- I haven't done this in a long time.

Oh, this is so great.

- Yeah, sometimes it's just very therapeutic to come and sit on a swing.

- I'll say, oh my gosh.

- [Lori] Watch chickens or something.

(soft guitar music) - Hi everyone.

I'm Ashley Swansong host of Modern Gardener.

- And I'm Marybeth Janerich, the Community Education Director for Wasatch Community Gardens.

- And this year, Marybeth and I are very excited to bring to you Wasatch Community Gardens Annual Urban Garden and Farm Tour.

We meet local gardening enthusiasts who have spent countless hours developing their beautiful gardens.

- That's right.

And not only will we show you around these specially selected gardens, but we'll also be sharing some great insights, tips, and inspiration to help you in case you'd like to apply those in your own garden.

- So let's go.

- Today we're at the home of Dave and Lori, longtime supporters of Wasatch Community Gardens.

With over 30 years of gardening experience, they've learned a lot about how to successfully grow food.

- Growing food, farming is a practice in patience, you don't have to jump in, I mean, if you just do a little bit at a time.

- Their yard is split into two levels, an upper level and a bottom level that boasts a large array of fruits and vegetables.

Along with their gardens, they keep bees and have chickens.

- Let's join Marybeth as she finds out how they've turned their backyard into a haven for fruit trees and year round food production.

- I am so excited to show everyone some of the amazing elements that you have here in your garden.

You know, you've been here a long time, you purchased the house, I think, in '93, but it didn't look like this then.

So how did you go about this process?

- I mean, it's ongoing, it never ends.

When we moved in, there was lawn around the perimeter of 50 year old degrading asphalt.

- So not the lush garden that it is today.

- No.

- So how did you decide to expand into this part of your yard?

- We wanted to shrink our lawn 'cause with the garden down below, we enjoy the produce from it and that is a functioning property, it provided food for us and we're like, how can we expand that?

- Well, why don't we go take a look at some of the fruit trees and these different elements that we've talked about.

- [Ashley] One of the highlights of Lori and Dave's garden is their large variety of fruit trees.

From peach and apple to pluot and aprium, they've continued to add new trees over the years.

- The one thing that we've tried to do is for our trees, our fruit trees, is not have everything come on all at the same time, so we have an early peach, so now we can deal with that one, this comes on maybe a month later.

- So that you're not inundated with fruits.

- Exactly.

- Overwhelmed with how to manage it and all that.

- Exactly.

The other thing that does also is that the flowers come on at different points in time because so one tree may get hit by a early frost or a late frost where the other tree doesn't, so you're not losing all of your crops.

- I like to call that diversifying your risk in the garden.

- Yes, exactly.

- So that you're not a subject to any particular environmental insult, if you will.

- [Ashley] Lori and Dave point out that you can't expect to have fruit the first year.

One thing they recommend is thinning your tree.

- If you want larger apricots or plums or something, thinning them out, will give you a better product.

- How far apart do you thin?

- You know, it depends upon how many, how much fruit is on that tree.

So when you come and take a look at it saying, "well, I don't have much on here," I don't have to thin it a lot, I'm just thinning enough so that those individual fruits that I do have, have the space to grow.

- When you think about the weight of a full size peach when you're ready to harvest, you know, that's gonna really weigh down the branch and you don't want those branches breaking so... - And you wanna protect that investment in your tree, that's why you thin, you also get, if you don't thin every year, if you have a super heavy crop, you likely will not get any crop next year or very much reduced crop the following year.

- You just spend so much energy.

- [Marybeth] Right.

Right.

Right.

- [Ashley] But even when their fruit trees are dormant in winter, they're always utilizing the space they have and finding ways to extend the growing season.

They have two hoop houses.

In the winter they cover their hoop houses and grow leafy greens.

Each year, they sprinkle extra seeds in one of the beds so their chickens have what Lori calls 'their winter playground.'

But in the summer they use the hoop houses as vertical growing spaces for crops like beans and cucumbers.

- I do rotate things.

I don't, you know, it's not year after year having the same crop in the same space and not everything's a home run.

You have failures, you have successes.

Some things you can have all the soil tests and all the right, what you think are the right circumstances, and you know, it's like for some reason that seed doesn't wanna germinate, or that plant doesn't wanna be there.

- Or we have environmental challenges.

- True, like the heat.

- The heatwave, very, very little rain, so I think, you know, this structure is a great way to inspire people to think about growing year round, you know, and having that opportunity for fresh produce in the winter and these climbing structures for growing vertically are so important in small spaces, you just kind of get more bang for your buck, if your crops are growing vertically, instead of sprawling.

- It gives us options that we wouldn't have otherwise.

That's the nice thing about trying to build as much versatility into our garden space as possible.

- [Ashley] Lori and Dave harvest more than they can eat every summer and are big fans of food preservation.

They dehydrate, can, and freeze the food they grow so they can enjoy it no matter what time of year it is.

- Look at this collection.

- I started drying fruit in the 70s in college.

You know how your car sits out in the summer and it gets warm?

So I would just lay a sheet out and put a bunch of apricots that I would go pick from friend's houses and I could dry or can fruit and move it, you know, like you do.

- So you started building that skill set and kind of incorporating that into who you are and how you live.

You're not just home gardeners, you're really eating from your garden year round.

And what is going on with these grape leaves?

- I use grape leaves to make enchiladas or tamales.

- Oh, to wrap?

- To wrap them and then you can just eat the whole little packet.

- But now if it's January and you're in the mood for enchiladas and your grapes are out here dormant, it looks like you have a backup plan.

- I do.

I just take a stack of them, usually between 12 and 20, whatever I want, and then I just roll them, you know.

- [Marybeth] And save them for winter.

- [Lori] And save them for winter.

- One thing, like, during the winter is to try and eat something out of the garden every day.

- Multiple things.

- Multiple things... - So it's a challenge.

- Usually you can't get away with just one.

- There are folks watching that are looking at this thinking, "I could never do all this."

But you know, you can do one thing this year, maybe you can take a canning class and learn how to can your tomatoes, or if that's not, you know, in your budget to, you know, purchase the jars and purchase the lids and pay the tuition for the class, maybe you just make tomato sauce on your stove, maybe you don't have fruit trees, but you go to a farmer's market and take advantage of the fresh fruit that other people have grown and then you put it away, you know, so you can preserve without growing too, but this is... it's just so exciting to see your passion and excitement and all of this food.

- You put a lot of effort into it, you put water on it and you see it grow, you say, so how are we going to use as much of this as possible?

- It makes you really appreciate, when you're putting in all that effort, how valuable each berry is, how valuable each pluot is.

- Yes.

- And then you get to savor it and enjoy that year round.

Thank you so much, Lori and Dave for showing us all of the food that you preserve in this beautiful space.

- [Dave] We hope that this does inspire some people to see all the different things you can do and don't get overwhelmed.

- And you don't have to spend a ton of money either.

- Just start and have fun.

- Since I stole your strawberries.

- Oh, go for it.

Go for it.

- Go ahead, go for it.

- Thanks.

(chuckles) - Thank you for joining us for this episode of Wasatch Community Gardens, Urban Garden and Farm Tour.

Please subscribe to Modern Gardener and give us a thumbs up.

- We hope that this tour has really expanded the way you think about gardening and has inspired you to create the garden of your dreams.

Follow Wastach Community Gardens on social media or visit our website to learn more about our workshop and webinars.

And if you have any questions about the topics that we've covered today, feel free to email me.

- Yeah, Marybeth has a wealth of knowledge.

And if you wanna know more about today's particular tour, visit our blog.

Thanks guys.

Peace out.

(soft music)