Just Grow It: The Podcast by Big City Gardener

Spring gardening season will be here, in zone 9, in around 5 weeks. It’s time to get those starts going ✌🏾

This little harvest may be nothing to you, but harvesting these summer squash is everything to me right now. I haven’t grown summer squash during the spring or summer for the past five years because I hate dealing with the squash vine borer. But I said I was going to do things differently this year, and I decided to try growing squash again and check it out. I’m harvesting squash every other day from all the plants around my garden.

I planted two citrus trees last fall, but only one survived our Texas “winter.” Ha, can I even call it winter? The one that survived is an Owari satsuma. I always plant this variety because my dad had one in our backyard as a kid. We used to get so much fruit that I would hand people Albertsons plastic bags full of fruit—the good old days. Water sprouts or suckers grow from below the graft union on fruit trees. They are branches that develop from the rootstock of the grafted tree. It is best to remove them because they will take water and nutrients from the tree, not to mention that they are usually covered with thorns. So, if you see weird-looking branches that don’t match the rest of the tree, it is best to cut them off and remove them. Now go and plant some fruit trees.

The most productive gardens I ever had, I regularly feed them compost tea, comfrey tea, or castings tea every other week. I will get back to that this year, but before I can start, I need to build my vortex brewer. Now, you will hear many different thoughts about brewing compost teas. Some people will say aerobic is better than anaerobic and vice versa. I’m not here to tell you one is better than the other because I have had highly productive gardens using both methods. I’m just here to tell you that your garden and wallet will thank you if you start feeding it different garden teas.

Comfrey is one of the most valuable plants you can grow in your garden. Comfrey has many benefits, and all pollinators love its purple flowers. Still, more importantly, they can help cut down on your gardening costs because you can use the leaves to make your natural fertilizer. Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator, which means it absorbs nutrients from deep in the soil and stores these nutrients in its leaves. When you soak the leaves to make your liquid fertilizer, you extract the nutrients from the leaves. I like to plant comfrey around my fruit trees, but you can grow it anywhere in your garden. Just be careful with your plant variety because some tend to spread. I am growing Bocking 14 from @marco_is_growing

If you’re an urban gardener like myself or you’re just short on growing space, one of the best ways to maximize your yield and get the most from your growing spaces is by growing vertically. Here are a few plants that can be grown vertically *Squash *Cucumbers *Watermelon *Peas *Beans *Tomatoes *Cantaloupe This year, I’m making sure to use all of the space within my garden. Man, it feels good putting the first tomatoes of the season in the ground.

This backflow preventer has been broken since a freeze in January. Now that it’s warming up outside, I guess it’s time to fix it. I wish this bonnet were not made of plastic because this is the third time that I’ve fixed this exact piece. You figure I would’ve learned my lesson by now and made sure I drained my sprinkler system before the freeze, but nope, here I am again for the third time changing the same piece. Hey, at least it works now. I love using my @hoselinkusa to water my garden, but the hotter it gets, the less I want to hand-water it.

I try not to apply fertilizer until after the fruit tree flowers, or I see new growth. Once I see the flowers or new growth, I know that the fruit tree has used the remaining nutrients from the previous winter. So, waiting until I see these signs to apply fertilizer helps ensure that the fruit trees consistently have the nutrients they need to reward me with bushels of fruit. I like to use a mix of organic granular fertilizer followed by a liquid fertilizer to drench the soil. This way, the liquid fertilizer can quickly supply the fruit tree with the necessary nutrients, and the organic granular fertilizer can break down and slowly feed the tree for the next few months. Go plant that tree!