Hello, and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in the studio today is two of our panelists who are brought lots of things to talk to you about.

And we're going to learn some things today.

So before we jump into that, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about where you can find them in the garden.

So Kay, we'll start with you.

Im Kay Carnes, I'm a Champaign County Master Gardener.

And a lot of times you can find find me out in Allerton Park and that your garden there.

It's kind of a little known secret, but it's a wonderful garden.

And I volunteer there a lot.

Excellent.

Excellent, in addition to taking care of my own gardens and seats, a saving or herbs.

Yeah, everybody knows K loves the herbs.

So all right, John.

I'm John Bodensteiner.

I'm a vermillion County Master Gardener.

And I kind of dabble in, in a lot of things.

Just that's, that's putting it lightly to you know, what both of you are just out of curiosity, since the pandemic, have you seen new members, new new Master Gardeners come through the program since the pandemic, we have we have, we have a class coming up.

And this year, it's in Birmingham very much for me in County, it's going to be an online class.

So just in case, we would have something come up that way, we still can continue.

And if you're interested, you can give the extension office call and sign up.

There's still a few openings.

So Excellent.

Excellent.

Any any Master Gardener News This Morning?

Now I don't follow it a lot.

But I just wonder with with, you know, the pandemic brought a lot of people into gardening and planting.

So I think they might have online.

That's how I did my coursework.

And it made it really simple, but I'm sure the classroom part of it.

You know, you miss out on some of that being in person.

But that's, that's how I did last few classes have been we've had, I think about 13 to 15 in each of our last two classes, and they have been just wonderful.

It's been a real asset to our group.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Okay.

Well, let's jump in and get started.

You guys have plenty of show, Intel's cable will come back around to you.

So you're gonna work.

Talk to us about a process.

All right, I'll turn it over to you.

All right, well, first of all, I want to talk about storing your seeds.

It I've talked a lot about seed saving.

But once you have the seeds, you need to store them properly.

And I could store them about anything.

This is one of my main storage containers or any plastic, you know, bobble you have.

You can store man and you can also store him these are little seed packets, they come in different sizes.

And I use these a lot for small seeds, or if I don't have very many.

This is a cucumber seeds for my cucumbers that I grew this year.

The thing you want to do, make sure is that they're labeled with what's in there, and also the date.

So you know, because some seeds will store a lot longer than other seeds.

And I store mine we have a second refrigerator around our back porch.

So that's full of seeds, refrigerator, beer fridge.

It's seen some overload from that mostly seeds and and they'll keep a lot of them keep a really long time.

I've had 1015 year old seeds germinate.

They're stored properly.

And I'm sorry that you want to make sure they're good and dry before you storm up with a container or mold.

You open that envelope and then there for a little a couple of months later.

How do you know which seeds need a cold treatment?

Which seeds can be at room temperature?

Is there a guide that you use?

Do you just well?

All of them can be stored in the cold okay.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, pretty much.

Okay.

All right, John, anything that you do the to add, you know, your seed saving and just being successful keep an eye do like she said, the main thing is to label because a lot of times I'll get to that later.

Then you've got Another bottle.

And if you have to tomato plant seeds, you can't tell one from another.

So it's so important that you label and and the time and the date.

And the variety, you know, just don't put tomato seeds because for me, I may have 20 Different tomato seeds that I've saved.

And there's a nice process and dry.

I always also like to save the little silicone packets out of things that you get and put that Oh yeah, and that that if you have a little moisture that usually will help correct that problem.

Okay, so now we're gonna, when we come back to you, we'll talk about the second part of this once you get your stuff saved successfully and planted, then you get to enjoy some of them.

So John, we'll go to you you've got lots of stuff to share.

Yes, I love this is the first one I'm going to show this is so pretty cylindric sensitive area cylindrica.

And it's a native of Angola.

And I just you know, I get my it's a relative of the snake plant or mother in law tongue.

And you can get those to to flower pretty easily.

But I've not had one of these and all of a sudden this is coming up and you can see I had it in a dark place.

So it was starting to you know, when I first started it was nice and straight, but I put it in I moved it and it was a little dark.

So now I was looking for the lighting for the light.

It's a tender perennial, it doesn't need to be brought in.

It's also called the African spirit plant, or the one I like is the elephant toothpick.

And it can be braided you know if you get these early enough these can be braided and something store like that.

So do you put those in the ground in the spring and summer I do too.

I believe I usually leave a bit in a pot even in the pot and because they do like dry soil.

So usually if they're in a pot, I'm you know, I make sure that that's good drainage.

I usually like to put them in in a terracotta pot and because that tends to lose moisture on the side so that way I've got kind of everything covered you kind of like the snake plant every six to eight weeks.

Water it and it's it can be happy to have the worst thing is to overwater.

And to get soggy they'll they'll just rot so I don't think mine's ever sent up a flower stock before mine is not this the first one I've had with the flower I know but the snake plant the the flat leaf I have that.

That one.

I get quite a few flowers on but is there some traditional use for them in Angola?

Don't they just it's just just a weed probably.

Okay, last time I was on, it's been a little while ago I brought ginger.

So I brought a a cousin of ginger.

This is turmeric.

I always say Tumeric but it's turmeric tea you are and it's trapped as Can I both thought this was a tropical?

Yeah, it kind of looks like a cannibal.

But it's not.

It is in the ginger family.

And it's used for a couple of things for the yellow dye.

And so that's why it's a major component and curry powder.

So it's a it's a rhizome.

It's not a root it's a what a rhizome is is a specialized underground stem.

Okay, and another name for it is Indian saffron because saffron is we've talked about that before to Safra.

I'm growing the crocus because that's what it's also used because it will color your foods yellow and so this is another one that we'll do another This one does have some medicinal uses.

This is a very good for anti inflammatory.

You're seeing a lot of pills out there and tonics and different things where turmeric is supposed to be good for inflammation and so so would you take the rhizome and just grind it, grind it and you can you can take it on Nebraska and do this.

And a lot of people dry it and then use the powder.

And but I've heard about the medicinal properties, a lot of creams but like you said vitamins and things promised to do some have some helpful remedies with the inflammation, work wonders.

Yeah, listen to the Yeah, yeah, listen to the one thing.

One of the things I usually don't talk about is books.

But I found this book and Kate is familiar with this.

And it's been out for a while, but I just thought it was very interesting if you'd like plants, and it's called the hidden life of of trees.

And it talks about what they feel and how they communicate.

And they were, there's different chapters, I think there's 30 different chapters, and they talk about different, different plants like the acacia tree that the giraffes will start to eat on.

And so they will sense and usually they're, they're connected by the underground roots, or they put out a scent that they'll tell the other guy, the next tree to it to start putting out a bitter taste, or there's all kinds of that we would never think of.

They send a nutrients if one is sick, they'll they'll share some of their nutrients through the route they'll their, their roots kind of cross Oaks at beech trees are especially like that.

And it's just an interesting reads.

For people that like trees and shrubs and, and, and plants.

It's just really neat, though, and you wonder, you know, what is going on?

under there?

Are they communicating?

Are they sending out?

Do they feel things they and they do, they can feel if that giraffe is starting to eat up the leaves, they feel that that that's going to hurt them.

And so they'll respond by putting out a bitter taste.

They'll put up more of this chemical or just absolutely water to the next plant.

You know, they'd said they said that, you know, in forest people would go up or there was a whole bunch of trees like beach tend to grow in and like Paw Paws, and you cut them off so that there's more room.

Well, that that root that's connecting.

plant a plant beat the plant.

See if you take plant be out of there.

It loses its communication and the whole the whole community suffers.

Oh, wow.

So interesting.

That is pretty fascinating.

I just thought it was just some of the information I never thought about Yeah, it's kind of are you going to add something?

Okay.

No, I'm agreeing with it is fascinating that plants didn't know communicate.

Yeah, don't think about them, especially sending nutrients to a sink or a damaged tree.

I mean, you that's the kind of stuff that I you I never would have thought about millionaire so.

Okay, so now you've got you got some herbs.

Okay, so let's you get to the year you plant them, you harvest and now what?

So now you dry them.

Okay, so you can't you don't enjoy them.

When you harvest them?

Well, I do you know, I use fresh herbs a lot, okay.

But this time of the year, I don't have fresh herbs.

So I have to do something.

So I dry herbs.

And there's a couple of different ways depending on the herbs.

Kind of what I call soft or sensitive herbs like dill and parsley.

They do best begin back in the refrigerator, I just I cut the leaves off the stems, and lay them on a cookie sheet and a single layer, and then just put them in the refrigerator.

You know, if you leave something open and the frigerator dries out, that you can work that for you know, let that work for you.

So this is some deal that I is that from this year?

Yes.

As it is if I take away Oh, go ahead.

John, you're probably wanting this for dip, sorry.

Yeah.

And that that word takes time.

And every once in a while I check them.

And then as soon as they're dry, I take the fake the dried herb off the stem.

And at the end that's like glass jars, because you can label Yes, and you can see and um, and they store really well.

So that's storing, drying and storing more firm herbs like rosemary and thyme and basil.

I'll do the same thing but I don't put them in the refrigerator I look for kind of a warm, dry place.

Gotcha.

And just let them eat.

And it's a that's a lesson in patience sometimes because it takes take some time or I but it's worth it.

And once you get them dried, of course you want to store them.

Again, I store my herbs down in the basement words dark and cool.

I have shelves down there.

So that helps them keep their day fresh longer, but you want to use them too.

And so the worst place in the world to store your herbs isn't that convenient cabinet about the store.

So I knew I knew.

Darn it.

So what I do is I take a small jar and fill it in, put it in the cabinet.

And then just when it's empty, I go back.

So I don't use, you know, a store much at a time.

So that just makes all the difference to like a few.

Oh, yeah, you know, cooking with store bought is fine, it works great.

But it takes the food to a next level when you don't know how long it's been mixed with or yes, you know, yes, sprayed on or things like that.

So do these.

Do you go through, you know, your annual harvest?

Is this like a an annual cycle?

Will you get through all of these in a year?

Oh, probably not.

No.

But you can give it away.

And this is I probably I do use a lot of dill because I make my own ranch dressing.

And it has delay.

So I do use a lot of deal.

This is time.

And I like time.

So the basic ones I've used quite a bit, but some of the lesser known herbs or I don't use so much.

But What mistakes have you made before that now you know, you've corrected and you're on your way, but what are some things that people can avoid?

If they're wanting to perhaps dry and store their own, not dry it long enough, okay, it still has moisture in it.

Gotcha.

That's probably the worst thing you can do.

And it takes patience and it takes some room.

You know, I've gotten back to the porch.

I, I'll put stuff in trays and then put it like on top of the refrigerator where it gets some heat.

But you just have to really be patient and keep checking periodically, you know, I just kind of rubbed some between my fingers.

And if it crumbles nicely, you can feel of it to dry.

Okay, good.

So now one of the biggest mistakes I've did and is I have one of those little coffee grinders and put the herbs a desert, mix up powder.

Yeah.

And then you lose all those, the essence of all the fragrance of herbs.

So don't grind to do like Keita get break it off and keep it at that size.

Don't make powder because mostly your recipes, say a teaspoon of this a teaspoon of that, if you if she would put this in that coffee grinder, one teaspoon nickel at least three of these make so it throws your recipes off.

And and.

And you'll lose all that those that essence of the verb to what I do if I want it smaller, like some of these.

I'll put some in my palm of my hand and just take my side of my other hand and just rub it out.

Put it in.

Okay, good to know I'm learning all kinds of stuff today.

Okay, John, we're back.

Okay, let's see.

I've got one more plant.

This is called to take plant it's does it do what it's called?

Yes.

Does it live up to it?

And it's called Buzz buttons because it does it or tingle, tingle flower Electric Daisy or eyeball plant.

That's other names.

for it.

It is a native of Brazil.

It's related to in the daisy family.

And if you look at there's this flower there's many many flowers on that one bud.

So there's probably two or 300 flowers in that one bud and each of those flowers can produce a seed.

So as you can see, they are very prolific and and the little plants down in the bottom of the pot is our whole little ones that I that you know I left the flower go and it it put the seeds down.

So yet again, it's would you say it was native to Brazil, it is native to Brazil.

So one thing that you know it is also can be used on a sore.

You can make a like a compound out of it.

And the one thing you have to be careful of that I've and I didn't find this out personally but a lot of times you have a toothache what is the one thing that you probably go do you get a shot of brandy or something like that.

And you know to swish it around.

Well this slows the metabolism of alcohol.

So you're going to that alcohol is going to last and if you're making baby have more than one shot, you could end up with it building up.

So you have to be very careful about.

So that's one thing.

Like I said, I've not I've not had that problem, but it can be a side effect so to speak in that your it's going to you're going to be drunk a lot longer than what you anticipate careful with your alcohol intake.

If you happen to have a toothache.

And you use one of these, you just, it's just the flour, it's not the the leaves, and you chew it and pack it into where that toothache and you'll get that.

I'm thinking what is that?

The topical that they use at the dentist?

You know, I'm talking about they just put it on cotton clothes usually numb, you know, yeah, does that have sort of anatomy does.

It kind of tingles and so it's, it's nerves work on chemicals, synapses, and it kind of takes all those chemicals that are going to be working on this and does away with them.

So then it can't send that pain.

You can't send that pain sense to the brain.

And you can find these readily at greenhouses or is this a tough one to find around here?

No, because I have a feeling we're gonna get some calls about.

It's very available on if you order on a seed catalog.

Okay.

A lot of the master gardeners in their spring sales have this Gotcha.

Some of the stores will have it.

And we can talk to Shane later see if he has that.

I'm not sure yes, but but more than likely, you see catalog and girl your Yep.

And it's very, and like I say, one of these flowers will will put up three 400 seeds.

Wow.

So you know, where do you have this in your landscape at home.

I have it just on the edge because this is about as tall as it gets.

And I like there's another one that has a brown flower and then the yellow is at the tip.

Oh, and but I like this.

This one just shows up.

Anytime you can get a yellow flower.

It just shows up much farther away.

And but it's okay.

Yeah, it's nice to keep in a pot.

What some people have allergies to that.

Yes, you could have any any, you know, people can be allergic to eggs.

And so you'd have to be careful if you have an allergy to one thing, you're twice as likely to be allergic to something else than somebody that isn't allergic.

Donna was also a pharmacist, so sometimes he takes off his garden, puts on his pharmacy.

It switches it around.

I mean the two worlds truly do intersect.

I used a lot of herbs and suggests a lot of herbs as a pharmacist.

So yeah, I was big into home remedies so to speak.

Yes, yes.

We've got about four minutes left.

So I would love for you to show off your leaf.

Oh, yes.

I do craft shows with my wife and I and one of the other master gardeners of Mary Jo McDonald and Pat solders had a class in which they showed us how to make sand castings.

This is actually cement and what I do is I'll take this as an elephant here that I grew in my yard and what I do is I have a sand bed that I form you know you can see it's kind of hollow and you know hold it out.

So I've made the sand bed that way and then I lay the leaf on there and then I'll take my cement and I used vinyl repair Summit.

I found that that is by far the the most durable and I'll pat it onto the leaf you know the say this leaf I will take the summit and just pat it on here and then smooth it out and wait for three days.

You have to wait for the concrete to to dry and then you pick it up very gingerly and peel off the leaf and then you let it dry for another two weeks.

Oh, and then you can paint them and I use a metallic metallic paint acrylic paint and then I also after it dries then I use a a polyurethane spray so it can be outside.

I don't put them out during the winter because concrete with thawing and freezing.

It tends to absorb moisture and it'll splinter.

So I've seen you've made some really great one that's up to 36 inches.

Wow.

So no this way 3040 pounds, so I just thought I'd bring a little I have a couple of those that are not painted and I've had them outside forever for years and they've not broke.

The weather hasn't seen that there is another one that you can do which they use peat moss in and they're hypertufa and you can use that same thing make pots or you can make leaves and they will last For a long time, so they're not as smooth as this.

I like the use of the vinyl repair cement because and there's nothing I just use straight the vinyl repair Summit.

And very nice is it is it tough to do I mean, there's sounds like there's a lot of waiting.

It's just a nice easy it's a there's a you can't rush it, but they're they're pretty pretty resilient after you get it done.

And you can paint them any color.

There's all kinds of varieties of colors I've This is called Berry and within its perot in the middle floor drain so and you know, you could do so much with that.

Like even if it's not outside, you know, key dish or just a nice conversation on a card on the table and put something I wouldn't put anything wet in here.

But you know, you can put crackers or whatever.

Very nice.

Napkins nice little garden party piece, right?

Yeah.

All right, guys.

Well, that's it.

The show goes so fast.

Thanks so much to both of you for coming and I know you'll be on the lookout for seed catalogs.

So we'll get you guys back and have that discussion coming soon.

If you have any questions, please send us an email to your garden@gmail.com Of course you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time.

Good night.