255. Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest: How to Grow Abundant, Organic Fruit in Your Backyard | Tara Austen Weaver | Seattle, WA Part I
- Author
- Jackie Marie Beyer
- Published
- Tue 15 Jan 2019
- Episode Link
- https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/255-growing-berries-part-1
Today, I’m excited to introduce my guest from Tara Austen Weaver who’s written a book about growing
I know that you are going to love this because it’s got lots of great tips for anyone living anywhere not just in the Northwest and I’m super excited because last summer I was visiting Nola’s yard last summer because her blueberries were amazing and I am bound and determined to grow some this year! And there’s just so much to learn so welcome to the show!
To read the full shownotes click here.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My mom had a giant organic garden!
It wasn’t till I moved to Seattle about 10 years ago that everything fell into place, Seattle has such a giant gardening community!
Everyone here it seems even if they just grow beautiful yards edible ones and everyone is out working and tending vegetables
I got bitten by the gardening bug
- quickly used up all of the area
- didn’t have much of a yard
- I got a community garden plot
- started studying permaculture
Eventually my mother moved up to Seattle and bought a house on half an acre!
Tell us about something that grew well this year.
I’m coming off not a fantastic garden year, because I moved this spring! I wasn’t thinking it through thinking I could move and garden and that didn’t really happen!
Perennial gardening is growing obsession
I have a busy life and in the summer I also like to go hiking. I am really really interested in those things that don’t need as much help and tending as lettuce and peas do
those twelve blueberry bushes were fine and asked nothing of me!
master recipes I have developed over the years
- this jam
- crisp
you can make with any fruit
the other thing people don’t realize
commercial growers grow certain varieties because they stand up to transport that will stand up on the shelf.
There are a lot of amazing varieties that don’t get grown commercially because they are just too fragile.
My favorite strawberry variety is called Shushkan
not grown commercially
They really need to be processed within 24 hours
They have the most amazing flavor
Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?
well I feel like I actually had a slower gardening season next year so I have a jump on this year and I have my fava beans in already!
I had a really good tomato season about 2 years ago
growing tomatoes from seed
I want to really be on my tomato game next year
Once you start doing things from seeds and have access to all these interesting varieties you want more and more sort of like collecting baseball cards and you want all of them!
I am interested in doing more of that
I have really also gotten into chicories and radiccio and bitter lettuces!
I have some that are actually growing on 2-3 year now, like the same plants, I just cut the seed stalk
do it sort of as a cut and come crop cut all their leaves as they are growing in the summer and it just resprouts from the root stem!
3 year old chicory
I let some develop seed stems and the seeds drop reseeding themselves
very attracted by perennial gardening!
I love being in the garden but summer’s short in the US and in NW and I have lots of things to do
half an acre a lot to look after
- shortcuts
- easier
permaculture approach if you can have a cycle that replenishes itself is fantastic
chicories
Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year, No Matter Where You Live
I follow her on Instagram it’s so fascinating to see what she is doing in Nova Scotia!
She has all of these cold frames and exciting to see what she is doing in the middle of Canadian winter surrounded by snow!
There is also another book
growing oriental vegetables
sounds like an outdated title
It is all about cold season gardening and talking about different varieties that do well in cold climates
I know mustards are heartier in cold climates.
We go through a lot of kale! My family eats a lot of kale. My mother has been kind of holding back from gardening as she gets older but one year she would plant things in the spring. She would be gone all summer long! She goes to Canada and she can go
I was like did you know how many kale plants you planted and she’s like oh, year a dozen or so and I was like no you planted 110!
- can go multiple years
- let it go to seed
- bees love the blooms
- birds love the seeds!
They crack open the seed pods and I let them open the seed pods and it sprouts!
Call me the lazy gardener
I think we are just busy so I would call you efficient. I just wanted to correct the title, the 4 Season Harvest is Eliot Coleman
Eliot Coleman: Four-Season Harvest : Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition
She just came out with a new book I have been trying to get her to be a guest on the show.
Niki Jabbour’s Veggie Garden Remix: 224 New Plants to Shake Up Your Garden and Add Variety, Flavor, and Fun I have a green house doesn’t get a whole lot of use. We start seeds indoors and then we move them out to the greenhouse for a while. It gets a month and half of use. I would like to get some things growing things in there in the winter but the area in ground, is a mess of bind wind and quack grass.
Tell me about something that didn’t work so well this season.
I have actually been struggling a little bit with peas
sounds a little silly.
I have been having really low germination rates
This is the part of the show we call getting to the root of things!
Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden?
I have
- bindweed
- blackberries
- horsetail
That kind of weeding is just misery.
What is your favorite activity to do in the garden?
This is gonna sound funny my favorite activity is going to be sitting and enjoying. Especially the first five to seven years I was working at my mother’s house and so I wasn’t living there all the time. I was just coming here to work in the garden and never getting to enjoy it and this friend of mine said, you have the worst situation here because
the best part of gardening is kicking back and having a nice beverage and enjoying it
Another part of my enjoyment is also bringing other people in
- particularly kids
Sometimes I think gardening is just a seed that has a very long hibernation period!
if it gets planted in you as a child it usually sprouts at some point!
What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?
golden rules for being a happy gardener
I was reading through them and going yeah yeah
One was have a right size garden
One of my goals is to work on some irrigation systems which I don’t have
A favorite tool that you like to use? If you had to move and could only take one tool with you what would it be.
the hori hori
Every spring I get our clippers sharpened and it’s such a pleasure to do that! I didn’t realize all of our clippers were really dull, I have a friend who takes them apart and oils them and sharpens them but that’s not in my skill set yet.
A favorite internet resource?
It’s interesting a lot of my garden inspiration is coming from Instagram
That all comes down to who you follow
I have been following a lot of
- English gardeners
- Dutch gardeners
- @yougrowgirl
- Margaret Roach
I know you had Erin on your podcast from Floret in Skagit Valley which is about an hour north of where I am.
But there is another farmer in Ontario
- endless summer farm (which is actually Michael Genovese’s Summer Dreams Farm)
- What about what’s your channel on Instagram? Handle?
@tea_austen on Instagram
I post about the garden and I also do some food writing
- posting what I am cooking out of the garden as well
- travel and different things
- I had a blog for years, although I don’t write much there
tea and cookies blog.com
Growing your own food changes how you cook
It’s no longer what do I feel like eating what looks good at the grocery store, it’s I have 6 heads of cauliflower what am I going to do with them?
choices happen very early in the year in the choices start in what you choose to plant!
Tell us about your book!
Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest: How to Grow Abundant, Organic Fruit in Your Backyard
Some of the things that stood out to me were the apple socks and that raspberry starts were really called canes.
We have coddling moths here in the pacific nw.
pom fruit – pears and apples
Pruning can be really complicated but it doesn’t have to be
trees want to grow!
berries and fruit trees
This is sort of like legacy gardening
It requires a lot less work from you that annual vegetable gardening but it is gonna be around for a long time
real fan of kiwi berries
they look like miniature kiwis the brown fuzzy kiwis
miniature size
They come ripe in September and October
summer berries are out the door
- take up into winter
- high vitamin c
- good for cold season
fun for kids to grow!
- wildberries
- salmonberries
- thimbleberries
- evergreen huckleberries
- currents
- gooseberries
Final question-
if there was one change you would like to see to create a greener world what would it be? For example is there a charity or organization your passionate about or a project you would like to see put into action. What do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either in your local area or on a national or global scale?
I think climate change absolutely
