Beyond the Garden Basics Podcast

Don from Indiana has a late summer visitor to his tomato plants. He is not pleased:“I flicked 10 of these “bad boys” off one of my tomato plants last night. Ten!I look at this plant every day. I water it every day. I pick and eat tomatoes off it every day. Every day!How did so many appear seemingly overnight?I believe it is a Tobacco Hornworm caterpillar (Manduca sexta).There were actually 11 of...

While editing Episode 406 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast (out now), I was taking copious notes, about all the great garden tips Don Shor and I discussed in an episode that was ostensibly a chat about growing tomatoes this summer (we both like Cupid, despite its propensity to sprawl). In fact, it was the most notes I have ever taken for any episode. Were you taking notes, too, while...

In the podcast (above) retired UC Farm Advisor Rachel Long has tips for attracting songbirds to your property.They're nice to look at, sing wonderfully and eat insects.No, we're not talking about the Dixie Chicks on a fad diet.It's the gardener's best friends, a backyard filled with birds.We're talking about the family inhabited by warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates, characterized by feathers...

One of the best places to get your garden questions answered (or pick up the 2026 Sac Co Master Gardener Gardening Guide and Calendar) is at the annual gathering of Master Gardeners, gardening professionals, and horticultural consultants at Harvest Day, held the first Saturday of August each year at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center in Sacramento County. And last Saturday was no exception. A...

90% of all plant problems are water related, either too much or too little. Compounding the problem: gardeners who are operating a drip irrigation system but using a sprinkler mentality.The Beyond The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred newsletter is a reader-supported publication. Both free and paid subscribers are welcome here!Talking to gardeners, after describing a plant problem, they will be...

This edition of the newsletter is a deeper dive into this week’s Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, Episode 398, “Aromatic Plants, Plus Roses!” Here, we’ll see what these “shows for the nose” look like, along with more details about these aromatic plants, as selected by a group of Sacramento County (CA) Master Gardeners. Plus we take a look at some of the most fragrant roses, as selected by...

The above audio track is from a long time ago, when things were - at the very least -tense. It was during the initial panic as COVID-19 struck the United States, back in May of 2020. The confusion around COVID-19 was my impetus for starting the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. At that time, there were a lot of people developing a sudden interest in gardening, thinking they might be stuck...

One question I have been getting a lot of lately: Should I prune off (snip off, pinch out) the first tomato flowers that appear, in order to get more tomatoes later?Those early tomato flowers, especially if the weather doesn’t cooperate, will fall all by themselves, thank you. Your assistance is not needed.In today’s newsletter podcast (above), Sacramento County Master Gardener and vegetable...

Today’s Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter expands upon a topic we were briefly discussing in Episode 395 of the Garden Basics Podcast, “Survival Garden Basics”. In this case, the short chat was about the value of microgreens, and how they are easy to grow, and because of their small size, super-packed with nutrients. In today’s “Beyond the Garden Basics” newsletter podcast (above), Sacramento...

If you’re reading this as May turns into June, and you live in the West, you know you’re going through a heat wave, including triple digit temperatures in parts of California. A more widespread - and longer - heat wave is expected in mid-June. And, long range forecasts are calling for a much hotter summer (July through September) than usual throughout most of North America. This is not good news...