First Mow & Fresh Starts: Spring Gardening 101 Part 1

Grab your gloves and a cold drink! Today’s episode is a casual stroll through our backyards. We’re catching you up on what we’ve sprouted, the pure endorphin rush of the first mow of the year, and the random lessons we’ve learned while playing in the weeds. No strict agendas here—just honest garden talk, a few helpful tips, and a lot of excitement for the growing season ahead. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I really want pumpkins, but I said the ki it would be so good if the kids could have their own little pumpkin. So I like threw the kids underneath the bus and Cody's like, okay, I'll go grab the tractor. And then here he is, tilling up my pumpkin patch. It's great. So Brady, I have a question for you. What's it like when the corn is high, but the chaos is higher?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

It's a lot of things, but it's never boring. This is the Farm Wi-Fi's life between the rows.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome back.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Hello. Another episode. It's just a beautiful morning. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I was gonna say the dungeon. It's really not. It's a finished basement, but it just it's downstairs. Because it's 71 and it's 9 50 in the morning. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

That just feeds my soul. I know. Oh, it's so nice. Yeah. Which kind of like props us for our episode. We are talking, we're talking gardening today, our favorite. Oh, so what have have you done anything?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Um, I have a few things planted so far. Outside. Um outside. Oh, okay. So I did um I found a random bulb um last fall.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Isn't that fun? You don't know what it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

No idea. Just found it in a a bucket of dirt, and so I planted that last fall when I was like cleaning up the buckets, and it looks to be a tulip bulb. So we'll see if that actually like well, it's coming up. It has some.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

I thought you had to plant those in the fall.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I did. That's what I did find it. Yep, so that's coming up, but then other than that, when I started seeing that not die because of the frost, I was just like, oh, I'm gonna plant a few other things. So I planted some like cold season flowers by seed. So all my flowers go by seed. I won't do any other well, besides marigold, I'll buy marigolds. But so I did that, and those are starting to slowly pop up.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Do you plant marigolds for the look or do you plant them for your garden?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

I only plant them with like connected to my tomatoes. Yes, same.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

They are just stinky. I don't love marigolds. Yeah, but the bugs don't like them, so that's exactly exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

So I did that, and then I have a few onions planted, and then some like older flowers that I had last year starting to come up.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So Oh, that's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yeah, I'm ready to add more.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

So we got what? How much rain did you guys end up with?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

A little over two inches.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Oh, that is so nice. We had like 80 hundreds here. Yeah. But it wasn't like a you guys probably got more like torrential downfall from there a little further.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Very fast, yeah, and hail.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Uh we I have some cousins that live in that agenda area and they had six inches within two days. Yeah. So there's some flooding going on down there, but oh yeah, just a little bit of rain and then some heat yesterday. I mean, stuff just looks green.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

I was like even the trees, if you look from a distance, you can start to see like the green hue around them. Yes. You know, leaves coming out.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

So I'm just excited because I looked at the grass and I'm like, I get a mow.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

I know we already mowed mowed. Tyler actually mowed, which I was jealous, but you know, I'm just in that hard season of kids right now.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

It's fine. I will get back to mowing. And I'm sure there's people listening, like, oh my gosh, these people, like, who actually gets excited about mowing? But it is so fun. Tis the season, it's just a nice feeling. Yeah. And we were supposed to start planting today, but you know, we got rain, so we're not gonna get in the field. And I don't know, I just it almost sets me back a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Like I We're now one day behind schedule.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Well, and it's just like more of a mental thing for me where I, you know, I have to prep myself, like, hey, single parent for the next you know month and a half, two months, which is fine. But then it's like we get a rain delay, and you know, it just gets put off. I'm like, let's just get it, let's go. Let's get started and get done.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

But yeah, hopefully it's gonna be a nice day today, so I'm sure the guys will be started. I'd be surprised if they weren't in some fields tomorrow. So yeah, it's just exciting.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Um what do you have started?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah, I'm trying to think what I've all done. So I I did a lot of prep this year, which is something I have not done. Um, I do a like a mom's a real mom's group through our church, and we had like a little gardening get together. And so I learned a lot of stuff from a lot of the other moms. Have you ever used preen? Um pre-emergent yes. It's a dry tip for to help with weeds.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah, with the they're like little tiny balls.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Do you like it?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Um, I did it last year because that was like the first year that we actually like used that spot as a garden, and it was just grass at that point, so I used it there. But then I put weed barrier on top of it. Oh, okay. And so it's you can't you don't know if you're yeah, I can't I can't tell you.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

See my um flower bed I have out back that I mulch every year, and it has that weed barrier too, and it's still like they get through the cracks somehow. And I just with two kids, like, I'm not gonna have time, I know, to go out there and weed it like I want to, and it's gonna drive me nuts. So I sprinkled that preen out, and it obviously has to have a good um water in for it to like activate it. And then we got that rain. So hopefully um it works. I don't know. It said it wasn't gonna kill my my like what's the word I'm looking for, established plants.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yeah, I never ha anything get killed with it.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Like my my garden obviously thrived with it, so well speaking of killing and other like stuff I've been doing. Um so we talked about my kelp farm venture. That's an episode that'll release before this one. But I had some of that, so I'm like, I'm gonna put that on my grass, and then I also had some humic. I threw out some dry humic and then I had some liquid humic that I was gonna mix in with my kelp to spray my grass, and then I was gonna buy nitrogen, and then for those that are like not gardening or like fertilizer savvy at all, nitrogen is just what's gonna make your grass like really thick and green and luscious. So I was gonna buy some because I just didn't want to ask Tyler, and for 30 this is just for reference, for 32 ounces of nitrogen on Amazon, it was $61. And I got it from Tyler and he did the math on it, and it was like it was under $2 for a whole like five-gallon tub. Yeah, which it was, I think it was 32 blend, but it did fine. I was really, really worried that I was gonna smoke my craft.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Um, I mixed it with the kelp and the um humic, and then I think I can only do like an eight-ounce rate, and that was like with the it connected to the hose. So I think it watered it down almost too much because like there's a part by my driveway where you walk up and it's like really green and long, and I like over watered it there, and then the rest of it I think I could do another dose on it, but I was going to last week, and Tyler was like, let it have some heat, do not touch the grass anymore. Let it have some heat, let it just leave it alone or you're gonna kill it. I just have no patience. Yeah. So, but yeah, I did that to the yard. I Tyler lets the dogs out of their run every winter because he doesn't want to break their water or walk through the snow to feed them, so they destroy my backyard every winter. Um, so I replanted grass back there. I just planted grass seed last week. Which I know they say it's better in the fall, but I have done fine in the spring too. And then, yeah, you walk through my garage, my little greenhouse up there. I've got I I had I meant to start seeds. I was gonna do like all my vegetables, but then a lot of the vegetables I did are so short season that I didn't really need to start them inside, and but I had everything out and I was excited, so I did like all my flowers. Yeah. Which I'm like, I spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on flowers, so I'm just gonna plant them inside. But it was kind of funny because I planted some. I know one of the uh lupine, I don't know if you're off the top of your head.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

So I planted that, but on the package I looked and it's 365 days till bloom.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Um I planted some last year, so I'm I'm hopeful that it will like come back.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Or it hasn't came back yet.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Well, that flower bed I haven't really seen much. I have planted a few things in there.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Okay. Well, I guess you'll have to let me know. I know. I'm just worried it's not gonna make it like it'll establish itself this year and I won't get a flower off of it, but I'm worried it won't survive the winter.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yeah, I mean I can't I can't say yes or no. I do know that um some of those like longer season flowers are toxic to animals though, too. So watch that.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Oh, that's nice to know. I gotta kill my dogs.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah, I don't know if it's lupine or not. I'll have to look it up.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, I should have probably checked on that. That's on the to-do list. Um, what else have I done? I put dry humic in all my flower beds, my garden beds, put manure in all my garden beds. You know, I really like to do that in the fall so I can kind of break down a little bit because I'm worried it's gonna be too hot and it's gonna burn stuff, but foxglove. Oh, okay. Never heard of that one.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Um I mean, obviously the people that like garden like very much so are gonna say that there's a difference, but it lupine and foxglove are similar. I think they're similar in looks. I mean, there's a difference, but though um foxglove is also one of the ones that like take forever to bloom. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So I'm really excited for so Addie totally inspired me. Last year she was it last year you started your zinnias? Yeah. Like really went hot and heavy with them.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Oh my gosh. I think I got like three bouquets from you. Oh, they're so beautiful. So I've got like a lot of zinnias planted. I've got cosmos. I try to plant Cosmos outside every year and they just do not do great.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Those are some of the ones that I did plant in so far because it's a cold season flower. Oh, is it?

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Okay, so I did those inside.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

You can. Yeah. But yeah, I just sprinkled mine in my flower bed.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Or my raised one.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah. But I did uh what else did I do? So I did the lupine, but yeah, we'll see what happens there. I did some verbinia, and I cannot remember if it's that or if it's butterflies weed. That is also a long season. I think it's the verbinia, but I'm not 100% sure. Um, I did some carnations, those are Talen's favorite flour. So I did carnations.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Those are a cheap flour too, so that's good to.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yes, yes, yes. They smell really good. I think that's why she likes them. But um gosh, what else did I do? I did I did a lot of like lavender. I did some cat's mint, which if those get really big. Have you seen those?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

I have never done it because it's cats.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah. But you don't, I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

They're like the big kind of bushy with the purple little flowers on them. Big little bushy with big little bo yeah, that was pretty that was contradictory, wasn't it? What else did I do? Oh, I did like uh lemon balm, because I want to plant that in like my patio. Um whatever they're called. The little planters there. Yes. So hopefully help with mosquitoes. But yeah, I did like a lot of cut flowers, which I'm excited about. Yeah. But I've never done carnations before, so I'm interested to see how those come up.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, I'm oh, okay, yeah. So I know uh I'm doing hot and heavy again zinnias this year because I just had so much success with them. I did less of like the smaller bloomed ones. I did like the state fairer, like so I did the state fair ones last year too.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Um do you feel like they came up as good? I feel like as uh the like if there's a if you do the variety pack of like all the different ones, the smaller, like single leaf or single petal comes up a lot more than like the big State Fairer or whatever I just said. Yeah ones.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I didn't really do a lot of the variety pack ones, but I did buy a bunch of different packs of them. Mainly because it was my first year doing it, so I didn't really know what to expect or what to do or whatever. But definitely the like it's I don't know that's it's through Burpee, but they like call it the gigantic, but it's like not gigantic. Yeah, I know. It's a weird g so it's a weird word. Anyway, they um that's the one that I had like that I liked the best because it has it grows super tall, and that way I have more stem to play with because like with zinnias you can cut a thicker, yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

That's what I don't like about Cosmos, is it's just like their stem is like nothing, so they are s they break so easily.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Or poppies too.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Uh oh, that's what I planted. Poppies, yeah. Yeah, and they just look like they're dying.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

I don't know if they're I have always had success with that, is just planting them straight into the ground. Really?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Maybe I should have done that. I see I just got opened.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Those are some of the ones that are coming up, I know, in my thing. I also did plant carrots this year. I've never done carrots and I've never done onions, but I'm trying both of those out.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, okay. So what are you all doing in your garden?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

In my garden, out behind like the rundown chicken coop. So last year I did tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers, a few jalapenos, and then tomatoes were like regular tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, sugar snap peas.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yep. Kids love those. I added that to my list.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Green beans, and then pumpkins, okay, is what I did last year. This year I'm gonna do a little less tomatoes, more green peppers, and then I'm of course still doing cucumbers. I had so many cucumbers that I don't really know what to do with. Yeah, and so part of me liked them like Matt. I would always send a few extra up to work with Cody because I know Matt really likes the cute or like cucumbers or whatever. And sometimes he would like call him on like a Sunday night. Can you bring some cucumbers up on a Monday? Or you know, tomorrow. So I think I'll do the same amount of cucumbers. I'm gonna do Les zucchini and squash. I'll eat it. Cody doesn't. Oh really? Yeah, and it's just hard for me to eat a full squash if I'm just cooking it for myself. So I think I'm just not gonna do it. And everyone always has extra. Which I have done that, but again, like I'm the only one that eats it. And they do, they they are prolific, like they they have a lot.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Make sure you're moving your zucchini Well, I probably won't even do you won't do it this year.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

No, because everyone has so much of it. Yeah, and if I'm the only one, like if I want it a zucchini, I'll just go get it from the farmer's market or text a friend that I know has some. Right. So, and then I'll do sugar snap peas, um, green beans. I did two different varieties of green beans. Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

So did you can those?

SPEAKER_00 15:48

No, I just froze them. I put them in Ziploc bags and I froze them that way. Which has worked great. And that's why I'm I'm doing more peppers this year because we ran through our peppers so quickly. Yeah. And yeah. I won't do banana peppers, as much banana peppers, I think. I think I think I did six plants of those last year.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

And like, you know, the pickled banana peppers.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Yeah. So I'll do a few jalapenos still. And then of course the pumpkins. Yeah. I'll do I did loofahs last year too, but those never really came up because Cody ran them over.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Well, and I wanted to do loofah when I had my candle business because I wanted to um like grow my own loofah and then make like shower loofahs with yeah, we just don't have a long enough growing year for them. And then to hang them and dry them and yeah, they're kind of a whole process.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

That's kind of what I'm worried about with the onions.

unknown 16:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

But I told myself, I'm like, if it really comes down to it, I can always just chop them up and freeze them and it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

I did um potatoes a couple years ago and they did really good, but we had like an abundance of potatoes.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

I would love potatoes. I would love to do them, but at the I just don't I mean, unless I like did another garden with more space on them. I also think that potatoes are so cheap that it's not worth my time or energy. I know.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

And same with onions too, but like it's just like honestly, it all is we'd probably be better off to just go buy it.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yeah, but it's the it's not only just doing like buying it, it's the I grew this, I know what I'm putting into it, and I know feeling yeah. And I had a garden, you know, growing up out back in our backyard at Omaha, and it wasn't anything big or but I remember my dad like making it with me and all of this stuff, and it was always memories. Yeah, I was always a f like I don't remember ever having bad memories. I take that back. There was one bad memory. Oh no, it was my dog. She kept fing. Oh, I just said the F word. Sorry, I need to remember that. Okay, sorry. We'll see if we bleep that out or not. If that tells you like how much I'm like trying to be conscious of what I'm saying. But she You're doing good.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

I know, I know my daddy really has to try in front of the kids. I mean she really does a good job.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

I try really hard.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

So if it slides on the podcast, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Anyway, my dog, she would always jump the fence or just like run through the fence, and it was like chicken wire fence, or not really chicken wire. Sometimes it was chicken wire, sometimes it was just like that plastic like construction fence. And she would run through it or jump over it and eat all of my peppers off my pepper plant. And I'm like, out of all the things, can you eat the tomatoes or something? Like peppers were my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Oh, I love peppers too.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

And her name was Piper. And so then we started nicknaming her Piper the Pepper Stealer. Piper likes peppers or pepper the like it was just like why? Why?

SPEAKER_01 19:06

So how old were you?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

I was high school. Okay. I mean, yeah, middle school, high school.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

That's funny. Not funny, but you know, now it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

I got over it, but I'm like, this frickin' dog, like, can you just not steal my peppers out of all the things? But yeah, I I have all good memories of gardening and I get to talk to my grandma about it every once in a while too.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

And it just feels nice to like get your hands in the soil and like screw something.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Yeah, you get dopamine from putting your hands in soil and all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

It is like it is it it feels like a stress release, like it's for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Do you think that you would ever like can?

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I have tried canning and I just feel like I'm not doing it right. And then also, like, I don't know how to save the stuff. Like, I guess I could just when I get tomatoes, throw them in a Ziploc bag and throw them in the freezer, and then when I have a bulk of them, then I could, you know, boil them or however to do like if I want to do spaghetti sauce or banana sauce or whatever, whatever I wanted to do. I have done so. Last year, Robert and Nancy always plant sweet corn, and so I they had a lot left over. So Robert's like, take what you want, and I'm like, well, I'm gonna bag it and I'll bring you guys some. So um, you know the seafood boiler I got that Tyler totally told me I did not need. The big one that I got. Were you at our were you at the seafood boil the last time?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

For the baby?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah. So before, so I've done a seafood boil for just my family the past five years. Oh yeah. Labor Day. Yeah. And then when I did the seafood boil baby to spoil um event, I was like, Tyler, I have to buy the seafood boiler. And he had told me no previously, the last like two years. And so when I finally had this big event, I'm like, we cannot be using like six different pots. Like, I have to buy it. And so for people that are listening, it is literally, it looks like a grill, but it holds like I don't even know how many gallons of water. And then, yeah, it's it's a whole boiler and it has like a strainer within it and a lid, and yeah, it's it's the cat's meow.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Yeah, that's what we had growing up. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

It was a little bit honestly, I say pricey, but it wasn't any more expensive than like your Traeger Blackstones.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Also, it's worth everything always has the price, but like it's also worth it.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah, and it's not like it goes bad. Um, and I take care of my stuff. I mean, it's in the shed, it's covered, it's yeah. So anyway, I was like, ooh, I have my big seafood boiler, so I'm gonna put all my corn, all the sweet corn in that to blanch it. And that was awesome. It worked so nice. I just boiled I think we probably did like maybe a hundred years and then, you know, hussed it all, cut the ends off, boiled it, threw it in an ice bath, let it cool off. And then we cut all the corn off and then I mixed it with like some butter and salt and pepper and then just threw it in quartz sized bags. I think I did like two cup or like maybe it was four cups. Probably four cups per bag. And I if out of the hundred years I ended up with ten bags. So I gave four of them to Robert and Nancy, and then t we've already went through our bags. So I told him I was like, if you guys want to plant more, and he's got his little churro planter that yeah with. So she's like, oh yeah, we'll plant a bunch and we'll do like a whole um sweet corn day. So I'm really looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

That's what I I was telling Aaron actually. I went down, it was about a month ago or so, but I went down and was talking with her, and I said, you know, I wish that I had room to plant sweet corn. Because I tried sweet corn last year, but it just got it's a day.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

It's one day. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Okay, I haven't seen the kids today, so I think that's why I'm like, oh, I'm gonna do whatever I want. I am so sorry, people. But I'm just making the executive decision. I'm not bleeping this out. I am sorry.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

But I was just I'll just silence it out. I did that to one lap, was it last week? I just like highlighted it and you can't tell. Yeah. I mean, it just sounds like it's we're taking a pop. Yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

But one of the things that I told her, I was just like, I don't want to plant sweet corn because it's just so hard to do something with by yourself. I said, What do you mean? Because I don't want to blanch it knowing Cody's not gonna be the one to help.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

If you want to plant some and then come to our sweet corn day, have at it.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Yeah, that's what I'm like.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

I just want because it is not fun to do it by yourself. No. When you do like a whole day of it, it is kind of funny.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Well, and if you're like, okay, I am only solely in charge of husking corn, someone else is blanching it, someone else is cutting it, someone else is bagging it.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Like yes, I a hundred percent agree with you.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

That way I don't have to be like, oh, okay, I have two minutes before I have to go get the blanched corn out of here, so I can only husk one piece of corn, you know, like whatever the case is, and you're jumping and bumping, and it's just like no. That's kind of where it was just like I yeah. I yeah, I really do want to do more corn, but we'll see how this.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

And then we could just do it together. Yeah, that'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

And then last year I also did popcorn.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Oh, I forgot about that. How did that go?

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Um horrible germination. Horrible. Um they were it's just interesting because you know, I'm thinking like row crop corn, and it's not that. But I'm also finding out that in the actual like row crop popcorn industry, the ears are a lot smaller too. Which I did like a oh, of course, like the only small bag I could get, it was like organic, non-GMO, which I'm like, I really don't find that stuff. Like, I don't care, like I want a better yield, like have at it. So, but if I got that, it had to be like a 50-pound bag, and I was like, I planted like 10 plants. I don't need a 50-pound bag of seed. So that's why I had to go with that that kind of seed, and it was fine. I got enough to like give us gifts, and it does it did pop, and it was good. The the it was like pretty small popcorn, but it was fun, it was a fun experience. I think I would do it again and try something different this time. Yeah, but yeah, the ears just looked horrendous. I mean, I think I had two ears that like actually were uniform.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

I was gonna say, sometimes when I like whether that's corn or not, I'm like, this could not be a state fair contender. This no one should lay eyes on this because this is horrible. Or there's like that one prized one where I'm like, this is a state fair contender, but dang it, the state fairs are, you know, like, or county fairs already done.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

I thought about that too. Or yeah, I mean it's just yeah, these years of corn were not not it. But it was fun, like it was something different to do, and I didn't know how it turned out, and yeah, so yeah, it was a good time. But I probably won't do that again this year because I just don't have the time. But definitely doing the sweet corn with Robert and Nancy. And then for my garden, I'm doing did you ha have you happened to look out in the backyard? Just so I got two more raised beds.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

I knew you were doing that.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yes, um, and then Tyler made me with some rebar. Um, they are like five foot high by three foot wide, and then he put chicken wire in the middle. So for my sugar snap peas, they can climb up, and then I think I'm gonna put my cucumbers on the other side. So I have two of them. So I'm thinking sugar snap peas. I'm gonna plant them on both sides so they can crawl up both ways.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

I would also plant them at different intervals.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Oh, good thought.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

I did that down on our farm, and that's why I had such a long season. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

So normally they're not long season like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

You know, I was honestly pretty surprised by ours, but I read like before I planted them, I read into it.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

So how many plants did you plant?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

I planted like a hundred seeds of it.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

But I did, like I I'm just throwing this out here. I I don't know off the top of my head, but I would plant one seed, one or two seeds every foot apart from each other. Let that come up, and then like four weeks, five weeks later, I would go in and plant in the six like another feet of but it's the six-inch mark. And then that way I would have pretty established. But yeah, uh trellising them is a you have to trellis those. Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

And I tried to do that with my cucumbers, and normally I use the dog fins, but they eat them.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Oh, like the dogs will eat them.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

So that's why I move and then so that corner raised bed that I have by the dog fins and my privacy fence. Well, since the dogs were eating, we put a board there, which I didn't even think, and they don't get enough sun. So I got like one cucumber last year, and they just did so poorly because they did not get enough sunlight. And then my peppers, I have to move those too because peppers love heat and they were not getting as much heat as they would like to. So I think I need to put like my strawberries where they get more shade, and then move my peppers to the more sun.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Are you painting like rocks? That would be a good um thing for Talin.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Yeah, I actually saw that, and I bought the spray, um, like the little clear enamel gloss coat, but I need to find like some nice rocks. Like I never thought this would be difficult, but like, you know, the nice, like, smooth stone rocks.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

I mean, you could always you would spend money on them and whatever, but like Hobby Lobby.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Yes, I know the rocks. I know, it's like that. Like, why am I going and buying rocks and I'm just gonna paint?

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah. Or I wonder if uh I mean, I don't know if this would even be an option or not, but like your church.

unknown 29:13

What?

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Like, would they have extra rocks from because I always used to paint rocks at church.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Like, would that be an activity that church would want to do?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Well, not even like steel, but like, hey, is there ever a kid's activity that they paint rocks? Because you don't need 30 rocks. You just need like five at most.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yeah, that's a cute idea. I should do that. I think Taylor would really enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, she liked painting the window, it looked like you guys painted the window upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

For Easter, we did like a little, oh, it's like a stained glass window, but it's just with crayola paint and masking tape. Yeah. It's on your TikTok, so yes, it's on my personal TikTok. And it was so fun. And she painting on a window, she just thought that was a blast. Yeah, it's kind of a no-no.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

You only do this with mom.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Oh, oh what else? Okay, yeah, so strawberries. I struggle with those every year.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

I I gave up. I don't do them.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Well, I think I'm gonna switch, and for people listening, if you're big strawberry people, tell me if I'm backwards. But I think there's an everberry and a Juneberry, and I think the everberries are your come back every year, get bigger, and more fruit on them throughout the years. And normally I was doing a Juneberry. So um I think I'm gonna like actually like spend maybe not good money, but like pay more than I would on like a Walmart plant or something, and get like an actual court strawberry plant.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

And then I will come back every year.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

So that's my thought. I don't know. I'm gonna try that. And then we do cherry tomatoes, baked tomatoes, yeah, cucumbers. I'm gonna try the peas this year, um, peppers, hot peppers, bell peppers. What else did I do? Ooh, I don't have the room, but I really want to find a place to do we love spaghetti squash. We eat the heck out of spaghetti squash. And I love to grow pumpkins, but like in town, we just where do I do those? Because pumpkins need so much room.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, they do. So there's always I the only reason I plant pumpkins is because of the kids. I know. Like, and so that's it's just fun to see what comes out of them. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's always nice, like when the kids would come down.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

I usually do like a little soup night, pumpkin pick and night. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

I should do that.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yeah, that'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Fall's just a busy time though, too. So it's like, how do you but yes, that's the only reason we planted pumpkins and I mean I also love pumpkins, but Cody was just like, alright. Because of course I I was just like, I really want pumpkins, but I said the ki it would be so good if the kids could have their own little pumpkin. So I like threw the kids underneath the bus and Cody's like, okay, I'll go grab the tractor. And then here he is, tilling up my pumpkin patch. It's great. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

I'm surprised you haven't learned to do that on your own yet. Because you hate asking Cody and having to wait.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

The tilling? Well, I mean, it's the tractor. So, like, I mean, it's a a 30-foot by pretty much like 30 foot by 30 foot area. Yeah. And it's on a hill. So I'm like, I don't know if I really trust myself to do this. I don't blame you there. And I could go get the tractor and go get it hooked up, but chances are I Cody's just gonna be like, I'll just go do it. Like if he just sees me running down the road with the tractor and a disc. Yeah, he would not trust me. Especially since it's right next to the electric fence, too. So like I feel like he would be like Don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think I'll have to do much this year, like tilling it because I have the weed barrier still down. Yeah. And so I just burned holes throughout the room.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

I'm a no-till gal.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Yeah. So I think I'll be fine. I just that specific if I wanted to expand the garden, but I can't really expand it too much more just because of where it is on the hill.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

If there would be anything I could add into our big farm from my little farm, aka the garden. So every year I aerate my like if I have some grass that's just not very thick or looks like it needs some help, I have an aerator and it's just like a handheld, like step put your foot on it to put some pressure on it and then roll it across. And I've used that in my garden too. And honestly, I think that has made such a difference. I don't know why, but if I could buy like a I don't even know, like 30-foot aerator for the farm, I would.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Yeah, I'm I would be interested to see. I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure there's research out there.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Yeah, I don't know. Well, like when we went to the farm show, I told Tyler I wanted to see if they had an aerator. And at did we look at the national farm? Or I think that was maybe just Husker Harvest.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Well, there was hu we talked about it at Husker Harvest Days. Yes. But I think the National Farm like you were looking for something, but I don't think it was an aerator.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

No, I don't think it was.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

You got those like hedge clipper thingy.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

And they are awesome.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

I yeah, I got these um oh, I got these clippers for trees or rose bushes or whatever, but it has like a ratchet strap clicker in it, so when you click it the first time, it like adds tension when you come apart and then click it again so like it's stronger than it would be. If that makes sense, I'm explaining that.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

One of my favorite things is is the hole digger that you do attach to the I think we bought more at the National. I know, the the boys, but of course, like those things. I mean your clippers are and my clippers were not very expensive. No.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

But yeah, and then we got little oh, it's like a post hole digger, but it's about a foot long. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Just to attach it to the handheld drill.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Yeah, except that'll about break your hand. You've done that.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

I did it in like actual ground at first, and I'm like, This is not good. This hurts.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

I did that too. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'll break my wrist.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

I know, so then I ended up having to go get a shuffle button.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

You can click on the drill so it doesn't do that. I don't know, man. Maybe that's an impact. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

It was not fun. It had too much torque. Too much torque. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

That's funny that you experience that too. We've never talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

It like comes flying out of your hands, but you know that you can't because it's a sharp object, so then you just like have your arm twist with it. Oh, it just hurts. But doing it in like somewhat loose soil is much easier.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

That has been really handy though. I kind of want to go back. I liked the national farm show. Yeah. It was fun. And there's lots to do in Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Oh, so much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

They're just, yeah, they're it's just kind of one of those places that I mean, whatever kind of thing you like, it has. There's just a lot of different stuff. But anyway, back to gardening. I'm really not, I I think as far as like gardening stuff that I want to do, I'd really love to get a co a compost, like an actual compost.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

I I got some for Christmas, my grandma.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Yeah, my grandma got it for me. Oh, well, let me know. Because I thought about starting my own compost, but I just I need to be on the farm. Yes. I have no room. Like, I well I don't want to start my own compost pile in my backyard.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Okay, so mine is in a pile. Mine is like a rolling tin thing. Yes. And so there's two separate sections. I've only worked on one so far. Okay. But also living out on the farm, we don't have trash service. You burn all of your trash. So it's been a game changer because like the trash that we do burn, like we typically will just burn it all at one time.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Right. And it's probably just like what?

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Like your paper products, your up until this compost, it's been food. I mean, like, where do you put it? Right. And so now that I can like go put that in the compost, it's so much nicer. I know it's gonna smell, but like that's fine. So I wouldn't do it in town just because it does smell.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

But I am really excited to like actually see it turn into something like usable because right now it's just a bunch of like food scraps.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

You gotta be careful though when you first use that, because it'll burn your garden.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

I know, like you have to like spread it.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah, my grandma got it for me for Christmas, and so I got it set up.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Yeah. I um I just put a little one on my oh, I have like a Brady's Wants on Amazon list. And so it's just like something I can plug in in the garage and it spins it for you, and it's only gonna give you like probably I don't know, a two-gallon bucket at a time. But I don't know, it's a start. Yeah. I just, yeah, I don't know. I feel like we need to this is where my crunchiness comes in. Because I'm like, I feel like we need to limit our like additions into the trash of the world.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah, and see, I was less worried about that, but again, th that's just my mindset. Mine was I wanted I've always liked the idea of compost. My grandparents had a I remember a giant compost pile out in their garden, and well, it wasn't out in the garden, but it was near the garden. And I was always super fascinated by that. And now that I'm on the farm, I'm like, okay, I can actually like have something sustainable and it can be there, and I can but I like the idea of the spinning rolling one because then I can move it if needed.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

So yeah, that's nice. Yeah. So what else are you implementing or are you wanting to do, or what's your goals? You now do my goal is I think that's what's nice about the garden is I'm not I don't get too bent out of shape. Like like I just enjoy it. Now if nothing came up, I'd be like the one year I got too excited and I planted everything and then like half of it froze off. That was a bad time, but I replanted and it was fine.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

You know, I think again, like what you just said, like as long as something comes up, I'm fine with it. I've also like leaned into the I'm gonna do a lot from seed versus like spend hundreds of dollars and I'm not really making any. And it's not like I'm making money off of it, but I need to.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Okay, we're gonna have to roll this into a part two because I want to ask you about your drying seeds.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Ooh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

So we'll cut here. See you next time.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Alright, see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

They say a farmer's work is never done. Well, neither is ours. Come back next week for a new episode of Life Between the Rows.