Growing Your Own Food with Epic Gardening

When it comes to sustainability, the holy grail a lot of people dream about is growing your own food. What better way to eliminate food miles, cut out the pesticides, and become self sufficient, right? However, as anyone who has ever tried gardening can attest, it’s pretty intimidating at the start. Knowing what to plant, when to plant, and how to get started requires a lot of research. Once you get going you realize that it’s not as simple as just putting something in the ground and waiting. Slugs eat your precious lettuce, birds and squirrels descend on your beloved berries, leaves turn yellow for some reason, and you’re never sure if you’re watering things too often or not enough. That's why we couldn't wait to sit down with Kevin Espiritu of Epic Gardening. He's built a thriving Youtube channel, podcast, and Instagram aimed at getting 10 million people to learn how to grow their own food. In this conversation, he's sharing some garden tested wisdom we can all benefit from.Show Notes: Learn more about Kevin by checking out Epic Gardening's website, Youtube channel, and Instagram. Kevin also has an excellent book all about gardening: The Field Guide to Urban Gardening. If you enjoy Kevin's take on gardening, be sure to listen to his podcast. Kevin has put out too many excellent videos on common gardening questions to list here, but some of our favorites are his guide to common watering mistakes and 5 veggies you can grow in under a month. To better understand your soil, Kevin recommends getting in touch with your local extension office to arrange a soil test. Kevin's must-have gardening gear: A good pair of pruning shears, a pair of micro-tip shears, a Japanese hoe, a garden apron, and a garden cart to hold your favorite tools. Understand the facts and fiction of regrowing plants from common vegetable scraps. Kevin highly recommends the book "Six Seasons" by Joshua McFadden. Kevin's go-to karaoke song is "Drops of Jupiter" by Train. 

Om Podcasten

Newsflash — We have a waste problem in this country. Want proof? In the United States, about 40% of our food supply goes to waste. And that’s just food. We know it's easy to get overwhelmed by how wasteful we are in modern America. Maybe what's missing is some hope, some inspiration, and a helpful way to get started on the path to a more sustainable lifestyle.Welcome to Unwasted — a podcast all about inspiring everyone to live less wasteful, more meaningful lives. Each week, we hear the powerful stories of people on a mission to end our addiction to waste. We’ll have conversations full of food-for-thought, fun facts, and actionable tips, tricks, and recipes that you can try at home. Because while we all may not see eye to eye on everything, the one thing we can agree on, is that we only have one life, one planet, and it would be a shame to waste any of it. So join us, every week, on Unwasted with Imperfect.