PODCAST

Beyond the Garden Basics

Farmer Fred

Picking up where the Garden Basics podcast left off. gardenbasics.substack.com

leisure home & garden

All Episodes

18:50

2025 Tomato Review Show...And More!

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/12/12

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comHoliday Special! For the rest of December 2025, get an annual subscription to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast for 40% off the regular price. Just $30 a year!In this episode, Farmer Fred connects with Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery to reflect on the 2025 tomato growing season, sharing their experiences and insights while evaluating the performance of various tomato varieties. Farmer Fred ranks

6:52

Cut Christmas Tree Care Tips

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/12/08

Thanks for reading Beyond The Garden Basics! This post is public so feel free to share it.Visiting a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm or any of the corner lots or nurseries filled with already chopped cedars, pines and firs this weekend, in search of the perfect holiday tree? Here are some tips from the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Departments of Horticulture and Forestry to keep your December living room centerpiece intact through the holidays:• You may cringe at this first

11:05

2026 All America Selections Plant Winners

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/12/05

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn this week’s podcast, Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All America Selections (AAS), tells us about the upcoming 2026 gardening season’s latest award-winning plants. We highlight standout varieties like the Bada Bing tomato, Treviso basil, Majesty purple pole bean, and RubyBor kale, each recognized for their adaptability and exceptional qualities. Diane also introduces the Butter Lamp winter squash and Sun

15:25

Rain-Draining Strategies for Your Yard and Garden

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/11/24

Today’s Podcast: Debbie Flower and I tackle the problem of a slow draining lawn. There are lots of strategies for improving a soggy lawn!Where does the water go?”That’s a question I frequently ask myself while bicycling throughout the region, staring at rain-soaked suburban yards. This is also a question homeowners should ask themselves before, during, and after the rainy season.One of the best pieces of advice I can offer any new homeowner: before you spend any time and money on landscaping

17:11

2026 Garden Seed Price Sticker Shock Is Arriving

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/11/21

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn today’s newsletter podcast, we chat with Renee Shepherd of Renee’s Garden seed company about the worldwide journey of garden seeds, rising seed prices, and seed availability for 2026. We explore factors influencing market changes, including tariffs and supply chain issues.The discussion highlights the logistics of seed packaging and the importance of quality standards. She also differentiate between hybrids,

27:09

Home Weather Station Setup Tips

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/11/17

Today’s Podcast We interview climate scientist Daniel Swain, who, besides being a University of California Ag and Natural Resources employee at the California Institute for Water Resources, is well known on social media. Swain runs the Weather West website as well as his frequent presentations talking about extreme weather conditions in California and the west on YouTube, Bluesky, and other social media outlets.TIPS FOR SETTING UP A HOME WEATHER STATIONOne common topic when two gardeners meet: the

4:56

Trees vs Storms, Expanded

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/11/14

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comToday’s newsletter podcast features an arborist discussing ways you can spot when your trees may be in danger of falling, especially in a wet, windy winter (recorded as the California drought was ending). Also: Consulting Arborist Michael Santos tells us about online resources for homeowners to get more information about the trees in their yard.More information about what was discussed in the podcast can be found

18:41

Why There Should be a Chipper Shredder in your Garden

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/11/07

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comAre you thinking about buying a rototiller? How about instead purchasing a chipper/shredder? Now, that’s a machine that’s going to make easy work of chopping up your garden clippings including tree limbs. it’s going to make it into the greatest mulch you could possibly own. The latest research shows that rototilling your soil actually damages soil structure and doesn’t do anything good for the soil biology. On the

6:52

Ants!

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/11/03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comWhen it gets hot, the ants start marching indoors. When it rains, in come the ants. Too cold? The ants know where its nice and cozy: your kitchen, bathroom and pet food bowls. Outdoors, pet food and garbage cans are also ant attractants. Argentine ants, those busy little black ants, are in march formation year round.In years past, we would reach for the spray can and douse those little scavengers. But not anymore

12:44

"How Am I Going to Feed My Family?"

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/31

One of my frequent bicycling routes takes me by a local food bank. Over the years as I pedal by in the morning, I’ve seen the line of cars increase while waiting for the 10 am food bank opening. Lines of a half block or more were common during the age of Covid (2021-2022).Lately, the line of cars has not only increased in length, it’s now 2 lanes of traffic stretching down the road waiting for a bag or two of food. Fortunately, the road widens out as it approaches the food bank, and the employees

15:56

2025 Plant of the Year - Calendulas

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/27

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn the warm winter areas of the country, the calendula is the go-to source of bright garden color on those cold, cloudy, foggy days. In cooler growing zones, the calendula is a blooming staple during the summer. In the podcast (above), we explore the enchanting world of calendulas with Diane Blazek, the executive director of the National Garden Bureau, as we celebrate 2025 as the Year of the Calendula. We discuss

27:32

Grow Better Soil (and Plants) with Worm Castings

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/24

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIf you have a worm bin, and are harvesting the worm castings (yes, it’s worm poop), and you’re spreading those castings around your outdoor and indoor plants, you are helping to create some powerful soil, teeming with microbiology, that will supercharge your plants. According to Cal Recycle, the process of vermicomposting, which uses worms to break down organic material such as food scraps, will turn them into a

7:26

Garlic Planting Time is Here!

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/20

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comI spent the weekend in a garlic frame of mind. I’ve been working one 4x8’ garden bed, harvesting the pumpkins, removing the vines, reworking the soil with worm castings and compost, and planting the garlic that just arrived last Friday from Territorial Seed Company.By the way, kudos to Territorial for all the information contained about the garlic varieties they sent that’s included on the label, which also has

11:10

Understanding a Soil Report

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/17

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comFirst of all, if you manage to get through this rather brain-taxing, soil-based, newsletter edition, you deserve a little love. How about 20% off a new paid subscription?Before diving into the deep end of how to read a soil report, check out this Overview on Soil Tests from the Alameda Co. (CA) Master Gardeners. It might help make the rest of this more comprehensible.Getting a soil test done is a great idea for

3:51

What Causes Odd-Looking Vegetables?

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/13

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comThis journey into the odd and slightly obscene world of misshapen vegetables was inspired by Sacramento County Master Gardener Peter Horton, who wrote this article for the October 2025 Sacramento Co. Master Gardener newsletter.The article made me harken back to the days of the popularity of Richard Nixon lookalike vegetables, odd-shaped tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and squash that had appendages - that to some -

13:00

Can Vitamin B1 Help New Garden Transplants?

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/10

Beyond The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is a reader-supported publication. To receive the complete posts, have access to over 200 previous editions, and help keep the good gardening information coming your way, please become a paid subscriber.Early fall is for planting, as we are fond of saying. The days are cooler, and the soil is still warm. Those are ideal conditions for a healthy start of new cool season annuals, perennials, trees, and shrubs.If you’re at the nursery this weekend checking out

11:45

The Disease Triangle

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/06

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comBack in elementary school in Southern California, there once was a visit from a local firefighter who had Smokey the Bear in tow with him (I felt sorry for whoever was in that outfit. It was a hot day). Because, as Smokey would remind us daily on TV public service announcements, “Remember, Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.” The purpose was to explain to us fifth graders the fire triangle: that you need three

28:17

Grow A Yardful of Phytonutrients

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/10/03

Today’s newsletter and podcast originally appeared here back in September of 2022, and it was one of the most popular posts here in the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. Eating healthy food - and the healthiest food you can eat is the food you grow yourself - is a perennial concern. So, for those of you who didn’t hear or read this three years ago - or would like a refresher course - here it is again. Remember, paid subscribers have access to all the previous Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter

20:25

Feed Your Soil, Cool Season Edition

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/09/26

We are transitioning from the summer gardening season to cool season vegetables and flowers. However, maybe you don’t want to put in cool season crops. A word to the wise: don’t leave your fading summer garden lingering (or drooping) in the garden; doing that invites insect and disease pests to overwinter in that standing debris. In its place, there are some inexpensive and easy things you can do that will not only minimize pest problems for the following year, but also feed your soil and make it

13:09

Who's Eating the Tomatoes?

Beyond the Garden Basics ·

2025/09/05

Don from Indiana has a late summer visitor to his tomato plants. He is not pleased:“I flicked 10 of these “bad boys” off one of my tomato plants last night. Ten!I look at this plant every day. I water it every day. I pick and eat tomatoes off it every day. Every day!How did so many appear seemingly overnight?I believe it is a Tobacco Hornworm caterpillar (Manduca sexta).There were actually 11 of them on the plant, but I left the one that had been parasitized. That’s the one with what looks to be

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