Growing & Cooking Edible Flowers with Erin Bunting - Garden America Radio Show [4.29.23] - Garden America - Gardening Podcast & Talk Radio Show

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome once again to Garden America.Yes, we are back. The boys
are back in town, actually backin studio. Welcome to your weekend.
I'm Brian Main, John Begnasco TigerPalafox, and I say back in the
studio because we're still getting a lotof rave reviews from last week's show from
John's library. We pulled it offwithout much of a hitch. I think
we did a pretty good job,a good experiment, and we'll take that

(00:21):
and perhaps later on do some moreshows outside the studio, maybe outside at
some popular places. But good morning, Welcome John, nice library, nice
home. Thank you for having us. And it's fun. Yeah, you're
we're not taking applications for library cardsany longer than see. That was my
next question. We could have aGarden America Library card and then you could

(00:41):
set up a schedule people to comeby, you know, maybe four at
a time, tour the library,take some books out, but they have
to have that card. I don'tknow about you, Brian, but I
just felt smarter being there. OhI took away a lot of college Yeah
yeah, Y just be in thatlibrary. I just felt like I was
a smarter person. Or you couldmaybe act like you're smarter. It definitely

(01:03):
was acting because I didn't. Idon't think it was any smarter, you
know people, because you could easilylook up any question, but people were
very u detail oriented. Like Kevinsaid, you need to fill in the
top shelf. There's john maybe evenfake books just kind of fill it in
so you can tell people were reallylooking around. Well that made me wonder

(01:23):
about the shots that we had inthe show, because when you walk in
the libraries jammed with books, rightyeah, and for somebody to notice or
to say, you know, there'sreally you're missing something, you know.
I think it's just the right size, it's cozy. I would love to
work in there. This is wherethe newsletter comes from. Yeah, I

(01:45):
mentioned that last week and emulates fromthat computer in that library, and it's
a very and you have a niceview of the driveway. I think it's
right, nice view of the drivewaysright there asking me right what I said,
emulate see you did saying that's tocopy somebody or be like them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, AndI know how particular I speak fast sometimes,

(02:07):
so sometimes it just comes out thebrain says wait and not done formulating
that word. I catch everything,though, I do too, and I'm
glad you caught that. So weare back in studio questions comments. Now
we have a guest today that's callingin from Ireland to Tiger Yeah exactly.
Isn't that so much fun? Imean, you know, just to be
able to have the ability to dothe show kind of on an international level.

(02:29):
But Aaron Bunting is going to becalling from Northern Ireland and we're gonna
be talking about edible flowers today,which is kind of fun and neat because
you know, we always talk aboutvegetables and herbs and shrubs and trees,
but there's a lot of flowers outthere that are edible. Well don't you
think we should have a deer instudio then to talk about that on their

(02:50):
favorite ones? And people are gonnawonder about the flowers and what we have
in studio, the leaves and thematerial this morning in studio. Yeah,
so I think maybe we'll start talkingabout the after the interview. Because John
took a little venture up to theHuntington Botanical Gardens up there in um Pasadena,
Pasadena, right, yeah, um, And they had their annual plant

(03:12):
sale John, Right, is itPasadena or San Marino? Okay, Well,
Pasadena's Inland East right where you go, it's right next to Pasadena.
Okay, is it is that?What it is? How about we say
this the greater Los Angeles area?Is that general lives Anyway? The Huntington
has a yearly plant sale and it'sso popular that you have to make a

(03:35):
reservation, a timed reservation on whenyou want to go. And you say
it's once a year, once ayear. Yeah, And they had thousands
of plants, but I think thatthey're I think they might even be sold
out for this weekend. Uh.In the sale goes through Sunday. You
could go online and see if youcan still get in. But you can
get into the gardens, but notnecessarily the plant sale, but a lot

(04:00):
of plants that you just don't normallyfind, or plants that are harder to
find. What's what's behind me?It's one of your plants. They're john
a Matilla hap poppy. Uh.We were tigers doing some landscape work up
at our house and I mentioned tothem we wanted to Matila hop poppy.
And I know they're kind of hardto find, and and for a one
gallon plant, I thought that wasa nice plant. So, yeah,

(04:23):
you're looking at some flower boats onit. I think romney a coulter.
For those of you that are Latininclined and for those of you that are
not, it's called the fried eggplant because the flower looks as if you
had just dropped a what would thatbe, an over over easy sunnyside up

(04:46):
egg is that's what the flower lookslike, right, Yeah, and then
I got a flame, uh no, what's it called? Flamethrower? Flamethrower
redbud? Right, and the nicething if you can, if you look
at that tiger, you can seeit's been grafted. There's some grafted varieties

(05:06):
of redbuds out there. A matterof fact, our favorite redbud right now
are my wife's favorite one is onethat we got from you, which was
Ruby Falls, which is kind ofa weeping, twisted, red leafed one
a redbud. But this one isflamethrower, has autumn colors all all spring

(05:28):
and summer on the leaves. Somy wife wasn't too excited about having autumn
colors in the spring and summer,but I'd like it. I think that
I think that would be great ifyou had an area in your yard garden
whatever with something like that. It'sfall all year. I bought a probably
triple the amount of plants that Ihave in here. Another redbud I got

(05:54):
was one called Rising Sun, whichis as shartrusse leaves. So um,
I have to think where I'm goingto place those now. It's you know
Viger's landscape design with the oh withthe leaves. It's you always have to
make some contrast, right right,That's how it stands out right, So
that's otherwise you just got green,right, yeah, exactly. And then

(06:16):
there was I didn't I had neverheard of ned Kelly. But there's a
grevillia. Uh. They had agreat selection of Australian plants and a lot
of different grevillias. But I justliked this one because it was in bloom
and you were telling me a littlebit about I want to I want to
say to our listeners right now,anybody listening writing on Facebook, see see

(06:40):
if you can know who ned Kellywas, you know, because yeah,
I knew the name right away.John and Brian didn't know who ned Kelly
were was. I thought it wasm at Kelly's brother. You're such a
clown. I knew the name Idon't know who Emma Kelly is. Emma
Kelly is a famous clown. Famouspaintings of him too as well. Didn't

(07:02):
Red Skelton do do paintings with Kelly? Right? Yeah? Um? So
what are we asking how the week? Oh yeah, we're asking on Facebook.
Oh Ned Kelly will tell us thehistory of Ned Kelly. Yes,
yeah, we should do the quoteof the week. Absolutely, yeah,
that would be that would be you, John, Oh yeah yeah. And
then um, and then we're goingto have a call in from Ireland,

(07:25):
so we gotta get ready for that. All right, well, I guess
uh, with our guests from Ireland, we're gonna be talking food, right,
Yes, so I picked this quotefrom Daniel Webster. Yes, and
uh, Danny, what does Dannyhave to say? He said, let
us not forget that the cultivation ofthe earth is the most important labor of

(07:46):
man. When tillage begins, otherarts will follow. The farmers therefore are
the founders of civilization. It's thattillage thing. I think it's that whole
food thing. Yeah, because wecan't have heart if you don't need That's
true. Let's see here Tina ison Facebook talking about you. Yeah,

(08:07):
I liked your comment. She's talkingabout skipping spring and going straight to summer,
and I think she said she's okaywith that, And I'm like,
what spring the best time I knowhohas at least Boise has got some weird
weather, you know you can have. Last time we went there was in
May or last year. I shouldsay we went in May because we were

(08:28):
there in December two, but therewas snow all around in May. Yeah,
so I think they skipped summer.Hey, Kevin, my buddy Kevin
says that he thinks that Mick Jaggerdid a movie about Ned. Oh yeah,
maybe yeah, really sounds about right, maybe, ye, Ned Kelly,

(08:48):
he sounds like, sounds like awestern, old Western guy. Yeah.
But Grevillias are Australian natives, right, So, I mean it makes
perfect sense with the name Ned kellerUm. And I mean they're really cool
flowers, gavillias. I mean they'reright up there with protea lucadendrons in terms

(09:09):
of uniqueness of the flower. Idid get some protea too at the sale,
and prodia also come from Africa.A lot of African proteas. The
other class of plants that is justfascinates me. Are hakias? Oh yeah,
and hakia is our drought tolerant plantsalso native to Australia. But the

(09:31):
strangest leaf shapes, and then somecool flowers and some of them I forget
which one that was that I broughtin. Let's say you brought one of
those in two yeah, yeah,and then that that Irish you probably know,
right, No, I don't knowit, but it looked like a
morea right, and but the floweris a lot more interesting to me.

(09:54):
Hey, that would be our guest. Oh, so what we're going to
do here is the phone rings?Is that? Why don't you guys talk
just for just second here, I'llpick up the phone. Then we'll go
to a break. Sweet Um,yeah, I know. It looks exactly
like a maria. So what's thecommon name for there's deed maria, but
it's called um butterfly Irish African iris? Yeah, Africans? Is that what

(10:22):
you're thinking of? African African?Okay, we're gonna take a break.
Aaron is on the phone, allright. When we returned from our bits
talk radio break. In our shortFacebook live break, we'll bring Aaron on.
We're gonna be talking about edibles.So thank you for joining us.
This is Garden America, a happyweekend. I'm Brian Main, Tiger Palafox,
John Begnesco. Do stay with usand a happy weekend to you.
Okay, we are back. Itis a Garden America on your weekend.

(10:45):
This is being recorded on Saturday fromthe iHeart Media and Entertainment Studio, San
Diego, California. And our guestis ready. Aaron is with us,
Tiger, and this should be interesting. It's been a while since we had
somebody called in from Europe or theinternational hot Yeah, I know, you
know. And I just want tostart off by saying thank you to Aaron
for calling us, because normally wecall our guests out, but because of

(11:05):
the studio restrictions, it's tough forus to sometimes make international calls. But
when they can call us, it'sa lot of fun because we get to
expand our reach into other areas.Aaron Bunting is a co author of a
book called The Edible Flower, andshe lives in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland
on a like little farm with herco author Joe And you know, Aaron

(11:31):
is more of the cook I think. And then Joe is more of the
farmer. But um, Aaron,thank you very much for joining us this
morning. Oh, thank you somuch for that introduction. Yes, and
that is right. Yes, youlive on a little seven acres smallholding just
south of south fast in northern Ireland. And yeah, I'm I'm more of
a kick and Joe is more ofthe grower, but we both dabble in

(11:54):
both, if you know what imean. Yeah, that's but it's perfect
because I'm sure she can enjoy allthat you're making and then you can enjoy
all that she's growing, So youknow, I mean, yeah, it's
a really good partnership in that wayfor sure. Yeah. Yeah, how
is the weather in your area atthe moment? Well, my area is
pretty, Um, it's a it'sbeen a wet and not very warm spring.

(12:18):
I would stay here, but that'snot the same in some parts of
her it's really hot moments. Butyeah, up here in the north of
Europe, we are still experiencing thatkind of slightly chilly spring weather. So
that normal. Hopefully we've had thelast cross, but we're not sure yet,
so we'll see. And is thatnormal or is it more cold than

(12:39):
usual? Yeah, no, it'sdefinitely, it's not been as good as
spring as usual. Everything's a littlebit behind here. We are about to
start. We run a community supportedagriculture scheme as well as as writing about
and cooking food, So we havea veg box scheme that runs through the
summer and it starts next week.The starts beginning of May, and we

(13:01):
are definitely feeling that it is abit behind where we usually are in terms
of growing the produce. So we'llbe taking up with lots of greens in
the first two boxes for sure.I know it's what, um, what
do they call those here in uh, the State's CSA boxes? John?
Is that what they're called? Thosecommunity co op garden boxes that you you
know, get like once a weekor once a month. Um, you

(13:22):
know, you can always know whenthe garden has not fully ripened yet because
they just fill it with charred.There'll be a lot of charred and probably
even some nettles in our first box. We did a bit of foresting as
well for our members. So yeah, definitely it'll be lots of lots of
chart and lots of herbs and quitea lot of salads. But it's it's

(13:43):
okay. It rebalances later in theyear when when the tomatoes and cucumbers and
carrots and things come come into fullblow. Um. I don't know if
this hit um yeah, probably notwhere you are as much as it is
is us. But the other thingthat was real popular for the boxes um
lately was eggs because eggs became soum high priced here, right, Yeah,

(14:07):
and so so a lot of theseurban farms also have chickens, and
so they started putting like eggs intothe little boxes for people too, which
was great because you know, eggswere like becoming the price of avocados here.
So you know, it's always funto put put a little bit of
different stuff in there, right,surprise, your surprise, your memories.
Yeah, a few things that areYeah, we don't actually we have a

(14:30):
couple of chickens, so we justkeep for ourselves. Legislation around chickens here
is quite strict, so if youwant to have chickens that you're eggs that
you're selling, you have to belike certified in lots of different ways.
So we haven't haven't done that yet. We have some great other small farms
near us that do great eggs,and we thought in the past so it'll
be quite good to do a collaborationwith them. Actually eggs in the boxes.

(14:52):
Yeah, yeah, great stuff.So well, let's chat a little
bit about um. Our topic today, which is edible flowers though at chickens
who eat all of the flowers,right, Um, yeah, edible flowers.
You know you and your partner wrotea book. What inspired you to
write this book? Well, um, well, loads of reasons. I
was almost it's almost too our start. We've been thinking about writing the book

(15:15):
for a while. We run werun this small holding and we have a
vegebox team, and we also runup separate club like pop up dining events,
and there's a real like close connectionbetween the farm or the garden and
the kitchen, and um, we'rereally interested in that kind of aspect of
m connecting those two things. Sowe've been thinking for a while about writing
a book. And actually we'd originallythought we'd write something more general about vegetable

(15:39):
growing and then connecting it to whatthe dishes that we cook, um and
the recipes that we share with ourCSA members. But actually while we were
thinking about that, the publisher whowho ended up publishing o book, Lawrence
King. Um, they someone aneditor approached us, Actually they were They
felt there was a gap in themarket for a book that looks at edible

(16:00):
flowers and then recipes how to growthem, and then the recipes, and
so they approached us, and itjust felt like a really good fit for
us. We were already growing outavailble flowers. I cooked with edible flowers
all the time. Our businesses calledthe edible flower because all food really ultimately
on the soul, food ultimately comesfrom flowering plants. And we so yeah,

(16:22):
it just felt like a really goodfit. And actually it was great
writing a book with a more narrowfocus than we'd originally anticipated, because we
ended up writing a lot of words, and we were very lucky because the
publisher increased the size of the bookto fid all the words in. So
I think if we'd had an evenwider topic, we would have written more,
and maybe that wouldn't have been sogood. So yeah, it was
it was good to have something tofocus on. And also because you know,

(16:47):
I think edible flowers a really interestingtopic for people, and you know,
it's sort of something a bit differentfrom what people might be doing already.
There's a real way it was areally accessible way I think to get
into growing food. It's if you'reif you're a gardener who is more focused
on maybe growing ornamentals, you probablyalready are growing lots of these ornamentals in
your garden, and then there's crossedwhat you're using them. And also I

(17:11):
think if you're a newt growing ormaybe have a small growing space in a
city, or you're in a flatand then have a window box to semke
that this is a good a goodway to get into growing a little bit
of your food and still having areally beautiful space or you know, some
beautiful plants to look at as wellwell. I mean, so I just
posted a link for people to connectto your book on Amazon, and with

(17:36):
it is a picture of the coverand if if I mean, forget about
the edible idea of it for asecond, just that photo of you know,
the different meals that you have onthe cover of your book and the
flowers in them. I mean,it just brings so much color, so
much life to the food. Andthen to think that like, yeah,

(17:56):
you just eat those little flowers ontop of it too, and they actually
maybe add some flavor, maybe theyadd some nutrition, whatever, But like
just being able to think like,oh, I have the salad normally,
you know, you have a saladthat's got green leaves in it. You
might spruce it up with some carrots, some onions, maybe some other little
things. But I mean being ableto put some purples in there, some

(18:17):
reds in there, some oranges inthere as well, just makes it that
more appetizing to look at. AndI mean, if you're a person that's
entertaining guests, I think it alsojust impresses your guest to be able to
be like, wow, this isnot just a normal salad. Hey,
Aaron. In about a minute,we're gonna have to take a little break
just to be able to pause forsome commercials. But when we get back

(18:38):
from the break, I do wantto talk to you because in the book
they talk about edible flowers, andI think a lot of people wonder,
like, why would I just wantto include it? And aside from being
pretty like I just said, there'sactually a lot more benefits to edible flowers
than people even know. So whenwe get back from break, we're gonna
keep chatting with Aaron Bunting and theedible flower. Yeah, and do you

(19:00):
stay with us? Obviously those onBistok Radio. This break is for you
and those on Facebook live questions commentsfor one of us or of course Aaron
feel free right there on the commentsection to the right hand side of our
Facebook page. We will take abreak and again this is for Bistok Radio.
Back after these messages, and againthank you for tuning in. This
is Garden America on your weekend.Okay, we have returned from the break.

(19:22):
Thank you to those on the BistalkRadio. I want to thank Stephanie
keeping us on the air each andevery week with the Garden America's Show replace
on BizTalk Radio. You can alsogo to Alexa ask her to play the
Garden America's Show. We've got aYouTube page, YouTube channel, I should
say, Garden America Radio Show,Spotify, Google streaming, the iHeartMedia platform,
so we are just about everywhere.And also be sure to go to

(19:45):
our website, garden America dot com. If you could do that at least
a few times a week, we'dappreciate that. So, as Tiger mentioned,
calling all the way from Ireland,Yes, John, I was just
going to say, is there anytruth to the rumor that Aaron is using
Google Train it's light to understand Tiger'squestions. They Aaron, I speak perfect

(20:06):
English. Right, we are backwith you, Aaron. Hi, okay,
okay, yeah, yeah, yes, I hear you. Yes.
Do you want me to talk?Well, I will I answer Tiger's question
now? Is that good? Yes? Yeah? Yeah so yeah. Before
the break, I had said,you know, what are some benefits to
the edible flowers asides from just lookingpretty? Right? Well, I mean

(20:32):
I feel like the most important benefitto them is the flavor. I mean,
I'm always coming from things from akind of Kicks perspective, So how
how they can enhance or make adish taste more delicious? And like edible
flowers and like some really unique claversthat you know you won't find, um,
you know, anywhere else, AndI often think about using them as

(20:52):
the way you would use a herbor a spice. You know. Um,
we're, if we're kin kicks,we're probably all using herbs and spices
in our guards, you know,in our cooking all the time. And
um, lots of edible flowers havekind of you know, similar properties.
They're going to add loads of interestingflavors. And I mean, I guess
just to pick out a few thathave like really pack a punch and have

(21:12):
loads of different flavors. Um,I would say lavender amazing, m as
amazing kind of almost mentally you calptthe s type flavor, but just with
a bit kind of more floral notes. It's quite has similar quite quite similar
flavor profile to rosemary. So Iuse it in lots of dishes where I
would use rosemary as an alternative,and it brings this kind of extra floral

(21:36):
notes. So um, it worksreally while, especially if you're cooking kind
of Middle Eastern style dishes and thingslike that as well. So it's um,
it's got like an amazing, amazingflavor. Can be used rose again
another kind of one that would beuse lots of Middle Eastern cooking as well,
but you know, it can bringthis kind of real sort of soft

(21:56):
Turkish delidy type flavor that is justm know, it's just it's so beautiful
in desserts, but also when it'sused in kind of spice mixes with chicken
or uh we use it in likea moringue dish with you know, it
just it has like this lovely sortof kind of lovely sort of soft floralness

(22:17):
that's a great one as well.And then things like elder flower. You
know, they have that kind oflovely kind of musky aroma as well.
You know, that's kind of completelyunique savor. I always think elder flour,
it's like nothing, nothing else,and that's amazing. I think again,
both in sweet and savory dishes,elder flower quite often as you think
about it's being sweet because you drinkit, maybe in the elder flower cordial,
but like it's amazing taking elder flowersand like putting them in temper a

(22:42):
badder and frying them and then wewould serve them in a salad with like
blue cheese and a little bit ofhoney and some like peppery leaves. So
I think there's like loads of interestingflavors within edible flowers. It's using magnolia,
which is just out now here maybeI don't know where. There's probably
I don't know what the season wouldbe in California, but um, but
it's just in Europe or certainly innorthern Europe. We're just just kind of

(23:06):
just coming to the end of magnoliaflower season. But it has this amazing
kind of gingery cardon and flavor andwe like to pickle it. I make
delicious kind of pickle is you know, so beautiful with kind of Asian food.
And also we make an India syrupand like do kind of magnolia flower
moscow mules, so using that kindof gingery cardonal flavor in a in a
cocktail. So yeah, it's justlike so much opportunity easy flowers for flavor

(23:30):
as well as as well as howbeautiful I are. I never heard of
the magnolia flowers being used and kingthat's great. Yeah, Hey, Aaron,
I had I had a quick question. You mentioned roses, and being
a rosarian, I'm familiar with somebreeding work that's going on in Europe.
I don't know if you are,but they're actually breeding roses to have different

(23:52):
flavors in the in the flowers,for instance, maybe a stronger lemon flavor
or different types. Have you heardabout that yet? I have not heard
about that, But that's fascinating.Yeah, I'm like, I think that
sounds um like, so it's sointeresting and like I can imagine that would
be just like open up a wholenew interesting world because there is so many

(24:15):
you know, I do think withall these flowers, there's like quite a
lot of diversity you know, withina flower like flower, but actually like
magnolias are a good examples, Dailiasor a good example as well, like
when you know they're all edible,but when you taste them they have different
um you know, different properties,so different flavor profiles. So yeah,

(24:36):
that's that's really interesting. So letme let me ask you Aaron in terms
of the flowers also, are theylike a fruit where there is a a
ripe you know, portion like meaningdo you wait a certain time? I
mean, you know, are theybetter when they're butted up and they're more
concentrated, or are they better afterthey've opened and been open for a while.

(25:00):
Is it kind of like a tomatoor other fruit that there is a
right period? Yeah, that's sointeresting, And I would say it varies
some flower to flowers. So forexample, elder flower, which I was
talking about, Whenever I'm picking elderflower, they have like kind of you
know, these these big humbles withlots of little flowers on them, and
I would be trying to pick theones where on that kind of head of

(25:26):
elder flower, like they were threequarters open and maybe the other quarter was
still in bud, so you're kindof wanting lots of flowers are best,
especially if you're using them for flavorfrom mostly for flavor, or best when
they're just just opening, you know, just sort of the flavor is still
sort of more concentrate, and Ithink there's an element but you know,

(25:48):
things haven't started to go where youdon't really want to be kicking with anything
that's starting to go kind of alittle bit brown and stuff. And so
if you're picking a kind of aheadof something and some of the flowers are
kind of beyond, then that couldkind of hint the flavor of of what
you're cooking. So I find mostthings are our best just as they're opening.
And there is some theories around kindof pollination and stuff as well,
where the flowers are better before they'repollinated. Um that you know, the

(26:14):
kind of properties can change slightly afterthat kind of pollination has happened. Um.
I actually haven't particularly experienced it myself, but there definitely is some sort
of discussions about that kind of inthe literature on eating edible flowers and stuff
as well. So but yeah,I mean I would basically say look for
something that, um, you know, looks looks as good as it possibly

(26:36):
can, you know, like isstill kind of fresh looking. Um.
And also the smell as well asa good good indicator. You know,
give what you're you're picking a sniffand if it smells good, then it's
probably going to be good and you'rekicking obviously if it's an edible flower and
flowers to just take them, makesure that you know what you're eating is
edible. Yeah, that was Yeah, that's a good disclaimer, is that

(26:56):
not all flowers are edible, soyou know, buy your buy your book
to mae. We learn a littlebit about what some are edible. Now.
Also, aside from the flavor,there's some benefits to flowers in a
health aspect as well, because Imean, you know they talk about eat
eat the rainbow as a discussion,right, you know, don't just eat

(27:18):
one color because different colored plants andflowers and fruit carry different properties and vitamins
and minerals m and flowers are abig part of that. So you know,
are there some flowers out that arethere very beneficial health wise? Well,
I mean I would say I wouldlike to say I'm not a horribalist
or a nutritionist, and I wouldgenerally just follow the reles, like eating

(27:42):
U as wide a variety in yourdiet as possible. So there's definitely some
flowers that I use lots in umin horrible medicine and like um, you
know, for example, hawthorn flowers, which we would use here. I
don't know is that a common plantin the yes, hawthorns. M do
you know which heartthorne she's talking about. I think she's talking about critiguous nat

(28:03):
rafaels. So that would be inthe cooler parts of the US, not
not the hot southern parts. Yeah. So so it has it's U.
It's usual and hedging here. Andactually when I was reading about it,
it's it's actually a sacred tree inIreland. So it's kind of part of
our long history and we would seethat as kind of um. Lots of

(28:27):
them would be left in fields andnot cut down in things because people see
that they have kind of connection tothe other world. There's sort of a
kind of part of our folklore here. Um. But they have this lovely
kind of almondy flavor um the Bostonand there's quite a strong connection actually with
like um like heart medicine within soum uh, it's actually used. The

(28:49):
flowers and the berries are actually usedin or some of the compounds in them
have been isolated and are used inheart medication. So it's kind of a
heart opening. Yes, Flower,amending Aaron, Aaron before you keep going,
and sorry, we're gonna have totake another little break, but when
you get back we'll finish chatting withAaron Bunting and the edible flower. Yes,

(29:11):
indeed, it is break time forour great sponsors and those who support
this show Garden America on Bistok Radio, and again for those on the Facebook
live and hey questions, just letus know and know we're all learning a
lot more this morning about edible flowerswith Aaron calling in a live direct from
Ireland this morning, So do youstay with us? Break time for Bistok
Radio. Brian Maine, John Bagnesco, Tiger Palafox, thank you for tuning

(29:33):
in and supporting Garden America. Alrighty, we are back, and for those
on Bistok Radio, this is thefinal segment of our number one and you'll
have news coming up top of thehour. We are back at six minutes
after. Hopefully your market does carryus and the rest of us on Facebook.
We just keep on cruising hite along. We do welcome your questions and
your comments. And again this isGarden America. John Bagnesco, Tiger Palafox.

(29:55):
I'm Brian Maine. Back to Tiger, back to Aaron. Yeah,
and we were chatting with Aaron Hunting, the co author of the Edible Flower
for the Break And Aaron was justtalking about some of the health benefits of
some of the flowers to be ableto incorporate them into your meal. And
you were mentioning calendula, usually anorange yellow flower, right, yeah,

(30:15):
Um, And you know, it'sa great um. It's it's actually used
in lots of uh like skin creamsand things like that. It's a moosually
really good both topically and when youeat it for a kind of um,
your your skin or you know,if you have sort of dry skin and
that kind of thing as well.So it's a great one and it also

(30:36):
has thoughts of other compounds are justgenerally really good for your health. It's
one of the ones who's been usedkind of historically forever as a kind of
a medicine. I think back tolike Roman times, but I mean I
also just think having a whole varietyin your diet. And one of the
things that we cover in the bookis um We have a recipe for what
we call a grand sellapse, whichis kind of a name from old salads

(31:00):
that were made in like sixteenth centuryfifteen sixteenth century houses in in Europe in
the UK, and they there's lotsof recipes, old recipes that talk about
these grand flats, which was gatheringbasically all the different as many different ingredients
as they could from the gardens.They would have had these kind of grand

(31:21):
gardens, walled gardens and armies ofservants to go out and gather things,
and then they would have made thesekind of elaborate salads, which beautiful kind
of multi tiered dishes, and theywere eating all sorts of different flowers and
pickled vegetables and salad leaves and thingslike that. And we've tried to recreate
that in our book and done asalad with as many ingredients as possible in
it. And I just think thatit's just interesting. You're exploring new flavors,

(31:42):
but you're also bringing in all thosekind of new nutrients into your diet
that you might not otherwise. Youknow, micre natuents that might not otherwise
be accessing. Yeah, I meanit sounds like each bite would almost be
very different, you know, whenyou're mixing all of that stuff together with
a fun way to do it.So I did post the book for people
to be able to get on Amazondot com. You do recommend, you

(32:05):
know you you guys do have thebook in a lot of good cookbookshops um
you know, or or small bookshopsso people can shop locally. Look for
the book. The edible the ediblegarden and edible flowers. Sorry, and
do you guys have anything coming upin the near future you want to make

(32:27):
the listeners aware of or oh mygoodness, well, if you're traveling to
Northern ireland's coming into us. Werun some lovely supper clubs which are kind
of pop up dining events. Runthose every about every month a couple of
nights and we cook with loads ofamazing things in the garden. Our next
event, well, we've got onecoming up next weekend, but the one

(32:49):
after that is our summer Selftiss events, so we'll be doing six nights over
the kind of summer selfstis period towardsthe end of gene and kicking with lots
of flowers and what's best in thegarden back kind of that moment in time.
Awesome. A lot of our listenersare posting that we should take a
garden tour to Ireland, and itsounds like we should visit Aaron for sure
if we do, Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Oh it's so beautiful here.

(33:12):
I mean, like I love livingin Ireland and like, yeah,
you should definitely come. And theresome really beautiful gardens here as well.
Cool. Well, Aaron, thankyou very much for taking the time to
join us. I know it's whatis it about five am your time now?
Yes, it's kind of half fourhere, so I'm just gonna go
and round my children up for dinner. Yeah. Good, well, thank

(33:34):
you very much, have a goodevening and oh hopefully we'll talk to you
again soon. Take care. Thankyou so much. I really appreciate it.
Thanks great away, Thank you,Aaron John. When would be the
best time to visit Ireland? Springtime? March April May? This time of
year? Never been now Ireland?Well there, wow, you that surprises
me. Wow. Yeah, Ithought you'd been almost everywhere in Europe and

(33:57):
especially Ireland. Didn't you go toEngland and Scotland at some point we did
do England and Scotland. Do youhave me turned off? No, you're
on? Oh okay, no,we can hear it here. I'll see
you panicking over there. I'm lookingat some levels and everything and making sure
that you should be that's all.No, you're good, we can hear
you. Yeah. Scotland was probablyone of the most interesting botanical places I've

(34:22):
ever visited, really was. Itwas spectacular and a lot of the plant
hunters were from Scotland. What timeof the year did you go. We
went in uh, the end ofMay, so you still had to I
wore my snowboarding jacket the whole timeI was there. I would imagine what

(34:43):
in the summertime at the peak itdoesn't get I mean if they hit eighty
that's a heat waved. There's aScottish comedian that said that we have two
seasons in Scotland, winter in July. Okay, there you go. Well
there was some interest, you know, Ireland twenty twenty for maybe and at
least we have a connection over there, right. Yeah, I have to

(35:04):
talk to you about trips afterwards,because I uh, in the last two
weeks I've had three people asked meif we could resurrect our trip to to
Slovenia to the International Wildflowers except thoughwe had planned it for what something that
takes place every ten years. No, no, no, no, that
was that was something else. Okay, that was the florid Okay, and

(35:28):
that floriod was in Holland. Well, yeah, that would be nice too,
right, we get enough. Wehave to have enough interest though,
that's the thing. Well, wewere all set till COVID hit. Yeah.
Yeah, And anyway, I don'tknow it's COVID over yeah, you
know. I mean it's like theflu. It's got pockets of people getting
it. But for the most part, I think we're good to go if

(35:50):
we could resurrect that. And again, we do appreciate your feedback, be
it on Facebook or be it emailsto John those on Bistoc Radio someplace you'd
like to go with us or thinkwe should go. We're talking about Ireland
resurrecting Slovenias. So I just letus know. My brother on line wants
to know when I took up snowboarding. Yeah, right, you don't have
to snowboard to Jackard. You knowwhat a jacket? Then John Right.

(36:15):
He just ruined it though, becauseyou know John, everyone were my snowboarding
jacket. And I'm picturing John goingdown the slopes, just cutting the ice
as he shreds, as he shredsright down to his cube. So I
used to be a novice skier,and uh, I could tell you horror
stories about skiing, but not now. We'll save that for another show.

(36:38):
I skied when I was in collegeat any U. We weren't supposed to
because you know, the hockey players. They said, don't you're gonna get
hurt. Don't do it. Meanit's almost guaranteed. Oh we did it
anyway. It's like one guy shesay, you know, hey, don't
ride motorcything else you're gonna get hurt. But it's a good insight joke,
John, really, but I lovethat they told the hockey players they don't

(36:59):
do it because you're gonna get her. When you just play hockey, you
get hurt. Well yeah, butto see then it takes us out of
the action. See. So yeah, I think there were some restrictions put
on some of the sports teams inthat regard. Hey it's break time,
it's ahead, okay, that canwait to the other side. Maybe Okay,
I'm gonna take a break for ourfriends on Bistok Radio News coming up
top of the hour. As Imentioned, we are back. It's six

(37:19):
minutes after. We do. Hopeyou carry our show. If you want
to watch us live every week andtake part, simply go to our Facebook
page Garden America Radio Show. Youcan watch us live. You can also
go to our YouTube channel Garden AmericaRadio Show, and just about every podcasting
form there is digital streaming, youcan find Garden America. We are back
after the news back at six minutesafter for you on Bistok Radio, quicker

(37:40):
on Facebook Live, stay with us. Hey, welcome to Garden America.
If you are tuned in on BistokRadio, this is our number two,
so we welcome you. If youwant to catch up on our show,
you can go to our YouTube channelThis Afternoon Garden America Radio Show and catch
everything from the beginning to the veryend. So no reason to miss any
Guarden America's show. With that inmind, it is story time with John

(38:01):
big Nest. You know, I'vementioned many times on this show about how
much history is included in plants,just plant names, you know, m
here. We learned about Ned Kellytoday from the grevillia that was named after
him. And I had never heardof Ned Kelly. I am. I'd

(38:22):
heard the name, but didn't associatehim with anything. Really, yeah,
I would, if I had tobet, I'd say he was, you
know, out of the wild weftoh Ned Kelly. Really, I would
have had no idea anyway. Butoops, a little notification there, John
on the air, little text fromsomebody that said, if we do Slovenia
and northern Italy, count them in. Okay, all right, um,

(38:45):
where was I? Oh? Mystory, Kelly, So, roses being
one of my specialties, I've learnedso much history just by looking up the
name of roses. You know.I think I went into detail about floor
Coles. And there's a rose thatis called Katherine Loker. Who was she?

(39:07):
Katherine Loker was the heiress to theStar Kissed Tuna Company Okay, and
was a philanthropist that donated to alot of colleges in the San Diego area,
and I think even outside of SanDiego. But on nine to eleven,

(39:30):
I think we've told this story before. But on nine to eleven,
Bruce and Sharon Asakawa who we usedto do the radio show with. Were
in San Francisco and all flights weregrounded, so there was no way that
they could get back to San Diegoby airplane, so they had to take
a train. So they got onthe train and they were sitting next to

(39:52):
a woman and they were talking toher during the trip down, and she
asked what Bruce and Sharon did,and you know, they said Bruce was
a landscape architect, they did aradio show and so forth, and the
woman said, oh, I hada rose named after me. It's Katherine
Loker. So they met Katherine Lokerand came back told me the story.

(40:19):
And since that time I met someonein del Mar who we both all three
of us know, I think,who was a friend of Katherine Loker's.
And yesterday at the Huntington Arboretum,I was looking at the roses and talking
to Tom Caruth, who is thecurator of the rose garden, and then
looking at how nice the roses were. By the way, if you go

(40:39):
to the Huntington's sale, the absolutenicest roses I've ever seen. They were
spectacular, five gallon cans. Ionly bought one, though, really you're
getting a lot better, aren't youback? But a gentleman came up to
me, who worked there, andhe said, he said, I saw
you talking to Tom. You probablydon't need any help with the roses,

(41:01):
do you? And I said,no, I've got fifteen hundred in cans.
I really shouldn't be getting anymore.And he goes, have you ever
seen the Catherine Loker Rose? AndI told him the story that I just
told it was just coincident, andI so I told him the story about
Bruce and Sharon that I just toldyou guys. And his comment was,

(41:24):
and I was in Oceanside at thetrain to pick her up. He said
she took no. He said,she took that train so many times,
and I always picked her up inOceanside and tell me how they were great
friends. What a nice woman shewas. And he said her husband was
an actor and was in a lotof like dark dark mystery films. Anybody,

(41:52):
he said, you can you cansee him in movies. I can't
remember his name. Um So,anyway, and I guess she ended up
dying the year after Bruce and Sharonmet her. Um but just an amazing
woman. And again, if notfor the name of that Rose I wouldn't
know any of this. Everything justconnected with each other. Was that three
degrees of separation or whatever they cancall that, right? Yeah? And

(42:15):
this guy lived next star to KevinBacon. Oh look at that. No,
just that was good though, That'sthat's good. Did you know that
Peter Laurie died in Squalor? Yes, she teld me that not true.
By the way, nobody, andnobody will ever challenge that. If you
they'll just say, oh, that'stoo bad. Yeah, wow, Peter
Laurie died in Squalor. Now,Carl thought that Ned Kelly was an Australian

(42:40):
musician. I was looking for itif somebody answered it, because you know,
you mentioned the Ned Kelly and Ihad asked if they knew who ned
Kelly was. But um uh,Kevin said they he thinks somebody did a
film. You thought Mick Jagger mighthave done something right years not necessarily who
ned Kelly was. But I meanned Kelly was the like Australian you know,

(43:04):
Billy the Kid. It was abad boy, right, yeah,
exactly, like you know, kindof wild West gamester, bad guy kind
of a thing. And yeah,ned Kelly, it was a bush whacker.
Bush Ranger, bush Ranger or something, yeah, where they call him
Hey, yeah Bush from Australia,and since it's a Gavillia, it makes
perfect sense. You know. Carlamentioned this, and I want to bring

(43:28):
it up because I've thought this andI probably should have said it a long
time ago. But she said,Tiger, please take this as a compliment.
Your interview skills just get better andbetter. Yeah, no, I
didn't read that one. You keepdoing something long enough, you get better,
you know. Yeah, but Imean to the point where I've really
been impressed and I should should youknow what do it means? It takes

(43:52):
the pressure off John and I.We could just sit and listen to it.
It's like everybody else, like thoseon the radio. I never want
to say anything because I'm so interestedwhat he's saying. Exactly lost, thank
you, thank you very much.The people would want to know how much
research you do prior to oh wellhe looked in the book, which is
a lot more than just enough toget the interview going. Yeah, just

(44:14):
enough to know what questions to ask, but not too much, because you
might assume that the listeners already alreadyknow those things that you may or may
not ask, right, And that'sthe hard thing about balancing, you know,
in a discussion, right because rightin our we we have a range
of people that are listening, andyou know, I try to pick out

(44:36):
some things that people would be interestedin, but I also try to identify
that, you know, talking aboutPansy's being edible, is that's normal?
Right? You know, Let's let'sfind out some other stuff that people don't
know about, trying to keep itinteresting. And you want to you want
the guests to tell their story.All you want to do is just guide
them down. Yeah. Right,And if if it's if you're talking about

(44:59):
some thing that that you have alot of knowledge of, then again you
might assume so does the listener,but they don't don't. So so even
if you know the answer, sometimesyou do want to, you know,
ask that question to the person thatthat you're interviewing. So that is good,
good feedback. Yeah, Gina saidshe was thinking the same thing.
Oh, thank you guys. Soit's amazing how many people are thinking good

(45:20):
things about you. Ever say toknow it? Oh man, um man.
So we've got a nice little breakin the weather here for us.
It's actually studdy and warm, alittle bit of rain possibly next week.
Rain next week, going to becalled again next week, right back in
the sixties, back in the sixties, which I'm really happy about it because

(45:40):
I'm going to be in shrived partand I hope my roses are alive when
I get home. Well, nowyou have who's home to take care of
your roses? No one, noone? No, wait a minute,
So they just sit there. Thatthat's almost abuse. Do they ever just
leave? You have a fan,they leave, but they leave, they

(46:01):
leave because they're brown. When Iget back and they go on the trail,
I think. I think what you'resaying is with nice cool weather,
the chances of them not being water, it's not really going to hurt,
right, and our friends susan Umfrom Vista is offered to come over Saturday
and water, which is really nice. So that plus the cool weather,

(46:22):
I think they'll be there's some biglike long hose we just pull out.
Yes, well three, yeah,I've got it down to three and a
matter now that I'm thinking of this, I got to take care of my
personal business. But uh, inJune, I'm going to be in Europe
for two weeks and I want toask you how practical it would be to

(46:45):
set up irrigation on all my roses. Well, I'm going just sprayers really
yeah, because um, if Icould do that, I would be so
happy. So it just it wouldjust spray, and enough of the spray
within so eventually, And I meanwe could either do I need just over
prairie. Yeah, and we couldeven do temporary ones where we just connect

(47:07):
it to a line and you canposition them strategic. You know those ones
on pedestals, right, you justget and they just you'll just have it
run for fifteen twenty minutes and it'llget like most of them like it or
different sections. It's just like rain, just like r So why would't you
just do that anyway? Because helikes to be hands No, no,

(47:28):
I get that, But I meanin the future when you do leave,
just you know, resort to that. Yeah. I don't want to make
it too easy because everything's supposed togo on the ground. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's for you. AndI started putting them in the ground,
isn't it. And I I can'tbelieve how great they're doing. Tiger
set up trip. We got totake a break because because being at your
properties like walking through a nursery.I gotta tell you that's a good job.

(47:52):
We're gonna take a break bis TalkRadio Facebook Live back after these messages,
I should say, bistalk Radio.No messages on Facebook time John messages
on bistok Radio. Do stay withus. Okay, we are back from
the break. And yes, indeedI double checked messages on bistok Radio not
Facebook Live. We just cruised throughthe weekend together on this Saturday, every

(48:13):
Saturday, so thank you for joiningus. By the way, questions comments,
we are open for a business onthe comment page on Facebook. Yeah
we've excuse me. We mentioned thisbefore. But if you're in the southern
California area and you need any kindof landscape work done, gift Tiger a
call because he does. He doesamazing and the how busy are you do
you get to the point where yousay, you know what, no jobs

(48:34):
until two or three months from ithas a lottery. He throws all the
bids or jobs into a hat andyou're lucky enough to get pulled. You
know what I should have done whenI was there. I should have taken
more video of your roses in thatwhole area. We should have done videos,
but she said, you had toleave. Well I did. I
did have to leave, But thatwould be good to kind of like we

(48:54):
need some before and after chronicle,chronicle your yard. You've been taking pictures
of the whole whole procedure. It'sgonna be really fun to look back a
year or two from now and thebuilding of the house, the landscape.
I have a picture problem though,yeah, because in my mind, Um,

(49:15):
you took photos and then you didn't. No, I take photos,
or taking photos to me equates tousing up all your film. Oh and
you know many pictures I have onmy phone of nothing over three thousand.
Yeah, and I have barely I'vegot two hundred and fifty six gigabytes of
memory. Well, I have threethousand pictures of roses on my phone probably,

(49:36):
Well you could have maybe one hundredten with people in the Yeah,
just keep taking you you're on thecloud too, right, He's in a
cloud. But I don't know,Um, but you know John had mentioned
he puts some of his roses inthe ground, and you know it's gonna
it's gonna transition to some extent asfar as John's effort, because as they've

(50:00):
been in cans, this whole time. Yes, it's difficult to water,
but it's been I think easier tomaintain, to keep. They are restricted
in their growth and all of that. Well in the ground, you know,
as you mentioned, they're taking off, they're starting to grow, they're
starting to look really good, andnow you have this maintenance, pruning,

(50:22):
controlling that needs to take place,versus before it was just you had to
water. There is there more dangerthough, once they get into the ground,
of critters and things like that,right, Yeah, Gophers is a
huge problem. In the hill whereI've been planning the roses has had squirrels
and and I've been putting out trapsand doing the best that I can.

(50:43):
But some of the roses and containers, you know, I don't want to
put them in anything more than afive gallon container because they don't need one
hundred and fifteen gallon container. Rosesthat are going to have to go on
the ground. But some of theroses when they're mature, could be maybe
fifteen feet tall by ten feet right, right, And they don't last.

(51:06):
I mean, they've been years ina container and I can't keep them much
longer. So those are the onesI've tried to get in the ground,
and those are the ones that,of course once they're in the ground,
So if they're not crowding each other, I usually put them too close together.
But I've been trying to space inthe area that he started planting.
I'm looking at it and I'm seeingwhat he's putting, and I'm just like,

(51:27):
whoo for a guy who doesn't wantto get out of here and maintain
these roses. Speaking of critters,there's a YouTube video of a rat shows
the guy he sets up a trapand then you know, a certain amount
of time goes by and it's dark, but he has like you can see
it's got like a night camera.You can see because he's got the security
on. The rat walks up tothe trap, sniffs around, turns around,

(51:52):
goes out of the frame of thecamera, comes back and he has
a stick in his mouth. Hetakes the stick and he act defates the
trap, and the trap snaps andhe grabs the food. Smart rat.
That's a smart rat. Dirty,Yeah, I don't know, but it's
like you're kidding, Well, heassessed it. He got a stick and

(52:13):
he set the trap off. Andso if if you had a deer come
in and start eating your roses oror some kind of animals. A lot
of times if they eat the plant, it'll grow back. Gophers are way
different problem because we're eating the roots. Right. So you could always just
get a couple of deer if theyget things get out of hand and let

(52:36):
them loose in the yard. Orno, you risk losing whole plants you
have. There's no deer in yourarea, is there? There are some
deer out there, but not reallyin my area. Aren't marked to lose
Camp Pendleton area. But anyway,back to this story about tiger putting in
this strip irrigation, I was goingto ask if you could because I'm really

(53:00):
impressed. All my experiences with striphave been horrible. But you're using a
product called Netafim, and I wonderedmaybe you could tell our listeners a little
about death. Yeah, I mean, you know, so nowadays the Netafin
product is a brand. Rain Birdhas a you know, soaker tube just

(53:20):
like it, and Hunter does aswell, but it's a it's a smart
soaker system. So you know,back in the day, it was a
black tube being that was kind ofperforated that water just seeped out of right,
it would eventually clog. Sometimes itget little breaks in it, and
it just was never a perfect thing. Well, they liked that concept because

(53:42):
it's soaked to the ground, sothey developed these smart soaker tubings that inside
the tube they put a little pressureregulator in the holes. And also it's
almost as if things water can comeout, but things can't go back into
the line. It prevents any kindof clogging or debris build up or anything
like that, because so if youburied it, you wouldn't get turning in

(54:07):
glowing into it. And the reasonwhy was because they space these holes depending
on the one that you buy everyeighteen inches, every twelve inches, so
that way, because you know,I mean, if you plant plants two
feet apart and that tube, thatlittle hole gets clogged up, it wouldn't
water the plant anymore. So theydeveloped these systems. And the nice thing
about it is that you use itjust like you did the old soaker tubing,

(54:31):
and you just snake them through yourbeds where you have plants. You
know, as long as the littleholes are near where the root systems are,
and you actually really don't even wantthe holes at the base of the
plant because then you get root rodissues, and you just wanted to soak
the because because it wouldn't try yep, it would stay wept. Then yeah,
yeah, okay, and so youyou space it a little bit away

(54:52):
from the plants. And the thingis is that you have to run this
system for I mean at minimum fortyfive minutes to get a good soak um.
So you know, you're just soakingthe ground. And once the plants
are established, they find the waterand they're going to grow just wonderfully with

(55:13):
this soaking system where you don't haverunoff, You're not you're not having a
lot of evaporation. And you know, the other thing that's nice for John
is if he changes where a plantis or puts in a new plant,
all he does there's no glue.It's it's you cut the tube, you
put in a tea, you putin a coupler, and it's just you.

(55:36):
It's what we call pressure. Butyeah, but but there's no glue.
So it's a flexible tubing that youjust use these pressure couplings for.
And you can then create a newline and then you add another anywhere you
want it to go exactly, andthen you kind of can either end it
or tee it back into your line. Um, I noticed some of your

(56:00):
your guys when they were installing theyran two lines side by side, so
if there was a row of roses, that would cover both sides, but
then if there was a rowse offto the side, they ran a circle
around it. Yeah, exactly.Questions. We're gonna take a break because
I think Ronnick is asking what thatsoccer work with raised beds and large pots,

(56:22):
and we'll address that. I gottatake a break for Bistok Radio.
This is Garden America, Brian Mayin, John Begnesco talk about Palafox back after
these Bistok Radio messages. If you'reon Facebook Live, that's a quick break,
not even ten seconds. Welcome backthose on Bistok Radio again. So
yeah, I thought i'd have timeto catch my breath, and I barely
got to it and we're back again. But let's address get Vernick is questioned

(56:43):
about raised beds and pots with thesoccer you're talking about. Yeah, sou
So. The number one thing Iwant to mention regarding the drip line nedvein
line is that you need to regulatethe pressure when installing these lines because they're
because they're just there's no glue.You're not you're not hard fitting these um

(57:04):
parts. And also because those littleemitters when there's too much pressure in the
line, they actually kind of closethemselves off. When you install these systems,
you need to put a pressure regulatorfilter at the beginning, so where
your valve is right, it's veryeasy to just install a pressure regulator filter
the first step. You set thatat the very beginning and you don't touch

(57:27):
it right right. The pressure regulatorjust makes sure that from your valve it's
only maybe thirty or forty psi ofwater going through the line. And then
the filter is just a wire meshfilter that helps catch any debris in a
line before it goes into this tubebeing so that way that the tubing doesn't
get built. And then you cleanthat out every now and then. I

(57:51):
mean, you know, in asituation where somebody has a well, you
need to clean it out very moreoften. But usually with city water lines
there's very little debris that goes inthrough it um. But so that's the
number one important thing that you needto make sure when you're whether it's a
raised bed or large pot um raisebeds. People use this all the time,

(58:13):
because it's a wonderful way to justlay a grid over a raised bed.
You then do your planting and itjust soaks in the raised bed.
And since usually raised beds are sosmall, it's an easy way to just
soak a bed without having pop upsprinklers or little micro sprayers or anything like
that in the bed. So yes, it is a very common and you
can see a lot of tutorials fornetafim and raised beds. Somebody wants you

(58:35):
to spell the name of that neta fimt Yeah, yeah, okay um.
And what about if you're going downa hill because where you've installed it,
for me, it's a pretty steephill. Yeah, and so what
a run off? Yeah, well, well what will happen is, you
know, I mean people don't realizeit, but in the line there could

(58:59):
be i don't know, maybe fiveten gallons of water and if it's on
a slope, when at the endof it, at the end of the
run cycle, all that water willdrain out at the bottom, so you
get this very wet, boggy areaat the bottom and then you kind of
don't have and it's got to fillback up before everything starts getting water too,

(59:20):
so then at the top you geta lot of dry plants and then
at the bottom you get a lotof very wet plants. So we put
little checks in the system to keepthe water at certain levels. So once
the pressure drops below let's say youknow, ten psi in the line,
that check just shuts off a sectionand it keeps the water contained in certain
areas. So you know, weinstall that and then also you want to

(59:43):
do a flush kind of at theend. But with raised beds and pots,
I think the biggest thing that peoplerun a challenge in with pots is
running the line outside of the potand into the line into the pot.
A lot of people don't like that. But if you start from scratch,
you can run that tubing through oneof the drain holes in the pots at

(01:00:06):
the bottom and then you can justrun it straight up. And then now
at the surface of your pot youcan put a ring like John had mentioned,
you put a ring just in thepot and then it just soaks the
pot and again there you don't haveoverspray. Um, it just soaks controlled
environment. Yeah, now is therean app on your phone? Could I
could I adjust the pressure and allthat with that this hole you're talking about.

(01:00:29):
No, no, nothing like that. No. Um. The pressure
regulators that you install are set.You buy them all and you don't want
them to change because they're going toregulate how much pressure so that you don't
the pressure is not too much exactlyexactly, so you know those are all
set. Um. There is acertain distance that you know, a certain
amount of line that maxes out anarea. But I will say in my

(01:00:53):
experience that takes a lot like that'slike a commercial job where you're dealing with,
you know, a law arge areawhere you would max out a pressure
on a drip line because they don'tthey don't need a lot of pressure to
operate, so and they're actually designedto operate low pressure. And when you
when you start putting these roses inthe ground, what how's your soil?

(01:01:14):
Good soil? Do you have tohave the area where these roses are going.
It's excellent soil. But my propertygoes between excellent soil and rock.
Right. Oh, you were therewhen Judd showed us this hole that he
filled up with water a day before. It still looked like the water had
not even gone down. And Ijust planted the whole area. But I

(01:01:35):
had to use a jackhammer. Yeah, so you have to do much amending.
Do you think to get everything youknow? No, I didn't,
that is commending. But Tiger.My thought was, do I need to
put drainage in here since the water'snot gone away? And Tiger said no,
just you know, jackhammer out longarea. So they're somewhere for the
water to go, so it's notgoing to stay in a straight hole.
Yeah. And and so far theplants are doing really well, and I

(01:01:59):
think actually, um, overall,it's gonna be better for your yard because
it'll keep a lot of the moisturebecause it gets so hot and dry out
there. Exactly that you know,the plants are gonna the plants, the
plants that John I mean, asidefrom roses, you know, are going
to just be you know, suchgood, hardy plants in his area that

(01:02:22):
they're gonna naturally start to reach outfor that water. They'll take up.
They'll take up the water as theyneed it. Right, they're gonna break
up the rock and amend the soilby themselves through the growing process. That
I mean, I think that you'regonna have plants that just take off,
especially some of the trees I thinkI think they're gonna I mean, I'm
really impressed with that, you know, Cashmere cypress that you got. I

(01:02:43):
mean two years ago, two yearsago, was that or maybe no more
because there's no no, no,no, it was not even a full
two years really yeah, yeah,yeah, I mean Tiger picked that up
for me from our buddy kids inPoint Loma and it was a big and
it was a big tree at thetime, but now, I mean,

(01:03:04):
it wasn't a fifteen gallon can.How deep did you bury it when you
when you planted it? How fardown at the same level? Yeah,
it flush. Yeah, you don'twant to ever plant trees deeper than the
container because you get rought around thebase of the tree and the Lina wants
to know, Tiger um if youput the drip in before or after the

(01:03:27):
plants. Oh so, so thisis where some people will have different thoughts.
And here's my thought process. AndI'll explain this all the way through
because I think people that are gardenerswill side with me on this. So
I usually because drip drip is somethingI just do on the surface, you
know, for instance, John's area, we just ran the drip tubing through

(01:03:49):
and we use staples to hold itin place. Yard staples, um and
so, and I'm just gonna putmulch over the top to cover it up,
to cover it up exactly, becauseI do that for a number of
reasons. Number one is it allowsyou to just lay out how you want
your yard and then you modify theirrigation system to whatever design you want.
Right. So I put it inafter for that reason, because I want

(01:04:13):
to know where the plants are soI can know where to put the lines.
I don't trench the lines in either, meaning I don't bury them because
I do it afterwards. And Idon't bury them also because I feel that
with this product it's best to knowwhere your lines are because you're going to
make changes. You're going to digup areas eventually, and it's very easy

(01:04:38):
just to lift up and move ifyou need to to plant a new plant,
or to modify it, or tofix a break. I mean,
there's nothing worse than working with NetFM. Because it's not a glue product.
You kind of need more flexibility whenrepairing it. When you drive a shovel
through NetFM that's been buried in theground, you have to up a big

(01:05:00):
area and then you have to kindof like splice it. When it's on
the ground, all you do iscut it, pull two ends together and
it's done. But when it's buried, that repair is so much more difficult,
you know. But some people say, oh, I don't want to
see it. Um, you know, they like the fact that it's underground
a little bit. But you can, and that's what I see. I

(01:05:25):
usually tell people we put a multaover the top of it, and then
they go, well, you know, the multi is away. I'm like,
yeah, but you should be replacingmulta every year. Every year.
Anyway, you're gonna get an argumentevery time, you know, no matter
even if you give them a goodsolution. And I like that solution.
And don't call Tiger. If youwant to argue, call someone else.
But I know everybody wants it tolook neat, like there's nothing under there.
You want to natural but you canstill use the compost because don't assume

(01:05:47):
everything's gonna stay the same. Yeah, you're gonna want to change things.
Things are gonna break things over theyears, things are gonna be different,
so you want to have access.And also it's funny because we used to
not do this, but it's becomingmuch and more common of a practice.
With the lines on the surface,you can, let's say there's molts,
you can move away the malts fromthe line, turn the system on and

(01:06:09):
you can see it's running. It'sjust a little drip, but you see
it's running. Right when it's buriedyou turn the system on, there's no
way to know if it's right.So we have to install what we call
except by the leaves turning yellow onthe planet and just kilting over. But
we install these little things called flagsthat are just little sprinklers that you install

(01:06:30):
in the line and then it popsup. So when the line turns on,
this little sprinkler pops up and itjust has a little yellow top on
it, and that just makes peoplewear that the line is on, but
it still doesn't tell you whether thearea that you're concerned with is actually watering.
We gotta take a break. Wehave one more segment coming up,
and then Carl would like you tospell the name once again. She didn't

(01:06:54):
catch it. I'll post it onFacebook, but I will share it.
Okay, there you go. Yeah, we're gonna take a break for Bistok
Radio. One more segment coming up, stay with us, and we are
back. It is our final segmenton this Saturday morning when this show is
being recorded. Although if you goback and listen to us on various platforms,
streaming, digital, whatever, youcould be listening in the middle of
the night, So we do appreciatethat many ways to the middle of the

(01:07:15):
night. Why not? Why notthe middle? Sure? Why you should
be asleep? Yeah, you knowsome people can't sleep insomnia. Get up
and you listen to the show.Put right, put your right back to
sleep again. And you can alsowatch our shows on our YouTube channel,
Garden America Radio Show. We alsoencourage you to go to our website a
couple of two or three times aweek if you would for us. It
does help us Garden America dot com. And Carlis says, thanks, just

(01:07:40):
like that Tiger all right, yeah, did you say net of him?
Sorry? I was typing net offhim and sharing It's it's up that you
just put there. It is rightthere, ata Fi right, It's on
the on our Facebook page right nowon the comments section you can see it
and a direct link to the website. Yeah, and then Rain, I
mean so a lot of all brandshave their own little version of it.

(01:08:02):
So's the Rainbird one was My experiencewas it's not quite as supple. Yeah
that's the plastic different UM and theYeah. So yeah, so I'll share
because yeah, the net off himproduct has been around. It's I don't

(01:08:25):
know this for a fact, butit's kind of like the first I feel
like I remember working with like evenbefore Rainbird, I feel net if him
had their product out. Um.So anyways, there's a nowadays there's different
ones Hunter, Rainbird, netefim hasone. Even even that brand UM you

(01:08:45):
find it, you know box stores, dig has its own UM. But
I will say though that um,the higher end brands like Rainbird and UM
net off him, the product isbetter, the the plastic is better.
They last long or don't go cheap. Yeah. Yeah. Now people have

(01:09:06):
been asking about using it and containers, and my question would be, you
can't use the drip to go tothe container, right, right, because
so what kind of line do youuse to get to the container. So
they sell a line the same samematerial but with no holes in it.

(01:09:29):
Okay, and that's how you maketransitions, like you know, even if
you're planting and maybe you have thesame connector, right, Yeah, it's
the same connector, it's the sameeverything, except they sell this without any
holes in it, and a lotof times they'll use that for drip where
you plug in holes, you know, and little emitters off of it,
and you can do that so youknow, I mean with that little note,

(01:09:51):
they sell emitters that put out differentamounts of water, So if you
wanted to kind of match it up, you could buy emitters that are the
same amount that your netefem line isputting out and then that way, you
know, all the plants are gettingthe same amount of water, or you
can buy emitters that get more waterout for plants that maybe you know,

(01:10:13):
want more water. So like,as an example, John's roses maybe need
fifteen minutes with this watering system,while in that same line, he can
put a plant that needs a lotmore water with the emitter that has more
water coming out, so you're stillrunning it for fifteen minutes, but rather
than the plant getting a gallon likethe roses are, this plant is getting
two gallons of water because of theemitter he put on it. But yeah,

(01:10:38):
but back to your answer, John, they sell tubing that has no
holes in it to make those transitionsdid you see Kevin's question. I did.
It's going to get to that next. But Carl also wanted to know
if the tubing is going into thehole in the pot, is it going
to kink. So they sell elbowsand teas and different things like that,

(01:10:59):
and also, but you do haveto be very careful with is clogging a
hole. You know, the tubingthat you're putting, so you might want
to put an additional hole in yourpot. Use a ceramic drill bit you
can drill out another hole. Butyou know, some of those drainage holes
and pots are kind of small.Its tubing is about a half inch um.

(01:11:20):
It's gonna be bigger than most holesin pots. Yeah, it sounds
like yeah, so I would saymost, but like, but it's it
definitely could clog up a hole whenyou start thinking about roots and dirt and
stuff that could create drainage problems.Yeah, Kevin wants to know how you
lubricate a sticky pop up that won'tpop up anymore. It's very appropriate,

(01:11:45):
Kevin. Yeah, oh, soyou know the the part that's the sticky
part and pop up sprinklers they allhave. They're usually white. They have
a white washer that's in the headof the sprinkler, and if you replace
that, usually that plastic has becomeold and cracked and hard, and so

(01:12:12):
you want to replace it with anewer kind of plastic. But I will
say most of the time that's evennot the case. Most of the time
that pop up has gotten built upof little rocks and debris. That so
a good cleaning usually is all itneeds. Yeah, and that's a great
question. I just I'd like touse that question every week. But pop

(01:12:34):
ups aren't that expensive either. No, Yeah, you get break down and
go buy another one. Well,and then the cool thing people don't even
think about this, and then it'sthe same with valves, is okay for
the pop up, you don't haveto dig the whole thing out and replace
it. Right. They have what'scalled the body, which is just the

(01:12:55):
outer part of it that's in thedirt. Yeah, you can just take
it off, take out the wholeinert and just replace it and just replace
the innergy parts without any digging,without any effort. It's just unscrewing,
no tools necessary. You can replaceyour pop up sprinkler with the same one
so it works better. Yeah,there's no cutting, no glue, no
anything. Yeah, yeah, sovery easy to replace those parts. And

(01:13:17):
like you say, John, Imean you buy the whole sprinkler for six
bucks kind of a thing maybe,um. And the same with valves.
A lot of people get all weirriedabout changing valves. A lot of times,
it's just a matter of replacing thetop part of the valve. The
bottom part is a solid plastic piece. If it's cracked or broken, you
have a problem. You have toreplace the whole valve. We've got to

(01:13:39):
close the show. Wow, Iknow we're getting We're gonna do a whole
show on sprinkler systems and valves andts and composting and John's garden and roses
releast favorite subject. It's anything todo with the h But I'm into it
now. It sounds kind of cool. I like it. Hey, that's
gonna do it. Thank you somuch. Those who are tuned in on
Bistok Radio, those on Facebook livequestions comments every single weekend, we love

(01:14:01):
them right there on Facebook. Sountil next week and enjoy the rest of
your weekend. John is off nextweek. He's in Shreveport, right on
the road on assignment the National Conventionof the American Road Society. I'll be
conducting an auction and I'll be ona breeders panel beautiful, safe travels,
and I think it's going to bea family affair next week, Tiger right,
Yeah, we'll see. We'll seewho's going to be coming in for

(01:14:24):
John. In the meantime, enjoythe rest of your weekend, have a
great, safe week, and we'lldo it again next week. I'm Brian
Maine, John Beignesco, Tiget Palafox. Thank you for tuning in to Garden
America. Take care,

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Growing & Cooking Edible Flowers with Erin Bunting - Garden America Radio Show [4.29.23]

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Growing & Cooking Edible Flowers with Erin Bunting - Garden America Radio Show [4.29.23]