Unknown: Hey, it's Tinisha host of mid American gardener.

And if you recognize this beautiful backdrop behind me, it's because we've been here before.

We are back in Monticello at Jennifer Nelson's house.

And today, we're joined by Jennifer Fishburne.

And these two now that we're past Mother's Day, they are going to get us officially ready for planting season.

So ladies, thank you so much, first of all, now tell us a little bit about what we're going to be talking about today.

Sure, we're going to be talking about planting vegetables and containers.

It's something that Jennifer and I have gotten really heavily into, I'd say the last few years.

So we're gonna go through some of the ways that we grow vegetables at our houses, and what we're planting today and getting the garden going.

Okay, and Jennifer, what about you?

For me, I do have a bit large, traditional garden, but I also enjoy growing in containers.

So today, we're going to talk about some of my favorites.

But first, we're gonna start with container gardening can be as easy as growing in a five gallon bucket, this one supported tomato, as long as you put drainage holes on the bottom of it, you're good to go.

Okay, so we have a lot to cover.

So let's, let's jump in and get started.

We're gonna start off with kind of my favorite planter in the bunch.

This is a tomato planter, you can also plant different crops in it as well, but is really well suited for tomatoes.

We've got one that's kind of that's not planted up yet, just to show you some of the pieces and parts.

Clearly, I've used it before.

No, I don't take painstaking effort to clean it out at the end of the year, we have a lot of minerals in our water here myself.

So that's what you see built up.

Also any kind of salts from fertilizers that we that have been in the soil are going to build up on the sides, it's not a big deal.

Give it a good rinse, you can kind of see there are drainage holes on the side.

And that kind of weird when you're like, why is the drainage on the side?

Well, the bot is a self watering planter.

So the bottom is a reservoir, which makes it really good for tomatoes, because tomatoes, you so much water.

So this is the inner basket.

And it's got this strip of sort of felt.

And it's the wick.

So the bottom has little slits in it and then the wick.

Gotcha.

So that bottoms gonna fill up with water.

took that Yeah, took that you got to toe.

It's almost the same principle as when you buy houseplants, and it's got the little strip of yarn.

Yeah, just on a bigger scale, bigger, bigger scale.

But what I love about this planner is it combines two methods for growing in containers that I think work really well the self watering idea, especially for tomatoes, but then this grow bag.

And clearly I've used this before, and you can buy replacements, but they last several years until it's actually got holes in it, it is breaking down, it's fine to to use.

And before I fill this up with soil, again, I'll pick off any bits of roots that might let be left from last year.

But this goes down inside.

And then you fill that up.

And the advantage of the the felt and the grobag is that you get what's called root pruning.

So the roots are going to grow out and hit the air.

And the root tip is going to die.

And that'll force it to branch so you get a really, really extensive root system.

Oh, wow.

So it's actually more efficient than in the ground because you get it's so packed with Ruth's makes it kind of funny to difficult to undo this thing in the fall because it's like literally Yeah, I bet it sounds like Velcro.

Yeah, when you're trying to take the hole It absolutely does.

And so we'll plant our tomato in here.

And then these are the trellising.

And there's there's hoops of wire that hook into this, right, you don't really need it right now.

And you put the little baby tomato in.

But I saw on Jennifer that they advise you in the catalog where I got these from two plants, some tomatoes that are on the smaller side.

So some of the more determinant varieties, you'll see that on tomato tags in determinant or determinant.

indeterminant is just going to keep growing as long as the conditions are good in the garden.

determinant is going to make a certain height and that set of fruit, that's all you get.

So there's there's good and bad in both, okay, but the container varieties tend to be on tend to be determinant so they're going to be limited in size.

But being the experimenter that I always am like let's see how big I can grow the challenging stuff.

So I bought the extender for the trellis and it's like eight feet tall when I put it all together.

I found what the what the reason is that I say to buy the small the determinant tomatoes.

Once this sucker got so big, bigger than me.

We had a big Storm.

These are pretty stable, but it flipped over.

So you should stay you should tie this to something that's not going to flip over.

This is an earlier version of this planter wheels.

Yeah, this has wheels on it makes it easy to move around a patio.

This is an earlier version.

It's got the same grobag in the wick.

But you notice it's more narrow.

These after the first year I use them.

You have got to tie this to a steak.

Gotcha.

Because they are just now how many plants?

Would you put on one per one per Okay, yeah, we had a cherry tomato in this last year.

Same one I'm going to plant this year, son sugar is one of our favorites.

And very few of them make it into the house because the kids are puppies.

Oh, yeah, really.

So yeah, we'll just put one in the center.

Typically, what are the mix that we use in this is just your basic potting mix, like what you would use for flowers.

I prefer that you buy the one that doesn't have fertilizer already in it and just mix your own, like balanced 12 1212 or 10 1010. granular, we couldn't find any.

When my husband went out to get the soil.

He's like we don't they didn't have what we normally use.

So we do have one in here that has fertilizer incorporated in already, we may have to because you so much water with tomatoes, there's a good chance that mid summer, things will look start to look a little washed out.

They need some fertilizer, we'll just add it in it's fine.

Gotcha.

This mix that we ended up buying to also had the moisture crystals in it.

And that's helpful in growing vegetables and containers because it gives you a little bit more of a window to water, especially with tomatoes.

The first year I tried growing tomatoes in a container.

They need so much water like I watered them at the beginning of the day.

And I came home at the end of the day.

And everything was drooping.

Wow.

Dead.

So this probably is like your best bet.

Yeah, if you have some way to give you a little reservoir.

Yeah.

It will help a ton.

Awesome.

All right, let's check in with Jennifer Fishburne and see what she is prepping over here.

Alright, so what type of planner is this?

First of all, I love it.

Did you make it my husband and I feel like my husband's gonna have to make one of these for me too.

So what do we have going in here.

So this is called a salad table.

This is actually something that the University of Maryland Extension has patterns and designs for these online.

This particular one here the pattern isn't online because this one's made it as a kid size or in my case, the travel version nine and I can put it in my car and take it take it and teach Yes, it's actually meant to be you can do several different versions of it.

But it's also meant to be a table where it's your height that you can actually garden and not have to bend over.

So it's great for people that might have mobility issues or not want to get lower down.

This one I like because it's portable.

And I can move it around my desk to different locations.

So what do we have growing in there Did you already say so today we have I wrote a radishes and a row of onions.

The radishes are they both been in here for I'm not quite a week and a half or two the onions I planted a little bit closer because we're using those as green onions when you want to use them as regular unusual space those further apart.

And this will keep growing to eat the rashes and harvest the onions and then I'll reuse it again in the fall.

I really like this I like the portability portability of it and then tell me you wanted to talk about the design a little bit the design in this particular case we use the recycled plastic lumber but you could also use cedar or Cypress we use what we had leftover from a from a kid's Playhouse and some love.

So that's part of why the size that it is but what makes this unique and what makes it work well is similar with the container that Jennifer was explaining is it root prunes at airprint the roots.

So on the bottom, what we have is some hardware cloth and underneath that is Windows screening.

Oh nice.

So the the window screening is creating the arrow printing and the hardware cloth is supporting the weight of the soil to help hold that in view of those roots peeking through this all stapled together very nice.

But again, as I mentioned, this could be taller, you can make it different sizes and shapes.

But the reason for this is it's great for salad, particularly spring greens because you can have it out in the full sun now and then come June when it starts to get hot out here move it into the shade to extend your growing season for a couple of weeks longer because that shade will create a little bit cooler drum growing situation so they'll be able to continue to grow.

So as long as I've grown lettuce and spinach in this and well as well.

You can keep it growing well into June depending on the season.

Nice now watering wise you know, we don't have the reservoir that we talked about earlier.

So is this one You know, is it tough to keep dry Is that something that you kind of have to manage or I water it almost every day depending on the air temperature, but it has been drying out on top.

And as the seedlings are still young, you want to keep that top surface moist.

So I've been watering it just a little bit every day, you want the soil profile, so the whole soil to be moist.

And what's nice is it will obviously drain through if you've over watered, but you do want to keep it moist to keep those plants growing throughout the season.

Okay, another thing that you've talked about on the show a couple of times is Earth boxes.

And I told everybody, when you set it, it kind of piqued my curiosity.

So we're going to talk about those as well.

Right?

Yes, yeah.

Okay, so how do we how do we work Earth boxes?

And how are they different from other raised containers.

So the earth boxes are similar to what Jennifer just showed, they are self watering containers, so they have a reservoir in them.

And that's what makes them magical and that you have consistent moisture throughout the growing season on like in a vegetable garden, typical traditional vegetable garden, you wouldn't have that same moisture all season long.

Awesome.

Alright, show us how to put one together.

Alright.

Okay.

Alright, so now we're talking about the earthbox.

And you've got one that's deconstructed, so tell us how it all goes together.

Okay, so what we have is the container, the green part that you see here, in that it also has an overflow, so it's got a cut out in it, we have this great here, which is going to hold the soil.

And then this is the fill tube.

This particular one has larger casters on it as it will support a trellis.

And this trellis will actually go over the top and then you'll put a nylon netting with it, and then you can grow cucumbers, it across will help with this supporting your tomatoes.

So this grates gonna just slip right on top of there, got it at the bottom.

And then you're just going to put your fill tube in the corner and that supportive, and then you're going to fill that with potting soil, making sure that the soil is very firm in both of the corners.

And this is what we call a self watering container because the water will go in there, it won't go past the the amount that it needs to, and the corners of that potting soil will wick it up into the entire container.

So could you grow zucchini, any of your your climbers, you could grow anything in here, I have found it best to start with plants.

But you can start seedlings in here as well.

This does come with directions that tells you exactly how many of each type of plant to put in it.

I grow to squash plants in it.

You don't want to grow any more than what it tells you to.

And they'll grow very, very nicely.

Actually, I do this late season with my squash and I don't have any squash bugs problems as I put it on my deck a little further away from where they're at.

And they haven't found that location yet.

So I really enjoy the portability gives you the leg up, right.

That's what the wheels are for it will move anywhere you want it to on your neck or your Patty.

Very cool.

So now Jennifer, the other this is a confusing show, you've got one full and ready to plant in.

So once you get it filled and just kind of talk us through that.

Sure once it's full, you can feel it clear up to the top I may add a little bit more in before we actually fill it which is cool because you don't have to worry about washing your soil out no water at all.

Because it's it's really more or less a closed system because it's not this is not a trash bag.

This is a beer However, there's holes cut out for the the fill pipe but you can use it with the black side up or if you live somewhere really, really warm like Florida, you would probably want to put it white side up because a little bit too much heat is a bad thing.

We want this to be nice and warm.

But we don't want to cook Yeah, in there.

So this will fit over here.

You can help me Sure.

Now this is for starting seeds or maybe you know even when you're done putting your tomato This is this goes on any is not for starting seed is for keeping the moisture in and keeping warming up the soil.

Got it.

Okay, my favorite thing.

This was actually one of the first containers that I got serious about trying to do vegetables, I had some really spectacular failures with trying to grow vegetables in that.

And I truth.

Truth be told, I got a flyer like in with the junk mail that was advertising these like this is not real.

But I'm in a job that I can kind of try this out and see.

And so that's where we where we figured it out.

And like these are really cool and then learn about all the things that people can grow in them.

I've grown corn, you can grow 12 corn plants in this thing.

Wow.

Yeah, it's so it's not just about if you've got poor soil conditions.

You know, this is about you being able to I don't want to say control the environment because I hate when people say that but it does give you a little bit more control in that you can control the conditions a little bit more sure.

And just if you don't even if you don't have a huge space to garden, you can still get a decent amount of produce to feed your family with and you're not going to feed the neighborhood.

But you'll have more than enough like what I will plant in here.

These are bell peppers so that big Bertha's and California wonder.

So super common varieties.

And you're going to put all eight.

Go in here, Jennifer reference the the manual.

And information online will tell you how many plants to plant is changes a little bit over the years as there's more data and more information.

So they used to say 10.

Now they say eight, maybe they've gone by I have to look and see what the current recommendation is.

But I've had the best luck with eight.

And for me growing peppers in this thing has been better than growing them straight in the ground in my garden, and I've got raised beds in the garden.

And raised beds were way better than just straight in the ground just because of the soil heat factor.

And they just, they get like the perfect conditions in here and they get huge and I get a ton of peppers, I get enough peppers off here that I ended up having to dry some of them down.

So I can use them through the winter.

Nice.

Okay, then what we're going to end up doing is cutting holes just using scissors, cutting holes, and planting the individual plants right in right in and I ended up I ended up also using I ended up putting some cages around mine.

Oh yeah.

And you can just stick it right through the plastic.

But we'll be planting this in a few minutes.

And then also, you do end up adding some fertilizer.

So this is just basic 12 1212 fertilizer until you'll put it not not mixed in but you know in a row.

And so it'll naturally leach into the soil.

I have seen not to incriminate the men in the audience.

But I have seen some men tell me that they can do this better.

And they're going to ignore the directions because that's apparently on the Y chromosome.

I wish I had known an individual that decided to put ignore all that and he put Miracle Gro down in the reservoir down in the reservoir but like actually put the crystals like down on them mix it in the reservoir, Jen, it's gonna be fine.

It was for a while it was like the biggest zucchini plants on the on the block.

But then eventually, everything just kind of collapsed and imploded on itself.

So you do need to follow the direction follow the direction and I the first year I grew tomatoes in here, I thought oh, basil, basil and tomatoes go well together, I'll just take a couple of basil plants on the corner.

They got shaded out within a month.

So you really have to pay attention to how many they recommend.

Got it.

And we've got one more container method to show you before we get our hands dirty.

Okay, so now we're moving on to some bags.

And we've got some potatoes here.

So what are these bags called?

And are they are they just for potatoes, or can you put anything.

So these are actually called grow bags.

And this particular one is designed for potatoes, but you could actually grow just about anything in them, they may come in all sizes and shape is built.

It's a polypropylene actually, but they are our versions that are are felt.

The heavier the grade, the longer they're going to last but these will last row bags themselves anywhere from three years to about eight years depending on how you take care of them and what type of material they're made of.

Something very comparable to that that would be super inexpensive, is taking a reusable shopping bag really.

And also putting potting soil in that it still gives that readability The difference is going to be this is only last year, it's going to break down pretty quickly are these are designed to grow in.

So this would give you the same type of thing.

This particular one we have potatoes that we were going to use in it and actually already started some just want to show you what they'll do is from these eyes, these eyes will continue to grow.

And right there we can see the sprouts that are coming up.

So how long have these been planted?

These were about a week ago.

Oh, okay.

nice and moist.

So they're setting roots and what we're gonna do is up when those plants get about, oh, six inches taller, so we're going to add more soil.

And as the plant continues to grow, we're going to keep rolling the bag up till it's back up to its original line and we filled it with potting soil.

Gotcha.

This is this will be completely full of potting soil by the end of the season.

And then we'll we'll obviously harvest that you can harvest them throughout as they start to grow but harvest them as the yellow.

So just wanted to show you real quick.

These are the eyes.

These are what will go up.

In this particular case, we want to try to find at least two eyes.

This one I probably plant just by itself, that this one right here we can see it's much larger.

We're going to find those eyes and we're going to cut that In a manner that, when we're done, we can have two eyes per section.

And these are getting a little old.

And I think you may still find potatoes, but I'm not sure that you do want to try to avoid them if you can from having any damage to them or any spots or any molding, we're gonna plant them just like this.

Now, you would just cut that out, you wouldn't get rid of this whole piece, which just cut that bad spot out.

Now how, how many would you put in here, this one here, five or six?

Okay, depending on the size of the of the potato pieces that you have.

Gotcha.

And like I said, as they grow, you just get more soil, kind of like when you do your asparagus roots, yes, how you just kind of build those up throughout the throughout the season.

But again, this works in that same principle that the roots will reach the edge of this bag, they'll feel that air out there, and they'll stop growing at that point, and they'll just get more and more roots.

Okay, so we've got a ton of other stuff to plant too.

So let's get started.

We've added the soilless mix to this, this one, you're going to water from end up watering from the top and filling the reservoir in these holes.

So I do want to leave a little bit of a button inch gap at the top just so I don't end up washing the soil into the reservoir.

We're planting a son sugar tomato, which is a cherry tomato, that's a favorite here at my house.

And what I'm going to do is pop that out of the pot, I'm going to pinch off all the sprouts, all the leaves along the stem here and I'm just pinching them off with my fingernail, nothing fancy.

And I'm going to take off most of the most of the leaves and I'm going to plant it clear up to that bottom leaf.

So this whole stem will end up forming forming roots and it'll help it to get to the water and form a more extensive root system.

So and yes, I should probably should be wearing gloves, not for any reason, except that my hands will not be as dirty at the end of the day.

But a lot of times I skip that.

especially this time of year, you just want to get your hands dirty.

But I'm just gonna put it right in the center, and I dug a hole.

And here we go.

And I'll water this in and I may have to add a little bit more soil on top.

If this settles in, you can pre moisten your soil, I did not just personal preference.

And I did add a couple of the wire hoops we talked about earlier, you don't really need them at this point because it's such a small plant.

But as it grows, we'll just keep adding the hoops we can adjust where they are, we can even add a couple layers of staking to it.

So that's all you need to do.

And I will we're planting this in a nice shady spot.

It's fairly light as it is before I water it, I'll probably put it out where we're going to how's it for the summer before I water it because it will get really heavy.

Considering that a gallon of water weighs eight pounds.

And I think this holds at least a gallon maybe too.

So here we have a grobag and in this we have put about three inches to four inches of potting soil in the bottom.

We prepared our potatoes in this case, this one has only a few eyes.

So we're going to plant this as one.

This one we've already cut up we want to make sure again it has two eyes and that we put those upward and we're going to put Five potatoes in to this bag.

All right.

So we have them placed in there.

We're going to cover them with about an inch or two a potting soil on top and then keep that evenly moist.

They'll start to grow and as they grow the when they're about six inches tall, we're going to add more soil into that still leaving the green, some green on top, and then as it continues to grow, we'll keep rolling up the bag until it's completely filled with potting soil.

Okay, so we've got peppers here, so tell me what, what's the depth that you want to get these in.

Okay, so unlike the tomatoes, where we were ripping leaves off and planting things deeper than what they were started as we're gonna plant these basically at the same depth that they were in the little in the little cell pack and they've got quite a few routes.

I'm not going to mess around too much with the routes but it doesn't hurt to kind of open it up gently you don't want to manhandle the routes.

So in this cover on there facts, I just cut a little axe with my kitchen scissors.

And you can just kind of with your fingers may go a hole and stick it in.

This can get tricky.

You don't want to have to, I have had bigger pepper plants that it gets, it can get tricky to get something with a bigger root ball planted at the appropriate depth.

And you have to kind of wiggle the cover around and stuff.

But this is basically how they'll stay.

And I'll put the cage around once I get all eight and I did look it up as we were chatting about other things.

And the current recommendation is six pepper plants per earthbox.

So I'm not following the rules exactly what I told you to do.

I told you to follow the directions.

And I'm not so you can report me to earthbox but this has been what has worked for me and I guess it earthbox has changed its directions over the years.

I've been using these for over 10 years and they've gone back and forth on how many is appropriate.

So yeah.

Anyway, Well guys, we're out of time.

Thank you so much for doing this.

I hope you learned something I know I did to get our gardens off to a good start.

And we will see you next time.

Good night.