Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

Thinking of gardening a bit differently, using bales of straw? Straw bales have several gardening advantages, including working in your garden while standing up. Straw bales can be located wherever y…

How’s your tomato garden doing? Now that it’s summer, most of the early season tomato issues are waning: fewer aphids and whiteflies (we hope) and less blossom end rot. In its place are a wide variet…

One day, you might be doing a little digging in your garden, and up comes a worm. But it’s not just any worm. This one is easily identified by its violent thrashing about, slithering, and actual jump…

Growing lavender? Our favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, has tips on how to rejuvenate aging lavender plants. UC Davis Arboretum Superintendent Emeritus Warren Roberts te…

Mulching your garden beds provides many benefits: it moderates moisture loss and soil temperature fluctuations; it inhibits weed production; and fertilization chores are reduced because mulch feeds t…

Summer heat can cause many plants’ leaves to droop on a hot afternoon. Does this pose a particular problem for cucumbers? Will that stress effect the cucumber flavor? Our favorite retired college hor…

Maybe you’ve had some bad luck with your summer vegetable garden, and you want to start over. Is late July too late for warm season veggies? Yes, and no. We have tips for what to plant in the middle …

We’ve talked about the importance of rotating your food crops. The same is true for much of the rest of your landscape. How’s that? Our favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower,…

Trees are subject to many problems, including insects, diseases, weather-related issues…but probably the biggest threat to the trees in your yard…is you. From the day you plant that tree until its de…

During July, we are giving away Smart Pots when  listeners’ submit audio questions. If we use it on the podcast, you will be getting a new, six foot long Smart Pot raised bed fabric planter! Just lik…

We do a deep dive into your garden questions on this episode. We attempt to identify a giant wasp in a listener’s yard. 
A mysterious, underground white fungus has another listener perplexed. 
And we h…

Today we find out more details about using a certain fabric plant container in your garden. Of course, it’s Smart Pots, which is no ordinary fabric container. Did you know they come in a wide variety…

Facing watering restrictions during this drought? We have great tips on how to be able to apply less water to your fruit trees and still have a bountiful harvest!
Yes, you can grow citrus trees in co…

Summertime, and the living is uneasy…if you live in an area prone to wildfires. And it’s not just California. People throughout the United States who are living in rural areas or where the suburbs me…

Crop rotation isn’t just for farmers. Backyard gardeners can improve their food and flower production while improving their soil at the same time, simply by moving plant families from bed to bed each…

If you live in USDA Zone 9, chances are you have attempted to grow an avocado tree. Sure, it’s easy…if you live in Santa Barbara, Ventura or San Diego, where the temperature range is between 50 and 8…

Making the rounds in gardening pages on social media: mulch will rob your soil of nitrogen. College horticulture professor Debbie Flower (retired) and I do a deep dive into the mulch pile to explore …

Much of the Western United States, right now, is under extreme drought conditions. Watering restrictions are already being established in many places. If this is the new normal, and you want a landsc…

Last time, here on the Garden Basics podcast, we were talking about Tomato Troubleshooting with Don Shor, owner of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California. We talked about dealing with blossom end …

Gardeners around the northern hemisphere have their tomato plants in the ground. They’re growing, but some of them are developing problems, already! Why are there cracks appearing in the tomatoes? Wh…