No More Buds? Turn to Earbuds.

By this time in the year, I’m at the point of good riddance! with the weeds and careful tending (shout out to this cold spell for sealing the deal). Pretty much everything is done and put to bed. I then spend the next two weeks really dialing into my houseplant game before I get bored and start Spring dreaming. My Fall break from the garden is short-lived so I start listening to old episodes of now-defunct podcast series and dream with new ones.  Here are a few of my favs:

Gardenerd Tip of The Week

Gardenerd.com is the ultimate resource for garden nerds. We provide organic gardening information whenever you need it, helping you turn land, public space, and containers into a more satisfying and productive garden that is capable of producing better-tasting and healthier food.

https://gardenerd.com/

My thoughts: The host lives in LA, so this one is great for winter listening as we get chillier, I love hearing about the warmth of Southern California and what’s coming into season. Interviews with other experts and educators in the horticulture field discussing plants, but also cultivating grains, discussing bees, and seeds. Each episode ends with the guest’s own tips, many of which are news to me and have been incorporated into my own practices. 

On the Ledge

I’m Jane Perrone, and I’ve been growing houseplants since I was a child, caring for cacti in my bedroom and growing a grapefruit from seed; filling a fishtank full of fittonias and bringing African violets back from the dead.

https://www.janeperrone.com/on-the-ledge

Houseplants, if new to the podcast start here for an overview, and guidance.

Jane is a freelance journalist and presenter on gardening topics. Her podcast has a ton of tips for beginners, and more advanced info for longtime houseplant lovers, as well as interviews with other plant experts. The website is also useful to explore the content of an episode if you aren’t able to listen. I could spend an entire morning traveling in and out of the archives. 

My thoughts: As the growing season comes to a close, my indoors watering schedule starts wobbling between what the plants need and my summer habits of watering too many times per week–welcome back,  fungus gnats! Here’s an entire episode on them

Plant Daddy Podcast

We aim to create a listener community around houseplants, to learn things, teach things, share conversations with experts, professionals in the horticulture industry, and amateur hobbyists like ourselves. We also want to bring the conversation beyond plants, since anybody with leaf babies has a multitude of intersectional identities. We, ourselves, are a couple gay guys living in Seattle, Washington, with a passion for gardening and houseplants. A lot of our friends are the same, though each of us has a different connection, interest, and set of skills in this hobby, demonstrating a small amount of the diversity we want to highlight among plant enthusiasts.

https://plantdaddypodcast.com/

My thoughts: Plants are visual, podcasts are auditory- episodic overviews with links to viewable content available on their website. Are you also seeing Staghorn Ferns everywhere? They have an entire episode (photos included!) on the fern and how to properly mount it for that vegan taxiderm look. Matthew and Stephen are self-identified hobbyists with a passion for plants all the way down to the Latin–it’s impressive.

Epic Gardening

The Epic Gardening podcast…where your gardening questions are answered daily! The goal of this podcast is to give you a little boost of gardening wisdom in under 10 minutes a day. I cover a wide range of topics, from pest prevention, to hydroponics, to plant care guides…as long as it has something to do with gardening, I’ll talk about it on the show!

https://www.epicgardening.com/

My thoughts: The Netflix-episode-when-you-just-don’t-feel-like-a-movie kind of podcast. Addresses the best varietals, composting, soil pH, and troubleshooting some common issues in the garden. With daily episodes archived back to December 2018, there is a quickly digested thought for some of your own curiosities. The website is also a wealth of knowledge. 

Eatweeds Podcast: For People Who Love Plants

Eatweeds: An audio journey through the wonderful wild world of plants. Episodes cover modern and ancient ways wild plants have been used in human culture as food, medicine and utilitarian uses.

http://eatweeds.libsyn.com/

My thoughts: most recent episode (and appropriately timed!)  On edible acorns. My fav topics include foraging and wild yeast fermentation; and when I really start missing the Pacific Northwest, The Wild and Wonderful World of Fungi sends me back to a misty forest wander politely decorated by les champignons. Posting of this pod is sporadic–only 25 episodes since 2014.

You Bet Your Garden

(no longer on air, but archives available)

 

You Bet Your Garden® was a weekly radio show and podcast produced at WHYY through September, 2018. The show’s archive is available online. It was a weekly syndicated radio show, with lots of call-ins. This weekly call-in program offers ‘fiercely organic’ advice to gardeners far and wide.

https://www.wlvt.org/television/you-bet-your-garden/

My thoughts: Host, Mike McGrath, spends much of the show taking calls and troubleshooting, reminiscent of another public radio behemoth with Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers. McGrath incorporates a lifetime of organic gardening tips with humor. McGrath features one tip to find a local “rent a goat place” (no joke) to get goats to eat the most troublesome weeds to a concerned caller considering setting much of her yard on fire.

Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden

Jennifer Jewell, the founder of Jewellgarden and Cultivating Place, achieves this mission through her writing, photographs, exhibits about and advocacy for gardens & natural history and through her weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden, on gardens as integral to our natural and cultural literacy.

https://www.cultivatingplace.com/

My thoughts: sort of like On Being, but for gardening.

A fav episode:

If you aren’t so sure about this podcast thing, and just want a place to start, start here.

Do you really need a brain to sense the world around you? To remember? Or even learn? Well, it depends on who you ask. Jad and Robert, they are split on this one. Today, Robert drags Jad along on a parade for the surprising feats of brainless plants. Along with a home-inspection duo, a science writer, and some enterprising scientists at Princeton University, we dig into the work of evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano, who turns our brain-centered worldview on its head through a series of clever experiments that show plants doing things we never would’ve imagined. Can Robert get Jad to join the march?

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/smarty-plants

Worm Composting – It’s Easier Than You Think (and it’s fun)

Are you looking for something to occupy your time after your garden is put to bed and the snow starts falling? How about vermiculture (aka worm composting)? It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s year-round. It reduces kitchen scraps going to the landfill. And it provides rich compost for your garden and houseplants.

Worm box worms are not your average earthworms. The most common worms for vermiculture are Eisenia Fetida, commonly known as red wigglers. Red wigglers love kitchen scraps.  They will eat pretty much anything from your kitchen except meat and dairy products. Avoid meat and dairy because they can attract unwanted pests to your box. Some people say not to feed them citrus fruit and peppers. I have not had a problem giving them citrus or peppers as long as both mixed in with other scraps.

Red wigglers enjoying a meal of kitchen scraps

Worm composting produces rich, finished compost called worm castings. And it produces them faster than your regular compost bin. And you don’t have to turn it.  And the worm castings are richer in nutrients than regular compost. What’s not to like? The worms do all the work and you get all the rewards. It seems unfair, but the worms don’t seem to mind.

Finished worm castings

The first thing you need is a box to hold your worms. Many people make worm boxes out of Rubbermaid containers. I prefer wood boxes because I think a wood box breathes better. Worms need air. If you use Rubbermaid containers, make sure to drill plenty of holes in the container for air and drainage. I know what you are thinking – “Won’t the worms escape through the holes?” They won’t for two reasons.  They need a moist environment to live and they are photophobic (they hate light). Your dark, moist (not wet) box filled with bedding (shredded newspaper) and kitchen scraps is worm heaven for them. They are very happy right where they are.

Red wigglers dwell near the soil surface so the box does not need to be deeper than 12 to 18 inches. One foot wide by two feet long is a good size for a small household. Two feet by three feet works for a bigger household or if you have a lot of kitchen scraps.

Red wigglers like about the same temperature range as us. Not too hot and not too cold. The ideal range is 55-77 degrees Fahrenheit. A basement, laundry room, heated garage, kitchen or living room corner are all great places for a worm box. Some people are reputed to use worm boxes as coffee tables, which I suppose could help with awkward lulls in conversation – “Guess what’s under the hors d’oeuvre plate?” Worm boxes can be kept outside in warmer weather, but be careful that the box does not get too warm or too cold. A well-managed worm box is odorless and unobtrusive.

Now you need worms. One great way to get red wigglers for your box is from someone who already has a worm box. A healthy box produces a lot of worms. Most worm composters are happy to share their surplus worms with people just starting out.  You can find worms on the internet. Years ago I ordered my worms on the internet and they came in the FedEx box with air holes punched in the side with a pencil. The worms did not seem any worse for the wear and their descendants are still going strong many years later. You can also find worms for sale locally (see the link below).

A great place to learn about worm composting is Denver Urban Gardens (DUG). They have a basic worm composting outline on their website.  DUG also holds worm composting workshops in the spring and summer. The website has a link on where to get worms in the Denver area. Check the DUG website to find a class schedule for next year.  Vermiculture at DUG.

Also, check out this great YouTube video on worm composting from CSU Extension and Tagawa Gardens.  It is a good visual primer on starting a worm box.

If you really get the bug to start worm composting, the classic book Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof is thorough guide to starting and maintaining a wormbox.

One last word of advice: don’t try to name all of them.

 

Written by Mark Zammuto, a Denver County Master Gardener