Flower Power Garden Hour

Listener questions answered, ranging from protecting vegetable gardens from the summer heat, water strategy with regards to landscaping, causation & prevention of yellowing leaves, protection of plants from birds & insects, and how to best keep fuchsia flowers alive. Fertilizing and organic soil amendment technique and product choice is a common theme. Use these Q&A shows to help build your diagnostic capability to become a master gardener! To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram. You can also email Marlene questions, future show topic requests and feedback at msimon@marlenesimon.net

This episode covers many of the common vegetable garden problems Marlene gets asked about. She covers tomatoes, peppers, squash and more – spanning problems ranging from overwatering, over-fertilization, deficiencies, pollination issues resulting in lack of fruit set. To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram. You can also email Marlene questions, future show topic requests and feedback at msimon@marlenesimon.net  

Jason Carter is a PhD candidate at UC Davis studying Pine Pitch Canker, which is a fungus responsible for mass death of Monterey Pines in California. As part of this, he is investigating specific fungus ability to tolerate grass defense compounds, and if there is a correlation to the capability this particular fungus has for resisting pine defenses. To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram. You can also email Marlene questions, future show topic requests and feedback at msimon@marlenesimon.net

We all know of common gardening hints and tips. Sometimes these are passed on through family generations, and sometimes they seem to pop up in the social media world. Some are based in solid principles, and some are based in logic that belongs deep in the sewer. This episode covers some of the more popular “garden myths” and whether they have any merit or are the fake news of the horticulture world. Lots of focus on vegetable and fruits. To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram. You can also email Marlene questions, future show topic requests and feedback at msimon@marlenesimon.net

Loads of listener questions this week, with topics ranging from fruit trees, vegetables, soil amendments and prep, to flower and shrub health in harsh summer conditions.   To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram. You can also email Marlene questions, future show topic requests and feedback at msimon@marlenesimon.net

Gloria has been growing the same lineage of peppers since her family brought them over from southern Spain in 1920. Following her grandfather & father, Gloria has kept this strain alive and vibrant. Whereas most Spanish immigrant families stopped growing or lost track of the seed, Gloria has been able to keep the tradition alive. Each year she starts 1,000 of these sweet peppers in her small greenhouse & gives away most. Her list of people who want them grows each year. In her own garden, she plants hundreds of them & selects the perfect ones to dry & harvest the seed from, furnishing the seeds to grow from the following year – sustainable agriculture at its finest. This pepper represents the long history Spanish immigrants have with agriculture in the Winters area and in California Agriculture. To chronicle this history Gloria interviewed hundreds of immigrants & their families complying their unique stories into a book and documentary, An American Paella: Becoming American while Staying

Taylor Lewis, UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery Manager, discusses water-wise, drought tolerant, California native gardening. Removing a lawn can be back-breaking…..Taylor shares his detailed methodology for transforming a lawn into a water-wise garden, with minimal intense physical labor. Taylor’s method makes lawn removal a much less daunting task. Additionally discussed is maintenance of soil after lawn transformation, low water usage irrigation types and technique, and ideal plants & flowers for water-wise gardening. Marlene loves Mediterranean gardening for this purpose. For a comprehensive list of high performing, low water usage plants, check out the UC Davis Arboretum “Arboretum All-Stars” list. They’ve been compiling this list for over a decade. You can reach Taylor at tclewis@ucdavis.edu To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram Check out past all past episodes and contact Marlene at marlenesimon.net 

A round of listener questions fills this week’s episode, with a mixed focus on vegetables, pest control & flowers. Specifically, Marlene answers questions regarding artichokes – how to keep healthy, pest free (or pest “controlled”) & how/when to harvest. On the floral front, Marlene tackles rose & lavender questions around care & specific variety blooming attributes. She dives into the unique Jericho rose – aka the Resurrection plant. Bonus -- hear about The Plant Lady’s unhealthy obsession with the My Favorite Murder podcast. To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram

Orchidelerium anybody? It was during the Victorian era that Orchidelerium took hold. Rich socialites & aristocrats hired their own plant hunters to gather and bring back as many different orchids as they could find. While poaching of rare orchids such as the Ghost Orchid still happens, the frenzy has died down. The ability to clone orchids from meristematic tissue has made these once hard to come by flowers as easy as grabbing one on the way out from the grocery store. In this episode Marlene & guest orchid exert Eric Cendejas touch upon the most commonly grown orchids & issues. What do you do once your Phalaenopsis stops blooming? How do I know when to divide my Cymbidiums? These questions along with pest, disease & fertilizing To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram  

Listener questions are the focus of this episode, predominantly looking at flowers and succulents (with of course a dabble of tomato and vegetable gardening advice). Also, a discussion takes Marlene down the path of nurseries that sell PAINTED plants. Store deceit or wishful thinking of the budding gardener…..you decide. This week’s questions include cactus, poinsettias, hydrangea health and how to attract the insects you want (bees & butterflies).   To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram Ask your question about:  general gardening, specific tree care/health, specific flower/plant recommendations or issues, vegetable and fruits

This episode is a deep dive into tomato planting – how to set your spring/summer vegetable garden up for success.  The first half of the episode focuses on the tactical aspects…when to plant, what & where to plant (containers versus native soil), soil amendments (fertilizer & compost), pruning & training, and tomato varieties (ie heirloom, roma, cherry).  The second half of the show turns attention to the most common tomato questions – diagnosis and treatment of diseases, pest infestation & environmentally controlled health problems.  To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram Ask your question about:  general gardening, specific tree care/health, specific flower/plant recommendations or issues, vegetable and fruits

You say potato…Horticulturalists say Solanum tuberosum. This week Marlene delves into vegetable gardening discussing potato planting…the do’s and don’ts. In addition she will be answering your listener submitted garden questions. This week’s questions include suckers, mites, hummingbird plants, rose leaf spot, planting garlic, bareroot trees, what is “organic”…. and she introduces Beetlegoat! To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram Ask your question about:  general gardening, specific tree care/health, specific flower/plant recommendations or issues, vegetable and fruits

Vegetable gardening 101 with Matt Amicucci. Matt is an Ag/Environmental chemistry PhD candidate, currently working in conjunction with the Foods For Health Institute. Their focus today is prepping vegetable gardens for spring planting. Marlene & Matt highlight their experiences with DIY raised beds, crops such as tomato and pepper varieties, organic gardening, fertilizing how-to, soil amending, seed starting, farm to fork, urban and sustainable gardening and Matt's unique planters. Matt can be found at @farmforageferment on Instagram

Marlene "The Plant Lady" talks to Joel Ledford, PhD arachnologist at UC Davis…that makes him a spider researcher to us lay people. Marlene & Joel discuss his varied pathway to becoming a leading expert in the field, including stops in the Marine Corp, time as an elementary school teacher and a post-doc fellowship at the California Academy of Sciences. Their conversation ranges from evolutionary mechanisms, unique habitats and survival strategies, arachnophobia, spider myths, and Joel’s adventures/travels as a researcher.

Marlene "The Plant Lady" sits down with Bob Starnes, owner of Shale Peak Horticulture. Bob is a leading expert in chemical-free pest management (aka bio-control), utilizing a multitude of predatory insects to control (ie hunt & kill) crop damaging pest populations. His IPM (integrated pest management) and consulting services are specifically targeted towards the burgeoning cannabis (marijuana) cultivator community in California. With a focus on maximizing efficacy, Bob utilizes bleeding edge drone and imaging technology to deploy beneficial insects and collect data on their impact. Bob’s company, Shale Peak Horticulture, can be found at http://www.sphort.com and on Instagram

Q&A with listener submitted questions. Topics include: Challenges of growing ficus Help with starting tulips Tips for increasing citrus crop yield Hydrangeas! Yucca! When to plant in the western US due to unseasonally early warmth The top blockbuster horticulture movie of 2017. And Bitcoin. To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram Ask your question about:  general gardening, specific tree care/health, specific flower/plant recommendations or issues, vegetable and fruits

Barry Rice is an astrobiologist, carnivorous plant and succulent researcher, 4th degree Kempo karate black belt and self-proclaimed agnostic Trekkie/Trekker.  He is an astronomy professor at Sierra College, and is world renown for his work with Carnivorous plants.  Barry can be found at sarracenia.com and his YouTube pages.

Intro to podcast and Marlene the Plant Lady answers questions submitted by listeners. To ask questions for future shows, submit them at Flower Power Garden Hour Facebook page, The Plant Lady Facebook page, or Instagram