More on the basics! Welcome to gardening basics part 2. Learn how to plant to protect your garden from pets, what time of day you should harvest your plants, which soil to use for vegetables, and more.
More on the basics! Welcome to gardening basics part 2. Learn how to plant to protect your garden from pests, what time of day you should harvest your plants, which soil to use for vegetables, and more.
Want even more home and gardening tips? Stream some of your favorite HGTV shows on discovery+. Go to discoveryplus.com/digit to start your 7-day free trial today. Terms apply.
Find episode transcript here: https://dig-it.simplecast.com/episodes/gardening-basics-pt-2
KELLY SMITH-TRIMBLE: Hi, this is Dig It! I'm Kelly Smith-Trimble. I'm a master gardener and the author of Vegetable Gardening Wisdom. I'm also the senior editorial director at hgtv.com. In this episode, we've got advice for attracting pollinators, maximizing space with succession planting, and more. Let's dig in.
"I'm starting my garden, and I've heard you can plant corn and also plant green beans and allow them to run up the corn stalks. Any comment on the best kind of green beans?" So yes, this is true, and I do have a recommendation for the best green beans. So growing beans up corn is part of a companion planting technique called a Three Sisters Garden. And it was a traditional Native American planting technique. So the corn acts as a trellis, and the beans grow up the corn, using it as a trellis. And then there's also squash involved in the Three Sisters. And it grows along the ground, shading the soil to help the beans and the corn grow.
The best beans for this are pole beans. And pole beans need a trellis to grow up, or some kind of string or something to grow up, as opposed to a bush bean, which stays low and bushier. So you definitely want to use a pole bean to grow up a corn stalk. And I definitely recommend trying it. I did it last year, and it was a lot of fun. The only thing is you need a good amount of space to do a Three Sisters Garden to grow corn successfully. You need at least about a 4 by 4 bed, preferably larger. So if you have the space to dedicate to it, I definitely recommend trying it.
So here's one about tomatoes. And I know we're all ready to start tomato season, even though most of us can't plant yet. "What are your favorite determinate tomatoes?" So let me explain a little bit about tomato types and why she's asking this question. So there are determinant tomato plants and indeterminate tomato plants. And indeterminate tomato plants are also called vining plants, and they grow and grow until they're killed by frost. So they'll keep growing tall, and they'll keep producing. Determinate tomato plants grow to a certain height and produce most of their tomatoes in the same time period, and then they die.
So there's determinate and indeterminate. They're both really good choices. Determinate are usually a little bit better for small spaces. Indeterminate will grow taller and need a little bit more support, like from a trellis, but both of them are probably going to need to be trellised. Two of my favorite determinant types or determinate varieties are Roma, which is the ideal tomato plant for making tomato paste or tomato sauce, and then Celebrity is another good option. It's just kind of a best all around, round, red tomato, and it's an award-winning tomato. So it produces really well in all different zones.
Now, I'm going to tell you something a little bit embarrassing. This is how obsessed with gardening I am. For Christmas, I asked my husband for drip irrigation as my gift. Since most of my garden is not straight lines or rows, we went with a flexible drip tubing kit. At intervals, we attached side tubes to extend out to the plants. Drip irrigation is a good idea for vegetable plants because it waters at the soil level. You don't want to water your plants overhead, which will keep leaves wet and promote disease problems. You can also set the drip irrigation on a timer to water regularly, which is especially helpful when you're on vacation.
Michelle asked about ways to grow vertically to keep her dog out of her plants. She says, "Are there any tall hanging methods that would work for zucchini, tomatoes, and herbs?" There are hanging methods for growing tomatoes and other vegetables, including just using regular hanging baskets. To grow in hanging baskets, you'll want to choose a really small tomato variety. There are even small cherry tomato varieties called Tumbling that are great for hanging baskets.
You may also see upside down hanging planters for tomatoes, where the plant grows out from the bottom of the planter. This method can be a fun novelty, but it's not really great for the plants. If your goal is just to get your plants up out of your dog's reach, I suggest looking at elevated planter beds. This is a really great solution for anyone with limited mobility, too, because you don't need to bend down to work in your garden.
Alanda asked, "What can I add to the soil for the best and tastiest crop?" This is a great question because healthy soil is the most important part of vegetable gardening and in getting really flavorful food. Feeding your soil with natural, organic compost helps to feed your plants and get a good crop. There's also research showing that not overwatering your plants will help make sure they taste their best. Especially right before you harvest something, you can hold back on the water a little bit, which will concentrate the natural sugars in your vegetables and make them taste even better.
Earl asked, "Where can I buy live ladybugs?" He said, "I have aphids in my garden and need the ladybugs to get rid of the aphids." So aphids can be a real pain in the garden. I totally understand. And it may seem like bringing in ladybugs would help, but it's much better to attract native ladybugs to your garden, rather than buying them. The best way to attract ladybugs is by planting a variety of flowers and herbs alongside your veggies. Things like marigolds, zinnias, calendula, chives, dill, and cilantro.
It's also important that you don't use synthetic chemicals in your garden or lawn nearby. If you need more help attracting beneficial insects, like ladybugs, to your garden, there's a product called Predalure that uses a pheromone to attract beneficial insects. It's recommended that you use one lure for every 400 square feet of garden. Give that a try rather than buying the ladybugs.
Now we have a question from my friend and co-worker, Camille.
CAMILLE: Hi, Kelly, I have a question for you about harvesting veggies. This year I'm growing golden zucchini right here in my flower bed that's full of all of my beautiful blooms. One rule I follow when cutting flowers is I do it first thing in the morning when the plants are least stressed. Is this also the best time to harvest veggies? Thanks, Kelly!
KELLY SMITH-TRIMBLE: So just like with your flowers, the best time to harvest your vegetables is first thing in the morning. That's when they have the most moisture. They're crisp, and it's the best for them for storing and for eating. The next best time would be later in the day when it's started to cool down. And the worst time to harvest would be the middle of the day when plants are already stressed from sun and heat.
We've also gotten a lot of questions about regrowing vegetables from scraps. So I wanted to show you two things in my garden that I'm regrowing from grocery store vegetables-- celery and potatoes. You can see here that I'm regrowing celery from the base. I took the base after I cut the celery stalks off. And I placed it in a cup of water for a couple of weeks until the celery started regrowing from the center. And then I placed it in the ground outside. It's regrowing well. The stalks aren't going to be as thick as they are when you get it from the grocery store, but it's still good celery.
To regrow these potatoes, I cut a couple chunks of potato, each of them with an eye on them, off of an organic potato from the store. I then suspended it in water with the sprout growing above and roots growing below into the water. Once I had a couple leaves on the piece of potato, I then buried that in the soil a couple inches below the soil. And so now it's growing a potato plant above and potato roots below.
Around this time of year, we see lots of searches on the website for how to freeze vegetables. It's a really great way, a really easy way to preserve your harvest. So a couple of tips about freezing vegetables. For some vegetables, including beans, you want to blanch them in boiling water for a minute or two first. For others, you just chop and freeze. After they're chopped or blanched, I like to freeze my vegetables individually on a tray for about 20 minutes first, and then I'll put them into a zipper freezer bag. This helps keep them from sticking together in a big clump.
Now we have a question about mushroom compost from my friend and co-worker, Laura.
LAURA: Hey, Kelly. I have a question for you about mushrooms. I planted a fall vegetable garden this year and I used mushroom compost to enrich my soil. But I've noticed that any time it rains I get tons and tons of mushrooms popping up all throughout my raised beds. So is that something that you've seen before? Do I need to do anything about it? Is that going to hurt my vegetable growth? I'm guessing I shouldn't eat the mushrooms, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on using mushroom compost in a vegetable garden.
KELLY SMITH-TRIMBLE: Mushroom compost is used commercially for growing mushrooms. It's actually a growing medium made of straw, moss, and manure. And it can be really great for your garden in small doses. After it's used in mushroom farming, it's bagged up and sold as a soil amendment. If you find mushrooms growing in your garden, whether it's in the mushroom compost or just in regular soil, it's actually usually a good sign that your soil is really healthy. So it's not a problem. Just pick out the mushrooms, and just keep on growing. Just don't eat the mushrooms.
Now here's a question about soil, which is the most important thing in the garden. The Sotelo family asked, "Do you recommend different types of soil depending on what you're planting, or does one soil fit all when it comes to vegetables?" For the most part, vegetables like the same type of soil. The ideal soil structure is called loam. Loam is loose and crumbly, but it holds together when pressed in your hand. Loam drains well, but it doesn't hold water. You definitely don't want your soil to be holding water when you're growing vegetables. The best soil for vegetables also is going to have a pH of around 6.5.
You can improve your soil over time by adding organic matter, like compost and shredded leaves. If you're starting a new raised bed or containers, rather than growing in the ground, use good quality garden soil or potting soil. If you're starting in the ground and unsure about your soil, do a soil test.
Jean asked a really good question. "Could you give any tips for succession planting?" So there are a couple of different methods of succession planting. So I'm just going to explain one that I think is really important, and that is changing out plants for the season in the same spot. So for example, you start out with maybe peas in the spring. They like cool weather, but when it warms up, they're not going to grow anymore.
So you take the peas out, and you replace them with something that likes really hot weather, like eggplant or peppers, and grow that in the same spot during the summer. And then when the fall rolls around, you take the eggplant and peppers out and replace with something that's going to grow well in the fall, like greens. I think this method of succession planting is really important, because it shows you that you can grow in a small space through multiple seasons, not just in the summer.
Let's talk about watering for a minute. Here are a few of my tips for watering the right way. First is to water at the base of your plant. Think about it like watering the roots, not the leaves. So you can do this with a watering wand, a watering can, soaker hoses, or drip irrigation. What you don't want to use is a broadcast sprinkler like you use on your lawn.
Second is to water deeply. It's better to water well a couple of times a week than it is to water for a short amount of time every day. You really want to get the water to those roots. Third is to water in the morning, if you can. If you water in the middle of the day, a lot of the water will evaporate anyway. But if your plant looks thirsty, you should water it, no matter what time of day it is.
For a lot of tasks in the garden, it's really important that you keep your garden tools clean and well sharpened. It doesn't take a lot of time or a lot of materials, but I often forget to do it. So I'm going to show you how I'm going to clean my tools today. I'm going to clean up my hand tools, including my trowel, soil knife, and pruners. First, brush off any soil. Then clean in a bucket of soapy water. You can remove any sap or residue with Goo Gone. Soak in a 1 to 8 solution of bleach and water to disinfect.
For hand pruners, it helps to take some extra steps. Use a few drops of machine oil to keep hinged parts working well. Then carefully sharpen blades with a little WD-40 and a file whetstone or knife sharpener. Rinse and dry a final time. Use a little WD-40 to prevent rust. Finally, it's best to store your tools hanging, so you can keep them clean and dry.
For more gardening info, tips, and hacks, check out hgtv.com/digit. I'm Kelly Smith-Trimble. Happy gardening!