159. Lazy Luscious Gardening |Tammy Rach | San Diego, CA

Finding her zen and loving gardening, wildlife, trees an more Tammy Rach shares her lazy luscious gardening story from Minnesota to Hawaii to San Diego California! I’m so excited to share this guest who is in the 

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Tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up and raised in MN a suburb west of Minneapolis, I lived in an apartment growing up , so I didn’t have gardens in my life… really…

But I had a patch of woods and that was my zen, I was a little tree hugger nature lover

in the second grade they had opened a brand new zoo, nearby, we went on a field trip for school and I just fell in love. We’re in Minnesota, so there is just snow

snow in the ground but we were just transformed into this tropical met. where there were no visual barriers between us and animals. There were tropical plants

Minnesota wildlife in another, 4 different areas and ocean area and so on…

oh my goodness!!! From that moment I knew that was what I had to be a part of in my life.

Growing up there weren’t any colleges to get a zoology degree so I went to ST. Thomas in St Paul MN and I was working on my biology degree and as many college students do I ran out of money got the quickest degree I could, so after college I started volunteering

5 jobs piece-mealing together and loved everything second of it, I was learning about conservation and how to save species and

how to educate the public

I moved to CA to help open up a new aquarium,

met my husband there and we moved to hawaii, at that point we adopted our son

moved back to CA

So are you a millennial then?

No I’m gen x…

Me too!Super excited! I was looking at your Facebook profile… and I saw the zoo! I was so shocked to go to LA in California in the spring, it was like walking around in a perfume bottle, it was just weird because everything was locked but it was gorgeous and I bet San Diego is nicer.

I’ve always wanted to make a book of people hugging trees. I have the cutest ones of my granddaughter is what started me off…

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

My grandparents lived on a typical neighborhood block, they didn’t have a big property but they they did have lilacs and lilies of the valley… they had rhubarb on the side of their house which my grandma always cooked with

neighbors had a big lot and between their garage and my grandparents they built a garden plot

I could not believe how much they grew out of that plot.

corn beets tomatoes

everything

so much everything!!

I’ve been thinking about this interview a lot

Ive been thinking about what kind of challenge I could do.

My first year I did a challenge, and that episode was downloaded a lot, but  hardly anybody signed up…

what kind of challenge would you be interested in?

Megain cain does garden challenges all the time, sometimes they’re just easy…

garden challenge

Megan Cain

does garden challenges

let’s build a scare crow

trellis

something easy that

I thought about that because I had that Ed Rosenberg on…

Im gonna say too

outside of my old office, there was the education dept had planted one planter bed outside my window and again I couldn’t believe how much it grew.

At the time, I didn’t have a place to

inspired me, I couldn’t  wait to see what I could grow

something fun

something new and share what they grew and how it went!

If you would like to do a challenge or you have an idea, or an interset…

I’ve been thinking a lot!

We started the gardening club, Mike gave me carrots I brought my juicer, and we had organic carrot juice…it was just right, I brought an old ice cream container… it was so cute… they would come up one at the time…

on monday we’er gonna sing, the Lentil song…

My son loves to juice, that’s a great way to get vegetables into your kids, let them chop them up…

That was one thing I didn’t predict…the carrots needed cut up… we had one kid who wouldn’t touch it… it is a great way to get kids to like vegetables, then we added some orange carrot flavor but I think we added to much orange…

How did you learn how to garden organically?

They had their own compost pile, so I’m pretty sure they garden, I’m pretty sure they gardened organically… I just love nature….

ID understand why you would want to put chemicals  on stuff …

nature really fixes it’s own problems, in our gardens

we set the scene and nature does it’s own thing

The sun, the elements and we just curate the wildness of it all, there’s no reason not to garden organically….

Tell us about something that grew well this year.

Where I live is inland, so it’s pretty hot, challenging in the summer

growing now

near frost a couple of nights of the year, so I’ve lost tomatoes and a few other things in the past

I’m growing tomatoes right now, the vines just keep growing…

herbs and peppers

first success with carrots from seed so that’s really exciting!

everything’s still growing!

I have a lot of listeners in California so they’re probably excited about that. So do you get a lot of bugs, I’ve had a lot of guests mention that the nice thing about Montana is it’s so cold we don’t get a lot of bugs…

IDK if its a bigger problem

definitely is a problem… this year I had a lot of aphids and tomatoes horn worms… and they ate so much of the plants my peppers and things were getting sun scald

lot of grasshoppers this year because I had neighbors who let their yard grow free, and so there was tall grass, and then they would come over and munch away at everything … if I had more time to pick and keep on it,but it is what it is…

So what do you do about those cut worms and horn worms…?

try to cut them off and wipe them off

pick off.

get rid of….

I look at

listen to another podcast Garden Nerd

Christina Wilhelmi! I love the Garden Nerd. She’s on the city walk

She said you could find tomato horn worms with a black light, but maybe you need a headlight? IDK we went out with a black light and couldn’t find any?

lots of tomato horn…

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

So many things!!! Every year I try lots of new things…

passion flower vine, but it’s not fruiting, so I can figure out why and make it better next year…

add more height to the garden

One of those people who

And visit more farms and local areas for inspiration!

Megan cain has a design for tomato cages, so I bought the supplies to make tomato cages….

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

Ya know I think when the nurseries have different seedlings and starts and I plant them in my way too hot area… is a challenge… so peas, it was way too hot, so I’m gonna try them now in theft…

Beans I didn’t pick fast enough

save the seeds… so I can plant more beans…

Pole beans … I’m trying for the vines…

Mike says he get’s frustrated because they

I would grow them just of the teeppes because they are cool…

That should be your challenge!

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

It’s probably weeding…

Even if I am the ones pulling the weeds

they’re nutritious for the chickens…

that’s fun…

I got new gloves and an apron… so that makes it more fun to do it out there….

I love aprons, I have to have my phone… I always wear gloves when I garden.. my moms the total opposite and so is mike…

I pair them with my apron so I don’t forget…

What is your favorite activity to do in the garden.

Just being out there…

be line for the backyard

checking on everything!

my Zen

thinking about how far it’s come along and envisioning new things I want to do… it’s just so relaxing…

What’s your place like now?

WE just have a little neighborhood block a front yard and backyard

was just dirt

wasn’t great dirt

took a stab

started with succulents

dry

donations from

pupping and producing new plants

out of a corner area in our backyard

so fast and so beautifully

invited our landlord to come looks and he was like wow if you want to do this keep going!

We were like yes!

so then

native scape garden in the front yard

3-4

raised

13 raised beds and garden…

Nell foster talked about succulents and she was very popluar…

pretty easy

only thing

investigating how big they are gonna get and get big fast and over crowding … that’s my only sugget of wisdom

I think people will like that because if the can only get a few and think it’s gonna

if people think they have a black thumb

here in southern CA

one is bound to survive…

Ill bet yur landlrd is stoked on the curb appeal your adding…

little strip between sidewalk

planted with iris, decorative

kangaroo pond?pot?

different perennials

they stop and say this is beautiful!

It’s nothing, it’s plants people were gonna put in a trash can

The landlord and wife do drive by and they love it getting some TLC

looks like a home!

Irises don’t need as much water, they come up in the srping, so it’s like native landscaping..

totally

that’s why people give up on their yards because its so hot and hard to grow but if you pick the right plants it’s easy!

What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?

I think… it’s about dirt

Dirt the movie

soil is really the key

some things we started that was like why is it not working

you just have to build up the soil every eyar… and It’s not like I am a chemical expert! But the more more life you give

And just not give up

you’re not gonna be successful

this isn’t good to grow here  or your soil isn’t quite right yet!

grow locally!

find out what works best for your area

and experiment

We had neighbors literally 20 feet away… they could not grow tomatoes

they can grow all kinds of things

I can grow tomatoes all day long…

try and experimenting

your yard…

we just

That’s so intersteing… do you share tips?

we just decided to swap food!

That works, that works even better!

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.

so there’s two things you can find

library and inspiration

internet most of the time

if I had to bring something

physical with me, it might be that apron

maybe a basket or my snips…

my apron

most of the things you can do with your bare hands if you need to

find

picking bits of

handful of cherry tomatoes and trying to do other things… but then I’m squishing

trapping them…

if I have an apron… it just keeps…

My friend Dacia has a website Simply Josephine, because she makes these great aprons…

A favorite recipe you like to cook from the garden?

He loves a salad bar! Even if we buy the lettuce, if we’re not growing lettuce a theta time or the grasshoppers have done it…

we can pick all kinds of things

I love tomatoes but my son doesn’t like tomatoes

quick salsa

hell eat the salsa and chips

or fresh pesto

soups

What kind of soup do you make?

last night I made a vegetable soup

a big pot of soup to last all week

chicken tortilla

fennel

lemon and tomaotes and  zucchini

do you grow the fenell? My mom grows fennell…

yeah I do!

I just have one fennel plant…

hack….

When I go to my moms’ that’s always a treat to have fennel in the salad

A favorite internet resource?

Yeah!

I have a bunch of sites

creative vegetable gardener clubs, I love

garden nerd

yours of course….

apple farms

peaceful valley has a lot of  fun videos if you don’t know what your doing like eme.. they’re really usefulll.

Here in san diego we have Susie’s farm, tons of recipes – turnips

what do I do with turnips

just look on their website and there are tons of recipes listed by the vegetable…

Good!

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

I LOVE seed catalogs! I love reading the blurbs and pictures! So inspirational and fun trying to figure out which ones will grow in your area

isn’t really reading

Pinterest!

Pinterst for inspiration!

I love penetrates….

Sarah Henderson recommended the Fedco catalog….

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 most crucial issue I feel, I feel like the issues

over populaiton

climate change

habitat destruction

plastic

all because of over population

personal

any global issue leads back to this

so fro me, the change I would like to see is us getting more back to basics

gardening and organic

minimizing growing native species… growing organically

composting here

it’s a really big thing to collect your water

is a big deal

on top of that

if you love animals and pets get them from shelters

if you really love and want to have children

adoption is the best thing in the universe…

Well coming from somebody’s who’s a wildlife…

Do have any tips, because adopting’s a pretty tough thing…

same as gardening don’t give up the right thing is gonna happen when its supposed to

I really believe that it’s the most wonderful thing….

I always thought that I would adopt my kids….

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

Every experience is an opportunity to learn even if you’re failing your learning..you learn how to do it better next time…

don’t give up let’s try that somewhere else….

try it in a shadier area

grow and feeding ti compost or somethings.. it might come back to life even if you think it’s a goner….

don’t give

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