Off with their heads (s1e07)
Thank god I'm in charge of this podcast, because my 11 year old niece Catalina joins me on this episode and if I had a boss they'd fire me and hire her instantly. Today we're deadheading flowers (and my future in this industry).
Also, there's a GIVEAWAY! We clipped a bunch of scabiosa (aka pincushion flowers) and we have seeds galore. Want some? DM me on our instagram and we will mail out seed packets while supplies last. Late summer and early fall are a great time to get these prolific and delightful perennials established (or just save them in your fridge for spring).
Want to see pics from the garden? Instagram: @freshclippings
Show art by Alison McKenzie
Production guidance from Evan Roberts
Special thanks to Jeremy Bloom
Episode music from Blue Dot Sessions:
Our Son the Potter (Love and Weasel)
Pigpaddle Creek (Sour Mash)
Gamboler (Pglet)
Transcript
So this is our second take.
Speaker:So we kind of ruined a lot of that element of surprise thing I was going for.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you know, the whole game now mm-hmm but our audience doesn't know the game.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So who are you?
Speaker:Catalina and I am your niece.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, and I call you uncle fer, even though your real names Christopher slash Topher.
Speaker:Not sure what you prefer to be called podcast.
Speaker:My street name during this podcast, my street name can for sure be uncle
Speaker:for, for a week, roll with that.
Speaker:All.
Speaker:and so why are you here?
Speaker:I'm visiting him in Portland and favorite part of the trip so far cats, his cats.
Speaker:Cats.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:So you're gonna actually help us do a favor because I've referred to these
Speaker:cats and they've been scampering around.
Speaker:And in fact, we heard one of them almost catch a mouse on the last episode.
Speaker:Oh, you did.
Speaker:I have to listen to that one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's pretty wild.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, but.
Speaker:I haven't really introduced them.
Speaker:Will you introduce our cats to everybody?
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:So the first one is Millie.
Speaker:She is a grey cat.
Speaker:she's pretty feisty, pretty young.
Speaker:Um, she loves food and catching bees but so far she hasn't got sung.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And the second one, her name's Agnes, she's 12, um, she's black with white
Speaker:paws and she likes to lay in the sun.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So I'd love for you to do the honors.
Speaker:In the way we start our podcast all the time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm and you're gonna suggest to us that we do what let's go outside.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So right when we step outside, can you tell everybody what are
Speaker:the things that you first noticed?
Speaker:Right when we stepped outside?
Speaker:Well, first of all, it's like 140 degrees outside.
Speaker:That's pretty Gnar.
Speaker:Not really.
Speaker:It's pretty gnarly.
Speaker:Um, and the bees Tell us about the bees.
Speaker:Why the bees out here?
Speaker:Because they like to pollinate all of the Clover.
Speaker:And the Sage and the, this looking thing.
Speaker:I forget what it's called.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's called the sea Holly, but it looks like a, this looking thing.
Speaker:I think that's pretty appropriate.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So sea Holly, we were, I kept the, uh, subject of this podcast, a surprise,
Speaker:but now we've done a second take.
Speaker:So it's not a surprise anymore surpris anymore.
Speaker:So instead of being the surprised guest, you're now the host.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So tell everybody what the subject of our podcast is today.
Speaker:Today, we're going to deadhead some flowers.
Speaker:I don't know which flowers, but yeah, I'll keep that's, that's my only surprise here.
Speaker:But can you explain, because actually I was surprised to know
Speaker:that you knew what dead heading was.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a pretty intense word.
Speaker:It sounds pretty crazy, but tell us exactly what it is.
Speaker:Well, deadhead is when flowers are.
Speaker:Not at their peak anymore.
Speaker:When they're dead, they shrivel up the pedals shrivel up, but
Speaker:the seeds are still there.
Speaker:Just kind of dried out.
Speaker:And so you can pluck off the heads of the flowers and extract the seeds
Speaker:and you can save them and plant them.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And why do you, when you've done dead heading, what are you doing?
Speaker:What, what's the reason you're doing it so that they can come back the next summer?
Speaker:Yeah, totally.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And actually one of the cool things about doing deadhead now at this time
Speaker:in the summer is that if you clip off all of the flowers that are dead,
Speaker:mm-hmm, sometimes the plants do more flowers before the end of the season.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:So sometimes it makes 'em wanna make more seeds.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So let's get some tools.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And then I'll point you to some area.
Speaker:Where we need some deadhead and then maybe you can give us some tips.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:But don't trust me, cause I dunno much.
Speaker:Well, that's the entire purpose of this podcast.
Speaker:It's neither do I.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Keys.
Speaker:You have them?
Speaker:see, you're running this show,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Oh, oh, hello, milli.
Speaker:Hello, milli.
Speaker:Hey mills.
Speaker:Hi.
Speaker:Hi you in a garden with us today.
Speaker:Huh?
Speaker:She says nothing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I've got two choices for you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We've got your standard issue, garden.
Speaker:Cheers clips.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:These are like the cutest little they're so small flower scissors.
Speaker:I like those ones.
Speaker:You want these ones?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're pretty sweet.
Speaker:They're doable.
Speaker:You can do some real surgical flower clipping with these things too.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So here you go.
Speaker:Uh, I'll carry these ones.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Mills watch out mills.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So the first ones that I want us to deadhead are this SC Bosa.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Which are these purple flowers you see?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's been making flowers since like February.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:And so that's pretty early.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Now I think it's kind of getting a little tired.
Speaker:Mm-hmm and so you can see, it's got a lot less flowers.
Speaker:Most of the flowers it has are dead.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think first things first let's get in here and I love your idea of saving.
Speaker:the seeds to use later.
Speaker:Yeah, we got a ton of these, so let's just make a little pile of these.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, and we can just clip these off.
Speaker:. Uh, are we gonna cut it closer to the head of the flower or
Speaker:farther down the stem let's do?
Speaker:Because these ones have a really long stem mm-hmm to the flower.
Speaker:Let's cut all the way back.
Speaker:The very, um, base of it where connects to the branch.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And the reason for that is because that will stimulate
Speaker:the plant to grow more plant.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, if you cut it just at the very top, you just have these
Speaker:stumps sticking out and it doesn't tell the plant to grow as much.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I read that.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:You knew this.
Speaker:I'm just reminding you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Go for it
Speaker:right there.
Speaker:Is that good?
Speaker:Mm-hmm
Speaker:yeah, that's looking great.
Speaker:See how, like it doesn't have very many leaves.
Speaker:Yes that's cuz it's just put all it's a lot of stems.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Put all its energy into the flowers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I want it to put some energy back into the plant.
Speaker:Should I cut this one?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Go for it.
Speaker:When in doubt, give it a chop.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You know, what we could do too is we could ask her mom if she needs any of these,
Speaker:if she would want any of these flowers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cause then you guys could plant it.
Speaker:I'm not sure if we have a good space right now.
Speaker:What are, tell us a little bit about your garden.
Speaker:Well, so down in the funniest part of our garden, we grow all oh.
Speaker:Of our yard.
Speaker:Actually we grow all of our vegetables, like cucumbers,
Speaker:tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries.
Speaker:Also down there, we have some pots with herbs in them and
Speaker:we've got marigolds down there.
Speaker:And those marigolds, remember when we came to Brooklyn and helped
Speaker:you deadhead new miracles, Uhhuh.
Speaker:That's what those marigolds come from.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:So those marigolds made all the way from Brooklyn.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:So not only did you help us deadhead those marigolds mm-hmm did you
Speaker:know that you helped us plant them?
Speaker:No, I didn't remember that you were really young, but yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it was when.
Speaker:It was when your mom and dad were out looking mm-hmm,
Speaker:looking, came to visit you.
Speaker:Mm-hmm looking at houses here.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So are we gonna save these seats or I think we should save some
Speaker:yeah, obviously not all of 'em.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not here gonna be so many.
Speaker:We don't need 'em.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, maybe do you think we should ask our listeners if they
Speaker:want 'em maybe we could mail some.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what's this gonna be like a bunch of people?
Speaker:Not a bunch.
Speaker:We have like three, like some, well, like some people let's
Speaker:not overestimate our listeners.
Speaker:Well, they're great, but there's not a ton of 'em right now.
Speaker:Um, but maybe we find one, a listener who wants, uh, some of the seeds that are
Speaker:dead having what, how people want them.
Speaker:We could do like a random selection much from a bucket or something, or,
Speaker:you know, I mean, we'll have a bunch.
Speaker:Maybe we, there can be more than one winner.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:but didn't you just say that we only have like, not much listeners
Speaker:I just said we have a bunch.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:We definitely don't have a bunch of listeners, but we've got more than one.
Speaker:While we're over here, will you help me prune away some of this Sage?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Do you guys have Sage plants?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But none nearly as big as this, this one's a Sage plant's like that big.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:This one I think, has been here for a while.
Speaker:Do you think there's seeds in here?
Speaker:Still?
Speaker:There are, oh, Sage seeds here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Go through there and see if you find any seeds.
Speaker:they'd be like little they'll look like poppy seeds.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:See those.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We probably want like a little dish for these they're so tiny.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You want me to get a dish?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'll go get a dish.
Speaker:I'll just carefully take off all the flowers.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:They're very fragile.
Speaker:Okay, dish.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:They're very fragile.
Speaker:They've got all these like little, so I guess these used to be the petals.
Speaker:They're just so mm-hmm they were pink.
Speaker:Oh, they were, I have seen some Sage flowers before our Sage.
Speaker:Doesn't put any work into the leaves, just burst out in flowers.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Then you have to like go and cut all the flowers.
Speaker:We flip their, their flowers so that, nah, , we're like, don't do flowers.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You need to have leaves.
Speaker:Exactly's like we, have you ever had fried Sage before?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:good.
Speaker:I haven't made it.
Speaker:It is so good.
Speaker:It's crispy only.
Speaker:What do you put it on?
Speaker:Well, it's good just to eat on its own, but um, we can put it on pasta or soup.
Speaker:I personally don't like it on any of those because it takes the flavor
Speaker:away and kind of makes it soggy.
Speaker:Oh, you wanna keep it crispy?
Speaker:I'll just, I'll just pick it all off.
Speaker:Do you put it on pizza?
Speaker:Maybe that would be good.
Speaker:That would be delicious.
Speaker:We have not done that . What do you use Sage for?
Speaker:So this won't be something that you have for a few years yet.
Speaker:But my favorite thing to do with fresh Sage leaves is to roll them
Speaker:up and put them in some rose.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Uh, which is like an easy way to pretend like you're making a cocktail, but really
Speaker:you're just putting leaves in wine.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, . Oh God, what is that beetle on you?
Speaker:Oh my gosh, what is that bug?
Speaker:He's big.
Speaker:He's weird.
Speaker:He's kind of cute.
Speaker:Is he like it's beetle?
Speaker:What is he did?
Speaker:How did he get on there?
Speaker:Did he just fly on me?
Speaker:He did he hear that?
Speaker:no, I didn't hear it.
Speaker:Like I like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:There's a B . It was not a bee.
Speaker:Is this about good for this plant?
Speaker:I think I have to, most of it's little dry bits clipping this whole thing back.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:So where, so we can just, yeah.
Speaker:oh, this dead stop
Speaker:And where do you put all these dead branches?
Speaker:Let's put 'em in a little pile over here.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:once we're done.
Speaker:We can put him in the compost.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You think we're good?
Speaker:They just flew away.
Speaker:Oh, the beaten.
Speaker:See it above there.
Speaker:Oh, whoa.
Speaker:He's big.
Speaker:He's giant.
Speaker:He doesn't look like he can fly very well.
Speaker:No, kind of like, Okay, cool.
Speaker:Well, I think we wrapped up mm-hmm a pretty good amount.
Speaker:We've got more, I've got some more deadheading to do, but
Speaker:this is probably as much child labor as I can extract from you.
Speaker:um, I could do more maybe just another day though.
Speaker:yeah, maybe we'll we'll wait until another day.
Speaker:. But yeah.
Speaker:So, So before we wrap up, what do we need to remind our listeners?
Speaker:Uh, we need to tell them about the contest.
Speaker:Remind us what that is.
Speaker:So we deadheaded some SCA Bosa flowers today and this one
Speaker:looks like a bigger purple bomb.
Speaker:If you know what purple Clover flowers look like, they kind of
Speaker:look like that sort of, um, they're kind of flat and they're tall.
Speaker:The SCAs a plant doesn't have much leaves, but it has tall
Speaker:stems and lots of pretty flowers.
Speaker:At least this one does.
Speaker:Totally.
Speaker:So like, yeah.
Speaker:Bees love them.
Speaker:If you want lots of flowers, this is a good one.
Speaker:So, so Catalina recommends theca Bosa mm-hmm yeah, they're very, very pretty.
Speaker:And I like they're purple.
Speaker:I like purple.
Speaker:Um, I'm not usually a fan of like wearing purple, but
Speaker:purple flowers are very pretty.
Speaker:Um, , so if you want Escapia as a flowers, um, message uncle Fifer on Instagram, and
Speaker:there will be at least one lucky person.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:. Basically, depending on how many seeds we have.
Speaker:Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker:If you want ESCAP I recommend them.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:So you heard it from the master gardener?
Speaker:I am not a master.
Speaker:And from the boss of this show, cuz she nailed it today.
Speaker:So you did an awesome job.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:for everybody at home, if you're listening along, don't forget we're
Speaker:on Instagram at fresh clippings and Catalina and I both really appreciate
Speaker:you joining us here in the garden.
Speaker:Fine on plant time.
Speaker:Yeah, I really enjoyed spending plant time with you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much.
Speaker:Give me one more master gardener, high five for the road.
Speaker:Nailed it.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I interrupted you, you're telling us more about your garden.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the sunny part, we grow vegetables.
Speaker:Um, we are attempting to grab strawberries.
Speaker:It's not really working, but what's going on.
Speaker:Well, they just, we planted them and we plant some miracles.
Speaker:They might be too close together.
Speaker:I mean, like we plant miracles and basil and strawberries all
Speaker:in like a rain bear planter.
Speaker:We just cut our rain bear all in half.
Speaker:Oh, cool.
Speaker:And planted flowers.
Speaker:And that's pretty cool.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hello?
Speaker:No, don't crush on my seats, please.
