Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast

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 wate…

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 ostensib…

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…

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 profes…

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 Th…

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” lo…

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 ar…

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, especi…

Today’s Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter expands upon a topic we were briefly discussing in Episode 395 of the Garden Basics Podcast, “Survival Garden Basics”. In this case, the short chat was abo…

If you’re reading this as May turns into June, and you live in the West, you know you’re going through a heat wave, including triple digit temperatures in parts of California. A more widespread - and…

Both free and paid subscribers have full access to the Friday edition of the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. Because cutting off free subscribers in the middle of a newsletter isn’t a nice thing…

In Episode 390 of the Garden Basics podcast, Master Gardener Gail Pothour offered some great tips for growing peppers this spring and summer. We also discussed sweet, warm and hot pepper varieties th…

A bout of colder, wetter weather means ants will have begun their march towards the warmth and comfort of your house, greenhouse or outbuildings. In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Ret…

In Ep. 381 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, Urban Chicken Consultant Cherie Sintes-Glover offered tips on how to protect your backyard chicken flock against the spread of the current ve…

If you’re reading this today, Friday morning, a gentle reminder: did you forget today is Valentine’s Day? Oops. If you are about to scurry out the door for a "run to the supermarket" or "the trip to …

Recently, a listener’s question did not get fully answered on Episode 378 of the Garden Basics podcast. Katie was asking about how to thwart the squirrels and raccoons that attacked her persimmon tr…

Podcast Bonus: High Scoring Roses for Most of the United States

We like to check in with Master Rosarian Charlotte Owendyk of the Sierra Foothills Rose Society, to find out which roses have captured h…

In today’s “Beyond the Garden Basics” podcast, we talk with Douglas Kent, author of “Firescaping: Protecting Your Home with A Fire-Resistant Landscape”. He has a slightly different view of thwarting …

Previous episodes of the podcast, show notes, links, product information, and transcripts at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, GardenBasics.net. Transcripts and episode chapters also …

I read an intriguing garden column (many years ago) in the Redding, CA newspaper that suggested one way to get tomatoes to ripen outdoors in Autumn. It said: "A rule of thumb is, in the fall, take of…