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Well top of the morning or evening whatever it is to you gardeners and homesteaders we hope everybody’s having a fantastic day and we’re just so happy to be here with you we’re hope you’re having a great holiday season right now bavia and myself are planning our Gardens for next year we’re getting our
Seeds started our seeds in order getting everything going and we want to just give this opportunity first of all for you guys to hear the top five episodes from last year so these are the episodes that you listen to the most commented and enjoyed on so be sure to enjoy these
I’m excited to relisten to them myself and also we have a couple of an announcements one is I am starting to do uh seed starting date profiles for people so if that something you’re interested in and you want we can do a seed starting profile for you just email
Me at Sandy Bottom Homestead gmail.com and the first 10 people to do it are going to get a 50% off discount and this will be geared for you and your area to give me your state and your city that you live in and we’ll get you a customized seed starting schedule for
You because what I found out in the past couple of years is in fact I was starting my seeds way too late and I wasn’t taking proper precautions and using the seeds to the best of their ability to grow bigger stronger plants and Thrive more rotate my crops out so I
Can get three to Four Season gardening out of it depending on where you are you can get that fourth season little disclaimer there but definitely reach out at Sandy Bottom Homestead at gmail.com and we’ll get one made for you and also we are proud to give you our
Sponsor which is planter app and like I said this is the time of year where we’re going to be planning our Gardens and we will be using the planter app it is an amazing app and it’s just it’s grown so much over the years it’s amazing but you can create profiles on
It you can make all your different Gardens and layouts and it’s drag and drop interface it has all the details you need for your plantings for your plants for your Frost dates your days to go out it has everything you need gives you pest controls companion combative
Plantings just it’s got it all I mean it’s something that I have really fall in love with over the year and I accredit the success of my garden to this over the years so definitely check it out there’s a link below that will get you a hefty discount on it so please
Take advantage of that because this is the season and which we’re going to be starting our Gardens and planting them and we want you to take advantage of it so you can get off to a great start for the year and it is available on Apple
And Google you can use it on your PC you can use it on your tablet and your phone so anywhere you are you can use this app so check it out that’s the planter app the pla a n t r app and make sure you use the link below to get your
Discount and that was a mouthful everybody so without further Ado we’re going to play these episodes and just know we are planning our Gardens just as hard as we can CU we are ready for the new year and well and also new bavia if you know what I’m saying but also the
Next gardening season so everybody as you listen to this remember we’re going to learn to grow and grow for change alrighty gardeners do you have a pot do you have some dirt do you have a plant well then you can have a ready-made container garden what a perfect way to expand your
Garden right here on the backyard gardens podcast to have a good harvest one must plant good seeds and must also use the right kind of fertilizer the carrots have grown large and firm how good they will taste welcome to the backyard gardens podcast where we talk about all things
Gardening we are your host Ben and bavia and you can find me gardening in the country and you’ll find me gardening in the city get ready as we dig deep into this wonderful world of gardening where we learn to grow and grow for change all right Miss bavia I think it’s
Time to upgrade the Bell just so we know we need we may need a replacement I think you have worn out the ringing mechanism in it so there’s that I think we’re fine hold on yeah we’re back well okay we’ll take it all right you know the deal real quick if you want
To be a patron and help support the Show links are down below in the description we would love to have you and it helps support the show and you will get two extra episodes a month and we are personally excited about our after show that we have created so come check that
Out and and the link below shirts Cub cups Cubs yeah we not selling baby bears mugs all all that good stuff 25% off code byg spring and now back to the regularly scheduled program so container gardening I know you love it don’t you I’m a big fan big fan yeah so I have
A LoveHate relationship with it an extreme LoveHate relationship but that’s okay and I know that we have had this show for a couple years now and yet another subject that we have haven’t really tapped into is container gardening mhm this is true I know why we
Haven’t why is that cuz the car Garden man the container gardening crew scares me man they are just like they are tight group you know what I mean they love it I mean I’ve heard you say this before yeah so they don’t scare me but I I respect the
Game but um how many containers are you running right now um I can say last year I got up to 40 containers varying in size everything from like one gallon containers up to 20 gallons so we’ll see um what this year brings there’s no plan to cut back
Significantly and there isn’t a plan to extend significantly either so so you’re just gonna kind of stay status quo I mean we’ll see there’s some things that definitely um I made notes of mental or otherwise that um could have done better in a different type of container so I’ll
Make adjustments um and this similar to my raised beds my plan for containers is swimming around in my head so yeah so um as far as containers go is a raised bed considered a container in your book is a raised bed considered a container I’ve heard this before in my
Book it’s not considered a container yeah me either I do have a caveat that we’ll get into later but I think that’s just me trying to justify which is okay I can justify every once in a while can I it’s Unbecoming of myself but um I’m running one two
Three I think four right now but I am expanding this year and I know that I flopped a little bit and said like I don’t like containers I don’t like containers but I found a good use for them which kind of in my mind in my mind that’s what spurred this conversation
That we’re about to have so um I think there’s a a definite benefit and there’s definite drawbacks to it as well wouldn’t you say yeah challenges I say is the way I describe it challenges limitations you know we can get in with all the synonyms we want
But in all reality I mean I think it’s a it’s not a definitely it’s definitely not a win-win and I think you have to consider um a number of things which we will discuss about how well they’re going to function inside of your garden because your garden is different than my
Garden yeah I mean I think for me if there is a statement to be made container gardening um puts people that otherwise some people otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to Garden it gives them an opportunity to Garden um so I I love it for that yeah and it’s
Um it’s definitely a way to like dip your toes into the water too you know what I mean yeah I mean it’s also you know kind of as a part of the container or the expansion series that we’re in um you know what is it now 1,488 beds that I have like
1,483 83 okay why would you bother with containers when you have that growing space right and there are a couple of different reasons but um one of them is it allows me to expand with little work I didn’t say little investment because there is investment there but little
Work like I don’t have to set up structures I don’t have to dig up things right um they are not permanent I can decide I’m not going to grow in any containers this year yeah you know and that’s that whereas you know if I’m sit
In looking at my raised beds and I’m not growing in them they’re just kind of these structures that are sitting there empty you know so um yeah I I got a lot to say I’m trying to Pace myself last week I had a on a fast forward like I
Was like get to the next topic which you didn’t like you didn’t know the next thing I wanted to talk about because we don’t we don’t really walk through it in that level of detail so I’m trying to Pace myself don’t keep on looking at me
So I’m laughing at two things so one let me address that comment first so yeah you were definitely like if somebody didn’t know you they’d be like damn bav just did a bunch of meth before she came on because it is out of her character to
Go that fast which for the record bavia is not on meth but that’s just a different story um and then second I laugh because we have recently picked up a lot of followers so thank you to and listeners so everybody who’s new thank you but when we said you po was got
1,483 beds you like how I remember that number I have to say that it’s not that is not an accurate number because we get comments and they’re like what in the hell is going on with batavia’s Garden how much does she really have so yeah um
You’ll just have to find out but we’re not going to we we always it’s a running joke on the show from day one of batavia’s entrance magnificent entrance into this realm we’ve had this joke look at you that’s right go ahead uh I’m feeling good I am I am believing the Li
It yeah that spring is here uh my spirits are up uh but no we won’t leave you hanging as of the recording of this video video this podcast I have eight raised beds in my front yard which has been converted full on to a garden and
Then I have eight raised beds in my backyard um and I say as of the recording because I keep on meaning to break ground uh it’s a part of our expansion we’ve been talking about with a couple of really narrow beds now the important note in the big asct they vary in size
So I mean almost none of them are the same size I mean I think I have like two beds in the front yard that are the same size that’s actually a lie too long and short of it don’t think about like straight a straight line of raised beds
I’ve configured things to kind of squeeze things into the space I have um so what that like 16 17 18 going on 17 18 um I counted eight in the front eight in the back so that would make 16 that’s simple math but you know you know my
Rule don’t do math in public so this is true there’s that um yeah and basically my garden looks like an Erector Set if you’ve listened to the last episode and then miss batavia’s Garden looks like a Lego set so there’s that so we’ll go there yeah especially because I just
Stepped on a pile of Legos and all you parents out there know what I’m talking about excruciating pain but um look let’s do this let’s go to the break real quick and then when we come back we’re going to break down container gardening and different types um ways to handle it different
Challenges and benefits and how it relates to expansion and good candidates be right back hey everybody thanks for checking out the backyard gardens podcast if you like what we’re doing and you want to continue to support the podcast head over to our patreon page to sign up you
Can also make a onetime donation using PayPal both of these links are in the description with your support we can continue growing and helping others in their Gardens see you we want you to be a part of our gardening Community DM us a picture of your garden at backyard
Gardens TV on Instagram and we will share it with our listeners you know how I know it’s getting close to Spring cuz your allergies are getting you aren’t they no I don’t have allergies I don’t allergies yeah okay four sneezes and three later I don’t have allergies in 10
Minutes come on people yeah I am not going to be the person that grew into allergies nope not me well that happened to me but you know what I fight through it um so look let’s do this let’s talk about the a container garden and just containers in general um what’s
Considered a container garden um I’d say anything thing that has um a bottom and some type of encasing that allows you to hold soil okay I like that I like so it doesn’t have to be a pot from the store I mean that’s like ke absolutely not yeah so um
You know I started off using five gallon buckets and they were all bright orange cuz I went to Home Depot and it was ugly as hell but it worked and then I found a can of spray paint and then I fixed that but um how it pertains to this series
That we’re talking about is if you want to um Leonard rewind time back to 200 like n or 10 and I had my first garden and at the same time I was putting containers on my porch and that’s how I expanded my garden then before I broke ground on new beds you
Know and stuff like that so um it’s a it’s a great way to add more growing without the labor of digging wouldn’t you say yep I agree 120% okay podcast over everybody have a good day yeah I think that uh I think last week I mentioned my inability to remember with
100% certainty but I believe um containers for me actually did start off with more like pots that you would traditionally grow flowers in yeah because I’ve always been a fan of flowers planting flowers and you know caring for flowers um and because I have an eye for oh that would look good you
Know and kind of building the aesthetic around my yard um I had a number of pots you know and so as I kind of poked around and and kind of understood kind of what people were doing in their Gardens and how I can improve my garden
Technique and so on and so forth you know I stumbled across container gardening as a thing right and you know hey if it’s dirt that you put in this pot to grow flowers you can put dirt in this pot to grow food you know so um so
You came up with it on your own yeah I invented container gardening holy crap we have a celebrity on our hands it’s it’s something that you know sometimes I’m embarrassed by you know because there are a lot of people that take credit for it and I’m not one to try to
Steal someone else’s Thunder uh or embarrass them so no it was an easier transition all jokes all jokes it was an easier transition because I kind of had that material and because I um was using like things like potting soil which will get into some of those things as well um I
Don’t know this already feels like a part tour uh so because we um we already had like potting soil and things like that like it was a real easy transition for me to just try to grow food um but to your point I started off with like a
30 foot X 4ot space like in ground for my garden and at that stage that was kind of the limit in my mind like I didn’t want to build out anything else like that wasn’t where my thought uh process was so in order to grow something different or in addition to
What I was already growing in that one space it was like okay containers made sense to me you know so yeah I was the same way when I had my first card I didn’t want to really break ground on anything new I wanted to eliminate grass that I had to cut but I
Didn’t care about making another garden and so that’s where the container is really filled in for me and I remember I had like an eggplant and then somebody had given me one of those I don’t know exactly the term but the long skinny pots that you can put like a deck rail
And I put like a couple um Jalapenos in those and I was happy just getting a couple jalapenos here and there the eggplants were prolific as hell you know and I didn’t know what to do with them at the time I think I even had a tomato
Maybe and then you know I had some herbs of course I had herbs um right there but I didn’t have a whole lot but it was enough to kind of fulfill that urge and what it really did is it fulfilled the the convenience factor of getting some
Fresh produce because I had it on my actual porch so all I had to do was just go outside and grab a couple things and that was a big deal for me and it was actually I think it was like two years until I really decided to like okay let
Me make another garden bed and then when I did that I think I jumped into making like two more and I think over time I may I can’t I mean you have to forgive me my memory is foggy but um I think I I started cutting down on the amount of
Containers I had actually I know I did because as my my um my bonsai garden grew on my porch then I had to have more room and so I kind of started eliminating and I had more space but I didn’t know what to grow in that space
So that was the other thing too is so I could move it into that but um you know I’d move like the eggplants from the porch into the actual garden and that was a big deal you know what I mean so I think there’s an argument that a
Container is a good place to test a certain vegetable out in yeah I still do that to this day and let me just make one note so when you know kind of I opened up and said for gardeners that wouldn’t be able to Garden otherwise I’ll actually amend that and say
Um that I my garden space for years again it’s that one space along the fence line where the cage baby currently is but that’s like 30 ft by 4 feet that’s that was the only dirt that I had in my backyard like the rest of my
Backyard is patio it was here when I moved in and porch and deck right so there was no other place that I had actually that’s my grandfather and I planted collards on the side of my garage one year cuz that was a space that had dirt but any who so it was what
Do you do this is before the idea of dig up your front yard came up you know so whatever I was growing in that 30 foot X 4ot space and then alongside the garage was kind of vit and I had already started to get bit by the bug and so you
Know some people don’t grow in ground based on soil conditions um and there are a bunch of other different reasons but for me that space that I had it was kind of like okay you can here but that’s this is the only space you can
Grow right and so that again leads me to expanding my garden space my garden footprint and I did that initially through containers before I ever um in spoiler you can absolutely put rais beds on concrete and grow on concrete I actually searched around a lot to see
How effective that would be before I actually started uh building out raised beds um Mel bar tholu is an advocate of that I don’t know that I saw him do that yeah the square foot garden that was like one of the big things is like you can put it right on a
Patio well there you have it yeah and he kind of gave designs and ideas behind it so um I like I like how I use that guy’s name like we’re friends yeah our buddy male um and and the there’s so much learning there so similar to um like putting something on
A patio and building it up like I didn’t understand then how much soil some of these plants really needed to sit in to grow you know so I describe it now as like how deep were these roots ago and so that was a part of the what I viewed
As a challenge like okay yeah I could put something on a patio and you know add dirt to it but how much do I need and so there’s a similar question around the types of containers you use you know how big of a container do you need right
And my immediate answer if I could ever give anything an answer in one sentence it would be depends on what you’re growing yeah so um so miss Pavia got me um it’s kind of a serious gift but a gag gift at the same time I feel like she got me the
Square foot gardening like actual book which I’ve never read from cover to cover I want to I want to make a confession I’m such a garden dork that whenever I go camping I always take gardening books to read while I’m out camping so I’m going to be camping
Season to start up someone be powering through it so um good for you yeah it is good for me but yeah you know I don’t think the roots go as deep as you think well not you think but like as people think because when I pull up my plants
At the end of the year they’re not going all the way down through the whole bed so I don’t know I don’t really understand why I made my my bed so deep I think I had a misconception maybe even my sweet potatoes don’t go that deep I think um
And garden cleanup is one of the best ways to figure that piece out you know and so this is again one of those things that you I learned over time right you know so you buy the little plant or you plant the seed like everything starts
Off pretty small and then at the end of the season I would pull up my tomato plants and say wower right and so in my mind that was kind of like the bar like tomato plants they can have big root systems everything from a spreading to I
Mean I don’t know I’m terrible at these kind of measurements but maybe like six or eight inches or something that’s about five or six inches you’re holding up that my hand is yeah I told you I’m terrible at it so something in between five and and 58
Ines good night what a spread yeah right but to that point like that’s what made me think okay because traditionally I know of gardening growing food farming and just playing no soil so it doesn’t matter that the um the vegetables primarily is what we’re talking about
Will have the space that they need right like this is before we get into like how good is the soil that they’re growing and all that stuff like oh yeah I have an open garden space but you know the soil 5 feet or five inches below isn’t
Good like am I going to get into all that so I absolutely understand how people because I had that misconception as well think oh you absolutely need all of the space to grow in you know for me for containers it’s less about how much soil you’re growing in and more about
The more soil you have the easier it is which I’m jumping ahead because I’m excited the easier it is to keep that container watered right you know so the smaller that container the quicker it will dry out and that’s why you need a bigger container m that is the sole reason why
You need a big container and that is the my main Downfall with that not the sole reason but that’s a one of the top reason primary all kinds of adjetives man I’ve been doing this Wordle I don’t know have have I talked to you about playing Wordle no don’t we’re not New
York Times now owns it but that’s another conversation so I’m all like you know felter words which that one wasn’t but any who here we are I can think of a felter word no but seriously um you know watering is like it’s that’s the downfall that I have with
It is you know where I live it’s hot and so like it’s really hard to keep these things watered and I mean there’s times you know I would never water my regular Garden every day I wouldn’t do it but this one I’m having to water you know if
I do the containers every day and so you talk about you know we’ve talked about container size basically and I do have to make a statement that I’ve said in previous podcast this year that I was going to do grow bags and I changed my mind because
I was talking to bavia about this I have two big pots that I have in my front yard that just they don’t do very well there so I’m going to bring those into my backyard and add them into the corners of the beds and grow additional
Like maybe a quick tomato or like that just like an in and- out kind of crop and put that in there and then it’s a good thing because not only that um one of the big things too and so we’ve talked we’re we’re talking about how
Watering is kind of an issue for me but the other a benefit on the converse side is I can pick up that pot and move it somewhere else if I’m like hey I’m not going to be able to water it let me put it in the shade for a couple days I’m
Going out of town I can move this I can move it over to where my sprinkler is going to be hitting or something like that so there’s a lot of different you know different ways to manage this so it’s a it’s a great way to expand a garden by not breaking ground
And I mean I think too if you do it right it adds a lot of beauty to your garden as well I think you can you know even if you do FL like I don’t care you do flowers whatever I think it can add a
Lot to the Garden I could be wrong but I think it just can you know and you have the ability to change it over the years yeah yeah let me um just do a quick walk through and I’m not going to list all 40 of the containers but I just want to
Quickly talk about the types of containers I grow in it and I plan on doing something um like this again I did this a couple of years ago on YouTube and I plan on doing it again since I’ve expanded a bit uh but I mentioned one
Gallon and so some of those are one gallon buckets which almost all the buckets I grow in are free buckets that I’ve gotten from grocery stores um you know a lot of the grocery stores Bakery sections or a bakery um everyone doesn’t give them away but a lot of spaces in my
City uh will give them to you for free so I have everything from one to five gallon so one gallon 2 gallon 4 gallon five gallon buckets they’re white buckets they don’t bother me much being white buckets um I know that you mentioned the orange buckets um which
I’m not a fan of either but um I also have some more decorative pots that were originally purchased for the purpose of flowers um and they are about 17 gallons and they look really good they’re sexy man they’re black they’re Sleek you know they than a sexy pot I’m telling you I’m
Telling you man like no matter what you’re growing in I could just have compost in there man that’s going to be some sexy compost damn it I’m ready I’m telling you and then I have a series of different size grow bags so um actually started off with 20 gallon grow bags I
Have 10 gallon grow bags and I recently invested in seven gallon grow bags um and then I have your Ins And Odds so it’s like everything in between you know um the railings I have a bunch of those like those skinny kind of railing uh size containers I get those and if I
Purchase it primarily I’m purchasing from your home improvement stores Lowe’s Home Depot Menards um and so I have a bunch of kind of varying sizes of those which I think primarily are designed for the purpose of flow like that’s like who they’re marketing to um but I found some
Great use in them um dude Peppers go great in there Peppers go awesome in those railing pots yeah yeah I feel like almost I should have directed this episode because I I want to take us to the point of so there’s some of my favorites when it comes to Growing um
And I’ll say that favorite but um I want to before it it leaves me I want to talk about um the biggest lesson that I learned very early on with containers and that’s drainage right so one hand we talked about you need to make sure that you’re watering these containers which is
Crucial right um but also you what do we we’ve said this before I don’t know any plant herb or fly fl flyer flower that likes to sit in water you know day on day on day oh oh is it Bonsai yeah yeah uh Bal Cyprus yeah I set them in a in a
Tub of water so that’s the single thing in the world that likes to sit in water right yeah there’s not much I mean but over the years I realized um after I had kind of soggy roots that a lot of these containers uh that are meant to be pots and things will come
With some drainage holes but a lot of them aren’t big enough to you know really support the kind of watering and growing we’re doing and then anything you’re repurposing which container Gardeningsmall my gu a container garden it’s my containers um but they are I go to anytime I buy a plant to put in my yard it comes in that big plastic pot I keep it and that’s what I use or I go to the Garden Center and they actually recycle
Them and I say hey man let me jump in your dumpster and I go jump in you know I’ll just pull a couple big pots out or whatever they’re all black um they’re nothing fancy but they definitely do the trick you know what I mean and they
Actually have each one of them I’m you’re going to think I’m dumb for knowing this but I know this has five big drainage holes one in the middle and then four on the corners which is important because that’s where the water will pull up in the corner
So um I don’t have an issue with that but I know when I had the buckets I did have an issue and I got to the point where I actually ended up um punching out the bottom of the buckets and you know enter the almighty drill you know
What I mean like the drill save I mean that’s what I use my drill for solely for years was making drainage holes I swear it didn’t do nothing but drainage holes mhm but um you’re exactly right I think it is and a lot of container
Gardens I see are not like and I this is going to come out wrong I’m just going to say it the way it’s in my head or else we I’ll stutter it’s not a wellth thought out like oh let me go and purchase these pots for this container garden a lot of
Times it’s this is what I can use let me use it and I think it’s awesome I think it’s great because in a world where everything’s plastic we have a lot of issues with that and it gets wasted and it fills up our landfills but you’re
Taking it and you’re using it into your garden for a purpose and I read a book one time um it’s funny how things work it was around the same time I started gardening and um I was on a ship for uh 20 days and I took a series of books I
Mean I read a lot of books and one of them was it was like it was a Christian novel about the end of the world kind of there’s like a um a solar flare and all the power went out long story short everybody was struggling except for this
Old lady and they went to her house and she had in her window sills and on her porch and everything she had like Cool Whip containers and all kinds of like trash containers just filled up with dirt and plants that she was growing and they were like what are you doing she
Was like I you don’t waste this stuff you know it’s given to us it was a gift let’s not waste it let’s reuse it and then from that moment on for the next eight books in the series they became this flourishing group of people in a world where there was nobody left
Because they were able to grow food and contain it and in the winter time they could bring it in and do stuff like that you know they could cover them and do all kinds of things so it was it was very it’s it’s very important for me to
See that and read that because it’s so true you know there’s a lot of waste in a container garden will help eliminate that or at least prolong it let me say I mean cuz eventually the pot will break down yeah I am I’m going to pull myself together because that speaks to two
Things that I love dark bavia loves post-apocalyptic things right and then clearly you know everyday bavia loves gardening I’mma send you the books yeah oh yeah I didn’t want to ask on the air you’re G to read yeah yeah listen now I’m G hold on listen listen you can’t be
Nicer to do that I let you get away with the whole no she’s not she really doesn’t use meth right like like I feel like this is like character assassination or something and now like oh you’re going to read CU I’m actually listening to an audio book so maybe
There is some truth to that anyway I’ll send you the audio book then if that helps yeah yeah so this is a couple of notes here um this is the way I live I save a lot of things because I believe most everything can be repurposed um I
Feel great about it until I’m stepping over you know so there is that piece of it but for so many years I bought everything in my garden that was planted flowers and food uh vegetables and herbs and things from someplace right and they’re just clearly they’re
Not giving that stuff to you you know putting a pile of dirt and a plant in your hand right they come in containers of varying sizes and so this is a great tip if you have the space and the discipline to not just make it like this
show of like crap everywhere um there’s so many things that I and kind of off topic but connected even with seed starting there are a lot of containers that I clean up that I’ve I bought whatever the plant was then I plant it and clean it up and then I save
That container and I’ll use it in my seed starting but they’re also especially for some of your larger flowers um there are a lot of containers that can be repurposed and you can grow food in them you know so I I do I know it gets kind of like you know like
Kitchy like you know they’re there you know have Gardens with like trinkets everywhere like I try to be careful of that when it comes to the design you just don’t want all of this random crap but at the end of the day if your primary goal is to grow food there all
Kinds of ways that you can get that started or keep that going yeah um so think perennial flowers they’re giving you one gallon uh containers easily you know my favorite hibiscus anytime I’ve bought those one gallon two gallons um you pay pay an arm and a leg for the
Plant you know luckily it’s beautiful but why not keep that container if you can you know and use that I planted mustards in those size containers last year um so yeah I reuse containers especially the ones that you you get when you buy plants and stuff I have
Those everywhere and when I do my um annual seedling sale sale um I will use re I’ve had problems with people contact me and they’re like did did you grow these or are these from the company I’m like no I’m just reusing the pot man like there’s no point in wasting it like
Come get it you know what I mean so um I I definitely I definitely do that when I’m potting things up for sure CU those are great sizes cuz think about it again you if you buy a pepper plant from the store when it’s time for me to pot up my
Pepper plants it’s going to be in that same size container so right yeah and I definitely have bought some containers too but I continue to save them and I have actually I have a shelf in my shed that is nothing but old containers stacked up and I use them three times
Real fast no there’s no way I can get it out three times I can’t even get it out another time but um you know when we come we got way off topic of course but it’s kind of the benefit of you know the reusing stuff is one of the benefits of
The container garden and then I think it’s the biggest benefit really um you know in the grand scheme of things but the versatility of it too you know we kind of alluded to being able to move them around and stuff like that and place them in different areas I mean
Have you ever looked at somewhere in your in your space and been like you know what a tomato would look really good there it would be a nice Bush for right now it’d be functional but you can’t really get it there and that’s when the container would help because
Then you can just like put it there you know what I mean and it’s same with testing out Waters too I’ve never looked at it like that um but after I’ve put something there I’m like oh okay I like how that’s growing oh that’s convenient I absolutely use some of my containers
For testing like there’s some of my the newer crops I will start with them in containers to see if I can be successful with containers because I still look at and I know I know don’t come for me but I still look at the raised beds as my
Primary growing space right you know so that’s the the best that I have and so if I can grow some things in containers and they can be successful then I can save this other growing space for other things that have different needs like I don’t have to worry about watering my
Tomato plant that’s in ground or in a raised bed every day right you know but if I’m successful with growing them in a container then hey I could even give some of that soil or rust from growing tomatoes so they’re definitely a bunch of different benefits um and I like the
Way you say without breaking ground like you don’t need to break ground no to have to grow food to have containers no you don’t and I mean people in apartments they can grow on porches just like I did you can grow them balconies patios you know a a lot of spaces I mean
Look my man on that movie Water World he grew a tomato plet on a damn boat and purified his piss so he could water it # just Sayan so I mean it’s definitely been shown um I mean and that that movie by the way is true facts so anybody who
Says it’s bad is just terrible but um made me lose my train of thought so we this goes really well with the uh vertical gardening episode that we did last week and if you haven’t listened to that you should go all the way to the
End of this one and then go back but containers can really fit in perfect because not only are you know we we we talked a little bit about like upside down tomatoes and stuff like that but hanging pots you know hanging them up so they don’t even have to be on the ground
At all you know hang them from a tree if you have to hang them you know do all kinds of things I mean I got a uh last year I went and got a 4×4 and stuck it in the ground I spent 20 bucks on it and
I have three hanging pots on it you know and I could continue to go down more and more if I wanted so you know it’s another good way to you know really expand and at that point I’m going to go on on on record and just say if you’re
Growing ver if you’re growing in a pot in the air you’re growing vertically no matter what it is it’s got to be vertical right just say yes just agree with me okay perfect thank you so much you’re such a good friend there is a yeah of
Course I am there is um I’ve wanted to grow herbs in um should have started with those hm you should have started with those yeah forever debate there so I wanted to grow herbs and um a couple of round raised bits they’re actually fire pits
Um 36 Ines around in the front yard but I found last year that having herbs right outside my door in a container were so convenient it helped me keep track of and use them so much more I mean the general rule is the closer that the garden is to your home the better
And sometimes that even means like stepping outside your door versus 20 feet away from your door um and so I’m I’m I’ve basically said you know I can actually just with the containers that I have plant my herb space my herb garden right here outside of my door um and
It’s nice because it’s not I don’t have to worry about frying them you know I don’t have to worry about that set of containers drying out too fast because it gets like maybe Morning Sun but basically afternoon shade which goes back to the idea of how often or how um
Infrequently or how frequently I want to water um however for those that really do need watering it’s right outside my door it’s going to be the first thing that I see when I do my Garden Walk um so yeah I was waiting for something else and you stopped
Classic bavia of like it’s not M sentence I’m basically down with a thought that was you know formulating as I said it yeah yeah in thought no it’s um when when you plant and when you plant close to the house you’re exactly right you will use it more you will tend
To it more you’ll be able to take care of it and keep an eye on it and a lot of times some people you know people don’t have dirt right next to their door mhm so that you know the containers then lend that spot and I think that’s really
What we need to take away from or what I need to take away from it and I hope other people do is it’s about bringing the food closer to you putting it in places in which you may not be able to grow so that you can be more mindful of
What you’re doing and growing it and I mean let’s be honest if I have a basil next to my back porch and I have a basil out in my garden the basil out my garden is going to bolt and be full of flowers and be bitter the basil by my porch is
Going to be nice and trimmed and bushy and that’s just cold hard facts so um you know and I don’t mind if it’s a little bit bitter whatever but truth be told I would rather not have the bitter basil let’s just be honest yeah I just came up with an idea
In my head um so we let’s hear it versus an idea that would have come from some other place besides my head uh so I was thinking about um this corner of my back porch I put all kinds of different flowers there over the years and it’s
Just remember how you said earlier it doesn’t have to be an ugly space you know you can look and say oh that would look good there I really like the look of it it makes me happy walking out of the door looking out of the window um
And so the idea was I actually what I want to do is build like a little shelf that’s a little bit higher cuz otherwise I have to use like plant stands so they’re not on the ground I like them more like you know chest level um but
The second idea was um I had just put my grow bags my smaller grow bags right there I had basil um and lemon balm in a container right outside of the door and it’s exactly what you said I use that much more often then I had a mixture of
Herbs um further into the backyard lined up with some other grow bags and and I didn’t really even get to those herbs until the weather started to cool off and they struggled all summer like in the heat of the summer um and so it’s in my mind I’m saying I probably need to
Bring all of those things closer to me but the asct is I can still interplant uh flowers if I want I can still put a container that has flowers in right like you can everything doesn’t have to be one straight thing it doesn’t have to be all herbs it doesn’t
Have to be all flowers it doesn’t have to be all vegetables um and I think that container gardening just like if you’re doing a raised bed you can play around with that you know well last year I have you know I have that big container by my
Greenhouse mhm last year I put five pepper plants in it one marold one pin wheel petunia and a baby’s breath in there and it was pretty until it got overgrown and crazy and then it wasn’t pretty but that’s a different story we won’t really rehash
That but it was pretty you know what I mean and it was allowed me to do something like that and it allowed me to be a little bit more creative in my space versus in my raised beds where I’m like look space is a premium you know
What I’m saying you’re going to get one flower and then that’s all you’re going to get so um it was definitely I I I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to doing that again and if I did another I’ve kind of played around with the thought of changing my system for my
Herb garden and if I do that I may actually move that into giant pots as well and do something like that where it’s just more more beamus and you know something more pleasing to the eye I’m not I’m not sold on what I’m doing yet
And I may not even be sold this year because I’m running out of time quick but um you know I did one here’s another reason way I used a container before I grew chamomile for a long time and I read very early on that it can be almost
Invasive because of the way it drops its flowers and everything so I put it on the corner of my bed in a one gallon pot and then I never had issues with it and I got tea for years and years out of it and I was able to take care of it so
That was another benefit of that too is like you have a plant that could be invasive like mint or something like that you can put it into a pot and isolate it that way at least so you can keep the roots from going into the ground and spreading that way or you can
Move it away in case it drops seeds or something like that that’s a huge tip a huge tip a huge tip I vow not to grow mint in a garden bed or garden space unless it’s in a container because of how invasive it is um and I think I’ve
Seen you do this as well I’ve done this depending on the year uh taking a pot uh a container of some sort and actually kind of buried it almost into the the garden um I did this with some flowers um originally and I mean I’m G to keep
It really real with you it was because a couple of my flower putts pots had walked off of my porch and so I figured if I bury these you know someone’s going to have to work to to get this and it wasn’t obvious to the
Eye but I say that you know from a gardening perspective you can do that and it could help when it comes to if you have the the space it can help when it comes to um your watering needs one thing about again I go back to the
Containers the reason why I like to group my containers and I’ve come to this decision over the years one I like the look of them but two it allows me to be more disciplin when it comes to watering them you know so I’ve had over the years containers everywhere in my
Space and um the further they are apart it may look good but the further they are apart the more taxing it is on the gardener to keep up especially if you’re talking about even if you have four or five or six or seven containers like that’s still something to keep up with
Um so that’s something I try to do and i’ I Envision that as as soon as you put together what’s the rule of three for Landscaping and Gardening and all soon as you put three of something together I can I call it a garden yeah amen yeah I
Um and so just for the record I I want to get this out before we go on too far you know we waited till late in the show but use container soil and amend it as needed and I actually mulch mine too I’ll put a mat
Of um let me say it correctly wheat straw okay it’s not hay it’s wheat straw so I use that um and top is to help with the moisture and stuff like that and then I use it and it stays on the winter time it’ll help fluctu it’ll help temperature fluctuations and it’ll break
Down and add to the soil over time but you really want to make sure you’re using the correct soil because it’s made and you could make your own by just adding um Pete spagna Moss in if you wanted but this is already pre pre-made
For you so it’s a lot easier now as the prices go up which they are I’m here to tell you a bag of soil is not cheap then maybe you should experiment and then I’m going to go and tell you what I would do is I would go heavier on the Pete Spang
Moss heavy on the compost and then just some regular soil with it and then that’ll help but um you definitely want to make sure you’re using the correct stuff because it will hold moisture better it makes a huge difference and fertilize pretty good yeah I um for
Years have bought potting soil mix for me they they’re the same um but they it’s hella expensive right and the more you grow in containers the more you know some type of growing medium you need um so I do two things what you describe so I use Pete Moss because I’ve bought like
Two big bags of it um an alternative is Coco corer um which is supposed to be a more sustainable version of it I’m going to finish off my Pete Moss you know um and I mix in Pete Moss uh um Sometimes some regular um soil depending on kind
Of what kind of container I’m growing in um some compost just a bit of it um and I absolutely similar to you U mul those containers um to try to retain some of that moisture um I absolutely reuse spent potting soil so you know so there
Nutrients in the soil you buy when you buy potting soil and potting mix right um but you’re not going to that that’s going to be used up once you get out throughout the season so to your point um I probably focused on fertilizing my containers first when I decided to bite
The bullet and you know get into fertilizing because I knew that those plants were going to be um challenged right and think about you’re also watering some of that kind of food plant food out of it too when you’re watering um I think the other thing um right and
Conversely it can build up the salt from it too because of the way it is so it is is nice it is important to find a a balance yeah one last note regarding soil um if I have a huge container like you know for me like 20 15 20 plus 30
Gallon something like that um I absolutely you know cuz again we talked about very early on a lot of these plants don’t need a lot of growing space so something that has more shallow roots even or your general plant probably anything that’s you you know your peppers your lettuces your herbs and
Things like that that don’t have huge root systems if I’m putting them in a huge pot if that’s the decision I’ve made I’ll put spent potting soil at the bottom meaning that you know I used it last year you know grew in it and then
I’m not adding much to it but I just need some filler you know so I do that as well that’s what bavia does for her soil everybody end sentence end sentence and then begin in recipe of the day this episode is proudly sponsored by the garden we share from north south
Books it’s an inspiring new picture book written by Zoe Tucker and illustrated by Juliana sweny the number one New York Times best-selling illustrator of we are the gardeners by Joanna gains this beautiful book celebrates the friendship between a young girl and an elderly woman as they plant seeds in a community
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Gardening B what question do we get asked the most I would have to say it’s probably more something like what are the products we use in our Gardens the most ding ding ding ding that’s the correct answer hey there’s an Amazon link below when you get over to the
Amazon store know that you’re going to be supporting the podcast but all of the products both bavia and I have used in our Gardens we want to see you all over on YouTube so check us out at backyard gardens TV to watch our podcast and other gardening
Videos all right so I need you all to try this with me and I I need you to not turn your noses up so this is a pea soup right I know dude you’re freak I just ate that for dinner last night oh get out of the world look so this is three
Three strikes now you know with you a name calling well what the talk after class I didn’t call you a name oh yeah did yeah you did yeah yeah yeah uh so this is kind of in the spirit of kind of spring and you’ll be harvesting some of your peas soon
Um I’m going to go with we’re going to heat a medium pot medium heat four five six quarts whatever the sizes you normally cook in we’re going to add some scallions that are chopped up we’re going to add some Teragon or basil which we may not have
In our Gardens yet but you could purchase it too we’re going to stir that up until it’s soft 3 or 4 minutes um now you’re going to use your peas and it could be fresh or frozen you’re going to need about three cups of peas though and
These are your sweet peas is what I’m talking about which your face I knew like I had a winter winter chicken dinner and I love to hear your adjustments here too since you just recently had it all right so we’re going to add the peas Ander for about a minute
Um we’re going to use vegetable broth this is full vegetable soup here so we’re going to use vegetable bath about three cups right to give it a little bit of like going power you know we want this to stretch out right uh so from there we’re going to bring the the broth
And mixture up to a boil and we’re going to let it then simmer after it comes up to a boil turn the heat down let it simmer for 3 or 4 minutes now the thing about this is it’s going to be a smooth soup right so it’s okay you’re not
Overcooking things um we’re going to take the soup off of the stove uh we’re going to put this into either a blender or if you have one of those immersion blenders you know you want to basically smooth this thing out um so you’re going to blend it up either way
Um and then you’re going to put it back on the stove this is where you’re going to add some lemon juice I just love adding lemon juice to to Foods all right so we’re going to add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice this is where
You season the way that you want you know salt and pepper uh you can put some garlic powder in there if you want whatever The Taste you’re looking for that’s where you can do that um I prefer this I’ve had pea soup before I’ve not used this recipe but I prefer it warm
But this is something obviously you could actually eat cold um and then either use sour cream or yogurt if you want to top it with just a dollop of it um this is a way that you can use either last year’s pea Harvest or what you’re
Getting out of the garden this year or you can buy them um I’m going to add some maybe French bread a little bit of butter on it on the side or garlic bread because I have that in the freezer and I’m going to enjoy peace sou folks so the only thing
I would do different is I don’t like mine Blended mhm so what I do is I take a potato masher and I just mash them up and when they release the starches I let it cook and it’ll thicken up a little bit so that’s the only thing I would do
Different I just don’t like M like baby food yeah yeah yeah yeah you know what I mean that’s the reason I was like stay with me cuz I mean the idea of like green peas and like yeah I get how that could be baby soup Bish yeah yeah we did
That with the like um butternut squash and so in my house I’m the soup master so I make a lot of soups and um yeah last night we had pea soup you’re so weird that’s crazy I know that you are you’re either spying on me or we just
Know each other that well to where you know what I’m eating now and it freaks me out just a little bit well I just I can’t believe that the cameras are still active and they haven’t been found So but no it’s uh and it’s perfect timing too because everybody should be PL if you listen to the show and you’re not planting peas what are you doing with yourself I mean really no no what are you doing with yourself did we I don’t know did we ever we’ve not
Declared you got to grow this this year no I think we should declare you got to grow we we’ve done your you grow this grow this series is one of our favorite series for our minisodes yeah all right you should grow you’re really trying to chip into spring
Bavia just coined it you have so many phases of bavia I get confused we have new year bavia we have spring bavia we have I’m I’m done with summer bavia we have the fall the uplifting fall bavia the winter sadness bavia yeah what else do we have I think that’s it right yeah
Personally there’s that that winter sa it’s is separate from holiday oh vavia yeah I’m just Ben it’s okay though it’s okay like I think um I know the people that I know I’m friends with the people I’m friends because no one really gets the same bavia right yeah not many people let me
Say that yeah that’s true it keeps us on our toes and all the listeners are on their toes too but um no solid recipe and you know Teragon I don’t know how I feel about it yet it’s I’m not sure how feel about it either yeah I think it would be it’s a
Savory Spice I believe so I’d probably use that over basil though I would think you know what I mean I probably would use basil I think but I was um I was watching this you know again I mentioned this a couple weeks ago like everyone like has a cooking show a
Cooking channel a cooking page and so um this this guy I used to watch and I I see him come up in my feed from time to time and he’s doing this thing like it’s some paid service you know like you know like kind of like a take on Master Class
Um but in the introduction so I’ve not signed up for it or anything but in the introduction he said something like um people often times if they don’t have ingredients that a recipe calls for they toss the recipe and a part of that comes from us not necessarily understanding
What we get from a particular herb you know so the the flavor or the texture or the filling that that spice gives gives you or that herb gives you or whatever have you like that allows you to make adjustments I was actually um in a different part of my life talking to
Some folks and um she said that her the way that her mother taught her and her sisters to cook was you should be able to taste the recipe that you once you read it right so and and that never occurred to me like once you read the
Ingredients of a recipe you should know what it tastes like you should actually be able to taste it and so that allows you to make adjustments as you cook and that allows you to go free form on that recipe if you want to change some things
Out right yeah um so I I think sometimes I would default to Basil because I’m more familiar with that but maybe I will try with tagon because who knows well one of the things I’ve learned in my years um and this goes back to when we
Were like full out vegan there were so many spices that you had to have in order to create Foods so we thought and you you couldn’t keep up with it so we end up doing and it’s a simple Google search is what can I use instead of this
That or the other and I learned that and this ties in directly with gardening a lot of them are interchangeable and the flavor profiles are so similar that you don’t have to have this all expansive herb garden to in order to cover it you can have like your Basics would be oregano
Thyme basil and and I mean that really covers they your basis for all of this stuff so you know if you if you don’t have time you can use oregano or if you need parsley you can use oregano or thyme you know there’s all these different things that
You know it’s like if you don’t have dried mustard which a lot of recipes would call for you can just use regular mustard you know plain oldfashioned frenches mustard you know what I’m saying or if you’re like me you buy the generic so you can do that but there’s
All these different ways you can do it so um I learned that and then it made me for my gardening a lot better because then I could focus on just certain herbs instead of going this like all expansive I do want to grow bay leaves though I
Have yet to grow those and I do want to grow those cuz we cook a lot of soups yeah and they’re expensive too and it’s on my longer unofficial list as well um there’s just so many opportunities maybe this year I do have to buy some um herbs
And and different tea flowers and stuff for this year so maybe I’ll buy bay leaves this year mhm cuz I’m tired of buying them and then I’m being all crushed up when you want me to put one bay leaf in don’t give me a container that’s all crushed up and powder I don’t
Want that and then you have to fish it out it’s kind of like it’s in 18 pieces yeah I’m exaggerating a little bit there yeah not really it’s pretty bad all right everybody I hope truly that if you’re trying to expand nope nope we got to go long because you have to give
Candidates your favorite things to grow in containers oh yeah yeah yeah yeah my bad my bad um I I like tomatoes and eggplants and peppers those are my favorites to put in pots so Peppers absolute hands down number one pick uh for me uh in containers lettuce because I’m kind of
Prissy I like clean lettuce and it’s a much cleaner in containers for me than it has been kind of growing it in ground or you know um in beds and I’m going to shout out to you although you’ve been away with me this episode I’m going to
Say herbs uh-huh uh-huh herbs yeah the whole lot of herbs didn’t you do this to me earlier this season don’t narrow it down whatsoever yeah that’s definitely a page out of my book yeah and I think if you go with something that’s not like I don’t think
Corn would do very good I think people do it but I don’t think that it works the best I tried it last year and it was a bomb yeah and then like melons and stuff I mean it works but the size of the roots isn’t the problem it’s the vines so I
Feel like those aren’t very good candidates you um I would agree that they’re not the best candidates I would add I would actually um add cucumbers um similarly Vines I think that all of those can be grown in containers but you have to be very intentional very planful
You have to keep your eye on those things you have to fertilize you have to make sure the water is is proper like they aren’t as forgiving as some other plants that you would grow in containers yeah now you can’t add a trellis to a
Pot so there is that that is not the issue um hm interesting thought maybe I should do that this year this is what I need one more trellis but um and I think two asteris huge Aster varieties check different varieties you have bushing varieties you have container varieties for a lot of things
Um you have smaller fruits for some stuff so there is a lot of options out there for your containers and it turns out that a lot of stuff I put in my garden are container varieties which doesn’t make any sense but that’s okay one of some of that’s a little bit of
That’s marketing one of the uh cherry tomatoes I’m growing again this year if it gets out of the girl room it’s a patio variety of a a cherry tomato so the plant is just meant to get smaller than you would like your 5 feet six feet seven feet tall cherry tomato plant would
That’s a good thing how many cherry tomatoes do you really need you know every year I think about H but every year it’s the first tomato I love them and then it’s the it gets into end of summer of bavia I’m just like enough yeah my wife told me last year she goes
Why in the hell would you take cherry tomatoes and trade them with somebody else for more cherry tomatoes and I was like well ours are yellow and their’s are red she she’s like I don’t give a what they are stop just get rid of
Them yes ma’am so that was that was my tongue lashing for the year in the garden it was pretty brutal too but that’s all right there’s nothing better though than a cherry tomato you’re never going to get a a tomato that’s sweeter than a cherry tomato and pick any
Variety really um but a lot of them put on a lot of fruit like yeah yeah we’re she’s limited me to one cherry tomato plant in the garden each year which I can respect that M so there’s your candidates so everybody now we’ve gone a little bit long but that’s
Okay if you want to expand your garden container gardens are great it’s a great way to test it’s a great way to move things around challenges or watering um stay on top of your fertilizing be creative add flowers to your pots and enjoy them thank you so
Much for being part of the show and listening and um we may end up adjusting the schedule for next week I have to run it by Miss Pavia I had an idea during the show so um stay tuned we may be continuing the expand your garden series
Maybe no promises but uh we love you guys thank you so much check the links below become a patron buy a shirt mug c a cup fanny pack whatever you want is there thank you be wedgie spring 25% off until June 20th see you we hope you enjoyed Today’s
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