BOISE, Idaho — On You Can Grow It, Garden Master Jim Duthie takes us back a few years to 2018 and takes a look at some of the fun gardening subjects and tips that he shared during that season.
From using common household products to boost your garden's productivity, to growing unusual berries, to advice from some long-time Treasure Valley gardening experts, you'll probably learn a thing or two, and a reminder that you can grow it.
Garden Tips:
Jim is always looking for ways to make gardening easier, and he's found a few more simple and fun ideas that will also save you a little money at the same time.
Here are some great garden uses for a very common household product - baking soda.
You can encourage alkaline-loving flowering plants, like geraniums, begonias and hydrangeas, to bloom more vigorously, by watering them with a mixture of two tablespoons of baking soda to a gallon of water.
Cut flowers will stay fresh and last longer if you add a teaspoon of baking soda to the water in the vase before putting the flowers in it.
Finally you can do a simple test to check the pH level of your soil, whether it's acidic or alkaline. Take two small samples of soil from your garden. Dampen the soil with a little water. On one of the samples, sprinkle a little baking soda. If it bubbles, then your soil is acidic, and you need to add more alkaline to raise the pH level. Add a bit of vinegar to the other sample. If it bubbles, then your soil is alkaline.
Aronia Berries:
Just outside of Middleton, there's a small farm that grows something that most of us have probably never even seen or heard of before. It's a little purple berry called the Aronia berry, and it's starting to get noticed more because of its health benefits.
Anywhere you can use a blueberry in your baking, you can use the Aronia. They're wonderful in smoothies, jellies, jams and more.
Margaret's Garden:
Step into Margaret Lauterbach's backyard, and you'll find yourself a garden that would rival any supermarket produce selection, and for good reason - Margaret knows a thing or two about growing a garden in the Treasure Valley. In fact, she's written two books on the subject.
Check out Margaret's book "Treasure Valley Growing."
Tomatoes:
It's late enough in the fall now, we're going to be seeing frost widespread just about any day now. You may have a lot of green tomatoes left in your garden, in addition to the ones that are almost ripe. You might want to pick them now, before the frost hits and we'll show you what you can do with them.
Gretchen Ander, advanced master gardener, elaborates "I've tested all of the ways to ripen tomatoes, whether it's in a bag with a banana or in a bag with an apple. Just hanging in the garage on your husbands golf clubs. I've done it all. Honestly Jim, they all ripen about the same time."
Fruit Field Day:
Nearly 100 different kinds of grapes; about 60 varieties of peaches and nectarines; close to 20 different kinds of apples and pears and dozens of types of plums. Then there are pluots, a cross between plums and apricots.
All this fruit was grown here at the University of Idaho Agricultural Research Center near Parma, and put on display for the public to sample free of charge, while they learn about new advances in fruit growing.
I hope you've enjoyed watching You Can Grow It this season, and that you've learned a few things to make your gardening adventures fun and successful. Keep exercising your green thumb so that next spring, You Can Grow It!
If you aren't already one of the nearly 20,000 members of the 'You Can Grow It' Facebook group, it's easy to join. Just text the word 'grow' to 208-321-5614 and we'll send you the link to join Idaho's biggest garden club. Then you'll be able to share pictures and growing tips, ask questions and get advice from other gardeners all around southern Idaho.
Watch more You Can Grow It:
See them all in our YouTube playlist here:
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