Epic Gardening – Show Notes

Today’s links: ely.how/episode65

• Epic Gardening with Kevin Espiritu
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Epic Gardening with Kevin Espiritu

1. Living with purpose through landscapes

• What we do matters
• Our time is valuable
• How to focus on the right priorities
  • Define priorities
  • Consider your legacy
    • Community building
    • Family
    • Healthy food movements
  • Structure our time

• Prioritize what matters

• • • Begin day with reminder
  • Reduce non-priorities and wasted time
    • TV, lawn mowing, weeds, dishes
  • Spend more effort to enjoy what you value
    • Family, friends, gardening, meditation, outreach

2. Avoiding landscaping mistakes

• How to find mistakes
  • What takes extra work
  • What causes problems

• What looks ugly or feels unnecessary

• • • diseased plants, foundation problems, routine trimming
• Fixing and avoiding mistakes
  • Plan first, plant last
  • Plan for maturity of plants
  • consider long term maintenance needs
  • Account for plant needs – sun, soil, etc
  • Account for utilities and existing structures
  • Avoid solo plantings and impulse buys

3. Time saving hacks for your yard

• Suppress weeds before problematic
  • plant tightly
  • mulch heavily
• build healthy soil
  •     Compost
• Select low maintenance plants
• Lawn tips
  • mow higher
  • mow less often
  • avoid synthetic amendments

4. Selecting low maintenance plants

• Your space defines the plants you select
• Start with your physical characteristics
  • USDA zone
  • soil type
  • fertility
  • pH
• Consider your local and immediate climate

• Select a plant for the space rather than change the space for the plant

• • moisture
  • sun exposure
  • slope
• Use online resources to find appropriate plants

• Select plants that fit desired aesthetics

• • Filter for your physical characteristics
• Favorite general plant
  • Juniper – Juniperus virginiana, communis
    • grows across many climates
    • many aesthetic cultivars