On This Is a Gardening Show, comedian Zach Galifianakis takes viewers on a journey through farms and forests to check out people’s gardens, see how they harvest everything from carrots to wild blueberries, and get their thoughts on how best to nurture your plants. Turns out the Between Two Ferns: The Movie star is an avid gardener. “One of my goals for my garden is to have every vegetable that you find in a Greek salad. Even the herbs,” Zach tells Tudum. “I just need a feta cheese tree.”

But the show isn’t solely for Zach to learn how to harvest a full salad. He also wants us to get outside and commune with the earth. “We have to reconnect with the ground we walk on,” he says. “There is a lot of undoing that needs to be done, and there is a lot of joy in trying to seek that out. I would like to imagine there is a bunch of us that feel that way.”

So whether you’re a green thumb or you merely want to stop killing every plant you touch, read on for tips from This Is a Gardening Show’s experts that’ll help you bring your garden to life.

1. Choose plant varieties suited to your region.

In the premiere episode, “Apples,” Zach visits an orchard at Fruit Forest Farm to learn about growing apple trees. The farm’s owner, Danielle Bellefleur, shows Zach how to graft the plants — which would otherwise produce genetically random fruit, that is, not the tasty kinds you would get from a seed. 

“The vast majority of seedlings produce small, woody, unpleasant fruit,” Bellefleur tells Tudum. “Could you stumble onto the next great variety? Possibly — but you’d need to plant around 750 seeds and wait 5 to 7 years to find out.”

The orchard expert goes on to say that it’s imperative to choose what’s right for your own backyard. Living in California and hoping to grow a flower, fruit, or veggie that thrives in Michigan? It may not work in your favor. “Choose the right variety for your region,” Bellefleur says. “Not every apple thrives everywhere.” Zach agrees it’s better to stack the deck when it comes to what to plant and where. “You have better luck growing things that fit your climate,” he says.

2. Sometimes it’s OK for your plants to be stressed. 

Contrary to what you’ve heard about babying your plants, it’s also just fine to give them hell — some of the time. “When we visited [Bellefleur], she told me that she stresses her trees by tying them to the ground or to a post,” Zach says. 

“Fruit trees produce their best crops when they experience a little stress,” Bellefleur adds. “Regular feeding with fertilizer or compost encourages lush growth at the expense of fruit. A mulch of dried leaves or a small amount of compost in the fall is plenty. If you notice problems like bitter pit, give the tree a foliar feed with fish emulsion twice after harvest.”

“My dog and I have been playing tug of war over apple branches to stress them,” Zach says. “Not sure it will work, but the pooch seems to think so.”

3. Plant your seeds when the temperature’s right.

In the show’s “Tomatoes” episode, it’s over to Steller Raven Ecological Farm to explore tomato cultivation with the farm’s founders, Royann Petrell and Sylvain Alie. There, Zach learns about the importance of burying tomato stems deep in the soil to encourage root production, and about determinate vs. indeterminate varieties. Also, yes, he does ask if tomatoes are indeed a fruit.

Petrell tells Tudum that newbies should be sure they’re planting when the soil won’t frighten their new seedlings with a chill — but early enough that they have a long growing season. “Do not plant your seeds too early,” she says. Wait until the threat of frost is gone, and research what temperatures your seedlings will thrive in. 

Growing tomatoes? Petrell also advises giving them shade if it reaches above 86 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Like us, a day spent in relentless heat can scorch them. 

4. Be patient.

Zach heads into the wild with experts Ben Patarin and Célia Auclair from Forest for Dinner to learn all about foraging. The trio heads into the woods to gather wild blueberries (which, Zach learns, often have more antioxidants than their farmed cousins). The episode, called “Foraging,” also offers a crash course on how to identify chanterelle mushrooms.

When it comes to scouring the land for edibles, Patarin stresses that technology won’t speed up your learning. “No app can replace the time you spend actually observing, season after season,” he tells Tudum. Sure, in theory, a mycology subreddit could help you parse the difference between a morel mushroom and its poisonous relative, the false morel, but it’s best to take your time and do your research. Join a tour with an experienced forager, read books, and reference trusted sources, Patarin says. 

And don’t try to study a million plants or fungi all at once, he adds. Learn one species at a time. “If you want to learn about wild blueberries, for instance, you need to know what elevation they grow at, what the bush and leaves look like, whether there are any dangerous lookalikes, and when they’re in season. The same careful process applies to every new mushroom or plant you want to harvest.”

5. Give your plants space to grow.

In the “Root Vegetables” episode, Zach gets down in the dirt to learn about potatoes and carrots from Arzeena Hamir at Amara Farm, who shows him a surefire sign that potatoes are ready to harvest (it’s all in the leaves) and how to plant carrot seeds (not too deep). 

Hamir tells Tudum that giving your plants enough space is the secret to helping them prosper. Planting seeds? Once they start popping up, they need room to breathe. Take carrots, for example: “Gardeners often plant carrot seeds too close together,” Hamir says. “Ensuring there’s at least two inches between plants really helps to grow a good-sized carrot.” In other words, those labels on your plants from the hardware store aren’t just for fun — it’s all stuff humans have learned in the 12,000 years they’ve been gardening.

But the process takes a lot of care, and sometimes a little defense. “Someone once said, ‘The garden is the opposite of a war,’ ” Zach reflects. “So true. Except for when it comes to slugs.”

6. Soil is everything.

Zach meets with compost expert Joyce McMenamon in the “Composting” episode of the show. McMenamon, who manufactures compost bins called Speedibin, shares with him that great soil is “alive” — it should be teeming with worms and microbes. And keeping your dirt in tip-top shape is a crucial step in making your garden grow. 

“Soil is everything,” Zach tells Tudum. “Collect your kitchen scraps and make compost. It is easy.” McMenamon says that creating nutrient-dense dirt doesn’t have to be a headache for beginners. “It’s really pretty simple: Add a nice mix of high-nitrogen green material like kitchen scraps with some high-carbon brown material like leaves, keep it damp, and let the microbes do their magic,” she tells Tudum. When it’s nice and rich and fluffy, incorporate it into your garden to feed your hungry plants. 

Want to learn the secret to foolproof compost? Check out how to make the perfect compost pile right over here — where you’ll find some other recipes from This Is a Gardening Show’s experts that humans will like, too. 

Watch the Trailer for This Is a Gardening Show