GB 173 TRANSCRIPT Spring Frosts, Sweet Potatoes 3329
Farmer Fred 0:00
Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred. Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.
For many gardeners in USDA Zones 7. 8, 9 and 10, March is the month for new beginnings. The weather is warmer, trees and shrubs are blooming. But wait a minute… it’s still winter. Jack Frost can still be nipping at your plants, setting back the progress of new buds, flowers and leaves. On today’s Garden Basics, we have late winter and early spring frost protection tips for your new and established plants. Thinking of growing sweet potatoes? Good idea! Sweet potatoes are drought- and heat-tolerant and have few pests or diseases. Sweet potatoes are low in calories and very nutritious, a good source of beta-carotene, protein, calcium, iron, vitamins A and C and other minerals. They can be stored longer than winter squash. More commonly grown in the South and west because they require warm weather, northern regions can have success with select varieties. But for a successful crop of this warm season favorite, you need to get started now, indoors. We revisit the info you need to grow sweet potatoes. We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory, it’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots. Let’s go!
Debbie Flower is here, our favorite retired college horticultural Professor. Debbie, usually around October, November here in California, we start bracing ourselves for the first frost. And we get ready for it. What a lot of people get ticked off though, are at spring frosts. And especially when it follows warm weather. In California this year, it's dry. January, February, no rain. It was warm. So things started bursting out early as far as flowers go.
Debbie Flower 2:18
Yes, we were happy it was green. And there were flowers and birds are singing
Farmer Fred 2:22
And it's spring.
Debbie Flower 2:23
Yeah, lovely. But it's February. I've lived in California since 1990. So that's 30 plus years. We have always had a warm spell in February. In fact some February's we can have a 90 degree day. So yes, we always get fooled.
Farmer Fred 2:42
Right. And when that happens, people forget. They say, "Well, the plant made it this far, so it'll be okay." And usually, especially with spring frost and new growth, the plants can take the first frost, but it's the second or third punch that gets them. When you get two or three days in a row of temperatures at 32 degrees or below that can cause damage. So, we get a question from Tanya, who emails us at Fred at farmer fred.com. And Tonya writes in and says: "I have put frost cloth around over my most vulnerable plants, mostly succulents. I have C9 lights on some of them." C9 lights are the old Christmas lights. Those are the warm light bulbs. "With so many nights of frost, and me leaving for work at 7 am, do I have to remove the frost cloth every morning? Or should I switch my work schedule to come in later?" Wow. Try that one time.
Debbie Flower 3:38
Yeah, yeah, she's a dedicated garden.
Farmer Fred 3:40
See how that flies. "How much harm will it do my plants again, mostly succulents, to have the frost cloth on them all day?" Yeah, that's the other thing about us getting frosts in the late winter or early spring. They're usually followed by daytime temps in the 60s or 70s.
Debbie Flower 3:57
Days warm up nicely into plant growing temperatures.
Farmer Fred 4:01
So covering succulents good idea. You know what isn't a good idea when a spring frost is predicted: if you have succulents, you probably shouldn't water your succulents.
Debbie Flower 4:12
Absolutely.
Farmer Fred 4:13
Those roots don't need to be hydrated with something that might freeze.
Debbie Flower 4:19
Yes, and succulents are a category of plants named such because they get very full of water. They have the ability to store water. And so they'll suck up all kinds of water when it's available, put it inside of their stems or leaves or whatever. It varies from succulent to succulent. And then if we do get very cold, especially 28 degrees or below, which is the temperature at which a plant, an actively growing plant cell, will freeze. If those succulents are full of water and we hit those temperatures, the cells can freeze and burst because ice is bigger than water. The cells can't stretch that much. And so the cells burst and you have what looks like frozen lettuce. If you've ever had frozen lettuce in your refrigerator, they just turn to mush. The plant's gone then; or, that portion of the plant is dead.
Farmer Fred 5:14
Now it is true that if a frost is forecast for many of your other container plants that are not succulents, yeah, the soil should be moist because that can stave off damage. A wet soil is a warmer soil.
Debbie Flower 5:26
Right. Water can only flow if it's 32 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. So when you're applying it, it is at least 32 degrees Fahrenheit, if you can put it on in the morning, and it goes through those 60 degrees, midday temperatures, that water will absorb some of that heat. And that heat, then, is given off at night and can help protect the plant. If you cover it with a frost cloth or a sheet or something very lightweight over the plant. And you drape that all the way to the ground. Over the pot around the pot and all the way to the ground on the outer perimeter of the plant on the outer perimeter of the plant, not in the container, Do it outside of it on the ground, then any heat that's emitted from the soil below the pot from the pot, or if the plant is just in the ground from the soil below, the heat will be trapped underneath that cloth, the frost cloth or the sheet and that can raise the temperature just enough to protect your plant.
Farmer Fred 6:20
Yeah, I see so many people preparing for a frost or a freeze by taking that frost cloth or that sheet and wrapping it tightly around the top of the canopy and tying it to the trunk creating a lollipop. And there's no way that warmth can penetrate that.
Debbie Flower 6:38
They even sell products, they sell frost cloth made like lollipops, or like the top of the lollipop and you put it over the plant and I've seen pictures where they then yank it tight at the trunk above the soil. That's not the goal of covering the plant. The goal is to include the soil beneath the plant, because that's where there's much more heat trapped that will be given off at night as the temperature drops lower and that can help protect your plant.
Farmer Fred 7:02
Since the name of the show is garden basics, here's a basic question: what is a frost cloth?
Debbie Flower 7:07
Right. Frost cloth is special fabric. It's spun fabric. Not woven, woven fabric. You can see the lines of threads going two directions in a spun fabric. It doesn't look that way. If you sew and you use interfacing, it looks like interfacing. It's typically white. I've never seen it any other color.
Farmer Fred 7:29
I have a green sheet.
Debbie Flower 7:30
Do you have a green frostcloth? Oh, you do? Oh my, am I not getting out enough? Yeah. So it comes in different weights. When it's really really really thin. We use it as a row cover. And that's not a frost cloth. It's not thick enough to trap the heat. And it also allows water and light through it, but they make thicker ones. Sometimes they call them frost blankets I believe. And they don't let so much light in. They do let some air transfer happen. But they hold the heat better than than a very thin fabric would.
Farmer Fred 8:07
So frost cloth is permeable. It does allow air and water to go through, and light. The problem with using bedsheets to protect a plant, I think, is if it gets wet, if it rains, and you have that on your plant, you could be breaking branches.
Debbie Flower 8:24
Yes. I've been a gardener all my life even through the time when I had no money and bedsheets were it for me. And boy, was that a chore to get up in the morning and go move those because often when you get that cold, there's often dew, whether it rained or not, there's dew. So there's water dropping out of the air and it's absorbed by that lovely cotton bedsheet that I then have to drag away for the day and then put it back on and then the night to go through the next cold night.
Farmer Fred 8:51
But as you mentioned, if you can put that frost cloth over your plant earlier in the day to allow the heat of the day to warm up things underneath there, that is another degree of protection for that plant.
Debbie Flower 9:05
Well I would want to put the frost cloth on just as the sun is going down, because I want the sun to warm up the moist media underneath the plant whether that's container media or regular field soil and then that allows the maximum heat to get to that soil and hopefully if it's wet soil, moist, not dripping, you don't want to overwater but to that moist soil because water holds heat much better than air holds heat. So you got water, it's gonna absorb more heat. Then as the sun goes down, temperatures are just going to drop after that. So cover it right after the sun goes down or as the sun is going down. Take it off at your first opportunity in the morning. If however you go to work, it's a bad morning, maybe the cat threw up or whatever. You found a stain on your got all dressed for work and found a stain in your clothes, or a run in your stocking? That used to be a problem? I don't know if people will still wear stockings anymore. Yeah, well, that used to be a problem and the story when you got to work was, "it happened on the way in."
Farmer Fred 10:12
Maybe you snagged it on the horse trolley.
Debbie Flower 10:15
Or the bus ride on the way in. Anyway, if you forget, and you don't take it off one day, don't stress about it, the plants will be fine. It'll just be like a super shady day for them. Try to take it off the next day. You don't want to put the frost cloth on and leave it for, let's say a week. You want to take it off every day if possible. But if you mess up and forget one day, that's okay. Don't stress about it.
Farmer Fred 10:40
Heavens knows I've seen enough people with marginal plants in my neighborhood who have covered these plants all the time. Like Ficus, the fig plant, the weeping fig, Ficus benjamina.
Debbie Flower 10:55
Which is really a tropical or subtropical. Yeah, exactly.
Farmer Fred 10:58
But there's zone extenders. These are gardeners who are zone extenders, they're trying to, you know, grow things that remind them of their youth from where they used to live. And in order to protect that plant through the winter, they'll just cover it with a frost cloth and leave it either on their front porch or put it in the garage. What happens when you cover a plant like that consistently all the time?
Debbie Flower 11:23
Well, it doesn't get any light, so it's not going to do any growth. It'll just sit still.
Farmer Fred 11:27
I would think the leafs would die.
Debbie Flower 11:29
Well, yeah, they'll be getting a minimal amount of light. If let's say they're outside with frost cloths on top of them, they'll get a minimal amount of light. the Ficus plant - figs, weeping figs, or rubber trees - are often grown indoors. And indoors is like a cave to a plant. We can see indoors because our eyes have pupils that get bigger and allow more light in when we are in a darker space. Plants don't react that way. They need a certain amount of light to grow. And if they don't get it, they are just in a slow decline. So those plants that are put in the garage for the winter are just in a slow decline. And it's like interior scaping, you go into this major shopping mall, if anybody does that anymore, and their indoor plants, their plants inside the major shopping mall, and they're not getting very much light, even if there are skylights way above them, they're not getting very much light. And so those plants are in slow decline. I had an interiorscaper tell me that they're their goal, when you put plants indoors, is to slow down their death.
Farmer Fred 12:34
So we should outlaw house plants.
Debbie Flower 12:38
No, it's amazing how they will grow if you put them in sun and they need to be very close to windows. I have skylights in my bathroom and I have plants on the shelf over the top of the shower, not a very easy place to water. But they are doing fine. They can acclimate and grow at the slower rate that the light level allows. But then you also need to change the way you care for them to match that. So you don't want to water them as often as you would if they got bright light; or, fertilize them as often as you would if they got bright lights.
Farmer Fred 13:10
A very good point about house plants is their need for fertilizer is much less being that there's very little light.
Debbie Flower 13:16
Yes, right.
Farmer Fred 13:18
Because what happens when you feed house plant fertilizer in a low light situation.
Debbie Flower 13:23
It doesn't get used. So it builds up sometimes you'll see the white crusties if you're in a ceramic, an unsealed ceramic pot, those are salts, fertilizers have to be in the salt form for the plant to be able to absorb it. So fertilizers that are quick-acting are in the salt form. Those that are slow acting have to be converted to the salt form by microorganisms. And so eventually you've got a bunch of salt in the soil. And if you don't leach it out, which would mean flushing the soil with excess water, clean clear water, then it builds up in the soil and that leads to a tying up of nutrients that the plant does need to use, and it can kill the plant.
Farmer Fred 14:05
But Tonya, really, I would like you to ask your boss if you could switch your hours around so you could come in later and see what his reply would be.
Debbie Flower 14:13
Now maybe the boss is a her.
Farmer Fred 14:15
Maybe the boss is a her. Either way, good luck on that. But in this age of COVID, you know, bosses are much more flexible.
Debbie Flower 14:24
They are they're just happy to have people Yes. Not just COVID it's the big quit.
Farmer Fred 14:28
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, you could you know mention that you might have to quit to take care of your plants.
Debbie Flower 14:34
Take care of your plants, this is a woman after my own heart. She knows her priorities are plants.
Farmer Fred 14:39
You go. Alright, but Tanya, yeah, as long as you use a frost cloth, and it's not a heavy sheet or bedspread or anything like that. I've seen that on plants too. For frost protection, I guess that's okay in the short term, right,
Debbie Flower 14:54
It tends to crush the plant. Yes. But in the short term, it's better than nothing.
Farmer Fred 14:59
You want that lightweight permeable interfacing, I believe you called it.
Debbie Flower 15:02
I did. spun fabric, spun fabric.
Farmer Fred 15:04
Yeah, there you go. It's frost cloth, and they sell it in various weights. It's so widely available. So keep that handy. And we'll get through fall frost, winter frost and spring frost together. Thank you, Tanya, for your question. Debbie Flower, thank you for a good answer.
Debbie Flower 15:20
You're welcome Fred.
Farmer Fred 15:21
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We like to answer your questions here on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and one listener sends us a text to 916-292-8964 and says: "I'm hoping you might address the subject of growing sweet potatoes." This person says, "any experience you might have with varieties or tips would be appreciated. It's been very frustrating with a low success rate. As a San Joaquin County Master Gardener in Lodi, I have access to resources to help with these crops. Any experience you might have with varieties or tips would be appreciated. Buying organic sweet potatoes and starting the slip growing process in January has been frustrating with a low success rate. They are in my house which isn't very warm in winter." Well, when it comes to vegetables, we like to bring in our resident vegetable expert, Sacramento County Master Gardener Gail Pothour. And, Gail, sweet potatoes: They really like the heat, don't they?
Gail Pothour
Oh they do. And so if you get them in too early you'll have problems. So you need to wait. Get them in the ground when it's like mid May here in the Sacramento Valley.
Farmer Fred
In one regards, I understand this person's frustration because at a lot of nurseries, sweet potatoes are available, usually in late winter. And that's not the time to be planting them. And so it's a case of having to keep those sweet potatoes someplace cool and dry until the weather warms up.
Gail Pothour
Cool and dry, but not too cool. Because they are sensitive to temperatures below 50 degrees. So if you store them in your garage or in a shed during the winter, that could be too cold for them. So one of the best ways to get the slips... and potatoes are grown from slips, not the actual potato... is to get them from a disease free certified mail order place or a nursery. Sometimes local nurseries will carry the slips, but not often. mail order catalogs, we'll have them listed. But one of the main problems is most are southern grown. slips cannot be shipped to California because there's a quarantine for the sweet potato weevil. So it can be difficult to find slips that you could order. But you can also grow them yourself. If you have, say an organically grown sweet potato that you've been able to hold over during the winter, there is a process to grab the slips yourself.
Farmer Fred
Is there a chance of picking up a disease that way though? Or should you actually buy the sweet potatoes, fresh seed potatoes fresh every year?
Gail Pothour
Well, there is a chance to have diseases that are passed along because the slips are since they're grown vegetatively you grow them from a slip that comes off of the sweet potato, it is possible to transfer diseases, particularly viruses like that. So I think if you're careful, I mean we always recommend you get them from a certified mail order you know a grower, but if you do it yourself, if you get an organically grown sweet potato at a farmers market, and there hasn't been any kind of a sprout inhibitor put on it, then you can try it yourself. It can be a little bit of a challenge but it's kind of like the science experiment we did in high school. You know there is a way that you can go and we do have one of our Sacramento County Master Gardener publications does have information about growing slips yourself.
Farmer Fred
It is it's very handy publication, called "Growing sweet potatoes in the Sacramento region." And you can do an internet search for that. Just by using that phrase, Growing sweet potatoes in the Sacramento region. If you add the letters, UCANR after it, it'll pop right up. UCANR stands for the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. Yeah, and there's a lot of great information there. And in the case of this particular person, I think they just started a little too early.
Gail Pothour
Oh, I agree. They said that they had started them in January. And that's way too early. Because at least in our area, in order for the soil to be warm enough and the air temperature to be warm enough, we'll plant them in the garden in May. So you would start the slips yourself two months before that. So March, the January is a little bit early. And this person also said that their home was wasn't very warm in the winter. And in order to grow out sweet potatoes slips, then you need to be kept quite warm. So the way you would do it is to have small sweet potatoes, put them in a shallow container, cover them a couple of inches with sand or peat moss or some material sawdust even keep it moist, and warm. So you would ideally put the container on, say a propagation mat or heating mat to keep the the medium warm 75 to 80 degrees. So that's what they need. If it's too early and too cold, they won't have very good success.
Farmer Fred
But again, you have the conundrum of sweet potatoes being available at the nursery way too early. I mean for planting so you buy them in winter, but hold on to them and don't start the slips until like you said when the weather warms up,
Gail Pothour
right. and unlike the regular potato, the Russet, the Irish potato that we normally associate with growing in the ground, you put that potato in the ground and that's what sprouts. Sweet potatoes, you don't plant the sweet potato, you do need to get slips growing from that potato and then you would snap those off and plant the slip in the ground.
Farmer Fred
Okay, then what is the process for doing that?
Gail Pothour
Well, that's, as I mentioned, you would put the sweet potato in a shallow container, cover, keep it warm, the slips would grow the winter about eight inches long, you just snap those off, and then just stick that in the ground and then roots will form from that slip.
Farmer Fred 17:19
Sweet potatoes have a large growing area they can be grown in many areas of California. And also around the country too. They can be grown in many zones. And that would include if you're familiar with the National Sunset zones, zones 26 through 33. And that includes Central and interior Florida, the lower Rio Grande Valley, the Gulf Coast, North Florida, the Atlantic coast to Charleston, the interior plains of South Texas Hill Country of Central Texas, the interior plains of the Gulf Coast and coastal southeast, the interior plains of the Mid Atlantic states Chesapeake Bay, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and the North Central Texas and Oklahoma area eastward all the way to the Appalachian foothills. So sweet potatoes do have a very wide growing area where you can try this yourself. So what sort of fertilization and watering do sweet potatoes need?
Gail Pothour
Well, they need to have a fertile soil it needs to be pretty sandy and well draining, they tend to not do real well in say a heavy clay soil because when you harvest the sweet potatoes that can get scarred up and things like that. But as far as fertilization, you don't want high nitrogen, because then you'll get a lot of foliage and not so much flowering with sweet potatoes. So what we like to do at the Fair Oaks horticulture center when we grow sweet potatoes is give them a monthly application of something like fish emulsion that has been diluted, nothing too high in nitrogen.
Farmer Fred
When are sweet potatoes ready to harvest.
Gail Pothour
Yeah, many varieties are available after 90 to 140 days. So depending on the variety that you're growing, you would start checking in the soil around that time. So if you are growing up 100 day, variety, after 100 days, kind of check around and see what size that little sweet potatoes are. But generally it's going to be later in the summer, even early fall because it is a long growing season.
Farmer Fred
Well the vines turn yellow first before they're ready.
Gail Pothour
Generally they will. That's one of the signs that they're getting ready to harvest is the sidehill start to yellow. So if the vines have not started to naturally turn yellow, but it's starting to become cold weather. Remember I said they're sensitive to temperatures at 50 degrees or below, then you might want to just harvest them before the cold weather because that would really damage the sweet potatoes.
Farmer Fred
All right, so pay attention to those nighttime temperatures. And when the forecast starts calling for nighttime temperatures or early morning temperatures to be below 50 degrees, get out your shovel or spading fork and start harvesting.
Gail Pothour
Absolutely, yeah, because they will be damaged even if just a few hours below 50 degrees.
Farmer Fred
How do you store sweet potatoes?
Gail Pothour
A good question. Sweet potatoes do need to be cured before they're stored. Otherwise, they will decay in storage. And it's kind of tricky of finding ways to cure sweet potatoes. Because commercially, the growers do have curing rooms with heaters and humidifiers and evaporative coolers to maintain the proper temperature and humidity. Well, that isn't something that home gardeners really have access to. So actually, in the publication that I mentioned earlier, about growing sweet potatoes in Sacramento area, there is a list of ways that home gardeners can try to cure the sweet potatoes without having all that fancy equipment. The thing is you want to keep it warm and humid. So it's kind of hard, at least in our area to have warm weather though humid, because we don't have a lot of humidity here. But there are things like storing them in a warm area greenhouse or something with a pail of water and covering them with plastic to keep the humidity and so things like that. But you need to try them for several weeks in order for them to store properly. And another way to cure sweet potatoes, they say it can be rather daunting to have the right equipment is that you could set up a heater in a small room or in a pantry and have the temperature about 85 degrees and then have a bucket of water that you would place in that room to kind of keep the humidity up. And put the sweet potato roots that you've harvested in boxes have been well ventilated, so in a single layer and place that box on a table or something above the heater so that you have the warmth and humidity. And that would help with the curing process. And it may take a week or so. However, just be careful if you're using a heater around anything that's flammable, that you want to take precautions so that you don't have the heater get overheated and could cause a fire. After you cure them, you'd want to store them in a room that's about 60 degrees. And so you know what's the coolest place in your house, maybe wrapped them in newspaper, put them in a box under your bed kind of thing or an unused closet. But that's kind of one of the challenges of growing sweet potatoes is the curing process and then storage process. Now, if you don't plan on storing the potatoes, sweet potatoes for very long, certainly eat them. And that's fine. But just be aware that newly harvested sweet potatoes aren't going to be very sweet. They need that curing process or at least a storage time when the carbohydrates turns to sugar. So that makes the sweet potato a little bit more palatable. So you can certainly eat them right after they're harvested. But they won't have that real sweet flavor that we that's what we expect.
Farmer Fred
Yeah. And I guess storing the roots in rooms that are warmer than 65 degrees could cause those roots to sprout.
Gail Pothour
Right? So that's another problem is if it's too warm, then they can sprout. So it's finding that optimum about 60 degrees, that dark place in a box under your bed, Maybe.
Farmer Fred
One thing we haven't talked about in this discussion of sweet potato tips is, is that is a sweet potato the same thing as a yam.
Gail Pothour
No, it is not. That's a marketing ploy. Actually, the true yam is from Africa. It's a completely different family, not related at all to the sweet potato. And they can get huge they can get three feet long and weighed 30 and 40 pounds. So you don't find true yams grown here in the US. I've never actually seen one. It was back in the mid 20th century that farmers in Louisiana decided they wanted to differentiate their orange flesh, sweet potatoes that are a little moister than some of the white ones that are a little drier. They wanted to differentiate them from those drier, sweet potatoes. So they started calling them yams. Just simply a marketing ploy. So in California, I don't know about other states. But if it's labeled as a yam, they have to also tell you it's a sweet potato. so all sweet potatoes are sweet potatoes. There's no true yam that's grown here in the US. Also, I failed to mention that the leaves on sweet potatoes are edible as well. I mentioned it about okra, but I think I forgot to mention it on the sweet potato.
Farmer Fred
Well, you just did.
Gail Pothour
But it's that the sweet potato leaves can be used like spinach or chard.
Farmer Fred
I would eat them raw. Can you eat the sweet potato leaves raw?
Gail Pothour
So sweet potato leaves can be raw, although they kind of have a slight bitterness. Apparently, when they're raw, when they're cooked, they become a little more mild and delicate flavor. And I have not actually eaten sweet potato leaves raw myself. But according to one of the websites that I got on, specialty produce, they were talking about it and said that it's very similar in taste to spinach, and it can be a little bitter when raw so if you use it in a salad, it's perfectly edible, but it might impart a little bitter flavor, cooking it would mellow that out.
Farmer Fred
We've learned a lot today about growing sweet potatoes. Gail Pothour, Sacramento County Master Gardener, Thanks for your help on this.
Gail Pothour
My pleasure, Fred.
Farmer Fred 31:34
Have you taken a look at the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred Beyond the Basics newsletter yet? It’s a deeper dive into what was discussed on the podcasts, along with more great gardening information. It really is, going “Beyond the Basics”. In the edition of the newsletter that comes out Friday, March 4, we complete our trilogy of newsletters exploring the topic, what the heck are you gonna plant this year? Two weeks ago, we reported on award-winning pepper varieties. Last Friday, it was all about tomato varieties that deserve a place in your garden. On the edition that comes out Friday March 4, we’re talking about a mix of All America Selections winners including chard, eggplant, kale, lettuce, melons, okra and zucchini. You heard about these plants in Episodes 168 and 169 in the Garden Basics podcast. Now, you can read even more about them, we have thorough descriptions, pictures and links to this combination of tasty vegetables. It’s in the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred newsletter, Beyond the Basics. Find a link in the podcast show notes; or, at Farmer Fred dot com; or, by going to substack dot com slash garden basics. Think of it as your garden resource that goes beyond the basics. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred newsletter. And it’s free. Please subscribe and share it with your gardening friends and family. The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred newsletter, Beyond the Basics. And thank you for listening.
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