Stay ConnectedThe Grow Guide is Canada’s #1 gardening podcast co-hosted by rookie grower, Maggie Wysocki and master grower, Dave Hanson. Listen in to honest conversations about seasonal gardening topics, including the trials, tribulations and successes of growing in climates where it can feel…kind of impossible.
Join the community of fellow Grow Guiders in our Facebook group. Have an idea for a guest or upcoming episode topic? Send us an email — thegrowguidepod@gmail.com
Copyright: © The Grow Guide - Dave Hanson & Maggie Wysocki 2017 - 2021
Maggie and Dave continue their garden touring, and set up the podcast studio under a big shade tree in the beautiful English Garden at Assiniboine Park. Summer is starting to shift into fall and your hosts start this week's episode noticing how much the mood has changed in the garden, even in the last week. This does not stop them from being excited about what's next, teasing garden party plans (3:05) and sharing their favourite plants (Sugar Baby watermelon at 3:55 & garlic bulbils at 7:20). Kelly F. posted this episode's timely question of the week, all about bringing herbs indoors (9:08), and Dave and Maggie offer a variety of resources to help gardeners find success with indoor herbs. Then the duo dive right into the topic at hand, chatting up the benefits of fall gardening (13:03), consider timing for fall seed starting (17:48), discuss fertilizing fall garden beds (19:30) and then rank various fall crops in terms of cold tolerance (23:30), including several that have "mind blowing" cold tolerance (33:45)! Finally Dave and Maggie muse on how lessons around fall sowing outdoors can teach us valuable lessons about growing edibles indoors as well (35:05).
Maggie and Dave use the South Osborne Community Gardens as this week's studio space and are blown away by its beauty and sense of community. They start the episode with a few fun announcements coming up soon — a Garden Club Tour (check out sagegarden.ca for more info) and an end of season garden party (date TBD!). Then it's all about their Favourite Varieties, Zephyr summer squash for Maggie (5:30) and the Marimo Moss Ball for Dave (7:24). An awesome listener question about when to plant strawberries (10:10), leads the conversation into caring for them over winter and sourcing zone-specific berries. Then it's all about seed saving (13:25)! Maggie and Dave recap the different types of seeds — heirloom, open pollinated and hybrid (15:25), viability (19:02), annuals vs. perennials (20:00), rookie friendly seeds to harvest (25:36), more challenging seeds to save (30:17), saving seeds from tropical (33:03), tips and tricks to the seed saving process itself (34:23) and storing (39:26).
Join the Facebook group to win: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
Are your plants tired of the heat? Maggie and Dave's certainly are and they're dedicating this week's episode to the 2018 Heat Wave! Before they jump into the good stuff, they announce the winner of the cucamelon giveaway and answer a listener's question about planting crops at this time of year. Turns out, there's tons of great options for you to sow even in the second week of August. The duo breakdown the heat conversation into four categories: physiological impacts of heat to plants, maintaining them, diseases that occur and heat-loving insects.
Join the Facebook group to win: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
The Grow Guide is back this week with the second part of our cannabis series. Manitoban grower, Mike Mailman shares his wisdom with us again, but this time the conversation is geared toward growing. Mike discusses how he grows cannabis for his patients and the logistics that come with it. Then he gets into how YOU, home gardeners, can grow productive plants come legalization in October. We apologize for the crickets tune in today's episode as they were noisy as can be while we were recording!
Join the Facebook group to win: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Mike: https://www.instagram.com/medimailman/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
The end of July is bringing us to an awesome 2-parter episode geared toward cannabis — a plant of mystery! Maggie & Dave welcome on fellow Manitoban, Mike Mailman, who shares the successes and struggles that comes with growing marijuana in today's changing climate. This epic conversation discusses everything from the politics of the plant to its many healing properties to Mike's personal connection to using cannabis as a medicine. Tune in next week for Part 2 where we dive into growing cannabis as a home gardener!
Join the Facebook group to win: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Mike: https://www.instagram.com/medimailman/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
For the first time ever, Maggie and Dave move their "studio" to a public orchard in the heart of Winnipeg at The Forks. Apple trees, raspberry bushes and hungry squirrels join the duo for this episode all about cucumbers. This week's favourite varieties (3:10) are Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries and Aussie Sweetie Basil. And an awesome listener question about the differences between partial and full sun (7:20) leads to a conversation about the exact number of hours of sun each description requires. Then it's all about cucumbers! Dave walks us through soil temperatures for direct seeding (13:15), transplanting methods (13:50) and the wide variety of cucumbers plants (15:00). Maggie shares her struggles with her own jungle-like cucumber plants (19:50) and the two of them break down the difference between vining and bushing varieties. She also shares a few secrets to making DIY supports (21:20) for overgrown cucs. Then Dave finishes off the episode with his favourite cucumbers for container growing (23:33), what type of compost to feed plants (26:25), harvesting (27:30), male and female plants (29:30) and then announces a spontaneous GIVEAWAY!
Join the Facebook group to win: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
Dave and Maggie are back this week in their outdoor "studio space" at Sage Garden Greenhouses. The duo start off the episode with a big THANK-YOU to all you listeners from around the world (0:57). Then it's into their Favourite Varieties of the Week (2:10). Dave chats about the vanilla bean plant (did you know it's in the orchid family?!) and Maggie shares one of her recent harvests, the very cool and purple-looking islander pepper (5:40). The Question of the Week focuses on squash (8:13). Join the Facebook group — link below — to ask your own question! Then it's into this week's wonderful guest, Mick Manfield (11:45).
Mick starts off by defining what exactly square foot gardening is (13:10) and how you can try it out whether you have a big space or a little one. From there, Mick touches on the supplies needed (14:40), soil mixture (15:20), adapting this technique for your physical abilities (17:00), weeding (18:45), the difference between square foot gardening and raised beds (20:10), the grid system (22:48), keeping the soil moist (24:22), fertilizing (25:28), vermiculite (26:11), adding compost (27:29), selecting proper varieties (31:10), perennial varieties (34:10), vertical growing (36:34).
To join the Facebook community group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
For The Grow Guide's 40th episode (how did that happen?!), Maggie and Dave decide to give back to all of YOU who've been with us since the beginning. They dedicate this episode to answering a great variety of listener questions. But before they get into all that, they share a bit about what's going on outside of their gardening lives. Dave fills us in about his weekend road trip to Souris, Manitoba. And Maggie shares about her time at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Then it's all about the listeners. The duo answer questions about increasing your strawberry yield, storing dahlia tubers over the winter, fertilizing blueberry bushes, repairing clay soil and MORE!
To join the Facebook community group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
Happy Canada Day, Grow Guiders! Dave and Maggie spend this hot, long weekend jumping right into the new month and chatting about common problems that happen in the garden during July. They start today off by answering a listener's question about chlorosis on her roses and how to manage it. From there, it's all about common gardening problems, including aphids, blossom end rot and powdery mildew. Not to fear, these are all combattable problems that won't affect your harvest if you're proactive.
To join the Facebook community group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
Anyone else experiencing gardener burnout? It's the time of year where we've gone go, go, go and finally are feeling the effects. Maggie and Dave start today off with sharing their feelings on the subject and encourage listeners to take on a challenge to break the burnout. The duo answer an awesome listener's question about perennial flowers — it's not too late to plant! — and share their favourite varieties — Maggie goes with a mosquito repellent and Dave shares a trendy houseplant. They then jump into hardy trees and shrubs, discussing everything from what "zone 3 hardy" really means, to unusual varieties that actually do well in Manitoba, to maintaining and caring for trees and shrubs in the winter.
To join the Facebook community group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/276990892799327/
To connect with Maggie: https://www.instagram.com/fromsoiltosoul/
To connect with Dave: https://www.instagram.com/sagegardenherbs/
To connect with Gardens Manitoba: https://www.instagram.com/gardensmb/
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