Now that the final frost has passed, it's time to plant your seedlings out in the garden! But before you get planting - have you hardened off your seedlings?
If you're wondering what that is, you're not alone. Most gardeners probably don't do it, but it can help increase your plants' survival rates and set you up for the best garden yet. Hardening-off seedlings is essentially exposure-therapy to the real world. Most seedlings are grown in a nice, cozy environment with consistent light, consistent watering, and consistent temperatures - this is not the case with the Great Outdoors as it threatens your plants lives with light that is 10x more powerful than any LED, temperatures that swing wildly, and not to mention the wind, bugs, rabbits, or squirrels that may be waiting to strike.
When we harden plants off, we will begin exposing them to the real world for about a week before doing a complete transition to outdoor life. You will want to start off with a small amount of time, let's say an hour, and then gradually increase the time the seedlings spend outdoors until you think they're ready to make the move.
Hope you enjoyed the podcast & please let me know if you have any questions & I'll be happy to help!
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9:46
Challenges of Growing Tomatoes & Gardening Tips and Tricks
On today's podcast I answer 5 gardening questions beginning with When & Why I started gardening. After I discuss my origin stories around gardening, I dive into more gardening specific topics such as:
What seeds can I plant now?
What is the #1 most challenging part of growing Tomatoes?
What are some gardening tips and tricks?
I hope you enjoy this podcast & if you have any further questions - call into the station or drop me a comment & I'll add it into the next episode!
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23:42
Staying Sane in a Crazy World
In today's episode of Mind Body Garden I talk about how to stay sane in this crazy world we are living in. When I began this podcast, I didn't intend for it to spiral into maintaining a positive perspective during quarantine from the Coronavirus situation - but I know it's on a lot of people's minds and the thing that is threatening everyone's mental health.
For me, having a morning routine has greatly helped me to stay sane & happy despite the monotony & uncertainty of the times we are living in. My morning routine involves writing Morning Pages (3 pages of stream of consciousness writing), and then ideally it would follow with creating content - either a podcast or a blog. Lately I have been waking up late and rushing my morning routine - often missing the podcasting or other tasks that I want to complete. I find that not executing on something that I planned on doing is more of a drag on my psyche than anything else, so I knew that it was time to reclaim the morning routine - and my positive perspective.
What do you do to maintain perspective & find comfort in these crazy times?
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17:11
Soil Health: Gardening in Raised Beds, Containers, & Growing in the Soil
As we prepare to plant our gardens out for the season, there are a few options for how you can garden this year. In this podcast I talk about the pros & cons of 3 different types of gardening:
Growing in the Soil
Growing in Raised Beds
Growing in Containers (or in my case, Root Pouches & Grow Bags)
There are challenges for each type of gardening, but you have to find the benefits that help you & your situation the most. I found that I needed to grow in Raised Beds or Root Pouches to save my plants from wet feet, diseases & fungus that live in my soils, and from the seasonal attack of grubs, weeds, and whatever else nature can throw your way.
Hope this podcast helps you & would love to hear from you if you have any questions or anything I can do to help you grow your best garden this year!
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29:37
Tips 4 Starting a Garden
In this podcast I talk about what I've been doing for the last month of lockdown and how I am staying sane. A lot of it revolves around gardening - something that I was obsessed with before all of this chaos happened in the world. Now that it has happened, tons of people are wanting to grow their own food and become self-sustainable. Starting a garden can be intimidating but I hope to guide you through the process of starting a garden whether you are growing from seed, or planting directly in the ground.
Gardening can be intimidating when you consider all the factors - watering the plants, fertilizing them, making sure they get enough light. And all of that is just while they are seedlings, wait until you plant everything out in the garden and have to worry about pests like bugs, squirrels, rabbits, and deer!
My goal through this podcast was to break down some of the stigma around the amount of work it takes to garden. It does take "work", but a better word for it would be "care". It requires a great deal of care & intentional acts that promote growth and help the plants to flourish.
April is creeping to a close and gardening is on everyone's mind as we wonder what the future holds with the situation revolving around us currently. I think that uncertainty, a "prepper instinct", and the need to be self-sustainable is driving people to want to provide more for themselves - a big part of this is through Gardening.
Let me know what I can do to help you grow your best garden yet!
MAKE AMERICA GARDEN AGAIN
South Africa