Garden Guys – Details, episodes & analysis

Sorry to be a punny bunny, but what's a better time to hear about carrots than Easter weekend? Darrin and Tom jump (again, see what I did there?) through time into the origin story of one of their garden favorites: carrots.  Why are they orange? Where did they originate?  And of course some tips on how to grow them in southwest Colorado.  With the planting calendar hovering on the “possible”, we also issue another Listener Challenge:  Measuring your soil temps to ensure germination success!

Tom was lucky enough to interview Peter Del Tredici PhD, botanist, author, and senior research scientist Emeritus at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, while he was here for the Durango Botanic Gardens "DurangoScape Climate Conference". While not all about veggies and edibles, Dr. Del Tredici provided some fodder for Darrin and Tom to discuss.

Yup. I took high school French. Can't you tell? This week we redeem ourselves from the depths of the manure from last week and rise to the beauty and function that flowers provide for our landscape.  Darrin and Tom will go through the list of our favorite flowers and why we plant them. They provide great services (other than beauty) that can help your garden thrive!

You may think that Tom and Darrin talk crap every week, but this week we actually do! All kinds of it: manure, meadow muffins, cow pies...chickens, alpacas, llamas and bats. We'll go over all things excrementum and how we, as gardens, can utilize (or be cautious of) its powers.

Tom and I put the jokes aside this week and welcome you to listen to a topic that resonates with many of us. Deeply. Emotionally. And if you haven't watched it yet, find 45 minutes and watch the recently released Colorado movie: Legacy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b75IPokq28E - it will give you a better appreciation of what our farmers and ranchers go through - every, single, day. We were lucky enough to interview Chad Reznicek, Behavioral Health State Specialist with CSU Extension, who gave amazing insight into the signature challenges in agriculture and how all us can find those tools to help us.

Ugh. You get all excited to garden and in comes the pill bugs, pocket gophers, and mushrooms. Wait. Mushrooms? Listen to learn more - and maybe commiserate.

We filled out our permission slips and got to go on ANOTHER field trip! Tom and Darrin got to buddy-up and visit Scott Smith and his 2 year-old greenhouse east of Durango. Sampling ready-to-eat herbs, kale, carrots, and artichokes made us a bit envious of the early harvests, but not sure we're ready for all that work!

Paul Simon once wrote "...and touched the sound of silence". Well, we know that he wasn't applying compost to his garden because scientists are now able to "hear" all the bacteria and fungi that love that organic matter. The Garden Guys delve into microorganisms and the ways they help our bodies and our garden beds - and how those two are so similar.

Free advice and crisis mitigation. For plants. Learn what to look for with all those seedlings in the nurseries and farmers market. All the spring questions are flowing, and so are the sarcastic answers this week on Garden Guys.

One of our favorite places (Manna Garden in Durango) with one of our favorite people (Brooke Frazer)! The Manna Gardens are prepping for the upcoming seedling sale happening next weekend (May 10-12).  She shares some of the varieties that will be available, as well as touching on the history of Manna and the wealth of services it provides for the local community.