Mind Body Garden

Now that the final frost has passed, it's time to plant your seedlings out in the garden! But before you get planting - have you hardened off your seedlings? If you're wondering what that is, you're not alone. Most gardeners probably don't do it, but it can help increase your plants' survival rates and set you up for the best garden yet. Hardening-off seedlings is essentially exposure-therapy to the real world. Most seedlings are grown in a nice, cozy environment with consistent light, consistent watering, and consistent temperatures - this is not the case with the Great Outdoors as it threatens your plants lives with light that is 10x more powerful than any LED, temperatures that swing wildly, and not to mention the wind, bugs, rabbits, or squirrels that may be waiting to strike. When we harden plants off, we will begin exposing them to the real world for about a week before doing a complete transition to outdoor life. You will want to start off with a small amount of time, let's say an hour, and then gradually increase the time the seedlings spend outdoors until you think they're ready to make the move. Hope you enjoyed the podcast & please let me know if you have any questions & I'll be happy to help!

On today's podcast I answer 5 gardening questions beginning with When & Why I started gardening. After I discuss my origin stories around gardening, I dive into more gardening specific topics such as: What seeds can I plant now? What is the #1 most challenging part of growing Tomatoes? What are some gardening tips and tricks? I hope you enjoy this podcast & if you have any further questions - call into the station or drop me a comment & I'll add it into the next episode!

In today's episode of Mind Body Garden I talk about how to stay sane in this crazy world we are living in. When I began this podcast, I didn't intend for it to spiral into maintaining a positive perspective during quarantine from the Coronavirus situation - but I know it's on a lot of people's minds and the thing that is threatening everyone's mental health.

For me, having a morning routine has greatly helped me to stay sane & happy despite the monotony & uncertainty of the times we are living in. My morning routine involves writing Morning Pages (3 pages of stream of consciousness writing), and then ideally it would follow with creating content - either a podcast or a blog. Lately I have been waking up late and rushing my morning routine - often missing the podcasting or other tasks that I want to complete. I find that not executing on something that I planned on doing is more of a drag on my psyche than anything else, so I knew that it was time to reclaim the morning routine - and my positive perspective.

What do you do to maintain perspective & find comfort in these crazy times?

As we prepare to plant our gardens out for the season, there are a few options for how you can garden this year. In this podcast I talk about the pros & cons of 3 different types of gardening: Growing in the Soil Growing in Raised Beds Growing in Containers (or in my case, Root Pouches & Grow Bags) There are challenges for each type of gardening, but you have to find the benefits that help you & your situation the most. I found that I needed to grow in Raised Beds or Root Pouches to save my plants from wet feet, diseases & fungus that live in my soils, and from the seasonal attack of grubs, weeds, and whatever else nature can throw your way. Hope this podcast helps you & would love to hear from you if you have any questions or anything I can do to help you grow your best garden this year!

In this podcast I talk about what I've been doing for the last month of lockdown and how I am staying sane. A lot of it revolves around gardening - something that I was obsessed with before all of this chaos happened in the world. Now that it has happened, tons of people are wanting to grow their own food and become self-sustainable. Starting a garden can be intimidating but I hope to guide you through the process of starting a garden whether you are growing from seed, or planting directly in the ground.

Gardening can be intimidating when you consider all the factors - watering the plants, fertilizing them, making sure they get enough light. And all of that is just while they are seedlings, wait until you plant everything out in the garden and have to worry about pests like bugs, squirrels, rabbits, and deer!

My goal through this podcast was to break down some of the stigma around the amount of work it takes to garden. It does take "work", but a better word for it would be "care". It requires a great deal of care & intentional acts that promote growth and help the plants to flourish.

April is creeping to a close and gardening is on everyone's mind as we wonder what the future holds with the situation revolving around us currently. I think that uncertainty, a "prepper instinct", and the need to be self-sustainable is driving people to want to provide more for themselves - a big part of this is through Gardening.

Let me know what I can do to help you grow your best garden yet!

MAKE AMERICA GARDEN AGAIN

It has been a long time coming, but I was finally able to record a podcast with my brother Adam Neth. Adam is a personal trainer, natural bodybuilder, and has a complete passion & obsession with Fitness.

On today's podcast I interview Adam and dive into his origin story to learn more about how he got interested in weight lifting and what he is doing now - working as a personal trainer at a gym, plus he has his own personal clients that he manages through online training. After that we talk about some of the modifications you can make to your home workouts to make them effective - even if you don't have a ton of equipment like machines or dumbbells.

If you're interested in learning more about the different lifting programs that you can implement to build strength, power, and muscle - tune in and make sure you have a notebook handy because Adam is super knowledgable and there's a lot to learn in this episode!

Hope you enjoy the podcast & drop your questions in the comments - or call into the station if you listen on Anchor - and we'll be happy to help & elaborate in a future podcast as well!

Lately my mornings have been preoccupied by writing my Morning Pages, so I have neglected the podcast somewhat, but I begin this episode by talking about my new creative outlet. 

After that - it's all gardening!

Last weekend my dad brought the tiller down to me and I began a massive overhaul of the garden that involved moving all 250+ Root Pouches out of the garden, dumping the busted pots, removing old ground cover, tilling the soil, re-grading, and finally re-covering the garden with 3 ounce woven ground cover fabric. This will serve as a weed barrier that should last 5-7 years, plus it gives the garden a beautiful, clean aesthetic that has been lacking for quite some time. Best of all - no more weeding.

I finish up the episode talking about the plants that I just transplanted yesterday, March 28th. Those included: lettuce, spinach, arugula, broccoli, & green onions. Although I'm in growing zone 6, and could get frosts up until May 15th, I'm taking my chances with the mild spring - plus these crops are all very cold hardy - and if all else fails, I've got frost blankets as a backup!

Let me know if you have any questions or anything I can do to help with you gardening season this year! And I would be humbled if you enjoyed the podcast and could subscribe to my channel - Mind Body Garden!

This warm start to March has me itching to get out in the garden! It's still just a lil bit early, but with the warmer weather approaching, now's the Time to prep your garden for the growing season. For me this means grading my garden so that it is more level & has the proper drainage. Once I get the land situated, I'll be covering it with woven ground cover fabric. This will completely eliminate weeding, give me a grid to space plants without a tape measure, and it'll provide a much cleaner aesthetic to the garden. Today's episode dives into these topics and more of what's growing in the garden and in the project portion of my brain 👨‍🌾💪🌱

I talk a lot about my morning routines, but this week I have been focusing less on the time I wake up and more on the quality of the time I spend sleeping. Rather than force myself to get up and function on 6 hours of sleep, I have forced myself to set my alarm to allow for 7 and a half hours of sleep. Every single morning I have woken up before my alarm clock and have felt extremely refreshed & highly energetic and happy through the day. Aside from sleep I also casually slip in a little rant on the meaning of life 😁 hope you enjoy and would love to hear any feedback you have for the podcast - what do you wanna hear me rant more about?

Don't you love those mornings where you actually wake up early & have time to do the things you wanna do? Today was one of those mornings for me. I kicked it off with Morning Pages while guzzling coffee, then I got down to business and started some seeds 😁 It's technically still a little early to start seeds, but I'm banking on a warm, mild spring, planting cold-tolerant crops, and I will be utilizing frost blankets and low tunnels once I plant everything outdoors. Something about this season feels so different - in a good way. I have a super clear plan, I've got the experience from the past few seasons, and more than anything, I believe in the mission and can't wait to get digging in the dirt this spring! 👨‍🌾💪🌱

Today's podcast was meant to be a focus on the seeds that I'm planting for the CSA today, but as per usual, I went off on a tiny tangent at the beginning of the episode - but a much-needed one! In the rant I talk about my Morning Pages milestone - today was day 50 of starting my day off with writing 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing. This practice has helped elaborate on half-baked thoughts or assumptions and actually tease out the truth. I think that so often in our lives we build up these false beliefs from our fears & judgements, but we don't question them. Morning Pages has helped me cut through the noise and has given me permission to be creative and to spend time on developing myself. After my rant, I talk about my big plans for the garden today - planting broccoli, lettuce, spinach, greens and other early-season veggies. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel of winter and it begins with the seeds we plug today 💪🌱 Plug walk! 😂👨‍🌾

In today's episode I talk about my big weekend project - collecting all of the ideas I have written in various notebooks, notepads, notes apps, or scraps of paper and FINALLY gathering them into one conglomeration of content & ideas. From here I can pick and choose from a vast list of ideas or I can begin to build a framework and a blueprint for my content topics moving forward. What this means is that I am finally creating instead of just collecting ideas into lists - the most important thing to is act on your creative urges, be the change you want to see in the world, create the content that you can't find. This all distills down into providing content that adds value to people's lives through information, entertainment, and inspiration 🧘‍♂️🏋️‍♂️👨‍🌾💪🌱

It's been 60 degrees in Ohio for the past couple days but today we're back to snow & ice - but that isn't killing my excitement for spring, it's just fueling it! In today's episode I talk about the mild winter we have been having and how it's tempting me to get leafy greens and cold hardy crops planted out early. It can be done with the help of low tunnels and frost blankets, but if you screw up, you could lose your whole crop 😭 Right now I'm thinking about getting lettuce, spinach, arugula, mizuna, and other Asian greens started in seed trays so that we can jumpstart the CropBoxes this year and maybe even get a few earlier-than-expected harvests 🥬 And BTW - this is the first call for all CropBoxers or people interested in receiving a subscription box of fresh veggies & herbs from the Garden of Gains 💪🌱 if you're in the Piqua area and looking for fresh, organically-grown produce - let me know, spots are limited!

The groundhog didn't see his shadow, so that means we've got an early spring on its way to us! 🙏🌱 In today's episode I talk about our spring-like weather, how it's getting me amped for planning the Garden of Gains & how I'm ready to provide the best CSA in the Miami Valley with my CropBoxes 🌱🍉🌶️🍅🍈🥕🥒🥬🥔 In addition to talking about what I'm growing, I also talk about how I planned my garden, and the difficulty & intricacy of planning a CSA

I am chomping at the bit to get some seeds planted, but I have to keep reminding myself to slow down and be patient. In the past I have started tomatoes too early and then run into issues with plugs becoming rootbound or I'll have to do extra work with transplanting into larger pots. I also talk about my plans to experiment with planting tomato seeds directly in 4 inch CowPots and testing that growth against the plants grown in the plug trays. I also talk about the joy of growing a garden versus the pressure of growing for a CSA - though this year I feel much more confident because I have created an elaborate strategy & plan that will ensure optimization of processes and a solid harvest all year round.

Tyler and I have been lifelong friends and we are always texting each other about our creative ideas or life philosophy, and always end up in debate. That sparked us to step up to the podcast mic and dive into multiple topics including: thoughts on New year's resolutions, fitness & health goals, Creativity & Creative Process with art & music, and finally our big debate on whether life is a fight or life is a game. How do you play it?

Are you still going strong on your New Year's Resolutions? Resolutions are easy to forget about or discard unless you have a strong purpose & belief in what you want to accomplish. I focus in on my resolutions today, plus my goals of total mind body optimization, and how we should listen to our feelings & understand them - not run from them 👊

Today's episode was meant to be about "planning" in general but once I got talking, I got sucked down the rabbit hole of wedding planning that is currently engulfing me and Kyla's lives 😂 In today's episode I talk about our search for a venue and some of the winners we have visited so far. Outside of the technical stuff, I also talk about what a wedding is really about - marrying the person you love. We want to make our day as special as possible, but not at the risk of taking on loans and paying a ridiculous amount for one day. In this episode I dive into the fun of wedding planning & what I think getting married should be all about 💒

In today's episode, we finally start getting into the nitty gritty of Starting a Garden from Seed. We will be beginning with the topics of Seeds, Soil, and Supplies - and that's exactly what I dive into in this episode!

First I talk about the importance of figuring out your Growing Zone. From there you can work backwards to figure out when you should be planting your seeds. If you're in Zone 6 like me, you probably won't be starting seeds for a few more weeks, so now's the perfect time to round up your seeds & supplies so you're not scrambling later on.

Secondly, you need to get your seeds! There are 3 main companies that I have gone through in the past: Gurney's, Burpee, and Johnny's Seeds. All of these are highly reputable companies - it just comes down to preference. And it's important to note that there are a BUNCH of great suppliers out there!

Lastly after discussing seed selection, I dive into the supplies that you will need. Primarily this will include seed trays, plug trays, inserts, and I talk about my favorite hydroponic seed starting kit and briefly touch on Soil & Soilless Media Mixes - that will be the next blog in this series and I will be diving into Soil health, Soilless mixes, Soil Amendments, and more!

Also, if you're curious where I'm getting my supplies & seeds, keep your eyes peeled for a blog that details all of that information and includes links for easy access to what we're using in the Garden of Gains 🌱💪

It may be January, but that doesn't mean the garden isn't on my mind! In today's episode I talk about the crops that I am focusing on growing: tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, root veggies like carrots, turnips, and beets, and then lettuce, spinach, leafy greens, and herbs. Last year I wasted a lot of space by testing out veggies that took up space, and didn't perfect up to expectations. I believe that my focus on succession planting will ensure a continuous harvest of greens, while the focus on long-term storage veggies like carrots, potatoes, turnips, and beets will ensure that we will have a continuous supply of those hearty veggies for customers. The next step for my garden is to lay out the full propagation plan so that I can understand the planting dates, space required for each crop, potential yields & harvest dates - and to figure out how many people I can feed from my 1,000 square foot backyard urban garden. This year I am putting much more focus on building my business & the products/services I offer. Currently my main product is the CSA (weekly veggie subscription box which I call the CropBox), but I want to expand into apparel, and ancillary gardening products - or maybe a product of the garden like herbal teas & spice blends. Also, today's episode was the first time I have recorded with a professional microphone - the Yeti Blue. I haven't listened back to much of the audio, but excited to take the podcast game to the next level! Either way & needless to say - I'm super psyched to grow Gardening 4 Gains in 2020!

Last week I attended the Great Lakes Expo in Grand Rapids. This show is more focused on fruit & vegetable production and the small farmer looking to diversify their operations to create more opportunities for profit and attracting customers. Typically my main goal when attending trade shows is to find new suppliers or products, but there is just as much, if not more, value in attending the education sessions. In today's episode I talk about the education sessions I attended, some things I've learned, the ROI of those insights and trade shows in general, and some new types of crops I want to plant for the CSA next year as a result 🌼🌻🌺🌹🌷

In today's episode I am getting back to creating consistent content daily because I've been feeling so good lately that I haven't felt compelled to create. Not out of lack of inspiration, but just the fact that there are more important things in the world, like your life and your happiness 😁 I'm testing out a newer format of discussing Mind, Body, and Garden but really hone in on Mind-Body Connection and how it is all based on accountability & taking responsibility for how you feel. If you blame people or things for how you feel, you immediately surrender your power and have no chance at happiness. It isn't until we realize that we color the canvas of our perspective & outlook by taking accountability that we can truly work towards being Happy 🧘‍♂️

Today's episode begins with a focus on the body and the importance of shoulder mobility. I go through my mobility routine & talk about how I feel like being more mobile is allowing me to build more muscle 💪🌱 I also talk about my plans to plant Microgreens & a few trays of tree seeds that I plan to plant in my landscaping or sell as bonsai starters - oak, sycamore, boxwood, spruce, & baobab and I may have a few others 🌱🌱🌱 Enjoy this little rant and if you have a favorite plant, let me know 👇 what it is so I can see if I can grow it in my garden!

I started my morning off with a wild goose chase for coffee filters, but was forced to settle on some gas station coffee & Tim Hortons. That fueled my first morning lift in a while and I feel amazing! Nothing better than morning exercise to wake the body & mind 💪🌱 After talking about the lift, I go back into part 2 of my business plan for Gardening 4 Gains and elaborate on my vision, products & services I plan to offer, and where I see things developing in the future

Now that freezing temperatures are the norm, it's time to start growing Microgreens on the Grow Rack 🌱 I love Microgreens for the bursts of flavor and the fact that they're so nutrient dense, but more than anything I just need some fresh homegrown veggies in my life! After talking about the benefits of Microgreens, I talk about the other reason why I love fresh veggies - the way it makes me feel. I feel healthy, clean, and powerful and that's a feeling I want to spread to the world! Those feelings are the power of branding and exemplify exactly what I'm trying to do with Gardening 4 Gains - spread healthy living & happiness through fresh organically grown food 👨‍🌾

Today on Mind Body Garden I talk about the weekend and things me & Kyla are doing to improve our living spaces 🧹🧼🌱 For the Mind I talk about my obsession with buying books, and how I'm finally starting to actually read them - for pleasure but mainly for pumping my big head with more knowledge 🤓 Then I talk about Garden - my vision for Gardening 4 Gains' expansion by colonizing vacant lots in Piqua with gardens 🌱👨‍🌾🌱 and how belief has pumped Kyla & me full of optimism and led us to finally taking action on our dreams 🌠

We got our first freeze of the season last night so growing outdoors is completely done for this year! In today's episode I talk more about how a local networking event sparked more belief in myself and my super small business. It's easy to downplay things that you're doing and it was so refreshing to see how many people had a genuine interest in my Veggie Boxes and my mission to colonize Piqua with gardens and greenhouses. I also talk more about the reason behind me growing and wanting to spread the power that fresh veggies give your mind & body 🧘‍♂️

Last night me & Kyla attended an event called Pints & Preneurs at 311 Drafthouse in Piqua. I was hesitant about attending because my business is so small, but thankfully Kyla dragged me out of the house and we made a ton of quality connections with local entrepreneurs! This event was exactly what we needed though - it's great to connect with people but it's also HUGE when you get validation of your idea or interest in your products and services. Thank you to Piqua Chamber of Commerce, Piqua Development office, and Launch Dayton for such an awesome mixer!