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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Holidays are a great time to decorate the house.

Today, we are going to make a holiday greenery display.

Also, if you take care of your tools, they will last a lifetime.

We'll show you what to do to get them ready for winter.

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 us today is Jason Reeves.

Jason is a Research Horticulturalist at the UT Garden in Jackson, and Mr.

D will be joining us later.

Hi, Jason.

The holidays are right around the corner and when I think of holidays, I think decorations.

So what are you going to show us today?

- That's right.

Well today we're going to talk about using some items out of your own garden to create some beautiful containers for winter interest, and we're going to start, this is one I did previously.

- Yeah looks good.

- And this is an arrangement we've done in a plastic pot.

You don't wanna use a pot that's gonna crack during the winter time - Okay.

- so it's a plastic pot.

There were plants in this up until yesterday, from the summer, elephant ears and petunias, and potato vines so I cut those out, and so we're going to demonstrate that.

This arrangement would be, it's really, more or less, one-sided, so you'd push this against the house, - Okay.

- view it from one side, but what I'm gonna make now, if we can view from all the way around - Okay.

- First step, again, this is a plastic container that we've had plants in this summer, and we're just gonna cut those plants off, right at the soil line, and you don't wanna disturb the soil because you really need that firm soil and the existing roots to help hold the greenery that you're gonna put in, so we're just getting rid of those summer annuals and then you can see there we've got the nice, firm soil from our summer, and we'll just begin with a selection of greenery.

So all of these things I cut, actually out of the UT gardens but I have many of these in my garden at home, as well, and I like to cut the stem at an angle and that allows you to penetrate the soil a little bit easier.

So you just start by pushing it in the soil.

- So the existing roots that are already there actually holds it in place.

I like that.

- Yeah, it makes the soil firmer and works like oasis if you were making a fresh arrangement.

The florist often time uses oasis, a product that's kind of like foam that keeps your plants up right or they cut flowers upright.

So our soil is serving the same purpose as that oasis.

- Okay.

- Also, by keeping that soil moist, it keeps the plant from drying out, the greenery.

So it lasts longer if you can keep that soil moist as well.

So that's our gray owl juniper and I'm gonna add a little bit of, this is blue fitzer, I'm sorry, this is green fitzer - Green fitzer, okay.

- Just to give us a little bit of green color in here.

Again, cutting it at an angle makes it a little bit easier to penetrate the soil.

All right.

- I can definitely tell you've done this a time or two [laughing] - And then for a little more variety, you're gonna add some Arizona cyprus.

This is a cultivar called Carolina sapphire.

- Carolina sapphire.

- Let's see how I contrast nicely with the green of that green fitzer.

- Has a nice smell to it.

- It does.

And then we'll switch over to gold, and gold to me is premium in the cut, Christmas world.

This is a golden Arizona cyprus called Golden Pillar.

- Right, beautiful.

- Really brightens up the arrangement.

If you would go to a florist and buy cut greenery, you're gonna pay a premium for it [laughing] This little bit right here might be $30, $40 just for the loose product, and you're certainly gonna pay a lot more for anything with gold foliage.

- Oh wow, okay.

- Just because it's not as common in the landscape, but these are things when you're picking out shrubbery for your house, your landscape, to think about things with winter interest and with bright colors during the winter months as well.

- I mean that really stands out, Jason.

- Yes, so that really brightens it up.

- It does.

- Then we're going to switch over to a little bit of a holly.

- Yeah.

- This is a Foster holly.

This is one of the most common hollies, and you know, it's really my favorite holly.

- Okay.

- It's tough as nails.

It gets really big.

Unfortunately, maybe in the '60s and '70s they were overused and they were planted at almost every corner of the house.

[laughing] - Right.

- And they were planted too close to the house and they got too large and they really should be out further away and they work great in screen plantings, but it's a really good holly for berry production and a tough plant and works great as you can see here, in arrangements.

- And those berries give it a nice pop.

- Absolutely.

- And made those real bright.

- Then we're gonna take a little bit of magnolia.

This is Southern magnolia called Little Gem which is a dwarf magnolia, and that'll add a little bit different texture.

Also, I really like the rusty - I do too.

- Underside to the leaf of the Little Gem.

It's better if the stems actually do touch the soil and not rest in amongst the greenery, - Okay.

- but sometimes you end up doing that.

Again, because if it's in the soil it's gonna absorb some moisture from the water, the rain that it might get.

Here's a bit more gold.

This is Crippssi, Chamaecyparis this is a little bit more common in the landscape, so more people would have this in their landscape.

Again, it's another one of those shrubs that gets big over time and is often put in the wrong place.

It can easily be 15, 20 feet tall.

And when left unpruned, it's real, sort of layered affect in the landscape.

- Wow.

Now Jason, how long will this greenery actually last.

- Well it all depends on the temperature.

If it's a day like today where we're sweating in November, [laughing] probably a week or so, but typically if the temperature is 50 or below, you're gonna get several weeks out of it.

Of course you wouldn't actually be doing this either until usually the first or second week in December.

- Okay, that's good to know.

- So you could get as much as six weeks.

It also has a lot to do with where you're placing it.

If it's in a sunny location, it's gonna dry out quicker than a shady side.

So the north side of the house is gonna last longer.

[laughing] So I'm gonna make the center point of this, a deciduous holly branch here called winterberry.

You may not know but there are hollies that loose their leaves in the wintertime and this is one of those.

Possumhaw is also another - Yeah.

common of native deciduous hollies.

So, this is one called Winter Red.

They're beautiful for that, - Beautiful.

- that center point of it.

And then we'll come in just with some branches to add a little bit more interest.

This is red twig dogwood which is a shrubby dogwood.

A lot of people don't realize that there are trees and shrubs that are all in the same genus of Cornus, of dogwood, and so this is the red twig dogwood.

And it gets its winter color, it's red color in the winter months, - Okay.

- or as it cools off so actually, another couple weeks, the stems on this would be even brighter.

It's been so warm this fall.

- Yeah, it has been.

- It hasn't colored up.

In the summertime, this is green just like any other shrub or the stems are.

That adds a little bit more interest to the arrangement.

- And again, this is something that folks can plant in their own landscape.

- Oh, absolutely.

These are common plants that you can find at the nursery.

And then I'll add just a touch of twisted willow, of contorted willow - I like that.

- to give you a little bit more pasazz, [Chris laughing] in the arrangement.

There may be one more branch.

So once you finish this, get in the spot that you want it to stay in and water it well, and just check on it every, oh maybe once or twice a week to see if the soil is still moist, and that will help it last longer.

Also, if it's in a location that you don't mind getting wet, just hosing it down with water - Okay, I was gonna ask you - Especially on a hot day - about that like today - Yes.

- just keeps those branches hydrated and it will make it last longer.

There is also a product called wilt-proof.

It's kind of like a wax, liquid wax that you can apply to it which will help with the desiccation, keeps from drying out, but it tends to be a little messy.

You wouldn't wanna do that on a surface like the walk here, you need to do it out on the grass and then move it to your location.

So, there's the finished product.

- It looks good.

- And you can keep fiddling and adding more and of course you can add a bow.

I'm not a big bow person.

I like nature as it is, but a lot of people would put a big bow on there as well.

- Well Jason, we appreciate that demonstration.

It's beautiful, man.

We appreciate that much.

- All right, thank you.

- Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Today we're gonna talk about turning your compost pile.

We have the compost pile here for a while.

It's been turned once, but it hasn't been turned in a while.

The reason why you need to turn often is because you need to get air into the center of the pile.

That way the microbes that are in there have oxygen to be able to break down the organic matter.

And as you can see, there's some green in here because we haven't turned it.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna put these over here when we start our new pile.

Since we don't have three sections we're not gonna turn clear from one to the other.

We're gonna have one section that's new, and we're gonna try to work on this one now.

We're gonna be using a spade to turn this.

[plants rustling] And it's starting to get pretty good.

Nice and broken down.

[plants rustling] Okay, there.

We've let some oxygen in the pile.

Now it can decompose some more.

And you should be turning it about every two weeks.

[upbeat country music] All right, Mr.

D. I see we have tools here.

What are you going to do for us today?

- We have tools.

We're gonna talk about getting them ready for the winter, - Okay.

- and one of the first things you need to do with your sharp tools, is to sharpen them.

Don't store a dull tool in the winter time.

You go ahead and just like, you don't store your lawnmower with dirty oil.

- True.

- You change the oil in your lawnmower and get everything in good shape going into the winter.

So we're gonna sharpen a couple of tools here.

I've got a hoe that I can sharpen.

I've got an axe that I can sharpen.

The best, in my opinion, the best you tool to use for those jobs is a file.

This is a typical file, 10-inch file.

It's what my dad used back in the old days, and this is what I use.

The reason I like it, is I can't almost, can't take off too much metal.

If I take this hoe and put it on a grinder, and if I don't know what I'm doing, I can mess it up pretty quickly.

And either a side grinder or a fixed grinder.

So I really like a file.

Because with a few strokes you can do a lot of good.

You don't take a lot of metal off and you can sharpen the blade.

So let me get turned around here.

I'm gonna get my gloves on and get turned around here and get set up and sharpen this hoe.

Get it ready to go into the winter.

- And of course these are tools that you use around the house, right?

- These are tools I use around the house and the garden.

And every once in a while, I actually take them and use them on my job.

- Okay.

- Because my tools are better than some of the ones they try to provide for me.

Let me see if I can get turned around here.

- Look at the technique.

- It's very important that you secure the tool that you're working on pretty good.

If you can't do it this way, use a vice.

You can use a vice.

But always safety is the number one thing.

Pretty simple thing, I use the sharp-end of the file to clean any dirt off of it that it may have.

[filing] And then just long, slow strokes.

[filing] - Sharp?

- It's getting there.

Getting there, I think it'll do a little damage to pigweed.

- Yeah.

- I believe.

[laughing] Which has brought, the herbicide-resistant weeds have brought this thing back.

- That's right, I've heard.

[filing] - Some of the farmers have to have hoe crews out there, and it's a lot more expensive running a hoe crew than it is spraying a field with - Wow.

- a chemical herbicide.

[filing] - And I've actually seen some of those crews out in the fields.

You're exactly right.

[filing] - It's in pretty good shape.

- All right.

- Now we're gonna get a couple of strokes on there.

[filing] Knock off any dirt.

Let's see how that feels.

Don't let me whop you guys.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, that's pretty good shape.

I'm gonna just put some regular penetrating oil, WD-40, any kind of oil like that.

[spraying] Get it on there.

How about that?

- And why do we need to do that, Mr.

D?

- Keep it from rusting.

We're going to kind of coat all of the oil with it.

Let me (spraying) give it a little bit extra.

You almost can't put too much oil on it.

My dad used to keep his burnt cylinder oil in a five gallon bucket and the way he stored his tools, is he just set these in the burnt cylinder oil, so they'd sit totally immersed in oil any time they weren't being used.

Okay, now as far as the handles are concerned, I always like to get a little fine sand paper and I'll just [sanding] run it over these handles and make sure you knock any burrs off of it.

I'm not gonna do a lot 'cus it doesn't need it a lot.

[sanding] But you notice something came off of it.

- Oh yeah.

- I can see that.

- Oh yeah, that is smooth.

- It sure is.

- First I'm gonna, just take, this is the same cloth I'm gonna put linseed oil on and rub it down but I'm gonna kind of rub the saw dust off of these handles a little bit, get 'em kinda clean.

All right, linseed oil, boiled linseed oil, [laughing] I don't know whether they have it in any other form.

[laughing] Every can I've seen has been boiled linseed oil.

This is a task that works better if you, if this is kind of warm.

So I don't recommend going outside when it's 40, thirty, forty degrees and doing this on the bed of your pickup truck.

Because the wood will absorb the linseed oil much better if it's a little bit warm.

- Okay.

- This kind of linseed oil is probably 20 years old.

You buy one can of linseed oil, - You keep it forever, huh?

- It's gonna last you a long time.

This is all I use it for.

- Do you know what linseed looks like?

- I don't.

- I don't either.

- I don't know what it looks like.

Do you, Mr.

D?

- The crop?

- Actually, I don't.

I've never heard of a lin.

[all laughing] - A lin plant.

- I will check that out.

- We'll have to investigate.

- In the future we'll - See where it comes from.

- Linseed?

- Very good question.

Folks, - Whatever it is, it works good.

- I think these are ready for the wintertime.

- That looks good.

- That's ready for the winter.

- All right Mr.

D, well we appreciate that demonstration.

- You are most welcome.

- And we'll hold you to doing that every year.

- Got to.

- All right, thank you much.

- Take care of your equipment, it'll take take care of you.

- That's right.

[upbeat country music] - When you clean your garden spot of all the old plant debris, and the soil gets fairly clear, well you go back out there in a little while, a day or two, or even a week or two, and you've got thousands of tiny little weed seedlings.

Like all of these right in here.

Thousands and thousands.

So, the easy way to do the weed control to take care of those is just to rake your rake across the soil lightly, and it pulls those little dudes up when they're really small.

This only works when they're really small.

And then, you can do that periodically through the winter.

And what you're doing is your forcing all these weed seeds to come up and then destroying 'em.

So, you're gonna have less weed seed the next spring that's gonna come up in your soil.

And to show you the difference this makes, this of course was raked.

This was not.

[upbeat country music] All right, here's our Q and A session.

And Jason, you help us out, okay?

Here's our first viewer email.

"I have a tree limb in the way of my driveway.

Is it okay to cut the limb back in the fall?"

- What do you think about that?

- Well my answer would be, if it's in the way, I'd cut it off.

If you're gonna do lots of heavy pruning in a lot of limbs, it'd be best to wait until late winter, or early spring.

But if you got a few limbs that need to be taken off, I'd go for it.

- Okay, Mr.

D?

- I agree, totally.

If it's in the way in the fall, I'd cut it.

If it's in the way in the summer, I'd cut it.

[laughing] If it's in the way in the spring, I'd cut it.

Any limb that's in the way when I'm mowing, if I get slapped in the face, I'm gonna cut that limb off.

And even the commercial guys, I'm talking to Lee Wood and Henry Jones the other day, they're pruning their fruit trees now.

They now that this is not the best time to prune their fruit trees but if you've got to do it and you've got that many acres of fruit trees.

If they wait until March the 15th to start pruning, they won't finish until August.

[laughing] You do what you got to do and the plants have a way of compensating.

- I agree.

- They're pretty tough.

- Wanna make sure she cuts it back correctly also, though.

- Yes.

- All right, so here's our next viewer email.

"Do we have to bring our lemon tree indoors "or put it in our small greenhouse every winter?

"Our lemons are turning yellow like they do about this time "every year.

"Can our lemon tree, which is about five feet tall and four years old, survive the winter months outside?"

And this is from Dennis.

So.

- Absolutely not.

It's a very much.

- Absolutely not he says, Mr.

D.

[laughing] - Very much a tropical plant.

- Yeah.

- So when the night temperatures get in the 50's, it's best to get that in, and it doesn't have to be in a greenhouse, it can be in your home, but they are prone to spider mites and white flies indoors - Yes.

- So you have to keep that in mind 'cause the low humidity in the wintertime makes it more prone to the insects but can't make it outdoors.

- How would he need to prepare the plant to bring it indoors?

- Well, you could put a dormant oil on it, just be sure and read up and follow the directions on the right oil which will smother out any insects that would be on it as well.

Washing it off really good would also help.

- Yeah.

- And just well-watered before you bring it in.

- Okay, just a little pot.

- Yes, I'm assuming it's in the pot, hopefully not in the ground, but [laughing] - Mr.

D [laughing] - My first question is, where do you live Dennis?

[laughing] - That's my first question.

If you happen to live south of Brownsville, Texas or south of Miami, Florida - Right - You're probably good.

But if you don't, you're right.

Lemons are not as cold hearty as a lot of the other citrus.

That sumas and kumquats are more cold-hearted than lemons.

So yeah, and I wonder, it's four years old, what have you been doing every winter?

- Yeah, this is true.

- Maybe it's gotten so big they don't want to bring it in.

- That's right.

So, if they do bring it inside, where does it need to be placed?

- Well, sunny window would be an idea, being that type of plant, so yes.

- Okay.

All right, Mr.

Dennis, there you have it.

Good luck.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"What is this on my sweet potatoes?"

And look at that.

That looks awful too.

What do you think that is, Mr.

D?

- I think it's probably white grubs.

We have a lot of white grubs in this area and it looks like white grub damage.

It could be whitefringed beetle.

Also looks something like that and then a little bit to a lesser extent, the wire worm larvae, or the wire worm, and the, what's the other?

- So when you say white grub, like the Japanese, maybe not Japanese beetle, but it looks like a grub like that.

- May beetle, June beetle larvae.

- Gotcha.

- They're very, very common here.

- Didn't know that.

- They're very abundant in the soil, of course.

- Root worm and wire worm damage looks very similar to each other.

- The wire worm I know leaves a smaller, rounder hole.

- Right, and it's usually more shallow.

- It is more shallow.

So those are pretty deep.

- Some have the root worm.

They're very shallow.

But that looks more like white grub damage to me.

And I would be very careful.

White grubs are fairly easy to control, but this is a food crop.

- Yes, yes.

- So I would go to the Redbook and look at vegetable production, sweet potatoes, and soil insects.

Probably, the same product will be recommended and then follow the label on control on that.

I'm thinking carbaryl is very very commonly recommended for grubworms in turf grass and lawns.

I do know that carbaryl is cleared for on vegetable crops but be very careful.

A lot of this damage was done sometime ago.

- Oh yes.

- For the wireworm damage and rootworm damage, they may have chewed a little bit on the skin, and then as the sweet potato grew, it's tuber grew, that size of that damage also grew.

So, you may be able to treat earlier in the year, and not close to harvest and be okay.

- And they're still safe to eat, just cut that out and eat?

- It's amazing what peeling them a little bit and a little brown sugar [laughing] - Put them in the oven right now.

- That's right.

- So here's our next viewer email.

"When can I cut back my gardenia bush?

"It is over ten years old and out of shape and getting way too high."

And this is Ms.

Sandra right here in Memphis.

So Ms.

Sandra, we have Jason here who can help us out with that question, cus I'm sure he knows a little bit about that.

- Well, to me, the ideal time to cut it back would be in the spring - Why in the spring?

- When you're trimming things back, unless it's a plant going dormant, which this gardenia, I'm not sure if she's referring to an indoor or an outdoor one, if it's outdoor, trimming a little bit now, if it's one she's bringing in, it might encourage some new growth, which you really don't need in the wintertime.

- Right.

- So if it's coming in the house, I'd wait 'til spring, if you can.

And if it's outdoor, maybe trimming a bit now.

Some plants that are marginally hearty, that trimming can damage it, it can damage a little bit if you have a cold winter, so, I would really prefer to do it in the spring, - In the spring.

- If all possible.

- Here's a question we get at the office a lot.

So, can they survive our winters?

- Well your winters are a little different than my winters being a little further north, and east of here, but there are a lot of hearty gardenias in the Memphis area and even some in Jackson as well.

Any plant that is marginal hearty is best spring-planted so it gets well established for fall.

So if it was in a container now, I wouldn't recommend planting it this fall.

I'd wait 'til spring, so bringing that container in the garage or in the house for the winter and then getting it in the ground in spring.

- So Jason and Mr.

D., we're out of time.

Thank you much.

- Very good, thank you.

- 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.

You can find out more about the things we talked about on today's show on familyplotgarden.com.

We also have our past shows if you want to see one again.

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]