(theme music) Hello.

It's Tinisha, Spain, host of Mid American gardener.

Thank you so much for joining us for this special show.

This week, we're coming to you from Lake of the Woods in Mahomet.

Longtime panelist and friend of the show Rusty Maulding, is going to give us a tour of the Botanical Garden.

We're going to talk about how to do some late summer editing in your flower beds, discuss who's probably eating the hosta and give you some tips.

If you're interested in adding a koi pond or a water feature to your yard, we've got lots to cover, so let's go find rusty and get started.

You and look who I've run into.

I found my old pal rusty.

So before we get into it, there may be some folks out there who don't know you.

So introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you Sure.

So my name is Rusty maulding.

I am the site superintendent here at Lake of the Woods, and we are standing I want to welcome everybody to the Mayberry Galvin botanical gardens at Lake of the Woods.

And it's warm, little warm.

It's a little toasty, little toasty, a little toasty, but we're going to get through it.

We're going to break through it.

So we've got a lot to cover today.

Rusty's going to just talk to us a little bit about this.

Is editing, right bed editing.

Tell us a little bit about that.

I about that.

So everyone plants a garden, right?

And you've got everyone edits, they just may not necessarily call it that.

So if you've got a more traditional type, type of landscape, and we have three of these and five of these, and everything has a place, and that's the only place you want it to be.

Everything that comes up around those you're editing when you're removing it.

So most of the time.

We call those weeds, but in a more native setting, or if you're using other plants, perennials, some grasses that may sell.

So because that's part of how they propagate, they move around a little bit, and you do need to kind of figure out, do I like that plant there?

Is that worth saving, or is this something I want to dig up and give to my neighbor?

Okay, so, so where we are now is a perfect example of, you know, here we are late summer.

Some things have done really well, as you can see, yeah, outperformed or over performed.

So in a bed like this, let's talk about what you would edit.

What would you would change?

Sure, so this is a very public facing bed, right?

And so we've got a walkway here, and we have plant material that's encroaching on that that is four, five, even six feet tall, and it's even just hanging over, a little hanging over, I don't mind, but otherwise, I want people to feel comfortable when they come here, and so those taller plants may be just a little bit too close for comfort for some folks, especially if they have some fabulous little pollinators on them.

And so we kind of want to, this is great for the back side of the bed, maybe not the front side of the bed.

So we've got some plants in here that are little too big and maybe just not in the right place.

Okay?

And what are these?

By the way, that is called ironweed.

You can see that it's about to bloom.

It's a kind of Blooms mid mid August or thereabouts.

It's a native little flower, tiny, little flower in there.

Yeah, pretty.

This one's got a few that are actually in flower right now.

It's great plant, and I think it probably was dropped here by birds.

Oh, so this wasn't even planted here.

This wasn't even planted okay?

And everybody's garden winds up with those.

Sometimes they're poison ivy or honeysuckle.

Sometimes it's a gift like this.

It's actually a really valuable thing.

Gotcha.

So how?

So how will you decide how to rework this?

What's the technique here?

Well, so generally speaking, you know, in the spring of the year, we kind of look through what's coming up, and do we think that everything is going to perform well, where it's at sometimes you end up with a period of time where it's too wet, or you've got other priorities, and you don't get to that, you can get to that stage here this spring with us.

So we're doing it a little bit later in the season, which is fine, right?

So whenever I'm going through again, I'm looking for the taller plants that are here, really close to the edge.

And we can do one of two things, if it's really bothering you and it is impacting your function, you can either dig it out right there and spot cut it off, or you can tag it for removal or transplanting later.

So you've got kind of some some different options there.

Gotcha Okay, now with these, what is their fate?

What will their fate be?

These, the ones that are really close to the concrete.

We'll probably end up having to discard the ones, some of them that are out there a little bit further, but I really don't want them that kind of height in this bed.

We'll try to transplant those into other spaces.

And it's funny, too.

If we walk around here, the view is completely different.

It is this side.

It is absolutely and so, you know, we talk about a lot of plants that kind of self sow.

And you know, maybe you've heard garden thugs as we're looking here in the foreground, we've got some Purple coneflower that are very much they've self sowed.

And they can actually get to be too much.

So you may even edit some plants that you really, really highly priced because they they choke out some other plants.

Plants.

So that's another, another thing to consider.

But yeah, from this side, looks great.

This is a perfect view of a back border bed.

Got kind of some stair stepping that's happening and up and have some nice shielding from your neighbors in the back.

And there's some other things around here.

If we walk around, there's so a few other, well, at least one other species that you're probably going to take out over here.

Yeah.

So another plant that kind of happened into this space was big bluestem.

Big Bluestem is wants to be six to eight feet tall.

This year we had lots of rain in the spring, and it is at least eight feet tall.

Wow, as we walked around the corner here, but you can see, you kind of, you kind of feel like, ah, there's a little close.

Kind of got to get on the edge.

That's a big blue here.

That's, that's falling over, you know, that's, that's not really where we want it to be.

And most people don't want that kind of thing in their own, own gardens.

But this guy up here, you know, that's, that's every bit of eight feet tall, wow.

Conversely, we do have some little blue stem, which, this is fantastic, because right Little Bluestem, big bluestem.

What's the difference?

About six feet.

About six feet.

Yeah, they got their names on us.

This is Little Bluestem down here as a much finer leaf.

Big Bluestem is right here.

So yeah, this guy is probably not long here, and we will, while it's a great plant, it's not really supposed to be in this location.

And boy, if you looking across from where they were originally planted, they made a nice little journey to get here.

They did.

Yeah, we have a great, like, sort of tall prairie example over here, behind us.

And it's, it's a great example of it, but it's, there's at least 100 feet in between there and here.

Now, this one is not going to be just a chop and go.

You're going to have to, I mean, this is going to take a little work.

This is going to take some work.

This is likely going to be a spring move, just so that we can more adequately get in and we we're not going to be trampling all the plants around it, even iron, iron weed.

We may tag it this.

Actually, we're probably not even going to tag it because we know where it's at.

But if it's but something in your own garden, you know, tie a little piece of ribbon around it.

That can work really well for just identifying it later in the season, if you maybe, like, Where was that plant at that?

I wanted to move.

That's a good way to come back to it, gotcha.

Gotcha.

And when is a good time, as we're out enjoying our gardens and kind of everything is in full bloom, when is a good time to start this?

Oh, sure, yeah.

No, that's a great question.

Mid August through September is a great time to transplant a lot of different perennials and that sort of thing.

So that's a perfect time.

The weather's starting to cool down.

The warm season, grasses will get a chance to root in before the cold hits, which is also great.

It's just that's a really good window of opportunity.

Wonderful.

Okay, all right, well, let's go check out some other parts of the botanical Bible.

Here's another great example, right of a happy accident plant that will give you more than you bargained for, absolutely.

So to see, you know, this is one of those plants.

It's a great it's a cool plant.

It has a great flower.

This is Belen Canda or Blackberry Lily.

It flowers right here in August, late July, and what will happen is these seed pods will turn black, and it'll almost seem like a little rattler inside.

There, you shake it, and you can hear the little seeds rattling.

It makes a really cool sound, but because these are full of seeds, and because this germinate, they germinate so well, it then becomes an editing problem in the spring or the next summer.

So you can save yourself some trouble by kind of controlling it now, absolutely, there are a number of plants that are like this.

And if you can remove the seed in the fall before it ripens and is dispersed, you've just saved yourself a ton of time the next year.

Okay, so with this plant, all you do is after this stops flowering, and these seed pods turn to so it's kind of a dark brown, just kind of come in here, come down, and I usually cut it kind of back down in there, so you can kind of see I'm showing a leaf, but you can't really see where it was cut at, yes, so I don't know, just not my hard and fast rule on this.

It's whatever looks tidy to you, but then cut it back.

Discard it.

Do not compost it, or you're gonna have them growing in the compost.

You're gonna have them growing in the compost Exactly.

Wow.

Okay, so each one of these is going to have more than one seed in there.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, wow.

You can and to remove them there.

Oh yeah, you can see, oh yeah, that's just one capsule.

And there are, I think these have three different capsules inside.

There four, maybe four compartments.

Looks a little bit like, like a small p, yes, it does, but yeah, each one of those times 150 you.

Yes, that's gonna get you a lot of these.

It's gonna be a generous donor for the next year.

So enjoy your blooms.

And then when they're spent, go ahead and remove these before they open, drop, and then you're editing yes the next year, yes.

Now, if you were to save these, say you want to give them to a friend, do you have to let them dry out completely on the plant before you cut them.

That's a great question.

Don't know for sure.

Okay, this is, this is one of those gardening things.

There's like, Well, I think this should work.

Okay, you'd want to harvest them before they crack open.

Okay, so I would recommend, yes, letting them, letting them dry, and they'll form when they start rattling.

Yes, then you want to get them off, and that's when you'll kind of store them in a cool, dry space.

Gotcha, gotcha.

It's great being in nature.

You never know what's going to come at you never know.

Never know.

Okay, and then I had one more question, but I forgot it, so just make sure you get these off before they open and dry and get on the ground and reseed themselves.

Otherwise, like we were joking before we were recording, there are people that Yank these out of their yard every summer because they've just had it.

They're prolific.

And then you see a big pile of them on the curb with a sign that says, free, yes, absolutely.

I've had clients in the past that we came into the situation where they had literally, like hundreds of these that had just taken over space, yes.

And then you'll spend the next couple of years trying to work through that seed bank.

Now, their actual growing behavior is that aggressive.

Do they stay put pretty well.

Once you place them in the beds, or they will expand.

You can actually kind of see down here that the center of this was about here, and it's spread outward.

I don't know what is that.

Maybe it's moved outward to get a solid two foot clump, two and a half foot clump, so they don't spread rampantly.

They're not like something else is going to creep and move by, rhizomes.

And then in the beds I see here, they're on the outside.

Is that a good place for them to sort of line the outsides of the beds?

Depends on your design style.

Oh, what do you want?

I would typically more use these a little bit more in the center or in the back, because they are fairly tall, but really just wherever, wherever you want, a splash of color, come late July and into into August, and they're low maintenance.

You don't have to do a whole lot once they're established, nothing like they're it's they take care of themselves.

That's what we love.

Yes, that's what we love.

A low maintenance plant, wonderful.

Okay, well, we're going to take a quick break and go visit our friends, Amanda and Sarah.

They're going to talk to you guys about how you can become a friend of wi ll, and we'll be right back.

Thanks Tinisha and rusty.

My name is Amanda Hill, and I'm the membership manager here at Illinois public media joining with me for the first time on TV here at the station.

This is Sarah Shepherd.

She is our new assistant director of corporate support.

We're going to get into that a little bit later, but so happy to have you as the viewers.

I'm sure can agree.

It's always nice to see a different location, and we are not in the studio today.

I know which is so fun, a little warm, Let's not lie, but we're born and raised in Illinois.

We've got this.

We were built for this.

Yes, don't mind a little sweat.

It's worth to me to be outside in this beautiful space.

This is one of my favorite things about Mid American gardener.

Is all the beautiful locations and plants and beautiful things and absolutely our most popular shows, and this is why.

So we're so happy to be with you here today.

As most of you know, we do like to kick off our fiscal year August with a TV fund drive, and it does seem like more than ever this year.

It's really important now with the obvious, I'm sure you've heard the federal cuts happening.

$1.5 million we're losing.

That's a big chunk of change, right?

And so we are definitely going to be more serious with our pleas for help.

And starting today, I know how important this show is for you, and if you'd like to make a donation, we would love to hear from you.

217-244-9455, of course you can go online to will give org Now, Sarah, this is so great.

You're no stranger to radio and TV, but first time here, that's true.

And I hear you're already just doing amazing with your job.

You're already kicking off.

So we've been a couple months in.

Tell us a little bit about what you do at the station.

Absolutely.

So as the director, or I'm sorry, the assistant director of corporate support, it's my job to reach out to the business community, engage with business leaders, tell them this great story of Illinois public media and the wonderful programming that we produce each and every day, week, month and year, and off camera, we were just talking about Mid American gardener and How it has been a product of our community for almost 40 years.

It really is, thanks to the viewers, absolutely and in my role speaking to business leaders and members of the community, now is a really, really good time to come on board.

Illinois public media at.

As a corporate supporter, because when one of the things that we know is our viewers and our listeners are so passionate about the products we put out there, like Mid American gardener, and quite frankly, we could not do it without the support of the community.

And businesses in the community are a huge part of that too, right?

You don't often think of that.

We're always like, Hey, you watching TV at home, but hey you businesses too.

Like, yeah, especially now all of that.

It's so important, and you're doing so great already, bringing a new business for us.

It was a good hire.

Well, thank you guys.

And if you would like to join these people, you know, we would love to hear from you.

Like I said, go online.

Will give.org give us a call.

217-244-9455, there's so much we do here at Illinois public media.

We know that you see us and we see you.

So thank you so much.

We'd love to hear from you.

Check out these amazing gifts, because it wouldn't be public radio without amazing thank you gifts.

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With your ongoing monthly gift of $7 or a one time gift of $84 will say thank you by sending you our special Mid American gardener mug, perfect for drinking coffee in the morning while you plan birthday gardening.

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And those are some amazing gifts that we would love to give you.

As you can see, we're I'm modeling the hat today and not mad at it with the sun.

This is perfect.

I know you can actually see I'm a squinty mess.

I know I have to keep this on all day.

But these are such great gifts.

If you've never given to the station before.

We love to have sustaining members join.

That's forward funds for us that we can ensure on your donations year after year, you pick a donation amount you're comfortable with.

You set it, forget it.

It can come out of your credit card if you work for the university like Sarah University, payroll deduction, absolutely.

EFT directly from your check account.

$10 is a great place to start if you can pick up a hat, yes, book.

And also this mug is just $7 a month.

You can get a combo for 15.

As you just saw, these are such great gifts.

We were saying, it's always so hard you want to think out of the box for gifts these days, exactly like this day, the gardener friends in your lives Exactly.

And I know we're not quite at the holiday season yet, but it's never too early to start thinking about it.

And I don't know about you, Amanda, but when my husband and I talk about what, what are we going to get the parents for the holidays and your in laws are gardeners, they really are and and you know, you may or may not be interested in having a book like this, but you probably know someone who would really like something like that, so being able to give this to them and also let them know, it helps Public Media, right?

It's like a gift for us and a gift for your loved one, exactly.

And I will, I will say, you know, on passport, this is just $5 a month.

You're going to get our passport benefit the most popular streaming you will not get a better deal anywhere.

You know how the streaming rates are everywhere.

Allen branhagen, we've had him on a past episode.

You can go watch that on passport.

Check him out.

He's amazing.

He's so knowledgeable.

I am not exaggerating when I say we can't keep these books on the shelf.

We constantly are having to order more and more.

Yes, they're very popular, Sarah and I admit, we are not the best gardeners I know, but watching the interview with the interview Tinisha had with me, like, you can Yes, kind of like Bob Ross made me feel like I could paint anything in the world.

Alan made me feel like I don't actually kill plants.

Yes, when I do, if you go into my office right now, I have two pots that used to have aloe plants and they're, you know, I just saw that on your desk.

Yes, that's maybe more your speed.

This is more my pens and pencils.

See, there's so many ways to use these gifts, but yes, we would love to hear from you today.

We are, we're keeping the mood light, because we do feel, you know, we are defunded, not defeated.

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We really do rely on your support.

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Please give us a call today if you're able to give and we know not everybody is, and that's okay.

That's why we're here.

But for those that can, we would love to hear from you.

It is crucial now especially, give us a call.

217-244-9455, or you can.

Online to will give.org We would love to hear from you today.

Thanks so much, guys.

We'll check back in with you in just a bit.

So now we've got another discussion about something that could be applicable to anyone's landscape, right?

You've got absolutely legacy plants, like you talked about, or you moved into a house and you and you just inherited something that is too big, or you just don't like it.

This is one of those conversations that we're about to have, and it's going to hurt some people's feelings, because it involves tools, tools things are going to get whacked.

Tell us what we have here and kind of what the plan is, sure.

So this is an arrowwood viburnum.

It's typically used in spaces that are maybe not necessarily great for it, because this plant wants to be 10 to 15 feet tall.

Oh, wow, that's a big plant.

And while it can work in a variety of spaces where you only maybe it gets to be just maintained to five feet or four feet, that's a lot of work.

So this is what I call a make work plant.

If you plant it in front of your bay window, got it so occasionally, though, you just need to reset because it's gotten out of bounds, or in this case, we're going to rejuvenate it this year.

Wait a year for it to kind of recover and then move a slightly smaller specimen.

Okay, I'm gonna stand back and watch you work.

You Yeah, looks much different already.

So you can see now you kind of see the architecture of the of the shrub a little better.

And what we're going to do is just kind of clear off these, these, these stems, All about this height.

I All right, we're to a good point here.

We've got most of the work done, but there's a great teaching moment we love.

So it's a good point.

Good point to pause.

We've got this, this biggest, thickest cane that's coming up.

And if I cut these two points in the same height, I cut everything else, what happens is the plant is going to throw up growth here and here from the inside.

It's not in there.

And that will eventually create rubbing branches, which will create a weak point for the for the plant.

It's an opportunity for diseases and insects to kind of attack the plant.

And so anytime that you've got these two pieces like this, you always want to cut below.

Both have to go.

They both have to go.

Now, the other thing that you're going to find when you're doing this kind of thing is you're going to find lots of little weed trees.

So you can see, we have some Virginia Creeper that's in here, and this little guy right here, look at that.

It's a normal seeks refuge underneath bigger shrubs.

It's a hackberry.

Go get its start, and suddenly it'll be 20 foot tree.

Oh, wow.

So will you treat those as well or take them down?

So what I would recommend is leave that until you have some herbicide, because it's mixed in with the crown of this your the plant you're trying to treat or trying to reduce the size of and so you're gonna have to treat the fresh cut with a 50 to 100% glyphosate solution or something labeled for a Cut treatment to kill the root.

Got it okay, but this guy right here, let's see if I can get this.

Okay, let me back up.

Yeah, right.

I know there are folks at home that are just on pins and needles watching this happen, but if we were to come back here at the exact same time next year, this viburnum will be, it'll be four, maybe five feet tall.

So it's coming back.

Yes, this will come back.

Now we're doing this a little bit early, but even yet, this year, I would expect to get maybe a foot of growth on it.

If you can do this at the end of July through, or any time in July through, maybe the middle of August, you're going to get some nice regrowth.

Excellent.

Okay, yeah, all right, we're going to let you take a water break.

Rusty.

We're going to check Amanda and Sarah real quick, and we will be right back with you.

You.

Thanks, Tinisha, as you can see, we changed locations.

This is kind of my favorite spot in the park here the gardens.

I know it's special to you as well.

Yeah.

What happened here?

So this year, my husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.

So like, 21 ish, years ago, we actually had our engagement photos taken out here on the bridge.

That's so iconic.

Oh, more iconic.

We were head to toe in denim.

Yeah, I'm gonna need to see these after we're done filming.

But, I mean, this is a very popular bitch people do before dance photos here.

I know that had senior pictures here is just, this is a beautiful spot, and for the Midwest, it is kind of iconic.

It really is.

That's, you know, one of the most popular parks around town here and Mid American gardener for bringing us out here so everybody can see.

This is a lovely place everyone should visit.

There's people all around us probably wondering what we're doing, walking and talking and being outside of nature, even though it's warm today, it's a wonderful place to be.

So thanks to the Mid American gardener production crew for getting us out here.

We appreciate it.

This is the kind of shows we want to protect.

This is, you know, with the federal funding cuts, this is what we worry, you know, with losing amazing programming like this.

So your support really does help.

We know you're all loyal, long time viewers.

I mean, this show has been on the air for almost 40 years.

We appreciate that, and that does appreciate the support, truly.

And a show like Mid American gardener doesn't exist for almost 40 years without the support of viewers like you, and in my role as assistant director of corporate support businesses in the community as well, and the federal funding cuts for Illinois public media to us, that's $1.5 million and that was money that had been allocated to us, and now we have to figure out our new normal of how to operate with that deficit, right?

Because that was a forward funded amount of money we had, that's right.

And earlier, Amanda, when you were talking about being a sustainer, our sustainers are like those forward funding thing.

Yes, that's exactly right.

You're so it's a great way to think of it, too.

That's, you know, this is why you will be hearing from us, yeah, a little bit more than usual, because, you know, it is serious.

That is a big chunk of change that we are counting on that we will not have.

So we are going to be reaching out to you, if you already give, maybe at the $5 a month or $10 a month.

Now would be a great time to consider increasing.

Yeah, that passport is $5 so a lot of people come in at that level, and we love it.

Maybe bump it up to 10, sure, pick out a gift, or, you know, anything that would help just increase a little bit, whatever you can afford to do.

These federal cuts are serious, and we'd actually would love for you to hear our Executive Director, moss President hand has a message about that.

Thank you.

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Thank you, moss, as you have heard, we really are in unprecedented times right now.

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Thanks guys.

We'll check in with you in just a bit.

So this is a little concerning where we are.

Now tell us a little about where we are and what's happening here.

Well, so deer, you either love them or you hate them.

And if you're an avid gardener and you have deer around, you probably are not the biggest fan, probably native, yeah, yeah.

This is actually a place where the deer have browsed.

They've, they've, I guess, dined well.

Now they did not chew it down clear to the nub like this.

We had staff come through and cut them back.

But what they did do is they kind of came through and, you know, you have deer damage, because it's always going to be a ragged sort of tear mark, as opposed to rabbits, which will do a clean cut.

So they pull, they pull right, gotcha Exactly, exactly.

And so the rest of this bed that we're, that we're standing in, it was literally a field of stalks, wow.

So obviously they don't care for this.

This this is not what they had come for, right?

It's the least, right?

And so what had happened here was, you know, I encourage a little creativity, a little exploration.

Staff, sure.

And they thought, well, let's, let's just treat the outside area.

We're going to leave the center of a hosta bed.

Well, that worked for about a month, and then the deer found them.

They found them anyway.

So repellents do work.

They are not foolproof by any stretch, because you can see they munched on these.

My guess is these were sprayed a little bit, and they had to eat a few before they stopped.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

So repellents are one of those things.

It's one of our primary tools for controlling deer damage.

Unfortunately, they're like every two weeks, every 10 days, you have to reapply.

Okay?

And then one thing that we found that works fairly well is to rotate the different type of repellent that we're using.

Oh, okay, so we don't start with one type and stick with that the whole season.

Will go a month or two, and then switch it up, because the deer will sort of get acclimated.

Oh my gosh, yeah, because this is apparently really, really tasty, I guess, and it's like a free salad bar, yeah, exactly.

You know, I've had several of the panelists this year, Kay and John.

Everyone said that the deer have just mowed down their hosta, John says, you know, he's got like, 400 different varieties in his house, and they're just, they're gone.

Yeah.

Yeah, gone.

It's, like, devastating, right?

Because we get one shot at this for the year.

And whenever the deer comes in and does this, you know, it's really interesting.

Well, actually, occasionally we don't see him here, but we'll see the flower stalk that comes up later, and it looks so like, looks like a surprise Lily.

It's like, where's the rest of the plan?

Oh, my gosh.

But the repellents do work.

They do physical barriers like seven eight foot fence.

If you're feeling feeling froggy, they don't leap over.

They'll get over six foot but usually not seven to eight, okay.

But you know, Hostas are a favorite.

They got to our sedum this year.

They like some radecia or Black Eyed Susan.

So there's they definitely have their favorite plants.

You mentioned, barriers and sprays.

Sure, those are your two big options to keep them out, and there's one other that I've heard of that people have had some success with as well.

So if you have a small enough space, you may consider setting up motion activated sprinklers.

Okay, we've tried them here in the garden, but we're a public space, and so that doesn't really work all that well when the people start coming through, okay, so maybe sprinklers will work in your yard.

All right.

Thank you very much, Rusty, and we're going to check back in with Amanda and Sarah one more time, and they'll tell you how you can become a friend to WILL, Dan, thanks, Tinisha, and thank you to all of you watching this episode of an American gardener.

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We gave rusty a much needed water break after that.

And so now I'm joined with Stephanie Workman, also here at Lake of the Woods, and now we're at the koi pond.

Now this is your area.

This is what you manage.

So tell us a little bit about you, how long you've been here, and just introduce yourself.

Yes, I'm Stephanie Workman.

I am the Botanical Garden and trail supervisor here at Lake of the Woods, and the botanical or this koi pond is part of my area of responsibility.

I've been here since January of this year.

I came here with a background in parks and natural resources and zoos.

So, very nice, very nice.

So we have folks that watch all the time and write in sometimes they have water features in their yard and so on a much bigger scale, give us some tips.

You know, if you're interested in adding a water feature, or if you have a water feature, what are some good things to know about having that in your backyard?

Well, one good thing to know is it's a lot of work, so you need to be ready.

Know that going in for some work, the work in the beginning to put it in, and then the maintenance of it.

And this one particular one, like you said, it's large.

There's there is a plastic on the bottom to kind of keep it deep the water in.

And then behind you here is a pump house.

This is has the pumps in it for the.

Waterfall that's behind us that if you've been out here, you've definitely seen.

So we pump the water just into the waterfall.

So that is what this is.

There's a lot of electrical in there.

If the electricity goes out, so does the waterfall, and then we have to go out and fix that.

So there's a lot that goes into it.

Evaporation happens.

So the pond will go down, and we'll need to turn the pond on to add water.

It leaks a little bit, sometimes in places, just naturally that happens.

So, um, you know, so just be prepared for the maintenance.

Yeah, there's things that happen.

Always a surprise on things, but mostly, mostly every day is fine.

Now plants do you have to choose specific plants to put around the border or at the edge of the water?

How do you choose what plants will go well?

So generally, you want plants that like wet feet, that want to live near water.

So we have a lot of cattails out here that we kind of have to thin out and maintain because they like to grow a lot.

And then there's some plants out here that kind of have added themselves in, just from just nature.

We've put in some native flowers and grasses out here, some annuals around here, but inside the water we have you can see the lily pads with the flowers in there.

So those are some that you can have in there.

There's other plants that will grow and water.

So it would just really kind of depend on what what you want in your in your yard, what you want in your pond.

And there's definitely professionals that specialize in water gardens, water features that would be able to provide a lot more of that advice.

Now, this one is stocked with Koi.

It is beautiful, beautiful Koi.

Tell us a little bit about those.

About how many do you know?

Is there, like a way to count?

Not really.

No, there's a lot.

There's a lot.

Okay, yeah, we have a lot of koi in there.

We also have some bluegill in there to just to kind of help, like with other things and the water, clean it up.

There's a few catfish in there, but the koi are actually carp.

So they're a different type of carp.

They're native to eastern Europe or the Middle East, so that part of the world.

They're not an endangered species at all.

They're everywhere and so important in the Japanese culture, as a lot of people know.

So they're a prosperity and luck.

And so, you know, maybe you have some good luck when you come out here and see the Koi, yeah.

How deep is this pond?

Ooh, not terribly deep.

Okay.

Only reason I ask is because I was also curious about where the koi go in the winter and what they do, and if there was like, some way to retreat from the cold, or if the surface freezes.

So what are things like around here in the winter?

So I've learned that the pond is six feet deep.

Okay, so six feet at the deepest, which is good, because it won't freeze that deep.

It does freeze in the winter.

So we do have a frozen pond, but the koi will go to the bottom.

In the deepest part, there's ways, like some thermal areas, where it doesn't get as cold.

At the bottom, they go into torpor, which is basically a type of hibernation, not totally hibernated, kind of like bears.

They don't completely go to sleep, but they slow way down, and so that'll happen all winter.

They don't eat.

In fact, we have signs out here that tell folks that when it's below a certain temperature, that do not feed these fish, because they're not going to eat, and it just makes a mess in the water, so that once the temperatures warm up, then they wake up and they come out and they're hungry, and they're hungry and ready to go, and they're over there putting on a show for they sure are bridge.

You've got some some snacks here for them, so that's exciting.

I'm gonna toss some in here.

There are some over here, and if you toss it in there, they will, they'll show up.

Oh, they will.

Okay, let's see if I can test my luck.

Oh, here they come.

They come.

Yeah, they know.

Do you have to treat this water?

Do you have to do anything to this?

Generally, we don't.

We have a filter that's underneath those cattails over there, and we do clean that out a couple of times this summer, because if we don't, it gets a little grimy in here.

So we do that.

But otherwise, generally, no, we don't, okay, we don't treat it.

Let's walk around and check out some of the plants that are around the pond.

Just like any fish earlier in the spring, they will spawn.

And so they did that, and it's super noisy and loud, and they splash everywhere, and it's pretty like a big ruckus when they're spawning.

So that's happened, and we'll have lots of little new Koi.

They do sometimes eat the fry, which is the eggs.

They'll do that sometimes, but.

Most of the koi will probably make it survive.

Yeah, they'll survive.

And so you don't even have to stock this.

They they take care of that themselves.

They take care of it themselves.

They kind of manage themselves.

You bet.

What about lighting?

You mentioned earlier that it's good to have a little shade and some different lighting around the pond.

Tell us a little bit about that, sure.

So koi can sunburn.

Okay, didn't know that they can.

And so it is good to have some shade.

Now, we don't really have trees, per se that are shading it, but there is, if you see over here, there's some shade over here by this willow tree, and then the bridge itself creates its own shade.

So there are some areas we have some logs there.

They can kind of go in and around those areas and find some shade that way.

You know, go deeper in the water where it's cooler, and they can find get themselves out of the sun a little bit more that way.

All right, and let's go take a look at one more spot in the garden.

You've got another flower bed that you were going to show us.

Okay.

All right, so now we're in another spot of the garden here.

Everybody loves tropicals, right?

Because they get those great big leaves and the beautiful flowers.

So tell us what we're looking at here.

So we have Canna lilies, which a lot of folks are pretty familiar with, cannas.

So a lot of cannas, you'll see them throughout the garden.

They just bring a lot of vertical height and the leaves, as you mentioned, and then these beautiful red flowers.

We also have Colocasia, or elephant ear, which are these smaller ones with the large leaves, and we have different varieties of those here in the garden that are come in different colors, and some of them have veining that's really pretty.

And so those don't flower, but they're just really nice, big tropical leaves to look at.

Now I notice here, similar to the hosta, somebody's munching on these leaves.

And some of my Canna at home look like this.

I was gonna say, is our culprit gonna make a debut on the show?

Yeah, they are.

They're right there, Japanese beetles.

They're out, and they like to munch on the leaves.

They'll kind of skeletonize them a little bit that way.

I mean, they really, they did a number on this one here.

Yes, and you can pick them off, really, it works.

If you have water with some soap in it, toss them in there.

Or there's some different kinds of spray you can put on the weeds.

Yeah, I hear people say they get a little bucket and just kind of tap them off in the mornings or something like that.

But yeah, they're, they're definitely enjoying themselves.

Here.

They sure are.

But, you know, it's part of summer, right?

Like, it kind of goes along with it.

It's part of time of year.

And I also wanted to ask you about the just how this bed is designed, because we've been talking about height and how things are put together.

And so the cannas to the elephant ear to the coleus.

Like, let's talk a little bit about that, sure.

So definitely the idea here was to have the tropical vibe in this garden, and then have just kind of that the height going down.

So these guys do pretty well in the sun.

Obviously, quite a bit of sun here.

Coleus does well in sun or shade, they're just kind of happy wherever you put them.

So that was kind of the idea was to have these taller cannas in the middle, and then everything else, kind of coming down, cascading down from there.

Cannas are also good on borders, like on the back side of things, if, again, like rusty was talking about earlier, if you're trying to hide something or whatever.

You can always use the cannas.

They'll come up pretty quickly in the spring, and then you'll have a nice, tall, nice, tall plant that's going to last through the summer.

Now, I have just a few of these in my yard and in a couple in pots, but do you guys have to go and dig all these new oh my gosh, every single one of these come up.

Holy smokes, they can't overwinter here, so down south and in the tropics, they would be in a perennial.

You would always see them there.

But here, I guess, too cold, so they won't overwinter.

So we will pull them up.

You can overwinter them in a cold, you know, cooler, darker place for the winter.

And then next spring, we'll bring them back out, and they'll wake up, start the process all over again.

We'll have a greenhouse soon, soon, and then we can overwinter the some of these.

We can overwinter in the greenhouse, as you know, we can take the plant in there and over winter it.

So it's a nice thing to have, and nice to be able to use them over and over again, if you're able to do that.

And when you put these in in the spring, I mean, do tropicals require a lot of maintenance once you get them started and once you get them going, not really.

They don't require a lot, a lot of watering, really is the biggest thing for them.

But we put some mulch over.

Room, just to keep them, keep them moist.

And, you know, cool, but really, that's, that's it.

There's not a lot of special anything you have to put on them.

They just need to be in the right spot.

And these guys seem pretty happy.

They seem pretty happy right where they are, other than, other than their little lunch guests who are, who are coming by.

But this is absolutely beautiful, and tropicals just add such a nice taste to any garden.

So again, I like the staggering here.

The color is beautiful.

You guys did a great job with you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for letting us come out.

Absolutely thanks for coming.

You.

And that is the show for this week.

A big thank you to rusty and Stephanie for showing us all around the botanical garden today.

And another thank you to Amanda and Sarah for joining me here today at Lake of the Woods.

And finally, a big thanks to you for watching and supporting what we do at Illinois public media.

If you've got questions from Mid American gardener, you can send them in to us at your garden@gmail.com, or look for us on socials.

Just search for Mid American gardener.

We'll See you next week.

Good night.

You