Kenny Coogan: We mentioned earlier leafy lettuces and brassicas. Yes. And those enjoy the cool weather, maybe a slight freeze as well. How do you protect raised beds or perennials from early frost or freeze damage?
Nick Cutsumpas: Great question. Typically what I’ll do is I’ll set up like a wire or PVC pipe almost like a little arch. Looks like a little mini hoop house, right? And the goal there is to just establish a frame that I can put a froth cloth over. Now there’s many different types of frost cloth people use. Different ones that are different sizes, color, thickness, whatever I use one in particular from gardener supply, which is one of my favorites.
But for the more sensitive plant, especially if you’re concerned about froth early in the fall where you might have some pretty early stage seedlings that are more sensitive to it. That’s the time to really have it. But making sure [00:01:00] that infrastructure’s up there is important because you don’t want to be caught off guard and realize, oh shoot, I’ve got eight beds that I have to protect and it’s gonna frost tomorrow, and I don’t have anything set up yet.
So I usually recommend, once you’ve planted those things in the fall and moved off of your summer crop, that’s the best time to just get the PVC pipe in there, get it established, just so that when you need to, all you need to do is put on the cloth and you’re good to go.
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast. We host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
Kenny Coogan: [00:02:00] Good day everyone. I am Kenny Cogan, and joining me on this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends is Nick Cutsumpas, also known as Farmer Nick. Nick is a professional plant coach, urban gardener and sustainability advocate, known for transforming both homes and hearts through the power of plants. Nick has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue Architectural Digest, Business Insider in Washington Post. He has been seen on the TEDx stage, on the Netflix original series the Big Flower Fight, and as host on Netflix’s Emmy winning Instant Dream Home. Today, we’re digging into the seasonal side of sustainable living. Specifically how fall gardening and winter preparation can set you up for a thriving, low impact growing season.
From pruning perennials to mulching with intention, Nicks got the practical wisdom and plant positive vibes to [00:03:00] help us close the season strong and start the next one even better. Welcome to the podcast, Nick.
Nick Cutsumpas: Thank you so much for having me.
Kenny Coogan: I just moved from Florida to North Carolina, so this will be the first time in 12 years that I experience the fall season.
Nick Cutsumpas: And maybe a little snow depending on where you’re at.
Kenny Coogan: You’ve inspired so many people to connect with plants in intentional sustainable ways, and as we transition from summer into fall, what does this season mean to you as a gardener and educator?
Nick Cutsumpas: Fall is the time of slowing down. And just because we’re slowing down doesn’t mean that there’s not things to do because there are plenty things, plenty of things to do, but for me it’s about setting the garden up for that final harvest at the end of the season.
[00:04:00] Getting, my, my winter squashes and other things harvested in time for thanksgiving. Pumpkins of course, are a big hit around October, November as well, but it’s just an exercise in. Patience and being able to really wrap up the last of the beautiful season and the harvest while still setting up your garden for success throughout the course of the winter and then eventually the spring.
What plants teach us in the fall
Kenny Coogan: You’ve often said that plants are great teachers. What are they teaching us in autumn that we might be overlooking?
Nick Cutsumpas: The fall represents growth that is not seen. And what I mean by that is fall is the best time to plant your perennials, your trees, all those things. We really get sucked in the spring because we’re over the winter weather, right?
We wanna be outside. But fall is the best because it allows root development. Now we can’t see that. We will never be able to see all of the growth that our [00:05:00] plants go through in the fall. However, it’s best for the plants because it allows them to grow without any pressure. No pressure to bloom, no pressure to fruit, no pressure of the heat.
It’s a great time to get your plants in the ground, and sometimes growth is not always seen, but it’s still happening beneath the surface.
Kenny Coogan: Many folks think of fall as the end of gardening season. How do you keep the rhythm going this time of year?
Nick Cutsumpas: So for me and a lot of my clients through my landscaping business, it’s about education around best time to plan, as we talked about this before, falls the best time because there’s less stressful factors that are happening that are going to cause potential damage to those plans.
I try and get as many perennials in the ground as possible. I like planting trees in the fall. I’ll be doing an orchard this fall on my own property here in Michigan, and it’s just a really [00:06:00] good time because it’s wet, it’s cooler temperature, it’s not freezing cold yet, and it’s a beautiful time to be out in the garden, a little crisp, nip in the air.
Never hurt anybody. And honestly, I enjoy it more because I’d rather be out in the garden when it’s. 50 degrees and when it’s 85 degrees. So it’s also nice for me to get out there and not have to worry so much about the weather.
Kenny Coogan: Earlier this year in May, I ordered two cherry trees, bare roots. They were five feet tall.
They came with all their leaves, and within the day of me planting them, they defoliated. But I’ve been watering them every day and I. Occasionally we’ll scrape the bark and everybody’s still green and
Nick Cutsumpas: good. They starting to budd up A good tip. Yes. Make sure it’s alive right. But yeah, it’s a great time to do it.
Bare root is also a very cost effective way to do it. So if I’m gonna get, 40 some odd trees in this orchard this fall, probably gonna do a bare root for a good [00:07:00] portion of them.
Low maintenance and productive crops for fall gardens
Kenny Coogan: What are some of your favorite low maintenance or productive crops for fall gardens?
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh it’s gotta be leafy greens. Leafy greens are one of those crops that are quick to, to germinate.
After direct, though you can plant them virtually any time of year. I think that they are best planted in early spring and in late summer into the fall just because this about, 30, 45 days or so until you can get a full harvest. But even if you. Don’t reach full harvest. Let’s say it gets really cold in your area.
Some of them can be harvested really well as baby plants, baby spinach tender kale, right? The earlier it is, the more tender it tends to be. And some of these leafy greens that are even frost resistant turnout, tasting better because when the frost occurs their carbohydrates intensified, almost acts like antifreeze for the.
[00:08:00] I always say that, your leafy greens will taste even better in the fall than they did in the spring or summer.
Kenny Coogan: Yeah, just maybe six weeks ago. I sewed in my basement with grow lights purple Brussels sprouts, artichokes.
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh, nice.
Kenny Coogan: Some bok choy, but I’m excited to over winter the artichokes and get those frosts on those Brussels sprouts to get ’em tasting really good.
Nick Cutsumpas: When are you gonna plant those?
Kenny Coogan: I did it six to eight weeks before the end of August, which is when this podcast comes out, because that is what the local Extension office told me to do.
Nick Cutsumpas: There you go. Very nice.
Kenny Coogan: So in the middle of North Carolina, which is where I am, Winston-Salem area, our first frost date is the end of October. So that gives the plants [00:09:00] about 60 days to grow and establish.
Nick Cutsumpas: Great. That’s awesome.
Fall Garden Checklist
Kenny Coogan: Do you have a typical September through November checklist or calendar that guides your fall garden workflow?
Nick Cutsumpas: That’s a great question. I would hesitate to say calendar specifically because, each year is a little different, chronologically speaking, right?
The time I do certain things is very much weather dependent, temperature dependent, but. In general the first thing I’ll do is I’ll just check out my soil, see how it’s feeling, do the finger test just to assess okay, what amendments might be needed.
I will typically also this is moving into. October or so will start grabbing leaves and collecting those and putting those over as mulch. I never wanna leave the soil bare, that is number one. No-no. In any kind of permaculture or organic gardening, even raised [00:10:00] bed gardening. I wanna make sure that soil is covered just to, to maintain all of the beneficials that are there, prevent any erosion.
I don’t wanna stress out that soil. So giving it a nice top dressing of leaves from the yard, which there are usually plenty. I hate seeing people bring out their leaves on the side of the road because there’s so much good stuff in there. Even if you just left the leaves in a big pile, you don’t even have to turn it into compost.
It’s great for the pollinators and other insect species that over winter in that leaf litter. So I’ll typically do that around October and then, if I want to, if I’ve got any extra compost that I don’t wanna, I have freeze over the winter because I don’t continue the composting much over the winter.
’cause it gets really cold out here and I get a little bit lazy in that regard. But I’ll add a little bit of compost, mix that in, hit it with some leaf litter, then I’m ready to go. One thing I won’t do particularly is I won’t prune back my perennials or cut them back to the base until spring.
Reason I [00:11:00] do that is also because there’s other. Insect species that will over winter in those perennials. And also some of them will have seeds that will provide food for the birds in the wintertime as well. So I’m not a big fan of cutting everything back in the fall. I’ll typically wait until early spring before I make those cuts.
And then the only thing I’ll really prune back would be any fruit tree. In the fall. Fall, and that can be a into November project for sure, before it gets too cold. But making sure I’m using good sharp shear, it’s not freezing out and make the cuts I need to increase airflow, top them off at a certain height, especially for the fruit trees, which I don’t want to get over eight feet taller so.
Kenny Coogan: At a local community garden, they had a field of poppies and there was a huge flock of yellow finches.
Just devouring all the seeds,
Nick Cutsumpas: That’s the way to do it. And if we cut things early those birds won’t have the same level [00:12:00] of food source that they would otherwise. So it’s a great thing to do and good for anyone who loves birds, which most gardeners do.
Kenny Coogan: And because of that, I purchased a packet of poppy seeds immediately.
Nick Cutsumpas: There you go.
Kenny Coogan: Now locally on Facebook marketplace, somebody was giving away a barn full of hay bales.
Nick Cutsumpas: Whoa.
Kenny Coogan: But, but the caveat was that the hay has been sitting there for two decades.
Nick Cutsumpas: Wow. That’s a long time.
Kenny Coogan: So I don’t know if there’s mold problems, but I was thinking it would still be good for. Maybe mulch, but maybe compost.
Yeah,
Nick Cutsumpas: Obviously, it’s been there a long time. If it’s been there that long, I would assume there’s gotta be some mulch somewhere in that. But it’s always good to have straw mulch. I use draw mulch on my garden beds. It’s great for keeping that water retention going.
Signs That Fall Garden Prep is Now
Kenny Coogan: You mentioned [00:13:00] tucking in your garden, what. Or physical tasks help signal that seasonal shift for you?
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh, collecting the leaves it’s a never ending process here. I moved in to this new house, which is 10 acres or so, and it’s very wooded, and we moved in the fall and I was just here for the color.
It looked amazing. And then a month later I was dealing with more leaves than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. So getting out the leaf blower, the rake the tarps is a big part of it. I know there’s different attachments you can use on right, on mowers that help collect the leaves as well. But in general, I think the leaves are just so symbolic of that change and can be so useful in the garden.
You can grind them up for compost. You can lead the leaves, the pollinator, you can top the beds like I do every year. It’s such a, a. Free resource that we don’t often take advantage of. And even just blowing them off into [00:14:00] other areas of your yard that you won’t see is totally good. So I have no problem with it.
But I know a lot of people get very, picky around how their yard looks, which, it is good and bad, right? But I’m a big leave the leave component proponent. And I think that in general. Anything that relates to the changing of the seasons in regards to the trees is very symbolic for me.
How to protect gardens for early frost damage
Kenny Coogan: We mentioned earlier like leafy lettuces and brassicas. Yes. And those enjoy the cool weather, maybe a slight freeze as well. How do you protect raised beds or perennials from early frost or freeze damage?
Nick Cutsumpas: Great question. Typically what I’ll do is I’ll set up like a wire or PVC pipe almost like a little arch. Looks like a little mini hoop house, right? And the goal there is to just establish a frame that I can put a [00:15:00] froth cloth over. Now there’s many different types of frost cloth people use. Different ones that are different sizes, color, thickness, whatever I use one in particular from gardener supply, which is one of my favorites.
But for the more sensitive plant, especially if you’re concerned about froth early in the fall where you might have some pretty early stage seedlings that are more sensitive to it. That’s the time to really have it. But making sure that infrastructure’s up there is important because you don’t want to be caught off guard and realize, oh shoot, I’ve got eight beds that I have to protect and it’s gonna frost tomorrow, and I don’t have anything set up yet.
So I usually recommend, once you’ve planted those things in the fall and moved off of your summer crop, that’s the best time to just get the PVC pipe in there, get it established, just so that when you need to, all you need to do is put on the cloth and you’re good to go.
Feeding the Soil in the Fall
Kenny Coogan: When it comes to feeding the soil, do you like cover [00:16:00] crops or mulch or a combination of those?
Nick Cutsumpas: Definitely a combination. Mulch for sure, I’m a big mulch or mulching is important. And I think that it depends. Type of mulch you use depends on what you’re growing, right? We refer any raised bed vegetable stuff I’m going with. Thinner, and it’s not going to last a long time in there. I would never mulch my raised bed with something like Cedar Mulch, which is naturally rot resistant, gonna last a few seasons at least that I would use mainly for my perennial beds.
So I just planted a giant bed of native pollinators around my garden, and that is all cedar mulched. And then the garden itself is all straw mulch. So that’s typically what I’ll do there. But in general for the soil I’m not really adding too much compost to it at this stage, right? Unless I’m doing a significant fall crop and I’ve got some leftover soil from the summer season, but I just [00:17:00] want to co, I’m constantly checking my soil and moving to a new property, right?
You never know what kind of soil you’re gonna get. We’ve got a lot of clay here in our yard in particular. It’s backbreaking work, but just digging up a little bit the first time and amending it so I can get a cover crop in there. That can over winter is always a good practice, especially if you’re gonna be doing planting directly in the ground and rows.
How to Evaluate Your Garden
Kenny Coogan: Let’s talk plant performance reviews. How do you evaluate what worked and what didn’t as you planned for winter and spring? I have a circular driveway and inside it. It’s maybe a thousand square feet inside it. I planted a wildflower meadow.
Nick Cutsumpas: Beautiful.
Kenny Coogan: Half of it’s beautiful wild flowers. And then the other half was retaken by non-native grass.
Nick Cutsumpas: Yeah it’s always a never ending battle against the invasives. And I think it’s one of those things where. [00:18:00] If you care about the ecology and you’re trying to have pollinators and whatnot, you can’t really spray too much when it comes to, glyphosate and some of these other things that I do not use.
I could understand if you had, a hundred acres and you’re trying to get rid of invasives and you’re not worried about foot traffic or animals or dogs and this and that, I get it. And doing that for the first time, I’ve seen people do that even in conservation groups. But for the home gardener and someone who’s gonna be trafficking that area a lot, especially with pets or anything like that I think just removing by hand and even hitting with a bit of vinegar, Epsom salt dish soap combination, just to try to get some of it back there.
Is always a good practice. Hand pulling will take you forever, but the more lawn that we can get rid of, the better. And it seems like you’ve got a fun little spot there that’s probably gonna take you a lot of time. If it’s a thousand square feet.
Kenny Coogan: We are gonna take a quick break to here, word from our sponsor, [00:19:00] and when we return we’ll be talking about sustainability.
Kenny Coogan: We are back with professional plant coach and urban Gardener, Nick Pus. He is also the author of Plant Coach, the Beginner’s Guide to Caring for Plants. Nick, you are big on sustainability and I have a master’s degree in sustainability. Love it.
Garden Mistakes that Make Waste
Kenny Coogan: What fall garden mistakes or habits do you see that unintentionally create waste?
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh, okay. Any gardener knows, any plant person knows that nursery pots are just everywhere. They’re the bane of my existence. They’re very difficult to recycle. Partially because I think they’re, most of ’em are like number five recycling label. But because they’re dirty and most people aren’t cleaning them up or bringing them to a professional recycling facility that can handle those things.[00:20:00]
It can be very challenging. That said, one practice that I’ve gotten in a good habit of is that if I’m going to buy any new plants, which of course we’re gonna be buying seedlings at some point and different trees and whatnot, I try to save as many of those nursery pots possible. Now, if there’s the flimsy six cell tray ones that are those thin plastic that break all the time, those, you can get rid of those are not gonna help anybody out.
But if you got a decent, thick. Nursery pot, be it a four inch, six inch, whatever. Even some of those seed trays can get a little bit bigger. Now save them, start your seeds in them. It’s a great practice to do over the winter, like you said, with your grow light setup. I’ve got my greenhouse here, which is an absolute luxury in terms of extending my season.
I’m gonna keep that at about, I’d say 55 degrees or so over the course of the winter. I’m gonna grow as many things as I can in those nursery pots. So being able to reuse repurpose those in any way you can [00:21:00] is always a good practice because they’re very difficult to recycle properly.
Kenny Coogan: I’m still recovering from a visit to my friend’s house that happened 10 years ago.
They had a beautiful vegetable garden and we were cooking in their kitchen, and then all of their food scraps were going into the garbage.
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh, ugh. Composting. Gotta do it. Gotta do it. It’s in the wintertime we use we use our omi which I know is true compost, right? Take the food scrap to not throw them in the landfill because people don’t realize that a head of lettuce can last 20 plus years in a landfill because it doesn’t have the right environment to decompose properly.
All the while releasing methane and other gases that are very negative for our environment. So food waste is a huge part of that. And also when you’re shutting down your garden for the year and cutting out those tomato plants in the fall. Those can be composted too, right? This, even if you [00:22:00] just throw them in the yard or bury them somewhere, anything but throwing them in the trash and getting them picked up by the local trash garbage company is a win.
Kenny Coogan: So today we’re talking about gardening in the fall, preparing for the winter, and I’m not gonna allow you to answer this next question with saying perusing the seed catalogs because that is a December January activity.
Nick Cutsumpas: Yes.
How to Reflect, Plan and Reimagine Gardens in the Fall
Kenny Coogan: So what can people do to use this quiet season of, let’s say, September through November?
To reflect, plan, or reimagine their garden purpose.
Nick Cutsumpas: So one thing that, especially with this new property that I wanna do is create a proper photo journal of the season. Reason I say that is because you know there’s gonna come a time next spring where you’re gonna be like, all right, I wanna rotate the crops in my [00:23:00] beds because I don’t want them pulling the same nutrients.
Always good to have crop rotations no matter what kind of food you’re growing or anything. And you’re gonna think about, huh, was the tomato bed here or was it on this one? Or this? I can’t remember where. Nebraska’s here having photo evidence of all of it, which most gardeners take their pictures. It’s so easy nowadays with a smartphone but just organizing it, right?
Take all the photos, drop ’em in an album and say, Hey, this is my, my. Spring, summer, fall garden, 2025, that we have something to reference back next year. It’s something that I’ve done with my clients when they have questions. It’s something my mom does with her harvest. She’s able to, she doesn’t weigh her harvest, but she’s able to see oh look, last year at this time I picked a hundred cherry tomatoes in this picture.
This year only at 50. I wonder what’s going on. It allows you to establish a baseline. So you can start making adjustments and seeing what works, what doesn’t, and what [00:24:00] might increase your yields down the line.
Kenny Coogan: Yeah, that’s a very good point. A couple of years ago, I interviewed Joe Lamp’l and he also mentioned that everyone has a camera in their pocket.
Nick Cutsumpas: Yeah.
Kenny Coogan: And although we don’t need to be sharing it through social media, it’s good
Nick Cutsumpas: evidence, good practice. Joe’s the best. Joe was one of my gardening role models when I first got started. He’s fantastic.
Nick Cutsumpas Garden Philosphy
Kenny Coogan: Now, you yourself have reached a huge audience through your many shows. How has that experience influenced your garden philosophy?
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh, I think it’s honestly influenced it negatively because I’m used to having. A team of 50 on hand or endless plants at my disposal that I can use and get done in the ground real fast. I think if anything, it’s taught me the value in, in, in slowing down, in, in not needing to get [00:25:00] everything done all at once.
There’s times where I’m struggling like, Hey I forgot to go get this. I need to do this and I can’t turn and ask somebody, Hey. I need this plant in 30 minutes. See you then. So that can always be a little bit of a challenge, I think it’s a more real world experience, right?
It’s me in my yard. My, my wife helps me out as well, but, she has a full-time job. She can’t dedicate the time to this. But the slowness allows me to do more self-reflection and also teach a little bit as well, I coach baseball here at the local high school this year, and a lot of the boys were asking, Hey, coach Nick, do you have summer job opportunities?
We’d love to help out. And it’s been great, right? I get three, four guys come over. They learn about what I’m doing here on the homestead. They learn about mulching, they learn about native plants growing food, and I wouldn’t be able to do that level of teaching if it wasn’t. If it wasn’t a show concept because you’re [00:26:00] moving so fast and it’s all about the drama and what you’re trying to accomplish in a short amount of time.
The elongated time allows me to share my knowledge in a different way, get a little bit deeper than just that soundbite for TV and share some of this with that next generation of future gardeners.
Kenny Coogan: I run a carnivorous plant nursery, and I think I need some unpaid interns as well.
Nick Cutsumpas: We pay them, but it’s certainly the high school rates are better than the adult rates, that’s for sure.
Behind The Scenes with Nick Cutsumpas
Kenny Coogan: Do you have any surprising or funny behind the scenes you’d like to share from a specific TV show?
Nick Cutsumpas: Oh, from a, from one of the TV shows. So a couple times this was more so with with Instant Dream Home, which we were renovating homes in a day. One of my biggest challenges was when you’re doing the landscaping and you’re also renovating the home at the same time, there’s a lot of conflicting, schedule and machines that are [00:27:00] moving through and whatnot.
And we’re all trying to do this in a very short amount of time with 200 people on site. So accidents happen. So we were trying to get in I think it was one of the southern magnolias, which are very common in Atlanta. Great plant. And we were bringing in on a skidsteer. It was like a 14 footer, pretty big already bringing it in on a skid steer.
And there’s people walking all around it. It’s very complicated, right? And you’ve got this big giant tree in a burlap bag swinging around, could hit somebody. And someone walked in front of it the skid-steer driver tried to move and the tree swung around and went right into someone’s windshield. Fortunately there was no damage.
No one got injured or anything like that. But it was funny to see this big tree around in the street there and could problem, but fortunately. When you’re moving big trees with lots of machinery and a lot of people around, it can be a little tricky
Nick Cutsumpas on Creating Fall Gardening Content
Kenny Coogan: When you’re creating content, [00:28:00] especially in the fall and winter.
How do you make plants exciting for a digital first audience? When I think of that question, I think about when I watch Instagram, I think of, oh, here’s us putting a hundred bulbs in the ground. But then they always show. Eight months later.
Nick Cutsumpas: Exactly. It’s not exactly a showy and colorful in these months here.
But I would say that for me I shift my focus a little bit and I lean heavily more into some of the indoor gardening, the house plant, hydroponic, things of that nature, and also will this year have the opportunity to show off my greenhouse. And show things that I’m overwintering show, things that I am planting that will live in there full time, like my citrus trees that I could have out in la of course.
But here in Michigan, certainly not possible. So I think it’s gonna unlock some new content opportunities for me, but also, [00:29:00] sharing about how I store food, how I cook the food leaning more into some of the culinary aspects in the. Because people are starting to think about, as we get into January, their new year resolution, what kind of diets they’re trying to do this and that.
So I always like to share fun plant-based recipes, specifically those that I’ve used crops from my garden.
Kenny Coogan: It follows the perfect time to be preserving the bounty.
Nick Cutsumpas: Exactly.
Kenny Coogan: Have you seen one plant trend? Online that makes you cringe or clap,
Nick Cutsumpas: Cringe or clap? I would say clap in general. I’ve really seen a much stronger push towards natives and pollinators in these last three years.
I’m sure you’ve seen it in your work as well, but. It’s really gotten into the gardening philosophy regardless of who is doing the landscaping and gardening, right? You have companies that are [00:30:00] big companies that are now starting to give more attention to it, and I think that certainly related to an increased focus on environmentalism.
That’s certainly a, a cringe will still be related to lawns. It’s not necessarily the grass lawns, it’s the artificial turf lawns. I can’t I saw it so much in California and people are like, oh, it’s better than grass. We’re not watering it. I’m like, yes, but you’re now, you’ve created increased heat.
It’s doing nothing for the soil. It’s made of plastic. Who knows what kind of, chemicals are being released with all that heat on the plastic in those temperatures. I’m just not a fan of it. I think there’s so many beautiful native plants that can be used in those more drought drought climates.
But I don’t know. I just, I can’t get behind the fake graph. I can’t do it.
Kenny Coogan: At a very far distance. It looks nice, but then when you get close it looks really bad and half the time
Nick Cutsumpas: Weeds popping up out of it anyway. So it’s just, I think it’s a [00:31:00] waste of money and not a good environmental solution.
Simple High Impact Actions for Fall Gardens
Kenny Coogan: Okay. Let’s leave the listeners with a call to action for somebody starting their first fall garden. What’s one simple high impact action that they can take today?
Nick Cutsumpas: If you’re starting your fall garden, it’s the best time to do it. Go to your local nurseries and ask them, Hey, which trees do you not want to over winter?
Because you will get so many trees and perennials and shrub. 50 to 75% off because the nursery doesn’t want to have to dig a hole and bury them and make sure that they’re surviving over the winter. They want to get rid of them as much as they possibly can, and it’s going to be the most cost effective time for you to do your gardening.
Now, are those plants gonna look good? Absolutely not. It’s gonna look like you’re planting a bunch of sticks. For getting the perennials. They’re usually cut off at that point. Looks like you’re just planting nothing, but I’m telling you, you will save so much [00:32:00] money. It’s great for the plant, great for your wallet, and it’s the best way to get started with low risk in terms of your investment.
Kenny Coogan: Thank you so much, Nick, for digging into fall gardening with us today.
Nick Cutsumpas: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.motherearthnews.com/podcast. You can also email us at podcast@ogdenpubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications. [00:33:00]
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