- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

If you don't have space or   time for a large garden,   go small with five   gallon buckets.

Today we're gonna show you how.

Also, herbs are great in the   kitchen and in the garden.

We'll be talking about a   few that are easy to grow.

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.

[cheerful country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Walter Battle.

Walter is a UT County Director in Haywood County, and Ms. Reni Erskine will be joining us later.

Hi Walter.

I see we have a bucket on the table.

What are we gonna do today?

- Well, there are a lotta people who simply do not have the space to garden.

- Okay, sure.

- And me being a person that liked to kinda watch my money a little bit, I was walking through a garden center one day and saw where you could have these tomatoes already in a pot, and they was getting like $17 for those things, you know?

So I said, well, now wait a minute, if somebody like me who got a bunch of old buckets sitting around the house or whatever, I could just plant my own.

[laughs] So basically, what a deal, I got my bucket.

And you wanna make sure, I really like to see you get a new bucket though.

- Okay.

- Because if you're using something that used to have like petroleum products in it or some kind of chemical or something, that might have some kind of residue in there that maybe, you know, work against you.

What I did, I go and I get my drill and I drill some holes and these right here are one-inch holes, but you can use half-inch holes, just whatever, as long as water can drain out of it.

- So that's why you put the holes in the bottom?

- Yes, yes.

And I always follow that little step up, Chris, by putting this landscape fabric, just you know, - How 'bout that.

- Just to cover that up a little bit so that we won't have a problem.

And then I even add a few rocks in there.

And let me see, I won't make too much noise here.

[Chris chuckles] I put some of that in there just to hold that down and make sure everything is fine.

- And it'll probably help the drainage as well.

- Oh absolutely, it's gonna help with the drainage.

And then, I begin to mix my soil.

- Ah that looks good.

- Yes, what I did, I purchased some already-made organic soil, but I did add a little calcium to it.

I did put some lime in this.

And all I simply do is just pour some of that in there, let me get it started before I dump it.

But I add something else to this organic.

I also add a little bit of cow manure.

When you live near a cattle farm like I do, - It's readily available, I'm sure [laughs].

- It's readily available.

So I mix that in there too.

And then of course I'm gonna finish the rest of this out.

Now you don't ever, ever just fill it all the way to the top.

You get it right there, and like I said, I added calcium to this, I put about a cup of calcium in here.

And then of course I'm going to, let me get just a tad more, to get my rocks.

- So while you're doing that, a five-gallon, that's a pretty good size for a container?

- Yeah, five-gallon is a pretty good size because tomato plants, and look here, I wanna talk a little bit about that.

Tomato plants, they gonna put down quite a bit long, a good long root off in there.

Now when you first get that, notice that these have good white, - Yes.

- Roots, there.

And another thing that I do when I plant tomatoes, I like to do what we call sucker them.

So I cut off these little bottom ones right here.

And also, these plants here that I got, you can use them, these were over there on a rack.

And normally we say don't buy those.

- On the discount rack?

[laughs] - Yes but I noticed that they were actually just hadn't been watered.

So you know, I saved some money there.

- So you can save them.

- And then so I tear those little roots apart to kind of, - You tease the roots a little bit.

- Yep, just tease them a little bit.

And there we go.

And we can set that off in there.

Let me get that more in the middle.

And then from there, - You just add more.

- I just add more around.

And let me tell you, you gonna have some good tomatoes.

This variety here is Early Girl.

- Oh yeah, it's a good one.

- It's a real nice variety to use and, yeah so there you go, this here will do wonders.

And I even get all up around there a little more.

- Okay.

Now this would apply for more than just tomatoes, right?

- Oh absolutely.

- I mean there's other vegetables you can put in there as well?

- Yes, as a matter of fact, you can put one tomato plant in a bucket, but you can put two pepper plants.

- Okay.

- And you could also put maybe like one cucumber plant.

Squash plant, you could put one of those in there.

I'm talking about in its own bucket.

- Sure.

- And they'll grow fine.

Now one of the things about growing them in the bucket also you can start them out early, you know, so you can get out there earlier.

Another thing is, you don't have to worry about weed control 'cause you pretty much controlling that.

I'm gonna tell you, if a pigweed or something comes in this, you put it in there.

[laughs] It didn't come in there naturally.

And another thing, you know, you can move it around if you need to.

- Yeah that's what I was gonna talk about, okay.

- You can have a little flexibility with that.

And there's just all kind of benefits to growing in a bucket, and trust me, it does not cost you $17.

- Right.

- Which is always a good thing.

- Right, that's a good thing.

- But once again, I do wanna emphasize, do not use an old petroleum bucket or something like that, you know, if you see something like, you know, lubrication fluid or something on the bucket, don't use that.

- Okay.

- But should really just get you a new bucket.

- And let's talk again about the different soils you can use, now you actually put in manure, why did you put in the manure?

- Well you know, 'cause I wanted to raise these kind of organically.

And that's gonna be a good source for my fertilization and nitrogen and all that that you get with the manure and all that.

So that's why I use that.

Once again, we do have people like to know where their food come from, how it's grown.

What better way than growing in a bucket?

And as a matter of fact, I highly recommend people who live in apartment complexes that have just, - Ah, good point.

- Those little ledges.

Hey, this is an ideal way to garden.

I mean it just works perfect.

- Right, and I was once in an apartment, so yeah that does work.

I did that as well.

- Yes, yes.

And also, I didn't bring any with me, but I would also put some mulch on top of this, because when you water it, that would help this stay moist and stuff, as well as hold that moisture in there.

'Cause you know, here in the Mid-South, woo, once that June, July heat hit-- - Yeah, it'll dry out pretty quick.

So let's talk about watering.

How much would you water in a five-gallon bucket?

- Basically, I would try to give it like maybe an inch a week is what I would look at, inch and a half, but basically, just feel that soil.

If it feels moist, you know, nice and moist, you're fine.

Now we do not want to just saturate it with water because then we're gonna mess around and get all that ol' phytophthora root rot, and all that stuff developed in there and you're kinda defeating your purpose.

- Right, right.

- So you just don't wanna just saturate it, but of course with those holes in there, it shouldn't saturate.

But otherwise just keep it nice and moist about once a week, maybe twice a week, go out there and just add a little water to it just like you would water any other plant.

- Sure.

And you made a point about moving it, as well.

'Cause I had to do that when I lived in apartment, make sure you got enough sun.

So that's the good thing about putting them in containers or five-gallon buckets, you move it to follow the sun.

- Yeah you can move it around.

And also you can get you one of those little cages, and they'll work also, and that's what I would do with this one, I won't do anything but just put that little cage in there right now and it'll just grow right up into that little cage and you'll be fine.

But like I said, to me it's really a neat way to even get kids to garden.

- Oh yeah, I agree.

- You know, a lot of times we say now the kids do not know where food comes from or whatever, and this would just really be a nice way to teach some kids how to garden and where food comes from, and how they can grow things.

- Something they can do at home, I agree.

- Oh yes, and if you're looking for a good science project, there it is, right there.

- Well, good stuff, Walter, we appreciate that demo.

- Oh, okay, well happy to bring it here.

- Now we'll see how that does.

- Oh, okay.

- We gonna test you out.

- Okay, well we'll be slicing tomatoes before long.

- All right, thank you much.

[gentle country music]   - The wheel bug is   a type of assassin bug,   and it's kinda scary   because it can actually,   if you handle it,   it can bite you.

So, leave 'em alone.

They live mostly in trees   and they're pretty large.

They're about an inch,   inch and a half long.

They're kind of a   grayish, blackish color.

And they're   called a wheel bug   because they have this big   cog thing on their back.

It's like a half a   wheel stuck back there   that looks like a cog.

And they way that   they attack their prey   is they will, they have   a stout beak-thing.

So, they stab their   prey with this beak,   and they hold them down   with their front legs   and then suck the juices   out of the, out of the prey.

- Built-in straw, huh?

[Chris laughs] - Pretty much.

So, assassin bug is kind of a fitting name.

So, they are often found in trees, and they will eat a lot of different kinds of things.

But, you pretty much don't wanna mess with them.

Leave 'em where they are.

[upbeat guitar music] - Hi, Ms. Reni.

We're happy to have you here with us today.

I know we're gonna learn a lot about herbs, but before we get started, you are the President of the Memphis Herb Society, so thank you again for coming.

- Thank you for inviting me, it's an honor to be here.

- Great, great.

First question, what is an herb?

- Well, an herb is a useful plant.

So that really expands the definition of herb that perhaps our grandparents knew, right?

So you might do something that is fragrant, that might be useful as a pollinator, medicinal, as a food source, industrial, and right now, like hemp, that's a medicinal herb.

Or hops for beer, so all those are considered herbs.

- How about that, wow.

Now let's talk about some of the popular herbs that people like to grow now.

Can you tell us a little bit about those?

- Sure.

I don't think people should be afraid of herbs.

- Ah, there you go, okay.

- They really shouldn't.

You try and you try again, right?

- Right, I agree.

- So one of the first things is parsley.

And I love parsley, I really do.

But as you notice, I brought a flat leaf, Italian flat leaf, which is different from the curly.

And the flat leaf is easier to grow than the curly parsley.

Personally, I let mine bolt.

and my seeds were originally from Italy, from a region of Venice, so it's humid there, it's hot there.

And parsley does tend to bolt, it's a semi-annual.

So you actually would throw seeds out every year, and when it bolts, I let it go to seed and then the seeds fall wherever.

So I might have parsley in my walkways, in this bed or that bed, and I'm perfectly happy with that [laughs].

- And you're fine with that, good for you, good for you.

- Perfectly happy.

So that would be the first one.

There are very few things that really attack.

Now the one thing that loves to eat it   is the swallowtail caterpillar,   but I'm glad for that.

I don't mind, my whole   yard is pollinator-friendly   because I have   beehives in the back.

I have three hives, so I like everything to bloom.

And I'll let kale go to bloom, bok choy go to bloom.

Everything goes wild and then when it comes time for the tomatoes, [Chris laughs] I'm afraid they have to go.

[laughs] And I do the same thing with the other herb that's over here, which is dill.

Now a lot of people like dill.

And it really is wonderful herb for fish or a vinegarette or any type of sauce.

It doesn't do very well in the Mid-South because it's hot here.

And it doesn't rain enough during the summer months so it tends to bolt, but that's fine.

- That's okay.

Yeah, so you put out the seed again in the fall for a fall harvest, or in the early spring.

So when you see a pot like this at the nursery, it's probably not going to do much for you in May, in June, the season is over.

But still, it's fun to grow and watch bolt.

And again, when mine bolts, the seeds go everywhere.

And I have them growing right now, every size, small to tall, and it's growing in between the cracks of the concrete everywhere because it's acclimated to my little microclimate, - Gotcha.

which is nice, same thing for the parsley.

So I save the parsley seed and I share it.

Same with the dill, I save and I share it.

So those are some fun things.

- Let it bolt, let it go, right?

- It is [laughs].

- What else do you have for us?

- The other easy thing to grow, - Easy, okay.

- Yeah, easy, well these are easy.

- Yeah, that's easy.

- I think they're easy, - I think so.

- Are chives.

So these are normal chives, and they give that lovely light onion taste.

Now when we talk about diseases and things, we don't have a monoculture in our herb garden.

Everything's interspersed with vegetables and other herbs so it's not like you have one acre of parsley that you're cutting for the market, you know?

You don't have that issue.

Now sometimes you may have onion maggots that get in there.

Maybe sometimes slugs for the parsley, slugs for the dill.

You can go ahead and, if it's maggots, you get rid of it.

Just take it out, replant, do something new, new spot.

And we have one more.

Ah, this is the favorite.

- The favorite for everybody.

[laughs] - That's basil, and this is sweet basil.

- Okay.

And this is new for me in my life.

I didn't have that as a child in our gardens, so coming to Memphis and getting acquainted with basil was awesome.

[laughs] - 'Cause everybody grows it here, in this part.

- Yeah, yeah.

And so there are so many different kinds that are just a delight to the palate.

Now all of these things do well as companion plants.

- Ah, I was gonna ask you about that, great.

- Yeah, yeah.

So we were working the plant sale at the Memphis Botanic Garden and so when people went out with a tomato, well where was the basil?

- Grab the basil.

[laughs] - It has to go in between because it's fragrant and it sort of captures all sorts of flying insects.

With all these different type of herbs around, you're discouraging insect infestation because there are so many smells for these insects to go to.

They kinda wonder, where's the tomato, right?

[laughs] And those should be, you know, tomato hornworms should be handpicked anyway.

[laughs] - That's right, I agree with you on that.

- So another type of chive is this, and I only have a little tiny sample, and that's a garlic chive.

Now, if you plant this, you'll have a good chance that it'll take over, so that means easy.

- I have planted those.

- Yes?

- Yeah, it's taking over.

- Do you like it?

- I like it, it's fun.

- I do too.

I like especially the flowers, because they are so tasty in a salad, very white, delicate lovely flowers.

Same thing with the regular chive.

That makes a beautiful purple flower, or pink flower, and you can pick that apart to put in your salads.

I mean, it's just a culinary delight to add such things.

- Okay, which one of these would grow best in the window?

- Oh my, basil.

- Basil, okay.

- Basil is very thankful, yes.

- It's very thankful, I like that [laughs].

So it grows well in the window.

- Yes.

And most of these herbs prefer good soil, good watering, but they do not like to stand in water.

- Right, so good drainage.

- Good drainage, yes.

And the ones that do not do well with that, are rosemary.

It likes a rocky soil.

And extra good drainage.

- Extra.

- Yeah.

So I put pea gravel in with my soil when I have sage or lavender.

- Can you tell us a little bit about your background with herbs?

- Well, sure.

I was born in Austria and spent many years there as a child in a small village, a farming village.

And so every householder in that village, the ladies would have a kitchen garden that would have in it, parsley, dill, also chives, and lovage.

And they used these things to season their food because there wasn't really a lot of money for cinnamon, cloves, or curry was unknown.

So those types of things were saved for Christmases, Easter, special events.

- Yeah, special events, how about that.

- So that gave me a great respect for herbs.

And then I also had three ladies in my family, two aunts and a grandmother, who had restaurants.

And so they would be very aware of what was useful.

If they were making spinach and they were a bit short, they would send out a helper to go cut nettles and that was added in.

And that's a very healthful herb to add to spinach.

Or perhaps, if they were making a potato salad, they would cut dandelion greens and that would be chopped very, very fine into the potato salad.

So everything was useful and made life actually very interesting.

- Thank you much for sharing - I love sharing that.

- A little bit of your history as well.

We definitely do appreciate that.

So thank you again.

- Thank you.

[gentle country music] - As you can see, this is a pretty good size ant mound.

They built this mound here because this an area that has not been disturbed.

We did disturb them for about three days, and as you can see... [shovel scraping] So, they have moved on to somewhere else where we don't want 'em.

After we disturbed the ants in the other location, they moved to a new location.

And guess what, they're in a spot we don't want them there either.

So, we're gonna disturb this mound as well, and hopefully they'll move somewhere else.

As you're getting them to move, and if you're using a shovel or rake whatever the case may be, make sure that the ants are not running up the pole because that will hurt if they sting you.

This a good way to get those ants to move without having to use a chemical.

[upbeat country music] All right, here's our Q & A segment.

You jump in there with us, Ms. Reni, all right?

- All right.

- Here's our first viewer email.

"What are the cultural   practices to get rid of moss?"

And this is from Juan, YouTube.

So he wants to get rid   of moss, culturally.

- Well I know that it would basically show up in very acidic soils.

So one suggestion I would have to him is obviously to add lime to raise the pH.

The other practices, I'm not really familiar with but I just know that's why you have it.

- Let me help you out with the other ones, Juan.

If you have poorly drained soils, compact soils, acidic soils you already covered, and a little shade, so if you have all of those, then yeah, you're gonna have the perfect ingredients for moss.

- And I like moss.

- And most people like moss.

And a lot of moss lawns now.

- Yes absolutely.

- Yes in Japan, some beautiful gardens, in California, some beautiful gardens with moss where they work years and years to establish moss.

- Yeah we definitely   have those here, keep the leaves off of them and they will be just fine.

But of course he wants to get rid of it, culturally.

So you have to improve your drainage, aerate your soil, get your soil tested, all right.

And maybe limb up a couple of trees to get some sunlight down.

- Nothing else to do.

- That's the way to get rid of it culturally.

But again, like Ms. Reni said, it's beautiful.

- I think so.

- I've seen it.

I actually have a patch of it in my own yard.

- Yes.

- Yes.

- Looks fine to me.

But I know why I have it, culturally.

So there you have it, Juan, thanks for your question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"We want to aerate our   yard then put down   "lime and organic fertilizer.

"Will these things   help for weed control?

"We really don't want to   spray anything poison   "to kill out weeds, so we have   a lot of weeds in our yard.

Or, what do you think?"

And this is from Bethany.

- Well, I mean, one of the keys to having a good lawn is to have a lawn that is growing very good to out compete the weeds.

And also, mow your grass a little high so that the crabgrass won't germinate.

Because crabgrass likes light to germinate.

So those are some cultural practices they could use to help with, at least crabgrass, and maybe suppress some of the weeds.

But otherwise you pretty much have to go kinda out there and hand pull them, if you see some weeds in different spots.

If you're trying not to use any kind of chemicals or whatever.

- Yeah, so Ms. Bethany, here's the deal.

The thing that she's talking about, are the things that you should do culturally anyway, so aerating your yard, yes.

Because you wanna open the soil up, you wanna get air down to the roots, you wanna get water to the roots and those nutrients.

Putting down lime of course helps, according to your soil test, right.

And she said organic fertilizers.

All of those are good cultural practices, right?

Because at the end of the day, if you want the grass to out compete the weeds, you need a good dense stand of grass.

So these are your methods to do that.

But we did find out earlier, you could just eat some of those weed, can't you?

- You can.

[laughing] - And they don't wanna spray anything, which is fine.

That's okay if you don't wanna use any chemicals, I think it's fine.

You know, 'cause we talked about that earlier as well, but there you have it, Ms. Bethany.

What you're asking is your answer.

So just do those things culturally and you should be fine.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"Can I recycle expired milk   or juice into my garden?"

And is from HiKik, YouTube.

Interesting question,   recycle expired milk   or juice in the garden, Walt.

What do you think?

- I know the milk will be fine, because calcium.

- Calcium.

Yes, calcium.

- But the juice, I don't know.

- I wouldn't go, again, going back to the milk, it's calcium, you know, you just cut it a little bit with water.

- If it's acidic, maybe not.

But if it's sugary, because we do put molasses, - That's with the juice.

- We do put molasses on as a fertilizer and to increase the microbes in the soil, so that might work.

- Yes you do.

Most of your juices, especially your citric juices are very acidic, though.

- So that would be a no.

- Very acidic.

So I wouldn't want to use those juices.

- Maybe apple or something like that.

- Maybe, yeah.

- Like I said, I'd be a little skeptical.

- Expired milk, yes, some of your juices, I don't know.

The acidity would concern me.

A lot of sugar, they're very sweet, of course.

It will attract insect pests, or insects.

Wasps, you know anything that likes, you know, these pests that like a little sugar, can attract some of those.

- It can also attract some rodents too, with these food type ingredients.

- We actually tell folks not to put a lot of your juices in compost piles for that reason.

- Interesting.

- Right.

- Ants, rodents, so I'd be a little careful with the juice.

Molasses, yeah, you're right, that's a good point that you brought up, for microbes.

So there you have it, HiKik, all right.

Hope that answers your question.

So Walt, Ms. Reni, it's been fun.

- Thank you.

- Thank y'all for being here.

- Thank you for letting me be here.

- Remember, we love   to hear from you.

Send us a 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.

There we have links to Extension Publications with every video.

You can also check out the full garden calendar.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]