(upbeat music) - Warm weather is here, and so is the start of bountiful gardens, blooming wild flowers, and spending quality time outside enjoying our hard work.

You need some motivation?

That's why we're here.

Inspiring Gardens, coming up next.

Do stay with us.

(electric buzzing) (brief ethereal music) - [Announcer] Inspire is sponsored by the estate of Ray and Ann Goldsmith.

- [Announcer] And the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation.

And... (calm music) - [Announcer] Friends of KTWU.

We appreciate your financial support.

Thank you.

(upbeat dance music) Hello, welcome to Inspire.

I'm excited to be here with my beautiful Inspire sisters, Danielle Norwood, Amy Kelly, and you out there, this is so fun.

The seasons are changing, spring is my favorite, I just love spending time outside.

I'm sure you guys are enjoying the beautiful blooming flowers and the flowering trees, unless somebody has an allergy, but you know, (All laugh) that's all.

- Well, I most definitely am enjoying the renewal of life and color that we get to witness every spring and summer, and that is why we're here today, to inspire gardening creativity.

- Now, this is a subject matter that interests me greatly, as we hear so much about pollinator gardens, and wildflower gardens, and how to take care of our yard, and well, there's just so much to take in.

To start the conversation today, we welcome our guest, Lane Wiens, Shawnee County horticultural extension agent.

That is a mouthful.

(All applaud) Lane, welcome to Inspire.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- So what is a Shawnee County horticultural extension agent?

- Yes.

- What do you do?

- So I'm a part of Kansas State University, we're part of the research and extension branch of K State, which is just K State's boots on the ground and all of the communities around Kansas, we actually have an extension presence in all 105 counties here in the state of Kansas.

- Wow.

- Wow.

- So my specialization is horticulture, which is everything turf, tomatoes, trees, and everything in between.

- I love that, turf, tomatoes and... (All chuckle) Okay, so now, we wanna get to this red cedar thing, let's address that right away, because that's something we wanna get rid of, right?

- There's benefits to that, they're not the best trees, especially if you're trying to manage a pasture for cattle grazing, things like that, they're gonna suck up water that's gonna be taken away from the grass of the cattle and everything he's gonna be grazing on.

But they're a fantastic windbreak tree, they don't lose their leaves in the fall, so they're gonna be able to provide some of that wind-blocking effect all season long.

- I did not know that, that's fantastic.

- So keep the trees, don't keep the trees?

- In the right place, they're a good tree.

In the right place.

A weed is just a plant that's growing where you don't want it, right?

- Oh wow.

(All laugh) - I love it.

- Are people weeds too?

People who are in the wrong place and you wanna get rid of them.

(All laugh) - That fell flat, so we'll just cut that one.

(All laugh) Yeah, that fell flat.

- That's okay.

Okay, but let's talk about everything blooming early this year.

The tulip time, I mean, that's big in Wamego and Topeka and many of our 105 counties.

- Exactly.

But it came early, and everybody's kind of scrambling to get things done.

- Yeah.

Luckily a lot of those spring-flowering bulbs like that, they're kind of planted in the fall, September, October timeframe, get 'em watered in, get 'em off to a good start, and then you just sit there and wait for 'em.

They need that cold period to be able to develop a flower bud to be able to spring that up in the spring for us.

- And I heard that the irises came early too, so people should not be freaked out that things are early.

- No.

No, well, irises aren't quite in full bloom yet, but everything's kind of trending a couple weeks to a month or so early.

Like, all of our red buds, all those little 15, 20-foot-tall trees that you've seen all around everywhere with the bright pink flowers, those bloomed about a month early, which is, it's a good time thing that we use in the horticulture world for putting down pre-emergence for things for a lot of our grassy type weeds like crab grass.

So we've actually been telling people to be putting down your crab grass preventer early this year, because the rule of thumb was to do that when those red buds are in full flower.

- [Betty] I didn't know that.

- Okay, so what else should we be doing?

You said put down the crab grass preventers, what else should we be doing right now?

- Crab grass preventer, were getting into the timeframe, a good time to overseed your lawn if you have a cool season grass, like a Kentucky blue grass, a tall fescue, those are our coolest season grasses, they do really well early in the spring and later into the fall, but once we hit the summer, May, June, July, August, when it's so stinking hot outside, those grasses don't do so well.

- Okay, I have to admit, I don't know anything about gardening.

You know, I can buy a plant and stick it in my planter, water it and then I'm good to go.

But how can you help, in Shawnee County, how can you help those of us who don't know what the heck we're doing?

- Yeah, so that's a great question.

So the extension office is there, call into our office, (785) 232-0062.

Go to our website, see all of our agents' emails.

We actually have something called the Master Gardener Response Line running right now, so we have trained master gardener volunteers that are standing by to answer gardening questions here in the county.

- Oh, I love that.

The cool thing, kind of like the Butterball Turkey people during Thanksgiving, (All laugh) they got the gardening people, so this is awesome.

I know enough that, we're in certain zones, certain flowers do better in certain zones, what are the flowers that go better in our area?

- Yeah, so it kind of depends on what you're looking at.

Perennials, we are a zone seven, if memory is serving correctly, so that's gonna be things that can take down to about zero degrees in the winter, maybe down to negative five, negative 10 on some days, but they're mostly used to that temperature.

So all kinds of prairie plants that we have here, golden rod, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susans, blanket flour, all are fantastic and really hardy options here in the area.

- Okay, what about roses, do they do well?

- Roses, yeah.

No, all of those different plants, they're gonna have different hardinesses.

So like we can't grow an orange tree here in Kansas because it gets too cold in the winter, it's gonna kill off those plants, but things like roses, they're used to going dormant, bringing in all of those nutrients like nitrogen and iron back into their root system and holding onto that through the winter, then they just push out a second flush of, or, a new growth in the spring.

- Oh, lovely.

Yeah.

Okay.

- So for like, kind like Betty Lou, for those people, like they love flowers, I walk into a florist and it's just, this is the most beautiful place to be ever.

But I need something low maintenance, just, I don't have the time to do it, not yet.

So what would you recommend for somebody who likes to have something growing, but that's really low maintenance?

- Yeah.

So fantastic option is a lot of our bulb-type plants, so like daylilies, irises, peonies, they have underground storage structures, that once the season's done, they bring everything back down to those.

Think of it like a potato, it's just a pocket of nutrients and everything ready to go, and when it warms back up in the spring, out they come.

- How important is it for pollinators?

'Cause I want to have some bees and butterflies, I have heard that.

- Yeah.

No, all of those bulb-type plants are a good pollen source for those more introduced-type species.

But those native ones that I was talking about, the coneflowers, the black-eyed Susans, the blanket flowers, all of those are gonna be great for all of those native pollinators.

The thing to remember is, a perennial is only perennial once it gets its root system established, so you kind of gotta baby it along in its first couple years so we can get that root system out into that surrounding soil and be able to pull everything it needs in.

- Okay, we've been talking about flowers, let's talk about the garden.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, 'cause I know that everybody at the end of the season is trying to bless me with every zucchini, pepper, and all of that.

(All laugh) So when is it a good time to start putting those in the garden?

- Yeah, so a lot of those aren't native here, so they're not used to all those really cold temperatures.

Think of those as like an annual, like our petunias and coleus and lantana, all of those things that are not gonna be really frost-tolerant.

So we need to be planting those after the likelihood of frost hits, within this part of the state it's generally around the 1st of May.

- Okay, okay.

- Okay, so we did flowers, we're doing garden vegetables, what about shrubbery?

- Shrubbery, yeah.

- I had a yew plant that I absolutely hated.

(All laugh) It just took over and it killed my azalea.

The fact that I know that it was an azalea is- - [Lane] Fantastic, that's great.

- So I have boxwood in there, because I heard that was a good thing to do.

What are good shrubs, and what are bad shrubs for this area?

- Good shrubs, bad shrubs, it's kind of, beauty's in the eye of the beholder, right?

It's kind of whatever you wanna look at.

So we actually have a lot of fantastic resources from K State, recommended evergreen and deciduous shrubs here for this state.

So evergreen, the ones that are gonna hold onto their leaves all year, like boxwood, yew, other things like that.

And then our deciduous shrubs, which is like roses and forsythia and lilac and rose of Sharon, and all those really beautiful flowering plants that we see.

- Okay, so we started with trees, let's end with trees, because I've heard the Bradford pear, we don't want that.

- Oh, no.

No.

Bradford pear, so, they were really cheap to produce back in the '50s and '60s when they were so popular, it was touted as this really fantastic end-all-be-all, the street tree to have.

But, they escaped that cultivation, they started cross pollinating with some different things, and now they're an invasive plant, birds eat their fruit, spread the seeds all over the place, they can overtake wild places really easily.

And also, they're really weak-wooded trees.

They grow really fast, which is great, if it's putting down strong wood too, it's putting down really weak wood, so all of those joints in the tree with the branches, they're really weak.

So anytime we get a big wind storm, or an ice storm, I'd be willing to guarantee that that is gonna be some of the first trees to drop large branches.

So there's a safety hazard part of it, there's a invasiveness quality to it, so we're just recommending people tear those out and plant something maybe a little bit better.

- We have learned about it, yes, yes.

- What's better?

- Oaks, oaks are really good.

Any of our more native-type species, so oaks, ashes.

Ashes, maybe not so much the best option with emerald ash borer coming in.

Maples can be a good option, hackberries are pretty decent trees, all kinds of different things.

- Lane, you have imparted a wealth of knowledge, and thank you.

- Thank you for having me.

(upbeat music) - And thank you.

I tell you what, we hope that Lane has inspired you as he has inspired us with his expertise on gardening.

But we are gonna take a short break.

Now, when we come back, Inspire host Leslie Florange joins us on a field trip to the Bethany Gardens.

Where are they?

Find out.

Stay with us.

(upbeat music continues) - And we are back to a special part of our gardening episode.

And today we've got Ann Palmer, who studied landscape architecture.

And we've got Willie Model, who's the groundskeeper here at Bethany Gardens.

Thank you for being here with us on Inspire.

- Thank you for coming.

- Absolutely.

What a beautiful day, a little windy out here in the garden, but we're loving it already.

Tell us about your roles here at Bethany Gardens.

- Happy to.

We, five years ago, had a new bishop, the first woman bishop in Kansas, in the Episcopal church, and a couple of years later, she called me in and said, "I want to take the two and a half acres of unused sort of waste ground and do public gardens."

And I thought, oh, okay.

And I give her all the credit, she knew exactly what she wanted, and we did what she asked.

And I told her it was too big a job for me alone, and I worked with a young landscape architect from Kansas City.

And we designed it and saw it built.

And now I sort of, I don't know, take care of it.

(Danielle and Willie laugh) But the best thing that happened to me was Willie.

- Willie, and you have known Willie for quite some time, am I correct?

- The majority of my life.

- Yes.

And a great deal of mine.

(Willie chuckles) - And Willie, you were the groundskeeper, tell me what all you do.

- So I start all the plants by seed, pulling weeds, just making sure that everything looks as good as we can get it, which is tough for one guy.

- There's five different parts, right?

- Yeah, you might be wondering, you guys, where the heck is Bethany Gardens?

- We did.

- Good question.

- We've heard of other gardens, but, it is nestled beautifully between two of Topeka's grandest architectural buildings, these are the ones that everybody knows, Topeka High School and Grace Cathedral, these are Topeka landmarks.

And you might not even realize that this much beauty is here in these two and a half acres, but there are five different segments.

So Ann, tell us about that.

- One of the bishop's primary interests is in the prairie, and so right near Polk is a reconstructed prairie with all of the native grasses that you would see in the regular prairie, and what's called forbs, which is a fancy word for wildflowers, when you're talking about the Prairie, they're grasses and forbs.

It takes three to five years for a reconstructed prairie to look good, but I think Willie and I would agree, and I don't understand how, but it looked really good this first year, and now this is the beginning of its second year.

And then there is an education area where TCALC, the students there made the benches for us.

And so, people can have seminars, a lot of times teachers at Topeka High bring classes over and use that area.

Then Willie has these huge concrete tubs where he grows vegetables, and then another very large garden where he grows vegetables, and we give them to the closest church that does that, which is- - West Side Baptist.

- West Side Baptist.

And then there is a prayer garden, and then there is this St. Simon's Chapel, outdoor chapel, which was very important to the bishop that it be named for a Black Episcopal church at 7th and Western, which was closed during times of integration, but is now St. Simon's Chapel here.

- Nice.

- So tell me, the vegetables and fruits that you have growing over in the garden, once they become ready, what are we doing with those?

- If I don't eat 'em, (All chuckle) I take 'em over to the West Side Baptist, and then we also take 'em to St. David's, and they do food banks.

So you know, Tuesdays, and then the other ones I think is on a Wednesday, they hand the food out to people that are coming to get groceries.

- So how often are you doing this?

Is there like one crop?

- Once we start getting crops, it's once a week.

- [Leslie] Once a Week?

- Yeah, last year we probably donated 700 to 800 pounds of food.

- Oh my goodness.

- Mostly tomatoes.

- He grows a lot of things.

(Willie chuckles) - Yeah, it hasn't even gotten started yet.

- And you have your own garden at home.

- I do.

- So this is like, you know.

- Yeah, it's all I know now.

(chuckles) - So we really need to be talking to you, Willie, about some gardening stuff, because a lot of people are trying to grow vegetables and they haven't a clue how to make it prosperous.

So what are the things that we need to make our vegetable garden so healthy?

- Well, to make it healthy, I just go buy organic.

But I think a lot of people lose interest because they grow a lot of things they don't like.

You know, some people don't even like tomatoes and they grow- - They grow tomatoes.

- They grow tomatoes, and then, you know, they don't really care for it.

So I'd say, you know, start growing the things you're buying at the grocery store.

- So what are some of the things that are in this vegetable garden?

- Oh gosh, we have garlic, broccoli, cauliflower- - Asparagus?

- Yeah, we've got asparagus, strawberries, onions, we've got kale, a bunch of other mustard greens.

- [Danielle] Mustard greens.

- Cilantro.

And then, I've got tomatoes and peppers that are about to go in.

We'll do cucumbers, melons.

- So then what happens with the parish, does the parish benefit from any of these crops that you guys are growing, any of these vegetables?

- No, they're most mostly going to people that need it more than we.

- That's wonderful.

- Which is fantastic.

I love the fact that I know you're gonna have a labyrinth, and eventually that's gonna be a sixth area.

But you know, to get people to come here, I see on the sign that it's open every morning, until evening, so that's pretty nice, everybody can just come here and, veg out, as it were.

(All laugh) But just, you know, have a bit of nature, and just really enjoy.

- We often notice people who come and read in the middle of the day, or they work downtown, or at Blue Cross Blue Shield, and will come down, eat their lunch.

- Right.

And I see that the beautiful lights that you all have here in the gardens, is that there for a specific reason, are people coming in the evening as well?

- Yes.

And they look simply like attractive lights, but they are full city lights, and so this place is very safe in the evening.

Completely lit.

- Beautiful.

- Do you have certain times, like from eight to eight, what time would it close?

Or just- - Well then, when it gets dark, we'd, yeah.

- Til sunset.

- Til sunset?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

And how can people best reach you?

- Probably by just looking up Bethany House and Gardens.

Well, we have all of our stuff online.

- Oh, do you have a website?

- Yeah.

- We're always looking for volunteers.

- Oh, there you go.

- Get that out there.

- If you love to pull weeds, we have a job for you.

(All laugh) (upbeat music) - Thank you, guys, for creating this wonderful piece of beauty and nature right here in the middle of the city.

- Absolutely.

And thank you to both of you, Anne, and to Willie, for joining us today on Inspire.

- Thank you for coming.

We totally enjoyed taking a tour, and are grateful for all that you're doing to help the community here in Topeka.

- Thank you.

- And we'll be right back.

(upbeat music continues) (ethereal music) - My name is Lynn Weaver, I'm a Shawnee County Extension master gardener, here today to talk to you about planting seeds at home.

Planting seeds at home can be fun if you follow a few guidelines for success.

Begin with clean containers with holes in the bottom for good drainage.

It's important to use seed starting soil.

This is a lighter mix than potting soil, letting the roots go down and the stems come up easier.

Avoid using garden soil from your yard, this does not drain well, it can contain weed seeds and disease organisms.

Pour your soil into a container.

Add enough water so that when you squeeze a handful, a few drops of water come out.

Place your soil in your container, two inches is good.

Level the top, but don't pack.

When are you going to plant your seeds?

A good guideline can be found at ksu.edu, Starting Seeds in Kansas.

(ethereal music continues) You'll place your seeds right on top of your soil, mist them in to give good seed soil contact.

Now look at your seed package.

The seeds your planting, do they prefer light for germination like coleus and petunias?

If so, once you have them planted and misted, cover them with a clear dome, or some plastic wrap.

This helps maintain moisture and warmth.

Or if you're planting something like peppers or tomatoes, those seeds prefer darkness to germinate, so you will plant them, mist them in, and then cover them with a dark lid or a black plastic bag.

If your seeds do require dark for germination, once half of these seeds are up, remove the dark lid and cover them either with plastic wrap or a clear dome.

If your seeds require light for germination, place them on top of the soil, and then place a clear dome or plastic wrap on top to hold in the moisture and the heat.

Then move your seeds to your light source.

This can be a shop light or an LED setup.

The lights need to be just a couple inches above the top surface of your covering.

If your seeds need dark to germinate, once you have them planted and misted in, cover them with a dark lid, a tray, or a black plastic bag to provide the darkness that those seeds prefer.

Once half of these seeds are up, remove the dark cover, a light cover, a dome or plastic wrap, and get them under your grow lights.

Seeds germinate better with bottom heat.

You can use a heat mat, or even put them on top of your refrigerator for some bottom heat.

Watering is very important, you're gonna look at your seeds every day and mist them lightly.

(ethereal music continues) One thing you can do to check the moisture, pinch a little bit of the top soil, if it feels moist, no need to water, if it feels dry, just mist over one time.

Another clue to watering is if there's condensation on your dome or your dark cover.

If there are a lot of water spots, shake that off and replace the cover with no more water for that day.

Your light source needs to be on a timer so that it runs for 16 hours every day.

(upbeat music) - Well, girls, I tell you what, this has been just wonderful to be out in the beautiful air.

And we want you to get here right away to Bethany Gardens, because there's a beautiful English garden that is on the west side.

So you wanna be sure you see that, because the fine folks here, and Willie, and all the volunteers, are going to be redoing that.

So if you wanna see kind of an original English-type garden, you want to get to Bethany Gardens right away.

What'd you guys think of this place?

- Well, I was totally impressed, I had no idea that this even existed.

In fact, I had a hard time finding it.

(chuckles) - So true.

- Right?

(Betty chuckles) So it's 835 SW Polk, and as we said, it's right between the backside of Topeka High, and- - The backside of Grace Cathedral.

- There you go.

- And there's a little path you can actually come in and park.

So just so you know, because we don't want you to drive past and say, "Where am I going?

How can I get here?"

So that was key, first finding it, and then secondarily, knowing that there's such a place of beautiful solitude here.

So even this chapel is a beautiful place to just bring a book and sit down.

I'm in love, I'm coming back, I'm bringing my book.

- Yep, yep.

Danielle?

- I'm in love with the fact that there's so much history attached to this particular garden, and that the bishop wanted to start something that not only was historical, but a place to actually give back to the community with the vegetable garden.

So the fact that they have all those hundreds of pounds of vegetables and fruits to give to people who are in need, you know, it just continues to grow.

And so, it's a wonderful testament and testimony to what people can do in community.

This is just awesome, and I can't wait until it's totally finished.

- Oh, I know.

And I love behind us now, the guys are gonna show you here in a little bit (chimes chime) what the church was because of the couple of churches together.

So we're going to be able to see this whole area, and you get to hear the beautiful chimes from Topeka High.

You never know when you're gonna be here and hear some great chimes.

But anyway, you'll get to see that, and that's part of the outdoor chapel.

- Well, and it is very relaxing, I could see being here on a sunny day with like, maybe a picnic, and you know, a book, and just having a little woosah moment, you know?

Because I always go to the lake, but now I've got someplace to go to.

- And very close by.

- Yeah.

- And I'm gonna come and pick some weeds, I found that very therapeutic, right?

It's like, you know, cleaning, it's like getting rid of stuff that you don't want anymore.

(Betty and Danielle laugh) And I'm a pro at that.

(Betty and Danielle laugh) - Spring cleaning in the garden, as it was.

- Exactly, exactly, exactly.

So listen, this has been so fantastic to have this opportunity come out, and for us to be outside filming a segment of Inspire has been great.

- I'm breaking free, absolutely.

- So listen, thank you so much for letting us do this KTWU Inspire.

- Yeah, so thank you to Lane, thank you to Anne, thank you to Willie, for being with us today, this has been a wonderful treat, definitely check out Bethany Gardens.

And if you want to know more about Bethany Gardens, or anything that we talked about as it refers to gardening, make sure that you go to our website, which is watch.ktwu.org.

- And if you'd like to mo learn more about what's coming up next on Inspire, and learn more about our different episodes, please go to ktwu.org.

(chimes continue chiming) - Inspiring gardens inspiring you, we definitely want you to come to Bethany Gardens.

I hear the call now.

(Leslie and Danielle laugh) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Inspire is sponsored by the estate of Ray and Ann Goldsmith.

- [Announcer] And the Raymond C. and Marguerite Gibson Foundation.

And... (gentle music) - [Announcer] Friends of KTWU.

We appreciate your financial support.

Thank you.