9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you think critically, think rationally, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 think differently about the world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and my hope is to really reconnect you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with the basis of life, and try to live in a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 way that is more fulfulling, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 full of happiness, health, a world 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that is more enviromentally friendly 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and less environmentally destructive. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Today we are talking about gardening. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So a lot of you probably saw my project. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 i spent a year growing and foraging. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 100% of my food, no grocery store, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 no restaurant, nothing processed, or packaged, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 nothing shipped long distance. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Litterally everything that I ate the entire year 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 came from my gardens and the idea now is not 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to get anyone of you to grow and forage 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 100% of your food, the idea was to get you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to think, to rethink your food, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 question your food and grow a little bit 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of your own food. Even if it's just some 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tomatoes in your backyard, on your balcony 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or some herbs in your window sills or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 joining a community garden or going 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 volunteering at a farm , my goal through 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 this project and all of this projects is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to reconnect you with your food. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But you have to start where you are so 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 today we are going to go through 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 some basics and give tips on helping you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to get started. So this is really geared 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 towards beginner gardening. However some 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the things that we are going to discuss 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are going to be useful for people who have already 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 been gardening for some time as well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I am going to go through maybe 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 15 or 12 minutes of suggestions and some 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tips and then I am going to take questions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I might take some questions throughtout 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as well but mostly I ll take the questions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 towards the end. So I am going to go ahead 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and get started. First, one of my number 1 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 suggestion for beginner gardeners is start 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 small. Now, some of you are going to want 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to start really really big, you want to change 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your life drastically, you are done with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the grocery stores, you want to grow all of your own food. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's great and if you feel confident that you can do that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 go for it but if you are worried, if you feel like 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you have a black thumb and everything dies 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you just feel overwhelmed, maybe lost, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 one of my number 1 tips is to start small. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it takes time to learn and in some ways gardening 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is easy but in some ways it's also very challenging. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Specially compared to going to the grocery store and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 buying all of your food. So what I really recommend 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is starting small, don't feel like you are not being 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 successful if you just have some pots on your balcony 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or you have a small raised bed that's 3 feet by 4 feet, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your front of backyard. Start small and then 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 as you have success, than you can expand and each season 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or each year you can grow more and more and more. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So to start small and along the lines of starting small 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I recommend making a plan so like for most things in life 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if you make more of a plan, it is more likely to be successful with it, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if you know what you are doing going into it 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So before jumping into it, think about it, have a plan 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 make a plan, and yeah, the next thing to go along with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 starting small is to keep a journal. So a lot of things 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in gardening is if you know when you planted something or when you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can't plant it, it's going to help you be a lot more organized 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and a lot more successful with gardening. Just in your garden 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 journal keep track of the basic things like when you planted 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 something, when you transplant it, keep track of weather 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and this is also a beautiful way to connect as well, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to be able to go back and look at things and then 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in future years this will help you as well. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So make a plan and keeping a garden journal 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are just some basics to go along with starting small. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now one of my big things is really about seeking local 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ressources. A lot of people when they first start to garden, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their plan is to go to the big buck store like Home Depot or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Walmart and buy their seeds and their plants, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but that is not my suggestion. My suggestion is to seek 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 local ressources if you can. And now you might seek that Walmart 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or Home Depot is local because it is in your city, but it is not local 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because those materials are being shipped in by elsewhere 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and it is not really focused on your particular region. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So in permaculture, one of the basic idea is to work with the Earth 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 rather than against it. Working with the Earth means working 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 within the region or around you not the entire Earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When you start working with plants, you have to work 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with the plants that are growing in your area, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so seeking out local ressources, one big one is joining 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a community garden if you especially are just getting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 started and not feeling confident, joining a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 community garden is really one of the most beautiful thing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and one of the most helpful thing you can do because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you will be surrounded by community, most community gardens 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have veteran gardners there that you can learn from 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that can share resources, you can see what's growing well in other 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 people's plots, you can feel supported, so join a community 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 garden. Along with that, find other gardeners 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you don't have to feel lost, most anywhere you go in the United States, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 around the world, there are people growing food. You might 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not know it because you haven't been paying attention but 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 then when you start to open your eyes, you will see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that there are people growing food all over. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So one great way to do this is drive biycles, walk, drive around 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 our community and find gardens and don't be afraid 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to just knock on that front door and say hey I see that you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are going nice vegetables and fruits, I so badly want to learn, could 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you volunteer with you in your garden and help you with weeding 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in exchange for you taking me under your wing a little bit, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for you teaching me? And this is a great way 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to get involved and learn from someone who is local 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and has local knowledge. Another way to do this is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to go to a local nursery and you know most local nurseries 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 are run by people who love plants, have been gardening 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for a long time, for decades and so local nurseries can be a really great 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ressource. And finding local classes, universities and extension 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can be a really great introduction to beginner gardening. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So find out if your local university has an extension 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 program which this exists in all 50 states across the United States. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is what I am particularly referring to with this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But there are many ways to find classes so 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 check to see if there are classes in your area that focus on local. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then another great thing to do is volunteer at a local farm. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So many small farms need help and are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 also passionate about teaching as well so see if there is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 any farm in your area that you can go to, you can 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 volunteer, you can learn how to grow foor organically 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at these organic farms and you can get involved in the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 community. A great way to do that is through Wwoof Inc. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Wordwide Opportunites on Organic Farms and that's Wwoof dot net. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And you could do this in your area [br]or you can go all over 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the world and how it works is [br]that in exchange for 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you working on the farm generally[br]it is 5 days a week for 5 hours 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so 25 hours a week you get [br][br]your lodging covered and you get 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you food covered and you [br]get to learn how to grow food. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This can be a really good experience if 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you have the time and the energy 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and flexibility to be able to be all to do that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then also local books. So when I leaved in 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in Florida I started my year of gardeniing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and foraging, I was pretty clueless. I had grown 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 very little food before. I didn't know how much 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 water a carrot needed, how much sun I needed 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in my garden. I didn't know any of these things. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I was feeling pretty lost and what I did is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I went to the internet and I was just searching every 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 question I had on the internet. How much 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 water for a carrot, how far apart ro plant 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 carrots, how much sun does my garden need, I was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 looking up all these individual questions and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 after a few weeks, I found a book that was written 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by someone who lived in Florida 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think It was called Food and vegetable gardening 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in Centrla Florida by Robert Bowden. This book was...he was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a 25 year-veteran of growing food and it had all 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the information that I needed, not just for growing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 food, but particularly for growing food in my region. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So seek out books that are written for your region 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and if you can't find one written for your 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 particular area, find books that are written for the greater 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 region, for example if you are in New Hampshire, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 maybe you can't find one for New Hampshire but 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there are definitely books that are focused on the North East 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and these books can be just your absolute best friend 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for your garden because when it comes to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 beginner gardening, these books can answer most of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your questions. Today I won't be able to go 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 over 99% of what you might want to know but these books 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can have all of that right there in one place. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So seeking out books and the library is a great 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 place to check, check your library whether it's at 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the public library, the school library and see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if there are books that you can check out. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I want to talk a little bit about of where 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to place your garden. Where do you put it? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if you have very minimal space don't let 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that deter you. If you just have a balcony you can put 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 pots on there, you can use 5 gallon buckets, any 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 container that can hold soil can be used to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 grow food on your balconies and I have seen some 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 very impressive balconies producing tomotoes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 peppers and all sort of herbs and greens and eggplants, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can grow a lot on a balcony. And you can grow 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on your window seals. If you have neither of those 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but a roof that's flat, you can grow a lot of food 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on your roof, for example an apartment complex. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But some basic tips on where to place your garden 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 first of all where it is easily accessible 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where you are easily able to get to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if your garden is 10 miles away and there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is also these obstacles to get to it 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's unlikely you will get to it and it will 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not get the care it needs. If it's located 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in a place that's really obscure on our property, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 far away, if you have a larger property, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 probably your are not going to get to it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The key is to put it in the most easily accessible place 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ideally where you walk passed it every day 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so that you even when you are not thiking 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about it, you see it and you know that you should 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 get in it. So an easily accessible place, also where 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is easy water. Whatever gardening you are doing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there needs to be water. So having an easy access 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to water. And especially for beginners full sun. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So again when I started I didn't know the basics 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of how much sun and things like that, but generally 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you want to have full sun and in colder climates 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like in the North East or the Great Lakes region, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you know most of these areas, full sun is 6 to 8 hours 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of sun per day on your garden location and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in Orlando Florida, that is very hot, we could do with less 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 hours of sun or maybe 5 hours per day. So you do want 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 full sun for, especially for beginner gardening. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The more experience you get there are plants 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can work with that don't need full sun 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but with beginner gardening, I would recommend 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 full sun. So, let's see, one of my biggest tips is to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 start with the food that grows very easily. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What I dont recommend doing is walking down 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the grocery store aisle and say: oh I love pasta 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so I want to grow wheat, anb I love blueberries 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I love mangoes...don't think about what it is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that you love the most, instead figure out what grows 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so easily in your area that even someone with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a "black thumb" will be successful. So talk to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 those local gardeners and ask them: what is the most 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 successful crop? what grows well every year? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what produces so much that you could never 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 eat all of it? For example, a lot of people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I see this with zucchinis, I see people, it's so 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 common, these giant zucchinis, and I remember 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I was in Port Townsend, WA, there were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 jokes about how people would have to leave 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their zucchinis at other people's doors to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 try to get rid of them but nobody wanted them 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because everybody all had so much. So some beginner 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 plants to start with, raddishes are one of the easiest ones 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and also they produce the fatest so a lot of raddishes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 produce in just about 30 days. So It really can 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 be beneficial to have these fast producing ones 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to give you that boost of energy and feeling of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 success. Greens can be very easy so kale, collards and lettuces. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Greens can be a very easy place to start and they are very nutrient 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 dense. So I highly recommend starting with greens. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Peppers are also often considered 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a beginner plant to grow , hot peppers I have had 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 easier time with them than bell peppers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but peppers can be a really easy one 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then herbs, now and easy way to start is buying 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 herbs in small pots at the store and then planting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 them and letting them grow much larger 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so some herbs can be hard to start with seeds 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 but some are very easy to start from seeds 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cilantro for example is an easy one to start from 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 seed. But herbs can be easy to grow, you can 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 use them at every single meal, they can add a lot 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of value to your life, so really some of my best 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 suggestions for starting are greens and herbs, peppers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and than tomatoes. But there is always you know 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 differences depending on where you are as I read 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ealier people watching us now you are tuning in 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 from all over the world and all across the United States 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so it's going to be different areas, Florida where I grew, for example 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 large tomatoes didn't grow so well because it was so hot 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and so humid that they were more likely to get blite or pest 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so we had to grow really small tomatoes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the variety that I grew in Central Florida 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was called Everblade tomato and they did 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 extremely well. Let's see...okay...so the next tip 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is to plant at the right time so what you can do 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is you can find a regional planting schedule and you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 may have the questions: oh..and the other really 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 easy one I want to say is raddishes, I grew Daikon 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 raddishes that grow really big, zucchinis can be really 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 easy as well. Those are just a handfull of easier plants. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But the big one is planting at the right time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you plant kale in the middle of the winter, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you are going to have a hard time with it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In Florida, if you plant kale in July when it's so hot 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you are going to have problems with it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So the key is to plant at the right time.