Episode #7: Growing Food at Home Can Be Simple with Marc Thoma

In this episode of the HobbyScool podcast, I chat with Marc Thoma about how growing food at home for your family can be simple. With over 15 years of experience growing fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs for his family in a small suburban backyard, Marc is passionate about helping other families grow their own food too, regardless of space, time or knowledge. He is a published author of two books for beginner gardeners with a blog and YouTube channel teaching simple, time-saving techniques to grow healthy, fresh homegrown food in whatever space you have.

Specifically, we covered the kind of food Marc grows and how much garden space he uses. The easiest vegetables to grow and his top tips for saving time taking care of his garden.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Where you can find Marc : Healthy, Fresh and Homegrown or his YouTube channel

• Grab his free Container Garden Guide here

• Don't forget to join our wait list for the next HobbyScool online learning summit. Our summits are free to attend and you can be the first to know when the next summit launches by getting on the wait list here.

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Transcript: Growing Food at Home Can Be Simple with Marc Thoma

00:00:02 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
And today my special guest is Mark Thoma. Mark is with Tranquill urban homestead, and today we're going to be talking about growing food at home for your family, and how it can be simple mark. Thank you so much for joining me. I am super excited to chat with you today. I know that a lot of our listeners are interested in, you know whether they live in an apartment or you know, a home out in the suburbs. They're interested in growing.

00:00:33 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Their own food, so why don't we jump right in? And can you tell the audience a little bit more about you and how you help people?

00:00:43 Marc Thoma (guest)
Yes, so hello everyone. I have 15 years of probably actually more now 15 than 15 years of experience growing my own fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs.

00:00:54 Marc Thoma (guest)
For my family in a small suburban backyard here on the West Coast of Canada and I'm very passionate about helping other families grow their own food too. Regardless of space-time or knowledge, I see a lot of benefits which will cover in a moment for growing your own food. I'm also a published author of two books for beginner gardeners, and I have a blog and a YouTube channel as well that teach simple time saving techniques.

00:01:26 Marc Thoma (guest)
Grow healthy, fresh, homegrown food in whatever space you have.

00:01:32 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So Mark let, let's jump right in and you know a lot of the listeners here. They might not have a lot of space, So what kind of food do you grow either in your backyard or maybe even it might be inside or on a patio or back deck that you have.

00:01:52 Marc Thoma (guest)
So I have like a whole bunch of different places where I grow food both like you said in in the backyard on my deck and even indoors. So I grow lots of greens such as lettuce, kale, spinach, mustards, Swiss Chard. I grow quite a few brassicas, which includes cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage and a few less common veggies such as kohlrabi which we affectionately call UFO's.

00:02:22 Marc Thoma (guest)
As the call Rabbi seems to hover in midair on its little stocks, I also grow a lot of beans, such as Bush beans, pole beans, drying beans, and then I I. We also grow peas. Both the shelling variety and snap peas. And then I have a lot of what are considered fruiting veggies. So veggies that you know, produce what looks like a fruit such as tomatoes, eggplants, Peppers, squash.

00:02:52 Marc Thoma (guest)
Bikini. I've probably missed a few there, but that gives you an idea of what kind of vegetables. In terms of fruit. I have two apple trees, fig trees, pear trees, 1 plum tree, a cherry, a Peach, a lemon, and a Mandarin tree.

00:03:08 Marc Thoma (guest)
And then some berries such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and elderberries and then herbs such as oregano, thyme, mint, basil, Rosemary, lavender.

00:03:19 Marc Thoma (guest)
And all of this in what is considered a fairly small backyard garden.

00:03:27 Marc Thoma (guest)
About 2000 square feet actually.

00:03:30 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Yeah, because when you are talking about all that, I'm like he must have, you know, 5 acres.

00:03:34 Marc Thoma (guest)
Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but a lot of it. I'm planting kind of in an intensive manner, so a lot of the plants are fairly close together and so you know I might not be growing like 100 heads of.

00:03:51 Marc Thoma (guest)
Broccoli, but at least I'm growing like you know. I think this year I've grown about 8:00 so.

00:03:59 Marc Thoma (guest)
In a small space, like maybe 2 by 4 feet at most.

00:04:04 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Wow, so tell us a little bit about how you set this up. Are you doing this in raids beds? Are you doing this in containers on your back porch or I think you even mentioned that some of it you're doing inside, so tell us a little bit about how you have that all set up.

00:04:21 Marc Thoma (guest)
So I have a mix, and there's a few reasons why I have a mix. My main vegetable garden beds is about 245 square feet I have.

00:04:34 Marc Thoma (guest)
Four beds in total. Two of them are kind of L shapes, so they're 4 foot by 10 foot with a 4 foot by 4 foot section tacked on into an L shape and then two of the beds are just 4 by 1010 foot beds. So it sounds like a lot, but it's actually in a fairly compact space. It's not doesn't take up my whole backyard, it takes up maybe about 1/3 of my backyard. I do have a greenhouse, and that greenhouse is about 13 feet by 6 feet, and that's where I grow a lot of my container.

00:05:05 Marc Thoma (guest)
Plants and things like my tomatoes, my Peppers. I'm growing watermelon as well in there and my Mandarin and and lemon trees are in there and that greenhouse is for sort of the more heat loving crops that I want to keep warmer.

00:05:21 Marc Thoma (guest)
The fruit trees are just scattered all over the backyard, just in different places, and they are packed in quite tightly, but I keep them pruned so that they fit into the space.

00:05:31 Marc Thoma (guest)
And I wish I had more space, but then I knew know that I'd need more time to take care of it so the space is actually quite, you know, good for what we have.

00:05:41 Marc Thoma (guest)
I also have some containers that are just like outside the greenhouse. I have some on my deck. I have like a container, usually of greens like salad greens and maybe some green onions like sitting right next to my kitchen door, my patio door so I could just grab something on my way. You know, in or out of the out of the house and then I do. I haven't grown too much indoors but one one thing that I love growing indoors is fresh sprouts so I just grow them in a Mason jar.

00:06:12 Marc Thoma (guest)
And they're great on like sandwiches or in salads.

00:06:16 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So what would you say are the easiest vegetables to grow?

00:06:21 Marc Thoma (guest)
So the easiest ones would be things like lettuce, kale, peas, beans and green onions, or scallions, as they're sometimes called. They usually do quite well without too much fuss, but you also have to like the vegetables that you grow. If you don't like kale, don't grow it and you know there's some other greens that are also easy to grow, like mustards and and things like that. And all of them can be grown in containers.

00:06:51 Marc Thoma (guest)
There is very few things that actually can't grow in containers, and keeping them in a container keeps them contained. Pun intended I guess, and and it keeps them. I think more compact and and easier to care for.

00:07:07 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Well, and what when I think of containers I think of, you know something that anybody could grow even if they're in a town home or in an apartment. And maybe putting it on the balcony.

00:07:19 Marc Thoma (guest)
So so for like an apartment, balcony or condo, balcony or if you have a townhouse where you just have a really small patio, there's lots of successful food growers who are growing in these small spaces and growing everything in containers. You're constricted by space, yes, but one of the things that you can do is actually grow vertically. So for some of the vining vegetables like cucumbers and pool beans, you can actually train them up a trellis and that way they're not taking up much.

00:07:49 Marc Thoma (guest)
Of a footprint on your balcony or your patio, now you do have to be careful if you're in an apartment building or condominium that you are actually allowed to grow vegetables on your deck, some don't, unfortunately, so you want to make sure before you start that you're allowed to and what the restrictions are. And the other thing with growing on a balcony is be mindful of your neighbors below and don't overwater your containers because they probably won't like having.

00:08:20 Marc Thoma (guest)
Muddy water from your containers dripping onto their balcony or patio.

00:08:26 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So let me ask you this, when you're talking about all of that and everything that you're growing, I just I was like ohh, I'd love to do it but I'm worried about the time. Quite frankly, can you talk a little bit about some of your tips for saving time? Because you're just one person, right? You don't have a a full that's helping.

00:08:45 Marc Thoma (guest)
You

00:08:46 Marc Thoma (guest)
to really helping me, Umm, I mean, my wife helps a lot with the harvesting and my daughter, who's now 8 1/2 years old. She she's helping a little bit here and there too, but I you know the bulk of the the vegetable gardening and taking care of the fruit trees is me and I do have a full time job outside the home and I have, you know, I'm teaching people how to how to grow food, so I'm fairly busy. The the most important tip I have for that is don't be just a weekend warrior.

00:09:16 Marc Thoma (guest)
Of going out and just spending, you know, hours on the weekend and ignoring your garden during the week. You want to make sure you check your garden every day during the main growing season. You want to look for plants that need water. Any pest or disease issues harvesting. What needs to be harvest, and maybe do some minor weeding, pruning and clean up.

00:09:41 Marc Thoma (guest)
It should really only take about 15 minutes and I find it's also a great stress relief if you do it in in the evening after a busy day at the office to sort of get out, get some fresh air and and sort of commune with nature. Right touch the plants and the plants you know kind of. Give off a calming effect.

00:10:04 Marc Thoma (guest)
And.

00:10:06 Marc Thoma (guest)
On the weekend, you know, you can sort of tackle maybe some of the larger projects that you need to work on, but also invest in automatic watering systems if you can. That'll help you a great deal, especially when you know you're in a heat wave like a lot of places right now are.

00:10:25 Marc Thoma (guest)
In summer time and you want to also avoid labor intensive tasks such as the traditional tilling of your garden or double digging your garden every spring. There's other ways to deal with that, and that's considered no dig or no till gardening.

00:10:42 Marc Thoma (guest)
So you know there there's some things that you that traditionally have always been done in a garden that really don't make sense anymore to do.

00:10:50 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Well, and I've heard it's not even good for the for the. For now. Maybe you know, saying it the wrong way, but not good for the dirt to actually till it.

00:10:59 Marc Thoma (guest)
No, it it it, it causes problems with.

00:11:04 Marc Thoma (guest)
The the soil structure itself. The soil actually has a structure to it. There's organisms in the soil that are helping.

00:11:13 Marc Thoma (guest)
Breakdown organic matter in the soil to make it available for your plants. And so by tilling our double digging you're actually breaking that soil structure and causing all kinds of problems. And also, Umm you'll have more weed problems because you're actually bringing up weed seeds from BOLO and then they'll be exposed to light and they'll sprout. So since I've been doing no dig gardening, I've had a lot less weeds that I've had to deal with.

00:11:44 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
And that, and that's a great tip, and I think a lot, you know, one that a lot of people aren't familiar with. So before Mark before we hang up here today, can you talk about some of your most common challenges and suggestions that you have to overcome them?

00:12:01 Marc Thoma (guest)
I think the most common challenge is just getting started. I think you know there are lots of excuses people use such as not having enough space-time or knowledge and so space really shouldn't be an issue.

00:12:15 Marc Thoma (guest)
Uh, if you can grow in containers, either indoors or on a balcony if you don't have a backyard of your own. And time is also really not an issue. If you kind of look at how you spend your time every day and every week, maybe you can reduce your time on certain tasks that don't, that don't provide your family more health and overall well-being growing your own food well.

00:12:44 Marc Thoma (guest)
And then knowledge should also not be an issue. There's so much information out there. There's a good beginners books on gardening, and there's again YouTube channels. There's lots of blog posts you can research pretty well anything and find it online. The challenges of things like pest diseases and weeds. Again, do your research. You'll find solutions for each and and most of the solutions nowadays.

00:13:15 Marc Thoma (guest)
You find are organic, so you don't have to worry about having to spray a synthetic pesticides and things like that. And for weeds, my biggest advice is pull them out after it's rained or you've watered, because they come out much easier.

00:13:33 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
That's the gorilla. Good tip. We get a lot of ways. I think in our House and I always I need to remember to go out after it rains and kind of pull them up.

00:13:41 Marc Thoma (guest)
In and you can mulch them too, like if you put a mulch on top of the soil again. That's what no dig essentially does is you're mulching with compost, but the mulch will suppress the the weed seeds from even sprouting, so that helps a lot as well.

00:13:57 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So Mark, you have a YouTube channel and a blog that goes into more details here. Can you tell people how to find you? And we will also make sure that the links are in the show.

00:14:07 Marc Thoma (guest)
Notes too. So my main website is is tranquil urban, sorry, tranquil, urbanhomestead.com. It's actually branded as healthy, fresh, home grown. But it is on tranquil urbanhomestead.com. And then my YouTube channel is called healthy, fresh, homegrown, and.

00:14:28 Marc Thoma (guest)
And the link will be available so you can check out my YouTube channel as well.

00:14:33 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
And you also have a free gift for the audience.

00:14:37 Marc Thoma (guest)
So I do have a container garden guide which is a free download and again that link will be provided. You can just go there and enter your e-mail address and your name and then you'll get that free container garden guide. And once you're on my e-mail list, you'll also be getting actually a weekly e-mail every Friday morning with some extra tips and information for how we can grow food for your family better.

00:15:07 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Love your container guy because I feel like that is something anybody could use no matter where they're living in apartment or whatever they could use.

00:15:14 Marc Thoma (guest)
That that's very versatile.

00:15:18 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Their own vegetables, so Mark thank you so much for joining me. I learned so much and thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

00:15:24 Marc Thoma (guest)
Great. Well, thank you very much for having me.