PODCAST

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast

Farmer Fred

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

leisure home & garden

All Episodes

18:41

Why There Should be a Chipper Shredder in your Garden

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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 Podcast ·

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

4:25

More Tips for a Successful Garden

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/08/22

While editing Episode 406 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast (out now), I was taking copious notes, about all the great garden tips Don Shor and I discussed in an episode that was ostensibly a chat about growing tomatoes this summer (we both like Cupid, despite its propensity to sprawl). In fact, it was the most notes I have ever taken for any episode. Were you taking notes, too, while listening? If so, I hope you weren’t driving. But I’ll make it easier for you: check out the transcript

3:24

This Newsletter is for the Birds

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/08/15

In the podcast (above) retired UC Farm Advisor Rachel Long has tips for attracting songbirds to your property.They're nice to look at, sing wonderfully and eat insects.No, we're not talking about the Dixie Chicks on a fad diet.It's the gardener's best friends, a backyard filled with birds.We're talking about the family inhabited by warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates, characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings.Yes, real birds will nibble on your cherries and grapes (that's why there's

40:59

Garden Tips from the Experts

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/08/08

One of the best places to get your garden questions answered (or pick up the 2026 Sac Co Master Gardener Gardening Guide and Calendar) is at the annual gathering of Master Gardeners, gardening professionals, and horticultural consultants at Harvest Day, held the first Saturday of August each year at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in Sacramento County. And last Saturday was no exception. A question I posed to several dozen of the pros there was this: “What is the one garden tip you would like

34:06

Drip Irrigation: How Long Do I Water?

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/07/25

90% of all plant problems are water related, either too much or too little. Compounding the problem: gardeners who are operating a drip irrigation system but using a sprinkler mentality.The Beyond The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred newsletter is a reader-supported publication. Both free and paid subscribers are welcome here!Talking to gardeners, after describing a plant problem, they will be asked: "How are you watering that plant?" More often than not, if the answer is, "drip irrigation", they will

8:26

Aromatic Plants, and Roses Too!

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/06/27

This edition of the newsletter is a deeper dive into this week’s Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, Episode 398, “Aromatic Plants, Plus Roses!” Here, we’ll see what these “shows for the nose” look like, along with more details about these aromatic plants, as selected by a group of Sacramento County (CA) Master Gardeners. Plus we take a look at some of the most fragrant roses, as selected by Master Rosarian Charlotte Owendyk.Beyond The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is a reader-supported

10:43

Grow a Gratitude Garden

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/06/20

The above audio track is from a long time ago, when things were - at the very least -tense. It was during the initial panic as COVID-19 struck the United States, back in May of 2020. The confusion around COVID-19 was my impetus for starting the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. At that time, there were a lot of people developing a sudden interest in gardening, thinking they might be stuck at home for who knows how long? And, people were stressed. That was my reason for recording the segment

6:26

Prune Off Tomato Flowers?

Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast ·

2025/06/13

One question I have been getting a lot of lately: Should I prune off (snip off, pinch out) the first tomato flowers that appear, in order to get more tomatoes later?Those early tomato flowers, especially if the weather doesn’t cooperate, will fall all by themselves, thank you. Your assistance is not needed.In today’s newsletter podcast (above), Sacramento County Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour explains the myths behind pruning off tomato flowers.Flower drop and tomato fruit set

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