Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:36):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yard ding and where she
is our main source of bee information. As a matter
of fact, every year at the end of the winter
we always have her on to talk about how did
our bees come through the winter, And then at the
end of the summer we say, how did our bees
(00:57):
come through the summer and into the fall season. And
I don't know that she has really good news for
us this year. It's always been kind of up and down.
But we're gonna find out, ladies and gentlemen, she is
our queen Bee. Barbie Bletcher, good morning. I know, I
(01:18):
know you're not an early riser, you and Boggs and
all of the old extension people and all that you
all like to sleep in late. Never understood that, but
we appreciate you getting up early and talking to us
this morning. And I have actually have a couple of
questions to get you kind of warmed up.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Here.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We have a truck driver listens to our show and
he said, can you ask the queen bee? That he said,
I passed a couple of trucks that were hauling bees.
This He said this to me back in early February,
and I said, you were gonna have And I told
him we're gonna have you on. We're not sure when,
but it said keep listening. His nickname is the Dipper.
(01:56):
But he said, how hard is that trip on those
bees when they're headed out to California and wherever? And
what do beekeepers have to do before they can actually
ship those bees on those trucks?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh, that's a great question. I'm glad you didn't ask
what the insurance is to truck those highs and then what.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Does the insurance cost?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, just kidding rats, Yeah, I know it's incredibly expensive
to ensure those hives. And I'm not even sure if
they ensure the hives are just the truck itself, because
some of these in some instances, you can't actually ensure
the bee hives. But regardless, so beekeepers they'll have multiple yards,
(02:42):
so when they're getting ready to ship themselves, they start
condensing yards, so they have as many colonies stacked up
in each yard just to make it easier for loading.
And so they'll use we have our very own palette pallet.
We put them on a pallet and we have our
very own pallette. Jack, I forget what's called off hand,
(03:08):
but we can actually lift those bee hives four at
a time onto a semi then we put four more
on top, and so we we stack them four per
ballot stack them up at least, you know, so it
be eight bee hives high. And so yeah, I think
(03:32):
you can get.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Like four.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Four hundred on a hive if I I mean four
hundred on a truck.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
And each hibe what what do you think I average
out and number of bees in each.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Hive, so they don't have them down to about thirty
thousand by.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Then anach hive. Yeah, wow, it's a lot of bees.
So now once we do you wrap that hive to
keep them inside there or something during that shipping.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, it's tricky because you don't want them to suffocate.
So they have it. They have have each hive condensed
to too deep boxes, so they're too deep boxes high.
They're on a pallette, so that the way that the
commercial beekeepers do it there they only have a lower
entrance to be able to fly in and out. So
(04:24):
when they stack those ups, so it's basically it's four
hives high. They use either netting or they'll use like
that plastic wrap like we use for packaging, to put
it around the whole thing, but it's not right up
against the hives. Okay, so the bees can get out
and fly around, because if they get overheated, you're gonna
(04:46):
end up having you know, four hundred dead hives. So
they'll put either netting over it and use like tie
downs to keep them on the truck. Or they'll wrap
the whole thing loosely with that plastic crap, but it's
not on the hives. It's on the supporters around it,
so it's not right up against the beehives. And so
(05:08):
they try to fly drives straight down without stopping or anything.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So you try to keep those on the move until
you get to California where they're going, and then they
unload those there, let them do their thing. Then do
they load those same process and bring them all back
home again.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, it's even more difficult. It's even more difficult then.
So they take them down there and they have like
a loading area where they'll unload them, and they'll have
them sit there for you know, a day or two
until they're ready for the almonds, and then they'll they'll
ship them out to the almonds, four per palette and
spread them around the almonds, so a good colony. They're
(05:50):
looking at strong frames of brood. So not all those
are going to be accepted to be used for almond pollination.
So they'll go through them again and move out the
ones that are the healthiest to put into the almonds.
So some of them aren't going to survive, so they'll
load them all back up into this storage yard basically
(06:13):
an empty lot, go through them again. Some of those
are going to be sold to people who be companies
that make packages to sell. Some of them are sold
to you know, stay down Florida or down California or wherever.
And then some of them are shipped directly up for
blueberries or apples or whatever. But yeah, so they will
(06:37):
ship them right back the way they did, but they're
smaller quantities, and they're going to go off to pollinate
something else.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And there's a good chance that that beekeeper may wind
up just selling all of the bees that he shipped
out there.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Allow them do okay, because it costs so much to
ship them back, right.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And then you start everything all over again. Get a
hold of Nina Bad, start getting new queens.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, they call Nina and the Order.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Of four hundred new Queens, and Nina starts yelling out
loud and screaming and oh.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, you would be here in Cincinnati, so you know.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And of course, every now and then you get to
see a news release where a truck flipped over and
all the bees got released accidentally.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, most of those colonies are lost, you know.
They we can't they don't survive. The boxes are crashed,
the clusters are broken up, the queen may be killed,
and a lot of times they'll just go out and
start spring them with extinguishers or hoses to keep them
from flying, and they're they're gone. It's a very expensive accident.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, you know, like when we ship nursery plants from
state to state or whatever may be, they're all they
come with a nursery certification, they're been they've been inspected,
and there are regulations. Is that the same thing when
it comes to shipping bees across the country.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
As as far as being inspected, Well.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I mean, is there some kind of regulation? I mean,
you know, I know that one of the one of
the issues that you've you and I have talked about
way back when is that. You know, when you've got
a virus or whatever, sometimes it You know, it's hard
to because some of those may have it and they're
shipping into California not knowing it. Then they show up there.
I mean, is there some kind of an inspection regulation
or not necessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Most states have an inspection program. Okay, some are more
rigorous than others. But yeah, to'll be able to ship
them over state lines, they have to have been inspected,
and you know, if there's a decent border patrol, they
will they will inspect them at the borders when you
go into those way stations book trucks, right, they'll have
(08:55):
to have present that certification that they've been inspected.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Good.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Interesting, So yeah, it's a little different in each state.
But if you take your bees down to California, I
can guarantee you that they're going to be inspected. They
checked the palettes for weeds, for mud, for anything like that.
So the palettes have to be clean.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, they're really particular down California.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's good. That's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Talking with Barbie Bletcher, she is our Queen Bee and
has always been our source. We're talking about not only
the honey bees. We also many many years ago started
talking about native bees, which are now very very much
in the news as well as we try to take
care of our bees and our pollinators and all. And
she's just been a great source of information still is
(09:46):
and that's why we still have her on our show.
Let's take a quick break, because coming up after the
break and talk about you know, we get our update
as far as how the bees did over the wintertime
and some of the headlines I'm reading here that I
have in my hands do look good. And then we'll
see what Barbie has to say after the break. Here
in the Garden with Ron Wilson, how is your garden growing?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty two three.
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Speaker 5 (12:29):
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Speaker 1 (13:18):
Talking to Yardening with Barbie Blet, your our queen bee
this morning and the interesting story about shipping those bees
across the country. And we want to thank Dipper for asking.
He's been waiting anxiously for Barbie to answer that question.
As usual, great information because she knows her bees, thus
being the queen bee. So you know, we stay in
(13:38):
touch and you let me know how the bees are
doing through the spring and the summer, in the fall
and the winter and all of that, and I'll tell
you and I the correspondences we've had over the last
three to four weeks not looking good.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
No, Actually, I think Ohio is better than the western state.
We're about a sixty five survival, which is not great,
butter than what they're seeing over in North and South
Dakota and California. We've lost one point eight million colonies
so far.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
One point eight million B colonies have been lost this
winter so far.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So this is commercial colonies. So we have a million
acres of almonds, which, by the way, California almonds supply
eighty two percent of the almonds in the world, so
our almond cup is incredibly important for the world supply
(14:38):
of almonds. So we have a million acres of almonds.
That takes two million acres of B colonies to pollinate
those almonds. We've already lost two million, well one point
eight million colonies, so they're scrambling to find colonies to
(15:00):
pollinate these almonds. Instead of having two hives two colonies
per acre for the almonds, they're spreading it out to
one per every three acres of almonds. So just between
you and me, don't tell anybody you need to go
out and buy almonds the price.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, I mean seriously, I mean so obviously with the
with the lack of bees for pollination production, it could
definitely be way down.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, and think of it. The next cop is blueberries.
So where are all these hives going to come from
to pollinate our cranberries, our blueberries, our apples. I guess
the nice thing is that we're going to be requiring
you know, local beekeepers just supply some of that that
pollination service. But in general, you know, we we're going
(15:52):
to be lacking a lot of bees to do this work.
And native bees, you know, God love them, they.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Just do it.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
They're not efficient enough.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Wow. So yeah, this, you know, and the one of
the one of the that you had sent me, it's
said they're going to be a webinar discussed the scale
and the levels of all this kind of stuff. It's
said that the these losses surpassed historical trends.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So, I guess this is like the worst.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, it's they're calling our colony collapse two point oh.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Colony collapse two point zero. Wow.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So they have the Royal Day, they have USDA and
so many other researchers have done in intensive studies. They've
been collecting dead bees and dying bees over West. They
have been serving the beekeepers to find out what's going on.
(16:53):
Mites are certainly part of it, but the percentage of
mites in the colonies isn't that much worse to cause
these colony losses. So, I mean, commercial beekeepers know what
they're doing. They you know, they don't make the stupid
mistakes and hobby beekeepers and sideliners might do. You know,
they know what they're doing and they've been successful for
(17:16):
the most part. These are family businesses that are three
four generation beekeepers, and they they are at wits end.
They don't know why all these colonies are dying.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, they as I read through this, I just you know,
you don't even think about it. I sometimes we have
a tency to not think about when tornadoes come through
or when hurricanes come through. You know what's lost there
were just for the bees alone. But they're talking about
right now with what they're seeing with these losses. The
direct colony losses conservatively estimated at two one hundred and
(17:51):
twenty four point eight million dollars. Yeah, and just alone
in any economy four point or four hundred and twenty
eight million dollar loss. I mean, wow, this.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Is yeah, substantial, this is substantial.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
So so, and these aren't just the bees that were
being These aren't the These are the bees that are
at the wherever they're being kept. These aren't These aren't
have nothing to do with the bees are being transported
and all that. It's it's where they're being raised.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That We've had commercial beekeepers in Ohio who have separed
these kind of losses.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Now you I mean they well, I was gonna say,
you told me, I know, two or three years ago
we had a thirty percent loss. You said, really, that's
not too bad. Twenty five to thirty percent, it's acceptable,
I guess an average or whatever. Unfortunately, so you know,
this is this is crazy. And I haven't seen much
about it in the news, which has kind of surprised me.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
But you yeah, and you know, I think we've been
crying wolf for so long that it's it just hasn't
you know. We have to be careful how we do this,
because we can't just keep crying wolf. We have to
we have to find a solution because yeah, people get
tired of hearing oh, poor poor this and poor that.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So at this stage, in the game. We got about
two minutes to go. At this stage in the game,
there's nothing that we can do besides continuing our practices
that we talk about as far as planting for the pollinators,
being friendly and what you do in your and your
cultural practices and all. And try to encourage the local
bees as best you can.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Buy local honeys, I mean that will help a lot.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Buy the local honey, support your local honey bee keepers. Uh,
and keep doing that. And in the meantime, you and
I will stay in touch. We'll get you back on
the show as we you know, they try to figure
out exactly what's going on here. Hopefully we don't have
any more losses that were you know, it's a stop
and things to come back is over, hopefully it is.
(20:00):
But again, I know you'll keep us posting and I
appreciate the information that you share with us because it's
always a pleasure having you on our show.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, Happy b DA to your producer.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, Happy b Day to Danny. Absolutely, thank you, and Barbie,
I do appreciate getting it early because I know it's
not one of your favorite things to do. Take care
all right, talk to you later, Barbie. Bletcher our queen bee.
And it's a serious situation, major loss out there, and
of course it affects pollination, like she said, the almond crop,
(20:31):
blueberry crop. We'll see what happens. But they're working on
it really hard right now to try to figure out
what the heck is going on. Quick breaking come back.
Our book is called How the Garden indoors and Grow
your own food year round. Here in the Garden with Ron.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Wilson, Green tom or not. Ron can help at one
eight hundred eighty two three talk. They say it's in
the Garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
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You know.
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All get some today. Welcome back. You're in the garden
(23:09):
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 here for you. They'll walk you
(23:30):
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. She's part of the
(23:51):
Square Foot Gardening Foundation, and she is with us this morning.
Kim Roman, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Good morning, ron.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Hey, good to have you on our show. The book.
First of all, thank you. How long have you been
gardening them? Pretty much all your life?
Speaker 6 (24:07):
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
(24:27):
great time. Our first garden was going well until we
found unexploded ordnance and had to abandon it.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That's not good.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
They could have been ended in a bang.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
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 the 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 then with this gardening indoors?
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Well, I volunteered for two different nonprofits. 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 we
(25:24):
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 (25:41):
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, and what an interesting way to get started
as well, working with the vests, and I think that
is absolutely outstanding doing that. Now, were you were you
(26:02):
in the military service and you're in yes, okay, well
we thank you for yourself.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
I was military, 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
the people. That's why we that's why we do it.
I mean, I was actually born on a military base,
(26:28):
and so my mother was in during World War Two,
my dad Korean War, my brother Vietnam War, my husband
in the Gulf Wars and Panama, and I was a
peacetime person.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
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
(27:02):
sure folks are asking, you know, growing houseplants inside can
be a little bit difficult sometimes, what you know is
growing food indoors maybe a little bit more trickier than
doing houseplants. You know, it's got to be a little
bit harder than growing them outdoors or is it.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
You know, it's kind of funny because I kill every houseplant,
but they're successful. No, I could kill a cactus.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I lived in.
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Nevada for a while and I could kill cactus. But
it's not that it's harder. It's just different in ways.
It's easier in that you're controlling the temperature, so you're
not you're not running out there covering your raised beds
like you would if you get a cold snap. You're
(27:50):
inside it's nice and warm. You just kind of have
to mimic some things like the winter, it's always very
dry in your house. You're going to have to add
moisture with you know, maybe a you know, a humidifier
or something like that, right, or using an oscillating fan
(28:13):
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 to kind of mimic mother nature.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
All 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 6 (28:37):
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
(29:00):
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 (29:16):
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
(29:37):
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 killed up part of the grass and I
(29:58):
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. So it's 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.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That, or.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
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 (30:33):
So, but he probably just shakes his head right and goes, oh, okay.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
Fine, Oh there she goes again.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
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 the
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 6 (30:59):
I did. I was actually taking the home study course
when we were stationed in Germany, and the one thing
I could not do. This is 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 going
(31:23):
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. And when
(31:44):
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 (31:54):
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,
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 the first
(32:16):
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 6 (32:27):
The fourth edition just came out and Kevin Espiritu was
the one that helped with that one.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
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
(32:55):
indoors year round. Here in the Garden with Ron.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
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in the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
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Speaker 1 (35:04):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson. 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 shared some
time with us this morning to kind of give us
some tips on what you'll find in this book. And
(35:25):
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 micro greens
and greens are probably it's easy to do. But you know,
(35:47):
with the new lights that are out there today, the
new LEDs are they really the better way to.
Speaker 6 (35:52):
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 gonna be hot,
it's gonna be efficient for you to run, and full spectrum.
(36:15):
It gives you all the colors of light that the
plants need.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
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 6 (36:27):
Absolutely, so that's it's great now.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Also when I look at indoor gardening, 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 towers 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
(36:54):
its way into indoor gardening. I know the arrow garden
has been around forever, but I see more and more
of these hydrop Do you see a preference there or
maybe a preference depending on what you're growing in soil
versus growing in water.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
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, like the like the
arrow gardens, things like that. Now yes and no, if
(37:33):
you 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
size of a medium sized book case, and they've got
like three levels. And you can even have an app
on your phone that will tell you when the water,
(37:54):
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 soil still good.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
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. So,
although it's pretty cool, I know some of them have
even gotten into the aquaponics where you got the fish tank, yes,
(38:39):
and then you know the gardening on the top, and
they go through the it's fun you 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.
(38:59):
But I think if you're going 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 6 (39:10):
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,
(39:31):
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 (39:45):
So you do what ever bearings in there and just
have them a oh yeah, yeah. A great way to
get kids involved guarding too. Absolutely yeah, they'll they'll love
it 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
(40:09):
well written, the pictures and illustrations phenomenally. You get 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 6 (40:28):
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,
(40:52):
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 (41:08):
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
(41:29):
outstanding book and we'll walk you through just about anything
and everything you could ever imagine trying to grow things indoors.
What else was it going to?
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
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 part of the 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,
(41:59):
dinner and a show. You know, it's a nice show,
and you can eat them as well.
Speaker 6 (42:02):
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 when 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 (42:26):
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 light's 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.
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Yes, Jimmy, could you turn around and grab a couple
of springs of basils?
Speaker 1 (42:48):
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 wintertime, you're really messing up
because it's so easy to do. What's the easiest for
folks to get started with.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It?
Speaker 6 (43:05):
Let uss I mean, by far and away or herbs.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
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 6 (43:30):
Thanks Ron, all.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
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. All right, quick break, we come back. Phone
lines are open for you. Eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five. Don't forget our website. It's Ron
(43:51):
Wilson online dot com. Gary Bakwin's on there with a
little gardening. One of his videos just to show you
what he does planning the week. Shamrocks corn beef is
read his recipe. Check them all out. It's all happening
here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard boy. He's in
the garden and he's Ron Wilson,
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yard ding and where she
is our main source of bee information. As a matter
of fact, every year at the end of the winter
we always have her on to talk about how did
our bees come through the winter, And then at the
end of the summer we say, how did our bees
(00:57):
come through the summer and into the fall season. And
I don't know that she has really good news for
us this year. It's always been kind of up and down.
But we're gonna find out, ladies and gentlemen, she is
our queen Bee. Barbie Bletcher, good morning. I know, I
(01:18):
know you're not an early riser, you and Boggs and
all of the old extension people and all that you
all like to sleep in late. Never understood that, but
we appreciate you getting up early and talking to us
this morning. And I have actually have a couple of
questions to get you kind of warmed up.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Here.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We have a truck driver listens to our show and
he said, can you ask the queen bee? That he said,
I passed a couple of trucks that were hauling bees.
This He said this to me back in early February,
and I said, you were gonna have And I told
him we're gonna have you on. We're not sure when,
but it said keep listening. His nickname is the Dipper.
(01:56):
But he said, how hard is that trip on those
bees when they're headed out to California and wherever? And
what do beekeepers have to do before they can actually
ship those bees on those trucks?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh, that's a great question. I'm glad you didn't ask
what the insurance is to truck those highs and then what.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Does the insurance cost?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
No, just kidding rats, Yeah, I know it's incredibly expensive
to ensure those hives. And I'm not even sure if
they ensure the hives are just the truck itself, because
some of these in some instances, you can't actually ensure
the bee hives. But regardless, so beekeepers they'll have multiple yards,
(02:42):
so when they're getting ready to ship themselves, they start
condensing yards, so they have as many colonies stacked up
in each yard just to make it easier for loading.
And so they'll use we have our very own palette pallet.
We put them on a pallet and we have our
very own pallette. Jack, I forget what's called off hand,
(03:08):
but we can actually lift those bee hives four at
a time onto a semi then we put four more
on top, and so we we stack them four per
ballot stack them up at least, you know, so it
be eight bee hives high. And so yeah, I think
(03:32):
you can get.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Like four.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Four hundred on a hive if I I mean four
hundred on a truck.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
And each hibe what what do you think I average
out and number of bees in each.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Hive, so they don't have them down to about thirty
thousand by.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Then anach hive. Yeah, wow, it's a lot of bees.
So now once we do you wrap that hive to
keep them inside there or something during that shipping.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, it's tricky because you don't want them to suffocate.
So they have it. They have have each hive condensed
to too deep boxes, so they're too deep boxes high.
They're on a pallette, so that the way that the
commercial beekeepers do it there they only have a lower
entrance to be able to fly in and out. So
(04:24):
when they stack those ups, so it's basically it's four
hives high. They use either netting or they'll use like
that plastic wrap like we use for packaging, to put
it around the whole thing, but it's not right up
against the hives. Okay, so the bees can get out
and fly around, because if they get overheated, you're gonna
(04:46):
end up having you know, four hundred dead hives. So
they'll put either netting over it and use like tie
downs to keep them on the truck. Or they'll wrap
the whole thing loosely with that plastic crap, but it's
not on the hives. It's on the supporters around it,
so it's not right up against the beehives. And so
(05:08):
they try to fly drives straight down without stopping or anything.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So you try to keep those on the move until
you get to California where they're going, and then they
unload those there, let them do their thing. Then do
they load those same process and bring them all back
home again.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, it's even more difficult. It's even more difficult then.
So they take them down there and they have like
a loading area where they'll unload them, and they'll have
them sit there for you know, a day or two
until they're ready for the almonds, and then they'll they'll
ship them out to the almonds, four per palette and
spread them around the almonds, so a good colony. They're
(05:50):
looking at strong frames of brood. So not all those
are going to be accepted to be used for almond pollination.
So they'll go through them again and move out the
ones that are the healthiest to put into the almonds.
So some of them aren't going to survive, so they'll
load them all back up into this storage yard basically
(06:13):
an empty lot, go through them again. Some of those
are going to be sold to people who be companies
that make packages to sell. Some of them are sold
to you know, stay down Florida or down California or wherever.
And then some of them are shipped directly up for
blueberries or apples or whatever. But yeah, so they will
(06:37):
ship them right back the way they did, but they're
smaller quantities, and they're going to go off to pollinate
something else.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And there's a good chance that that beekeeper may wind
up just selling all of the bees that he shipped
out there.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Allow them do okay, because it costs so much to
ship them back, right.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And then you start everything all over again. Get a
hold of Nina Bad, start getting new queens.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, they call Nina and the Order.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Of four hundred new Queens, and Nina starts yelling out
loud and screaming and oh.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, you would be here in Cincinnati, so you know.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
And of course, every now and then you get to
see a news release where a truck flipped over and
all the bees got released accidentally.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, most of those colonies are lost, you know.
They we can't they don't survive. The boxes are crashed,
the clusters are broken up, the queen may be killed,
and a lot of times they'll just go out and
start spring them with extinguishers or hoses to keep them
from flying, and they're they're gone. It's a very expensive accident.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, you know, like when we ship nursery plants from
state to state or whatever may be, they're all they
come with a nursery certification, they're been they've been inspected,
and there are regulations. Is that the same thing when
it comes to shipping bees across the country.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
As as far as being inspected, Well.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I mean, is there some kind of regulation? I mean,
you know, I know that one of the one of
the issues that you've you and I have talked about
way back when is that. You know, when you've got
a virus or whatever, sometimes it You know, it's hard
to because some of those may have it and they're
shipping into California not knowing it. Then they show up there.
I mean, is there some kind of an inspection regulation
or not necessarily.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Most states have an inspection program. Okay, some are more
rigorous than others. But yeah, to'll be able to ship
them over state lines, they have to have been inspected,
and you know, if there's a decent border patrol, they
will they will inspect them at the borders when you
go into those way stations book trucks, right, they'll have
(08:55):
to have present that certification that they've been inspected.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Good.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Interesting, So yeah, it's a little different in each state.
But if you take your bees down to California, I
can guarantee you that they're going to be inspected. They
checked the palettes for weeds, for mud, for anything like that.
So the palettes have to be clean.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, they're really particular down California.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
That's good. That's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Talking with Barbie Bletcher, she is our Queen Bee and
has always been our source. We're talking about not only
the honey bees. We also many many years ago started
talking about native bees, which are now very very much
in the news as well as we try to take
care of our bees and our pollinators and all. And
she's just been a great source of information still is
(09:46):
and that's why we still have her on our show.
Let's take a quick break, because coming up after the
break and talk about you know, we get our update
as far as how the bees did over the wintertime
and some of the headlines I'm reading here that I
have in my hands do look good. And then we'll
see what Barbie has to say after the break. Here
in the Garden with Ron Wilson, how is your garden growing?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty two three.
Talk you are listening to In the Garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
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Speaker 5 (12:29):
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Speaker 1 (13:18):
Talking to Yardening with Barbie Blet, your our queen bee
this morning and the interesting story about shipping those bees
across the country. And we want to thank Dipper for asking.
He's been waiting anxiously for Barbie to answer that question.
As usual, great information because she knows her bees, thus
being the queen bee. So you know, we stay in
(13:38):
touch and you let me know how the bees are
doing through the spring and the summer, in the fall
and the winter and all of that, and I'll tell
you and I the correspondences we've had over the last
three to four weeks not looking good.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
No, Actually, I think Ohio is better than the western state.
We're about a sixty five survival, which is not great,
butter than what they're seeing over in North and South
Dakota and California. We've lost one point eight million colonies
so far.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
One point eight million B colonies have been lost this
winter so far.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So this is commercial colonies. So we have a million
acres of almonds, which, by the way, California almonds supply
eighty two percent of the almonds in the world, so
our almond cup is incredibly important for the world supply
(14:38):
of almonds. So we have a million acres of almonds.
That takes two million acres of B colonies to pollinate
those almonds. We've already lost two million, well one point
eight million colonies, so they're scrambling to find colonies to
(15:00):
pollinate these almonds. Instead of having two hives two colonies
per acre for the almonds, they're spreading it out to
one per every three acres of almonds. So just between
you and me, don't tell anybody you need to go
out and buy almonds the price.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, I mean seriously, I mean so obviously with the
with the lack of bees for pollination production, it could
definitely be way down.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, and think of it. The next cop is blueberries.
So where are all these hives going to come from
to pollinate our cranberries, our blueberries, our apples. I guess
the nice thing is that we're going to be requiring
you know, local beekeepers just supply some of that that
pollination service. But in general, you know, we we're going
(15:52):
to be lacking a lot of bees to do this work.
And native bees, you know, God love them, they.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Just do it.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
They're not efficient enough.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Wow. So yeah, this, you know, and the one of
the one of the that you had sent me, it's
said they're going to be a webinar discussed the scale
and the levels of all this kind of stuff. It's
said that the these losses surpassed historical trends.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So, I guess this is like the worst.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, it's they're calling our colony collapse two point oh.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Colony collapse two point zero. Wow.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So they have the Royal Day, they have USDA and
so many other researchers have done in intensive studies. They've
been collecting dead bees and dying bees over West. They
have been serving the beekeepers to find out what's going on.
(16:53):
Mites are certainly part of it, but the percentage of
mites in the colonies isn't that much worse to cause
these colony losses. So, I mean, commercial beekeepers know what
they're doing. They you know, they don't make the stupid
mistakes and hobby beekeepers and sideliners might do. You know,
they know what they're doing and they've been successful for
(17:16):
the most part. These are family businesses that are three
four generation beekeepers, and they they are at wits end.
They don't know why all these colonies are dying.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, they as I read through this, I just you know,
you don't even think about it. I sometimes we have
a tency to not think about when tornadoes come through
or when hurricanes come through. You know what's lost there
were just for the bees alone. But they're talking about
right now with what they're seeing with these losses. The
direct colony losses conservatively estimated at two one hundred and
(17:51):
twenty four point eight million dollars. Yeah, and just alone
in any economy four point or four hundred and twenty
eight million dollar loss. I mean, wow, this.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Is yeah, substantial, this is substantial.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
So so, and these aren't just the bees that were
being These aren't the These are the bees that are
at the wherever they're being kept. These aren't These aren't
have nothing to do with the bees are being transported
and all that. It's it's where they're being raised.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That We've had commercial beekeepers in Ohio who have separed
these kind of losses.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Now you I mean they well, I was gonna say,
you told me, I know, two or three years ago
we had a thirty percent loss. You said, really, that's
not too bad. Twenty five to thirty percent, it's acceptable,
I guess an average or whatever. Unfortunately, so you know,
this is this is crazy. And I haven't seen much
about it in the news, which has kind of surprised me.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
But you yeah, and you know, I think we've been
crying wolf for so long that it's it just hasn't
you know. We have to be careful how we do this,
because we can't just keep crying wolf. We have to
we have to find a solution because yeah, people get
tired of hearing oh, poor poor this and poor that.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So at this stage, in the game. We got about
two minutes to go. At this stage in the game,
there's nothing that we can do besides continuing our practices
that we talk about as far as planting for the pollinators,
being friendly and what you do in your and your
cultural practices and all. And try to encourage the local
bees as best you can.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Buy local honeys, I mean that will help a lot.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Buy the local honey, support your local honey bee keepers. Uh,
and keep doing that. And in the meantime, you and
I will stay in touch. We'll get you back on
the show as we you know, they try to figure
out exactly what's going on here. Hopefully we don't have
any more losses that were you know, it's a stop
and things to come back is over, hopefully it is.
(20:00):
But again, I know you'll keep us posting and I
appreciate the information that you share with us because it's
always a pleasure having you on our show.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, Happy b DA to your producer.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, Happy b Day to Danny. Absolutely, thank you, and Barbie,
I do appreciate getting it early because I know it's
not one of your favorite things to do. Take care
all right, talk to you later, Barbie. Bletcher our queen bee.
And it's a serious situation, major loss out there, and
of course it affects pollination, like she said, the almond crop,
(20:31):
blueberry crop. We'll see what happens. But they're working on
it really hard right now to try to figure out
what the heck is going on. Quick breaking come back.
Our book is called How the Garden indoors and Grow
your own food year round. Here in the Garden with Ron.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Wilson, Green tom or not. Ron can help at one
eight hundred eighty two three talk. They say it's in
the Garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Hi, Ron Wilson here. Let me ask you a question.
Are you having problems with those hard to kill pesky weeds?
Well I've got the answer for you. You ready get
yourself some high Yield kills All super concentrate.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
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(21:47):
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(22:10):
independent garden centers or hardware stores. That's high yield kills
All get some today. Welcome back. You're in the garden
(23:09):
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 here for you. They'll walk you
(23:30):
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. She's part of the
(23:51):
Square Foot Gardening Foundation, and she is with us this morning.
Kim Roman, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Good morning, ron.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Hey, good to have you on our show. The book.
First of all, thank you. How long have you been
gardening them? Pretty much all your life?
Speaker 6 (24:07):
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
(24:27):
great time. Our first garden was going well until we
found unexploded ordnance and had to abandon it.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
That's not good.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
They could have been ended in a bang.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
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 the 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 then with this gardening indoors?
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Well, I volunteered for two different nonprofits. 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 we
(25:24):
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 (25:41):
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, and what an interesting way to get started
as well, working with the vests, and I think that
is absolutely outstanding doing that. Now, were you were you
(26:02):
in the military service and you're in yes, okay, well
we thank you for yourself.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
I was military, 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
the people. That's why we that's why we do it.
I mean, I was actually born on a military base,
(26:28):
and so my mother was in during World War Two,
my dad Korean War, my brother Vietnam War, my husband
in the Gulf Wars and Panama, and I was a
peacetime person.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
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
(27:02):
sure folks are asking, you know, growing houseplants inside can
be a little bit difficult sometimes, what you know is
growing food indoors maybe a little bit more trickier than
doing houseplants. You know, it's got to be a little
bit harder than growing them outdoors or is it.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
You know, it's kind of funny because I kill every houseplant,
but they're successful. No, I could kill a cactus.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I lived in.
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Nevada for a while and I could kill cactus. But
it's not that it's harder. It's just different in ways.
It's easier in that you're controlling the temperature, so you're
not you're not running out there covering your raised beds
like you would if you get a cold snap. You're
(27:50):
inside it's nice and warm. You just kind of have
to mimic some things like the winter, it's always very
dry in your house. You're going to have to add
moisture with you know, maybe a you know, a humidifier
or something like that, right, or using an oscillating fan
(28:13):
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 to kind of mimic mother nature.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
All 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 6 (28:37):
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
(29:00):
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 (29:16):
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
(29:37):
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 killed up part of the grass and I
(29:58):
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. So it's 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.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That, or.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
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 (30:33):
So, but he probably just shakes his head right and goes, oh, okay.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
Fine, Oh there she goes again.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
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 the
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 6 (30:59):
I did. I was actually taking the home study course
when we were stationed in Germany, and the one thing
I could not do. This is 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 going
(31:23):
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. And when
(31:44):
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 (31:54):
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,
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 the first
(32:16):
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 6 (32:27):
The fourth edition just came out and Kevin Espiritu was
the one that helped with that one.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
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
(32:55):
indoors year round. Here in the Garden with Ron.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
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in the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
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Speaker 1 (35:04):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson. 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 shared some
time with us this morning to kind of give us
some tips on what you'll find in this book. And
(35:25):
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 micro greens
and greens are probably it's easy to do. But you know,
(35:47):
with the new lights that are out there today, the
new LEDs are they really the better way to.
Speaker 6 (35:52):
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 gonna be hot,
it's gonna be efficient for you to run, and full spectrum.
(36:15):
It gives you all the colors of light that the
plants need.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
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 6 (36:27):
Absolutely, so that's it's great now.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Also when I look at indoor gardening, 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 towers 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
(36:54):
its way into indoor gardening. I know the arrow garden
has been around forever, but I see more and more
of these hydrop Do you see a preference there or
maybe a preference depending on what you're growing in soil
versus growing in water.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
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, like the like the
arrow gardens, things like that. Now yes and no, if
(37:33):
you 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
size of a medium sized book case, and they've got
like three levels. And you can even have an app
on your phone that will tell you when the water,
(37:54):
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 soil still good.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
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. So,
although it's pretty cool, I know some of them have
even gotten into the aquaponics where you got the fish tank, yes,
(38:39):
and then you know the gardening on the top, and
they go through the it's fun you 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.
(38:59):
But I think if you're going 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 6 (39:10):
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,
(39:31):
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 (39:45):
So you do what ever bearings in there and just
have them a oh yeah, yeah. A great way to
get kids involved guarding too. Absolutely yeah, they'll they'll love
it 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
(40:09):
well written, the pictures and illustrations phenomenally. You get 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 6 (40:28):
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,
(40:52):
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 (41:08):
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
(41:29):
outstanding book and we'll walk you through just about anything
and everything you could ever imagine trying to grow things indoors.
What else was it going to?
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
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 part of the 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,
(41:59):
dinner and a show. You know, it's a nice show,
and you can eat them as well.
Speaker 6 (42:02):
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 when 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 (42:26):
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 light's 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.
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Yes, Jimmy, could you turn around and grab a couple
of springs of basils?
Speaker 1 (42:48):
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 wintertime, you're really messing up
because it's so easy to do. What's the easiest for
folks to get started with.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It?
Speaker 6 (43:05):
Let uss I mean, by far and away or herbs.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
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 6 (43:30):
Thanks Ron, all.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
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. All right, quick break, we come back. Phone
lines are open for you. Eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five. Don't forget our website. It's Ron
(43:51):
Wilson online dot com. Gary Bakwin's on there with a
little gardening. One of his videos just to show you
what he does planning the week. Shamrocks corn beef is
read his recipe. Check them all out. It's all happening
here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
Landscaping made easier 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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