Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson. Be
sure in mark your counters. March the sixteenth, That would
be the during the kid's birthday, Danny Gleeson. What is
the address again, eighty forty four Montgomery Road, Sweet six.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Fifty, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Send your card, send your gift cards, two three six.
There you go. Yes, all right, and that's coming up
March the sixteenth again, all right, as I promise, it's
time for us to go down south find out what's
going on with those Southern gardeners. With our Southern gardener himself.
Of course we love. It's called our Southern Garden Report.
He is the head grower. We're gonna pass all that
(00:35):
other stuff we used to say about him. He's the
head grower of Heritage Cottage, Urban Nano Farm. And of
course he has written and you know all about it,
the absolute one of the absolute best books out there
called Southern Gardening All year long, award winning you can't
live without it, ladies and gentlemen. His website is Gary
dashgrows dot com, the one, the only Gary Bachman.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, sir, hey, good morning, Ron, what a great day
it is this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'll tell you man, that's what I like to hear.
All right, So we got lots of we got lots
of talk about today and you know, we have to
do more questions than time. But first of all, did
you did you recover from Marty Graus?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Actually yes, never really celebrated Marty Gras, you know, growing
up in that state up you know, north of you guys,
you know, really didn't understand it. I enjoy everybody that
you know that does celebrate it. And I have to
tell you the king cake is one good tradition that
(01:45):
that we do follow here in the Bachmann household.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, that's pretty tasty. There were three or four minutes
the nursery this week, and I enjoy those. I'm with
you on that one. Fortunately I didn't get that. I
don't you don't do you? Or do you not want
to get the baby that's baked into the king?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I really don't understand that. Does that mean that you're
gonna have another baby? Or yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I think I don't know if that's a religious I
don't know. Rita will know when we talk. Just keep listening.
Rita will have She'll she'll fill us in. She knows
all those things talk about Gary Backman. He is our
southern gardener. He is in the state of Mississippi. What
zone are you in, mister Backman?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We are in zone nine A nine as our little
farm is about five miles directly north of the Gulf
of Mexico. So we are you know, basically I say
that we're waterfront here, just a short walk, just a
short walk, that's right, or bike ride.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And of course the little garden and not little the
ranch that you live on. Your plantation houses one hundred
and little less than one hundred and forty earth boxes,
that is, that is correct. And if I looked out
there today with the weather that we've had so far,
in course you're a little bit warmer than we are. Obviously,
what do I see growing in those boxes as of today?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
As of today, the only things I have out there,
because I'm transitioning into into the.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Warm you are the vegetables.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well yeah, well we'll talk later about that, right but
but but I do have bokchoi that I've let go
to flower because it's a great pollinator plant for when
you know, when those bees are out on the warmer days.
And I do have I do have some kale that's
still growing and kind of getting to the end of
(03:40):
that because I want to start planting tomatoes. I mean,
I have a bunch of the micro tomatoes that are
ready to go in the ground.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, now, when you are planting in those earth boxes,
do you try to stick with more of the dwarf
varieties of vegetables that are out there and think the
selection today's phenomenal?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It absolutely is. I have just really started looking at,
if you want to say, those micro those dwarf varieties.
For years, I've grown strictly the determinate tomatoes just because
they're you know, they're just they're just smaller structured plants,
and that worked really well with my with my growing style.
(04:23):
But several years ago I started growing the micro tomatoes.
You know, they get at tops about eighteen inches tall.
They make full size cherry tomatoes. And I always say
that they're over producers or overachievers, because if you don't
stake them up in the earth boxes, the little plants
will fall over and there's so much, so many fruit
(04:46):
on it, that they'll actually pull themselves out of the
earth boxes. It's kind of it's kind of amazing to
see that.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Now when you're in zone nine like that. Do you
have to have a special selection of tomatoes or do
you use some basically some of the same ones that
we use. I know the gentleman used to have on
our show from Louisiana always used to grow a heat
wave right right, and we grew heat heat wave. But
you know, do you have to look at better selections
(05:13):
to handle the heat or not necessarily?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well that that's one thing that I started when we
were market growers for five years, and of part of
our strategy was the growing heirloom tomatoes. And I've learned
that the heirloom tomatoes are very regional in their adaptation,
and we've trialed on that. We've trialed one hundred and
(05:38):
twenty varieties of airloom tomatoes looking for those that were
suitable for our hot and humid conditions. And I have
some that I grow in the spring. I have some
that I grow in the fall, just better in those
shoulder seasons. In talk about you know the tomatoes that
other people grow. You know, you like fourth of July, right,
(06:01):
and and fourth of July works great here, but it
ripens they're ready to pick the fourth of June. So
so I've always called them, you know, fourth of June tomatoes. Yeah,
it's just you know, well that month month ahead of
you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Well it's not to say you're planning a month ahead
of us, so that you know, fourth of July works
out perfect for us. Yes, I think that's a fifty
four day or if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So yeah, yeah, it's a really real, real short one,
you know, a real quick hitting one, and you can
grow that and then after it's done, you go, you know,
grow something else. You know, it gives you that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Got it. Talking with Gary Bachman. Of course, his website
if you want to check it out, is Gary Dash.
Oh yeah, it's it's Gary dash grows dot com. Be
sure to check that out, of course, Gary at gary
dash grows dot com as well.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Anyway, and he of course huge container gardener, and that's
why we were talking about for all the great folks
out there that are container gardeners. He always has the
great tips for us. Do you check the soil pH
and test your soils every year in those boxes?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You want to know something, people are going to be
horrified about this, but I don't you know, growing in
those professional growing mixes, they're really the only if you
want to say amendments that I've seen that that really
you know, that you really have to do is you
have to add dolamite because those peak based mixes tended
(07:28):
that pH tends to, you know, tends to you know,
you know, weave its way down, you know, the lower phs.
So we just want to raise that pH up a
little bit. And every spring I add two cups of
dolomite to my earth boxes. I put a little mix
in there and kind of kind of mix it all up.
You know, we're gonna, of course, we're going to fertilize,
(07:50):
but then we're ready to go. I mean, it's it's
a really, really a simple system. And we've we've talked
about that in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So what does the Southern gardener use for fertilizing his containers?
And of course you don't forget he has a wonderful book.
And I'm not kidding when I say this, it's called
Southern Gardening All Years Long by Gary Bachman. Even if
you live up north, just to add three weeks onto
what he has there and you're basically the same schedule.
But it's called Southern Gardening All year long. An award
winning Gardening book. Highly recommend it. Be sure and check
(08:20):
it out. But so what do you use as far
as fertilizer? And I know it may vary depending on
what you're growing in the boxes.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Right now, the earth boxes because there's the plastic cover
on them. I just use straight AD grade eight eight
eight or ten ten ten if I'm in you know
some of my other container gardening, it's Osma Cote use
the controlled release for fertilizers. I mean, I think fertilization
is really isn't shouldn't be a complicated thing.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Right, so you keep it pretty simple. Have you ever
tried do you do you consider going? And I know
you try to stay as natural as you can, because
sometimes we've heard referred to as mister natural. Do you
remember mister natural from a national lampoon?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I do? I do?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Uh so anyway, uh as mister natural. But do you
do you ever look to do more organic gardening or
natural gardening in your earth boxes?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, it's it's funny you mentioned that. Several years ago,
I was using oh and I forget the the commercial
products name, but but it was one of the the
the organics and and I did set up my boxes
with the organic fertilizers, and I, you know, and I
(09:39):
was just out in the garden. The dog came around
the corner in her hole from all covered, was all covered,
and she got into those earth boxes and just chowed down.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, they like, they like that, there's no doubt.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah. Ever since then, no, I I just I just
haven't gone that way.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I love and talking with Gary Bachman. He is our
southern gardener. We'll always to check in with Gary to
find out what's going on in the Southern States zones eight, nines,
and tens, all those warm folks down there. Real quick,
got about a minute ago. We'll take a break. I
got lots more questions. Do you ever do potatoes in
your containers?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Not in earth boxes? But I've been I have been
known to grow potatoes in fifteen gallon nursery containers.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
There you go, that's the way to do it. I
like doing them in that. All right, we'll take a
quick break. More from Gary Bakman, our southern gardener. Here
in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
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Speaker 1 (10:57):
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All get some today. Welcome back. You're in the garden
with Ron Wilson's special guest this morning, our Southern gardener,
(12:05):
mister Gary Bachman. He is the head grower for Herity's
Cottage Urban Nano Farm. His website Gary dash grows dot com,
and of course he is the author of an outstanding
book that you got to make sure you check it out.
It's absolutely wonderful and it's called Southern Gardening all year
long talking about gardening and containers and of course Southern
(12:26):
gardening as well a couple of things else. I say, oh,
I know, you know, I was going to talk about
a little bit about crop rotation as we start to
put our vegetable gardens together for the spring. Do you
worry about that? And containers? I don't, No, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
You know. With my earth boxes, I have some earth
boxes that are sixteen years old now wow, and I
every year I grow two crops at tomato spring and fall.
I have never rotated out. Some of my earth boxes
have been growing tomatoes for sixteen years and I've never
dumped out an earth box. I've always added the mix
(13:07):
to it. You talked about that too. You don't dump
your containers out, You just add more mix to it
and fluff it up. And I have never had any
kind of a root born, you know problem in those boxes,
you know, with no rotation, so that that's always been
my advice to to the home gardeners when when I've
(13:28):
been asked that question.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, and I agree with you one hundred percent. I mean,
in the ground, in soil is one thing, but in
containers typically you don't see it. Even in raised beds
you don't typically see it as much as but you know, again,
and raised beds, if you use regular top soil plus
organic matter, probably good to rotate even in those raised beds.
But in containers, no reason. And again, always reuse that
potting soil. I couldn't imagine if you threw the potting
(13:51):
soil away every year and had to fill those things
back up again. I wouldn't be a container gardener.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
No, not not at all. With one hundred and forty
two earth boxes, it takes you know, over two cubic
feet of mix per box. Let's see here, that's you know, yeah,
that could be like twenty dollars a box, right, now
to fill with the cost of mix, and it's like, yeah,
I would, I wouldn't be doing it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
How about any of the moisture retention products. Do you
use any of those at all? Or you just count
on regular watering yourself.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
In the earth boxes. I just count on regular water.
I've tried. I did some work with with earth boxes.
I do trial and do work for them some of
those some of those products, and they tended to really
make the earth box really soupy and swampy, and it
really really didn't work out, just in the way that
(14:45):
subrrogated system.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, so folks understand those earth boxes are self watering
boxes that has a reservoir in the bottom of them,
so really not necessary to have water retention polymers or
whatever added to that putting soil because it always has
a reservoir somewhat filled as you wrote what you know,
So basically when you're watering, you're just filling.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Up the reservoir absolutely, And what the in the magic
is it keeps that root zone consistently moist. And that's
what the polymers do in a regular container, right, just
keep that root system moist.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Got it? Talking with Gary Bachman, here is our Southern
gardener again. It's Gary Dashgroves dot com if you want
to check out his website. A couple of things here
having him do with the South. First of all, looking
at the lawns right now, what's everybody doing is are
the lawn starting to green up a little bit?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Lawns are starting to green up? We are looking at
and I was you were talking about soil temperatures earlier.
Right now, our current soil temperature here in Ocean Springs
is sixty two degrees.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And yeah, we're averaging five day average because I'm at
greencast online, is fifty eight point four degrees over the
last week. And when you look back over the month,
we've been up as high as seventy one seventy two
degrees soil temperatures. Yeah, so we're at the point where,
you know, our warm season grasses are starting to warm up.
(16:10):
Some of our cool season weeds, if we still have any,
are starting to go. Man, it's kind of getting a
little warm for us now, you know, and they're they're
getting ready to go away. But that's that's where we're
at with that.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So so what do you what are you doing with
the lawns? I know, you wait until they green up,
what about seventy five percent or so before you start
thinking about feeding.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, typically we don't think about feeding until at least
April here on the coast, maybe end of April, when
we get up into you know, zone eight, zone seven
in North Mississippi. And it's important to get that that
pre emerged down on the grass right now if we
haven't done it already.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Right, So all you're doing right now is a pre emergent. No,
no fertilizer with it.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
No, everybody wants to use the weed and feed, and
it's like no, no, no, no, no no no, let's just
put let's just put the put the pre emerged down
and we'll start thinking about feeding next month. But everybody
wants to kind of combine those chores to make it easy,
you know that.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, well, absolutely no doubt about it. Talking with Gary Bakwin,
here's our southern gardener. What about the uh crape myrtles?
Are we murdering those at this stage? Is the time
to start pruning those and clean them up a bit?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
People have been murdering or as I like to call it,
crape myrtlation, because you actually don't kill the crape myrtle
truth that has been going that has been going on
since at least January first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Now,
I'll tell you the Crpe myrtles were starting to leave
out in January before, right before we had that snow,
(17:50):
and so that that that kind of set things back
a little bit. But that they're they're all leafing out now,
and I think I think it's go time for for
most everything that we have here.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
So you're you're get it better get it done. If
you're gonna do some pruning, yep.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And you know, really, the CRP myrtles, you really don't
have to prune them. That's but that's a that's a
hard piece of advice for for folks to want to
hear because everybody wants to cut those crape myrtles back.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And the fortunate thing is they are a very forgiving plant.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yes, yes they are. You Now, I'll tell you a
little little crape myrtle. I was out pruning the one
CRP myrtle I have in the yard, and it was
one from proven winners. It was Infinity Watermelon. It's a
dwarf and it only it only gets about twenty four
inches high. But I was out pruning it yesterday and
it starting to leaf out.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Wow. So there you go. So that's what's happening. And
that's if you want early crate myrtles, you got to
move to Mississippi to get that southern necessarily as the
five mile walk to the to the ocean front. Again.
Talking with Gary Blackman, our southern gardener. Hey, you had
talked about that satsumer you were looking for, and I
had emailed you the other day. What was the name
of that variety?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Oh, you want to know something you forgot. I was
looking at that again and I forget. I'll have to
have to look it up.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Because I found I thought I found the one you
were talking about, but I couldn't remember what it was.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, it wasn't exactly the one. I do remember the one,
the variety that you recommended, but I will tell you
since we talked last, Mississippi is now in the citrus quarantine. Oh,
that sickless screening has been found. We'll talk about that again.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Wow. Gary Blackman always a pleasure. Again his website it's
a Gary dash grows dot com. Don't Forget is a
great book. Seriously, Southern gardening all year long. Gary Blackman.
Always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Hey, thanks, An, We'll talk to you again, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Take care. Gary Backman always fun though, and of course
if you didn't notice, it doesn't have that southern accent
Michigan boy, but that's okay. He moved down the down
South and has loved it and they love him as well.
Great sense of humor. If you see his youtub'es as
a instructural gardening videos and things, he does absolutely great.
He has a tremit sense of humor. They're a lot
(20:12):
of fun to watch. Gary Bachmann lead singer for Bachman
Gardening Overdrive. All right, Coming up next, Rita, Hike and Feld.
Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson, How is your
garden growing? Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty
(20:33):
two three.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Talk you're listening to In the Garden with Ron Wilson
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson. Be
sure in mark your counters. March the sixteenth, That would
be the during the kid's birthday, Danny Gleeson. What is
the address again, eighty forty four Montgomery Road, Sweet six.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Fifty, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Send your card, send your gift cards, two three six.
There you go. Yes, all right, and that's coming up
March the sixteenth again, all right, as I promise, it's
time for us to go down south find out what's
going on with those Southern gardeners. With our Southern gardener himself.
Of course we love. It's called our Southern Garden Report.
He is the head grower. We're gonna pass all that
(00:35):
other stuff we used to say about him. He's the
head grower of Heritage Cottage, Urban Nano Farm. And of
course he has written and you know all about it,
the absolute one of the absolute best books out there
called Southern Gardening All year long, award winning you can't
live without it, ladies and gentlemen. His website is Gary
dashgrows dot com, the one, the only Gary Bachman.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, sir, hey, good morning, Ron, what a great day
it is this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'll tell you man, that's what I like to hear.
All right, So we got lots of we got lots
of talk about today and you know, we have to
do more questions than time. But first of all, did
you did you recover from Marty Graus?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Actually yes, never really celebrated Marty Gras, you know, growing
up in that state up you know, north of you guys,
you know, really didn't understand it. I enjoy everybody that
you know that does celebrate it. And I have to
tell you the king cake is one good tradition that
(01:45):
that we do follow here in the Bachmann household.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, that's pretty tasty. There were three or four minutes
the nursery this week, and I enjoy those. I'm with
you on that one. Fortunately I didn't get that. I
don't you don't do you? Or do you not want
to get the baby that's baked into the king?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I really don't understand that. Does that mean that you're
gonna have another baby? Or yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I think I don't know if that's a religious I
don't know. Rita will know when we talk. Just keep listening.
Rita will have She'll she'll fill us in. She knows
all those things talk about Gary Backman. He is our
southern gardener. He is in the state of Mississippi. What
zone are you in, mister Backman?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We are in zone nine A nine as our little
farm is about five miles directly north of the Gulf
of Mexico. So we are you know, basically I say
that we're waterfront here, just a short walk, just a
short walk, that's right, or bike ride.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And of course the little garden and not little the
ranch that you live on. Your plantation houses one hundred
and little less than one hundred and forty earth boxes,
that is, that is correct. And if I looked out
there today with the weather that we've had so far,
in course you're a little bit warmer than we are. Obviously,
what do I see growing in those boxes as of today?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
As of today, the only things I have out there,
because I'm transitioning into into the.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Warm you are the vegetables.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well yeah, well we'll talk later about that, right but
but but I do have bokchoi that I've let go
to flower because it's a great pollinator plant for when
you know, when those bees are out on the warmer days.
And I do have I do have some kale that's
still growing and kind of getting to the end of
(03:40):
that because I want to start planting tomatoes. I mean,
I have a bunch of the micro tomatoes that are
ready to go in the ground.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, now, when you are planting in those earth boxes,
do you try to stick with more of the dwarf
varieties of vegetables that are out there and think the
selection today's phenomenal?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
It absolutely is. I have just really started looking at,
if you want to say, those micro those dwarf varieties.
For years, I've grown strictly the determinate tomatoes just because
they're you know, they're just they're just smaller structured plants,
and that worked really well with my with my growing style.
(04:23):
But several years ago I started growing the micro tomatoes.
You know, they get at tops about eighteen inches tall.
They make full size cherry tomatoes. And I always say
that they're over producers or overachievers, because if you don't
stake them up in the earth boxes, the little plants
will fall over and there's so much, so many fruit
(04:46):
on it, that they'll actually pull themselves out of the
earth boxes. It's kind of it's kind of amazing to
see that.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Now when you're in zone nine like that. Do you
have to have a special selection of tomatoes or do
you use some basically some of the same ones that
we use. I know the gentleman used to have on
our show from Louisiana always used to grow a heat
wave right right, and we grew heat heat wave. But
you know, do you have to look at better selections
(05:13):
to handle the heat or not necessarily?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well that that's one thing that I started when we
were market growers for five years, and of part of
our strategy was the growing heirloom tomatoes. And I've learned
that the heirloom tomatoes are very regional in their adaptation,
and we've trialed on that. We've trialed one hundred and
(05:38):
twenty varieties of airloom tomatoes looking for those that were
suitable for our hot and humid conditions. And I have
some that I grow in the spring. I have some
that I grow in the fall, just better in those
shoulder seasons. In talk about you know the tomatoes that
other people grow. You know, you like fourth of July, right,
(06:01):
and and fourth of July works great here, but it
ripens they're ready to pick the fourth of June. So
so I've always called them, you know, fourth of June tomatoes. Yeah,
it's just you know, well that month month ahead of
you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Well it's not to say you're planning a month ahead
of us, so that you know, fourth of July works
out perfect for us. Yes, I think that's a fifty
four day or if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So yeah, yeah, it's a really real, real short one,
you know, a real quick hitting one, and you can
grow that and then after it's done, you go, you know,
grow something else. You know, it gives you that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Got it. Talking with Gary Bachman. Of course, his website
if you want to check it out, is Gary Dash.
Oh yeah, it's it's Gary dash grows dot com. Be
sure to check that out, of course, Gary at gary
dash grows dot com as well.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Anyway, and he of course huge container gardener, and that's
why we were talking about for all the great folks
out there that are container gardeners. He always has the
great tips for us. Do you check the soil pH
and test your soils every year in those boxes?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
You want to know something, people are going to be
horrified about this, but I don't you know, growing in
those professional growing mixes, they're really the only if you
want to say amendments that I've seen that that really
you know, that you really have to do is you
have to add dolamite because those peak based mixes tended
(07:28):
that pH tends to, you know, tends to you know,
you know, weave its way down, you know, the lower phs.
So we just want to raise that pH up a
little bit. And every spring I add two cups of
dolomite to my earth boxes. I put a little mix
in there and kind of kind of mix it all up.
You know, we're gonna, of course, we're going to fertilize,
(07:50):
but then we're ready to go. I mean, it's it's
a really, really a simple system. And we've we've talked
about that in the past.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So what does the Southern gardener use for fertilizing his containers?
And of course you don't forget he has a wonderful book.
And I'm not kidding when I say this, it's called
Southern Gardening All Years Long by Gary Bachman. Even if
you live up north, just to add three weeks onto
what he has there and you're basically the same schedule.
But it's called Southern Gardening All year long. An award
winning Gardening book. Highly recommend it. Be sure and check
(08:20):
it out. But so what do you use as far
as fertilizer? And I know it may vary depending on
what you're growing in the boxes.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Right now, the earth boxes because there's the plastic cover
on them. I just use straight AD grade eight eight
eight or ten ten ten if I'm in you know
some of my other container gardening, it's Osma Cote use
the controlled release for fertilizers. I mean, I think fertilization
is really isn't shouldn't be a complicated thing.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Right, so you keep it pretty simple. Have you ever
tried do you do you consider going? And I know
you try to stay as natural as you can, because
sometimes we've heard referred to as mister natural. Do you
remember mister natural from a national lampoon?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I do? I do?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Uh so anyway, uh as mister natural. But do you
do you ever look to do more organic gardening or
natural gardening in your earth boxes?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, it's it's funny you mentioned that. Several years ago,
I was using oh and I forget the the commercial
products name, but but it was one of the the
the organics and and I did set up my boxes
with the organic fertilizers, and I, you know, and I
(09:39):
was just out in the garden. The dog came around
the corner in her hole from all covered, was all covered,
and she got into those earth boxes and just chowed down.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, they like, they like that, there's no doubt.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah. Ever since then, no, I I just I just
haven't gone that way.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I love and talking with Gary Bachman. He is our
southern gardener. We'll always to check in with Gary to
find out what's going on in the Southern States zones eight, nines,
and tens, all those warm folks down there. Real quick,
got about a minute ago. We'll take a break. I
got lots more questions. Do you ever do potatoes in
your containers?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Not in earth boxes? But I've been I have been
known to grow potatoes in fifteen gallon nursery containers.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
There you go, that's the way to do it. I
like doing them in that. All right, we'll take a
quick break. More from Gary Bakman, our southern gardener. Here
in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
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Speaker 1 (10:57):
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All get some today. Welcome back. You're in the garden
with Ron Wilson's special guest this morning, our Southern gardener,
(12:05):
mister Gary Bachman. He is the head grower for Herity's
Cottage Urban Nano Farm. His website Gary dash grows dot com,
and of course he is the author of an outstanding
book that you got to make sure you check it out.
It's absolutely wonderful and it's called Southern Gardening all year
long talking about gardening and containers and of course Southern
(12:26):
gardening as well a couple of things else. I say, oh,
I know, you know, I was going to talk about
a little bit about crop rotation as we start to
put our vegetable gardens together for the spring. Do you
worry about that? And containers? I don't, No, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
You know. With my earth boxes, I have some earth
boxes that are sixteen years old now wow, and I
every year I grow two crops at tomato spring and fall.
I have never rotated out. Some of my earth boxes
have been growing tomatoes for sixteen years and I've never
dumped out an earth box. I've always added the mix
(13:07):
to it. You talked about that too. You don't dump
your containers out, You just add more mix to it
and fluff it up. And I have never had any
kind of a root born, you know problem in those boxes,
you know, with no rotation, so that that's always been
my advice to to the home gardeners when when I've
(13:28):
been asked that question.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, and I agree with you one hundred percent. I mean,
in the ground, in soil is one thing, but in
containers typically you don't see it. Even in raised beds
you don't typically see it as much as but you know, again,
and raised beds, if you use regular top soil plus
organic matter, probably good to rotate even in those raised beds.
But in containers, no reason. And again, always reuse that
potting soil. I couldn't imagine if you threw the potting
(13:51):
soil away every year and had to fill those things
back up again. I wouldn't be a container gardener.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
No, not not at all. With one hundred and forty
two earth boxes, it takes you know, over two cubic
feet of mix per box. Let's see here, that's you know, yeah,
that could be like twenty dollars a box, right, now
to fill with the cost of mix, and it's like, yeah,
I would, I wouldn't be doing it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
How about any of the moisture retention products. Do you
use any of those at all? Or you just count
on regular watering yourself.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
In the earth boxes. I just count on regular water.
I've tried. I did some work with with earth boxes.
I do trial and do work for them some of
those some of those products, and they tended to really
make the earth box really soupy and swampy, and it
really really didn't work out, just in the way that
(14:45):
subrrogated system.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, so folks understand those earth boxes are self watering
boxes that has a reservoir in the bottom of them,
so really not necessary to have water retention polymers or
whatever added to that putting soil because it always has
a reservoir somewhat filled as you wrote what you know,
So basically when you're watering, you're just filling.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Up the reservoir absolutely, And what the in the magic
is it keeps that root zone consistently moist. And that's
what the polymers do in a regular container, right, just
keep that root system moist.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Got it? Talking with Gary Bachman, here is our Southern
gardener again. It's Gary Dashgroves dot com if you want
to check out his website. A couple of things here
having him do with the South. First of all, looking
at the lawns right now, what's everybody doing is are
the lawn starting to green up a little bit?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Lawns are starting to green up? We are looking at
and I was you were talking about soil temperatures earlier.
Right now, our current soil temperature here in Ocean Springs
is sixty two degrees.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And yeah, we're averaging five day average because I'm at
greencast online, is fifty eight point four degrees over the
last week. And when you look back over the month,
we've been up as high as seventy one seventy two
degrees soil temperatures. Yeah, so we're at the point where,
you know, our warm season grasses are starting to warm up.
(16:10):
Some of our cool season weeds, if we still have any,
are starting to go. Man, it's kind of getting a
little warm for us now, you know, and they're they're
getting ready to go away. But that's that's where we're
at with that.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So so what do you what are you doing with
the lawns? I know, you wait until they green up,
what about seventy five percent or so before you start
thinking about feeding.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, typically we don't think about feeding until at least
April here on the coast, maybe end of April, when
we get up into you know, zone eight, zone seven
in North Mississippi. And it's important to get that that
pre emerged down on the grass right now if we
haven't done it already.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Right, So all you're doing right now is a pre emergent. No,
no fertilizer with it.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
No, everybody wants to use the weed and feed, and
it's like no, no, no, no, no no no, let's just
put let's just put the put the pre emerged down
and we'll start thinking about feeding next month. But everybody
wants to kind of combine those chores to make it easy,
you know that.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, well, absolutely no doubt about it. Talking with Gary Bakwin,
here's our southern gardener. What about the uh crape myrtles?
Are we murdering those at this stage? Is the time
to start pruning those and clean them up a bit?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
People have been murdering or as I like to call it,
crape myrtlation, because you actually don't kill the crape myrtle
truth that has been going that has been going on
since at least January first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Now,
I'll tell you the Crpe myrtles were starting to leave
out in January before, right before we had that snow,
(17:50):
and so that that that kind of set things back
a little bit. But that they're they're all leafing out now,
and I think I think it's go time for for
most everything that we have here.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
So you're you're get it better get it done. If
you're gonna do some pruning, yep.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And you know, really, the CRP myrtles, you really don't
have to prune them. That's but that's a that's a
hard piece of advice for for folks to want to
hear because everybody wants to cut those crape myrtles back.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And the fortunate thing is they are a very forgiving plant.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yes, yes they are. You Now, I'll tell you a
little little crape myrtle. I was out pruning the one
CRP myrtle I have in the yard, and it was
one from proven winners. It was Infinity Watermelon. It's a
dwarf and it only it only gets about twenty four
inches high. But I was out pruning it yesterday and
it starting to leaf out.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Wow. So there you go. So that's what's happening. And
that's if you want early crate myrtles, you got to
move to Mississippi to get that southern necessarily as the
five mile walk to the to the ocean front. Again.
Talking with Gary Blackman, our southern gardener. Hey, you had
talked about that satsumer you were looking for, and I
had emailed you the other day. What was the name
of that variety?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Oh, you want to know something you forgot. I was
looking at that again and I forget. I'll have to
have to look it up.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Because I found I thought I found the one you
were talking about, but I couldn't remember what it was.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, it wasn't exactly the one. I do remember the one,
the variety that you recommended, but I will tell you
since we talked last, Mississippi is now in the citrus quarantine. Oh,
that sickless screening has been found. We'll talk about that again.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Wow. Gary Blackman always a pleasure. Again his website it's
a Gary dash grows dot com. Don't Forget is a
great book. Seriously, Southern gardening all year long. Gary Blackman.
Always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Hey, thanks, An, We'll talk to you again, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Take care. Gary Backman always fun though, and of course
if you didn't notice, it doesn't have that southern accent
Michigan boy, but that's okay. He moved down the down
South and has loved it and they love him as well.
Great sense of humor. If you see his youtub'es as
a instructural gardening videos and things, he does absolutely great.
He has a tremit sense of humor. They're a lot
(20:12):
of fun to watch. Gary Bachmann lead singer for Bachman
Gardening Overdrive. All right, Coming up next, Rita, Hike and Feld.
Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson, How is your
garden growing? Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty
(20:33):
two three.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Talk you're listening to In the Garden with Ron Wilson
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