Let’s talk container & desert gardening with Angela Judd on this week’s Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast. Join us for great tips!
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Welcome everyone to the Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast where experts from around the world Talk Shop share stories and offer their favorite tip I’m your host Christy Wilhelmi. This week my guest is Angela Judd, a certified Master Gardener and mother of five. Angela shares gardening tips through her YouTube channel with nearly 250,000 subscribers her blog online classes and her book how to grow your own food and Illustrated beginners guide to container gardening. She joins us today from her home in Arizona. Thanks for being here Angela. thanks so much for having me I’m excited to talk with you uh you’re in Arizona which automatically makes you a rock star when it comes to gardening in difficult conditions so tell us a little bit about your homestead and where you’re located you bet you know Arizona gardening is definitely different and challenging but I love it here we can garden year round you don’t have to but you can garden year round so we’re a desert as you would imagine we don’t get a lot of water and we do get high heat but we have beautiful mild Winters that we’re able to grow you know a lot of those cool season crops um during our Winters so it’s really a fabulous time to Garden and I can pick something every day of the year from my garden so no complaints even though there are some challenges um I have a I live in a HOA lot in Mesa Arizona less than a third of an acre and I have about you know I in ground garden areas containers about 20 raised beds lots of fruit trees 20 raised beds 20 I know it’s it’s a lot uh it is a lot to keep up with but I love it I really do love it we’ve got lots of citrus pomegranates peaches plums you know lots of fruit trees growing too so lot growing it sounds amazing and and what are you growing this time of year what’s coming in is anything coming in from the garden right now I guess is what I should ask well we June is the beginning of June is when we’re harvesting all of those spring warm season crops that love our Springs you know the beans and cucumbers and squash and you know peaches and all of those things but they kind of finish up as our temperatures start to heat up and we’re in that transition now where the hot seasoned crops are planted um but we’re enjoy enjoying the abundance of warm seasoned crops right now so lots of tomatoes you know all that warm season crops this is the time where we get to harvest those because our season starts kind of pretty early in the spring got it yeah that’s sort of similar to here in Los Angeles although we’ve had we had we have our typical June Gloom but we’ve had May gray and then we had gra roll before that so it’s been just totally totally socked in and I’m only well I only put in my tomatoes at the toward the end of May so it’s kind of uh yeah late this year very late this year but it’s GL I’m glad to hear that something’s going now I noticed also that you’re sitting next to some grow lights uh and what what do you have started under there so I’ve got some more like hot seasoned crops that are are getting ready I’m experimenting with I think I have eight different varieties of Basil that I have growing there um I’ve you know grown a lot of different varieties but these are kind of eight new to me varieties that I hadn’t tried before so I’m excited about those basil loves our heat they don’t all love sunlight but they definitely can tolerate our heat I’ve got zenas going and then I have four three or four new to me heat loving greens VAR ities that I’m trying out that have been recommended to me so I’m always trying if someone says hey this grows well in the heat I’m always game to give it a try and see how it does so that’s what I’m doing right now giving them I’m starting some outside and starting some indoors to kind of experiment with Which Way grows best and then I love to just share what I’ve learned excellent well we’re we’re going to come back to this because I want to talk varieties more specifically uh but first just want to learn a little bit more about you because we have met before and you were you always gardening or did this sort of weave into your life later on so I have liked to Garden I remember my earliest memories are of gardening you know with my grandma I think that’s pretty typical my grandparents in Indiana had a huge garden and my great grandpa was a beekeeper you know lots of history there but we lived you know we didn’t live there so I didn’t grow up with that but we would visit them and I had five kids I have five kids and so I was busy raising my my family and when we moved here to Arizona in 2008 finally had a yard big enough to have a garden and um still had you know my kids around but we I started gardening and um just really loved it and got more and more into it and um was yeah just kind of Grew From there really yeah as it does it becomes an obsession especially with 20 raised beds woohoo yeah they did start I started with you know I started by reading you know the squarefoot gardening book Mel Bartholomew I added you know a couple of raised beds and had success but had questions and struggled because of the heat you know that was it was hard I didn’t always know where to find the answers and I think that’s what drives me now is that that early Gardener me that didn’t know what to do I’m really trying to help that person here be successful and yeah I just kept adding from there I think I’m done adding but Never Say Never I know I keep taking over other spaces in the yard like well maybe that’ll work and you just have to you just keep expanding until there’s you’ve hit the wall I guess that’s what now I read your book how to grow your own food back in 2021 and it’s a beginner’s guide to growing in containers aside from growing well container gardening is just challenging in general I think for a lot of people but especially so for folks in hot dry Summers so how do you manage plants and containers in your garden during the hottest time of the year it’s my best advice is to put the small containers away during the summer I say you know what it’s too hot to Garden in those during the summer so Garden all the rest of the year in whatever size container you want but when it gets hot put those small ones away and then get them out again in the fall that’s probably my biggest tip you know there are things you can do if you because and the reason I still Garden in containers is because I want to actually does this really work you know can you Garden in grow bags through an Arizona summer so I still have a lot of grow bags and containers but there are things you can do you know the size of container you know make it as large as possible make sure you’re filling it all the way up with soil group your containers together choose a location that gets sunlight or shade naturally you know choose those cool spots in your yard add things like OAS to your um containers during the summer that can help water you know that it’s going to give those plants access all day long to water in the soil instead of you know it can be dry by 10 o’clock yeah it’s so hot and dry so there are things you can do to help you know Garden during the heat the Heat and then I would say the rest of the year whatever container you want to Garden in it’s it’s just a joy because it’s nice weather you know choose those Sunny you can put it in a Sunny Spot and you know we have a lot more options I think I want to just get a little more specific about containers in general the small containers by that size because a lot of people when they first start gardening they get these cute little containers that are adorable but impractical and so when I think of containers i’ I’m always encouraging people to start with a certain size what would you say is for your area the best size or bigger to work with I would say no smaller than like a five gallon bucket is is about the smallest size that you can grow vegetables in well flowers you can get away with a little bit smaller herbs too but a five gallon bucket it’s amazing the number of crops you can grow well in that especially because they have that nice depth so I would say about that size or larger is if you want to have success is is a good place to start yeah I think so and H how do the grow bags perform because I’m they’re so porous and breathable do they dry out super super quickly they do dry out but I have found that grouping them together it kind of makes it like a big raised bed when you’ve got several grow bags grouped together they’re you know insulating one another they’re keeping that moisture in there’s not as much of the bag exposed to air and sunlight and so that can be a really um effective way to use grow bags is just to group them together yeah I agree that’s a great idea this may be a redundant question because you’ve already given us some great advice on that do you have any tips though to start people off on the right foot when growing edible crops and containers um that’s a good question I would say grow things that um you like to eat so that you are excited about growing it and then also just grow what grows well in your climate you know really lean into I’ll talk about that more sure as we go along but Lean Into You Know planting at the right time because they’re cool season crops and warm season crops and you’re going to be more successful if you’re planting at the right time so figure out the best time for whatever it is that you want to grow or what is the best thing to plant right now and plant them and don’t be afraid if you’re just starting you know don’t be afraid to buy transplants for some crops it’s not cheating but then also don’t be afraid to start from seed because there are are some crops that you’re going to have so much success with when you start from seed you know things like beans and peas grow so well from seed so don’t be intimidated by those but don’t feel like you have to start tomatoes from seed to be a gardener either right yeah I think uh there always said there’s no shame in starting from transplant perfectly all right just learn a little bit I would the other thing I would say was just learn about the crops you want to grow you know do they do best started from seed or transplant and then then go that direction yeah now you’ve segwayed me nicely into my next question because I want to ask you about your planting calendars which you offer on your website most gardening books are you know not correct for where I live in Southern California and they definitely not right for Mesa Arizona so what do your planting calendars offer folks who live in dry climates well for me as I got started timing was the biggest challenge and I wasn’t exactly sure you know when to plant because our climates here our our Seasons here are so different like I said we can grow almost anything but we have to plant it at the right time and so for me um knowing when to plant and figuring out when to plant solved a lot of my issues made a lot of things easier because plants were happier they’re not stressed and when they’re not stressed there’s less pest less diseases and so as I learned more about the planting times I wanted to make that information easily accessible and help people know about you know do I plant this from seed or transplant when am I when do I start this indoors you know all of that information in a really easy to digest format where they can just either you know go buy vegetable and look the whole year or the planting calendars okay what can I plant this month what seeds can I start indoors just make it really easy and accessible for people people so they can be successful and so what does that look like where you live what’s your timing so our timing is we have um a warm season you know we like I discussed in Spring and how long that is is different every year and so that length will determine how well our warm season crops do and then we have our hot season which can begin in May it can begin a little earlier you know it and it definitely goes through September you know and beginning of October where it’s really hot um and sometimes we get a hopefully we get a monsoon we’re just in the the top section of getting some Monsoon moisture so then that is the beginning if we get that Monsoon moisture of our second warm season so we have this additional kind of warm season where we will do a second planting of squash and tomatoes and you know green beans you know those warm season crops um through the fall and then we have our cool season which is typically October is we want it to be October 1st but it’s usually Halloween right um through you know through through the winter and that’s when we grow a lot of our our cool season crops yeah so and that’s very similar to to here Southern California we do our cool stuff through the fall and and then in Spring we start putting in tomatoes and peppers and all that stuff and the I call it the dead zone the that time during the summer when it’s too hot to to grow anything or really too hot for things to do well it’s really I mean I think if you if you manipulate your your scenario your your conditions enough you can grow anything whenever but I I think to make it easier for people it’s just better to grow those things in the like in the seasonality like you said right yeah I mean when it’s 115 degrees outside you really can’t grow any just anything there’s very few we’ve got our handful of heat loving crops that that’s what we lean into I you know encourage cover crops there’s hot season cover crops that cover that soil and get that keep that soil alive so it’s not just frying in the Sun and then we’re you know trying to plant in the fall and then we have this dead soil that has you know so keeping the soil alive over the summer whether that’s by you know actively gardening or just using cover crops which is a lot of what I encourage because it is it is pretty hot yeah um but there are crops if you want to harvest you know you know long long beans Asian beans cantaloupe sweet potatoes you know there’s a lot of things that will throw grow and thrive in the heat so do you have a favorite cover crop that you like to grow you know I really like um like blackeyed peas or even sweet potatoes as a cover crop yeah perfect yeah that covers the soil lots of vines and you know it it’ll just take off and really not a lot of Maintenance I want to go back a little bit to some of the heat tolerant varieties you are testing out because a lot of people ask me for that and I honestly just have my tried and true favorites so if you have any favorites that do well or these new varieties that you’re growing share those with the audience absolutely like I have my short list of heat loving crops I just posted a video All About You know the heat loving crops that I was planting and what I love about the gardening Community is there are so many people who have other experiences and they bring something else and you know a lot of commenters were like hey have you tried this have you tried this and I said no but I’m writing it down and ordering the seeds and so that’s where this next crop of heat loving greens is coming from a few of these um you know Malibar spinach is one that grows well through the Heat and that’s one I’ve done Egyptian spinach I’ve grown a little bit um but haven’t really you know figured out all of the used it a lot and things like that so the ones that I’m growing have to peek under the grill light here so I have um molai Egyptian spinach um New Zealand spinach and Perpetual spinach those are the ones that I am starting from seed indoors I’m also going to experiment with starting Outdoors but it’s so hot right now sometimes the the seeds get trick but that’s what I’m going to just you know practice with those see how how we like them do we eat them or they just more of a a cover crop um or you know how well do they do and we’ll see nice and I wanted to go back to your basil varieties what are you trying out this year so there is one and I’m probably saying it wrong but m mirani m r i h n i mirani basil interesting I’ve never heard I hadn’t either um I’ve got one outside and the leaves look a little bit serated um so far so if it’s the right seed that popped up um there’s some blue spice basil some African nunum Nu n m basil and kapor Tulsi basil and then also I have grown this before this purple ball basil it’s darling it’s this cute little small leafed purple basil um that just keep keeps manageable and then also kind of the opposite of that is a lettuce leaf basil which I’ve grown before but gave it a little too much sunlight this is a type that really is going to want a shady spot in your yard so I’m starting more of that and then my standby that I just love is the emerald Towers basil because it’s just this beautiful tall compact plant you know I’m a square foot Gardener so anything that will stay in its Square I think is um brilliant so anyway that’s another one that I’m oh and boxwood so a few basil varieties in here that um just always like I say leaning into the crops that grow well and growing as many different varieties as I can to you know really kind of test the boundaries of of that crop those all sound fun I’m G to have to check them out I love salad leaf basil it’s one that I never I never have a garden without it it’s fantastic um and Lett yeah lettuce leaf fabulous but I haven’t heard of many of these others so I’m going to check them out again a lot of these recommendations will come to me from from other gardeners in hot climates um maybe not Arizona but all over the world there are other gardeners that share the same challenges that we experience here in the low desert and I love the tips that they share with me and what I can learn from them it’s really um the online gardening Community I feel like has enabled um so much sharing and learning because I there’s not one right way to do anything and so much of gardening is specific climate related and within the United States there’s so many different you know climates that what works for one may not work for another but yet in other parts of the world there may be something more similar to what we’re dealing with yeah I agree and I find that that’s true you know there’s even even the university a websites are catering to Northern climates more than more than ours so uh we’re out there fending for ourselves yeah I mean I think like I tell people too like you know the seed packet has a lot of good information you know read this but that little calendar on the back don’t that it’s not for you or if a plant label says full sun not so yeah that that brings me to another question I had uh do you use shade cloth over your plants at all so a few different ways I provide shade so it’s really maximizing the micro climates that you already have going on you know figuring out where can I get shade naturally because that is going to be the ideal spot you know that morning sunlight afternoon shade you know is gonna is going to be the best but then also providing shade so yeah I have a quite a large shade cloth over several of my beds that um shade them and also using other plants you know planting sunflowers on that um Western exposure on some of those beds you know on the outside of the beds to to provide some shade even just some cooling brings pollinators know there are a lot of ways to provide shade and you really just have to get creative with um with what you do and then at the end of the day you know you go outside sometimes in the middle of the summer and you’re like are you kidding me this is so hot it’s so hard and it’s you know I I tell people it’s like it’s it’s like if I went somewhere you know Michigan or you know some cold place their Garden is not going to look the best in the middle of winter and that’s what the middle of summer is for us desert gardeners it’s just not going to look its best plants are going to struggle you know it’s things are going to die plants will be stressed and we just do our best and learn what we can from the you know exper the successes but mostly the failures that’s where you learn and you know figure it out yeah there was a there was a time when well Garden commom which we both belong to I believe they hosted well Los Angeles hosted the conference one year and they scheduled it in August I was like this is the worst time come in October or November it’ll be so much better or may or you know something anything but now anything but August so you know it’s just there’s a learning curve and that’s just how it but a lot of other Gardens I had the opportunity I’ve been I have my um daughter and her husband both just finished law school back in Omaha Nebraska so we’ve been out visiting them several times and beautiful garden out there that I’ve been to usually in the fall and it’s it’s always gorgeous you know I’m coming from this hot climate and I’m looking at this Garden just kind of jealous about oh this is this looks really good but we were just out there for graduation and so we went to the Garden again and it didn’t look that good yet it really nothing had kind of grown into itself the bulbs were done and everything else was not looking that great and it was really good for me to see that and realize okay it takes a while for it to grow into that and it’s okay you know our garden doesn’t it doesn’t always look like that and um you know I lost a little bit of I don’t know if jealous is the right word but sometimes you feel like other gardeners have it easier but I think we all just have different challenges and we have to learn how to maximize our benefits and then work within those challenges to be successful so every Garden has different challenges agreed well it is tip time do you have favorite tip you’d like to share with the gardenerd audience absolutely find a planting guide meant for your area lean into the experience of other gardeners the extension office is a great place to start if it’s you know in your county find a planting guide and that will help you be successful yeah it makes all the difference in the world as we have just discussed yeah thank you so much Angela welcome for that expert tip and for being a guest on the gardener tip of the week podcast where can people find you online sure it’s Growing In The Garden on my blog, YouTube, like you said, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. That’s where you’ll find me. I really do try and teach. That’s my goal. I’m trying to teach and educate and that’s what I love to do I love teaching other people how to garden and to find success and that’s where I do it you know longer form and short form videos and then the blog posts and things so. And you do it so well. Thank you all right Gardenerds you’ll find a link to Angela’s book this week on gardenerd.com. We’ll also link to her website, her gardening Academy and video channels, so you too can be the one of hundreds of thousands of people who follow her. That’s it for this week subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you listen. Visit us for tons of free gardening information at gardenerd.com special thanks to our sponsor Heirloom Roses for supporting this episode. You’ll find us on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter under Gardenerd1, on Facebook As Gardenerd.com and of course our Gardenerd YouTube channel. Happy gardening.