 Okay, let's wrap up tonight with a talk on tips and tricks of successful gardening. So here to help us grow our greatest garden ever this year is Kelsey Deckert. Kelsey is the NSU Extension Horticulture Agent in Burley County. She educates the public on caring for landscapes and gardens. She's the lead for the local master gardener program and she has a great passion for youth programming. Kelsey, welcome to the forums. Hey, thank you, Tom. Appreciate being here tonight. So I guess we're going to shift gears and move away from trees and go over to gardens. I'm going to go ahead and get my screen shared with you guys and start the PowerPoint. All right, as Tom said, I'm going to visit with you guys tonight about how to be successful with gardening and just how you can be successful in different types of gardens. I would say, you know, I like to say we're past COVID, but it's still a term that's thrown around in everything. And I would say from that, I have had locally a lot of people get into gardening and get interested in gardening. And so I've had a lot of interest in how can you be successful with gardens and what is the best type of garden for different people. So to start off, I would always tell you, like, size does matter. Let's not bite off more than you can chew and consider the time you have to dedicate to a garden. So if anything, it's best to start small and manageable. Think about the location, really what you want to grow, what the light requirements are needed for that plant as well. And I would say that's probably one of the most discouraging things people get started with with their gardens is they take on. They want this really big, large garden. And then they realize, hey, you know what, during the growing season, we also want a camp, we have kids in umpteen sports or different activities. And pretty soon, you know, you have more weeds than you do have produce and that garden gets neglected. So if you're kind of on the fence about between two different sizes, I would say go on the smaller size to start. It's always very helpful to sketch out the outline of your garden. Not only is this going to help for crop rotation in future years, which is important to help manage if you have any insects or pests diseases within there. But sometimes to the labels that we put out in the garden, depending on what kind of label you have, they either get lost or if you're using like a marker or paint or something like that, it can get washed off. So having a plan is also going to help you just especially when those plants start to emerge to be able to differentiate what you have growing where. So I'm going to start off with container gardening. You know, this time of year and everything, we see people getting excited at spring fever forums and especially with the 70 degree weather, people are always itching to kind of get started and decide what route they want to go. And container gardening is a really good option. Any gardener of any level or age can definitely manage a container garden. And so it's even good if you have like limited if you're limited on space, especially people in town or maybe even like an apartment setting. And what's great too is if you have youth, you can always do like a themed garden to help get your youth active within the garden. So I'm going to cover kind of the types of containers, the soil, how to water and then fertilize a container garden to start here. So out there commercially, there is a lot of different containers available. You know, these are probably the two, two mostly widely common containers. You'll see on the left hand of the screen, you'll see a plastic container, which is going to be a great option. Most of these plastic containers have drainage holes and then they're very light. The other option that we see a lot of different ones would be like a terracotta or clay pot, and these are going to be heavier, but they are porous. So that's really nice about them as well. You know, you can also be nifty and crafty and decide to upcycle some sort of container. I have a mother-in-law who uses like mineral tubs that they put out for the cattle and everything to grow tomatoes and everything. So you could look around maybe you're somebody who doesn't want to get rid of things and upcycle a container. But the biggest thing that I would caution you one is you want to make sure to know what was in that container to start. So if there was anything that had chemicals or could be toxic, maybe you want to avoid that container or you need to make sure that it's thoroughly clean to start and then two, depending on what you're utilizing, making sure that it has drainage holes. Drainage holes are always going to be key for container garden. If it doesn't have drainage holes, make sure it is a container that you can put drainage holes in either by drilling holes in, punching holes in or even sometimes using like a hammer and a punch will also help as well. When we look at containers, you know, the question of soil comes up. And so if you're using a container that maybe you're putting on your porch or your balcony, a smaller type container, I would first and foremost tell you that the best option is to to purchase something commercially. That's going to be something that is sterile. So it means that it's weed and disease free. It's also going to be lighter. A lot of times if you try to go ahead and put garden soil within a container, it becomes very compacted and heavy over time. The one thing I would say, though, is if you were doing a raised bed. So I would consider that another type of container. And I personally have raised beds. You know, if you are looking at putting it directly on the ground and it's in the spot that you don't plan on moving, maybe you do look at putting like a topsoil that you have in your yard or a garden soil for that area. Over the time, it's probably going to sink each year an inch or two, so you might have to add more in. But again, if it's in a permanent structure that you don't plan on moving, you could definitely look at utilizing garden soil or topsoil if it's directly on the ground. As far as watering, when we are looking again at like containers that I showed pictures of earlier, they do tend to require more water than a traditional garden that's in the ground. Just as they're not able to hold moisture as well. It's sometimes recommended to water daily if Mother Nature isn't helping us out. And you want to make sure when you are watering that you're watering very thorough so that the water runs all the way through the container and out through the drainage holes. What I always tell people, the best way to check is just doing the field test. So taking your finger going about an inch deep into the soil. If it's moist, you know, hold off a little while. If it's dry, give it a good drink. So fertilizing again, when you're using a commercial mix, there's a lot of different varieties out there, depending on what type of plants you're growing. But fertilizing, this is something with containers. Again, most likely they're going to require fertilizer because they're not going to have those nutrients that are soil in a in-ground garden provide. And so what I would say is look at doing like a water soluble fertilizer and starting out at 50 percent of the recommended amount. And then as those plants grow and everything, you can adjust that amount accordingly. Now, I did mention raised beds. And so one thing that I really like to talk about, especially if you are limited on space is square foot gardening. A lot of reasons of why you can why you would want to go this route, you're going to be able to maximize the space. It's going to be less labor intensive. The setup is extremely simple because you are maximizing the amount of plants you can put in one square foot. You also will have less weeding. It's easier to water. There's going to be no tilling. And then that crop rotation can simply be achieved by moving one square every year with whatever type of family of plants you have. And so here you can see like this is a great again, if you have a raised bed, how easy this setup is measuring that 12 by 12 square foot in there. And with raised beds and containers, the other thing that's really nice about these is if you do have any like physical pains, arthritis or anything like that, this can help alleviate some of that pain too. And that bending over that you would do traditionally in ground garden as well. So this is a chart that's available out there. You know, kind of talking to you about giving you different categorized plants based on their size. So if you'd have something like an extra small plant, you can fit 16 plants into one square foot. If you have smaller plants, it goes to nine, nine plants, medium size. They're going to go to four large is going to go to one. Now it does show extra large, but I'm sure any of you guys who have grown any of these extra large plants know that they take up more than two square foot. And I will say like, again, I have two raised beds at home. Not that I necessarily utilize square foot gardens, but I do grow like zucchini each year in my garden and it's only a 10 by 10. But I always make sure to put the zucchini towards the edge. And so it does trail off and a lot of times when I'm out there mowing, I just literally have to move those vines over while I mow close to that garden. So if we're going to switch gears and we're going to look at now what we can do to be successful with an in ground garden. Again, like I said earlier, let's make sure that we're starting out in probably a smaller garden than a larger garden where it's going to get really discouraging fast. Best watering practices, lawns, gardens, we all require. They all require about an inch of water per week. Again, that's if Mother Nature isn't helping us out. And so it's best to do a long, deep, thorough watering about once a week, getting that one inch of water down. Now you could go ahead and split it up, you know, maybe twice a week and do a half inch at a time. I have a picture of a soaker hose, which is a really good option because when you are watering, regardless if it's in ground or a container, you want to water at the base of the plants. And a soaker hose is going to help you achieve that. The only thing that I would say is a big downfall with a soaker hose is if you do have a larger garden and you do have to move that hose, it definitely can get a little muddy and messy in that garden. So if you don't have that or you don't want that to deal with that mess, just use a regular garden hose and water at the base of the plants. Try to avoid that overhead watering as it will help prevent. It'll help promote disease and also spread disease from the splashing of the irrigation that you have. Now weeding, you know, I visited with a couple of new gardeners in the last few years and some of the struggles that they always talk about is weeding, which I feel like is every garden gardener's problem out there is the weeding. So there's a few different ways to combat this. What I would say is try to be proactive as you see weeds pop up. Go ahead and hand pull them. That'll be your best, but you could also use mulch. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about mulch on the next slide. But we really do want to attack the weeds as they emerge just because weeds can also harbor insects and disease. And so again, it'll help promote a healthy garden and stuff. I always get the question every year, you know, with weeds, especially like creep and Jenny and stuff of, you know, what is the best method for controlling weeds? And so I would say mechanically or cultural is going to be your best option. Chemical is not recommended just due to, you know, you are eating that produce and everything. So sometimes people are like, I just I can't handle it. What can I do? And so if you're if you're really desperate, you could look at spot spraying like glyphosate. I even know of some people who maybe get out like a paintbrush and brush it on some of the weeds. You just have to be careful that the conditions are right when you are utilizing that because you could have drift. And if it gets on any unintended plants, you could have herbicide injuries. So first and foremost, try to get out there and try to try to go ahead and combat them as they appear. Now, I mentioned mulch and mulch is going to be a really good option not only to help with weeds, but it's also going to conserve moisture within the garden. So what do we look at for a mulch? You know, Todd mentioned earlier, no rock mulch. We don't want rock mulch. I can't even imagine gardening with rock mulch, so not an option. You want to look at something organic, whether that's like some wood chips or like people. A lot of times in gardens, we'll use shredded newspaper and that works really well because then, you know, if you do till, you can go ahead and till that in in the fall. Strahd, that that's good as well. I know that I personally like when I'm working with like flower beds and stuff. I like the cocoa bean shells. Not only are they going to be something organic that decomposes really nice, but they're going to be a nice brown in color and have a nice chocolatey smell to them. So I will say the one thing that's disappointing is I used to get those at Minards locally and they don't sell them anymore. So I've been having a harder time finding that. But again, mulch can definitely help. People will utilize using grass clippings as well. And so grass clippings are a good option. But again, there is some area of caution on that, you know, making sure that you haven't sprayed your lawn at all or treated it with herbicide to keep down weeds there. Because again, I've seen too many gardens that people wonder what's going on with their tomato plant that's twisting and tightly curling. And you can see, you know, grass mulch rate along it and those clippings have been treated with some sort of herbicide. So if you've sprayed in your yard, don't go ahead and use those clippings, avoid those clippings. But if you don't spray, you know, that's an option that you can go ahead with. Equipment, equipments can be extremely helpful, especially as a first time gardener or even somebody who is very well experienced. So just not forgetting about some of the tools out there to utilize. So, you know, like having gloves on spades, trowels, hose, those are all good. Even a measuring stick, if you want to measure out your rose. Excuse me, there's so many out there ergonomic gardening tools that can really help people again, who have maybe some physical ailments, whether it's arthritis, joint pain. One of the most popular ones that I would say is really worth your bang for your buck is a garden kneeler. So a lot of times you'll see them. They have handles and you can actually flip them. You pull out the handles, you can flip them. So it's a bench that you can sit on or you can turn it up where there is handles. And then it's got cushion and padding for your knees. And you also got that extra support when you are lifting yourself off of the ground. So again, if you're going to start with gardening or, you know, ways to maybe make gardening a little more enjoyable, take a look at what's out there for equipment to maybe make it less labor intensive for yourself. It's always good to think vertical. Getting those plants off the ground will lessen the number of problems of disease and damage from wildlife. It's going to encourage airflow and sunlight and also reduce the humidity around the plants. Again, just going to help prevent any type of disease, harboring those insects, things like that. So anytime you can get, you know, plants to trellis, stake them up, that is going to be very beneficial. I've seen recently, which I think is pretty cool. A lot of people like trellising cucumbers are using cattle panels to grow and train plants to go up on them. And some I've even went to a homeowner here locally that had some smaller squash growing across a cattle panel that she arched. And she told me she actually found some clips to help train it to clip the vines as they grow. I think she found them online at Amazon. So again, think vertically, try to get those plants up, try to help them get more airflow and sunlight through them. I also tell people it's always beneficial to go ahead and grow recommended varieties. So Tom does every year his home garden variety trials. And he goes back to you guys out there across the state, which are the best varieties for North Dakota gardeners. So go ahead and take a look at that online. And you can see what his recommended varieties are for 2024. The other thing is, is if you are buying seeds, make sure you're buying it from a reliable source. It's also best not to use seed that's been over a year old just because it's not going to be as viable. If you are doing any transplants and you're at the store, look for them that are very healthy looking. Look for those that have grown that aren't small or pale in color. Those are usually going to be like a weaker one. If you do end up with leftover seed, you can store it. I would recommend storing it in like a refrigerator in an airtight container that'll again help keep it till next season and make sure that's in a container that's going to stay dry. And then I also tell people, you know, make sure you're attracting your pollinators. So plant some flowering plants throughout the season. Make sure you have something that's flowering in spring, something that's flowering in mid-summer and fall. And I just have a few listed. There's a lot more out there that are listed that you can go ahead and attract some pollinators. And you can see this was actually a community garden plot. There was some butterfly, both a butterfly and a bee on some zinnias. Now, the other thing besides weeds that can be troublesome is pests. And so again, let's look at some varieties that may be disease and pest resistant. Make sure that you are thinning out properly, that you're keeping those weeds down. You're staying out of the garden when it's wet and that you're rotating your crops. If you do need to utilize pesticides, there are some that are, you know, like low residual, low impact, that are safe and more natural side. So look at using those as an option. And then, of course, follow that label accordingly. That will tell you how to apply and when to apply. Think about the natural enemies. I tend to get this one every so often of what kind of insect this is. And this is a lady, ladybug that we commonly call in a larval stage there. And so again, we have a lot of natural enemies. So maybe before you go ahead and decide to go chemical, think about the cause and effect of using chemicals on that as well. I only have a few more slides here to get through. The other thing that I see here in North Dakota and especially I've had when I like myself, I live out of town or even in some of these community plots, excuse me, are some of these other rodents that are an issue. So rabbits are always going to be a big one along with deer. The ground squirrels can be a problem and pheasants as well. And so the most common to that I hear people wanting to, you know, keep out of the garden is going to be our old bugs bunny friend and the deer Bambi out of there. So there are some plants out there that can deter rabbits and deer. And so here's just a list, very brief. You can, again, look online for some more detailed lists. And I will say, like, it's a great option to look at some of these plants. But however, if you have a rabbit or a deer that's hungry enough, you're not going to stop them from eating something. So just keep that in mind. What I would say is if you have some high valuable plants, plants that you really don't want the deer rabbit, make sure that within your landscape, you're putting them in a high traffic area. If you have a lot of movement, high traffic, that's going to deter the deer and rabbits out of there. I get the question about scare tactics. So, you know, putting up the fake owl, putting tinsel or pie tins, wind chimes in trees or by gardens, does that help? And I really like to say this is kind of a temporary solution. You know, you put it out there. Animals are going to be curious. They're going to stay away for a little bit, but they're also eventually going to get used to this that it's not going to scare them anymore. So probably not the best option out there. There are some different repellents. They're kind of put into two categories, a contact and an area repellent. So contact is going to be applied directly to the plants. It's going to make the plant taste bad. Area is going to be placed in a problem area, and it's going to repel by very bad odor out there and stuff. So I know if anybody's been to Tom's previous talks, he always talks about working at United Tribes College and using like a liquid fence and how that was very useful around like apple trees, and it literally did create a barrier between those trees and the deer coming into them. If we look at the most effective option, it's going to be fence. And so for deer, you want that eight feet high. Woven wire is going to be best. You can also utilize electric fence, but you're going to need several strands. I mean, think of it, deer jump, deer can crawl underneath. So that's why you would need several strands for our bunnies. You're going to want a chicken wire in that chicken wire mesh. So just the diameter between the holes there. You want one inch or less. If you have con tails in the area, you want to go ahead and make that about 24 inches tall. If you got a lot of jackrabbits, go ahead and up that to 36 inches. And then you also want to bury that fence about six inches deep. You know, this is the most effective, but it's probably the most expensive route as well. So just take that into into consideration. And then lastly, before I take any questions here, I just tell people make sure that you are harvesting at peak quality and store things properly. Extension, especially under-use extension. We have a lot of publications out there on preservation and proper storage of different fruits and vegetables. You know, if you are getting towards the end of the year and we have that potential frost, there are a lot of fruits and vegetables, too, that you may be able to go ahead and get harvested before that frost that will ripen off the plant or off the vine. And so like two examples would be like a pumpkin and a tomato. If they have a blusher color, they'll go ahead and ripen off that vine. So with that, I will go ahead and take questions. OK, Kelsey, good. We have a question about using calm manure in container soil. And this gardener added old calm manure to the container. And it really seemed a good good job helping with the growth and health of the plants. So now this person's wondering, should they add more of this old calm manure to the containers? And how do they know how much of organic matter to add to a container? That's a great question. And so to start, I would say, have you been noticing any problems like a reduction in productivity of your plants? If you think it just needs a boost, I would go ahead and start with a soil test and see what your levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are of that soil before going ahead and adding anything additionally. What if it's like in a pot, a container like that? Not a respect, but like a pot. Do you have a recommendation about should they be adding a little bit of manure to a flower pot? You know, if they've done in the past, they haven't seen an issue. The only thing that concerns me is like what state that cow manure is at. You know, if it's very old and composted to the point of being like a soil, then yes. But if it's on the side that maybe not, you know, I would I would definitely be a little more hesitant of adding that. OK, good. How about do you need to rotate plants in a container garden? If it's something that you can do, it definitely can be helpful. You know, sometimes people have their die hard plants that they're going to plant in that container year after year. I would say if you haven't had any problems in there, there's no reason not to plant that again in that container. But if you have the option of doing some rotation, it's it's it's definitely going to help in that sense, if there's ever been any concerns of it. OK, how about are there any flowers that can be used to repel pests, like, for example, the cabbage moth? I don't know of anybody on the cabbage moth or insect wise. I don't know if you do, Tom, but I'm not sure as far as insects, which plants I know people talk about, like in the summertime, you know, what they dub a mosquito plant out there to help with mosquitoes. But that, you know, I don't think there's any research backing that. I was taught that the cabbage moth has such a good sense of scent that it can smell a single cabbage plant a mile away in a forest. That's how strong. And so the key is to just monitor your cabbage. Don't rely on flowers until you see those dancing white moths and then get them with a safe insecticide. OK, how about damping off? Is damping off? Can you get damping off by using a soaker hose? Like if you. So I suppose if they're meaning like they put a transplant in or planted seeds, you could, of course, get that. Anytime you have too much moisture, you can have damping off when you start plants. Yeah, that's especially when the plants are young, right? That's when they're really susceptible to that damping off. So this person is a cocoa bean shell lover like you, but her mulch got all moldy. What happened? Interesting. You know, it could be a little bit too much moisture in that area. I would say one thing that would be beneficial on that is just like at the end of the season, like raking that area, too, just to promote a little bit of the turnover in there. But I would say just towards the bottom, I probably had a little bit too more too much moisture and stuff. And when you rake it, it smells good, right? Smells like chocolate. So I like the smell of it. Bonus. How about this person likes using straw mulch on tomatoes and the rest of the garden, but the weeds can still go through the straw. So how often you put down straw in the summer? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, you don't want it, you know, building up or being too thick. You know, it depends on how much you're putting on, I suppose, to start on what that weed control is. And, you know, an organic mulch isn't going to say that you're not going to have any weeds to start. You definitely can still get weeds. And so as those weeds again emerge, I would try to go ahead and just cultivate them, pick them out. That's right. How about you have a feeling about a landscape fabric in a garden? Yeah, so some people will utilize that in like a no till situation. It works really nice. It works really good for a weed barrier. The only thing on my own personal end that I would be hesitant is, is I've done that in situations. And, you know, if you go to remove that landscape fabric, you might have some friends that pop out as you're removing it. And I don't like voles or mice, so that is not for me. How about you like slugs? Does anybody like slugs? I think they could be edible. I'm not sure. But do you have an idea about how do you control slugs? Yeah. So there's some different products out there directed definitely for slugs. I think one of them is like sluggle. You know, you can always do baits and get a pie tin out there, put it at level ground and then pour in some old beer, like you like to say, and it'll attract them and they'll have a happy life on the way out they go. Yeah, if you have to drown, that's probably a good way to drown. But don't waste your beer on a slug. Use like slug or iron phosphate is a good, is a good safe way to control slugs. How about have you ever grown a rosemary plant? I have not. I've never, I've grown them, but I've never tried to survive winter with them. But this person grew rosemary in an 18 inch plastic planter. And they, when they grew it, they sunk it into the ground such that the plant was still 12 inches above ground. So it was kind of halfway buried. And then as a winter approach, she lifted it out of the garden and put it in an unheated garden shed for the winter. So do you think it might survive and come back next year and bloom? Might sounds like a good, good experiment. She's trying. She should report back to us and let us know. Yes, we expect a full report next year at Spring Fever. Yeah, I think it might work. Is you have a good time here to add manure to the garden? Yes, a lot of times people will look at, you know, either fall or spring. And I would say those are kind of the most important times people want to add in like a compost, you know, fertilizer they might do later. But again, Miner, I would probably just do it in the spring if you're tilling up the area or in the fall until it in. OK, we got a few questions on mulching here. Can you use dry leaves as a mulch in a vegetable garden? I don't see why not. There you go. And I think something that's kind of like like oak leaves, I think it'd be especially good because it's a little bit aerated, whereas a maple leaf might melt down a little bit. How about you have a feeling about pine needles? Can we use pine needles for mulch? Yeah, so people always have the question about, you know, like pine needles killing off things and changing the acidity of the soil and everything. It takes a lot of pine needles and a lot of years for them to sit on the surface to change that acidity or that soil pH. I don't think I mean, I don't again, seem of reason why you wouldn't or you couldn't utilize them, but. I don't know. Do you have an opinion on that one, Tom? Yeah, I think, first of all, why I think the pine tree wants those needles. So don't take that's the first thing. So why do you take them away from the pine tree? Because that's your organic fertilizer for the pine tree. And I need those. They in a garden or they can they can be used for mulch, but they're not going to cause much harm to or they're not going to acidify the ground negligible, negligible. So forget about, don't worry about that. But here's about another mulch. How about we think about those rubber mats that you wrap around trees? Ever seen those? Yeah, I have. And, you know, to get started, I think that's great, especially if you're putting like a bare root tree. But as that tree grows and everything, it's going to eventually get to the point that you got to remove it. So to help get it established and started, I think it's fine. But once your tree starts to get closer to where it's the diameter of that hole, it's starting to get close to that, remove it. Yeah, as you say, like the natural mulches are the way to go, not the unorganic. Yeah. How about any secret recipe to grow carrots in a raised garden? Like you ever use those pre seeded strips to sell carrots? I have not. I've done carrots in my raised bed and I just directly seed them. But I also like my raised bed that I have at home. I do the short ones. I do short carrots in there. And they germinate with no problem. They germinate with no problem. The hardest thing about carrots is thinning them, you know, so many seeds. So it's definitely if you have, there are like some little tools out there again that are like you can put seeds in and it controls the amount of seeds that come out as you seed them and sow them in. That might be an option, but I don't have that. I just directly seed out my place. You've got a green thumb. There's a lot of people who sell carrots and it just doesn't germinate because they take they can take more than two weeks to germinate. And they're so shallow when you sow them. So you have to just have to keep moisture there. Maybe some people put like some plastic, like black plastic or or a board, a wooden board over top so it maintains some moisture or maybe some organic matter on top or, you know, you talk about spacing the carrot seeds. There are pelleted carrot seeds out there and commercial growers do that. But you have to make sure the soil moisture stays consistent. Otherwise, the web prongs with the pelleted seeds germinating. On this read the question. Do you know of a good site for a high bed planter? Must be like to buy it or where's a good place to put it? Or where's a good website site? Yeah, like is it a location? Oh, you know, again, online, you can find a lot of options as far as raised beds and and everything or like doing yourself kits out there. How about some raised bed materials that you recommend that I would recommend? You know, people always ask every year about treated wood. No problem going out there with treated wood. That's what mine are that I did. And I have one that's a vegetable and one that's flour. So treated wood is going to be a great option just in the sense that we are in North Dakota and we have a lot of different weather patterns and stuff. So it's going to be durable and long lasting. You know, I've seen some raised beds that are used like the corrugated tin that look really nice. People will utilize that. That looks good. I would say whatever you kind of look at different, there is a lot of different materials and it just depends on maybe what you're accomplishing. Good. OK, that's all our questions. So thanks, Kelsey. It was great talk. Really learned a lot. We're going to have a great time this year. I'm inspired now.