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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Raised beds have many advantages, but they don't work in every situation.

Today, we're talking about their benefits and drawbacks.

Also, is your crape myrtle covered with black stuff?

Today, we'll show you how to take care of it.

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, Celeste Scott.

Celeste is a horticulture specialist with UT Extension, and Mr.

D will be joining me later.

Celeste, always good to have you here.

- Thank you, I'm glad to be here.

- This is gonna be fun.

- Yes.

- So let's talk about considerations for raised beds.

Raised beds, everybody wants them now.

- They do, they do.

- Can we help 'em out?

- Yes, we certainly can.

- All right.

- And so I'd say if you have any amount of space, we can make raised bed gardening or container gardening, that we've got some options for you as far as that goes.

- Okay, good.

- Always my first consideration that I want people to think about is siting for these particular raised beds or containers.

- I would agree.

- For the most part, if we're doing vegetable gardening, we pretty much wanna focus on full sun site areas.

So like six hours of light or more- - Okay.

- Would be ideal.

- If you are going to be growing cooler-season vegetables, leafy greens, things like that, they can tolerate, you know, less access to sun.

So in those types of situations, if all you have available to you is, you know, a covered patio that doesn't get much light.

- Okay, okay, right, right.

- Or you have a small backyard and there's trees all the way around, so you don't have that full sun site area, you could still have a raised bed, but we need to alter what we're growing in it to compliment the light availability.

- That's good.

- So that would be my first consideration for folks thinking about putting in raised bed gardens.

- So let's think about the site, okay, I like that.

- Yes.

- Okay, okay.

First thing first.

- And then maybe I would move on to considering, you know, what types of materials are they gonna use to grow in?

For raised beds, obviously we can use wood products, we can use concrete blocks, metal.

There are all types of prefabricated raised bed kits out there now-- - Yes, there are.

[chuckling] - That are easy to put together.

- Yes, they are.

- And are long lasting.

So gonna last, you know, in some cases much longer than a wood, a bed constructed with wood might last.

So, but definitely those are all options.

And then we can also get creative with containers, repurposing items we already have like plastic five gallon buckets.

- Yes.

- We always wanna make sure that those are food grade, you know, rated.

Wanna make sure that we knew what was in them beforehand before we try to grow things, especially if it's plants we're planning on eating.

- Okay.

- And you know, the sky is the limit as far as that goes.

Metal stock tanks, farm tubs that feed, or you know, protein supplements came in, I see a lot of people reusing objects like that for- - That's pretty good.

- Raised beds, and or you know, small container areas.

So lots of options as far as what can we grow in.

- So before we go to the next step, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- What about the size of the raised bed?

I mean, what would you think would be a good size?

- Yes.

- Right.

- So for raised beds, I really am gonna suggest they be at least 12 inches deep.

I really prefer them to be deeper than that if we can.

I personally like around that 18 inch range, especially if you wanna grow deep rooted crops.

Think tomatoes, peppers, those are really deep rooters.

And are gonna benefit from having more soil volume to grow in.

- Gotcha, that's good.

- Versus many of your cool-season crops.

If all you have is a shallow raised bed, cool-season leafy greens are typically shallowly rooted.

- Right.

- So again, working with what you have available to you, I think, is what's gonna be the key there.

I don't want anybody to think, "Well my raised bed's only nine inches deep, I guess I can't grow anything."

Yes you can.

We've just gotta find the right crop.

- Okay good, I'm glad you covered that.

Okay, so what else should we think about?

- Well, so maybe drainage.

[laughing] - Yeah, that's gonna be big.

- Drainage is so important.

We need to make sure that we are providing adequate drainage in situations where we are either using containers that don't already have drainage, right?

We need to make sure we puncture some holes in there if you're using, you know, buckets or you know, any kind of hard material on the bottom.

But then I really want us to think about drainage even for our raised beds.

- Okay.

- So if we are putting those on top of an impervious surface, maybe you're growing, you're putting, installing raised bed on top of concrete, or asphalt or something like that, we need to make sure there's a way for the water to get out of the bottom of those raised beds.

So we discourage generally, putting plastic on the bottom of your raised beds.

You don't wanna create that separation layer between whatever media you're filling your bed with and the native soil, or whatever's underneath.

That would just trap that moisture, and create like a soupy- - Yeah.

- A soupy, wet raised bed bowl.

- A tub, yeah.

- Yeah.

So we definitely wanna make sure we're always considering drainage so that water has a way to get away from that root zone.

And then I feel like this kind of goes hand in hand when we're talking about drainage is the texture of the media that you're using to fill your raised bed with.

Have you ever gotten a call from somebody who's like, "Man, we built this brand new raised bed, "and everything we planted in it is just turned yellow, and it's not growing, will you come look at it?"

[Chris muttering in agreement] And then we get out there, and most times, that media that they used to fill it has no ability to hold moisture.

It's so porous.

I've even seen them sometimes where it was just straight bark.

- Okay.

[laughing] - Like really chipped up.

I think they bought the product, they called it like a soil conditioner.

- Oh yeah, okay.

- Or something like that, and they filled it with this product, but it's really just finely shredded bark.

- Yeah.

- And that is not gonna have the water holding capacity that your plants are gonna need to sustain them.

- Nor the nutrients.

- Exactly, nor the nutrients.

So again, this requires a shift in the mindset from growing traditionally in the ground, where our soil has nutrients and minerals already present and available in it, versus raised bed gardening, where we are the ones, we're filling that with media of our choice, right?

- Right.

- And those medias do not have those nutrients in them.

So whatever water, whatever nutrients that a raised bed is gonna get has to come from us, right?

- Comes from us.

So let's emphasize, you know, again, native soil.

So why is that important?

- Yes, definitely important, because those native soils have that ability to hold water, and to exchange nutrients, right?

From the soil solution and make that available to the plant.

And so we do have that in native soils.

But I realize for a lot of people, they feel like they have poor native soil, or they have a, you know, maybe it's a high clay content.

- Clay, yeah, yeah.

- And they can't turn the soil or maybe their soil is too sandy.

And so for many people, building raised beds is their solution to a difficult native soil.

But I want people to understand that, you know, it's just a completely different science when you look at it from that perspective.

Conventional gardening in the ground versus raised bed gardening.

So these products that we are using to fill our raised beds with, maybe they are peat based, maybe they are, think of products like pro mix, or your typical garden potting mixes.

- Yeah.

- Now they even have some specialty raised bed- - Yeah, I've seen that, right.

- Garden mixes that have different combinations of things in it.

And I'm really excited to see how y'all's research turns out with that.

- Yeah, I am, too, I am too and since you mentioned that, so we're using different amendments, so talk about how important amendments are.

- Yes, so depending on the amendments that you use, so that's gonna affect how much water-holding capacity you have, or how much porosity you have in that profile.

So the ideal mix is gonna be a mixture of all of those products, right?

So from our native soils, we have this water-holding capacity and nutrient exchange- - Right, right.

- Advantage, from those peat-based products we have the ability to hold on to soil moisture, and then including some larger texture organic matter, we're making sure that we have filtration all the way through the profile.

So I like a mixture of those things.

- I see.

- And that's why I think that y'all's research plot out here is gonna be so really neat, because we're gonna see how the plants react to all those different steps, and different degrees of mixes.

- Yeah, we can't wait to see what those results are gonna be.

So is there anything else we need to consider as far as raised beds?

Because we do know, I mean they're gonna warm up, you know, a lot quicker.

- Yes, yes, so your raised beds, those media, we'll say, we'll use the term "soils" loosely, right?

Some raised beds don't have any soils, and then they're completely soilless mixtures.

But that is going to warm more quickly than the soil in the ground will.

So that can give you, you know, a little leg up on the season if you're doing veggie gardening, folks like that.

- Yeah.

[chuckling] - Also, you know, it can be an advantage to us for season extension, because the structure of your raised bed can serve kind of as a foundation to put in low tunnels.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Like little hoops.

- That's good point, good point.

- Yeah, that you could put frost covers over, or maybe even shade cloth in the middle of the summertime.

And then the other one that I sure don't want us to forget to mention is the advantages for access for, you know, limited mobility right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- So- - It's important for some people.

- It definitely is.

So I've seen some really awesome raised beds that were actually built at like waist height, right?

- Mm-hmm, I've seen those.

- So they're lifted off the ground, the growing is happening suspended in the air, and it's pretty cool.

And then also, just raised beds are keeping us from having to be on the ground hands and knees weeding.

- Yeah, hands and knees, right?

- Right?

- Yeah, which is important.

- If we can make some little seats along the edges of those raised beds to make that a little easier on knees and backs- - And it'll be easier to weed- - Yes.

- And scout those plants for insect pests, right?

- To be reaching into the middle.

- I like that.

- For sure.

And then little tip though.

- Okay, little tip.

- If accessibility and mobility is an issue for you, and one of the reasons why you wanna have a raised bed, don't make 'em too wide.

Because think of all the stress it puts on your body to lean over into the middle.

- Yeah.

- So we want the bed to be no wider than, you know, two of your arms, right?

- Okay.

- So you can reach easily to the center from one side and you can go over to the other side and reach easily- - Without having to get in the, yeah.

- That's right.

- Literally get in the garden itself.

- That's right.

- I like that.

- So those are a couple things that I always just encourage people to think about and consider when they're trying to plan for utilizing raised beds or containers in their home gardens.

- Celeste, those are great considerations, so- - Thanks.

- Thank you much.

We can tell you like those raised beds, don't you?

- Oh yeah, it's always fun.

[Chris laughing] - Thank you much, that was good.

- You're welcome.

- That was good.

[upbeat country music] - Quick update on our raised bed experiment.

All of the plants are planted.

Not all of them are up yet, but let's go through and see what we have here.

So each section of our eight sections has a tomato, a pepper, a marigold, a Petunia, a Salvia and Zinnia, and we have hollyhocks and coneflowers that aren't up yet.

But these are the plants that we're gonna grow in each one so we can kind of see how they do through the year, and we'll be checking back regularly to take a look at that.

[upbeat country music] - Well here at WKNO, we have a problem with our crape myrtles.

Looks like we have the crape myrtle bark scale.

- That's right, looks like we got a fungus among us.

[Chris laughing] That's bad.

- So how do you think the scales got here, Mr.

D?

- You know, I don't know.

These were first identified in Texas, is that right?

- Mm-hmm, that's right.

- In the United States?

So there's gotta be some wind borne activity.

I know the males we know are, have wings and can fly, but the females are sessile, they can't move.

So they couldn't have come in on their own.

I think we probably helped 'em a little bit, don't you think?

- I think we helped them too, and I think birds may have also brought 'em over too.

What do you think about that?

- Birds, birds?

- Perhaps.

- But transporting plants around, you know, we probably inadvertently move more critters- - I'm sure.

- And bad things than we really mean to.

- Right.

- But that would make sense.

- Yeah, and I'll tell you what, there's some heavy infestations here in Shelby County.

I mean I've gotten calls from, you know, Germantown, Bartlett, Midtown Collierville, you know, so they're pretty much all over the place now.

- In one year, I mean, it's a little over a year ago when you first discovered 'em in this area.

- Right, right.

You know, Dr.

Hale and Dr.

Windham came down last year there in Germantown, and saw a couple of cases, but this year for some reason it's just exploded.

- Right.

- You know, just multiplied.

So they're pretty much all around the area now.

- I wonder how closely they are related to their Asian counterpart, and they're common over in, across the ocean.

And I wonder how close this race is that we have here is to the Asian variety.

- Oh, that's a good question.

- I don't know.

- I don't know.

But right now, we just know they're pretty much specific to the crape myrtles.

- Right.

- You know, which is a mainstay here, you know, pretty much in the South .

Everybody grows crape myrtles, so we'll see what happens.

- And it's been a worry-free plant, a plant that we didn't have a lot pests, and- - Pest free, yeah.

So this is how we are to treat the crape myrtle bark scales.

This is what we've been telling the homeowner to use?

- This is imidacloprid.

- It is, it's the active ingredient, it sure is.

And of course, you know our crape myrtle is a multi trunk, so you have to make sure that you read and follow the label.

We definitely want people to do that.

And what we're gonna do is, we're gonna measure the distance in inches around each tree trunk at about four and a half feet, okay?

We're gonna add together, and then we're gonna multiply by 0.75, and that's gonna give us an ounces that we add to a gallon of water.

- Okay.

- Okay?

- That's a lot more specific than... I don't guess that's that much more specific than a lot of pesticides, but it's kind of a different way of figuring out how much to apply usually.

- But yeah, make sure that you read and follow the label on that, okay?

- That's the law, all right.

- Let's do that.

All right, Mr.

D. So we're gonna measure four and a half feet up.

- Diameter breast height.

- All right, and then at that level, we're gonna measure in diameter, the individual trunks, okay.

- All of these?

It looks like we're gonna have what?

Two, four, six, eight, ten, eleven?

Evelen measurements.

- Eleven, okay.

All right, let's start with the first one.

And you're recording this, right?

- Yep.

- Okay, see that will be five.

- Okay.

- Okay, this is gonna be a little bigger right here.

And look at all the scales on here though, my gosh.

- Yeah, it's covered up.

- Covered up pretty good.

All right.

Yeah, that's gonna be five and a half.

- Okay.

- You want to catch that?

- That right there?

- Come up here, bring it through right there.

Ah, six.

- Getting bigger.

- Yeah, getting pretty big.

This one's a small one.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, there you go.

It's four.

- Okay.

Looks like we're averaging around five.

- Yeah, it looks so.

You wanna see if you can get those on that side?

- Yeah.

- I'll record that.

- 4.75.

- Okay.

- Four and three quarters.

Looks like about three and a half.

- Three and a half.

- Five.

- Okay.

- Six.

- Six, that's a big one.

- Like three and a half.

- Okay.

- It looks like four and three quarter, 4.75.

- Okay.

- And that's 3.75.

Is that it?

- All right, so that's gonna be it.

- Okay, let's figure now, calculate.

- Yeah, we gotta do math.

- Oh man.

[chuckling] - All right, Mr.

D, so we have all of the measurements, so what we do we have?

- We do, it came up to 51.75 total inches, and we divide that, or multiply that times 0.75.

- Okay.

- And we came out with 38.8, so we need 38.8 ounces of the product in a gallon of water.

- Okay, sounds good, let's go for it.

- It's big, big plant.

- It is.

Go for it, and we always want people to be safe.

- We do, follow directions.

- Follow the label.

- It's the law.

- Wear your gloves.

- Yeah, put your rubber gloves on.

- Okay.

All right, shake it up real good here.

[liquid sloshing] And you see it's a pretty green color.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

- There you are.

- It sure is.

- Yeah, look at that.

This is also a fertilizer.

It's a two one to one fertilizer in here.

- Okay, good deal.

- All right, so what's that?

38.8 ounces?

- 38.8.

- Okay.

All right, put that there.

Put this into our gallon of water here.

- That's turning green too.

- Yeah, look at that green color, I tell you.

- Okay.

- Think that's pretty good.

- That'll do the trick, need to stir it up a bit?

- Yeah, stir it up there.

Make sure we get it in solution.

Ah yeah.

- What do you just put it under the drip line pretty much?

Or all- - You know the label says get it as close, you know- - As close to the trunk as you can?

- To the trunk as you possibly can.

- Okay.

- Again, we're following the label.

- That's right.

- Close to the trunk as you possibly can.

- Okay.

You got the gloves on.

- Okay, and we're gonna get this.

All right Mr.

D, we're gonna go ahead and pour as close to the trunk as we possibly can here.

- Okay.

- I'll just try to go around here.

[liquid sloshing] Yeah.

- It'd be nice if they start falling off right now.

- Wouldn't it?

[laughing] - I don't think it works that way, do you?

- I don't think it works that fast.

- Yeah.

- And it will tell you on the label that you know, according to the size of the tree, it may take, you know, a couple of months.

- Right.

- You know, for it to actually take effect, okay?

And there you have it.

You know, the roots will take it up systemically, and then we'll wait a couple of months or so, and we'll see what happens.

- You know, to be on the safe side, we better treat the rest of these crape myrtles here, don't you think?

- I think so.

[upbeat country music] - These are Zinnias, and Zinnias can get up to four or five feet tall.

There are some dwarf varieties that only get about three feet tall, and then there's some miniature varieties that are only six or eight inches tall, they're a Landscaper series.

But these are some of the taller ones, and they come in a large variety of colors that are really bright and vibrant.

Most importantly, they are have a flat surface on the flower, which butterflies like to land on.

And again, we're gonna plant these only to the surface height, nice root systems on them.

Of the soil that's actually here, we don't wanna bury the crowns of these plants.

Zinnias are a good cut flower also.

They last for quite a while in a vase.

And when these get a little older in the season and start blooming, they will bloom until frost.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Celeste, you ready?

- Yes.

- This is our Q and A segment.

- Let's bring 'em, bring 'em.

- Bring 'em on, bring 'em on.

You know, she's ready y'all, she's ready.

So here's our first viewer email, this is good.

"How can I tell the difference between winter burn and boxwood blight?"

- Yes.

- And this is Wendy.

She says her boxwood have an abnormal amount of brown leaves this spring.

So good observation on her part, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- So let's help her out with the difference between winter burn and boxwood blight.

- Okay, so it's pretty easy to tell the difference between the two.

Winter burn is typically gonna be on the very ends, the tips of the branches.

- Okay.

- Maybe, you know, that first inch or inch and a half.

It's gonna lose all color in the leaves, and sometimes they'll even kind of wilt over a little bit, but the rest of the stem looks fine.

- Right.

- Okay, so those are symptoms for winter burn.

- Okay.

- With boxwood blight, we have more definitive leaf, like- - Yes we do.

- Leaf spots essentially.

They're pretty, you know, regular in shape.

So we're thinking, you know, circles essentially, and then the outside edge of those spots tends to be ringed in like a darker purple type kind of color.

And then we can have black streaks on the bark as well.

- Right.

- And so that's pretty particular to boxwood blight, that type of leaf spotting combined with the streaking on the limbs, and then- - Yeah, let's mention defoliation.

- And then defoliation.

- 'Cause you're really gonna have that with the boxwood blight.

- That's right.

- As opposed to the winter burn.

- That's right, that's right.

So those are good ways to tell the difference between the two, 'cause the winter burn's gonna hold onto those leaves that have lost their color, and the boxwood blight are gonna eventually drop.

So yeah, that's kind of some easy diagnostic tools for telling the difference in the landscape.

- I think it is, yeah.

So there you have it, Wendy, we appreciate the question.

It was a good question.

- Yeah.

- Thank you for that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"How do I keep ants from eating my strawberries?"

And this is Dennis.

He says he is willing to use an organic or chemical insecticide, he just wants it to work.

- Whatever means necessary.

- Whatever means necessary.

[Celeste laughing] Dennis, I hear you.

So yeah, how do you keep it from eating your strawberries?

- Okay, so probably, well I don't wanna say probably, it's not the ants that are not actually eating the strawberries.

So ants in this situation are like the secondary culprit, right?

- Yeah.

- So something else is feeding on that fruit.

- That the ants like.

- That's right.

- And then the ants smell that sugar, and they come for it, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

[laughing] - And so they're just farming the sugars that are leaking off of that berry.

But maybe it's snails, or slugs, or birds, or squirrels or voles.

I mean the list could go on and on of the wildlife that like to feed on these berries.

And I actually have some in my landscape that, like my ornamental landscape, that I just allow to spread around as a groundcover.

- Really?

- I'm not necessarily growing 'em for the berries, but I do like to go occasionally and like pick one off, and more times than not, they have been eaten on by something.

- Okay, - So I'm feeling his pain.

Dennis, I'm right there with you.

So I think really trying to identify what is the pest that's actually doing the feeding is gonna do more benefit for him than worrying about the ants.

- So since he's asking specifically about the ants though, what would you do to deter them?

- You could use diatomaceous earth.

- See that's what I would use.

- You could sprinkle that around the area.

You could definitely do that, and I think that would help a lot if he's just concerned about the ants, but I don't think it's the ants that's causing a problem.

- Yeah, I don't either.

And something else I would suggest too, Dennis, how about getting your strawberries off the ground?

I mean you could probably try that.

I mean you could probably use straw, mulch, pine needle.

Pine needles would probably help.

- Yes, yes.

- But I would get 'em off the ground if at all possible.

- And if the problem just continues to persist no matter what you do, you know, I've seen folks growing 'em on like poles before, the strawberry poles, like towers essentially.

- Okay.

- Yeah, so you can, there's a lot of different options.

- Options there.

So there you have it, Dennis, a lot of different options there.

I hope that helps you out.

Yeah, he wanted to get 'em by any means necessary, right?

- Yeah.

- Celeste, fun as always, don't we learn so much?

- Yes, every time.

- This is so good.

Thank you for being here.

Remember we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, 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.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]