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Originally publish April 30, 2015 and replayed on August 12, 2017. But always great advice and a top downloaded episode. New today for http://PRN.fm (PRN.fm) listeners! Farmer’s Markets and Garlic Growing Kathi O’Leary shares her passion for gardening, her amazing knowledge gained over 35 years, and valuable tips to make your gardening journey successful! She’s grown garlic for private clients, sold starts at the farmer’s markets, and grafted fruit trees for her own orchard. Living in the Rocky Mountains, Kathi shares her experiences of living off the grid, hauling water, and growing a garden close to the earth. Tell us a little about yourself. In 1978, my late husband and I moved onto 20 acres in the woods in North Idaho. I was 21 so I had a lot of energy. It was a basic piece of ground, I started gardening the following spring. I was digging rocks out by hand, and building a deer fence, we had no running water or electricity so I hauled water from a nearby creek. Over the years the garden got bigger, I planted fruit trees every year, many of which I grafted, then I got a small greenhouse, and then I would sell starts and extra produce I had at farmers market. So I started growing garlic, I like garlic, over the years built a bigger greenhouse, eventually I basically just sold to friends, and private clientele. Hauled water from the creek, and had a gravity feed system into the garden. Early in the spring I couldn’t get to the creek, so I would melt snow in early March. Last few years I have been living in Trego, MT but still have my place in ID. I still grow my garlic back there, and am experimenting growing things that don’t need attended too much, and my fruits trees have to make it on their own. The elevation in Idaho is about 2800’ and here it’s about 3200’. It’s a lot colder here. Season here is a bit more extreme. Hotter and dryer in the summer but short, and much colder in the winter and early spring. Have really scaled down to a 4x4x12 foot cold box and a fruit trees and building a greenhouse that should be operating in a couple. Tell me about your first gardening experience? Grew up in Washington State and Central coastal California, Santa Maria area. Moved up to Sierras and lived there for a couple of years. Always wanted to live in the mountains and grow a garden ever since I was a little kid or become a street musician in San Francisco. Lots of instruments, harps, guitars, accordions, ukuleles . Have always loved working with plants. Probably my biggest first start was my grandmother. She always had a vegetable garden in Issaquah WA, my mother grew plants but more flowers and berries. What does organic gardening/earth friendly mean to you? Nurturing the soil. That’s the most important part of organic gardening.  The health of the soil and nurturing that. Who or what inspired you to start using organic techniques? I don’t know who inspired me. I’m not certain my grandmother grew organically, it was never a question to me to not use chemicals, it seemed natural to grow things without the  use of herbicides or pesticides. Just something I felt very moved personally to do. How did you learn how to garden organically? First winter in Id, moved on our land in November which is kinda silly, but we were young and it all worked out fine. That first winter I read, I read, and I read. I read a lot of Rodale publications, checked books out of the library, had a subscription to Organic Gardening magazine, wrote a lot of notes about the things I read, and started a strategy about the garden for the spring. I also met a woman about 7 miles away who had been living there for quite some time and she shared a lot of info about different varieties of what would grow well there and shared her experiences. And of course, the long slow process of years of mistakes and successes, that is the most valuable experience. Tell us about something that grew well last season. Had... Support this podcast