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So right now, we're going to show you guys basically
how not to kill your plants, or how to maintain your plants.
I know what a lot of you guys are thinking,
oh, I don't have green thumbs.
But you do because you got to realize this plant has
everything in common with you.
We're plants.
And I'm going to show you how to maintain this plant,
and that's probably going to show you how to maintain
yourself a lot better too.
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Second only to water, you're going
to need to know what your climate is.
What climate do you live in?
That's going to be really important to know
because that's going to determine how long you can grow
and basically what you can grow.
And climate zone maps are a great way
to understand what plants do best where you live.
For example, here are two maps that
break down the US into different zones
depending on environmental factors.
The first is the USDA hardiness zone map.
This one tells you the average minimum temperature
in the winter.
The other is the AHS heat zone map,
which tells you the average maximum temperature
in the summer.
Check out your workbook for links
to determine your climate zone, no matter where
you live in the world.
Like, here in LA, we can grow damn near anything
all the time.
But if you're in Washington DC, you don't have that luxury,
you know, because you have to deal with frost.
So frost matters because if you put your seed in the ground
and the soil freezes over, your plants are not going to sprout.
So what you want to do is you want
to plant your spring vegetables after the last frost.
But you got to remember with your fall vegetables,
you want to harvest them before the first frost.
For example, let's say you live in Denver, Colorado,
and you want to grow some carrots.
In your workbook, you'll find a link
that will tell you that Denver's average last frost
date is May 4 and the average first frost date is October
the 5th.
Now, carrots take about three months
to grow from seed to maturity.
This means that if you live in Denver,
you don't want to plant carrot seeds before mid-May,
and you don't want to plant them after mid-July.
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So in your climate zone, there's going
to be different microclimates.
And your climate is based on your city,
for one, then your neighborhood, for one, and then
your community, for one, and then your block, for one,
and then your--
your home.
You can create a microclimate in your home.
So basically, what's going to affect your microclimate
is where the shadows fall, how high your foliage is
and your treetops.
If your garden or wherever you're
planting, if you have a balcony, is it facing the sun rising,
or is it facing a sunset?
How many hours of sun does it get?
All of this is going to affect your microclimate.
For example, let's say you live in a house with a backyard,
and you look at your phone's weather
app, which says it's 80 degrees and sunny outside.
It's not going to account for one of your neighbors' houses
casting shade onto your yard six hours a day
or your other neighbor's tree doing the same thing.
So just because your location says one thing,
the microclimate in your personal yard
might be different.
And your plants might not be getting
the eight hours of sunlight each day that most need to thrive.
So there's a lot of you guys out there
that say you have black thumbs, that you
don't have green thumbs, and a lot of that isn't you.
It might be where you decided to put your--
your garden or where you're growing
whatever you're growing.
Because you've got to realize that
even though it's sunny outside, that
don't mean you get enough sun.
So the thing about microclimates that you guys really
should know is you can create one because the plants
that you grow can determine what kind of climate
you're going to have.
We have a lot of tropicals here.
So what a lot of these trees do, they create a canopy,
and that makes it cooler than all the other climates
around you.
And that's what we've done here.
It's-- we've created a whole different climate than
what's outside of this place.
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The reason why we prune and we deadhead
is to reinvigorate the plant because it
re-energizes the plant.
It gives it more life.
Like this plant right here, what I
would do is all of these branches, first of all,
they're taking up space and they're taking up energy.
And a lot of times a branch might be broken,
so the plant wants to fix it.
The same thing with us, when we have a wound,
how energy goes to that wound and it's warmer there
and it's trying to repair it, the same thing
happens to plants.
So what you would do with this first,
I would clean up all of this, the dry things.
And the-- and with this, this is a resource.
It's not trash.
You want to put it in your compost pile,
unless it's diseased, unless it has
different kinds of bugs on it.
And you want to get deep as you can with it.
The other thing is that this--
this just makes it look more pretty.
And a lot of people call this fine--
fine gardening, where, you know, you
don't necessarily have your garden
looking all a mess like mine.
You have it where it looks like little elves come
dancing around at night.
When I prune, to give me some space to see what I need to do
is I remove the dry branches, the leaves off of the plant.
And what this does, it gives room for branches like this.
And also, I would--
I wouldn't totally take this off yet
because you can see it's coming, another shoot
is going to come from this.
Some pruning, make your plants and your space beautiful
and keep your plants healthy.
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So I have some basil here, and you can
see that it has gone to flower.
You don't want this to happen if you want basil.
First of all, it becomes really bitter, and it's not sweet.
But also, if you deadhead your plant,
it'll keep growing all season.
And this is what happens when it seeds.
So you want to cut this off, but also you
got-- this right here is so flavorful and the smell.
So you can literally put this in your car,
just leave it in your car, if you want to smell
like basil all damn day.
But also, this flower, they're--
they have so much flavor in them.
So what I do, I'll just put this in water.
I make watermelon juice with-- with the basil.
And what you want to do when you're deadheading
is basically take these flowers, cut them right
after the last flower.
Since basil is an annual plant, its whole goal
is to flower and reproduce by spreading its seeds.
Once it's done that, it feels like its job is done
and it stops growing, which means you stop
getting those delicious leaves.
But when we deadhead it by cutting off the baby flowers,
we're keeping that from happening.
So it keeps growing, trying to flower and making more leaves,
and that's exactly what we want to happen.
So if you want more leaves, you cut the flowers off.
That's what you do with basil.
Now what I'm going to show you is a marigold.
Marigold, you want more flowers, you cut off the flowers
because this is only going to give you one season.
If you want it to last longer, what you do,
you want to take off the dry ones.
You can see this--
this flower is about to bloom.
I wouldn't mess with that.
But yet, we have all of these dry flowers.
Like this one, you can tell, you can see the flower.
And it-- it didn't completely bloom,
but you can see that it is drying out.
So I would, like same thing with this one, I would go below it
and take that.
I would cut that one from there.
And some plants, a lot of the flowers
dry out at the same time.
And what you can do is just cut them all off
and you can shape the plant, and you will-- they will come back.
That's the beauty of these.
They will come back and give you flowers
throughout that particular season if you deadhead them.
Deadheading is a great way to get more of what you
want and need from your plants.
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So when something is root-bound, it's been in a container
too long.
And a lot of the times, you can turn the container over
and you can see the roots coming through the bottom
of the container.
That's telling you that, get me out of here.
I have another example of a root-bound plant
that I'd like to show you.
This is parsley.
And again, you can see how it started growing out--
out of the bottom of the plant.
You see this?
You see, this is--
this looks like a basket.
You can see it's taken the shape--
the roots have taken the shape of the bottom of the pot.
So what we would do here is open this.
And even this, this is not going to hurt the plant.
If you're anal, you can separate it.
And what you want to do is don't just break them apart.
You want to feel it and pull-- and then pull
it and separate it.
Sometimes I even close my eyes to-- to feel the tension
because, it's weird, sometimes you
see better when your eyes are closed with stuff like this.
You can hear-- you can hear the roots tearing,
and you want to-- you want to shake it a little.
You just don't want to pull it and break it.
And there.
So you can separate these like this.
But try not to necessarily buy root-bound plants unless
it's the--
you really need it and it's the last thing there,
because these plants are still healthy.
If you do, yeah, it'll grow, but this
is the work you'll have to do.
Like, this is hard as a rock.
And I want you guys to get a close-up of how these roots
have woven together.
And, yeah, you-- can you break it up?
Can you-- can-- can you put it in the ground?
Will it grow?
Yes.
It just needed to be out of this pot to grow.
So you might have a house plant at home and you wonder,
why isn't that taking in water?
Why isn't it not growing and thriving?
And it might be the same problem as this.
It might be root-bound.
And I just happen to have an example under the table
where I can show you.
So here we have it.
You can actually see the roots on the top of this,
but you can also see that the roots have cracked the pot.
And so what this is going to do, this
is going to dwarf this plant because these roots don't
get to go out and pull in nutrients from a bigger pot.
So what do you need?
You need a bigger pot.
And stop being so cheap.
Look at this.
I would get a pot that's double the size of the last pot you
have just to-- just to allow these roots to open
up and grow.
But you can see these roots were--
they had no place to go, so they were going through the pot.
They're all wrapped around the top of the-- the rim
of the container.
Anytime you have roots that are coming out
of the top of the plant, you know you have a problem.
Root-bound, there you have it.
I showed you how to identify it, and I showed you how to fix it.
Get at it.
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So we have two different kinds of broccoli right here,
and this one is underwatered.
And you can tell, one, by the soil, how dry it is, and two,
by the leaves.
Because this is telling you, OK, dude, I ain't got that long.
And when-- when a-- when a plant needs water, it tells you
it needs water because what happens is the leaves
will start to curl in to themselves
and then they'll start drooping.
The thing about this, probably if we put water on this plant,
within 30 minutes you will see the leaves change
on this plant.
And what-- what I like to do here is--
is to remove the dried out leaves that--
because a-- a leaf like this is not coming back.
And this one, do you see how this leaf is flat
and this leaf is curling in and it's sagging?
You see that this-- that this leaf has-- it
has strength in it.
It's-- it's stiff.
The stalk is stiff.
This one, the stalk has gone soft, and the leaf is dragging.
Soon as you put water on this, the--
this leaf will open, just like this one did.
A good way to tell if your plants
need water is to stick your hand in the soil and see--
maybe a couple of inches down and see if it's dry there.
If it's dry, it needs water.
If it's not, it don't need no water.
But also, they-- they have water meters,
and, like, the water departments have them for free.
You can buy one online.
And that would-- you can stick it in the ground,
and it's going to keep--
tell you about the moisture level in this particular--
in your particular plant.
So let's talk about the one that's overwatered.
And the-- the thing about a plant being overwatered,
the danger is the root ball, it can damage it.
The excess water can really damage and soften
the root ball, and then it will probably rot.
I want to show you just how soaked this soil is.
Yeah, see, the soil is acting too much like a sponge.
So what will happen when something is overwatered,
right where it comes out of the ground,
this will begin to turn brown, and it will eventually
rot because it's just too much water and the-- and the plant
can't take it.
But you can see I'll probably--
I can probably squeeze water out of the soil, it's so wet.
You can see the water on my hand,
and that's not what you want.
Especially a lot of times you can definitely
overwater your seedlings.
So a lot of times with seedlings,
you should have a sprayer and you-- and you mist them,
you spray them, rather than pouring water on them
because pouring water on them a lot of times,
especially if you plant seeds, if you pour water on that's too
heavy, you're going to unbury the seeds, and they're--
they're going to float on top.
So like this, what you want to do with-- with seedlings
is spray.
And I would add a mulch or a compost
to this that will absorb and hold some of the water
to alleviate this problem.
But this plant is still healthy.
And-- and just like this one, don't throw this away.
This plant is also healthy.
All you have to do is water it.
It needs care, just like you do.
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Let's start with mint, and you should definitely have
this in your herb garden too.
And it's very low maintenance.
So any of you guys killing mint, something is wrong with you.
But this is, right here, this is a healthy mint plant.
You can see how bright the leaves are.
Here's a spearmint that's pretty stressed.
Even though you can grow mint in shade, it still needs sun.
Just like people don't think that succulents need water,
they still need water, even though they're
drought-tolerant.
They still-- they're pulling moisture from the air.
But this one is stressed.
You can see the leaves, look, they just fall off.
But still, you can see the new leaves.
And you can-- you can tell that this plant still
wants to live because it's reaching for the sky,
and you can see this new growth on it.
But it was probably kept in the shade too much,
and then it was overwatered because the leaves are--
they're not crunchy.
A lot of times if something's--
if it's only sun, the leaves will get crunchy
on the-- on the edges.
So the telltale signs of not enough sun
is the leaves are not going to have the beautiful color
that these have.
They're going to-- they're going to be gray,
they're going to be brown, because that's-- a lot of times
that's where the plant gets its energy and its--
its vibrancy from is from the sun.
Even though, like, these can grow in shade,
they still need some sun exposure.
And the telltale signs, again, are these leaves.
Are they crunchy?
Are the leaves bright?
And these new leaves that are on here, they are bright.
So I think we're going to have success with this.
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Lettuce.
So we bought this from one of the gardening stores
to show you how not to buy your lettuce.
Me?
I want my lettuce smaller.
This is a little more leggy.
You can tell that this has been in this container too long.
The leaves are not as-- as wide as they
would be because they haven't had the-- enough room to grow
in this-- in this soil.
And then the plant is going to grow
through its whole cycle in not enough soil,
so it's almost like you're miniaturizing the plant.
And I can tell that more than likely it's about to bolt.
Bolting means it's going to turn this--
it's about to grow, psht, and just turn the seeds,
and it's going to be really, really
bitter when it does that.
The nursery is going to sell this
because it's, I mean, you look at it, it still looks fine.
The-- the nursery is not going to tell you
that this is probably going to bolt real soon.
One-- one way to tell is you can see that these leaves here,
they're gone.
So that tells you that these leaves
probably reached maturity and have fallen off already.
So what I like to do is find smaller seedlings
that are going to last longer.
If you-- if you happen to have them, plant them anyway.
You're going to get something out of it.
You're going to-- you're going to get a harvest out of it,
it's just going to be real quick.
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Buying the right stuff at the nursery
is an important first step in maintaining a healthy garden.
So when you're at the nursery, there's
a couple of things to keep in mind.
Despite what you might think, you
don't want to buy the biggest, most mature-looking plant
they've got.
So you want to look for younger seedlings that
are bright in color, don't have dead leaves,
and are not root-bound.
Also, be wary of seedlings like this lettuce that
are showing signs of bolting.
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