385 The Repurposed, Sustainable, and Creative Garden

Prepare to be inspired as we dive into a creative and sustainable approach to gardening with Sacramento County Master Gardener Gail Pothour. We explore how to turn everyday household items and scrap materials into stunning and functional garden art. Whether it’s using an old manhole cover as a striking stepping stone or transforming downed trees into rustic pathways, Gail shares her innovative methods for infusing charm and creativity into any garden space. We explore the many ways she's embraced repurposing, showcasing the beauty of sustainability in a tangible, hands-on manner. This episode blends creativity with pragmatism. Gail's enthusiasm for gardening and her resourceful methods bring an upbeat energy to the conversation, making it a delightful listen for aspiring and seasoned gardeners alike.

Plus - "Will my blueberry plants recover after being weed trimmer whipped by my grandson?"

Previous episodes, show notes, links, product information, and transcripts at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, GardenBasics.net. Transcripts and episode chapters also available at Buzzsprout. 

 Now on YouTube (audio) 

Pictured: Gail’s Repurposed Items in the Garden

Links:

“Beyond the Garden Basics” Newsletter (Mar. 28 edition features more about Gail’s repurposed garden)

Dave Wilson Nursery https://www.davewilson.com/home-garden/

Fair Oaks Horticulture Center

Scilla peruviana

Bilbergia nutans

New Zealand Lemonade Tree

Large Binder Clips (for securing frost/shade cloth to PVC supports)

Mesh Wastebasket for plant protection (much cheaper at a Dollar-type Store)

All About Farmer Fred:
 GardenBasics.net

“Beyond the Garden Basics” Newsletter

Farmer Fred website: 
http://farmerfred.com

The Farmer Fred Rant! Blog
http://farmerfredrant.blogspot.com

Facebook:  "Get Growing with Farmer Fred" 

Instagram: farmerfredhoffman
https://www.instagram.com/farmerfredhoffman/

Blue Sky: @farmerfred.bsky.social

Farmer Fred Garden Minute Videos on YouTube
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Chapters

• 0:44 The Repurposed Garden, Pt. 1
• 15:43 Dave Wilson Nursery
• 17:09 The Repurposed Garden, Pt. 2
• 26:26 Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter
• 27:19 Q&A Blueberry Whack Job?

Transcript

385 TRANSCRIPT The Repurposed Garden FINALFarmer Fred:

[0:04] Get ready to transform your garden creatively and sustainably. In this episode, we visit Master Gardener Gail Pothour, who repurposes everyday items into functional garden art. From using a manhole cover as a stepping stone, to crafting rustic pathways from yard sale finds and down redwood trees, Gail's innovative ideas inspire garden charm and sustainability. It's episode 385, The Repurposed Garden. We're podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutalon jungle in suburban purgatory. It's the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast brought to you today by Dave Wilson Nursery. Let's go. 

THE REPURPOSED GARDEN, Pt. 1

Farmer Fred:

How many of you are using appliances or items from around the house in your garden? A lot of them have some very good uses. And one person I know who does that extensively. And, she has a beautiful garden. you know her, you love her, our vegetable expert, Master Gardener Gail Pothour is with us, and we are in her backyard. And Gail, as we enter your garden, I see manhole covers.

Gail Pothour:

[1:11] Yes, I have a manhole cover that is the prominent stepping stone up into my native area.

Farmer Fred:

[1:17] And that is followed then by what look like other stepping stones, but made out of trees.

Gail Pothour:

[1:23] Right. We had a couple of mature redwoods cut down a number of years ago. And so we had them cut into coins. So it's made stepping stones all through that native area.

Farmer Fred:

[1:33] Stepping stones are a great idea because you're not compacting the soil and you're keeping your feet dry, too, during the rainy season.

Gail Pothour:

[1:39] Correct. Yeah. And I just like the looks of it.

Farmer Fred:

[1:42] Well, let's go see what else you've repurposed here in your garden. Now, it's always a good idea, and you've done this extensively here in your backyard garden, is border all the plant zones. Maybe they are plants that have the same watering requirements or from the same genus, but it's very nice just to have that delineation. Now, here you are bordering an area and you called this urbanite?

Gail Pothour:

[2:05] Urbanite, yeah. Broken up concrete is apparently called urbanite. It's a classier name than concrete. But we had a sidewalk taken out 20, 30 years ago, and I can't throw anything away, so I had to reuse it. So I used it to border several beds in my native area.

Farmer Fred:

[2:22] Very nice. And it's about, what, two inches thick or so?

Gail Pothour:

[2:25] Whatever the county standards were for born sidewalks back then. Yeah, maybe three inches thick, it looks like.

Farmer Fred:

[2:31] And they're all about, oh, about 12 by 12 or so.

Gail Pothour:

[2:34] Yeah, they're random sizes, so it was like putting a puzzle together, trying to get them to fit together. And because it's back here in the shade of oak trees, it's got some moss on it. So I kind of like the look.

Farmer Fred:

[2:45] Now, what's nice, too, is you have a rather extensive property that goes back into, I'd call it a wild area. But in that wild area, you could also have wild animals that I would think would want to visit your backyard.

Gail Pothour:

[2:58] Oh, yes. We have wild turkeys. I haven't heard them yet this morning, but wild turkeys are back there. They're frequently in my yard. We have had coyotes. I have a fox. Apparently there's a family of foxes that live down there. And then the usual raccoons and skunks and rats and things like that.

Farmer Fred:

[3:17] Now, I just noticed something that you have next to this chain link fence that you have to keep the wildlife, at least slow the wildlife down. It looks like you have taken a metal pole and stuck a birdhouse up there.

Gail Pothour:

[3:28] It's a bat box.

Farmer Fred:

[3:29] A bat box.

Gail Pothour:

[3:30] Uh-huh. Nothing has ever taken up residence in it and it's been up for probably 40 years, But it's just an attractive garden ornament.

Farmer Fred:

[3:39] Yeah, exactly. It's up about, whoa, 20 feet or so.

Gail Pothour:

[3:42] Yeah, I'd say. And I think part of the problem now is the oak trees have grown up and have kind of blocked the entrance. So that may be deterring the bats from taking up residence. I don't know.

Farmer Fred:

[3:51] Do you still have bats around?

Gail Pothour:

[3:53] We do, apparently, just not in my box. All right.

Farmer Fred:

[3:56] Well, that happens. One thing I would like to point out, too, is you are speaking of repurposing is your mulch pathways. which are all probably chipped and shredded trees that you've taken out at one time, the leaves that are among your extensive oak collection here. And pathways are great when you're a gardener because if you keep them at the width that you have them, which is three feet or more, you can bring the wheelbarrow in. You're not tromping on their root system very much. And it just adds, it adds character to the garden.

Gail Pothour:

[4:29] Well, and I like that crunching sound when you walk on it. That and pea gravel. I like that sound, but you're correct. We had the two mature redwoods taken out. We've had three oaks come down during the time we've lived here. So we have had access to a lot of chips.

 And I am in desperate need of some more. And I noticed that we do have an oak that's probably on its last leg. So I'll get some more chips later this year.

Farmer Fred:

[4:54] Yeah, that's what I, whenever I see tree trimmers at work, I go, “Yes, mulch! Here we go!” 

 But good walkways. And I mentioned that you have a lot of borders and this is a rather unique border. It It looks like it's made out of sparkling water bottles, blue bottles.

Gail Pothour:

[5:10] A number of years ago at where I shop carried this particular blue bottle. I like blue bottles. It had the sparkling water in it. And apparently I drank a lot of them because I have quite a few that I've embedded next to my walkway to define my native area where my dry stream bed is. And it keeps the mulch off the sidewalk. So and it's kind of pretty.

Farmer Fred:

[5:33] Yeah, you have two rows of them with the back row a little bit higher than the front row of bottles, but it looks very nice. It almost looks church-like, votive candles.

Gail Pothour:

[5:42] Yeah, kind of. And then behind it, I have reused some clay tiles and have succulents in them. So I like to reuse a lot of different things for my succulents.

Farmer Fred:

[5:51] You're also very fond of globes.

Gail Pothour:

[5:53] I am. I love spheres. Don't ask me why, but I've got them all over my yard in various forms, whether they're terracotta or metal. But yeah, I like globes.

Farmer Fred:

[6:04] Now here you have a succulent growing in, well, it looks like a huge colander!

Gail Pothour:

[6:09] Yeah, it's kind of an industrial strength colander, probably from a restaurant. I got it at a…yard sale or something years ago,  and it's kind of rusty, but it's got holes all around it. It's a colander. And so I have filled it with cactus mix, and I have a variety of succulents growing in it. And it's got two handles, so it's easy to carry around. So yeah, I like to use unusual containers.

Farmer Fred:

[6:31] And it's about, I'd say, 18 inches wide and probably about 12 inches tall.

Gail Pothour:

[6:35] Yeah, pretty much. I think that's about right. But because it's a lightweight aluminum, well, it's rusting, so I don't know if it's aluminum, but it's lightweight, and it's easy for me to carry around if I need to move it.

Farmer Fred:

[6:46] And it's a very loose fitting soil mix you have in there, pebbles and probably some succulent type soil. So you got good drainage.

Gail Pothour:

[6:53] Yeah, I've got the cactus mix and then I always like to top dress my succulents with decorative gravel.

Farmer Fred:

[6:59] And you have this next to it. You told me it is an old headboard.

Gail Pothour:

[7:03] A wrought iron headboard. Yes. We have two shelves that are attached to that and I display my potted succulents on it. And it weathered pretty well. It's usually under the eaves of my house. And it's starting to rust, but it kind of gives it some character.

Farmer Fred:

[7:18] I take it you cut down the legs a little bit if it was a headboard. I think originally it was much taller.

Gail Pothour:

[7:22] Well, no. Actually, I have another piece that I use in my garden, and it was too short as a headboard. You couldn't really see it. The beds are taller now than they used to be. And so that's why we decided to use them out in the garden. And yeah, the one with the shelf, I really like that. And then the one in the garden, I use it to either grow up like maybe a squash that would vine a little bit, or I'll use it to define between two different crops. I think this year I'll put it between my corn and my potatoes to kind of define the area.

Farmer Fred:

[7:55] Now, I noticed that you've also taken your spare PVC pipes and made a very nice framework around your citrus trees. You have one, two, three, four citrus trees.

Gail Pothour:

[8:07] And around my blueberries, too.

Farmer Fred:

[8:08] Oh, very good. Yeah, you do have them around your blueberries. And that is an excellent permanent structure, as permanent as PVC can be, for throwing frost cloths over it.

Gail Pothour:

[8:18] Correct. And that's what it was intended for, for the citrus, although we haven't used it in recent years. And then around the blueberries, it's so that I can put shade cloth over it in the summer because it gets the hot afternoon sun. And my next quest is to figure out how to paint aged PVC. It's white, stark white, and I want to kind of camouflage it, paint it a color that's not quite so distinct. But it's old PVC, and I'm not sure. It's probably, you know, flaking a little bit, so I would have to prime it or I'm not sure. But that's my next project or on my list of projects. It's just to somehow disguise it.

Farmer Fred:

[8:57] I know with watering troughs, if you're using those as a plant container, if you want to paint it, they recommend thoroughly washing it first with a plastic scrub brush and TSP. Not sure if that would work with PVC.

Gail Pothour:

[9:09] Yeah, I was afraid of that. These are too tall for me to even reach. So they may stay white. I may not be painting those. But if I put any new structures up, I would do that as I'm, you know, before I actually installed them.

Farmer Fred:

[9:23] Now, speaking of livestock watering troughs, here's one that looks like it probably belonged to a horse at one time. And it's holding a very unusual lemon tree.

Gail Pothour:

[9:33] It's a New Zealand lemonade lemon. It's a sweet lemon.

Farmer Fred:

[9:38] And so it doesn't even have a lemon tang to it?

Gail Pothour:

[9:41] It does, but it tastes like lemonade, you know, which is lemon that's been sweetened. It has that flavor. Yeah, and it's really round. It's not kind of oblong like a regular lemon. And it doesn't look like the Meyer lemon either. It's got the thicker skin like a typical lemon. And I've grown it about the last four years, I think, is how long I've had it. So I'm starting to get a good crop. Last year was my best.

Farmer Fred:

[10:05] No frost damage on this plant?

Gail Pothour:

[10:07] No, I got hail damage. Yeah, that and I have a lime tree, a Bearss lime that's also in a stock tank. And you can see the hail damage from that, too.

Farmer Fred:

[10:15] Yeah, but Bearss Lime is one of the more cold-hardy limes for backyard growers in USDA Zone 9. I think it can take temperatures down to about 30 degrees or so without damage. And apparently this New Zealand lemon.

Gail Pothour:

[10:31] Lemonade lemon.

Farmer Fred:

[10:32] Lemonade lemon is also fairly hardy.

Gail Pothour:

[10:34] Yeah, but we haven't had a hard freeze. So since I've had this, I did throw a frost cloth over it, I think, once this year when it was supposed to get down to 30. But, yeah, it seems to do okay other than it looks like I need to fertilize.

Farmer Fred:

[10:49] For four years old, that's not a bad size. And it really is a good size for throwing a frost cloth over because the stock tank itself is maybe two and a half feet tall by two feet wide. And the tree itself is about that same height. And the soil level in the stock tank is maybe two thirds.

Gail Pothour:

[11:08] Yeah, I noticed it has gone down quite a bit. I'm trying to figure out if there's some way I can lift the tree out and add some more potting soil or just leave it like that. I'm not sure. But it's decomposed enough that it has sunk.

Farmer Fred:

[11:22] There was a gentleman visiting the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center during the last work day, and I was talking to him over by the blueberries, and he transplants all his blueberries to do exactly that, to lift it out, refurbish the soil, and then stick it back in. He has a backyard crane that he uses.

Gail Pothour:

[11:38] Oh, gosh. That's a little extreme. I'm not sure my husband would go for that, but I'll just use his muscle power to get this thing out. But then I also have an old fire pit, a metal fire pit that is on wrought iron legs that I never used. And so I have converted it to a planter as well. And I like to grow succulents in it.

Farmer Fred:

[12:00] All right. Yeah. You have a lot of succulents here in your yard too. That's nice.

Gail Pothour:

[12:04] I think that's a holdover from my mom. She loved succulents and it kind of has been passed on to me.

Farmer Fred:

[12:10] And with your love of globes, I see like half globes that look suspiciously like ceiling light fixtures.

Gail Pothour:

[12:17] That's exactly what they were. When we had a remodel done over the time we've lived in this house, I save the hallway light fixtures. They're round, and my love of spheres, they end up out in the garden. So I've got several of them. Some are just smooth white, and some are kind of scalloped, and I just like that sphere look. I'm not sure why.

Farmer Fred:

[12:38] What is this plant that looks like a very colorful agapanthus that's about to bloom here? It's about a foot and a half tall, dark green strappy leaves, and there's a flower popping up in it that has a purple base and looks very interesting.

Gail Pothour:

[12:53] Scilla peruviana. And it's actually from my grandmother when she lived in Southern California. When she moved up here 40 years ago, she brought some with her. And so I have... It's a sentimental thing, but it's a beautiful flower. And we've even had them growing over at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in the water-efficient landscape. When I was working there, we put a bunch of the bulbs in, and they're really popular. And you're right, they are coming up right now. You can see, just start to see the purple flower. It will go dormant in the summer.

Farmer Fred:

[13:25] And it looks like it's happy here.

Gail Pothour:

[13:27] It is, and I've got a whole bunch of them under my oak trees, so they only get seasonal rain because I don't irrigate under the oak trees. And they're actually farther along than this one that does get irrigation.

Farmer Fred:

[13:38] And this is in full sun.

Gail Pothour:

[13:39] It is in full sun. Yeah, they do really well. And it's sentimental. You know, I like something from my grandmother.

Farmer Fred:

[13:44] Yeah, it's amazing the plants that you can bring from your old home or from a relative that you don't have to be digging out plants. You could start them from cuttings or corms or tubers.

Gail Pothour:

[13:56] And theoretically, it's still the same plant.

Gail Pothour:

[13:58] Correct. And I do that with succulents. I got some succulents from my mother. And then I also have another plant for my grandmother. It is the Bilbergia nutans. And that was another sentimental plant that I like to keep in a container. It likes a shadier condition. So I put it under the eaves of my house and it's a gorgeous plant.

Farmer Fred:

[14:20] Now, here's a tip I learned from you a couple of years ago when I was complaining about marauding peacocks in my backyard, plucking away at my young plants that were only a few inches tall. and you said, go to the dollar store and they've got wastebaskets, mesh wastebaskets that are maybe 12 inches tall and maybe eight to 10 inches wide at the top. And they're only a dollar and you can just stick them over your plants.

Gail Pothour:

[14:46] I think they're actually $1.25 now with inflation. But the last time I went in to buy a bunch of them, the sales lady said, I bet you're using these in your garden, right? So I think everybody is now using them in the garden. But they're great. They are a mesh material that is small enough that nothing can get in. I mean, probably some teensy tiny critter could. But it's great to put over your plants to keep them protected from turkeys, raccoons, skunks. 

Farmer Fred:

Squirrels. 

Gail Pothour:

Squirrels, yeah.

Farmer Fred:

[15:17] I even use them as wastebaskets, too. 

Gail Pothour:

[15:22] Really? And I also like to use strawberry baskets. I buy a lot of strawberries from the vendors you see on the street. and I put those over corn or beans when I plant them because the seeds are big enough that the birds will come and pluck them out. So I'll have a whole row of strawberry baskets protecting them until they come up.

DAVE WILSON NURSERY

Farmer Fred:

[15:44] You have a small yard and you think you don't have the room for fruit trees? Well, maybe you better think again. Because Dave Wilson Nursery wants to show you how to grow great tasting fruits like peaches, apples, pluots, and nut trees. Plus, they have potted fruits such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, boysenberries, figs, grapes, hops, kiwi, olives, and pomegranates. These are all plants that you can grow in small areas. You can even grow many of them in containers on patios as well. It's called Backyard Orchard Culture, and you can get step-by-step information via the Dave Wilson YouTube videos. So where do you find those? Well, just go to DaveWilson.com, click on the Home Garden tab at the top of the page. Also in that Home Garden tab, you're going to find a link to their Fruit and Nut Harvest Chart. You can be picking delicious, healthy fruits from your own yard from May to December here in USDA Zone 9. And something else you're going to find in that home garden tab. You're going to find the closest nursery to you that carries Dave Wilson's quality fruit trees. And they're in nurseries from coast to coast. So start the backyard orchard of your dreams at DaveWilson.com.

THE REPURPOSED GARDEN, Pt. 2

Farmer Fred:

[16:58] I bet if you look behind the garage, there just might be an old wooden pallet back there. Gail Pothour says that is a great item to have in your garden.

Farmer Fred:

[17:12] All right, you have this wooden pallet at a 45-degree angle in one of your raised beds. I have a funny feeling you were growing something along this pallet. In the summer, I like to grow.

Gail Pothour:

[17:23] My summer squash grows up this pallet, even though they're considered kind of a bush variety, not really trailing. They don't go out 8, 10 feet. They still trail somewhat, and I like to contain them. And so I will kind of train them up the pallet, maybe use some string to tie them to the boards to get them headed that way. And it just takes up less real estate. Instead of taking up a quarter of a bed, it takes up a lot less. And then this summer, I planted... Tokyo Bakana cabbage in the shade of the palate with squash growing on it. And I just recently took the cabbage out.

Farmer Fred:

[18:02] That's a great idea.

Gail Pothour:

[18:03] Yeah, it gives it a little bit of shade. And so you can grow it in the summer.

Farmer Fred:

[18:05] So you had like the zucchini, the squash growing on the west side here. And then on the other side, it's shading the Tokyo Bakana cabbage.

Gail Pothour:

[18:14] Right. Yeah. And it works out and I can get two crops in the space of where I would grow one.

Farmer Fred:

[18:19] And you have a lot of pieces of what look like hardware cloth. along your raised beds here. What is their purpose?

Gail Pothour:

[18:27] That's to keep birds and squirrels and all the other wildlife from just digging up my yard. And so I do have a lot of hardware cloth, chicken wire. I have strips that are old gutter guards. That's what these are. And I just put them along the edge to kind of keep the animals from causing too much problem. It doesn't always work. Where I do have some chicken wire, I see there's holes under there. So they've gotten under it.

Farmer Fred:

[18:54] Well, we try. I know.

Gail Pothour:

[18:56] That's all we can do.

Farmer Fred:

[18:57] I noticed that you have a lot of old bamboo stakes bordering your raised beds in the top. And many of them have a tennis ball on the top. Is this for when you want to practice your stroke?

Gail Pothour:

[19:11] We do this at the Fair Oaks Hort Center also. And people ask us, why are we growing tennis balls? It's so we don't poke our eyes out. So when you've got any kind of a short stake that isn't all that obvious, it's too easy to bend over to do some harvesting or weeding and poke yourself. So it's just eye protection.

Farmer Fred:

[19:29] And I see that you rated the office supply store for some rather large clips that you have attached to PVC pipe that's formed in a half circle inside your raised bed, probably for winter protection or insect protection.

Gail Pothour:

[19:44] Correct. I use a lot of the really large binder clips. You go to the office supply section and you can find the large ones. It's perfect for the half inch PVC. And what you see here is a 10 foot length of half inch PVC pipe that I have bent into an arch. The half inch bends fairly easy. And then I use it to have shade cloth in the summer if I need it or frost protection or just keep animals out or insects out. I had shade cloth on it pretty much all fall and winter just to keep the butterflies, the cabbage butterfly out from getting on my brassicas. And the half inch PVC pipe is the perfect size for this great big binder clip. Clip it really easily.

Farmer Fred:

[20:30] Do you recall what schedule is it? Is it Schedule 20, Schedule 40, Schedule 80? I doubt if it's 80.

Gail Pothour:

[20:35] You know, I don't know. Does it say?

Farmer Fred:

[20:38] Maybe. It's Schedule 40. So with the Schedule 40, you can bend it and it will not break. As with Schedule 20, it might snap on you because it's so much thinner. So this is Schedule 40 PVC.

Gail Pothour:

[20:51] And I've had this... 20 years, and it's held up pretty well. The only downside is the binder clips, if you have them out in the wintertime, which I did, will rest. And so my PVC is getting a little rest, but hey, it's a vegetable garden. I don't care.

Farmer Fred:

[21:06] And besides that, clips are fairly cheap.

Gail Pothour:

[21:08] That's right. But I use a lot of binder clips just everywhere on my cold frame. If I have to clip something to that pallet, it can take the thickness. So yeah, I use a lot of binder clips.

Farmer Fred:

[21:19] Let's go take a look at your greenhouse. Now, this is a very nice greenhouse built by a local craftsman many years ago who specialized in it. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us, but I'm jealous. I mean, this is really nice. And the floor of your greenhouse is nice too because it's brick.

Gail Pothour:

[21:37] Yeah, my husband and I did the foundation before Sierra Greenhouse, before they constructed it here. It looks like brick. It's a concrete paver just on sand, as similar to what we did with our brick patio.

Farmer Fred:

[21:49] Yeah. Well, that's easy for cleanup.

Gail Pothour:

[21:51] Yeah. Oh, absolutely. It does get moss growing on it. I've been cleaning out the moss because there's no mortar, but yeah, it's really nice.

Farmer Fred:

[21:59] And of course, on your utensil shelf here in the greenhouse, and this is nice for you, you have several shelves of different heights here in this greenhouse. And this greenhouse is what, 12 feet long?

Gail Pothour:

[22:09] Nine by nine.

Farmer Fred:

[22:10] Nine by nine? It is? Wow. It seems more than that.

Gail Pothour:

[22:13] Nine by nine.

Farmer Fred:

[22:14] I noticed that among your handy utensils that you use, it looks like you cleaned out the kitchen. And, you know, I'm envious of that large pair of tweezers that you have in there for probably plucking little plants.

Gail Pothour:

[22:28] Exactly. A lot of my old kitchen utensils end up out in the greenhouse because I can't throw anything away, much to my husband's dismay, as everything has to be repurposed. I think it's a product of having parents and grandparents who went through the Depression, pretty much. I think it's just ingrained in us. You don't send it to the landfill unless it's absolutely necessary. But I have a lot of, oh, knives and spoons and forks that I use. No longer in the house, I use them to pot up plants or to pick out weeds and that sort of thing. And then a lot of other things like an old broiler pan that was in my oven when we got a kitchen remodel. It's now out here and I can put plants on it and there's drainage because it has that top broiler shelf.

Farmer Fred:

[23:16] Yeah, that's very nice. It's a nice succulent shelf that you have here out of what looks like an oversized cookie pan. It is.

Gail Pothour:

[23:22] It's from a college. So it's a big jelly roll cookie sheet kind of thing, but it's twice the size. So it's perfect for putting my succulents on there.

Farmer Fred:

[23:31] And you have a good supply of old chopsticks here, too, because as Debbie Flower has taught us over the years, if you're trying to plant or even pick up little tiny seeds like carrot seeds, if you moisten that chopstick first and then dab at a seed, you'll only pick up one seed and then you can just tap it into a container. Right.

Gail Pothour:

[23:51] And it also is great for when I transplant into a larger pot, I use that to kind of tamp down around the side. So I use a lot of chopsticks. I also mark one inch markings on a chopstick and I can like a ruler. So I use that as a gauge for if I need to see how deep something is or I want to push a bean seed into a pot. I go down, you know, the two inches because it's all marked on theirs.

Farmer Fred:

[24:17] I like the old paint stirring sticks that are now plant markers. Yeah, plant markers.

Gail Pothour:

[24:22] That was something we used at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in the vegetable garden. And I've I raid the plant supply of the paint supplies for their steaks and I use them as plant markers.

Farmer Fred:

[24:32] I notice there's a mailbox in your backyard, but the only special delivery you probably have in that are your handy backyard tools to reach for.

Gail Pothour:

[24:40] Correct. I like to have gloves and a pair of pruners and maybe a tennis ball or two and a lot of other things that I like handy. I don't have to go into the garage to get them. And so on one of my shelves, I have an old mailbox and I keep those so they're close by.

Farmer Fred:

[24:56] And it's not a metal mailbox. It's a plastic mailbox. So it'll last longer outside.

Gail Pothour:

[25:01] Hopefully. And it stays out of the sun. So it should last longer. It wouldn't get, you know, real stiff and crack.

Farmer Fred:

[25:07] You also have an interesting assortment of what could be tripods, but you're saying they're umbrella frames?

Gail Pothour:

[25:14] I have a couple of old umbrellas, the ones that were out on my patio. And then when the canvas starts to look tacky, they end up out in my garden to provide shade. Then when they fall apart, I can't throw the frame away. So I can use them as a support for pole beans or peas. One way you can do it is to just open it up like a pyramid and have them climb up that way. or you open it up and run strings down and you can have pole beans or peas climb up those. We are doing that at the Horticulture Center this year.

Farmer Fred:

[25:45] How do you support the strings at the bottom?

Gail Pothour:

[25:46] I have one of the rings from wine barrel that I dismantled And that's embedded in the bottom. And we have kind of wire hooks made from coat hangers or something to hold it in place. And then the strings go from the top of the umbrella down to that wine barrel ring just to give it some support.

Farmer Fred:

[26:05] And the beans find their way up.

Gail Pothour:

[26:06] Yep. And the peas do too.

Farmer Fred:

[26:08] So if you just look around your yard, look around your house, you too might just be inspired by, hmm, I bet I can use this in the garden. Gail Pothour, with a lot of inspiration for backyard gardeners, repurposing items from the house and the yard. Gail, thanks for the tour.

Gail Pothour:

[26:25] My pleasure, Fred.

BEYOND THE GARDEN BASICS NEWSLETTER

Farmer Fred:

[26:32] Do you want to see some of the creative garden features that Master Gardener Gail Pothour has talked about in this episode of the podcast? Then get a hold of the current Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter where we feature, along with more information, some of the sustainably repurposed garden items in Gail's yard, plus more information and pictures about some of the plants she talked about, such as the Scilla peruviana, which is a member of the asparagus family; the Bromeliad, Bilbergia nutans, also known as Queen's Tears, and the New Zealand Lemonade Lemon tree. You can find a link to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter in today's show notes or at our homepage, GardenBasics.net. And you can also find it on Substack. It's the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter.

Farmer Fred:

[27:21] We like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics podcast. We get a blueberry question from Cindy who writes in and says, “Back in January, one of my grandsons whipped one of my Sunshine Blue blueberry plants to the point that only about 20% of the leaves remain, which means 80% are missing. I stopped him as soon as I saw them, but it really damaged the plant. Now the buds are coming out and I'm worried it won't have enough energy to bear fruit. Can I do anything to help my plant recover?” 

We are in the blueberry section here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. We are talking with Suzanne Hambleton, Master Gardener. And Suzanne, if maybe you came across a grandson with a weed whacker in his hand aiming for your blueberry plants, or maybe a puppy started chewing on them, but you saw buds, what would you do?

Suzanne Hambleton:

[28:07] Well, I would try to stop the puppy or the grandson immediately. And then I would just let the plant do its thing. Just water it as usual and see how it comes out. And it'll probably work out just fine.

Farmer Fred:

[28:22] Would fertilization be a part of that recovery or not?

Suzanne Hambleton:

[28:26] I think I would just continue with whatever I would normally be doing with the plant. If it's time to fertilize it, I would go ahead and fertilize it. Whatever you normally do, just keep doing it. I think the plant will survive.

Farmer Fred:

[28:39] What time of the year do you fertilize the blueberry plants here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center?

Suzanne Hambleton:

[28:42] Well, we have ours on a schedule. I think it is three times a year. And we test our pH at that time, too. And we amend our pH when we add fertilizer. Of course, we don't do that when it's really hot. And we water before we fertilize and we water after we fertilize.

Farmer Fred:

[29:05] A pH test will tell you your soil's acidity or alkalinity. Blueberries are an acid-loving plant, and they really like an acidic soil, and that's usually around 5.5 to 6 on the pH scale. So what do you add to the soil to make it more acidic?

Suzanne Hambleton:

[29:21] Well, after we test our pH, we use elemental sulfur, which is available most garden center stores locally. And right on the box, it tells you how much to use. It will lower your pH a certain amount to get to where you want to be. Plus, the water here is about 7, so we're constantly having to add sulfur to keep the pH low.

Farmer Fred:

[29:44] That's a very good point. Test the pH of your water as well, because what you're applying may be counteracting what you are applying to the soil.

Suzanne Hambleton:

[29:53] Yeah, that's why we are constantly testing the pH.

Farmer Fred:

[29:58] The blueberries here are in the ground, which is a struggle to keep the pH at that level here. The easy way to do it is to grow them in containers where you can control the media, control your soil mix so that it is usually always acidic. But you're doing what you have to do because these are planted in the ground. So basically, Cindy, the answer to your question is to leave the blueberry plants alone and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them. And you'll get a blueberry crop and it should recover. Just don't let your grandson use the weed whacker if that's what the weapon of choice was. Suzanne Hambleton, Master Gardener here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. Thanks for that.

Suzanne Hambleton:

[30:37] You're welcome. Always happy to help.

Farmer Fred:

[30:44] Garden Basics with Farmer Fred comes out every Friday, and it's brought to you by Dave Wilson Nursery. Garden Basics is available wherever podcasts are handed out. For more information about the podcast, as well as an accurate transcript of the podcast, visit our website, GardenBasics.net. And thank you so much for listening and your support.