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Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard

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of gardening simple, fun and always
rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,

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Jim and Mary Competti. Hello and
welcome everybody. I'm Jim Campetti along with

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my wife Mary for our fourth podcast
season, starting back, and we are

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back for the twenty twenty four season. Hard to believe this is year four?

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Is it? That is? I
mean, it's it's been crazy,

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it's been fun and we love to
get to the chance to talk to gardening.

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We've got a lot of great episodes
coming up this year. We're going

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to kick it off with today,
which is one of my favorite topics.

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Cucumbers and how to best plant them. You know a lot of people just

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think I'm going to take them out, put them in just like any other

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plant. There are some differences and
we'll get into them today that can really

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ensure a great crop of cucumbers and
how you plant them and how you go

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about that, and we're going to
get into that. But since it's the

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first of the twenty twenty four season, we want to remind everybody that can

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always reach us via email at the
Farm at ow garden dot com. And

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you can sign up at simplegardenlife dot
com to follow us on Facebook. That's

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really the easiest way. We're going
to post all of our newest articles on

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there. Any of the podcast comes
on, So go to simplegardenlife dot com.

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And then also you can check out
our Old World Garden Farms YouTube channel

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where this year we'll post a lot
more garden videos. We're adding some more

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gardens here to the test garden,
so pretty excited about that. So it's

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a big year. It is going
to be a big year. We got

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lots going on the farm. We'll
have an episode about the farm coming up

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in a few weeks. We're excited
for that when we've added a lot here

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and we're gonna have a lot of
events and the coming years, and really

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excited when we get the chance to
not just talk guarding but live it here

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with other people with the farm we
do. We get a lot of questions

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from people about where the farm's located
if they could come visit, so we're

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excited to share it. Yeah,
we are. So just to let you

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know, we are in Quaker City, Ohio, so on the eastern part

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of the middle section of Ohio.
But like we said, well, that'll

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be coming in a little bit.
But let's get into our topic today,

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which is planning and growing your best
crop of cucumbers. It's really important planting

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day. We talk about this with
any crop, but with cucumbers it's huge,

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and we're going to talk why and
how you should plant your cucumbers instead

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of just what a lot of people
do. We'll get into this with transplants,

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right, And I think it's probably
the second most popular vegetable to put

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in a garden. Well, it
is, and for a lot of reasons.

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I mean, think about all the
things that we make from our cucumbers

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and yeah, I mean there's a
long, long list. Yeah, we

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use our cucumbers all summer long.
We can make so many different varieties of

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pickles. We have dill pickles,
hot and spicy pickles, bread and butter

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pickles. We use the same things
for relishes. But my favorite thing to

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use for cucumbers, besides putting them
in a salad, eating them fresh fridge

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all summer long. And I love
it too, it is a cucuvered onion

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salad. Yeah you get that from
your dad. I think your dad always

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loved that and we had it too. But It's funny, Mary and I

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have different versions. Now you like
both, I do. I only like

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one version. I like it with
the vinegar style. I'm not a creamy

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You've made me come over a little
bit. I'll eat some, but I

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have much more of that side.
But we always have both. You do

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a nice job when you're making it
to make make sure we have each We

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do, and I like that.
I like the creamy sour cream mayonnaise version

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that spice ups as cayenne pepper.
But I do love the Italian viniagarette as

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Oh yeah, it is good.
So I mean as great as cucumbers are,

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and Mary just talked about all the
ways you can use them. They

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really are, along with tomatoes,
one of the most frustrating crops for gardeners

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to grow. And you know they're
just cucumbers are notorious. They give gardeners

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fits for all kinds of different reasons, you know, whether it's trying to

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get young seasons to take off,
or every year we get questions like I

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have flowers on my cucumbers, but
they're not producing cucumbers. Well, we'll

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talk about that today. That's frustrating
too. You know, they are one

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of the most finicky plants when it
comes to pest and disease too, whether

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it's you know, cucumber blight,
whether it's the beetle getting them. They

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also can succumb to weather pretty quickly
in certain cases. But we're going to

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start with what I think is probably
one of the most important things that when

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you you plant your cucumbers. We're
going to hit four huge things today,

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four secrets that we say like to
grow cucumbers like crazy. But number one,

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before we get to it, Mary, it's the question we're going to

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answer. I think it's our question
of the week, and I think it's

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really important right now to just start
with that. Right. This comes from

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Andy Flowers from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He writes, I have the worst luck

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with cucumbers. It doesn't matter if
I try to grow my own transplants or

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buy them. It always seem to
just sit in the soil and die every

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year I plant them. Help.
I always love that. I love the

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hope. Yeah, we get a
lot of those, but it's good.

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So number one and if, in
my opinion, the most important thing you

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can do to grow better cucumbers is
not to plant transplants. Right, there's

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no need to go out to a
nursery or start your own seeds indoors to

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go and plant your cucumbers in your
garden. I mean, not only is

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it less expensive, but to help
your plants stay healthier and grow stronger and

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faster. And here's why. You
know, unlike tomato and pepper plants that

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have extremely long seed to you know, purity times, they can be eighty

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ninety one hundred days or more,
so you need to start them insight.

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They're also a bit stronger of a
plant when you first take them out.

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Cucumbers are not that way, and
they have a very short seed to production

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time. I mean some cucumbers,
what fifty fifty to fifty five days they

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can go from a seed to having
fresh cucumbers that you're picking exactly. So

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because of that, you don't have
to start those plants four to six weeks,

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as we always hear inside before taking
them out, because when you plant

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seeds, they're going to come up
so fast, they're going to produce so

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fast you're going to have cucumbers.
But here's the funny part that I always

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like to talk about, we've done
this. This is not something that we

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just say we've only planted from seeds
we have planted for years. Yeah,

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both we would go get transplants if
we weren't here growing our own. Then

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we grew our own, and we
too struggled by taking them out. And

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here's what happens with cucumber plants.
You know, you have what maybe four

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to six leaves, maybe ten if
you're lucky on a cucumber transplant, you

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take it out right, if you're
lucky. If you're lucky, it's cool,

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it's early in this growing season.
Two things that cucumbers absolutely despise.

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And you take them outside, even
if you harden them off, and you

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plant them in the soil. And
what do they do? They sit?

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They sit. Everybody talks about it. Right. They go through a bit

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of shock, they do. Every
plant does. But unfortunately for cucumbers that

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shock is brutal to them. It
can just lead them to kind of wilt

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over, and the only few leaves
they have in order to help with photosynthesis

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and everything else, end up getting
damaged. We've watched it before. They'll

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turn yellow and you're not even it's
not because of water. Maybe there's too

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much moistury and soil. Because it's
cool. They can't dry off, and

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mildew and blight and all of those
things take effect when that cool wet soil,

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and it just spells trouble for cucumber
plants. It is. And the

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easiest way to explain it is that
the roots when they're in the warm soil

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inside, when you put them outside
in the cool soil, they go through

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a shock and they just sit there
and they don't grow. They do.

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So here's our answer, and we
have done We've done experiment after experiment.

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Now we just kind of laugh.
You can take a transplant and put it

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out, so we can usually plant
here mid to late May. It just

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depends. But we can plant those
transplants and we can plant seeds on the

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same day, or we can wait
a week later and plant seeds, and

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without fail, by the middle of
June. What happens. The seeds do

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much better. They do. And
here's here's why that happens. So,

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first of all, the seeds go
in the ground, they have a chance

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to sprout, they are acclimated to
everything, and if you just wait a

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little while till that soil warms up. That's the biggest mistake people make when

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planting any type of spring vegetable crop
like tomatoes, or when they're putting them

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in for the summer, is they
plant too early. Let that soil temperature

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heat up a little bit. It's
going to Germany quick. The seeds are

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going to grow, there's no The
roots have never been disturbed, right,

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and the soil really needs to not
only be warm, but needs to have

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been dried out. If you had
a really wet spring, the cucumber seeds

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or transplants aren't going to do well. That's right. I mean, you

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can't say that any better. And
then once those seeds sprout up, those

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roots have grown uninterrupted and they're down
in there's not going to be the issues

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that you have with a plant that's
already existed and it kind of gets weak

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and you can't power it up.
So number one, right off the bat,

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with queue seeds grow with seeds.
It is just an easier way.

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Trust me, try the experience yourself. Go out and buy a plant,

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put your seeds in beside it,
and andy rot us today. I said,

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try this and it will work.
Seeds have always given us a much

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better and longer lasting crop and a
healthier crop. So that's number one.

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Let's take now a look at number
two and you kind of hinted to this,

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it's great soil. It's all about
giving your cucumbers what they want.

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And I mean, what's the biggest
mistake a lot of gardeners make with cucumbers

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is not amending the soil. Right. You have to provide some nutrients to

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let those cucumbers grow big and strong, that's right, Rich, fertile and

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loose soil, and that allows them
to grow extensive roots. If that's soil

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is hard or it doesn't have nutrients
in, those roots can't grow anywhere.

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Even if it's a seed, they
can't get out. But if you have

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good soil to start with, those
roots grow out. And what does a

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big root system do. It absorbs
more nutrients. Right. And think about

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the soil that you see that has
cracks in it, hard soil, you

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don't want that. You want loose, fertile soil, that's right. And

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then the other thing is always plant
your cucumbers even if you grow in a

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bucket, if you grow in a
raised bed, if you grow anywhere,

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make a little bit of a mound
wherever your plant comes out. And that's

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important for the biggest reason is cucumbers
don't do well when there's a lot of

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moisture right around their stem. That's
what happens in the early spring when you

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put those transplants, and a lot
of times so rod off. But that

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little bit of a hill it allows
that water to just escape out to the

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edges and not hang around that stem. So how high should the mound be,

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Well, you know, we like
we like about twelve inches around in

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diameter, and then as far as
height, I mean two three inches.

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It don't make a mountain, right, don't a volcano, you know,

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just a couple. You don't want
the water rolling off. You just want

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that plant to sit a little higher. Or in this case, you're gonna

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plant your seeds a little higher.
So you know you do that. So

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make your mound, and then here's
where you really build it up. So

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what we like to do is where
that mound's gonna go, we loosen the

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soil four to six inches underneath,
we'll add in, you know, compost

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we'll add in our worm castings and
coffee grounds. And as far as how

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much do we use, what you
say, Mary, two to three cups

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of composts for every planting hole,
probably a quarter cup to a half a

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cup of worm castings. We use
a little more of those every year because

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they're just magical and they don't overpower
the soil. And then a couple of

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tablespoons of coffee grounds. We put
those all in, and then we talked

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about it. Don't do this until
that temperature gets above you know, sixty

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degrees. Test your soil. Get
it, get it, inexpensive soil meter,

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go out how many times you know
it can be seventy degrees for four

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or five days, or eighty degrees. You go out and test that soil

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early spring and it's fifty one degrees. We all get anxious in the spring

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to get out there in our gardens
and we want to get stuff in the

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ground super early, but you really
do need to wait for best results.

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That's right, That's right, so
you know. And then finally when we're

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talking about building this, the other
mistake that they kind of make when planting

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is get it in a location it
gets a lot of sun. I mean,

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it needs a minimum of six to
eight hours, but eight hours is

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way better, tens even more,
and morning sun's really the key here.

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You can go I was going to
hit on that, and you stole my

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God, but that's good morning sun. And Severy's like, what's the difference

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between morning and evening sun? They're
both you know, less and not intense.

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Well, cucumbers have a lot of
mildew issues and they have a lot

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of mold issues. And what causes
that moisture on the leaves, Well,

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they get wet overnight. That's just
typical. You know, you have do

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well, you get that early morning
sun that dries off those leaves nice and

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early in the morning, and you
don't have to worry about those chances coming

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on. So that's why you want
a little bit more morning sun than anything

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else. But again, they need
a lot of sun during the day.

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So all right, we've covered number
one, which is plant with seeds.

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We've covered number two, which is
you know, build that soil up and

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put a little mound in. We'll
come back with number three and four after

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we take a quick break, and
we'll talk some more about how to grow

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cucumbers like crazy this year. All
right, we are back and excited to

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have our first podcast of the season
talking about cucumbers on how to plan it

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for success. And as we said, we covered planting with seeds and we

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covered how to fill that planting area
with some serious power. Now it's all

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about once you put those seeds in
the ground, what do you need to

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do. You need to melt from
the start. And you're gonna hear us

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say that with every single plant we
talk about because it's so vital, and

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in cucumbers it's even more. And
you know it. Mulch helps with so

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many things in a crop. So
for cucumbers, it helps keep competing weeds

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away and that's huge because those weeds
cannot take resources then from your plants.

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But it also helps to hold moisture
in the soil to the root level,

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not so much up around the plant
because when you mulch, you don't want

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to always mulch right up to the
edge of the roots. But it helps

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the soil from drying out so fast. And then really important in the spring

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is it helps regulate soil temperature.
So once that soil temperature heats up a

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little bit and you get a super
cold night, it's not going to lose

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all its heat on one night,
and in the summer when it's super hot,

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it's not going to get all that
heat during the day. So mulch

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is critical for so many things with
cucumbers. But it's a little different because

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we're planting with seeds, right,
and mulching actually starts on day one,

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the day you plant your seeds,
rather than waiting until the leaves come up

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through the ground. Yep, when
you first plant your seeds, you just

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want to plat a place, a
light coating of mulch on top of the

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mound. So you want the light
to SOI get to the soil. It's

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a light though, what's like,
what do you mean by light? Like?

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How much would you put on them? Less than an inch? One

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inch all around the mountain. You
don't want any exposed dirt scene because you

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don't want it to dry out,
but you want the seed things to be

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able to pop through the mulch.
Yeah, so you put a four or

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six inch coato mulch on, they're
going to struggle a little bit coming through

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that. So she's absolutely right.
You know, one inch just something keep

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weed seeds from blowing in and going
there. So then what do you do?

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So you wait, you water,
You let those seeds sprout up,

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Let them get a little bit of
strength, don't start suffocating just as as

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they grow up. Leave that inch
on there. Let them get four or

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five six inches tall, and then
add a couple more inches about half of

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it, you know, so it's
a little bit thicker. Where do you

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want to end up. You want
to end up about four to six inches

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deep of mult around your plant.
Now, with cucumbers, straws great,

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but I'll tell you this is one
area. And we've really started talking about

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this a lot the last few years. Pine needles are fantastic for cucumbers because

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they also keep if you have a
sprawling vine of cucumbers, they keep that

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from touching bear soil, and they're
pretty if you have to live around pine

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trees are pretty easy to get.
I guess we probably need to clarify too.

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For those people that do the mounds
of cucumbers and also have beare soil

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throughout the whole row, you want
to mulch that as well, because as

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the cucumber vines grow, they're going
to sprawl out onto that bare ground and

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they need to be protected from touching
that soil. I'm really glad you said

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that, because up around the plants, I still like straw because it's a

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little more it holds a little bit
more heat in than pine neals do.

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The pine needles around the edges are
great because, like you said, it's

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just there as they grow and to
keep the fruit on. So whatever you

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do, whether it's straw, whether
it's you know, pine needles, you

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can use shredded leaves. I like
avoiding them mirror because they hold so much

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moisture they can rot things out.
I really like the straw of the pine

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needles. But get that mulch down
and then add to it as they grow,

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and you know it's going to really
help your crop long term, especially

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keeping the cucumbers you do have growing
safe from palms way. So that leaves

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one last thing in our four huge
things to do to grow crazy cucumbers.

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And it's fertilized early and often.
And this is where I think so many

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people may make a mistake. They
wait. They're scared about their plants,

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so they wait a whole month before
they ever give it any addition, no

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power, and then they just power
the heck out of it. They just

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give it a big old full dose. So you really want to have great

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success. Yes, you build some
power in with worm castings and all that,

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but you've got to fertilize often but
lightly right once the seeds have sprouted,

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they're growing for about two weeks.
You really want to start using a

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liquid fertilizer to feed them. That's
right. So what are some of the

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best choices If you happen to have
a compost pile, make some compost t.

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We have a great article on Simple
Garden Life about how to make compost

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team use it. It's pretty simple. You put some composts in a bucket,

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you stir it a few times,
and you're gonna end up with compost

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t That's a great way to feed
you know, every ten to fourteen days.

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You don't need to weaken it.
Feed your plants. It's going to

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give them all that power worm casting
teas another favorite. Yeah, it's a

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00:16:45,639 --> 00:16:48,200
great one. Okay, So you
don't have these things, what can you

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use? You can use good organic
liquid commercial fertilizers. There's a ton of

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them out there, and we have
links on all of our sites to lots

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of them. But here's the key
with using them. You can't use them

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at full strength. No, you
really need to dilute them to be a

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half strength with young seedlings. Yeah, and that the first few weeks.

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So everybody's like, well, when
should I When should I do this when

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we like to wait till seedleans are
three to four weeks old, I would

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say that's the safe zone and give
them their first light dose, and then

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every two weeks after that, every
ten to fourteen days, just give them

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a light dose. Now it's liquid
fertilizer, so you know, get it

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on early in the morning. You
don't have to worry about the sun burning

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or anything like that. But a
lighter dose over a long period is way

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better than big doses once a month
or once every other month, because you

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give a big dose of nutrients at
all once and what happens The plants just

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grow like crazy. But at the
expense of at the expense excuse me,

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of producing blooms and fruit right.
And what is the best way to fertilize

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it is it right at the roots, is on the leaves. So it's

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interesting with cucumbers, you know,
liquid fertilizers soak through everything. I'm not

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a big proponent with cucumbers in the
spring of getting them all wet because you

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have some some mil dose. So
I like doing the soil right around them.

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If it touches a little, it's
going to be okay. It's not

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going to hurt them. But yeah, I like that liquid. It goes

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right in the ground, right up
around the roots as they get bigger and

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get into summer. Yes, you
can get it because you can't even find

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the cucumber plants half the time.
You know what, I have a great

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trick for that. I know you
do. I figured i'd lead into that

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for you. One big hit I've
found extremely helpful, especially midsummer when the

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cucumbers are growing like crazy. Is
way early on when you first plant them

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and you've thinned them down to two
per mound, is put a skewer in

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the ground, in the mound where
the roots are going to be located.

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That way, there is no question
about where you should be fertilizing. Yeah,

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so we have, Yeah, we
have cucumber plants in our garden.

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We have cucumber plants in our straw
bales that we plant. We have several

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tests in about three or four years
ago. I don't know when you first

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discovered this. I go out to
the garden one day and I come in.

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I'm like, hey, why are
there a bunch of skewers all over

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this area? She explained to me
what she did, and I'm like,

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00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:52,880
well, that was brilliant, So
we do it now all the time.

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It's great for zucchini plants, cucumbers, anything that sprawls, it's excellent for.

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So there you have it. Four
tips and you know what, they're

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00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:06,160
so simple, but you got to
get all four together. Is once you

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know, use the seeds. Trust
me that they'll catch up and they will

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be there. I know. You
see this big plant, You're like,

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I don't want to start with seeds. It'll it'll beat them out. Make

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sure you have good soil, use
compus, use worm castings, you know,

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coffee grounds, heck, even put
some eggshell powder in anything to build

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that nutrient value of the mound.
And then you know, third, it's

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really important to make sure that you
know they're gonna get mulched and have the

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mulch down. And then you got
to fertilize them regular but lightly. I

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mean that's the key. And then
I mean we talk about it and it's

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worked like a charm for us.
Yeah, we do it in spring and

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then we also do a second crop
in midsummer. I know. So hey,

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our first podcast. We're glad to
be back. Always feel free to

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00:19:47,559 --> 00:19:49,880
email us if you have some ideas
for podcasts or have questions, We get

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00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,400
lots of them every day. We
may be featured on the podcast. You

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00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,559
might be featured. You might be
like Andy Flowers today from Tulsa. So,

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00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:57,960
all right, Mary, I think
it's time for our first time for

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00:19:59,039 --> 00:20:02,200
twenty twenty four. All right,
remember whenever you do, find the fun

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00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:04,559
and gardening and grow something beautiful.
All right? Until next week, everyone,

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00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:11,279
happy gardening. We hope you've enjoyed
this episode. Subscribe to the Simple

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00:20:11,319 --> 00:20:15,680
Garden podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of your favorite

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00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,559
podcast apps. You can also head
over to simplegardenlife dot com where you can

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00:20:18,599 --> 00:20:22,039
listen and read all of the show
notes to every episode. And if you

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00:20:22,079 --> 00:20:26,519
have any questions, any ideas for
show topics, or if you want to

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00:20:26,519 --> 00:20:30,720
share your favorite garden tip, email
us at the farm at owgarden dot com.

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00:20:30,799 --> 00:20:33,359
Until next time, Thanks everyone,