151. Golden Seeds | Basia Dominas | Boston, MA

golden seeds by Basia in Sunflowers

Basia Dominas is a member of the Organic Gardner Podcast Facebook group and does she drop some Golden Seeds today!!! I know this is going to be one of the most inspiring interviews I have done!

I will try to get full show notes updated ASAP!!! 

 

So if you’re listening Basia and I just jumped right in and I thought it was all gold so I kept the skype call ring and everything… silly me, sometimes I can get a little carried away with not wanting to leave anything out! Hope you enjoy something a little different!

My name is Barbara but you can call me Basha…

How’s your day going?

It’s finally raining, I’m rejoicing because my prayers for Rain have been answered… We’re in a terrible drought, historic record drought for June and July, my garden is like dying. We have water bans… it’s tough you can’t use soaker hoses, but nobody’s gonna see it… we have restrictions with water, and I’m like running back and forth with hoses…  the sun is like 95º everyday and everything is wilting…. The heat is so extreme… but it’s raining so I’m happy… 

Crazy, I had no idea, I knew it was super hot in NY this week, but I didn’t realize Boston is experiencing a drought…

But compared to California we can’t talk about drought really … we’re getting less rain then average, yeah, everybody’s lawn is dead basically, I live just south of Boston everybody’s lawn is yellow… if you look up at the trees are showing heat stress, some trees are dropping leaves… it’s tough… we’re supposed to be getting 3” a downpour… so I’m sitting next to my window hoping… come on rain…

How are you doing? So you are getting interviewed today?

Hopefully… I have a job interview and hopefully I’m interviewing Elizabeth Kucinich today? She is the producer of OMG GMO, and also Hot Cities… it sounds like Boston is a hot city… her husband Dennis Kucinich ran for President a few years ago, that’s how I found out about her and why I follow her… I tried to get her on before and she was gonna and she rescheduled… then the principal called me and said can you do an interview at the exact same time? so we have been emailing back and forth the three of us???

Im just hear digging holes in the ground?! 

Everybody who grows a garden…You’re just one of our futuristic visionaries, green future protector, I love your pictures on Facebook or your garden and flowers. Now do you have a nursery or a gardening business?

I’m a biology student at UMASS Boston, I do not have a business. It’s basically I have a victory garden, it’s just 25 by 75 feet I cover the entire space with flowers and vegetables! I do not have a business because it’s just too small, I’m too busy and my boyfriend works at a hospital and so we can’t put enough time into the garden to sell any of it. I just grow it for fun! We have a lot of vegetables that we consume and that we give to neighbors and friends and family. We don’t have a business and we don’t make a profit off of it! I just do it because I love!!!

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

So, the real, actually being responsible for a garden, was maybe 3 years ago, when we bought this house, we have very nice flat land, it’s just beautiful soil, the previous owner had a garden as he was getting older he couldn’t keep up with it anymore, so it was getting back to nature! It was covered in weeds that I’m still fighting to this day, and I will probably fight them forever and it was a good experience trying to get rid of crabgrass out of my garden! This is the first garden I am responsible for…

Ever since I could remember I always love being in nature and being outside and studying,

I always such a nature kid! I grew up in Poland in an urban area in a city but basically just a half hour bike ride away is all there’s farms and woods and lakes it’s sort of like a very beautiful region around Poznan, Poland, there was a national park nearby

Poznan, Poland

with my parents

go for day trips and explore

go swimming in a lake or go biking in the woods! I loved it! I just soaked it all up. and when I went to school, and took biology classes I just soaked it all up! I’m like tofu when it comes to info about biology! You know teenagers have posters of boy bands you know, I have literally posters of  animals and plants all over my room and I had shelves filled with potted plants, I basically had my little greenhouse at age 11!

All these house plants that I really took care of, I loved it! So then I moved to America, I moved to Boston area when I was about 15. My parents also live in the suburbs, we got a house but their backyard is shaded so my mom never grew any vegetables so I helped her grow perennials, so that would be my first experience! But now I have my own garden so I’m still new!

I always say in the beginning people who are new those mistakes and challenges are fresher in your mind? What an interesting background do you have brothers and sisters?

No, I grew up as an only child. It was just me and my parents.o

With friends as soon as I went to school, I would run around into the woods

my friends house had this patch of woods nearby, in an urban area, it was like a park not just deep woods so we would play outside all day until we were called to dinner! WE had computers but we didn’t have internet, so we were growing up and we so we didn’t have all these games so that was our playground! I loved it and playing in the mud and climb trees! It was really cool growing up!

I think also that made me understand the relationships a little bit better because I was in nature all the time. I understand if you spray pesticide it’s going to affect all of these other insects not just the ones that you are going to kill…. I think it helped me to grow up outside and notice all of these relationships.

UMASS Boston Biology Degree 

Sounds like a nice childhood and it sounds like you learned all you needed ot learn if you’re a biology student at UMASS Boston.

How did you learn how to garden organically?

I guess, I just put my hands in the dirt, trial and error, researched internet is really a great resource, even just google, there are so many amazing articles out there so if you just type in, how to grow tomatoes, you have to weed in because

everybody writes at this point, it’s amazing the amount of info that you can find!

South Shore Gardening FB Group

My favorite resource for finding information if I have a questions, or if I am not sure how to grow something or do something is my local gardening Facebook group, everybody is in the same area, growing zone, it’s local, the amount of rainfall is the same, it’s just the region south of Boston, South Shore Gardening Buy Sell Trade Facebook Group, although

Organic Gardening Podcast Group

Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Community!

people post pictures of what they grow to sort of show and share with everybody but if you have a questions like:

  • what bug is this?
  • why do my plants look like this?
  • when do I plant peas?

And people answer immediately and people have such an amount of knowledge,

humbling to be able to ask

how I started with if I couldn’t find something online I would post a question I would get like 30 answers and it’s like you get support and encouragement to do it!  Because sometimes growing can be intimidating especially for beginners

great to have support from an online group of people who are nearby. Like you say, if you say your pictures are so beautiful but it makes you feel good inside!

IMG_7481 IMG_7540 MouseOnAStick Waterfall

I totally agree! It doesn’t have to do with gardening but Facebook, because this weekend I had this opportunity to go on a hike in Glacier Park because even though I live right here I don’t know a lot of people who want to hike and this woman took me and kept us safe and she’s been the like 10 times and it was just amazing and those connections you make in FB are amazing.

Squash

Tell us about something that grew well this year.

Something that has been growing well consistently is zucchini, and squash, yellow, summer squash, butternut, and this year I got heirloom seeds from a neighbor which is amazing! These are really doing well every single year! I have green zucchini coming out of my ears. I Literally tried to find recipes of what to do with it! I give it to my friends and family. We eat it every day and we always have some extra! Squash is doing well!

Tomatoes are doing well, we have squirrel problems… I have problems trying to deter squirrels, they just attack the tomatoes, as soon as their is a blush of color on the tomato they just pick it!

It’s amazing how such a little animal can pick such a big tomato! They leave it on top of my gate, so I can see it!

it’s like they can see it I get home from work

they are taunting me

in the South Shore Gardening Buy Sell Trade Facebook Group  People have suggested Irish spring soap

supposedly the critters don’t it might be helping

the tomatoes

would be munched on

Something that isn’t growing quite so well.

I just basically tried things like peppers and cauliflowers, and cauliflower didn’t do anything it just grew and died. So that did not work well for me so I’m not gonna grow that again.

I think

I put it in at the same time as the broccoli, because the brocoli grew fine? 

if the cauliflower, it didn’t grow next to it,

same exposure,

timing and

maybe is the seedlings I got, or I added something wrong, 

I did something wrong

you try, I’m not really crazy about cauliflower, ou know what I don’t like it that much

if it didn’t grow I’ll just take that as a sign, 

I was thinking maybe it was the seeds or plants that you got. That’s something people say a lot don’t waste time and energy on things you don’t love to eat anyway!

You know what the really important part, that you notice that you learn, really keep a journal. I’m guilty! I always think. Oh I’ll remember! But you don’t.

I’m so glad you said that because I always always always that and then the next week I’m like what?

In my area, there are a lot of people

literally neighbors walking by, so as I’m working in the garden, there will be neighbors strolling by, and they say hello! I always invite them over and I’m like “please show me what do I do with this, look at my garden or whatever…”

The same neighbor gave me the Hubbard seeds and gave me the plants… he’s such a wealth of information, he probably forgot more info then I’lll ever know in my lifetime… he’s so smart and experienced! It’s really cool when you have a question to talk to your own neighbors… it’s nice when you have your own garden how many connections you make. It’s almost like a conversation piece, you wouldn’t stop if they didn’t have a garden at somebody’s yard.

i

You make a connection and get to know that person

it helps me to make conversations with people who live near me! Some people, wer’re sort of a young couple in a well established neighborhood so for everybody is maybe a little bit older then us. So maybe we wouldn’t find ourselves in the same social situations. So sometimes you feel shy, you’re not gonna go knock on somebody’s door, but if people are just walking by or people are jogging or walking with their kids when you have a garden in the front, it makes it more likely you’re gonna be outside when 

that creates those connections

I feel like I know

relatively

Curtis Stone the Urban FarmerYou’re probably inspiring people with uour progress too and people are like wow Look What Basia is doing maybe we can do that too! And that’s what Curtis Stone talks about too, that when you have a garden in your front yard, it’s helpful to talk to people and educating people about the different options to build your soil and grow healthy plants.

Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?

Well, so, I’m going to upgrade, for the mulch in my garden, I have been inspired by local flower farmers, growers, use landscaping fabric, instead of straw mulch, just because it’s easy, it comes in a roll. 

Weed Cover Golden Seed

Because, basically my garden plot was a lawn, a bed of weeds, it’s really hard to get rid of these grasses that just keeps growing, the straw mulch

overtakes the vegetables

I decided to use landscaping fabric, that you put under the mulch, it lets the water through, it like’s a weed barrier.  And that is working incredible!!!! It has cut the time I have to spend weeding like 70%! 

I use a cheaper kind, I have a big garden and I didn’t know if it was gonna work well, so I didn’t want to spend money on it, I can use it once, because it’s basically shredding at this point, it’s kind of tearing…I think it’s meant to go underneath something like under mulch, so it’s not really standing up to the test of elements. Next year I want to get a more professional grade of fabric, something made out of recycled fabric… everything I can reuse is excellent! So I’m gonna try that!

Basically I add

  • compost to the soil
  • till it
  • lay the fabric
  • make holes

zucchini needs like 3′ circle of space, you know they are huge plants! So depending on what you grow… get the spacing, you could literally walk around with a measuring stick

make

seedlings at a local nursery, I like to 

organic

choose

like to go to local businesses, like box stores

not only do they use pesticides on their plants not necessarily grown in our zone, so then they don’t do that well, because they were grown somewhere and they traveled so far! You’re not gonna get the same results instead if you go to a small nursery

people are actually friendly, they know what they are selling and are going to give you advice!

tends to do a lot better then a big box store

local independent businesses

So I plant my seedlings and then I lay soaker hoses amongst the plants, and I have a well, turn on the well, let the water soak into the roots and that does the trick for me. And the weed barrier fabric helps to keep the water in the soil and now that we have this crazy drought, the soil stays most longer! So that is what I am going to try next year is upgrade weed barrier, something that is reusable something that lasts longer. I’ll try to go to a farm supply store and get a professional grade weed barrier!

Nice! you’re just dropping the golden seeds all over the place. Somebody asked me about my podcast, what’s the biggest challenge. Pretty much the spraying response is time, finding time to water, and weed and plant and harvest at the end… and definitely all those things that you shared, you made it sound as an easy or things or at lets a thing you can do that will be successful! 

And also Lisa Ziegler who was my guest #2 and  in Interview #80

 Lisa Ziegler she’s like Jackie I’m gonna send you some of that weed cover. I finally bought it when I went on a farm tour at the Lower Valley Tour, Mandy Gerth  from episode 119 was using, it and seeing it in action really made me understand it’s value. That was the nice thing about Lisa’s website it told you what to buy….

“We use AG19 is a 4 degree protection! What’s even more important is the wind protection it provides.” a quote by Lisa from my video….

Another thing, a girl Naomi Wheat mentioned using wine bottles for rodents. IDK how that would work. My mom’s problem with her squirrels is they jump off the roof and climb down her pear tree so Idk if that would work for her?

Tell me about something that didn’t work so well this season.

My next door neighbor, puts out bird seed all year round, his backyard, I can see  into his yard, it’s like a seen from Bambi, and it’s beautiful and he has all these birds that come to visit the bird feeder….

I mean literally, his lawn was just covered in birds… 

he feeds them regularly, he’s really good about it, he fills that bird feeder every day for the whole year! The animals are very used to it…. it’s very dependable.

It’s cool to see,

I see those squirrels, they have their lunch of birdseed they come to my lawn for desert… think that

another somebody recommended if I put out, water for them, if they are going after the tomatoes because of the juices in it, maybe they are thirsty… we have birdbaths…

we have a ton of birds.

scattered all over

like a bird sanctuary here we love our birds. Also the birds help us. Every morning I see a cloud of sparrows, because I don’t really have pest problems, I think the sparrows that pick the pests off my garden… so another tip I can give is become a bird friend

just another element to your garden,

living animals

birds are really beneficial for the garden, they are not eating anything that I don’t want to be eaten, so they are newt doing any damage, and I believe they are actually helping

all kinds of lettuce, I have

  • no problems with slugs
  • insects worms or pests.
  • We had the gypsy moths

this year because our winter was milder then usual. Everyone was posting that their fruit trees we’re covered in Gypsy moths and we have none and I really believe it’s because they pick the moths, so I love to see the birds, so I encourage you to invite the birds into your yard, how not to invite the squirrels

it’s not in a vacuum it’s going to effect every living creature in the yard.

With an example like this you put out the bird seed to attract the birds… You’re also going to attack squirrels and chipmunks

On the flip side of that if you spray a pesticide or chemicals, your not going to just affect your target creature, whether it’s a herbicide or pesticide, you’re not going to just effect that one thing that’s a niceness your going to affect the beneficial organisms as well

reason I garden organic, I like to think that I am aware of all the relationships in nature, that really we are just a part of nature, right? We have our homes and front lawns, it’s within this big ecosystem, that all the wildlife that’s their home too and they they live here just as we, they’re trying to make a life for themselves. We have to really remember

everything that we do,

out in our yard, not just the songbirds. 

affects everything! So remember if you put birdseed out you’re not going to just get birds, everything else is going to come also!

So I really think that the squirrel problem… Because I have os much bird seed, I don’t put out bird seed, my neighbor is doing such a good job. I have a lot of bird houses, that’s my creative outlet for the winter is

Audubon Bird houses

I like to get them, they sell them at Audubon Society

Animal Rescue League or all these different organizations sell them as a fundraiser

raw, wooden very simple. I like to paint them makes them pretty! I also give them as gifts to my family they always really enjoy that!

I like to see the birds, so I like to put shelter for them!

You are just a golden seed dropper! And full of inspirations! I love birds. We went birdwatchers, my parents were really good at getting us out in nature and on bird walks.

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Good Seed Co Website

Good Seed Company Seeds

Let’s get to the Root of Things!

Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden?

I really do like it all, when I was thinking about it and when you interview your other guests you ask that questions, my least favorite, it’s ironic

if I could literally quit my job and go and be in my garden

harvesting

that I just have to pick

that plant is then done,

ironically because I grow a vegetable and flower garden, I have all sorts of different plants out there, you think I grow them for the fruit and vegetable but I really just do it for the fun of growing it

when I harvest the plant

It’s almost a bittersweet moment 

because you get the harvest and meal and it’s bittersweet because soon the garden will be over! We only have a couple of good months

really getting ready to

gonna have a flush of tomatoes, I have been picking green beans!

I don’t even want to do it, I don’t want the season to end!

Awww I can totally relate to that!

I don’t mind to put the work into it!

What is your favorite activity to do in the garden.

My favorite activity is digging! When you spread the compost and you till the soil,

I literally just use a shovel, that is my favorite thing to do! When the soil is getting is getting warm and after the ridiculous long winter we have here in Boston and we have like 4 feet of snow! 

I get so excited to put my nasty jeans on and dig holes all day!

I love to do that!

Preparing the garden! Getting the soil ready and wake up all the plants! 

It is really cool thing to do!

But on the flip side, once that is done it is bittersweet…. the season is over, there are other things to do of course!

Put all of that work into the garden! IT’s sort of done it’s purpose! Some are going to survive because they are perennials, but a lot of the vegetables are annuals it’s almost sad to see them go but then you are gonna get to grow them next year, and you learn what grew well and what didn’t grow well. 

It’s funny, I ask my boyfriend to go pick things and harvest because I’m too tired at the end of the day!

I will just grow it for the sake of growing things, if you want to… I love to eat it! 

He actually prepares, the zucchini and I like to grill everything… because it gets so hot inside the house, we just go outside and grill! Everything except maybe wax beans, if you could grill them….

Everything we grow we like to grill! 

zucchini with salt and pepper off the grill!

I say I could eat it every day, but literally I do eat it every day!

Golden Seeds Tomato success

grilled tomatoes

tomatoes are delicious under  any form, put last year we discovered las year to put tomatoes cut in half and put on the grill I could eat that every day. Nothing beats a tomatoes you grow in the garden and eat fresh!

Really nothing beats a tomatoes that you grew in the garden and you pick it fresh, farm to table approach is so cool. With the food system in this country. In Poland, you have a lot more access to locally grown produce I grew up in a city, but outside the outskirts of the city is a rural area,there’s all these farms, that grow all kinds of things vegetables and crops, so you have a very easy access to do farmer’s markets you’re out there every day, in boston, you don’t have to wait. Like my local Holbrook farmer’s market it’s once a week on a Saturday you don’t alway have time to go on that one day.

I mean

very small

produce is so expensive and they have so much overhead

it’s really expensive to grow organically as compared to conventional méthodes to grow

easy access to locally grown produce, I think 

produce would make people’s diets better

produce that is grown locally picked at the peak of ripeness. …local tastes so much better… I wonder do kids not like to eat vegetables is it because the vegetables don’t taste good…?

in winter…

grown in Mexico, they travel days, and they go to the store and sit on the shelf or refrigerator

preservatives

produce doesn’t taste good anymore

unfortunate that we don’t have an easier way for local farmers to be able to sell their produce to the local community because I believe it would be a lot healthier

doing all kinds of great things, it supports local businesses, and it 

if the vegetables tastes better they are more likely to eat home and

One thing I would like to change….one of the questions you sent me…if you could change one thing on a global scale what would it be,, I think for me coming from another country and seeing how it works, at least how it used to work 15 years ago, there are probably bigger groceries which would be a sad thing… the way it used to be you would buy you food at a small independent local grocery store …

Where they are more likely grown in the local community grows for itself. So there isn’t all of this traveling of the food, yeah! somethings like tomatoes are seasonal! You shouldn’t expect to buy these things in the middle of winter!

Right! Exactly.

Now that money is going to that kids college fund or so someone can take dance classes or do you want to give money to a big CEO

big factories don’t care about the roundup ready corn or GMO

don’t care what it does to the local environment!

The big farm practices are literally destroying the soil and the water, they put up so many toxins, and they are destroying the local environment! Living here in Boston, I really do care about what happens in California where it’s clearly h

why would I want to be contributing to them pumping out synthetic

Exactly! it’s like it affects everything

even the meat farms … I would so much rather go buy a hunk of beef, I can’t be a vegetarian, I need my beef, but what I really want to choose is beef that is raised animal centered, the animals for their entire lives, they wander around under the blue sky and they are happy. So the animals I’m consuming that somebody cares for them. That is something I’m passionate about. 

have to do with both produce and meat

I would like to have a system for growing food that is better for the environment and not so profit driven that has to do with both produce and both meat or animals

I would like to have a system for growing food that is actually better for the environment then profit driven… I understand that organics is more expensive then a lot conventionally

GMOomg

I don’t think it has to be in the end… like you said, just because it’s cheaper up front … that was a big thing I was watching that GMO OMG which I talk about in Episode 91 again last  night and it said, the conventional way is just unsustainable, its eating up our top soil in incredible amounts and we can’t keep going  destroying the topsoil that way by putting all thees toxins in it to grow a  bigger crop right now were gonna use up all our farmland.

I was also thinking Kim Romeril who was my guest in episode 143 a few weeks ago from New Zealand was talking about a cruelty free diet and I just love that… about my podcast and guests like you and people who care about these things because the majority of my day I run into people who don’t even think about it and have no knowledge of it, or it’s just totally off their radar they just normally think you go  to the store you buy what’s on the shelves and they never even think twice about it. It’s so nice that your sharing. So what are you gonna do with your degree from UMASS, are you gonna go back and get a Masters in Environmental Studies and work on sustainable systems what’s your plan?

What’s nice about a degree in biology you can go anywhere with it. I am just so interested in literally everything, but I don’t have a specific… for example I did an independent study sort of like an internship with research?

I would like to go into research on proteomics internship, but I wasn’t keen on sitting in front of a computer all day. In the grand scheme of things. Has to do with hormones and protein folding and how they sort of interacted chemically. While that’s really cool and I am really interested in it

I hated to be inside in front of  computer, so I am considering, my plan was to go more into that..

more f that field research

lab research

now that I have my garden and recognizing how  much I love to work outside and be outside in the environment… IDK, I’m  at the point right now almost at a fork of road, I think since I love it so much, I should probably consider going tiny a field maybe in environmental studies (EVST), maybe take classes in EVST and ecology… so IDK… my whole family is like asking:

“What are you going to do with that degree?”

So I am just seeing what opportunities I have, I don’t want to be too picky, but at the same time, I really am recognizing

I love to be outside, so anything that has to do with the environment or growing things,  or interacting with animals. I just like to spend as much time outside as I can!

Awesome! You are just the best guest!

What is the best gardening advice you have  ever received?

I have been given so many wonderful advices from my neighbors from the community and my family and from you and your guests it’s really cool to listen … some of the things, I can’t even remember I learn so much, what I really notice especially now that it’s so dry outside….

To have a good system for how you water your garden, because it will really make a difference in how they grow and how they produce for you and to water early in the morning, directly in the soil … I see a lot of people spraying on top of the leaves and they tend to get powdery mildew, because of our summers are humid here, so our squash plants we get a lot of the fungal diseases, on top of the leaves also….roses get it, all types of plants that get mildew and different kinds of fungal problems,

So if you spray directly to the soil and avoid the water splashing back on the leaves and also if you think about it your’e conserving water because the water goes directly into where it’s supposed to go, you’re not splashing it all over where it’s going to evaporate I mean the

plant doesn’t utilize water on the leaves it needs it at the root, keep the soil moist and cool.

biggest advice and most important advice and I don’t remember specific person, maybe I just

observe my mom do it it’s just something I I have known since I can remember, it’s really the

most important thing

with the soaker hoses…leak water very slowly

let my well pump the water for about an hour so then I feel that the water is soaking deeply into the ground… so you don’t have to water as much, because the water end

ends up being better for the plants!

soil changes consistent longer

I notice that, like I have been saying the birds really help with the insects, if you invite the beneficial wildlife… not the squirrels etc… by providing food and shelter you can get them to work for you! 

OrgFarmbizHandbook

 Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook

Richard Wiswall who wrote the book Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook in Episode 102 said the #1 thing he tells people is that if you watch your water it make the biggest difference 3x your production and then David Schmetterling in Episode 63 he has this like urban sanctuary in his yard, in Missoula doing things like your’e talking about bringing birds etc into his yard.

Do you have a favorite tool that you like to use? If you had to move and could only take one tool with you what would it be?

I couldn’t live without my shovel. I love to dig holes. Partly because I have such nice soil. I planted a few trees. Peach tree. And an apricot. With my shovel It’s like a standard

3 foot long shovel with a wooden handle, I can dig a 3 foot in like 10 minutes because I have such nice soil. My soil is so nice! I recognize that not everyone has that, people have rocky soil and then digging is not as nice to do!

I just love the smell of the dirt and my earth is crawling with worms, the earth worms that are churning it, and I just love it! I love being in the soil it makes me happy! There was a study, I can’t recall the name of it, but there are microbes in the soil that are capable of elevating your mood. 

There is a science behind it… I can definitely attest to it…and having your hands in the dirt!

Makes my day so much better, it wil make you’re day so much better…

what kind of stress in work at school

Golden Seeds for Cosmos Golden Seeds Garden View Golden Seeds Garden Close Up

In the pictures I sent you…

spend 10 minutes

weeding or being close to the earth

I like to personally dig things!

In my garden, I dug 6 inch trenches all around my garden!

I love every minute of it, when I got back from work, I love to dig!

I’m just a girl with a shovel!!

I love that. Because Richard Mata, I just put his episode up. He said the same thing about dirt, he said his brother in law said you must really love what you are doing because I never heard anyone talk about dirt that way before. 

You had another guest who was like the dirt queen?

143. DIRTRich Composting and Food Scrap Pickup | Alissa LaChance | Columbia Falls, MT

A favorite recipe you like to cook from the garden?

The easiest thing to do that we do all the time, is to grill zucchini!

I don’t even wash it, I just wipe the dirt, the fabric helps because your produce is not sitting on the soil… another tip… the fabric directly on the soil, things don’t get moldy, sitting on the fabric and it’s nice and clean!

cut it length wise

into quarter inch slices, because there is less slices it’s easier to turn on the grill

Misto Spray Bottle

I use a Misto… you can spray olive oil. almost like a Pam the baking spray… but in the Misto bottle you can put any kind of oil

spray it lightly with the olive oil

spray and it’s delicious! It’s almost sweet because when it’s fresh and ripe in the sun you get all those sugars, to bring out the sweetness in the vegetable, it tastes like you drizzled honey on it!

I know It’s true!

I recommend it… use it for salads for vegetables

I think what you said is also important just a minute or two don’t overcook it… a lot of people are like ooh zucchini. The other tip I like to give people about zucchinis, is cut them small… don’t let them grow into those giant zucchinis. Cut them when their small, like a little bigger then a quarter… when you’re harvesting when them small you’lll not have that what do I do with all these? I put them on everything… pizza, salads, omelets…

when you don’t want to have a ton of grease on it…Misto is really cool, whatever oil you use, extra virgin olive oil or 

Coconut oil…

It’s much healthier for you you pump it with the air, pumping action, press it it’s like a continuous fine spray, cooking spray has a lot of stuff added to it that you wouldn’t necessarily want to eat.Misto is just  very fine droplets of your favorite oil, put it lightly on the vegetable just enough so it doesn’t burn on the grill, different textures really makes cooking easier. Allows you to control what you are eating, so this is another way of being conscious of your diet, cut out chemical’s from your diet. Is to use your own oil spray, instead of cooking spray you buy from the grocery store.

People don’t realize … healthy eating … I love the Misto oil thing. I’ll try to find a picture and a link, I’ll try to put an affiliate link because I am not shy about that…

A favorite internet resource?

South Shore Gardening Buy Sell Trade Facebook Group, I started, still my favorite internet resource, at the beginning,when I sort of research in winter when you’re planning out your garden… I like to go on Pinterest, has a ton of articles and websites that you can find about growing plants and vegetables. Just about growing anything. I like to go on Pinterest in winter, helps me visually organize my ideas, it all pops out at you easier because it’s all pictures… Currently right now it’s just the local gardening groupour group is pretty large has over 1000 members

A lot of people live nearby

perennial

mint or hostas

everybody has a ton of it!

hey if anybody wants a bunch? 

another way to meet people

someone in my town, on the Facebook group

she had a surgery

trim her roses

if anyone would be interested, I said I’ll come! I know how to r

she gave me a ton of advice and she gave me plants and things so I think the local Facebook group is really really great! Even if you can’t find one for your local area then start it!

It’s crazy how many people start and have those same questions, it’s like we’re all in this together. And then if you have a question, you get a response for your local targeted area!

Everybody has different growing zones, like we’re in zone 6

hard to give advice for somebody maybe who grows stuff in florida because that is a completely different environment so it’s important to have that local group with support and go on garden tours… it’s really cool! And you get to meet local people and who are  knowledgeable! 

You might be surprised how fast that grows. I recently started a hiking group in my town and it’s got like 150 members already and that’s in my little town! So I would think a gardening group if you don’t have a gardening group in your town, I’m going to encourage you to join the  Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Community!

Organic Gardening Podcast Group

It’s growing much faster then I thought I just started it in April! I love my listeners is why!!!

A favorite reading material-book, mag, blog/website etc you can recommend?

I just go on the internet

the Facebook group or Pinterest

I have groups that I follow,

Final question- if there was one change you would like to see to create a greener world what would it be? For example is there a charity or organization your passionate about or a project you would like to see put into action. What do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either in your local area or on a national or global scale?

The way I feel about GMO, just to summarize because I have taken so many genetic studies courses, at school… I feel like that GMO inherently is not bad, with farming practices, we’ve been cross pollinating, we’ve been altering animals plants that we go, and GMO I feel the potential for it is really awesome, you can make things like making rice more nutritious to help people in better world to have better access to nutrition. 

But I feel because it’s such an expensive technology and it’s profit driven, I feel like we should stay away from it, it has such a great potential to do so many great things… I mean the sky’s the limit

  • you could make things that grow better in colder temperature
  • so you don’t have to use pesticides I would be all for that. 
  • If you could grow plants with less chemicals to upkeep them

it seems to me in the in the current system we have we just use GMOs to make plants roundup ready, for example the GMO corn is resistent to Roundup and you kill everything else and just the corn is going to survive… I feel that’s bad…

there is any invention, there is the potential to be really great!

we should explore the avenues in which genetic altering which would make life easier for us, and better for the environment but it’s almost like a weapon it s so dangerous, it really gets abused! I wish there was more laws and regulations, that regulate the GMO, that would make it so we would use it for the benefit of the community and not just the company that makes the profits! That would be one thing that I would want to change and that falls under the umbrella of the safer food practice that I would like to see change that on a global scale!

Mike was just showing me this thing about Hillary Clinton basically saying the same thing… that we’re all trying to get to the place if you explain things as being drought resistance we’re all trying to get there… it was actually this very negative Clinton advertisement. IDK… I just think the big problem with GMO’s is the science is not in, if there is good uses for the science… nobody’s put that so it’s nice to have a scientist say that that knows… I always say that Monsanto’s gonna come around… I mean I just planet that we all live here, we all have brothers and sisters and mothers and a planet we want to live on and that we are all sharing the same planet.

Do u have an inspiration tip or quote to help motivate our listeners to reach into that dirt and start their own garden?

So if you have ever been on Pinterest  or other planet websites you get all these little quotes I don’t even remember or the author…

Gardening Is Cheaper Then Therapy

I really like that quote because I think it’s so true!

Gardening really makes me feel so much better about my whole day, if I can even find 10 minutes to go out and just to be in the garden. Even if you don’t have time, to tie things or weed, or trim, or apply fertilizer or compost or whatever, it’s such a soothing environment environment environment you get to observe the birds. and the plants and it makes my day so much better if I get to be outside in the garden or before work I go and  water, I just walk around and I say hello to my flowers! and my birds!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes to talk to birds, but I like to say hello to my birds in the moring. It’s just almost soothing cathartic, to help you ground some people like to practice yoga

I like to garden

helps me keep grounded to, and you don’t have to think about what you have to do that day and observe nature.. Isn’t anything better then that?

Cheaper then therapy and you get therapy!

Gardening Is Cheaper Tshirt

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and passion for caring for the environment today!

It’s an honor to speak on your show! I love to listen to your podcast! I tell people to listen to it, I listen to it when I drive to work, I have an hour commute, so usually that one hour of your show! it’s a perfect time! and you might remember something that is a tip that you will use in your garden! And it’s an honor to be a guest.

I agree my guests are amazing and it’s so nice to know that other people are out there helping to take care of our planet! 

The Organic Gardener Podcast is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

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Also if you know anyone from any of these states I am always looking for guests!

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  21. West Virginia

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About the author, Jackie Marie

I'm an artist and educator. I live at the "Organic Oasis" with my husband Mike where we practice earth friendly techniques in our garden nestled in the mountains of Montana.

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