355. Garden Author | Pauline Pears | Leamington Spa, England

Read the unedited computer generated transcript here.

Garden Organic Book of Compost

Send Pauline Chilean Squash Recipe

 

JackieMarie Beyer

Welcome to the Green Organic Garden Podcast. It is Friday, December 4th, 2020. We are doing season three. So it’s probably January, 2021. When you hear this, I have an amazing guest on the line. She’s over in the UK, right? Smack in the middle. So as far from the ocean, as you can be over there. So welcome to the show. Pauline pears.

4m 32s

Pauline Pears

Hello. Thank you for inviting me.

4m 35s

JackieMarie Beyer

We’re so excited to hear your story. So why don’t you go ahead and tell listeners a little bit about yourself?

4m 43s

Pauline Pears

Well, I live in, as you said, I leave, I live in Leamington Spa, which is right in the heart of England though. I’m just a bit, I come from Scotland. I’m sort of semi-retired now. But I spent most of my working life working for an organic gardening organization in the UK promoting organic gardening. And now I’m still, I do some writing. I do some editing. We have four allotments, my husband and I, where we grow most of our own vegetables and digress, some fruits. And I love making composts and we have three chickens and that’s about us really,

5m 22s

JackieMarie Beyer

You know, Pauline all these years, I’ve always let my husband take care of the chickens because I had like this mental block that they needed to be free and they needed to be out and I couldn’t stand them being in the cage. And then last year I kind of, well, I ended up getting this one little check, that one likes to live on my shoulder and watch me when I’m working. And he’s like the cutest little UL, but I have fallen. So in love with caring for those kitchen, those chickens this year, it’s just amazing. So I can see why you like three little chickens.

5m 59s

Pauline Pears

You used to let them run around the garden, but we get lots of where we live in the center of the time. But there are a lot of boxes on one Fox, two chickens on Christmas day. And we thought that was enough. So we know they’ve got a great big run, but sadly, they don’t get science into the garden. I put in the greenhouse over the winter to pick up all the slugs and the bugs.

6m 19s

JackieMarie Beyer

That’s what my husband always told me. He’s like, it’s to keep them safe. It’s to keep them safe. And we’ve had more than our share of predators. Like the last time we had a grizzly bear that destroyed the chicken house and actually part of me caring for them now is like they commit at night and sleep in the bathtub cages. And like that’s part of what I love is going down and changing those little cages out and putting fresh straw in there for him. And that’s just chill the bears hibernate. That’s what they’re doing this order until we either put electric fence up or figure out my husband’s soul. Isn’t I mean, he, the bears come three times, but the last time he just ripped the whole back wall off of the chicken coop.

7m 2s

JackieMarie Beyer

And so we have to come up with some money for some supplies and stuff. It’s crazy foxes. I had a student last year. I just loved boxes.

7m 11s

Pauline Pears

Oh, people do. But they, they just cause they, they don’t just take one chicken. They they’ll kill them all. And I have to say, compared to bears, they’re quite easy, quite easy to manage.

7m 22s

JackieMarie Beyer

It’s crazy. We’ve lived here 27 years. We were married this year and for the first 25, we never had a problem, but we’ve had chickens almost the whole time. And in the last two years, it’s just boom, boom, over and over and over. And I think it’s just, we’re getting overpopulated and the bears got a taste for chicken and they’re running out of, I don’t know. It’s crazy. So yeah, they never got in before. Anyway, I kind of always start my show Pauline asking you about your very first gardening experience. Like, were you a kid, were you an adult? Who were you with and what did you grow?

8m 0s

Pauline Pears

I was thinking about it because I thought, well, I started gardening in my thirties, but actually my first gardening experience when I must’ve been about five, we lived in that in burns Scotland, but we had a caravan with a bit of land, but East of Edinburgh and my dad had a small cut flower business. And I had a little garden where I remember growing flowers. I used to go marigolds and Clark here was one of the annuals I used to grow and I had a minute to rosebush and I was very excited because my dad supplied flowers to Holly Ridge palace, which is where the queen stays when she comes to Edinburgh. And one time he did that, he cut one of my miniature roses and he puts it in with his gladiola and he sent it to <inaudible> palace.

8m 44s

Pauline Pears

And I was so proud. I thought queen was going to see my little Rose. So it wasn’t a very big garden, but it got me, it got me started. But also because my dad was always gone. And then although he didn’t garden with the kids, you know, you’d rather do it on his own. It was always there. So when you happened and we could sort of, I think you just absorb it. And so I, so I actually had my own first garden when I was about 30. And I’ve been going ever since

9m 14s

JackieMarie Beyer

Whoop tell us about something that grew well this year.

9m 18s

Pauline Pears

Oh, I dunno about it where you were, but it was a very odd year. And w I think actually every year has been in neurology for the last few years, but well, we, it was very dry and then we had late frosts and then we had really, really hot, I mean, beyond anything I’ve ever known hot weather, and I thought everything was going to fail, but lost in about July. The rain came and everything grew. So most things did really well, but I was really pleased with my onions because I, I grow on an a lot. I don’t. Do you know what to London allotment is? Do you have allotments in Canada,

9m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

America? Well, is it like, kind of like a community garden? Well, there

10m 4s

Pauline Pears

By the time the local government, but there are plots of the, usually about sort of 50, 70 plots on a site and you rent a plot. It costs us 30 pounds a year to rent a plot, and it’s called an allotment and we have four of them, but they’ve been gardened on for so long that they often have real disease problems. So I have trouble growing onions because there’s a disease of onions called white rot, which lasts in the solid for 20 years without an onion. And it builds up on allotment sites cause people don’t take care, but so I normally have problems with onions, but this year it was so hot. I think the disease couldn’t germinate and I have eight strings of the most beautiful onions I have ever seen.

10m 47s

Pauline Pears

And I’ve hung them up in my conservatory. And I look at them every time I see it. I think that’s a success. I feel so proud. So they, but most things actually did, did pretty well.

11m 0s

JackieMarie Beyer

So how about something you’re excited to try different or new next year? Is there something you haven’t done before? You’re excited to try. Yeah.

11m 11s

Pauline Pears

Try new things. I tried grafting tomatoes this year for a change, but now there was, I was telling you about Kathy Hayek, who from Western Canada has done this online gardening summit. And one of her speakers was Joel Karsten who grows, grows on straw bales. And I know maybe decades ago I heard about straw bale gardening and I tried it and it was a bit of a disaster, but he’s kind of, he’s perfected the technique where you actually, you start a straw bale rotting with fertilizers, and then you grow things actually directly in the bale. And as I have a greenhouse, which where I need a bit more rotation, cause I don’t have lots of, I need to grow, not in the soil for a year.

11m 55s

Pauline Pears

So I thought, Oh, I’m going to try his straw bale garden because not only does it give you growing space, that’s not in the soil, but it heats up as well. And certainly we need a bit of warmth in the spring here. So you can get things growing earlier and it keeps the plants off the ground as well. So it sounds like a good thing to try.

12m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

I just did an interview with him, I think last spring and read his book because my husband really wants to, well, he will, he only wants to grow, build a straw bale house. We tried the straw bale thing and I can’t remember, I want to say he put tomatoes in them and the deer got in and then it didn’t work because the deer guy,

12m 37s

Pauline Pears

Scott deer, I must’ve.

12m 40s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Well we, yeah, we definitely, I don’t know what happened. He like left and I kept saying it was kind of a good thing that happened when it did, because at least it happened in the early spring and all they got were the tomatoes. Cause it could have been a disaster if they had got in, in August and just destroyed the whole garden. So yeah, somehow the gate got open or something. I’m sorry.

13m 4s

Pauline Pears

Yeah, it sounds like a good, I mean I’d much rather grow in the soil. I think that’s the best place to do it. But if you’ve got to use, if you haven’t got space to rotate your crops, it’s good to have, you know, you can grow in pots or something else, but the straw bale just sounded like fun and that’s what, you know, it’s gardening should be fun.

13m 22s

JackieMarie Beyer

It should. Well, I think there’s a huge difference between the garden that’s around our house and my husband’s mini farm. Oh no, he loves it. I don’t know to me that’s way too much work, but it depends how,

13m 36s

Pauline Pears

I mean, we’ve got four so far, a lot more plots, which is quite a lot of land, but we’ve got a boat in France. So most years we go from France to France for a couple of months and we’ve just kind of developed a gardening system that we plant it. We watch it once and then we just leave it and we come back and harvest it. So it fits in with our lifestyle. And I think that’s the best way to garden. There’s there’s no point in making yourself do things. That actually is just a struggle because it doesn’t suit you. It doesn’t fit you. So everybody develops their own system.

14m 9s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, tell us more about that system. Like, do you have like an automated, you don’t have to water or weed or anything or does somebody water it for you or

14m 18s

Pauline Pears

Weight waterings? A bit overrated. We grow crops that look after themselves. So we grow potatoes. You plant them, you mess them up or not. Whether you’ve got time and if it’s a bit weedy, they’ll grow. Anyway, we grow pumpkins that once you’ve got them started, we only water them once. And then they just take over and they sit there until we come home and the autumn, what else do we grow? We grow drying beans. So, you know, they climb up the pole pole beans, but we just leave them to dry to eat over the winter. So you don’t have to worry about picking when they’re green. So things like that, that directly they’re quite self-sufficient. I mean, we grow a few other things as well, but those give us a basic things to eat all year round, which is what we’re aiming for.

15m 5s

2

Okay.

15m 12s

JackieMarie Beyer

I found you because you had a book called the garden, organic book of compost on Amazon

15m 22s

Pauline Pears

On, but lots of books on Amazon. That’s

15m 24s

JackieMarie Beyer

What I was just going to say. I was trying to pull up your page. So do you want to tell, cause I’m sh I know listeners are going to want to learn a lot more about being able to leave their place and go to France, which, Oh my goodness. How lucky are you? I always tell my husband. I think if he died, I would move to France.

15m 48s

Pauline Pears

Yeah. We decided to stay. But I mean this year, because we haven’t been able to go anywhere. We’ve, we’ve grown things like lots of tomatoes and stuff. Cause I mean, it has been quite nice this year because we haven’t been away and I’ve been able to grow things that I need, you know, you need to be able to look after. So that’s been really satisfying, but again, there are other, I just, it’s nice to be able to do both, but sadly, most of my books are out of print now, apart from the compost one, but there’s, I’m sure you can get secondhand copies and, well, I think most of my gardening and my writing is about trying to encourage people just to find something that suits them. Don’t do it because somebody else does it.

16m 29s

Pauline Pears

And you think you must, you know, it’s a very personal thing. And, and if you don’t have the time or you have the energy, then you won’t do it,

16m 41s

JackieMarie Beyer

That’s for sure. But there’s also things that can help you be more successful and little tips and tricks to make it. So that cause like one of the things I talk about is usually I have a full-time job and that’s kind of why there’ll be days like in the summer where I won’t even see the garden for five days, but you’re going for a long time. So I don’t want to hear more about that. So tell us about the garden, organic book of compost then, or tell us a little bit about composting.

17m 14s

Pauline Pears

Well, I mean, I worked in organic gardening. Most of my gardening life and kind of compost is the sort of the powerhouse of the organic garden. But as kids, we always had compost heaps. So I knew it was there, but I just think it’s it’s magic. I mean, I I’ve been making compost all these years and I still think it’s magic because it, it’s a really effective way of dealing with all your garden, waste, your kitchen waste and everything, and you just bang it in the bin. And then six, nine months, 12 months later, you go back and there’s this lovely, silent prover, which is free. So why wouldn’t you make compost?

17m 54s

JackieMarie Beyer

No, but people told me my husband and I came up with this book. Well, we came up with free garden course and people were telling me left. Right. I hate compost. Why would you start chapter one with compost? And I’m just baffled. I mean, it’s so easy.

18m 9s

Pauline Pears

It’s so good for the soil, but you see, I give quite lots of talks. I’m composting. And one of the things I do is ask people what you can’t put in the compost heap. And they all know they’ve got hundreds of things that you shouldn’t put in the compost heap, like orange peel when, why not. And then when we get down to what you can compost, everyone’s a bit different. But if you can put almost anything on compost, heap, not fish bones, I’m told, but you know, so there’s people have this idea that it’s complicated, it’s difficult. And if you get it wrong, it’s the end of the world, but it’s a completely natural system. And that’s how nature cleans up the earth. We went for the Muslim composting in the, in the world. We don’t be knee deep in potato peelings or something.

18m 51s

Pauline Pears

So I think people will just relax and go with it.

18m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. And I thought fish bones were really good for your compost. I always thought the problem with them is just if you have an animal problem, like you kind of want to bury him because like in isn’t that part of like the three sisters, you put it like a fish head underneath the squash and the corn and all that kind of thing.

19m 12s

Pauline Pears

Well, you see, I come from a country where we don’t tend to have a lot of fish heads. I was talking to Kathy in, in Western Vancouver and she mentioned the fish and she said, yeah, well we, we go fishing locally. So we’ve got loads of fish bones. Well, it’s, it doesn’t really happen here. So we don’t have to worry about it. So you, you have to adapt the system to where you’re living and what you eat and that sort of thing.

19m 34s

2

<inaudible>

19m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

So Pauline tell us about something that didn’t work so well as she’s in, was there something that didn’t turn out the way you thought it was going to?

19m 46s

Pauline Pears

Well, that was something that was a real surprise. We grow awesome. Fruiting, raspberries. I love raspberries. And for the first time in my life, we had a late frost and the straw, the raspberry plants got frosted. And I, I mean, Ross has come from Scotland. That’s frosty all the time. I’d never seen that before, but the right they’d started growing really fast. And then we had a sharp late frost, which killed the potatoes and the raspberry. It just, it just got the leaves. I mean, it didn’t kill the plants, but they were damaged. But then come mid summer, we’ll see even more bizarre. I went up to pick some raspberries and they were all in a strange sort of pale color.

20m 28s

Pauline Pears

And I realized it had been so hot that they’d cooked on the plant because they are the raspberries or something that likes a bit of shade, but it was all the raspberries on the top of the, of the rows were cooks, which again is something I’ve I’ve never seen before. So I think the climate is going to sh

20m 48s

3

Going to throw something odd at us all the time. Now we’ve got to be very adaptable, just, and try and go with what it’s these odd things that it throws at us.

20m 59s

JackieMarie Beyer

I’m nodding my head. You’re right. Well, this is actually already the part of the show we call getting to the root of things. So do you have like a least favorite activity to do on the garden, Pauline like something, get up, force yourself to get out there and do I don’t.

21m 20s

3

So I really know, I do have a bit of a bad back, so there’s things I don’t do, which I’m quite like to do, like shoveling manure and that sort of thing. But I love weeding. I love my favorite activity, I think is raising plants. I love sewing seeds and seeing the little seedlings come up and you know, that sort of thing, but no, it sounds a bit naff, doesn’t it? But I don’t think there’s anything I don’t like doing. There’s just things I don’t do.

21m 50s

JackieMarie Beyer

No. I’ve had several people come on. I think that’s encouraging. And then you already answered the fevered activity you said was sewing seeds. So what’s the best gardening advice you’ve ever received.

22m 4s

3

Looking at the same seeds things this year, the spring came and Britain locked down. We couldn’t do anything, but you could still put a seat in a Potter in the ground and it would still come up and a little seedling would still grow and somehow it just life went on. And I think that was a really important thing to be aware of this year, because so much of life didn’t go on. But anyway, sorry, what was the question?

22m 31s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, I was going to say in the pre-chat we were talking about how you were saying your hairdressers are just finally opening. Yeah.

22m 39s

3

They were, they were closed for a few months and then they opened again and then they were closed again. And yeah, it’s been an odd and I’d been an odd year, but the encouraging thing was that there was a huge rush to buy seeds for gardens. I mean, the seed companies were totally overwhelmed by the number. I mean, I’m, I’m I can say proudly, well, I ordered my seeds last, you know, in advance. So I was fine, but people who’d never grown things before were at home. So they

23m 10s

JackieMarie Beyer

Already that they’re out like trying to get people already struggling to get seeds for next year for 2021. I’ve been hearing grumblings. So that order in early this year.

23m 23s

3

Yeah. Well I think, yes, it’s a good thing to do. And also the, the, we used to be a lot of spare apartment plots where we have our allotment, but I don’t think there’s any vacant ones now at all. So some good things have come out of.

23m 38s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. And I am, I am almost like confident we’re going to come out on the better side after we’re all push come to shove and that there’s going to be some big changes. I hope anyway.

23m 53s

3

Well, talking to you is a big change. I must admit I’ve never done an issue with someone in Montana before.

23m 59s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, cool. Well, I hope you’re enjoying it.

24m 2s

3

It’s it’s because I, I give gardening talks and normally I, I drive maximum was 30 miles to give a talk. Well, now I can talk to someone in the Northwest of Scotland or in America or, you know, I, so that’s really positive.

24m 17s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh my goodness. I love my podcast. My podcast is complete success because of my amazing guests. Like you who teach us all. But again, like I said, like I had a complete Brown thumb. Like I could barely keep a plant alive. And like now I’m growing. I pretty much take care of the gardens by our house, which is all we did have until a few years ago when my husband built them any farm, like I have just learned so much. And then this summer, our big success was tomatoes. And I just fell in love with tomatoes. And I, I managed to freeze tomato sauce and salsa. And like, I am hooked. I got totally hooked on the tomato bug this year. So,

24m 57s

3

And I dunno what it’s like, where you are, but if you buy tomatoes in this country, they don’t taste of anything. No tomatoes in the shops are just, I wouldn’t touch them. They read, they look like tomatoes. They look really good. But if you’ve grown your own, you’d never buy one again, because the flavor, I mean, people go on about homegrown veggie tasting better, but tomatoes are just, you, can’t just, can’t beat them. And they’re easy enough for people to grow as well. If you, if you know what you’re doing. So I think that’s really positive. I might my favorite varieties that something called Hungarian giant, which is not one you can buy anymore. It’s one of these heritage seeds.

25m 39s

3

And the biggest fruit I grew this year was 600 grams. And we’ve had the family of four with it. It was gorgeous.

25m 50s

JackieMarie Beyer

600 grams. I’m trying to think two pounds is

25m 55s

3

Yeah. A bit over a bit of over a pound.

25m 59s

JackieMarie Beyer

Wow. That’s like heavier than a potato. It’s like heavy has two potatoes or something like that.

26m 5s

3

On one trust, there was three that size. Wow. But the flavor is just after this world. So it’s just because it’s not, it’s not difficult to grow tomato in a pot. And if you’re a beginner and the first thing you grow is something that tastes delicious. Then you’re going to do it again on you.

26m 25s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yes. Well, I’ve always been a big fan of cherry tomatoes because where we are it’s, you know, w what happened this year was that we got our frost, our first cold frost kill the plants on September 8th. And I thought, that’s it, everything that was out there that was green. I thought we’d lost them. They almost all turned red. They were still turning red, October 15th, like over a month later. And that usually does not happen. And so, you know, was it this year? Will we have other year? And so that’s where I really got hooked because usually we have all these dream tomatoes. We bring them in, they some turn, right? Most of them get soggy. You just come up with this huge mess.

27m 6s

JackieMarie Beyer

But this year, being able to keep going down there and pull, I was able to match three big, three big batches of tomato sauce to freeze and eat. And it was just, and to meet a broth. And it was just, that was the real big one for me being able to, cause we buy a lot of canned tomatoes, which I guess Canterbury to like, I’ve had a lot of guests talking lately about how Cannes is almost better, because so much of our produce is picked way before it’s ripe. And then right, because it comes from so far away and that’s part of why our food has no flavor. Tomatoes are almost better. Cause they’re probably picked and then processed.

27m 47s

JackieMarie Beyer

And, but

27m 50s

3

I think you’re right, like frozen pizza. I mean, I’ve, I used to work in East of England where you could in the middle of the night, you’d see the machines out with their headlights, harvesting the peas. So they were playing the moment they were ready and they were frozen immediately. So no, there’s nothing wrong with frozen vege and 10 veggies as well. Cause I think you’re right. They transporting fresh phage. Can you got to have a tomato? That’s tough enough to be transported. But I think you’re thinking about the, the, the latest season that it goes to show that every year there’s something that does really well. I mean, there’s usually something that fails, but there’s something else we’ll just, it’ll just be blown away with the success.

28m 33s

3

And also we have to an adapting to the seasons, cause you could have pulled out all those two artists thinking, Oh well, it’s, you know, they’ve finished now, but just wait a bit and see what happens.

28m 43s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. It was amazing because the plants were to end. Then the crazy thing was like, so I got a lot of blossom end rot. And when I Googled that, it pretty much said I haven’t watered them enough, which my husband kept warning me. You’re not watering enough. You’re not watering enough. And, and then after froze, I was like, Oh, well I don’t need to water these anymore. And so the blossom and rock came back and then, and then I went back to watering them and went away. So I learned that lesson too. And like who knew that you could, you know, start watering again that late after it already had it, I lost a lot of those tomatoes. They were these paste tomatoes that I had put in, like they were in containers instead of in the deep beds.

29m 28s

JackieMarie Beyer

And I did end up throwing way more tomatoes away with the blossom end rot than I was able to harvest there. But my husband had planted these heirloom, you know, like larger tomatoes from Baker Creek and those just were prolific. And those were the ones that turned red after the frost.

29m 49s

3

Thinking about blossom, Andros, I think confuses people. It’s not that you’re not necessarily watching enough. It’s constant watering. So the, the, the tomorrow of forming that day that you haven’t, that they’ve dried out too much, they’ll get blossom and drops. But the, the, the ones later on aren’t effected, if you, if you go back to regular watering. So it’s a very specific effect when the plant dries out. So don’t panic if you get it on some of them, because the, the later ones will be fine.

30m 21s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah, it was, it was cool. So, Pauline, do you have a favorite tool? Like if you had to move and could only take one tool with you, what could you not live without long? Oh no. What’s my favorite tool. Oh,

30m 36s

3

It varies. Can I have two?

30m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

You bet my friend. Okay.

30m 40s

3

My favorite one is my copper travel. It’s a, it’s a beautiful hand trail, but with the, the blade or whatever you call it is copper. So it’s very sharp and it’s very shiny and I just love it. And my other one is it’s a sort of cross between the knife and a saw, which cuts as you pull back. And it’s very useful for harvesting comfrey leaves and for cutting down green maneuvers and that sort of thing. So I think those are my two favorites, but then I love the folks that my, my auntie left me when she died. I liked the tools that I remember other people using.

31m 21s

3

Cause I mean,

31m 23s

JackieMarie Beyer

Like it was hard fork for turning the compost or what do you mean afford

31m 27s

3

A garden fork? I don’t know whether you just have an ordinary garden fork. It’s funny language, isn’t it? Maybe you don’t have garden forks, but it’s not a Pitchfork. No,

31m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

Just the folk. Yeah,

31m 42s

3

But we don’t use it so much now because we’re definitely, I persuaded my husband that I’m cutting out. The digging is a good thing. So we reduced it we’ve we were getting as much, no Dick as we can.

31m 54s

JackieMarie Beyer

We are too. I’m still trying to picture it like a broad four is a big, or like a little fork, like a fork. You played, you have a garden space. Oh yes. Well just cut it.

32m 9s

3

Okay. Change the space down to a four pronged fork and, and nuts.

32m 15s

JackieMarie Beyer

That’s that. And what do you do with that? That sounds cool. You just, you

32m 19s

3

Use it to dig out weeds and that sort of thing.

32m 23s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, we did,

32m 24s

3

But now we don’t any more, but it’s just that, that was one of the things my auntie used to use a lot. And I like the fact that it’s continuity. I mean, it must be, I don’t know, 60, 70 years old now. And it still works perfectly well.

32m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

Sure. I’m so like, I’m like one of those people, like I keep the boxes, people, like I still have wedding boxes that like my aunt sent me like the plates in and like, I keep my fabric in them. And like, every time I go to get my fabric out, you know, I’m looking at the box and thinking, Oh, this is the box. Our wedding plates came in. I’m totally like that.

33m 0s

3

I mean, I just, it’s just, and I sometimes I think I’ll throw things away, but then you think, wow, that reminds me of so-and-so. And the other thing, actually, that’s really useful what I call people hires. There are just little bits of why I’m at probably about three foot long and about two foot wide. And you can, you can put them over seedlings and you can make little hoops clashes out and to keep the birds off your peas. And, and I’ve got about a dozen of these and we were clearing out my auntie’s house and someone was going to throw them away. I said, no, no, no, they’re really useful. And they don’t look anything much, but I use them probably more than anything else.

33m 41s

3

So it’s good just to have, and I got done baskets from supermarkets. You put potato with things to keep the birds. I’m the pumpkin’s to keep them off the soil. So you need lots of bits and bobs just because, you know, they’re there and then you use them.

33m 58s

JackieMarie Beyer

And I like that. There’s a small size because I moved a lot. I got a new puppy this summer and she has no still running through the body. And so like, I moved a lot of wire around this summer to try to just keep my puppy out of the bed. So that sounds cool to have like little or pieces that are easy to move.

34m 21s

3

And they’ve got these because these were where she bought the maiden this size. So then they don’t have the prickly edges, like, you know, Mara mash normally has. So they’re nicely banned at the edges. Difficulty is where to store them because they don’t fold up nicely. But, and I think that certainly on allotments that people make, do with what they’ve got, you know, they’re not going out and buying posh, new things. You, you just adapt things to that’s what I like about gardening too.

34m 53s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cool. How about, what’s your favorite recipe you like to eat from the garden?

35m 4s

3

Well, I like all vegetables. I must admit, Oh, you put me on the spot there. Lee Lee crew start, we’re having tonight, which is some sort of crumbly. The base is made of nuts, ground up nuts and butter and herbs and garlic. And you bake that till it’s nice and hard. And then lots of leaks in the white sauce on top. That’s certainly one of my favorites.

35m 31s

JackieMarie Beyer

That’s all so good.

35m 34s

3

I’m trying to think. As soon as I try and think of something to eat, I just kind of make quizzes. I look and see what’s there. And then I make it into something I grew up. I grew, I got 20 pumpkins. I was at 30 pumpkin’s this year and I’ve discovered I don’t really like pumpkin, but we’re gonna have to eat the ball because that’s what we’ve grown. So if anyone’s got a good,

35m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

I do, I was just going to say, I’ll have to send you my recipe for it’s called Chilean squash, but I always make it with pumpkin. Actually I went to the store this morning because you put peppers in it and I needed to get a pepper to put in it, but it’s got like corn. It’s kind of like an egg casserole type of thing that you bake with cheese and, Oh, it’s so good. And I only make it at this time of year when I have fresh pumpkin. So

36m 22s

3

I think you’ll want, pumpkin’s keep for about a year and a good, you know, we keep them on the stairs in the house and we normally have one about nine months later, we’ll still have them ready to eat.

36m 36s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, my husband struggles to grow pumpkins.

36m 41s

3

Well, I don’t know anything about the climate where you are, but there’s one particular variety called crown mints. The most productive in this country. And most years we’ll get something from it. We only get one or two or plans and they’re not like huge, great bopping things. Sure. Lanterns they’re proper tasty, chunky pumpkins.

37m 5s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, I don’t know. Last year was a weird year. We only got one zucchini. Like when do you ever get one zucchini? So I, cause I have, I thought we were going to really score with the pumpkins because the year before my friend had given me a Cinderella pumpkin that had grown out of her compost pile that she had bought at a farmer’s market from a local grower. And I thought those seeds were going to be perfect. But I think we just didn’t have a good squash year. Us at our place. My friend gave me some squashes the other day that were just awesome. So I did save some of her. She had some heirloom seeds.

37m 45s

3

The problem, if you, if you take seed from a pumpkin that you don’t know where it’s come from, the seeds will the, the, the, before it’s petitioned to the pumpkin, the flower could have crossed with any other sorts of pumpkin. So you don’t know what you’re going to get. You won’t get what you started with. So that’s a real problem. If you’re all the marrow and squash family, they interbreed like, like Brillio so they don’t come true. So

38m 12s

JackieMarie Beyer

You think I should just buy seeds from the store?

38m 16s

3

Yeah. Or else, if you’re going to save seeds, you need, you need to make sure that you protect the flowers from the bees before they’re pollinated. Cause I think that’s a lot of people do that and they get disappointed. But you know, you don’t know who it’s been, you know, who it’s crossed with whatever has been been around. So yeah, but I think with pumpkins and squashes, it’s probably safest to buy, buy new seats, but I can do, I can do Nosa Keenis we call them courgettes. But I, I can’t grow cause that’s to save my life. They’re really picky in this country. Everyone’s always saying, Oh God, please take them away. I’ve got a glut of them and I want some more.

38m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

So we’re usually like, we usually have tons of zucchini. So my husband was like, you didn’t see the seeds. I told you that was the last, there was the only one zucchini. And I just thought he was kidding. I just couldn’t imagine only ones. You Heaney all think everyone has something that they

39m 14s

3

Can’t grow so well, I mean, it’s good because you know, people think because I do, it’s my profession sort of everything works, but no, a bit of it, there’s always a, always a failure.

39m 25s

JackieMarie Beyer

And I think different areas like different ecosystems and polices, you know, one per like, I really struggled with grow cilantro and other people are like, Oh my goodness, I can grow cilantro, you know, prolifically right. In this area. So I think it just, I dunno, ecosystem or

39m 40s

4

Different, just different things. Yeah.

39m 44s

3

Oh, I think so. And, and, and, and people beat themselves up about it as well. Or, you know, it must be me. They say, they think it’s something they’ve done wrong, but not necessarily. It’s very often the weather or I think beginners the others. Yeah. But, and also beginners, they read the seed packet. And in this country, the seed packet says motto. So in January, well, unless you’ve got a warm green house, you don’t say tomatoes till April in this country. And an awful lot of information is now on Facebook and other social media, people just pass it on without saying, you know, someone says, well, what do I say now? Well, they don’t tell you which part of the world they’re in that language country or anything like that.

40m 26s

3

So all the expertise is being well. It, lots of it. It’s kind of being diluted. I think because, you know, information just passed on without people don’t know what they need to know before they pass the information on. So I’m always saying to people, well, I can help you, but tell me where you live, what your soil’s like.

40m 46s

JackieMarie Beyer

They see those cute little memes, you know? And it’s like, well, you know, don’t trust a meme. I’m really big on media literacy.

40m 56s

3

People will say, well, you know, I’ve just sewed my corn or something. So everyone rushes to say, well, they’re probably in the South of England. Well, you know, whereas if you were in the North of Scotland, you certainly wouldn’t. And there’s a lot of this thing. If someone’s done it, I should be doing it too. It’s a great competitiveness, I think as well amongst gardeners. But I, I, I run a garden advice service for 30 years and it saddens me now to see that people, well, people won’t pay for advice anymore. They, they expect it all to be free and you get what you pay for, or you get what you don’t pay for, I suppose.

41m 35s

JackieMarie Beyer

Absolutely. So what’s your, do you have a favorite internet resource? Speaking of things like that, like where do you find yourself surfing on the web?

41m 48s

3

I try not to too much. I don’t do a lot of, I don’t, I shouldn’t say this to you, but I don’t listen to podcasts and I don’t follow anyone in particular. So yeah, just some generally like, no, I don’t know. I don’t have a favorite or favorites.

42m 8s

JackieMarie Beyer

That’s okay. If you do want to check out a podcast, I’ll tell you, there’s this guy, Jesse Frost who just started the no till market farmer. I think last year, I think he’s on a second season. That is just the best. I just it’s it’s market farming, but you know, the information can be good for backyard gardeners and just, I’ve been learning a ton from him. That’s really one of the only garden podcasts him. And there’s this woman, Nicole Burke, who, who has like a, a garden design business where she goes and installs. She just started a new one. I think it’s called grow yourself. That’s really good.

42m 48s

3

He might deny that they’re in, in the UK, there’s an organization called the organic growers association, which is where organic vegetable producers, commercial vegetable producers. It’s mainly for them, but they do a lot of research and things. And that’s actually where I follow because they are doing research that actually it’s prove, you know, they, they are developing systems and whatever, and, and they do it commercially. So I believe what they say, I suppose. And I find that much more interesting. And you can translate that to your own back garden, but your own allotment. Certainly. So I think that they would be the, you know, the them, they would be the people that I would follow mostly.

43m 32s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cool. That’s a good one. I actually have a fairly decent sized audience in the UK, so I’m sure there’s lots of listeners. They’re gonna be like, I’m going to check that out.

43m 43s

3

Yeah. I, the organic growers association they’re there because the, when the organics, when I started working in organic and organic gardening, it was all, it wasn’t new, but it wasn’t very popular in this country, but there was a few basic organizations that set up because the government wasn’t helping, you know, no, no one was helping promote it. So they’re very, self-sufficient sort of people and they’ve got there. They’ve had to develop ideas for themselves. I mean, I used to work for an agrochemical company, developing pesticides and they have huge funding cause it’s huge commercial interests, but you know, the organic side they’ve really had to, well, I was going to say clear their own furrow, but yeah, they have.

44m 28s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Well, Bob, Quinn’s been on my show a couple of times and was one of the big innovators and starting the Montana organic association and then the national, they wanted standards because they were like, we don’t, you know, we, we were doing something very specific here and we want to make sure there’s regulations. So anybody can’t just call themselves organic, like, you know, you want to, and like he was one of the original people helping to make sure this is what’s going to be in the certification. And just, yeah, it’s important. Like I’ve been thinking now we need to work on cannabis certification because in Montana, starting in January, you can have, we’ve had medical marijuana for years, but they just passed it for recreational use for cannabis.

45m 11s

JackieMarie Beyer

And I just met people. Like, I just want to see organic cannabis or people are going to grow it. And no, no, no. I would like to see more backyard growers trying it. Well, it is it, is it quite easy to, I’ll have to say I’ve never tried it, but it looks quite easy to grow. I don’t know if this, but have you ever done it? Is it sort of here’s the scoop? Yeah. Grows like a weed. It’s easy to grow, but to get the flowers that people smoke that have the THC, like, if you want to make that Rick Simpson oil that has, you know, the major benefits to preventing cancer, or if you want to smoke it for recreational use, that’s a huge learning curve. It is not easy to get though.

45m 53s

JackieMarie Beyer

You have to do very specific things like in Montana where we live, you have to actually cover the plants. They there’s, it’s like a phototropic thing. And so they have to have exactly are basically 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night, or I’m not sure that’s how it works, but something like that, you have to dark in the mouth for 12 hours every night for a certain period of time to get those flowers. And that’s one thing I know, like you can’t get seeds in there. Like you have to keep the females away from the males. Like it’s not easy to get, you know, what people think of. And then I dunno, there’s just a lot to it.

46m 33s

JackieMarie Beyer

And then I know there’s a lot of people like I’ve met people over the years. They’re like, yeah, we’re growing this organically, but here we’re dipping it in this thing right off the bat to get it, to grow its roots. If they’re like grafting it in a corner. So, you know, you could put seeds in the ground and you might get a giant plant, but if you want a quality product, it’s not true. So be able to grow legally though. Yep. Well, as far as state law, it’s still not legal under federal law. So, you know, who knows, you know, for years, hemp was, they would go back and forth and States would legalize it and then people would grow a big crop of it to get, you know, paper or to make before the big CBD thing came in.

47m 24s

JackieMarie Beyer

And before Trump passed the hemp bill, there were like native Americans growing it. And for fiber or for hemp seed pro, like what kills me is people are always telling me, I need to see protein. That would be a really good thing to put in my smoothies and just cause I don’t really eat meat and I can’t grow my own hemp seeds, but

47m 46s

3

Yeah, it’s all a bit, certainly it’s a really good.

47m 49s

JackieMarie Beyer

So anyway, my point was, so these native Americans would grow it like on the reservation or something and then the fed or in different, it didn’t even have to be numeric, but people would start these hemp farms and they would grow it. And then the DEA would come in and sweep out their whole crop in September and they can still, you know, the DEA, I mean, it’s still under federal law is not legal, but supposedly under state laws. So kind of depends on who’s the administration, you know, is your local, you know, can you still can your local government come in? I don’t know. I don’t know how that works, I guess, but he’s a good, we’ll see, it’s going that way. I mean, I think they’re finally gonna, I think also like the, who just declare, they’re going to take it off, like the schedule where it’s like not considered a really harmful drug so we can research it.

48m 41s

JackieMarie Beyer

So these, to me, the biggest thing is like people with cancer, people with like kids who are sick, like that re like they’re even talking about that Rick Simpson, the benefits of it on web MD, like that, it has been proven in lab animals and some other tests, which makes me think humans to kill cancer cells. Like this could be a cure for cancer and they have kept it away from people all these years is, is just a crime. And couldn’t even do research on it because of that, but totally off topic. I’m so sorry. Let’s get back to cause we have two more questions and eight minutes. So how about a fever book besides your amazing books that you’ve written that we’ll get to in a second?

49m 26s

JackieMarie Beyer

Do you have a book that inspired you? I would say.

49m 29s

3

And the thing, why do I lock them? Do I like them as a, she still is a vegetable grower, but she, when her family were young, she and her husband went off in a van with the two little kids and went around Europe and they collected salad plants from all the traditional growers around Europe, no lakes of Enders and chicories and things that we didn’t really eat in this country. And she brought them back and she, she grew them all on her farm and she tested them all. And she, she, you know, she, she did trials and went to say them and all the rest of it. And then she went to China and she did the same in China and came back with a load of, of Oriental vegetables.

50m 11s

3

And she just introduced to the UK. So many salady crops that we never grew before. And she was such a good grower. Everything that you read that she’s written, you know, that she’s done it. And I think that’s really important. So do I lock them vegetable grow? She’s my she’s my feet. Right?

50m 29s

JackieMarie Beyer

That is important. Cool.

50m 33s

3

Well, hard to spell Larcom it’s L a R K C O M.

50m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh cool. No bike is completely off now. What was I gonna say? Oh, well it’s kind of viewpoint, but like I was wondering, did you not get the second page to the questions? Cause you didn’t send them back. Cause I like you seem kind of surprised about some of the questions maybe

50m 59s

3

Into that one page. So what was the next one then?

51m 2s

JackieMarie Beyer

All right, because, well, this is the last, one’s a doozy Pauline. If there’s one change you would like to see to create a greener world, what would it be? For example, is there a charity organization, your passionate about or project you’d like to see put into action? Like what do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment? Either locally, nationally, or on a global scale,

51m 26s

3

But just a little question

51m 28s

JackieMarie Beyer

I know. And you didn’t have a copy to read along with,

51m 32s

3

Oh, the body beforehand. I think it would be nice to get every school child gardening, every school child, getting their hands muddy and grubby and growing a little bit of food. So when they grew up, they know that it happened and, and, and they just realized the importance of plants. I think we losing our, our, our, the, this how essential plants are to this world. So that wasn’t a very good answer, but that’s kind of what I mean,

52m 7s

JackieMarie Beyer

That was a lovely answer. It was perfect. And so near and dear to my heart, and just so many of my listeners have said their first gardening experience was with their grandparents, but they like, you know, resisted and didn’t want to have anything to do with it. And now they’re gardening and they’re so glad they’re grandparents like, you know, brought them in the garden and taught them and shared their passion. And so I know, I think that’s so important. There’s so many lessons you can do with gardening and the kids just love it. It makes them feel safe. And just, there’s just so many things to gardening for sure. So, Pauline, do you want to tell us about your books really quick? I’m like, is there a way for listener, do you have a website where they can connect with you or online

52m 51s

3

I’m F I’m sorry to say. I have no websites. I thought of setting mine up when I went freelance and never did. If you Google pairs, the, my books are around this to say they’re all apart from the compost on the real language of print, which is a sad, because I was quite proud of them. So if anybody wants me to give a gardening talk, organic gardening, talk anywhere in the world, will you give out my email address or something? Is that a bad idea? Good idea. Absolutely. Cause I just like, no, go ahead and tell everybody

53m 26s

JackieMarie Beyer

What it is.

53m 28s

3

It’s Pauline pears@gmail.com and that’s B E R S O.

53m 36s

JackieMarie Beyer

And I will put the link to that in the show notes. Why don’t you start like up Instagram or a Facebook page? That’s not as difficult as a website.

53m 46s

3

Well, yeah, but you see Facebook pages, people start and then they don’t do anything. You have to keep it going. I did, when I first went freelance, I was going to do all that. And I thought, you know, I can’t be bothered. Luckily I don’t have to make a living out of what I’m doing. You know, I’ve, I’ve, I earn some money, but I didn’t have to be very commercial. And I think I’m on the cusp of, you know, this there’s people of an age. Who’ve had the internet, all their lives and people of my age, they know about it and do it. But you know, it’s not quite as passionate about it. Maybe I’m just lazy.

54m 28s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, to be honest with you, I’ve been wondering about it because I, again, I told you my website, people leave in 10 seconds. How much time have I spent on that thing? My Facebook, like, I feel like, like yesterday I was scrolling through everything. I’m like three likes for likes. Like, what is the point of it? Like, like you said, you have to be consistent and I am not consistent enough. And so that’s the only thing place I am consistent is my podcast. And I feel like, you know, we’re speaking in a room of probably between one and 2000 people. Like I usually have about 1600 downloads after six months, but what’s different. Who hears if it’s after six months, I mean, consistently they get that.

55m 8s

JackieMarie Beyer

And that’s a pretty big room and sharing with a lot of people. And as long as that many people keep listening, then I’m good.

55m 15s

3

I’ve never talked to an audience of more than a hundred before. So this is amazing.

55m 20s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, you probably have a good 500 downloads within 30 days, at least. So, and maybe even more, because January is a popular time. You know, that January, February, March, like March, I’m getting 1400, like within the week or within a month, you know, it’s a bar.

55m 39s

3

I mean, I just at work, we set up something called potato day. We wanted to sell unusual varieties of potato. So every spring we’d sell seed potatoes of a hundred different potato varieties and nine to a hundred to a thousand people would come every day just to buy potatoes. And they would just talk about potatoes and enthuse about potatoes. And it was the most peaceful, exciting, energetic group of people you could possibly imagine. So I’m hoping all the people listen to your podcast, you know, it’s the same sort of thing there’ll be, they’ll just be keen on the basics.

56m 20s

3

Gardening is very basic and it’s lovely to see people who are keen on it.

56m 24s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, cool. Well, I can keep talking to you for a long time, but I see the other person is already sitting in the zoom room. So probably, and you have a wonderful day. Thank you for sharing so many golden seeds that I will be in touch. I will send you the link and have a wonderful holiday happy new year. Well, I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. Cheers. Thanks Pauline Cheerio.

MyGardenJournal

My Garden Journal

 

OOGuidebookCVRSmall

Get your copy of the Organic Oasis Guidebook and get started building your own earth friendly garden today!

Let’s take a minute to thank our sponsors and affiliate links

Please support us on Patreon so we can keep the show up on the internet. It cost close to $100 a month just to keep it up on the internet for the website etc so if you could help by supporting it with an $8/month contribution or $10/month to join the Green Future Growers Book Club where we can delve deep into some of the best gardening books that have been recommended on the show! GoDaddy even is bugging me for dollars just to have the domain name…

OGP Patreon Page Green Future Grower Book Club

https://www.patreon.com/OrganicGardenerPodcast

 

Good Seed Company Seeds

The Good Seed Company

Now Let’s Get to the Root of Things!

 

Organic Gardening Podcast Group

We’d love if you’d join  Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Community!

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

If you like what you heard on the Organic Gardener Podcast we’d love it if you’d give us review and hopefully a 5 star rating on iTunes so other gardeners can find us and listen to. Just click on the link here.

and don’t forget if you need help getting started check out our new 

Free Garden Course.com

FreeOrganicGardenCourseCVR2.jpg

 Free Organic Garden Course 

Remember you can get the  2018 Garden Journal and Data Keeper to record your garden goals in ourhttps://amzn.to/2lLAOyo

You can  download the first 30 days here  while you’re waiting for it to come in the mail. 

Organic Gardening Podcast Group

We’d love if you’d join  Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Community!

If you like what you heard on the Organic Gardener Podcast we’d love it if you’d give us review and hopefully a 5 star rating on iTunes so other gardeners can find us and listen to. Just click on the link here.

 

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.

Leave a Comment