I’m so excited to have a chance to interview Pam Farley from the website Brown Thumb Mama today on my channel. Pam is talking about her new book, The First Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening.
Pam’s book is amazing and you will love learning more about growing fruits and vegetables in containers!
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If you would like to purchase Pam’s book you can get in on Amazon at this link:
https://amzn.to/3To1fv8
Just a quick note, shortly after filming this interview Pam tragically lost her husband to cancer. Purchasing Pam’s book from the link above is a great way to help support her and her family
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Would you like to see the full interview? The full 1-hour interview is only available to members of The Gardening Academy. You can sign up for The Gardening Academy using a 14 Day Free Trial at the link below. Come see the rest of Pam’s interview and all the other great resources we have at the Academy! Here’s the link:
https://onlinegardeningschool.com/p/the-gardening-academy-2
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To learn more about Pam, here are her links:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrownThumbMama/featured
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrownThumbMama
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brownthumbmama/
Website: https://brownthumbmama.com/
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Hey guys Rick Stone here from Stony Acres gardening welcome to my channel make sure you get subscribed while I’m here we’ve got a special little event going on for you today that is a little bit different than what we usually do on the channel I have with me today Pam
Farley from the website Brown Thum mama and we’re excited to have her here Pam just released a new book and uh we’re gonna talk about her book on container gardening today um before we get started let me just give you a little bit of a rundown is what we’re going to do is
We’re going to we’re going to do an interview here that’s probably going to last 45 minutes to an hour total uh with Pam and we’ve got some questions that have been submitted by the members of the gardening Academy and uh it’s just a lot of fun stuff that we’re going to be
Talking about here on YouTube we are going to go for about 15 to 20 minutes uh with Pam we’ll talk about her book we’ll talk about some answer a few questions and then if you would like to hear the full interview then you can come over and join us in the gardening
Academy and there’s a link in the description of this video you can click on there to come join us and get the full uh interview there um also to make it maybe a little bit easier for you to come and get the full interview we are
Going to do a 14-day free trial for you right now so if you click on that link you can sign up for 14 days for free watch the rest of Pam’s interview and then see what else we have to offer over in the garden Academy okay all right Pam
Welcome I’m glad to have you here it’s fun to do this this is the first time I told Pam before we started I’m a little bit nervous because I’ve never done anything like this before so kind of be fun for having me yeah yeah so um we’re
Excited because you have this new book I have my coffe right here that um we’re going to be talking about today but before we we start in on the book why don’t you tell us just a little bit about yourself uh where are you from how long have you been gardening tell us
About your garden a little bit my family and I live in Northern California zone 9 and I have been gardening since I was little with my dad and my grandpa um in our house now I’ve been container gardening um in the ground gardening and raised bed gardening for over 25 years
So had I had some good years and some bad years but that’s gardeners know that’s that’s often how it goes yeah that is so so you’ve kind of got a mix then you’ve gotot a lot of containers obviously from the pictures by the way did you take the pictures most of the
Many of them not all but most just gorgeous it looks like you just got an amazing Garden so how much of your garden is container versus inground versus raised bed right now all of my fruit trees are in containers um so that’s six most of the veggies are in
Raised beds uh blueberries in containers of course because they need special soil and then the artichokes in the front yard of course are directly in the ground cool all right um well so let’s talk about your book so first off for those of you that didn’t see it before
It is called The firsttime Gardener container food gardening and this is a just a super good so I’ve actually had the book for I don’t know it’s three or four months at least I I’ve read it through and uh we we had to get some time scheduled for this just a beautiful
Really good solid beginner’s guide to growing vegetables in containers who who is your target for this book when when you wrote this book who are you trying to Target so just like you said this book is written for the absolute beginner there is no question that’s too silly or too um
Basic I I show step by step with photos how to plant a seed how to plant a Seedling what does full sun mean um in any industry there’s a lot of jargon and coming from the corporate world I I remember this and that those were the kinds of
Questions that people would ask me and they would be so embarrassed to say you know what what does you know is it full sun if there’s you know shade from the fence for an hour or two what and people would you know be afraid that they couldn’t garden and get all wound up
About things that nobody had explained to them and they were ashamed of having basic questions and that’s not you can’t learn if you don’t ask questions so I wanted to make sure this was open and welcoming especially to the the new gardeners that have come on the scene in
The last few years well I I think you nailed it I love a lot of the you you’ve got just some tables that have really good information you know sizes of containers to use for the different props and everything it’s just really good well done book so so good job is
This your first book or do you have other books that you published I have written this is my first book with quto which is a big publishing house I’ve published some other books on Homemade natural cleaners um essential oils and things like that they’re also available
Online but this is my first real book with a real publisher so let’s let’s kind of tackle some of the content talk a little bit about um you know growing in containers which is is something that’s always interesting to me and something that I’ve struggled with um I’ll talk as we
Get a little bit later in I I’ve got a few questions a few things that I struggle with and I’m hoping you can help me with but um why do you think that it’s important that people learn how to grow their own food there’s lots of reasons um there’s
Of course it’s fun there’s a huge sense of accomplishment it’s great for kids and of course it saves money and I think a lot of that a lot of us it kind of came to light when we were all at home so much um it can be fun to
Grow house plants you can grow herbs on your window sill you don’t have to you know immediately plow up your front yard and plant you know an entire jungle you can just do little things that will help your budget that will help your health and you get an incredible sense
Of accomplishment when you can say oh this you know this Strawberry Shortcake I grew this strawberries or oh here neighbor you know new neighbor we had a bumper crop of cucumbers here’s a few cucumbers that you can have that kind of thing what would you consider maybe your
Top five tips or you know what how whatever number of tips um that you would give to somebody that’s new to container gardening oh that’s a good question so I think the the biggest thing to remember is and this is kind of a logical thing but choose the right size
Container for your plant for example if you are putting a um you know you’re going to have a lemon tree and when you buy it it’s just a little stick you know it’s a tiny little thing and you might think oh I can just you know put this in
A five gallon bucket and it’ll be fine not it might be fine for a year but every time you replant it you’re going to kind of shock it and so it’s it’s better to put it in a container that’s the right size for the finished plant also watering is something that I see
People get very agitated and concerned about and there’s a very easy way to see if your plant needs to be watered you have 10 of these and you can just put your finger deep into the soil and see if the soil is is damp or not and some
People will will say oh you have to water you know twice a day or if it’s hot or if it’s oh and and watering can be very you know people get very agitated about it but but it’s easy to check and and that is something that will definitely help I mean your plant
Can’t live with too much water or with not enough water so that’s an easy one to check cool um what about and and I know in the book you have a a pretty good list of some of the best crops for uh new gardeners to to grow in containers what
Would you say are your top five your your favorite ones to Growing containers so my number one is strawberries I think strawberries are like a gateway drug um they’re great for kids they’re um they’re pretty fail safe so and of course they never make it in the house
Like the kids just sit out there and just pick them off and eat them right off the plant zucchini is another really good one it’s again almost fail fail proof um the seeds are big so they’re easy for kids to plant they grow really well and they produce like
Crazy um we’re big fans of cucumbers cucumbers will need a trellis or some kind of a structure to grow up because they’re Vining um strangely enough I found out my f my favorite aunt who is a a very good Gardener doesn’t like cucumbers I was like how are we related this is even
Possible um something that blueberries grow great in containers um they are a little bit more intermediate uh they need special soil and you need usually need two blueberries so that they can pollinate but that’s um another one of my favorites a little more unusual but
When when you you know say oh yeah I grew these blueberries people will just wow let’s see and some other I clearly have some some favorites um cantaloupe again we’ll need something to climb up I I actually grow my cantaloupe up a tomato cage because it’s what I had um
And let’s see yeah I can see we’re really heavy on the fruit here I think that’s that’s something that’s that definitely has to do with having kids and bell pepper i amazingly enough there’s a picture in the book of I grew a bell pepper plant in a five gallon it
Might have even been smaller than that a three gallon it had 10 peppers on this plant I mean it was a incredible super producer so impressive cool cool um we you talked a little bit earlier about the container sizes and and I know in the book you mentioned BFG uh is is the
Abbreviation that you gave there why don’t you explain that talk a little bit more about how we can can come up with the right size container I thought this would be a good way for people to remember it when they’re at the Garden store because there’s so many choices
And so many plants and you might just you know um so The BFG stands for big enough so you want the container to be big enough to support the full grown plant so for example for radishes you could use you know a much smaller container than you would for your blueberry bush
Or your lemon tree or something like that you want it to be you know if you’re growing carrots it needs to be nice and deep of radishes of course are a lot smaller so it could be shallow the f is for food safe and this one is important because I’ve seen a lot
Of pictures and discussions on the internet about oh plant your to plant your potatoes in this stack of old tires and and and you can use you know upcycle this random thing to grow your food in and I suggest that if it’s not something that you would eat your dinner off of
You should not be growing food in it and you know there’s Planters get hot and if you’re growing potatoes in a stack of tires you just don’t know if there’s chemicals in the tires that are going to get in the soil and getting your food
And there are so many ways to get food safe containers that it’s I I feel like we don’t have to resort to these containers that they that they talk about on the internet if you have let’s say A you know a beautiful bucket that I don’t
Know like that great grandpa used to use for milking and you’re not sure if it’s got lead in it or if it’s safe but it’s sentimental and important then take a food safe container and slip it inside that decorative container that’s always a good solution and G is for good
Drainage and this is super important because if your plants are in wet soggy soil they’re not going to they could get root rot they’re not going to live and when you’re growing in a container there is a finite amount of soil and so over time salts and fertilizers and things
Can build up and you want to make sure that when you’re with you’re watering the water drains out of the bottom and so it leeches away those extra salts and things so if your container doesn’t have holes in the bottom you’ll want to drill them drill holes in the bottom and I
Show how to do that and and then you just monitor the Water by putting your finger in the soil and seeing if it comes out damp or not okay while while we’re on the watering thing that that’s my biggest struggle and and part of that
Is because the rest of my garden is kind of on this automatic schedule I mean I still have to go turn it on but I know that every Monday and every Friday I’m watering my garden whereas containers I struggle with a little bit more do you
Have any hints for us as to how to make the whole watering process maybe remembering to water uh a little bit easier so I I’m a little bit spoiled I have my containers on an automatic drip system um I still have to turn it on
Like you say but it then it just it runs for a while an important thing to remember is I mean you can there’s lot of ways to remember you can put a note in your calendar um you know make make it a habit to you maybe you’re going to
Go for your morning walk and you just go check and see if a representative container needs water and then you know oh I got to do that when I get back um it’s important to not I’ve seen um a lot of places have the the kind of sprinklers that
Go and they they go from the top that can often cause problems with your plants because if the leaves are wet it just opens them up to the possibilities of fungus and mold and things like that so whenever possible I always try to water the soil either with like a dram
Water wand or something like that um that gives a shower of of water at the base and it’s okay if the water drains out that’s good that’s leeching the soils an extra fertilizer out of the container so after a while also you’ll kind of get in the swing of it and
You’ll say oh you know the I can see that you know the radishes in their little shallow container are probably going to need to be watered every day but you certainly don’t need to water your lemon tree every day that’s going to be in a big container that holds a
Lot more water so you get you get into a rhythm after after just a few a few days um what about soil let’s talk a little bit about soil how do we choose the best is there do you I mean I saw some recipes do you usually make your
Own or do you buy store bought you know already premixed what do you do with soil so I I usually mix my own container soil just because in the long run it turn turn out to be less expensive I make my own compost I’m and that’s a
Component of that I’m I’m working on doing Worm Composting I haven’t gotten there yet so that’s a that’s another goal of mine a lot of folks will just scoop up soil from their in the ground garden and put it in a container and I don’t recommend that in
Most places your garden soil is not ideal it’s here in particular it’s kind of thick and has clay and you want your container soil to be loose and porous but still hold water because again you’ve got a finite space for your plant to grow in and so
If you know plants in the ground can you know reach out and go look in all directions for the nutrients they need but the container plant is is stuck so you want the the soil to have you know needs to have a little space for oxygen
To get to the roots and the water and the fertilizer so it either mixing up your own or if if you’re just starting with a container or two there are great mixtures at the Garden Center and the folks at the Garden Center can help you pick out the right one so maybe without
Giving away the recipe what are the ingredients that you put in your so want buy the book to get the recipe but oh yes of course so it’s it’s a pretty simple recipe cocoa cor perlite vermiculite worm castings and compost and there’s a specific ratio of course
And you mix everything together and then you’ve got all you’ve got everything you need for the soil now you might notice that there’s not chemical fertilizers in there A lot of times the bagged stuff has chemical fertilizers in it and you know slow release and
Da I choose not to use those because I want to control which fertilizers I use I like to use more natural ones like kelp meal and um and different things like that so one of the advantages of of mixing your own it’s kind of like making your
Own potato soup instead of buying the can you can you know add your own stuff to it and it comes out so so much better well we’re both on the the same lines of thinking there so I agree with you for sure um all right so maybe one last
Question before we kind of finish up with the YouTube segment of this video um what about problems when when we have pests and and diseases and stuff like that in your book how do you deal with with those kind of issues so every Garder there’s there’s going to be
Something and it’s it’s important not to think you’re a failure because a bug came along or something nibbled off the plant as soon as you planted it that that happens to everybody and one of the things that I saw with new gardeners is that um and many Garden books is Garden
Books will say oh if you have such and such worm this is what you do or if you have da D well if I’m a brand new Gardener I don’t know that I have you know know a tobacco hornworm or if I have da I just know that um you know the
The leaves of my bell pepper have squiggles all over them what what’s what are squiggles so many you know in the the plant groups online and you know what’s this so I was very fortunate that the publisher allowed me to do like a a reverse troubleshooting
So the it’s led by the problem so the problem is I have squiggles on my leaves and then oh this is this is what it probably is and this is what you can do or oh there’s my tomato leaves have these black crumbs on them what does
That mean oh that’s tomato worm poop here’s what you look for here’s what you do because to so many beginning gardeners it’s just a mystery why did my tomatoes have bites out of them what’s happening what’s going you know why are my tomatoes splitting so it’s it’s geared definitely
Toward the beginnner so that they know what to look for and what to do yeah and I love that as part of your book that that you handled it that way I think that’s a a clever way to do it um to to kind of go backwards at it and and talk
About the the symptoms instead of because you’re right I mean I get people asking all the time you know so what’s happening to my plant well it could be I mean there’s like a million species of bugs on this planet you know probably more than that
I don’t know you know yeah right let’s figure let’s keep them out let’s figure out how to keep them away you know okay Pam thank you for being here I appreciate the the time that you spent with us so that you guys know in the description of the video I have included
Links to all of Pam’s uh social media her website uh We’ve included a link for her book and again the book’s name is the first-time Gardener container food gardening it is available on Amazon and so I’ve included a link down there um Depending on time of year there’s some
Some really good prices and and and uh you know the the the list price is $26 and it’s definitely worth the 26 but um I’ve seen at a timer or two and considerably less than that and so uh a fun book really good book this is I mean
It’s going to be a great resource I’m excited to have this book with me I’ve read it cover to cover and it it’s just got a lot of of great stuff so Pam thank you for being here uh there is a Kindle version available as well um so
Beautiful pictures just a great little book check out Pam’s uh information and uh all of her links are down below and then for those of you here on YouTube as well we we did end up going uh a little over an hour for this total interview and uh we have put the extended
Interview as part of the garding academy so the garding academy is our our monthly membership service and we have just a ton of information for you there interviews like this we do many courses we have over 40 different mini courses that are available for you we do a Q&A
Session every month and so there’s a lot of great information and if you want the full version of this interview uh you can go and sign up for the gardening Academy at the link down below and for a special offer for you right now we do
Have a 14-day free trial so you can go and finish watching Pam’s interview and check out see all of the different resources that are available for you in the gardening Academy there’s a link in the description of the video you can click on you sign up for that 14-day
Free trial and uh I know you’re going to like it like seven out of 10 people that join that trial end up staying you’re going to love it so um just click on the link you can get signed up watch the rest of Pam’s interview and then come
See all of the other great things that we have for you there all right Pam thanks again for being here we appreciate you and make sure that you guys go pick up her book it’s awesome you’re gonna love it and uh we got this video out just in time for the holidays
So this would make a great gift for you as well so uh send those those to all your family as well okay thank you guys for being here everybody have a great week we’ll talk to you later happy gardening
4 Comments
Hello God bless you guys. Have a great day.
What's the cost after 14 free days
My parents turned 80 in March and May 2023, I'm suggesting container and raised bed gardening
I tried blueberries transplant in June this year and blueberries didn't bloom and both vine and fruit died after two months