Gardening Where You Are | Container Methods vs. Established Ground Beds

Maggie (00:02.109)
If your garden doesn't look perfect right now, you may actually be doing it right. Welcome to Women Folk Revival. I'm Maggie.

Meara (00:12.834)
and I'm Mira. And that threw me off for some reason. Today we are discussing gardens. Last week we touched on herbs and the natural ones that grow in your yard. So today we're going to talk about what's in our garden. Today is April. Yes. The ones you're not planting from a seed pack. Since it is the first nearing the first of

Maggie (00:17.176)
Today we are discussing gardens.

Maggie (00:30.454)
They're all natural.

Maggie (00:36.769)
You

Meara (00:42.672)
the week of April, it should be the average last frost in Southern Ohio, which is usually around the 15th, the 19th. I wanted to mention that we are in zone 6B. This zone tells you the hardiness of your plants and what your season's gonna be like. So we are in Southern Ohio and my temptation to plant everything was huge, especially a few weeks ago when it was like 80 degrees outside.

but you have to be patient. It's still prepping week. I lost my mind planting my bean seeds weeks ago and I literally thought they were going to be dead. But the other day when I went outside, there was some actually growing. So I guess it really just, it really just depends. It'll just be a trial run for us.

Maggie (01:31.983)
And it also depends too on where your seeds are from. If they're from a location which the zone is similar to ours, then it's been in growing conditions like ours and will do better. So even if you buy seeds, let's say I buy seeds from California, which is extremely different than here in Ohio.

Meara (01:43.024)
Meara (01:48.934)
I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

Meara (01:59.333)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (02:00.654)
The first year I would need to be very careful with them. If I collect seeds from those plants that grow that first year, they will be better suited for this climate. And then the following year, they'll be even more better suited for this climate because they're gonna gradually adjust to their environment.

Meara (02:14.172)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (02:22.012)
to their climate. So my question for you is then if we're purchasing seeds out of a seed packet, how are we able to tell where they are from?

Maggie (02:33.422)
I guess it depends on how you purchase your seeds. If you're just going to a Lowe's or somewhere like that, I would think they would have that information on the packet. But if not, then I would look up each individual brand and they should tell you where they're located. I generally get my seeds. I sometimes go to Burpee. I like rare seeds. I like strictly medicinal.

Meara (02:54.96)
Okay.

Maggie (03:02.718)
They're in Oregon. And then I think rare seeds is in Missouri, I think. I'm not positive. And then I like Everwild, and that's California. But again, the more seeds you collect from your plants, the better they're going to do the following year.

Meara (03:26.268)
Right. That makes sense. Uh, we had to make a tough call this year. Um, our company that owns our house, the, they sprayed our ground, our yard a few weeks back. So we have to pivot from growing in the ground to baskets and hanging baskets. So I was going to do tomatoes this year. Uh, I wanted to dig a hole in the ground, put the bucket around it.

put a PVC pipe in the ground and water it from the bottom up. And then if it like, you know, gets cold or something, you can just take a piece of wood and cover over the bucket so that it doesn't get frostbite. But unfortunately, to be safe, we have decided to just use the, just a bucket. And we're gonna have to figure out how to use that to water from the bottom up and see how that, how that goes.

One thing I know, tomatoes don't like their leaves to get wet. Top watering your tomatoes is a magnet for leaf disease. So this keeps the leaves dry and the roots hydrated.

Maggie (04:36.76)
A lot of plants will be like that and powdery mildew will be more likely if you do that. It's best to water the ground. It's best to water in the morning.

Meara (04:41.169)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (04:47.94)
Yeah. Yes, because if you water in the night, then it'll cause rotting and...

mildew and all that stuff. So yeah, and I like the PVC pipe idea and watering that way because it's like an ivy for your tomatoes. But unfortunately we can't do that this year. Another thing we're gonna do is strawberries. I'm gonna have my husband build me a a wooden stand. I'm gonna put a hook and.

We're still in talks, but I'm probably also gonna cover it because we have squirrels and birds that we are contending with. We love to feed nature. That's like our number one thing is just sitting there and watching the birds and the squirrels. There's this one squirrel, actually I'm going off topic. He has like not even half a tail and barely any ears and we call him Nubbins. So I kid you not, we look out for that squirrel like every day, like, there's Nubbins. He comes and gets his food and stuff.

know, contending with animals, contending with nature, especially if you like to feed the animals and the squirrels, will definitely be in your garden and trying out those amazing plants and vegetables that you have. So I'm gonna cover that.

Maggie (06:10.605)
We struggle with that a lot here. We have groundhogs out the wazoo. Our yard and the surrounding land is paradise for groundhogs and there's just no getting away from that. We have cats and they keep the moles and yeah, and rabbits, chipmunks.

Meara (06:11.772)
Ahem.

Meara (06:19.132)
Ugh.

Meara (06:28.262)
Yeah.

Meara (06:34.21)
smaller ones. Chipmunks! Chipmunks! I despise chipmunks! They're everywhere! Yeah, they get into everything.

Maggie (06:39.661)
And we've got a lot of rabbit. We don't have a lot of squirrels. Squirrels on our property are hunting practice for our kids. And then we feed them to the cats. So they're not being killed for no reason. They end up serving a purpose. But we just don't have...

Meara (06:47.356)
We have rabbits.

Maggie (07:08.173)
Oddly, we're surrounded by woods, but we just don't have a lot right here. I love birds, but they're kept in check by the cats. Our cats are outdoor. They're wild cats. So they do a lot of hunting.

Meara (07:20.048)
Barn cats.

Meara (07:25.296)
The safekeeping, yeah, we don't have cats, obviously, we're here, suburb area, so just outside the city, but I was just amazed at how those little creatures work. Sometimes we take our birds outside and when, not one, a couple times I went outside and there was a chipmunk in the bottom of my bird's cage, mouth full of bird seed, and I'm like, what are you doing? And they will eat birds if, you know, they get a chance, even though, yeah. So at our old house, we were watching, they reeked havoc.

Maggie (07:49.463)
chat box.

Go!

Really?

Meara (07:55.194)
at our old house. Yes, and there was, we were watching, we heard all these birds squawking and we look out the window and there was a chipmunk with a bird in its mouth and shoved it in a hole and what I said, I didn't think chipmunks ate birds. And when I looked it up, it says that is not their diet, but they will eat a bird. And so when I saw them in the bird cage, I panicked. Those silly little things, they get in our porch because the, you know, the screened in porches, I guess my kids.

pushed too hard and there was like a hole in the bottom of the screen so they come in that way. anyways, off topic, but yeah, so it's, you you have to find ways around keeping animals at bay, especially in a situation where we don't have cats and we don't have dogs and we don't have any of those things without having to, I don't want to kill them if I don't need to. I mean, I'm sharing the space with the animals. I'm not gonna just, you know, off an animal, but.

Maggie (08:46.413)
Sure, as are we to an extent, yeah.

Meara (08:49.124)
Yeah, okay. So moving on, so we're gonna try strawberries this year and see what's going on with that. We do have those bags that we discussed last week in last week's episode. Yes, and we have four apple trees, two of which came dead pretty much, but I planted them anyway to see what's going on. And then I have two thriving, a Fuji and a Macintosh. And then we also have a blueberry bush.

Maggie (09:00.493)
planting bugs.

Meara (09:14.958)
in one of those bags that I'm actually going to transfer into a larger one because it's getting a little bit bigger and I just want to leave it for a while and not keep having to move it from bag to bag. Little fun fact, they don't like manure and I love to use manure for everything when I plant. It's just too acidic for them. we use, you know, we'll use mulch and leaves and stuff to cover it on top as well. And we actually had some blueberries coming off of it last year and we just got it last year. So it was pretty interesting and fun.

Maggie (09:40.909)
Thanks.

Meara (09:43.79)
So that and then I will be creating this year an above ground. We told them to stop spraying. We already have an above ground garden and we're already preparing that. I am going to start my migraine bin pharmacy. I get really bad migraines once every month due to my hormones, but just recently did I start getting cluster headaches on top of that and I unfortunately had to go back on

a medication, pharmaceutical, to keep them at bay because my magnesium wasn't working. doing a little bit more research, we already had Tulsi, which is holy basil last year. It's an adaptogen and I loved it. I dried it. I made tea with it. I gave some to Maggie. She probably threw it away. No, I'm just kidding. Did you use some of it? Yeah, it tastes really good actually.

Maggie (10:34.189)
No, I used it, nice of a habit. I did.

Meara (10:41.4)
Since many migraines, yes, many migraines actually can be triggered by cortisol spikes or physical stress. When you use Tulsi, it acts as an adaptogen to keep your nervous system level. And it, it, it'll also provide like a base for this blend that I'm creating. So one last thing about Tulsi. Last year, my, my, my, one of my daughters, Naila, she went over and they like,

Maggie (10:41.921)
I like toasting them.

Meara (11:10.318)
eating the basil leaves, well they asked if they could have some Tulsi. And I said, sure, you can take some Tulsi leaves. So they took the leaves and they ate them. And she kept wanting to eat the leaves. And I said, now wait a minute, I know you can have some, but I wasn't quite sure about how many a child could have. And I was looking it up and it was saying that it also acts as an anti-pyretic, meaning if you have a fever, it helps bring the temperature down. Little did I know that she was actually running a fever.

So this makes me believe that children are more understanding of what their body needs when it comes to things that are growing in the ground. And I can't find the right word for it. Intuitive, they're more intuitive about what their body needs when they're sick. And I just thought it was the neatest thing. So we're gonna be growing that again. And alongside it, we'll be growing a fever view. It contains parthenolide.

Maggie (11:52.386)
Hmm.

Meara (12:06.074)
And that helps prevent spasms of the blood vessels that also might cause pain from the migraine. They say that it's best used to help on a regular basis for prevention rather than a rescue medication when you already have it. So I was gonna mix that in with the Tulsi. And then the other one I was going to do is lemon balm. It's very bitter. It's almost like a medicine.

but it also makes the tea drinkable. And it also has anti-anxiety properties and nerve-soothing properties, which is also good because we have five kids on our home. So I'll be growing those together.

Maggie (12:47.693)
And that you're gonna and that you're gonna grow these in containers but lemon balm especially you would want to do because it's part of the mint family and it will

Meara (12:58.748)
grow, yeah, that's why I'm gonna put it, yeah, I'm not gonna do them in containers, I'm gonna do my above ground bins that didn't get the, I feel like it'll be okay because I still have yet to add the dirt and stuff, I mean, I know the underground, I don't think it really affects much. I am gonna cover it with a greenhouse cover also to protect from.

Maggie (13:00.373)
at all.

Meara (13:26.394)
things outside. I'll just leave the cover open if I don't get the clear one.

Maggie (13:30.017)
You know, here's the thing too. Unfortunately, you know, if you do live in an area with a sprayed yard or near another person's yard where they spray, it's not just, and that's not just the only place. So we don't use any of that stuff here in our property, but we are kind of surrounded by farmland. And you know, the planes fly over our house to spray on these farmlands.

Meara (13:32.902)
during the day.

Meara (13:41.532)
you're gonna get it.

Meara (13:49.968)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (13:56.846)
And I'm just thinking how much of that is coming back over to art properly. And then you have to think about all those chemtrails too and what they're putting in the air up there that will only find its way down here through just winds and then rain.

Meara (13:56.858)
Right.

Meara (14:00.358)
crust contamination.

Meara (14:18.203)
Right.

Maggie (14:19.479)
We're kind of, no matter how careful you are, we're always gonna be exposed to something, but you're still better off doing it yourself.

Meara (14:23.984)
to something, sure.

Right, right. Okay, so that is what we are doing in our yard this year. And as things happen, we will take video and pictures so that we can get them up on Facebook so that you all know that we're really doing it. We're not just talking it. So.

Maggie (14:42.605)
And you know, if you are antsy like Mira to start growing things, there are things that you can grow right now. I have radishes that are already popping up and I also planted, let's see, turnips and beets.

Meara (14:50.31)
Whoops.

Maggie (15:03.765)
And those will be popping up too. There are cool weather crops that like to grow in colder weather and can withstand some frost. And those are great examples. Carrots are another one that you can start right now. then brassicas, I think all brassicas are cool weather crops as well. They like the cooler temperatures.

Meara (15:25.828)
What's up? What's that?

Maggie (15:29.277)
So that's your broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts. I don't know. I'm also doing, I can't tell you every single brassica, but I can tell you all the ones that I'm starting in my greenhouse that like cooler weather. But because we do things a little differently here on our property.

We are, I don't hear that, we are working with an entire ecosystem. So our, we have a living yard and that's because, like I mentioned in the last episode, we kill our grass and we let weeds come in and do their thing. And they're great to have. They keep minerals in the soil. They keep the ground covered and keep it cool and keep it moist.

And you have your clover which adds nitrogen. So all these things are doing things for our soil and making it better for for growing food. And they'll keep out the you know the other there are weeds that you don't want in your garden. There's a lot of invasive stuff going around that you don't want either. So these native native weeds are doing a really good job at combating the the invasive ones if you let them grow.

Meara (16:34.364)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (16:53.267)
So I also have started Swiss chard and artichoke, cabbage, don't know if I said cauliflower, all kinds of different things. And those I am starting in the greenhouse just so they can get established and be able to compete with the weeds that I already have growing.

Meara (17:00.004)
Mmm.

Meara (17:12.956)
Mm-hmm.

You

Maggie (17:20.703)
So, you know, and it's less prep that we have to do having these weeds in our garden. And it's great, you know, the dandelion, the root is deep and it brings up nutrients. So all these things work together for your benefit. That's why it's so.

Meara (17:32.526)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Maggie (17:41.014)
It's so agonizing to me how much time people spend on trying to get rid of these things and all the poison they put down trying to get rid of these things. And it's all there to help you, whether you think about it medicinally or nutritionally or ecologically or even for growing your own food at home, you know, it's good for your soil health. So any way you look at it,

Meara (17:47.206)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (17:58.929)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (18:07.639)
from a real, you know, natural perspective, it's good for you. It's only from man's perspective where it's bad, you know. So.

Meara (18:09.084)
Ahem.

Meara (18:16.89)
Yeah, I did want to, I did want to throw in there real quick that, Maggie is very well established and very knowledgeable. Like she said the other day, there's still so much more she, she needs to learn that she's not that knowledgeable. But to me, she's like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to these things. So I lean heavily on her, on your advice for when it comes to stuff like this, because you already know a lot of stuff. So I just want to, with that being said, let everyone know that.

It doesn't matter if you just start are thinking about starting today or you're already well seasoned, which by the way, we do have a Facebook page. can go, on and, and we, we love information. Like we starve for information. So anything, anybody has information wise, what you do for your garden, how you keep it going, what zone you're in. We would love to hear from you. Maybe even come on our show and talk with, with.

Maggie (19:15.341)
Yeah.

Meara (19:15.95)
us about it. We would love that. what I was getting at is I'm not as seasoned and it's very intimidating because growing up I never had a green thumb. I never, could plant, I could plant a completely hearty healthy plant and it would die the next day. Now I'm just now realizing how simple it is when you have that active intention for wanting things to grow and being grateful and thankful.

It's really not that hard. But yeah, I'm just starting and it's fun because the kids are also involved. And if you don't have kids, get your mom involved, you know, if you don't, you know. So I just wanted to say that.

Maggie (20:01.741)
And I will say too, and I probably sound like a broken record here, but when you work with nature, you will get better results. And sometimes it's spending time out there and just getting to know it. We felt like we were struggling for years to do everything we wanted to do and when we just kind of let nature take over.

Meara (20:13.468)
For sure.

Meara (20:32.132)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (20:32.311)
we're still able to grow things and we're growing things better. And I found, you know, we had a bed that we typically grow our garlic in and it's being overtaken by Yaro and come to find out that Yaro's not gonna hurt the garlic at all, you know, and they grow perfectly fine together. So it's amazing how nature will always, it'll just work harmoniously, you know, so don't.

Meara (20:48.86)
Mm-hmm.

Meara (21:00.06)
A bit of symbiosis, if you will.

Maggie (21:02.103)
Huh? Yes. Believe it or not, nature knows what it's doing. So don't fight it so much and don't take it so seriously. You don't have to have impeccable gardens and all the glitz and gadgets. It can be very simple. look at the Amish. They don't have all the glitz and glamour and all the...

Meara (21:09.336)
It does. It does.

Meara (21:29.563)
Mm-hmm.

Maggie (21:30.239)
you know, everything involved, but they survive on the food that they grow. They do everything from the ground up, you know, and they've been doing it for, humans have been doing this for thousands of years. It's not, you know, it's not rocket science, whatever that is.

Meara (21:37.816)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meara (21:45.372)
Yeah.

Meara (21:49.734)
Well for some it is like... me. Here we go.

Maggie (21:54.655)
It's getting to know nature and the way it works. And you know, it's just experience. And like I said, my husband and I thought we were failing every year, but we are learning so much. And every year you do better and better. And sometimes, you know, the weather's crazy and unpredictable and you have droughts and other things that you're working with, but it's all...

It's all learning and you'll find surprises that pop up during those times too that end up benefiting you.

Meara (22:30.747)
Yeah, well.

You will.

Maggie (22:34.122)
And I do want to say too, you know, especially, you know, I talked so heavily much about chickweed, but that's also a great living mulch. So you can have that growing all around your garden beds and it's not going to, you know, especially if your plants are already established. Like I talked about, you know, starting them in a greenhouse or something like that.

then they'll work wonderfully for keeping anything else from growing there. And you know, you don't have to go out and buy mulch either. Here we, the grass that we do have, we cut and we put grass clippings down and that works as a mulch. And we've got tons of leaves and we put leaves everywhere. And I will say too, our property is surrounded by black walnuts. Black walnuts contain,

Meara (23:17.786)
leaves we do that we do that yeah

Maggie (23:32.087)
a chemical, guess a natural chemical or whatnot, called Jiu, Jiu-Yu Long, something like that. And it can keep other plants from growing, but we use those leaves and a mix of others on all of our garden beds and we've never had any issues. So leaves and grass are a great alternative to buying mulch.

Meara (23:56.765)
Okay. It's a lot. It's a lot of information. But when you get out there and you start digging around and messing in the garden, you're like, I want to try this. Just do it. Just try it. Even if you're like, I don't know what I'm doing. Just try it. It never hurts. We have a greenhouse. We start doing our seeds in as well. I just decided to do that direct sow back when it was 80 degrees outside and we'll see what happens.

Maggie (23:59.639)
That's a lot.

Maggie (24:09.43)
Just try it.

Maggie (24:21.674)
And some things are best for direct sewing, but you need to wait for the appropriate time to do that. But there's plenty to grow right now.

Meara (24:30.182)
This is true. This is true. All right. There is. Well, the beautiful thing about being a village is that you don't have to grow everything yourself because you, Maggie, with your traditional beds, you know, with your radishes and beets and Swiss chard and all that, will be able to trade off a lot of things. Well, maybe.

tomatoes if they grow, if my beans grow and my strawberries. That's another good thing about creating a village is, you know, they'll more than likely be growing things that you don't have. So you can always do trade-offs with Swiss chard and strawberries. so yeah, so whether you're drilling holes in buckets this weekend or just hanging a few strawberry pots on your porch, remember that every small shift, like moving away from sprayed soil,

is a win for your family's future. It's about being the gatekeeper of your own home. Now next week we're gonna move from the garden beds into the heart of our home and we're gonna get a bit personal talking about natural routines that keep us going. We're gonna dive into skincare we trust, supplements that aren't just fillers and everyday products we use to keep our homes clean without the chemicals. We're gonna look at how to bring the back to basics wisdom into every single room of the house.

So you don't need a homestead to live intentionally. You just need the right tools and a little bit of village support. So with that being said, until then.

Maggie (26:05.868)
Stay rooted and stay wild.

Meara (26:08.443)
Stay wild.