#171: Mike talks Gardening with Shawna Coronado

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In this week's episode Mike talks with gardening expert Shawna Coronado. A finalist for the Better Homes & Gardens top 5 gardening bloggers and key note speaker at the Chicago Home & Garden Show, Shawna will share all kinds of great tips, tricks and techniques on gardening.

Shawna will cover the various beneficial plants that can attract pollinators and how to arrange them in such a way to not not only make the garden productive but attractive. Shawna refers to this type as an ornamental edible garden.

Shawna will also talk about front yard gardens and the proper steps to take to make sure they are done right and not intrusive to your neighbors. Finally, Shawna and Mike will finish off the podcast talking about how you can take your many extra vegetables that you are growing and help those in need right in your area.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Plants that attract pollinators
• Front Yard Gardens
• Ornamental Edibles
• Benefits of Beneficials
• Vegetables that are a top nutrition source
• Getting your community involved in gardening
• Donating a portion of your harvest
• Shawna's fence struggle

Items mentioned in this episode include:

• Shawna Coronado`s website
• How To Grow A Vegetable Garden In Shade – The Story Of a French Potager Kitchen Garden Gone Shade
• AmpleHarvest.org
• FoodPantries.org
• Front Lawn Vegetable Garden Design – Sun Ray Garden
• The Graffiti Experiment: Please Help Save My Fence
• Vote For ShawnaCoronado.com To Win the BHG Blogger Awards
• Chicago Flower & Garden Show
• Cocktail Gardening by Amy Stewart

About this week's Guest, Shawna Coronado:

Shawna Coronado is an author and professional photographer. She is also an on-camera spokesperson, newspaper columnist, internationally recognized keynote speaker, environmental and health correspondent with over eighteen years of experience with sales, marketing and public relations.

Shawna speaks internationally on building community, simple living, and green lifestyle tips for the everyday person as well as social media development. Most recently, she has lectured at TEDx and Google, discussing the benefits of green living for community. Shawna Coronado educates the online community on eco-travel, green-living tips, sustainable gardening, inexpensive cooking, home vegetable production, and techniques for every day homeowners to save money by being green and feed the hungry during a down-economy – all this right from her very own home and ornamental front lawn vegetable garden. Her goal with the blogs and online presence is to better the world through community involvement and simple green living.

Currently, Shawna has over 15,000+ followers on Twitter, over 50,000 followers on Google+, and over 5,000+ followers and subscribers on Facebook. She has more than 170 videos on YouTube and her videos have had more than a half million uploaded views on YouTube and continue to grow daily. Shawna is a CitySearch Guide and has written for dozens of online magazines including Better Homes and Gardens and ChicagoNow. She has been ghost blogging, tweeting, and writing for over five years for corporations and individuals across the internet.

Shawna appears regularly on national American TV. She has been featured on many news channels, including ABC News, WGN 9 News (Chicago), PBS TV – Growing A Greener World Episode 126, PBS TV – P. Allen Smith’s Garden To Table, WCIU TV, NBC News Dallas/Fort Worth, FOX News Albuquerque New Mexico, KOB TV New Mexico, Lawrence Media TV- LJWorld.com, Oklahoma Gardening TV, Local Access 10 TV, WGN Radio, The Mike Nowak Radio Show, The Chicken Whisperer Radio Show, Garden Life Radio, and More Hip Than Hippie. Ireland radio show features include Marty Whelan/RTE Lyric FM Radio Show, and Tom Dunne Morning Show on Newstalk 106 and is a regular guest on The Sodcast with Peter Donegan out of Dublin, Ireland. Special written features on Shawna can be found on CNN Health, Chicago Tribune Local, The Daily Herald, and other media spots all over the internet.

Choosing the Right Tiller for your Home Vegetable Garden

My dad’s tool of choice for his garden was his trusty pitchfork, which he has since passed on to me. While I love using the pitchfork and digging in the dirt, nothing speeds up cultivating the soil faster than using a tiller. A good tiller will turn any large cultivating job into a quick one. However there are features and benefits you should be on the lookout for so that you do not pick the wrong one and get one that is either too small or too large for what you need.

The two types I am going to focus in on are front and rear tine tillers. There are also cultivators, which I will talk about in a future posting.

Front Tine Tillers
These types of tillers are designed for a small to mid sized garden that has been previously tilled, or had the ground broken. They will be able to break ground for a new garden if the conditions are ideal and that means the ground has be very soft. Such a condition would be after plenty of rain or a heavy soaking to an area.

As the name implies the rotating tines are in the front of the machine. Many of these require that you “pull” the tiller for best results, although there are models where you can push. Most, if not all variety and brands of front tine tillers have an OHV engine. This is a type of piston engine where rods are used to actuate rocker arms. Newer models could have an OHC engine, but the process of the tiller is still the same.

Popular features on front tine tillers include handle mounted tine engagement, adjustable tilling widths (as much as 24 inches), and an adjustable wheelbase. Not all brands will have these options so if they are important to you, then make sure you request them from the person selling you the tiller or read the box and/or product specs.

The benefits of a front tiller give you excellent power for tougher jobs and the tines in most models are self sharpening. The chain case in many varieties are enclosed therefore it is virtually maintenance free. With brands that offer an adjustable width, this will give you more versatility for varying conditions.

Rear Tine Tillers
As its name implies the tines are in the back of the machine. These types of tillers are designed for larger sized gardens and with the power they provide can tackle difficult jobs. They have large engines and like front tillers the chain case is sealed and comes pre-lubricated to reduce maintenance.

On many models the tines will counter rotate and that will help you break up the toughest of soils. They are also adjustable to various depths which will allow you to set your tiller to a preferred tilling depth. They have adjustable side panels which will keep tilled soil in a defined area and top notch brands of rear tillers will have large fourteen inch agricultural tires as well as a serrated trailing shield which smooths out the tilling path (this is an added feature, so make sure you ask for it).

There are many companies that make both types of tillers, so if you are brand specific with gardening tools, chances are your favorite, makes a tiller. Be sure to select a tiller that meets your needs, but not one that is too large for them either. If you have an eleven foot by eleven foot tiller, you won’t need a rear tine model as a front tine tiller will do (you get the point). Also be sure to check what type of engine for fuel it takes. They usually are either 2 stroke or 4 stroke engines. To read more on how these engine types differ be sure to do Google search on “2 stoke engine 4 stroke engine differences”.

About the Author

Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the monthly Seeds Club.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club: