Hello, and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in studio today are two of our panelists, which I'm sure you'll recognize from past shows.

So before we get into the show and tells and questions that you've asked, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about where you can find them in the gardens.

So Kay, we'll start with you.

Well, I'm a Champaign County Master Gardener and past president of the illinois herb association, and you'll find the a lot of times out at Allerton Park in their herb garden in the herb garden.

Okay.

All right and Jen I am Jen Nelson.

You'll find me online at groundedandgrowing.com.

I write a gardening blog and answer questions from folks.

A horticulturalist and you can also find me on campus I teach Hort 105 vegetable gardening, to undergrads.

She's busy lady and grounded and growing.

Yep.

You got a lot of stuff going on.

I do.

Okay.

All right.

So we've got show and tells.

We're beginning to harvest things out of the garden if the weeds haven't completely taken over, like at my house.

So these ladies have brought some things to share with us.

Okay, we'll start with you.

Okay, well, I'll start with these tomatoes.

This one is called Amber.

And as you can see, it's a pretty small, like a salad tomato.

And the thing I like about them is the plants are only about a foot and a half tall.

And there's at least 20 Tomatoes.

Oh wow.

Some of the plants they like contact plant early, but they're just loaded with these little tomatoes.

And they're they're actually quite a tasty, tasty tomato.

So I've been impressed with them.

And this other tomato is called Chocolate stripe.

And you can see that it has gray there.

It's actually green stripes and a dark red.

But when you've cut into it, it's almost too pretty to cut into it's real dark when it gets ripe.

It's real dark on the inside.

Now what do you use with that one?

Is that more of a cooking tomato?

Is that for sandwiches?

Whatever?

Yeah, I don't eat them.

So I have to live through others about how they how they're prepared.

You can just slice them and eat them.

Yeah, or you could make bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches or I made some tomato soup blue couple days ago.

And I use some of these in that.

Excellent Now have you had because we've had some sort of wild weather this summer with lots of rain and no rain.

Did your tomato plants show any signs of distress?

Or you know did you did everything fair?

Well this summer the tomatoes were fine because I have them on a soaker hose.

It's been really really dry and I've just watered them water and water but they're along a trellis I use cattle panels which I don't know if as trellis is in there about four feet high or so.

So I had them along there and they were mixed in with some beans and some other things so they the my tomatoes had done really well this year.

Good deal.

So yeah, I was wondering because everything else that's what I was gonna say like How did everything else fare because it's just been crazy from that cool spring to no rain to all the rain and everything in between?

Well, I found that the hot summer plants have done a lot better than the fall or the spring, early spring stuff.

I stuffed it and come up and don't do anything.

I'm just now getting some broccoli for about same here on same here.

Same here.

It's been Wow.

But the hot weather things seemed fared a little good.

Good deal.

Okay.

All right, Jen.

Well, we'll go to you next.

What did what do you wanna start with?

I'll do a show until I can also add that my tomatoes look terrible.

I feel like a total fraud as the expert here.

Yeah, not your fault.

No, the only thing I've got is I have a few peppers which I brought one to show and I have all the yellow squash so you don't leave your car unlocked because you might squash but this is a pepper that I'm growing in a container and I bought it purely because it's orange and I have an orange blue garden so it is in a pot.

It's called Valencia orange and the picture on the tag was just a typical bell pepper but they're all coming out round like this and I thought it was just like a one off like it was an early one but they're all like this and looked it up online and they also have bell pepper picture like it's like a normal looking bell pepper.

So I don't know if it's surely the one Other is a contender for a factor that would make this happen but it definitely is showing the fact that tomatoes and peppers are related.

It looks like a little tiny orange tomato but it's very it's a very good pepper.

It's very sweet.

I was just going to ask if it was sweet or Yeah, no, I was playing I was like, gosh, it's kind of small.

I hope it's not miss Martin's like super hot and gonna tear our mouths apart but no is super sweet.

I've used it in some big beans over the weekend and it was great.

Oh, nice.

I did think it was a tomato when he first came in.

I did too.

It looks like a little tomato and he said they're all that same shake this so I'm thinking it's either like a miss mark or it's a weather factor but it kind of thought the lens the orange maybe they're supposed to be round look like oranges.

I don't know.

But the pictures online also a bell pepper shape.

I don't know the figure.

As long as it's delicious.

I guess you went and it's yeah, something that's actually producing other than some stuff.

It's just been such a mess at our house like I have harvested to cherry tomatoes.

That's all so Wow.

Yeah.

Any rodents Do you guys have rabbits or any other critters wreaking havoc?

You have raised beds, right?

Yeah, but this is the year for critters at our house.

We have chipmunks wreaking havoc across the neighborhood.

The house and deer and the deer I think it was pretty sure it was deer that ate every one of our peaches.

And you know my son Andrew, he said let's harvest the peaches one night when it was getting dark.

And I said no, it's getting dark woods go in.

And the next morning, every peach there's a nice pile of pits at the base of the tree and a couple still on the tree Hafeet with bites out of them.

I saw those pictures that he posted and I thought since we've been watching those features, some are waiting for them that I didn't even get to enjoy them.

Uh, we have squirrels that squirrels we have a pear tree and it's called a suckle pear and they're real little and they're really sweet.

And the last three years or so we haven't gotten a single one to eat because right when they're getting ripe the squirrels eat or they come in and get them and that's something so frustrating watching it too than I am I think whoever gets there first is the one who gets to enjoy the fruit.

Okay, and you've bought some some cucumber as well I do.

My husband and I love crab cakes, okay, and traditionally you make a rim a lot sauce with crab for crab cakes.

Again, it's a mayonnaise based sauce.

And it contains a cucumber called a corn icon.

And I had no idea what they were that's kind of like a little Gurken.

Okay, so I found these seeds.

And this is basically a corner con type cucumber.

So for the sauce and for pickling.

You use them when they're real little like this.

Gotcha.

And then we've I've been eating them when they get big and they're really good.

When they're big.

Now these little ones will have I've scraped them off, but they've got these little tiny, dark, spiky things and they really hurt.

Oh, yeah.

So I just take a scrub and scrub them all off.

So I have not made revelon sauce.

So I haven't used the UCS before so picking them younger is is there a different flavor that you can expect from that?

Um, yeah, I haven't really I don't think they're that much different.

It's just a little bit different.

There's just they're small.

Gotcha.

But they're right.

They are they're ripe enough to use and it's interesting.

It's, it's basically in southern New Orleans type with those two those cucumbers that you have there, the small and the larger one.

They're the same variety.

Yes.

Wow.

And some of the vines have just been incredibly prolific.

And they're all over my garden and so I don't always see them and sometimes I find them this big around and yellow.

That one goes to the compost pile.

That's the seed.

Yeah, very nice.

Okay, all right, Jen, we're gonna go back to you Sure.

I just went out and looked at what in my garden actually looks good.

After all this crazy hot, cold, wet not dry weather we've had and what has not required really any attention for me.

So I'll just go through what I brought.

I brought this is called coral Berry.

And you can see that it's kind of a pink berry.

This is a variety called candy.

And I have literally done nothing to it and I transplanted it in the middle of the summer at a time when I should probably shouldn't have and it is done.

Fine.

This is one called an Italian Aram.

And it's more of a bowl that you would plant in the fall but it comes up with leaves in the Spraying and they kind of have kind of an arrowhead shape with white veins in them and then the leaves die back and then you get these sort of space flowers where you have like a pea slowly.

So this would be a so there would be kind of a gotcha leaf looking thing behind that and then these berries form and this is in my orange and blue garden.

I'm always looking for things that aren't orange that are perennials besides day lilies and so when you think about it, there's not a whole lot No, you're right.

Yeah, so but this has taken a while to get established but I have it in a spot where I don't really mess with it and it does pretty well and literally nothing required of me.

That wasn't the best time.

Just marvel at doing other things.

You cleaned it up once in the spring.

And then the other things I brought you we always talk about knockout roses on the show but we don't realize there's like a whole lot loads of other shrub roses out there that are just as great in my opinion.

A couple that are in my garden.

This orange one again from the orange and blue garden is from the series called oh so easy.

And it's paprika.

And I never knew this but my son Andrew figured this out.

When we were coming to the show today that it has a good nice rose scent.

I didn't realize that they were saying it smells a little like cherries to them my kids.

And then this is another shrub rose called campfire.

This one's kind of an old flower but you can see it's gotten those sort of hot pink tips on the white petals and reminds me of the big hybrid tea piece.

If you've heard of that one.

This is one that Hardy geranium.

We don't we think of what we plant the red flowers in the pots those are pelargoniums, but we call them geraniums.

These are the perennial geranium.

And this one's called Roseanne and I love it because it's big and full and covered in flowers pretty much all summer.

These are out by my mailbox which is like death plants.

Liver don't do you would call it a health strip.

You know, it's like serves the sun.

And this in some Angelina Sedum just grows like crazy laying there.

And then this is one that's flowering.

This is a Joe Pye weed.

There's a native plant version that's like six feet or more tall.

This is a cultivar that's a little shorter.

I lost the tag for it.

So I don't remember the cultivar but there are several out there that are on the shorter side.

And the butterflies go nuts for this very pretty now all of those are perennials, all of those are perennials.

All of those have thrived in this hot mess weather and no intervention from me.

All right, so check all the ones the first ones with the berries that you showed us are those on a bush.

This one looks rubbery is like a shrub it kind of reminds me of a spy RIA in terms of how it okay kind of how it sits.

It's been kind of struggling where it was.

It's when I moved it so, but it seems to be doing alright, so far.

What about pests?

Have you been dealing with any insects?

Or I know we talked about critters but the biggest thing has been the critters this year and I have not seen much of like Japanese beetles or anything like send you some.

You've been fighting with Japanese I think I think I lucked out and getting some I had a massive failure of some things I planted because of stupid chipmunks digging up the seeds.

And I replanted all my squash and my melons.

And I haven't had any squash bugs.

And now I'm seeing it on TV.

So it's gonna be totally infested by the time I get home.

But I think maybe I've at later plans and later planting is one.

That's one way to avoid some of the plant the pests that come at a typical interval like typical time a year.

Interesting.

Now, what do you do for the Japanese beetles?

Or have you just lost?

There's nothing I just you know, I usually have like, great aspirations of like, coming out and collect Yes.

Come into the bucket bucket.

And that lasts for a couple days.

Oh, God, I can't do this every day.

This every day.

Yeah, they're just too realistic.

We've got them in our blackberry.

So they're in PR, the whole beans.

And yes, I just shake that trellis and they all go.

only lasts about five minutes, and then they all come back.

I'll come back.

Okay, we've got a couple of questions sent in from folks.

And we'll do number 56.

And you guys can both weigh in on this one.

This is a question about a squash plant.

They say I have a squash plant that is really wilting and wondering if I need to pull it and get rid of it.

I don't see any bugs on it but did see one on the next plant to it.

And they say they sprayed it with seven.

So what are your thoughts there?

I'd say it's probably squash, four and Springstead But unfortunately, he's not going to do anything for it because the squash, Vine seven has to contact the insect.

It's a contact insecticide.

So within the case of squash vine borer, once the plant is wilting, there's a larva that has tunneled inside the vine.

And it's basically destroying the plants capability of bringing water to the leaves.

So a couple of things you could try and I've done, I've done this at home.

So it's, I know you can try it, you can do it, you can try this at home, you can look at the base of the plant, and you'll see kind of some little yellowish frass from where the larva has tunneled in and kind of find the hole where it went in the vine, you can use a pocket knife and kind of slice the vine open and find it, pull it out, do surgery, wow, you've done that I've done it.

It doesn't always work.

But I've learned.

And then if you catch it early, it's more likely to work.

And then the thing about squash where the the leaves attached to the vine, those nodes can sprout roots if they're laying on the ground.

So you can kind of try to promote that by pushing some soil on the nodes and try to encourage them to to root there.

Sometimes you can save it sometimes not sometimes.

It just depends.

That's my take on it.

Okay, well I actually I've struggled with with squash bind for for a long time.

And this time this year, I covered them with row cover, and that's a good plan.

And finally, I got got a year without squash fine bore.

The other thing is too, sometimes you can wrap aluminum foil around the base where the where the larva goes into this soil.

That's great.

That's it's tricky to do.

But it kind of helps.

So doing aluminum on the base of the plant.

Yeah, just take a little strip of aluminum and wrap it around the base of the plant.

Because that's where they enter.

Yeah, no, that's a great, yeah, yeah.

And planting later, even planting was meant to do that kind of life got in the way got in the way and chipmunks got in the way.

Planting later went after that window when the adults are laying.

Okay, so now there you go plant a little later, or try a little bit of aluminum foil.

Excellent.

Okay, Jen, this one's for you.

This is question 53.

This one says two of my Peonies are covered with a light gray film, what could be causing this and what is the remedy?

It sounds like powdery mildew to me.

And it's pretty typical on peonies, especially the older varieties.

Some things you can do fungicide if you're so inclined, but you would have to start it before that powdery mildew shows up.

And then you have to you have to apply it in an interval that would be listed on the on the package.

Most people don't want to do that every two weeks for the rest of the season.

Just practically speaking, it sounds great.

But the reality is usually people don't want to keep up with it.

So what you could do is just live with it because it's not going to hurt it in any way.

We've already seen the flowers in May and June.

Just make sure you do a good job of cleaning up this fall cleaning up all the dead leaves and get it out of the garden.

Don't leave it there to try to lessen the the inoculum for next year.

And it you can go in and try to thin it out at this point maybe improve some of the air circulation because usually that sort of stuff takes root in cool wet when the leaves stay wet.

You can try that.

But Ella was on not too long ago with a plant that she got for a steal because it had powdery mildew and she said I'm just going to go home.

I'm going to cut it back and I just got you know a really great plant that hopefully I can get this under control on but a lot of people I guess think it's damaging to the plants so there's no it doesn't harm it at all.

Not just not aesthetically pleasing doesn't look nice.

And that's why it gets marked down.

And then when you walk in, you see a Jaffa anything to add there about the powdery mildew.

Now just same thing.

Here actually my peonies didn't have any this year and I don't know if mine doesn't either.

They are fine.

And they're old and used to interesting.

Maybe Maybe they're in a different area where there was a lot of rain, or a lot of moisture, spotty or no good circulation.

All right, number 58.

Let's do this one.

Question is can anyone tell me what this weed is?

It is growing all over my garden.

It has leathery leaves that remind me of a succulent, the stem is reddish and rubbery.

Each plant can grow quite large if left unchecked.

Is there any way to control it other than hoeing and we've got a picture of it of the week.

They're so what have you decided that this is?

It's purslane?

As far as controlling it, I mean, you could use a weed killer broadleaf weed killer on it.

I never have I've just pulled it up.

Yeah, it's easy to pull line, especially if the grounds a little dam, but it's also edible.

Yeah, it is also edible.

So you could probably can't eat that much.

But it's one of those that shows up where you have compacted soil where it's super hot.

It's related to same genus as the annual moss rose, if anyone's familiar with that portulaca.

So if you've got a hellstrip, that nothing can grow in by your mailbox, you should plant purslane or portulaca.

But that will be one that would naturally show up because it doesn't mind those condition.

Gotcha.

And it does.

It's kind of really shallow root system, you can just yank those right now my chickens like to eat that a lot.

So I kind of just don't even bother with it.

Okay, another question.

This is about knockout roses.

Number 59.

This person has knockout roses, they are south side of their property getting direct sun, and they say if you can see closely, the leaves are chewed and the bushes don't look healthy overall, the question is, should I replace them or cut them back?

So when you're having issues with roses, as people do specially knockouts?

What are your What are your suggestions there?

I think taking out the dead or the picture that she sent, there was quite a bit of dead plant material at the bottom, I would get that out of there.

The damage to me look like potentially leaf cutter bees, which is not really something that you would control.

I was thinking maybe time of year, maybe Japanese beetle, but you would see a skeleton icing of the leaf where it's kind of like the veins are left and all the things in the middle are gone.

I would wait and see being that it's on the south side and direct cooking and direct sun all day I would question whether you've got enough moisture on the plants.

And so making sure you get that moisture on there, especially if you planted them recently, and maybe get some mulch around the base.

But definitely give them another chance I would not I'm not one that rips out plants immediately.

I always like to like wait till they're I'm sure they're completely dead.

No green at all.

Yeah, no, nothing.

I love that I love nursing something back from one shoe.

Yeah, as you well know.

It's so funny because Kelly also she's another one of our panelists.

She's the greenhouse grower.

And so she's, she's like, throw it away and get another one person and then you've got Jen who wants to nurse them back to how that's so funny.

It's so funny how you guys all have your different niche.

We've got about two and a half, three minutes left.

I'd love to talk a little bit more about what you guys are growing at your own house flowers or vegetables and what's going well this year.

I know you talked about your tomato plants are doing really well.

My beans are doing really well.

Cucumbers.

Also, my squash is has done pretty well.

Usually by now they're dead and they're not doing something right.

Doing Something Right.

Peppers is struggle but early crops.

The spring crops were just nothing.

They really struggled stuff come up and I had the same problem.

That's it's it's my pepper plants are still very small.

And they just they did not perform well this year.

Yeah, mine are usually bust.

I used to put little short cages around mine.

And usually they're past the top at this point.

And they're just not and I think we may have seen some of the upper limit of tolerance of temperature was too because mine mine are doing well but they're a little bit shaded because they're in front of the blackberries.

So they get a little bit of shade and I've been watering.

I'm like crazy, but so they got green peppers on him.

But yeah, I have a couple of little ones and this is the one that's doing the best but they're all these Rente enjoy.

What about you at home besides the peppers?

Have you had any?

I've noticed that some of the annuals that we kind of think of as doing really well in hot temperature like calibre cola million bells.

They were really struggling in the really hot weather and I was like, oh gosh, am I How am I killing them they have plenty of water.

It's just the temperature and once we had kind of that break it cooled off then they really, really flowed out.

We have really nice crop of sunflowers giving us some instant privacy while we wait for some other stuff to fill in.

Some of them were planted by the squirrels or the the squirrels.

One squirrel that my kids have named JUMPY.

JUMPY planted them for us.

Nice.

I've got some sun flowers too.

A couple of them have opened up.

So we're looking forward to those but it's just been a weird growing year.

So I have to write all this down in my A garden journal about the odd things that we all saw this year because it was just kind of like the broccoli, not great peppers not great.

Had a lot of peas in the beginning.

They kind of liked that cool.

But yeah, it was kind of had a good peak crop.

Oh, my Saucer Magnolia had a couple of balloons on it in July.

So that strange saucer out to look that one up.

All right.

Well, we are out of time.

Thank you guys both for coming and sharing your time and talents with us.

And thank you for watching, and we will see you next time.

Thanks.

Bye bye