Gardening & Growing
Now that the final frost has passed, it's time to plant your seedlings out in the garden! But before you get planting - have you hardened off your seedlings? If you're wondering what that is, you're not alone. Most gardeners probably don't do it, but it can help increase your plants' survival rates and set you up for the best garden yet. Hardening-off seedlings is essentially exposure-therapy to the real world. Most seedlings are grown in a nice, cozy environment with consistent light, consistent watering, and consistent temperatures - this is not the case with the Great Outdoors as it threatens your plants lives with light that is 10x more powerful than any LED, temperatures that swing wildly, and not to mention the wind, bugs, rabbits, or squirrels that may be waiting to strike. When we harden plants off, we will begin exposing them to the real world for about a week before doing a complete transition to outdoor life. You will want to start off with a small amount of time, let's say an hour, and then gradually increase the time the seedlings spend outdoors until you think they're ready to make the move. Hope you enjoyed the podcast & please let me know if you have any questions & I'll be happy to help! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
On today's podcast I answer 5 gardening questions beginning with When & Why I started gardening. After I discuss my origin stories around gardening, I dive into more gardening specific topics such as: What seeds can I plant now? What is the #1 most challenging part of growing Tomatoes? What are some gardening tips and tricks? I hope you enjoy this podcast & if you have any further questions - call into the station or drop me a comment & I'll add it into the next episode! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
In today's episode of Mind Body Garden I talk about how to stay sane in this crazy world we are living in. When I began this podcast, I didn't intend for it to spiral into maintaining a positive perspective during quarantine from the Coronavirus situation - but I know it's on a lot of people's minds and the thing that is threatening everyone's mental health. For me, having a morning routine has greatly helped me to stay sane & happy despite the monotony & uncertainty of the times we are living in. My morning routine involves writing Morning Pages (3 pages of stream of consciousness writing), and then ideally it would follow with creating content - either a podcast or a blog. Lately I have been waking up late and rushing my morning routine - often missing the podcasting or other tasks that I want to complete. I find that not executing on something that I planned on doing is more of a drag on my psyche than anything else, so I knew that it was time to reclaim the morning routine - and my positive perspective. What do you do to maintain perspective & find comfort in these crazy times? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
As we prepare to plant our gardens out for the season, there are a few options for how you can garden this year. In this podcast I talk about the pros & cons of 3 different types of gardening: Growing in the Soil Growing in Raised Beds Growing in Containers (or in my case, Root Pouches & Grow Bags) There are challenges for each type of gardening, but you have to find the benefits that help you & your situation the most. I found that I needed to grow in Raised Beds or Root Pouches to save my plants from wet feet, diseases & fungus that live in my soils, and from the seasonal attack of grubs, weeds, and whatever else nature can throw your way. Hope this podcast helps you & would love to hear from you if you have any questions or anything I can do to help you grow your best garden this year! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
In this podcast I talk about what I've been doing for the last month of lockdown and how I am staying sane. A lot of it revolves around gardening - something that I was obsessed with before all of this chaos happened in the world. Now that it has happened, tons of people are wanting to grow their own food and become self-sustainable. Starting a garden can be intimidating but I hope to guide you through the process of starting a garden whether you are growing from seed, or planting directly in the ground. Gardening can be intimidating when you consider all the factors - watering the plants, fertilizing them, making sure they get enough light. And all of that is just while they are seedlings, wait until you plant everything out in the garden and have to worry about pests like bugs, squirrels, rabbits, and deer! My goal through this podcast was to break down some of the stigma around the amount of work it takes to garden. It does take "work", but a better word for it would be "care". It requires a great deal of care & intentional acts that promote growth and help the plants to flourish. April is creeping to a close and gardening is on everyone's mind as we wonder what the future holds with the situation revolving around us currently. I think that uncertainty, a "prepper instinct", and the need to be self-sustainable is driving people to want to provide more for themselves - a big part of this is through Gardening. Let me know what I can do to help you grow your best garden yet! MAKE AMERICA GARDEN AGAIN --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
It has been a long time coming, but I was finally able to record a podcast with my brother Adam Neth. Adam is a personal trainer, natural bodybuilder, and has a complete passion & obsession with Fitness. On today's podcast I interview Adam and dive into his origin story to learn more about how he got interested in weight lifting and what he is doing now - working as a personal trainer at a gym, plus he has his own personal clients that he manages through online training. After that we talk about some of the modifications you can make to your home workouts to make them effective - even if you don't have a ton of equipment like machines or dumbbells. If you're interested in learning more about the different lifting programs that you can implement to build strength, power, and muscle - tune in and make sure you have a notebook handy because Adam is super knowledgable and there's a lot to learn in this episode! Hope you enjoy the podcast & drop your questions in the comments - or call into the station if you listen on Anchor - and we'll be happy to help & elaborate in a future podcast as well! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
Lately my mornings have been preoccupied by writing my Morning Pages, so I have neglected the podcast somewhat, but I begin this episode by talking about my new creative outlet. After that - it's all gardening! Last weekend my dad brought the tiller down to me and I began a massive overhaul of the garden that involved moving all 250+ Root Pouches out of the garden, dumping the busted pots, removing old ground cover, tilling the soil, re-grading, and finally re-covering the garden with 3 ounce woven ground cover fabric. This will serve as a weed barrier that should last 5-7 years, plus it gives the garden a beautiful, clean aesthetic that has been lacking for quite some time. Best of all - no more weeding. I finish up the episode talking about the plants that I just transplanted yesterday, March 28th. Those included: lettuce, spinach, arugula, broccoli, & green onions. Although I'm in growing zone 6, and could get frosts up until May 15th, I'm taking my chances with the mild spring - plus these crops are all very cold hardy - and if all else fails, I've got frost blankets as a backup! Let me know if you have any questions or anything I can do to help with you gardening season this year! And I would be humbled if you enjoyed the podcast and could subscribe to my channel - Mind Body Garden! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
This warm start to March has me itching to get out in the garden! It's still just a lil bit early, but with the warmer weather approaching, now's the Time to prep your garden for the growing season. For me this means grading my garden so that it is more level & has the proper drainage. Once I get the land situated, I'll be covering it with woven ground cover fabric. This will completely eliminate weeding, give me a grid to space plants without a tape measure, and it'll provide a much cleaner aesthetic to the garden. Today's episode dives into these topics and more of what's growing in the garden and in the project portion of my brain
In today's episode I dive into 5 gardening questions that I pulled from Quora. These questions range from what I'm growing in my garden this year to what you can plant in a 10 x 10 garden plot, and some tomato growing tips as well. In the last question I talk about how to make money from your garden. This then leads me down a path of how Gardening 4 Gains was started, the origin stories and how I feel that I've optimized my growing operations this year in order to maximize the efficiency of the size of the Garden in relation to what customers actually want. The biggest differentiator will be timing harvests out for seasonality and ensuring continual harvests this season - which is something that I've executed rather poorly on in the past. I hope this helps you with your gardening journey, but if you have specific gardening questions you want answered - let me know and I'll add it into the next episode
Today is officially known as CSA Day - the day to sign up for your CSA! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture - essentially it involves paying a farmer ahead of the season for a bi-weekly box of fresh produce from my garden. This model allows the farmer to use the funds for seeds, land, and supplies in preparation for the season ahead. In today's episode I talk about the progress of the seeds I've planted and talk about the next few rounds of planting I have planned out. I also discuss the difference between the grow rack at AM Leonard (using fluorescent lights) versus the grow rack in my personal Plant Lab (Stratum LED light bars)
The last week has been extremely wet here in Ohio and yesterday we got a few inches of snow ❄️ Despite spotty winter weather, we have had an extremely mild winter - warm temperatures and lots of moisture. In today's episode I talk about the effects this will have on the spring and summer gardening seasons and discuss a few ways that I plan on using to manage the pest populations naturally, organically, and using beneficial insects as much as possible
I talk a lot about my morning routines, but this week I have been focusing less on the time I wake up and more on the quality of the time I spend sleeping. Rather than force myself to get up and function on 6 hours of sleep, I have forced myself to set my alarm to allow for 7 and a half hours of sleep. Every single morning I have woken up before my alarm clock and have felt extremely refreshed & highly energetic and happy through the day. Aside from sleep I also casually slip in a little rant on the meaning of life
Last week I planted the first seeds of the season and they're already popping up like crazy in the various trays I planted them in. In this episode I talk about the different seed starting soil mixes I'm using including Berger BM2 and PittMoss Plentiful. Pitt Miss is a super interesting product where they replace peat moss with recycled paper. It's a much more sustainable alternative to peat and seems to produce some healthy onion seedlings so far! And although I like the sustainability value prop of the Pitt Moss, I am obsessed with the quality and consistency of the Berger BM2 germination mix. I also talk about the various trays that I'm using for propagation including 72 and 288 cell plug trays, plus some more hydroponics-type of seed starting supplies such as the HydroFloat and Grow Plugs, and the Oasis Rootcubes. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
Wow. Today was a rant for the books. I'm not sure what got into me but when I started talking about my new theme for the year, "Make America Garden Again", I got off on a tangent about putting in the work and then about doing things that you enjoy. Hope you enjoy this little rant and would be super humbled by your support for Gardening 4 Gains by purchasing a make America Garden again t-shirt from my website
Don't you love those mornings where you actually wake up early & have time to do the things you wanna do? Today was one of those mornings for me. I kicked it off with Morning Pages while guzzling coffee, then I got down to business and started some seeds
Today's podcast was meant to be a focus on the seeds that I'm planting for the CSA today, but as per usual, I went off on a tiny tangent at the beginning of the episode - but a much-needed one! In the rant I talk about my Morning Pages milestone - today was day 50 of starting my day off with writing 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing. This practice has helped elaborate on half-baked thoughts or assumptions and actually tease out the truth. I think that so often in our lives we build up these false beliefs from our fears & judgements, but we don't question them. Morning Pages has helped me cut through the noise and has given me permission to be creative and to spend time on developing myself. After my rant, I talk about my big plans for the garden today - planting broccoli, lettuce, spinach, greens and other early-season veggies. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel of winter and it begins with the seeds we plug today
In today's episode I talk about my big weekend project - collecting all of the ideas I have written in various notebooks, notepads, notes apps, or scraps of paper and FINALLY gathering them into one conglomeration of content & ideas. From here I can pick and choose from a vast list of ideas or I can begin to build a framework and a blueprint for my content topics moving forward. What this means is that I am finally creating instead of just collecting ideas into lists - the most important thing to is act on your creative urges, be the change you want to see in the world, create the content that you can't find. This all distills down into providing content that adds value to people's lives through information, entertainment, and inspiration
In today's episode I talk about prioritizing your work and your day - and really the importance of doing things for YOU instead of doing things to seek approval. We live in a world with a whirlwind of demands placed on us by society and by our Self. Listen in to hear how I deal with that distinction between what goals I have set and what is expected of me - and some hacks to make everyone happy
In today's podcast I talk about cultivating your interests into passion - and my take on how things develop from hobbies into side gigs and obsessions. My current obsessions revolve around Mind, Body, and Garden and in this episode I talk about how I have taken them from an interest into something that I want to improve upon for the rest of my life
It's been 60 degrees in Ohio for the past couple days but today we're back to snow & ice - but that isn't killing my excitement for spring, it's just fueling it! In today's episode I talk about the mild winter we have been having and how it's tempting me to get leafy greens and cold hardy crops planted out early. It can be done with the help of low tunnels and frost blankets, but if you screw up, you could lose your whole crop
The groundhog didn't see his shadow, so that means we've got an early spring on its way to us!
I am chomping at the bit to get some seeds planted, but I have to keep reminding myself to slow down and be patient. In the past I have started tomatoes too early and then run into issues with plugs becoming rootbound or I'll have to do extra work with transplanting into larger pots. I also talk about my plans to experiment with planting tomato seeds directly in 4 inch CowPots and testing that growth against the plants grown in the plug trays. I also talk about the joy of growing a garden versus the pressure of growing for a CSA - though this year I feel much more confident because I have created an elaborate strategy & plan that will ensure optimization of processes and a solid harvest all year round. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
Tyler and I have been lifelong friends and we are always texting each other about our creative ideas or life philosophy, and always end up in debate. That sparked us to step up to the podcast mic and dive into multiple topics including: thoughts on New year's resolutions, fitness & health goals, Creativity & Creative Process with art & music, and finally our big debate on whether life is a fight or life is a game. How do you play it? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
In today's episode I switch it up and am trying out a new segment - The Friday 5
Are you still going strong on your New Year's Resolutions? Resolutions are easy to forget about or discard unless you have a strong purpose & belief in what you want to accomplish. I focus in on my resolutions today, plus my goals of total mind body optimization, and how we should listen to our feelings & understand them - not run from them
Yesterday I started my first seeds of the season - Evergreen White Bunching Onions
In today's episode we're back to planning the garden and I talk about my goals for complete organization in the garden so that I can collect data and experiment properly with new fertilizers
Today's episode was meant to be about "planning" in general but once I got talking, I got sucked down the rabbit hole of wedding planning that is currently engulfing me and Kyla's lives
Last week Kyla brought me home an envelope full of top secret seeds for this year's garden. In today's episode I open them and give my 2 cents on each seed packet. I wasn't sure how this type of episode would work out but it was kind of exciting not knowing what I was going to pull out of the packet and what we will be growing in the garden this year. Of course we've got a few varieties of tomatoes, peppers, but there's also some unique Insta-worthy plants that are gonna be growing in the Garden of Gains. There's a ton of great seeds at Gurney's and I can't wait to get planting! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
In today's episode, we finally start getting into the nitty gritty of Starting a Garden from Seed. We will be beginning with the topics of Seeds, Soil, and Supplies - and that's exactly what I dive into in this episode! First I talk about the importance of figuring out your Growing Zone. From there you can work backwards to figure out when you should be planting your seeds. If you're in Zone 6 like me, you probably won't be starting seeds for a few more weeks, so now's the perfect time to round up your seeds & supplies so you're not scrambling later on. Secondly, you need to get your seeds! There are 3 main companies that I have gone through in the past: Gurney's, Burpee, and Johnny's Seeds. All of these are highly reputable companies - it just comes down to preference. And it's important to note that there are a BUNCH of great suppliers out there! Lastly after discussing seed selection, I dive into the supplies that you will need. Primarily this will include seed trays, plug trays, inserts, and I talk about my favorite hydroponic seed starting kit and briefly touch on Soil & Soilless Media Mixes - that will be the next blog in this series and I will be diving into Soil health, Soilless mixes, Soil Amendments, and more! Also, if you're curious where I'm getting my supplies & seeds, keep your eyes peeled for a blog that details all of that information and includes links for easy access to what we're using in the Garden of Gains
Late starts and missed moments of opportunity are easy to blame your procrastination on, but I've found the most important thing is to keep pressing onward. You can't beat yourself up over what you did wrong, you just gotta keep moving forward and accomplish the next things on your list. We either want it all or want nothing - what is that all about? Set your intentions and most important goals for the day and find a way to make it happen
Morning routines are either put on a pedestal or dragged through the mud, but I've been having great success with my routine and it's helped me build on my goals by being consistent. Today's episode talks about the importance of setting an intention for something you HAVE to do - for me that is writing my Morning Pages. Morning Pages are a stream of consciousness writing designed to get you out of creative funks and enhance your creativity. I talk about why I think morning routines are important for me and how writing and art is a form of therapy because of the expression and exploration of emotions that happens. What are you morning routines and how do you stick to them? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
After being at a trade show from Wednesday to Friday, I didn't think I would be doing much the rest of the weekend - but I'm so glad I did! Saturday I went indoor rock climbing at Urban Krag in Dayton with my brother Adam. We didn't know what to expect but we ended up having a blast, just climbing and playing like little kids
Day two of MANTS was another great one and even busier than the first day! I felt much more on top of my game after getting a full night's sleep and had a full day of talking shop and networking with growers and suppliers. Today's episode talks about the connections I made, the importance of trade shows and networking, and I came away with a few business ideas for Gardening 4 Gains as well. The show may be coming to an end but that just means the growing season is getting closer and I can't wait to get plants in the ground! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
It's a late one podcast today but that's because I had to wake up before 3am to catch a flight to the MANTS Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show. Today's episode is a recap of day 1 of the "masterpiece of trade shows" on its 50th anniversary. I talk about what I like and dislike about trade shows, my mission at shows, and why MANTS is the best show in the industry. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
Today's episode is focused on the importance of morning routines and how I'm using mine to unlock creativity. Recently I began the practice of mindfulness meditation and I have also started a creative course called The Artist's Way which involves writing "morning pages". Morning Pages are done every morning upon waking and essentially is a 3-page stream of consciousness writing - no topics, no flow, no sense-making necessary. The important thing is to Do, to write despite what the Censor in your head tells you. What do you do to unblock yourself creatively? Have you ever tried Morning Pages or read The Artist's Way? Would love to hear your thoughts on what gets your creative juices flowing
It may be January, but that doesn't mean the garden isn't on my mind! In today's episode I talk about the crops that I am focusing on growing: tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, root veggies like carrots, turnips, and beets, and then lettuce, spinach, leafy greens, and herbs. Last year I wasted a lot of space by testing out veggies that took up space, and didn't perfect up to expectations. I believe that my focus on succession planting will ensure a continuous harvest of greens, while the focus on long-term storage veggies like carrots, potatoes, turnips, and beets will ensure that we will have a continuous supply of those hearty veggies for customers. The next step for my garden is to lay out the full propagation plan so that I can understand the planting dates, space required for each crop, potential yields & harvest dates - and to figure out how many people I can feed from my 1,000 square foot backyard urban garden. This year I am putting much more focus on building my business & the products/services I offer. Currently my main product is the CSA (weekly veggie subscription box which I call the CropBox), but I want to expand into apparel, and ancillary gardening products - or maybe a product of the garden like herbal teas & spice blends. Also, today's episode was the first time I have recorded with a professional microphone - the Yeti Blue. I haven't listened back to much of the audio, but excited to take the podcast game to the next level! Either way & needless to say - I'm super psyched to grow Gardening 4 Gains in 2020! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
For the past few years I have actually written down my resolutions and I believe it helps me achieve the goals that I set for myself. Not only do I write them down, but do a monthly check-in to see how I'm doing and redirect course as needed. In today's episode I talk about how having an open mind is critical to allowing yourself set goals and to pursue them. I also talk about my resolutions ranging from daily rituals of mindfulness meditation and writing my Morning Pages to things we want to do to the house. Do you set resolutions every year? How do you hold yourself accountable? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
Last week I attended the Great Lakes Expo in Grand Rapids. This show is more focused on fruit & vegetable production and the small farmer looking to diversify their operations to create more opportunities for profit and attracting customers. Typically my main goal when attending trade shows is to find new suppliers or products, but there is just as much, if not more, value in attending the education sessions. In today's episode I talk about the education sessions I attended, some things I've learned, the ROI of those insights and trade shows in general, and some new types of crops I want to plant for the CSA next year as a result
In today's episode I am getting back to creating consistent content daily because I've been feeling so good lately that I haven't felt compelled to create. Not out of lack of inspiration, but just the fact that there are more important things in the world, like your life and your happiness
In today's episode I talk about the reason why I haven't been posting on social or producing podcasts. A couple weeks ago I was admitted to the hospital with what I thought was appendicitis but ended up being a bacterial infection (no real specific diagnosis and that's kind of another reason I've been holding off on talking about this). The cause could be tied back to heredity, food I ate, a bacterial or viral infection, but the only thing I can control is my diet, so that's the plan to manage this moving forward. Despite the abundance of restrictions on this low residue diet, I feel 1000x better than before. It's almost as if a fog has lifted and I'm only now seeing clearly for the first time
Today's episode begins with a focus on the body and the importance of shoulder mobility. I go through my mobility routine & talk about how I feel like being more mobile is allowing me to build more muscle
I started my morning off with a wild goose chase for coffee filters, but was forced to settle on some gas station coffee & Tim Hortons. That fueled my first morning lift in a while and I feel amazing! Nothing better than morning exercise to wake the body & mind
All year I felt like I have struggled with finding my true purpose for Gardening 4 Gains but I feel like I am finally figuring it out. In today's episode I talk about struggle and how it can either define you or challenge you to become better. I think a lot of it depends on how you frame things in life and whether you take things personally, or just accept the world for what it is; a puzzle to be solved or a game to be played
Now that freezing temperatures are the norm, it's time to start growing Microgreens on the Grow Rack
In today's episode I go off about judgement by people, but mostly talk about the phantom judgement that we all create in our heads in relation to the proverbial "they". We live in the most connected society that had ever existed and I believe it's creating a ton of anxiety because the human mind is not tuned to realize the shear scale of the entire world, it is more oriented to the community or the Self. And in this episode I focus on the Self because it is all we can control in this world but we are creating boundaries for ourselves and reasons why not, or why we can't, instead of working to overcome our doubts, fears, and imposter syndrome to blossom into everything you are meant to become
Today on Mind Body Garden I talk about the weekend and things me & Kyla are doing to improve our living spaces
We got our first freeze of the season last night so growing outdoors is completely done for this year! In today's episode I talk more about how a local networking event sparked more belief in myself and my super small business. It's easy to downplay things that you're doing and it was so refreshing to see how many people had a genuine interest in my Veggie Boxes and my mission to colonize Piqua with gardens and greenhouses. I also talk more about the reason behind me growing and wanting to spread the power that fresh veggies give your mind & body
Last night me & Kyla attended an event called Pints & Preneurs at 311 Drafthouse in Piqua. I was hesitant about attending because my business is so small, but thankfully Kyla dragged me out of the house and we made a ton of quality connections with local entrepreneurs! This event was exactly what we needed though - it's great to connect with people but it's also HUGE when you get validation of your idea or interest in your products and services. Thank you to Piqua Chamber of Commerce, Piqua Development office, and Launch Dayton for such an awesome mixer! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support
This weekend marked the end of the 2019 garden season ☹️ I harvested the last of the ghost, Habanero, jalapeños, and tomatoes with plans to make a big batch of hot sauce and then ripped out the plants with plans to rearrange the garden for an optimal 2020 growing season. Today's episode talks about the cleanup, lessons learned this year and then dives into the plans for optimizing production of tomatoes using the lower and lean method
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