Beyond the Garden Basics

Every Monday, paid subscribers get exclusive, first looks about various garden topics, such as today’s. Just one of the benefits for paid subscribers. Thank you for your support!When you live in a hot area of USDA Zone 9, where it gets over 100 degrees in the summer, and you want a fresh salad… you can forget about growing lettuce and spinach, at least most of them, because at some point they’re...

In today’s podcast, nurseryman and Japanese maple expert Chris Aycock of El Dorado Nursery provides the basics for Japanese maple care, especially in the summer months.Chris focuses on growing Japanese maples in different climates, explaining that the main factor is matching varieties to local conditions and caring for them appropriately.For hot valley areas, he says mulch is very important to...

Thanks for being a paid subscriber to Beyond the Garden Basics!No time to listen to today’s podcast (above) with Ed Laivo? Here’s a summary. And below that, the actual transcript, with pictures, links, and music!* Don’t expect a seed-grown peach to match the parent. Genetics are unpredictable. There’s a 70–90% chance the fruit will be disappointing or the tree won’t produce at all.* Check whether...

In today’s podcast (above), we talk with renowned pepperhead Dave DeWitt, author of several hot pepper books. We talk hot pepper basics, and Dave adds advice on how to overwinter your hot pepper plants for a second year of growth (and heat!). We have a complete, human-corrected transcript of the podcast towards the bottom of today’s newsletter. Short of time? Here are the main points from today’s...

Bullet Points from the Podcast, “The Best Roses for Cut Flowers”* Always cut long stems, not just the spent bloom. Snipping only 1-2 inches when deadheading causes the plant to push out short, crooked replacement growth; cutting deep into the cane produces another long stem.* Make cuts just above a five-leaflet leaf (not a three-leaflet one), and choose a node pointing outward from the bush’s...

I just finished pruning my blueberry plants. In July.WHAT?!? Aren’t you supposed to prune them in the winter?It depends.It depends on where you live, the type of blueberry plant you are growing, and whoever’s advice you want to follow. For the sake of reliability, we concentrate on the advice from University Extension publications from throughout the country in our zone by zone breakdown, below....

Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive exclusive posts and complete access to past editions , consider becoming a paid subscriber.Today’s podcast interview focuses on consulting arborists and how they help property owners evaluate tree health. Gordon Mann explains that a consulting arborist provides independent inspections, identifies problems such as leaning,...

Today’s newsletter podcast is a special treat for readers and listeners of the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter/podcast who might also be weather nerds…and what gardener isn’t? It’s an interview with climate scientist Daniel Swain, who, besides being a University of California Ag and Natural Resources employee at the California Institute for Water Resources, is well known on social media....

You may recall a couple of weeks ago on June 12, the Beyond the Garden Basics podcast featured myself and America’s Favorite retired horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, talking about protecting your outdoor plants in containers from the searing summer heat. That conversation was recorded during a live presentation at the 2023 Harvest Day festivities, put on by the Sacramento County, California...

Today’s newsletter is all about starthistle, and all the ways you can control this summer weed…organically. If you want to read about chemical controls for starthistle, check out this University of California Ag and Natural Resources publication, “Yellow Starthistle”.In today’s podcast (above), America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor and I talk about the chemical side of weed...