Unknown: Welcome to mid American gardener, I'm your host Tinisha Spain.

And as you can see, we are out and about this time we're at the second annual cu plant swap at Sola Gratia farms in Urbana.

Lots of folks came out today to trade their house plants or veggie starts.

And we're going to meet with the organizer just a little bit later to talk about how she put all this together.

But first, let's check in with our panelists to find out what goodies they were able to find today at the plant swap.

And they're going to give you some tips on how to get your veggie start and your new plants off to a great start at home.

You can see here that folks are strolling around browsing these tables looking for new plants to take home.

We've got houseplants, we've got garden plants.

We've got all sorts of things out here for people to enjoy.

So it's a great day, sunny day, a little chilly, but it's still a great day to be outside.

And we've got some of our panelists here who have been answering questions from new plant parents, and they've got a few things of their own that they picked up.

So as usual, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about where you can find them in the garden.

So Karen, we'll start with you.

Hi, I'm Karen Ruckle, and I garden over in the Peoria area.

I'm Ella Maxwell.

I'm a Tazewell County, Master Gardener and a horticulturist.

And I'm started my vegetable garden and right now I'm focusing on weeding.

Martie Alagna and everybody in the Midwest is supposed to be waiting right now.

I'm retired landscaper to build some perennials.

Hi, I'm Jen Nelson.

You can find me online at grunting boom.com.

Related especially houseplants and vegetables, I'm focusing on reading as well.

isn't a battle?

Yes, yes.

losing the battle in my house.

I think we're all losing the battle if I can.

Weather and schedules just are not sinking properly.

So we'll try to remedy that this week is the theme of this show.

So we've got some show Intel's some things that you guys have picked up at this point.

Plant swap, can't speak.

So here what did you find?

Tell us a little bit.

Well, I actually dug this out of my yard this morning.

And so I didn't really intend to bring it to the swap just because for me when I share plants, I'd want to dig them up kind of let them root and settle in rather than bringing a wilted plant.

But this is a plant called pulmonaria.

Long, long Lord long word is the common name.

But this this is a love hate relationship for me on this plant.

I really love this plant.

It's a beautiful shade plant.

Not a lot of critters like to nibble on it.

So that's great.

But what the parent plant for me only lasts a couple of years and then it just rots away.

So I lose it.

But the wonderful thing for me is when that happens, it seems like I get all these seedlings that are very vigorous.

So the leaves will all be a little bit different than the modeling or the coloration of them.

But it still is a very pretty leaf to plant when it's not wilted down being dug out of the ground this morning.

And it does have lovely flowers and something.

So what I want to talk about is even though a plant maybe is a little persnickety, the the plant keeps reproducing, and now I probably have three more clumps this size, I need to dig out and rehome with other people.

So it's it's digging it out.

And like I said, I would have normally dug more soil with this, let it settle in the shade before I give it to somebody else.

Because you know, you always want to give a plant to somebody else for their yard.

I'm inheriting the pulmonaria which are delighted.

We had our own little plants.

Wow.

Okay, hello, what do you got?

Okay, um, I picked up a tomato here.

And when you're looking for plants, I'm always looking for something that looks pretty sturdy and also something that's labeled.

So this is a heirloom tomato called Green zebra.

So the fruit will actually be green striped, and it's kind of interesting.

The first thing that I did is when I'm going to plant this at home, I pinched off any of the flowers.

I don't really care that it's making fruit yet.

And you can see that I've had some really nice roots coming out the bottom here.

So when I take this out of the plant the pot right here, I'm going to actually kind of plant it.

Yeah, I could cut off the pot.

You know what I was just going to just pick off a few leaves, but I'm going to plant it in the ground like this.

Not, you know, bury it up to here, although I am going to cover this to make roots, but I'm going to kind of bend it over here.

And then the soil line will come right here and I'll have this nice, sturdy and stocky plant.

Now I did notice that this plant was grown in the greenhouse, and it had a few aphids on it.

So when I take this home, I'm going to just hose them off, and then planting it outside.

I think once it's out in the outdoor environment, I don't think aphids are going to be problematic with it.

But I'll certainly watch it.

And of course, I wouldn't want to put this in with other plants until I had that under control.

And I could use some insecticidal soap.

So I'm excited to get this nicely healthy, vigorous, green zebra tomato Now tell me about the planting it from the sorry, what the reason that you plant it from the side is that the air the soil, the deeper you go into the profile, the less air rated the soil is and the plant roots require oxygen and, and a lot of the percolation with moisture and everything is going to be in that the top six, eight inches.

And so that's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to bury part of this stem because I'm going to get more roots and I'm gonna have a much dirtier tomato.

So do you have to train it?

Well, you have to tie it No, no, I, I yeah, it'll kind of ride itself.

I suppose I could put a little stake in here to help hold it.

But the main thing is, is that I don't want to get the roots too deep down in the soil where there's not enough oxygen or maybe poor quality, heavier clay type soil.

This is all going to be in the nice garden soil that I've amended with compost and like I said, I might strip off just a few more of these leaves.

So we're set to go.

Gotcha.

You don't want to bury any of these.

If you haven't made a plant like this.

Don't bury any of the leaves just snip them off.

You can pinch them or, or cut on either way.

Do you plant all of your tomatoes like that?

Not necessarily.

It just depends on this one was kind of big and little gangly.

And I think I'm going to take advantage of that.

So okay, thank you.

Oh, would you grab?

All right?

Give me these.

I love them.

I can also do what I'm doing on this.

Okay, I went and found some, some see them.

Just like autumn joy.

See them it's older variety gets pretty tall.

This is a lot of top four, these bits are roots, even this mushroom.

So if I took these home, I would take my handy dandy printers and I'd cut them off right back here that she keeps in the truck because you just never know.

Because you know.

So, and these two as well there's a there's a good little route here.

It's a good little sturdy roots got a lot of roots, and it's got all these tops is too much.

So you're not going to enjoy these this year.

You've got these snapper next year, you could read yeah, oh yeah, you can read the top, you can route the tops.

Yeah, this is a this is even a double whammy, a double or a triple even this much route and you put this in the ground that's going to get tired and it's going to flop over.

So another point too, is that a lot of times you'll see in your garden, a young seed and plant will come up really tall and leggy.

And so trimming it back and spring just nipping it back a little right, it'll branch and be sturdier.

Because when we get the summer thunderstorms, oh yeah, sometimes that snaps over.

Sure.

And once that flowers, it's gonna get too heavy and just split open and you can pinch them back.

And and make multiple cuttings if you want.

And you can do this up until about the middle of June.

And after that you don't want to do any cutting back because she'll really push the flowers back too late.

So would you root those in water?

Well, I would I would take off the the leaves.

And actually, I usually put a cluster of them together and just bury them in the soil.

There you go.

So you've got the root end, and then you've got the tops you can route to So actually, this turns out to be quite a fantastic clump of system where at first it just looked like you know, right a sad little group of celery there you wouldn't even pay any money for but it turns out you got a whole bunch of plant material there.

Alright, and even though you know you can see when they start to root which puts them in the ground, they'll get these little hairline roots and then over the over the sub Certain years, it'll grow a thick, fleshy root like that big crap.

Alright, um, I like seeing them.

And I plant seed them.

And I plan different kinds.

Now here's a plant I would never plant.

Not ever.

Here's why not, right?

Oh, he scared me for a second.

I thought the SEC was coming.

Okay, this is where IB see how much it looks like grass.

Okay.

And then there's also these little fellers in here.

This is Eagle podium.

It's a common name is Bishop's weed.

This is the variegated kind.

At least it's variegated.

Because the greens that come from the original is just green.

And it's it's just, it's useless.

It's just absolutely.

It's just grown.

I know you really feel no, no, I've got I've been to therapy.

Okay, so.

So someone brought these in to share and these two together are just about indestructible.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't like variety unless it's variegated.

could even variegated, variegated varieties and things tend to be a little less vigorous, which is great sometimes.

But this stuff, it just looks like grass looks like grass.

Why would you do that?

Okay, so this guy here, this little Eagle podium this Bishop Swede, I wouldn't recommend that either.

Because while it's pretty right now, in the spring, it will get to summer, and then it's not so pretty.

If it's a little too humid, it'll melt out and all the little leaves edges will turn brown.

And it puts on these stinky flowers.

And it just looks terrible.

Terrible.

And you're thinking what what happened and I was like you put bleach on him.

I was like, it was so pretty well, it's not because it's a jerk, you know, this is the these are guards.

This is the thing, weeding and garden jerks are just jerks.

disagree, okay.

Real quickly, redeeming quality, every plant has a purpose.

Okay.

And, and a place and every person has an opinion.

And each landscape can can benefit from, you know, different kinds of plant material.

What what she's saying is that these are aggressive, and they can be invasive.

If you have a area that's contained, and you want a durable hardy plant, this might be just the right thing in the spring, you can mow it off.

It does go through the winter, it does have a little purple ish, white flower.

You know, I, I have used it as a ground cover effectively in an area around my pond.

And I have enjoyed it.

Because it doesn't get tall like grass does.

Right?

And it doesn't escape.

It hasn't yet likes hot dry.

Yeah, sure.

Does anyone Do any of you have this growing?

I wouldn't in my life right now when I have does I have the snow on the mountain growing and I don't need it as much as Marty does.

From time to time, it may not look its best.

But where I have it like what I was saying it's a spot that I was having a tough time with.

And it's it's where I can kind of rein it in effectively without it being too bad of a bully.

And you can string trim the top of it and and it'll flush back out again quite nicely.

Usually you have to actually if it's in shade or partial shade, it doesn't tend to mouth out or rot out as quickly as it when it's in Sun.

Now the lower eiope even a piece that big.

There's plenty so if you had a place that you wanted to put this, which I never will, but if you do if you miss that the first you can see where these where the crown is on these plants and then it's just it's like turf, it really is.

And the common name is Lily turf, because it ends up that little flower.

So you can you can cut these in quite small pieces.

And they will fill in pretty quickly and improve their lives in poor conditions.

Is that Oh yeah, that's right.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, so I cut through this a little bit of a thicker white group and I'm not sure if you can see that or not.

But these are just these are, if they have a little root arm at all, they will go to tanic off.

Yeah, they will.

Alright, thank you me.

For telling us how much you hate those.

Just you know, doing your part doing your part.

Alright, so, like anything else.

All right, Jen, you've got some headings that you picked up.

Yeah, well, I brought them.

Oh, you brought these I'm sorry.

I brought some houseplant cuttings.

This is popos marble Queen, it was just starting to color up on this particular branch but, and this is philodendron called neon.

It's kind of a limey green.

And these are two really easy to start from cuttings, house plants that you can route in water, I remember my mom having something like this in a vase in the kitchen pretty much my entire childhood.

So you you could also just plant this in some shallow potting soil as well.

But when you route them it will route off of these are called nodes where the leaf attaches, you can set them in water, I would put them in soil once you get a cut an inch or two of root because the roots that develop in water are slightly different than what develops in soil.

If you're looking for cuttings or picking up cuttings at something like this, you want to make sure that you have nodes with whatever plant material you're picking up.

I've seen some stuff online where people are all excited that they got their cutting, and it's just a leaf with no node.

And that's never gonna do anything no matter what you do to it.

So keep that in mind.

Same thing with this philodendron it will route in water.

But this actually has an approach this grown in air, I would go ahead and pop that up and it should grow very vigorously.

It doesn't both of these can tolerate medium to low ish light indoors.

I had him under some lights this winter.

And that's why I had a whole basket of cuttings to share.

Because they they really liked having just a little bit of a light, I led plant light on him this winter.

The other thing I brought is a succulent that I've brought on the show before this is the life saver plant and it has flour that looks like a red lifesaver.

It's grown really well in my bathroom window, but it is a succulent.

So the difference with these is that when you break it off, you want that cut end to dry off a little bit before you attempt to plant it so that because there's so much water in these otherwise it will just rot away.

So once this is dry a couple days, just stick that and in some cactus mix and and water it but don't get carried away.

You can let it dry out and it moves pretty readily.

I was pretty impressed with how many cuttings I brought of this one as well.

It's a really neat flower and my my kids are fascinated with it because it does look like a piece of candy.

And it's just something that people will ask you Well, what is that and every time I brought it on the show people have been pretty amazed by it.

But it's very easy to grow like a lot of succulents are awesome.

And you've got your labels so organized.

I was being the teacher and me coming out I had all my labels for all my cuttings because I have I can can I say this?

No.

I mean, I've I've come to plant swaps and plant sales and taken home things that I thought I knew what it was, or I wasn't quite sure and planted it.

And now these are house plants.

But I've planted stuff out in my garden that I've really regretted.

Because I just thought it looked interesting.

And those are probably the worst.

Probably the worst thing I ever planted was a companion law.

glomerata was the Yeah, yeah, it took me I was aware.

Eight years to get rid of it.

Oh my god, it just goes everywhere.

And it was recommended to me that it had a blue flower.

And I have an orange and blue line I garden.

And you should plant this one, Jennifer and I should know better, right?

Because I supposedly have all the education.

But that doesn't mean I did the research before I planted it.

So do as I say and do the research for you because I seriously thought I was just tearing my hair out to get rid of it because it just spreads by runners and it came up everywhere, everywhere.

Everywhere.

And I literally had a little cup of roundup and a paintbrush and I went in and I painted it everywhere.

I saw a little sprouts coming up.

And that's how I finally got rid of it.

That's dedication.

That's frustration, frustration, dedication.

It's a plant for crane.

And that segues into our next topic.

We've had people stopping by asking questions of you.

And so What tips do you have for folks, when they get things at a plant swap?

Or even honestly at a plant store, you still need to sort of do your due diligence to make sure you're not bringing things home.

So I just thought to have some open discussion about some tips that you would give to people as they're bringing things home from events like this and feel free anybody who's got something well, Karen just had a good idea about when she brings a plan home, show him your cup.

Well if this was this is just something for using at home.

Not anything With the plant but in the past, whenever I'd have a bag of soil or compost that I'd be using to pot up something or to use in the garden, I would always use a empty pot.

Well, some of those pots are so sturdy anymore, and it would just collapse.

So I found that using a plastic mug with a sturdy soil sturdy handle really well works well as a cheap scoop.

No.

And I got this and I've got one.

So once again, I'm giving things away at the swap today, my friend for for using in her her bag of soil.

And when I've used the pot, there's been a hole in the bottom and some of the soil falls out.

So I thought this was just excellent.

And mine when I take mine home, I think we had talked about this before I use the plastic mini blinds, I did say venetian blinds, but that would date me and a pencil to mark.

And then as well as I punched the hole and write the name, right green zebra and put it on my tomato cage.

So I've really liked that.

But I think we talked a little bit about the aphids, and a woman asked us about some white fly problems.

And she was saying that they were eating her plants.

And so it's important to identify the insect that you suspect being the problem because white flies are SAP feeders, so they would not make any holes in the leaf.

Even though she saw all these little gnats, she thought that might be what it was.

So it's really important to be able to identify it.

And now with a smartphone taking pictures, and there's a lot of different kinds of apps that can help you identify plants, and also identify pests as well.

But that would have if we asked for pictures.

She didn't happen to have any.

But we did discuss some organic options for insect control.

And the best thing I think, is scouting.

So when we visited the swap, Karen and I, we just kind of walked around and looked first to see Oh, what might be here and what looks good.

And, you know, took a couple passes.

And I think that's the thing to do.

And that's the thing to do in your own garden.

Enjoy your garden, and really take a look and notice things about it.

When does it Bloom?

Karen had that pulmonaria and because it flowers, she gets seedlings, and then you know, that's wonderful.

So Alright, windy.

What about you tips for bringing down new plant babies?

I will also point out on this if you're not familiar with pulmonaria these, these are not the blooms.

Okay, these are the bloom, those are the past the petals of these bloom, the buds are blue and the flowers open pink or purple, or is it the other way around?

My natural?

Ready, so you wish summer pinkish, but they're there.

They're a charming little flower.

They really are nice.

Yeah, there are some that are worried about that.

So yeah, if you're playing home, I try to isolate it from my other plants.

How long do you leave them separate?

Or how long?

Do you keep them separate?

for a couple of weeks?

Okay, maybe a good one.

To see if there's any crawlers or critters or you know, we we got a we got to share the dining room table with them.

But everybody else is in the living room and I want to take something in there then I'm gonna regret.

You're speaking of houseplants, though, for your garden.

shrubs or or perennials or ground covers or whatever.

You don't really isolate them.

Do you know No.

Talking about Yes.

into your house.

Hi.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, but not garden plants.

Yeah.

Well, like Ella was saying she noticed that there was an aphid or two on here.

But she said usually when you're outside, you know, it's a it's a jungle out there.

Something's gonna come along eat those guys.

And ordinarily, you're not going to have to expend a lot of effort you know the the other that's predators will find them and that is amazing to me.

How can those little half right amazing ecosystem It's incredible.

But yeah, oh other things.

If you're not going to plant them the day you get them which I never do.

Usually I sit him in the shade.

Don't just chunk them out on the porch and let the sun burn them to a crisp or just inside the garage or by the window or something.

Yeah, keep them damp.

If they're cutting like this, I will try to plug this in.

But even if I don't get a chance to I put some water on it and then maybe even a large If you've got like a milk crate or vegetables these days come in big plastic crates, and I get them from a friend of mine with the restaurant, they are great for keeping rabbits and birds and squirrels off of your small crops.

And you can also do that with transplants, you can put them in, and they have holes in them, but the black plastic, you just turn upside down because they allow they allow light.

But they cut it down a little bit.

It's a little bit of a shade, and they allow water but they did doesn't beat on them.

So just a little, just a little.

Just a little help.

If it's windy, if it's really hot, yes, just kind of helps them go 15 miles, I have no idea.

Okay, all right, Jen, what about you, um, I would say, the isolation idea, I did see something a couple years ago in a garden that I thought was pretty ingenious if you don't really know how a plant is going to behave in your garden, this person had a separate bed that they just kind of they called it their trial, but they would put stuff out there and just kind of see and see if something was particularly aggressive or just didn't do really well, they weren't sure about they weren't sure what it was.

And I just thought that having something like that would have saved me a lot of heartache in my own garden.

And also just pay attention when you're shopping that don't be afraid to like look underneath leaves and look at the stem and look for pests and problems that could be there just before you bring it home and be cautious when you when there's free plants, because that's how I've brought home some really awful problems that I didn't realize were there.

So just don't be afraid to say say no to plants, even when you're with all your enabling friends that say you really need more.

It can be hard, you can be strong.

Or can you or can you I don't know.

But just use good judgment, check under the leaves and any other tips there.

For many of you ladies about what to do when you get your, your new plants home?

Well, I think one important thing that happened to me is again, is is I would just kind of see if it's actually rooted because I do know that I bought this really unique plant or so I thought and when I got home, there were no route.

So it was like they had just made a cutting.

And it it was so disappointing.

It really was.

But again, if you are going to participate in these kinds of activities, like Karen had mentioned, you want to plan ahead and pop them up ahead of time, and make sure that you are giving a well labeled quality product.

Because again, the plants that show up are the plants that are naturally aggressive and you have too many and so you're willing to share those, you know, so So yeah, I think that's something important is that, you know, give as good as you get.

Okay, well thank you ladies for coming out and answering questions.

And we're going to interview some of the organizers and see what plants we can get our hands on.

Hey, we are here at Sola Gratia Farms for the second annual cu plant swap and things are looking pretty busy around here.

And if you've noticed, we're joined now by Erin Lippitz from our fundraising department.

And so it's time to raise some money right in our in our spring fund drive mode.

So if you're watching today metameric gardener is your show you would really like to support it.

We would love to hear from you tonight to 217-244-9455 is the number to call or go online at willgive.org if you have your phone in front of you your laptop, super easy.

Make your donation whatever amount works for you.

And we thank you so much for your support tonight.

I am super happy to be a it's a it's a gorgeous day.

Today.

It's windy, but it's beautiful zona shine, shining, it's great to be outside and around some other folks and learning about learning about plants today as my my first remote out for our fundraiser, which is super fun for me.

I know you guys have been doing remotes, but this is my first time.

Well welcome.

Thank you.

Happy to be here.

Um, yeah, so you guys, numeric gardeners a show pretty much all about education, which is very appropriate because why WILLTV is that's one of our core core mission, parts of our mission and one of the things that we really are proud about and we value education so much.

And so I think minimun gardener is a perfect show to kind of just show what WILLTV can give to the community so you guys educate?

I know everybody knows I I'm a horrible gardener.

When I change.

We're gonna accidentally killed plants.

I don't mean to but it's just not my thing.

But I can watch Mid American Gardener are all about different kinds of plants.

salutely, though, yes, we've got into monologist, we've got horticulturalists, we've got people who this is their life's work.

So the educational component is, is really important.

But what I also love is it's applicable.

So we've got the scientists on our show, who can, I don't wanna say dumb it down, but help us understand what to do.

And then we can literally go outside and apply that knowledge directly from them.

So this is a huge example of that educational component and how we're improving people's lives by teaching them how to grow plants and flowers and veggies and fruits.

And yeah, I love it, you put it, you put it into a lay person, lay people lay personally, lay their terms, and it makes it easy for those of us who aren't very good about gardening to go out and we feel it's something that we can do.

It's accessible to us.

Absolutely, we can do that.

Yeah.

So we hope that you are enjoying the numeron.

gardener tonight, and that you would like to donate again, we're in the middle of our spring fun drive, give us a call at 217-244-9455 or online at willgive.org.

And we're talking about education.

And that's one of our core components at WILL and at the beginning of the pandemic, our education team really just pivoted quickly and adjusted and adapted, put all kinds of educational resources online for teachers and students who couldn't be in school at that time.

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And it's free, because people like you make donations to WILL to support our programming to support our educational resources to 217-244-9455 or online at willgive.org.

Now, we mentioned we're doing like a remote segment out here.

That's kind of new for mid american gardener isn't it so the pandemic, you know, shut down the studio, we're still not able to get into the studio if you've been watching the zoom shows at home.

But this sort of forced us to get creative and figure out how can we still connect with people?

How can we still tell great garden stories and still give instruction and teach people things without the studio.

And so we've done a lot of field shows, we've done a lot of field segments, and it's been amazing days like today where we can get out and do things out in the community.

We if you remember we made maple syrup.

Ella's house we did some plantings with Jennifer Nelson, and Jennifer Fishburn a couple weeks ago.

So the pandemic really pushed us outside of the box to get creative and really truly get out and get our hands dirty, which is what we should have been doing anyway.

So let's do that.

Know when you give today, we do have a couple of Thank you gifts that you can choose when you make that donation to Nisha is going to model them for us here that is our mid american gardener mug that she is holding in for a donation of $84 annually or $7 a month as a sustaining member.

You can choose that is your thank you gift.

She's also got the Midwest native plant primer, which is kind of like an encyclopedia of native Illinois plants.

Yes, we flipped through it.

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Thank you so much for tuning in today and joining us for mid American gardener and learning about all these new great plants that you maybe didn't know about learning how to coax your plants through the winter we have very felt like a very long winter.

It did feel like a long Yeah, and this is a great book to native plants are have become really popular among people who don't want to do a lot of gardening.

So this this is your ticket right here to lazy gardening as I call it.

Right.

Give us a call tonight 217-244-9455 or go online at willgive.org thank you so much for tuning in.

And thanks for your donation and we're gonna be checking in with you a little bit later.

All right.

Thanks, Erin.

We're gonna check back with you in a few minutes.

And speaking of native plants, we had a chance to visit a lady's garden and yard that was absolutely full of them.

Judy side lives in champaign and DJ and I had a chance to check out her yard and we're going to show you on this edition of other people's gardens.

On this edition of other people's gardens, we are joined with Judy side of the University of Illinois and she is going to walk us through her beautiful Yard and Garden.

And also if you've got some perennials that are thriving and ready to divide, dude is going to show us how to do that.

So We're going to start out with some spider wart.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay, tell us a little bit about the plant and then where you're going to be moving it to.

Okay, well, spider warts one of my favorite plants.

It's a native perennial plant.

That's the butterflies and bees and hummingbirds like it.

And this is it right here.

And it's got pretty little flowers in bloom for about two months, which is a good amount of time for a perennial.

Now, this is the one that you were telling me that opens in the morning, right, it's only open for the mornings, it's, it's getting ready.

A lot of them the closed up already doesn't like the hot sun afternoon.

So usually by 11 o'clock in the morning, if it's sunny, there'll be closed.

If it's cloudy all day, they'll stay open.

So it's a really pretty plant.

And I had a couple of them come up as volunteers, right here, and they're even blooming.

And I thought I did one of those up.

And it's all closed up now.

Okay, but I thought I did one of those up and we can see the root structure can also dig from the big clumps.

That How long has this mature patch?

How long have you had these?

I've had these for probably three, maybe four years?

Oh, wow, more than four years.

So that's really gross.

Oh, yeah, it has it has filled in.

But that's just more plants to give away and surrender so.

So are these fairly easy to maintain, these are very easy to maintain, there's really nothing to to do to them.

If we don't get enough rain, by mid year, I might end up watering them.

This is fresh dill.

So this is a little milkweed plant.

Oh no, there's there's all kinds of things.

But I'll show you.

Let's get down to the getting rid of some of this because we don't need it.

Now what is it about this plant that you like?

I like I like that it's a perennial, because I like things that come back every year, things that flower nicely.

I get up in the morning and I come out and the first thing I look at are these flowers.

And when they're open in the early morning, they are so beautiful.

So this has a nice, a nice root structure.

And we'll take this to the backyard I've got a spot where I want to put it.

Okay, so you've got your hole dug and I found it interesting that you said you water the hole before you plant.

Yeah, so talk a little bit about that.

Even though we did have some rain, I always water the hole because that way the water is all the way down to the roots.

And the plant can get settled in really well.

So I can put the dirt all around it.

So I'm putting this in from the front yard to the backyard.

I don't have a whole lot of spots open spots anymore, which is always a good thing.

But I love giving away plants and people like to get this plant.

I think I'm going to start watering the hole I you know, like most people, I always get the whole put the plan in and then water it all in.

But I really liked this method.

You want to do it this way I like this matter of fact, I'm going to add some more water right now, because I want I want that dirt to settle all around the roots.

And I'll give it some more water.

And it's off to a good start now, because I know it's wet all the way down foot down to the roots.

So even if I transplant a little plant, I dig that hole and I put a whole cup of water in it.

If the water goes down quickly you need to keep filling the home.

But like I say the grounds a little bit wet from from the rain that we had.

But always always water the whole Okay, a lot of these plants I took from the front yard and brought them back here so it's free plants.

And this is the common milkweed which the insects love especially once it's going to flower and the monarch butterfly, like caterpillars have to have that to to survive.

So I've had quite a bit of it coming up but it'll be used for food for the caterpillars.

And this is penne stayman and it makes a very pretty flower buy a little bit more into the summer.

And once again, they were coming up in the front yard and I brought them back here to fill in and I do give a lot of them away.

So that's that's the the idea.

And this is the blazing blazing prairie star plant.

And this will get very tall.

This will get seven feet tall and has a beautiful spike of purple flowers on the top of it and it's kind of known as jewel of the prairie Whoo.

So it's a wonderful plant.

This is a these look like the same but this foliage is different it is this is different type of pen statement.

And it once again I bought one plant last year and then this Spring about four or five came up and I divided them and gave them away.

I bet a lot of people out there this year that put in flowers last year and now they've got big patches like this that have come up so everyone's looking to divide and share and relocate some of their flowers.

Well thank you for opening your home and letting us come and visit.

Well.

You're welcome.

My pleasure.

And we're back with Aaron Lippert here at solar Gracia farms at the second annual seeing your plants while things are still growing strong.

Lots of plant folks here.

We're gonna get you on board Aaron kills plant but I'm telling you we are going to get her we're going to turn her into a cu plant person by the end I did not inherit my grandmother's green thumb at all it skips a generation apparent Oh, that's okay.

And I am here today and joining Tinisha and the mid american gardener panelists.

She just talked about our spring fun drive because we are here asking you to help support our programming on WILL if you are watching tonight and it's a good time for you to make a donation.

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And that kid might be turning on the station right now in seem to Nisha, talking about plants and educating them about Native Illinois plants, which is the thing to talk about right now is and you know, when you were mentioning people coming on board and people joining the programs and getting their education from there, we have seen a huge increase in viewership from mid American gardener.

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Yes.

So the mug for donation of $84 or $77 a month as a sustainer.

Wow, that was difficult for me to get out.

You can have that really nice in America.

Mid American gardener mug It looks like a little flowerpot super cute.

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It's a great kind of Encyclopedia of all kinds of Illinois native plants, which is something that's really good to look through and figure out when you're planting your garden because we do want to support our native flora.

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I try have a perennial garden it does, I don't have to do anything, which is really, really great.

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Put your new plants in there, get your garden turned on mid american gardener there you learn about plants, give us a call to 217-244-9455 or online, at willgive dot org.

Thanks.

And we'll check back in with you.

All right, we're now joined by Lauren Quinn, who is the organizer of the plant swap.

And you're actually the brainchild between behind cu plant people.

Right.

So tell us a little bit about you in the background of the plant group and just kind of how it started.

Yeah, so last year as well, a few months earlier than this.

And last year, February 2020.

Before the pandemic, I hosted a plant swap in the basement of the Urbana free library, just because I had started to get really into plants and I wanted to meet other people who also were into plants.

And so a bunch of people came out to that.

And right after that, I started a Facebook group called seed planted people.

And from that time to now we've got gotten about 3000.

Members.

Wow.

And so people are really excited about plants in this community and really all around the world right now.

It was a big hobby.

For the pandemic, I was just gonna ask if you think the pandemic played a big role in the you know, the uptick in your members are Sure, yes, because we couldn't go anywhere.

So everybody was at home taking care of their plants.

Right?

Did you ever anticipate that the group would be this active?

i?

Yeah, I guess I hoped it would be.

And I'm part of a number of other Facebook groups for plants.

And they're all very active too.

So I'm really happy, though, to see that there are that many people within our community who are as intuitive as we are.

So tell us about today.

You know, what did you see?

What things did you learn, you know, was the the the flow of people talk a little bit about just how the day went from an organization perspective?

Yeah, it was great.

It's always starts off a little bit.

You know, it's hard to predict what's going to happen, because, you know, I put it out on Facebook as a Facebook event.

And, you know, it's hard to gauge exactly how many people are going to come.

So we didn't know how many tables to put out and that kind of thing.

But we figured that out.

And then you know, we had a whole lot of people come right at first, everybody sort of milling around with their things and trying to figure out how it was working, you know, one to one swaps, or sort of high value swaps, and then a lot of things that were just free and we were able to just move things out.

So it was great.

In terms of the turnout, we had lots of folks and some some cool things on the tables, for sure.

I ended up with a nice wish list plant that I've been eyeing, which I'm happy about you didn't have to spend for it.

So that's great.

That's great, awesome.

Any feedback from folks that came today where they are grateful to be able to just kind of get out and be around others?

Again?

What what kind of feedback Did you hear?

I definitely heard that.

But there was, you know, people were in and out, didn't necessarily talk to a lot of people, but it was still good to be out in a group.

And then just a lot of people who are really thankful to be, you know, able to be around like minded folks.

Okay.

All right.

And so what's next for the group?

Any other events on the horizon?

Do you see?

Do you see this becoming something that is, you know, again, an annual event?

Yeah, I'd like to, for sure.

Annual.

Initially, when I first did the the one last year, I thought it would be sort of a seasonal thing we do another couple throughout that year, but of course 2020 was what it was.

We did not do that, which is where the group sort of took up the slack where you know, we didn't do a large event where we were doing a lot of swaps, but it's nice in the group, you can you know, you can set up a swap with with someone else, and they can just come to your porch and do a swap on your porch, and that's that.

But anyway, so that that took place of those in person swaps last year, but this year, we might maybe do another one in the fall.

But for sure, I like the at least annual for now.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for putting this together.

Everything was really great.

And tell folks where they can find see you plant people.

It's on Facebook, just search cu plant people.

And we're there that we do ask a couple of required membership questions, which we need to make sure that you're going to follow the rules that we're sure it is a really nice place.

And people are just lovely to one another.

And so we want to keep that vibe going.

It is even some of our panelists even participate.

I see them in there answering some of the questions, folks.

And so it's really nice.

There's always a lot of dialogue going on with questions.

And every once in a while I see one of our panelists in there helping out.

So again, thank you so much for putting this together.

And we will see you at the next event.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks.

And we are still at the cu plant swap here at Sola Gratia Farms joined by the lovely erin lippitz from fundraising.

And if you have not been watching, we've been talking about how to turn her into a gardener.

Currently, she kills everything, but we're gonna find her plant that she cannot kill.

And we might find one of those today does it exist?

There might be as I kill the cactus ones you don't even really need they don't even water.

Okay, the panelists are answering.

So we can get you a special appointment, figure out what we can do, like help this woman.

She kills plants.

So what brings you out today?

Oh, lovely.

It's gorgeous.

And I'm very happy to be out here today with you guys getting some fresh air.

Seeing all these amazing plants going like all this stuff going on behind it says lots of people here a lot of hustle and bustle.

Isn't it nice to be around people is really nice.

I'm extremely happy to be out here.

But we are going WILL is going into our fun drive.

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It's really easy to do and help make Marion Gardner like a kid turning on the mid american gardener and learns about new plants and how not to kill a cactus.

I didn't know you could do that.

Apparently you can.

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Your gifts today helps make our regional news possible.

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And you're helping Tunisia's roll here expand just a little bit.

So you want to I think it's been announced, but you want to tell everybody about you.

So I've kind of expanded my role at WILL and I'm into the news department as well, which is my background.

Many of you know that I used to work at WCIA.

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Thank you.

Thanks, Erin.

And we want to say thanks to Lauren Quinn for organizing the event and to sola gratia for hosting and to our panelists who came out today to answer questions.

And we hope to be out in the field doing stories like this throughout the summer.

So if you've got an idea, or a garden that you'd like to show off, please let us know.

Email us at yourgarden@gmail.com or you can look us up on Instagram and Facebook.

Just search mid American gardener and thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time