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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 to another edition of Simple Garden

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Life. I am your host,
Jim Competti, along with my wife,

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Mary Competti and married today we are
in the middle, well I'm not the

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middle, but the really start of
true garden season. It's just May first

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here as we record this episode for
tomorrow's release, and I'm starting to get

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excited, except that it's like,
what thirty degrees outside? It's cold and

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rainy right now. But that doesn't
mean that we're not getting excited for gardening

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this year. Oh absolutely, And
we have a great post today about that,

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because what we're talking about today is, you know, taking old soil

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that's in your pots and your containers
and can you reuse it? Now?

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This is something that should be talked
about in the fall. But let's face

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it, and we'll get to this
in a second. But life gets in

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the way sometimes and we all walk
out into our garage or maybe even to

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our landscape and we see all those
dead flower pots still with the soil in

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them, right, And so sometimes
right on your front porch you'll have a

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pot that you took your flowers out, but you still have the soil sitting

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in there. That's right. So
we'll get to that in a second.

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But as always, we want to
take a moment to remind everyone that you

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can always reach us via email at
the farm at owgarden dot com. We

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love answering questions, We love to
get topics for the podcast. People have

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emails. In fact, this is
this topic came from a lot of emails

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we've had in the last few weeks, so it's definitely a popular topic right

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now. Absolutely, you can always
sign up a loan at simple gardenlife dot

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com to follow along or on Facebook. I think we're on almost all the

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major podcast apps now, so you
can sign up there to follow anytime you

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know, we drop a new a
new episode. Also, we really want

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to talk about our YouTube channel because
it's grown a lot, but this is

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the time where we're going to be
posting a lot, right We have our

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test garden that we have and we'll
be posting definitely videos about how to plant,

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when to plant, when to fertilize, all those different topics. Yeah,

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and we just do three four minute
videos. We just did one a

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week ago on about a week and
a half ago on how to put your

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supports in for tomato supports and how
to make some really good tomato supports.

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But just little quick snippets that we
hope can help people as they get through

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their garden. Sea. Yeah,
they're not long and lengthy, so just

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a few minutes, just you know, if you want to learn more about

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what we're doing here on the farm, you can follow us on our YouTube

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channel at Old World Garden. Especially
if we haven't board you enough in our

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podcast, you can get some more
of us set on the YouTube channel.

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So all right, so perfectly then
to this as we talk about gardening,

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and we talked about having those pots
out. Potting soil can be one of

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the biggest expenses of all I mean, you know, if you're purchasing your

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potting soil, even if you're making
your own at home, the materials just

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keeps going up. I think what
twenty dollars around here for a six or

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a large bag of potting soil.
Yeah, I can get quite costly,

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real quickly, especially if you have
lots of pots and hanging baskets. And

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containers. Yeah, and like I
said, even if you're making your own,

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I mean, we like to use
worm castings and all those things in

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it, which certainly lessens the expense
of potting soil. But nonetheless, when

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you're filling all these pots up in
the spring and you think you have to

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get rid of that soil and can't
use it again, you know, it

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can be really cost prohibitive for people
that like to grow a lot of things

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in pots, especially if you're trying
to grow some vegetables in there. Right,

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this is a way to get your
plants out and a budget friendly way.

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Yeah. Absolutely, And that's what
we talk about. Can you reuse

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it? We get a lot of
emails. I have all these you know,

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pots and things sitting out front,
what do I do with this soil?

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Well, there's two ways to recharge
and reuse that soil. And I'm

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going to go straight from this.
The best possible way, and we're going

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to show you how to do this
too, is in the fall, when

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you can take all those containers,
you can put them in their own compost

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pile, their own specific pile,
and recharge it to reuse it. I

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mean, but let's face it,
we're not in fall right now, We're

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in spring, and you might be
sitting there with a lot of pots and

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like, well, what can I
do? So before we get to that,

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let's talk about why you have to
recharge the soil into pots and why

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it's so important. So, whether
you grow annuals, whether you grow vegetables,

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even herbs, and pots, they
take a lot of resources from the

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soil, right they do, and
they deplete the soil of the nutrients.

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So if you try to plant in
them again without doing anything, your plants

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are really going to suffer, especially
if you're planting the same plant you planted

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back into that pot. I'll use
a great example here. Flowers matter too,

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But let's say you grow tomatoes in
a pot. You try to put

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a tomato in that same pot the
next year. You might grow up for

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a little bit, but it's never
going to produce like it did last year,

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and most likely probably won't even make
it through the entire season. Right.

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That soil is just deplete all of
its nutrients from the year before it

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is. And then there's one more
thing that's really important with potting soil that

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happens to it over time, is
it loses structure, And a lot of

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people say, well, what structure, what does that mean? Well,

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soil has a natural humus, and
the more thickness is a bad word.

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But the more structure that's in that
soil, the better the roots can Expand

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you'll know what I'm talking about.
Anybody that's ever lifted out old potting soil,

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what's the first thing it does?
Good? Crumbles apart, just crumbles

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apart, and it's dry and it's
flaky. And that's soil that has no

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structure. So if you're going to
reuse that potting soil, you have to

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definitely build that structure back into it. Last, but not least, we

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have to talk about. You know, the soil also has a potential for

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past and disease. If you just
keep using it, that the likelihood of

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it having issues becomes greater with every
every year. Right, if you had

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tomatoes planting in a pod and you
had tomato blight or any type of pest

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or disease on it, if you
don't amend that soil your plans the next

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you're going to have the exact same
problem. Yeah, And if speaking to

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that great point, because if you
have tomato blight in a potted soil.

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Do just get rid of that soil. Don't even don't even attempt it,

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because if you don't, it's going
to come back. It's just like in

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a garden setting where it is.
But Mary's absolutely right. The more you

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reuse that soil to grow anything,
the more likelihood if you don't amend it

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that it's going to have issues down
the road. Right. That's so why

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it's so important to amend your soil
before you pot. The year. Yeah,

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so let's take let's talk about this, and we said there's two ways

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we're going to walk you through.
Both ways a spring way, which is

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what we're all looking at right now, and you know, a fallway,

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so you know we've all been there. I mean, it just happens.

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I mean, Mary, I think
for us people kind of think, oh

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well, they probably know we're really
regimented on everything. We're just like everybody

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else. Life gets in away for
us. Last year, I think it

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was a fall wedding. Yes,
yeah, we are a little busy with

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our daughter's wedding, but we actually
do have some soil that we did get

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compost the last fall. Yeah,
so we had a lot of moms that

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we had at the end of the
year all around for the wedding, and

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we had some other potted plants,
more than we normally would. Um.

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It got late in the year and
you know, lo and behold, here

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we are with about I think fifteen
or sixteen pots of soil that I'm really

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ashamed to admit this, but we're
real people. The moms were still in

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them too, they were out back
and they had died off. We took

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care of those, Yeah, we
took those out. So we also have

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our three tier planter box. Yeah. And so we have a lot of

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soil. Yeah, a lot of
soil this spring that we have to take

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out. So the question is,
you know, what do you need to

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do. Do you have to throw
it away? Do you have to wait

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until next year to use it?
No, we're not going to We're gonna

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We're gonna do what it's called we
call like to call like a quick charge

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and get in there. So first
thing you want to do, and we

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just talked about that is to get
the plants out of there. So if

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you have any plants doing those pots
that are decayed, and then you know,

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take them out, get rid of
them, put them in your compost

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pile. Unless it's a tomato plant. Everything else can pretty much go in.

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We don't put our peppers in if
you happen to do that, but

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just you know, mow them over, shred them up, throw them in

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your compost pile. If it's like
us, by this point, that plant

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is pretty well gone right, probably
just break off and be so brittle exactly,

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it really does. And so now
you are left. And what we

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like to do. It depends on
how much soil you have. I like

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to dump all the soil out at
once. If you have a few pots,

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a wheel barrel works great for this. If you have a lot of

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pots, like us, we take
a tarp. Just put it down on

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the ground you don't want to lose
it, or you can put it on

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a bear soil if you want,
but just somewhere where you can work the

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soil. You don't want to leave
it in the pot, is what we're

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trying to say. Leave it in
the pot and trying to add some soil

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in it just not the way to
go. Now. You need to be

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able to mix it much better than
that. Plus, you know, if

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you're pulling your plants out, old
plants out, there's roots in there.

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You want to take those out and
throw those in the compost pin. You

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don't want to leave them in there. Again, a lot of chances for

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things to pass through. So you're
gonna pile all this soil up, however

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much or however little you have in
one area, and you're gonna need three

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things. You're gonna need some compost
and you want it to be finely shredded

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or screened. If you don't have
composts, go buy some bag composts.

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There's plenty now in stores. It's
it's really neat to see. The last

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five to ten years. The two
of the things that we use the most,

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really three here are all almost available
readily at most big buckstores, and

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that's compost and worm castings and per
light. You can also get them online.

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We'll have links on our Simple Garden
Life podcast article for this. But

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you need these three items. Worm
castings, Marry, we can't say enough

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now. We use them everything that
we plant. Yeah, they're just an

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all natural power source that can recharge
the soil. And most importantly we talked

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about that structure. They really add
a lot of structure to soil, as

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does compost. Those are two of
the biggest things and then the per light

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that's going to loosen it all.
Yeah, and when you go to these,

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make sure you really read the labels
because you know you'll find worm castings,

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but it's not one hundred percent worm
castings, so you really need to

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take a good look at the labels. And the same thing with composts.

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They may have different additives and chemicals
in there, so just make sure you

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read before you purchase. Absolutely.
So, we have our three ingredients,

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we have our dirt. We're going
to take a quick break, and we're

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going to come back and tell you
how to recharge that soil with what ratios

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and then how to go about using
it. Okay, we are back talking

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about redoing potting soil in the spring
that's been left over. We talked about

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dumping it out. You want to
have it all there again. Make sure

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you have all those little root balls
that are out of each plant. You

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don't want to leave those into soil. They bind it up, they'll make

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it tougher. You want to make
sure that's just all potting soil that's in

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there. And then we're going to
take our three ingredients now, compost,

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worm castings, and per light and
mix them into this pile. So the

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rate is really important because you want
to build up structure and nutrients in this

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soil that is more lifeless because of
what's been taken out. First way to

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do that is compost. Right,
we want to add about a third of

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composts to your pile. So if
you have a big, large poltic about

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a third of that and add that's
how much compost you want to add.

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Yeah, you're not removing any part
of the potting soil, you're just taking

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that in addition to So it's perfect. If you have three wheelbarrelfuls of potting

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soil there, you're going to add
one more wheelbarrowful of compost to it and

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mix it in thoroughly. Make sure
you get you know, ho break anything,

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and just mix it in there by
hand. Just again, it's going

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to depend on how much you have
and how much you're using. So that's

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going to re energize that soil,
it's going to give it a lot of

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new nutrients. It's going to build
some structure into it, but not quite

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enough. And that's where the worm
castings come in. Right, We're gonna

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add about two to three cups of
worm castings for every five gallon bucket of

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old potting soil. Yeah, and
again this isn't You're not baking a pie

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here, so it's not going to
mess up if you don't follow these exact

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If you think your soil is more
lifeless, if you've had it for a

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few years, you can put a
few a little bit more in, but

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this is the minimum or a good
amount to reach that soil. Like she's

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like Mary said about two to three
cups. I like airing on the side

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of three cups for every five gallons
worth of soil you have, and really

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mix it in. It's really important
to mix this in. Yeah. It

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really adds incredible energy and power to
the soil and a nice, slow,

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steady release of fertilizer and nutrients throughout
the growing season. Yeah, if you

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don't use worm castings, get in
the habit of using worm castings, and

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everything you plant, you know,
a half a cup or a cup and

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every whole planning hole just does wanders. It gives them that low and slow

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energy and it really revitalizes. It
helps hold moisture in and you know,

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with potting soil as it gets old, we talked about that flakeyel that's what

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you want to bring back to it. You want to have it have life,

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and don't worry if you don't have
a lot of container plants outside.

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You can also use worm castings on
your indoor plants, Christmas cactuses, anything

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everywhere. Yeah, absolutely, So, Okay, what's left is per light.

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We've talked about pear light on this
show before, or if you want

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to vermiculate, these are soil lightners. Per light is volcanic glass that is

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heated to extremely high temperature and it
explodes into that popcorn Like everybody thinks it's

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styrefoam, but it's not. There's
white little specks and s potting soil.

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So how much do you put in? Well, here's the thing. It

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really depends did your prior potting soil
have some in it? Because per light

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never goes away. That's what I
love about it. It doesn't break down.

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It's going to keep that soil light. So if you had a lot

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of those white specks in there,
you may not have to add as much.

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But you know, for us,
I mean it really depends we take

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a look at the pile. We
always put it in ours, but I

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still like, you know, putting
a cup or two per every five gallon

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you know of soil. Right,
it just adds a lot of life to

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the soil and lightens things up a
little bit, so it's not so dense

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when you plant, so you know
you have this mix. You mix it

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all up. Look at the consistency
again. Don't be afraid if you think

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it still looks a little weak and
dry. Add some more compost, add

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some more castings. But in general, this is going to give you some

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really good soil. Now you're going
to have more soil this year than you

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had last year because you've added to
it. But then when you take the

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plants out and you take the roots
out, it ends up being really close

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to giving you back what you need. People say, well, can I

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just add new potting soil? Yeah, you can. You can take an

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equal fifty fifty mix of new potting
soil to old potting soil. But you're

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not getting I would still add the
worm castings, I would still add some

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compost. And you're going to save
a whole heck of a lot of money

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doing it this way versus adding more
potties. Right, you really need to

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add the nutrients to your plants to
let them grow beautifully. Throughout the year.

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Yep. I think this is a
great time for the question of the

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week, which is one of the
reasons we did this podcast. Mary,

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I know you're always the question readers, so you'll ride ahead. So this

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question is from Mallory Jones and she's
from Jackson, Mississippi. Her question to

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us, I grew tomatoes in ten
five gallon buckets last year. I took

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my plants out, but the buckets
are still full of soil. I know

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tomatoes can carry a lot of disease, but is there any way I can

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reuse the soil. I hate trying
to purchase new soil every year from my

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buckets. It's exactly what we're talking
about. Yeah, Malorie, great question,

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and Mallory, great job, because
you're recognizing that tomatoes are a little

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bit different in this and that's why
we we selected this question for the podcast.

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So good news and some bad news. If it were me, Mallory,

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I do not like using the same
soil to grow tomatoes in ever,

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not not for that year. I
would rather put that in the compost pile

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and reuse it or or recharge it, but use it for some annual flowers,

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use it for you know, some
kind of you know, herbs,

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things like that, but avoid the
tomatoes. Hopefully you have some other potted

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plants that you can draw from for
some soil. But if you have to,

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00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,320
if your tomatoes had zero disease last
year and they were good, yes

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you can. But it's what seiled. Same play with fire, right,

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because soil from tomatoes. Soil from
tomatoes is just so different. Tomatoes just

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00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:46,600
takes It'd be like if you're trying
to grow corn and buckets. It just

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00:14:46,639 --> 00:14:50,240
takes so much out and there's so
much chance for disease that I really don't

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like to do that. We don't
do it here in any of our buckets.

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But one thing you can do,
Mallory next fall is take those buckets

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out in the fall, put them
into you, you know, their own

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in the compost pile, recharge that
compost, and you're going to have a

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00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:09,039
much better chance to reuse it more
in a stands because it got to be

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composted. Where this is springtime,
and I like to call it like you're

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kind of like cold powering the soil. There's no ability to rehabilitate it through

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a compost pile at this point.
So long story, Shure it is.

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00:15:18,799 --> 00:15:22,840
I would try to avoid it short
stories. If you really want to and

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your plants did well last year,
you can probably get one more season maybe,

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but I would I would definitely add
a lot more compost and castings to

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that. So if you have to
do that, right, it's the same

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00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:33,120
same concepts, but we do as
corp rotation in our garden. We never

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00:15:33,159 --> 00:15:37,919
plant tomatoes in the same area they
were the previous year. Yeah, And

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this is why we try to be
real advice. I you know, I

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00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:43,639
hate there's never a chance to say
no, you can't, Yes you can.

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00:15:43,799 --> 00:15:46,200
You can always try things. I
mean we always learn things. You've

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00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:50,679
got to try things out. I
just like to tell you know the best

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00:15:50,679 --> 00:15:52,919
way it possible, what's going to
be successful and what might not be in

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00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,759
why so I hope you understand that, Mallory and why we say that.

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00:15:56,799 --> 00:15:58,720
But hey, good luck with the
tomatoes and the pod and it's a great

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00:15:58,759 --> 00:16:02,679
way to grow. It's just hard
on that soil, so you've got to

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00:16:02,679 --> 00:16:04,799
really recharge it, right, absolutely, So I think that takes us to

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00:16:04,879 --> 00:16:08,320
the other way, which we talk
about what to do in the fall,

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00:16:08,399 --> 00:16:11,399
and it's really I mean, of
the two, there is no doubt.

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00:16:11,399 --> 00:16:14,320
This is a better way. We
like to do this. This is the

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00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,879
way to recharge. And it's really
what you're doing is you're you're allowing it

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00:16:17,919 --> 00:16:22,600
to build its own natural resources over
the course of a winter time so that

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00:16:22,639 --> 00:16:26,320
you can use it again. So
again, it's our favorite method, and

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00:16:26,679 --> 00:16:29,720
like said, even works with vegetable
plants. Yeah, especially tomatoes. This

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00:16:29,759 --> 00:16:33,200
is the best best method if you
grow tomatoes and pots, is to recharge

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00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,120
its soil in the fall. And
again saying that that meaning that your tomato

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00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:40,159
has had no issues with that potted
soil. So okay, so any type

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00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:41,679
of thing in the fall. What
you want to do is you want to

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00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:44,639
have an extra bin or an extra
area, could be a corner of your

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00:16:44,639 --> 00:16:48,480
garden, and you want to dump
all of that soil. And here for

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00:16:48,519 --> 00:16:49,559
this one, you know, I
don't I wouldn't put plastic down. I

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00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:52,600
would let it have natural you know, in a bin or just in the

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00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:56,279
corner of the garden, but put
some type of structure around it, loose

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00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,480
fence, anything to make this all
stay in the same area and dump all

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00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,359
of your soil in. What you're
doing is you're creating a podding soil compost

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00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,680
pile. That's exactly what you're creating
here, So it's best to do it

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00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,240
in the fall, just because you
have so many other items you can add

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00:17:10,279 --> 00:17:12,079
to it naturally. Yeah, and
for starters, you can add all those

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00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:15,640
plants that were dying within them,
unless they're tomatoes, just chop them up

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00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,880
with your lawnmower fine as you can, just like a regular compost pile.

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00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:23,039
With the more fine the ingredients you're
adding, the better put it all in

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00:17:23,039 --> 00:17:26,200
the pile. Then you know,
when you're mowing your yard a few times,

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00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:30,000
if you don't use you know,
chemicals on your lawn, all those

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00:17:30,039 --> 00:17:33,039
grass clippings, start throwing them in
that pile. Well as well on the

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00:17:33,079 --> 00:17:37,599
fall leaves, Oh, if you
with all the fall leaves falling down,

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00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,599
you know it's best to add add
shredded leaves to the compost pile. I

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00:17:41,599 --> 00:17:45,039
mean, you know, don't add
holies because they don't break down as well.

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00:17:45,079 --> 00:17:47,759
But if you have shredded leaves,
you can just again run your lawnmower

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00:17:47,799 --> 00:17:49,279
over it, put them in your
pile, and it's great structure. Yeah,

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00:17:49,319 --> 00:17:52,079
everything that goes into this pile because
you're gonna be using it in the

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00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:55,559
spring and it doesn't have a lot
of time needs to be shredded. So

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00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:57,319
Mary's right, get the lawnmower out
with a bagger, or if you're riding

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00:17:57,319 --> 00:18:00,799
mower, just throw mow over them, shred them down, and then on

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00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:04,400
top of it, you know,
while fall is progressing into winter, take

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00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,160
those coffee grounds out of you,
out of your coffee maker in the morning

325
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:11,279
and go out and throw them in
that pile. Pulverize those eggshells down again.

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00:18:11,319 --> 00:18:15,720
Pulverize them, pulls them with a
coffee maker so they're ground down into

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00:18:15,759 --> 00:18:18,559
a fine powder, and put them
in there and turn that pile, you

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00:18:18,599 --> 00:18:23,480
know, the green grass clippings,
the shredded leaves, the soil that's already

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00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:27,240
in there. Don't be afraid.
I love to do this. Add a

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00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:32,200
little compost into that pile. Why
we do that because it has all those

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00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:37,359
active enzymes and everything else that can
activate that pile and make it break down

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00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:38,640
quicker. Yeah, it's kind of
like a yeae starter it is. I

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00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:42,240
mean, compost is great for that. And so blend those in there and

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00:18:42,279 --> 00:18:45,880
do it until the end of you
know, you can't do it so for

335
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:49,039
us that's usually December because it doesn't
really freeze. Our pile does not freeze

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00:18:49,079 --> 00:18:53,240
until you get to the cold of
January. But by then it's composted down.

337
00:18:53,279 --> 00:18:56,640
It's almost all ready to reuse again. And what happens here comes the

338
00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:02,160
springtime again, start putting some coffee
grounds in there, put a little more

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00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:06,240
compost in to reactivate it. Quickly, turn that pile every few days,

340
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:08,799
and I'm telling you by April first, by met you're going to have some

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00:19:10,079 --> 00:19:12,000
great unless you live in a last
comp I apologize that because it probably doesn't

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00:19:12,039 --> 00:19:15,920
get that warm yet, but you're
going to have some great potting soil to

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00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,240
reuse. And it's really the best
way to do it. It really is.

344
00:19:18,279 --> 00:19:22,000
And if you live in a really
dry climate, it's the best to

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00:19:22,039 --> 00:19:25,680
water down the compost pile as well. Absolutely you want to keep a little

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00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:27,000
bit moisture. And it's just like
a regular compost pile. As Mary says,

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00:19:27,039 --> 00:19:30,119
it's going to help activate that pile
and get it going. So hey,

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00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:33,880
let's I think we've talked about this. So if you have those baskets,

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00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,640
get out there, don't throw them
away. And at the very least,

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00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:37,640
even if you don't want to reuse
it, throw all that soil in

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00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:41,240
your compost bin right now, because
it's going to be fantastic for it.

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00:19:41,279 --> 00:19:45,160
But you can indeed reuse that potting
soil this year, even if it's at

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00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,559
all winter. You just got to
amend it with that first recharging. The

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00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:52,559
quick recharging method again, fall composting
is best spring recharging to work, but

355
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,480
requires a bit a bit more working
materials, certainly worth it. And then

356
00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,680
obviously best not to regrow any the
heavy feeders like tomato plants, right,

357
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:04,119
So get out your composts, get
out the worm past things right per light,

358
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,200
and you can get those pots planted
this year. That's right. And

359
00:20:07,279 --> 00:20:11,839
remind everybody with this we're into May
now, so our podcasts go to once

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00:20:11,839 --> 00:20:15,799
a week. We're excited about.
That's exactly exactly, so I think it's

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00:20:15,799 --> 00:20:18,680
time Mary, all right, and
remember whatever you do, find the fun

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00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,559
and gardening and grow something beautiful.
Until next week, everyone, happy gardening.

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00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:27,160
We hope you've enjoyed this episode.
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00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:32,400
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00:20:32,599 --> 00:20:36,079
You can also head over to simplegardenlife
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00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:38,839
read all of the show notes to
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367
00:20:40,079 --> 00:20:42,160
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368
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:48,279
garden tip, email us at the
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00:20:48,279 --> 00:20:48,599
time, Thanks everyone,