1KHO 655: The More Colors the Better | Sandra Mao, Vibrant Harvest

Summary

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Episode: 1KHO 655: The More Colors the Better
Host: Jenny Urch
Guest: Sandra Mao, author of Vibrant Harvest
Release Date: December 20, 2025
Network: That Sounds Fun Network

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Episode Overview

This inspiring episode centers on the joy of gardening as a family, the importance of color and variety in the garden, and the tangible developmental, sensory, and emotional benefits of outdoor, hands-on experiences—especially for children. Jenny Urch speaks with Sandra Mao, gardener, Instagram creator, and author of Vibrant Harvest, about Sandra’s vibrant approach to home gardening, making it accessible and exciting for both experienced gardeners and complete beginners.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sandra Mao’s Gardening Backstory

• Family & Generational Roots: Sandra grew up gardening with her parents and grandmother, who transformed their limited space into a lush, colorful environment (01:30).
• Color & Creativity: Sandra was always fascinated by bright colors, which inspired her journey into colorful gardening and later into sharing her experience online (01:30 – 03:00).
• COVID Quarantine Pivot: The pandemic inspired Sandra to turn her backyard into an active, engaging space for her kids, which later grew into sharing her colorful harvests with a wider audience (01:30).

2. The Power and Importance of Color in the Garden

• Visual Impact & Mood: Sandra believes color in the garden can have an “immediate impact” on mood and well-being (03:00).

• Book Motivation: Her book was written to show “vegetable garden...doesn’t have to be plain green” and to encourage families, especially children, to discover joy in diverse, colorful harvesting (03:43).

• Variety Beyond the Supermarket: Gardens reveal an array of vegetables—purple carrots, rainbow radishes, multi-colored peas—that are rarely found in grocery stores (05:38, 13:39).

  “The more colors the better. The more colors the better.” – Jenny Urch, reading Sandra’s words (03:37)

3. Making Gardening Accessible and Fun for Children

• Treasure Hunt Experience: Pulling up rainbow carrots or potatoes is described as an exciting treasure hunt for kids, as the color isn’t always known until harvest (08:52–10:29).

• Shape and Imperfection: Odd shapes and “wonky” homegrown veggies are part of the fun, not a problem (10:48).

• Kids & Willingness to Try New Foods: Brightly-colored vegetables make children more likely to taste and enjoy different foods (35:00).

  “I feel like gardening... teach kids, you know, to be patient. Good things take time... And they usually get excited when it’s time to harvest.” – Sandra Mao (34:30)

4. Practical Tips for Gardeners (of All Levels)

• Start With What You Love: Focus initially on vegetables your family enjoys, then branch out to new varieties for fun and color (20:53).

• Beginner-Friendly Flowers: Zinnias, marigolds, and calendula are celebrated as easy wins for novice gardeners—vibrant, hardy, and low-effort (28:00–29:00).

• Dealing with Challenges: It’s normal for plants not to look store-perfect. Tips for thinning carrots, fighting pests, or saving seeds make setbacks less intimidating (10:48, 47:21).

• Seed Sources: Seed collecting is encouraged, but unique varieties can often be found on platforms like Etsy or from companies like Baker Creek (26:12).

• Color Palette Approach: Build your garden plan by picking a color scheme—anything from soft pastels to vibrant hues—to guide your seed and plant selections (36:26).

  “At the end of the day, you just want to grow whatever that makes you happy. Like, for me, I love bright color... during summer, my garden has so many different bright colors.” – Sandra Mao (36:26)

5. Sandra’s Book: Vibrant Harvest

• Structure: Each vegetable profile includes Sandra's favorite varieties, growing tips, beautiful photographs (mostly her own), and problem-solving advice, making it a practical manual (05:57, 12:11).
• Recipes & Preservation: Instructions on how to use and store the harvest (sun-drying, canning, infusing oils, soap making) help families enjoy their garden bounty year-round (25:01, 38:34).
• Pest & Disease Charts: The book contains comprehensive visual guides for common problems in the garden, making troubleshooting more accessible (47:21).

6. Year-Round and Small-Space Gardening

• Sandra’s Environment: Living in climate zone 10B (no frost date) allows Sandra to garden outdoors year-round, though she still prefers to follow seasonal growing patterns for optimal taste and pest management (41:46).
• Containers & Raised Beds: Advice on using open-bottom metal containers for urban or patio gardening, including tips for placement and drainage (48:23).

7. Encouragement for New Gardeners

• Learning Curve: "It will take time for it to be fun"—expect successes and failures, but the rewards make it worthwhile (34:20).

• Not All-Consuming: Once established, a garden requires less daily maintenance than many expect, and can be a “15-minute morning” walk or moment of peace with a cup of coffee (40:12).

  “You spend more time enjoying it.” – Sandra Mao (41:40)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On parenting and building excitement in children:

  “Carrots are like a treasure hunt... [kids] pull up, wow, purple!” – Sandra Mao (08:52)

• On color and variety:

  “Vegetable garden... doesn’t have to be plain green. Your garden can be bursting with colors and there are so many beautiful varieties... ready to be discovered.” – Sandra Mao (03:43)

• On accessibility:

  “If you’re nervous, you can look at your book and say, well, I really want to try and grow green tomatoes, like zebra stripes... And that can entice you to try different things.” – Jenny Urch (37:34)

• Childhood memories:

  “I remember as a kid, I always enjoy gardening with my mom and my grandmother... She would buy me a doll cooking set... I’d harvest some vegetables and my mom just cook it and we actually eat it. That’s one of the best memories.” – Sandra Mao (51:16)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Sandra's gardening backstory: 01:30 – 03:00
• Why color matters / impact on mood: 03:00 – 03:37
• Discussion of favorite crops (rainbow carrots, radishes, potatoes): 08:52 – 13:39
• On discovery and surprise in gardening (imperfect veggies, growing with kids): 10:48 – 11:34
• Flowers (marigold, calendula, zinnia)—easy wins for new gardeners: 21:38 – 29:11
• Seed sourcing and saving tips: 26:09 – 28:00
• Color palette approach to planning: 36:26 – 37:34
• Advice for new gardeners / learning curve: 34:20 – 35:38
• Harvest & preserving, sun-drying process: 38:34 – 40:28
• Time requirements & enjoyment: 40:12 – 41:40
• Year-round gardening & climate zones: 41:41 – 43:08
• Raised beds & urban container gardening tips: 48:23 – 49:40
• Childhood gardening memories: 51:16 – 52:17

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Additional Highlights

• Unique Plants Discussed:
  • Rainbow carrots, Easter basket radishes, watermelon radishes, rainbow cauliflower, romanesco, yard-long beans, cucamelons, dragon’s egg cucumbers, red noodle beans.
• Making Use of the Harvest:
  • Sandra discusses infusing calendula oil for soaps and ointments (24:02), integrating garden veggies into family meals, and the satisfaction of sharing homegrown flowers in bouquets.
• Instagram Community & Support:
  • Sandra shares daily “coffee chat” stories showcasing the ups and downs of real-world organic gardening and answers common troubleshooting questions (07:48, 45:30).
• Approachable Inspiration:
  • Both Sandra and Jenny emphasize that you don’t have to be an expert to get started—the joy is in the journey, and colorful gardens make that journey a delight for old and young alike.

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Conclusion

This episode is a vibrant celebration of gardening as a colorful, playful, and deeply rewarding family activity. Vibrant Harvest is a resource-rich book to help families cultivate not only a garden full of color and flavor but also a sense of wonder and togetherness. Sandra’s story and tips will inspire beginners to seasoned gardeners alike to get outside, experiment with variety, and reclaim some of the 9.5 million precious minutes of childhood (and adulthood) for joyful connection with nature.

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Find Sandra on Instagram: @SandraUrbangarden
Get Vibrant Harvest wherever books are sold.

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“Go outside and grow together with your family.” – Sandra Mao (52:32)

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Jenny Urch. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And I'm so excited today to be talking about gardening with a woman who is so good at showcasing the variety and the vibrancy that you can find in the garden. Sandra Mao, Welcome.

[A]

Thank you so much, Jenny. And I'm so honored to be here.

[B]

We love to garden. We're really not that great at it, but gardening has opened up a world for us of joy and discovery. And what I didn't really realize is that there's so many more varieties of different types of crops than I ever imagined. You know, you think there's like a couple kinds of peppers or a couple kinds of tomatoes. And when we started to plant things, which wasn't all that long ago, flowers, all of it, there's so much variety. So I would love if you would give some of your background, your backstory, you talk about how you have were influenced generational, you know, in a generational way, going back to garden. But I love your focus on the colors.

[A]

Yeah. So I grew up with my parents and my grandmother in. We have a small home, but we actually have a big yard. And my grandmother's garden, she just like create everything in our backyard. And that is my love of gardening starting then. And since I was a kid, I just love things colorful, you know, like I'm like the kind of kids that when you open my book, you will see like different colors of highlighting. So that's why when I started to garden, you know, a long time ago, but just like here and there because when my kid was little, we do gardening outside but not like really posting things online until 2020 during the quarantine that all my kids are at home and we need to find some activity for them to be outdoor. So I created a space, a gardening space for them. And also sometimes we do camping in the backyard because they just, we just indoors, stuck indoor, that is. And when I started just, I started small in container, a Fuse container for them so my kids can grow carrots, tomatoes. And then I expanded the garden bigger and bigger so now I have half of my backyard, all garden space.

[B]

Oh, how wonderful. How wonderful for your whole family to have it be like that. You know, I sometimes hear people talk about, you know, that you kind of are praying you can be practical with the garden. You know, we're going to grow just a couple things and these are the things my family eats. But what I got from your book is that there's lots of options out there and really it is so focused on the color. And I love that you wrote when it comes to creating a garden, I am always thinking about color. A garden should be a feast for the eyes. The color in your garden can have an immediate impact on your mood. The more colors the better. The more colors the better.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And I've not read a book about that. I've not read a book that really focuses on the colors.

[A]

And that is one of the main reason I wrote Vibrant Harvest because I just want to show everyone to grow like vegetable garden. It doesn't have to be plain green. You know, our garden can be bursting with colors and there are so many beautiful variety of vegetable out there that you know, ready, ready for to be discovered. And I just want to inspire others to explore them and also have fun in the process. And also I know that your podcast is focused on, you know, encourage children to be outdoor more. So most of all, I hope that my book encourage family to grow together, especially when children see how colorful and exciting vegetable, you know, can be. So gardening can be become an adventure and also, you know, give them some joyful and hand on learning experience.

[B]

It is a stunning book. It is a stunning book. The picture of the cauliflower, it was hard to pick a favorite because there's so many gorgeous photos and I'm going to hold up this one in case I ever get it up on YouTube. But the amount of variety in textures and in colors in this one photo. Are these all your photos?

[A]

Yes, all my photo. And I took it myself because you know, when you I have to grow vegetable and then the garden, sometimes you don't even plan to take photo. But when it think pops up, I grab my camera, run outside and snap it. And there's also a couple a few of the photo that photographer came down to my garden and took it especially the big page. But most of the majority of the photo in each vegetable profile is my photo.

[B]

They're stunning, Sandra.

[A]

So thank you. Thank you so much. Wow.

[B]

And I Love all the variety because you still have containers out there, different types of containers, different types of almost like troughs. And so you just. I mean, it is just so pretty. Like when you say that you should go out there and you should feel better and it should have an impact on your mood. I mean, it had an impact on my mood just looking at your pictures.

[A]

Yeah. I. Hi. And also when I made this book, I gathered the question that I got over the year from gardeners, you know, that they asked that, you know, how to grow tomato, how to battle certain pests. So that's how I structure my book. I want to go in depth into individual crops. So when people have problem in a certain crop, they just can go in my book and everything. It's in that same, you know, in one vegetable profile. Yeah. And I usually like when the. I draw more attention to colorful vegetable. I usually go to farmers market. I try to find different colorful vegetable, you know, cook for my kids. And they always get excited. Yeah. And I just feel like nowadays a lot of people kind of disconnected from nature and without even realizing it. So when I post just a simple video of my pomegranate tree, I was shocked that I got so many people saying that they never see a pomegranate tree or pomegranate grow on the tree like that. And even some common a little bit mean that say that. Oh, this is AI. Yeah, they say that. And I was like, oh, my God, I wish you can, you know, come in my garden and see the pomegranate tree. And I do. On my Instagram, I do a coffee chat story every single morning. I usually show my follower behind the scenes. So it's like, you know, not just a Instagram perfect photo, but they can see behind the scene, you know, how the garden look. And we do Organic Gardeners. Nothing perfect.

[B]

Wow. It is amazing that all these photos are yours. You have tried so many different things. Like if you look at these corn, you know, you've got those corn. But then you also have the strawberry popcorn. That's the red kind.

[A]

That's my favorite too. It's so pretty in person. Like the. The caro, like a pearl. Like it's like really like a stone. It's really pretty and it's good for popcorn.

[B]

Yes, Yes. I heard that when you pop it, it still has a little bit of the red color. Yeah. So I was impressed with how many types of things that you've grown over time. And it just goes to show you you've got a garden because you want to have time to grow all these different things. You know, you may not have you everything, so year over year, you can kind of try some different things. Different in all different shapes and colors. So I want to talk about some of the certain ones that you bring up in the book. Let's talk about rainbow carrots, because that's something I didn't even know existed. I thought until I was an adult, like an old adult that ran, that carrots were only orange.

[A]

Carrot is like one of my favorite thing to grow. Especially when you grow with kids. It's like almost like a treasure hunt, like when they pull out the carrot and they can see, like, different color. Because like most kids, they know that, okay, carrot is orange, you know, but they can pull out white carrot. I remember my daughter, when I started to plant rainbow carrot with them, I just had a little patch. I put like, initial of their name, and then I let them grow the carrots and they pull off like, wow, purple. And there's a certain carrots that. Purple on the outside, but is yellow in the inside. It's so pretty. Yeah. And I feel like different colors of vegetable, they also have different, you know, flavors.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, I feel like, for example, like purple broccoli or cauliflowers, they are sweeter than just a normal regular white cauliflower.

[B]

Yeah. Yes. And I think there's different health benefits. I hear people talk about that depending on the different colors that you eat. I didn't even really consider, Sandra, that when you go to pull it up, you don't know what color it's going to be. Especially if you planted a mixed variety. How fun is that?

[A]

Yeah, usually I. The rainbow carrot, they have a variety pack seed that you don't know which one is which. You just sow it. And for me, I can maybe tell a little bit because the leaf at the. The base of the leaf, it's a little bit different. But kids, they just don't know. They thought it was like, you know, carrots. Yeah.

[B]

So then the other thing that you said, I've. I've actually never really gotten carrots to work. We tried this year. I keep trying. I can't get them to work really well, I'm gonna have to follow some of the tips and tricks in your book. But one of the things that you say is then they don't always necessarily grow straight. They might have different shapes, but that even makes it more fun, in my opinion.

[A]

Yeah, the same thing I. I remember I make a video because usually I don't really like to thin the Seed because I think it's just a waste because we are home gardening. It doesn' better it grow wonky or in a different lakes. I mean it's like more fun. So I just sharing tip that you can just lift it up like lift it up gently and you pull the seedling and plant it someplace out so that way you don't need to thin out the carrot. And. And yeah. And a lot of people say that oh no, then you not the carrots doesn't like transplant and the carrot gonna. Not gonna grow straight. And I mean like, you know, you homegrown. I don't mind my carrot grow into five legs. So you mean like, you know, one carrot grow into five carrots?

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I mean that's what makes it pretty fun. There's all this variety out there that's interesting. I should try better. I always feel stressed out about the thinning and it never seems to work. So I'm. I'm going to keep with it because you. One of the things that you do in the book. So the book is brand new. You can get a copy. It actually would be a great Christmas gift. It is a stunning book and it's a really good time of year for it to come out, Sandra, because.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

People depending on where you live. Like we're going to be to the point right after Christmas where we're starting to order seeds and figure out what we want to get for the next year. And you have in here all of your favorite varieties.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That's a big deal because that can be really overwhelming to figure out.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. At the end of each vegetable profile, I add my favorite variety to grow. There are some colorful. It's also have better flavors as well. So, you know, to have people narrow down what variety that they want to plan for the season.

[B]

Yeah. Yes. I love that. I think that's really, really helpful. So like for example, and the rainbow radishes, which. That's the thing. You know, I didn't know until I was an old adult that you could get a different radish besides the little red one. And you talk about Easter basket and French breakfast and watermelon and white icicle and those grow fast.

[A]

Yes. Radishes is one of my favorite crop to grow. Those are like the. And look at the other one in the center. Look like a bird. The bird shape. Yeah, the. It's so fun to grow and it's fast.

[B]

It does look like a bird.

[A]

Like a bird. Yeah. It's. It's so fun. Like I love root vegetable because you just don't know what it look like until you pull it out. And it's always get my, my kids excited for the root vegetable. I think my kids love I love to grow like carrots, radishes. Potato is one of my favorite. I planted rainbow potato one time and my kids just like dig inside the, the sore and try oh purple, oh red. You know, it's so fun. Yeah, it's really fun. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. What a joy. What a joy. And you know, it just goes to show you that the supermarket stuff is kind of boring. You know, at the grocery store it all looks the same. But how fun if it comes up and it's, you know, if people look in this book, it's on page 22, the middle radish, it really is. It's like in the shape of a bird. It's like it has a beak and there's just a lot of variety there and I think that's the way it's supposed to be. So you show all these different colors of radishes. When it comes to holiday gifting, I want to give things people genuinely love. Beautiful, timeless pieces they'll wear for years. And that's why I'm going with quint. From Mongolian cashmere sweaters to Italian wool coats, everything is premium quality at a price that actually makes sense. Quince truly has something for everyone. Their soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at just $50 and they look and feel like the designer pieces you see for 200 or more. They've got gorgeous silk tops and skirts for dressing up, perfectly cut denim for everyday life, and outerwear that actually keeps you warm without feeling bulky. And their Italian wool coats, oh my goodness, these are standout pieces. Beautifully tailored, soft to the touch and made to last for season after season. What I love most is that Quince works only with ethical, trusted factories and uses truly premium materials. Yet their prices stay far below what you'd pay at other luxury brands. Personally, I've been reaching for my quince cashmere non stop as the holidays get closer. The cashmere feels incredible. Soft, structured and it doesn't pill. It is the kind of quality I normally expect from a $200 sweater, not $50. Find gifts so good you'll want to keep them with quints. Go to quint.com outside for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q U I n c e.com outside to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.com outside does anyone else Feel like the holidays just showed up overnight. One minute we're picking pumpkins and the next I'm looking around my house thinking wait, do we have enough guest towels? Where's the wreath from last year? And who am I still missing gifts for? If you are in that same last minute scramble, Wayfair has been such a lifesaver for us during this season. The holidays are here and you get what you need fast with Wayfair. From bedding and linens to decor for every room in the house, it is truly your one stop shop. We've been adding some final holiday touches to our home and I recently ordered a couple things from Wayfair. A beautiful neutral throw blanket for the living room and the sweetest little lamp for the kids reading notes. Everything came with fast, free hassle, free delivery. And it all looked even better in person than online. It is amazing how one new piece can make your home feel warm, refreshed and ready for hosting. And if you're in the gifting mode, Wayfair really is the perfect place to shop for anyone on your list. Their selection is huge. Every style, every budget. And I keep finding things I didn't even realize they carried like kitchen essentials, storage solutions and seasonal decor. To get everyone in the holiday spirit, now is the time to get your home ready so you can actually enjoy the holidays with your family instead of running around trying to catch up. Wayfair truly has everything your home needs this season. Get last minute hosting, essentials, gifts for your loved ones and decor to celebrate the holidays for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com Wayfair Every style, every home. You talk about onions. Now we've never grown onions, but you talk about long day, short day and intermediate day varieties. Can you explain what that is?

[A]

So the short day onion.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

I.

[B]

Well I'm gonna. I'm gonna look because I can give you. It's on page 27 sometimes.

[A]

Sometimes it's a lot and I just kind of lost it a little bit.

[B]

Well, I've never worry about that. No, you're fine. I've never really heard of. You talk about like they can get droopy and things like that. I've never really heard of that distinguishing period. Would that be like maybe depending on where you live.

[A]

Which one? Yeah. So let's go to the. The short day onion. Short day onion is they approximately between 10 to 12 hour daylight. So especially When I live in southern atmosphere region, we have short. We have a. Oh my God. I'm so sorry.

[B]

No, you're fine.

[A]

Yeah. So short day onion are able to grow in the southern because they require a short period. Yeah. Daylight and then long day onion result suitable for the northern atmosphere because it's required more longer daylight. And in intermediate onion also suitable for central latitude require approximately 12 to 14 hours of daylight.

[B]

Yeah, I didn't even. I didn't know about any of that, Sandra. I didn't know that there was these different varieties. I don't think that for all the vegetables there are those varieties. But depending on where you live, then you give different options. And they're gorgeous names. The red burgundy onions or the candy onions or the Cimarron, the Stockton red. The superstars. I mean the names themselves. Walla Walla.

[A]

Yeah. I love, I love Walla Walla as well. It's the. It's the size big is yellow onion. It's. It's like sweet and mild, spicy. But most of all, I love the red onion, the one that in the pitcher. Those are like really sweet. They not grow as big thick, but they are sweet and like compact.

[B]

Yeah. All of these different ones that you can try. Okay. I would say one of my favorite pictures is the rainbow cauliflower. I actually don't know if I've ever eaten a different color cauliflower, but white. And people don't tend to like cauliflower. You know, you always see cauliflower in vegetable trays.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's. I'm like, why don't we put that in the vegetable tray? There's yellow. The colors are so pretty. Yellow, purple. They almost look like flowers. Yellow, purple and green. And the green, the shape of it is really unique.

[A]

Yeah. Those are the called romanesco. And each of the rosette, it just look like individual. It's like really pretty. I really enjoy growing colorful cauliflowers and brassica. Usually you can find it at like the local farmers market that they usually sometime they have different colors of cauliflowers, but in like most of the grocery store they don't carry it either they carry white or just the green Broccoli.

[B]

Yeah, it looks like something you would see in outer space. I mean it's so. Or like at it or like a sculpture. It's so unique looking. Yeah. You say it's a cross. Is it a cross between broccoli and cauliflower?

[A]

That is the. The thing that I rate because when I discovered romanesco broccoli, I Was like, what is a romanesco? Broccoli? And then I said, the picture is really interesting. And I read about it and it say it's just. It's a cross between cauliflowers and broccoli.

[B]

Yeah, it's gorgeous. And then you can have the yellow and the purple. I just think people would eat it better. I mean, you only ever see the boring white one. It's like when you plant your own garden, you have so much more control over what you eat.

[A]

Yeah. I usually. When I used to tell people that when they want to, you know, they first started the garden, they want to know what kind of variety they want to plant. I usually tell them to focus on something that their family love to eat. So just like, grow more of them. Because, like. Like one thing that I don't really grow much in the garden in my garden is okra. Because, like, my kids, they just don't really like okra. I try it, but they just don't really enjoy okra. So I don't really grow okra much. Much, but they really enjoy, like, broccoli and other vegetables. So I usually just grow, you know, a mass. Amount of them and we can put. And we can preserve it later. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And then different varieties. You just have so many varieties of them. Okay, let's talk about flowers. Flowers have been the only thing pretty much that I've been successful with my vegetables. Occasionally the cucumbers work, occasionally the pumpkins work, but the flowers tend to work. So marigolds just. Did you do the. There's big ones that. I always pictured that a marigold was really small, but then there's these ones. I think they're maybe called Hawaiian marigolds or something. They're like three or four inches.

[A]

Yes. I. I do different varieties of marigold. I do the. The smaller one, but I usually. I like to grow the. The taller variety instead of the dwarf one, because taller variety, it's. It's grow it, stay alive longer. And they produce a lot of flowers that I have so many of the marigold seed. It so fun. Yeah, it's so fun to. To sew. And I love. A lot of people say that they just don't like this, the smell of marigold. But for me, I love the scent of marigold. And in my country, we eat the flowers, we eat the leaf, and we make it, you know, incorporate as a. In the salad mix, and it's delicious.

[B]

And they're really easy to grow. And there's. I guess I. I didn't know that There were so many varieties of them. Like you show one in your book and it's just so big. It's huge.

[A]

Yeah, that one that' really big. And I have yellow and I have the orange one, the. The big one and then the, the smaller one as well. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I didn't, I didn't know that they grew so big. And that's an easy one. Like you said, it's easy to save the seeds, they're easy to plant and they're pretty hearty. Another one that's easy to grow in terms of flowers is calendula. And those are so pretty too.

[A]

Oh yes, those really pretty. And it's a lot of benefit. I love to dry the flowers, the petal for the tea and I made soap. I love making soap. I doing infused oil sal with the calendula. It's just a lot of benefit and I love to go. I grow them in my area. Calendula grow well in fall and spring. I, I usually don't grow in winter, especially when it's raining because calendula problem is powdery mildew when it's too much moisture and it's. It will create the powdery mildew. Yeah.

[B]

What a beautiful thing to have around in the fall and the spring. Can you talk about how you make the oil?

[A]

So the oil for me personally, I dry the calendula petal first. You can dry, sun dry or I usually I do sun dry because I started to grow calendula because I don't have frost date in my area. So I can grow calendula from spring all the way to, you know, at the end of fall. Calendula can grow though. I dehydrated, sun dry. It's really easy. And then I. There's a certain way for you to do infused oil. You can do double boiling. That is quick. And also for me, I just put the dry calendula petal infused with. With you know, polar oil. I love grape seed oil and poind jar. Mix it, leave it for a couple months and then I get ready to. To use.

[B]

So you would use that oil in making soap?

[A]

Yes, I make soap. I make a cold pressed soap and also I make sal. The sal is really easy when you have the oil. You can just add beef beeswax and if you want to use add a little bit of shea butter as well. You know, make it more smoother. That is like really easy. I have in my book, I also have the. The way to do the infused oil.

[B]

Yeah, it's so pretty. The picture's so Pretty because you have the, the infused oil but then you have the soap and then all the little flowers around it. It's so pretty. Okay, so then tell me the nitty gritty. This is something that I get overwhelmed with because you talk about here the different kinds of varieties, the vibrant varieties you like of Calendula for example is Balls Improved Orange Calendula Orange King Playtime Mix Pink Surprise with Amerigolds, Queen Sophia Strawberry Blonde Marigold Zinnia is Peppermint stick. What is your process for getting seeds? Do you save all of yours? Do you order from catalog bugs for.

[A]

The, the flower seed just in general.

[B]

Like are you, are you like going from like this company? I'm gonna get this seed from this company and that seed from that company.

[A]

So I save some, most of the flowers seed. I say because it's really easy like Xenia Cosmo or even uh, like Calendula and those I I save a lot of seed. Nastasium is also really easy to save seed and plus Nastasian they just grow all over the place because their seed drop. And for vegetable I order Etsy is one of the side that I usually find unique seed. Especially when yeah you can like a lot of part of my seed that I order from Etsy I just select the from local gardeners and they have different like so many variety, like unique variety, Asian vegetable and that I you know able to find for example like water spinach, those are from Southeast Asia and I able to find it from Etsy. And then another company that they also sell unique seed in is in the United States is Baker Creek seed. I think you may be familiar with them. They have a lot of beautiful varieties of vegetable.

[B]

Yeah, I end up getting overwhelmed because there's like Johnny seeds and Baker Creek and high mowing organic and you know you're like sometimes it's sold out at one place so then you're going to the other place. I usually end up with a lot of seeds but. But it's really fun and I like how you talk about the zinnias for novice gardeners and I agree with this. They're an exceptional opportunity because of their ease of cultivation and maintenance and they're just explosion of color. Yes.

[A]

I, I love zinnia. Zinnia. It's probably one of my first flowers that I grow because I just I I familiar with the flowers before when I was young. But then when I saw zinnia over here there's a like so many different varieties and as you can see like in my book on this one, like, I like a lot of different variety of zinnia. And I feel like zinnia, calendula and marigold. When you grow from seed, they can grow bigger, bushier, and taller than the one that you buy the, the seedling from the nursery. That's just my personal experience.

[B]

And they're pretty easy, they're pretty, pretty easy to do the seed starts and, and to transplant because I'm not super successful at a lot of things, but those tend to be pretty straightforward. So. Okay, let's talk then about the, some of the seed and pod vegetables, because this is really a thing that you may not know is that you may not know that you can get that are a yard long and that they're or you may not know some of the beans. When you open them up, then the insides are so remarkable, looking like the scarlet runner bean.

[A]

That's one of my favorite. And, and the seed part change color, different stage, they change color. Like when you open them really young, they are completely pink, bright pink. And when you open it during like the mid stage, they kind of like light purple. And when you open it really ripe, they are only purple. No, no, pink. And when you dry them, it kind of turned burgundy. I feel like the, the color is just amazing.

[B]

Yeah, we are just on the same wavelength. I love seeing all the different colors in the garden. What do you do with your beans?

[A]

So I usually grow tender bean, then the bean that we save seed for, Scarlet runner bean. To be honest, I just love to grow them because the color and I save some of the seed for next season and I, I cook the, the scarlet runner bean. It's almost like every other bean, like pinto bean and I just add into soup. But unfortunately, when you cook it, they lose all the color. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So then do you dry them out? Is that what you do?

[A]

I usually, if I want to save seed, I let them dry on the wine. I like the pot not like dry. Like when you feel it, it's like crispy, then it's like ready to harvest. And when I get all the pot out, I usually let it dry over the counter for, you know, a couple more days before I put it in the bag just to make sure that I stay completely dry.

[B]

And then some of these beans, like this Thai soldier bean, is a foot long, one foot long. And then you have these yard long beans, also known as asparagus beans, Chinese long beans, or snake beans. Yeah. And they're beautiful. You say your favorite variety is called the red noodle. And it really does look Like a noodle.

[A]

Yeah. So the three varieties that I planted in the past, the. The green one and the purple one, and also the Thai soldier one, my favorite is the red one because it's like, really, like, extra crunchy and extra sweet, and I like to eat it raw with the dipping sauce. I get my. Yeah. And also we can do stir fry, and I love yat long bean in. In general put in salad. It's also delicious.

[B]

So many cool varieties. I think it's impressive that you have tried all of these because there's so many different things that you can try. Okay. The cucumbers. Our kids love cucumbers. And gardening exposed me to the fact that there are things called lemon cucumbers and apple cucumbers, and we've never had any success with them, but I've seen them, like, at different. Different, like children's gardens and things. But the cucamelons, the ones that are so small.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So, I mean, I just feel like that's what our kids like the most, are the cucumbers. Can you talk about some of your favorites?

[A]

So my favorite cucumbers, I love Persian is one of my favorite. I love Japanese cucumbers. I feel like they are extra crispy, crunchy. And I love making. I don't really make like a traditional pickle, but I love making kimchi pickle. My kids love cheese pickle. Eating fresh is like, like my garden snack. It's really delicious. For a lemon cucumbers, It's. It's really nice too. It's like plum crunchy, but it's not like my favorite cucumber. I love to grow them because when I first saw, I think one of the Instagram post long time ago, and I saw cucamel and I was like, what is it? Is that a watermelons or a cucumber? And they say, oh, cucumblons. And they are keep producing and they have the tuber, so they. They just keep growing back. Like when you dig the root, there's a tuber. So even though the plant die next season, if you leave the tuber underground, they will grow back.

[B]

Oh, I had no idea. They're so cute. You've got a handful here. It looks like they're. There's 15 in your hand. Such a fun thing. I've seen them where they'll grow it almost around like. Like a teepee. You know, you make a teepee with a bunch of sticks, and then they'll have that growing around them, and then, you know, the kids are trying to find them. Inside of the teepee. And they're so fun. They're so fun to try and find. Okay. And then the. One of them's called dragon's egg.

[A]

Oh, dragon eggs. It's like, it's. I planted them last season. No, two. Yeah. The. The season that I wr. And also last season, it's grow really well. And it's. It's almost like an egg. It's white. It's crunchy, crispy and delicious.

[B]

Who knew? Yeah. Who knew? If you went to wow your children, you pick up this book and just see how many different types of things. This makes it really fun to try and figure out what you want to grow for the 2026 season.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Can you talk about the learning curve? You have this wonderful piece of advice. Advice. This is such good advice. It will take time for it to be fun.

[A]

Yeah. I feel like gardening. It's. It's really fun. It teach kids, you know, to be patient. Good thing. Take time. And they. They usually they really excited when they see they. When I. I have small nephew. My kids are all grown up now, but I have little nephew. And every season I. I usually let them come over and, you know, let's grow carrots. So they planting seed and they come over and check out their carrots. They usually. They really get excited when come to growing. And sometime I just give them the whole pot of carrots for them to take home so they can take care of them at home. And also colors they just. Just love. They. I feel like they excited to see colorful vegetable and they would try. They want to eat. When you give them like a green broccoli, they may be like, yeah, no broccoli. But when you give them a different colors of broccoli. Yeah, they usually they, you know, they really excited with the colors and also willing to try new things.

[B]

Yeah. Yes. So it might take a while for it to be fun for you because there is a learning curve, but you say it's a very rewarding hobby. There's absolutely nothing that compares to fresh vegetables harvested from a garden that you grew yourself. And same with the flowers. It's so fun to take bouquets of flowers to friends that are your own flowers. In this book, it's called Vibrant Harvest. Cultivating a kaleidoscope of colors in a vegetable garden with heirlooms, modern hybrids, and more. There's 42 colorful vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Lots of tips in here on how to do it. I liked the idea of starting with the color palette. You know, I think. I think sometimes getting started can Be really overwhelming and you don't really know what direction to go. And you say, well, one of the ways you can do that is just to choose your color palette.

[A]

Yeah. So color palette is. It's different. Like for some people, they just like something calm. So you can start with something pastel color, like Cosmo. Those are like a soft, softer color. So, you know, it's your garden. At the end of day, you just want to grow whatever that make you happy. Happy. Like for me, I love bright color, colorful things. So I usually, I just toss whatever color. During summer, my garden has so many different bright color. And I also in. In that section, I also in incorporate white into the, the color palette because sometimes when you have too much color, you know, it's kind of like, oh, just too bright. So when you, you usually I grow white color of flowers, it's just to break up the color, the bright color a little bit. And also some of the space that are along the fen of my garden is a little bit darker because underneath the pomegranate tree, I usually grow white roses and other stuff to bright up the bring, you know, that space.

[B]

That's a really unique way to look at the garden. And it's a way that I think for someone who is nervous about trying would be a way that's pretty enticing is to think about what colors you want and go from there. Like, if you're thinking, I'm nervous about trying to grow tomatoes. Like, we've never really had tomatoes. We've only ever eaten the little ones. But like an actual size tomato, I don't think we've ever grown one that hasn't gotten eaten by some sort of insect or bird or something. But if you're. So if you're nervous, you can look at your book and say, well, I really want to try and grow green tomatoes, you know, like the zebra striped ones or whatever. And that can entice you, I think, to try different things and to make it a priority. Can you talk about how you've got the whole package here? Because you not only talk about how to start from seed, how to plan your garden, but you also talk about enjoying the harvest. Was this a big learning curve for you as well? Have you been canning and freezing and doing things like that since you were a child?

[A]

No, actually not. I. I exposed to my, you know, my parents, my grandparents garden, but then have my own garden just grow, you know, simple thing with my kids. But I start to when I, I think 2021, after like a year that I Started like really started the garden here. I always want to preserve things because each season I have a lot of tomatoes and I just you know, peppers and other things and, and keep it in the refrigerator. It's not going to last long. So that's when I, I start you know, learning to can and I just love the process.

[B]

What does the sun drying process look like? Obviously I'm picturing it being outdoors, but is that tricky because of pests and insects and things like that.

[A]

So I bought the the net from Amazon. It's. You check it on Amazon they ven. They have like four or five, five stack and it's actually completely in the net and you just hang it underneath your patio and you just put all. I usually I dehydrate like my calendula, my herbs. For tomato. If you sun dry tomato you want to add the baking sheet on the inside so it's easy. It won't stick on the net and you just hang it and you know underneath of your patio or somewhere that have a lot of sun and that ways it's also protects them from like you know, the insect to get into your food.

[B]

You really do grow a lot. I mean there's so many varieties in here. Does it take and, and I know it's different because obviously you're posting content as well. But do you feel, how much time do you feel like it takes? Like if someone were going to start or they wanted to expand a little bit. It's not as all consuming as you would think think it is?

[A]

No, not at all. Like for me usually I just get busy at the beginning of the season.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because yeah at the beginning of reason, you know, you clean up old things, you grow new things, you take care of them as them, you know, the seedling. But when it it start to plan established, you don't really need much time. You, you know, just a fertilizer. Maybe once a month I usually in the morning morning I grab my cups of coffee, walk around the garden, check underneath the leaves, see any pests. You know it take like 15 minutes and if you have irrigation for water then you don't need to worry about water. For me I love hand water. I feel like it's so soothing for me. I hand water everything in my garden. It just take me probably like 15 minutes early in the morning of my time. During summer I probably need more water. I usually water late, a little bit in the morning, a little bit in the evening. But it doesn't really take like much time like all day, you know, to do the garden. Even though the garden my side, I don't really spend that much time. You spend more time enjoying it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And yours goes year round or close to.

[A]

I live in zone 10B coastal, so we don't have frost date at all. I can grow most of the things year rounds. Like my. I still have tomatoes and pepper in my garden right now. But even though that I can grow things year round. But I chose to grow based on the season because I feel like when you grow vegetable based on their season, they taste better like. Like bok choy cauliflowers, especially the leafy green. They grow well in fall and spring and they grow bigger, healthier. And you also so less, you know, have problem less in pest because of your plan. You know, grow healthy. It tastes so much better than growing lettuce in the middle of the summer. Yeah.

[B]

It is so interesting depending on where you live in the world, your gardening situation. Because 10 someone said once like your number is somewhat similar to how many months you have to garden. So 10B is basically like almost the whole year. Right. It's like 10 months or you don't have a frost date. We're in 6B, but we don't really even have six months. I mean you plant end of May and then you're done in September. What would you do in the winter in my.

[A]

In my garden or.

[B]

Well, if you live like. Let's say you live in Michigan. You know, if you lived in Michigan and I mean we're done. It's like done. Everything is a frost and you basically cover it up from, from October until you can start seeds like in March or April. But if you start too early, you know, they get too leggy and they don't do well. So there's like at least you kind of have five months where you don't do it.

[A]

I. I saw people that they can grow during like in the snow season that they have their respect. They building the dorm with the, the. The thick plastic cover.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That at least they can grow something like lettuces and other stuff that they can harvest throughout the. The cold month. Radishes also great cabbages, also cold hardy that you can grow them either in. You have greenhouse or you have the, the setup raised bed.

[B]

Yeah. So you would keep going. I probably should. I'm always like, oh, it's too cold.

[A]

Yeah. I have, I have my friend that she live in New Jersey. Jersey. And she's also author of the book as well. Resh Gala. You. You familiar with her? I don't think so yes, she live in New Jersey and during the cold season she would come, you could see her on Instagram, came out with like the snow cover, her raised bed and she would harvest some green from the garden.

[B]

Oh, that's inspiring. I know I should be a little more, more, I guess, hearty with it because I'm always like, oh, it's over. I'll start again in the spring.

[A]

I know, I know that's, that's a lot of works, you know, when you want to do it because it's cold and. But it's still, you still able to do with it. Yeah.

[B]

And it's probably really good for you to, to continue to do that through the winter because it gets you outside, you're still getting some fresh food. Yeah, there's definitely. I kind of, I've read other books too too where I've, I kind of had forgotten about them though where they're, they give ideas on how to keep your garden going, certain parts of it and extending the season. So tell us about your Instagram. What kind of what tell people where they can find you and what kind of questions do people send in my.

[A]

Instagram under Sandra Urbangarden And I usually I share a lot of gardening tip, like a quick gardening tip because, you know, like a lot of people that's also one reason that I wrote the book too because when people want to grow something, when they want to check online how to grow a certain thing, a lot of information just, you know, overwhelming. So, and most of the question that I receive in the past, it's just, you know, always go in depth into individual crop. Like, you know, how, how you can grow the cucumbers, how you battle with the hornworms or something like that. So and that's why it give me an idea of, you know, maybe I just put that things together in that individual crop so it's easy for them to find. And I also, yeah, and I also share some recipe too. You know, when you grow, starting the garden, grow all your vegetable now when you harvest. So now what some of you, you like, some people, they just know how to like for example, like growing tomato. A lot of people like do use tomato for salad, for tomato sauce. But then I share something different that, that you can do with tomatoes beside doing the sauce. So give people, you know, different ideas on how to cook all the vegetable that they harvest.

[B]

Yeah, I love all the recipes in the, the back. They're super, they're super helpful and you've got some really good charts like you have and they're very comprehensive charts about common vegetable garden diseases and what does it look like and also common vegetable garden pests. And you have pictures are these. These are all your pictures too.

[A]

So some of the picture. A couple of the picture that I Because for some when I live in the urban area area I don't really experience in most of the past. But for example like earwig. I never have problem with earwig. So when I couldn't get the picture. But I know that a lot of people asking you know how to you know, prevent earwig or control earwig. So I just add most of the. The pests and disease in. In my book I just selected the common one that. That we you know, face all the time. Like beetle or aphid or ear worms or those other things that we see it all the time.

[B]

Yeah yeah. And you got so many ideas. What are the signs and symptoms? What's the control and prevention. And it's just a chart there. So you can easily like you said, you can easily go and find what to do Talk about these beautiful white containers. Containers.

[A]

Oh yes. The. That is a metal container. Container raised bed. It's open bottom. It's from Vigo Garden.

[B]

Oh it's open bottom.

[A]

It's open bottom. Yes, it's so it's been five years now that I used the container from Wego and it's still completely look like brand new to me. No rusted nothing. And it's even though in my ear area that can get really warm during summer. It's not. It's not heat up the. The plants at all. And I have some of. I can place them directly on concrete. That's when I got a lot of questions. People say that did I place that raised bed directly on concrete? What about the drainage? So it actually it's. The drainage is really good. Is when the I set up I also sharing the tip how I set up them up directly on concrete. Even though it's open bottom, there's no soil or nothing leak out at all. Because I put the. The wheat resistant on the bottom and then cardboard and then I put the soil so it grow really well. Just like the one that I place it in ground.

[B]

Oh gosh, that's so neat. Because they look so pretty. The couple pictures that you said maybe a photographer came in for these but. But where you have all sorts of different containers and stuff that's low and stuff that high. It's so pretty. And I really, really like the very first picture in the book which is a collage of all these different Colors of harvest. That's just so beautiful when you just open it up right from the very beginning. And you've got these peas that are like, just so big and these peppers that have stripes on them. And you've got fruits and vegetables and different colored asparagus and different colored beans and the. All the different kinds of corn. It just goes to show you did such a good job showcasing.

[A]

Thanks so much. Thank you so much. It's. It's so fun, like, for me, gardening with different color, it's like another level of fun, you know, like, you get excited all the time. Like sometimes I just found myself, you know, talking alone in the garden, like. Oh, like, you know, like. Exciting. Yeah. Yes.

[B]

Yes, it is exciting. It's so incredible that there's so much variety in shape, in color, in texture, and in taste. So I love the book. It's called Vibrant Harvest. Cultivating a kaleidoscope of colors in a vegetable garden with heirlooms, modern hybrids, and more. I hope that a lot of people pick it up and plant super colorful things going into their 2026. Sandra. We always end our show with the same question, and the question is, what's a favorite memory from your child childhood that was outside.

[A]

Wow. I remember as a kid, I always enjoy gardening with my mom and my grandmother. I remember we have a big Logan tree. I'm not sure if you know, Logan tree, it's almost like a lychee. It's big and the. The fruit is so juicy and. And my mom have a wooden crate outside there and she would buy me. She bought me a doll cooking set that you actually cook in that little clay pots and pan. And my mom usually cook real rice. And then I will run in the garden and harvest some vegetable and my mom just cook it and we actually eat it. That's one of the best memory. And right now when I. I plan a certain thing that my kids love and enjoy. They would like, they make pasta, they make omelette. They just run in the garden and grab the herbs that they want. And it just made me so happy.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Because you've got those roots from your own childhood. That's wonderful. It's an honor to meet you. Huge congrats on your new book. Thank you. Thank you for all the help that you're giving for people to garden and to bring all of this joy and beauty into the their lives. Yeah.

[A]

Thank you so much for having me and, you know, allow me to share my passion about gardening and I hope, you know, the listener feel inspired to go outside and grow together with their family.

[B]

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Book [e-mail].