This fertilizer is funky (s1e01)

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We're going to stop and try it again without the

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cat coming in the cat door.

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Oh no, they can't.

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Second cat is coming in.

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Come on.

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You guys are messing up my take.

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Just be cool.

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welcome to clippings.

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This is a gardening podcast from an enthusiastic, but remarkably, un-

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expert gardener me I'm Topher Burns.

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And it doesn't matter if you are an expert or just kind of garden curious.

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The whole point of this podcast is.

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We get outside and we spend some time together.

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My cats are probably going to join me too.

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Today, we are going to be doing some fertilizing.

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It's early in the season and I've got some recently planted younger

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trees and bushes that will appreciate a little springtime snack as they

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start to wake up for the season.

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So come on, let's get outside.

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Oh, it's a gorgeous day.

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It was hailing this morning.

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But the weather seems to have gotten its act together.

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If I could just stand here, soaking it up, but let's feed some trees.

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Okay.

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I'm going to probably fertilize my fig tree and our persimmon

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and maybe my umbrella.

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All these are kind of young, um, established trees.

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You don't really need to worry about, but for younger trees, giving them a boost

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of nutrients and encouraging them to grow after the frost date is important.

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If you do it before the frost date, they might start growing things

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that can be like growing more roots or even like little, uh, tender

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leaf buds and stuff like that.

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That can be harmed by frost.

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So you don't want to wake them up with nutrients until you're sure that

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you're past the frost date, okay, so, uh, fertilizer, um, I really like

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using just basic fish fertilizer.

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It has good nutrients.

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Um, but it's pretty, it's nothing fancy.

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There are like fertilizers per kind of plants that people use.

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Um, but fish is a good fertilizer as an all purpose one.

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It's also great because, um, it's natural and it's not too aggressive.

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The.

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The reason that like fertilizers can be a problem, especially if you use

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too much of them is a lot of it's chemical based, uh, that can get into

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the water supplies, but also, um, it can be really damaging to the.

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Ecosystem that's in your soil.

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You need to think about the fact that there's actually two gardens

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going on in your garden at one time.

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There's the garden that you see everything above ground.

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And then there's an entirely equal and super flourishing ecosystem that happens

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below ground with worms and insects.

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And.

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Fungus's, uh, it's just, there's so much going on and a healthy underground is

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important for a healthy above ground.

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So fertilizers can be really harmful and kind of burn a lot of that stuff.

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It can also affect, you know, like the delicate little roots

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of trees and things like that.

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So I don't like to fertilize too aggressively, but it is nice to

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start things off, um, with, uh, well, I'm opening it up now.

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Oh, I mean, you know, it's actually little appetizing, maybe it's fishy.

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It's really fishy.

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Yeah.

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I dunno if I'm disgusted or if I want sushi after this.

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Oh man.

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No, I definitely am disgusted.

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Okay.

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Uh, I'm going to get some water.

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We're going to dilute this thing and then, uh, We'll take it around and give a few

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meals to our happy little juvenile trees.

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Hey Ags, you want some fish fertilizer?

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Yeah, you do.

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I had no idea what I was going to mix all this stuff in.

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And I remember that I kept this massive can of that.

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I used when I made pozole.

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It's a big, yeah.

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It's like a half bucket,

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shake up

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stuff on mix.

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okay.

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Preaching at you about, I have to be exact and judicious with your fertilizer.

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This is to measure two tablespoons of this thing for every gallon.

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And, you know, I just don't feel like putting this goop on an actual

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tablespoon, so I'm going to eyeball it.

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And that looks like about two.

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Let's do two more because I'm probably going to do at

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least four gallons of water.

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And then let's dilute the essence and water.

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Um,

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okay.

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I have got what is basically a bouillabaisse fish soup for my fig tree.

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you get a little guy

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happy spring.

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We're going to repeat this process for the umbrella pine as well.

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Saw this umbrella pine is a friend that is very special to me.

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We got it in Brooklyn.

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And then.

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When we moved from Brooklyn to Portland, it was a really tough decision about

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leaving some of our plants behind, you know, and had them for years.

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Um, and the umbrella pine was really the one friend that I just

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couldn't see leaving without, they're just really majestic plants.

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This one's still a young one and actually they'll be considered, it'll be considered

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young until it's like a hundred years old.

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They live really long.

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And they have these gorgeous, like, you know, two inch long pine needles.

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I just think they're so beautiful.

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So anyway, we didn't quite know how to get it out here.

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So we ended up just going to ups and the lady was like, well, you're not

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allowed to mail plants, overstate lines.

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And I basically just said, please, and she was cool with it.

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So she packed up a tree and then we sent it cross country while

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we moved the rest of our stuff.

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And

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before we had even bought a kitchen table or anything like that, I, uh,

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put this plant.

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And so it's kind of our first, the first major like gardening decision I

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made was putting this thing in, so, oh man, the cats are going crazy for this.

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It's just a fish stew and they're so excited.

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Well, there's nothing really to eat if they're.

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They definitely want to figure out how to get some of this.

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I don't know if it's good for you.

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Okay, I'm going to do a little bit more fertilizing in the front yard.

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We've got a new Dogwood we put in recently, and there's also

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a persimmon that had a little bit of a tough season last year.

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And my husband, Jake said, if things don't pick up, he wants to get rid of it.

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So we've got to give it a little bit of a.

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I've actually got an enormous amount of really cool stuff

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planned for this growing season.

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Um, I'm going to put in a hummingbird garden, I've got a

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lawn and they don't love lawns.

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So I need to figure something to do with that.

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And I'm saying to tell you about the Victorian Moonlight garden theme

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that I have going on in the backyard.

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So lots to go over.

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If you want to see pictures of the garden, we are fresh clippings on Instagram.

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Join me there to ask questions, share tips that you have about stuff that we're going

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through, or send me your own plant pecs.

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Anyway, thanks for joining me in the garden.

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I'm Topher burns.

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This is clippings lesson.

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On the next episode of clippings, you know, we may have just

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met, but I'm ready to take this relationship to the next level.

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That's right.

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I want you to meet my.