Interviewing My New Best Friend: JACK BARNWELL! :: Garden Trends, Garden Mistakes, & Aquapots!

Welcome Gardeners! While at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, I was able to convince my best friend Jack to film an interview! He is the MOST interesting person to talk to. You realize his mind is always turning and he’s 10 steps ahead of you at all times! 😉 Come join me as I get some free gardening advice from the one and only, Jack Barnwell! 😆 Enjoy!

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#gardening #jackbarnwell #northwestflowerandgardenfestival

Hey everyone Janie here welcome back welcome back to the Northwest flower and garden festival I have a very special guest for you all you’ve seen him he’s he’s done a little cameo in Monday’s video but he agreed to do an interview with me this is Jack Barnwell of Jack

Barnwell designs inventor of aquapots and my new best friend so how’s it going it’s going great yeah the show’s been great it’s been fun it’s it’s been nice being out here in Seattle um the weather’s been pretty nice it’s not been bad it’s been mild no rain so

That’s been nice and um I don’t get to spend a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest so uh trip out here has been cool to meet with and engage with uh a lot of people in this industry in the market in this area whatever and um it’s

Always fun to have conversations and meet new people at these shows you always you know get ideas going aren’t they the most interesting people like they’re just they all have their own ideas and it’s just so much fun well in this show you know the people that are

Coming and and walking the show and you know walking through in the gardens and everything like that it feels like they’re real gardeners yes the people that are here are really really into plants and gardening and just are super super jazzed for Springtime getting out in the gardens and everything because

They’ve had a long gray you know kind of winter or whatever and uh and it’s time to sort of turn the corner March is right around the corner and Springtime so it’s there’s excitement in the air here they feel like our type of people they are everybody I talked to it feels

Like lot of garders a lot of lot of plant Geeks yes you know plant nerds here for sure that are and there’s so many plants I mean this is I I have done a lot of shows and stuff like this over the years and this one there’s a

Tremendous amount of really cool plants from rare rare rare orchids and all these really amazing house plants and just I I noticed that Growers are getting really really excited about introducing new rare and fun plants and genetics into the market because people you know consumers and gardeners are are

Looking for that you know they’re they’re really looking for there’s a market I mean huge yeah there’s a huge market for you know plant passionate people you like that alliteration there I love it I’m going to put it on the screen plant people the interesting thing is

All these booths that are here that are selling plants they’re selling out constantly and there everybody’s constantly re restocking everybody’s walking around with like bags full of of plants and and it’s cool because it’s a fun show for sure people are definitely getting excited about you know about

Stocking up on some of these really rare unique plants I think the prices are really good too that I’ve seen at this particular show anyway and I think it’s it’s an indication that in general you know the market in general they’re getting a lot of really unique plants

Out to these garden centers and out there that is is it’s very different you know in 10 years ago a house plant there was like a handful of right options for house plants as far as indoor stuff right and you know and and and even in the in the in the actual gardening

Outdoor gardening in the shrub perennial and an annual gardening world and bulbs and everything the diversity and variety that’s coming out now is really really exciting and I think it’s sort of this you know whole gardening Revolution that’s happening yeah um whether people are necessarily identifying that or

Talking about it or not right I think that there’s a there’s this younger group of of Millennials or whatever um they’re called gener genes I don’t even know what I am I’m borderline Millennial like like I’m on like the last day of millennial oh you are really so yeah

Since I’m significantly younger than you right no yeah no no so does that make me a millennial I’m a millennial am I I don’t think so I don’t think I was born in 81 I was born in 84 so you’re a whatever was before a millennial I’m I’m

Older than a millennial you’re older than a millennial all right anyway anyway so you young Millennials so they’re pushing they’re kind of pushing the industry they are they are they really really are and it’s cool because you know for for Landscape Architects designers uh that are that are out there

Playing with these plant pallets you know 10 15 20 years ago we just didn’t have as much to play with or we really had to get out there and seek out and find interesting and unusual plants which is hard and when when you have projects that are go go go

Go go and you’ve got all these installations going it’s it’s often just way too easy to go with the sort of norm and and we saw you know especially through the through the 80s 90s you know 2000s where a lot of Landscapes looked exactly the same it looks exactly the

Same and and there’s still there’s still some of that but I I do believe that now with the introduction of so many really great new plants and and people being educated you know now online you can you know you can follow people like yourself um and yourself right and you can and

You can get excited about and see new introductions and see new plants and learn about all these new plants and go to your garden centers and say hey can you get this in and they and they can you know they can and so the ability to ship plants and and order online or

Whatever you have to do to be able to get really really cool plants is getting easier and easier and easier and so that has allowed Gardens to get you know more diverse and but you got to be vocal about it you got to go to your garden

Center and say absolutely I want this plant I want this plant can you get this plant cuz they don’t know otherwise they’re going to keep getting the same boring stuff right so yeah you definitely have to be vocal and support your local garden centers in that way

Say Hey I want to support you all my friends and girlfriends want to support you um you know let us help you to find some of these new plants and find some of these new opportunities because we we’re really excited about this you know these cool things we want to try them in

Our own Gardens stuff so right I I I know you know being in the industry I’m seeing so many cool cool um you know just the evolution of like the flowering shrubs that Spring Meadow has brought to the the industry brought to the world is really inredible what are you most

Excited about like this year what do you want to plan my number one most I’m this year for some reason I’m just jazzed on roses okay roses you’re going to see a lot of roses in my designs I’m putting a lot of roses into my Michigan designs and stuff like

That that upcoming spring and summer and for a long time I steered away from roses because it was like okay great we’re going to knockout roses which everybody else has or whatever and there there was just not a lot of options in the industry that were readily available

For for contractors and stuff and um but now there’s so many great genetics and really really cool roses and I’m most excited about the flavor at yes Rose apricot the aot honey one so at last that that apricot kind of um colored rose that came out few years ago

Beautiful um is stunning right I love the color it’s a really really tough Rose it just blooms all summer long and so I was like yeah maybe I need to get back into roses right yeah and now there’s there’s a whole incredible series that Proven Winners has come out

With in roses that are just awesome and the flavor at being an edible Rose is super exciting it’s you know it’s not only beautiful and the scent is like intoxicating they just stunning roses but you can take the whole you know flower sprinkle it over a salad I mean

How romantic is that be like honey let’s just have a little you put it in your Edible Garden and it’s edible and beautiful and they’re tough too you know roses people kind of think about and they’re like oh you know I don’t want to deal with all the past issues and

Diseases and everything and and but they just the rose breeding and the introductions of all these great new roses is is changing the my it’s changing my opinion and perception about roses so I’m going to be using a lot more roses have you tried rise up embes

The orange one no oh okay it’s so beautiful in real life it’s so so rise up EMB Rose from proven Winter Spring Meadow I’ll put a picture on the screen right now I have it in my garden planting that with purple is it’s gorgeous so all right so more roses this

Year you heard from Jack he’s more roses hydranges of course are always like the jam um lot of really new ones do you have like do you have any I do I’m I’m really into cerous right now and like weird contorted um it’s it’s an evergreen it’s like it’s like a cedar

Right okay and so but they have more of a um kind of architectural interesting ranching and everything like that too them so they’re just fun to work into containers um and and then transitioning them out into the landscape they’re tough they’re typically pretty darn deer resistant oh that’s good which is huge

Um deer resistant plants is a big deal a lot of the stuff that I design um in Michigan has to be yeah major deer pressure on on a lot of those Gardens so I’m always looking for you know really deer proof proof deer resistant plants and new deer proof

Plants is always fun CU a lot of people get into the same old same old same old and that’s just not as fun as a designer you want to be like using new things not only new plants but new tech right you know new new products and stuff always

Looking for new Hardscape products new you know um structure products and stuff and that’s that’s um are you are you fun so are you using a lot more of the structures in your design you think yeah you know I think there’s a there’s a big Trend there’s a big um push toward this

Well there and there has been for years but the Outdoor Living experience the outdoor living room um you know with with Co there was a huge amount of spending that went into making the home the you know the Oasis right the where you go for fun you know you spend your

Time there and and a tremendous amount of investment went into people’s backyards and making their outdoor spaces much much much more uh inviting and their station or whatever and so there are some really cool companies that are on The Cutting Edge of innovating some awesome pergola structures with you know push button uh

Drop- down screens and like the louvered vents that when it’s raining the the um there’s like sensors so the louvers will close automatically as soon as itness how fun yeah so you can have you know fairly nice outdoor furniture um and protect it and it’s and it’s really well

Protected and Stu so the the kind of improvements to Pera design and pergola Style with the conveniences of U you know having a bug proof clean environment out there is really exciting a lot of encourage people to go outside and be out out there and and you know

You don’t have the kind of inconveniences or the annoyances of like bugs and yeah you know rain dirty whatever like some people are a little more sensitive I personally love being dirty as you know as heck and getting out there and I don’t really care but um

But you know certainly some of my clients want to have um a a cleaner Outdoor Experience and so there’s there’s products that are really really cool for that um great new you know outdoor Furnishings really cool outdoor rugs outdoor lighting the the lighting world has come so far really there’s so

Many cool e easy easy lighting um you know products and lighting kits and stuff to add outdoor lighting low voltage simple simple systems that just enhance the space and make it so much more inviting at night you know I love all that stuff now they’re LEDs it costs

No money to run them you just install them and then you know very very minimal minimal Pro um Power draw and you know they you don’t need an electrician or anything like that to install this stuff it’s it’s really nice it’s again a lot of companies being super Innovative and

Bringing products to Market that make it a lot more approachable and fun for people to like invest in their outdoor spaces and be successful with those Investments so you know great plants great products getting people out there to be successful and and then and and frankly they enjoy their space that much

More and it’s just it’s a good thing they use it they spend all this money on it and they got to use it when you come to an event like this do you get are your turning are you thinking about all the fun stuff that you’re going to do

And see yeah I mean every time I come to an event like this I always seeing something unexpected right that Sparks a little bit of a cool idea or something like that and it might be a little bit out of the box so for example right around the corner here there’s that

Arbor right there with a huge birdhouse above it have you seen that yet okay all right so we’re going to put a photo of it photo right here so right around the corner right there there’s this that entry like Arbor pergola that that you could put over top of like a garden gate

Or an entry into a garden space and on top of it there’s a big huge bird house built huh as kind of as the roof of this little structure it’s really cool and I I started to think how could I sort of tweak that or redesign that or think

About that because that’s really cool thinking about doing a birdhouse you know combo of the two I don’t know see just see the little funny things like that you’re like you know and then it just gets the wheels that’s a good idea that’s a good idea that’s what these

Shows that’s why these shows are so great they’re so amazing inspiration that uh that you don’t expect yes I have a question what do you think is the biggest mistake or one of the biggest mistakes people can make when installing their Garden or when thinking about

Their garden and I’m not asking this for me because I am you don’t make any mistakes no of course not and I’m not starting a new garden and trying to get free landscap cap an advice right but what is the biggest mistake that you see people make when they’re doing their

Gardens I would say the number one mistake I see homeowners make um you know especially new homeowners that are just so excited to break ground and and do some gardening or something they’ve seen some videos or some ideas online right the number one mistake is um it’s

Just getting so excited and um diving in without um diving deep enough how Okay so so so um for example you might see a video or see a photo of a of a beautiful little patio space right and it’s significantly easier labor wise as a homeowner to

Just take the grass out and lay brick over top of the dirt right yes and and I’ve seen this literally my neighbors just did this um and as soon as you rake out the dirt lay the brick and everything on it might look just like the photos that you you know that were

Your inspiration right but my point of not digging deep enough is that there’s a lot more involved with truly being able to build a proper patio right yeah get down build up the bases build in the drainage you know maybe thinking about putting sleeves in there for your

Lighting and all these things right and so it’s so exciting to just scrape it and lay the brick CU you can do that looky like put the patio for an ATT let’s party right but then a year or or two or whatever down the road yeah you

Know and you’re dealing with all these headaches that could have been avoided so I think the the number one or yeah just slow down do it right ask for some good advice you know I don’t know anybody that needs this advice nobody no slow down yeah so slow down and you know

Do it try do everything you possibly can to do it right the first time and I know it’s hard because we’re all seeking you know good advice or good information about how to do it right and there’s a lot of people out there that are saying all kinds of different opinions about

How to whatever it may be right plant a rose or or build a patio or a um way a pathway or you know correct so there’s a lot of different projects that are out there that you know I would say do your research slow down think things through

You know and and ask Janie no he’s giving me personal advice he’s you’re watching my videos and saying Janie slow down right thank you so much this is awesome um can we talk about aquapots really fast of course by all means I have a whole bunch of aquapots in my

Garden because I live in hot dry California and I see how good they are for my pots I have learned that when I put one of these into my pots in California like I can still put drip irrigation on it right but the drip irrigation is only going to get that far

And it’s going to dry out by the end of the day on 110° day absolutely so I got to come around with the hose and make sure I’m giving my pots enough water which is a pain in the butt nobody got time for that no no especially if you

Got a lot of pots like I do but if you put one of these in it’s going to well I mean I should let you explain it sure so so the yeah the aquapot insert um allows you to convert your pots your existing pots into an aqua pot by Proven Winners

So it takes the self-watering technology that we developed years ago for the aquapots Ceramics line and allows people to bring that into the pots that they already have at home or put them into new new Planters you know like this guy here so this is the a legacy Stone Aqua

Poot light it’s fairly light yeah look I can hold it I know I’ve got two of these well you’re super strong I am you are I keep telling people that they don’t believe me but I got two of those that I’m planting up this season and I’m really excited about it yeah they’re

Stunning a hole in the bottom you know it’s a a beautiful little pot but by placing this insert into the pot you place it down in the pot pull up the fill tube to the the height of the the rim of the pot there pull up the fill

Tube sits down in the pot you fill it up with soil pack your soil all the way down into this core and that core of soil essentially is your Wick okay so this whole Reservoir fills with about three gallons of water at the base of your pot amazing that’s a huge amount of

Water and it will slowly Wick up through that core sub irrigating your plants with a fertilizer infused water because you put correct so we recommend putting putting some slowre fertilizer right in the tank and it will slow relase food and fertilizer into the water so the plants are getting 247 fertilizer

Infused water it’s like having a Whole Foods in your refrigerator right sweet and you were telling me why that’s really good for plants because of how nurseries grow them tell lot a lot of the large large scale professional high-end wholesale you know Nursery Growers grow in a very very controlled

Environment because they’re growing millions of plants and they can’t afford to lose huge amounts of plants right right right and so the number one um tactic that they use is trying to keep the foliage as dry as possible right so they’re using flood floors okay and they’re sub irrigating these plants and

Keeping the the the soil surface dry and the and the foliage dry by sub irrigating so those plants are then wicking that moisture up okay you know through these flood floor systems right and the and the top of the soil stays dry which is where all your root rot and

You know and sort of fungal diseases and issues and stuff is happening is in that sort of soil to a you know location that layer yeah um so we’ve basically taken that idea and converted it into into into planters so this sub irrigates up plants are in here just thriving doing

Doing really really well so it’s not just a convenience thing no I think water once a week instead of every day like you were saying earlier even with drip irrigation which is ugly heinous plastic tubes running everywhere sometimes you can’t get it to certain spots fog you know there’s issues or the

HOA where you live might say you can only water you know two days a week or something that ain’t enough right and so you’re out there trying to water all the time two three times a day sometimes nobody’s got time for that right so they

Give up yeah they give up they think you know I can’t do you know pots on my patio because it’s just they dry out it’s too Sunny too windy whatever so we’ve you know we’ve had aquapots all over the country all the way from Alaska down to the Florida Keys

Florida where you are yeah which I think is really interesting to point out cuz you you grow you put these things in Florida where super hot and the sun super hot super hot and it it can be dry no rain for weeks on end and we have

Aqua pots out on these docks and ducks and stuff and and they do really well we know that once a week watering no this plants are going to thrive and do really really well it’s pretty they’re they’re really amazing they really do work well so it’s not just a convenience thing but

Also the plants actually really benefit from the bottom watering the fertilizer infused water that I didn’t really know like as I’m planting using these for convenience and keeping them watered you know it’s it’s I’ve been to the growing facilities you know the priv winter growing facilities and Jack’s right

That’s how they water all their beautiful plants and they look gorgeous when they’re in there and it’s because because of the technique that they use has a big yeah to do with it yeah yeah exactly fun it’s it’s so fun it’s so fun awesome fun all of you let me know if

You have any questions because Jack’s my best friend now let me know if you have any questions for Jack about the aqua about the aquapots I’m going to be planting these up in my garden because I just want to show you all I live in an extreme environment with really hot and

Really dry and and I’m I like I have a huge stack of these in my garage that I’m planning to put on all my pots just because it’s going to make my life easier in my environment so thank you it’s the least I could do thank you so

Much so Jack’s got to get on a plane he’s got to go back to Florida I am is that right Florida got to go see his beautiful family thank you so much for taking the time to do this I appreciate it come out and visit me in California I

Will I’m planning on it for sure I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you all have a chance to get in your garden today cheers