Nan Sterman answers your gardening questions

S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. We're just a few days away from spring , and whether it's vegetables or flowers , many of you have questions about getting those gardens started. Nancy Sterman joins us with answers. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and engaged. We'll talk about which plants have the most success in our region.

S2: There's so many plants , especially here in San Diego. We have the biggest plant palette to choose from of anywhere in the continent , I believe.

S1: Then we'll discuss how to grow a garden , even if you have a small space , plus what to splurge on and what to pass on for your gardens. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Ah ! It's that time of year again. Time to plan our spring gardens. This hour we've got you covered with tips and tricks to make your garden thrive. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a plant newbie. Joining us is a true San Diego pro , Nancy Berman. She hosts A Growing Passion on KPBS , and she's also our garden guru here on Midday Edition. And welcome back to the show.

S2: Thank you for having me , Jade. I'm so happy to be here.

S1: So glad to have you. So all right , gardening and really , plants in general , even if they grow in the ocean , have been a lifelong enjoyment for you. You've made a career out of it. And and like the title of your show , it is a growing passion.

S2: I mean , watching plants grow is just amazing. It's amazing and it's wonderful and there's always something new to discover , and always a new plant , a new way they're growing , a new way to use them more to learn. There's it's unending.

S1: I wonder , you know , because you say you have these plants. So are there certain plants that should be planted with other plants , you know , certain flowers that should go here or there. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. Well. Well , yeah. Yes or no I you always place plants. Uh , you want to give them a conditions that are closest to the place where they are native to. So some plants want full sun , some plants want moist soil , some plants want acidic soil. Some plants want really , well , draining soil. Um , and there's this is the interesting thing about designing gardens. There's so many plants , especially here in San Diego. We have the biggest plant palette to choose from of anywhere in the continent , I believe. And um , so when I'm designing a garden , there are so many plants to choose from. I have to really analyze what the spaces are to figure out which plants are going to have the greatest chance of not just surviving , but thriving in that spot.

S1: Okay , these things are good to know. I'm going to we're going to dig into that more. Um , I'm not the only one around here with questions , though. I could take the whole show up asking my own , but we actually asked our audience to send in some questions for you. Um , this is one from Christine in Tierra. Santa.

S3: I have a small outdoor space , and I'd like to make it more welcoming for butterflies and birds and other native animals and insects. Do you have any advice or plant recommendations for somebody who's new to gardening ? Thanks.

S2: Oh , that is a question. I love that question because it really it is an understanding that our gardens are connected to the whole environment. Right ? It's not just that I have a garden and who cares what happens outside of the garden , but it's bringing nature into your garden , which is , of course , nature in itself. So , um , what you want to do is make sure that you have plants , that those beneficial insects , the pollinators like so. You want plants. For example , if you plant plants that have tube shaped flowers , those support and attract hummingbirds. The long beak. Right. Mhm. Um , you want plants that have kind of an open face kind of sort of daisy shaped because those are what bees look for and what butterflies look for. So there's , there's all kinds of different shapes of flowers that and colors to that attract different kinds of pollinators. But in addition to that , you also need to grow plants that provide places where they can lay their eggs , where they can shelter , where the birds can build nests. And also , you have to think about how you're going to care for your your garden. You need to make sure you have water sources for those different insects and , and birds and such. And also a lot of us are prune Happy pruning. Happy , right ? Right. You know , I know so many people who go around the garden clipping everything. Well , you can't do that because you want the flowers to stay until they. The flowers become seeds because the birds come and eat the seeds. And you want the the plants that go bare in winter. You want to leave their stems because that's where the bees , native bees come and they nest in those stems. And so you have to think about the garden as being a space for nature , rather than being a showplace , even though you want it to be pretty. Okay.

S1: Okay. That's that. That is a good perspective because I'm one of those prune happy people.

S2: Don't be a prune happy people. And you always first want to look at native plants , because the native plants are the plants that best support our native birds and insects , etc. but that doesn't mean that non-natives don't do the same thing. It's just that the natives are the best place to start. Interesting.

S1: Interesting. Well , now , Christine and her question. She mentioned having a small outdoor space and I'm also one of those folks who have a small outdoor space. By that I mean just a balcony. So how can people who don't have a yard , but maybe a small balcony or porch start growing things ? I mean , what does that set up look like and what plants are better than others in that situation ? Mhm.

S2: I'm going to say it depends because it depends. Are you the coast or are you inland. Microclimate.

S1: Microclimate. Matters.

S2: Matters. Absolutely. And do you face north south , east or west. Do you have a water source. An easy water source. Those are all. How much sunlight does that space get ? Um , those are all factors that have to be considered when you're trying to decide not just what to plant , but how to plant it. So , for example , a really good rule of thumb is to go for the largest sized container. You can comfortably fit a lot of people by , you know , you by plants in their little and they don't. People don't anticipate how big that plant could get. Well , the bigger the plant , the more enjoyment , enjoyment you're going to get and the more you're going to attract , you know , whoever you want to attract from the the environment , butterflies , etc.. So you always want to go , you know , look at the plant , find out how big it's going to grow , find out how much light it's going to need , find out what kind of soil it really prefers , and then make make a container. Planting a collection of container plants. There are even raised beds for growing vegetables that are on legs that you can put on a balcony. One of my favorites is called Veggie Pod , a veggie Pod veggie Pod , and it's a freestanding. They have different sizes , raised bed and you can grow vegetables in that. Even if you don't get sun , you can grow lettuce , you can grow spinach , you can grow some herbs , you can do all kinds of things. Wow.

S1: Wow.

S2: The truth is , plants want to be outdoors. Mhm. Okay. I can't tell you how often people say to me how come my lemon plant doesn't make fruit. It's like well where do you have it. In my living room. Well because it wants.

S4: To be outside.

S2: Or somebody. The other day was , was posting something on on one of my discussion groups , an aloe in a pot , and it was starting to rot. And the guy was saying , I don't have a bright enough window for this. And I said , it doesn't want to be in your house. It wants to be outside the plants that we grow as house plants they generally come from , like the shady understory of tropical jungle areas. So they're okay in a house where there's not much light , as long as you keep it humid enough and you keep watering appropriately. Mhm. But herbs don't grow indoors. So you know those cute pictures of those little herb plant pots , you know , for your kitchen. Absolutely. Sorry. Okay. It won't work.

S1: I'll just stop buying them. Oh , sorry.

S2: Unless you buy it with the understanding that you're going to harvest until it dies and you'll buy another one.

S1:

S2: Okay.

S1: Okay. That's good advice. Okay ? Okay. So earlier we had a question about attracting those beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds. But we also have a few questions about garden pests and how to repel them. So first up is Kimberly from Allied Gardens.

S5: I have a question about varmints moles voles or gophers. How can I keep them safely out of my garden ? Thanks for your help.

S2: Oh my goodness , those are varmints. Exclusion is one way to do it. If your garden isn't very big , I mean really not very big , you can go around the perimeter of it , dig down like two feet and put in a vertical like hardware cloth , which is that that welded wire mesh , okay. And sink it down right along the edge of the fence. And that can be a barrier , but it's no guarantee because they're burrowing. They're burrowing critters. Yeah. Um. You can. One of my favorite gopher traps is called the gopher hawk , and it's come on the market. I don't know , maybe the last 5 or 10 years. And it's completely different than the old snap trap gopher traps. It's it's like a it looks like kind of like a dowel. And you stick it in the ground and it has this , uh , trap contraption. Anyway , it works. That's all I'm going to say. Go for hawks work. Yes. All right. And the other thing , really , the thing that works best , in my opinion , is , um , what's called a gopher basket , which should be called a gopher exclusion basket. And it looks like a chicken wire basket , but it's made of harder metal. Higher , uh , harder wire than chicken wire. And you buy them the size of the plant that you're planting. So for a one gallon plant , you buy a one gallon sized gopher basket. And when you dig the hole , you put the basket inside the hole so that the plant is inside the basket and keeps the gophers from getting to the roots of the plant. Okay.

S1: Okay.

S2: All right. So for a couple extra dollars , then you've you got some insurance and or is anything 100% foolproof. No , but it's pretty good.

S1: All right. Well , here's a question off Facebook from Te Erwin Lindgren. Um , this person wants to know , is there anything that I can plant with my tomatoes that will deter rats from eating them ? Nothing worse than finding half eaten fruit still on the vine or laying on the ground.

S2: Oh , I so feel. Yeah. Mhm. There is nothing that will deter a rat. The only thing again what we get to is exclusion. So honestly about oh my goodness how long ago , 20 years ago maybe I built a wire hoop house that covers my entire vegetable garden. Like you walk into it. It's that big. But you can make frames and cover them with hardware cloth. Um , specifically half inch opening hardware cloth because you want the pollinators to be able to get through , just not the rats. So you can build these frames and sit them on top of your vegetable beds. And that is pretty much if you're not , unless you're going to go and make it to the expense of building a hoop house like I did , and you have enough room to do that. A frame like that , a cage like that is the best thing to do.

S1:

S2: It's the one with the little the little rectangles. They call that hardware cloth. You want to make sure the openings are at least a half inch. That's the widest I've ever seen , and at a half inch , it's too small for a rat to get through or a mouse to get through. But it's big enough for a pollinator bee to get through , so you're not sacrificing pollination to keep the rats out. This is a really important point.

S1: Coming up , the one thing you want to be very careful about when planting in your garden mint.

S2: You always want to start from a plant. And you always , always , always want to put it in a container and put the container in a place where it would not touch soil. Because if mint gets in your garden , you will never get rid of it.

S1: KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. This hour we're getting a garden lesson from the one and only Nan Sterman. She's host of the KPBS show. A growing passion and all around garden expert. We're learning about how to make our plants and crops thrive. So , Nan , as we keep going through listener questions.

S2: The formulations are different. Fertilizer formulations are different depending on what you're going to use the fertilizer on. But you don't have to worry about what the differences are , because when you go to buy the fertilizer , it's going to be labeled as fruit tree fertilizer or citrus and avocado food , or rose food or vegetable fertilizer. Buy a fertilizer that's formulated for the plant you're going to use it on. So a general fruit tree fertilizer is not what you want to use on citrus and avocado because they need something specific. So you're just buying the fertilizers for that purpose. Now , that said , very few plants in your garden need fertilizer. The only plants in my garden that get fertilized are the fruit trees. That includes the citrus and my my roses and vegetables. That's it. Nothing else. If you choose your plants to be plants that are appropriate to our climate and our soils. There is no need to fertilize anything else.

S1: And all the money that we're spending on on this , that and the third.

S2: See , it's really people complain it's so expensive to garden. Yeah. Because you're spending money on things you don't need to spend money on.

S1: Well , on to the next question. Um , and this one is from one of our listeners named cam , and she's wondering about some of her roses and perennial flowers that don't seem to be performing.

S2: If your plants aren't , if the perennials are not surviving a year. Something is wrong with your irrigation , your planting method , the plants that you bought , maybe you bought , you know , really inexpensive plants. And you know , you can't be cheap on the plant material. You can't be cheap on the the materials you use in your garden. Maybe something's wrong in the way you're growing them or the way you place them. So I would I would take a step back and say , what am I trying to grow ? Will that really grow where I want it to grow ? What am I doing that's preventing it from thriving ? Don't keep throwing , you know , good money after bad. You know , you're just you're wasting your time. You're wasting your good wishes and expectations. You know , like your anticipation of big flowers and a beautiful bloom. Yeah. You know , when that doesn't happen , that's really disappointing. Yeah. So don't keep making the same mistakes. Figure out what you're doing , what you could be doing better. Let's not say what you're doing wrong , what you could be doing better. Put the time in to do that before you buy more plants.

S1:

S2: So one of the things that you know , in my classes when I try to teach people is to do their research before they go to the nursery. If you're planting plants to fill in spaces , how big is the space ? Right. So many people buy a plant that gets ten feet wide and put it in a space that's five feet wide or three feet wide. Well , that plant you're going to then end up pruning that plant for the rest of your life. That's a waste of your time. And the plant will never look as beautiful as it could be if it was left to grow to its natural size and shape. So you want to consider the space you want to consider again. How much light is there ? What's the irrigation ? Um , what's growing nearby. Am I near the coast or am I inland ? You know all those different conditions. Make a list of what you think you'd like to plant there. Then go to the nursery. Otherwise you just see something pretty. You put in your in your cart , you take it home and you go , okay , now what do I do with it ? Right. And you end up putting it in the wrong place. Yeah. And don't think that I don't do that. I do it to believe me. But for the most part , if I'm going to be planting something in my garden , it's specifically because I know it's going to work where I'm going to put it. And when I'm designing a garden for a client , it's my responsibility to know what has the greatest chances of working where I want to put it. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Well , our listener Chioma in Valley Center , hi , Chioma , we heard from from her last year , and I know gardening is also a growing passion for her. And she's trying to grow a three sisters garden.

S6: I'm drawing pumpkin horn and green bean. Do you have any suggestions for me ? Thank you.

S2: Well , you know , that's kind of a traditional approach , Native American approach to growing some kind of squash , corn and some kind of being together.

S1: And is that what , a Three Sisters garden ? Yes.

S2: That's what a Three Sisters garden is. So it's it's a very , um , well known traditional Native American approach approach to gardening in the southwest. The concept is that the corn grows tall , the beans grow up , the corn. So. So the corn is the support for the beans. The beans add nitrogen to the soil , and that feeds the corn. And the squash grows all the way around and shades the roots and helps to conserve the moisture. Wow. Yeah. Interestingly , I was on a trip , uh , several months ago in Mesa Verde , which is one of the national parks , and they were talking I was we were listening to a tour guide , and he was talking about the the ancient native peoples who lived there , and they were farmers and that they were growing Three Sisters Gardens. But one of the reasons that they would plant beans to climb up the cornstalks is because it's extremely windy , and the beans would help to stabilize the cornstalks. I'd never heard that before. Mm.

S1: Mm. See , there's technique in all of this.

S2: But if you're going to grow that. So the thing I would recommend to her is don't start too early. You want to wait until nighttime temperatures are above 50 degrees reliably before you plant any of those in the ground. And they all have they all need to be planted together at the same time , directly seeded in the ground. But it's too early. Well , Valley Center , she may be. It may be warm enough now , but I would wait another couple of weeks. Once we get into April. She should be safe to do that.

S1: All right. And we've also got a few questions here from Instagram. Doctor Janet Franklin wants to know about landscaping with native plants. She's curious about climate resilient landscaping.

S2: Um , this is a really interesting question because people talk a lot about landscaping with native plants , plants that are native to where you live , not just like San Diego County , but your specific address , which is which is great. But as we go , we experience climate change. The conditions that are in your garden today will be very different. At least that's what the modelers tell us in five years , ten years , 20 years. And so when you're planting now , you're planting permanent plants that you hope will be there in ten years , 20 years , even 50 years. So there's this whole discussion about rather than planting all plants that are native to where we are now , let's look to the south , Because the conditions we have now , the conditions in , in northern Baja are probably going to be the conditions that we'll be dealing with by the time that happens. So there's a whole school of thought that we should be looking to the plant palette , to the native plants that are in northern Baja and starting to plant some of those plants. And I'm using some of those plants in my gardens as well. There's a wonderful tree , uh , oaks. And let me just think , is it the tomatillo ? There's two that I've been using recently that are in anticipation of , you know , they do fine now , but they should also thrive as as the climate changes. There is , uh , Quercus Folia and Quercus tome and Tela. And I would tell you , they're , they're common names , if I could remember , but I can't. I'm sorry. Okay. I get steeped in the botanical names , I forget , but they're both beautiful oaks. And I'm already putting those into gardens here now in anticipation of that.

S1: So Sara is Danner is looking for the best low maintenance and drought tolerant plants for a small yard.

S2: That I mean. Okay. 2000. Okay. All right. That I could recommend to her. That's a really open ended question , but the best places to start looking and doing her research are California native plants. So there's a great web website called. There's two of them , Cal Scape and Cal Flora. And they both are native plants. Um , Cal scape is very oriented towards native gardener native plant gardeners. Then look at the plants that come from South Africa , the Mediterranean region of South Africa. So those would be like cone bushes and plants and proteas. There are plants from um parts of Australia , the Mediterranean , parts of Australia , pavilions and um Moluccas and plants like that , and then plants that come from the Mediterranean region. We call this a mediterranean climate because all of those regions , plus the west coast of Chile , have the same climate pattern we have where we don't get any rain in summer , all of our rain comes in fall , winter and early spring. That's really unique. This is the only five regions of the world that have that that. And so the plants that come from those regions are the ones that are best adapted to growing here.

S1: All right. Well , Jen and Bay Park wrote for herbs.

S2: And so there are herbs that are annuals which would be dill , parsley um fennel , cilantro. And then there are herbs that are permanent plants. And those would be oregano thyme. Marjoram Bay rosemary. Lemongrass. I'm just the common ones , right ? I'm probably missing a few. Um. So if you're planting the annuals. Oh , and basil is an annual. If you're planting the annuals in summer , you want to grow basil and you want to grow a slow bolt cilantro. And you can start both of those from seed. Parsley and dill grow best in winter , and they are also best started from seed. If you're planting any of those permanent plants. Oregano. Marjoram. Uh , thyme , Bay Rosemary , lemongrass those are permanent plants. They should go not in the vegetable garden like the others. They should go in your landscape and those always. You want to buy a plant starting from seed. There's no point to start from seed. Okay ? You know , it's just your odds of actually having them start. It's not worth it. Just buy a little plant and I always go for a small one and just put it in your garden.

S1: What about mint ? Oh.

S2: Mint. You always want to start from a plant. And you always , always , always want to put it in a container and put the container in a place where it would not touch soil. Because if mint gets in your garden , you will never get rid of it. So even when you're growing it in a pot , make sure there's air space under the pot or it sits on concrete any place so that the roots don't have any chance of going through the hole and rooting into your garden and taking over.

S1: Because that's what they'll do. They'll choke out. Will they choke out everything or just.

S2: No , but they're very it's very aggressive and it's very competitive with other plants. Years and years ago I planted mint not knowing that was the case. And once I realized how far it was spreading , I started pulling on it. I think it took me a couple of decades to get to finally get the the end of the mint out of my garden.

S1: That is. Wow. Yeah.

S2: Yeah.

S1: Pretty invasive.

S2: It's not invasive invasives. It's different. It's very aggressive. Just.

S1: Just. Aggressive.

S2: Aggressive. Very aggressive.

S1: Aggressive meant. All right.

S2: I mean , unless you like have a mojito every night , you'd have to use it up that quickly. Right , right.

S1: Right , right. Yeah.

S2: In fact , I'm teaching my my seed starting. I teach seed starting both online and I do in-person workshops. And I start them all in March. We're doing them right now. In fact , anybody who's interested can go to my website , um , Water West Gardener or go to Nan Sterman Garden School. Com and find my online seed starting course and my hands on workshop. There's one more workshop. It's , uh , it's on the 31st of March in Escondido , but I have people start seeds now because when you start vegetable seeds , it's going to be 6 to 8 weeks before they're big enough to transplant to the garden. What people don't realize is if you plant those summer crops too early , the nights are too cold. They won't grow first of all. But worse than that , they're just going to kind of sit there in your garden. They're going to be eating , they're going to get pests. They might be stunted and there's no advantage to putting them in the garden early. It's much better to wait until the nights are consistently over 50 degrees. 50 degrees is that magic point ? And so once your nighttime temperatures are consistently over 50 degrees , you can put those plants in the ground and they will grow. So we start our seeds now because that way we know it'll be 6 to 8 weeks , will be past that 50 degree mark. And the plants , once we put them in the ground , they'll just take off.

S1: All right. Well , Vinnie Tong , our managing editor here at KPBS , wants to ask what's a good way to take care of citrus or avocado trees in pots outdoors that will lead them to bear fruit.

S2: And most people don't realize that to have a full sized tree. You need to have , you know , a giant pot , one that's like a half whiskey barrel , you know , a couple of several feet across. Put if you can. If you can manage it , put the plant in the ground because then the roots can expand. The plant can then grow tall and big and strong and have to have enough leaves to make enough energy to make flowers , which then become fruits. Um , but it's really important if you're growing them in a pot , you need a very large pot. It needs to be in full sun. You have to fill it with high quality potting soil , not the cheapo stuff. You need to , um , plant it properly so it's not too deep and it's not too shallow. You have to fertilize regularly , though. When you fertilize it in the ground , you have to fertilize regularly too. But I mentioned earlier , you need to use citrus and avocado food. Um , when you're fertilizing a citrus that's in a pot , you want to use half as much as you would for the same size plant in the ground. Um , and , and then , of course , you've got to keep , you know , you've got to water regularly to keep the soil moist , but not wet , just moist.

S1:

S2: Okay.

S1: Okay.

S2: And ask them because they're going to have the the best stuff and you got to spend money. Yeah. I mean you don't want the cheapo stuff if it's cheap. Oh if it's cheap it's cheaper.

S1: Well what are the what makes it different. Like are there.

S2: Ingredients ? Yeah.

S1: What's the what's in the high quality.

S2: You know there's there's different. Every company is going to have different products. None of those none of those soils will have actual soil. They won't have any dirt in them. They have some kind of compost. It's either peat based or it is , it'll say composted forest product , which is basically trees. So it's the leftover parts of the trees from milling and all that. And it's composted trees. So it's bark , it's all that. And um , plus it will probably have some perlite which is these , they look like little pieces of styrofoam. And they're irregular shaped. And because they're irregular shaped , they create spaces for water to drain through. Uh , it will have some kind of fertilizer , probably. You can look on the ingredients for every bag. If you turn it over to the backside , it'll tell you exactly what's in it. And there are different formulations for different plants. So like like if you're growing a hydrangea here , they don't really grow here very well. So you always want to put them in a pot in the shade , and you want to get a potting mix that's going to hold water because that's what they need. Whereas if you're growing a succulent , you want a mix that's going to have lots of grit. There's sand in that usually , and the water is going to move through really quickly. It's not going to hold much water. So you really you really do want a different potting soil depending on what the plant is. Remember , the goal is you're trying to give the plant conditions that are as close as possible to where it comes from.

S1: Coming up , some of the best places and spaces to start your gardening journey.

S2: If you want to learn how to garden and you go to a community garden , chances are are the other gardeners or most of the other gardeners are going to be really experienced. Some of them even hired classes. They share tools , they share wisdom. They share water.

S1: KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. I'm continuing our conversation about gardening with Nancy Sterman , host of the KPBS show A Growing Passion. So a lot of people think succulents and cacti are easy to grow , but for some , they're surprisingly easy to kill. What do people get wrong with those ? They.

S2: What do people get wrong with cactus and succulents ? They try to grow them as houseplants. They try to grow them in the shade. There are some that are okay in the shade , but most are not. They try to plant them in the wrong kind of potting soil in a pot. Instead of using a cactus and succulent mix that drains well , they use a standard potting soil or they dig up dirt from their garden. They overwater them. They put them in too small a pot. They try to miss them. You don't want to miss it.

S1:

S2: Not for cactus and succulents. Not at all. Cactus and succulents. Succulents is a description of the capacity of plants to absorb water and hold it in their stems , their roots , and their leaves. It's not one group of plants. There are succulent geraniums. There are succulent grapes. There are succulents in succulent versions of many , many , many different kinds of plants. It's an adaptation to evolving in a climate where water is not always available , and so succulents allows the plants to dry in that water and hold it so that when there's that long , dry period , they have a reservoir of water within their plant tissues and they use it up. So like , have you ever seen a golden barrel cactus. You know , this big round , and they look like they're kind of accordion , right ? When it rains , they swell up those accordions , allow them to swell up and hold and store that water. But then when you get to the dry period , they when they start using the water , they shrink back down. And those , those translations get really distinct. It's one of the few , you know , it's one of the really obvious places , if you know , to look for it , you'll see it. So you never want to miss the succulent. They're not adapted to humid environments. They're adapted to very dry environments. And that's how they survive.

S1:

S2: You want the soil to dry out completely before you water it again.

S1: All right , well , speaking of killing plants , um , I've got a question about my dearly departed snake plant.

S2: I'm so glad you brought that up. I was just going to talk about it , And I thought , all right , that's too much.

S1: You know , I mean , she'd been with us for three years , thriving , uh , in a pot with new plants starting to sprout. And and then one day , she just fell over and died without warning.

S2: That's the botanical name. Snake. Plant is one of the common names. And there are different ones. Some are prefer full sun and some don't need sun at all.

S1: Okay.

S2: Okay. Partial. Direct. Was her direct sun on her ? No.

S1: Direct sun. Okay.

S2: Okay. How often ? What kind of soil was she growing in.

S1: With those paralyzed Pearl fertilized. What do they.

S7: Do ? You light perlite ? Little pearls. Right. Perlite. It had the pearl , those little.

S1: Pearls in the soil. And , um. And she. The plant was in the same place. Yeah. Um.

S7: Um. Okay.

S2: Okay.

S1: Maybe once a month. Maybe. Okay.

S2: Okay. It sounds like you were doing well because those plants , you could water them once every three months. They're one of the few plants like you can put in your desk in your office , right ? Because they just don't need very much light. They sort of sit there. Did you do a postmortem ? No.

S7:

S2: You didn't take it apart and look at it.

S1: Well , you know , I did. And like so so it was almost like it was trying to run from the pot because it almost like , undoes itself. And so you just I just pulled it out and the leaves just kind of peeled off of it. Yeah. I haven't dug into that dirt yet to see what's left in there.

S2: I would do that. Sometimes. What happens is , um , they kind of rot at the base because they get , you know , more water than they need at a particular point in time. But yes , definitely look into the soil and see if there's anything in there and whether it will restart and if it's in there , what I would suggest you do is to repot into fresh cactus and succulent mix , make sure it's a cactus and succulent mix , and then just water it to settle the soil around the whatever's left of the plant , and then don't water it again until you see new growth show up.

S7: All right.

S1: I'm going to give it a try. And next year I'll tell you. Okay.

S7: Okay.

S1: I got that snake plant back. Um , so another culprit for tragic plant deaths can be mold. Instagram user Greedy Pi wrote in that she has a lettuce grow farmstand and every year she gets dusty mold on her vining vegetables and she thought it was transmitted via soil.

S2: The best way to avoid it is to make sure that your plants have good air circulation. So what you can do is when you see it start to develop , is to go in and selectively. If she's talking about sounds like vining plants , like cucumbers and melons and things like that selectively removes the whole long stems so that what's left behind has good air circulation around it. The other thing , I've never done this , but but I have had people tell me they have a really good success with using a milk rinse , diluting milk , and rinsing the the leaves. Okay , I don't I can't swear by it because I've not done it myself.

S7: Cows milk. Or.

S2: Or. Yeah.

S7: Yeah.

S2: Almond milk. No , no , not almond milk okay. No. Um , yeah. Cows milk. Dairy milk. And then University of California actually recommends that when you see it start to develop , that you go out in the early morning and rinse off the leaves with water , but early , early , early in the day so that they dry by time. Nighttime comes and it's more humid. Okay. So you're basically trying to rinse the spores away. Okay.

S7: Okay.

S1: All right. Well , here's a San Diego specific question from Dan and Nancy in Bay Park.

S2: And what that means is it grows into native habitats and it displaces native plants , so it destroys those habitats. Once the habitats are gone , the birds , the bees , the butterflies have no place to live. The snakes. The snakes are good. Snakes are good.

S7: Remember that. Are they okay ? Yes. All right. Lizards.

S2: Lizards. Um. You know , every all the native critters , they lose their place to live. Plus , native habitats have very , very important roles in our environment in general. They capture runoff , they filter pollutants , they do all kinds of things. And when those , those invasive plants take over the native habitats and kill them , we lose those functions that we then have to figure out how to re recreate in ways that are not plant based and are expensive. Okay , so I don't know exactly how this plant got introduced to Southern California , but it's been extensively used. People thought it was a fire that was resistant to fire. It is not. It is not after fires. I can't remember which fire. In the early 2000 I did a tour , a little self-guided tour through the fire , the burn areas to see what burned and what happens with ice plant is it's green on top , but underneath it , it develops like layers and layers of dead , you know , as you have generations , it starts low and then the underneath dries out , and then you've got new stuff on top and it makes like two feet deep layer of dead stuff with a little bit of green on the top so it'll burn. And the other thing about ice plant is those thick blades. They they take up water and they get really heavy and people planted on slopes thinking it's going to stabilize the slope , but it don't. When it rains , it gets so heavy that it pulls down hillsides. I've seen it pull down whole hillsides and it is a huge mess. It's a mess. It's destabilizing. It's expensive to try to reconstruct the hillside. It's really bad stuff. Don't use it.

S1: All right. Well , so we've spent a lot of time talking about growing plants in our yards or balconies and or inside of our homes.

S2: Community gardens are places in among our communities where people come together and they have an open field of some sort , or a corner of a park , or a part of a church property or whatever , where there are beds that you can rent for very inexpensively for X amount of time and you can grow whatever you want. They're not really whatever you want. There's usually rules about what you can grow. But , um , like , you know , you don't want to plant an oak tree in your community garden bed because it's going to grow huge. The roots are going to go into everybody else's beds , and you're not going to grow anything in there. But they're great because they're a wonderful place to learn from other gardeners , right ? If you want to learn how to garden and you go to a community garden , chances are are the other gardeners or most of the other gardeners are going to be really experienced. Some of them even hired classes. They share tools , they share wisdom. They share water. They share camaraderie. All the community gardens I've ever been to are multigenerational , which is great. There are not many places in our world where you get very young and very senior people working together with a common interest , and gold and community gardens are one of them.

S1: Very special places , it.

S7: Sounds like.

S2: And it's places where you can grow something to feed yourself. Mhm. Right.

S1: All right. Now for listeners who are looking for gardening resources , where would you point them to any upcoming classes that might be of interest.

S2: Thank you for asking. Yes , I invite everyone to if you're interested in vegetable gardening , to join my Easy seed starting course , there's two ways to do it. There's an online , you know , entirely online version of Xsede starting. And it's not just for San Diego , it's for basically all of California and much of the southwest. But you can you can participate in online xsede starting. It's a self-paced , on demand series of of videos supplemented by every other week. Zoom live zooms with me and a private community. And so that's one way to do it. And then the other way is to come to one of the workshops. So we have hands on workshop where we go , and we literally plant your entire vegetable garden in half a day. You come in with nothing and you leave with your whole garden seated and ready to plant , and you have access to the whole online course as well. The next workshop is on the 31st , and it's in Escondido. That's actually the last workshop of the season. And to find out about all of that you can go to my website down. Sorry waterways wise gardener. Com. I always say I grow gardens and gardeners.

S1: That's great. It's definitely a growing passion for sure , with. Lots.

S7: Lots.

S1: Of different limbs. Um , we of course will have those resources linked to our web page at KPBS. Org. I've been speaking with Nan Sterman. She's host of the KPBS show A Growing Passion. Nan. Thank you so much for your time and imparting your knowledge about this.

S2: You know , this is what I'm passionate about. So thank you for asking. I really appreciate the opportunity to help , you know , other people listening , become better gardeners , happier gardeners.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.