Upside Down Tulips - A Garden Podcast

We discuss what we (and hopefully you) learned from each other this past year.  Like how to do your own soil test, and what is Soil Pep? (It has nothing to do with pompoms or short skirts). We discuss gardening by grid, taking suckers off of tomato plants, how to garden without disrupting the natural way of things, why Christy has changed her mind on a certain store bought fertilizer and what went horribly, nauseatingly wrong with Edith’s Bokashi experiment.  Gardening is not for the squeamish.  From spiders in meat tubes, to squirrel skulls to Cindy Brady in the garbage - we get down and dirty in the garden.  And not a hoe joke in sight.

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It’s Episode 50!  And our First Anniversary!  (Which means we’ve been doing this for a year and we’re not so good at math.) Thank you to everyone who has listened over the last year!  We truly love this community of gardeners, friends and stewards of the planet.   To celebrate, we share are a few of our favorite moments from the year:

• From the silly - shredded tweet and Salvadore Dilly, to the profound -  May Sarton’s quote about gardening, we’ve got you covered.
• We fill in between the two,  revisiting little bird buttholes, a deep confession from Christy, and the story of a man who cooked a smoked turkey into a salt lick.
• From the sacred - an homage to the gift of the Magi - to the profane - what an irritated telemarketer called Edith.
• And we’ve got an entirely new podplay of the Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe. What sets her off and has her calling out the artillery?
• Plus, we sprinkle in a few gardening tips and tricks along the way.  Enjoy!

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It’s hot and dry July. The early season plants are reaching their endtimes, flowers need to be deadheaded and the Japanese beetles are back! To temper the horror of that, Edith wrote a poem!  We then talk 50 ways to kill your Japanese beetles.  You could sweep, bag, spray, trap, grind, or entice them with a lovely fruit cocktail. (Fruit cocktail? What is this, 1954?)

You could also try Neem Oiling or Milky Sporing them to their everlasting rest.  Then, for a little dark humor, we brought back Darla and the Jersey gangster Tone Baritone.   And, as if all this murder talk isn’t enough, Christy has the most morbid inspiration ever, starting with the words “Every corpse…” and it doesn’t get any cheerier from there.  Calm down or die. Grow something.

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The start of July means summer is in full swing and our gardens are at the peak of the season. It is also a big month for garden maintenance. So we have gathered together over 20 tips on what you should be doing in your July garden - what not to plant, what you can plant, what to deadhead, how to get broccoli baby heads even if your original plant goes to seed. Plus:  helpful info on pinching, watering, weeding, staking, dividing, mulching. So many "ings!"

Don’t know what a farrier is?  Neither did we. Christy thought it might be a grower and caretaker of fairies. (!) Edith has been waiting for years to use the word “Oyez” in a sentence and finally found a way! We revisit Christy’s Horrifying Ladybug Incident and a listener explains why not everyone’s pee changes smell if you eat asparagus. And then Ben Franklin mansplains about the issue.  (Go fly a kite, Benjamin, or at the very least stick to forming the US of A.)

The Garden Gnomes return in two fun pod-plays made just for the gardener!

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Find Your First and Last Frost Dates Here!

What is my Gardening Zone?  Find it Here!

We’re thrice potting cucumbers and shaking seed heads, all while exploring the world of vines.  So much more than just a conveyance for Tarzan, vines shelter, give beauty, grow food, attract pollinators and hide unsightly views.   Not even to mention that’s how grapes grow and that’s what makes wine!

Which vine’s seeds cause paralysis, labored breathing and convulsions- and still has “sweet” in its name?  (That may be taking forgiveness a step too far.)  

Let us introduce you to the Lazy Housewife Pole Bean and the Asian Winged Bean. The first is not a Victorian insult and the second is not an anime superhero. They’re beans you can grow in Zones 3-11 and who doesn’t want to grow colorfully named beans?  

Also - learn about trumpet vine, honeysuckle, morning glory and how to grow your own loofah sponge and more!  Do you have thistle weeds?  We have tips on how best to get rid of it in Mail Bag.  And two fun new "pod plays" made just for the gardener.  Boom chicka boom boom!

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“Hope is being planted and I feel it growing.” We’re quoting from a listener’s letter because we’re too hot to say anything worth quoting.  BUT we did have the presence of mind to gather about 10ish garden tips we forgot to tell you in the past year. Like what is well drained soil? Can you plant in a ziplock bag?  Do you need different fertilizers for different plants and what is elbow soap? Why you should pinch your mum now and what the appearance of dog vomit slime mold tells you. Free resources, plants that resist bolting, red warty things, and if you see something spiny tiny and creepy in your garden- don’t kill it. It’s your friend. We’re your friends. We also have Cinderella and the Gardeners of the Galaxy. Join us.

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Things are popping in the garden and we’re getting down with our hoes. Christy’s roses are opening, something absconded with her cauliflower plants, and her rosemary after surviving the grim winter, has a ceased to be. It’s like a vegetal soap opera! If you think NPK is an arm of the Russian Secret Service, you need this episode. If you want to know why Edith is reading War and Pees in her bathroom, you should listen.

We explain how and when to fertilize flowers, vegetables, roses, and houseplants- one size doesn’t fit all. What unexpected trait is shared by some people and all herbs? What herb is so toxic any product containing it was banned in Canada and yet it’s a great natural fertilizer? What is the difference between organic and synthetic fertilizers? And why we are reconsidering using that blue stuff.  Some great info here, gardeners.

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Find Your First and Last Frost Dates Here!

What is my Gardening Zone?  Find it Here!

Here is your June "Get 'Er Done" List!     Someone once said if you have to tell people you’re hip and relevant, you’re probably not.   We politely yet vigorously disagree.  Cause we’ve got slamming plants and vibrating stamens. Exploding gardens and hoe jokes. Doing the ‘what is dead’ search.  It sounds like an action filled sci fi adventure, but it’s just another week in the gardens of Christy and Edith. From succession planting to mulching, supporting and staking, and it’s last call for seedlings. What you can still direct sow and - bonus! -a recipe for homemade pesticide with all natural ingredients. What to pinch, prune and cut back in June. Why, when they mow low, you should mow high.   Plus a letter from a listener who tells of being bent over with a 3 year old glued to her back pocket.  That’s all we’ll say here. Juneau you have to listen.   

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Well, slap some bacon on that Vitamin K, it's an encore!  We discuss tomatoes from seeds to BLT’s. In the Middle Ages, Europeans thought of them as poisonous, the French thought they were an aphrodisiac and called them love apples. The Aztec called them “plump things with a navel”.

Plus: The difference between determinate, indeterminate, heirloom and hybrid tomatoes are discussed. All you need to know about planting, staking, and harvesting tomatoes. What to do about blossom end rot, blotches, wilt, rot, fungal diseases and pests. We unbox tomatoes that have been sitting in Christy’s attic for almost a year.

Then - new stuff! Health benefits! Edith finds out which tomatoes can grow in Siberia and Christy goes all hybrid for a while to outwit the fungus. 

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Pardon our garden clogs as we take time to work in our gardens and present our second episode of all garden comedy. Every gardener has a sense of humor.  How else can we survive all the missteps and surprises?

Can bindweed make you laugh? We think so - revisit the Bindweed Singles Service and the worse come on lines you’ve ever heard - and we hope you will agree. Remember Agnes, the easily distracted creative writing teacher who also has a call in gardening show? We’ve got all the Agneses right here. Plus the Gardeners of the Galaxy, the Society of Gardener’s Patience, the Garden State and Yoga with goats and more.  Enjoy!

Support UDT by joining our Garden Party and get fun rewards!

Get some NEW cool UDT Merch and Mulch it!

Visit our website for pix, more info and Upside Down Dictionary

Click here to write to us or join our newsletter! We would love to  hear your garden stories & Q's!