This is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com, today I have another exciting episode for
you, I’m yet on another field trip, we’re here at Farm Girl Nursery here in Novato,
California, and we’re here for one very important reason – to let you guys know
that you can go from zero to hero in no time flat. That’s actually I think the song in
a Disney movie called Hercules. But anyways we’re not going to talk about the Hercules
movie by Disney, but what we are going to talk about is a gardener here that we’re
going to meet today, who started the nursery that literally went from, this was a horse
track, or you know, nothing, and planted things out and has a nice luscious garden in only
six months! So I want you guys to know that you guys can go from zero to be a full-fledged
gardener in six months, and it doesn’t take a lot. She has no prior training, no prior
experience, and she has a wonderful garden growing on now. But of course, she has a few
tricks up her sleeve that I’m going to share with you guys today. So in today’s episode,
what we’re going to do is we’re going to show you her garden and maybe a few of
the other things going on here. She actually has some animals, she actually has some animals,
she actually does racehorse rescue, which means racehorses that are past their prime
for racing, they come here and they can lead out a nice happy life after their usefulness
as a racehorse is over. In addition she has pigs and chickens and goats, and this would
be a wonderful place to take kids on literally a field trip to see and get back to nature.
So they are only open at present time Wednesdays and Saturdays like 10 to 4, and at the end
of the video we’ll mention their contact details so you could learn more about the
farm. In any case let’s go into the farm and show you guys what’s growing on.
So next what we’re going to do is we’re going to go into the garden here and once
again this was a flat area with nothing here just six months ago. And if she could go from
zero to hero, or zero to a garden in six months, so can you. So what I’m going to do next
is we’re going to go inside, I’ll tour you around some of the things that are growing
on inside, and then maybe even at the end we’ll get to interview her and ask her some
of her tips and secrets so that you can grow some food and grow a lush, beautiful garden
like this as well. Now we’re here in the garden, and you could
see here there’s just many pathways. The pathways are all made with woodchips that
were dumped here for free. So you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to make your
garden look nice, just get some free wood chips that many landscapers or tree trimmers
would probably just like to get rid of and dump on your property at no cost to you. In
addition some of the areas she has defined out so her little beds that aren’t necessarily
raised although some are, are using primarily horse manure here from her farm and also some
topsoil that she did bring in. So next what we’re going to do is we’re going to look
around at some of the different areas and just show some of the plants that she has
growing on today. Now we’re in her garden you can see here
she has some little raised beds made out of two by fours. She said she actually recycled
or reused wood pallets and took them apart to build some of these guys right here. And
they’re just raised up just a few inches off the ground. She has it filled up, and
she has lots of tomatoes planted out, about three plants, she has some small cages, and
so a lot of things are in little beds like this and some things are just in big beds
that aren’t actually defined, but that’s not a problem if you don’t have the edges,
you don’t need the edges, just bound up some soil, and you can start growing. In addition,
maybe she’s a viewer of my show and she actually growing her mint instead of the raised
bed or in one of the beds she has it in a container, and this is the best way to grow
mint so that it doesn’t take over and spread. And this is some beautiful and delicious chocolate
mint that actually tastes really good too. Here’s just yet another bed, and as you
can see she has a pathway and then just right on the other side of the pathway she basically
has a line, and then the bed starts. And in this bed she has things like onions and lettuce
and tomatoes and some squash. And one of the cool things she’s using is she’s growing
vertically so that things don’t sprawl, she’s growing it vertically, and what she’s
using is some bamboo off her property, she has some bamboo plants that she harvests the
timber from, and then she’s using some accordion bamboo trellising that she actually purchased
locally. I like those a lot I actually use those, I think they’re a great way for a
trellis and they’re adjustable, so you could fold them out as wide as you need then make
it kind of shorter, or you could fold them up so that they’re not as long, and then
they’re taller. So that’s a really cool item to use if you can find it in your local
area. One of the things that I really like in this
garden is that she has inter-planted flowers like almost on the outside of every raised
bed, whether they’re edible or just ornamental ones. She has marigolds in several places
and right here she has some beautiful nasturtiums actually on both sides of me. And she has
several different varieties and colors of nasturtiums, and I want to remind you guys
that on the nasturtiums, definitely the flowers are totally edible, they contain a little
bit of pollen, pollen’s actually really rich in protein, and the flowers have some
nice pigments in there. Mmmm, they have a nice peppery flavor as well. In addition,
the nasturtium leaves are what I would call lily pads, these guys are also edible although
if you eat them, you could just ramp up that heat level by a factor of ten over the flowers,
it’s really hot and spicy, so if you don’t have hot peppers, tear off some nasturtium
leaves put in your salad or in the food your preparing, and be prepared for a nice kick.
Another thing she’s doing here that I like a lot is that she’s making use of things
that would normally be discarded to grow more food. And here’s just one example, in a
55 gallon plastic drum, she’s cut it down and she’s growing potatoes in here. And
I think that’s really a good use for a plastic drum, you could actually leave the bottom
on or more intelligently for something like potatoes I would actually just make a cylinder
and use the center of the barrel. So actually out of the barrel you could probably get like
three containers – the bottom half with the bottom on it of course, pop some holes
in here, the top half you could flip upside down, pop some holes in there, and then the
middle section would just be a tube. Now for growing potatoes I’d actually just put the
tube on the ground and fill it up with the soil and the seed potatoes and grow and when
you’re ready to harvest, you’re just going to lift the tube up, and all the potatoes
are going to fall out. So that’s definitely a really good use for these old 55 gallon
plastic drums, even metal drums you could use to grow some food in, actually let’s
take a look at some of those next. Here’s yet another 55 gallon drum that was
actually cut in half and then made into a feeder for horses. And now maybe that’s
not being used for that anymore, but you can literally just fill that up and plant some
things in there. She got some herbs in one side, and it looks like she’s pulling up
some potatoes in the other and here’s some of those potatoes right there. And so I want
to encourage you guys to always look for items that you can reuse in your garden. Basically
anything that will hold some soil you could pop some holes in you can grow in. Every time
I visit a new farm or a new place I always learn something new, and the thing that I
learned this time that made the trip entirely worth it is this right here. You’re saying
“Hey John, that just looks like a pot with a burlap sack around it.” Well yeah, absolutely,
that’s what it is. So instead of having just a standard nursery pot that doesn’t
look so decorative, by taking a standard burlap sack normally that coffee gets shipped in,
that many coffee houses and places that roast coffee, end up with all these burlap sacks
that they need to do something with that they may sell you for cheap or even give to you
for free, you could take that and make a planter that looks nice for your place. And this one
looks like she just stuck some bamboo, she tied it together and she’s growing some
pole beans up it, and next let me go ahead and show you guys how to do that real simple
real easy, you’re just going to go ahead and get a burlap sack, and I like all the
ones that have different sayings on them and whatnot, it makes them look authentic. And
then basically you just take the pot, we got a 15 gallon nursery pot here, and going to
just tuck this in just like that, and tuck that right down in there, fill it up with
dirt and you’re ready to plant and check it out, that looks a lot nicer than just the
standard black pot now, doesn’t it? Another thing she’s doing that’s really
smart is she is maximizing the use of her growing space. As you can see here this is
basically the fencing around her little gardening area. And this is just a standard welded wire
fence and up this, she’s growing one of my favorites, snow peas. Mmm, they definitely
taste good too. Snow peas will climb up the welded wire fence no problem, and as you can
see in the background there’s tons of peas on there that are ripe for the picking. I
always encourage you guys to actually use all the available space you have including
the fences that surround your garden to grow things up vertically because if you’re not,
you’re just wasting space. To even maximize the space further, down at the bottom she
has some flowers planted too that are going to soon be sprouting and look really nice
too. So this is almost like stacking functions. Here in the garden even an old fertilizer
spreader has its purpose, and the purpose it’s now be repurposed to grow some plants
in. Looks like she has some edible flowers and some other edibles in here along with
some decorative flowers. So I’ve really enjoyed checking out her garden, but now we’re
in for the special treat, we’re going to speak with Lisa who brought all this together,
who is truly the hero in my eyes, I mean if she can go from zero to hero or zero to a
garden in six months flat, so can you. So let’s talk with her next to learn some of
her secrets. Now we’re with Lisa from Farm Girl Nursery,
and Lisa, the question I want to ask is what are your secrets to grow a garden literally
in six months? You know, there are no secrets, and that’s
really the honest to god truth, just plant it. And that’s what I did was, let’s just
experiment. I call it my experiment, let’s just put stuff in the ground and see what
happens. I started everything from seed, and some things took off, actually most everything
took off. It is, it’s just one big experiment, so don’t be afraid of anything just dig
in and do it. Wow, that’s great. So what’s your analogy
for growing a garden? Well—okay here it is guys. My son when he
gets a haircut he never wants a haircut, and I say “Don’t worry about it, it will grow
back.” It’s the same thing with plants. Maybe one plant’s not going to make it or
you cut it and it grows back to too much, it’s okay, because it’s going to grow
back and if it dies, plant another. So it’s really pretty simple, don’t take it too
seriously. And if you’re an old guy don’t have any
hair anymore, just go for the Bosley treatment. Then it will grow back! [laughter]. Alright
Lisa so what was your inspiration or motivation to grow a garden I mean six months ago that
was just a lot with nothing there right? A horse track or whatever and now it’s full
and yeah, it takes an incredible amount of work. Why did you do it all?
You know I see the obesity problem in kids today, and children I love farmer’s markets,
I think farmer’s markets are the coolest thing, kids can go and pick up their fresh
food, but the thing that was lacking in that is they don’t know where it comes from.
They see the strawberries and they see the carrots, but they have a vested interest when
they come here and they pull a carrot out of the ground, or they pick a pea, they open
the pea pod, they want to eat it and they have a vested interested in that plant, in
that product, in that food. And so I want to inspire one person at a time to go out
there and start their own garden you don’t need a lot. You don’t need a lot of space,
you don’t need a lot of knowledge and again it’s all an experiment.
Wow, that’s great I definitely agree and besides just inspiring kids you know, when
you grow it yourself you also have a vested interest too, so hopefully you guys will be
growing your food and also eating it for dinner, I’m proud to say last night my dinner, except
for the macadamia nuts which are from a farm in Hawaii, everything I ate for dinner last
night came out of my garden including my strawberries and tomatoes and my greens.
Love it. Awesome.
That’s what I try to do too. Breakfast was strawberries, peas and some eggs. So when
you can you say home, you don’t even need to go anywhere.
You don’t even need to go anywhere for food, and isn’t that a novel idea, didn’t they
do that 200 years ago? Yeah.
There weren’t stores. [laughter] There’s an idea, why don’t we get back
to that? Another question I have for you Lisa is that
I was just up in your garden showing my viewers your garden, and you re-used a lot of things
that are in your garden. So why are you so big into reusing and recycling and things
like that? I think—John that’ s a good question,
I think so many people throw so much away these days, more and more and more, and I
look at something before I would ever think to throw it out, and how can I use it, what
can I turn it into, can it be a planter, can it be something to store things in, and it’s
kind of exciting when you can take something that someone else has discarded, or you’re
about to discard and turn it into a useful thing, and it’s especially fun in the garden.
So what’s an example in your garden that you turned extra branches and things into
something useful? Oh my god you want one?
Uh, how about three? A couple? You know, I think you showed up there I use
horse troughs, I use the plastic containers, the 15 gallon containers, I use all my horse
manure, that’s the staple for all the soil, I try to implement the pallets I cut those
up and reuse them, we use on the inside of the shop we have burlap walls, I mean stuff
that most people I think would think it’s useless and I try to find uses for it and
I get a kick out of that, it’s really fun. I think that’s another thing that really
makes Lisa here successful is that she has a child-like mind, kind of like I do. You
always want to try to experiment and see what you could do, and just see if it’s going
to work or not. Because if it doesn’t work, no big deal, you’re not really out much,
then just start over and try again, but the big problem I see with gardeners “Oh I have
brown thumbs I can’t do it,” and guess what, you foiled yourself before you started
with that kind of attitude. So you want to have a positive attitude, the “I can”
attitude, and remember there’s always Bosley to regrow your hair. [laughter] Lisa, so I
have had a great time here so if somebody wants to get a hold of you and find out your
services and what you guys do here, how would they get a hold of you and what do you guys
do here? We do a little of everything. Farm Girl Nursery
on Facebook, you can also get a hold of me by calling me 415-730-6917, and we’re located
in Navato, I think you probably said that but we do a little of everything here, we’ve
got the—it’ll eventually be a you pick garden but right now it’s a Lisa pick, but
we try to have the fruits and vegetables I’d like to have it all season long, and I’d
love for families to come in maybe grab a basket, go pick some tomatoes, some lettuce,
some beans, some zucchini, whatever we’ve got in season. We’ve also got a kids camp
that I’m putting together for the summer of just a one-day camp to educate kids about
the garden. We sell seeds, we sell seedlings, we sell garden art, we’ve got some knicknacky
art stuff up there in the barn, but it’s really like, I take it all the way back to
it’s an experiment and we’re just going to go along and see how it goes, but people
right now are really loving it, loving the animals.
Awesome yeah, so I didn’t even get to cover the horses and some of the pigs and the chickens
and some of the goats and all kinds of animals here. I’ve had an amazingly fun visit and
would encourage you guys to come out just to see her garden, hang out with her she’s
definitely a cool person and she has a lot of cool things happening. And especially if
you’ve got kids you want to bring them out to give them that farm experience in the city.
So hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode, once again this is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com,
we’ll see you next time and keep on growing.