Best Karin Velez Podcasts (2025)

1
The Chelsea Chop: How to Prune for Longer Blooms and Healthier Plants - Ep. 252 18:08

9h ago18:08

18:08

In this short and snippy episode, we dig into a classic gardening technique known as the Chelsea Chop. Named after the iconic RHS Chelsea Flower Show, this late spring/early summer pruning method can help home gardeners promote bushier growth, delay blooms for season-long color, and support pollinators with flowering perennials in the garden. If yo…

1
Can Gardening Actually Save You Money? - Ep. 251 43:15

7d ago43:15

43:15

There’s a persistent myth floating around on social media that gardening is too expensive to be worth the effort when it comes to saving money on groceries. But what if I told you that with the right strategies, your backyard (or balcony!) garden could not only feed your family but actually save you money? Today on Just Grow Something, we’re bustin…

1
Potatoes, Transplants, Insect Netting, and More: Garden Q&A for Episode 250 33:23

14d ago33:23

33:23

Welcome to the 250th episode of the Just Grow Something podcast! 🎉 Whether you've been listening since the beginning or just found the show, thank you for being part of this growing community. In this special milestone episode, we're digging into listener-submitted questions on a variety of timely gardening topics. In this episode: When seedlings a…

1
Good Bug or Garden Pest? How to Identify Insects in Your Vegetable Garden – Ep. 249 39:50

21d ago39:50

39:50

Are all bugs in your garden bad news? Not at all! In fact,some insects are your best allies when it comes to pest control and plant health. Today on Just Grow Something, we’re talking about howto tell the difference between beneficial insects and destructive garden pests—even if you’re not an entomologist. Learn how to identify common bugs based on…

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How to Grow Tomatoes - Ep 248 55:59

28d ago55:59

55:59

It’s been a while since we’ve done a full crop specific episode and I think this is the perfect time of year to talk tomatoes. We are getting about 500 tomato plants in the ground over the next week so they are on my mind! So, today on Just Grow Something we’ll walk through the full tomato-growing process—from choosing varieties and starting seeds …

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Smarter Planting for Bigger Harvests: Interplanting Strategies - Ep. 247 59:49

1M ago59:49

59:49

I promised this week we’d go into the actual techniques of interplanting. One of the main methods I use in my own garden, in helping my clients in their gardens, and what I teach in my Plan Like a Pro course is “high, low, fast, slow.” This little mantra is a great way to combine the plants in your garden to make the most use of all of your space w…

1
Companion Planting Myths and Tips - Ep. 246 40:18

1M ago40:18

40:18

If you’ve been gardening for any amount of time, you’ve likely come across companion planting charts—maybe you’ve seen advice like “plant basil with tomatoes” or “marigolds repel all pests.” But how much of this is actually true? Companion planting can mean a lot of things, depending on what our goal is. We can either be going for pest repelling pr…

1
Be Prepared for Garden Pests – Ep. 245 40:18

2M ago40:18

40:18

Today, we’re diving into a topic that sneaks up on every gardener at some point—pests. Whether they’re crawling, flying, or trotting in on four legs, pests can quickly turn a thriving garden into a frustrated gardener’s nightmare.But here’s the good news: you don’t have to reach for synthetic pesticides to protect your plants. Today on Just Grow So…

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Easiest Crops for Beginners - Ep. 244 39:10

2M ago39:10

39:10

One thing I am often asked by beginning gardeners is, “what is the easiest thing for me to grow?” Some of us just dive right in to gardening headfirst, attempting to grow whatever our favorite veggies are, regardless of how easy or difficult it is. Or without even considering that one might be more difficult than others. That was me and ignorance i…

1
How to Prepare Seedlings for Transplant into the Garden - Ep. 243 21:59

2M ago21:59

21:59

I will never forget the first time I successfully started my own transplants from seed indoors and they actually looked healthy and strong. I was so excited to get those tomato plants out into my garden and lovingly transferred them from their little pots out into the garden, got them all watered in, and was so excited about the money I had just sa…

1
How to Start a Compost Pile - Ep. 242 33:01

2M ago33:01

33:01

Save 20% on the already discounted subscription price of both the Magic Mind Mental Performance and Sleep shots at https://magicmind.com/GROWMAR and use code GROWMAR at checkout. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces about 4.9 pounds (2.2 kg) of garbage per day. That’s almost 1800 lbs. per year, or 816kg. A…

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Gardening by Nature’s Signs: Old Wisdom Backed by Science - Ep. 241 21:37

3M ago21:37

21:37

Many traditional "old-wives' tales" and "farmer's wisdom" about planting and gardening are actually based on phenology, the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals in relation to climate and weather. Many traditional planting rules are based on biological indicators—when certain plants leaf out or bloom, or when specific animals become acti…

1
Spring-Planted Bulbs and Garden Perennials - Ep. 240 35:17

3M ago35:17

35:17

Save 20% on your Magic Mind subscription! https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING20 with code GROWSOMETHING20 One of my goals this year for the garden is to focus a little bit more on the aesthetics of the garden, rather than just the functionality of it. I really feel like I can get more enjoyment from the gardens if I enjoy how they look and enjoy sp…

1
Kitchen Garden Living with Bailey Van Tassel - Ep. 239 36:15

3M ago36:15

36:15

At the beginning of the year, I asked you think about why you garden. Whether it’s a hobby, our family’s main source of food, or anything in between, I maintain that understanding why you garden is really important to planning the garden and defining a budget. But, what about the garden being more than just a source of food, exercise, or a connecti…

1
When and How to Pot Up Transplants - Ep. 238 42:46

3M ago42:46

42:46

Last chance for the special Magic Mind offer for themonth of February where you can save 40% off your subscription: https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING40 Knowing when and how to pot up your seedlings can make all the difference in their health and success when they finally reach the garden. This is usually something we only have to worry about when…

1
Successful Indoor Seed Starting - Ep. 237 24:06

4M ago24:06

24:06

Success with starting seeds indoors comes down to a handful of factors: your materials and technique, soil temperature, air temperature, light, and air flow. How we approach each of these will determine how successful our outcome is. Just like any new skill, starting seeds indoors and successfully getting them to the transplant stage takes practice…

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Essential Seed Starting Supplies (and one scam) - Ep. 236 33:12

4M ago33:12

33:12

FIRST TEN ORDERS IN FEBRUARY: Save 40% on your Magic Mindsubscription! https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING40 with codeGROWSOMETHING40 We talked last week about how to time our seed starting sowe can get a jump on the gardening season without being too early or too late.This week we’re focusing on what we need in terms of supplies to get thoseseeds …

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How to Time Indoor Seed Starting - Ep. 235 25:23

4M ago25:23

25:23

Once those seed orders are rolling in, your garden plan is shaping up, and the days slowly get a little bit longer, we start to get restless. We want to get our hands in the dirt! This leads to the temptation to get started on our indoor seed starting, but for most of us it really isn’t time to start very many of those seeds just yet. This will dep…

1
7 Steps to Planning Your Entire Garden Year - Ep. 234 33:23

4M ago33:23

33:23

Get 45% off the Magic Mind Mental and Sleep Performance bundle with my link: https://www.magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHINGJANAll this month we’ve been talking about garden planning because it’s that time. The slower month of January means taking the time to really figure out what we want to grow in the garden and last week we talked about how to fit it a…

1
Getting More from the Garden: Succession Planting and Intercropping - Ep. 233 28:34

4M ago28:34

28:34

Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with with my link: https://www.magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHINGJAN If you have struggled in the past with how to fit all the plants you want to grow into the space you have available for gardening, you are not alone. It’s probably the number one question I get from clients when I step into their yards: how do I lay out …

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How Many Plants Do You Need? - Ep. 232 20:25

5M ago20:25

20:25

Last week we defined our “why” for gardening as a way to help determine our goals. Part of that goal requires us to think about the types of things we want to grow in our garden and the number of people we’re feeding in our family or whomever we are growing for. This also helps determine how much space we need for the garden to meet those goals and…

1
Setting Goals and Budgets for the Garden - Ep. 231 23:11

5M ago23:11

23:11

Okay, my gardening friend, tell me this: why are you gardening? Did you start gardening during the pandemic because everything was locked down and you were at home all the time and needed some sort of contact with another living thing and that living thing ended up being plants? Or is gardening something you grew up doing and just automatically con…

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Top 5 Episodes, an Honorable Mention, and an All-Time Favorite 10:11

5M ago10:11

10:11

I went back through the episodes for this season and looked at the statistics to find which episodes really stood out for you guys this year and thought I would share those so, if you really need a garden podcast fix this week you could jump back and listen to one of those. There was one surprise on the list that I will cover at the end and one all…

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Reviewing Your Gardening Season: 10 things to track in your garden journal - Ep. 230 25:31

5M ago25:31

25:31

Save up to 48% on your Magic Mind subscription! https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING20with code GROWSOMETHING20 Depending on where you live your gardening season may just be winding down or at least slowing a little bit or it may have been done for a couple of months now. This is a great time to take a deep breath, recover from the busyness and dema…

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Attracting Pollinators and Predators to the Garden - Ep. 229 34:13

6M ago34:13

34:13

If you’ve ever had shrunken ends on your zucchini or curled ends on your cucumbers, then you have seen the results of a lack of pollination. This doesn’t always mean we don’t have enough pollinators, sometimes it means the pollinators couldn’t do their job for some other reason, like heat, humidity or the density of our plants. But, it is becoming …

1
Integrated Pest Management in the Home Garden - Ep. 228 37:54

6M ago37:54

37:54

Save up to 48% on your Magic Mind subscription! https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING20with code GROWSOMETHING20 What is your biggest problem in the garden? If you’re like most gardeners, this can be any number of things … weeds, deer and rabbits, diseases. But the number one thing I hear from gardeners that they feel is so out of their control is in…

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Ten Most Versatile Herbs for Fresh and Dried Use - Ep. 227 39:51

6M ago39:51

39:51

I didn’t grow up learning how to cook. When I say I had no idea how to season my food as a young adult, I mean NO idea. I didn’t even use salt and pepper. It took me years to not just learn how to cook from a practical application standpoint, but also how to use herbs and spice blends. When I started gardening, growing herbs wasn’t at the top of my…

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Top 5 Perennial Herbs by USDA Hardiness Zone - Ep. 226 35:00

6M ago35:00

35:00

Save 20% on your Magic Mind subscription! https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING20with code GROWSOMETHING20 We all want things to be just a little bit easier in the garden, right? It’s part of why I try to plant things in the fall to overwinter that will start growing on their own in the spring. It means less effort on my part during a very busy time …

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Winter Produce Storage: Tips for Keeping Your Fall Harvest Fresh Through the Cold Months - Ep. 225 29:57

7M ago29:57

29:57

As we head toward the end of fall and into winter it’s time to start using some of what we’ve stored from the garden. Bountiful fall harvests of things like onions, potatoes, carrots, and beets, whether we grew them ourselves or managed to snag some from the local farmers market or CSA, can absolutely be stored up for long-term use. In fact, many o…

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Three Ways to Grow Nutritious Greens Indoors - Ep. 224 46:21

7M ago46:21

46:21

It is November, which means we are firmly seated in fall and many of us have seen the total demise of our gardens. In fact, some of us have had several weeks since we saw anything green out there and it’s kind of depressing! Have no fear, there is a way to get a fresh green pick-me-up in the kitchen even when the outside seems bleary – three ways, …

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Tropical Gardening, Plus Your Biggest Garden Failures of the Season - Ep. 223 40:26

7M ago40:26

40:26

If you’ve been watching my social media accounts you’ve seen me posting about my recent trip to Puerto Rico. I was hoping to see what backyard gardeners were growing in a tropical region and also get an idea of what crops are economically significant to the region and I was actually surprised by what I learned. Today on Just Grow Something we’re go…

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How to Amend the Soil in Fall for a Better Garden in Spring - Ep. 222 34:54

7M ago34:54

34:54

Adding the right soil amendments in the fall is a great way to set up your garden for success in the spring. By incorporating amendments now, you give them time to break down and integrate into the soil, providing nutrients and improving soil texture for the next growing season. Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to breakdown the best amendme…

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Garlic Planting Tips by Climate - Ep. 221 29:48

7M ago29:48

29:48

Last week we talked onions, this week it’s another allium, garlic. The timing on planting onions in the fall is just about the same as when we plant our garlic for overwintering and garlic spends just about as much time in the garden as those fall-planted onions do. Just like our onions, there are specific considerations for growing garlic – the ri…

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Planting Onions in Fall for a Summer Harvest - Ep. 220 35:47

8M ago35:47

35:47

This is the episode so many of you have asked for and now is the perfect time because, in most locations, this is the time to be planting onion sets or seedlings to overwinter and harvest the next summer. Successfully growing full-sized onions for fresh eating and for storage seems to allude many of us, I had trouble with it the first few tries, fo…

1
How to Dry and Store Cut Flowers - Ep. 219 20:11

8M ago20:11

20:11

The fruits and veggies coming from our gardens are not the only things we can dry and store in the off-season. Think about the vibrant colors from the flowers in our yards and containers. We can absolutely preserve that beauty to use year-round, or at least to display through the dreary winter season, by simply air-drying them. There are lots of wa…

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Simple Compost Solutions for Every Garden Space - Ep. 218 27:50

8M ago27:50

27:50

As we start to wind down the summer gardening season it’s a great time to be adding compost to your beds to help give the soil a boost. Letting the compost break down over the winter gives it adequate time to become activated with all the little microorganisms that are so important for delivering nutrients to our plants in the soil. But, purchasing…

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Fall Garden Checklist by Hardiness Zone - Ep. 217 26:47

8M ago26:47

26:47

As the fall season is practically upon us and the pumpkin spice gods are already blessing us with their bounty, it’s time to get your garden ready for the changing weather. Fall gardening can look very different depending on your climate, but no matter where you live, the changing season means there are some important tasks to attend to for the suc…

1
Proper Seed Drying and Storage - Ep. 216 29:01

9M ago29:01

29:01

Last week on the podcast we talked about which seeds we should be saving from the garden, how mature the fruits need to be when we harvest seeds and a bit about how to dry and test them. This week, we’re focusing on storing them properly. When we get seeds from a catalog or other seed supplier, they’ve often gone through a set of steps that we may …

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Saving Seeds Properly - Ep. 215 26:52

9M ago26:52

26:52

Saving seeds from our gardens to use the next spring it is a great way to not only help our budget out a little bit but also to give ourselves some food security and doesn’t sound like it should be a very difficult task. At that point we’re not relying on someone else to grow our seeds for us that we have to buy over and over again. Just collect th…

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How to Choose a Garlic Variety to Grow - Ep. 214 24:53

9M ago24:53

24:53

If you have intentions of growing garlic for next year, now is the time to be ordering your seed garlic. Garlic needs about six months in the ground to get to maturity so, here in the northern hemisphere, we may be planting our garlic as early as mid-September in some areas. With the plethora of catalogs and websites and garden centers offering gar…

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How to Grow Beets - Ep. 213 27:57

9M ago27:57

27:57

If you didn’t plan for a fall garden and maybe have changed your mind a little bit and want to give it a go, you might be looking for something you can very quickly put into the ground and grow directly from seed. Enter beets. They will happily germinate in almost any temperature of soil and they greatly appreciate the cooler days of fall when they…

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Artificial Intelligence and Gardening Advice - Ep. 212 21:27

10M ago21:27

21:27

I do searches online for gardening topics all the time. I will search key phrases to see if I can come up with topics that people seem to be searching for or gardening questions that may be trending. I even search specific ideas to see if there is new information or research that I’m not aware of. And more and more frequently I’m noticing a disturb…

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Preparing to Preserve: Basic Canning Supplies for Beginners - Ep. 211 33:07

10M ago33:07

33:07

There is something very satisfying about growing your own food, for sure, and being able to walk out into the garden to pick your lunch or your dinner. But, in the dead of a Midwest winter, the ability to be able to “shop” your own pantry for the things you eat the most, that you grew, that is a whole other level. So, today on Just Grow Something w…

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Heirloom vs Hybrid vs GMO - Ep. 210 36:58

10M ago36:58

36:58

Over the past decade or so there has been much debate about whether open-pollinated and heirloom varieties should be the preferred choice for gardeners over hybrids. And there's been even louder discussion (arguments) over GMOs or genetically engineered plants. Why all the fuss? We're getting a bit sciencey today. I mean, more than usual. We're dis…

1
Don't Overwater in the Heat - Focal Point Friday 6:06

10M ago6:06

6:06

Mother Nature has opened the blast furnace door on west central Missouri. I recorded this quick episode on the fly in the gardens to share with you a little wisdom about what our plants are doing in the heat and how to avoid further damage to things like tomatoes by overwatering. Let's dig in! You can find the video version of this podcast on Spoti…

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Growing Brussels Sprouts - Ep. 209 35:01

10M ago35:01

35:01

Back on episode 200, the Ask Me Anything episode, someone asked if I would do an episode on growing Brussels sprouts. I said no at the time because I hadn’t yet successfully grown them but indicated it may be soon because Brussels were having a moment in my garden this spring and it was looking good. Well, here we are and we’re talking Brussels bec…

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Starting a Garden Side Hustle - Ep. 208 44:47

11M ago44:47

44:47

Maybe you’ve heard the origin story of how I started gardening and then came to be a market farmer which lead to me getting a degree in horticulture which led to me doing this podcast. The short story is I had a really successful, very large, garden and I was sick of being stuck inside all the time working my day job and tried to find a way to make…

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Managing Heat Stress in Garden Plants - Ep. 207 29:55

11M ago29:55

29:55

It’s the middle of July and it’s the time of year when heat stress in plants can be a significant challenge for gardeners. If you’re gardening in the peak of summer or in a region with consistently high temperatures, heat stress can lead to wilting, reduced yields, poor fruit quality, and even cause plants to just up and die. But, we can do somethi…

1
Epsom Salts - Magic or Myth? - Ep. 206 15:07

11M ago15:07

15:07

If you are in any gardening group, whether an in-person club or online, you likely see countless home remedies for everything that ails our plants. Gardeners tout everything as a miracle cure for something in the garden, from putting tums in the soil to burying fish, making weed killer out of vinegar and salt (please don’t) to using dawn dish soap …

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Steps for Planning the Fall Garden (and Why You Should Grow One) - Ep. 205 25:05

11M ago25:05

25:05

Last week on the podcast we talked about your summer succession plantings, things you can plant in the summer and harvest in the summer on repeat. This week, it’s all about fall, baby. I know it may seem like the summer growing season just started, especially if you have very few frost-free days, but this really is the time to be planning for a fal…

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