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00:00It's March and that means three things, my friends.
00:04One, it's spring, baby. Two, it's time to plant.
00:07And number three is we have five Epic Gardening crew members
00:11delivering some juicy planting info on over a dozen different
00:16crops. So buckle in and let's get to it. For me in spring,
00:20you could get a little too big for your britches.
00:22You could bite off more than you could chew or any other idiom that you might
00:25want to use. But I like to get the basics set up and it's not in this
00:29shot right here. It's not the onion. It's not the nasturtium.
00:31It's not the alyssum or even this very fancy saffron.
00:34I'm talking about one of the most classic, perhaps the king of herbs, basil.
00:39To satisfy those of you in the UK, it could also be referred to as basil,
00:43but I am never going to say that again. So the two varieties to look at,
00:46at least for me, would be Italian Genovese. That's the most basic.
00:49It's absolutely tried and true. If you don't want to think,
00:51grow Italian Genovese. If you do want to think,
00:54maybe grow lettuce leaf basil. It's sweeter, a little bit less spice on it,
00:58a little bit less pungency. It makes it huge leaves, massive leaves.
01:02Five, 10 years ago I grew one like as big as my head.
01:04You can use it as like a lettuce wrap or a sandwich wrap. It's really nice.
01:07But besides variety, growing basil is about sowing basil.
01:12So let me show you how I do that. So we're going to do the basil.
01:14We're going to go with Italian Genovese in our standard Epic six cell tray,
01:17in our 10-20 tray. And what I'm going to do is pop the pack open.
01:21And I like to dump out in my hand,
01:23but you can see how small these basil seeds are. They're tiny.
01:26And they're also very dark, almost black.
01:28So they're hard to see once you actually sow them.
01:31So make a slight depression. Of course you could just use your fingers,
01:34but we like to get a little fancy here. About a quarter inch deep.
01:36I go two or three seeds in. First of all,
01:40you can grow basil in bunches if you want,
01:42but I just want to guarantee germination.
01:44And what basil needs is about five to 10 days to sprout and about
01:48temperatures of 65 to 75 Fahrenheit,
01:51maybe up to 85 if you can get away with it.
01:54I really like starting basil from seed versus buying because you can stagger
01:59out how, how often you plant it.
02:02You can just keep resetting it over the course of the season.
02:04So you just want to cover it up, water it in,
02:06keep it in a warm area for a couple of weeks.
02:08And you want to sow this about a month before your last frost.
02:11If for some weird, crazy reason,
02:14you were only able to plant one singular type of flower in your garden and you
02:18were to ask me what I would choose, I would always choose calendula.
02:23Hands down. Not only is calendula extremely beautiful,
02:27not only is it an amazing pollinator plant,
02:31it's also an incredible medicinal herb that everyone should have on hand.
02:36It is truly a triple threat. If you've ever grown calendula before,
02:39you know that the flowers are really sticky.
02:42Like if you grab a calendula flower,
02:44your hands are going to be sticking for the rest of the day.
02:47But that stickiness is really good because it's called resin.
02:51And in that resin lies all of calendula's wonderful medicinal
02:55compounds.
02:56This is why calendula is so popular in skin balms and
03:01salves and creams. And I love to make calendula salve every year.
03:05I make it for myself, friends, and family. I make it with dried flowers.
03:10These are some from the fall.
03:12But if you really want to get the most potent flowers that you possibly
03:17can, you want to grow a variety called Rosina calendula.
03:21This just means that it produces more of that medicinal resin than other
03:25varieties. Calendula is really easy to grow. They're a cool weather plant.
03:30So now's the perfect time to get them in the ground.
03:33They usually thrive here in North Carolina in spring and fall.
03:37They don't do too well here in the summer. Um, but usually I'll,
03:40they'll grow in spring.
03:41I'll kind of let them reseed and then they'll pop right back up in the fall.
03:45And to plant these, it's really kind of low key.
03:49All I do is I just sprinkle them. I kind of do some chaos gardening,
03:52just sprinkle their seeds, mix them in the dirt a little bit.
03:55But if you want to be more intentional,
03:56you can definitely start these in seed trays and transplant them out.
03:59March in Florida is a total trip.
04:02While the Northern part of the country is still buried under inches or even feet
04:06of snow in some areas down here in central Florida,
04:09we're about to wave goodbye to our average last frost date and say hello to some
04:14seriously hot and humid weather.
04:16Now the spring planting window is really important for some of the more mild
04:21weather loving crops down here, but it is incredibly narrow.
04:25So I don't want to waste any time in getting in things like cucumbers.
04:28I'm after this variety for a few different reasons. One,
04:32I love thin skin cucumbers. That's just a personal taste preference.
04:36And two, it's a parthenocarpic or self fruiting variety,
04:40which means I won't need insects in order to set fruit.
04:44I'm also interested in this variety because it is well suited to trellising up a
04:48string trellis.
04:49And I plan to trellis my cukes on the structure of the greenhouse and I want to
04:54grow them up the string trellis.
04:55One of the reasons that I became obsessed with gardening all those years ago was
05:00that I'm really into homegrown pickles.
05:03I really love the lacto fermented pickling process.
05:06So this year I've got to get some pickling cukes in.
05:09I'm going for the double yield cucumber.
05:11I'm going to make sure to put a few successions of this variety in because
05:16cucumbers are one of those crops. They are live fast, die young.
05:20They peak quickly and then they fade away.
05:22So if I sow a few different successions about every other week,
05:27every two weeks,
05:28I'm going to have a more continuous harvest and I'm going to get more pickles to
05:32put up in my pantry. So that's a win.
05:35There are a lot of vegetables out there that are very easy to sort of pass on by.
05:39You think maybe it's not worth growing. I could just get the store.
05:41But honestly,
05:42one of the sleepers out there is celery because celery is one of those amazing
05:46things that you don't really want to eat the entire thing.
05:48Nobody's out there eating a whole head of celery unless you're juicing,
05:51I guess.
05:51But the real use case is you're generally just picking one or two stocks to make
05:55your mirepoix for your soups, your stews and everything else in between.
05:58And that is the beautiful thing about growing celery at home, my friends,
06:00because you don't have to harvest the whole plant.
06:02You could walk out there,
06:03snap off a stock or two and just use whatever you need for dinner that night.
06:07Now it is a little bit tricky to get started. So let me share some of my tips.
06:11The two varieties of celery I chose today are Marengo and Utah.
06:14Now both of them can be used just like celery normally would.
06:17But the nice thing about Marengo and the reason why I'm choosing that one is
06:20because it has a much faster days to maturity.
06:22One problem with celery is that as soon as it gets hot,
06:24it really starts to flounder.
06:26So you want to get ahead of that hot part of the year.
06:28And that's exactly why I'm choosing Marengo.
06:30But Utah is a classic that works really well for colder climates,
06:33especially as you go later into the fall.
06:35Now the thing about celery seed is that you've probably seen it before because
06:38it is a very common pickling spice. Oh, there it is.
06:43So in this case,
06:44obviously you've never seen the seed before because this is a pelleted seed.
06:47When seeds are really small and actually expensive,
06:49they are generally pelleted so you could very easily select out just one seed
06:53that you need. I actually just dropped that one.
06:55So what we're going to do here is put two seeds in each cell.
06:58Since it is a plant that takes a long time to germinate,
07:01we're talking 10 to maybe even 30 days. You want to usually hedge your bets.
07:05And by doing multiple seeds, you have a better chance for success.
07:09Now one tip about celery, it's not required,
07:11but apparently it does help with germination is that it has some exposure to
07:15light. So you don't want to fully bury these. Instead,
07:17what you want to do is just kind of press them deeply into the soil.
07:21So they have solid contact, but honestly, a little bit of soil over the top,
07:24even something like that is just fine.
07:26Hello everyone.
07:27My name is Katie Krejci from the Homesteading RD and I am out in my garden
07:32at the moment. I'm a zone 4A Minnesota gardener.
07:35So if your garden is under snow, like mine is, I'm your gal.
07:39So as you can imagine, we are far from planting.
07:42My last frost date isn't till about mid May,
07:46but there are still a few things that I'll be doing in March to get ready for the
07:50upcoming planting season.
07:51So starting seeds indoors is absolutely key when we have a short growing season
07:57like I do.
07:57So we really want to get a headstart on those seedlings so that it is go time
08:01once we can finally plant so that hopefully we can harvest before the next
08:05freeze comes.
08:06So my first pick is something that is an absolute staple for us up here in
08:10Minnesota. It's very frost tolerant,
08:12which is great when we end up getting those late frosts or in early frost,
08:16you can kind of hit us on both ends.
08:18The only thing that I love about this pick is that it preserves very well.
08:22And that plant is the Bellstar F1 Broccoli.
08:25I have been growing this variety for many, many years,
08:28and I always get huge, beautiful heads.
08:31It's going to mature in about 65 to 70 days.
08:34And it just loves our cool summers.
08:36We get a lot of moisture and I love that it freezes super well.
08:40And freezing is kind of a great entry level food preservation method for anybody
08:45who probably have a freezer. So this has just been so great.
08:49I'm going to be starting these seeds around March 23rd.
08:52So that'll give me a six week window before my plan to plant.
08:56So I like to plant in early May,
08:58which is before my last expected frost, about two weeks beforehand.
09:02And that's okay. Cause this is a frost tolerant variety.
09:05We'll see how the spring goes, but that is my hope.
09:07I'm hanging out here in my Allium Alley. Garlic, onions,
09:12leeks, all of them are in here.
09:14But actually what was in here last season is my pick for March.
09:18And that of course would be the wide world of peppers.
09:22It's a good idea to get your peppers started right now,
09:25pretty much no matter where you live in the United States,
09:27or at least in the Northern hemisphere,
09:29because of how long they take to germinate. 10 to 25 days.
09:33And you want to size them up a little bit before you get them out in the
09:36garden. They're in the family, the solanaceous family, which tomatoes,
09:40peppers and eggplants are all in.
09:42And they're sort of in the middle of the pack as far as how much they like heat
09:46and light exposure.
09:47And they're also just slower to grow than something like a tomato.
09:52Eggplants maybe on the same page, but regardless,
09:55I love getting my peppers in seed cells ASAP in March.
09:59Sometimes for me actually it's a little bit earlier.
10:01I'm going to talk about three varieties for you. If you want something fun,
10:04but also basic at the same time, maybe try the Orange Sun Bell.
10:08I've come around. I think bell peppers, I used to say overrated.
10:12You can go get them for 99 cents at the grocery store.
10:15Now that price is a lot higher.
10:16And also you can't get the Orange Sun at the grocery store even for 99 cents,
10:21let alone $2. You have to grow this one to get it.
10:23Then if you want a reliable kind of big producer,
10:26I'd go with the Megatron jalapeno.
10:28We had huge success with this last year, pun intended, of course.
10:31It's a massive jalapeno, almost no growing issues whatsoever.
10:35The kind of sleeper fun pick,
10:37it's a pepper that both Jacques on our team and myself really love is the
10:41Bikinio.
10:41But it's a twofer because it's the Bikinio red and yellow blend.
10:45And I'll show you in a moment how you can tell the difference.
10:48But these, if you've ever been to like a Trader Joe's or gotten these like
10:51pickled peppers in little fancy jars,
10:53like they did in the nineties when we all had that like Tuscany Italy style
10:56house and you put them in the jar and you never ate them, that's Bikinios.
11:00Bikinios can be in that mix of these tiny little ones with a sort of weird
11:03little spike at the bottom. They're very fun to grow, very prolific.
11:07Eat them fresh or you can of course do them in a pickle.
11:11So let me show you how to sow these. So here you have it, the Bikinio red,
11:13the Bikinio yellow, Bikinio meaning little beak in Portuguese.
11:16You can tell cause look, that looks like a little bird beak.
11:18So the cool thing about this is it's a mix.
11:20This will plant about 20 individual plants. But if you look really closely,
11:25you can see that some of them are red.
11:27So all of these pepper seeds are going to start green and mature to either
11:31yellow being the natural colored ones or red being the red colored ones.
11:35And that's an organic dye. So let's talk about how to actually sow these. Again,
11:39I like to come in. I bury my peppers, I don't know,
11:43maybe a quarter of an inch deep, maybe slightly deeper. Of course,
11:47if you're doing a blend and you actually care about which ones you're getting
11:50and you don't want to throw it to the whims of chance,
11:53then pick the red or the non-colored one. But you just come in like this.
11:57I tend with peppers to go just one seed per hole cause you get a little bit
12:02less in a packet than you might with something like a basil.
12:05And you do want temperatures of about
12:1070 or so Fahrenheit to germinate.
12:13You want to start this indoors ideally about a month before your last frost.
12:18For a lot of you watching that is going to be right now.
12:21If you've ever grown mint, you know, it thrives.
12:25Almost a little too much, but that's what makes it such a beginner friendly plant.
12:30You just have to be careful about where to plant it.
12:32The way that mint spreads is super sneaky.
12:35So it sends out these underground incognito runners that you can't even
12:40see. And so next thing you know, a plant's popping up over here.
12:43It's popping up over there.
12:45It's popping up many feet away from where you planted your first plant.
12:50And you're just like, what is happening right now?
12:52So that's why it is best in my opinion, to always,
12:56always plant mint in containers so that you can actually
13:01contain where it's spreading in your garden.
13:03My favorite way to eat mint is actually just fresh in the garden.
13:06What I like to do is I'll take a large mint leaf and I'll put in a
13:11blueberry and a strawberry when all of these things are coming at the same time.
13:15And I'll make like a little mint fruit taco.
13:18And if you've never tried that before, you must, it is so good,
13:21but you can do all kinds of things with it in the kitchen. You can make syrups,
13:25you can mix it into desserts. And then for medicinal purposes,
13:29it's really great as a tea.
13:31It has been known for centuries to help with digestive health.
13:34So a lot of people all around the world will typically have mint tea after a meal
13:38to help with their digestion.
13:40If you're really eager to grow mint,
13:41you can always pick up an established plant from your local garden center,
13:45but it's always really easy to start from seed as well.
13:48What I like to do is just take a container and just sprinkle my mint seeds.
13:52And before you know it, keep it well watered. You'll have mint in no time.
13:56Melons are one of the most delicious and rewarding crops that you can grow in
14:00central Florida.
14:01They grow really well in the spring window when started in March.
14:05I have trialed countless varieties in the years that I've lived down here,
14:09looking for the perfect ones for my region.
14:12I've had varying degrees of success as it is with trialing.
14:16Some of the varieties that I really love are the super early to mature
14:20varieties.
14:21This is because the disease and pest pressure in the spring in Florida is super
14:26high. And even melons,
14:28which do love lots of sun and hot temperatures will start to peter
14:32out in the late spring and summer here in Florida.
14:35So the best bet is to find a variety that has very early maturity.
14:40And so it, as soon as your average last frost date has passed,
14:44which is usually around early March in my area.
14:47I love the apple melon or any of the thin skin Asian type
14:51melons that typically have at least 10 days or earlier
14:56maturity than the other types of musk melons out there. They're delicious.
15:00They're usually a little bit more mild, crispy and juicy. And most importantly,
15:05you're going to get a better, more reliable harvest because they mature sooner.
15:08When I got my botanical interest catalog in the mail last month,
15:12I was very stoked to see the Charente melon.
15:15That is a French cantaloupe style melon.
15:18I have grown this one with great success in central Florida in years past.
15:22I'm definitely going to be planting it this March. It is juicy and sweet.
15:27It's got a little bit of muskiness to it, which gives it some personality.
15:30And most importantly, it grows reliably in our area.
15:34With spring literally around the corner,
15:35I would feel terrible if I didn't remind you about this one special plant.
15:39Now, not everybody loves it.
15:40I personally think it's one of the most delicious things,
15:43even though it's a little bit flavorless on its own.
15:45And that is the beautiful purple eggplant.
15:48Now, of course, eggplant comes in many different colors. Honestly,
15:50I guess mostly purple and white, but all of them are delicious.
15:54In my opinion, they could be used in many different ways.
15:56And the thing about eggplant is that it's how you treat it.
15:59It's something that you either steam, you fry, you bake, and it can be delicious.
16:03And I encourage you guys all to try it if you are a hater.
16:05But I have three varieties here for a specific reason,
16:07because they all have different use cases.
16:09You have something like the jewel eggplant,
16:11which is actually a very tiny one that can grow in a small container.
16:14That's great for slicing up and just throwing on a pizza.
16:17Then you've got your long purple,
16:18which is more of the Asian style eggplants, which are wonderful.
16:21And stir fry, sauté is steamed up a little bit with a delicious drizzle sauce
16:24on top. And then the classic black beauty,
16:27which is what you're really going to look for when you're doing like an eggplant
16:30parmesan.
16:30Now, the thing about eggplant is, is that it's not the fastest grower.
16:34Out of the three major solanaceous plants, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant,
16:38I'd say eggplant is probably the slowest growing from the bunch.
16:41And usually I don't get any harvest until truly at the end of summer.
16:45So you want to get this one started. You want to get started right now.
16:48Let me give you a couple of tips. As I mentioned,
16:50eggplant is one of these things that really needs the heat to grow.
16:53If you read the back of a pack,
16:54it actually says to not even bother putting it outside unless your soil
16:57temperature is already at 70 degrees. I don't know about you,
17:00but here in San Diego,
17:01I'm going to be waiting very late into the season if that's going to be true.
17:04So what we're going to do instead is we're going to get our seed.
17:07And eggplant is usually pretty decent on germination.
17:09I'd say it's a little bit faster than a pepper,
17:12maybe if you have a nice warm temperature.
17:14So we're going to add two to three seeds into each one,
17:17especially if you want a bunch of eggplant like I do,
17:19I definitely want all six of these.
17:21And then you're just going to simply bury them.
17:23Now this is not a seed that needs any special things except for this next step.
17:27So let me show you where I like to put my eggplants once they're properly
17:30seeded. Once you've sown your seeds,
17:31I like to place them on a bottom tray and then definitely put them on a heat
17:35mat. This is going to make all the difference for germinating really any of your
17:38eggplants, tomatoes, or even peppers.
17:40Pick number two for me is similar to broccoli.
17:42And then it's also frost tolerant, which is much appreciated around here,
17:46but I love it for a totally different reason. One, it's good for fresh eating,
17:51which is great in the summertime.
17:53But the other thing is it ferments really well and I'm a registered dietitian.
17:57So I love ferments. It's so good for our gut health.
18:00So this becomes a big staple for us in the winter time.
18:03And this is the Passat F1 cabbage. This cabbage does so well.
18:08I actually grew my biggest cabbage ever this past summer. It was 22.2 pounds.
18:13We ate off of that cabbage for a really long time.
18:16So it loves our cool summers and it really thrives,
18:20especially with all the moisture that we have.
18:22And it grows very similar to the broccoli.
18:24So I'm following the same schedule there.
18:26So around March 23rd,
18:28I'll be starting my seeds to give it a six week headstart before hopefully
18:32planting in the beginning of May. If you're gardening in the North like I am,
18:36hang in there. Spring will come around at some point.
18:39It's not feeling like it today though. It was negative 20 degrees this morning.
18:44I'm ready for summer.
18:45If you're a beginner gardener or even a seasoned gardener,
18:47and you're looking for the most chill,
18:49the most laid back fruit that you could possibly grow in your garden,
18:54look no further than the strawberry.
18:56Strawberries are so chill in fact that you can get like bumper crops in like the
19:02smallest of containers. So that also makes them perfect for balcony gardeners,
19:06anybody that is short on space.
19:09I love growing them in containers so much that I'm actually ripping out all of
19:13my in-ground strawberries this year and I'm moving them all over to containers.
19:16Just make sure that you have a sunny spot and they will thrive.
19:19So first we have June bearing strawberries and these strawberries usually
19:23produce one large crop per year around June-ish, hence the name.
19:28And if you are looking to grow the biggest strawberry that you can,
19:32I think June bearing strawberries might be a good fit for you.
19:35And you can start these via starter plant from your local garden center or you
19:40can do bare root strawberries. But if you do go the bare root route,
19:45just be aware that you may not get a crop the first year because those really
19:50need time to establish.
19:51Then we have our ever bearing strawberries and like their name implies,
19:55they produce fruit for a little bit longer.
19:57Usually you can get two to three crops per year from these one in the spring,
20:02one in late summer. And then if you're lucky,
20:05sometimes you'll get a really good fall crop.
20:07And these are usually started the same way,
20:10either from a starter plant from your local garden center or from bare root.
20:16If you go the bare root route with these, they might produce the first year.
20:19They might not,
20:20it might be a little bit of a smaller crop than if you go with a starter plant.
20:24And these strawberries are going to be a medium size,
20:27just a little bit smaller than the June bearing strawberries,
20:29but they're still delicious. And then there are day neutral strawberries,
20:33which can kind of confuse some people.
20:35Some garden centers will actually just label these as ever bearing strawberries
20:39because they pretty much grow just like ever bearing strawberries.
20:42Day neutral means that these strawberries will continuously pump out fruit as
20:46long as the temperature is anywhere between 45 degrees Fahrenheit and 85
20:50degrees Fahrenheit. But other than that,
20:53they grow the same as ever bearing and they even look and taste the same.
20:57They're about medium sized.
20:58And then we have a very secret fourth type of strawberry.
21:01And that is the Alpine strawberry.
21:04This is the only strawberry that is commonly started from seed.
21:08It's a wild strawberry. So the fruits are going to be a lot smaller,
21:12but size doesn't matter. The flavor makes up for the lack of size.
21:16They're extremely sweet and they have this like delicate,
21:20almost floral type of flavor. It's really unique.
21:23If you've never tasted one before, you've got to taste them.
21:26And these are going to grow kind of like your ever bearing strawberries and that
21:29they kind of continuously will produce throughout the season.
21:32And you want to start these indoors,
21:35go ahead and get them in pots to get a headstart on their growing cycle.
21:39And you might get a small crop the first year,
21:42and then you'll just get bigger crops years after.
21:45So now that you know about all the different types of strawberries,
21:47let us know what your favorite is to grow in the comments.
21:50If you take a look around my garden, you'll see that I am often surrounded by
21:53flowers. I love the pops of colors and all the life that they attract.
21:57But there is one major group of flowers that I think is underserved,
22:00not just in general, but in the gardens.
22:02And that is the native plant flowers.
22:04Now there are a whole world of native plants out there.
22:07My particular favorite today that I'm choosing is the California poppy in the
22:11classic orange color.
22:12But the thing that's really great about native plants is that they are actually
22:16native to your region. There's so many different types out there.
22:18If you go to your local nursery,
22:20you could generally find something available in pots and they will almost always
22:23have some sort of native seed available.
22:25But really my favorite thing about native plants is the fact that you don't
22:29really have to give up any garden space to grow them.
22:31And I'll show you exactly what I mean.
22:33If you think about where native plants grow, they kind of grow everywhere.
22:36That's the whole purpose of a native plant.
22:38You will find them in the bottom of a ditch on the side of a cliff with
22:40seemingly no soil. And that's the thing about native plants.
22:43They are resilient.
22:44They are destined to grow in the region that you are in and that is why they do
22:48so well.
22:49So you don't have to give up your prime real estate of amended garden soil with
22:52tons of compost. In fact, a lot of native plants might not even like that.
22:56So today we're actually going to be starting this little patch of native seeds
23:00right here in this strip of basically barren soil at the base of my big old
23:05pride of Madera.
23:06The first thing you want to do is move away any material on the surface,
23:08whether it's mulch sticks or rocks or anything else.
23:11The next thing you'll notice is that I waited for the first rains to come
23:14through. So I'm not working with dry soil. It's already been hydrated.
23:17Once you remove the mulch,
23:18you want to rough up the soil to create all these little nooks and crannies for
23:21the seeds to catch in. If you're starting a wildflower like the California poppy,
23:25what I like to do is dump the seed in my hand just like this,
23:28and then I'll scatter. So it across the surface.
23:31So what's happening here is that all these little nooks and crannies that I made
23:34are catching the seed and allowing it to actually make good contact.
23:38And this basically all you need to do. Now you can wait for the rain water
23:41yourself. You don't even really have to cover it.
23:43And this should do just fine and produce a beautiful stand of flowers.
23:47Some of my very favorite crops to grow in central Florida do take a bit of
23:51planning and expertise, timing, scheduling,
23:55and a bit of fussing.
23:56If I am looking for a crop that's going to thrive no matter how much heat and
24:00humidity and neglect I throw at it. Okra is my top choice.
24:05Now for many of us growers in the South,
24:08the challenge is not in growing okra and it's more about how to use it and how
24:12to learn to love that unique texture.
24:15Okra is definitely one of those love hate kind of veggies.
24:19You've got people staunchly on either side of the line of that debate.
24:22For me personally, I love okra, but the first time I tried it,
24:26I was slightly off put by the slippery texture of the pods.
24:30That was until I learned about the significant health benefits of that slight
24:34mucilage texture of the okra pod. It's really great for your digestive health.
24:38So once I had a perspective shift, I actually really embraced okra.
24:42And now I've found many recipes that I really like and I eat it regularly and my
24:46family really likes it. Here's a helpful hint. When harvesting your okra pods,
24:50go for the smaller pods,
24:52make sure to catch them when they have just emerged and dropped that flower bud.
24:57Okra pods that are sized smaller are going to have a more crisp and less
25:01slimy texture.
25:03One way to test is take your okra pod and try to bend the tip of the pod.
25:07If it snaps, it's going to have a nice texture, not too slimy.
25:12If the okra pod has gotten large and the tip just kind of bends over when you
25:16smush at it, that's going to be more woody and fibrous,
25:19and it's probably not going to be the most beginner friendly, delicious okra.
25:23It might be a little bit rough around the edges.
25:25My last pick is one that unlocks my other two picks. If you can grow this,
25:29you can pretty much grow anything in the garden because it is one of the more
25:32complicated yet beloved plants to grow. So many different styles,
25:35so many different varieties. And of course,
25:37I'm talking about none other than the wonderful world of tomatoes.
25:40We've done a million videos on tomatoes.
25:42And if you want to see very specific guidelines,
25:44I suggest you check those out.
25:46I'm going to give you three suggestions on varieties and then show you some
25:49tips and tricks on how I like to plant them. One for sauce,
25:52San Marzano makes it to the top of anyone's list.
25:55I would grow this or maybe I'd grow the Amish paste.
25:58That's another good variety.
26:00But you just want one with a little bit less moisture content,
26:02a lot of flesh you can kind of cook down into a beautiful sauce.
26:05And San Marzano takes the cake for that.
26:07It's blend season for me here in the garden.
26:10If one pack gives you two suggestions,
26:13I feel like that's a pretty solid choice.
26:15So I have my sauce tomato in the San Marzano.
26:17I'm going to now suggest the Brandywine. This is the red and yellow blend.
26:21So the Brandywine tomato is a classic heirloom tomato, amazing flavor.
26:25And with this pack, you're going to get a yellow and a red.
26:28You're going to get two different choices.
26:29These guys can grow up to two pounds. So this is your heirloom slicer.
26:33Have it with some mozzarella, whatever you want.
26:35And then I've got the cherry choice or it's maybe the sandwich slicer choice,
26:39but you could eat this one like a cherry if you want to.
26:42The artisan bumblebee blend.
26:44I'm going to just read the packet for you right here. Just take this in.
26:47Pink, purple and sunrise bumblebee tomatoes make up the sweet and tangy blend.
26:52Each tomato is striped. No two are alike and mixed together.
26:55They are stunning, juicy right off the vine or in a salad.
26:58So those three picks or some variation thereof, a sauce, a slicer,
27:02and kind of an all around,
27:04you really want to have at least those three types of tomatoes in your garden.
27:07Now let me show you how I like this home. Let's do the Brandywine,
27:10the red and yellow blend. First of all, look at the cross section.
27:13That's what you're getting when you're growing a Brandywine,
27:15this beautiful sort of textured, juicy cross section.
27:19And honestly you're talking about juicy. Look at that, that angle right there.
27:23I'm a little ashamed to even say I like the look of that,
27:25but let's take a look here at the seed.
27:27It's a similar situation to the peppers that I showed you where you have a
27:30organic beet dye showing you which one's going to be red,
27:33which one's going to be yellow.
27:34You can see that the seeds look somewhat similar to a pepper because of course
27:38they are in the same family. I'm going to come in with some fingers here.
27:42You want to put these in seed trays, I would say about four to six weeks,
27:47maybe even up to eight weeks before your last frost,
27:51especially in a cold climate.
27:52Because you can nurse tomatoes in a greenhouse or a windowsill for quite a while
27:56before you get them in the ground and get a big head start on the season.
27:58Again with tomatoes, these days I'm going one per hole so I don't waste the
28:03seed. And I'm covering them up about a quarter of an inch deep.
28:06I'm going for about a 70 degrees Fahrenheit germination temperature here,
28:11which means in a tray, indoors,
28:13in a sort of seedling heat mat is a good way to do it.
28:16And you'll have these Brandywine pretty soon.
28:18March is the season to get hyped about the garden. If you're not hyped,
28:21hopefully this video helped out.
28:22And I have three things to tell you at this point.
28:25Number one,
28:26if you are still a little bit overwhelmed with different varieties,
28:29check out the Epic Gardening Seedline.
28:32It is the sister line to our Botanical Interest Seedline.
28:34There's only 40 varieties in it and they don't overlap with Botanical Interest.
28:38They're new varieties that are designed exactly for a beginner who's feeling
28:42overwhelmed. Just one or two suggestions per crop.
28:46Don't have to think about it. You know they're going to work. Number two,
28:50if it's still cold in your climate and you're looking for a way to kind of get
28:53involved in the garden but you can't really get out there yet,
28:55check out our Garden Planner. It's gardenplanner.epicgardening.com.
28:59You can actually draw out your exact garden to the inch or the centimeter,
29:04drag and drop in different beds,
29:06including beds that we offer in the exact dimensions that we offer them.
29:10And you can even drag like seedlings that you're planting out in a particular
29:13area and it'll auto-calculate how many seed packs you might need if you don't
29:17already have them. So we've tried to put as many tools in your hand as possible.
29:21And of course the third one is thanks to you guys for supporting Epic and
29:25watching all these new faces show up on the channel. You know,
29:29over 10 years ago when I started this channel,
29:30it was simply me messing around in I think five living spaces ago in a
29:35small condo. And now here we are in this beautiful backyard.
29:38And we have growers from around the country trying to help you guys learn how to
29:42grow better.
29:42So thank you for giving them the grace that you've given me in watching our
29:46channel. Hopefully a lot more to come from all these new faces.
29:49We'll see you next time. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.