Show: Master Gardener Station: KNCO File: 10:3.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-03 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 123.6 MB to 24.7 MB, split into 8 pieces --- transcript --- Here we are, and this is the Master Gardeners and Friends radio show. Welcome, I'm Master Gardener Christine Smith and I'm here today with Sharon Curry, first year gardener, Master Gardener, yeah first year Master Gardener, I've been a gardener for a long time, okay all good, and our program is brought to you by the University of California Cooperative Extension, the United States Department of Agriculture, Nevada County Master Gardeners and KNCO News Talk Radio, along with all their fine sponsors, and the purpose of the University of California Master Gardener program is to inspire foothill home gardeners to embrace research-based sustainable gardening practices so our community and environment thrive, and this is a two-way radio program, that means we want you to call us and chat, anything home gardening, we would just do our very best to answer your questions, we'll take your comments, you know what's happening in your yard right now, or if you have a curiosity you want to share, we love it, we love it all, if it's all about home gardening, we're there, and our phone number is 530-477-5626, and our text line, if you have an issue you can send photos, that's the beauty of the text, and that number is 530-913-4685, so you know, get a hold of us, we would love to hear from you. And now, ta-da, here we are another Saturday, yay, what's new in your garden, Sharon? Gosh, there's a lot going on out there, there's a lot going on, the squash plants are all dying back of course, they've done their job, and now they're just kind of hoping that we'll pick some squash, so they can die, that you're not sick of squash yet, you know I tend to only grow vegetables that I'm going to eat, that you really like, I don't like eggplant, I don't grow eggplant, but I like to grow squashes that overwinter, so I grow a lot of spaghetti squash, because you can eat that months and months and months from now and it's still great, oh that's fabulous, and acorn squash, oh now I think of that as a winter squash, acorn, yeah I grew them in the summer, so yeah, and they grow, anything that grows the thick hard skin, they will overwinter really, really well, yes, that's true, I ate one recently from a friend that was a year old and it was still, it was still perfectly fine, as an experiment, and this year I grew Georgia candy roasters, which is a new thing for me, but they are absolutely massive, you could feed your family for a couple of nights on these, they're really huge, and I did an experiment this year, oh I love experiments, I grew my squash in what I called a squash tunnel, so it was up against a six foot fence on one side, and a four foot fence on the other side, and so they grew in a linear fashion, and so when I thought they got long enough, I clipped off the edges, and they grew up the fence, oh my, so they all trellised themselves, very cool, oh how nice to get them up off the ground, off the ground, and you can spot them, you can see them, and even the spaghetti squash, which are very heavy, the candy roasters, which are, they're 20 pounders, they're huge, did you have to like put them in, make slings, no sling, oh I'll be darned, no, no, they adapted, and so I didn't have them sprawling all over my yard, oh yeah, because that can, they can really sprawl, yeah, it was a great experiment, and I had way more than I actually needed, so your neighbors are happy, and their squash eaters now, so I, you know, when you pick them, you can't just eat them, I mean you could just eat them, but they're meant to store, so I have them all in my garden underneath a shade cloth, because you have to leave them out for ten days, to let the exterior harden, and then you can put them in a place that's cool, out of direct sunlight, and they'll last for, like your cool storage cellar, I have a, yeah, I have a cellar, wouldn't that be cool, so they're just down there, and I'll be, we'll be eating them all winter, so, oh that's, how, that's awesome, well, I love it, right now while we're all having ridiculous grocery bills, vegetables that you can store, make a lot of for a few dollars, like a lot of them, if to buy a spaghetti squash in the store, you're paying by the pound, it's a way, and the quality you get from the grocery store, hello, it's just not, and they're fun for kids too, because they can see them get big, and yeah, oh, any time the kids are involved in the garden, it just brings a whole other element of wonderfulness, because when kids learn where food comes from, you know, this is how it happens, kids, you know, they, it brings a whole new dimension to their mindset, maybe they'll eat it if they saw it grow, exactly, you know, I put all this effort in, by golly, I'm eating it, you know, so that's what I'm working on right now, I've got some, quite a few tomatoes left, so we're making pasta sauce, like it's going out of style, which freezes really well, exactly, you can freeze it or can it, and then that's indefinite, yeah, yeah, so we've been doing a lot of that, it reminds me of my Italian grandmother when we were growing up, and she would visit us all with a frozen brick of pasta sauce in her bag, so, nice, oh, that's cool, I've threatened my family of doing that, so, yeah, you'll be, you're the granny now, I'm the granny now, you're the granny now, exactly, how about you, what's happening in your garden, oh, well, you know what, I, because I live out in Paredale, and there's all those trees, and all that shade, yeah, which, you know, when it's hot, it's wonderful, I love, I'm so glad I live there, I love it, however, I don't, it kind of precludes me from having any kind of serious garden, you know, I did, a couple of years ago, we fenced off a spot, picked the spot in my yard that had the most sun, and we fenced it all off, and I grew two tomato plants, and they went crazy, you know, I had tons of tomatoes, and I, you know, of course, I did my, my favorite cherry tomato is the sun gold, sun gold, yeah, oh, man, they're just like, nature's candy, that's what I call them, and they're fabulous, and wonderful, and they're great snack, snacking, you know, they would often not make it into the house, but that was the only success I've had so far in my, I've been at my new, my place for, oh, gosh, about 13, 14 years now, oh, gosh, and, because, you know, I got serious deer, I mean, they're very serious, and they, they really like tomatoes, yeah, they do, yeah, and, yeah, but I, when I grew those, I had tomatoes into the end of November, they were, it was still nice out, and boy, they were, they were fun, they were yummy, and I, I grew one, the other one I did was a beefsteak heirloom, and I can't remember the name of it right now, whoops, I, you know, they're a great addition to pasta sauce, I mean, people think you could just use one tomato, but I put heirlooms in it, pesto, the little tomatoes, I put it all in there, and, yeah, and you get a nice meld of flavors, you know, because it, it's kind of wild, tomatoes, they all have different flavors, they do, and, you know, I never realized that until I went to one of our tomato tastings, and I was astonished at all, how different the different tomatoes tasted, and, you know, all of them are homegrown, so they were the best of the best. I did a tomato experiment this, this year. Oh, fun. So, I planted the same tomato, and, okay. Oh, can you tell us about your experiment after our break? Yes. We'll be right back, folks. Hi, this is Scott from BNC Ace. Fall is in full swing, and you know what that means. It's time for our annual customer appreciation sale. Saturday, October 3rd, we're celebrating you, our amazing customers. Everything store-wide and in the nursery is 20% off, and save 10% off in the lumberyard and warehouse. The Great Futures for Youth will be serving hot dogs from 11 to 1, and we'll have treats throughout the day. Don't miss the savings, the fun, and the food. Join us one day only, Saturday, October 3rd, for our customer appreciation sale at BNC Ace on the Garden Center. Hope to see you there. 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Welcome to another gorgeous Saturday morning Master Gardener's and Friends radio show. Yay! I'm Christine Smith, and I'm here today with Sharon Curry, and we want your calls, 530-477-5626. That's our phone line. Give us a call. We'll answer your questions. And we have a text line. It's 530-913-4685. So we look forward to your calls and texts and photos. Let them rain. Okay, now you're going to talk. We were talking about my tomato experiment. Yes. So there was a book that came out recently. Gosh, it was a really uneventful name, like Totally Tomato or something like that. Oh, yeah. Anyway, it was written by a guy who's a famous tomato grower. Oh, okay. And he did an experiment at a real experimental level. Yeah, yeah. And his hypothesis was that it doesn't matter if you grow tomatoes on a trellis and trim them and curate them and make them have the most tomatoes, or if you just let them grow like a bush. Uh-huh. Go crazy. So I decided to try that experiment. I grew them from seed. Same tomatoes, same, same. And I grew some on a trellis, very curated, trimmed, the whole thing. Then the other ones, I just stuck them in and watered them and let them go. Watered them the same amount the whole thing. And as it turns out, he was not actually correct. Really? No. Not in my experiment. In my experiment, I had a ton of tomatoes on the trellises, which I grow the same tomato every year. Uh-huh. And it must be your favorite. I like the Italian varietals. Oh, okay. For making sauce, you want the paste tomatoes, and the Italian varietals work the best for me. Yeah. So the ones that I planted in the ground, and I just let them go, they spent a lot of time growing foliage. Yeah. All the tomatoes were underneath, so you couldn't really see what was in there. Uh-huh. But they went native. Oh. They sent out tendrils. And we're creating additional root systems all over my garden. So it was this massive tomato foliage. Tomato takeover. Yes, they were starting their own root systems far away from the mother plant. Wow. Oh, that's really interesting. They spent a ton of energy, I think, building a network of seeds to drop far, far away from the mother plant. So they were interested in survival, not producing tomatoes necessarily in abundance. Okay, that's good thought. I would not really recommend that method. Because, you know, excuse me, when the tomatoes, they're on the ground, the foliage is covering them. Okay, when anything is close to the ground, it's subject to critters, you know, bugs. And they're covered by foliage, they're not getting the proper sun. So they're not going to ripen in, you know, in an appropriate timeframe. So yeah, okay. So they're all about wanting to propagate themselves, which is what plants do. Tomatoes get sunburned easily when they're on the vine, you have to make sure they're not exposed to too much sun. And so I think the lesson there was that they were growing tomatoes for their own use. They weren't growing them for me to eat. The plant was taking care of itself. Yeah, I wasn't the one that was telling the plant what to do. That's reproduction, yeah. They were doing their own thing. So it was kind of an interesting experiment about how they would just kind of go off the rails. Yeah. Oh, isn't that interesting? Do their own thing, yeah. I'll have to say, well, you know, I've never, I did a plant, a tomato, one of my sun goats in the ground, and oh, it was prolific, it's crazy. But the one thing was, man, I think, you know, because there's so many fruit, the fruit end up dropping. And man, I had baby sun goat plants out my ears, all around the area where I had put this one in there. But see, I had it in a cage, you know, growing up, so it wouldn't have the opportunity to go native on the ground. Oh, what a kick. Yeah. What a kick. Oh, that's wild. Yeah. How fun, I'd have been interested to see that, you know. Sometimes just seeing what plants do is enlightening because you can think about it and, you know, just, you just tally that all into the information that you've accumulated. Yeah, I think people get too caught up in their gardens being pretty or organized or, Oh, yeah. Look good to other people, when really it could just be more fun just trying different things and seeing how it goes. And especially if you're growing things from seed, the cost to you is de minimis. Yeah. You can afford to do a little experiment. Experimentation, absolutely, yeah. Oh, that's so fun. Which reminds me, a lot of people don't know about the seed library. Oh, yeah. At the Nevada County Library. And you can go to the library anytime the library's open and there is the seed library there. It's a catalog basic system. And we have a group of master gardeners who curate that and put all the seeds together. We're busy getting donations from places for, you know, end of year seed count seeds. And you can go there and you can get five seed packets of your choice while you're there. And so anybody that's looking at seed catalogs right now to buy, I would encourage them to go to the library and see what's available for free. And these are all seeds that are from things that have been grown, actually been grown here? Some are, some are brand new from donated seed packets. So, yeah, it's a really great way. And sometimes you can find things that you can't find other places, so. That's the fun part about, like, is seed exchanges and so forth. Because you get things that are, you know, not available other places. Yeah, yeah, that's quite fun, so. That's what gardeners are so fun. Because, you know, we grow these things and sometimes we have unusual plants, bulbs, seeds, whatever, and we can trade them. And typically gardeners are friendly, sharing people. And so, you know, it's good to have something to trade. Yeah, I think so, too. Let's make a deal. And that's really neat. So, really, I, you know, I'm not sure why I was not aware of the seed. So they call it the seed catalog? They call it the seed. Seed exchange? The seed, it's called the seed library. Seed library, okay. And you can go to the library and at the, it's by the, yeah, the Madeline Helling Library. And it's in there and it's run by a group of master gardeners who dutifully meet once or twice a week. And they prepare these seed packets for free to the public. And you can go there anytime and see what's available. It's quite prolific. There's quite a lot there. Oh, that's really wonderful. And it's vegetables as well as flowers. Flowers, yeah, whatever they have, yeah. Nice. I love it. It's really a neat program. Oh, yeah. I bet our native plant lovers are active in that one, huh? I don't know, probably. Oh, I'll have to ask. I'll have to ask. Chrissy, she's my native plant contact person. I've just recently started collecting some natives myself and it's a whole different way of gardening. Oh, it is, yeah. And it's a different mindset. It is. It's a different perspective. And it's highly worthwhile, I feel. And, you know, just getting those natives in can help, you know, so much. Well, especially from a soil perspective, you know, because we're so used to, oh, my soil's not good enough. I can't grow tomatoes in it. I can't grow whatever in it. But actually, as it turns out, our native soils here are very conducive to native plants. Yeah, exactly. You don't have to do a lot to make them happy. Uh-huh. And it's all, basically, it's about getting them established and once they're established, then they go. And that's a good thing, yeah. And they provide pollen, nectar, berries, you know, for native wildlife. You know, the native wildlife are birds, are insects, are animals. They've grown up and depend upon these native plants that provide the food that they want. That's why they're here. You know, it's all that circle in life. It is. That is one of the things that I took away from the Master Gardener Program was I thought that I couldn't plant in my native soil. We live in Pan Valley at about 1,400 foot elevation. So we can garden a lot longer than other people. But I really thought that my soil just wasn't good enough to plant plants in it. So I was busy planting and raised beds. My husband's made probably 20 of them for me so far. Oh, bless his heart. That's great. Then I took the Master Gardener class and I was unaware of the needs for mineral content. And trace minerals. And trace minerals and all the things that the earth provides that are not in bagged soil. Or I have horses, so I use a lot of horse manure in my garden. But there are many plants who don't grow in that. They need the structure of natural soil. So that was really eye-opening. And since then I've been growing a lot more natives. It's a good thing. And I always, I was really struck by Doug Talmadge. And I went in, read a bunch of his articles. I was watching YouTubes and stuff. And wow, he really got me, convinced me that that is a very good way. And he's really pioneered that. He's doing plants and so forth. One thing I'm growing, I haven't planted them yet, but I'm going to. And so you start thinking about next year, right now. Right, that's what we do, yeah. We're already thinking about next year. Okay, we'll talk more about next year's plantings right after this break. Ta. BNC's customer appreciation sale is here. Hi, this is Scott at BNC inviting you to our customer appreciation sale on October 4th. Shop and save with 20% off store-wide and 10% off in the warehouse and yard. One day only, October 4th. If you come between 11 and one, enjoy free hot dogs served by Bright Futures for You. BNC's customer appreciation sale. 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At Ostro Financial, we make sure they're always on your side. Ready to take the next step? Call us today at 530-273-4425 or find us online at OstroFinancial.com. A lot different. Well, hello there. Oh, our sound got very low suddenly. Welcome back to Master Gardener's and Friends Radio Show. Sorry about that, a little hiccup. And we're here. We want to get your calls, 530-477-5626. Our text line is 530-913-4685. We can take photos and comments. Okay, let's continue. We were talking about planning for next year. And I tend to plan for next year in support of wildlife and insects. So this is a great time of year to be planting perennials and lots of things that support wildlife. And fall is the classic. And best time to plant foundation plants, the shrubberies, the trees, because then the plants can have an opportunity to get in the ground. The soil's still warm, so they'll kick out some new roots. It gets settled, get anchored, and then they can enjoy the winter rain. Yeah, a lot of plants are on sale this time of year too. Yeah. Nurseries are trying to get rid of them. Sure, they don't want to. Because it's tough overwintering, especially when the snow starts. Yeah, it's a great time to buy a perennial shrubbery. And two things that I'm really interested in, pollinators. And so I'm going to be planting both two types of buckwheat, which I have not planted before. This is a new thing for me, but you can get common buckwheat, which is a native that you can get here locally. And then there's also giant buckwheat. Oh. And the giant, yeah, the giant buckwheat is just what you think. It's a pretty big, it's a big plant, but it is a massive attractor for bumblebees. Oh, wonderful. In particular, and other pollinators. The bumble, will they make nests in it? It's the flower, yeah, it's a flowering shrub. And so, you know, it's in the native category, so it's not, you know, like a beautiful big hibiscus with gorgeous flowers. It's more California, you know, ish. Wild. Yeah, but that and the honeysuckle, you know, another bumblebee plant, so. What kind of honeysuckle? I don't know yet. Oh, okay. I've got a few out there already, and, you know, they're not as rewarding maybe as some other plants, because they grow a lot of foliage, they bloom, and then that's it until next year. Yeah. So, but they're a lovely screening plant. You can put them somewhere where you don't want to see your neighbor or whatever. And they really, they smell so good. They do, they're just. Oh my goodness. They're just amazing, and they're totally worth it, so. My girlfriend. had one that, oh it must have been there for years and years and years. It was huge. It grew outside our bedroom window. Oh wow. And, oh man, it smelled so good. Yeah, you can buy, you know, little one gallon plants right now for a few dollars. Yeah. And the ground is still warm. They'll set their roots in there and start doing their thing. Go crazy, yeah. And then in the spring, they're going to be ready to just go gangbusters. Yeah, it's lovely. I love fragrant plants. They rock my world because I go out and I get an aromatherapy treatment in my own backyard. So I'm out there, I got, ooh, ooh, I'm getting my fingernails dirty. Okay, that makes me feel good. I'm sniffing beautiful scents. Oh yeah, that just, it said beautiful scents, fresh air. What's not to love? Yeah. That just, an instant attitude adjustment for me. I adore. I agree. And, you know, getting kids involved in planting for wildlife is really a wonderful thing and watching for bees is just a great part of being a kid. You know, when I first moved to my new, my place I have now, it had a lilac shrub that was planted in the shade, a poor, really, really sad, broken down cherry tree. And that's about it. Oh, lots of weeds. And what was most noticeable to me was I'd go and look around and there were no butterflies, no bees buzzing. Oh, no, there weren't. Of course, you know, there's always mosquitoes. Thank you very much. But there weren't the usual insect buzz, like you get in a garden. And I just thought, I feel a little bereft. Oh, we have Jan from Grass Valley on the line. Jan, what can we help you with? Well, today my question is fruit trees to plant now. I have lost two fruit trees due to blight. I've been fighting it for years. And finally, they were Asian pear trees. Oh, yeah. So what do I buy that is blight resistant? Anything? You know what, I would suggest there's really an amazing website that provides so much wonderful information that Dave Wilson Trees, they have, and I probably shouldn't be saying a name, oops. But the thing I always use that website, yes, they're selling things. But they also give you so much amazing information about fruit trees. And I would suggest going and doing some research and you can find good replacements. And they tell you all about disease resistance on the website for all the different fruit varieties. Have you stopped by the demonstration garden at the Master Gardeners? Because we have a whole fruit tree section. Not lately. Yeah, we've got Asian pears in there, some apples. We've got a wonderful Mission fig. What kind of fruit do you like? Oh, stone fruit. I have a fig, so I don't need that. I like apricots. I like apricots. Yeah, they're kind of tough around here. You know, then they're kind of hit and miss. You get a crop but like every four years. Oh, wow. Things like that. Yeah, it's apricots are kind of tough for us up here. But peaches grow wonderfully around. Okay. Okay. That's a great, peaches and plums do great here. Okay. Do you, do you use any fertilizer or spray protocol that you do? Well, you know, I was, I was spraying the copper spray to try to, you know, to get away from the blight. And yeah, it, I mean, it helped for many years. But finally, it's just, they're both terrible. And I have to cut them down. Yeah, you do want to cut those down and get rid of all the, excuse me, get rid of all the wood. You want to get that because it's all got the blight on it. And so you want to get it off your property. It is officially trash at this stage. Have you tried cherries? No, I haven't. But my neighbors have and the birds just wipe you out. Yeah, that's what happened with ours. I never did eat a cherry off that darn tree. A lot of people have a good luck with apples here. Birds were real happy to eat those cherries for us. Were your trees really tall or are you keeping them small? We were keeping them low enough to pick, try to pick without a ladder. Oh, yeah, that's, yeah, that's a good policy. I, I don't do ladder anymore, so everything has to be short. You can monitor for ants and all the kind of indicators that you've got a problem if you keep them small. Yeah. Or maybe by the dwarf trees? Well, usually most of the bare root trees, if you buy bare root, they come on semi dwarf root stock. Oh, I know. You're starting out at a semi dwarf and then you can control the size by pruning. But they've been coming out with dwarf peaches, dwarf nectarines, and absolutely, yeah, they're a viable alternative. And a lot of times you can grow those in containers too. I had, I had a dwarf peach for years that I grew in, in a 15 gallon container. Hmm. All right. Yeah, I have a lemon, a Meyer lemon in a container. Well, I grow all my tomatoes in 30 gallon containers. Nice. And they do well. Oh, yeah. But yeah, I like containers too, but they're the containers are in the garden. Oh, yeah, I that's how my garden is. I have because I have a lot of gopher problems. And oh my gosh, you know, it's so annoying when you go out and your poor plant suddenly wilted and it's like what's going on? And then you pull on and give it a little tug and, you know, out comes the shrub with very little roots on it. Oh, yeah, or the ground squirrels, they may mess with them too. Yeah, you know, I have come to realize, I think I'm blessed that I don't have the ground squirrels. I had those, those fluffy gray ones, but they stay up in the trees. Yeah, and that's good. I'm so thankful. Because, boy, most tell me about their ground squirrel challenges and yikes. It's annoying. Do you think that Calscape is a is a research site for something like this? Because they would probably tell you what is disease resistant? You know, I don't know if they have things like that. I don't know either. But you know, they'd be they'd be native ones. Right. And so that immediately would they would grow better. And, you know, Felix Gillet Institute, they sell heirloom free trees. Oh, yeah. And they have good stuff. Yeah, you've got a lot of planning time that you can be researching what's going to do well. And I think that's kind of the where you're at the crossroads you're at is trying to plant a tree that just doesn't do well here. Because of the the problems that we have in our environment. And so maybe you're looking at trees that do well. So you're probably not are you 9A or 9B where you are? Do you know your planting zone? No, I thought I was eight. But well, you know, Sunset, USDA, and then they revise. So a lot of books have, you know, and all the books haven't updated, you know, so yeah, it's kind of a confusing topic. Yeah. What elevation are you at? Do you know? 21. Okay, okay. Yeah. Um, I would do I that was is something that takes some research. And I think you'll find it educational, to say the least, you know, you'll learn a lot more about your about the anything that you want to plant by doing some research. Well, I also think about the early rain. And, you know, those flowers can be wiped out, those buds can be wiped out, where the bees can't get to them. And then that wipes your crop out, too. Exactly. I've had that happen with the plums, because they're typically Oh, are they being our early? You're right. I don't know. Are peaches a little later than? They're a little later. And within within any group of fruit trees, there are early bloomers, late bloomers. So that's something there. That's where your research can pay off. You can find a later blooming fruit tree. And that can, you know, hopefully avoid that. Well, it's that two weeks, we used to get in February all the time, where it would get really warm. And then all the trees go, Oh, goody, it's time. And then and then would come, you know, the hailstorms are the heavy rains. And we lose all our Yeah, I can't. Yeah, happened more than once to me with our disappointment. Pardon? It's so disappointing. Oh, isn't it though? It's like, Oh, I feel for the farmers. Yeah. Oh, truly, you develop a new appreciation for farming. Jan, does that satisfy your question? We have to take a break. And yes, it does. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you so much for your call. I really appreciate it. And good luck with your with your research. Thanks. Bye bye. Bye. Okay, folks, we have to take another break. We'll be right back. Escape the everyday and enjoy a little more time to relax with a weeknight getaway. Because this year stellar rewards members of every tier can enjoy 50% off all suites and 30% off all standard rooms Sunday through Thursday. Settle in and relax in our luxurious rooms and enjoy a little more time to relax with a weeknight getaway. Because this year stellar rewards members of every tier can enjoy 50% off all suites and 30% off all standard rooms Sunday through Thursday. Settle in and relax in our luxurious rooms and enjoy everything the resort has to offer from casino excitement and free live entertainment to award winning craft beer and delicious dining at the brewery. 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When you know, you know. Get ready to win the prize of the day, perhaps cupcakes, maybe a pasty, it could even be a Bloody Mary mix, or something totally different. Each weekday, late in the 7 a.m. hour, Tom and Paul present You Make the Call, a contest for which you do not need to know the answer, you just need to know if Paul knows the answer. Join us for a great opportunity at an incredible prize with You Make the Call, a part of the morning show for as long as I can remember. Each weekday, with Tom and Paul, on KNCO News Talk 830. Welcome back to Master Gardeners and Friends Radio Show. I'm Master Gardener Christine Smith, and Sharon Curry, and we're having fun here today. And now, you were about to launch into something. What was I? I think we were just talking about fruit trees, and I'm not a fruit tree grower myself. Yeah, I gave up on it. I have no luck. You know, at one point I was having plans of putting in just a mini-orchard. Yeah, well, that went by the wayside. I just don't have that much energy because I've got to do this stuff by myself or hire somebody to do it for me. Well, we grow what we're going to eat, and honestly, we don't eat enough fruit to support an entire, you know, load of... A whole tree. Orchard fruit. Yeah. And unless you're, you know, opening your own, you know, fruit stand, I could have my fruit stand at the end of the driveway. Yeah. No, probably not. Yeah, they take an awful lot of care and routinely spraying and this and that. Well, you know, I know a master gardener, and she has a fruit orchard, and she says she never sprays, and she has very healthy trees. She says, I take care of my soil. Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's all about, I mean... It is. It's all about the soil. It is. You know, and happy soil, happy plants, happy life. And I just think, but she's amazing. She's amazing, so, you know. Some people just have a super gift, and her and her fruit trees, I think that's one of them. Yeah. One other thing we were going to talk about today is it's daffodil planting time. Yes. Daffodil bulbs. So people that are, you know, planning ahead like we do, it's time to plant daffodil bulbs, and also time to take up some bulbs that are in your soil, gladiolas. The ones that can't handle the winter conditions. Dahlias, you might want to take up some of your dahlias and overwinter them, make sure they're dried out. Yeah. And, you know, lots of people keep them in a box with some newspaper over winter so you can plant them out next year. But, you know, the daffodil planting is so rewarding. It's so fun, because then you get the rewards in the springtime. Yeah. So fall is the time to plant your spring blooming bulbs, folks, and that includes daffodils. Daffodils are, we always kind of default to daffodils. Yeah. And I know I do that because daffodils are pretty bulletproof. Yeah. The critters underground don't like them. Yeah. And the critters above ground don't like them either. So, and I look at that and I go, win-win, and they multiply. Yeah. Yeah. That's my favorite plant. Yeah, you don't have to pull them back up. You don't pull them out. Stay and multiply. Because, you know, honestly, once it goes in the ground at my, it'd stay in there. I think they're part of the Narcissus family, right, daffodils? Yeah, they are. So that's paper whites and all kinds of other things are in that same family. I was looking, I got my bulb catalogs recently, and holy smokes, there are so many varieties of daffodils, colors, the forms. I love the doubles, the ruffly doubles. Oh, they're so pretty. Well, we have the daffodil run in Pan Valley, but which I think takes place in May, I think it is. But they're blooming so early now that they're gone by the time. By the time the daffodil, oh yeah, they'll have to move it up. They're blooming early because of our weather. Yeah, it's funny how these, our weather really is changing. You know, it's a lot more windy around here these days than it ever used to be. And I know that because the wind comes in at night and it blows all the leaves and, you know, dead branches and paraphernalia out of the trees. And because I get up and I do my morning walk outside and my porch, I can, because I blow darn near every day, I blow my porch. And it's just a real easy walk around, you know, porch. And I can really tell, oh, it was real windy last night because I'll have my oak leaves and the cedar tree stuff and some pine needles thrown in. It's kind of crazy. It's a fun way to just kind of keep track of what's happening. We hardly ever get wind in Penn Valley. It's very, very calm there. Just the way it sits, we hardly get wind at all. When we do get wind, it's like, wow, there's wind. Yeah, it's a tornado. You know, there's some sort of extreme weather happening. Yeah, and we pretty much are just oaks there. We get the occasional ponderosa pine or, you know, things like that. I've got all three, the cedars, pines, and I have black oaks, which I love that tree. Oh, I got a huge one. It's ginormous. And it's so beautiful. And I like those because the leaves are bigger and they don't have the sharp pokies. Ah, the other tree at the other house, they had that pokie. Oh, that was brutal. So I'm very happy to have my black oaks. And the leaves are bigger, so they're real easy to blow or rake up. Well, and that brings up a topic. You know, we leave all of our leaves on the ground. Well, my husband and I do have a discussion about this generally because he doesn't like the leaves around. But, you know, lots of insects and little tiny mice and whatnot live underneath that leaf layer over the winter. And so if I lose the debate, he does blow them underneath the trees or around the trees so that there is habitat still out there. Yeah, there's habitat. We don't bag them up and take them off the property like a lot of people do. Oh, gosh, no, no, no, because that's a valuable resource. Oh, my gosh. It is. And then over winter, they just turn into mulch. Because I chose, I have gravel driveway and gravel parking area because I didn't want to have, I wanted to have a permeable surface because that's healthier for the soil and the whole situation. And so I've done it where I haven't blown the driveway and parking areas. And then the other years where I really keep on, I really like to keep on it and keep the parking area and driveway blown because it kind of turns into a real mess in the wintertime. Yeah. Too much of a good thing is too much. So it's a win-win for me because I blow, we blow all the leaves down to the lower part of the property where, oh, my Lord, there's blackberries everywhere. And, hey, I just cover them up, you know. And if it can provide a little bit of blackberry suppression or at least slow those buggers down a bit, I'm a happy camper. And like that, I just keep breaking them down there. They get rained on, they turn, they compost down and everybody's happy. And, you know, it works for me. Oh, it's time. You want to go now? Okay. We're going to have our top of the hour break. So, folks, this is our long break. We'll be back with more fun after this. After this. The Master Gardeners never run out of great advice. On KNCO Grass Valley, Nevada City, 106.9 FM and 830 AM. It's 11 o'clock. Life doesn't stop when you need surgery. But the right care can help you get back to it sooner. Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital offers robotic assisted procedures that can improve accuracy and may reduce disruption to your body, which can help you heal faster to get back to living fully. Because progress in the operating room should mean progress in your life. Learn more at DignityHealth.org slash Sierra Nevada Surgery. Dignity Health. Hello, human kindness. KNCO.com provides a way for your civic service group or nonprofit organization to tell everyone about an upcoming event or fundraiser. And it's free. The KNCO Community Calendar. Go to KNCO.com. Click on the calendar button in the blue bar. Then click submit an event and fill out the form. Once okayed, your event will be added to the Community Calendar on KNCO.com and added to many of the local area Chamber of Commerce websites as well. It's free and available to you from KNCO News Talk 830. Well, hello there and welcome back to Master Gardeners and Friends Radio Show. I'm Master Gardener Christine Smith. And Sharon Curry. Yeah, we're here. We've been having such a nice time chatting about home gardening, our gardens, experiments, which is my favorite thing. All kinds of fun things. So if anybody's out there and you have a question or an experiment that you'd like to share with us, give us a call. It's 530-477-5626. Or you can contact our text line at 530-913-4685. Well, you know, I'd like to chat a little bit about one of my favorite topics. And I think it's one of the most important, really, is mulching. Mulching with organic matter is one of the very best things you can do for your yard. And it has so many benefits. It helps retain soil moisture. It helps regulate soil temperature. It keeps the soil a little bit cooler from really heating up in those hot summer days. In the summer, it's real important. Because if the soil gets hot, the roots get hot, and that's not healthy for the roots. It helps retain more moisture in the soil. It helps control erosion. Just so many good things. And while the mulch is doing all these things, it's also breaking down and then working itself into your soil and improving it by lightening it up. Our clay soil is very, very heavy, and it's very slow drainage, generally speaking. And so any introduction of organic matter into that clay soil only works for the good. It improves the structure of the soil so that the nutrients become more available. All the nutrients are there in the clay soil. But they need some extra organic matter to improve the structure to make the nutrients available to the plants. That's the thing. It's like the key later. It makes them more available. And so your plants are going to get healthier. I mean, it's such a win-win. And honestly, it looks nice. What do you use for mulch? I use... Sometimes I'll purchase... You know, I like the small bark. That's a fun one, depending on where I'm using it. I grind up leaves, you know, because I have lots and lots and lots and lots of oak leaves. I'll let those break down and mash them up. Use that. But mostly it's bagged products. I buy bagged mulch. Sometimes I like to get, you know, something that's all ground up and, you know, that's not chunky. However, the chunky stuff is a nice top finish because... And the bigger it is, the longer it lasts. I like to put the finer stuff down first and then... Because that's closer to the native soil, and the sooner it's going to work itself in. It's going to break down faster. Yeah. And then have this kind of top finish. But I am not that polished these days. I'm... My yard's kind of a wreck. And I've been focusing on getting my house, you know, fixed up. And so, yeah, I'm in the middle of a remodel project right now. So I haven't been spending a lot of time outside. Mostly just, you know, waving my hose around at all my plants. And... Have you used horse manure as a mulch before? I have, but not... I don't have a source. So I don't. But, yeah, horse manure is great. It works great. It's usually free. You can find it, you know. And anybody that has horses would probably be glad for you to take some away. I'd be very, very glad. Yeah. And, you know, as long as it's the one thing about domestic animal manures, you want to be sure it's leached and composted well. Yeah. We have two horses. So we generally have a pile going for two years later, so it gets rained on and all that stuff. But one thing to keep in mind is if you're planting vegetables in that matter, you want to make sure that there's not a lot of pesticides. People give pesticides to their horses, vaccines, and things like that. So we are very, very careful what our horses are exposed to because I am planting in it. Yeah, right on. Well, and that's part of the reason why you let it sit for two years. We do. And let anything that could possibly be in there leach out. Yeah, the heat inside those piles is tremendous. It's absolutely tremendous. There's your composting experiment. It's going to kill whatever's in there. Oh man, I remember that because I've always had, the fam always had horses and so I've been around horses and giant piles of horse manure for all my life. Yeah, they're very useful. And yeah, it used to be so fun. Oh, the pile is smoking. Little kids think that's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, they do. You do have to be careful. They can catch on fire. Yeah, yeah. If you're too hot. Yeah, so you don't want to make your pile next to your barn. Yeah. Your wood barn. Horse manure, I haven't seen those really catch on fire personally, but ones that have a lot of leaf matter and things like that. Okay, yeah. They can ignite. Yeah, yeah. So funny. So funny. So many big piles of horse manure. At the demo garden, we, in the propagation garden, at the demonstration garden, which I encourage anybody out there to come through when we have, when we have workshops, we open that up for the public to come through and so you can see what we're growing. And we're busy propagating plants for the plant sale for next year. And so we used, we have a compost section at the demo garden, which you could come and check it out and see how we make compost back there. It's really, it's really expanded. Yeah, it has. And they've got a whole system back there. And so we took a lot of the compost from there and did mulching on the propagation garden. Perfect. About a week ago. Yay! Yeah, that's cool. Added a little top layer to everything in there. Nice. Yeah. I love it. I love it. We certainly have lots of materials. I know it seems like every time I go out to the demo garden, I'll go, you know, because I always survey everything, look at everything. And you know, there's often all the trash cans filled with, you know, all kinds of matter that's going to go, oh, we got lots of material for the compost pile. They sort them all back there. All good. Okay, we have to take a break. So we'll be right back after these messages. At Grass Valley Provisions, being local means being part of the community. Independently owned and operated, you'll find a thoughtfully curated selection of quality products and knowledgeable service in a beautiful, welcoming environment. 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Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor, and separate entity from LPL Financial. Bad decisions limit future options. Make enough bad decisions and you will destroy your life. Listen to The Flatline with your host Rick Hughes every Sunday morning at 8 here on KNCO News Talk 830. The Flatline describes a main line of resistance in your soul built on God's Word. Join us each Sunday for 30 minutes of inspiration, motivation, and education, all without manipulation. That's The Flatline with Rick Hughes every Sunday at 8 a.m. right here on KNCO News Talk 830. Welcome back and we're Master Gardeners and Friends Radio Show. I'm Master Gardener Christine Smith. And Sharon Curry. And we're just having a good time this beautiful Saturday morning. And it was still really nice outside when we came into the studio. Beautiful day. And I think it's going to be pretty warm when we get out. Yeah. So anyway, make sure you water your plants, folks. Water the container plants especially. I was a stinker and I inadvertently let some of my container watering slip and some of my trees are telling me, you're not very nice to us. But you know, some brown on the leaves, that's your indicator there that you're not giving them, you let them dry out. Anyway, yeah, I let them dry out. So we got to be good about our watering until the rains start. Yeah. Hallelujah. Now, Sharon, I was asking you during the break about what's your procedure? Do you put your summer veggie beds to bed for the winter? Do you have a process? Not yet. How does it work for you? Because I'm still growing. I'm growing the things we can grow in the fall season. So I have broccoli planted and cauliflower. Nice. I've got three kinds of lettuce out there that we can grow. And actually, in the heat, it's still doing fine. Wow. I do have to cover them with netting because the birds are ravenous right now. Yeah. And actually, I've still had some cabbage moths out there. I spotted one the other day. Yeah, they're covered. So I'm still growing out there. I haven't put them to bed yet. Now, because you have an extended, you extend your season of past summer veggies into the fall veggies, and sometimes they call them winter veggies, how do you handle refurbishing your soil in your beds? Do you do supplemental fertilizing? Well, what I am done with growing, which will be at our elevation, we're at 1,400, so I'll be growing really in December still. But after that, I'll put a fresh layer of manure on the top. Then I'm going to cover that with some alfalfa hay. And I just let that water in over the rainy season. Oh, yeah. Then you get your re-nitrogenized. Yeah. Does that work? I have done a cover crop before on one of my, I have a raised bed that's, I guess, about 8 by 10. It's pretty huge. I usually grow corn in there. Oh, yeah. That needs a lot of nitrogen. Yeah. But this last year, I grew a cover crop in there just as an experiment. And so it'll be interesting to see what happens with that. But mostly, I just let it water in and do what nature does. Your cover crop, did you turn it in to the soil? Yeah. The important thing about cover crops is to chop off the, before it turns into a seed. Yeah. So you don't want the beans to turn into seeds, for instance. Right, right. So I dug that in. But mostly, I just let nature do its thing over the winter. Then I don't generally dig the alfalfa in to the soil because alfalfa can have kind of stems in it. So it's not all nice leaves. Yeah. Depending on the condition of the soil, I may or may not dig it in. But it all turns into organic matter and then you're ready to go. Yeah. Ta-da. Yeah. That's a good thing. Yeah. It's important to refurbish your raised beds after the season. Yeah. Yeah. Especially for things like corn. They're crazy high nitrogen. You can buy lots of things to do that. But if you have a large garden, it gets to be an expensive issue. Yeah. And so I tend to go with the more natural ways of doing it. Absolutely. With horse manure and hay. They work. I have had great success with that. Yeah. They work. I love it. I love it. Have you ever done soil testing? Do you do that? No. Yeah. I just kind of go with my gut. Yeah. I put it in. If it doesn't grow, I don't grow that there again. I haven't had too many disasters. Yeah. You know, the one thing I've learned with gardening is there's more than one way to skin a cat. And there's more than one way to garden. Honestly. And there's lots of different approaches. And, hey, if it works, yay. There are clear places where you shouldn't plant something. So, for instance, in the 8x10 bed I was telling you about, I'm going to turn that into a native scape. Oh, fun. And so you can't grow true natives in raised bed soils. Right. Right. They're not in their native soil. So they're missing their basic element. Yeah. So I consulted a local native grower. And so I'm going to take out most of that soil that's in there. And I'm going to put in some gravel and some DG and some elements that make it more representative of native soil. And you can't be doing that next year. That transition. Oh, how fun. Yeah. That ought to be really interesting. Yeah. Go for another experiment. I'd love it. That's the lovely thing about gardening. If you do it and you don't like it or it doesn't like you, you just do something else. Redo it. Redo it. Exactly. You know, I talk to my plants a lot. And, you know, I tell any plant that comes into my yard, number one, baby, you gotta be tough. You gotta be tough to live in my yard. And, you know, and so and I'll plant, I'll get multiples of the same plant and put it in different locations, i.e. the different microclimates in my yard. And I see what which one does best. And I love to observe the differences. And, you know, you take note. Okay. What were the what was the sun exposure? You know, the watering, you know, did that, did it, how different it was between the different specimens. It's just such a learning experience for me. And I, you know, like that. I love a good experiment. Yeah. I like when I go in my garden, I have my garden is all fenced. So that's wonderful. We have a couple of acres, but we've fenced off about 3,000 square feet. And so it's a dedicated spot. So when you go when you go in there, it's a garden experience. Right. And because we have deer and anything outside the fence is just going to get eaten. So everything inside the fence is pretty safe. Yeah. So for one time, I left the gate open and they deadheaded my roses. But oh, yeah. Other than that, it's been successful. So to do something like that, you have to create some hype. So you've got the highs and the lows of your garden. And as you're thinking about what you're going to plant next year, I would encourage people to think about hype. And butterfly bushes are a very inexpensive, beautiful way to create some interest and hype in your garden. And they grow, you know, and these are the full size. The full size. Yes. Because they have, they've made, they've created lots of dwarfs and they're cute. But to me, butterfly bushes are those gigantic native. Yeah, yeah. I cut them down every year to about three feet. Oh, yeah. And then by the end of summer, they're, I don't know, 10 feet probably. Oh, easy. Yeah. I used to have, oh my gosh, this big old purple one in the front yard out in Ruffin Ready. And honestly, it. It got so big, it had multiple trunks. And I get the husband to come out with the chainsaw, chainsaw it down, because it would be so crazy. Yeah, I cut them down every year. I grow them like a tree trunk. So I trim them to only be one trunk. Then it grows like a tree and you just have to cut them down, not to the ground, I leave them about three feet. Well, because I didn't do that. I just planted it. And naturally, they're multi-trunk extravaganza. They're wonderfully hardy. The Dark Knight variety is the multi-trunk. So those don't trim to a tree very well, but they're an excellent shading plant. So if you want to prevent, for privacy purposes, so if you've got a part of your property where you want to provide some privacy for yourself, you grow those. It's a great option. Yeah, they're very inexpensive. Oh, yeah. And I used to propagate them like mad. They're so easy to propagate. It's just like falling off a log. And then I overwinter them. The birds eat the seeds and they've got some place to go when there's a storm. And you know, golly, mine would be just covered in butterflies. There's a very good reason why they're called butterfly bushes. Yes, it's true. And they smell so nice. I used to bring them inside sometimes. And just beautiful. And I love the scents inside. Okay, we have to take another break. So we'll be back very shortly. 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Saturday, October 4th at BNC Ace Omen Garden Center. Hope to see you there. Escape the everyday and enjoy a little more time to relax with a weeknight getaway. Because this year, Stellar Rewards members of every tier can enjoy 50% off all suites and 30% off all standard rooms Sunday through Thursday. Settle in and relax in our luxurious rooms and enjoy everything the resort has to offer. From casino excitement and free live entertainment to award-winning craft beer and delicious dining at the brewery. The Lodge at Feather Falls Casino Resort. Your place to stay. Must be 21 or older. Black-owned day supply. Management reserves all rights. All-you-can-eat prime rib and crab legs? Oh yeah, this is not a drill. Feather Falls Casino Resort's Dream Catcher Buffet is serving up the ultimate surf and turf. Slow-roasted prime ribs, sweet buttery crab legs. Pile your plate high, then go back for seconds or thirds, maybe fourths. Hey, we don't judge. Join us Friday and Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. Just $34.99 for all-you-can-eat prime rib, crab legs, and all your buffet favorites. Dream Catcher Buffet. Come hungry. Leave impressed. Only at Feather Falls Casino. Your place to feast. Great. Now I'm hungry. Tune in to the Ramsey Show today at noon. Brought to you by Zion Capital. Your trusted Ramsey SmartVestor Pros. Right here in Nevada County. For any plumbing emergency. And electric. With professional quality. For friendly service and reliability. It's as easy as A-B-T. Hi, it's Andrew Twidwell, owner of A-B-T Plumbing, Electric, Heat and Air. You know, we've been fixing things around Nevada County since 2001. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that home repairs never happen at a good time. Maybe your water heater just quit, your drains are backed up, the lights are flickering, or your furnace is acting up when you need it the most. Whatever the problem, my team and I are here to help. Fast, reliable, and done right the first time. So if something goes wrong at your house, don't stress, just give us a call. Plumbing, Electrical, Heating, and Air. It's as easy as A-B-T. Call us at 530-230-9092 or visit us at abtplumbing.com. The number again is 530-230-9092. We're your hometown team and we've got you covered. It's as easy as A-B-T. Well, welcome back once again. It's Master Gardeners and Friends Radio Show. I'm Master Gardener, Christine Smith. And Sharon Curry. Yeah, and we're here, we've been having fun talking about all kinds of different things. And what now? Do you have flowers blooming right now in your... You know, asters are blooming. They are the gift to pollinators late in the season. Yes, they're a great late season. Yeah, they seem like they don't give back because they, you know, they stop blooming eventually when it starts raining. And then January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, they're just green. Maybe they're growing. And then October comes around and then they have this glorious bloom and they're huge plants if you let them be huge. And, you know, a lot of them are purple. We have the Harrington aster at the demo garden. I don't know if you've seen that one, but it's pink. So they come in three colors that I've seen that grow here. There's the Harrington, that's pink. There's the New England, that's the purple. And then there's a yellow one and that's more of a native. The yellow is more of a native. And I don't know what the name of that one is, but you can plant those. And it's just one of those things you do for nature and you really don't get a lot in return until much later in the year. But they are, you know, when bees are looking for the last gasp of sustenance, the asters really provide. That's a good one. Yeah. Well, that's a good, that's a great recommendation because sometimes there's certain plants, flowers that can really provide a lot for the wildlife of all types. And it's knowing, putting that combination of those plants together to help extend one's offerings to the wildlife, that I like to learn about that because I want to extend the offerings and to feed the wildlife. And, you know, I'm happy I have berries, you know, my coffee berries are producing. They're so fun. And I just, I love it. And that's, I like to think about providing more for wildlife. So that's a great... Icelandic poppies are still blooming right now. The what kind of poppy? Icelandic, the champagne bubble. Icelandic poppies. Yeah, they're blooming right now in my yard. They're perennials. You know, people think you just pull them out at the end of the season, but they're perennials. I'll come back over there. I love those. They're there because their petals look like crepe paper. Yeah, they do. And it reminds me of crepe paper projects I did when I was a kid. And they're always so fun and colorful. Yeah. Hollyhocks, I've got second bloomings of hollyhocks. I tend to grow plants that have, that are not the doubles. Yeah. You want plants so the bees can actually get inside. That's very important. And that is something I also learned in during doing research into pollination. While the ruffling doubles are really pretty, they often camouflage the approach, so to speak, for the pollinators. They don't see the, they can't get in there. So you want to have the singles. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, but I still throw in my doubles simply because I love them. They are prettier. As with everything, you know, in moderation and mix it up. It's all good. But that's, that's really all. Well, I got some cape mallows. A cape mallow is, I bought that actually at the UC Davis garden a couple of years ago and it's blooming. Your rose of Sharon is blooming now. So there's a few things that are adding some color. I still have a pulmonary, no, wait, wait, wait. Plumeria? No, nah, close. Oh my gosh. I couldn't remember the name of this plant when I was on with Cassie. I was trying to think. Oh my gosh. I thought I had it in my brain. It's not pulmonary. That's my lung ward and they're not blooming now. Um, it starts with a P. Anyway, it's, it's, it's a cute plant and it has blue flowers. Oh, okay. And I'm shocked. It's still producing some bloom. Yeah. Do you have bees on it? I don't observe it. I'm not watching it that closely. I haven't seen the bees on it actually. Yeah, they, uh, it's, it's interesting to watch bees right now because they're, they're looking for the high value plants. They're leaving the Nepeta, which is the easy one. And so when the asters pop out, they're flying over there to see them. Yeah. I, and that's about all that's blooming in my yard at now. Things are, you know, kind of slowing down a bit. I'm working on a little bit of a, uh, an insect wall. Um, it's kind of interesting. I've got a back corner of my garden and, uh, little mice are over there. Oh, like a bug hotel. Yes. Like a bug hotel. And I've got a lot of plants around it. So it's kind of like a little secure area. It's such a fun thing, especially if you've got kids, you can help them play sticks and rocks and moss. And I've seen the little things, of course you can buy. I would make, you could buy the carpenter bee. Yeah. I'd make it. Hello. Because yeah, I'm not going to put, yeah, I'm no, I'm making it, you know, with the holes drilled in so they can get it, crawl in and make their nests. I think that's so fun. Yeah. Yeah. Bug hotels. And well, anything like that adds to your garden, you know, the more bugs you have. I mean, people tend to think bugs are bad, but like, you know, aphids on my roses. I honestly don't do anything. Well, you know, unless they're completely inundating, just total coverage. The only thing I do is spray them with water. And honest to God, that works wonderfully because not all bugs are bad. Right. You know, you got to leave some fodder for the good bugs. Well, and that's what the ladybugs eat, right? Exactly. Ladybugs come. It's all a thing that ultimately it helps your garden. Yeah. Yeah. You got to have some things and it's not natural to have no insects because you need the insects because they do the pollinating, the insects and the birds. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and as we're talking about getting ready for winter, you know, it's really good practice to just chop the old plant off at the dirt level and leave the roots because there's a whole little city underneath there. Oh, yeah. It's alive. Yeah. It's alive underneath there. And if you leave the roots, you know, they will decay, you know, over the winter. But in the meantime, you haven't disturbed the beneficial things that are in your soil. Because there's microbes. There is. There's all kinds of microbial action going on. All of that. So unless it's a really fibrous fruit or plant, I would just say just chop it off at the dirt level. You can even just lay it over. Yeah. Some people just take their tomatoes, they chop them down and just lay them down and let them compost. Yeah. Now, personally, I wouldn't do that. I don't. Yeah. Because tomatoes, they have such a tendency to have diseases. And so it's like it's up and out. Yeah. Yeah. Weeds that haven't sprouted. Yeah. If there's no seed head. Yeah. Yeah. Just leave your weeds there. So yeah, it's I yeah, I throw them out with the with the they don't have seeds on them. I throw them out with the oak leaves. And the massive, you know, composting taking place. Yeah. I think the only exception to that is cornstalks. If you've ever tripped over two inches of cornstalk left in the ground. Yeah, that could be very unpleasant. Only do it one time. Possibly leading to broken arms and stuff. There are some things you want to take out. But yeah, for the most part, I think you could just yeah, the roots roots in for Yeah, you know, it would provide structure. Nature takes care of it over the winter. Yeah, you could make a new compost. The cornstalks would be a great bet for your new compost pile. If you're doing compost on the ground. Yeah, we are. I'm fortunate. I don't have to deal with bears. Oh, me neither. I do my I'm the lazy composter. I have my compost is on the ground. And it's enriching, make more soil. It's enriching. And that's I do it to lower my my trash. I put everything in paper, all kinds, you know, and it gets recycled around all that. Yeah, and everything goes away. Compost happens. And it works for me. I reduces my trash hugely. Since I'm I'm really kind of rabid about it. You know, I'm so much compost that telling my kid why is that the trash? Come on now. I'm like I'm like that with the recycle bin. Yeah, I'm a big. Well, let's go on a recycle bin, guys. Yeah, I'm always digging in my trash. Come on, kid. Little scamp. We all have to do our part. Exactly. You know, because I feel like if all of us do a little bit, it adds up to a lot. It does. And and and that can make a big difference. And, you know, try not to use so many plastics. I've been trying. That's a tough transition because everything's or seemingly everything's in plastic. Certainly garden supplies. Everything's plastic. Yeah, I reuse a lot of my stuff and I sterilize it and use it for cuttings or whatever. I always try to find a way to repurpose things that come into my house, you know, instead of just immediately trash. And it's interesting. That's a whole nother exploration in and of itself. You know, repurposing things. It can be quite fun and interesting. But yeah, lots of good seed starting things come, you know, in the containers that. Gosh, you can start seeds in almost anything. Yeah. Toilet rolls. Yeah, little yogurt containers, you know. Yeah. So handy. It's great fun. OK, what else are we wanting to talk about? I love that seed library there. Yeah, everybody should go and visit that. I think I'm going to go visit that here in the future. It changes all the time. I think they meet every Friday and refill it and put new things in. And so you never know what's going to be there. Yeah, it's constant. It's so fun. Yeah, it's always something new. And now's a good time to get prepared. OK, and we will have more for you folks when we come back from another break. So autumn is beginning to show off its gorgeous tones and a prospector's nursery. They're helping you to add a fresh pop of color with pretty pansies and violas, plus many beautiful shades to brighten your porch, patio or garden. They also have some flannel shirts to keep you warm these cooler nights and make sure you get a sneak peek at some delightful Christmas fun. Plus, the vendors have been bringing in tons of new treasures. For more information, call 470-0973 this Thursday through Saturday at Prospector's Nursery, 1003 Grand Home Lane, Nevada City. Why is my lawn still drinking like it's July? Good question. Even when it's still hot outside, it's a good time to check your water use. Check your irrigation timer, look for leaks and broken sprinkler heads, and don't forget to check faucets and toilets for leaks around the house. A small leak may not seem like much, but over time those drops add up. Take a few minutes to make sure you're using water wisely. Nevada Irrigation District, serving our community since 1921. The November 3rd midterm election is just weeks away. Now is the time to learn about the candidates and issues and decide how you will cast your ballot. Beginning October 5th, ballots will be mailed to California voters. Return yours by mail at an official ballot drop box or in person at the Ballot Processing Center on Loma Rica Drive in Grass Valley. Additional vote centers will open as Election Day approaches. Not registered? October 19th is the registration deadline. After that, eligible voters can still register and vote through Election Day using conditional same-day registration. For reliable, non-partisan information about candidates and issues, including local candidate forums, visit the League of Women Voters of Nevada County at lwvnevadacounty.org or visit vote411.org. November 3rd is Election Day. Your vote, your future. Make it count. Paid for by the League of Women Voters of Nevada County. Hi, I'm Pat Dyer. At Utopian Stone, we believe beautiful jewelry should be as unique as the person who wears it. From custom-designed jewelry and stunning gemstones to one-of-a-kind gifts and expert repairs, craftsmanship and personal service are still at the heart of everything we do. Today, my son Mark and his wife Denise and master jeweler Chad are proudly carrying that tradition forward. Stop by the corner of Pine and Broad Street in historic Nevada City. Utopian Stone, we design what we make and we make what we sell. Visit utopianstone.com. Sunday is church day beginning at 6 a.m. here on KNCO. We present programs such as Focus on Family, Music and the Spoken Word, In the Word from Gold Country Cavalry Chapel and more. Our Sunday programming is here for you each weekend from 6 to 10 a.m. If you can't make it to church or just want to join others in the praise or enhance your biblical experience, tune in each Sunday morning to KNCO News Talk 830 also on iHeartRadio. Get a discount at local businesses and save some of that hard-earned money with the shopping show. Shopping show certificates are available online at knco.com and on the air weekdays during Swap Shop. Restaurants, clothing stores, thrift shops, fitness centers and more all offering you ways to save, save, save. Pick out the deals you want, order them and then pick them up here at the office. Saving your money more important than ever. The Shopping Show on KNCO News Talk 830. Hello there and welcome back to Master Gardeners and Friends Radio Show. I'm Master Gardener Christine Smith and Sharon Curry and we wanted to close our show and this is our last segment talking about seed collecting in your yard and herb drying. Drying those herbs that like I was sharing how my oregano is just completely overgrown. Well we, I really like collecting seeds because the plants were naturalized to my garden. Yes. So you, it's not like starting with a another set of seeds from Iowa. Yeah, that were professionally grown. Yeah, that you bought from an online catalog. So, you know, some do better than others. Some are, some plants are easy reseeders. You don't even have to do anything. If you just leave them there, they'll just sprout some more. You'll have a lot of Cosmos next year. Yeah, love that. But Cosmos are one of the ones that are easy. Hollyhocks are super easy. They grow well. Lots of plants that are, you know, you're having seed heads, super easy to collect those. They have to be dried though. Yeah, before you. Before you seal them up. Oh, absolutely. You know, so you can, you can lay them out in a, away from sunlight in your house. You can hang them upside down. You can. Brown bags. Brown bags. You can put them in brown bags. Whatever you need to do before you seal them up, make sure they're dry. But the beauty of that is that they, they know your yard already. Yeah. And they've done well in your yard. That particular plant did well, which is why you're taking their seeds. Why you want the seeds. Yeah. So that's pretty neat. So what have you successfully gathered? What seeds have you successfully gathered from your yard? I like a particular Hollyhock because it's, it's very plain. There's nothing special about it, but it grows huge and the bees absolutely love it. So I really love that one. It will sell seed if I, if I'm not careful. I've got way more Hollyhocks than I actually need. Well, that's what you'll bring to the plant sale, right? Hollyhocks. I have plenty of those. And actually the original one blew into my yard. It just started growing and I went, that's beautiful. So now I, now I propagate it. You know, it's so much fun when things like that occur because talk about a natural happening. It just happened. Yeah. You know, where did that plant come from? Oh, I don't know. Yeah, I don't remember. Maybe the birds brought it. Yeah, that's so much fun. So that and there's just flowers that have great seed potential. Like they've got a big seed pocket that I can, you know, harvest from. Queen Anne's lace, for instance. People think that's a weed. I absolutely love it. I think it's delicate and, and, and I, beautiful. I find it to be elegant. Yeah, they have huge seed cups that the birds will eat all and. That's great food for the birds. Yeah, it is. So I like those a lot. And Bishop's flower looks a lot like Queen Anne's lace. Some people confuse it. Those that you see, and of course Cosmos are super easy. Those are fun for kids because they can almost not fail. You can't not fail. I mean, yeah, you can't not win. So it's a really great time of year to be searching around in your garden for that. Uh-huh. You know what I, because there's always the debate. Do you cut the perennials all the way down before the seed has come? Yeah, I do not. I always would say no. But if you can't stand, and I've done this before. If you can't stand to leave the plant, leave it in place and just let it overwinter. Uh-huh. You can't, I've done this successfully with Echinacea. Uh-huh. And I had along my driveway, in my driveway flower bed, and there's a fence behind it. And I just cut my plants, my Echinacea down and gathered them up in a, like a bouquet, tied a string around it, and I hung it on the fence post. Uh-huh. So the seed heads were there for birdies to eat it all winter long. Oh, that's neat, yeah. That was my, that was the purpose. I like that. And, but, and yet I got my garden, my plant cleaned up. And, you know, I let them stay on there so they could develop a bit. But I got my plant cleaned up and that made me feel good. I got that cleanup aspect done. Yeah. And so my, my bed looked, looked nicer. And then just left that hanging there. And, and so I went and checked it later, late, late spring after being there all winter. And sure enough, there were seeds there. The birdies had found them and ate them. So that made me very, very happy. Yeah. That they, they, they got a meal or, or so. And you were, you were talking about herbs. I think this is a great time of year to be thinking about helping your, your, because herbs are perennials. And I went to a class recently and they were saying that some, some herb plants can live 12 years or more. So we tend to think about just buying fresh ones every year. But if you take care of them, they'll keep coming back. And there's different ways to dry them. I bundle them up and hang them upside down in my basement for a while. And it actually is a surprising length of time before they're ready to be, before they're actually dried out. You were saying you put them in a paper bag. Yeah. I use brown, uh, grocery bags, brown paper grocery bags. Cause I, I'm drying my, uh, uh, Laura's nobilis, my bay laurel, uh, leaves for, you know, soups and stews, uh, bay leaves. And I just put them in that brown bag. I staple it shut because I don't want the dust to get all over them. And I just have them in my cool extra bedroom, you know, a few bags. And, uh, it's amazing how many leaves you can fit into. Yeah. Sometimes I'm giving away bay leaves like mad, you know, you need bay leaves? Well, when they're dry, I just put them through, I put them in like a coffee grinder. Oh yeah. That's you can, yeah. Grind them up to whatever, whatever grind you want. I leave them pretty fluffy and yeah. Then I just put them in a glass jar with a lid and they last a long time. I've, I've, um, I don't grind up the bay leaves. I just leave them whole. And same thing, you know, have them in my air tights and, you know, they're always there for soups and stews. Then, you know, if you get the blues over winter, you could just take the lid off and smell that. Smells like summer. That, you know, I keep her hand some, uh, lavender handy for, I do that a lot. It takes you to another place. And well, I'm going to, I'm going to trim back. I have that, my oreganos I was telling you about, and they're just crazy overgrown again. They like being trimmed back. It's good for plants. Oh yeah, it stimulates them. And, and they're getting up there in age. They're probably, that's interesting, 12 years, you said. They've probably been in there at least about six. That's quite a while. Yeah. And I, I trim them back, way back, a couple of times a year. Yeah. And then they always come back gangbusters and they're just so darn cute. Easy plant too, you water it, trim it around again. Piece of cake. Yeah. They don't ask that much. No, they really, really don't. And I, I just love them. Cilantro, if you let cilantro grow, if you let it bolt, in the summer, it will have. How do you not? If you just let it go. Yeah. They have the most amazing flower spikes. They're really cute. The pollinators are mad for them. Really? Yeah. It's almost worth getting cilantro just to let it bolt. So it's like, okay, this one's for me. This one's for bolting. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to eat it. I'm just going to let it go to flower. I'm going to do that. Ooh, it's another experiment. It is. It is. That would be great fun. Yeah, I've seen the cilantro because you know if you haven't had cilantro bowl, you're amazing. Yeah, if it gets even a little bit warm there, they're done, but let them go just keep watering and let them go. I'm gonna check that out. Yeah, I had that's probably foot and a half long. Oh, yeah, flower spikes. Yeah. Wow Whoa, the flower spike itself was a foot and a half. Huge. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. Oh, I gotta see that. Okay, we gotta make that happen. Yeah They have come up with with slow bolt variety. Yeah, you know, we'll see we'll see how that shakes I had more fun with flowers. Yeah, I Think the last thing we wanted to talk about was leaving a little water out for our garden buddies you know the lizards and the bees and Whatever else frogs and so many things and it doesn't have to be a birdbath It could be just a little low bowl of water You know what? I finally succumbed I got some of these little They're actually metal flowers colorful flowers Stakes they pop in and they hold a small amount of water you do and so when I'm watering I always make sure I'm washing them out and filling them back up so that way the little butterflies and and and bees and and hopefully a Birdie or two. Yeah, so many birdies. We have some on the ground for the lizards. So cute. Yeah, I have I'm working on that I'll get lizard. Oh, that'd be so cute. Okay, I get Because I like to have little fun things in my garden that you know Surprise me and make me smile. Yeah, I have one outside the fence and then we know some foxes come by Oh, yeah drink out of that. Well, I get my little buddies every almost every night We have The raccoons the skunks and and and Opossums. Oh, they're so they're pretty cute. And then now we have one cat Excuse me One cat that's kind of hanging around That which is shocking because my cats. Oh Very aggressive and you know I think my cats mellowing because I told him you got to make some friends, but you can't beat everybody up You got to make some friends and I think he's kind of Listening. Yeah, so I got so I get all this wildlife going on and they and the raccoons and the skunks Yeah, they mix up my compost piles for me They get in the compost saying they're nibbling on the old veggies and stuff, okay, and They're very happy and well fed anyway, this is another show in the bag folks. Yeah, it's so great to be here today --- end of transcript ---