February 24, 2021 • 30 mins
Early spring is an important time of year; it’s when we begin to slowly shake off the chill of winter and see our first few signs of early green life. But how can we be absolutely sure when it's safe to start planting for Spring? Is there an official start date that all growers know about? And after a long and cold winter, where do we even start? Our friend Jade, The Black Plant Chick (host of "Black Plant Chick Pod"), returns to share the top plant care habits to adopt this spring. Mangesh explores the folklore and myth around spring weather patterns and talks to Erin Schanen (creator of "The Impatient Gardener" blog and YouTube channel) about how we can get our gardens ready now at the end of winter to prepare for spring.
For more helpful tips on getting started this spring, check out the Miracle-Gro Website and find helpful resources around the best time to plant spring bulbs and even how to grow giant pumpkins. Your friends at Miracle-Gro are collaboration partners with iHeart Radio for "Humans Growing Stuff."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm not a big resolution person, but every year around
this time, I like to check in and see where
I'm at on my own journey for self improvement. Am
I drinking enough water? If coffee counts his water, then yes?
Am I getting enough exercise? If trying to herd the
kids onto their online zoom classes counts as exercise, then maybe?
(00:27):
And am I keeping the plants alive? Surprisingly? Yeah, most
of them. I managed to not kill most of my
house plants, from a monstera to a money tree, to
a jade plant to a pathos. There are a lot
of green things on our shelves that are pretty and
hardy and have somehow managed to survive the weather. But
(00:51):
the backyard garden, I think it's safe to say we'll
have some serious replanting to do. I'm still new to
the gardening life, and looking out a window at the
snow covered yard, I'm not hopeful that everything is thriving
out there. But if I've learned anything from last season
is that you've got to start planning a lot sooner
than you think. So as we finish out February and
(01:14):
enter March, spring is definitely on my mind, even though
it still feels like January in Brooklyn. Hey there, I'm
Mongais Articular, co host of Part Time Genius, one of
the founders of Mental Flaws, and this is Humans Growing Stuff,
a collaboration from I Heart Radio and your Friends and
(01:34):
Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this the most
human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way,
we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your
plan addiction, and just enough science to make you sound
like an expert. On today's show, we're going to get
ready to spring ahead and start planning for planting. I'm
(01:55):
going to talk to some new experts and some old
friends about the most resilient seeds for early spring and
how to keep them safe from late snowfalls. Chapter nine,
Forget the Groundhog, I'm Ready for Spring. Last season on
this show, we had everyone's favorite plant influencer, Jade the
(02:17):
Black Plant Chick, give us her tips for moving your
plants indoors ahead of the fall in winter chill. As
we get a jump start on spring planting, I asked
her to share some of the good habits around plant
care that we should bring into spring. Hello, everybody is
Jade the Black Plant Chick and These are my three
good habits to bring into screen. Number one, clean your windows.
(02:42):
Give your plants all the light they deserve. They gain
a lot of dirt over the months, and it's important
to give your plants the light they need to thrive.
So get in there, wipe those windows down, even clean
the blinds a bit. Trust me, your plants will love it.
Number two, welcome new growth with repotting. Yes, get rid
of all of that old dirt and give your plant
(03:04):
a fresh start with new soil. Number three, develop new
watering habits. Last year, the plant community saw a tremendous
amount of new plant parents coming in and a lot
of us struggled with over watering. But this is the
opportunity that you have now to start fresh. Try using
a moisture meter or even bottom watering. What is bottom watering?
(03:27):
It's simple. You get a tub filled up with water,
place your plant, which is still inside of that planter,
into that tub, and it drinks the water that it requires.
It won't take too much or too little, it will
drink exactly what it needs. You'll be amazed at how
happy your plant is after bottom watering. Until next time,
(03:48):
you guys, love peace and propagate years ago, when I
was on a study of broad trip to Nepollon, Tibet,
my friend Dave and I decided to try our hands
at brewing a local barley wine. It's called chong, and
(04:12):
there's a superstition. Once you put the grains in big
containers and let them sit to ferment, you're supposed to
tape this large chili pepper to the top of the
bin to stop evil spirits from ruining your brew. We
followed the directions to a t and we taped a
whole bunch of chilies to the top, and sadly, the
wine still turned out terrible. But trying to follow all
(04:37):
these superstitions it made the whole exercise so much more fun.
So I've been thinking about all the myths and superstitions
in the garden and which ones we might want to
indulge as we move into spring. Like sure, we could
use science to explain the world and all the seasons
around us, but isn't it more fun to think about
the Greek goddess Persephone sneez picking up from the underworld
(05:01):
for half a year and bringing all the great weather
and harvests with her. Or to wonder how much truth
is there to some of these old sayings, Like my
producer Molly told me about one that goes oak before ash,
We're in for a splash, but ash before oak, we're
in for a soak, Which I guess is this Northern
(05:22):
Irish lore that claims if the oak trees bud before
ash trees, it will be this dry spring. But if
the opposite happens, you need to break out your ponchos
and wellies. Of course there are tons of these, but
which of these will actually signal to start a spring?
Should I look for a robin or trust the groundhog?
(05:43):
Should I plant my potatoes on St. Patrick's Day or
is it better to wait till Good Friday? And do
I really need to hose these crops with holy water
to get them to grow? Probably not, But I wanted
to hear which spring traditions to put some stock in
if aenny, So I called up my friend Aaron Shannon.
She's a Master gardner, volunteer, and creator of the blog
(06:06):
and YouTube channel The Impatient Gardener. Aaron's no stranger to
cold winters as a gardener in Wisconsin, so I wanted
to ask her the skinny on early planting strategies and
how she knows that spring is around the corner. Aaron,
are you there, I'm here, Hi, Hi, it's so nice
(06:26):
to have you on. Thank you so much for having me.
So I am such a fan of the Impatient Gardener site.
It is truly funny and charming and informative. So I
know over time you've become a master gardener master gardner volunteer,
and we hear that term a lot on the show.
Can you explain what that is and how people get
(06:47):
that title? Oh, it's such a good question because there's
so many people sort of misunderstand that and it's kind
of gotten all misconstrued. So master gardener, the Master Gardener
program is a program that has run through public university
extensions and there's an education component to it, but at
the end of the day, it's really a volunteer program.
(07:07):
And then you can volunteer on behalf of a Master
Gardener organization. Then your job is to help the public
become better gardeners. And what's your favorite advice for frustrated gardener?
Oh gosh, you're etically asking, because like I'm just asking
for a friend friend. So, so I think that there
(07:28):
is a tendency to get a little too serious and
to bog down in details with gardening. I mean, at
the end of the day, plants really want to grow,
so we don't have to jump through so many hoops.
I mean, certainly it's good to have some information, know
what's going to grow aware, but I think this sooner
in your gardening journey that you accept that every gardener
(07:48):
kills plants and probably kills a lot of them, and
like you're just you're just part of the club. At
that point when you start killing plants. I think that
that makes it I'm a little bit more accessible. So
this episode is about getting excited for the spring. And
I know you're located in Wisconsin, which I think is
(08:08):
still in the middle of some heavy snowfall. So one
of our questions is when do you know it's spring there.
You know, it's really interesting because if I was in
like a coma, I could wake up and I could
look outside and I would tell you pretty much within
a couple of weeks what time of year it is,
because you know, there's all these little clues that we're
all paying attention to, even if we don't realize that
(08:31):
we're paying attention to them. So there is something with
the first robin, although there are Robin's kind of around
your round sometimes, but Robbin's more bird activity for me.
I walk out into our little wooded area outside her house,
and when I see the skunk cabbage coming up, which
will be in only about a month or so, skunk
cabbage is is really cool plant that actually produces heat,
(08:53):
So it has this ability to melt the snow around
it and create its own heat. So when I see
the skunk cabbage coming up, I know, all right, we're
all good. We're gonna make it through another winter. So
what should we be doing in this in this period
right before the spring happens? What should we be doing
to prep for our gardens? So I think the number
one thing you can do is actually something you can
(09:13):
do regardless of the weather, which is just planned for
your garden. Anytime you have a plan going into a
gardening season, things go a lot smoother and you're not
running out trying to find seeds which you can't find somewhere.
If it's a vegetable garden, planning out where you're going
to plant everything, what varieties you're gonna grow, what I'm
going to start inside, what I'm going to direct. So
(09:34):
in a perennial garden, it's sort of identifying places where
I need to change things a little bit, or um
I need another plant. Pictures from the previous year's garden
come into play big time on that. For me, it
helps me so much to be able to go back
and look at pictures to get a feel for what
it looks like and what I can do to make
it better. Even though that was only not even six
months ago, four months ago or whatever, I've already forgotten
(09:57):
what last year's garden looked like, So it's a it's
good to have those photos to go back to. As
soon as the snow is gone and the sort of
top very top layer soil starts to loosen up, you
can actually get out there and start doing some weeding.
I know that's not a fun job for anyone, except
that after a long winter, even weeding is fun to do.
(10:17):
Somehow that goes away quickly. But once you have that
plan ready, then you get right into moving on to
especially vegetables, because there are some things that can go
in really quite early and you don't want to miss
that window. Yeah, so you've described yourself as having a
seed stash and I'm curious, what's in your stash right
now and what are you most excited about growing. I
(10:37):
can't even adequately describe my seed stash to you because
it's it's completely it's completely absurd. I I actually have
to They're almost like suitcases that I keep these things,
and one for flowers and one for vegetables. I am
always excited to grow. In terms of flowers, sweet peas
were sort of my gateway plant to growing flowers from seed.
(10:58):
To me, they're just this old fashioned hour that I
take a lot of pleasure in growing those, and so
those are always very fun for me. In terms of vegetables,
I mean, I have my tried and truths that I
always have to grow, and I'm always going to have tomatoes.
I am perpetually in search of the world's perfect tomato.
But I also love to try new varieties. This year,
(11:19):
I'm going to grow ginger in the vegetable garden because
I figured, I mean, I have grown that in a
pot before, but I thought, well, that would be kind
of fun to grow in vegetable garden and see how
that goes. And it's a very pretty plant. So I'm
always in for anything that's beautiful as well as productive
when we're in the vegetable garden. What are some of
your favorite beautiful and productive plants. I would say top
(11:39):
of the list for me is Swiss shard. I actually
think that Swiss shard is one of the most beautiful
plants there is, regardless of whether you're talking about vegetable, ornamental,
or flower or foliage. It's just beautiful. Especially there's a
variety called bright Lights that has all these it's a
mixture of shards with all these different stem colors, so
you can have have this rainbow of colors and they
(12:02):
get these bright, glossy shiny leaves, and I think you
can't beat that. In fact, I think that's a plant
that I have seen that planted in ornamental containers, and
I think it looks beautiful there because big bold leaf,
it's it's gorgeous. Last I think there's also ornamental ways
to plant things. So last year I made sort of
(12:22):
a design out of basil plants. I grew a tall,
skinny basil called Everleaf Emerald Towers, and then I surrounded
that with a Greek basil, which is a real short,
squatty basil around it in like a diamond pattern and
it's just basil. By planting in an interesting way. It
just was very beautiful to look at as well. And
(12:42):
what's what's the difference in the flavors of this The
everleaf emerald towers basil is a very sort of traditional
sweet basil. The Greek basil is a much sharper, very
strong sort of Italian flavor to it, even though it's
Greek basil, but it's a stronger, more pungent flavor. M So,
one of the things we were wondering about is whether
you have to start your garden from scratch every winter
(13:05):
since the weather they're so destructive, or if you have
any tricks that keep things safe through the whole winter.
I really like to rely for my ornamental garden. I
really love to rely on perennials. These are the plants
that will come back every year. They die to the
ground and then they come back with fresh new foliage
every year. You've also got annuals, and those are the
(13:26):
plants that do their whole life cycle in one year.
So they're going to grow leaves, they're gonna grow flowers,
and then those are going to die at the end
of the year. Now, sometimes some of those annuals will
produce seed, and those will actually do you a favor
and spread that seed around your garden on your behalf.
You don't have to touch them. And then there's this
really crazy type of plant. I say crazy, it's not crazy.
(13:51):
It's just kind of a an in between category called
a biennial. And biennials are plants that will grow just
their foliage the first year and then they flower of
the second year. So one of the biennials that I
grow is Angelica gigus. It gets these big flower heads
on it. It will produce seed in those flower heads,
which then falls to the ground, and that seed becomes
(14:13):
the next year's little plants, which will grow foliage that year.
The following year they grow flowers, and after a couple
of years of this, you have that plant in your
garden because you always have different plants in different stages
of growth, and so it just sort of works its
way around your garden, and in that way, it sort
of behaves like a perennial in that you always have it.
(14:34):
So perennials are great, and that lowers the workload because
really most perennials are not that much work. And obviously
it lowers the budget, and it's just less you have
to do in your garden. And then, as far as
vegetables go, there are perennial vegetables that I think people
forget about, things like rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish. You have to
(14:54):
be a little careful with horse rash. It can get
a little carried away on you. But those are all
things that are perennials, and so you can plant those
once and then you can harvest from those forever. Basically,
you're saying asparagus made me think back. Our dog used
to jump into our vegetable garden and eat all the asparagus.
It was a regular thing that, oh my god, sneaky.
(15:15):
For some reason, she was very attracted to it. Thomas
Got Fancy Taste. My producer, Molly and I are obsessed
with your two new fees that you have, your your
puffs that keep showing up on your Instagram and YouTube,
and we're wondering, how do your dogs add to your
gardening experience? Well, you know, I wish I could. I
(15:36):
wish I could say they were particularly helpful in some way,
um which they aren't really accept that. When I'm outside gardening,
if I spend a whole day in the garden. It
is so great to have a companion out there. So
I love just hanging and they just hang out and
you know, follow me around the garden. Do they ever
(15:57):
chase the rabbits out of your yard? You know, if
only they would be so helpful. They do a very
good job of recognizing that there are rabbits or deer
in the yard, but I wouldn't say that they are
particularly effective in doing anything about it. In fact, I
fear that the deer that frequent our yard are actually
mocking them. At this point. They can get within like
(16:20):
twenty ft of a deer, and a deer will just
stand there and look at them like, I know you're
not gonna catch me. It's fine. They are adorable. So
are there any other spring gardening myths you might want
to depunk on the show for us? There are a
lot of spring gard There's a lot of spring gardening
myths out there. I think some of them are kind
of warm and fuzzy, and it's sort of nice to
(16:42):
think about them. But I think anything that involves an
animal telling you what the weather is going to be,
you should probably just take that for amusement, and not
whether that's a squirrel or a groundhog or anything else.
Generally speaking, that's not going to tell you a lot
about what's coming. I think that most of these myths,
(17:03):
you know, there's some truth to them, but rarely for
the reason that the myth sort of perpetuates. So April
showers bring main flowers. It's true in that you need
water in order for flowers to bloom, but what you'd
rather have is a warm april to really get some
good may flowers. There's also things like, um, there's a
(17:25):
saying out there that you should plant your peas on St.
Patrick's Day, and that is absolutely true for some place
in some years. You know, like there are somewhere where
the day that you should plant your peas is St.
Patrick's Day, but that obviously the climate is much different
across all these places where people are growing, so obviously
(17:48):
that doesn't hold true. So you know, all these things
are things you can kind of take into account, and
there's some truth behind all of them. But you know,
I would say, apply a grain of salt to most
of them. Yeah, that makes sense. So last fall I
got way too late in the gardening, and I learned
that you have to plant pumpkins in spring or early
summer to have them in time for Halloween, Like you
(18:08):
can't plant something in September and expected by the end
of October. But I saw that you were attempting to
grow one of the world's largest pumpkins on your site,
and I was curious what your experience with pumpkins was
this year and what it takes to grow a giant pumpkin.
So I actually just tried to grow a regular size pumpkin.
But it was the first time I've ever grown a pumpkin.
(18:31):
For whatever reason, I have never grown a pumpkin. And
I too planted mind too late, except that I planted
mine at the end of June, so you were really
late if you were in like September. So I got
one pumpkin. It was approximately the size of a tennis ball.
But I did do a little research as part of
this into what goes down into creating. You know, you
see these these world's biggest pumpkin competitions, and it is amazing.
(18:56):
These people spend up to like six hours a day
taking care of their pumpkin. Those pumpkins are putting on
as much as what is it fifty pounds a day
or something. It is unbelievable. They it's water and nutrients,
and then you have to shade them a certain way
from the sun or also gets scourged and it is
like having an infant. I think it's about the level
(19:19):
of care that goes into growing these giant pumpkins. Yeah,
the fact that they're spending six hours on this, and
also that they're so secretive about their techniques, it's really
fascinating to me. Well, yeah, this. People who grow the
world's biggest name the vegetable, are very interesting people and
they are extremely dedicated. But yes, I think there are
(19:40):
secrets that go to the grave with those people if
they don't have some errors to pass them down to.
And certainly the seeds that come out of the vegetables
that they grow are probably locked away in like a
safety deposit box or something. That post was so funny
that you wrote, and the fact that the pumpkin only
turned out the size of a tennis ball is is
so wonderful to me. I hate to say, I mean,
(20:00):
this is an easy way for me to say. I
totally flubbed that, but I do think it's helpful for
me to talk to gardeners and say, look, I can't
grow pumpkin, but you've probably growing a pumpkin, so you know,
don't worry about it. If not everything is a success,
it's not the end of the world. It was just
a pumpkin. It's really nice to know that you make mistakes.
To oh, I think and everybody does. And if that's
one message that I want to get across to everybody
(20:21):
all the time, it's just that everybody screws something up,
don't ever take it personally. So, speaking of messages to
new gardeners and people who are going to give this
gardening thing a shot for the first time this year,
where and how do you recommend they get started, like,
no matter where they live. So I think the thing
to do is to start a start at a reasonable size,
(20:42):
starts small. It's really easy to get overwhelmed if you
plant a garden that's too big right from the get go,
because all of a sudden you go from never spending
any time in the garden to like suddenly you're like,
I need to spend an hour a day in the garden.
Are you getting me? Where am I going to find that?
Even if it means a few containers. You can grow
anything you want a container, and then after that I
(21:03):
would go for varieties that don't ask a lot from
a gardener. Even though we all love a tomato, I
don't think tomatoes are necessarily the easiest thing to grow. Now,
if you love a tomato and that's what you want
on your garden, by all means, plant yourself a tomato
if you don't love it. I mean, that's what you
should be doing, is planting the things that you love.
But things like lettuce are so simple to grow. Anyone
(21:27):
can plant them anywhere. Basically, um, you have to pay
a little bit of attention to how warm it's getting.
Lettuce isn't gonna love hot areas. You can always push
lettuce into a little bit of shade. Actually appreciates that
a little bit. In a very short period of time,
you're eating lettuce that you grew, and it tastes nothing
like the stuff you buy in the grocery store, and
(21:48):
you wonder what you've been doing all these years. That
really sounds delightful. You know, this show is called Humans
Growing Stuff, And I'm always curious, what do you think
plants can each is about being human? I think that
the biggest thing that we can kind of learn from
a plant is that plants are tough. Plants are resilient
(22:10):
plants and want to grow. And I think that's a
good lesson for humans because I always think that we
are more resilient and tougher than than maybe we think
we are. Sometimes even a delicate flower, if you look
at what that had to do to grow and become that,
that's resiliency. And so I think that that if you
look at a plant and you realize it just kind
(22:30):
of was programmed to do that and it's going to
do that same thing for humans, that's a really nice answer.
How does gardening make us better humans? Or do you
think gardening makes us better humans? Oh, gardening makes us
better humans. Certainly. There is something about first of all,
being a part of nature, playing an active role that
(22:53):
I don't know that you can get in very many
other places or other hobbies. Understanding at and understanding that
you're part of this larger world, part of the larger ecosystem.
When you look and you see, you know, whatever, butterfly
come to visit your flowers, I mean, I am still
sort of honored when I see a monarch butterfly come
(23:15):
through my garden and it wants to stop in my garden,
or a little tree frog sitting on a little dahlia
in my garden because that means that I'm doing something right.
It wants to be in my garden. And I think
that's kind of a privilege to be able to see
that part of the world right in your own backyard,
right in front of your face, and you created the
(23:35):
opportunity for that to happen. Yeah, I love that. I
love the way you talk about both the importance of
the diversity in the backyard and how all of that
contributes to make a more beautiful environment, and then this
understanding of your place and sense in the world. And
there's something really lovely about all of that. Yeah. I
think this idea that we can just kind of get
(23:56):
out of our own heads for a little bit, that
is again another one of those things that is harder
and harder and harder to find in this world. So
I think working in the garden and being a part
of this bigger system and a bigger world and recognizing
them what you're doing is making a difference. All those
are all good things to carry over to other parts
(24:17):
of your life. That's really lovely Aaron Shannon, the Impatient
Gardeners the website, thank you so much. I really enjoyed
chatting with you. I was wonderful to talk to you.
Thank you for having me. Humans growing stuff will be
right back after a short break. And now for another
(24:48):
poetry corner. This poem is called groundhog Day. When the
groundhog sees a shadow, we complain how the te pictures
will go low, but that little vermin can't predetermine a
polar vortex or El Nino. Thank you. Hello everyone, I'm
(25:18):
Ja the Black Plant Chick, and I'm here to share
with you three plant affirmations to get you through this spring.
Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, take a
deep breath in and now out, and repeat after me.
Spring a time where, no matter what's in my wallet,
(25:41):
my home will be filled with plants. Take another deep
breath in and now out. With every new leaf that
grows in the spring, my heart is filled with joy
and abundance. M take another deep breath in and now out.
(26:08):
The more plants I have, the happier I am. Take
these with you, say them whenever you need to, and
like seeds, they will grow. And until next time, Love,
peace and propagate. I don't know about you, but this
(26:33):
winter wasn't easy. My family got COVID, the kids kept
getting their hopes up about going back to school in person,
and like Charlie Brown's football, it just kept getting yanked away.
I've missed my parents and my in laws deeply. I
missed Thanksgiving and Christmas and just getting to hang out
(26:56):
with my friends. And to be honest, gardening just feels
like a bright spot right now because I've just been
looking forward to having something to get excited about. There's
snow in my backyard, but I'm ready for spring. And
after hearing from Aaron about all of the joy she
gets from planning her garden out early, I've been dreaming
(27:18):
of all the possibilities, dreaming of what we might plant.
Do we have enough light to grow veggies? What sorts
of perennials can we find at our local nursery? Now?
What sort of birds will the kids and I attract
with this birdhouse we just built. What sorts of flowers
would bring his joy and perfume the air? In my
(27:40):
haste for spring, I was also thinking about how little
I trust the groundhog and his Groundhog Day predictions. According
to mental floss punk satani Fils accuracy rate is a
dismal thirty nine per cent. What's worse is all the
leash we give him. We let him live in a
town library for free. He has a staff of fifteen
(28:03):
people serving him paw and foot. Can we feed him
a special groundhog punch to make sure he's in great spirits?
And even when he's wrong, and he's clearly wrong all
the time, we claim that he's always right and that
we've misinterpreted his groundhoggiaes. Seriously, that's the language. The town
(28:23):
claims he speaks groundhog ease, So groundhogs aside. What's a
better way to know when spring is coming? In the
book The Gardener's Year, author Carol Chpeck suggests two truly
foolproof methods. Look for when the gardening catalogs arrive in
the mail, and then slightly look across the fence for
(28:44):
any sign of neighbors. When you see them sporting old
trousers and waving their gardening spades in the air, talking
about the weather, that's when you can be sure spring
is here. I'm excited for a new season, I'm excited
to be in the garden and I'm so I did
to be here with you. That's it for today's episode.
(29:08):
Don't forget, no matter what season it is or where
you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources
waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time
on our show, we're going to explore bringing the farm
to table experience to your backyard. If you like what
you heard, don't forget to rate and review the show
on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to hear from you.
(29:30):
What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable struggles or growing questions.
Tag us in your post or tweet using the hashtag
Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised if you hear
your story featured on an upcoming episode. Humans Growing Stuff
is a collaboration from My Heart Radio and your friends
at Miracle Grow. Our show is written and produced by
Molly Sosha and me Mongy Chatiguler in partnership with Rhinovadia,
(29:53):
Daniel Ainsworth, Haley Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of Banter. Until
next time, Thanks so much for listening. Two
I'm not a big resolution person, but every year around
this time, I like to check in and see where
I'm at on my own journey for self improvement. Am
I drinking enough water? If coffee counts his water, then yes?
Am I getting enough exercise? If trying to herd the
kids onto their online zoom classes counts as exercise, then maybe?
(00:27):
And am I keeping the plants alive? Surprisingly? Yeah, most
of them. I managed to not kill most of my
house plants, from a monstera to a money tree, to
a jade plant to a pathos. There are a lot
of green things on our shelves that are pretty and
hardy and have somehow managed to survive the weather. But
(00:51):
the backyard garden, I think it's safe to say we'll
have some serious replanting to do. I'm still new to
the gardening life, and looking out a window at the
snow covered yard, I'm not hopeful that everything is thriving
out there. But if I've learned anything from last season
is that you've got to start planning a lot sooner
than you think. So as we finish out February and
(01:14):
enter March, spring is definitely on my mind, even though
it still feels like January in Brooklyn. Hey there, I'm
Mongais Articular, co host of Part Time Genius, one of
the founders of Mental Flaws, and this is Humans Growing Stuff,
a collaboration from I Heart Radio and your Friends and
(01:34):
Miracle Grow. Our goal is to make this the most
human show about plants you'll ever listen to. Along the way,
we'll share inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture your
plan addiction, and just enough science to make you sound
like an expert. On today's show, we're going to get
ready to spring ahead and start planning for planting. I'm
(01:55):
going to talk to some new experts and some old
friends about the most resilient seeds for early spring and
how to keep them safe from late snowfalls. Chapter nine,
Forget the Groundhog, I'm Ready for Spring. Last season on
this show, we had everyone's favorite plant influencer, Jade the
(02:17):
Black Plant Chick, give us her tips for moving your
plants indoors ahead of the fall in winter chill. As
we get a jump start on spring planting, I asked
her to share some of the good habits around plant
care that we should bring into spring. Hello, everybody is
Jade the Black Plant Chick and These are my three
good habits to bring into screen. Number one, clean your windows.
(02:42):
Give your plants all the light they deserve. They gain
a lot of dirt over the months, and it's important
to give your plants the light they need to thrive.
So get in there, wipe those windows down, even clean
the blinds a bit. Trust me, your plants will love it.
Number two, welcome new growth with repotting. Yes, get rid
of all of that old dirt and give your plant
(03:04):
a fresh start with new soil. Number three, develop new
watering habits. Last year, the plant community saw a tremendous
amount of new plant parents coming in and a lot
of us struggled with over watering. But this is the
opportunity that you have now to start fresh. Try using
a moisture meter or even bottom watering. What is bottom watering?
(03:27):
It's simple. You get a tub filled up with water,
place your plant, which is still inside of that planter,
into that tub, and it drinks the water that it requires.
It won't take too much or too little, it will
drink exactly what it needs. You'll be amazed at how
happy your plant is after bottom watering. Until next time,
(03:48):
you guys, love peace and propagate years ago, when I
was on a study of broad trip to Nepollon, Tibet,
my friend Dave and I decided to try our hands
at brewing a local barley wine. It's called chong, and
(04:12):
there's a superstition. Once you put the grains in big
containers and let them sit to ferment, you're supposed to
tape this large chili pepper to the top of the
bin to stop evil spirits from ruining your brew. We
followed the directions to a t and we taped a
whole bunch of chilies to the top, and sadly, the
wine still turned out terrible. But trying to follow all
(04:37):
these superstitions it made the whole exercise so much more fun.
So I've been thinking about all the myths and superstitions
in the garden and which ones we might want to
indulge as we move into spring. Like sure, we could
use science to explain the world and all the seasons
around us, but isn't it more fun to think about
the Greek goddess Persephone sneez picking up from the underworld
(05:01):
for half a year and bringing all the great weather
and harvests with her. Or to wonder how much truth
is there to some of these old sayings, Like my
producer Molly told me about one that goes oak before ash,
We're in for a splash, but ash before oak, we're
in for a soak, Which I guess is this Northern
(05:22):
Irish lore that claims if the oak trees bud before
ash trees, it will be this dry spring. But if
the opposite happens, you need to break out your ponchos
and wellies. Of course there are tons of these, but
which of these will actually signal to start a spring?
Should I look for a robin or trust the groundhog?
(05:43):
Should I plant my potatoes on St. Patrick's Day or
is it better to wait till Good Friday? And do
I really need to hose these crops with holy water
to get them to grow? Probably not, But I wanted
to hear which spring traditions to put some stock in
if aenny, So I called up my friend Aaron Shannon.
She's a Master gardner, volunteer, and creator of the blog
(06:06):
and YouTube channel The Impatient Gardener. Aaron's no stranger to
cold winters as a gardener in Wisconsin, so I wanted
to ask her the skinny on early planting strategies and
how she knows that spring is around the corner. Aaron,
are you there, I'm here, Hi, Hi, it's so nice
(06:26):
to have you on. Thank you so much for having me.
So I am such a fan of the Impatient Gardener site.
It is truly funny and charming and informative. So I
know over time you've become a master gardener master gardner volunteer,
and we hear that term a lot on the show.
Can you explain what that is and how people get
(06:47):
that title? Oh, it's such a good question because there's
so many people sort of misunderstand that and it's kind
of gotten all misconstrued. So master gardener, the Master Gardener
program is a program that has run through public university
extensions and there's an education component to it, but at
the end of the day, it's really a volunteer program.
(07:07):
And then you can volunteer on behalf of a Master
Gardener organization. Then your job is to help the public
become better gardeners. And what's your favorite advice for frustrated gardener?
Oh gosh, you're etically asking, because like I'm just asking
for a friend friend. So, so I think that there
(07:28):
is a tendency to get a little too serious and
to bog down in details with gardening. I mean, at
the end of the day, plants really want to grow,
so we don't have to jump through so many hoops.
I mean, certainly it's good to have some information, know
what's going to grow aware, but I think this sooner
in your gardening journey that you accept that every gardener
(07:48):
kills plants and probably kills a lot of them, and
like you're just you're just part of the club. At
that point when you start killing plants. I think that
that makes it I'm a little bit more accessible. So
this episode is about getting excited for the spring. And
I know you're located in Wisconsin, which I think is
(08:08):
still in the middle of some heavy snowfall. So one
of our questions is when do you know it's spring there.
You know, it's really interesting because if I was in
like a coma, I could wake up and I could
look outside and I would tell you pretty much within
a couple of weeks what time of year it is,
because you know, there's all these little clues that we're
all paying attention to, even if we don't realize that
(08:31):
we're paying attention to them. So there is something with
the first robin, although there are Robin's kind of around
your round sometimes, but Robbin's more bird activity for me.
I walk out into our little wooded area outside her house,
and when I see the skunk cabbage coming up, which
will be in only about a month or so, skunk
cabbage is is really cool plant that actually produces heat,
(08:53):
So it has this ability to melt the snow around
it and create its own heat. So when I see
the skunk cabbage coming up, I know, all right, we're
all good. We're gonna make it through another winter. So
what should we be doing in this in this period
right before the spring happens? What should we be doing
to prep for our gardens? So I think the number
one thing you can do is actually something you can
(09:13):
do regardless of the weather, which is just planned for
your garden. Anytime you have a plan going into a
gardening season, things go a lot smoother and you're not
running out trying to find seeds which you can't find somewhere.
If it's a vegetable garden, planning out where you're going
to plant everything, what varieties you're gonna grow, what I'm
going to start inside, what I'm going to direct. So
(09:34):
in a perennial garden, it's sort of identifying places where
I need to change things a little bit, or um
I need another plant. Pictures from the previous year's garden
come into play big time on that. For me, it
helps me so much to be able to go back
and look at pictures to get a feel for what
it looks like and what I can do to make
it better. Even though that was only not even six
months ago, four months ago or whatever, I've already forgotten
(09:57):
what last year's garden looked like, So it's a it's
good to have those photos to go back to. As
soon as the snow is gone and the sort of
top very top layer soil starts to loosen up, you
can actually get out there and start doing some weeding.
I know that's not a fun job for anyone, except
that after a long winter, even weeding is fun to do.
(10:17):
Somehow that goes away quickly. But once you have that
plan ready, then you get right into moving on to
especially vegetables, because there are some things that can go
in really quite early and you don't want to miss
that window. Yeah, so you've described yourself as having a
seed stash and I'm curious, what's in your stash right
now and what are you most excited about growing. I
(10:37):
can't even adequately describe my seed stash to you because
it's it's completely it's completely absurd. I I actually have
to They're almost like suitcases that I keep these things,
and one for flowers and one for vegetables. I am
always excited to grow. In terms of flowers, sweet peas
were sort of my gateway plant to growing flowers from seed.
(10:58):
To me, they're just this old fashioned hour that I
take a lot of pleasure in growing those, and so
those are always very fun for me. In terms of vegetables,
I mean, I have my tried and truths that I
always have to grow, and I'm always going to have tomatoes.
I am perpetually in search of the world's perfect tomato.
But I also love to try new varieties. This year,
(11:19):
I'm going to grow ginger in the vegetable garden because
I figured, I mean, I have grown that in a
pot before, but I thought, well, that would be kind
of fun to grow in vegetable garden and see how
that goes. And it's a very pretty plant. So I'm
always in for anything that's beautiful as well as productive
when we're in the vegetable garden. What are some of
your favorite beautiful and productive plants. I would say top
(11:39):
of the list for me is Swiss shard. I actually
think that Swiss shard is one of the most beautiful
plants there is, regardless of whether you're talking about vegetable, ornamental,
or flower or foliage. It's just beautiful. Especially there's a
variety called bright Lights that has all these it's a
mixture of shards with all these different stem colors, so
you can have have this rainbow of colors and they
(12:02):
get these bright, glossy shiny leaves, and I think you
can't beat that. In fact, I think that's a plant
that I have seen that planted in ornamental containers, and
I think it looks beautiful there because big bold leaf,
it's it's gorgeous. Last I think there's also ornamental ways
to plant things. So last year I made sort of
(12:22):
a design out of basil plants. I grew a tall,
skinny basil called Everleaf Emerald Towers, and then I surrounded
that with a Greek basil, which is a real short,
squatty basil around it in like a diamond pattern and
it's just basil. By planting in an interesting way. It
just was very beautiful to look at as well. And
(12:42):
what's what's the difference in the flavors of this The
everleaf emerald towers basil is a very sort of traditional
sweet basil. The Greek basil is a much sharper, very
strong sort of Italian flavor to it, even though it's
Greek basil, but it's a stronger, more pungent flavor. M So,
one of the things we were wondering about is whether
you have to start your garden from scratch every winter
(13:05):
since the weather they're so destructive, or if you have
any tricks that keep things safe through the whole winter.
I really like to rely for my ornamental garden. I
really love to rely on perennials. These are the plants
that will come back every year. They die to the
ground and then they come back with fresh new foliage
every year. You've also got annuals, and those are the
(13:26):
plants that do their whole life cycle in one year.
So they're going to grow leaves, they're gonna grow flowers,
and then those are going to die at the end
of the year. Now, sometimes some of those annuals will
produce seed, and those will actually do you a favor
and spread that seed around your garden on your behalf.
You don't have to touch them. And then there's this
really crazy type of plant. I say crazy, it's not crazy.
(13:51):
It's just kind of a an in between category called
a biennial. And biennials are plants that will grow just
their foliage the first year and then they flower of
the second year. So one of the biennials that I
grow is Angelica gigus. It gets these big flower heads
on it. It will produce seed in those flower heads,
which then falls to the ground, and that seed becomes
(14:13):
the next year's little plants, which will grow foliage that year.
The following year they grow flowers, and after a couple
of years of this, you have that plant in your
garden because you always have different plants in different stages
of growth, and so it just sort of works its
way around your garden, and in that way, it sort
of behaves like a perennial in that you always have it.
(14:34):
So perennials are great, and that lowers the workload because
really most perennials are not that much work. And obviously
it lowers the budget, and it's just less you have
to do in your garden. And then, as far as
vegetables go, there are perennial vegetables that I think people
forget about, things like rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish. You have to
(14:54):
be a little careful with horse rash. It can get
a little carried away on you. But those are all
things that are perennials, and so you can plant those
once and then you can harvest from those forever. Basically,
you're saying asparagus made me think back. Our dog used
to jump into our vegetable garden and eat all the asparagus.
It was a regular thing that, oh my god, sneaky.
(15:15):
For some reason, she was very attracted to it. Thomas
Got Fancy Taste. My producer, Molly and I are obsessed
with your two new fees that you have, your your
puffs that keep showing up on your Instagram and YouTube,
and we're wondering, how do your dogs add to your
gardening experience? Well, you know, I wish I could. I
(15:36):
wish I could say they were particularly helpful in some way,
um which they aren't really accept that. When I'm outside gardening,
if I spend a whole day in the garden. It
is so great to have a companion out there. So
I love just hanging and they just hang out and
you know, follow me around the garden. Do they ever
(15:57):
chase the rabbits out of your yard? You know, if
only they would be so helpful. They do a very
good job of recognizing that there are rabbits or deer
in the yard, but I wouldn't say that they are
particularly effective in doing anything about it. In fact, I
fear that the deer that frequent our yard are actually
mocking them. At this point. They can get within like
(16:20):
twenty ft of a deer, and a deer will just
stand there and look at them like, I know you're
not gonna catch me. It's fine. They are adorable. So
are there any other spring gardening myths you might want
to depunk on the show for us? There are a
lot of spring gard There's a lot of spring gardening
myths out there. I think some of them are kind
of warm and fuzzy, and it's sort of nice to
(16:42):
think about them. But I think anything that involves an
animal telling you what the weather is going to be,
you should probably just take that for amusement, and not
whether that's a squirrel or a groundhog or anything else.
Generally speaking, that's not going to tell you a lot
about what's coming. I think that most of these myths,
(17:03):
you know, there's some truth to them, but rarely for
the reason that the myth sort of perpetuates. So April
showers bring main flowers. It's true in that you need
water in order for flowers to bloom, but what you'd
rather have is a warm april to really get some
good may flowers. There's also things like, um, there's a
(17:25):
saying out there that you should plant your peas on St.
Patrick's Day, and that is absolutely true for some place
in some years. You know, like there are somewhere where
the day that you should plant your peas is St.
Patrick's Day, but that obviously the climate is much different
across all these places where people are growing, so obviously
(17:48):
that doesn't hold true. So you know, all these things
are things you can kind of take into account, and
there's some truth behind all of them. But you know,
I would say, apply a grain of salt to most
of them. Yeah, that makes sense. So last fall I
got way too late in the gardening, and I learned
that you have to plant pumpkins in spring or early
summer to have them in time for Halloween, Like you
(18:08):
can't plant something in September and expected by the end
of October. But I saw that you were attempting to
grow one of the world's largest pumpkins on your site,
and I was curious what your experience with pumpkins was
this year and what it takes to grow a giant pumpkin.
So I actually just tried to grow a regular size pumpkin.
But it was the first time I've ever grown a pumpkin.
(18:31):
For whatever reason, I have never grown a pumpkin. And
I too planted mind too late, except that I planted
mine at the end of June, so you were really
late if you were in like September. So I got
one pumpkin. It was approximately the size of a tennis ball.
But I did do a little research as part of
this into what goes down into creating. You know, you
see these these world's biggest pumpkin competitions, and it is amazing.
(18:56):
These people spend up to like six hours a day
taking care of their pumpkin. Those pumpkins are putting on
as much as what is it fifty pounds a day
or something. It is unbelievable. They it's water and nutrients,
and then you have to shade them a certain way
from the sun or also gets scourged and it is
like having an infant. I think it's about the level
(19:19):
of care that goes into growing these giant pumpkins. Yeah,
the fact that they're spending six hours on this, and
also that they're so secretive about their techniques, it's really
fascinating to me. Well, yeah, this. People who grow the
world's biggest name the vegetable, are very interesting people and
they are extremely dedicated. But yes, I think there are
(19:40):
secrets that go to the grave with those people if
they don't have some errors to pass them down to.
And certainly the seeds that come out of the vegetables
that they grow are probably locked away in like a
safety deposit box or something. That post was so funny
that you wrote, and the fact that the pumpkin only
turned out the size of a tennis ball is is
so wonderful to me. I hate to say, I mean,
(20:00):
this is an easy way for me to say. I
totally flubbed that, but I do think it's helpful for
me to talk to gardeners and say, look, I can't
grow pumpkin, but you've probably growing a pumpkin, so you know,
don't worry about it. If not everything is a success,
it's not the end of the world. It was just
a pumpkin. It's really nice to know that you make mistakes.
To oh, I think and everybody does. And if that's
one message that I want to get across to everybody
(20:21):
all the time, it's just that everybody screws something up,
don't ever take it personally. So, speaking of messages to
new gardeners and people who are going to give this
gardening thing a shot for the first time this year,
where and how do you recommend they get started, like,
no matter where they live. So I think the thing
to do is to start a start at a reasonable size,
(20:42):
starts small. It's really easy to get overwhelmed if you
plant a garden that's too big right from the get go,
because all of a sudden you go from never spending
any time in the garden to like suddenly you're like,
I need to spend an hour a day in the garden.
Are you getting me? Where am I going to find that?
Even if it means a few containers. You can grow
anything you want a container, and then after that I
(21:03):
would go for varieties that don't ask a lot from
a gardener. Even though we all love a tomato, I
don't think tomatoes are necessarily the easiest thing to grow. Now,
if you love a tomato and that's what you want
on your garden, by all means, plant yourself a tomato
if you don't love it. I mean, that's what you
should be doing, is planting the things that you love.
But things like lettuce are so simple to grow. Anyone
(21:27):
can plant them anywhere. Basically, um, you have to pay
a little bit of attention to how warm it's getting.
Lettuce isn't gonna love hot areas. You can always push
lettuce into a little bit of shade. Actually appreciates that
a little bit. In a very short period of time,
you're eating lettuce that you grew, and it tastes nothing
like the stuff you buy in the grocery store, and
(21:48):
you wonder what you've been doing all these years. That
really sounds delightful. You know, this show is called Humans
Growing Stuff, And I'm always curious, what do you think
plants can each is about being human? I think that
the biggest thing that we can kind of learn from
a plant is that plants are tough. Plants are resilient
(22:10):
plants and want to grow. And I think that's a
good lesson for humans because I always think that we
are more resilient and tougher than than maybe we think
we are. Sometimes even a delicate flower, if you look
at what that had to do to grow and become that,
that's resiliency. And so I think that that if you
look at a plant and you realize it just kind
(22:30):
of was programmed to do that and it's going to
do that same thing for humans, that's a really nice answer.
How does gardening make us better humans? Or do you
think gardening makes us better humans? Oh, gardening makes us
better humans. Certainly. There is something about first of all,
being a part of nature, playing an active role that
(22:53):
I don't know that you can get in very many
other places or other hobbies. Understanding at and understanding that
you're part of this larger world, part of the larger ecosystem.
When you look and you see, you know, whatever, butterfly
come to visit your flowers, I mean, I am still
sort of honored when I see a monarch butterfly come
(23:15):
through my garden and it wants to stop in my garden,
or a little tree frog sitting on a little dahlia
in my garden because that means that I'm doing something right.
It wants to be in my garden. And I think
that's kind of a privilege to be able to see
that part of the world right in your own backyard,
right in front of your face, and you created the
(23:35):
opportunity for that to happen. Yeah, I love that. I
love the way you talk about both the importance of
the diversity in the backyard and how all of that
contributes to make a more beautiful environment, and then this
understanding of your place and sense in the world. And
there's something really lovely about all of that. Yeah. I
think this idea that we can just kind of get
(23:56):
out of our own heads for a little bit, that
is again another one of those things that is harder
and harder and harder to find in this world. So
I think working in the garden and being a part
of this bigger system and a bigger world and recognizing
them what you're doing is making a difference. All those
are all good things to carry over to other parts
(24:17):
of your life. That's really lovely Aaron Shannon, the Impatient
Gardeners the website, thank you so much. I really enjoyed
chatting with you. I was wonderful to talk to you.
Thank you for having me. Humans growing stuff will be
right back after a short break. And now for another
(24:48):
poetry corner. This poem is called groundhog Day. When the
groundhog sees a shadow, we complain how the te pictures
will go low, but that little vermin can't predetermine a
polar vortex or El Nino. Thank you. Hello everyone, I'm
(25:18):
Ja the Black Plant Chick, and I'm here to share
with you three plant affirmations to get you through this spring.
Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, take a
deep breath in and now out, and repeat after me.
Spring a time where, no matter what's in my wallet,
(25:41):
my home will be filled with plants. Take another deep
breath in and now out. With every new leaf that
grows in the spring, my heart is filled with joy
and abundance. M take another deep breath in and now out.
(26:08):
The more plants I have, the happier I am. Take
these with you, say them whenever you need to, and
like seeds, they will grow. And until next time, Love,
peace and propagate. I don't know about you, but this
(26:33):
winter wasn't easy. My family got COVID, the kids kept
getting their hopes up about going back to school in person,
and like Charlie Brown's football, it just kept getting yanked away.
I've missed my parents and my in laws deeply. I
missed Thanksgiving and Christmas and just getting to hang out
(26:56):
with my friends. And to be honest, gardening just feels
like a bright spot right now because I've just been
looking forward to having something to get excited about. There's
snow in my backyard, but I'm ready for spring. And
after hearing from Aaron about all of the joy she
gets from planning her garden out early, I've been dreaming
(27:18):
of all the possibilities, dreaming of what we might plant.
Do we have enough light to grow veggies? What sorts
of perennials can we find at our local nursery? Now?
What sort of birds will the kids and I attract
with this birdhouse we just built. What sorts of flowers
would bring his joy and perfume the air? In my
(27:40):
haste for spring, I was also thinking about how little
I trust the groundhog and his Groundhog Day predictions. According
to mental floss punk satani Fils accuracy rate is a
dismal thirty nine per cent. What's worse is all the
leash we give him. We let him live in a
town library for free. He has a staff of fifteen
(28:03):
people serving him paw and foot. Can we feed him
a special groundhog punch to make sure he's in great spirits?
And even when he's wrong, and he's clearly wrong all
the time, we claim that he's always right and that
we've misinterpreted his groundhoggiaes. Seriously, that's the language. The town
(28:23):
claims he speaks groundhog ease, So groundhogs aside. What's a
better way to know when spring is coming? In the
book The Gardener's Year, author Carol Chpeck suggests two truly
foolproof methods. Look for when the gardening catalogs arrive in
the mail, and then slightly look across the fence for
(28:44):
any sign of neighbors. When you see them sporting old
trousers and waving their gardening spades in the air, talking
about the weather, that's when you can be sure spring
is here. I'm excited for a new season, I'm excited
to be in the garden and I'm so I did
to be here with you. That's it for today's episode.
(29:08):
Don't forget, no matter what season it is or where
you're at in your gardening journey, there's some incredible resources
waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time
on our show, we're going to explore bringing the farm
to table experience to your backyard. If you like what
you heard, don't forget to rate and review the show
on Apple Podcasts. Also, we want to hear from you.
(29:30):
What are your inspiring plant stories, relatable struggles or growing questions.
Tag us in your post or tweet using the hashtag
Humans Growing Stuff, and don't be surprised if you hear
your story featured on an upcoming episode. Humans Growing Stuff
is a collaboration from My Heart Radio and your friends
at Miracle Grow. Our show is written and produced by
Molly Sosha and me Mongy Chatiguler in partnership with Rhinovadia,
(29:53):
Daniel Ainsworth, Haley Ericsson, and Garrett Shannon of Banter. Until
next time, Thanks so much for listening. Two
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