Mary and the Master Gardener

Learn about Liz, the Master Gardener. How she got into gardening and what inspired her to help other gardeners. You can find us on Facebook, and also join the Facebook group.

If you have a gardening question, please email Mary at lewis.mary.e@gmail.com or Liz at liz@greenrootsfarm.org

00:00
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well, that all depends, but that's not really what this podcast is about. We're here to help you grow your garden. Welcome to Mary and the Master Gardener. Today is the inaugural episode of Mary and the Master Gardener and the Master Gardener is Liz. Good morning, Liz. Good morning, Mary. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you for wanting to do this with me. I'm so excited.

00:29
So you are a master gardener. How did that happen? How did you get into it? Well, I learned about it from my mother who herself was a master gardener. And I didn't have a green thumb when I was younger to save my life. But as I watched her, I was always very envious of what she could grow and how beautiful she made it. And she always did all of this incredible.

00:58
giant work for such a little woman. And I kind of, once I moved out to a farm, decided that I wanted to be able to do something like that as well. And there were plants here that I couldn't identify. And so I think the idea may have been a little selfish in my own understanding, but it was also to be able to become good at what I do now.

01:27
So the process is going through your, in Minnesota, going through your county, your U of M extension office, and every county has one. You can sign up online. They, at the time when I did it, which is almost 10 years ago, you could do an in-person course. They had some courses over the weekend up at the Arboretum. And then you also get a free.

01:56
membership to the Arboretum as a master gardener, but you do your training. You learn everything from basic seeding to how to manage grass to managing deer coming in. It's pretty extensive in a short amount of time. And then you get to group up with these wonderful people within your gardening programs through

02:26
County Extension Office. And I was definitely the youngest one there. And I learned so much, so much. I learned how to graft plants. I learned how to judge at different county fairs, which was interesting.

02:44
Okay, so it's everything. Mm-hmm. You're volunteering your time. The first year that you do it, they want you to put in 50 hours. And that's people calling the Extension office asking for help with some problems that they have. You can go out there and you can consult. And you could have community gardens and kind of volunteer in ways like that.

03:13
And that's kind of what I ended up doing through actually my therapy practice was doing a lot of a lot of gardening teaching to people who were incarcerated.

03:31
Okay, cool. So I don't know how to ask this question right. Is it mostly learning by reading or is there a lot of hands-on as well? Yeah, so I did the online portion and that's a lot of reading, a lot of studying. You get this lovely book and you have all the resources. It provides you with

04:01
I suppose a semester or two of coursework in a short amount of time. But the goal is really that you're able to help find a resource to solve any problem or to learn something that you need to learn. All righty. So you've been doing this for eight years or 10 years? About nine. Nine. Okay. So in those nine years.

04:30
have you actually gotten phone calls from people and they're asking about, I don't know, the freaking potato bugs that eat potato plants? I got that more through the volunteering piece. I think I got maybe one call because I mostly dealt with vegetables and things like that.

04:56
there were, I didn't have a lot of availability at the time. I had an infant and a full-time job and the farm. So, but yeah, I definitely put my hours in learning those things as I was teaching gardening to lots of, lots of people. Yeah. Okay. So like I said, I don't know what I'm trying to get at here. It's a question that's...

05:25
that's bubbling. I guess what I'm trying to find out is like how much time do you spend now over the course of a month helping out people because you are a master gardener? Oh, it's constant. Yeah. Even this, right? Like I'm bringing this and trying to educate others on different aspects of gardening and growing.

05:52
I feel, yeah, I help friends out all the time. I've got farmer's market setups, you know, as I think you do too. And it's kind of constant, just answering questions and.

06:07
planning gardens and things like that. So it's just part of your everyday life at this point. Oh, absolutely. It's part of my dreams too. It's constantly in the brain. Yeah, here too. Because we are just now, last weekend, not this past weekend like yesterday, but two weekends ago, my husband finally was able to get into the garden and get stuff planted

06:37
two weeks straight because of all the rain we've had. Yeah, mine is right now. But yeah, it's, whenever you get it in, you get it in. Yes. Yes, and luckily, and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but we got our heated greenhouse built. It's been built for three weeks now. And so we picked up some of the buckets that the nursery...

07:02
has their potted plants in with the holes in the bottom already. A lady in Mankato was giving away a whole buttload of them. And so my husband and son ran down to Mankato and got these empty nursery pots and brought them home. And he is putting tomatoes and things in those for now, because it's now raining again. So we're trying to get the growth happening, even though we can't get them in the garden when we want to, because then once we can, they'll already be growing and budding or blooming.

07:33
Yep, that's what I do. I start seed early and get them out. Since I sell and doing the CSA piece, I need to be kind of stagger planting, right? And I do a lot of companion planting for pests and other diseases. So it feels like it's never ending. The seeding process is just constant. But then, I mean, you can extend the growing season for quite some time then and have several crops.

08:04
Yes, and I'm not even sure we're going to be doing potatoes this year because he hasn't, we usually put them in raised beds so we can add dirt to the, or soil to the boxes as the plants grow. So we get more potatoes, but he hasn't got those set up. I don't know if we're doing potatoes this year. Oh, that can be simple as getting some chicken wire, bending the bottom, putting a couple of rocks down, put your seed, put your potatoes in.

08:33
and then just put some dirt on top. It doesn't need to be anything fancy as long as you're not having to dig in the dirt to try to find them and then stabbing them. I've ruined a lot of craps doing it that way. Uh-huh. Yeah, I just, I haven't heard him say anything about getting the potatoes in. I don't think he's even bought seed potatoes yet. So I don't know if we're going to do potatoes this year. I should probably ask him later. I've got to cover them. I've got all of them. Yeah. Good.

09:02
As for extending the growing season, stagger planting helps, weather helps, obviously. And the greenhouse is going to help us immensely this fall because... Oh, you're going to have stuff all year. Yeah. Once it frosts, we're pretty much done up until now. So we're very excited about this and I've talked about it on the other podcasts a lot. So I don't want to get too far into it, except that this isn't brand new, different channels. So I thought I'd bring it up.

09:32
That's very exciting though. I would be over the moon about that. Yeah, the actual big issue with it right now is that it's been so warm that the greenhouse is at like 90, 95 degrees during the day. And so we have exhaust fans that blow the hot air out, which helps. If they're blowing, it brings it down to about 85.

09:59
So I suspect that the tomato plants and the peppers are going to do really, really well. Almost definitely. Mm-hmm. And the basil. The basil is very freaking happy right now. I bet. Yes, there's like 40, 40 basil plants out in the greenhouse right now in separate pots. And he said they're about a foot and a half tall already. Oh, lovely. I think I got all mine in the garden.

10:25
Yeah, we won't be lacking for pesto or bruschetta or any of that stuff over the summer. Yummy. Yes. And the other thing that I actually want to touch on just for a second is that if you're gardening produce, it's really good to actually use the produce. Lots of people will have a veggie garden and you know, they grab a couple of tomatoes now and then and a whole bunch go to waste because they don't actually cook, so they don't actually use them.

10:54
And I want to encourage people if they start a garden to make a plan to actually use the produce that comes in. And you can freeze tomatoes, you can freeze, you can't freeze cucumbers because they go to mush, but you can freeze squash, you can can. And so if people are going to start a garden, do the research and see how you can preserve your food for the winter. Oh, absolutely. And we could talk about

11:23
food preservation all day long too. I'm an avid canner, I'm an avid freezer of veggies. I've got three deep freezers on the farm. It's good. You can outsource a lot of that food also to feed others. You can donate to the food shelf, all kinds of things.

11:45
share it with your neighbors, sneak zucchinis into their cars. Yeah, exactly. Or all their horses. Put buckets of apples out next to their car. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Anything to get it to someone who might use it if you can't use it. Yeah. And even animals. My pigs, my horses, well, my goats will eat anything, but all of the animals really will take all that in, and then the next year you're going to find those seeds growing everywhere. Yep.

12:15
our chickens end up getting the extra kale and spinach and lettuce when there's just too much and they love it. Oh yeah. They go nuts. My husband just throws the greens in the run and the chickens come from everywhere they are in the run, just zoom into the pile of greens. Oh yeah. It's very funny. So, okay. So now that we know how you got into this and what you had to do.

12:43
How can people contact a Master Gardener in their area? Because I don't want you to get inundated with calls, but there are Master Gardeners for every county in Minnesota. So do you go out to the extension website to get hold of them, or how do you do it? Yeah, so your county will have an extension office. And 4-H usually runs out of that as well. There's a website. Let me try it up.

13:12
pull it up for my own. But every county has an extension office even through their county website. So if you're in Blue Earth County, it should be able to show up on the county site. And then there's usually a number to contact or an email. And there's always a coordinator. There's always somebody who's running that and is knowledgeable about all of these things. It is just an amazing program.

13:42
that our state offers. Yes, the only master gardeners I've ever chatted with in person were at the Arboretum. Yep, they train out of there. Is it Chaska or Chanhassen? I can't remember which city it's in.

14:01
Yeah, I think it's Chan. Okay, yeah. Yep, and fantastic people. There was a lady there, and it said Master Gardener in front of her on the little nameplate thing. And I bopped over and I was like, I need to talk to you. I didn't even say my name. I was just like, I need to talk to you. I was all excited. And she was like, what can I help with? And I don't remember what it was, but I was like, I have this thing happening in my garden. I don't know how to fix it. Do you? And she was like, I sure do. And talked to me for 10 minutes. She was great.

14:31
Now, I'm going to share a quick story about growing things because why not? Because we're both growing things. When we lived at our old house, we lived on a little city lot and the neighbors were real close together and I was fortunate enough to have my next door neighbor, who's my friend, she was two degrees short, sorry, not two degrees, two.

14:57
credits short of a horticulture degree. She didn't actually get the degree, but she was damn close. And it was really funny because she moved in a few years after I had moved in with my husband. And she is a gardening fanatic. I mean, her yard is beautiful. And she came over one day and she said, I don't understand something. And I said, what? She said, you have no background in gardening, no education. I said, no.

15:25
She said, but you just throw stuff in the ground and everything does really well. And I said, yeah, I put it in the ground. I talk to it, I say, please grow and it does. And she said, I spent all that money to try to get a degree and you just work your magic. And I was like, uh-huh. But I didn't know enough. And so anytime I did have a question, I would go to her. So one of the weird things that happened,

15:52
is I wanted to grow daffodils in my front garden that fronted on the sidewalk. And she had daffodils growing in her area that fronted on the front sidewalk. Same street, same south-facing light, same everything. I could not grow daffodils in my garden and she could. She could not grow blooming tulips in hers, but I could. It was the weirdest thing. So finally, I just picked out some really pretty

16:21
daffodil bulbs, they were cream with like a peach center. And I took them over to her and I said, will you please grow these for me and I will grow tulips for you. And that following spring, we just traded flowers for vases. Neither one of us ever figured out why we couldn't grow the one thing. It was the strangest thing. Do you have any idea why that might be?

16:51
bulb gardener. I'm still working on that piece, but I'm wondering if it's any kind of, it would have to be. If all conditions are the same, you'd need to check the soil would be my first go-to.

17:11
making sure that, you know, is there, does one require, you know, a certain pH level?

17:26
So I would check first with the soil.

17:32
Okay, well, I don't live there. I don't live in that house anymore. And I certainly can tell her that. Um, but it was so funny because we were both so frustrated and we finally figured it out that we just swap plants. It was, it was great. Um, okay. And I don't want to get too deep into anything today because this is kind of the introduction to what we're going to be talking about. What we're really going to be talking about on this channel is gardening.

18:01
and all the things that go with it and from, I assume, from the simplest to the most complex things that happen. Is that your take on it, Liz? Liz Huffman Yeah, absolutely.

18:17
Okay. So I guess since it's the first episode, is there anything that you can direct people who are just getting into starting a small garden? Like what's the simplest steps to take? Well, location. I know I've done backyard gardening when I lived in town and trying to figure out which plants will grow where.

18:46
knowing the amount of light that a plant needs and the amount of light that that area that you're trying to plant is going to get. And are you trying to grow plants that come back on their own every year? Are you trying to grow plants that are ready this year? Annuals.

19:10
So simple things like that, but you can always consult a master gardener, you know, knowing what you want to plant. Are you planting a vegetable garden? Are you trying to do flowers in your yard? So knowing just, you know, having a basic plan is likely your first step.

19:33
Okay, and what's the simplest plant to start with? Like if you've never garden in your whole life, you just want to grow something green to get your hands dirty or your feet wet as the case may be. What is the simplest thing to start with? Because I would venture that it's probably lettuce, but I might be wrong.

19:55
Yeah, I guess I go right to perennial plants. That's where my brain goes. Yeah. If I think about hostas and different perennial plants like that. But if we're thinking vegetables, yeah, I would say lettuce is fairly easy. Carrots aren't all that difficult, as long as you have the space and the depths. Oh, yes. OK. So.

20:23
Yeah, I think a lot of those early crops are pretty easy to start. Radishes, radishes are quite easy. And radishes are quick. Yes. Yep. Yes, they are.

20:39
like 30 to 35 days from seed two, actually, radishes you can eat. Yep, and those are all direct seed too. I just made pickled radishes last night from the first four out of the garden from the shift. And they were good. A quick pickle, not an actual canned pickle, but a quick pickle. Yep. So, yeah, I love radishes so much. Okay, well, that's the simple part. And...

21:08
I'm going to say that if you're new to gardening, don't jump in the deep end of the pool if you can't swim. I think that gardening is a very zen, very slow, very intensive learning curve and starting slow is probably the less stressful way to do it. Yeah, I agree. And also just patience.

21:37
I kill shit all the time still. Like, oops, that happened. Lesson learned. Continue on. I mean, that's how we learn and grow. So same when you're starting out. We can't master something until we experience it.

21:56
Yes. And like when we started, we had the city lot. We had like a, I don't know, 70 foot by 20 foot area to grow anything behind our house. And we rented a tiller from somewhere and we tilled up the backyard and got rid of all the grass because you can't eat grass. And we started with herbs. We started with herbs because herbs are easy.

22:27
Yeah. And then we put in lettuces and then we put in peas and we did some tomatoes and cucumbers, not many because we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't want to get the stuff and have it die. And we were pretty successful the first year. And once you're successful the first year, you get brave and you want to add things in. And so we added in winter squashes. We added in winter squashes, but we were growing them along the ground.

22:55
in a small backyard that doesn't work very well. So the following year we built trellises and grew them up instead of out. And that worked great for a small lot. So you can start out not knowing anything and then as you figure out what works and what doesn't, you just adjust. Absolutely. That's the beauty of it too. It's flexible.

23:19
Yeah, and this is why I wanted to do this with you, because I know just enough to chime in with things that worked for us, but you know what works for a lot of people.

23:32
Yeah, and that's part of it is learning and being able to at least help, try to help anyway, somebody who's experiencing maybe something similar. And I think this show is going to provide a really nice platform of people being able to ask questions and chime in and be able to collectively solve some problems possibly. Yes, and there will be a Facebook group for it so that people can come and leave questions. So that'll help.

24:01
And I had a thought and now it's gone. I, I'm not going to lie. I got a headache. It's driving me crazy. So I'm trying to do this. Not being quite with it. Um, Facebook group and people can know it's fine. And people can email me and Liz. Once I get Liz's email, if you have questions you want us to address. And the next episodes will actually be answering specific issues. Cause I already have some questions from people.

24:31
answers so that would be fun too. Oh that sounds wonderful. Yeah so welcome to Mary and the Master Gardener people and I hope it helps and I hope you enjoy it and Liz thanks for your time today. Thank you kindly I hope your headache goes away. Me too I was not gonna say anything but then I blanked out and I was like I sound like a dumbass I should probably say why. No I get migraines I understand.

24:59
Yeah, that's what it is. I've been fighting it since yesterday. So, all right. Thank you so much, Liz. Thank you. Bye.