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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Every time it rains lots of water washes off your roof.

With a rain barrel you can catch that water and use it to water your garden.

Also there are a lot of bugs they wanna eat your trees will let you know what to do to keep them off.

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 music] Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Tonya Ashworth.

Tonya is a local garden expert.

And Mr. D is here.

- Glad to be here.

- Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- All right, Tonya rain barrels.

So let me ask you this first, why do we need to install a rain barrel?

- Well, a rain barrel is a great water conservation tool.

It allows you to capture all the runoff or some of the runoff coming off of your roof when it rains and save it for uses around your home.

Such as filling bird baths, washing your car, or my favorite way to use it watering the plants around my yard.

- Sure.

Tonya, now can you walk us through the process of installing a rain barrel?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Okay.

- We can do that.

First, I wanted to tell you how much water you can-- - Sure, sure.

- Catch if that's okay.

- Okay that's fine.

- Did you know that the average Tennessee roof has 30,000 gallons of water coming off of it every year.

- That's a lot.

- That's a lot of water.

And this is only a 55-gallon drum and I would say if you're gonna install a rain barrel, get the largest one that you can.

- Okay.

- Because if you have 1000 square foot roof, and you get a one inch rain, you're gonna have something like 623 gallons of water coming off of your roof.

- Wow.

- Of course, one rain barrel is gonna service probably a quarter of your roof.

So the bigger the rain barrel, the better.

- The better.

- Absolutely.

- That's a lot of water.

You think about it, it comes off the roof.

- It is a lot of water.

- So what's our average rainfall amount here in Shelby County would you know that?

- Forty-seven inches in Tennessee is our average rainfall.

So you're gonna have a lot of water, you'd be surprised.

I have a rain barrel at my house.

It's very similar to this that I put together and I'm telling you five minutes it's full in a rain.

[laughs] - Wow.

- Catches the water fast.

- 'Cause we have some pretty violent rain events and the rain comes down pretty, pretty tough here.

- And you know, actually the problem would be, when you know, we're gonna have a lot of rain coming.

You want to open up the spigot on the bottom and maybe use a hose or a water hose to direct the water away from your foundation, because you'll have this will fill up so fast that you'll have more than you can handle.

Sometimes we know that we're gonna have a large rain event and sometimes we don't.

So that's a good thing to do, too.

- It's a good point.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- So to get our rain barrel going, first, you have to have the barrel, a nice food grade barrel, a good quality, and then you have to cut the hole in the top.

I would say at least a four inch hole.

You can use a hacksaw or something like that to do it or you can buy this hole saw bit that goes onto your electric drill.

Mr. Dennison is going to be our tool person.

- Yeah.

- Our assistant and he is gonna drill our holes but this is gonna be the hole where the gutter is going to be directed.

- Okay.

So tool guy.

- Are we ready?

- I think so if you wanna cut our hole.

- All right.

[electric drill roaring] - We got power.

[laughs] - Let me see.

Probably we gonna drill around here.

And I'm gonna put my glasses on.

- Put your glasses on.

That's right.

- For safety and I can actually see now.

[electric drill roaring] - Voilà.

- All right, how about that?

[laughs] - Great job.

- How about that?

- That circle is as straight as the line that's was laid there.

- That was drawn.

How about that.

- That is awesome.

All right, so [clears throat] to finish that off, one thing you would need to do is get a piece of metal mesh.

And just cut a little piece with tin snips, which is super easy to do at home and then just screw it down.

Because this is gonna keep things like leaves and acorns and all that stuff that's coming off your roof keep it out of your barrel.

So you want a way to filter the water that's coming out.

The next thing that we need to do is put in our hose bib and this is a three quarter inch spigot hose bib.

But you have to use a one inch drill bit to drill the hole because you have to have a little room to get it in there.

And you can use Teflon tape to make it watertight so you just wrap your little Teflon tape around the threads there and then thread it in after the hole is drilled out.

You're gonna put your hole on the opposite side of where your downspout's gonna go here.

So and you want your spigot to be maybe three or four inches off of the bottom so that you can get your watering bucket or your watering can under there.

Now a rain barrel this size is not gonna have enough water pressure to run like a hose.

You're not gonna walk around your yard with a hose-- - Right.

- You know watering stuff.

This is mostly for hand watering and things like that.

So you want me to mark the spot?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So I'm gonna say, maybe there.

- X marks the spot.

- All right.

- I may need some help holding this Chris.

- Okay we can do that.

So where you wanna hold on it.

- Lets see what we got here?

[electric drill roaring] - Voilà.

- All right.

- Wonderful, now we're ready to put in our spigot.

- So just put Teflon tape around it?

- Mmhmm.

You can also use caulk instead of a Teflon tape.

- I'm not a plumber.

- Might be good.

You look like you might have done that a time or two.

- I'll see what happens, huh?

- Now we will see.

- You put it that way.

[chuckles] - One more?

- Yes, it will go I think.

- One more to go.

- No.

[laughs] - Right there?

- All right.

- What about that?

- That's a great job.

- Good deal.

- I set it up.

- Thank you so much.

Mr. D. is handier with tools than I am.

- Oh, he's good.

- So there we go.

It's all we would have to do is add the mesh to the top and then for your gutter, you're gonna wanna make sure that you get, it's a flexible piece that connects the downspout to aim it over your hole.

You might be wondering, "Well, what about mosquitoes?

"If I have standing water in my yard, will I have mosquitoes?"

And you will have mosquito larva in your rain barrel, but they make a product for that.

It's called mosquito dunks and they contain Bt which is an organic pesticide and it's totally safe.

You can still use the water for your bird baths, your cat or dog can drink out of the water.

It won't hurt anything but your mosquito larva, but it kills mosquito larva.

And you're probably wondering after I screw down that mesh screen, how am I gonna get this in here?

These are very crumbly.

So you just take maybe half a dunk and crumble some in there.

And that's all you have to do to keep the mosquitoes out of your rain barrel.

And then the last thing I wanted to make sure I told you, you're gonna wanna raise your barrel off the ground, because the higher off the ground, the better the water pressure you're gonna have.

Now this thing is gonna be heavy when it's full.

You wanna use concrete, cinder blocks.

That's what I've got mine on, at home, make sure it's level, make sure it's secure.

Because when this thing is full, water is very heavy.

It's gonna weigh about 450, 460 pounds.

- Wow.

- So make sure that you think about if you have small children-- - Or small pets.

- Yes, that they can't knock it over.

- Right.

All right.

So this is a rain barrel.

- Yeah.

- And actually you could probably paint this if you wanted to.

- A lot of people do.

- Put some design on it or something like that, I think it'd be pretty neat.

- It would be camouflaged.

- Or camouflaged.

- Yeah you could.

[laughs] - And you know, if you're worried about it being an eyesore, big plastic barrel, put it in the backyard, around the back of the house and let it service a fourth of your roof back there.

So... - All right, Tonya and Mr. D. our tool guy.

We definitely appreciate that demonstration.

And I hope that folks appreciate that as well.

All right.

[upbeat country music] - One of the common diseases that you might see on your tomatoes, in fact most people do in most years is gonna be early blight.

And we do have a little bit of example here.

Now it's gonna be more common for us to see it on the older leaves, and oftentimes a target spot.

So we're seeing some brown necrotic area then some yellow around it.

Now certainly there are other leaf diseases.

So if you're uncertain, you can get a lab sample.

But this would be a really good example of, kind of early stage early blight in the garden.

And so lots of times if you just see a little bit, you can actually remove that leaf.

Sanitation addresses that by removing some of the inoculum so you don't infect some of the rest of the plant.

However, you can also spray with a variety of conventional as well as organic fungicides.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, Mr. D., tree bugs.

- Yeah, we've got some right here in front of us.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yep.

Bagworms, let's talk about bagworms first.

- Okay, let's do that.

- We have three little cocoons right here.

If you see those right now, they're done, they've already, they are pupated.

And there's one generation of bagworms per year and they hatch out in mid to late May, early June.

And that is really the only time you can do anything about it.

So if you got that problem right now, just pick off the ones you can reach and 'cause that will do some good because these things are gonna actually they will overwinter as eggs in one of these pouches.

And if you happen to pick off a pouch that has the egg, full of eggs then you'll help your population next year.

- And that was about 300 eggs in each.

- In each pouch.

- In each pouch 300 or more.

- But just keep in mind if you have problem this year, you're gonna have a problem next year probably.

And so you're gonna have to treat before you see the problem next year.

I mean, when the caterpillars are really small, they're easy to kill with Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis is one of the best products to use.

Late May if you spray the trees that you've had a problem with.

And Bt is a product that you can use in a hose-end sprayer.

You just want Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis.

It's a bacteria and you just wanna get it up in the tree for when the caterpillars feed on it.

It will give them a very very bad stomachache and they'll die.

So that's the thing on the bagworm.

Not a whole lot you could do now, but except maybe pick a few of them off if you can reach them.

This is the fall webworm and it's not even fall yet.

- Yes, it's not fall.

[chuckles] - These things, these oughta called summer/fall webworms, I guess.

But classic, classic web.

Always out on the end of the branches.

Also the Bt product, the same product that we talked about killing the bagworms will also do a pretty good job on the fall webworms.

They're unsightly, they're not gonna kill the tree.

They really, really like pecan trees.

What kind of tree is that on?

I can't there's not enough leaves left.

- It's a peach tree.

- That's a peach tree.

They like fruit, they like ornamental and, fruit and nut trees they really like.

- Yeah, that peach tree is actually out of my yard.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- And the tree is still alive, isn't it?

- It's still.

- It's still alive.

But really not a whole lot to worry about.

I do know that all winter long, I've got a lot of pecan trees at my house and all winter long these webs will fall off.

You'll have a big mass of webs and leaves and that'll fall off every once in a while.

On the ground they'll be scattered around.

But my lawnmower, the mulching blade does a good job of chewing them up.

[laughs] - As I'm chewing up the other leaves.

- I usually just open that up and let the birds come in and do their job.

- They like the caterpillars.

And that is a defense mechanism.

Because it's hard for a bird to get in there.

A bird's not gonna try to tear into that, on its own.

If you help them a little bit, they'll get in there and eat them.

- How many generations are we talking about?

- I think there's three generations per year on the fall webworm.

Unlike the eastern tent caterpillar, which only has, the early spring, it only has one generation per year.

But I think there are three generations of the fall webworm per year, starting early June and going through the fall.

- Yes, seen a lot out now.

That's for sure.

Any more tree bugs out there that we need to know about, for our ornamentals or fruit trees?

- Probably aphids on pecans and some of the maple trees will be secreting honeydew and there'll be some sap.

Folks say it's sap dripping off the trees onto my car and on lawn furniture and all that, it's really not sap out of the tree it's honeydew out of aphids, which is I guess indirectly sap.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, indirectly.

- Aphid and it's really aphid poop, technically what it is.

[laughs] - You may be seeing that this summer, but I don't know what kinda calls are you getting at the Extension Office?

- Oh, borers, of course.

- Oh man, that's a tough one too.

Fruit trees-- - Fruit trees.

Especially peach trees, so you know what that is?

- Peach tree borers?

- Peach tree borers.

Basically, I don't know of anything.

If you have a peach tree infected with peach tree borer you pretty much write it off.

- Wow.

- Plant something else after you take them out.

- 'Cause isn't timing critical if you trying to control the peach tree borers?

- Exactly.

Mid-June, early to mid-June you have to keep a protective insecticide coat on that the base of that tree, spray the base and lower limbs.

- Isn't it also really bad on your ornamental cherry trees?

Is that the same insect?

- Any kind of fruit, peach, plum and nectarine especially, but the ornamental, peach plums and cherries-- - It seem like any thing in Prunus genus, right for the most part, your stone fruits.

- It's actually the adult, you never see the adult, is a little looks more like a wasp than an a moth, but it's a moth that is the adult and I don't think I've ever seen one out.

I guess they're nocturnal.

And the only way they to control them is to prevent them in my opinion.

And that's what the commercial guys have to do.

- We did get a couple calls about stink bugs in pecans.

- Stink bugs in pecans, two bricks.

[laughs] - Watch your thumbs, watch your thumbs.

- Two bricks.

- They're some of the pyrethrins when you spray it directly on them we'll take them out but you know stink bugs are very strong fliers.

And you can kill every stink bug in your yard and they'll fly in from your neighbor's.

So if you've got a small specimen tree, you can go out there and treat because they do, they mess you pecans up that they have piercing sucking mouthparts and they'll stick their proboscis in the fruit, the soft fruit and they'll inject a substance and then start pulling, that will kinda dissolve the inside of that pecan and then they'll suck it out and then that's why the pecan will go on and it will mature and you'll have a little black spots in the fruit and in the pecan meat and won't hurt you to eat it.

But I'd prefer not to have those little spots in my pecans.

[laughs] - I'm not sure most folks would.

[laughs] - But the only thing is to use one of the pyrethrins to, if you have a small tree that you can spray but a big tree-- - Yeah, don't worry about it?

All right Mr. D. [gentle country music] - We have some groundcover here, the Ogon sweet flag and we've got a spot missing.

This one has gotten rather large so we're gonna divide it and move it over.

So I'm gonna get towards the center of this.

Got some nice worms.

Leave some of this soil here.

And we'll move it over here.

Just a little bit wider and plant it here.

That's good.

And then we can water it in to make sure air pockets are out of the root zone.

Now it can reside here and improve the looks of the landscape.

And all we have to do is fill in the hole, where we've dug it up.

[gentle country music] - Here's our Q&A session.

Tonya you help us out, please.

- All right.

- Here's our first viewer email.

"For the last couple of years my hydrangeas "have been growing well, but they won't flower.

"I do cut back previous years old stalks, they look dead," he says, "But my wife tells me, "that's where the blooms come from.

"Is she right?

"What can I do to encourage my hydrangeas to bloom next year?"

And this is from Mike from Ringgold, Georgia.

All right.

So Tonya.

- Well, Mike-- - Is the wife right?

- I believe she is.

[Chris laughs] I believe she's right on this one.

- He needs to listen to his wife.

- Yes.

If you have a mophead or lacecap-type hydrangea, you're old fashioned hydrangeas, th ey bloom on old wood.

There are some that bloom on old and new wood.

Those are your ever blooming hydrangeas, but they're gonna say on the plant label when you buy it at the store, you're gonna know for sure that's what you've got.

But most of your common hydrangeas they bloom on the old woods.

So I would say don't prune them at all if you can help it, but if you've got one that's just you really need to prune it back, the best time to do it, and there's still no guarantee you're not cutting of some blooms for next year, but the best time is immediately after they flower before they have time to set the next year's buds for the blooms.

So yeah.

Try not to prune them but if you do, right after flowering.

If you wait 'til the fall, it's over with, no blooms.

- All right, Mr. Mike, so the wife is right.

So that's what happened to your blooms.

So be careful, all right.

I appreciate the question.

So here's our next question.

"How do you control scales that are on my magnolia tree?"

What do ya'll think about that one?

Any thoughts Tonya?

- Well, could use a horticultural oil.

Maybe a summer oil because, you wanna be careful when you use it, when you use horticultural oil that you don't get leaf burn.

That's not something you wanna do in 90-degree weather here in the Mid-South in the summer, unless you, I'd wait to the fall to do that to apply oil because it can burn the leaves and you may have to apply more than once.

Or if you use an insecticidal soap, you may be applying several times.

It's not something that's gonna be easily controlled by those measures.

Or you can use a soil drench.

Imidacloprid is the active in gredient in several products, you can mix it up in water and just pour it around the base of the tree and it's a systemic so it goes through the vascular system of the plant.

So when those scales suck the moisture out of your plant, they're getting some of that insecticide too.

And that should take care of the scale.

It's probably the easiest method and it's very effective, the imidacloprid.

- Again, the soil drenches are something that we do recommend at UT Extension, it is in our RedBooks.

So you can use those.

Mr. D., did you wanna add anything else to that?

- I was just gonna say fortunately the magnolia scale only has one generation per year and the crawlers are active in July and August and that would be a really good time to try to kill.

The crawlers are easier to kill than the adult.

- And something else too, and Tonya you to talked about a little bit, you have to get good coverage, good coverage underneath, up top.

I mean, you have to do that if you wanna control these critters, that's for sure.

All right, so here's our next question.

"A guy taking care of my lawn, hit my five-inch maple tree "and ripped off a three by five inch hunk of bark.

"With a piece of bark missing, will I be able to save my maple tree?"

All right Tonya, I see you pondering that.

What do you think about that?

- Possibly the first thing I would do is go get a bag of mulch.

- Okay.

- And mulch the tree because it's gonna prevent further damage from the lawn mower.

- Okay, there you go.

- I'm following you.

- Keep him away from the tree.

- Yes, it will keep you and whoever is-- - Mulch correctly.

- Yes, we're talking two to three inch layer.

Not piled up around the trunk but spread evenly around the tree.

And that way it's a nice little circle you don't have to worry about a weed eater getting next to it or lawn mower getting next to it.

What you don't wanna do is spray over it or, the tree will heal itself in most instances if not too much, if the cut wasn't too deep the tree will usually heal itself.

Make sure that it gets plenty of moisture.

Don't let it undergo any stress and you could check for some signs periodically check to see if there's any insect problems, borers getting in there.

But first thing you wanna do is go mulch your young trees.

- Is that from experience?

- Yes.

- Okay.

[laughs] You sounded pretty angry about that, but I do agree.

It's the weed eater "blight".

- Yeah, weed eater "blight" exactly.

- Weed eater "blight" or lawn mower damage.

Mr. D., anything to add to that?

- No.

- Well, I tell you Tonya has been covering it today.

- She's got it.

- But something I will say too, now this is a five inch.

But underneath that bark is the phloem layer.

Of course that takes food to the roots.

So yeah, that thing starts dying out, you start having leaves falling off that tree, then there's a case that maybe it's not gonna make it.

- Yeah, it's hard to say without a picture of it-- - It is, it is.

- Without knowing how deep the cut is.

- Yes, it says three to five inch hunk of bark.

If it's three inches wide and five inches tall, you have a better chance for it surviving than if it's five inches wide, on a five inch tree than three inches tall, but I do know trees, for the most part, do a really really good job of putting a natural barrier between damaged tissue and healthy tissue and they generally can heal up, scab over and that will probably you'll never know that happen twenty years from now.

But one thing you mentioned something trees that are injured like that they're stressed like that do tend to attract secondary insects.

- Yes they do.

- And so, do keep an eye on that and you might have to hit it with an insecticide every once in a while, if you see something getting in there, borers or something getting in there that ought not to be in there.

- And it's usually borers.

- Yeah, right.

- That's usually when you see the borers, they're secondary for the most part.

- Yeah.

- It's especially on your maple trees, so you have to be careful with that, that's for sure.

All right.

So, Tonya, Mr. D. we're out of time.

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.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Chris Cooper.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]