Hi, thanks for joining us for the Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South, I'm Chris Cooper.

If you like songbirds,   why don't you invite them   to stay in your   garden all season?

Today, we're going to   talk about birdhouses.

Also, wild animals can enjoy   the vegetables in your garden   as much as you do.

We'll show you how to   use live animal traps.

That's just ahead   on The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer)   Production funding   for The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South   is provided by   the WKNO Production Fund,   the WKNO Endowment Fund,   and by viewers like   you, thank you.

[upbeat country country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Debbie Bruce, Ms. Debbie is the owner of Wild Birds Unlimited, and Mr. D is here.

Thanks for joining me today.

- Glad to be here.

- Glad to be here, thank you.

- Ms. Debbie, I see we have birdhouses.

(Debbie) We do.

- So let's talk birdhouses.

- Well, this is a very fun time of the year, spring and summer is the time when birds are gonna be nesting.

- (Chris) Okay.

- We have a number of birds that actually come all the way from the neo-tropics and different parts of South America just to come and nest in our area, so we should be very honored to have them come into our yard.

But, having said that, some of them are open-cup nesters, such as,   birds that you   might see everyday,   like your cardinal.

- (Chris) Okay.

- That would build an open-cup   nest in a tree or a shrub.

Or some of them   are cavity nesters,   another bird you're familiar   with as a year-round resident   would be your chickadee.

- (Chris) Mm-hmm.

And it would take a birdhouse,   or an abandoned   woodpecker hole in a tree.

- (Chris) Okay.

But, because of urban sprawl and things such as that, so many of our dead trees have been removed.

So we can help birds along by placing birdhouses for 'em.

Some birds, believe it or not, build in very peculiar places.

We always hear about birds nesting in hanging baskets on a front porch, or the wreath on the front door.

[Chris laughs] - (Chris) Uh-huh.

- Which changes our routine somewhat for a few weeks.

Some of 'em use unusual nesting material.

I've seen a robin's nest lined with milk straws in a schoolyard.

- (Chris) Wow, okay.

- Unusual.

- (Chris) Yes.

[laughs] - And you can actually tell who nested in your tree or your shrub or your birdhouse by what materials are used.

Such as, if you open a birdhouse after they're finished nesting and you find a very soft cushion of moss filled with some plant down and maybe some animal fur, then it's maybe a chickadee that was nesting in there, or a tufted titmouse.

So there's things that you can do to help 'em along.

You can hang up a nesting ball, this is cotton.

Now all species of birds, each species will use the same type of nesting material.

So if you were to hang this up, you'd probably have maybe a chickadee or a finch or a tufted titmouse pull from it.

- (Chris) Okay.

- If you have some pine straw out in your yard, you probably would have, if your area has bluebirds, they would like the pine straw or the grasses.

But, don't put out dryer lint, because dryer lint will disintegrate when the rains come, and then the nest will collapse.

Another thing that you could do is put out short pieces of string, not long, three inches or less so the little nestlings don't get tangled up in it.

- (Chris) Okay.

- But, you can put houses up.

Smaller birds are gonna use a smaller house with an opening of one and a half inch to one inch.

The most common is a one and a half inch opening and that's gonna take your chickadees,   your tufted titmice,   your nuthatch,   Carolina wren,   downy woodpecker.

Some of 'em, birds,   your larger species, like your kestrels, your flickers, your Eastern screech owl, they want a bigger house,   with a three inch   opening, two and a half   to three inches, and of   course a larger structure.

This house is designed to be mounted on a pole, where some birds like to have their house hung in a tree.

- (Chris) Yeah, that's nice, I like that.

- If you're hanging it in a tree, you want to hang it, wedge it in between the branches so it doesn't swing too much in the winds, because those eggs are fragile in the house.

Now, if you're doing a house such as for a smaller bird,   one and a half inch   opening and a four by four   or a five by five floor space.

If you're doing your   larger one, for let's say,   your Eastern screech owl,   you want a eight by eight   floor space and   quite a bit taller,   twenty-inch frame going up.

If you're mounting this one on a pole, or this one, sometimes folks like to see things that are aesthetically pleasing to them.

[laughs] The birds aren't gonna be concerned with the appearance.

[laughs] The birds are looking for this cavity.

- Okay.

- Here.

Yeah.

So you can mount it on a pole five to ten feet high,   or if you're doing   the larger birds,   you can mount it on   a pole or tree trunk   ten to thirty feet high.

But, you want to see what's going to make a good house.

And just as when we're looking for a house, there's certain things that we're looking for for our families, the birds are looking for a house that's going to have thick enough wood for insulation.

They want a house that is gonna be easy to open, this one happens to have two ways to open.

You can view from the top, or you can clean out on this one from the side.

- (Chris) Nice.

- Cleaning out is very important-- - (Chris) Okay.

- Because, if you don't clean out after each brood,   remember the story of   the Princess and the Pea   and the mattresses   getting higher?

Pretty soon, after maybe   four broods, three broods,   this summer, the nestlings   would be right at the top,   and it would be easy for   predators to grab 'em out.

- (Chris) Okay.

- So you want to be able to clean out.

- What would you use to clean it out with?

- You could use a stiff brush, garden hose, birds aren't clean.

[laughs] They don't clean up after themselves.

Although, the parent does take the fecal sac every time and fly off with it.

But there might be some whitewash in there you wanna clean off with a stiff brush and maybe some vinegar-water.

- (Chris) Okay, vinegar-water.

- Yeah.

Also, you want to have drainage.

A good house is going to have either corner cuts or holes in the bottom so when the rains come, you're not sitting in a wet mattress or a wet nest.

This one has a slight overhang, this other one has even moreso.

And that's to prevent the rains from blowing in, and that'll help to keep 'em drier as well.

This one also has that round circle on the front, and that's to prevent predators from reaching in and taking a nestling.

Mortality rate in birds is very high.

Spring is a very fun time of the year, and summer, to watch birds raise their young.

It's probably the best of nature, but it's also the worst of nature because you see so many nestlings that don't survive.

If you have an existing house that's just flat across the front, you can add a block of wood to the front with the same size opening.

And that would make the reach farther in for your predators to get in.

Or, if you have squirrels that think that it's a house for them, or woodpeckers are making the entrance too big, you can add a metal ring to it, and that'll prevent them from entering into it.

So if you do put up a house, make sure that you're targeting the species that is in your habitat.

- (Chris) Okay.

- For instance, if you live in the heart of the city, and you want bluebirds, I'm sorry, you probably won't get 'em.

- (Chris) Okay.

- But if you live in an area that's more open, like a park setting or a golf course, or has open field with just a few trees, yes,   you could possibly have   our Eastern bluebirds,   who are year-round   residents here.

Mount it on a pole, five feet up or higher.

Keep predators out, predators can be raccoons, they can be snakes-- - (Chris) Snakes, yeah, that's what I was thinking.

- So you wanna put   baffles on the pole   and you want to put predator   guards onto your house.

Be patient.

It might take a while to get a response.

If nobody comes within two seasons, move your house - (Chris) Okay.

- To a different area and try not to use pesticides, cause many of these birds are gonna use insects for their nestlings.

Which brings me to if you want to try to attract nesting birds, provide live mealworms as a food source in your yard, and always have water.

But just put your house up, sit back and enjoy.

And I forgot to mention one thing, keep your house away from your birdfeeders.

Birds like privacy and they don't like all that activity of the other birds.

So just have a good time with it.

- Have a good time with the birds.

- That's right.

- And the birdhouses.

Thank you Ms. Debbie, we appreciate that.

- You're welcome.

Thank you.

- Good information.

[gentle country music] Perennial versus biennial versus annual.

- Yeah.

- How about that one?

And everybody's probably familiar-- - Everybody probably knows that.

The one they may not know, but is pretty easy to figure out, is the biennial.

You know, perennial is a plant   that comes back   from the root,   or the base, every year.

And people'll say, well, that's not just the herbaceous, you know, part that has the root that's what's perennial because it's gonna live...

In other words, a perennial is a plant that will live forever unless you kill it.

[Chris laughs] You know, like a tree.

A tree, botanically speaking is a perennial because it lives on, and on, and on.

Now, something   that is a biennial   completes its life   cycle in two years.

We have several that do, like parsley is one.

It's a biennial.

A lot of people'll say, well my parsley, it did really good and had all this pretty foliage and everything that first summer, and the next spring   it shot up a   flyer stalk and died.

What'd I do wrong?

Well, you didn't   do anything wrong.

That's what's programmed into that plant because it is a biennial.

Mullen, one of our native...   Well it's not native,   but you'd think it's native,   but it was   introduced from Europe.

It's sort of a   wildflower kind of thing,   grows around on   the ditch banks and stuff,   but it's biennial.

- So is Queen Anne's lace!

- Queen Anne's lace.

Yeah, Queen Anne's lace, blooming now, it's a biennial as well.

And annual then, obviously,   is you know, like   a bedding plant.

It's something that   will grow in one season,   set seed and die.

One growing season, whether that's the fall, the spring, summer.

Whenever it is, it's programmed to complete it's life cycle in one growing season.

[upbeat country music] Alright, Mr. D, so you're gonna demonstrate to us how to use one of these live animal traps, right?

- How to catch a raccoon or a possum, or any critter that's causing you some trouble.

What I have here is a, I guess is a Havahart live animal trap, or a very simple construction.

This one's big enough, this one's actually caught several raccoons in its life.

[laughs] To open it up, you release the screen right here, and just open the door and then you hold it, and you see the little flap?

- Mm-hmm.

Oh, okay.

- That will release the door when something steps on that flap.

So the hook, we have a lever that comes up here, let me turn it around where you can see that, that flap is attached to this hook, which is attached to the door.

So if I set the hook like that, and release it, the trap is set.

- Okay, I got you.

- So if you run in there, you know you're gonna be caught.

So I'm gonna put some bait, and one of the preferred baits for raccoons is tuna.

So I have a can of tuna fish over here.

So I'm gonna grab this, I'm not gonna trust the hook right now.

Make sure to hold the door open with one hand.

This is my trusty can of tuna fish.

- Alright.

- Pretty good, smells good.

[laughs] - I'm gonna set that back behind - Smells good, huh?

- Behind the little trigger, and I'm gonna reset my hook, release the pressure, the trap is loaded, ready to go.

Grab the handle here, see how that trigger's set?

- Yeah, I see it.

- So it's loaded, it's ready to go.

Now, I'm gonna set it in an area here, that I'm gonna kinda back it up, because I don't want critters come in to the outside and trying to reach in to get it, because they can accidentally trip the trigger.

I'm gonna push it back into kind of a protected area here, where hopefully the critters will just come through the front door, they'll see that's the only door that's open.

I'm sliding it back here-- - Hey, watch that poison ivy down there.

- Yeah, there's a little bit of poison ivy there.

Now, before I put the bait in there, I pulled some out, and I stored it on this little ash leaf.

- Yeah, ash leaf.

- And to try to entice the critters, I'm gonna scatter a little tuna around here.

Outside, just a little bit out here, get their interest up, getting closer to the door, right at the front door there.

Now I'm gonna come around and come in over the top, drop some in through the top.

- Oh, okay.

- Couple of little teaspoons of that there.

Little bit more, getting closer.

To catch a raccoon, you gotta be sneakier than a raccoon.

[laughs] Little bit closer.

- I have a hunch you've done this before, right?

- I have.

- Were you successful?

- Several times.

- Several times, he says.

- I even put a little bit on the trigger there.

And let me lay my little leaf right there.

We'll save our spoon for next go round.

- Okay.

But you need to come back and check your trap every 36 hours and when you catch the critter, again, contact or check TWRA's website, and they will tell you what you can and can't do with a trapped animal.

- Alright.

- Or, contact your local game warden.

I know that you can't transport these animals because there's a possibility that you could spread diseases so if you're thinking about catching a raccoon, and driving it out to Shelby Farms and turning it loose, unless you have a permit to do that, or a license to do that, you'll be breaking the law.

- So you can't do that.

- Can't do that.

Not legally.

- Not legally, right.

- And I've got a feeling that if these critters are causing you problems, the game officer's gonna tell you to destroy the critter.

- Wow.

- Dispatch him, which is what I would do.

- Is dispatch him.

[laughs] I'm sure you would do that.

- Exactly right.

- Alright, well we appreciate that demonstration there, Mr. D. And hopefully, 36 hours or so, we'll have something caught.

- Maybe quicker than that.

- Maybe quicker than that, alright.

- You never know, you never know.

Trapping is, some folks are better trappers than others, and you know, there's things to consider, you probably don't need to handle that trap with your bare hands, you probably need to use gloves, rubber gloves or something that'll prevent the human scent, you probably don't need to walk around here a lot.

- Yeah.

- Because they're pretty crafty.

- Wow.

- But we'll see.

- Alright, we'll see what we get.

Thanks, Mr. D. - No sweat.

[gentle country music] - Butterflies feed a little bit differently than we think of feeding.

They taste with their feet.

So, it'd be a little gross if people did that, but for butterflies, they're finding a really good landing source.

Then they have a long curly tongue called a proboscis   that they're gonna stick   down into the flower   to pull out the nectar.

Some good plants in this area to plant, springtime you wanna look at milkweed.

It's not only a nectar source,   but also for caterpillars.

In the summer, you wanna   look at something   maybe like mistflower,   and then plant some goldenrods   and some blazing star   for fall-feeding butterflies.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, this is our Q and A session.

Ms. Debbie, if you have anything to add to it, please do.

Alright, here's our first viewer email.

"I have brown circular   rings showing up   on my Bermuda lawn."

Any idea what that could be, Mr. D?

- Fairy rings, probably.

- (Chris) I thought   fairy rings,   I thought possibly   spring dead spot.

- (Mr. D.) Spring dead spot,   I wonder how   big the rings are.

- (Chris) Yeah, it'd be   good if we had a picture.

- Yeah, yeah.

But spring dead spot, there are fungicides that can help you, and the fairy ring, there's really nothing you can do about it.

Two different problems.

- Yeah, the spring dead spot pretty much is a fungus that attacks in the fall and the winter of the year.

If you have soil compaction, if you have a lot of thatch, if you have poor drainage, then you're pretty much gonna have a fungal disease which would be spring dead spot.

Usually you see the green transition period, you know, everybody else's grass is coming in real nice,   and then yours, happens   to be a little ring there.

Tan grass, that lets you   know that hey, it's a fungus.

But yeah, you can   use fungicide or some of your cultural practices.

Soil fertility is something else.

- (Mr. D.) Important.

- That's important too.

Oh yeah, fairy ring or spring dead spot is what I'm thinking.

- Yep, okay.

- Alright, here's our next question.

And guess what, y'all?

This is a paper letter.

So people are still writing, that's good.

- (Debbie) It is.

- So this is for Family Plot, "I would like to know   "what to do to keep squirrels   from eating my tomatoes.

Yours truly," Ms. Joyce,   right here in Memphis.

So, she would like to know what to do to keep squirrels from eating her tomatoes.

Don't we all wanna know how to keep the squirrels away from eating our tomatoes, Ms. Debbie?

Don't we all want to know that?

Alright Mr. D., he's shaking his head, uh oh.

- Twelve year old with a twenty gauge shotgun, that's all I can say.

[laughs] And let me preface that by saying check with your local game officer and make sure it's legal and hunting season needs to be open.

But there is, University of Tennessee has a very very nice publication, if I can find a copy of it, the front page that I would suggest that you take a look at.

But it's, and I don't see it here, I'll find it here in a minute.

It is, there you are: Managing Nuisance Animals Around the Home, and I'm gonna read a quote from this publication.

- (Chris) [laughs] Okay.

And also, go to TWRA's website, Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency's website, and if you can explore that, there will be a section if you look into, that tells you how to control critters, unwanted critters around the home, and talk to you a little bit about the laws and all that.

So I encourage you to do that.

[laughs] Before I read this quote.

- (Chris) Alright, give us the quote.

- Page 12, UT Extension's Managing Nuisance Animals and Associated Damage Around the Home.

Top of page 12, without question, shooting is the most effective method [laughs] of eliminating troublesome squirrels when local regulations or game laws permit.

- (Chris) Oh, boy.

- Now, with that being said, you might try naphthalene, moth balls, moth crystals, scatter them around, that might give you some temporary relief.

- (Chris) Temporary.

- Temporary relief.

Shooting is more permanent.

[laughs] Shooting is more permanent.

But unfortunately, there's not a lot of things you can do, if you've got a lot of squirrels, plant a lot of tomatoes, - (Chris) Yeah, Share.

- That way maybe you'll tomatoes for you and the squirrels.

But it's not anything unusual as your tomatoes are getting ripe.

You know you want a good vine-ripened tomato, nothing like a good homegrown tomato.

But it's not anything at all unusual to step out there and the day before you were gonna pick that tomato, see the squirrel running across the yard with your tomato in his mouth.

- Right, you're exactly right.

- That's where the 12 year old with the 20-gauge would come in handy.

[laughs] - Oh, be careful, Ms. Debbie.

- I know, I have to warn all the squirrels.

- Be careful.

- Alright, there you have it, Ms. Joyce, good publication though.

That is a really good publication.

- It is.

It talks a lot of critters, a lot of critters.

- Real good.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"Any suggestions   for dealing   with the rose   rosette disease?"

Have you heard of that, Ms. Debbie?

- We had it, on ours at the shop, - (Chris) Oh, okay.

- A number of years ago, and all the master gardeners that shopped with us, came in and told me, dig 'em up, get rid of them.

- Boy those master gardeners are good.

[laughs] - They are.

- Yes.

- Yes, they told you the correct way of getting rid of those roses.

- Very good advice.

- Very good advice.

- And I'm actually glad we did, because that's, referred to earlier in our conversation, that we replaced it with milkweed and lantana.

- (Chris) Good.

- So it worked out well for us.

- Good for you, good for you.

Yeah, rose rosette, hey, you know the symptoms,   excessive thorniness, the   elongation of the shoots,   the witches broom, you   know, cluster of shoots,   has those, what, the   red discoloration--   - (Mr. D.) Red discoloration,   first thing you see.

- Stunted growth,   stunted leaves,   distorted leaves, get it out.

- (Mr. D.) Take 'em out.

- Take 'em out, cause it's spread by the eriophyid mite.

You know, is what it is.

It gets in that plant material, that's it.

- You leave one bad one in there, it can affect all of them.

- That's right.

- Get 'em out quick.

- That's right.

I mean, there's gonna be some experiments going on.

Dr. Windham, you know Dr. Windham up at Nashville, our pathologists, they're actually working on some experiments with rose rosette, so hopefully we'll find out more in the future about what to do but for right now, the recommendation, pull them out.

- Are there any roses that are resistant to rose rosette that you know of?

- Not that I know of, not that I know of.

Cause you know, once upon a time it's like, oh, Knock Out roses won't get rose rosette, well, we've actually seen a couple of cases where they came down with rose rosette.

So, get 'em out, get 'em out.

I grow roses at home, and last year I got rid of three rose bushes that had rose rosette.

So yeah, get 'em out.

And as Mr. D. would say, "Double-bag 'em."

- Yeah, don't mulch 'em up and put 'em in your yard, you know, in your landscape.

- Throw 'em in the trash.

- Get rid of 'em.

- Alright Ms. Debbie, Mr. D., we're out of time.

- Good deal.

- Remember, we love   to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is   familyplot@wkno.org,   and the mailing   address is Family Plot,   7151 Cherry Farms Road,   Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to   FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today, to get more information on things we talked about on today's show, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

You can also watch videos from past shows.

Thanks for watching, I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]