Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comFarmer Fred interviews horticulturist and commercial citrus grower Lance Walheim about the history and cultivation of citrus fruits, covering varieties, growing tips, pest challenges, and the joys of homegrown citrus.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIf you’re looking for a superfood to grow, it’s hard to beat blackberries. They can be grown in just about every state in the United States. They’re highly adaptable, and they thrive in USDA zones from 4 all the way up through 10. Here in California, in USDA zone 9, they do quite well. They grow nearly anywhere that has enough sun.Today, we talk with Master Gardener and berry expert Jeff Smoker, who has tips for growing blackberries.Blackberries are considered a superfood.According to North Carolina State University, a superfood is so-called because it has a high ratio of nutrients to calories, and that is a perfect description of a blackberry.According to North Carolina State University, blackberries are low in fat and sodium. They make a very heart-healthy snack. They’re loaded with fiber, 7.6 grams per 100 per cup. Only 62 calories per cup. Carbohydrates, 13 or 14 grams. Less than 7 grams of sugar. Less than 1 gram of fat. And they even has 2 grams of protein. Plus, they are loaded with vitamin C, manganese, vitamin K, vitamin E, potassium. They’re high in antioxidants, which reduce free radicals, combat oxidative stress, and may protect against cancer, heart disease, and cognitive decline.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com We talk about water safety and rain barrels with Sacramento County Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour who swears up and down on her stack of Ruth Stout gardening books that she would NEVER drink water from a rain barrel…nor would she water her edible plants with it.What’s a gardener to do?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn this podcast episode, I speak with Staci and Jeremy Hill, authors of "The Preserver's Garden," at their 11-acre farm Gooseberry Bridge in the Ozark Mountains. We explore their transition from urban life to sustainable farming, emphasizing self-sufficiency and healthy eating through preserving homegrown food.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comWhat is Backyard Orchard Culture? According to Dave Wilson Nursery, the goal of Backyard Orchard Culture is the prolonged harvest of tree-ripe fruit from a small space. This means planting close together several fruit varieties that ripen at different times and keeping the trees small by summer pruning.According to today’s podcast guest, Ed Laivo, the backyard garden is not a place for a commercial orchard, where all the fruit and nut trees are planted 20 feet apart and get 20-30 feet tall. For thirty years, Ed has championed the idea that the backyard gardener needs only to grow enough fruit to feed the family, as safely and economically as possible.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comSome passersby or visitors might think you have a yard full of shiny coffins in your front or backyard. OK, using large steel cattle watering troughs as gardening containers might not appeal to those who heed form and design before function. But that staple of rural areas for supplying water to horses, cattle, and sheep is also damn practical for the gardener looking to remain more upright while working with food and flower crops. Opting for watering troughs as large garden containers also helps avoid vexing in-ground soil issues such as perpetually soggy clay soil, rocks, thin soil, as well as soil that might be rife with pests (hello, gophers!) and soil-borne diseases such as verticillium wilt, nematodes, fusarium and more. Besides, you can mute the “coffin comments” by prettying them up…with the right paint.In today’s newsletter podcast, we talk with Sacramento County Master Gardener Gail Pothour about using steel watering troughs as large containers for food and flowers. Not only does she have them in her own yard, she and her fellow Master Gardeners at the vegetable section of the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in Sacramento County, California are showing visitors their value for growing vegetables, annuals, and perennials.Beyond the paywall in both the podcast and newsletter today, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using regular steel and galvanized steel as containers for edible crops. One of the big drawbacks to galvanized steel: the chances of zinc leaching into the soil and into the roots of your plants…and then into you. We will look at the available scientific literature (and there’s not much, really) that discusses the dangers of using a container made from galvanized steel.Also, we will delve into the important topic of how to have easier drainage from containers to avoid standing water. And, from “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions” Department: what some gardeners do, thinking they are helping the water draining situation, when in reality, they may be creating more problems, causing water to collect in the containers, leading to possible root rot. And, of course, paid subscribers get a transcript of the podcast, corrected by an actual human!Paid subscribers are about to find out if their galvanized stock tanks serving as raised vegetable garden beds are slowly killing them. Don’t be left out!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comToday’s podcast here on Beyond the Garden Basics is all about grapes. We have two interviews with two Sacramento County UC Master Gardeners, who specialize in grape selection, planting, trellising, feeding, watering, protecting, and harvesting both wine grapes and table grapes. You’re going to discover the best disease and heat resistant varieties, the best tasting grape varieties, and detailed information about pruning both table grapes and wine grapes.And if ever there was a podcast that screamed for pictures, charts, graphics, and more. It’s this one. To the rescue is the original newsletter that contains this podcast, Beyond the Garden Basics, which you can find with an easy search or just to Substack dot com. In the newsletter, we’ll have more explanations about what we talk about in the podcast, including diagrams explaining the various pruning techniques for grapes, best performing grape varieties, and links to grape growing advice from universities throughout the country.

Please share this with any of your friends or family embarking into the exciting world of backyard gardening, especially starting a food garden!America’s Favorite Retired College Horticultural Professor, Debbie Flower, and I explored these “lessons learned the hard way” (aka “Garden Wisdom”) back in 2022. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comBlueberries Grow Well in ContainersAt our former residence, the blueberry harvest from our six plants was outstanding; there was plenty for us, as well as the birds (note: add netting). The six southern highbush varieties that we planted there included Sharp Blue, Jubilee, South Moon, Blue Ray, Sunshine Blue and Misty. That was about 10 years ago.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn today’s newsletter podcast, Master Rosarian Debbie Arrington waxes rhapsodic about the new rose varieties that will be at nurseries in 2026. In USDA Zone 9, those roses may already be available locally. If not, they’re usually available from rose catalogs. For paid subscribers, Debbie talks about 12 new rose varieties (it’s 6 varieties for free subscribers). Paid subscribers also have access here to the transcript of the podcast, which features pictures of all the roses as well as links to where you can find them online.After the paywall (in the middle of the transcript, below), there are pictures and chat about 6 more new roses for 2026; and, Debbie has tips for bringing cut roses into the house, preserving their aromatic nature. Plus, tips for what to look for when shopping for roses.Here’s the transcript of our conversation about 2026 roses with Debbie Arrington of the Sacramento Rose Society, along with pictures and links:==========Farmer Fred: I was looking up the term “shovel prune”, trying to find out its origin. If you’re a gardener, you may be familiar with the term shovel prune. It basically means to remove a plant, in a polite way. And the first time I heard it, it was from a rosarian. In fact, the only people I know who use the term shovel prune are rosarians. And so I figured, well, it must have some sort of rose background. But unfortunately, I hit too many dead ends. But I will just assume that shovel pruning is a Rosarian term, because you need to make room for all the new roses that are coming out right now. It’s a great habit to get into. (FREDNOTE: This article is not quite the dead end for a definition for “shovel pruning”… and it’s entertaining!)Rosarians love new roses. They love to try new roses. They love to smell them, as well. And one Rosarian has a nice bully pulpit here in the Sacramento area.Debbie Arrington is a master rosarian with the Sacramento Rose Society. She knows her roses. She and Kathy Morrison publish, every day of the year, the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter that’s sent to your email inbox, if you’re a subscriber (it’s free). There’s a lot of good information in that. Even if you don’t live in Sacramento, you could open a free subscription to the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter and get all sorts of good gardening information.For instance, in a recent newsletter, she talked about the new roses for 2026. This is similar to what automotive magazines publish for car enthusiasts every fall. Automotive fans love to see the new cars when they come out in the fall. Well, Rosarians are like that in January, which makes January the time for shovel pruning. Because you have to plant something else, something new, perhaps. So we’re going to find out what’s new for 2026. What has got the Rosarians a-flutter?Let’s sell some roses here. Debbie Arrington, have you purchased any of these roses that we’re going to talk about?Debbie Arrington: Not yet, but they are on my list. I have to figure out how much room I have to get some roses in. And you’re right about shovel pruning. It is the pruning of last resort when you’ve done everything you can to that rose and it still isn’t performing. It either has to move or has to go. And that’s how you do it, is you dig it out. As some Rosarians say, the way to make sure a rose has a better season is to just show it the shovel and somehow they’ll wake up and have a lot more growth that year.(FREDNOTE: perhaps a more genteel expression than “shovel pruning” when approaching an offending rose is “shovel ready”.)What happens is that over the years, a rosebush can lose its vitality and just start not performing as well as it should. And by losing its vitality, it atrophies. It gets less juice out to the end of its canes. It stops putting out new canes. And if it doesn’t put out new canes, then it will stop putting out roses. And a rosebush that doesn’t bloom is just a pile of thorns. So it’s time to move on to something else. And fortunately, there are still rose hybridizers and rose breeders and rose nurseries and people that are willing to grow new roses and introduce them. And the roses that we are getting now are brand new roses of 2026. We’re actually go back to 2016 or earlier when these roses were originally bred because it takes about 10 years for a rose to come to market after they first discover that seedling. So these roses have been in the works for a long time, but they all represent trends that have been going for most of this new century.Farmer Fred: What are the common threads on the popular new roses? What are rose growers looking for?Debbie Arrington: It’s like they say, everything old is new again. People want roses that smell like roses. They want roses that look like roses. And they want roses that have all those good traits, but in a very easy care format that doesn’t need spraying. In fact, doesn’t need much care at all. And r

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comWe are entering the shivering season for the Central Valley, Bay Area and low foothills of California, along with other mild winter states, especially those that grow citrus. Late November through mid-February is the most critical time here for protecting frost-susceptible plants.This is especially true for citrus tree owners, who are anxiously keeping an eye out on the upcoming weather f…

Growing onions can be confusing and try your patience, as listening to the above podcast will demonstrate. As our resident vegetable expert, Master Gardener Gail Pothour, knows first hand, growing green onions is a snap. But bulbing onions? Gail has more or less given up on trying to grow bulbing onions.If you listened to the podcast before you started reading this, it should be pointed out that the bulbing onion trial conducted at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center more than 10 years ago that Gail mentions had some drawbacks, including starting from seed (which requires a lot of patience and the results can be widely variable), and, they were all started at the same time - in August - and not transplanted into the raised beds until November. That’s three months that it took for those onion seeds to produce seedlings to get to a transplantable size, about the thickness of a pencil. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIf you spend good money on good-quality hand pruners that have replaceable parts, they can last for decades IF you take care of them: cleaning, oiling, and sharpening after every use. My Felco #2 hand pruners have been alive, well, and cutting since the 1990’s.So, how do you sharpen the blades of pruning tools? Sacramento County Master Gardener Bill Black offers step by step instructions in today’s newsletter podcast. His tips are available for all subscribers. And, he has a how-to-sharpen video.Also in today’s newsletter podcast (available for paid subscribers), Debbie Flower - America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor - and I do a deep dive into garden tool care and selection, including the must-have tools that should be part of every gardener’s arsenal for backyard fun.

(Note: this post was sent early this morning, but only a few people received it. I’m not sure what the problem is at Substack, but I’m sending it again. Hope you get to read and listen to it!)Don’t give up on certain seed varieties that seem to really take their time, germinating and growing indoors. Among the warm season vegetables that are frustratingly slow to germinate are onions, peppers, parsley, basil, and dill. To make the wait even more maddening, it can take 8 to 12 weeks for certain vegetables to grow before they can be transplanted in the garden, including onions, parsley, eggplant and celery. Add to that the seeds of flowering plants that take awhile (8 to 12 weeks, or more) to germinate and grow to a transplantable size: snapdragons, begonias, vinca, lisianthus, strawflower, impatiens, statice, geraniums, petunias, rudbeckia and coleus.No wonder we talk about Seed Starting Tips in early January!In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, offers five great hints on starting seeds of vegetables and flowers, including peppers:• How soaking pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide can speed up germination; and, how seeds germinate. • Why seeds don’t need fertilizer.• How to know when to transplant those seedlings into larger containers. • Why seedlings need a light period and a dark period each day.• The importance of air movement and the development of reaction wood* for the young seedlings.Slow-to-germinate pepper seeds can take up to three weeks to show their first set of true leaves. And, several other vegetables, especially some herbs, take weeks to sprout. Among them are celery, parsley, rosemary, asparagus, lavender, artichoke, What you’ll need for successful seed germination and growth, according to Debbie:• Small, clean seed trays or containers with drain holes.• A soilless seed starting mix. (We offer up several homemade recipes, too)• The benefit of soaking pepper seeds for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide.• Bottom heat via a propagation mat.• Consistent moisture.• Lights, once the seedlings appear.• Air movement.• Transplanting those seedlings into bigger containers once roots pop out of the bottom.Debbie Flower is a horticultural treasure. Just one listen to what she has to say isn’t enough. She is offering up so many great tips for gardeners in our “scenic bypasses”, that it really pays to either listen a couple of times or read the entire transcript (below, for paid subscribers). I am amazed at all I am learning from her; and, I’m listening to what she has to say at least four times (the original interview, two editing sessions, proofing the final) and polishing the transcript. And reading and editing that transcript, although last on the list, reveals more great gardening information that I had missed before.We also discussed the importance of gentle watering of seedling trays, so as not to dislodge the seeds (Debbie’s favorite is the Dramm 1000 shower nozzle). We have different ideas about the best sort of gentle watering equipment to use. A list and links of all the seed starting implements that we discussed, including watering equipment, is here**:Grow lightsDramm Water Breaker nozzlePump Pressure Water SprayerMulti Head hose-end sprayer with Mist settingSeed Starting trays, kitsIndoor GreenhousesOutdoor GreenhousesSeed Starting Mix* The phrase, “reaction wood”, awakens the thirteen year-old boy in me. I wonder how many giggling scientists it took to come up with the explanation of the importance of air movement in the development of reaction wood among young plants. According to this scholarly presentation, the answer would be: 10.** Most, if not all, of those germination product links lead to Amazon, mainly so you can see what they look like and a few details about them. I do not receive any remuneration from Amazon for these mentions or purchases (not allowed by Substack). Buy them from whoever you want. Shop around online or at actual stores. There are probably better prices out there than what the Amazon robots are showing you.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete posts, access to past newsletter editions, and help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.GERMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR VEGETABLE AND HERB SEEDSSource: Germination Requirements for Annuals and Vegetables (Iowa St. Univ.)(By the way, check out that site for a list of flower seed starting tips!)Germination Temperature (°F) : The ideal air temperature for germination.Light conditions during germination are critical for many annual flowers and vegetables. The seeds of some plant species require light for germination, and others require darkness.L = Require Light for Germination. After sowing these seeds, lightly press them into the germination medium, but do not cover them.D = Require Darkness for Germination. Cover the seed with the germination medium (usually 1/4 to 1/2 inch - precise depth outlined on the

Don’t give up on certain seed varieties that seem to really take their time, germinating and growing indoors. Among the warm season vegetables that are frustratingly slow to germinate are onions, peppers, parsley, basil, and dill. To make the wait even more maddening, it can take 8 to 12 weeks for certain vegetables to grow before they can be transplanted in the garden, including onions, parsley, eggplant and celery. Add to that the seeds of flowering plants that take awhile (8 to 12 weeks, or more) to germinate and grow to a transplantable size: snapdragons, begonias, vinca, lisianthus, strawflower, impatiens, statice, geraniums, petunias, rudbeckia and coleus.No wonder we talk about Seed Starting Tips in early January!In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, offers five great hints on starting seeds of vegetables and flowers, including peppers:• How soaking pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide can speed up germination; and, how seeds germinate. • Why seeds don’t need fertilizer.• How to know when to transplant those seedlings into larger containers. • Why seedlings need a light period and a dark period each day.• The importance of air movement and the development of reaction wood* for the young seedlings.Slow-to-germinate pepper seeds can take up to three weeks to show their first set of true leaves. And, several other vegetables, especially some herbs, take weeks to sprout. Among them are celery, parsley, rosemary, asparagus, lavender, artichoke, What you’ll need for successful seed germination and growth, according to Debbie:• Small, clean seed trays or containers with drain holes.• A soilless seed starting mix. (We offer up several homemade recipes, too)• The benefit of soaking pepper seeds for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide.• Bottom heat via a propagation mat.• Consistent moisture.• Lights, once the seedlings appear.• Air movement.• Transplanting those seedlings into bigger containers once roots pop out of the bottom.Debbie Flower is a horticultural treasure. Just one listen to what she has to say isn’t enough. She is offering up so many great tips for gardeners in our “scenic bypasses”, that it really pays to either listen a couple of times or read the entire transcript (below, for paid subscribers). I am amazed at all I am learning from her; and, I’m listening to what she has to say at least four times (the original interview, two editing sessions, proofing the final) and polishing the transcript. And reading and editing that transcript, although last on the list, reveals more great gardening information that I had missed before.We also discussed the importance of gentle watering of seedling trays, so as not to dislodge the seeds (Debbie’s favorite is the Dramm 1000 shower nozzle). We have different ideas about the best sort of gentle watering equipment to use. A list and links of all the seed starting implements that we discussed, including watering equipment, is here**:Grow lightsDramm Water Breaker nozzlePump Pressure Water SprayerMulti Head hose-end sprayer with Mist settingSeed Starting trays, kitsIndoor GreenhousesOutdoor GreenhousesSeed Starting Mix* The phrase, “reaction wood”, awakens the thirteen year-old boy in me. I wonder how many giggling scientists it took to come up with the explanation of the importance of air movement in the development of reaction wood among young plants. According to this scholarly presentation, the answer would be: 10.** Most, if not all, of those germination product links lead to Amazon, mainly so you can see what they look like and a few details about them. I do not receive any remuneration from Amazon for these mentions or purchases (not allowed by Substack). Buy them from whoever you want. Shop around online or at actual stores. There are probably better prices out there than what the Amazon robots are showing you.Beyond the paywall:• A second podcast interview, also featuring Debbie Flower, who explains how you can tell if those old seeds that you have are worth planting (or not). • A nifty vegetable chart from Iowa State University listing the ideal germination temperature range, the light requirements for newly planted seeds, days to germination, and the number of weeks it takes to go from sowing the seed to outdoor planting for 17 varieties of veggies and herbs.• A transcript of today’s podcast interviews.• And my Vegetable Planting Calendar for Northern and Central California.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete posts, access to past newsletter editions, and help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.GERMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR VEGETABLE AND HERB SEEDSSource: Germination Requirements for Annuals and Vegetables (Iowa St. Univ.)(By the way, check out that site for a list of flower seed starting tips!)Germination Temperature (°F) : The ideal air temperature for germination.Light conditions during germination are critical for many annu

If you think mulch is beautiful, too, become a subscriber! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIt seemed like a simple enough garden question to answer. The writer of the email, Steve, said: “I have never cared for a young peach tree or any other variety so I don’t know what to do since I got it in the ground. Now what?” Steve included a picture of the tree, which you can see here.America’s favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, and I ended up having more questions and comments after closely studying the picture. The end result? An episode mostly dedicated to how to plant a fruit tree to insure success. This was originally recorded for the Garden Basics podcast in July of 2020, thus the reference to a hot summer and the muffled sounds of us talking with mandatory masks on.Paid subscribers get full access to all newsletters and podcasts, and we’re having a holiday sale!TRANSCRIPT Q&A: How to Plant and Care for a Young Fruit TreeFarmer Fred Let’s delve into the mailbag, more mail coming into Fred at farmerfred.com here on the garden basics podcast. And we bring in Debbie Flower, retired horticultural professor at many universities and colleges, and she owns a peach tree too. So this is right up her alley. Steve writes in and says, “I have never cared for a young peach tree or any other variety. So I don’t know what to do now that I got it in the ground and mulched. I was given good info and how to put it in the ground. And I believe I was successful. But now what? The tree came in a typical pot with all its roots and dirt, I’m watching online videos, and it’s left me unsure of what to do and when.” Well, Steve was very kind to send along a picture of his new peach tree that he just planted. It’s a little difficult to say how tall the tree is currently, but it looks like…well, let’s just play, ‘what’s wrong with this picture’, Debbie? What’s wrong with Steve’s picture of his peach tree? I see several issues there.Staking Techniques for Young TreesDebbie FlowerWell, the first thing that jumps out at me is that the stake is taller than the peach tree. We only want to stake a tree, even a newly planted one, if it is unable to stand up on its own. If it is unable to stand up on its own, then we want to tie it. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like it could be tied at two locations. Not sure if that lower one is really there.Farmer FredI think that’s a big branch down there.Debbie Flower Okay. Oh, yes. So we only want to tie it as low as we can, to make it stand up straight. He has it tied nearly at the top of the tree.Farmer Fred That’s a very good point you’re making there is that when you’re staking a tree, you want the tie to be at that point where the tree would actually bend. So what you do, you run your hand up the trunk of the tree and at that point where you can get the tree to stand up, that’s where you would tie the top loop.Debbie Flower Exactly, but he can’t tell if it’s going to fall over because if you look right down at the bottom, it is still attached to the nursery stakes. Nursery stakes are used to get that initial upright growth out of the stem, but it prevents the tree stem, fruit tree or otherwise from moving in the wind and from developing strength. And so you need to take it off . I think of it as trees in bondage. When they’re tied this close to the stake, it’s very useful in the nursery, employees can pick up the tree and move it and throw it in a truck and take it out of the truck and the upright part of the tree stays stable, but it is not what we want for the ultimate life of the tree. We want that trunk to strengthen. In order to do that the trunk has to move in the wind just like we have to use our muscles in order for them to strengthen. That trunk has to move in the wind to strengthen, so take it off of that nursery stake and take it off of the very tall stake and see what happens and it is very likely to fall over, not right onto the soil; if it falls over and hits the soil you dig it out and take it back to the nursery. That means there’s a root problem. Somewhere along the length of that tree, that trunk will curve and the top of the trunk of the tree will bend down toward the earth. And that’s when you do what you said, which is run your hand up from the bottom of the tree and at some point the top of the tree will zing back up in the air. That’s the point at which you want to attach the trunk of the peach tree to the stake. Preferably you have two stakes, one on either side of the trunk and you want them a distance from the trunk of the tree, maybe a foot. The reason for that is you don’t want the tree when it is moving in the wind to rub against those stakes and you don’t want them any taller than you need them to be. So the height of the stake would be just maybe five inches above that, about the height of your hand on that trunk. Maybe it’s three inches, just a few inches above, so that you have room to tie. You’re going to tie the trunk to both stakes at abo

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comHoliday Special! For the rest of December 2025, get an annual subscription to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast for 40% off the regular price. Just $30 a year!In this episode, Farmer Fred connects with Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery to reflect on the 2025 tomato growing season, sharing their experiences and insights while evaluating the performance of various tomato varieties. Farmer Fred ranks his 2025 tomato season as one of his worst, only second to the scorching summer of 2022, yet he notes that the overall weather conditions this year were quite favorable.Don shares insights from his own experience, noting that several of his trusted varieties, such as Rugby and Bodacious, underperformed this year, likely due to the dry start to the season affecting irrigation practices. They delve into critical topics such as soil moisture levels and root development, emphasizing the importance of watering practices in achieving healthy tomato yields.As the conversation progresses, they discuss the other plants in their gardens, including peppers, onions, edible pumpkin seeds (Pepitas), and cucumbers. Don highlights the successful lemon cucumber, which flourished without issues of mildew, noting the significant yields from this variety. They also explore the common pitfalls of cucumber cultivation and the importance of managing watering strategies to ensure plants remain productive through the growing season.From irrigation practices to soil health and the excitement of trying new varieties, this episode offers an engaging and informative wrap-up of the tomato growing season. Farmer Fred and Don conclude with hopeful notes for the next planting season, reinforcing the lessons learned and anticipating the joys of gardening and fresh produce in the coming year. And as always, a transcript of the podcast is attached for paid subscribers.2025 Tomato Review Show…and More! TRANSCRIPTFarmer Fred:[0:00] So how was your 2025 tomato year? Well, you get to hear my sob story, and you can hear about all the successes from Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California, for the next few minutes. And we’ll talk about other plants as well that did well or didn’t do well in the way of peppers and cucumbers. And who knows which way the conversation will go, but we’ll certainly cover tomatoes. I have to rank the 2025 tomato growing season in my own yard as the second worst ever. Don, you may remember the first worst, which was that summer two or three years ago when in September it got up to, what, 115 degrees?Don Shor:[0:40] Yes, two days at 116, two at 110, and three at 106 over here in the Davis area. That was quite epic in September 2022. We’ll talk about that one for a long time to come. Yeah, it did impact yields late in the season, that’s for sure.================CHEF’S CHOICE ORANGE TOMATOFarmer Fred:[0:54] And this year, the weather here in Northern California was excellent. It didn’t get too hot for too long. I’m sure it got over 100, but not by much. And there weren’t extended days of over 100 degrees. It was a very, very nice summer. But I see in my notes here, the first full size tomato I took out of production was on September 27th, the Chef’s Choice Orange Tomato. I harvested 30 ripe tomatoes, but it was the end of production, and I needed the space anyway. But let me tell you about one success, though, and it’s a thing that you told me about to do, and it really works. One of the tomatoes I planted this past year was the Bush Early Girl, that I grew in a container, and I started it (from seed in the greenhouse in early February) and planted it outside on April 6th. And it produced early and often, come June. And by the end of July, it was done for, but it gave me those early tomatoes. And I think that’s a great idea to get an early ripening tomato off to a good start in an area that has warm soil to begin with, like a large container, like a half barrel, and just enjoy your harvest until the big boys come home to roost later on in the summer. But yeah, I’ll give the Bush Early Girl an A for its production. And Chef’s Choice Orange, well, I think that’s going to get an F since it came out in September. Sorry about that.Don Shor:[2:23] It’s not an F. Wait, wait, wait. It gets a C. You took it out after harvesting 30 tomatoes.RUGBY TOMATOFarmer Fred:[2:26] All right. Yeah, I know. Okay, I’ll change that to a C because it did produce some very beautiful Chef’s Choice Orange tomatoes throughout the season. And they were very tasty. And we ended up making some relish with it. So it’s very pretty, too. One of the surprise failures in my yard this year was the Rugby, which up until this year has been doing great. But it went kaput as far as production goes on October the 8th.Don Shor:[2:55] And generally, it’s a good, generally a good late producer for us. I had good results with Rugby, but it was middle of the pack

Thanks for reading Beyond The Garden Basics! This post is public so feel free to share it.Visiting a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm or any of the corner lots or nurseries filled with already chopped cedars, pines and firs this weekend, in search of the perfect holiday tree? Here are some tips from the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Departments of Horticulture and Forestry to keep your December living room centerpiece intact through the holidays:• You may cringe at this first tip, but it is one of the most important if you plan to keep the tree in the house for longer than two weeks: Keep the tree in a cool, sheltered location until a few days before Christmas, such as an unheated garage or carport. Otherwise, the warm, dry air of your living room or den can hasten needle drop. Storing it in an environment that more resembles a forest as long as possible will keep the branches more pliable. Take off a half inch to an inch from the base of the tree and keep it in a large bucket of water.• Before bringing the tree indoors, shake it vigorously to dislodge any loose needles or hitchhiking bugs. Check for ants, too.• Before you set up your Christmas tree, make a fresh, straight cut across the base of the tree and place the tree in a stand that holds a gallon of water or more. The end should be re-cut each day before it is placed in the stand. Make a straight cut across the trunk, removing a half inch or more from the bottom.• Cut Christmas trees will absorb a surprising amount of water, particularly during the first week. As a rule, for each inch of stem diameter the tree will need a quart of water per day.• Beware of stands that are too small for the tree. Try to find a tree stand with adequate water-holding capacity for your tree, between one and two gallons. The water capacity listed on a stand’s label or box can be misleading. Usually, they list the capacity of the reservoir when the stand is empty, but you also need to allow for water that will be displaced when the tree trunk is put in the stand.• Keep the tree away from dry, blowing heat. Position the tree away from direct sunlight, fireplaces, heaters, and other heat sources to prevent it from drying out.• Use LED lights. LED lights are cooler to the touch and less likely to dry out the needles.• Turn off the lights when you’re not there. Unplug the lights before you leave the house or go to bed.• Check your tree stand daily to make sure the container has enough water. Refill it often to make sure the water does not fall below the level of the trunk bottom.• What about additives to the water to make the Christmas tree last longer? Based on university studies in Washington and North Carolina, plain water is best. Some home concoctions such as bleach and aspirin cause heavy needle loss and should be avoided. Clean water and plenty of it is the only essential ingredient for success.Tips for a Living Christmas TreeIf chosen wisely and treated correctly, a living Christmas tree can thrive in your yard for generations. The main thing to remember when choosing a living Christmas tree: pick a variety that will flourish in your area.As with everything to do with gardening, all Christmas conifers are localized. Choose one from a reputable local nursery or home center. They will have the best selections for your area. Usually.Among the conifers available at nurseries that will do well outdoors in most areas of USDA Zone 9 after their indoor holiday use:• Italian Stone Pine. A good choice for the interior valleys of USDA Zone 9. Can take heat and drought when established. Has a moderate rate of growth to 60 feet. • Aleppo, Mondell or Afghan Pine. Also called Pinus eldarica or Pinus halepensis. These evergreens can take sun and wind. As an added bonus for those who own acreage, these pines are good for windbreaks and erosion control. Rapid growers, these pines with gray-green needles can get to 30 to 60 feet tall with a 20 to 30 foot spread. They aren’t that thirsty, either; a deep, twice a month watering is all they require during the summer.• Colorado Blue Spruce. Can take sun, shade and cold, but is susceptible to spider mites. Likes most soils, as long as they’re well-drained. This tree with the bluish needles is a slow grower that will eventually get 60 to 80 feet tall with a 40 to 50 foot spread.• Deodar Cedar. A tree that actually prefers clay soil, as long as there’s no standing water. This evergreen can take sun, wind and heat. It’s a rapid grower that will reach 50-80 feet with a 40-foot spread. Aptly known as, “The California Christmas Tree”.• Incense Cedar. Not a true cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), but this California native tree will truly perform well in many USDA 9 yards. Although a slow grower at first, the incense cedar can get 80 feet tall, with a 15 foot spread at the base. It can take hot summers and poor soil, and doesn’t require a lot of water. It’‘s best characteristic: the wonderful aroma on a hot summer day.• Coast Redwood.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn this week’s podcast, Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All America Selections (AAS), tells us about the upcoming 2026 gardening season’s latest award-winning plants. We highlight standout varieties like the Bada Bing tomato, Treviso basil, Majesty purple pole bean, and RubyBor kale, each recognized for their adaptability and exceptional qualities. Diane also introduces the Butter Lamp winter squash and Sun Globe coreopsis for ornamental gardens, and shares tips on plant care and spacing. Visit aaswinners.com for a complete list of top varieties and inspiration for your 2026 garden!Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts, get access to the entire newsletter library, listen to complete podcasts, and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you.For those of us who prefer to read instead of listen, here’s the human-corrected transcript of today’s podcast (with pictures):Farmer Fred:[0:00] So by now, you’re probably looking at gardening catalogs, or scrolling online, trying to figure out what are you going to plant in 2026 among vegetables or flowers. One good place to start is with All America Selections to figure out… what are the winners? What are the good ones? All America Selections is an independent nonprofit organization that tests new, never before sold varieties for the home gardener. There’s a whole season of anonymous trialing that goes on by volunteer horticultural professionals, and only the top garden performers are giving the AAS winner award designation for their superior performance. And all the AAS proceeds go into conducting the trials and promoting AAS winners, both old and new. And there’s a lot of old AAS winners. This is an organization that goes back decades. Here to tell us more is Diane Blazek, the executive director of All America Selections. And golly, it’s getting close to 100 years of AAS winners, Diane.Diane Blazek:[1:05] Yes, it is. We were founded in 1932, so it’s not too much longer. We’ll be celebrating our century.Farmer Fred:[1:13] And it has expanded, I guess, to include a lot of other types of winners, like regional winners and gold medal winners.Diane Blazek:[1:21] Yes. So when the organization was founded, everything was grown from seed and it really was just annuals and edibles. So what we’ve done now is not only expanded from seed, but we also include vegetatively propagated annuals and perennials. And we also now have regional winners, as you mentioned. And what that means is if we get an entry in and it has some very specific regional benefits, when we look at the scores, we notice that it didn’t do well all over North America, but it did well in the Southeast or the Northeast or the Southwest. And that’s how we determine regional winners.Farmer Fred:[2:01] And you also have a category called gold medal winners, but there aren’t too many of those, are there?Diane Blazek:[2:08] No, no. There were way back in the beginnings in the 1930s and 40s, because that was considered, it had to be a breeding breakthrough, like just light years ahead of everything else that was being trialed or the comparisons. So we had quite a few in the beginning, and then we went through a lull. There was about 15 years we didn’t have any gold medal winners. And then just recently, we’ve started to have a few more, and we do have two to talk about today. So I will wait until we introduce those. Yes, there are two in this batch of AAS winners.========================BADA BING TOMATOFarmer Fred:[2:44] All right. Well, let’s get started then. Let’s talk about vegetables first. Now, of course, my priority this time of year is looking for interesting tomato varieties to try. I always try a couple of new ones as well as some old proven varieties that usually get repeat performances in my yard. And you do have a tomato in the 2026 vegetable winners list called the Bada Bing.Diane Blazek:[3:13] Yes, the tomato, Bada Bing. So it is a large cherry tomato. So we just put that notation in there in case people look at it and go, well, this is like a cocktail tomato. It’s kind of in between a cherry and a cocktail size. The main thing is it’s disease-resistant, but I don’t want to disregard the taste, the texture, the fact that it’s very, very crack-resistant, nice and juicy like you would expect from a cherry tomato. So we keep calling it the more bang-for-the-buck tomato.Farmer Fred:[3:49] It looks like, because it has an overall height of just 40 inches, with a large container, you could grow the Bada-Bing tomato.Diane Blazek:[3:57] Yes, you could. We did not trial it in containers, but you definitely could. In fact, just this morning, I placed an order for a trade show. I’m going to the summer and we always want to show our new winners. So I went ahead and ordered it in a either a 14 or 16 inch container. So hopefully it will be fine for that size plant.F

Today’s Podcast: Debbie Flower and I tackle the problem of a slow draining lawn. There are lots of strategies for improving a soggy lawn!Where does the water go?”That’s a question I frequently ask myself while bicycling throughout the region, staring at rain-soaked suburban yards. This is also a question homeowners should ask themselves before, during, and after the rainy season.One of the best pieces of advice I can offer any new homeowner: before you spend any time and money on landscaping projects or a garden, live with the existing property for a year. This allows you to take monthly pictures of the area where you want a future garden, perennials, shrubs and trees.When we moved to our new home nine years ago, that’s what we did before we embarked on a totally redesigned landscape. Taking a series of pictures on a regular basis on sunny days, especially at different times of the day (9am, 1pm, 5pm), will remind you how much shade your future plants will be dealing with, and you can plant accordingly.A plant labeled for “full sun” will need at least six hours (preferably eight hours) of direct sun a day. “Part Sun/Part Shade” plants, 4-6 hours of sun per day. “Shade” should be reserved for those plants that get little direct sun (less than four hours) and preferably dappled sun, such as protection from an overhanging deciduous tree.However, the more important reason to live with that new yard for a year before embarking on outdoor landscaping projects: figure out where water goes, both after regular irrigation and after rainstorms. In our case, we discovered that few of the yard sprinklers worked fully or accurately, and that a heavy downpour of rain ends up in the garage. And the basement would flood.As a result, the price of our landscape rehab zoomed upward, to include a complete drip irrigation system for both the front yard and backyard, as well as an underground hard pipe drain system to move roof gutter water away from the house and garage to another part of the yard. Home and Garden Pests That Sing in the RainThe other problem with wet weather: some home and garden pests love it when it’s wet; and others will seek refuge in drier quarters, such as in your home.The authors of the University of California Ag and Natural Resources publication, “Pests in the Urban Landscape,” offer some “Wet Weather Do’s and Don’ts” to ward off problems:• Check for snails and slugs. They like it moist and will sing in the rain. Unfortunately, their singing sounds a lot like, “chomp, chomp, chomp.” These garden leaf and flower munchers don’t like it too wet. They may be easily found headed for dry land – sidewalks and driveways – during a deluge. Find them under loose boards, as well. That’s the time for hand-picking or stomping them. Chemical controls for these mollusk family members are ineffective in the rain.• Remove weeds and unwanted plants. When the ground is wet, pulling them out goes much more quickly. Among the winter weeds spreading here right now are oxalis, nutsedge and groundsel. You may have other cool season weedy invaders in your yard.• Dump standing water. This wet winter is already favoring a big mosquito season ahead. Deprive breeding mosquitoes of water-nesting sites such as flowerpot saucers, wheelbarrows, buckets, clogged storm drains, and roof gutters.• Check for ants, cockroaches, and earwigs. These pests may invite themselves into your home when flooding or heavy rains make the outdoors unappealing to them. Seal any cracks or openings in your home. Outdoors, check the perimeter of your home as well as around doors and windows for insect entryways. Weather stripping, door sweeps, and traps placed beneath eave-protected walkways can help keep them outside. Indoors, keep food tightly sealed and the counters clean, especially near electrical outlets that might provide an entryway.• Remove yard mushrooms. Mild temperatures and wet soil are a combination that mushrooms and other fruiting bodies of fungi love. The good news is they are not harmful to your lawn and garden. The bad news? They can be poisonous to children and pets, when consumed. Rake them up.• Don’t apply outdoor fertilizer or pesticides now. Both are easily susceptible to being washed off the soil or plants and into our waterways. Wait for several days of dry weather before applying any sprays, dusts, liquids, or granules.• Avoid pruning plants unless it is to remove broken or damaged branches. Rainfall and open wounds in the winter on plants is a recipe for spreading diseases. Apricots, cherries, and olives should never be pruned during cool, wet, conditions, advises UCANR.• A common site on sidewalks after a rainstorm are worms, struggling to get out of the wet soil and onto dry land. If you have easy draining soil, you may see their mounds in lawns and gardens as they come up temporarily for air. Those mounds are a great fertilizer: worm castings. Just knock them down with your foot or a rake to feed the soil.• Tread lightly throug

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comIn today’s newsletter podcast, we chat with Renee Shepherd of Renee’s Garden seed company about the worldwide journey of garden seeds, rising seed prices, and seed availability for 2026. We explore factors influencing market changes, including tariffs and supply chain issues.The discussion highlights the logistics of seed packaging and the importance of quality standards. She also differentiate between hybrids, heirlooms, and open-pollinated varieties, along with the complexities of seed saving. As we wrap up, Renee ends on an uplifting note, celebrating the joy of gardening and encouraging listeners to explore the diverse seeds available while enjoying their growing experiences.2026 Seed Prices Go UpThe good news: the 2026 seed catalogs are beginning to arrive! The bad news: you’ll be paying more for garden seeds.Just as the Halloween decorations are packed away at stores on the morning of November 1, the Christmas lights, trees, and wreaths start jamming the aisles. Don’t fret about Thanksgiving, though: there are usually a few shelves dedicated to inflatable front yard turkeys, and an end cap with flour, sugar, pumpkin pie filling, and canned cranberries to honor the Thanksgiving cook.And it seems that garden seed catalogs are arriving sooner than ever, with the first one hitting our mailbox this year in the second week of November.As you’re ogling the colorful, new hybrid seed and plant introductions for 2026 in those catalogs, your hair might turn a bit gray(er) when you glance at the prices for mail order seed packets (plus shipping). Yep, they’re up. So are the prices of the 2026 seed packets on racks at your local nursery and home centers. The discerning gardener will also note that those 2026 packets, although physically the same size as in years past, may contain fewer seeds.That discerning gardener may also need to brush up on their eighth grade math. Those seed packets can be measured in a number of ways, including ounces (rare these days), grams (getting fewer), milligrams (more common), and the most mind-bending of all, fractions of an ounce (1/64th of ounce! really?). Unfortunately, fewer seed varieties are sold by the actual number of seeds in the packet. And, for a good reason: not all seeds of one variety are necessarily the same size or weight. Still, for the backyard gardener, knowing the number of seeds you’re working with seems like a more common sense approach.So, let’s update our garden math book for when you’re comparison shopping:1 ounce = 28 grams1 gram = 1000 milligrams (mg)1/64th of an ounce = 443 mg1/16th of an ounce = 1.7 gramsHow much are prices going up? In the 2024 edition of one garden catalog company, the price for 1/64th of an ounce of Shishito pepper seeds sold for $5.55. In the 2026 catalog, that price - for the same weight - jumped to $6.55, an 18% jump.A flower example: “Golden Yellow” zinnia, in 2024, was $3.75 for 1/32nd of an ounce (that’s 886 mg, for those of you at home keeping score). In 2026, that same zinnia variety is selling for $4.15 for 1/32 of an ounce, about a 10% increase in price.Why, you ask? The cost of everything is up. Add to that, tariffs. Add to that, shipping charges. Who among us have purchased a seed packet of a coveted vegetable or flower variety, and ended up paying more than the packet price in shipping and handling charges? ✋✋✋An understanding of the seed market is necessary, and after you read what’s below, you will quickly come to the conclusion: those seeds you’re taking out of the packet could have originated from any number of countries.One seed company executive, Andrea Tursini, the CEO of High Mowing Organic Seeds, explained the price jump in the 2026 edition of their catalog:“Last spring, when new tariffs were announced by the Trump administration, we shared the confusion and frustration of many consumers and small businesses. We also promised you transparency as we figured out what this meant for our independent seed company. This past summer, we began seeing the first of those tariff charges rolling in, and as a result, you’ll notice some price increases in our 2026 catalog.First, an important note about the global nature of the organic seed industry. At High Mowing, we’ve scoured the world in search of partners who share our values and commitment to organics. These relationships - and the seeds that come from them - allow us to continuously update our collection, offering improved varieties that meet the needs of our growers. These global relationships and not easily replaced.A reminder that tariffs are fees that American companies pay when importing goods; they are not paid by the exporting company. For example, when we buy tomato seeds from the Netherlands, we pay a 15% tariff. When we import broccoli seeds from Switzerland, we pay a 39% tariffs.Tariffs can be hard to track, showing up on carrier bills long after receiving the seed. This ha

Today’s Podcast We interview climate scientist Daniel Swain, who, besides being a University of California Ag and Natural Resources employee at the California Institute for Water Resources, is well known on social media. Swain runs the Weather West website as well as his frequent presentations talking about extreme weather conditions in California and the west on YouTube, Bluesky, and other social media outlets.TIPS FOR SETTING UP A HOME WEATHER STATIONOne common topic when two gardeners meet: the weather. Gardeners are usually grousing about some aspect of whatever is happening with the current weather: the heat vs. their tomatoes; the threat of frost to their citrus or succulent plants; gusty springtime northerly winds drying out the soil prematurely; and let’s not forget comparing plant damage due to a freak hailstorm.Many gardeners are amateur meteorologists, with a yard full of devices that measure the air temperature, the rainfall, the humidity, the wind, and more. According to University of California Ag and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain, more care is needed as to where you place those weather sensors. After all, that thermometer that’s hanging outside your kitchen window may be reading much warmer than what is happening in your garden.“There are genuine microclimates that can vary over that distance. If the thermometer is attached to your house, it might be warmer,” says Swain, who runs the informative Weather West YouTube page and on other social media outlets. “Presumably if it’s a cold night, you have the heater on inside. Some of that’s going to bleed outside a little bit near your house. If you have it hanging on a wall or an eave somewhere, it is going to exert perhaps a bit of a warming effect. And irrigation can affect the reading. Most people who are farmers or gardeners know that once you put water in the soil, once you put water on the plants, you kind of dampen the range of temperatures that you’re going to experience. By having moisture in some places more than others, you’re also going to actively, in some cases, create a temperature differential that’s different than where you might be measuring at your house or out on the driveway.”Swain says more thought needs to go in to where you place that thermometer sensor for the most accurate readings for the plants of greatest concern.“You’re measuring, technically, the temperature of a small increment of air immediately surrounding that thermometer device,” says Swain. “Imagine two different scenarios, the same parcel of land, the same home, and two thermometers within, five feet of each other. There’s not really a meaningful meteorological difference between the temperature across those five feet under normal circumstances. The numbers should be the same. But imagine that one of those thermometers is just sitting out there in direct sunlight. Maybe you’ve mounted it on a pole above a dirt field or over a concrete or asphalt driveway. That thermometer is going to read some awfully high values in the daytime and potentially some awfully low values in the nighttime. And that’s because you have the sun directly shining on the thermometer, heating the thermometer itself because of the sunlight is landing on the device itself. That thermometer is going to read a very high value. On a hot day, you might even get a value of 120 degrees on that thermometer. But as we define the surface temperature, the temperature at two meter height, so right around the top of my head, since I’m a little over six feet tall, that’s kind of a standard meteorological temperature measurement that’s used not just in science, but also for practical purposes and in agriculture and any number of applied purposes, that temperature is actually supposed to be a shade temperature. What you’re measuring is something different than the number that you’re comparing to everyone else’s numbers. When you go to the National Weather Service website and get a temperature forecast or you look at observations from official weather service certified meteorological stations, the temperatures you’re seeing are taken at the six-foot height in the shade.”Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. Some editions are free, some have a paywall. Your paid subscription helps keep the good gardening information coming your way. Thank You!TRANSCRIPT: Home Weather Station Setup Tips with Daniel SwainFarmer Fred:If you’re a longtime gardener, you just might be a weather nerd. You may want to know what’s happening, especially around your garden area and greenhouse, about many things, such as what’s the high temperature? What’s the low temperature? What about humidity, wind, soil temperature, rainfall, evapotranspiration rate?Plus, there’s chill hours, growing degree days, heat index, UV radiation, and a lot more that can be affecting you and your plants. And your meteorological equipment right now may be as simple as a thermometer hanging outside your kitchen window,

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comToday’s newsletter podcast features an arborist discussing ways you can spot when your trees may be in danger of falling, especially in a wet, windy winter (recorded as the California drought was ending). Also: Consulting Arborist Michael Santos tells us about online resources for homeowners to get more information about the trees in their yard.More information about what was discussed in the podcast can be found at the University of California Ag and Natural Resources publication, “Inspect Your Landscape Trees for Hazards”.How to (Possibly) Thwart Tree Damage Before a StormDuring or after a particularly violent fall or winter wind/rain/snow storm, TV news crews usually rush to the most photogenic damage during these rare occasions: downed trees, usually leaning against a house or crushing a car.Without the correct care of the trees on your property, winter storms and trees will not get along. Most susceptible are the trees that keep their leaves year round, including broadleaf evergreens, such as eucalyptus and camphor. Add the conifer family to that list: pines, firs, redwoods and cedars. All that mass of greenery acts as a sail in a heavy wind, bending trees at ridiculous angles. Another cause of winter tree failure is crown rot, which despite its name, refers to the deterioration of the root system near the base of the tree. Combine that with a couple of inches of rain onto already saturated soils, and you have tree roots heaving towards the surface, leading to pictures, such as the one above, popping up on the TV news.If this is the view from your window, the day after a major rain and wind storm is not necessarily the best day for the homeowner to tackle the hazardous task of cleaning up the remnants of trees, shrubs and other plants that took a beating. If wind and rain is still in the forecast, the prevalence of slippery conditions and the chance of more falling debris should limit your cleaning chores to dragging broken branches away from the scene of the crime. It is not a good day to be climbing ladders or scrambling into trees while balancing a chain saw. Leave that to the professionals.Signs of Potential Tree FailureArborists offer this good piece of advice for those surveying the fallen aftermath of a major storm: Limb failure is largely a product of poor tree maintenance over time. Take care of your trees, or they may take care of themselves in ways you won’t appreciate. According to the University of California publication, “Inspect Your Landscape Trees for Hazards”, a nice day in autumn (or winter, spring or summer, for that matter) is the time to take an inventory of any possible future tree damage before you, your house or your car becomes the next victim of a falling tree or branch.Leaning Trees: Are your trees not as upright as the result of recent heavy winds? Can you see newly upheaved roots or soil around those trees? Then, immediate action is required: call in a professional, certified, bonded and insured arborist to do an onsite inspection and offer a solution (find one near you at treesaregood.org). Newly leaning trees are an imminent hazard. If you have a tree that has leaned for a number of years, that tree can still be a hazard during wet, windy weather. Taking periodic photographs can help you determine if a greater lean is developing.Multiple Trunked Trees: This co-dominant condition can result in breakage of major tree parts during storms. Usually, these trunks are weakly attached. Inspect the point where the two trunks meet; if you see splitting beginning, call in an arborist.Weakly Attached Branches: Trees with many branches arising from the same point on the trunk are prone to breaking during wind storms. Prune out any split branches. Thin out multiple branches.Hanging or Broken Branches: If you see storm damaged branches hanging from the tree, remove them as soon as possible. This includes removing any completely broken branches that may be resting elsewhere in the tree’s canopy.Cracks in Trunks and Branches: Measure the depth of any cracks with a ruler. If those cracks are more than three inches deep, call in an arborist to determine the best course of action.Dead Branches/Trees: Branches or entire trees that have completely died are very likely to come tumbling down in a storm. Dead branches are most noticeable in the summer when the tree is in full leaf.Cavities and Decay: Large, open pockets where branches meet the trunk, or at the base of the trunk, can mean big trouble. The presence of mushrooms on the bark or on exposed roots may indicate wood decay. Call in an arborist.Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Arbor Day Foundation website has this guide to proper pruning techniques.Also: Tips for Hiring an Arborist. Beyond the Paywall:• Tree Pruning Advice• The Three-Cut

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.comAre you thinking about buying a rototiller? How about instead purchasing a chipper/shredder? Now, that’s a machine that’s going to make easy work of chopping up your garden clippings including tree limbs. it’s going to make it into the greatest mulch you could possibly own. The latest research shows that rototilling your soil actually damages soil structure and doesn’t do anything good for the soil biology. On the other hand, the end result of using a chipper/shredder is going to provide you with a quality of mulch that we like to call, “gardeners’ gold”.Northern California Organic Gardening Consultant Steve Zien has some rather strong thoughts on this subject. Go back and listen to his comments back in Episode 89 of the Garden Basics podcast, from 2021.Thinking that perhaps his opinions may have mellowed on the chipper-shredder vs rototiller choice over the last four years, I recently asked for his thoughts. Nope. No change. Here’s what he had to say (in bullets):Chipper shredderPros:• Eliminates or dramatically reduces green waste• Helps eliminate the need for a rototiller• Provides material for mulch or compost• When shreddings are applied to soil surface:• Feeds soil biology – resulting in improvements in:• Soil structure (pore space diversity)• Improve movement in soil by water, air, roots, soil biology• Soil water holding capacity (drought resistance)• Nutrient holding capacity• Biological diversity of soil microbes• Greater variety of nutrients, vitamins etc. available to plants• Improves pest resistance• Plant health improves (drought resistance, pest resistance)• Nutrient availability to plants improve• Availability of natural growth hormones, vitamins improves• Nutrient content of vegetables improves• Sequesters carbon – contributes to the reversal of climate change• Weed management benefits• Mulch created by chipper/shredder moderates soil temperatures• Erosion protection (mulch slows the force of falling rain)• Mulch created by chipper/shredder repels some pestsCons:• Expensive• Hard work. And, when done, you then have to apply the mulch to soil surface• Don’t chip diseased materialRototiller:Pros:• Get to smell actinomycetes• Mental connection to past horticultural practices (although no longer recommended)• Creates fine seedbed – but soil quickly becomes compacted making it difficult for sprouts to developCons:• It’s hard work• Expensive• Destroys soil structure• Compacts soil (reducing aeration, drainage, limit root development)• Fine clays quickly fill in pore spaces• Increases runoff – transporting soil, nutrients and pesticides into our waterways• Kills beneficial soil biology• Makes it harder for your plants to grow• Harder to obtain water, nutrients, growth hormones, vitamins• Increases pest susceptibility due in part to:• Reduced crop health• Pest management provided by soil biology• Reduces nutrient content of food crops• Results in the need for additional irrigation, fertilization, pesticides• Mother Nature’s natural rototillers (earthworms) are killed by the blades.• Creates biological imbalance - abundance of bacteria vs. fungi (raises pH)• Loss in biological diversity in the soil• Reduction of soil health (results in reduction of plant health)• Reduces ability of soil to function• Releases greenhouse gasses (CO2) to atmosphere – contributing to global climate change• Reduces organic matter content• Reduces soils water holding capacity – need to irrigate more/more runoff….• Makes plants more susceptible to drought• Reduces food for soil biology• Reduces soil productivity• Reduces soil cover• People feel they need to till every spring because previous tillage created a compacted, dead soil below• Brings up weed seeds so they can germinateObviously, Steve has a bleak future as a salesman at Troy-Bilt.What About Electric Chipper/Shredders?For that, we turn to Debbie Flower, who owns an electric chipper-shredder, the 15 amp Sun Joe. Her review:My chipper is a Sun Joe 15 amp Electric Wood Chipper/Shredder plug-in, model #CJ602E. I have had the pleasure of using it a few times. It is a compact, easy to store machine. The 6” wheels and light weight make it easy to move around the yard.Debbie has a lot more thoughts about her electric chipper shredder, including the downsides of electric. Listen to today’s newsletter podcast to find out more.My thoughts about electric-chipper shredders are closely aligned with Brad Gay’s opinion (paid subscribers will hear his comments in the podcast). Reviewers of this electric chipper shredder say they have issues including the shredding problems mentioned by Debbie, and the overheating problem she mentioned. As Brad said, it’s cheaper to replace a belt on a gas chipper/shredder when the machine gets overwhelmed to the point of freezing up with material jammed in the hopper, than it is to replace a burned out electric motor. And make sure you plug the unit into a 20 amp