 Hello everyone, my name is Julie Gardner Robinson and I am your host for the 2022 field of work webinar series brought to you by North Dakota State University Extension. This is the seventh year we have done the series and we're so glad you joined us today. We know you're all anxiously awaiting springtime and gardening season, or maybe that's just me, or maybe it's the entire Midwest. The next slide shows our upcoming webinars. On February 23rd, Tom Keld, extension horticulturalist for NDSU will provide tips on growing a great vegetable garden. On March 2nd, Barb Ingham, professor and extension food safety specialist from Wisconsin will provide guidance on good gardening practices for safe and healthy produce. We certainly hope that you can join us for both of those and all the remaining webinars. The next slide shows the webinar controls. Because of our large number of participants in the whole series we have over 500 registered. We invite you to post your comments in the chat box. So please find the chat box and we're going to practice. Click to open the chat and please type your city and state in the chat. City and state we want to know where you're coming from. And as you work on that, as this slide shows I have a special request. This program is sponsored in part with grant funding from USDA's agricultural marketing service. I will ask all of you to complete the short online survey that will be emailed right after today's webinar. Thank you. I have many prizes for the lucky winners of the random drawings that we will do weekly. Be sure to put your complete address on the follow up form, including your city, state and zip code. And with that, I am very pleased to introduce Don Kinsler as our first speaker in the series. Don is a native of Lisbon, North Dakota, and he graduated from NDSU with a degree in horticulture. He and his wife operated a garden center in Fargo for 25 years. A lifelong gardener, Don is the extension agent for horticulture in Cass County. He writes two weekly newspaper gardening columns and has weekly radio programs on two stations during the growing season. His wife live in Fargo. So thank you, Don, for joining us today. And I look forward to all the beautiful pictures in your presentation. Well, thank you, Julie, and welcome everyone. And I am excited today because we get to talk about vegetables. And the fun thing about this is that no matter what size space you've got, we can all grow vegetables, whether you've got a lot, a lot of space or just a very tiny space. There's lots of good fresh produce. And, you know, vegetables are so healthy. And that's one of the advantages of growing them yourself because research has shown that people that grow their own vegetables eat more fresh vegetables. And they are as fresh as you can get. You can't beat the homegrown. And if we do some small space gardening, like we're going to talk about, the vegetables are available right at your back door. You know, it's fun. It's fun to see what you can get to grow. So there's a certain element of fun and challenge. And of course, gardening is good exercise, even if you're doing a small space on your patio or balcony. It is good exercise. You're stretching, you're bending, you're stooping and all the good things. So in today's program, I want to give us the best tips to get the most production from our small space garden. So a small space garden could be a patio, a balcony, a deck, or maybe you've got a very small yard that you can have a few planter boxes in. And so all of these tips will apply to that. All of the same tips that we use apply to whether you're doing a traditional big garden or a small space garden, the similar type things apply. So now on the photo to the left, that is my wife and I's garden in South Fargo. We use practically half the yard I think in vegetable gardening. On the right hand side, my daughter has a smaller space. So she does small space gardening and the production that you can get from a small space is dynamic. You know, I waste a lot of space foot for foot, you can get more out of a small space than you can a larger garden. So let's go through some of the key points in getting as much out of your small space as possible. So first of all, we need to size up the location. So now if you have a deck or balcony or a spot in your backyard. Take some time here this spring and size up that location. Primarily check to see how much sunshine and sometimes we take that for granted so you actually have to kind of physically watch it a couple of times throughout the day, maybe on a weekend when you're home. So if you have six to eight hours when the sunshine is directly on that area, that's considered full sun. But if it has four to six hours that's considered part sun part shade. And if the direct sunshine only hits that area for less than four hours, that's considered that you're going to be gardening in the shade. So much of what you grow is going to depend on your location and how much sunshine you have. Now, in addition to the sunshine that I mentioned, we're going to see that certain vegetables require more sunshine. Vegetables that are produced from flowers require full sunshine. Now, if we think about that, tomato, pepper, squash, cucumbers, they are all developed from a flower. And those types of vegetables, they need full sunshine, you know, so they need the six to eight hours. Now if you have full sunshine, you can grow all of the vegetables, you can grow anything. And if your sunshine is a little bit limited, depending on your exposure, then you need to kind of choose. Okay, so we talked about those produced in full sunshine. Now some vegetables, such as those that you eat the edible root on, they can develop fine in part sun. We've even got the four to six hours of bright sunshine, things like carrots, radish, potatoes, onions, they're going to develop quite nicely, even if you don't have full all day sun. We've even got something for those that have shade. And those are those the things that we eat the leaves of, even in shade or just a little bit of sun, you can grow a nice crop of lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage, herbs, and so there's a little something for everyone here. Now it is important to make a plan. Beginning by planning on planning on paper. So, a good idea this time of year is to make that plan. First of all, of course, choose vegetables that you like, you know, if you don't like Colorado be then naturally we don't need to grow Colorado be so plan things that you're going to like. Also, locate the taller type vegetables, maybe tomatoes if you're growing them up on a trellis peas if you're going to put those on a trellis locate those kind of in the corners. Also, things that don't require as much sun such as the shade loving material, those we can put kind of in the shadows. Notice in the photo how the tomatoes are in full sun, and the lettuce has been tucked down below that's getting a little less sun but that's okay because lettuce grows well, so we can utilize the areas. Also, we can stack the material. For example, notice how there are different heights being used there, we can use vertical as well to maximize the amount of material that we've got. Now, it's fun. It's fun to think about the containers. Now, when we're thinking about the container to grow our vegetables in. There is a must have, and that's drain hole, regardless of what else you're choosing. Make sure it has drain holes, if it's something that doesn't have, then you can easily drill into the bottom. And now it's interesting if we think of it. For those of you that maybe have a small yard and you're going to use raised beds, a raised bed really is a large container. So we can think of it in that way as well. Now, I really enjoy this. Should we add drainage pebbles. Should we add drainage pebbles to the bottom of our pots. I love talking about this because the answer is no. Now I know all of our grandmothers put rocks and pebbles down in the bottom of their house plant pots and they did fine, but we've come a long way. Research has shown that the best drainage in a container is when the container is filled top to bottom with high quality potting mix. These pebbles actually impede drainage. What happens is when you water the mix, the water moves down, and when it reaches that area of change, the water pauses and super saturates what's above and then it drains out. So we can save a whole lot of work. We don't need to scour the back alley for rocks or pebbles. We don't need to save Styrofoam packing peanuts to put in the bottom. Just fill the container top to bottom with good potting mix. You don't need the coffee filter in the bottom. You don't need a diaper in the bottom. And so they are top to bottom with good quality mix. Let's talk a little more about containers. Now the size of the container is important. A minimum is considered about 12 inches in diameter. Because that's going to give us enough room so that the roots will have a good space to grow, also very important when we get to watering. A small container is going to need watering so much more often. So at least 12 inches in diameter, 14 inches even better, and 12 to 14 inches in depth. Tomatoes are the number one vegetable that is grown in containers. Even if people don't have anything else on a balcony or patio or deck, tomatoes are a wonderful fresh vegetables to grow. Now tomatoes take a lot of root space so they do need the size of a five gallon bucket. And you can even grow them in a five gallon bucket as long as you drill drainage holes in the bottom, of course. So now here are some examples starting at the left. These blue buckets are nice. They're good size. The eggplant and peppers are doing quite nicely. In the upper right hand corner, the vegetables are growing nice, the leafy, the lettuce and the Swiss chard and it looks like there's some carrots. And they're doing nice, but those shallow containers are going to need watering so very, very often. So even though they're doing good and obviously they're watering a lot, but if they had a deeper container, they wouldn't have to water as much. And of course the lower right hand looks kind of like a bathtub on wheels. That's got plenty of good root area for the vegetables that a person would be growing. Let's take a look at a couple of kind of yes, yes or no type containers here. The string beans that are being grown in the rectangular planter that's doing quite nicely. And there are a lot of commercially available grow type bags that you see in the upper portion in the upper photo there. And those are doing quite nicely too. So those are available. The lower slide shows greens that are being grown kind of in tubs. They're doing nicely. Now here's a couple of interesting ones. Notice the commercially available grow bags where you can lift up the side and I think the idea is you could borrow off a few potatoes during the growing season. But I can't visualize lifting that up without all the dirt coming through so I guess try that at your own risk. Notice the topsy-turvy tomato is seen on TV. I'm not sure mother nature intended to tomatoes to be growing with their feet up in the air, but I guess, you know, try as try as we can. After containers, we need to examine what soil or mix to use. And now the soil mix is a key to success. So much of the success of what's going to happen with our vegetables depends on putting the right material in our containers. Now the best most wonderful garden type soil or field soil that grew the best crops that does not work well in containers, it just packs packs too solidly. And that's where the commercially available potting mixes come in. You know, you could blend your own but by the time you buy the ingredients, it's probably just as well to purchase because some of these commercially available potting mixes work really, really well. So the little things that these mixes need to do they've got to retain moisture so that they they keep the moisture available for the plants we aren't watering constantly, but they also have to drain well they can't pack and become too mushy. Now if you look at the photo there of the hands on the left hand side that cheap potting mixes kind of mushy and just it doesn't look wholesome, whereas on the right hand side it looks well like a material that's going to be well drained, and it will grow well in that. See we need a good balance of moisture and oxygen in the air. So that's important. So when choosing a high quality potting mix. Your local garden center may have a type that they use and recommend that's great, or you can use some of the national mixes. Some of the very cheap bargain brands just pack too much. One way that I tell the good good mixes from the poor mixes are just by lifting the bags in the store. The best potting mixes are so dry. And the poorer ones are heavy in the bag. So even though the the high quality ones are quite light in the bag, they'll moisten nicely and so that's one way to tell. And also they do sell some mixes that are especially for raised gardens and those are good too. Now here's an important tip, always moisten the mix before you're going to use it. Now the high quality mixes are sold really really dry in the bag, as I mentioned, and it's important to moisten them real very well before using. Otherwise, if you use those mixes very dry when you go to water it kind of makes a mess if you've seeded into it the seeds all float around. So moisten it before you're using it the day before works really really well. The next important point is to choose the vegetable varieties wisely that you're going to be putting in. They are lucky because they've really improved the varieties that are adapted for containers. Within the last 10 years really they've developed varieties that are container friendly, because they know that a lot of people are raising vegetables on balconies and patios. So when you're looking at a tag or the plant description, look for those words container friendly or bush habit. Those are ones that will do best to produce the best in a container without producing so much vine and so much plant. So get a little more bang for your buck. If you choose those varieties, especially going to talk just a few minutes specifically about tomatoes because as I mentioned that is one of the that is the most popular vegetable for growing on patios and balconies. So there are two types of tomatoes both based on how they grow. Determinant varieties are more bush like tomatoes they're more container friendly they produce their crop in a consolidated area without so much vine. And these types, whether it's a determined or indeterminate these are usually listed on the plant tag, or in the description in the catalog. Now in determined varieties, they grow with a whole lot of violence those are the type that needs staking up or pruning. Now the way I remember these two different names are the indeterminate varieties grow indiscriminately you get a lot of vine with that. Now look at the look at the beautiful tomato growing in the bottom picture that's an indeterminate variety that's got lots of good vine. But notice it's on a stake it's growing very nicely on a stake, and it's been tied up to that and also they've done a good job of pruning. And by tomato pruning it means as the as one or two vines get going upwards, you pinch off you prune off all the side shoots. Otherwise, one big indeterminate tomato could take up the entire balcony, but look at how beautiful that is. All right, let's talk about the actual planting. Now there are two ways that we plant vegetables, whether it's in a traditional garden or in pots and containers, the two different ways. Some vegetables are planted directly from seed. Those are things like radish carrots peas beans lettuce beats, they're planted directly into your soil or your container from the seed packet. Now other types of vegetables are planted from transplants. Those are plants that you've either started early yourself indoors from seed or you've bought from a garden center. And the reason that these are not direct seeded into your containers is because they would take too long. It would take way too long for tomatoes to get any fruit, maybe you'd get some in October. So anyway, that's why we start some things from transplants. And that would include the tomato pepper cabbage material like that. And all the points about the actual planting. Now I mentioned the importance of moistening the mix the day before. You can do it right in the bag, add some water mixed around really good by hand and then leave it for a day. It becomes nice and mellow and much more workable or you can dump it out in a tub or a tote, mix it up really well. That's so important. A lot of these mixes are peat based peat moss based, and it takes a little bit for them to absorb that moisture. But if you don't do that, the stuff when you try to water it in the pot, it just floats around. So an important step. Also, when filling your containers, fill them all the way up to within a half an inch of the rim. Now if you take a look at these tomatoes in the blue five gallon buckets. The bucket sizes are nice nice size, but they haven't utilized everything that they should. So instead, when planting those tomato plants into those buckets fill up the bucket really good within a half an inch of the rim, then plant your tomato plant into that. When you water it's going to settle the mix. There's a couple of good reasons for filling it all the way up. First of all, as you see here we're not utilizing enough root space we're not giving the tomato plants as much root space as much soil space as we could. So just giving it more soil volume will give naturally more root space. Also, we talked about a well drained mix. Now, gravity is our friend in getting a good drainage. For example, picture this bucket filled all the way up when we water it gravity is going to pull that water down and give good drainage to that bucket. If we don't have as high a soil profile, gravity doesn't pull it down as well and things just don't drain as well and good drainage is important because we need air down in those roots. Let's talk about planting seeds. Now when you plant seeds we got a couple of choices we could either broadcast it over the surface of the container, or we could plant them in little rows, either one would work, and then cover to the proper depth okay what's the proper depth of covering on vegetable seeds. Now some older recommendations say to cover two or three times the diameter of the seed. Some seeds aren't evenly shaped so you know what's the actual diameter. Here's what here's the way I like to think about it. And that is, if it's a very tiny seed, you know about the size of a poppy seed or so, and that includes things like lettuce and carrots and beat seed is fairly small to also radish. Just plant them and then cover with enough mix so they're just barely covered that'll be enough. If it's a larger seeds such as the bean or pea seeds that we see being planted there, then they need covering by about one inch of soil. Now a good way to determine one inch is on the human hand. The, if you take a look at your finger pointer finger, the, the first down to the first joint is about one inch from the tip of your finger down to the first joint is about one inch on the human hand. So one easy way to plant bean seeds or pea seeds that is a container in a container just poke your finger down into the first joint, planted in cover it up and you've got them at one inch. Now let's talk about planting transplants. Now when most transplants that you put into your pot we should go just slightly deeper than the existing soil. Now if you take a look at the tomato transplants and you see where I've got the pencil tomatoes are unique in that tomato plants will root all along that stem. And that gives you better rooting and then the tomatoes aren't whipping around quite as much so we should plant tomato plants deeply, even a little little bit deeper even then the pencil maybe shows we can take off those lower green leaves, and that will make the tomatoes very, very happy. So then after planting seeds or planting the transplants the next step is to water gently and water thoroughly. And when I say thoroughly water so that there's a little bit coming out the bottom of the container, then you'll know that you're starting off with that mix all thoroughly moistened. Okay, so we've gone to that point. But how do we know how many plants we should put in a container. Now there's a great reference and method that has been developed over the last number of years and that's called the square foot gardening method. A wonderful gentleman by the name of Mel Bartholomew developed this and it's a way to get the most production out of a small space. Now if you're gardening if your small space gardening is in raised beds. This works beautifully this is kind of what it was designed for especially. And with this method, you divide your area up into one foot sections 12 inch sections, for example if you've got a planter box four feet by four feet. And then you can stretch twine across that one foot intervals each way. So you create a, you create squares, and then those squares dictate what you're going to put in, or how much, for example a tomato that's going to take a square need a square at least or more by itself, but take a look at beats up in the upper right hand corner we could get 16 beats in one of those 12 inch squares, you know, etc. Gosh radishes we could probably get 32 in there. But what if you're not planting in a raised square planter box, what if you're planting in containers well these this the same method gives a good clue as to how much to plant because remember we mentioned that a minimum size on a container is about 12 inches or 14 inches is even better. So we can consider a 12 inch diameter container to be one of these squares. So in 12 or 14 inch diameter we're going to want just one tomato plant, but we can look at I see 16 carrots. So we'll maybe want to see them a little thicker and then thin down as soon as they pop up, thin them down to 16 carrots. So charts like this that are easily viewable online. There's a nice online site that's square foot gardening, and that gives these charts. So that's a good way of telling kind of how much to plant whether you're doing a regular raised planter garden planter box or doing in containers. This gives us some pretty a pretty good resource to know how much we should be planting in each of those. So we're all anxious to get it going. So when can we start. When can we get started outside. Well we can divide our vegetables into two types. Cool season crops and there are warm season crops. The cool season crops are vegetables that like to grow when it's cool. Also they can tolerate even some frost. So these are vegetables that we could start in April if we kind of get the itch to plant some things and included in that group are radishes onions lettuce spinach peas potatoes carrots and cabbage. So a wonderful group to start with if you get that April itch. Secondly, we've got the group known as warm season crops. Now these are crops that are easily going to be damaged if it gets down towards freezing. And not only that is also they need warm weather to grow. And if you start them too early, even if it doesn't freeze. The cool weather can actually stunt these plants common with tomatoes that if you plant them out too early, the plants get permanently stunted. So for plants vegetable types such as tomato pepper eggplant cucumber melons squash. They need to wait really until sometime between 15 and May 15 to the 25th in the upper plains area. So look at that as the window for planting the warm season type crops. So that's something for everybody. We can pause with the warmer things we can get started with those that that can like it cool. Another thing that you might consider is succession planting. Some vegetables grow very quickly and you harvest them quickly. So you can get two or three successive plantings from these radishes. I think of having radishes throughout the season so harvest one fill it back up plants more and you'll have some more radishes before you know it. And also we can do that with carrots. You don't need to keep the carrots in the container for the whole length of the season as soon as they're large enough to use you can kind of gauge by with the top of what's normally there and sticking out this far out of the mix but you can usually see the top and when they start getting large enough the shoulder the carrot you can pull those out and start eating and plant another group. Next we need to consider watering. Okay, we I said that potting mix is a key to success. The other key to success is watering. The resistant moisture is really needed because these containers whether it's a raised garden or actual containers. These are very dependent on us to provide the moisture that they're going to need types of water that we do want to avoid is if you're using a high alkaline well water that can cause problems in a container because the salts just build up too much. So, water from a salt type water softener just has too much salt in it. So those types of water should be avoided. Otherwise, waters from a city municipal water plant all all work quite well. One rule of thumb is anytime you do water water thoroughly. So we could use a watering can now the person watering with the hose I think they maybe should put a nozzle on the end of that I think that force would quickly wash out anything you've gotten a container. But we can certainly water by a watering hose if it's close enough to your deck or patio or balcony. Now some people even use on their decks or patios, they will use a watering system such as you see in the lower. They'll put little spaghetti tubes and have kind of an automatic watering system set up. Now how how do we know how often to water. It's going to depend on a couple of things. It's going to depend on the size of the container. For example, the tomato growing in that little green greenhouse pot versus the tomato growing in the big five gallon bucket, the little potted tomato that's going to need watering really really often. That in the five gallon bucket that won't need watering nearly as often. So that's one reason why we should have a bigger container. It's going to depend on the type of the mix that you use, and it'll depend whether your area is sunny or shady and how much wind and how much temperature or if it's a hot day versus cool day. In mid summer and late summer. Some of these vegetables are going to need watering every day. Also there's a difference in the age of the plant. For example, a tomato that is big and old and bearing tomatoes nicely, a growing in a container, lots of roots down in there. That's going to take more water because it'll be pumping water out of the soil. That'll take more water than a newly transplanted little tomato plant. So we need to watch as they age and we need to provide a consistent water supply. So now when I'm giving houseplant houseplant programs, I always say since over watering is a common problem and houseplants that you know feel down into the soil with your finger. And if you feel moisture, then don't water with houseplants air on the side of dry, you know, wait a day or so. The opposite is true with outdoor container plants, they're depending on us for moisture. And if you feel down in and if you think, gosh, I think maybe this needs watering, maybe, but you're not sure. Go ahead and water air. Don't air on the dry side outside. And I want to spend just a minute talking about the photo on the lower right hand side that tomato has what's called blossom and rot blossom and rot. That's not a disease is not caused by a fun by a fungus or a bacteria or anything like that. That disorder is caused by the tomato plants inability to take up calcium out of the soil. But the main cause of why it can't take calcium up out of the soil because most of us got plenty calcium. But the main cause is fluctuating moisture. It's in big regular gardens or container gardens or anything. This is a common problem, but it's even more common in container grown tomatoes. Now I mentioned that a leading cause of this is fluctuating moisture and moisture can really fluctuate in a container. So, especially with tomatoes in a container, keep the moisture uniformly up. Now don't let them dry out and then water then dry out water, you know, keep the moisture up there and you'll have less blossom and rot calcium supplements and etc. I know some people throw Tums down in the bottom but that's that's been proven not to really help I think we should take our the Tums ourselves and and not add it to the soil most soils have more than enough calcium. Now the plants in the containers do depend on us for the nutrition. Now some potting mixes have slower lease fertilizer in and it'll say that on the bag it'll say feeds plants for the entire season and that's that's great. If not, you can add that slower lease fertilizer there's a brand called Osmocode. We shouldn't do like is shown in the photo there and just sprinkle it on. Instead, if we read the lay when we read the label, not if but when we read the label, you'll see that it tells how much to apply for a certain diameter of pot. So that's a precise way of getting the proper amount in. We can also use water soluble type fertilizers. Now common question is okay if if our potting mix has some fertilizer in it, often as you can see those little green or 10 beads, or if we use another time to leaf like Osmocode. Can we still feed with our miracle grow water soluble types and yes, when we read the label like Osmocode, it says, you're perfectly free to supplement with water soluble, but read the directions and all of these materials, we can add organic type fertilizers as well. Now I want to talk a little bit about raised garden beds and small spaces, because you know some people have a patio some have a deck. Other people have a very small yard that they can have these small space raised gardens. And as I mentioned before raised bed is simply a large container. The best raised gardens are constructed four feet by four feet. The reason for that is then you can reach in from all sides to do your picking and your reading and your and everything else. Now I mentioned the square foot gardening method where you lay out a grid, you know 12 inches by 12 inch each, each direction and then you have these neat little 12 inch squares. And then you decide how many vegetables you can have in each those. Now you don't need to leave those like the white dividers you don't need to do that you can if you want. But if you've divided it off by twine or string you can leave those if you want but you don't have to. But that is a really good way to get a lot of production out of a small space. There's an intensive agriculture here in in a pot or a planter or raised garden, you get a lot out of this because you're paying close attention to it. At the end of the season, in our pots and planters or raised garden beds we need to pull and discard the plants. Get all the leaves anything that has dropped down get those out rake out the roots as well you know to get your hands down get get all the roots out. And then we reuse that mix that's in there. Well, if you have a four by four raised garden or I should also mention on like these four by four raised gardens. You can, if you've got enough space, you can have as many of those four by four units as you have space for. So you can kind of multiply that several times. In a raised garden like that you're probably not going to change the soil every year that's why good sanitation is important. You could add some each year if it kind of settles down you could add some. What about pots and containers. Now in flowering pots and containers, my wife and I have used the same soil in containers for seven eight nine years. But what we do each year is remove about a fourth and then add a fourth new and then mix it all in really really good in a. If you're using the containers for vegetable growing. That's what is going to be pretty depleted. And if it's a 12 inch pot 14 inch pot you might decide to use fresh soil each year, especially if you had any disease problems with something in those pots, then start fresh. You don't need to dump that mix in the garbage use that somewhere else. You can use in the bottom of another pot or something like that. So, we are going to next take a little walk around let's take a tour and see what everybody's got growing on their decks and balconies. So starting on the left hand side we see some nice young lettuce plants doesn't look fun is not going to be fun. And in the back slightly out of focus but you can see in the back a neat tower type arrangement in which leaves vegetables are being looks like lettuce is being grown on the right hand side. Notice one of the commercially available stand type planters and that that works well I've seen in the gardening catalogs lots of different types and sizes that work really really well this particular one has a neat hose type attachment. That you can close the lid and it sprinkles the sprinkles the vegetables from above. A couple more to investigate here. Take a look at the one on the left. If you notice in the far far side there, there's kind of a little greenhouse type structure with the plastic roll back now that would be really cool for starting extra early and on a chilly night if it doesn't get too cold, you could probably close that plastic and start a little early and eat on the right hand side, we see vegetables being grown in looks like tote type tubs, and they're growing well that's a good idea on a balcony. Even if you don't have a whole lot of floor space, we can grow vertically notice these greens and salads and herbs being grown upright. I think I even see a strawberry plant in the one. What if you don't have a balcony you don't have a deck you don't have a patio and you don't have a small yard. Well, I guess we could always use the back of our pickup. One advantage of that is if you take a road trip, you'll have fresh vegetables on the go. And the gentleman on the right hand side he's made use of every every available square foot he's got. I just hope that his ladder is stable. If you take a look, starting on the left, notice how the planter boxes are up on the deck rail. Now notice how they're firmly attached, they attach themselves onto the rail, so they're stable and they're not going to topple off. Whereas on the right hand side, I'm concerned about those pots on the railing, because if they happen to knock off, and if there's a garden party going on below we could have casualties. It would be precious if locating pots of vegetables on the railing itself. And yes I mentioned strawberries and a planter we can grow strawberries in a pot. They don't winter well, generally you can't just leave the pot out on your balcony or deck and have it survive winter normally that won't happen, but you can plant them and treat them and harvest them as a one season crop. So with this presentation I hope you have the confidence to, no matter what space you've got to grow some vegetables. And after what seems like a long, long, long winter. I think this is going to be fun you can almost taste the vegetables from here. So I hope that we've given you some tips to, to give you the confidence and the tools to have success, because it is so fun. If you'd like to contact me for more information, please do. I'll leave this up for just a little bit. And then we're going to have some time for some questions. I actually lost my video along the way here but I'm going to try to get it back. And I'm going to stop sharing my screen but again if you have any further questions, please do let me know. And we'll have time now for some questions. If I can multitask, I'll try to get my camera back functioning. All right, Don. Well, thank you very much. Those pictures in your presentation was just beautiful. You have 17 questions that I gathered along the way. So if you're ready, here we go. And I think you answered this one, but do you put a particular draining agent at the bottom of your containers for vegetables. No, the vegetables can use all the they need all the root space that they've got. And so it's better not to have anything in the bottom just top to bottom with good, well, you know, good well drained high quality potting mix. And I've never found that the potting soil will wash out the bottom. So that's why I don't use I don't use a window screen I don't use a coffee filter. I've never had any problem with a good quality mix coming out the bottom. I should mention also that if you're doing container gardening on a wooden deck. You may wish to raise the pots up off a little bit put a little two by four or something underneath so that you don't stain the deck as pots will leave circles on the deck. That's a good question. What if the pot is very tall and you do not want to put that much soil in the pot. That is a good good question. And sometimes if you have flowers in a pot for example and you might have a three foot tall planter. And that takes a lot of potting soil, it would be best if you do put it all the way potting soil but in those cases, you can put packing peanuts or pop cans or milk jugs or something down in the bottom. But when you're growing vegetables or flowers, make sure that you have at least 14 to 20 inches of actual soil that they can root into. That's a good question. When you use a five gallon bucket, you need to drill holes in the bottom for drainage. Yes, yep, you do five gallon buckets. No matter what container we're using they do need that good drainage in the bottom of a five gallon bucket I would probably. Oh, I'd air on having too many than too few I'd probably put, you know, at least eight holes drilled in. Someone wants to know if it's okay to use plastic pop bottles at the bottom as long as there's 12 to 14 inches of soil for tomato plants. Yes, yep, you sure can as long as you've got you know and I'd air on the side of caution you know give yourself at least 1616 to 20 inches of soil, and then you could certainly use the pop bottles in the bottom. Are there any worries about the types of five gallon buckets to use food grade plastic or leaching of chemicals from plastic overall. Wonderful question. Anytime possible use food grade plastic buckets, you know check with your school food services or anywhere else. Yes, that is certainly the preferred. And so with any of the containers that you do use I would really opt for and suggest food grade. And just a reminder in a couple weeks we'll have a food safety presentation from our friend from Wisconsin, so you might want to tune in for that you'll have more on that. Should you press the dirt firmly or soil firmly around the plant. I love that question. When a person is growing vegetables and containers. When you're doing that compaction is a common problem. By the end of the season, the soil becomes so compacted. And if we start out by, for example when you put a tomato plant in the pot if you pack around it. You're, you're making the mix so compacted to begin with. Instead, after planting just water thoroughly and that active watering is going to firm the soil enough. So we don't need to press around. Now when I'm planning tomato plants out in the big garden. Yes I firm around that but that's in a big mass of soil in a pot, whether it's a house plant or a container vegetable. Don't press that mix down we're just making way too compact it let the watering do the firming. Question seven, would it work well to moisten soil while it's still in the bag. Yes, that works beautifully to moisten the mix well it's still in the bag works great. And the amount of water to add to the bag you kind of need to go by a little bit by feel what I do is like with sprinkling can start adding the mixed around a little bit, add a little more. I'm sorry, my camera really keeps cutting out. And, but yes keep adding moisture until it just nice and mellow and then close the bag up and let it set for the day and come back the next day and it's wonderfully mellow and moist. I use a larger container and leave more space at the top for wind protection for young transplants. Do you have any other suggestions for this. One reason that I really like to see containers filled up, whether it's a house plant or container vegetable is that when I examine either an emailed photo or a live plant when I when I look at plants that are failing. A common denominator is a headspace that's too deep. You see even like with a vegetable we need some air circulation across the top of that soil and so if it's too far down in. I have concern that we're going to have other problems. So if a person wants some wind protection, I'd still prefer to fill the container up, but give some wind protection in another way. You know the old way was to stick a wooden shingle the windward side of a plant, but rig up another type of a wind protector, other than letting the pot be the protector. What do you think about moisture control potting soil. Is that recommended over the regular potting soil. You know, I've I've I've had mixed mixed feelings about the moisture control in some ways it keeps things too wet, but I've also sometimes had good success with it. So I think the jury is still out on that as to whether the moisture control is is the best product or not. So I'd maybe suggest experimenting a little. The moisture control control potting mixes have a material in that expands and holds moisture in it. And so in theory then you won't have to water quite as often. And finally, I've noticed some of the newer moisture holding mixes, instead of having this gel in are using a product called core. I think I'm maybe pronouncing that okay maybe see oh I are, I think it's kind of a coconut. It's sort of coconut husks or something, but with that material, instead of the gel, it retains moisture. So, check the bag and if it does have that coir. I've had best luck with that. So I think there may be something there. Okay, now we're going to go back to planting a little bit. What is the recommendation for planting herbs from seed or from transplants. There's on the type of herb. We could do both. Some of the herbs take such a long time to grow that starting them from seed just takes a long. And so from that aspect it's maybe better to start them early indoors and transplant or buy some starter plants from the garden center. I'm thinking things such as sage. Some of the sage are propagated by cuttings. So the only way you can kind of get those is from a garden center. So you can really start any of these herbs from seed. It just depends on how quickly you'd like to harvest them. So one way to tell is when you're browsing through a seed catalog, look at the days, the number of days to usable product. They'll usually have, you know, 45 days that grows pretty quick. If an herb would take 90 days from seed to usable leaves, then that's getting pretty late. So you talked a little bit about planting some things kind of early. If it gets really cold, will that harm the lettuce and spinach? Even the cool season crops do have, of course, a point of no return. They will take temperatures down to 28 to 32 degrees, which is kind of considered a light frost. But below 28, you know, if it gets down to 25 degrees or so, you probably would have some injury, and then that's when we would either need to cover them or bring them indoors. Good question. The next one should crop rotation be considered for container gardens, or are there additional fertilizers that should be added for the next harvest? Certain types of vegetables do take different nutrients out. For example, sweet corn. There are some sweet corns that actually can be grown in containers or raised beds. Sweet corn is a heavy nitrogen user out of the soil. And so, yes, if you're using, growing some of the types of vegetables like that that really produce a lot of massive leafy type structure, then you'll want to make sure that you have enough nitrogen. Every time you can rotate and grow something differently in that spot, please do. For example, if you do reuse the pots, you'll grow something different in that pot if you reuse the soil, grow something differently. Also, as a rule in a container, most of the nutrients are going to be gone after one season. So you can almost figure on starting from scratch in a container or raised bed. You can also, if you have a large raised bed, do a soil test. Submit a soil test to NDSU or University of Minnesota. So to keep moisture in the pot, would grass clippings be okay to put on top of the soil? Yes, one way to dry them out first, otherwise they'd be kind of a little bit, you know, too mushy, and they might mold on top. But one way to preserve moisture in a container, so you don't have to water it quite so much, is to use a mulch on top. Now it might be shredded bark, or you could use dried grass clippings. Make sure that the grass clippings have not been treated with herbicide. That's very important. But really, really quickly. Anything else, Julie? Oh, I've got a few more. When you're planting in a larger box, like two foot by six foot, should the soil be replaced every year and the entire soil? I think you talked about in a little bit. What size was it? It was two feet by six feet. No, I think that's larger than what you would need to replace every year. I would add a little fresh. And as long as the vegetables keep growing, I think it'd be fine to reuse. That's a pretty good size area. You've got six questions left that I grabbed. Are you getting tired yet? Is it true that some vegetables shouldn't be planted next to others? Well, that's a question that's been debated for years. Companion planting. Do some vegetables interfere or enhance others? And, boy, there is not conclusive research evidence that shows that. So no, I can't say don't plant tomatoes next to this or that or the other thing, because research really has not proven that. I mean, that it won't someday be proven. But right now, yeah, there's, there's not a definitive answer to, yes, plant your tomatoes next to the cucumbers and they'll do better. And the next one is just the comment based on experience. If you choose to use one of those upright plant stands with the plastic covering, make sure you anchor it to something so the wind doesn't blow it over. I learned that the hard way. That is a great, great, great idea. Great comment. Thank you for that. Okay, this is a good question if you know beginners or maybe you're if you're working with children. What would be an easy first three vegetables to start with for a very beginner? For a very beginner, radishes grow so well. And they're fun. Radishes, carrots do well. There are some bush type pumpkins that can grow in a pot or a container. Kids love pumpkins. Pumpkins are fun to grow cucumbers in a pot grow very well. So I kind of stick with that kind of care and it's surprising kids that grow these vegetables will tend to eat more carrots. Do you know of any good products to deter deer and all at rabbits from nibbling on crops? That is one of my number one questions, rabbits and deer. Three products that have the best results. One is called liquid fence. One is plant skid, plant skid, and the other is repel X. Those have some science behind not 100% foolproof, but they're the best thing going. And someone else asked about aphids, any control of aphids. And with control of aphids, you may try the organic product called spinno said relatively new but a good insecticide and that could be used on aphids. It's a label of products to see what the waiting time is. Malathion works quite effectively on aphids and doesn't have a very long wait time before you harvest. So for aphids I would check a spinno said, and then malathion's been around for a long time. And some rural water has arsenic in it. Any concerns with using this water to irrigate vegetables? Yeah, that is. I'm not a water scientist. So I'm afraid or soil scientist so I can't I'm afraid I can't give an opinion as to how that would affect containers. We'd probably have to get that advice from a soil scientist. So I'm going to have to refrain on from answering that one. I have a question for you. Actually, I see a lot of very creative containers used everything from boots to, I don't know, using parts of railroad ties. Are there any things you shouldn't use for containers? Yes, things that you shouldn't use. You mentioned railroad ties. All railroad ties are soaked with creosote so that should not be used. Also old type, old type green treated lumber should not have been used. Instead, the modern treated lumber is EPA safe for vegetables, the brown treated. I don't use a tractor tire because of the leaching from the petroleum compound. Well, everyone, there are more questions. Don has provided his contact information, but it is three o'clock and I want to keep us on time. And I thank all of you for your participation. Please watch for the online survey. I would really appreciate your feedback. And thanks again. It was great to have over 200 people join us today. Thank you all very much.