sold folks,
you know, if you aren't growing micro greens and just
greens in general over the winter time, you're really messing
out because it's so easy to do. What's the easiest
for folks to get started with?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Lettuces? I mean by far and away or herbs.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Are great herbs, lettuces, greens, of course, I do like
the microgreens as well. Kim Roman. The name of the
book is How to Garden Indoors and Grow your Own
Food Year Round. Is absolutely outstanding. Their website again SFG
for you dot com. Be sure and check that out
as well. Pleasure having you on the show, and I
absolutely love your book.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Thanks Tron.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
All right, take care Kim Roman. Again, the book is
How to Garden indoors and Grow your Own Food year Round.
It's great tips in here for you and could be
a lot of fun if you want to take it
to the next level. This is the book to take
you there right quick break become back phone lines are
open for you eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Don't forget our website. It's Ron Wilson online
(20:06):
dot com. Gary Bakwin's on there with the Little Gardening
one of his videos just to show you what he does.
Planing the week, shamrocks, corned beef is Reada's recipe. Check
them all out. It's all happening here in the garden
with Ron.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Wilson landscaping ladies, here with your personal yard boy. He's
in the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson, and
again I got another great book for you, especially if
you like the garden indoors. Now, if you've got to
you know, maybe you have a lack of space outside,
maybe the weather conditions aren't good, physical limitations. I got
a book for you that can. And you want to
grow your own edibles, right, well, I've got a book
(00:22):
here for you. They'll walk you through the process or
growing quite a selection of edibles indoors year round, and
she says it's really not all that hard to do,
especially if you follow her book. Who am I talking about, Well,
she is a Kim Roman. She's a speaker, writer, teacher.
She specializes in edible gardening. She's gardened all around the world.
(00:43):
She's part of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, and she
is with us this morning. Kim Roman, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Good morning Ron.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hey, good to have you on our show. Love the book.
First of all, thank you. How long have you been
gardening them? Pretty much all your life?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Absolutely not. I really didn't get started until my thirties
when we were stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, and I
was a community mayor where I was a liaison between
the command staff and the housing residents. And that's actually
where I found square foot gardening and we had a
(01:20):
great time. Our first garden was going well until we
found unexploded ordnance and had to abandon it.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's not good.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
They could have been ended in a bang.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's funny, see, and she has great sense of humor. Two.
So there you go. So you started back in the
thirties and you've done all kinds of gardening all around
the world. I know you have written a book previously
this called Growing Herbs. You've been into Growing Herbs for Health, Wellness,
Cooking and Crafts, which is an outstanding book as well.
So what got you more involved than with this gardening indoors?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, I volunteered for two different non profits. One of
them helped resettle refugees the guys and their families that
helped the American troops in Afghanistan. And the second one
was for a group called Gardens for Heroes. And what
(02:17):
we did is we provided gardens, of course for military
veterans and their families. And we were asked by an
assisted living specifically for veterans to work on something indoors.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So you took it from there. Started doing some indoor
and gardening, learning your own way through all of this,
became somewhat of an expert at it obviously. And now
I've written this book and it's absolutely outstanding. Let me
ask you this, and what an interesting way to get
started as well, working with the vets. And I think
that is absolutely outstanding doing that. Now, were you in
(02:55):
the military service and you're in, yes, okay, well we
thank you for yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I was, but I was, well, thank you. Actually, I've
learned a new phrase because that makes me uncomfortable that
the thank you for your service. What I say is
you were worth it. You were worth My service was
worth it to you. I you know, I appreciate people.
That's why, that's why we do it. I mean I
(03:19):
was actually born on a military base, and so my
mother was in during World War Two, my dad Korean War,
my brother Vietnam War, my husband in the Gulf Wars
in Panama, and I was a peacetime person.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Wow, lots of lots of military history there. Well, we
do appreciate your whole family and what they're doing as well.
Talking with Kim Roman, the name of her book is
How to Garden Indoors and grow your own food year round.
The ultimate guide through vertical container hydroponic gardening. So let's
kind of dive into this thing here as far as growing.
First of all, I guess my question is, and I'm
(03:55):
sure folks are asking, you know, growing house plants inside
can be a little bit difficult. Sometimes, what you know
is growing food indoors maybe a little bit more trickier
than doing house plants. You know, it's got to be
a little bit harder than growing them outdoors, or is it?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know, it's it's kind of funny because I kill
every houseplant, but they're both successful. No, I could kill
a cactus. I lived in Nevada for a while and
I could kill cactus. But it's it's not that it's harder,
it's just different in ways. It's easier in that you're
(04:33):
controlling the temperature, so you're not you're not running out
there covering, covering your raised beds like you would if
you get a cold snap. You're inside, it's nice and warm.
You just kind of have to mimic some things. So
like the winter, it's always very dry in your house,
(04:55):
You're going to have to add moisture with you know,
maybe a you know, a humidifier or something the like that,
or using an oscillating fan to mimic the breeze because
like something like tomatoes, they develop a stronger stem if
they're blown outside by the breeze. So you just have
(05:16):
to kind of mimic mother nature, all.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Right, So I guess the question then comes down there's
a lot of these foods that we would be growing
indoors that need pollination. Do we also become the bees
and the pollinators?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Absolutely? You know there are plants like tomatoes that and
a plants that are self pollinating, but they don't do
but they do better, much much better if you still
hand pollinate them. And that is as simple as using
like a cotton squab, cotton swab, a Q tip or
(05:53):
a little artists brush and you go from flower to
flower everything with the the cucumbers and stuff that have
a male and female blossoms, you just have to be
able to identify a male and female blossom. Did you
need me going into that?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
No, not really. And you know what's interesting though, and
of course you've got that in your book, and of
course it's How to Garden Indoors by Kim Roman. You know,
it's interesting sometimes even with folks that are growing cucumbers, melons, whatever,
may be outside for maybe the first time or whatever,
talking about how they get this vine and it's got
lots of flowers, but I'm not getting any fruit. And
(06:30):
you say, do you have male or female flowers? And
of course the answer is I'm not sure, And so
do you explain that to them? And then then you
figure out what it is. And we had a volunteer
pumpkins show up in our landscape bed last year and
it became the neighborhood project. I let it grow, which
I wish I hadn't later on because it went into
the yard and killed up part of the grass and
(06:51):
I couldn't take care of it then, right, So all
the kids were watching it, and so we learned them
female and the males, and then we watched the pumpkins
come and grow and all of that kind of crazy. Uh,
but yeah, you're right, you gotta you gotta know all that.
So you have to be the indoor pollinator. Now, do
you have special music to play in the background, maybe
a special wine that you drink when you're doing that, or.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, that's it's kind of funny because when I garden outdoors,
especially corn needs to be you know, you need to
fiddle around with that. And I tell my husband I'm
going out and having sex with the corn by.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
So, but he probably just shakes his head right and goes, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Fine, Oh there she goes again.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I love it talking with Kim Roman this morning. By
the way, her website, if you want to check it out,
is a s F G four you And that's a
square foot garden f s f G four the number
number four you, the letter you dot com a great website.
Did you actually get to work with mel Bartholomew.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I did. I. I was actually taking the home study
course when we were stationed in Germany. And the one
thing I could, dude, this is the way before internet,
you know, fine tuned, and I did not have a
way to send in a video of myself teaching a class.
So when we came back, I found that he was
(08:15):
going to be teaching. He was going to be teaching
in Utah, and so my husband and I went out
to Utah and I got to meet him. I became
one of his executive assistants for his last few years,
and he was just such a kind and generous man.
(08:36):
And when he passed away in twenty sixteen. He was
in the middle of the third edition of the all
New square Foot Gardening Book and they asked me to
finish it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Wow, what an honor there you go. Yes, I got
to meet him once at a Garden Center show and
we actually got him to come on our show, like
with you via the phone and same way. I just
what a what a really nice guy, And it was
all I think my question at the time. I think
he was working on the second edition or whatever is that.
You know, did you ever realize when you first wrote
(09:08):
the first edition that this would just be continuing on
and continuing on And you said, yeah, you know, it
makes a lot of sense, so you know, hopefully we
can keep passing along for generations and generations. And sure enough,
what are we up to the fourth edition now? Right?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
The fourth edition just came out and Kevin is Spiritu
was the one that helped with that one.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah and Kevin, Yeah, And Kevin's been on our show
and out standing as well, So we are honored to
have you on our show as well. It's Kim Roman.
The name of her book is How to Garden Indoors
and Grow your Own Food Year Round. Absolutely a tremendous
great book, lots of great illustrations, a lot of great pictures.
It's easy read and we'll take a break and come
back and learn more from Kim about growing your food
(09:48):
indoors year round. Here in the Garden with Ron.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
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hitting the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Well.
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Speaker 1 (11:18):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson's special
guest this morning. Kim Roman has a new book out
and it's an absolutely wonderful guide on gardening indoors, how
to grow your own food year round indoors, Absolutely outstanding.
You will absolutely love it. And as you's shared some
time with us this morning to kind of give us
some tips on what you'll find in this book, and
(11:40):
you know, as you've experimented over the years and been
growing indoors, Kim, obviously lighting is very very important. You
were talked about some of the key factors you know,
and I you know, back in the old day, and
you probably did the same thing growing things under shop lights,
regular fullescent tubes. I still do it today. Microgreens and
greens are probably it's easy to do. But you know,
(12:02):
with the new lights that are out there today, the
new LEDs are they really the better way to.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Go, Absolutely LED and full spectrum lights because you don't
have to mess around with the red lights for your
tomatoes and fruiting crops and blue light for your lettuces.
Just get a good LED. It's not going to be hot,
it's going to be efficient for you to run, and
(12:29):
full spectrum. It gives you all the colors of light
that the plants need.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, and when we're looking at these, as I've watched
the prices of these, it's actually come down and not
as expensive as they used to be.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Absolutely, So that's it's great now.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Also when I look at indoor guarding, and I thought,
you obviously addressed both of these. The past, it was
always potting soil and containers and trays and things like that.
But today now we have we have some really cool
gardening hours and the pop up gardens and things like
that which are outstanding. They all use potting soil. But
now we're seeing more and more of the hydroponics making
(13:08):
its way into indoor gardening. I know the arrow gardens
been around forever, but I see more and more of
these hydroponics. Do you see a preference there, or maybe
a preference depending on what you're growing in soil versus
growing in water.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I've got to tell you, I did not like hydroponics
as much as I thought I would. And there are
six different methods or main methods of hydroponics. But those
plug and plays I love them. And you initially asked
me if it was worth it, the like the arrow
gardens things like that. Now, yes and no. If you
(13:48):
are looking for convenience, absolutely, they're so so much fun.
Some of them are small enough to fit on your counter.
Others are like a piece of furniture. They're about the
eyes of a medium sized book case. And they've got
like three levels. And and you can even have an
app on your phone that will tell you when the
(14:08):
water when to add fertilizer, you know, like, oh it
should be your keys should be ready for harvest soon,
and you know things like that, right, But with convenience
comes cost. So is it worth it? Yes and no,
it's worth it if that's what you like and you've
got the extra cash to do it. But I prefer
(14:30):
soil still good.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I'm glad to hear that you know what I experimented
several years ago. I tried one of the self contained kits.
I got it from oh I can't think of the
name of the company, but anyway, I played with it
for a while and I went right back to the
soil and doing the indoor gardening with soil versus the
hydroponics all though, was pretty cool. I know some of
them have even gotten into the aquaponics where you got
the fish tank, yes, and then you know the gardening
(14:55):
on the top, and they go through the it's fun,
like you said, And we have a listener that he
sent me some pictures. You bought an arrow garden, two
of them for himself for Christmas, and he has them
in the kitchen on counters and he every week he
shows me like basil and lettuce and things that he's
been growing in there. And it's been a lot of fun.
He's enjoying it. But again, I think, if you're going
(15:15):
to get into it on a larger scale, from what
I'm hearing from you, using the soils, probably the you
prefer anyway the best way to go well, I do.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Because you know, the typical one is an NFT nutrient
film technique and that's the one with the the PBC
pipes that go down zigzags, you know, higher than lower.
And what I don't like about them is you can
only grow vegetables that are that have the same nutrient needs,
(15:45):
so you cannot you would not be able to do
tomatoes and lettuces in that same system. You'd have to
do all lettuces or I'll tell you what. The one
thing it is worth doing is all strawberries because I
could eat strawberries day and night.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So you do what ever bearing's in there and just
have them. Oh yeah, yeah. A great way to get
kids involved with gardening too, absolutely, yeah, they'll they'll love
and that's be something they could do in their room
as well. Talking with Kim Roman. Her new book, and
it's absolutely outstanding is The How to Garden Indoors and
Grow your Own Food year round. It's the ultimate guide
to vertical container and hydro party gardening. Absolutely tremendously well written,
(16:24):
the pictures and illustrations phenomenal. You got the charge for
us in the back what to grow? Which foods that
we can grow that be fairly successful? Through all of
your years of trial and error, What have you found
that was really hard and you just don't try to
grow indoors.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, that's a great question. Anything that needs chill hours
do not grow in your house unless you want to
have your house at forty degrees or below for a
certain number of hours every year. That's just not likely
to happen. So I didn't have great success. Did not
have great success with garlic and like head cabbages, you know,
(17:06):
the even the little teeny tiny ones. I thought that
would be cute to grow those. But I did okay
with Napa cabbage. But that anything again, chill hours. If
it needs if it needs to be cold, don't grow
it inside.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Interesting talking with Kim Roman. Her website is s f
G the number four the letter you dot com s
FG for you dot com. That would be square Foot
Gardening for you dot Com. Be sure to check it out.
Great information there and of course you can touch base
with Kim if you if you would like to as well.
And again, the book is called How to Garden Indoors
and Grow your Own Food Year Round. It's absolutely an
(17:44):
outstanding book, and we're walking through just about anything and
everything you could ever imagine trying to grow things indoors.
What else is it going to? Oh, I know. The
vertical wall gardens I think are outstanding. We had a
talking last week with a book on how to propagate
indoors houseplants and all and using a propagation wall as
(18:05):
part of the aesthetics. The looks of it. I love
these vertical garden walls, and not only the you know
kind of a show. I always say, dinner and a show.
You know, it's a nice show, and you can eat
them as well.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Beautiful, beautiful, They are just fabulous. And part of the
reason to grow something up on the wall is to
take the weight off of your floor, because one of
the considerations you have to have wind growing indoors is
soil based systems are heavy and if you have the squeaky,
mushy floors, you're going to have to shore them up
before you can be doing a lot of gardening in there.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, and you're exactly right. Yeah, And again it looks great.
You know, you can get it across from a sunny
window or set up your lights just right, and it
looks absolutely wonderful and you can harvest from it, and
what an impressive thing. Have some folks over for dinner
and harvest your solid off the wall, right, yes, Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Could you turn around and a couple of strings of basils?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Need I need a little more basil in this? Could
you throw a little bit in there? So what do
you think is the easiest? You know, I've always sold folks,
you know, if you aren't growing micro greens and just
greens in general over the winter time, you're really messing
out because it's so easy to do. What's the easiest
for folks to get started with?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Lettuces? I mean by far and away or herbs.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Are great herbs, lettuces, greens, of course, I do like
the microgreens as well. Kim Roman. The name of the
book is How to Garden Indoors and Grow your Own
Food Year Round. Is absolutely outstanding. Their website again SFG
for you dot com. Be sure and check that out
as well. Pleasure having you on the show, and I
absolutely love your book.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Thanks Tron.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
All right, take care Kim Roman. Again, the book is
How to Garden indoors and Grow your Own Food year Round.
It's great tips in here for you and could be
a lot of fun if you want to take it
to the next level. This is the book to take
you there right quick break become back phone lines are
open for you eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five. Don't forget our website. It's Ron Wilson online
(20:06):
dot com. Gary Bakwin's on there with the Little Gardening
one of his videos just to show you what he does.
Planing the week, shamrocks, corned beef is Reada's recipe. Check
them all out. It's all happening here in the garden
with Ron.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Wilson landscaping ladies, here with your personal yard boy. He's
in the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
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