TOPS Bunker Podcast - A Podcast For Preppers

260 Urban Farming - Patio To Table Self Reliance

• TOPS_POD • Season 5 • Episode 260

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0:00 | 59:19

most preppers, most people that are in this genre, most people in general, I mean, if you think about it in general, most people live in urban centers. In other words, cities, neighborhoods, that sort of thing, don't have rural type situations. Um,

00:05:55.35
Keith
I mean, that that really does include the two of you. Because, you know, you guys have backyard gardening.

00:05:58.97
Jeremy
and

00:06:01.78
Keith
Right?

00:06:02.24
Jeremy
Yeah, we used to be woods and country. Well, we are no longer. We are suburban.

00:06:08.62
Buddy
Yeah, and I know.

00:06:08.66
Keith
Yeah.

00:06:09.23
Buddy
I ran a business for three years. ah where I was still at farmers markets. Out of my backyard in containers.

00:06:16.96
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:06:16.89
Buddy
so I've had a couple classes on it. you know I'm pretty versed on. you know, the whole. you know from soup to nuts what to do with the you know with a ah backyard garden or you know I've...

00:06:30.27
Buddy
Even done stuff like on a ah balcony type thing. So

00:06:33.34
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:06:33.77
Keith
Yeah, exactly.

00:06:34.09
Buddy
You know, it's it... it

00:06:35.06
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:06:35.64
Buddy
There's no excuse not to produce your own food. um you can

00:06:38.13
Jeremy
Well, and and we have found that, and especially in our area, because we are called the Sandhills. and it's nothing but sand underneath us sand loam If you go down far enough, if you hit clay. Some people call it caliche. And then after that, it's water.

00:06:52.22
Jeremy
Um, So. To get what we want to grow, we have to grow in containers because to... logistically.

00:07:02.36
Keith
or Or amend the soil.

00:07:04.12
Jeremy
yeah Well, see, that's the thing too. We can't go down too far in our yard because we do have septic and we have leech lines, but. Even with that. So. Our our ground.

00:07:16.58
Jeremy
um was overly acidic for a very long time because we had pines like actually in our yardy yard yard

00:07:23.89
Buddy
Hell yeah.

00:07:23.86
Jeremy
And when we put in the fire pit and we put in a retaining wall, we actually had to take down the pines that were. Like. in our actual yard. And now we're to the point where grass is.

00:07:36.56
Jeremy
well they're sort of growing you know besides the dogs just destroying it but Um, We have pine and pine needles all over the place. Now it's really great for stuff like our berries.

00:07:48.19
Jeremy
who are like, they love acidic soil. But not so much for a whole lot of other things. um I mean... it's It's kind of like we have to pick and choose what. uh how we do our soil for each one of the.

00:08:04.43
Jeremy
the different plants that we have. So like tomatoes, they're very, very heavy feeders. They like a mildly acidic soil. So when we're putting debris and stuff in the bottom, it'll be dead leaves and stuff like that. But we'll toss in you know a few handfuls of pine needles.

00:08:18.33
Jeremy
And then, you know, keep doing that plus the dirt.

00:08:21.25
Buddy
Yeah, that's that's all prior planning, you know.

00:08:23.52
Jeremy
Right. Yeah.

00:08:24.79
Buddy
know So, you know, you guys probably have that whole drill down to where you okay, this is where we grow our tomatoes This is where we grow our peppers, you know

00:08:32.98
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:08:33.73
Buddy
And that's that's good planning. so Um,

00:08:36.81
Jeremy
Yeah, that's worked.

00:08:36.99
Buddy
you can actually do that

00:08:38.52
Jeremy
That's work. Pretty much every year up until this year with the super El Nino thing going on.

00:08:44.77
Buddy
Oh my god, yeah.

00:08:45.45
Jeremy
And whereas a lot of other people are harvesting. right now. You know, we are, our garden is just now exploded. Like it's. It's like exploding all over the place.

00:08:58.28
Jeremy
Um,

00:08:58.35
Buddy
Yeah, you know. Ours is too, but we're still, I don't know how many days in a row now we've had 100 degree temperatures. I've lost track.

00:09:06.22
Jeremy
It's ridiculous, man

00:09:06.57
Buddy
um It doesn't matter. And I'll talk about this later. You know, the watering schedule is is crazy. and water bill is even crazier so

00:09:15.37
Jeremy
Oh dude.

00:09:16.56
Buddy
Yeah.

00:09:16.66
Jeremy
i'm I'm grateful that it's been rainy.

00:09:16.84
Buddy
well

00:09:19.81
Jeremy
But the rain is like. All of a sudden. super duper hardcore, and then it's gone. And then it's like 500 ,000 degrees outside with 1 ,000 % humidity.

00:09:30.48
Jeremy
it's

00:09:30.96
Buddy
Yeah.

00:09:31.58
Jeremy
Just stank.

00:09:31.63
Buddy
Yeah, I think we got it.

00:09:33.34
Jeremy
It...

00:09:33.07
Buddy
We got like an inch and a half in 20 minutes Just a... I don't know where it came from. It was a pop-up storm. And we get those in Oklahoma.

00:09:40.46
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:41.34
Buddy
especially where I'm at.

00:09:42.78
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:09:42.92
Buddy
They just all of a sudden pop up and wind. and i mean it drenched everything everything is green now um everything was brown to start everything started to green up and the garden loved it Um,

00:09:54.68
Buddy
It destroyed some of the tomato plants that went in, but for the most part, they all...

00:09:58.28
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:09:59.45
Buddy
we We got them. you know, anchored pretty good and in a certain area. So, you know, they withstood the the you know, this storm. but uh

00:10:08.34
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:10:09.55
Buddy
Yeah, it's... you know wow we've got an inch i you know inch and a half in in two weeks now so you know Yeah.

00:10:17.02
Keith
Well, in the dead of summer, and and this goes for... Most of the United States, but definitely from the middle down, from Ramad down to the south. The heat of the summer is going to change. the way your garden grows anyway you got tomatoes like our tomatoes were just exploding we had tons i got stuff all over the the pantry shelves now i got basically just uh I mean, I've got tomato plants. they out They're all there. But there's no tomatoes. I have. um The cherry tomatoes, the little ones, I've got those all day.

00:10:45.49
Keith
I don't know why those are those like the heat, but for some reason, they're doing just fine.

00:10:49.55
Buddy
Yeah. We've got the same problem.

00:10:51.56
Keith
but the But the big tomatoes, no.

00:10:51.80
Buddy
Yeah.

00:10:53.31
Keith
they're not there's I've got one. uh cherokee green the other day it's uh and And I brought it in immediately. It was a big old one, but that's it. You're just not growing. And that's the heat. And that's normal.

00:11:05.84
Keith
But this heat is way different. Like, I mean, we're not supposed where i'm at here we're not supposed to have triple digits like this. I mean, you get one every once in a while, but. it's it's ah It's a hundred and...

00:11:18.10
Keith
Seven. ah heat index today with 98 degrees that's that's really hot for us and it's it's every single day heat advisory you know it happens like once or twice not like weeks in a row like it's happening now

00:11:33.25
Buddy
Well, um'm I'm curious to see you know from the listening audience if they will come on you know Facebook and and give us an update on their garden.

00:11:33.55
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:11:39.78
Buddy
you know are they are they dealing with the same stuff you know is it uh you know. The rest of the United States. um what I'm really getting at is, you know, art. Is everybody seeing the same stuff we're seeing? you know is it Is it the heat?

00:11:54.12
Buddy
uh you know.

00:11:54.15
Keith
I think everybody is. dealing with something different. um you know And and this is this is really sort of a... uh a series

00:12:03.54
Keith
you know or a playlist we'll call it that if you want to but the urban Prepping is is really something that we're going to have to dive more into because a lot of our listeners are urban dwellers. And um most ah people are. And I. was for the longest time and to be honest i mean i still kind of am i'm not in an urban area but my thinking still is.

00:12:26.39
Buddy
Yeah, your techniques are still the urban.

00:12:26.61
Keith
Math. These techniques are exactly.

00:12:29.64
Buddy
Yeah.

00:12:29.44
Keith
that's where My muscle memory is still doing what I used to know. and um And. and that has to change for me personally because i'm in an urban setting and that's you know when when needed i'm going to need those other skills so that's something that i'm developing

00:12:44.82
Buddy
Yeah.

00:12:44.97
Keith
But, yeah, this urban prepping thing.

00:12:45.29
Buddy
Yeah.

00:12:46.94
Keith
Today we're going to talk about the ah urban preppers for as far as gardening. now This is going to be something where you can feed yourself. Okay. This is something where sustainability practices and muscle memory. come into play.

00:13:01.52
Keith
Because it's, ah well, like for me. Um, you know every i sit down and eat breakfast my entire breakfast This morning, 100 % was from. the property.

00:13:13.13
Buddy
oh wow

00:13:13.37
Keith
And. If you're maybe not in an apartment, but in a backyard, you could probably pull off the same thing. So this morning I had. ah I had tomatoes and. um I had cherry tomatoes and cucumbers chopped up with three um, eggs over the top of them.

00:13:31.19
Keith
and hot sauce.

00:13:31.34
Buddy
Nice. Woo!

00:13:33.72
Keith
Every single bit of that. including the hot sauce. was grown. here at my place.

00:13:39.55
Jeremy
Isn't it so good?

00:13:41.11
Keith
It's so good.

00:13:41.15
Jeremy
It's like.

00:13:41.62
Keith
Yeah. and it's it's Now, is it free? Absolutely not.

00:13:45.84
Jeremy
No.

00:13:46.36
Keith
There's nothing free about it. It costs a fortune to to, you know, to grow pepper plants from ah from February till now and and harvest them and turn them into sauce and, you know, chickens to make the eggs.

00:13:56.18
Jeremy
yeah and

00:13:59.49
Keith
they You got to feed them.

00:13:59.61
Jeremy
That's the most expensive. three cherry tomatoes you're ever going to pick in your life.

00:14:03.97
Buddy
ah

00:14:03.70
Keith
Yep.

00:14:07.70
Keith
Yeah, no doubt about it. But you know what? When I want to, anytime I want to, I walk outside and I have a salad.

00:14:14.34
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:14:14.16
Keith
waiting for me. And eggs waiting for me.

00:14:16.87
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:14:17.07
Keith
um urban preppers can do the exact same thing now some people have homeowners associations that don't allow you to have chickens or at least a rooster some of them block could block that off um If you're on a patio, you're probably just really not going to be doing check-ins, obviously.

00:14:31.97
Jeremy
Right.

00:14:32.12
Keith
i in In third world countries, you will be.

00:14:35.62
Jeremy
Oh yeah.

00:14:35.94
Keith
you'll You'll have chickens on your patios, but you're main mainly going to have. um uh plants and potted plants and you're gonna have you'll be able to do indoor plants as well in your you know, any of your windows. We have.

00:14:47.47
Keith
ah herbs that grow right in our windowsills.

00:14:51.06
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:14:51.20
Keith
so you don't have to grow them outside.

00:14:53.68
Jeremy
Oh yeah. yeah and some of them are super sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures and drought, kind of like cilantro.

00:15:01.64
Buddy
oh man

00:15:01.61
Jeremy
You could have vibrant green.

00:15:02.73
Keith
cilantro's a bitch

00:15:04.35
Jeremy
Beautiful cilantro.

00:15:04.51
Buddy
yeah

00:15:05.89
Jeremy
at 9 a .m by 12 it's just dust it's gone

00:15:10.95
Buddy
Bolted, yeah.

00:15:11.63
Jeremy
Yeah, well, it's dried out, you know, or somebody sneezed 100 yards away.

00:15:16.52
Keith
That's our problem is the bolting. with We had so much cilantro and I'd use that in all the hot sauces and canned it and candid everything.

00:15:18.20
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:15:21.42
Jeremy
Oh yeah.

00:15:22.30
Keith
But now I go out there and everything's just bolted.

00:15:24.59
Jeremy
And there's only two types of people when it comes to cilantro.

00:15:24.76
Buddy
Well, we have to.

00:15:27.35
Jeremy
Those who love cilantro and those who think it tastes like soap.

00:15:29.16
Buddy
Uh-huh. Yes, yes, yes.

00:15:31.43
Jeremy
I...

00:15:31.100
Keith
but you but But you know why that is, right?

00:15:34.10
Jeremy
No.

00:15:35.06
Keith
Oh. Okay. Well, you'll learn something new and I don't have all the language, but real quick, there's ah something in, like my sister, there's something in there. chemical makeup of their body i don't know if it's an enzyme or something that their body produces that makes ah eating cilantro or ah coriander is actually what it's called, coriander and cilantro, same thing, makes it taste like um makes t like like soap in their mouth.

00:15:53.76
Jeremy
Mm hmm. Yeah.

00:15:59.95
Jeremy
Interesting.

00:16:00.15
Keith
So they they legitimately. Hate. eating it.

00:16:04.91
Jeremy
Huh.

00:16:05.02
Keith
It's like they're not just a mind thing. I mean, they really it's like they're like, how do you like that?

00:16:08.18
Buddy
Yeah.

00:16:10.31
Keith
That's absolutely gross. Yeah.

00:16:13.86
Buddy
Woo.

00:16:13.67
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:16:14.40
Keith
It's a biological thing.

00:16:14.67
Buddy
Yes. We have such a short growing cilantro season. It's just like within like two, maybe you might get three months out of it if you get a really mild. Well...

00:16:25.51
Buddy
In Oklahoma, we have. We have two seasons, not four. So it's either winter or it's summer. and there's really nothing in between. there's you know a couple weeks in between that you know it's like oh you know whatever but we can get the cilantro but we grow a lot of it and we know it's gonna not last long So that's part of our planning is is we're going to take a whole bed, grow as much as we can, and then...

00:16:48.83
Buddy
When it starts to bolt, we harvest it all. And of course, we're harvesting as we go. And then we freeze some of it, we dry some of it. you know do all the things.

00:16:56.10
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:16:57.40
Buddy
and And then we pull it and next crop. here we go you know

00:17:01.90
Jeremy
Hmm.

00:17:02.12
Buddy
But yeah.

00:17:02.95
Keith
and And we're getting a couple of seasons too. like For instance, right now, you know even though it's triple digits outside, in my grow room, I've got um somewhere in the vicinity of like 100 seedlings already popped up for for onions, three different types of onions, but they're short day onions.

00:17:19.46
Keith
And what that means is they grow on days that are the shortest sunlight of the year.

00:17:19.86
Buddy
Yeah.

00:17:24.10
Keith
and that falls into play with the fall. So right now they're seedlings going through this hot that you know this hot period. They're inside the house. They could be inside your kitchen, in your windowsill.

00:17:31.100
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:17:35.89
Keith
They could be anywhere inside your house. It doesn't have to have a grow room. The grow room used to be our bedroom. We moved to another room and we turned it into a grow room. Whatever. That's what we call it. It's a room.

00:17:43.95
Buddy
Yep.

00:17:43.89
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:17:44.49
Buddy
we're gonna have to do a new show uh for just the fall winter gardening you know

00:17:44.70
Keith
You know?

00:17:48.82
Keith
Oh, yeah, exactly.

00:17:49.69
Buddy
Because it...

00:17:49.70
Keith
But I have all these plants already. They're already starting to grow. I have three or four different, ah you know. levels and under lights right now that are going to be going out as soon as this heat wave drops.

00:18:00.05
Buddy
Yeah.

00:18:00.07
Keith
And they'll, they'll move a lot of those crops and move right into fall, even into winter.

00:18:00.48
Buddy
in.

00:18:03.42
Keith
And I have some that'll actually sustain themselves over winter.

00:18:07.49
Buddy
And that's...

00:18:07.60
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:18:08.19
Buddy
you know. people need to start thinking about if they're going to grow fall. clocked in on the fall crops and and winter crops some of this stuff needs to be planted now even though it is you know triple digits out there

00:18:19.05
Keith
And it sounds like it's a lot, and it is. It is a lot when you start thinking about different things. One of the things, the biggest mistake I think we made was we got so many vegetables. We went up absolutely crazy. And then when you go out there in the garden, the truth of the matter is most of the stuff that we have out there, we don't eat that much.

00:18:35.99
Keith
not Not right now, but for instance. eggplant. okay we bought a bunch of those seeds from a johnny seed supposed to be all these tolerant type of you know seeds Well, they didn't grow very well.

00:18:48.49
Keith
But the truth of the matter is, when was the last time I bought an eggplant at the store? I mean... A decade ago, maybe? Maybe?

00:18:53.67
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:18:54.75
Keith
i don't I don't eat eggplant. I eat tomatoes. peppers, all the different potatoes, which I just did a harvest on my potatoes. They're they're in the grow room right now under an on racks, drying.

00:19:06.41
Keith
So I'll have potatoes all the way up until up and through winter. But these things. you know you think well that's just so much to remember so much to think about i did the seating For those... ah all those onions that I just talked about.

00:19:19.94
Keith
in a couple of hours. while my phone sat there playing my favorite playlist of music. Wasn't that hard.

00:19:25.07
Jeremy
alright

00:19:26.99
Keith
I did a seating and then I put them under lights and that's it.

00:19:27.09
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:19:28.64
Keith
I walk away. And every, every day I walk in there and turn the light on for them and take a look at them and walk out. That's, there's no more work to it than that.

00:19:36.12
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, I am. I mean, we when we do our stuff. we don't have a ah We don't have a grow like area inside the house. But we did use the greenhouse and the garage.

00:19:50.66
Jeremy
for our overwintering project, which did work. Um, And I did not know it was going to work. I just, because when we went on that cruise last winter. Nothing. of course got tended to like we normally would but those pepper plants survived and a couple other things survived and i was shocked um Because that does lemon drop peppers. I'm telling you, dude, that thing.

00:20:13.91
Jeremy
It... it It gives birth to new peppers. At the same rate, basically, that a like a. A nest of bunnies reproduces. It's ridiculous, man. This thing is pumping out peppers every single day.

00:20:27.65
Keith
I must have done something wrong because all of my overwintered pepper plants that did really great and came back and I put out in the garden all died in the garden.

00:20:34.24
Jeremy
Mm-hmm. I think the one thing that we did do right on that. is when I realized, hey, these things lived. um And they started to firm back up. and green started to come through.

00:20:47.86
Jeremy
I pulled the plant up, washed off all the roots and put it in. really good soil. with worm castings and manure and all that stuff and it just they came they sprung back to life

00:20:59.43
Keith
oh I see. I see.

00:21:01.49
Jeremy
the The peppers are not as big.

00:21:01.73
Buddy
Yeah.

00:21:03.88
Jeremy
On the jalapenos, I will say. They're like little. at least right now, and I think it it's also because of the weather. Um,

00:21:11.44
Keith
what What size pots do you have, Min?

00:21:13.48
Jeremy
ah They're, you know, the big. buckets like five gallon buckets or yeah just yeah

00:21:16.55
Keith
Five gallon buckets. Okay. And that's, that's the thing about peppers. Five gallon buckets are going to grow you meat, small to medium sized peppers. If you put them in and they're, it's more expensive, but if you put them in 20 gallon, you're going to get giant, you know, bigger peppers out of it.

00:21:22.19
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:21:28.05
Keith
It's just, that's just the nature of it.

00:21:29.76
Jeremy
Yeah. But for peppers, a lot of people don't realize this is. If you're eating green peppers, green jalapenos, which is fine. You're actually eating.

00:21:39.51
Keith
Delicious. Yep.

00:21:40.39
Jeremy
yeah they're delicious you're eating the jalapeno when it is not at its maximum potential

00:21:45.26
Keith
It's not wrapping yet, no.

00:21:46.40
Jeremy
Now. uh green peppers are wonderful they're great um but your jalapenos are actually supposed to be red

00:21:53.25
Keith
Mm-hmm.

00:21:53.37
Jeremy
They're supposed to be a deep kind of red, damn near purple, and it looks like, for lack of a better term, it has stretch marks. That's not a popular thing to put in the store because it doesn't look.

00:22:05.42
Jeremy
pleasant It doesn't look like.

00:22:06.22
Keith
Oh, I wait for the stretch marks, man. when they I can't wait for them.

00:22:08.62
Jeremy
Oh yeah.

00:22:09.96
Keith
Like, please start.

00:22:10.31
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:22:10.69
Keith
Start soon.

00:22:11.80
Jeremy
And when the when you start to see those lines, you know, it it literally looks like cracking or aging almost.

00:22:17.32
Keith
Yeah, then there's another word besides stretch marks. There's there's another.

00:22:19.72
Jeremy
Yeah. ah

00:22:20.73
Keith
That's another word for them.

00:22:21.31
Jeremy
so Somebody out there is a botanist who's having a stroke right now.

00:22:21.54
Keith
I just don't can't remember it.

00:22:24.77
Jeremy
I guarantee it.

00:22:24.100
Buddy
Well.

00:22:25.99
Keith
Idiots.

00:22:26.28
Jeremy
They're like, well, the technical term. um But when you start to see those lines, it's also an indicator on the spice level. of that particular plant. So if you see lots of the the cracking or the stretch marks, as I call them.

00:22:37.08
Keith
That's true too, yeah.

00:22:41.76
Jeremy
That's a pretty good indicator that that that pepper is going to have some stank on it. So.

00:22:46.10
Keith
It's going to be good.

00:22:47.15
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, but I mean.

00:22:49.09
Keith
It's going to be hot, too.

00:22:50.22
Jeremy
yeah so if you've already got you know Red peppers. And you want to seed them. That's actually one of the best times to just let a couple of them go.

00:23:02.67
Jeremy
ah Go ahead and cut them. Hang 'em. And give them a couple of days and you'll start to see that shriveling and then cut them open. Scrape your seeds out gently and put them on some wax paper and just let them dry.

00:23:15.16
Jeremy
And. that's That's it. That's how you seed. your your peppers so super easy

00:23:19.83
Keith
for the next For the next season.

00:23:21.10
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:23:21.86
Keith
Yeah.

00:23:22.67
Jeremy
So.

00:23:23.49
Keith
And you grew up. Buddy, you grew peppers over there. what was What was it like for you on those? Because I think peppers are one of the greatest things that ah a patio or garden or urban prepper can grow. I mean, you can grow all different types of varieties of peppers right in ah in a five-gallon bucket on your patio.

00:23:37.93
Buddy
Besides cilantro, so i did ah I did a what we call salsa garden. I do one every year. I love salsa. Girlfriend loves songs, so we... grow. part we make sure that we have a salsa garden. And it's nothing crazy, just enough for.

00:23:53.05
Buddy
you know we can keep our salsa needs you know tended to but uh

00:23:58.13
Keith
And there's not that much difference. by the way, between salsa. you know, Hispanic Mexican style salsa and Tomato sauce for pasta. I mean, it's just a couple of variances in your in your herbs and you got...

00:24:06.23
Buddy
Whoa.

00:24:09.32
Keith
but one of the one of the same. ah A salsa garden can also make you. a a tomato ah sauce garden as well.

00:24:16.61
Buddy
Yeah, and I like it i like ah to be chunky. you know I like the onions.

00:24:19.98
Keith
Yeah, yeah

00:24:20.45
Buddy
I like it to be, you know. dip that chip on there and break it because it's so there's so many chunks in there you know um

00:24:26.84
Jeremy
oh

00:24:27.61
Buddy
Well, yeah. the the

00:24:30.09
Jeremy
The Hispanic in me is bubbling over right now.

00:24:30.22
Buddy
ha Yeah. Yeah. yeah Well, um'm I'm a ginger, so that tells you my roots.

00:24:37.99
Jeremy
Yeah, that's true. I'll give it to you. All right.

00:24:40.51
Buddy
But, yeah, so. We overwintered a couple. peppers we actually brought one in and overwintered it. and um' I'm playing. you know I'm just... okay, let's see if I can make it work. And I've done it before, so it worked out this time.

00:24:56.08
Buddy
I also did something, and then we did one in the ground. That we over winter we mulched heavy over it You know, I had some mulch left over, some wood chips left over from this last season. so i Go on ahead. and and just buried it i mean it's mounted over it really didn't do too, it lived. It just really didn't produce a lot this year.

00:25:19.100
Buddy
I guess you know we had a ah pretty cold winter for... last winter. So if we were done a year before, I think it would have been fine. but uh also uh but that one didn't really it's not really making

00:25:32.68
Keith
This this he This heat wave will kill that kind of a garden though, man.

00:25:36.06
Buddy
Oh, no, no, no.

00:25:35.82
Keith
I mean, maybe not the peppers, but the.

00:25:36.57
Buddy
no

00:25:37.96
Keith
other stuff.

00:25:38.92
Buddy
The Peppers love it, man. They are going, they're gangbuster right now.

00:25:40.62
Keith
Oh yeah.

00:25:42.63
Buddy
You know, I did something new this year. I had for a gift for Christmas. I got a last two years. I got. of one i'd it's a gift that keeps on giving every year i guess but i have the usual hydroponic herbal gardens or you know you can grow whatever in it on your counter talk So I had some old Fresno pepper seeds. There were some ghost pepper seeds, and some I thought they were jalapeno. I don't know exactly what they are.

00:26:12.08
Buddy
but they are hot and that they don't get very big. I think it's a. Trinidad Scorpion or something. it

00:26:17.85
Jeremy
Holy Christ, you would know if it was.

00:26:20.25
Buddy
Yeah, yeah. it's It, it. i'm I'm having a hard time. I don't know if it's stunted, but it's not really growing. Uh,

00:26:27.75
Jeremy
What do they look like?

00:26:27.93
Keith
In a hydroponics? of A pepper plant in a hydroponics?

00:26:29.65
Buddy
A hydroponic. I got this crazy plant that's just producing.

00:26:31.87
Keith
Is that right?

00:26:33.34
Buddy
It's weird. um And so I left one of them, but the rest of them, I took them out and planted them. so Once you put, I lost a few of them. I'd say out of eight different hydroponic pepper plants, I have four going right now.

00:26:51.04
Buddy
And. you know.

00:26:52.29
Keith
Where do you set up a rig like that?

00:26:54.07
Buddy
Just on the countertop. It's got its own lights.

00:26:55.87
Keith
So it must be real small, i mean because pepper plants are like bushes, man.

00:26:59.77
Buddy
Yeah, when they get to a certain size, you got to pull them. um you just Pull them. out you're going to lose a but little bit of the root Take a minute. put them into a pot. you know

00:27:09.32
Keith
Okay.

00:27:10.44
Buddy
Usually I stick them into a five gallon. of pot and then uh would have had some great ones at the house but uh the puppy the new puppy just tore him up so

00:27:21.01
Jeremy
Hmm.

00:27:21.22
Buddy
little turd but uh

00:27:22.00
Keith
But this is not a ah this is not a a thing you built, right? This is something that you bought? Like you can buy this setup someplace?

00:27:27.81
Buddy
Yeah, yeah, you can i guess we can put it in the show show notes or whatever it's just a countertop hydroponic system and it recirculates

00:27:34.41
Keith
Cool.

00:27:36.14
Buddy
the water you can stick some you know of I just wanted to try peppers, man. But you can you can stick nutrients in there to get it to grow. on I'm playing with the nutrients now.

00:27:47.84
Buddy
Every time I stick a little You know, I started out with some nitrogen. guide to stand tall. uh wasn't producing much so i went and i ran out of the liquid stuff that i liked so i just i've been just throwing in um Miracle-Gro And every time I throw a miracle girl about once a month, I just do a little, I mean. a trace amount of miracle grow it goes crazy So...

00:28:12.23
Keith
that's That's awesome, man.

00:28:13.73
Buddy
Well, yeah.

00:28:13.77
Keith
Jax 2020-20. We'll kick it it kick it into gear, man.

00:28:16.96
Buddy
Yeah, and it it's a... it's something you can do year round, you know, i I'm going to pull them out. Well once I have one pepper plant left in there i'm just waiting to see what it'll do and it's it's producing stuff uh I'm going to dry all those peppers.

00:28:34.67
Buddy
I do what's called a chili boost. I make my own. like chili seasoning powder but it's more you know you make your chili you use the whatever powder you you buy and then if you want it a little hotter you'll put this on top and you sprinkle on like you would do salt and pepper because it is hot.

00:28:51.72
Keith
Oh yeah, I've got a green powder just like that I made from the garden. And man, it'll it'll explode your mouth.

00:28:55.14
Buddy
Yeah, I know. Yeah, so I have actually had some friends that we did it one year for Christmas you know, to give you know, a little. Christmas gift to the neighborhood friends and i got hit up and it's like hey man can you make some more of that that was really good i'm out So I'm making some more.

00:29:13.05
Buddy
But yeah, peppers, man.

00:29:13.60
Keith
That's how it goes.

00:29:14.57
Buddy
I love growing peppers because they're they're pretty much forgiving. here in Oklahoma. Um, Tomatoes are hit and miss. Our tomatoes this year aren't you know the big slicers that we were wanting to you know we we love blts and the big slicers they They're just not doing well. they're

00:29:33.25
Keith
It's the heat, man.

00:29:33.32
Buddy
Stunted.

00:29:33.94
Keith
It's crazy.

00:29:34.00
Buddy
The heat's got them. We can't water them enough. And, you know, I'd like to talk a little bit about container watering.

00:29:37.74
Keith
Right, right

00:29:40.37
Buddy
you know, as a show progresses, but. Lessons learned from... my own. experience with the you know, with that, but.

00:29:48.16
Keith
Yeah, yeah. So let's let's talk about containers then, because there are a lot of plants that don't need... Deep. uh deep soil like peppers and tomatoes they need deep soil and and onions and and carrots those things need deep soil so five gallon buckets are our choice but you don't have to use five gallon buckets for things like herbs you know any of the things like cilantro and and and all that all the different herbs that you can get they they grow shallow so does um lettuce you don't have to grow lettuce in a five gallon bucket the trays are perfectly fine

00:29:57.33
Jeremy
huh

00:30:13.82
Jeremy
Yep.

00:30:18.20
Jeremy
Yeah, and surprisingly, a lot of different citrus. trees, citrus bushes. actually prefer to be. in containers they they Yeah.

00:30:27.09
Keith
I never thought about that. Fruit. Yeah.

00:30:29.40
Jeremy
yeah our we are lemon tree um we're in our let's see we plant we got missy got it for mother's day last year So it's a little over what. A year and a half old now. And.

00:30:43.23
Jeremy
um We got a great big. black bucket i can't remember how big it is but we've got it in that thing and it's doing well and It did not. It started to flower when the drought hit.

00:30:55.88
Jeremy
So it did not get pollinated, but... It's still producing lots of green leaves. um As we go into the cooler temperatures. I've got to prune some of the bottom off.

00:31:08.80
Jeremy
um But interestingly, we've actually got carrots. growing underneath and the shade from the the tree. gives the shade to the carrots. And even though.

00:31:19.94
Keith
Oh that's awesome.

00:31:21.09
Jeremy
The lemon tree is not a heavy feeder.

00:31:20.92
Keith
That's great.

00:31:22.73
Jeremy
It doesn't actually like a lot of water. But the carrots do. But when we water the carrots, you've got the shade from the tree that's actually keeping them. you know cool ish sort of kind of

00:31:32.96
Keith
Yep, yep.

00:31:34.62
Jeremy
Nothing is cool right now. Um, but I would say. is matter Now that I think about it. Everything that we have in our yard garden-wise is in some kind of container.

00:31:47.43
Jeremy
And... um I will say that the soil that you choose. for your containers is very important.

00:31:56.67
Keith
Ultra important.

00:31:57.91
Jeremy
Yeah, because...

00:31:58.21
Buddy
Yes.

00:31:59.03
Jeremy
We wanted just some extra, just some extra soil. I think it was like a month and a half, two months ago. So I ran down to, I think it was Walmart, and I picked out something that I thought was decent.

00:32:11.21
Jeremy
and cracked it open and I was like, there's a lot of wood. in this. I'm not a huge fan of this. You know, it's it's not bad um And I amended it with some some cow manure. and um Some worm castings.

00:32:26.88
Jeremy
And I forget what we were doing just recently, but I looked and I was kind of digging. Oh, I was in the potatoes. We just needed some extra dirt from on top of the potato bed. And so I was digging down looking for potatoes and I had a handful of termites.

00:32:42.26
Jeremy
And the wood. from the the the you know the mulch or the dirt that I bought is attracting the termites. So. It's the last time I buy that.

00:32:53.19
Jeremy
Um,

00:32:54.10
Keith
Damn.

00:32:54.87
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. Because I was like...

00:32:56.85
Keith
Was it one of those real expensive ones with the big colorful bags?

00:32:59.74
Jeremy
No, no, it wasn't that expensive.

00:33:00.94
Keith
Oh. Oh. Gotcha, gotcha.

00:33:02.74
Jeremy
I went with something that was on sale. and Now, the... the the termites don't get really care about the tomatoes the potatoes so that's a good thing um All they're after really is that. those those chunks of wood and the wood shavings in there.

00:33:17.94
Jeremy
But, yeah. i And as soon as I found out, I was like, son of a gun. So kind of dug around, found more potatoes, of course, but.

00:33:28.97
Jeremy
You know, you got termites in this one bed. And I've shown you guys some pictures of the trellis that I've built going down. We have a treni trellis. a trellis tunnel.

00:33:40.60
Jeremy
and I've got one more panel to put up, and I told Missy no more. No more after this. this um but i'm gonna build basically an end cap box in the shape of a u And we're going to...

00:33:55.27
Jeremy
tear down two old beds in the back and then rebuild them. um on the sides. of the trellis area and then that'll be that expansion for the garden so Um,

00:34:07.89
Keith
Okay, so so so... Soil for... for pots earth. Five-gallon buckets. let's talk Let's talk five-gallon buckets because that's everybody knows what they are.

00:34:13.07
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:34:15.54
Keith
You can get them for three bucks, not the...

00:34:17.02
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:34:17.60
Keith
at any one of the stores.

00:34:17.66
Jeremy
food Food grade. Food grade, food safe, BPA free buckets only.

00:34:19.35
Keith
Boom. Great.

00:34:23.13
Keith
and and if you And if you don't have that, wash one out and you use it use it anyway. I mean, you know I've got Home Depot buckets.

00:34:27.25
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:34:29.12
Keith
Stuff's growing just fine. and But I get what you're saying.

00:34:31.56
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:34:31.93
Keith
Holes in the bottom, very important.

00:34:33.33
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:34:33.55
Keith
And a couple things to remember about 5-gallon buckets. You guys already you know this. This is for some of the listeners out there. ah watering you've got to water more because the water will will drain through as it's supposed to drain through and the roots suck from it and then goes out the bottom holes if you don't have the bottom holes you get root rot She kind of had the bottom holes. What happens with the bottom holes? You lose water. So you're watering more often.

00:34:56.79
Keith
probably every one to two days, but in heat like this, definitely once every day. Sometimes if it's really bad, twice a day.

00:35:04.38
Jeremy
Yep.

00:35:04.25
Keith
because they can buckets will you know they'll they'll heat it from the outside and they'll evaporate the water. They'll drain the water. The plant will be taking the water. So you need more water.

00:35:14.90
Keith
Also, when you have more water, like rain or watering, you also have ah deficiency in your uh ah fertilizer, the nutrients disappear. They go out with the water. They evaporate with the water. They go out the bottom with the water. So you're going to want to make sure that you're using some kind of a fertilizer. Those things are important.

00:35:33.10
Jeremy
mm-hmm

00:35:33.59
Keith
I am not a... ah a fan of five gallon bucket growing um but there are people that do it very, very successfully. I have not figured it out yet. So I can't, I can't speak on.

00:35:46.64
Keith
uh you know, anything that I've grown. that I mean, I've got, um I got. Um. beans we got beans in them and I've gotten a lot of beans from it that's pretty good and Rhonda's doing all kinds of stuff she did potatoes in some of them and she got a pretty good harvest from them they're new tomatoes they're smaller you know Um, But anyway, I wanted to start with at least understanding that. that container gardening is very much different than raised bed gardening or row gardening or ground gardening.

00:36:16.64
Keith
very different.

00:36:17.51
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:36:17.71
Buddy
well And you automatically think that, okay, well, it's in a bucket. You know, it's it's going to be.

00:36:23.97
Jeremy
Dun, dun, dun.

00:36:24.64
Buddy
Let's... and and and and know It's going to be last.

00:36:27.53
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:36:28.30
Keith
did you Did you cut out of it again? What happened, man? You were just like, stop. You're like, you're in a bucket.

00:36:33.06
Buddy
Yeah.

00:36:33.24
Jeremy
Joe.

00:36:33.20
Buddy
Can you hear me?

00:36:33.34
Jeremy
Jeff Bezos got him.

00:36:35.67
Keith
Yeah, we got you. we got you

00:36:37.29
Buddy
Okay, can you hear me?

00:36:38.15
Keith
you were You were thinking, I'm a whole i'm assuming, right?

00:36:40.71
Buddy
Uh, no. I was... talking okay

00:36:42.82
Keith
Talking. Okay.

00:36:44.28
Buddy
okay so yeah here we go again

00:36:44.39
Jeremy
talentlan man The lizard overlords, they're tracking us.

00:36:46.25
Keith
Three, two, one, go.

00:36:48.02
Buddy
and Okay, here we go. All right. So with buckets, here're it's you automatically you think that it's going to be. more of a you know. Less. Here we go again. The brain stop now.

00:37:00.17
Buddy
All right.

00:37:00.17
Jeremy
it's ah It's more work than people think that it is.

00:37:02.95
Buddy
Yeah, it's a constant. You know, you think if you put it in the ground, you know, I got to pull weeds, I got to do this, I got to do that, I got to water, you know, fertilizer. yeah Just like you said, Keith. when you water you're depleting the nutrients in the soil so you're constantly feeding So what you would think.

00:37:21.01
Buddy
you know when you feed in the ground You're going to have to feed like three, some some crops, you got to figure out the crop, but some crops are three or four times as much feed. you know fertilizer feed as what it would be for a ground crop. You're watering. Usually from, you know, with containers, usually you're in a city setting. So you're using a city water and not a well water, which has got total.

00:37:46.47
Buddy
Total different. uh components in it you know I'll just say components because they take things out with a well you there's things that aren't getting taken out so it's i well water i grew up on i think it's more it'd be like you know nutritious basically for for your plants, but you're constantly...

00:38:04.48
Keith
What has more minerals in it and there's no caffeine?

00:38:06.46
Buddy
Yes.

00:38:07.53
Keith
the I mean, I'm saying caffeine. I said caffeine. Uh...

00:38:12.18
Keith
bleach, you know chlorine.

00:38:14.24
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:38:14.26
Keith
chlorine bleach.

00:38:15.22
Buddy
Yeah, and alorine chlorine.

00:38:15.22
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:38:15.19
Keith
Yeah. Man, I wish it had caffeine.

00:38:16.33
Buddy
chlorine

00:38:17.51
Keith
Damn, I'd be drinking that water all day.

00:38:19.42
Buddy
Yeah, yeah. And the chlorine, it does.

00:38:20.59
Jeremy
Well, that tomatoes. Tomatoes love coffee.

00:38:22.45
Buddy
See you.

00:38:24.24
Jeremy
They love caffeine, so do peppers.

00:38:24.51
Buddy
Yes. Yeah.

00:38:26.98
Jeremy
so

00:38:27.100
Buddy
But yeah, if. it's It's not a fire and forget type of thing. You can't just throw a seed in the ground, throw some water on it and let it go. If you can, then that's great. you know some Some crops are more forgiving than others. But yeah, you're constantly feeding.

00:38:41.67
Buddy
uh you know if you're growing peppers you got to know what to do with the peppers you know you're feeding them differently than you are the tomatoes. differently than a tomato, a tomato than an onion or a potato.

00:38:55.99
Buddy
so it's The water needs are different for every plant. The feeding is different. The size of containers, you know, are you are you in a bucket or in a cloth bag? You know, the fabric bags. Fabric bags tend to dry out. um They're great for...

00:39:14.01
Buddy
keeping you from over watering but yet sometimes you have to water them especially like in oklahoma heat when i grew in these cloth bags uh Man. I was, drip you know, I would drip.

00:39:26.94
Buddy
irrigation all day long you know in the heat because they just dried out so much and uh you know Check in the you know, how how can you check and see if if my container is dry well you stick your finger in it and if it's dry you know down a couple inches then you know more than likely you need the water it so Oh.

00:39:46.86
Keith
<unk> that's Those are good points. We did some beans in those fabric. We had a bunch of those fabric bags. Some things do well, some things don't, but I can tell you what we do watering-wise, we water them until you see water pouring out the sides and the bottom.

00:39:59.56
Keith
I mean, we soak it down big time.

00:40:00.05
Buddy
Yeah.

00:40:01.62
Keith
Now, one of the problems I have with container garden gardening or five gallon bucket gardening. and this could be something i i just you guys need to help me out with or The... The dirt seems to...

00:40:12.87
Keith
compact.

00:40:14.15
Jeremy
Yes.

00:40:14.46
Keith
In them. It gets real hard. And I'm trying to think of how is this plant really going to grow in this really hard? I mean, what can you do about that? You're not supposed to till. You're not supposed to turn it up. So what what do you do?

00:40:24.50
Jeremy
So I can tell you what we do. And it depends on what you're you've got growing in there. So I have noticed, like, for instance, a lot of our tomatoes, especially the bigger ones like the Cherokee purples that we grow.

00:40:37.57
Jeremy
um We usually try to get them deep. because they... The whole stem, like the whole stalk of the tomato. is essentially a big root. So it will root. anywhere.

00:40:50.52
Jeremy
Um, They are heavy feeders, and after a while, some of our our plants, especially when we're in these drought conditions, have actually started to hill up, and you can see the roots. You can see them.

00:41:02.66
Jeremy
So what I've been doing is is I take a tent peg. And I go not necessarily like into the roots. but around, and I actually poke holes. I poke holes into the dirt.

00:41:13.69
Jeremy
And then we amend the soil with some fresh. good, you know, manury, stank soil, or... um some some manure or something like that And then water.

00:41:25.40
Jeremy
into that. And so the holes give a little bit more drainage down into the the primary root system. And it helps break up some of that. that. that stuff that's in there.

00:41:34.35
Keith
Good idea.

00:41:35.65
Buddy
Yeah.

00:41:35.54
Keith
Yeah, I like that

00:41:35.56
Jeremy
Yeah, and... Yeah. and i mean because i remember pulling up some of the tomatoes you know out of the buckets over the past couple years And you pick it up and like the entire. bucket worth of dirt comes lot well along with, you know.

00:41:49.94
Jeremy
the the tomato plant because the tomato plants roots have expanded so much. that. You could almost call them root bound. you know but um The roots are still very flexible. They're fleshy. They're still light colored.

00:42:04.82
Jeremy
So it's not like trapped in there necessarily. um But the roots have actually on ours have actually continued down. through our drainage holes. into the ground.

00:42:15.77
Buddy
Yeah.

00:42:16.36
Jeremy
So they're just going to follow the water. and just keep on going but tomatoes are very heavy feeders they really are so we've started using uh the fish uh the fish fertilizer.

00:42:29.33
Jeremy
And it.

00:42:29.76
Buddy
Yeah. Fish emulsion. Emotional.

00:42:31.81
Jeremy
Oh my God.

00:42:31.97
Keith
Alaska.

00:42:32.90
Jeremy
It is.

00:42:32.73
Buddy
Yeah.

00:42:32.80
Keith
Alaska always.

00:42:33.19
Jeremy
Yes. Oh.

00:42:33.72
Keith
It is. That stuff is awesome. It stinks.

00:42:36.99
Jeremy
It smells so fucking bad.

00:42:37.17
Keith
But it's awesome.

00:42:39.22
Jeremy
It's so bad.

00:42:39.54
Keith
It's not expensive either.

00:42:39.83
Buddy
Yeah.

00:42:40.97
Jeremy
No, it's not. um So what I do is is I pour a little into the bottom of a watering can. uh fill up the watering can shake it so it doesn't get on me And then I go and I pick a box and I just start.

00:42:53.21
Jeremy
I just start pouring. And I do that for every single box and every single bucket and every single thing that we have out there. they Absolutely love it. And your heavy feeders, definitely.

00:43:04.74
Jeremy
Need it. and you know you've got other stuff like um Our blueberries. Our blueberries, we are going to... overwinter them and then next year we're gonna

00:43:14.56
Keith
We can't grow blueberries worth a shit. They just keep dying.

00:43:17.53
Buddy
Good.

00:43:17.14
Jeremy
we're We've been trying. we we had like A berry nugget? And somebody got it. um But we're going to take them out of the buckets next year.

00:43:28.13
Jeremy
And I want to find a good spot on the property and go ahead and like dig deep and get them in the ground. But when I put them in the ground, I'm going to gather up. like a whole bunch of pine needles.

00:43:41.31
Buddy
Yeah. That was a nice day.

00:43:41.89
Jeremy
And then. like put them in the hole first with a little bit of dirt and then put the bush on top of that. and then give it some good soil there's a good soil to get started with and then just let it Let it do its thing because blueberries are are they're wild. They're supposed to be wild and grow naturally.

00:44:00.27
Buddy
You should have the soil there, the sandy loam with the...

00:44:00.31
Jeremy
So.

00:44:03.54
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:44:04.13
Buddy
With the pine, you should be growing the crap out of them. I can't do it here.

00:44:07.43
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:44:08.40
Buddy
I've tried. I mean, I love blueberries. there nothing you know would be better than walking out your you know

00:44:14.31
Keith
It's a superfood.

00:44:14.54
Jeremy
Oh, it's it's so good

00:44:15.56
Buddy
yeah and walking out the you know off the you know porch and grabbing some blueberries and you know eating for breakfast or whatever but i mean that'd be my dream but there's I've tried hearing.

00:44:19.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:44:24.65
Keith
if you're eating ah blueberries in the apocalypse you are living large man

00:44:28.08
Jeremy
Hell yeah.

00:44:28.33
Buddy
Oh yeah. You'll be the only fat guy out there.

00:44:29.25
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. But so, you know, you were talking about like. um And here, I think that a probably a lot of people who get into gardening and I just learned something yesterday. and then And again, people getting into gardening, they think about the fruits and the vegetables and the the things that they eat normally.

00:44:47.31
Jeremy
I learned yesterday, and I don't know why I didn't know this, but you can eat. the sweet potato leaves. And I also for I don't know why I didn't know this, but sweet potatoes vine. I did not know that they vine.

00:45:00.93
Jeremy
Um,

00:45:01.73
Keith
Oh, yeah, they they did they definitely vine. We've got ah several of them going right now, and they're not potatoes, actually.

00:45:03.100
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:45:07.38
Jeremy
No, they're not.

00:45:07.45
Keith
Sweet potatoes are actually not in the potato family. but We just call them that, you know.

00:45:10.22
Jeremy
Yeah, there's they' that's what we call them.

00:45:10.66
Keith
eat

00:45:12.02
Jeremy
They're more of a legume. but the the neighbor came over and she was checking out the garden she's like amazed by our sweet potatoes and she's like you know you can eat these right And I looked at her and I was like, are you crazy?

00:45:22.43
Keith
I didn't know that.

00:45:23.54
Jeremy
And she plucked one off and she's like, go for the smaller ones. Maybe you can do a little bit bigger than this. And she handed me one and I ate it. And it tastes like watercress. I'm not kidding you.

00:45:33.87
Keith
Is that right?

00:45:34.23
Jeremy
It tastes like watercress. so

00:45:36.58
Keith
No kidding

00:45:36.93
Jeremy
We already knew that you can eat the leaves from your okra. So last night when I was making dinner, I made i took cabbage and I sliced it up small.

00:45:48.09
Jeremy
And I cooked a bunch of bacon, onion, and sausage. And I cut the leaves away from the hard part of the. ah Okra.

00:45:59.72
Jeremy
the plant. the actual leaves. I cut them down. And I made that video and anything you can do with cabbage or and I'm sorry, I'm not not cabbage, but spinach you can do with the leaves from an okra plant.

00:46:12.80
Jeremy
So we had a bunch of okra plant in that in that dish last night, and they were amazing. So...

00:46:18.33
Keith
That's interesting. And okra is one of those things you can grow in a five gallon bucket too, if you want.

00:46:21.63
Jeremy
Mm hmm. Yeah, now we have found that our okras... that are out in the big boxes that I built. are doing they're doing phenomenal Um,

00:46:31.37
Buddy
How tall are yours?

00:46:33.19
Jeremy
Well, we have started using Missy as a height standard. So...

00:46:40.24
Buddy
Okay. hu

00:46:41.11
Jeremy
um The ones that we planted later in the season that have not flowered or fruited. Or are just about. if not already taller than Missy. And Missy is about 5 '1".

00:46:54.58
Buddy
Okay.

00:46:54.78
Keith
Okay, so we have and we have nine ochre plants.

00:46:54.92
Jeremy
So.

00:46:56.50
Keith
So we have eight that are... That are taller than Missy. And we have one that kind of the runt of the litter that is the size of the redneckiest grandbaby.

00:47:06.44
Jeremy
Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.

00:47:07.99
Keith
that's That's what ours are.

00:47:09.36
Jeremy
So...

00:47:09.68
Keith
And we and we we prune ours out all the way up.

00:47:12.32
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:47:12.67
Buddy
Man.

00:47:12.40
Keith
so And when you you when you cut an an okra, we cut the okra and we cut the the leaf that supplies its sunlight nutrients to it.

00:47:18.46
Jeremy
Yep. yeah so you cut the okra you give it just a little you leave most of the nub from where you've cut the okra itself and then you cut that lee the actual stalk up underneath it.

00:47:31.46
Jeremy
And as I mean, an okra get like really tall. like super duper tall if you just let him do their thing normally. They grow like.

00:47:40.32
Keith
yeah Yeah, I don't know what you guys are saying.

00:47:41.23
Jeremy
Feet upon feet.

00:47:42.85
Keith
Yeah. Oh, the plant itself. Yeah.

00:47:44.41
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:47:44.36
Keith
Yeah. Very, tall very, very tall. Uh, I don't know what you guys are talking about, about the, the ochre being not tasty after three, and three or four inches. We I'm, I'm growing them five and six inches and, and cooking them up and they're perfectly fine.

00:47:56.79
Jeremy
Well, not necessarily tasty.

00:47:56.90
Buddy
Yeah, they're tough.

00:47:59.19
Jeremy
Hit.

00:47:59.31
Buddy
They're just really stringy and tough

00:48:00.07
Jeremy
fibrous it's extreme like if you let them get too big

00:48:01.38
Buddy
Yeah.

00:48:04.39
Jeremy
Uh, Like they just become super fun. And I don't know. Why?

00:48:09.18
Keith
Oh, I see what you're saying. So if you just eat it. Okay. So we. I chop mine up into quarters and and dust them with some some type of powder or whatever, and then I fry them.

00:48:19.85
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:20.59
Keith
Some are crispy, but then maybe that's why I'm not getting that. that what that texture you're talking about. I'm also not eating the nine the nine inch ones.

00:48:26.33
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:48:28.08
Keith
and we we get We eat them between I want to say between three and a half, three inches and. It's five or six inches. That's that's what we do.

00:48:36.63
Buddy
Yeah, I won't let mine go.

00:48:36.68
Jeremy
Yeah. and

00:48:37.77
Buddy
Six inches with the clamp. Clemson spineless. type I like.

00:48:42.35
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:48:42.65
Buddy
If they get any bigger than that.

00:48:43.28
Keith
That's the ones we grow. Yeah

00:48:44.86
Jeremy
I want to try those red okra.

00:48:45.02
Buddy
Yeah, I think any bigger than that.

00:48:47.05
Jeremy
I do wanna try those.

00:48:47.12
Buddy
Oh. i've I've had that. i i haven't tried to i've had it i mean eaten it i have not tried to grow it but um i tried some it

00:48:54.64
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:48:57.54
Buddy
You're welcome, Homer. where i'm at the clemson spineless is the only type that'll grow here i've tried other ones

00:49:02.96
Keith
That's what we grow here. Yeah.

00:49:04.67
Buddy
Nothing else really. grows here and

00:49:07.26
Jeremy
Interesting.

00:49:08.27
Keith
We tried the red ones here, but they didn't even take.

00:49:08.56
Jeremy
Well.

00:49:08.93
Buddy
Can you guys hear me?

00:49:10.45
Keith
so

00:49:10.67
Jeremy
Yeah. I know that for ours. um

00:49:13.05
Buddy
fuck

00:49:14.80
Jeremy
And i made I put a video on the Facebook page. and um I don't think anybody caught my joke. About three inches being average, but. um Um,

00:49:27.25
Keith
Dude, if you have to say you did a joke and that it wasn't funny, to but what's the what's the line? If you have to say it, you didn't it wasn't funny.

00:49:31.57
Jeremy
I mean...

00:49:33.85
Buddy
Yeah.

00:49:33.69
Jeremy
But I mean... I said it like nonchalantly in the video.

00:49:34.87
Buddy
Right.

00:49:37.14
Jeremy
I thought it would at least get a laugh. But anyway. So. Um, I went and i we missed.

00:49:43.99
Keith
There's a lot that you can do with three inches.

00:49:46.25
Jeremy
Oh, yeah. yeah Yeah.

00:49:48.36
Keith
So.

00:49:48.43
Jeremy
i've got i've got children with my last name it's you know it's amazing but um

00:49:49.02
Keith
I mean...

00:49:54.22
Jeremy
It's a... We missed this one particular okra. And it went from. you know, a nub to freaking like six and a half, seven inches overnight.

00:50:04.74
Jeremy
And I'm like, I'm like, why did, why does this happen?

00:50:05.23
Keith
Overnight, yeah

00:50:08.50
Keith
Water and fertilizer and sunlight.

00:50:10.75
Jeremy
Yeah. But they grow at night.

00:50:11.49
Keith
I'm telling you, man.

00:50:11.78
Buddy
Yeah.

00:50:12.38
Jeremy
They grow at night and they're, like I've said before, they're exponential growers. so We, I went in, I'm like, all right, cool. This one's about three inches. This one's about three, three and a half. Got it. Got it. Got it.

00:50:24.99
Jeremy
And I thought that was it. This one was tucked in the back. behind a corner and and i went out there the next day and i'm like where the fuck did this thing come from like who where did did somebody put this here it's gigantic

00:50:37.33
Jeremy
It had no sense. Like it didn't make any sense that it was just sitting there. So.

00:50:41.63
Buddy
yeah they grow quick if you if you skip a day in the garden and not pull some the next day you know i've literally gone out there and go oh i'll wait till tomorrow i didn't make it the next day so two days later i go out there and we got nine inch you know

00:50:43.03
Jeremy
It's... So quick. Mm-hmm.

00:50:51.15
Jeremy
Right.

00:50:55.89
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:50:57.34
Buddy
But the cool thing about that is. that Those are the kind of seeds you want to use. let Let a few, you know, towards the end of the season when you get tired of eating okra.

00:51:01.96
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:51:06.07
Buddy
And, you know, you've got enough.

00:51:08.01
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:51:08.05
Buddy
to freeze or whatever you however you Pickle freeze whatever you're doing with it

00:51:13.57
Jeremy
Yep.

00:51:13.78
Buddy
then let some get long and use that for your seed for the next year. so

00:51:18.55
Jeremy
Yeah, or or pick a particular like cluster of plants that you're going to let bolt and go to seed.

00:51:26.08
Buddy
Yeah.

00:51:26.47
Jeremy
Like, just go ahead and say, hey, these particular plants right here, I'm not going to pick these okra.

00:51:26.57
Buddy
Yeah definitely.

00:51:33.55
Jeremy
And then once they start to get close to you getting like a dry. texture and a dry sensation. um you can actually cut it off and shake it really good and the actual the seeds will start to rattle loose inside and you can hear them

00:51:49.90
Buddy
Yeah, I'll pick them, throw them in a bucket.

00:51:49.97
Jeremy
So.

00:51:52.53
Buddy
and just let them dry up and

00:51:53.83
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:51:54.55
Buddy
as long as they or you know They don't get moldy. You know, the seat is good, but.

00:51:58.37
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

00:52:01.05
Buddy
it you know Ochre is great. I love it.

00:52:03.26
Keith
All right, so what are some things that you can grow in on a patio garden? I've got a little list of some things I looked up.

00:52:10.01
Jeremy
<unk>

00:52:10.26
Keith
um Dwarf tomatoes. I'm not really sure what a dwarf tomato is, but I definitely know what cherry tomatoes are and that you can grow easily. and they're They're delicious. Um, Let's see, ah bush beans are a really good one.

00:52:22.18
Keith
Keeping in mind that a lot of plants, like the ones, many of the ones we've been talking about, have two different varieties. They have determinate and indeterminate. And you guys know this, but for the listener who may not.

00:52:32.79
Jeremy
Mm hmm.

00:52:34.31
Keith
Determinate means it grows to a height and it stops. That's it. indeterminate means it continually grows it will grow six feet eight feet nine feet up 12 feet on a you know on a on a trellis whatever it is so make sure you know what it is you're you're buying um Even if you get an indeterminate, like the Cherokee greens and the things that that some of the tomatoes that we talk about.

00:52:55.80
Keith
um they are they are indeterminate and they will grow like crazy. You can still... Cut those down. You can still prune them. So that they're not going crazy on your patio or your, but on your, you know. whatever it is you're growing your small area so you can do that and still get great crops out of it Just understand what plant you have. This way you know. Because you can you can get an indeterminate tomato like a Cherokee green or any one of those. and You're going to have your entire patio covered.

00:53:23.54
Keith
End.

00:53:23.80
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:53:24.46
Keith
in tomato plants. They're going to go, I've got a, I've got a, uh, we call it, but a tunnel, a trellis tunnel that you walked through that I built at a.

00:53:25.65
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:53:32.05
Keith
scrap wood that cost me nothing and some cheap nails. And. I gotta take a picture of this thing and show you. It's... You can barely even walk through it now. When you walk through it, your head is hitting all the little tiny tomatoes that you're just picking off and eating.

00:53:40.66
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:53:45.26
Keith
there's hundreds of them everywhere. So yeah, you can definitely do that.

00:53:50.03
Buddy
oh

00:53:49.96
Keith
ah So anyway, bush beans, they're ah bush beans and pole beans. Pole beans are indeterminate. They grow up a pole and they go pretty tall. Bush beans turn into. A bush. I mean who knew?

00:54:00.38
Keith
um So bush beans are great to have. Now, can you get large yields of bush beans? Probably not. So I would say. that really shouldn't be on your list go get your beans at the store and Package them up. I mean, honestly, unless you have a big area, how how many beans are you going to grow a bowl of beans? Okay, so you got dinner one night.

00:54:19.29
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:54:19.63
Keith
You know. ah Let's see, root crops, you got radishes and carrots. Those are os are outstanding to have. ah Potatoes, you can absolutely do, at which I consider a root crop. And in case you're not aware.

00:54:32.09
Keith
Potatoes are also grow in indeterminate and determinate styles as well. So there's two different types of but of potato. Now. On the potato plant. Because it is a is it a root crop, the potato is the actual root.

00:54:47.84
Keith
The indeterminate meaning of that is underground. It's not what you see up. on you know It doesn't grow and keep growing and growing up on top and get six, eight feet tall. It still is only going to be.

00:54:59.07
Keith
you know, what, three or four feet tall as a plant. underneath the soil. The indeterminate ones will continually grow different at the more you pile up dirt. the more you get from them.

00:55:10.65
Keith
So that's where the indeterminate part comes from. Determinate potatoes, you're going to get one cluster of potatoes in the ground and that's it. indeterminate you might get three or four or five depending on how high you you keep stacking dirt

00:55:21.74
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:55:22.22
Keith
So you end up in a five gallon bucket. You start low. And as the plant grows, you just throw dirt over it. And it grows up through the dirt and throw more dirt on it and just keep on putting dirt in that bucket until it goes right to the top of the bucket and then let the plant go.

00:55:35.89
Keith
The plant will die off. And theoretically... You should have an entire bucket full of. potatoes. And that's a lot of potatoes.

00:55:43.94
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:55:44.21
Keith
ah Peppers is another thing. We we talked about that. um All different types of peppers. Every kind of pepper you can. You can grow, grow it. Because you will eat peppers. They're very good for you. They're not all hot, by the way. You get sweet peppers as well.

00:55:57.20
Keith
And consider your... ah your your your sunshine, your light. situation because Peppers do like... you know direct sunlight. So that's some things I wanted to just throw in.

00:56:05.57
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:56:07.42
Keith
and I'm sure you guys got lots of others.

00:56:09.25
Jeremy
Well, peppers definitely love the light and they love the heat. um And. you know for And you were talking about the indeterminate and determinate for tomatoes. The best way I can describe it is.

00:56:21.79
Jeremy
Determinate Bush. indeterminate climb.

00:56:25.25
Buddy
Yeah.

00:56:25.48
Jeremy
And that's why it's really easy. like We have the same thing going on. We've been taking our tallest growers that are over by the house. And when they get to a certain height, we've actually been transplanting them over to the trellis.

00:56:37.02
Jeremy
and weaving them. through. the uh through the trellis and they're growing up and they're doing their thing And they've started to intermingle. with the ah with the beans. So the beans are growing up and those.

00:56:53.79
Jeremy
vines are actually starting to kind of like. wrap themselves into the tomatoes and creating a bushier sort of like shaded area. And the entire. like one side of the trellis is almost completely taken over from the sweet potato vines And then on the other side of that, we've got.

00:57:14.46
Jeremy
We've got some melons and cucumbers and all kinds of stuff happening. So this trellis is slowly sort of being enveloped. by all these different plants. but for potatoes if you wanted to grow up potatoes on your back porch or on your balcony or whatever it is.

00:57:31.49
Jeremy
Yeah, they do need some sunshine, but they also like. They also like shade. And they don't require a lot of water. so that's the great thing about potatoes you don't have to water them excessively Um,

00:57:45.00
Jeremy
You get them.

00:57:44.97
Buddy
hey If you do, you'll get them to rot in the ground.

00:57:47.32
Jeremy
Yeah, you'll they'll turn into slime.

00:57:47.53
Buddy
though Yep.

00:57:49.77
Jeremy
but the other thing is is a lot of stuff that people throw out that they don't think about can be used as containers for growing. If you've got a couple or even a single. But if you've got a couple of old. um laundry baskets, you can grow potatoes in those.

00:58:05.67
Jeremy
It's like super duper easy.

00:58:05.83
Buddy
Yeah.

00:58:07.00
Jeremy
If you've got... um I mean hell, if you've got some old sandbags. You can grow potatoes in those.

00:58:14.05
Buddy
I've grown potatoes in... Hey a straw like a hay bale

00:58:17.64
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, just ah just a hay bale. Just put them in there.

00:58:20.17
Buddy
Just try. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

00:58:21.75
Jeremy
Yeah. And just.

00:58:22.99
Buddy
and and man i did it was great

00:58:23.33
Jeremy
Yeah. the Potatoes will grow anywhere. Kind of like Jerusalem artichokes. which I really, really want to do next year. But Jerusalem artichokes will grow pretty much anywhere.

00:58:34.22
Jeremy
Um... There's a lot of different stuff that you can do in a small area with a little bit of imagination and not a lot of money. I mean, cause you're not out there trying to feed like an immense amount of people.

00:58:48.72
Jeremy
You're, you're planning for yourself. and you're planning in a small area. So plant what you eat. So. If you like tomatoes, grow tomatoes. Um...

00:58:59.32
Jeremy
If you... I mean, there's there's a myriad of things, man. I can't even. And you could hide. Like let's just say, for instance, if you wanted to hide the fact that you're growing stuff on your porch.

00:59:11.33
Jeremy
You could build it. you know a simple trellis for sweet potato uh, vines to grow on. And if anybody ever said anything, I'll be like, Oh, I just like plants. They just got plants on my porch. And that's it.

00:59:23.54
Jeremy
I mean, you could grow up all kinds of stuff out there.

00:59:25.70
Keith
Cucumber plants will do the same thing. You grow a trellis, and they'll grow right up it, and you'll get all the cucumbers you want all all the entire season.

00:59:27.31
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:59:32.85
Jeremy
Yeah, I mean, our...

00:59:33.16
Buddy
And... this

00:59:34.42
Jeremy
Our cucumbers are just now. Just now. starting to do their thing. like i am dude this weird this year has just been crazy man it's just been bunkers like absolutely bunkers Bye.

00:59:46.46
Buddy
Well, this year I decided to move and I did it on accident last year with just a pepper plant, just ah as an experiment, because we have it's. It is a flower bed that's west-facing, so it gets that heat.

00:59:58.82
Buddy
west sun And I put in one. one pepper plant and it went gangbuster. it It tripled the production of the rest of them. So I thought, hmm. Okay.

01:00:09.34
Buddy
so we got this flower bed you know we put you know ornamental flowers in and and there's bushes in there there's you know some grasses and things like that so i thought let's put some peppers in here so we put them throughout the pepper or throughout the the garden And it. it's taken off you know It's really looking good. it's you know you have the the flowers there for the bees to come in and and do their thing and pollinate.

01:00:35.71
Buddy
um it It's another technique that... that you could use to you know put that landscape you know most people have flower beds in their house so if you don't have a lot of room in the backyard or or what have you you can just throw it in with your flowers in your flower bed so Try that technique out too.

01:00:56.89
Keith
I want you to. Do you... um I guess what I'm saying is... Do you know what it is that made that plant per plant go? Gangbusters.

01:01:05.88
Buddy
I want to say... with with my experience um it gets consistent water. Because every morning for you know a few minutes. That flower bed gets water.

01:01:17.89
Buddy
It's also west-facing. So it's going to get that sun that long day sun in the summertime. peppers like it hot especially it's a jalapeno plant we got a couple different varieties of jalapenos out there.

01:01:30.13
Buddy
Um, so it likes the heat it likes the long sun it's getting consistent water And. One of the things I was going to mention earlier is I've been feeding in.

01:01:42.59
Buddy
You guys touched on it already, but the best, and I've said it before, I'll say it. again I'll continue to say it Die by this your best natural fertilizer is vermicompost here your worm poop you know we've talked about worm farming and stuff like that but if you can buy some worm castings at the you know Home Depot sells it now. low Some of your box stores and stuff.

01:02:09.21
Buddy
Every month or so, just go out and throw. just a handful out there on on just top dress your your plants with it And then water it in. So every day you're watering.

01:02:21.71
Buddy
and just water that ah right around the roots of stuff and where it'll work in. And it's going to just. take off it's the best fertilizer you can use you know fish emulsion i use it and it's great too

01:02:29.05
Jeremy
and

01:02:34.56
Buddy
Um, a little higher nitrogen than what uh The, um... poop or the vermicompost is. But... As of... pound for pound vermicompost is the best fertilizer you can use.

01:02:49.15
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:02:49.62
Keith
Yeah, the castings are great. I've got a worm farm in my in my shop. uh and i still use the castings i use them mostly for repotting and stuff but i think i might start do what you're saying and but actually put them in the garden as well um But I've got to um i got to go out there and expand it again.

01:03:04.94
Keith
They're already at the point where they're done. And it's almost the entire thing is almost all castings. I just keep feeding them. But I do, I love that. And I do love that Alaska. fish uh fertilizer.

01:03:16.29
Buddy
Yeah.

01:03:16.88
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:03:17.22
Buddy
Yeah.

01:03:17.25
Keith
Man, I'll tell you what, it's the goopiest, brownest, disgusting-looking liquid you ever saw.

01:03:20.23
Jeremy
Oh dude.

01:03:21.14
Buddy
Smell this shit.

01:03:22.11
Jeremy
and got It got on my shoes.

01:03:22.72
Keith
You put that out, the chickens go crazy, the turkeys go crazy, the dogs go crazy. Everybody's like, what is whats what just happened?

01:03:29.38
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:03:29.45
Keith
What happened? Who did what?

01:03:30.11
Jeremy
What's that magical shit smell?

01:03:30.34
Buddy
Yeah.

01:03:31.81
Keith
Yeah.

01:03:32.26
Buddy
but And you've got to be careful because dogs will dig it. you yourre

01:03:35.34
Keith
Oh yeah.

01:03:36.31
Buddy
your your chickens will go out and and and scratch on it and umve i've planted a garden before Put worm castings down. on some other fertilizer and the next day because the chickens were out there free free ranging all the plants are gone You know, they just totally destroyed it.

01:03:53.26
Keith
ah

01:03:54.62
Buddy
Not all of them, but 90 % of the stuff was gone. so but uh

01:03:59.13
Keith
Alright, so close it out. um Anybody want to close it out?

01:04:03.22
Jeremy
I would say that if you Are fearful. that you can't grow in an urban environment. I'm just telling you right now. urban, suburban city, you can grow plants.

01:04:16.06
Jeremy
You can grow plants anywhere you are. With a little bit of imagination. and planning. you can feed yourself. no matter where you live.


Head Shot

Keith Otworth

Host
Head Shot

Rhonda Triggs

Host
Contributor

Buddy

Co-host
Contributor

Jeremy

Co-host