011 How to Grow Tomatoes in Pots. Choosing fertilizers. Carrot seed planting tips.

Yes, you can grow tomatoes in containers! Maybe all you have is a small, sunny patio or maybe you have lousy soil, or maybe you just want to be able to move the plants around. With some help, of course. We have tips on great containers for great tomatoes from nursery owner Don Shor who loves tomatoes. 

There are a lot of fertilizers out there. Which ones are best for growing vegetables? Our soils expert, organic advocate Steve Zien, has tips for choosing, and effectively using, fertilizers on your plants. 

Our in-house college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, solves the mystery of the browning citrus leaves.

And, we have a nifty trick for easily planting teeny tiny carrot seeds.

Growing tomatoes in containers, fertilization tips, citrus leaf questions. Welcome to Episode 11 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. And we’ll do it all in under 30 minutes.

Links:
Growing Tomatoes in Containers: Tips
Short-growing tomato plants worth considering
Tomato Troubleshooter
Growing your First Vegetable Garden? Some tips.
Fertilizers FAQ from University of California

All About Farmer Fred:
Farmer Fred website: http://farmerfred.com
Daily Garden tips and snark on Twitter
The Farmer Fred Rant! Blog
Facebook:  "Get Growing with Farmer Fred"
Instagram: farmerfredhoffman
Farmer Fred Garden Videos on YouTube
Garden columnist, Lodi News-Sentinel 

Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter.

Transcript

Farmer Fred: 0:03

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred: 0:15

Yes, you can grow tomatoes in containers. Maybe it's because all you have is a small sunny patio or maybe you have lousy soil or maybe you just want to be able to move those plants around. Well with some help, of course. Well we have tips on great containers for great tomatoes from nursery owner Don Shor who loves tomatoes. There's a lot of fertilizers out there, which ones are best for growing vegetables. Our local soil expert Steve Zien has tips for choosing and effectively using fertilizers for your plants. our in house college horticulture Professor Debbie Flower solves the mystery of the browning citrus leaves. And we have a nifty trick for easily planting teeny tiny carrot seeds, growing tomatoes in containers fertilization tips, citrus leaf questions and more. It's all on episode 11 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. And we're gonna do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.

Farmer Fred: 1:12

If you have a sunny patio, maybe no bare soil, but you have a sunny patio, you can grow tomatoes in containers, but and there are a few bucks involved in this. You gotta be careful you got to know what you're doing and that's why we're here for you today. us being myself along with Don Shor who owns a retail Nursery in Davis, California, Redbarn Nursery. And Don Shor, I imagine you have a lot of customers who do attempt to grow tomatoes in containers.

Don Shor: 1:41

It's an annual event as tomato season rolls around of people coming in. I'm in a college town. UC Davis is located in Davis, California. And so we get a new crop of gardeners every year. And some of them come in and want to grow tomatoes and they're in an apartment, or they have just a balcony or they have no soil that is suitable for tomatoes out in the sun, but the one sunny spot might be a little corner of their patio. So yes, we go through this every year, but boy, are we really going through it this year, just a resurgence, if you will, or a new surge in gardeners who want to grow their own food, who want to grow fresh food, and are complete novices. And that's great. We love to see that they have a lot of really, really basic questions, I guess first, we should start with what exactly is full sun for a tomato plant. Oh, I get that a lot and you know, absolute minimum of four to six hours and a lot of people have just one side of the building. That's what they're working with. It's you know, the east side or the west side. And those each have advantages and drawbacks. I want to see some direct sun on that plant or at least part of the day. I prefer you know, full sun really means eight hours, but it's pretty uncommon for someone who's growing them in containers to have that available. They're typically doing it up against the wall facing one way or the other. They're choosing East versus West here in the Sacramento Valley. I would prefer East simply because a West Facing wall is incredibly hot. Other listeners in other parts of the country might say a west wall works just fine because they aren't 105 degrees at five o'clock in the afternoon. So I would say four to six hours a minimum and that's not technically full sun, but it's kind of a minimum.

Farmer Fred: 3:16

Alright, let's talk about container size because I think a lot of people make the mistake of choosing too small of containers because the tomato plants they buy are itty bitty plants that they bought at the nursery that are only a few inches tall, so they think they're cute and they go in a cute little pot, but not really.

Don Shor: 3:33

Yeah that's really it. In my opinion. The first biggest mistake is not getting container that's big enough and I've experimented with this a lot. I would say the bare minimum container size for tomatoes can be what we call a 15 gallon nursery pot which you can find in nurseries. Interestingly, garden centers sometimes have been used and they might give them to you for a low price. They hold I wanted to hold at least a cubic foot of soil. This is what it really comes down. Do a one and a half cubic feet of soil would be even better as it happens.

Don Shor: 4:04

But we call a 15 gallon nursery pot holds almost exactly one and a half cubic feet of soil. So that may seem really big when you're buying, as you say, a three inch tomato plant, but the roots of any tomato, even the dwarf types, go as deep as they can, they'll go three feet deep in your garden, and they're not going to be able to do that in a small container. What happens here in the valley with a hot dry climate is it goes along great in that little, you know, two gallon pot you think is going to be suitable for about four to six weeks. And at that point, you're needing to water it every single day and at some point you won't, and at some point, the flowers will fall off because of that. So be much more satisfactory if it has a sufficient root volume. A really ideal is something on the scale or diameter of a half coke barrel, you know, a wine barrel that gives you loads of room you can even stick a couple of other little plants in there if you want to do for the early part of the season. But if you're looking for the bare minimum, in my opinion, 15 gallon nursery pot. Let's define some of those terms. Though what are the dimensions of a two gallon, a five gallon and a 15 gallon container is about 1614 to 16 inches diameter. There's no standardization in the industry, but it's what a big tree comes in. And again, what really matters is the soil Volume One and a half cubic feet of soil, a two gallon is only about eight inches in diameter, maybe 10 inches depending on the model. And that's not even big enough for a pepper plant much less than any self respecting tomato plant. So you need to you need a good soil volume. Every so often as you know, having been in this business for a long time, a new product will come along with marketed as easiest, simplest, best, fastest, greatest way to grow tomatoes. We all remember the topsy turvy tomato planter before she remembers boxes which are still out there. And I look at these and the first question I asked is I look at it to try and gauge whether we'll be successful especially for a novice gardener is what's the soil volume, and if it doesn't hold at least two cubic feet of soil is not going to make it through the summer here. There might be places where it'll work, maybe where it rains, you know, every day in the summer that leads to other issues. If it doesn't have enough soil volume, the plate will just dry out too quickly.

Farmer Fred: 6:09

The five gallon container being between a two and a 15, obviously and a five these days is what about 10 inches across by 10 inches tall?

Don Shor: 6:17

Yeah, a little bit just about and so that that whole half a cubic foot of soil you might be if I've grown a pepper plant successfully in that I've grown basil successfully in that size with daily watering in both cases, just that can be big enough for most tomatoes. Now there are exceptions and we'll talk about that in a moment. But for the most part, any tomato is going to fill one of the routes will be it'll be rebound by July.

Farmer Fred: 6:39

So as you pointed out, ideally the half barrel which is 24 to 36 inches across depending on where you'd get those half barrels and three cubic three cubic feet of soil, three cubic feet of soil but still you don't want to crowd it with too many tomato plants. I would suggest one plant.

Don Shor: 6:56

Yeah, one in what I like to do is one and preferably one of these days. four types, you know there are some shorter types, and you can stick in a couple of little spicy glow basil plants when you first plant that tomato and that spicy glow is a miniature basil it only grows about a foot by a foot so it's not going to out compete the tomato plant or vice versa and you can harvest off that until eventually the tomato will be filling that barrel or that planter so it's okay to combine a couple other things in there but the goal is the bigger of that one tomato plant. I've had people you know walk up with a little window box and a couple of champion tomato plants as an indeterminant tomato once you grow eight to 15 feet and it's not gonna make it in a window box. It's just not a suitable variety nor is the window boxes suitable size

Farmer Fred: 7:38

Well, for containers since you brought it up, define indeterminate and determinant tomatoes.

Don Shor: 7:44

That's a real basic. your average tomato plant is a determinant variety. There are what we call indeterminant, it's a vine it will grow here in the Sacramento Valley or anyplace if they're truly happy 10 to 12 to 15 feet in a single growing season and they continue to flower and fruit all season long flower inset fruit I should say all season long. Your average tomato variety like champion better boy burpees Big Boy they're going to grow eight to 10 feet minimum so they're indeterminate. They don't finish up at any particular time other than when frost comes along and kills them back determinant tomatoes came along a number of years ago they grow to a certain size they flower they set fruit one big long crop of fruit and that's it. Well known determinant tomatoes include as one of the best tomato varieties all across the country grows everywhere and it grows to about about three to four feet sets 20 to 30 good size fruit and then it tends to be done by August or September because it is what we call determinant.

Farmer Fred: 8:49

what sort of soil works best?

Unknown Speaker: 8:52

Put in the riches,t best quality potting soil and you can buy. This is where you don't want to scrimp because, look, here is a secret. There's no standardization in our industry. There's nothing that says a potting soil must contain these ingredients. There's nothing that says the label has to be accurate with respect to exactly what its uses are. So you run down to that inexpensive hardware chain, and you buy something called planting soil or planting mix that isn't going to work. It's not going to have the nutrients in it that you need. It might not even be suitable for containers. So you want a good potting soil. And the good news is in the last few years, the industry has understood that there was a subculture of people growing certain nefarious crops, which are no longer nefarious, in containers and so they came out with really high-end potting soils with added organic fertilizers that will basically take care of the plants needs all season long. The tomatoes fitted beautifully in that category.

Farmer Fred: 9:46

Now you need to hold this plant up even though it's in a container, it still needs some sort of support.

Don Shor: 9:52

Well, everybody has the fun experience of doing it the other way first, plan it and watch where it goes. It can be as simple as putting that plant next to a fence. I know people who do that and train it like climbing up on the fence, even do a little pruning and strategic training and trying to train it as if it were just an ornamental vine. The simplest thing is just put a cage on it. And what kind of cage you need depends on which kind of tomato you bought. those indeterminate types, you know, six foot cage will they'll be out the top of that by the middle of July and cascading back down to the ground, such as a cherry tomato. Likewise, these shorter types would like one of those commercial tomato cages you buy would be satisfactory at three feet you know, three to four foot tomato cage will hold it up reasonably well. There are a couple of tomato types that don't absolutely need to be staked. Roma, which is a well known sauce tomato. Nice little compact plan doesn't need to be staked at all. And there's sort of a whole new category of hanging basket tomatoes that are designed to cascade and just produce fairly small fruit on a relatively small plant. A good example is Tumbling Tom which makes these littlecherry size fruit on the plant just cascades over the side of the barrel. But in general, yeah, you better get it up off the ground somehow.

Farmer Fred: 11:06

And still, there are tomato plants that are fairly small in their eventual growth that do produce good size tomatoes. I'm talking about seven, eight ounce size tomatoes like bush beef steak or bush early girls, maybe look for the word bush in the name.

Don Shor: 11:20

Yeah, there's a couple that came out that are compact versions of the old original familiar ones. And you mentioned them that Champion Bush, Early Girl Bush, Better bush which is a bush version of better boy, those have just shorter internode distances. In other words, the points on the stem are more compressed and they're still good full size, good quality fruit.

Don Shor: 11:41

Then there's ones like Ace, which I've mentioned before, which is a very well known large fruit, they're three quarter pound fruit you get maybe 20 a month of fine, really good quality. It's a it's really an outstanding variety been around forever stick with hybrid varieties. They're bred for disease resistance and production. And once you start feeling your oats then you can go into the heirlooms. There's some truly miniature tomatoes like Patio been around for a long time nice little compact plant that gets about two feet tall produces fruit that's a bit bigger than a cherry tomato, they're about four ounce fruit you get 20 to 25 a month over a long season. That's a really good one. Husky gold and Husky red are compact growers that have great quality fruit, four to six ounce fruit, which is about half the size of a slicing tomato and very good quality on those as well. So you need to look around at your garden center you'll find 50 varieties at any nursery right now. And you got to poke around look for that determinant or bush or something that says dwarf on the label or ask, if the staff isn't too busy, for something that's got a compact growth habit.

Farmer Fred: 12:43

Let's bring up the big reason why your containerized tomato plant is going to die. And that is irregular watering. Watering is the big issue when it comes to containerize tomato plants.

Don Shor: 12:53

Yeah, in the Sacramento Valley and arid climates, there's no rain from May through October. And so you're going to provide all the water that plant needs and anybody who grows anything in containers in the West knows that you're going to be watering probably daily. Once it gets rootbound, which we'll get in, almost irrespective of the size of the container will happen probably by sometime mid July. That plant needs water every day. And that's not that difficult if it's near a hose or you got a watering can something for those of you doing lots of container garden can do some really simple drip system can be a way to go just run a half inch line behind the containers and a little bit of you know, quarter inch or spaghetti tubing up into the container. You can run everyday for a few minutes and take care of the watering that way make it easy to water that's got to be the key to success for gardening in general, but especially trying to grow a big plant in the small pot, make it easy for yourself to keep it watered.

Farmer Fred: 13:44

Oh by the way, did we mention that container needs drain holes, that would be important.

Don Shor: 13:50

They are not bog plants. You should definitely check to make sure that you're in another one some containers that you buy as a whole but they come with a plug in the hole. for one reason or another that you have to pop out to show this to my staff more than once, so check and make sure there's a drain hole in the bottom that actually is functional. And if you are buying a half barrel, you can drill some holes in the bottom. I like three quarter inch holes, maybe five of them through the bottom, and then maybe even raise that barrel off the ground with two by fours just to help the drainage and also air circulation. Yeah, I set them up on bricks and I figure I'm making perfect Toad habitat that way. There you go.

Farmer Fred: 14:29

Well, I think we got people started off on the world of growing tomato in a pot and hopefully they will be successful this year and come back for more next year.

Don Shor: 14:39

Lots of beginning vegetable gardens this year for a lot of different reasons. And one of the best reasons is to have a ripe tomato from your garden in mid July that you grew yourself.

Farmer Fred: 14:48

Exactly. That's a good way to get a whole new crop of gardeners growing. Don Shor owns Redwood barn Nursery in Davis, California. Don, thanks for a few minutes of your time.

Don Shor: 14:56

Great to be here, thanks.

Unknown Speaker: 15:04

There are several ways to reach us here at the garden basics podcast call or text us at 916-292-8964 that's 916-292-8964 email your questions and pictures to Fred at farmer fred.com or post your garden queries at the Get Growing with Farmer Fred Facebook page or at Farmer Fred on Twitter.

Farmer Fred: 15:31

We like to answer your questions here on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and we always like to bring in Debbie Flower, our in house horticultural professor, to give us some straight answers. And this question was texted to us via the voice number that we gave out and which you just heard, and Debbie, Sam sent a picture of his citrus and there's some browning on the leaves on the underside, the leaves that kind of curl as well, That could be a problem. And Sam says, I have an orange tree and I see the leaves are showing brown spots. What should I do about it?

Debbie Flower: 16:10

I think it's just not natural, what we call senescence or death of the older leaves, you can, what I can see in this picture is the leaf with the problems on it, the brown spots, and there's some yellowing, too, is an older leaf, there's new growth on the tip of that branch beyond that leaf, and that's just natural for any evergreen plant to do when they get new growth on the tip of the leaf then yield growth, sicknesses and that's more it's not just death, it's the plant reabsorbs the good parts, which includes the green back into the plant, uses it for new growth and drops that leaf to the ground.

Farmer Fred: 16:46

There isn't that's all we're looking at here. Yeah, there's a lot going on in the picture though, because, yes, there are brown spots on the older leaves. But if you look at some of the younger leaves in the picture, and that's always a telltale sign is what are the younger leaves doing there? One or two there with green veins with sort of a yellowing leaf, which could be chlorosis.

Debbie Flower: 17:08

Yes, citrus in particular are known for needing certain micronutrients. And the other thing I noticed about those new leaves and it could just be when the picture was taken when in the life of the plant, or it could be what what they are is small, the new leaves are very small, when we see the old leaves die off, turn yellow and die off and then when we see small, that can mean that there is not enough nitrogen fertilizer being applied. So the micronutrients might cause very much well often cause the green days in yellow between and then the lack of nitrogen can cause the new leaves to be very small, small. So just to make this citrus healthier, Sam needs to fertilize it. Citrus are heavy feeders and there is specific fertilizer for citrus. Follow the label directions and make sure that you apply enough water and not too much. You know, that's always It's a tricky thing, but we gardeners always figure that out somehow, right, Fred?

Farmer Fred: 18:03

Oh, we try. We try. It's an ongoing battle. So Sam, we hope that helps you with your citrus tree or orange tree there. Debbie Flower, Always a pleasure getting you in here to help answer garden questions.

Debbie Flower: 18:14

Thank you. Thank you.

Farmer Fred: 18:20

Anybody who's ever tried to plant carrot seeds knows the big problem. They're really, really tiny. How can you get carrot seeds separated? Well, you may have to use your kids. Today's quick tip comes from the brown thumb mama, Pam Farley with a good idea on using carrot seeds, toilet paper and your kids.

Pam Farley: 18:39

So some things that I like to do to make it easier on the kids to plant the carrots because otherwise you're just gonna have a big old jumble of seeds. layout three squares of toilet paper. Mist it with a couple of sprinkles of water and then put the seeds on the toilet paper. Let that dry. And then place that in the carton. Kind of like home-made seed tape.

Farmer Fred: 19:04

How far apart Do you space the seeds on the toilet paper?

Pam Farley: 19:08

I usually do five per square. You could probably do them closer than that. But that that's easy for the kids counting things and they have smaller fingers too so they can more easily move the little seeds around.

Farmer Fred: 19:22

This is true. Yeah, that's the first time I think I've ever talked about carrots and toilet paper in the same sentence.

Pam Farley: 19:28

Oh, there you go. But that is breaking new ground.

Farmer Fred: 19:31

That makes perfect sense. I like that because because it is biodegradable, the toilet paper and so you could plant that with five or six seeds on it and that's a great way to do it.

Farmer Fred: 19:53

So you may think you're gonna go to the store, buy some fertilizer and go home and feed your plants. No, no, you're not. That's what my next guest will tell you. his name is Steve Zien. He is a pedologist, what is the pedologist? He's a soil expert. He has 45 years experience in organic horticulture and soil science. And Steve, so many people think that when they fertilize, they're feeding the plant, and the plant is not a straw is it?

Steve Zien: 20:20

No it's not. And I mean, that's the old school. And they didn't take into consideration the billions and billions of microscopic organisms, for example, they're 1.8 million species of different organisms in an analysis of soil. If it's a healthy soil, you're going to find 8 billion microscopic organisms. And these organisms feed the plants water, nutrients, they provide pest protection and drought resistance. And so you want to see these guys because they take care of the plants and the roots actually exude chemicals. That feed these microscopic organisms. And your typical synthetic fertilizer. they're high in salt. And salt is a dehydrating agent. And it actually kills and sucks the water right out of all of these beneficial microbes.

Farmer Fred: 21:16

So let me see if I got this right. down below our feet in the garden, There's these billions upon billions of little waiters and waitresses, and they're taking the food and cooking it, so to speak, turning it into something a plant can use, walking over to the plant roots, or maybe they're right there next to the plant roots. And the plant roots are so happy to get that food that these little critters have basically changed into plant food that they tip them with, with exudate.

Steve Zien: 21:45

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, after 40% of the plant's energy goes to feeding that soil biology.

Farmer Fred: 21:53

So every time we're putting fertilizer down on the ground, and we're trying to get it near the plant, is that a good idea or should it be more broad-based as far as the area you're covering when you're fertilizing?

Steve Zien: 22:06

you want to go to where the root system is. And the root system usually is not by the stem of the plant, except for this time of year if you're planting vegetables, or shrubs and trees and plants that are still very, very small, basically, the root balls the size of the container, but otherwise, you want to go much further out because the feeder routes are out typically where what's what's called the drip line where the outermost branches are, and that's where you want to be putting your irrigation and your fertilizer out and always use only organic fertilizers, because that's what's gonna feed the soil biology.

Farmer Fred: 22:45

You mentioned earlier, the fact that a lot of synthetic fertilizers have salt in them and the salt basically destroys the soil life and organic fertilizers don't have salt.

Steve Zien: 22:55

They have salt but much, much less salt. Dramatically less salt. up to 10 to 20 to 40 times depending upon the products that you're comparing. So it'd be the organic fertilizers actually stimulate the microbes, many of the newer organic fertilizers actually have beneficial microbes in them. If you look on the label and they will, they will feed the soil as opposed to killing the soil as the synthetic fertilizers do. Plus the organic fertilizers are for the most part water insoluble, so they move with the help of water placed on the soil surface, kind of through gravity and just as with the water flowing, as opposed to so this synthetic fertilizers that are mostly water soluble, and what a lot of people have is clay soils. With that, you put the fertilizer down and you apply the water afterwards, which is what you're supposed to do. If there's any kind of runoff, that's where most of the nutrients go.

Farmer Fred: 23:57

and I would think water insoluble fertilizer is going to last longer in the soil. So it's slowly feeding everything that's down there.

Steve Zien: 24:06

Right? So that also means less work because you're gonna have to fertilize less frequently with inorganic fertilizer.

Farmer Fred: 24:13

But darn it, we're Americans. We like to apply fertilizers, especially those fertilizers with big numbers that say stuff like 25-15-20, referring to the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content, those three numbers you see prominently on any fertilizer, but in reality, plants and soil critters aren't that hungry. They could survive very well, thank you, on fertilizers whose numbers are single digits?

Steve Zien: 24:40

Oh, yeah, we in reality because, like I said before, the synthetics are water soluble. So wherever the water goes, the nutrients go. so if some of it runs off, a lot of the nutrients are going to run off. they're not going to get into the soil, and then every time you irrigate, and the what you want to take that water down to a little bit below the roots. Then those nutrients will get leached down below the root zone very, very quickly, so they don't stick around very long. With the organic fertilizers, they're slow release, they're going to be there for a long period of time. And if you want to do, you know, regular fertilizing, add more microscopic organisms, organisms, by putting down a good quality compost, or my preferred material is worm castings, because they're really, really high and beneficial soil microbes.

Farmer Fred: 25:29

But as far as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, they don't have that much in worm castings, Do they?

Steve Zien: 25:35

know that you're doing it mainly for the biology and the organic matter, organic matters really important? Some sort of compost or mulch on the soil surface on a regular basis, because that's a lot of the food and the energy source that these microscopic organisms feed on. There. The microbes are like a stomach. And so they take that organic matter that you're putting on the soil surface, that moves down with the irrigation or the rain. And they digest that and put it into forms that the plants can take up. And most of these organisms live in what's called the rhizosphere, which is this area right around the roots. And so they're, they're doing all of their activities right near the roots are so the roots can produce those exudates, and tell which organisms that they want to work harder. For example, if the plant is deficient in phosphorus, the plant will exude a particular chemical that will tell the microbes that make phosphorus available, to get to work. And they do it and they do it. If they are there, they're happy to do it.

Farmer Fred: 26:45

And they'll get they'll get a bigger tip later on.

Unknown Speaker: 26:47

Yep. Okay. I mean, they're there. There's actually what are called nematode trapping fungi. if there are nematodes around and the plant roots are eaten by the nematodes, the plant roots will produce exudate that will tell these nematode trapping fungi to produce these little rings and these rings exude a chemical that attracts the nematode. And as the nematode touches the inside wall of these rings, the rings fill up with fluid and trap the nematode and then they dissolve the nematode and feed on it.

Farmer Fred: 27:22

Ladies and gentlemen, there's a battle going on beneath your feet. And if you want to help if you want to help the good guys win, feed your soil.

Steve Zien: 27:30

Exactly. It's all about the soil.

Farmer Fred: 27:34

Steve Zien, 45 years experience in organic horticulture and soil science here in Northern California. good information. we'll have you back sometime soon to talk about the benefits of a lot of other things like mulch,

Steve Zien: 27:46

I'd be happy to do so.

Farmer Fred: 27:47

I thought he would. He's retired now but he's happily rooting for the Green Bay Packers

Steve Zien: 27:52

and the Milwaukee brewers but they're not playing.

Farmer Fred: 27:54

Yes. Or the Badgers.

Steve Zien: 27:57

Yeah, yes.

Farmer Fred: 28:01

Thanks, Steve.

Steve Zien: 28:02

You're welcome.

Farmer Fred: 28:09

Well, for many of us, the shelter in place rules, they're still around. Yet most areas do allow you to take the family out for walks, and you should, because there awaits great opportunities for you to break out a lot of smiles. And you know, it will make somebody else smile as well.

Farmer Fred: 28:26

All you have to remember is gardeners are the friendliest people. So as you meander along on your daily walk, perhaps you will come across an outstanding looking front yard garden. Maybe, especially if you're out walking in the cooler part of the day, you're going to see the homeowner working on their yard. Well, why not pause your walk, say hello. And then say something nice to that fellow gardener about their yard. Maybe praise a certain plant they have. Maybe it's the artistic arrangement of the landscape, perhaps ask a question about what other ornamental plants they might have, what vegetables? are you growing in the backyard?

Farmer Fred: 29:04

And I'll tell you something. If the front yard looks great, the backyard is probably awesome. Chances are if you ask that question, the smiling homeowner will say, Oh, do you want to see it?

Farmer Fred: 29:17

Do it. Get back there go see it. Not only will you be enveloped in the warmth of someone else's creativity and beauty, you're probably going to get some good garden ideas for your own yard. There's going to be smiles all around.

Farmer Fred: 29:31

And all you have to remember, gardeners are the friendliest people.

Farmer Fred: 29:39

Thank you for listening to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. I appreciate your ears. How about a subscription? you can get the podcast wherever podcasts are given away, such as Apple, Spotify, Google, Iheart, Stitcher, and many more.