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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com Today’s podcast here on Beyond the Garden Basics is all about grapes. We have two interviews with two Sacramento County UC Master Gardeners, who specialize in grape selection, planting, trellising, feeding, watering, protecting, and harvesting both wine grapes and table grapes. You’re going to discover the best disease and heat resistant varieties, the best tasting grape varieties, and detailed information about pruning both table grapes and wine grapes. And if ever there was a podcast that screamed for pictures, charts, graphics, and more. It’s this one. To the rescue is the original newsletter that contains this podcast, Beyond the Garden Basics, which you can find with an easy search or just to Substack dot com. In the newsletter, we’ll have more explanations about what we talk about in the podcast, including diagrams explaining the various pruning techniques for grapes, best performing grape varieties, and links to grape growing advice from universities throughout the country.

Please share this with any of your friends or family embarking into the exciting world of backyard gardening, especially starting a food garden! America’s Favorite Retired College Horticultural Professor, Debbie Flower, and I explored these “lessons learned the hard way” (aka “Garden Wisdom”) back in 2022. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com Blueberries Grow Well in Containers At our former residence, the blueberry harvest from our six plants was outstanding; there was plenty for us, as well as the birds (note: add netting). The six southern highbush varieties that we planted there included Sharp Blue, Jubilee, South Moon, Blue Ray, Sunshine Blue and Misty. That was about 10 years ago.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com In today’s newsletter podcast, Master Rosarian Debbie Arrington waxes rhapsodic about the new rose varieties that will be at nurseries in 2026. In USDA Zone 9, those roses may already be available locally. If not, they’re usually available from rose catalogs. For paid subscribers, Debbie talks about 12 new rose varieties (it’s 6 varieties for free subscribers). Paid subscribers also have access here to the transcript of the podcast, which features pictures of all the roses as well as links to where you can find them online. After the paywall (in the middle of the transcript, below), there are pictures and chat about 6 more new roses for 2026; and, Debbie has tips for bringing cut roses into the house, preserving their aromatic nature. Plus, tips for what to look for when shopping for roses. Here’s the transcript of our conversation about 2026 roses with Debbie Arrington of the Sacramento Rose Society, along with pictures and links: ========== Farmer Fred: I was looking up the term “shovel prune”, trying to find out its origin. If you’re a gardener, you may be familiar with the term shovel prune. It basically means to remove a plant, in a polite way. And the first time I heard it, it was from a rosarian. In fact, the only people I know who use the term shovel prune are rosarians. And so I figured, well, it must have some sort of rose background. But unfortunately, I hit too many dead ends. But I will just assume that shovel pruning is a Rosarian term, because you need to make room for all the new roses that are coming out right now. It’s a great habit to get into. (FREDNOTE: This article is not quite the dead end for a definition for “shovel pruning”… and it’s entertaining!) Rosarians love new roses. They love to try new roses. They love to smell them, as well. And one Rosarian has a nice bully pulpit here in the Sacramento area. Debbie Arrington is a master rosarian with the Sacramento Rose Society. She knows her roses. She and Kathy Morrison publish, every day of the year, the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter that’s sent to your email inbox, if you’re a subscriber (it’s free). There’s a lot of good information in that. Even if you don’t live in Sacramento, you could open a free subscription to the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter and get all sorts of good gardening information. For instance, in a recent newsletter, she talked about the new roses for 2026. This is similar to what automotive magazines publish for car enthusiasts every fall. Automotive fans love to see the new cars when they come out in the fall. Well, Rosarians are like that in January, which makes January the time for shovel pruning. Because you have to plant something else, something new, perhaps. So we’re going to find out what’s new for 2026. What has got the Rosarians a-flutter? Let’s sell some roses here. Debbie Arrington, have you purchased any of these roses that we’re going to talk about? Debbie Arrington: Not yet, but they are on my list. I have to figure out how much room I have to get some roses in. And you’re right about shovel pruning. It is the pruning of last resort when you’ve done everything you can to that rose and it still isn’t performing. It either has to move or has to go. And that’s how you do it, is you dig it out. As some Rosarians say, the way to make sure a rose has a better season is to just show it the shovel and somehow they’ll wake up and have a lot more growth that year. (FREDNOTE: perhaps a more genteel expression than “shovel pruning” when approaching an offending rose is “shovel ready”.) What happens is that over the years, a rosebush can lose its vitality and just start not performing as well as it should. And by losing its vitality, it atrophies. It gets less juice out to the end of its canes. It stops putting out new canes. And if it doesn’t put out new canes, then it will stop putting out roses. And a rosebush that doesn’t bloom is just a pile of thorns. So it’s time to move on to something else. And fortunately, there are still rose hybridizers and rose breeders and rose nurseries and people that are willing to grow new roses and introduce them. And the roses that we are getting now are brand new roses of 2026. We’re actually go back to 2016 or earlier when these roses were originally bred because it takes about 10 years for a rose to come to market after they first discover that seedling. So these roses have been in the works for a long time, but they all represent trends that have been going for most of this new century. Farmer Fred: What are the common threads on the popular new roses? What are rose growers looking for? Debbie Arrington: It’s like they say, everything old is new again. People want roses that smell like roses. They want roses that look like roses. And they want roses that have all those good traits, but in a very easy care format that doesn’t need spraying. In fact, doesn’t need much care at all. And roses naturally tend to be on the low water use side. You can get by with irrigation twice a month easily here in Sacramento, which is saying something for a water-wise plant. That’s the standard. If you can do that, then it’s drought tolerant. And these roses, the ones that are being introduced now, have very good foliage. It’s very clean, fungal-resistant, disease-resistant, and looking very pretty to frame those beautiful new blooms. Farmer Fred: You pointed out in the newsletter that some now are even self-cleaning blooms, that no deadheading is needed. I find that hard to believe. Debbie Arrington: But it works. And it’s particularly true of what they call the landscape roses and your low-growing ground cover or shrub roses. These plants just put out masses of blooms, hundreds of blooms at once. And to go through and deadhead that would be quite a chore to keep those going. So instead, what happens is the flowers die back to the little stem that holds it onto the end of the cane or where it comes out of the cane. And that just dries out, and then it just falls off. And it never forms any rose hips because of the way these flowers die back. And because they die back that way, it just drops off. And then a new bloom comes out of the next leaf, one down, from where that comes out. And so what ends up happening is these plants stay very short, under one foot tall, and they just keep putting on more and more blooms. So they’re just constantly covered with flowers. And they call them carpet roses because they form like a carpet of blooms along the ground. Farmer Fred: So these landscape or ground cover roses, these carpet roses. This sounds like a rose that would do well in just about any part of the United States. Debbie Arrington: Yes, it would. That’s part of their charm and their sell-ability is that they not only are very clean and easy care, but they’re also cold tolerant and heat tolerant. So they can do both extremes. A lot of these roses are hardy down to under 20 degrees, even colder. And then they also can tolerate temperatures in the 90 or over 100. So you’ve got this wide range of growing conditions and looking beautiful all through spring, summer, into fall. Farmer Fred: So landscape roses are basically the Toyota or the Honda of the rose world. But when new rose introductions come out, it’s like cars. These new roses are the sports cars. They’re the big SUVs. They are roses that stand out. It’s the Hummers of the rose world, if you will, that we’re going to be talking about. I don’t see any landscape roses on this list. Debbie Arrington: No because most of the landscape roses are sold by color and they’re a series of roses like one of the popular ones from Star roses is the Drift series and they form drifts of roses and they’re low growing carpet roses and they’re sold by color so there’s apricot Drift, pink Drift, yellow Drift, white Drift. Each one has a little bit of its own personality, like the apricot Drift, which I have, peach Drift and apricot Drift. The peach Drift has a much more ruffled flower to it, a semi-double, with about 12 petals. And the flower is small, about two inches across. But the plant is covered with just dozens and dozens of these blooms. So it just looks like this whole mound, you know, of roughly peach-like looking blooms, while the apricot one has a little bit more substance to the flower. RUFFLED ROMANCE Farmer Fred: Well, you said the magic word ruffled, and that is one of the roses that is included in the new rose introductions for 2026, Ruffled Romance. And this is a floribunda, and I guess we better define our terms here. Debbie Arrington: Yes, yes. Because there’s lots of rose terminology that tends to confuse people. But we’ll break it down the easy way. Most people, when you think of roses, you think of the roses like you get from the florist. And those are hybrid teas. And a hybrid tea rose, generally they have a formal look to them with a high point in the middle. And they look the way people imagine a dozen red roses to look. That sort of formal look. Floribunda, on the other hand, those are like a bouquet on a stem. Instead of one stem, one flower, you have bunches of flowers together on that one stem. And the name floribunda comes from the Latin for abundance of flowers. So that’s where floribunda comes from. Floribundas also tend to be shorter plants, most of them. And hybrid teas typically will grow bushes that are four and a half to five feet tall, while most floribundas stay under three feet. There are several exceptions to that, but they tend to be lower growing. And because they have a growth structure where the stems are shorter and the leaves are closer together, the distance between nodes where the leaves come out or the blooms come out is much shorter. You can prune floribundas with a hedge clipper. Because an

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com We are entering the shivering season for the Central Valley, Bay Area and low foothills of California, along with other mild winter states, especially those that grow citrus. Late November through mid-February is the most critical time here for protecting frost-susceptible plants. This is especially true for citrus tree owners, who are anxiously keeping an eye out on the upcoming weather f…

Growing onions can be confusing and try your patience, as listening to the above podcast will demonstrate. As our resident vegetable expert, Master Gardener Gail Pothour, knows first hand, growing green onions is a snap. But bulbing onions? Gail has more or less given up on trying to grow bulbing onions. If you listened to the podcast before you started reading this, it should be pointed out that the bulbing onion trial conducted at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center more than 10 years ago that Gail mentions had some drawbacks, including starting from seed (which requires a lot of patience and the results can be widely variable), and, they were all started at the same time - in August - and not transplanted into the raised beds until November. That’s three months that it took for those onion seeds to produce seedlings to get to a transplantable size, about the thickness of a pencil. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit gardenbasics.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com If you spend good money on good-quality hand pruners that have replaceable parts, they can last for decades IF you take care of them: cleaning, oiling, and sharpening after every use. My Felco #2 hand pruners have been alive, well, and cutting since the 1990’s. So, how do you sharpen the blades of pruning tools? Sacramento County Master Gardener Bill Black offers step by step instructions in today’s newsletter podcast. His tips are available for all subscribers. And, he has a how-to-sharpen video. Also in today’s newsletter podcast (available for paid subscribers), Debbie Flower - America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor - and I do a deep dive into garden tool care and selection, including the must-have tools that should be part of every gardener’s arsenal for backyard fun.

(Note: this post was sent early this morning, but only a few people received it. I’m not sure what the problem is at Substack, but I’m sending it again. Hope you get to read and listen to it!) Don’t give up on certain seed varieties that seem to really take their time, germinating and growing indoors. Among the warm season vegetables that are frustratingly slow to germinate are onions, peppers, parsley, basil, and dill. To make the wait even more maddening, it can take 8 to 12 weeks for certain vegetables to grow before they can be transplanted in the garden, including onions, parsley, eggplant and celery. Add to that the seeds of flowering plants that take awhile (8 to 12 weeks, or more) to germinate and grow to a transplantable size: snapdragons, begonias, vinca, lisianthus, strawflower, impatiens, statice, geraniums, petunias, rudbeckia and coleus. No wonder we talk about Seed Starting Tips in early January! In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, offers five great hints on starting seeds of vegetables and flowers, including peppers: • How soaking pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide can speed up germination; and, how seeds germinate.  • Why seeds don’t need fertilizer. • How to know when to transplant those seedlings into larger containers.  • Why seedlings need a light period and a dark period each day. • The importance of air movement and the development of reaction wood* for the young seedlings. Slow-to-germinate pepper seeds can take up to three weeks to show their first set of true leaves. And, several other vegetables, especially some herbs, take weeks to sprout. Among them are celery, parsley, rosemary, asparagus, lavender, artichoke, What you’ll need for successful seed germination and growth, according to Debbie: • Small, clean seed trays or containers with drain holes. • A soilless seed starting mix. (We offer up several homemade recipes, too) • The benefit of soaking pepper seeds for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide. • Bottom heat via a propagation mat. • Consistent moisture. • Lights, once the seedlings appear. • Air movement. • Transplanting those seedlings into bigger containers once roots pop out of the bottom. Debbie Flower is a horticultural treasure. Just one listen to what she has to say isn’t enough. She is offering up so many great tips for gardeners in our “scenic bypasses”, that it really pays to either listen a couple of times or read the entire transcript (below, for paid subscribers). I am amazed at all I am learning from her; and, I’m listening to what she has to say at least four times (the original interview, two editing sessions, proofing the final) and polishing the transcript. And reading and editing that transcript, although last on the list, reveals more great gardening information that I had missed before. We also discussed the importance of gentle watering of seedling trays, so as not to dislodge the seeds (Debbie’s favorite is the Dramm 1000 shower nozzle). We have different ideas about the best sort of gentle watering equipment to use. A list and links of all the seed starting implements that we discussed, including watering equipment, is here**: Grow lightsDramm Water Breaker nozzlePump Pressure Water Sprayer Multi Head hose-end sprayer with Mist settingSeed Starting trays, kitsIndoor GreenhousesOutdoor GreenhousesSeed Starting Mix * The phrase, “reaction wood”, awakens the thirteen year-old boy in me. I wonder how many giggling scientists it took to come up with the explanation of the importance of air movement in the development of reaction wood among young plants. According to this scholarly presentation, the answer would be: 10. ** Most, if not all, of those germination product links lead to Amazon, mainly so you can see what they look like and a few details about them. I do not receive any remuneration from Amazon for these mentions or purchases (not allowed by Substack). Buy them from whoever you want. Shop around online or at actual stores. There are probably better prices out there than what the Amazon robots are showing you. Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete posts, access to past newsletter editions, and help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. GERMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR VEGETABLE AND HERB SEEDS Source: Germination Requirements for Annuals and Vegetables (Iowa St. Univ.) (By the way, check out that site for a list of flower seed starting tips!) Germination Temperature (°F) : The ideal air temperature for germination. Light conditions during germination are critical for many annual flowers and vegetables. The seeds of some plant species require light for germination, and others require darkness. L = Require Light for Germination. After sowing these seeds, lightly press them into the germination medium, but do not cover them. D = Require Darkness for Germination. Cover the seed with the germination medium (usually 1/4 to 1/2 inch - precise depth outlined on the seed packet) L-D = Lightly Cover Seed. Do not place these seeds too deep in the soil. Lightly cover the seed, leaving the seeds as close to the soil surface as possible. Days to Germination: The number of days to expect the seed to germinate and emerge. Weeks Sowing to Planting: The number of weeks needed to get seedlings/transplants large enough to plant outside. Use this number to determine when to sow seeds indoors. If you intend to plant outdoors on May 15th, then the sowing date indoors would be the number of weeks listed in this column before May 15th. This planting calendar also can be applied to other USDA Zone 9 areas: TRANSCRIPT FOR TODAY’S INTERVIEW SEGMENTS Vegetable Seed Germination Tips / Use Old Seeds? TRANSCRIPT Farmer Fred: Well here it is, the dead of winter. And you know what that means for us here in USDA zone nine. It’s pepper seeds starting time. Yay. It’s spring! It’s spring! We can start pepper seeds! Debbie Flower: I wouldn’t say it’s spring; but yes, we can start pepper seeds. Farmer Fred: Thank you for that. Debbie Flower: is here, our favorite retired college horticultural professor. And why is it necessary to start pepper seeds in January or February? Debbie Flower: They’re slow to germinate. Farmer Fred: Yeah, they’re slow to germinate and slow to get up to a transplantable size. Debbie Flower: Yes, like 12 weeks. Farmer Fred: Here in California, basically, it’s if you want tomato seeds to germinate and grow to a transplantable size, start the seeds near the end of February. They’ll be ready by the end of April. And I know in this day and age of climate change, you’re saying, “No, I’m planting mine the first week of March.” Debbie Flower: Then you got to start sooner. So nine weeks, I would say for tomato seeds. Farmer Fred: Yeah. And anything more than that, it’s going to get root bound. And it’s going to be jungle-like wherever you’re growing them, or terribly skinny. And you don’t want that either. Debbie Flower: Skinny unless you work that stem. Yeah, make it move. Farmer Fred: Well, we’re here to talk peppers, not tomatoes. We’ll talk tomatoes at a future time. Probably a month from now. But let’s talk peppers. I brought out my, as you can see here if you’re looking at the picture on this podcast on your phone, my pepper collection seed packets from last year. And obviously every year you don’t start the whole packet. There’s always some left, right. So these are from last year. They should be good this year. Debbie Flower: Yes. Seeds in general, if they’re kept dry and cool, should last two years, minimum. Farmer Fred: So, my favorites from last year that I grew were some heirloom pepper seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. And they included Blot, Jimmy Nardello, which is one of my favorite Italian style peppers. Debbie Flower: He’s got some friends you know, Jimmy. Farmer Fred: The Ozark Giant, Zulu ,and the one that lasted the longest. One that we harvested the last one two weeks before Christmas. The Nadapeno. With a name like “Nadapeno” you’re thinking well, it does looks like a jalapeno. Debbie Flower: Yeah. Farmer Fred: Nada. Okay, that’s the source of the name. Farmer Fred: It’s this jalapeno-like pepper that has no heat to it. And they’re very small. They’re maybe two inches long. But like I say, they lasted a long time, perfect for salads or stir fry. Debbie Flower: And that picture shows a young boy holding green pepper. No pepper is green forever. Farmer Fred: The Nadapenos did turn purple, in November. So there is that. Some of my other favorites that have done well for me either last year or the year before that include Big Red, which is a sweet pepper. All these by the way are sweet peppers. I’ve given up my hot pepper ways. My body objects. Debbie Flower: Yeah, I understand that. Farmer Fred: The tequila is one of my favorites sweet peppers. It’s a beautiful shiny purple. With just the best aroma of any sweet pepper I’ve ever cut into. The Tequila. It’s an all America selections winner, too. The Gypsy. I plant this every year, I probably have planted Gypsy sweet peppers for 20 or 30 years, because it has outstanding yield year after year after year. It starts off with sort of a pale yellow color, then it gets orange, red, and then very red. And it’s very sweet when ripe. But you can harvest it when it’s that pale yellow color. So it’s one of the earliest to start using from the garden, the Gypsy. The Giant Marconi is one of my other favorites, too, that I plant year after year. It gets fairly large. But like the name would imply, about eight inches long or so. And then of course I got to try something new. What’s it going to be this year, Fred? Well, from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, I’m ordering something called the Super Shepherd sweet pepper. Okay. Don’t know

Don’t give up on certain seed varieties that seem to really take their time, germinating and growing indoors. Among the warm season vegetables that are frustratingly slow to germinate are onions, peppers, parsley, basil, and dill. To make the wait even more maddening, it can take 8 to 12 weeks for certain vegetables to grow before they can be transplanted in the garden, including onions, parsley, eggplant and celery. Add to that the seeds of flowering plants that take awhile (8 to 12 weeks, or more) to germinate and grow to a transplantable size: snapdragons, begonias, vinca, lisianthus, strawflower, impatiens, statice, geraniums, petunias, rudbeckia and coleus. No wonder we talk about Seed Starting Tips in early January! In today’s newsletter podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, offers five great hints on starting seeds of vegetables and flowers, including peppers: • How soaking pepper seeds in hydrogen peroxide can speed up germination; and, how seeds germinate.  • Why seeds don’t need fertilizer. • How to know when to transplant those seedlings into larger containers.  • Why seedlings need a light period and a dark period each day. • The importance of air movement and the development of reaction wood* for the young seedlings. Slow-to-germinate pepper seeds can take up to three weeks to show their first set of true leaves. And, several other vegetables, especially some herbs, take weeks to sprout. Among them are celery, parsley, rosemary, asparagus, lavender, artichoke, What you’ll need for successful seed germination and growth, according to Debbie: • Small, clean seed trays or containers with drain holes. • A soilless seed starting mix. (We offer up several homemade recipes, too) • The benefit of soaking pepper seeds for a few minutes in hydrogen peroxide. • Bottom heat via a propagation mat. • Consistent moisture. • Lights, once the seedlings appear. • Air movement. • Transplanting those seedlings into bigger containers once roots pop out of the bottom. Debbie Flower is a horticultural treasure. Just one listen to what she has to say isn’t enough. She is offering up so many great tips for gardeners in our “scenic bypasses”, that it really pays to either listen a couple of times or read the entire transcript (below, for paid subscribers). I am amazed at all I am learning from her; and, I’m listening to what she has to say at least four times (the original interview, two editing sessions, proofing the final) and polishing the transcript. And reading and editing that transcript, although last on the list, reveals more great gardening information that I had missed before. We also discussed the importance of gentle watering of seedling trays, so as not to dislodge the seeds (Debbie’s favorite is the Dramm 1000 shower nozzle). We have different ideas about the best sort of gentle watering equipment to use. A list and links of all the seed starting implements that we discussed, including watering equipment, is here**: Grow lightsDramm Water Breaker nozzlePump Pressure Water Sprayer Multi Head hose-end sprayer with Mist settingSeed Starting trays, kitsIndoor GreenhousesOutdoor GreenhousesSeed Starting Mix * The phrase, “reaction wood”, awakens the thirteen year-old boy in me. I wonder how many giggling scientists it took to come up with the explanation of the importance of air movement in the development of reaction wood among young plants. According to this scholarly presentation, the answer would be: 10. ** Most, if not all, of those germination product links lead to Amazon, mainly so you can see what they look like and a few details about them. I do not receive any remuneration from Amazon for these mentions or purchases (not allowed by Substack). Buy them from whoever you want. Shop around online or at actual stores. There are probably better prices out there than what the Amazon robots are showing you. Beyond the paywall: • A second podcast interview, also featuring Debbie Flower, who explains how you can tell if those old seeds that you have are worth planting (or not). • A nifty vegetable chart from Iowa State University listing the ideal germination temperature range, the light requirements for newly planted seeds, days to germination, and the number of weeks it takes to go from sowing the seed to outdoor planting for 17 varieties of veggies and herbs. • A transcript of today’s podcast interviews. • And my Vegetable Planting Calendar for Northern and Central California. Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive complete posts, access to past newsletter editions, and help support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. GERMINATION REQUIREMENTS FOR VEGETABLE AND HERB SEEDS Source: Germination Requirements for Annuals and Vegetables (Iowa St. Univ.) (By the way, check out that site for a list of flower seed starting tips!) Germination Temperature (°F) : The ideal air temperature for germination. Light conditions during germination are critical for many annual flowers and vegetables. The seeds of some plant species require light for germination, and others require darkness. L = Require Light for Germination. After sowing these seeds, lightly press them into the germination medium, but do not cover them. D = Require Darkness for Germination. Cover the seed with the germination medium (usually 1/4 to 1/2 inch - precise depth outlined on the seed packet) L-D = Lightly Cover Seed. Do not place these seeds too deep in the soil. Lightly cover the seed, leaving the seeds as close to the soil surface as possible. Days to Germination: The number of days to expect the seed to germinate and emerge. Weeks Sowing to Planting: The number of weeks needed to get seedlings/transplants large enough to plant outside. Use this number to determine when to sow seeds indoors. If you intend to plant outdoors on May 15th, then the sowing date indoors would be the number of weeks listed in this column before May 15th. This planting calendar also can be applied to other USDA Zone 9 areas: TRANSCRIPT FOR TODAY’S INTERVIEW SEGMENTS Vegetable Seed Germination Tips / Use Old Seeds? TRANSCRIPT Farmer Fred: Well here it is, the dead of winter. And you know what that means for us here in USDA zone nine. It’s pepper seeds starting time. Yay. It’s spring! It’s spring! We can start pepper seeds! Debbie Flower: I wouldn’t say it’s spring; but yes, we can start pepper seeds. Farmer Fred: Thank you for that. Debbie Flower: is here, our favorite retired college horticultural professor. And why is it necessary to start pepper seeds in January or February? Debbie Flower: They’re slow to germinate. Farmer Fred: Yeah, they’re slow to germinate and slow to get up to a transplantable size. Debbie Flower: Yes, like 12 weeks. Farmer Fred: Here in California, basically, it’s if you want tomato seeds to germinate and grow to a transplantable size, start the seeds near the end of February. They’ll be ready by the end of April. And I know in this day and age of climate change, you’re saying, “No, I’m planting mine the first week of March.” Debbie Flower: Then you got to start sooner. So nine weeks, I would say for tomato seeds. Farmer Fred: Yeah. And anything more than that, it’s going to get root bound. And it’s going to be jungle-like wherever you’re growing them, or terribly skinny. And you don’t want that either. Debbie Flower: Skinny unless you work that stem. Yeah, make it move. Farmer Fred: Well, we’re here to talk peppers, not tomatoes. We’ll talk tomatoes at a future time. Probably a month from now. But let’s talk peppers. I brought out my, as you can see here if you’re looking at the picture on this podcast on your phone, my pepper collection seed packets from last year. And obviously every year you don’t start the whole packet. There’s always some left, right. So these are from last year. They should be good this year. Debbie Flower: Yes. Seeds in general, if they’re kept dry and cool, should last two years, minimum. Farmer Fred: So, my favorites from last year that I grew were some heirloom pepper seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. And they included Blot, Jimmy Nardello, which is one of my favorite Italian style peppers. Debbie Flower: He’s got some friends you know, Jimmy. Farmer Fred: The Ozark Giant, Zulu ,and the one that lasted the longest. One that we harvested the last one two weeks before Christmas. The Nadapeno. With a name like “Nadapeno” you’re thinking well, it does looks like a jalapeno. Debbie Flower: Yeah. Farmer Fred: Nada. Okay, that’s the source of the name. Farmer Fred: It’s this jalapeno-like pepper that has no heat to it. And they’re very small. They’re maybe two inches long. But like I say, they lasted a long time, perfect for salads or stir fry. Debbie Flower: And that picture shows a young boy holding green pepper. No pepper is green forever. Farmer Fred: The Nadapenos did turn purple, in November. So there is that. Some of my other favorites that have done well for me either last year or the year before that include Big Red, which is a sweet pepper. All these by the way are sweet peppers. I’ve given up my hot pepper ways. My body objects. Debbie Flower: Yeah, I understand that. Farmer Fred: The tequila is one of my favorites sweet peppers. It’s a beautiful shiny purple. With just the best aroma of any sweet pepper I’ve ever cut into. The Tequila. It’s an all America selections winner, too. The Gypsy. I plant this every year, I probably have planted Gypsy sweet peppers for 20 or 30 years, because it has outstanding yield year after year after year. It starts off with sort of a pale yellow color, then it gets orange, red, and then very red. And it’s very sweet when ripe. But you can harvest it when it’s that pale yellow color. So it’s one of the earliest to start using from the gard

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com It seemed like a simple enough garden question to answer. The writer of the email, Steve, said: “I have never cared for a young peach tree or any other variety so I don’t know what to do since I got it in the ground. Now what?” Steve included a picture of the tree, which you can see here. America’s favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, and I ended up having more questions and comments after closely studying the picture. The end result? An episode mostly dedicated to how to plant a fruit tree to insure success. This was originally recorded for the Garden Basics podcast in July of 2020, thus the reference to a hot summer and the muffled sounds of us talking with mandatory masks on. Paid subscribers get full access to all newsletters and podcasts, and we’re having a holiday sale! TRANSCRIPT Q&A: How to Plant and Care for a Young Fruit Tree Farmer Fred Let’s delve into the mailbag, more mail coming into Fred at farmerfred.com here on the garden basics podcast. And we bring in Debbie Flower, retired horticultural professor at many universities and colleges, and she owns a peach tree too. So this is right up her alley. Steve writes in and says, “I have never cared for a young peach tree or any other variety. So I don’t know what to do now that I got it in the ground and mulched. I was given good info and how to put it in the ground. And I believe I was successful. But now what? The tree came in a typical pot with all its roots and dirt, I’m watching online videos, and it’s left me unsure of what to do and when.” Well, Steve was very kind to send along a picture of his new peach tree that he just planted. It’s a little difficult to say how tall the tree is currently, but it looks like…well, let’s just play, ‘what’s wrong with this picture’, Debbie? What’s wrong with Steve’s picture of his peach tree? I see several issues there. Staking Techniques for Young Trees Debbie Flower Well, the first thing that jumps out at me is that the stake is taller than the peach tree. We only want to stake a tree, even a newly planted one, if it is unable to stand up on its own. If it is unable to stand up on its own, then we want to tie it. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like it could be tied at two locations. Not sure if that lower one is really there. Farmer Fred I think that’s a big branch down there. Debbie Flower Okay. Oh, yes. So we only want to tie it as low as we can, to make it stand up straight. He has it tied nearly at the top of the tree. Farmer Fred That’s a very good point you’re making there is that when you’re staking a tree, you want the tie to be at that point where the tree would actually bend. So what you do, you run your hand up the trunk of the tree and at that point where you can get the tree to stand up, that’s where you would tie the top loop. Debbie Flower Exactly, but he can’t tell if it’s going to fall over because if you look right down at the bottom, it is still attached to the nursery stakes. Nursery stakes are used to get that initial upright growth out of the stem, but it prevents the tree stem, fruit tree or otherwise from moving in the wind and from developing strength. And so you need to take it off . I think of it as trees in bondage. When they’re tied this close to the stake, it’s very useful in the nursery, employees can pick up the tree and move it and throw it in a truck and take it out of the truck and the upright part of the tree stays stable, but it is not what we want for the ultimate life of the tree. We want that trunk to strengthen. In order to do that the trunk has to move in the wind just like we have to use our muscles in order for them to strengthen. That trunk has to move in the wind to strengthen, so take it off of that nursery stake and take it off of the very tall stake and see what happens and it is very likely to fall over, not right onto the soil; if it falls over and hits the soil you dig it out and take it back to the nursery. That means there’s a root problem. Somewhere along the length of that tree, that trunk will curve and the top of the trunk of the tree will bend down toward the earth. And that’s when you do what you said, which is run your hand up from the bottom of the tree and at some point the top of the tree will zing back up in the air. That’s the point at which you want to attach the trunk of the peach tree to the stake. Preferably you have two stakes, one on either side of the trunk and you want them a distance from the trunk of the tree, maybe a foot. The reason for that is you don’t want the tree when it is moving in the wind to rub against those stakes and you don’t want them any taller than you need them to be. So the height of the stake would be just maybe five inches above that, about the height of your hand on that trunk. Maybe it’s three inches, just a few inches above, so that you have room to tie. You’re going to tie the trunk to both stakes at about the same location on the tree trunk to each stake, so it looks like one line across from one stake to the tree and back and then from the other stake to the tree and back. It appears when you look at it to be one line across. Does that makes sense? Farmer Fred Yes, it makes perfect sense. And again, he would want if the tree needed to be staking and that goes back to see if the tree can stand up by itself. But if the tree needs staking you would use two and to his credit, Steve did use green tape that’s like tree tie tape, It’s called. And what we don’t know because we can’t see into the foliage of how he’s tied it to the tree. If it’s a figure eight or wrapped, really tightly around the tree, it shouldn’t be wrapped tightly on the tree, it should be sort of a loose figure eight configuration, right? Debbie Flower Right. And that’s part of using two stakes. Because if it’s loose, then the tree may fall toward the stake. If you have one loosely pulling it toward the stake on the other side, then that corrects that problem. Farmer Fred To Steve’s credit, he’s done a lot of things right here we can see that the tree is located in full sun. It looks like he has mulch underneath the tree but the mulch is not touching the trunk of the tree. Pruning New Deciduous Fruit Trees Farmer Fred But I want to go back even further to when he planted the tree. It looks to be a five or six foot tree. Now if he bought this fruit tree, what they call bare root, which would be before it leafed out, and they used to sell fruit trees basically plunked into sawdust and you would go and you’d pull it out of the sawdust and they’d wrap it up a newspaper for you to take it home. Now even though it’s still called bare root, most fruit trees that are sold are come in pots. So we don’t really know if the tree had leafed out before he bought it or if it was still dormant when he did buy it, but the fact of the matter is, when you get a bare root fruit tree home, one of the first things you need to do is basically cut it off at the knee so you get lower branching, this one doesn’t look like it was cut off at the knee. Debbie Flower Correct. Some people may Saturday here that you cut a fruit tree off at the knee. But that is to keep the fruit bearing branches low to the ground so that you don’t have to stand on a ladder to take care of them. It’s a really wonderful way to grow fruit. Farmer Fred Exactly and and you’re not inhibiting the production of fruit at all. You’d still have plenty of fruit is just going to develop some lower scaffolding to make it easier for you to pick fruit. What’s great about starting with a new tree is it makes it Much easier for keeping that tree at a height that’s manageable. So you never have to get on a ladder. And basically, you stick your hand as far in the air as you can. And you don’t let the tree get any taller than that. Debbie Flower Right? The height of the tree is is where your hand and the pruning shears when you raise your hand above your head, the highest it goes. That’s how tall you want the plant to be. Farmer Fred If he’s only planted the tree, could he cut it back in half now? Or should he wait until the dormant season? And can you even cut it back one year into its growth? Debbie Flower Pruning to fruit trees can happen during the growing season Yes, but right now we’re in the maybe thick of summer. It’s hot, Farmer Fred It’s hot. Debbie Flower It’s very sunny. We wear sunscreen and hats and things to protect our skin. If we cut that young tree back now, branches would be exposed to the strong sun that have never seen the strong sun before and they will sunburn, and you could lose the tree from that. So I would recommend waiting until it goes dormant. Farmer Fred Now that is a hard thing to do, if you’ve ever done it, you’ve probably done demonstrations of cutting back bare root fruit trees in front of a crowd and it always gets gasps of horror. Whenever you take your pruners and cut a six foot stick back to a two and a half or three foot stick. Yes. And in Steve’s case, he’s going to be cutting off a lot of growth that had leaves and he’s going to feel really bad doing it. But he should. Debbie Flower He should. And what those leaves are doing for that tree right now is feeding the roots. It’s has no flowers or fruit on it that I can see. And so the the food that’s made in those leaves and that’s where plants make their food goes to a couple of places. One is the tips of those branches for new growth. And the other is the roots and a newly planted plant needs food to make roots. All plants need food to make roots. But it’s especially important when the plant is new to the garden, because it only has the roots that were in whatever container you bought it in. And that’s a very small amount and it’s also a

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com Holiday Special! For the rest of December 2025, get an annual subscription to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast for 40% off the regular price. Just $30 a year! In this episode, Farmer Fred connects with Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery to reflect on the 2025 tomato growing season, sharing their experiences and insights while evaluating the performance of various tomato varieties. Farmer Fred ranks his 2025 tomato season as one of his worst, only second to the scorching summer of 2022, yet he notes that the overall weather conditions this year were quite favorable. Don shares insights from his own experience, noting that several of his trusted varieties, such as Rugby and Bodacious, underperformed this year, likely due to the dry start to the season affecting irrigation practices. They delve into critical topics such as soil moisture levels and root development, emphasizing the importance of watering practices in achieving healthy tomato yields. As the conversation progresses, they discuss the other plants in their gardens, including peppers, onions, edible pumpkin seeds (Pepitas), and cucumbers. Don highlights the successful lemon cucumber, which flourished without issues of mildew, noting the significant yields from this variety. They also explore the common pitfalls of cucumber cultivation and the importance of managing watering strategies to ensure plants remain productive through the growing season. From irrigation practices to soil health and the excitement of trying new varieties, this episode offers an engaging and informative wrap-up of the tomato growing season. Farmer Fred and Don conclude with hopeful notes for the next planting season, reinforcing the lessons learned and anticipating the joys of gardening and fresh produce in the coming year. And as always, a transcript of the podcast is attached for paid subscribers. 2025 Tomato Review Show…and More! TRANSCRIPT Farmer Fred: [0:00] So how was your 2025 tomato year? Well, you get to hear my sob story, and you can hear about all the successes from Don Shor of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, California, for the next few minutes. And we’ll talk about other plants as well that did well or didn’t do well in the way of peppers and cucumbers. And who knows which way the conversation will go, but we’ll certainly cover tomatoes. I have to rank the 2025 tomato growing season in my own yard as the second worst ever. Don, you may remember the first worst, which was that summer two or three years ago when in September it got up to, what, 115 degrees? Don Shor: [0:40] Yes, two days at 116, two at 110, and three at 106 over here in the Davis area. That was quite epic in September 2022. We’ll talk about that one for a long time to come. Yeah, it did impact yields late in the season, that’s for sure. ================ CHEF’S CHOICE ORANGE TOMATO Farmer Fred: [0:54] And this year, the weather here in Northern California was excellent. It didn’t get too hot for too long. I’m sure it got over 100, but not by much. And there weren’t extended days of over 100 degrees. It was a very, very nice summer. But I see in my notes here, the first full size tomato I took out of production was on September 27th, the Chef’s Choice Orange Tomato. I harvested 30 ripe tomatoes, but it was the end of production, and I needed the space anyway. But let me tell you about one success, though, and it’s a thing that you told me about to do, and it really works. One of the tomatoes I planted this past year was the Bush Early Girl, that I grew in a container, and I started it (from seed in the greenhouse in early February) and planted it outside on April 6th. And it produced early and often, come June. And by the end of July, it was done for, but it gave me those early tomatoes. And I think that’s a great idea to get an early ripening tomato off to a good start in an area that has warm soil to begin with, like a large container, like a half barrel, and just enjoy your harvest until the big boys come home to roost later on in the summer. But yeah, I’ll give the Bush Early Girl an A for its production. And Chef’s Choice Orange, well, I think that’s going to get an F since it came out in September. Sorry about that. Don Shor: [2:23] It’s not an F. Wait, wait, wait. It gets a C. You took it out after harvesting 30 tomatoes. RUGBY TOMATO Farmer Fred: [2:26] All right. Yeah, I know. Okay, I’ll change that to a C because it did produce some very beautiful Chef’s Choice Orange tomatoes throughout the season. And they were very tasty. And we ended up making some relish with it. So it’s very pretty, too. One of the surprise failures in my yard this year was the Rugby, which up until this year has been doing great. But it went kaput as far as production goes on October the 8th. Don Shor: [2:55] And generally, it’s a good, generally a good late producer for us. I had good results with Rugby, but it was middle of the pack in terms of total yield. Yeah, this was a mediocre year for a lot of people. Obviously, I don’t give everything an F or a C or an A, but there are a lot more lower graded fruit in terms of total yield. BODACIOUS TOMATO Don Shor Bodacious, for example, which I’ve done very well with for several years, only gave me about 15 or 20 fruit. Yes, they’re wonderful. They’re big, they’re firm. They were for slicing. I went out there, there’s three on there right now. We are recording this in early December. So, okay, I’ll brag about that one a little bit. But overall, in terms of the total yield, it wasn’t spectacular. And I think it goes back to actually how dry things were at the start of the season. We had our last significant rain fall on our side of the valley, first week of March. We had another light storm in April. But when people went out to plant, the soil was actually drier than usual. And all of our conversations with people who are having trouble with their tomatoes, not all of them, but let’s say 98% of them had to do with how they were irrigating. I’m reasonably sure that you know how to irrigate. So I don’t think that was your problem necessarily, but a lot of people use a drip irrigation system, they set it, and they leave it that way. And then we get to ask 20 questions with them. How often are you running it? How long are you running it? And they were not watering deeply enough. And in particular, this year, the tomatoes just never got their roots down in some cases. The soil was dry down further. And ordinarily, when you plant in March, well, you shouldn’t be planting in March. But when you plant April or May, there’s still enough moisture from the winter rains down there. And if you give them a good soaking, get them started, they can tap down and tap into some of that stored moisture. It just wasn’t there this year. So we were having a lot of conversations about plants that weren’t growing vigorously. CHARLIE’S MYSTERY RED DELICIOUS CHERRY TOMATO Farmer Fred: [4:44] This is only the second year where I have not had tomatoes on the Thanksgiving dinner table because I ended the production of the Jetstar and the Dr. Wyche, back on October the 29th. The last full size tomato to go out was Cupid. Plants were cut out. But the one that lasted the longest was a gift seed from our friend Charlie in Brooklyn. It was his mystery red delicious cherry tomato that hung on until mid-November. But for us not to have a tomato on the table on Thanksgiving is a defeat. What really broke my heart, too, is that I did harvest some breaking tomatoes, the ones that are turning yellow after being green for a while. So, you know, they’re going to ripen. And I harvested those in early November and I set them way back in the corner in the kitchen counter, hoping to preserve them until Thanksgiving. But somehow they all managed to get used before Thanksgiving. Don Shor: [5:46] Oh, I see. The problem wasn’t that they spoiled. The problem was that your household residents ate them. Farmer Fred: [5:51] Yes. Don Shor: [5:52] Okay, well, that’s a problem to have, yeah. Well, I just went outside earlier, getting ready to have this conversation with you, and there are six in my garden that are still fruiting. Admittedly, the turkeys and the squirrels are helping themselves to the ones down at the end of the garden. MARZINERA TOMATO Don Shor: [6:08] But I’m going to mention one that, boy, I was really impressed with this year, Marzinera. And there’s probably a dozen fruits still on this plant out there. Marzinera is one of the, Heirloom marriage tomatoes, these are where they’re hybridizing two heirloom varieties to get a, well, now it’s a hybrid that hopefully has the characteristics that made each of those heirlooms so desirable. And Marzinera, part of it is San Marzano. Now, San Marzano tomato has its own following, no question. But it’s got some issues. To me, it’s not the most useful tomato. There’s better sauce tomatoes. It’s kind of hollow and skinny and yields well. I mainly stock that one as a retailer just for my old Italian customers. But there’s Marzinera. He’s a bigger fruit, firmer, meaty. It’s a lot more like Roma, but on a plant that is indeterminate and extremely productive. And it was one of my first to produce. My notes through the season show it is good production. And there’s still probably a dozen that the turkeys haven’t gotten at out there that I could harvest right now. So that’s one that I’m watching for next year. I’ve never grown this one before. But these heirloom marriage tomatoes are kind of fascinating me. I did two of them this year. That one in particular did extremely well and is still producing late in the season. Farmer Fred: [7:18] Whenever I think of San Marzano, I immediately think blossom end rot. How did that do? Don Shor: [7:24] Well, that was one of

Thanks for reading Beyond The Garden Basics! This post is public so feel free to share it. Visiting a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm or any of the corner lots or nurseries filled with already chopped cedars, pines and firs this weekend, in search of the perfect holiday tree? Here are some tips from the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Departments of Horticulture and Forestry to keep your December living room centerpiece intact through the holidays: • You may cringe at this first tip, but it is one of the most important if you plan to keep the tree in the house for longer than two weeks: Keep the tree in a cool, sheltered location until a few days before Christmas, such as an unheated garage or carport. Otherwise, the warm, dry air of your living room or den can hasten needle drop. Storing it in an environment that more resembles a forest as long as possible will keep the branches more pliable. Take off a half inch to an inch from the base of the tree and keep it in a large bucket of water. • Before bringing the tree indoors, shake it vigorously to dislodge any loose needles or hitchhiking bugs. Check for ants, too. • Before you set up your Christmas tree, make a fresh, straight cut across the base of the tree and place the tree in a stand that holds a gallon of water or more. The end should be re-cut each day before it is placed in the stand. Make a straight cut across the trunk, removing a half inch or more from the bottom. • Cut Christmas trees will absorb a surprising amount of water, particularly during the first week. As a rule, for each inch of stem diameter the tree will need a quart of water per day. • Beware of stands that are too small for the tree. Try to find a tree stand with adequate water-holding capacity for your tree, between one and two gallons. The water capacity listed on a stand’s label or box can be misleading. Usually, they list the capacity of the reservoir when the stand is empty, but you also need to allow for water that will be displaced when the tree trunk is put in the stand. • Keep the tree away from dry, blowing heat. Position the tree away from direct sunlight, fireplaces, heaters, and other heat sources to prevent it from drying out. • Use LED lights. LED lights are cooler to the touch and less likely to dry out the needles. • Turn off the lights when you’re not there. Unplug the lights before you leave the house or go to bed. • Check your tree stand daily to make sure the container has enough water. Refill it often to make sure the water does not fall below the level of the trunk bottom. • What about additives to the water to make the Christmas tree last longer? Based on university studies in Washington and North Carolina, plain water is best. Some home concoctions such as bleach and aspirin cause heavy needle loss and should be avoided. Clean water and plenty of it is the only essential ingredient for success. Tips for a Living Christmas Tree If chosen wisely and treated correctly, a living Christmas tree can thrive in your yard for generations. The main thing to remember when choosing a living Christmas tree: pick a variety that will flourish in your area. As with everything to do with gardening, all Christmas conifers are localized. Choose one from a reputable local nursery or home center. They will have the best selections for your area. Usually. Among the conifers available at nurseries that will do well outdoors in most areas of USDA Zone 9 after their indoor holiday use: • Italian Stone Pine. A good choice for the interior valleys of USDA Zone 9. Can take heat and drought when established. Has a moderate rate of growth to 60 feet. • Aleppo, Mondell or Afghan Pine. Also called Pinus eldarica or Pinus halepensis. These evergreens can take sun and wind. As an added bonus for those who own acreage, these pines are good for windbreaks and erosion control. Rapid growers, these pines with gray-green needles can get to 30 to 60 feet tall with a 20 to 30 foot spread. They aren’t that thirsty, either; a deep, twice a month watering is all they require during the summer. • Colorado Blue Spruce. Can take sun, shade and cold, but is susceptible to spider mites. Likes most soils, as long as they’re well-drained. This tree with the bluish needles is a slow grower that will eventually get 60 to 80 feet tall with a 40 to 50 foot spread. • Deodar Cedar. A tree that actually prefers clay soil, as long as there’s no standing water. This evergreen can take sun, wind and heat. It’s a rapid grower that will reach 50-80 feet with a 40-foot spread. Aptly known as, “The California Christmas Tree”. • Incense Cedar. Not a true cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), but this California native tree will truly perform well in many USDA 9 yards. Although a slow grower at first, the incense cedar can get 80 feet tall, with a 15 foot spread at the base. It can take hot summers and poor soil, and doesn’t require a lot of water. It’‘s best characteristic: the wonderful aroma on a hot summer day. • Coast Redwood. Give this tree plenty of room in the yard, if you dare. The coast redwood can get 70 feet tall with a spread at the base of 30 feet. It can take our sun, but to thrive needs frequent, deep watering. Better suited to the cooler areas of USDA Zone 9 where there’s more coastal influence (fog, low clouds). Some tips for caring for a living Christmas tree: • Don’t keep it in the house for more than a week. • Keep it away from heating vents, wood stoves and fireplaces. • Water the tree every day while it’s in the house. A good way to insure a slow, thorough watering is to dump a tray or two of ice cubes into its container. • Decorate it with the smaller, cooler, flashing bulbs. • The tree can remain in a large container for a number of years, but you may need a furniture dolly to move it in and out of the house. • Marginal Living Christmas Trees: Given a little care, the dwarf Alberta Spruce can survive as an outdoor living Christmas tree in USDA Zone 9. Give it afternoon shade for best results. Limber Pines (Pinus flexilis), native to mountainous areas, tend to revert to rounded tops as they age. The exception is the “Vanderwolf Pyramid” variety, which keeps its Christmas tree shape. Another one to be wary of is the Grand Fir (Abies grandis). This tree could soon overwhelm a small yard, reaching heights of 200 feet. Other borderline trees that may have trouble here in USDA Zone 9 include the Tempelhof cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) and the Blue Point Juniper (doesn’t like too much water or slow draining soil). At the top of Santa’s horticulturally naughty list is the Monterey Pine, which is better for coastal environments; even in its native environment, Monterey pines are in decline due to pine pitch canker. Here in California’s Central valley, the Monterey pine is susceptible to pests and diseases, and sulks in our summer heat. Another Christmas-tree type plant that is widely available is the Norfolk Island Pine. Known as the Hawaiian Christmas Tree, this is best planted outdoors...in Hawaii. In most of the continental U.S., it makes a good house plant year round. When is a Christmas tree not really a tree? When it is a Rosemary plant, an evergreen shrub that’s been pruned into a pyramidal shape. This herb is a great addition to your outdoor garden for its culinary and bee attracting qualities (blooms in the winter and spring), but would require constant shearing to keep it looking like a Christmas tree...uh, bush. Transcript of today’s Podcast CHRISTMAS TREE CARE TIPS Farmer Fred So are you moving the new Christmas tree around? Or do you have one tied to your car right now, while you’re listening? Are you going to put it indoors? Where are you going to put that Christmas tree? And how do you keep a basically dead tree looking green? It just so happens that in a recent article in the Sacramento Digs Gardening newsletter, Debbie Arrington and Kathy Morrison, came up with some ideas on how to keep your Christmas tree looking green. Debbie Arrington is with us. And Debbie, how do you keep your Christmas tree looking healthy, merry and green? Debbie Arrington Think of your Christmas tree like you would any cut flower: it needs water. And the way to get water is to put it in a sturdy stand that can can hold about a quart of water, at least. The taller the tree, the more water it needs. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, you need one quart of water for every inch of trunk diameter. And so make sure that the stand can hold that much. And then check it every day. Because if the trunk dries out, resin starts forming and it blocks the uptake of more water. And the tree will just dry out like a flower would dry out if the vase ran out of water. Farmer Fred What about additives? Do they do any good? Debbie Arrington Apparently, research that the National Christmas Tree Association shared shows that clean water works best. Home remedies, like adding aspirin or bleach or corn syrup or sugar or a can of 7-Up or whatever didn’t make any difference. And in fact, the corn syrup and other stuff attracted bugs. Farmer Fred If you are driving home from the Christmas tree lot right now, with that tree tied to the roof of your car, one thing you need to do before you bring it in the house is to shake it out and get all the bugs off. But also maybe cut off a half inch or an inch off the bottom of the tree to allow some clean uptake from that water. Debbie Arrington Yes, because that resin can block the flow, the uptake of water. It’s already stopping its flow where that tree was sitting in a lot, waiting for somebody to take it home. The National Christmas Tree Association actually says that you should cut off at least one inch to restore the flow and let the water come back up. Farmer Fred And that water monitoring isn’t just an occasional check. That’s something that you have to check

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com In this week’s podcast, Diane Blazek, Executive Director of All America Selections (AAS), tells us about the upcoming 2026 gardening season’s latest award-winning plants. We highlight standout varieties like the Bada Bing tomato, Treviso basil, Majesty purple pole bean, and RubyBor kale, each recognized for their adaptability and exceptional qualities. Diane also introduces the Butter Lamp winter squash and Sun Globe coreopsis for ornamental gardens, and shares tips on plant care and spacing. Visit aaswinners.com for a complete list of top varieties and inspiration for your 2026 garden! Beyond The Garden Basics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts, get access to the entire newsletter library, listen to complete podcasts, and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you. For those of us who prefer to read instead of listen, here’s the human-corrected transcript of today’s podcast (with pictures): Farmer Fred: [0:00] So by now, you’re probably looking at gardening catalogs, or scrolling online, trying to figure out what are you going to plant in 2026 among vegetables or flowers. One good place to start is with All America Selections to figure out… what are the winners? What are the good ones? All America Selections is an independent nonprofit organization that tests new, never before sold varieties for the home gardener. There’s a whole season of anonymous trialing that goes on by volunteer horticultural professionals, and only the top garden performers are giving the AAS winner award designation for their superior performance. And all the AAS proceeds go into conducting the trials and promoting AAS winners, both old and new. And there’s a lot of old AAS winners. This is an organization that goes back decades. Here to tell us more is Diane Blazek, the executive director of All America Selections. And golly, it’s getting close to 100 years of AAS winners, Diane. Diane Blazek: [1:05] Yes, it is. We were founded in 1932, so it’s not too much longer. We’ll be celebrating our century. Farmer Fred: [1:13] And it has expanded, I guess, to include a lot of other types of winners, like regional winners and gold medal winners. Diane Blazek: [1:21] Yes. So when the organization was founded, everything was grown from seed and it really was just annuals and edibles. So what we’ve done now is not only expanded from seed, but we also include vegetatively propagated annuals and perennials. And we also now have regional winners, as you mentioned. And what that means is if we get an entry in and it has some very specific regional benefits, when we look at the scores, we notice that it didn’t do well all over North America, but it did well in the Southeast or the Northeast or the Southwest. And that’s how we determine regional winners. Farmer Fred: [2:01] And you also have a category called gold medal winners, but there aren’t too many of those, are there? Diane Blazek: [2:08] No, no. There were way back in the beginnings in the 1930s and 40s, because that was considered, it had to be a breeding breakthrough, like just light years ahead of everything else that was being trialed or the comparisons. So we had quite a few in the beginning, and then we went through a lull. There was about 15 years we didn’t have any gold medal winners. And then just recently, we’ve started to have a few more, and we do have two to talk about today. So I will wait until we introduce those. Yes, there are two in this batch of AAS winners. ======================== BADA BING TOMATO Farmer Fred: [2:44] All right. Well, let’s get started then. Let’s talk about vegetables first. Now, of course, my priority this time of year is looking for interesting tomato varieties to try. I always try a couple of new ones as well as some old proven varieties that usually get repeat performances in my yard. And you do have a tomato in the 2026 vegetable winners list called the Bada Bing. Diane Blazek: [3:13] Yes, the tomato, Bada Bing. So it is a large cherry tomato. So we just put that notation in there in case people look at it and go, well, this is like a cocktail tomato. It’s kind of in between a cherry and a cocktail size. The main thing is it’s disease-resistant, but I don’t want to disregard the taste, the texture, the fact that it’s very, very crack-resistant, nice and juicy like you would expect from a cherry tomato. So we keep calling it the more bang-for-the-buck tomato. Farmer Fred: [3:49] It looks like, because it has an overall height of just 40 inches, with a large container, you could grow the Bada-Bing tomato. Diane Blazek: [3:57] Yes, you could. We did not trial it in containers, but you definitely could. In fact, just this morning, I placed an order for a trade show. I’m going to the summer and we always want to show our new winners. So I went ahead and ordered it in a either a 14 or 16 inch container. So hopefully it will be fine for that size plant. Farmer Fred: [4:19] And I guess if people were saying, well, what tomato variety is it like? I guess it’s pretty close to maybe the Sweet 100. Diane Blazek: [4:27] Exactly. Yeah, that’s one. And then there’s another AAS winner from a couple of years ago called Crockini, and it was compared against those two, the Sweet 100 and the Crockini. All right. Farmer Fred: [4:38] And again, like you pointed out, it has resistance to septoria leaf spot, early blight and late blight. Blight’s a big problem, especially in humid climates. Diane Blazek: [4:49] Exactly. Yeah. And this one did win in the southwest and the southeast, as well as the Great Lakes and Heartland that has a lot of humidity, seeing as how I live there. So we do know that it did perform very well in those regions. Farmer Fred: [5:05] How many days is it to harvest on this one? Diane Blazek: [5:08] That was something else I just went over this morning. From transplant, it would be 65 days. So I’m thinking if you’re sowing straight from seed, probably 80 to 90 days. Farmer Fred: [5:20] Okay. Yeah, usually, the good part about planting tomatoes from seed is they come up fairly quickly, usually within a week to 10 days, unlike pepper seeds. And once they’re up, they start growing fast. So it’s only a few weeks after they’re up and growing that you’d be able to transplant them. Diane Blazek: [5:37] Correct. Yes. Farmer Fred: [5:39] All right. So that again, the Bada Bing tomato. Now it’s not a national winner, but it sure sounds like it would be fairly adaptable across the country. Diane Blazek: [5:49] Exactly. It was four regions. And so, you know, usually when it gets to four regions, it’s very close to being a national winner. So, yeah, this one, you know, I would feel pretty confident in pretty much everywhere. We just know that it did superbly well in those four regions. After the paywall, paid subscribers get more words and pictures about the 2026 All-America Selection plant winners.

Today’s Podcast: Debbie Flower and I tackle the problem of a slow draining lawn. There are lots of strategies for improving a soggy lawn! Where does the water go?” That’s a question I frequently ask myself while bicycling throughout the region, staring at rain-soaked suburban yards. This is also a question homeowners should ask themselves before, during, and after the rainy season. One of the best pieces of advice I can offer any new homeowner: before you spend any time and money on landscaping projects or a garden, live with the existing property for a year. This allows you to take monthly pictures of the area where you want a future garden, perennials, shrubs and trees. When we moved to our new home nine years ago, that’s what we did before we embarked on a totally redesigned landscape. Taking a series of pictures on a regular basis on sunny days, especially at different times of the day (9am, 1pm, 5pm), will remind you how much shade your future plants will be dealing with, and you can plant accordingly. A plant labeled for “full sun” will need at least six hours (preferably eight hours) of direct sun a day. “Part Sun/Part Shade” plants, 4-6 hours of sun per day. “Shade” should be reserved for those plants that get little direct sun (less than four hours) and preferably dappled sun, such as protection from an overhanging deciduous tree. However, the more important reason to live with that new yard for a year before embarking on outdoor landscaping projects: figure out where water goes, both after regular irrigation and after rainstorms. In our case, we discovered that few of the yard sprinklers worked fully or accurately, and that a heavy downpour of rain ends up in the garage. And the basement would flood. As a result, the price of our landscape rehab zoomed upward, to include a complete drip irrigation system for both the front yard and backyard, as well as an underground hard pipe drain system to move roof gutter water away from the house and garage to another part of the yard. Home and Garden Pests That Sing in the Rain The other problem with wet weather: some home and garden pests love it when it’s wet; and others will seek refuge in drier quarters, such as in your home. The authors of the University of California Ag and Natural Resources publication, “Pests in the Urban Landscape,” offer some “Wet Weather Do’s and Don’ts” to ward off problems: • Check for snails and slugs. They like it moist and will sing in the rain. Unfortunately, their singing sounds a lot like, “chomp, chomp, chomp.” These garden leaf and flower munchers don’t like it too wet. They may be easily found headed for dry land – sidewalks and driveways – during a deluge. Find them under loose boards, as well. That’s the time for hand-picking or stomping them. Chemical controls for these mollusk family members are ineffective in the rain. • Remove weeds and unwanted plants. When the ground is wet, pulling them out goes much more quickly. Among the winter weeds spreading here right now are oxalis, nutsedge and groundsel. You may have other cool season weedy invaders in your yard. • Dump standing water. This wet winter is already favoring a big mosquito season ahead. Deprive breeding mosquitoes of water-nesting sites such as flowerpot saucers, wheelbarrows, buckets, clogged storm drains, and roof gutters. • Check for ants, cockroaches, and earwigs. These pests may invite themselves into your home when flooding or heavy rains make the outdoors unappealing to them. Seal any cracks or openings in your home. Outdoors, check the perimeter of your home as well as around doors and windows for insect entryways. Weather stripping, door sweeps, and traps placed beneath eave-protected walkways can help keep them outside. Indoors, keep food tightly sealed and the counters clean, especially near electrical outlets that might provide an entryway. • Remove yard mushrooms. Mild temperatures and wet soil are a combination that mushrooms and other fruiting bodies of fungi love. The good news is they are not harmful to your lawn and garden. The bad news? They can be poisonous to children and pets, when consumed. Rake them up. • Don’t apply outdoor fertilizer or pesticides now. Both are easily susceptible to being washed off the soil or plants and into our waterways. Wait for several days of dry weather before applying any sprays, dusts, liquids, or granules. • Avoid pruning plants unless it is to remove broken or damaged branches. Rainfall and open wounds in the winter on plants is a recipe for spreading diseases. Apricots, cherries, and olives should never be pruned during cool, wet, conditions, advises UCANR. • A common site on sidewalks after a rainstorm are worms, struggling to get out of the wet soil and onto dry land. If you have easy draining soil, you may see their mounds in lawns and gardens as they come up temporarily for air. Those mounds are a great fertilizer: worm castings. Just knock them down with your foot or a rake to feed the soil. • Tread lightly through the garden during or just after a rainstorm. Avoid walking, driving, or moving heavy equipment across wet soil. This compacts the soil, removing necessary air pockets, which are vital for healthy trees, shrubs, and other plants. • One other tip: if you have slow draining areas of your yard after a deluge, mark them. Stick a small stake or object on top of those areas to let you know that the area needs drainage help after the rainy season. Avoid planting in consistently wet areas. Consider putting in a drain system to move that water to another part of the yard to make it more habitable for plant life. Or, consider placing a large container or raised bed in that area for a successful garden. PODCAST TRANSCRIPT - LAWN DRAINAGE TIPS Farmer Fred We like to answer your garden questions. Debbie Flower is here, America’s favorite retired college horticultural professor. Evan writes us from San Jose, which is south of San Francisco, a very mild climate that used to be an area of a lot of fruit orchards, way back when. Now it’s the tech hub with million dollar, two bedroom homes. All right. Go figure. Anyway, Evan writes, “I live in San Jose and in my backyard, I have a very small patch of grass that is around 200 square feet. I want to keep this patch because my daughter practices her gymnastics on it. But in the rainy season, it becomes a swampy bog, so I have to fight the moisture for a few months. During that period, I tend to aerate it with my fork quite a bit. Usually I spend 15 minutes aerating it each week to help it dry out and de-compact it. I usually only disturb the top four to six inches of the soil. But I’m starting to worry that I’m doing too much. Is it possible to aerate the lawn too much? Can you recommend any non-destructive ways to fight moisture and compaction? On a small lawn?” My first comment to Evan is, if you’re using a fork, you’re not aerating the soil. You are compacting it. Debbie Flower Yeah, you’re creating holes, but pushing the soil to the side which is causing compaction on either side of that. And maybe creating more of a drainage issue. I assume he’s having success, or he wouldn’t be doing this over and over and over again. Farmer Fred Well, he says it’s a fork, but doesn’t give details about the fork. Debbie Flower I’m picturing a garden fork. Yeah. And that’s just just tines. Yes, aeration should be done with tubes, hollow tubes that take out a chunk of the soil and whatever roots are in it. And they look if you’ve ever seen goose poop, what they take out of the hole when they’re aerated with a hollow tine aerator looks like goose poop. Farmer Fred Yeah, if you want to aerate, I still like the idea of renting a power aerator because as it picks out those cores of soil, the device also eject them on top of the soil. And you want to be able to do that. I think with a hand aerator, it’s two motions. You punch down, and then when you bring it back up, you have to eject the cores of soil. Debbie Flower It’s a lot of work. Farmer Fred It’s a lot of work and Evan, you’re working too hard. Debbie Flower Right. You use a hollow tine aerator of some sort to aerate the soil. Then you want to collect those goose poops, that are about the size of my pinky finger, perhaps three inches long and maybe a quarter to a half an inch across. Then smash them up so that they’re just loose soil and then rake them in over the top. Or rake in some sand. Something that would hold those holes open and allow air and water to move through them. Farmer Fred And I guess you could do that with a spreader of some sort. I know that in a lot of situations where you’re rehabbing a lawn, and you’re dethatching and aerating, that’s the other thing you might consider, too, is dethatching your lawn. But people who have a rhizomatous... is that a word? Thank you. Rhizomatous or stoloniferous lawn... that can tend to build up a lot of dead material below the surface that you don’t ever see, until you bring in a dethatcher. And all of a sudden you’ve got two cubic yards of dead lawn material to dispose of. And that can help drainage quite a bit as well. Debbie Flower So those typical grasses that would have that problem are bluegrass, Bermuda grass, and creeping red fescue. Farmer Fred Yes, that’s why it’s usually a creeping grass. Exactly. Debbie Flower Yeah, they fill in really well. If you’re a golfer. You would love that because it fills in your divots you make but it’s a harder grass to maintain because of those stems that crawl across the surface and under the surface of the soil. Farmer Fred Fortunately Evan, it’s only 200 square feet. And maybe you can get through what you’re calling the aeration process in 15 minutes a week. But I have a funny feeling you’re just compacting the soil. Debbie Flower Right. My first question after reading his question i