Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

Late October may be your last, best opportunity for overseeding a poorly performing lawn here in USDA Zone 9. Your next opportunity across the U.S. will be next spring. In either case, we tackle a li…

Today we tackle a widespread beautiful weed whose cousin is a rather desirable plant. The weed? Salt Heliotrope, a close relative of the widely cultivated common heliotrope. And you don’t want the sa…

Master Gardener and Professional Houseplant Expert Lori Ann Asmus of Emerald City Interior Landscape Services talks about the pros and cons of fertilizing your houseplants, as well as problems you mi…

Major League Baseball playoffs have started, and you know what that means? It’s time to harvest your popcorn! However, it’s still not ready for eating. How do you know when it’s ready to be popped? W…

Is wood ash good for the garden soil? Our favorite college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, answers decisively with, “it depends”. She has tips to help you decide if your soil will benefit from…

If you have a lot of leaning trees and shrubs on your property, chances are there’s an ill wind blowing around your home. Our favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, has some …

About a year ago, on Episode 52, retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower gave us a beginning class on having a cut flower garden. Today, we graduate to more tips on successful cut flower…

Pull one nutsedge weed from your lawn or garden, and nine more will come to the funeral. Nutsedge, also called nutgrass, is tough to control. And one of the worse things you can do is to pull it out …

One Garden Basic we need to stress more on this podcast is this: to head off major plant problems, observe your garden, carefully. Retired college horticulture professor Debbie Flower talks about som…

If you live in a mild winter climate, mid-September through mid-October is the best time to care for or renovate your lawn. We get organic lawn care tips from organic landscaper, Steve Zien.
And, the…

You’ve heard on this podcast many times the benefits of using worm castings, which some people consider the best soil amendment. Just listen to Episode 107 about that. But maybe you’ve seen the price…

We have a listener named Cindy. Cindy doesn’t like aphids. Cindy HATES aphids. If you’re a gardener, too, you probably aren’t very fond of this plant sucking insect, either. We have aphid control tip…

There is one four-legged pest that ravages gardens and orchards throughout the West, the mid-West and the South: Pocket gophers. So named for the furry pouches outside its mouth that can store food, …

We all know someone who complains that they have killed every houseplant they have ever owned. Today, we talk with a houseplant professional who has a list of five nearly impossible to kill houseplan…

Many gardeners in the western United States are breathing in wildfire smoke. So are your plants. What does smoke and falling ash do to the health of a plant? And what can you do about it? And, oddly …

Rachel in Indiana contacted us via  Speakpipe with a question that many gardeners might have: How do you control Japanese beetles? This voracious pest feeds of hundreds of  plants, especially your ro…

I love late August, because the backyard food garden is at its peak. Everywhere,  there’s tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, peaches, melons and so much more that fill the garden beds. Perhaps too much? We…

It’s grape harvest season across the country. Disappointed with your results? This week, College Horticulture Professor (retired) Debbie Flower, who taught classes in growing grapes, has lots of good…

How are you fertilizing your plants? Do you go out every month, or every week, with a watering can, fertilizer and a teaspoon? Or, are you tossing granules on the ground around your plants and then r…

There are a lot of great cool season vegetables that you can start right now. For those of you who worry about a mid-Fall frost or freeze grinding your garden to a halt, or for those of you who just …