Gardening 4 Gains Plant Rant

Social Media has been on the chopping block since day 1 - they say it is changing people's behaviors, it is designed to make us addicted, or it's threatening democracy. But I think we lazily blame the platform when it all goes back to those creating & reacting to inputs into the system - simply put, people are problem, not social media. We have an extreme need to demonize the medium because we don't want to believe that the poison spewing out on Facebook & Twitter is a product of our sick minds, but it's because of how software engineers designed the algorithm. In this episode I'm not on as much of a high horse as the preceding sentences, but go into reasons I took a break from social and what was going on in my mind, not what's wrong with the platform. How do you express your creativity? And what holds you back from being 100% You? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support

I love the weekends for relaxation, but it's even more satisfying after doing some much needed housework & reorganization of the furniture

In today's episode I take a slightly different route than the usual gardening questions, tips, or updates and wanted to dive into something I've been sitting on for a while - Mind, Body, Garden. That is my mantra for life and it's all reliant on Happiness - doing things that truly make you happy & setting yourself up for a happy life by caring for those most basic principles of Mind, Body, Garden. I love growing plants, but my true passion is growing Happiness, and my mission is to sow those seeds as far and wide as I can. It's time to cultivate Health & Happiness in the Garden of Life!

Today I talk about our nice relaxing weekend and some of the projects we tackled including our attempt to better train our dogs. We always chalk their behavior up to being rescues but then we decided we needed to make a change so we started watching Dog Whisperer and we're basically pro dog psychologists

It's a short week but that doesn't mean I'm going to lose my motivation to keep knocking projects off my list! Today's episode goes into 5 goals I have for the week beginning with reorganizing and revamping the Plant Lab Studio

Today I decided to throw some "gains" into the podcast. We start off with a gardening question and then go into a few questions centered around natural bodybuilding & weight lifting, Pre-workout & supplementation, and a few tips to reduce your chance of injury when lifting

I start this episode off by talking about a project I did today - taking cuttings of landscaping plants like boxwoods, Japanese maples, and hydrangeas. If I did it right, we'll have a ton of plants when spring rolls around! The main feature of this episode is talking about something I don't talk much a about - my business Gardening 4 Gains. It has been something that is slowly growing as I learn the ins & outs of farming & growing plants, but something I want to continue to diversify the income of so that I can eventually turn a side hustle into a living breathing thing of its own. I talk about my CSA and dive into 4 other ideas for expanding my business & funding the expansion of land

Today's Garden Show dives into 5 more questions about gardening and covers a wide range of topics. First I talk about what veggies you can grow that store well over a long winter & how you can garden and grow fruits & vegetables year round in zone 5 or 6

Starting a garden can seem daunting, there's so much you need to know and so much to learn. In this episode I break down the basics for starting a garden and how it all depends on executing the foundations exceptionally well. I also talk about the benefits of eggshells in the garden and how they can help prevent tomatoes from cracking or developing blossom end rot (the black spots on the bottom of tomatoes, caused by a calcium deficiency)

We're keeping the Gardening Show running today with 5 more questions from Quora

We're back to the Gardening Show

So, I was planning on answering some gardening questions on today's podcast, but got severely sidetracked talking about our relaxing & recharging weekend. The weekends are my favorite because me and Kyla are able to get so much done. This weekend we just chilled, caught up on housework, lifted some weights, gardened, and made some amazing beef stew packed with veggies from the garden. I think that weekends with a mixture of hard work & hard relaxation set the tone for the week. I'm super recharged and ready to tackle the week and all the things I want to accomplish - starting with the podcast and who knows where else the motivation will flow

Testing out a new format for a Gardening Show around questions I am getting from people on the app Quora. If you're not familiar, Quora is an app where people ask & answer questions. There's so many questions that I want to dive in on but typing it out takes too long, so here's my thoughts on: Growing with Hydroponics, Raised Bed Gardening, Maximizing Vegetable Yield, Flowers in the Garden, and talking about Nightshade plants

In today's episode I talk about my transition to my job as a Product Manager and some of the challenges that come along with it. I also dive into the Trade War with China and how that had disrupted supply chains and forced businesses to adapt to the ever-changing world. I think that the trade war has obviously hurt businesses in the short term, but I think it will also prove who the "real" businesses are in terms of how they adapt to the markets and are able to come out on top. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support

There's a lot covered in this short episode but I start off giving some quick updates on the garden & a test I plan on running with my irrigation system vs hand-watering plants

We had perfect weather this weekend to finish up some garden projects that I've been dragging out for far too long. The biggest one - completing the drip irrigation system. This allows us to provide targeted watering & fertilization to each Root Pouch - either with a gentle sprinkler-type of flow, or a slow drip. This is important because the water stays in the pots rather than running off into the ground, the plants are able to utilize more of the resources at the slow drip rate vs being overwhelmed by water from a watering wand

We're inching closer to finishing up our irrigation system, but it keeps raining every single time I work on it! In this episode I dive into why I'm installing an irrigation system - to provide consistent and highly targetted nutrient and water levels and remove the complete reliance on Mother Nature. I also discuss the benefits of rain water, how pH helps with nutrient uptake, and planning for our Fall Garden. And even though the garden is bursting with growth, we're starting microgreens indoors again to jumpstart our CropBox offering and provide the most value we can for the remainder of the growing season. That leads into another big topic of Asking for the Sale and realizing you're bringing value, not being unrealistic or salesy. Really loving being back into the podcast flow! Let me know what other topics you want to hear some more about and I'll plug them into future podcasts! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support

I've been pretty quiet for the past few weeks and I'm about to explode, so I had to spill some thoughts on the podcast this morning. We start off discussing why I've been quiet, what I've been up to in the garden of Life and some of the goals & aspirations that are running through my mind about gardening and how I envision my business evolving and blooming into something that can eventually stand on its own

This summer has been a wild one so far. From buckets of rain to 100 degree days, you just never know what to expect

Vacation has almost become a bad word in our hardworking society, but it is completely normal and necessary to continue to be productive, allow yourself to recharge, and generally to keep your sanity. In this episode I talk about why it's important to disconnect from work for short stints and force yourself to explore passions outside of work - go for a hike, paint a picture, get lost in the moment and forget about time for a while. To end the episode, I got on a little bit of a rant on how Facebook & Snapchat will use VR (virtual reality) to improve communications in our digital world, and how I think it will help eliminate bias and discrimination. Would love to hear your thoughts on the episode! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardening4gains/support