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 this week are three of the A team here to tell you about all things gardening.

Let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about their specialty.

So Phil, we'll start with you.

I'm Phil Nixon, I'm retired extension entomologist with the University of Illinois, so I do bugs.

The creepy crawly guy.

Yes.

All right.

But he's pretty brilliant at it.

My name is Martie Alangna.

And I'm trying to be retired private landscaper, but not quite retired.

I just can't they keep dragging me down what I know.

Yeah.

Okay.

And John.

I'm John Bodensteiner, I'm a vermillion County Master Gardener.

And I've dabbled a little bit of everything even into hobby greenhouses and, and especially shade plants, especially Hostas.

That's your favorite, right?

Besides the tomato King of the universe.

And in person, we've got a great show tonight.

This is going to be an hour long show.

We're going to have some friends visiting us.

So we've got lots to get to.

So Phil, we'll start with you.

You've got some insects you'd like to talk about?

Correct?

Yes.

The, the insects that we've got our I want to talk start out talking about parasitic wasps.

And, and this is what a parasitic wasp typically looks like are very similar to one, I have blue and blue.

Here we go.

TV match.

And, and so the they look a lot like other wasps, except they are very, very small.

There are some larger parasitic wasps that will attack some tree bores and some caterpillars and things of this nature.

But most of them are going to feed on the living cell grow up on the inside of aphids, and, and will incite scalings, insects and other types of caterpillars and things.

And most of them are very tiny, they're typically typical size on most of your parasitic wasps are probably going to be somewhere in the range of about a 32nd of an inch long.

So we're talking about we sizes here.

And the average person sees them and thinks of them as just being they're just some little net, because they don't look old enough to see that they're built like a wasp.

Many of them are like this one that I've got, and that it's been that it's going to be blue, or green, or a combination of the two.

So when I saw this at a trade show, I thought, Man, I gotta have that one.

Even though I'm sure they were trying to do a larger loss and the thing, the important thing about that is that you need to try to attract these to your garden because they do a tremendous job on helping reduce your aphids, caterpillars, other pests that you might have.

And a lot of that is that although the larvae feed on on small insects, the adults are pollen and nectar feeders.

And if you get if you figure think about it, if you're 1/32 of an inch long, you don't have real long mouthparts you are not going to be feeding on the Nectar at the end of a spur or the Columbine.

All right, because it's already 20 times larger than you are.

So what you need are plants that are mainly in the daisy family or other or or in the rain to the daisies or the edge Geranium is one that they always talk about for for parasitic insects.

Things that have very small short nectaries that that these these little mouthparts can get into and get that get that juice that's in there, get that nectar feed on that pollen, pollens, a Hume very good protein source and of course, and of course, nectar to one of these little guys is like eating five candy bars.

So you just get a jolt of sugar.

So so what you want are things that have that tend to have very shallow nectaries in your garden that will feed not only the parasitic wasp but the parasitic flies and your other things that have a long mouthparts like butterflies and moths, and Bs and so on will all like these as well.

So include when you're doing doing uh, not to not to have all a bunch of deep throated things or things that have the flowers are such that you have to be grabbed and and you have to shake a little bit to get loose like the lagoons, sweet peas.

Things like this, I think always have alfalfa from the field crop side.

They literally grab the bug that comes in Then, and they have to jerk to get loose so we get an extra dose upon them that just doesn't work with parasitic wasps and, and so have some of these things that are really easy to get into and to and to access.

And you've got the standing army to attack your pass.

And did you have a photo that goes along?

Yes, there is a tiny little, let's say that's essentially when it's, that's on a on damage from Emerald Ash Borer.

I don't know if that's an emerald ash borer parasite or not, it very likely is or some type of border parasite, but it's a parasitic wasp.

And these border channels are, are an eighth of an inch wide.

So you can get a good idea of this, this insect is maybe an eighth of an inch long, a little bit larger, maybe, but they come in a lot of sizes, but they are small, and they are slender.

And you can see it's very, whilst like many of them are blackish, like this one is or will have some yellow on them, just like your larger loss are, except they're, they're in the realm of the very small, do they have a bite or sting that have a bite or sting, but our skin is way too thick for something that's more so we're for bites.

I mean, when you're, when your jaws are 120 of an inch across.

You can't get to humans can in between them, you know.

And that's, that's really with with with spiders and other biting insects, you got to have a friendly bit bit by a spider, you have to have a spider which is big enough to have big enough jaws to get a fold of human skin between them.

And for most spiders are way too small to even do that.

And so although yes, they can bite.

Are they going to bite?

You know, because you got too thick, heavy skin.

I'm sorry, you know, you're not really an armadillo, but compare to them.

You are.

I like that.

We'll take it.

All right.

Thank you, Optimus.

Marty, we've got a tomato question.

This is from Ellen Robertson.

She says I was wondering why the leaves on my tomatoes are curling inward, they get watered, they've been fertilized, but they just look sickly.

But some of them are blooming.

What do you think about the leaves curling inward?

I would bet shiny nickel that it's spider mites.

And it's probably to spotted spider mites could be red, they're tiny that you can still see them, you know, turn the leaf upside down.

And when the leaf curls like that they're so small, that that's a perfect haven for them.

And also, the weed Berry, the weed barrier written in English, on the ground is a perfect Haven as well for spider mites of any kind because they needed hot and dry.

So underneath that little leaf and the more that curl, the drier it gets, because it's you know, a forms a little tent under there.

They spend a tiny web.

If you flip one of those leaves over, you'll see little things moving and you can they're kind of cream color, but you can barely see they've got a spot or two on them.

And you'll be able to see that with a naked eye or take out your magnifying glass.

I've heard too that if you take one of the leaves, just tap it on a white piece of paper.

Oh, and smear it.

Yeah.

Especially the red ones.

Oh, yeah, the red ones are real.

They'll smear red.

Yeah.

Now are these plants?

Can she save them?

Can they be salvaged?

Well, they still produce them you can but you need to apply any sort of pesticide which has to be a mite aside or you can just use insecticidal soap and out with water.

Follow the directions on the label.

It's very simple.

All this does is smother them because they breathe through their skin their little teeny bugs, okay?

They don't have lungs and nostrils I don't believe do they?

Can you confirm or deny?

So you spray this this thinned out soap solution liquid soap solution on and they smother and die but before that, you can also water in the morning under the leaves.

Spray the spray up, wash off as many of those leaves as you can let them dry and then apply your soap Okay.

And you can do so just to the and you can don't worry about getting it on the top of the leaves because if you're out there with a sprayer, either a spray bottle or a you know with a wand on it doesn't matter.

That's an industry term.

You get underneath the waves.

You get the soap of underneath or the insecticide whichever you use that you choose to use.

And you can even if you do use an insecticide you can also add a little soap because it sticks better up in those little Okay, great.

So you you smother them.

And you may have to do it again in a couple of weeks.

But eventually, you'll get them you can win this war.

Yes you can and the new growth will look dramatic.

We better you can always tell my damage because not only does it cause leaf curl, but it kind of it looks like the green has been eaten out of the leaf.

Because it has.

Now when Phil was talking about parasitic parasitic wasps, you left out the best part.

The mommy Wasp lays the eggs on the undeveloped insect that you don't want.

And then the eggs hatch out in the Edom from the inside.

It's so good.

Sounds like a horror movie.

About just like the Yeah, just like for the alien.

Every entomologist I've seen that movie says there had to be an entomologist.

Yeah.

It's horrible.

But your your red spider mite in the Midwest and the two spotted spider mites are the same insect.

They're red if they grow up under cooler conditions.

Did not know something.

Okay, that's it.

Thank you for keeping me.

John.

We've got about three minutes before we have to talk to our friend Steve.

So I will do the quick one.

Excellent.

This is a varigated rubber tree plant.

Why do I want a variegate?

Well, I think it looks prettier than the other one.

And with variegation, that means wherever you see the white or the yellow, that means the chlorophyll isn't quite as strong there.

And so it's not going to grow as fast.

A lot of people complained.

I don't want to rubber tree they get too big they get they're just too big for my small area.

So that's one nice thing.

Now these are still has, when you break it off, you're gonna get that milky substance.

So anybody that's allergic to any of those milky substance like poinsettias, you have to be careful with this.

Also your pets, you don't want them to be chewing on these.

But is this one that you can kick out of the house for the summer?

Yeah, bring it back in.

Yes.

And it will not survive if it gets below 30.

Okay, but yeah, it's nice.

And if it gets too tall, you can, you can do air layering, which I'm going to be showing I guess your son maybe this Yes, next year, I'll be in the greenhouse.

My son is taking botany and John.

You know, we can do air Larry and with spagna moss around it, and you put that on for about six weeks, it'll form a nice little ball of roots, you cut it off, right above a leaf node.

And that's where you'll get new stems in bada bing new plan, a whole new plant.

Do not overwater this, it doesn't like you want to kind of, you know, I'm testing I'm looking at soil is moist.

You don't need to water, you want to let these dry out.

You don't want them to dry out completely.

If it starts to fade to wilt, you've waited too long.

But just once a week or so give it a good water.

Make sure you have it in a in a pot that drains well good potting soil, what kind of light does it like?

Indirect, indirect, indirect, bright light.

So you want it within a couple feet of a south window, but not indirectly.

You don't want to put it because, again, it's going to you know, these succulents, and they'll they will burn if you put it in too much sun, you know, it'll take, you know, a little bit of direct sunlight, but you just a nice bright room will do.

So I like the color pattern on there.

That's very sturdy, and the red light shows but now when you if you were to take that and propagate it, would it continue to grow variegated or would it revert back to the will?

It will?

Okay, yeah, because I'm just cutting off the top Gotcha.

Giant tissue culture.

Okay, well, let's put a pin in it.

This is great discussion.

We're going to throw it over to our friend Steve and we will be right back.

So Steve, it's all yours.

Thanks Tinisha I love coming on Mid American gardener I always learn something brand new.

Especially now I have a new house over in Urbana with a has a giant landscaping area I can't even say garden because it's wrapped around the house and removing a tree.

It's a whole thing.

So I have a lot of space to work with in my new house.

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Now we go back to Tinisha and Amanda, over over at the desk.

Hi, good evening.

Thanks for tuning in to Mid American gardener.

Happy to be here with you Tinisha.

I wear my green to channel my inner Green Thumb.

Member Relations Manager I'm not a gardener.

That's the problem.

Tunisia is though so we are here today.

It's the end of our fiscal year.

This is our June TV fun drive, as you know.

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Absolutely.

And you know what we are we have so much fun on the show.

As you can tell.

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See what I did, see what I do.

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It's helped me learn to garden, it's helped me put some things into perspective and so better Samus that's, well, our panelists are the panelists to take a class with John and your son.

Yes.

So botany class, maybe that'll help.

I actually really loved the plant he just showed, I feel like maybe I could, I could do that hanging out with John you'll, and the bugs and the little spiders.

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So that's going to be fun look for that eight homes this year to look at.

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All right, thanks, Steven.

We're gonna check back in with you and Amanda in just a bit, but we are back to show Intel's round two.

What are we talking about Phil?

Well back to my daisy, back to the daisy.

One of the things associated with with daisy flowers is and other types of flowers is one of the paths that tend to show up on our trips and trips is like sheep dramatic.

dramatically, we get to hear a single sheep as a sheep, a whole bunch of sheep or sheep, there is no such thing as a threat they do not exist.

Single thrips is a thrips and 150 thrips are 150 thrips just one of my little pet DLP, what they will do is they will get on flowers.

And what we have is flower thrips are many different kinds of thrips.

But they will fly up in the spring and on your flowers you may see streaking that occurs on the blades on the petals.

And this is commonly due to feeding by by flips and flips will have what they call rasping sucking mouthparts they will scrape away the surface, the epidermis of of the leaves or petals and and then feed and then suck up the juices that are there rasping sucking.

And this results in light streaks initially in the leafs our petals, and as it then goes longer in these areas will turn brown and you'll get brownie streaks that are going to be in those petals as well.

And so and so the one that I'm holding and and the pictures that are showing will end up showing the damage associated with with the streaks.

So it's Yeah, right.

I only know petals of various types of, of dark areas and so on.

Although this this flower is going by the wayside, you would expect some dying, dying back.

It's also been around long enough for those light areas to now turn brown due to the areas being damaged by thrips.

And the thrips themselves are very long, slender, insects very tiny again, typically about a 32nd of an inch long and, and very slender insects.

There have a picture of them here that's shows them highly magnified.

But they will just look just a little dashes.

If they're out on the petals, most of them tend to stay in towards the base.

And they will also feed on the pollen and one method of telling on a flower that you have thrips is a typically there's some of the pollen that is scattered out on the petals itself, which is an indication that they've been in there rummaging around and kicking out pollen and so on and so forth.

They look then they're fast, they're very quick.

They will fly to hell riddle branch wings and the adult stage.

And so they actually blow up here in the spring.

One thing but they also cause a problem to gardeners is that particularly the Eastern flower thrips will will attack strawberries and when you have strawberries that tend to be undersized, neurally knobby and whitish at the end, this is typical thrips injury.

And so many times in Illinois, we don't have a lot of ends and the Midwest, we don't have a lot of thrips problems on the strawberries.

But occasionally in the right conditions, right weather conditions.

It can be pretty heavy and so it's for the home gardeners usually not anything treating, worth trading for commercial growers will spray for for the thrips on their strawberries, but and certainly you don't need to worry about that on the flowers.

Just a matter of knowing what you've got and what's happening.

If you want to do anything about thrips insecticidal soap sprays once a week a couple of times should really knock them back kind of the same thing that you would use for termites that Martin already talked about earlier.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right, Marty, we're going to you this is a question about Hollies.

This is from Linda McLaughlin.

After moving here we replaced eight dying Harley bushes with blue combo Hollies in the spring of 21.

They border the front porch on the northeast side of the house.

There's a bit of an overhang from the roof of their front porch so the back of the Hollies seldom get watered from rain.

The Hollies get semi shaded Eastern sunlight in the morning and a bit of southern sunlight in the early afternoon.

This year.

I dressed them with compost.

I've never fertilized them and they are mulch with pine needles and leaves.

She says they just look sad.

Why do they look so sick and spindly are the yellow and brown leaves from just naturally dying or something wrong with them?

Should I fertilize just lots of questions about the holly so this is question 214 And we You have pictures of those so, oh yeah.

landscaper bring it up.

What is your diagnosis?

There's a lot going on with the oral Holly's she didn't she didn't say if they just built the house or not but I'm gonna say that the foundation of the house then how he's between the foundation of the house and the sidewalk.

The the leaching from the concrete.

It just it just sweetens the soil way too much for Hollies.

So that's why they're not glossy green.

Like they should be.

They should be beautiful, glossy green.

I am assuming you would know that they need full sun.

Holly's love full sun and on the northeast corner of the house.

Unless it's only a one story house and unless they're planted out, which you didn't say they were they were close enough to the house, they don't catch rain.

I'm thinking they're deficient in light.

They're deficient in their PH is too high for the soil.

That's that's why they look a little bit chlorotic they look kind of olive green instead of a nice dark glossy green like they should.

You can amend the soil.

You can acidify the soil.

You can use sulfur you can use cottonseed meal you can use ammonium sulfate.

You can use aluminum, but you can talk ourselves but oh and also the spin leanness is because again, an indication that the light is not adequate.

Because Holly's don't grow spindly.

Naturally, they're pretty compact and they're pretty full.

Some of the damage that you see on the yellow and brown leaves might be from winter but probably it's just it's just limping along they are they're just struggling you know the pH is too high.

They like a very acidic soil really, I mean you can use you can acidify it quite a bit and get a soil test kit.

I know I sound like a broken record but yeah, the soil test it matters for plants like this, you know and it really will make a difference whether they live or die.

Most houses are concrete foundations.

Obviously sidewalks are made of concrete net leeches.

What does it line in and soil out of the concrete mix?

It leeches in and you think well I don't run the water on it.

Just me that's what happens.

So yeah, acidify your soil in the new bed where you should be thinking of moving them where they get more.

When you do that, if you move them you can cut them back a little bit take the longer sprouts back to a leaf node or take them completely out in the winter.

You can use an anti desiccant it's a you put a spray on the leaf it just comes ready to use and you just squirt it on there it's like a wax you know kind of like they put on produce but it keeps the the desiccation from the cold cold where winds from drying out those leaves and making them die off.

Also, hot tip do not share your Hollies even should they survive because you're going to move them.

If they do really well.

Don't share them.

Always hand clip Hollies because every leaf you cut in half will die back.

So instead of a few brown and yellow leaves from winter, you'll have a jillion half leaves on the ground.

So don't do that hand clip those highlights.

Okay, got it.

You've got your work cut out for you as Yeah, there are a lot of things you could throw in that exposure, but I'm really feeling like they don't get enough sun.

Okay.

All right, and then Northeast side that they're gonna get that wind.

Yeah.

So that's yeah, during the winter that they're evergreen, and they're going to, they're going to suffer.

Yeah, they can't stand when on the south side of your house would be great.

They don't care how hot it gets or if they're even up against a brick wall, but they need acid soil.

Also mulch them.

And they've got to have more sun.

Okay.

All right, John.

We're back around to you for something fun.

Yeah.

Okay, great, aren't they?

Yeah, so this is I brought a fire stick.

I grabbed this at the greenhouse over the winter and it stayed nice and warm and it's it's gotten quite a bit of sunlight.

So the chlorophyll in it is is very healthy right now the green chlorophyll and this is called you know, it's, it's, I call it fire stick but it's also known as red pencil.

Stick it because of the, you know, it kind of looks like little pencils.

It's in a Euphorbia family.

It's a tender perennial, it does not like to go below 30 degrees for long periods it can tolerate one day or a couple hours.

But that's about it.

It is a succulent.

I have had bloom insignificantly in the wintertime.

Very tiny flowers.

And also, if I saw one place I had a couple of leaves, they're very, very tiny leaves.

And they usually fall off almost as they come on.

So it's not you don't buy you don't grow this for the leaf.

Cooler temperatures to be naked, the cooler temperatures and maybe the last a little bit less sunlight where the chlorophyll is going to suffer.

You know like in our in the autumn where our leaves the leaves turn yellow and, and red.

That's not because the red and yellow wasn't there, it's that the green overwhelms the red and yellow chlorophyll.

So you need to have you want the the chlorophyll to the green chlorophyll to suffer a little bit.

So if I can put this in a cooler place, and maybe not quite as much sun, the the green chlorophyll is going to is is going to die back and that's where the yellow and the red is going to and I've had it at home in the shade and you can start to see it is starting to to yellow a little bit and it's the chlorophyll is dying back.

It does like full sun.

But I mean it's just going to look like this you're not going to get the nice red flag red coloring.

I do get some nice red coloring during the winter in the greenhouse because I put it in a cool place.

The sunlight you don't have the 12 hours of sunlight like we're having now.

But it is a succulent so another thing is you want it and Sandy well drained soil.

It'll it'll it does not like wet feet.

Believe it or not, this can get up to 30 feet tall.

Oh my gosh.

I will never see that ID because we just don't have the right wrong.

This is a plant from Africa and bow near they have the conditions that is perfect.

Most of the time, I can get this to be maybe six feet to eight feet tall.

Can you just pop any of those off, I can pop these off.

That's another thing you have to be this is another one just like the the the rubber tree plant it has a milky substance so people that are allergic to that have to be kind of careful again, it's toxic to to animals, if you are allergic to poison ivy, poinsettias, any of those things, you can still touch this and get a little milk on you.

Just go wash your hands with good soapy water and get rid of it.

So it's just a fun plant.

I just paid pretty.

And I didn't realize this until I've just sitting here, but I must have had.

I've got some virus virus.

I had some some growing next to it.

And apparently a couple of the seeds in there and any little papyrus now apparently, they're drought tolerant.

Which is kind of strange because they like water out of water.

They may not last very long possibly.

It's just a fun little plants I find plant and again, you can break these off at a joint and just put a little bit of rooting hormone on him and put them in a sand bed and you have another whole plant very nice.

That's how I got this one.

Oh, wow.

It was a cutting.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you, John.

All right, we're going to turn it back over to Steve for just a few more minutes and he's going to talk to you about how you can help us do more of this.

Thanks Tinisha and I'm joining along with Amanda here the Tanisha and the mentor American order panelists because it is our June funded Dr asking for gifts of support to help wi ll reach our end of fiscal year goal which is just right around the corner.

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We now go to Tinsiha and Amanda at the table.

Thanks, Steve.

And thanks everybody who's tuning in tonight.

I hope you're enjoying this episode of Mid American gardeners.

30 years you've been on the air.

That's pretty impressive.

How many for us besides vineyard since 2018?

So I'm on my fifth.

Oh, yeah, I'm the baby a member.

We've got some panelists that have been here from the beginning.

It's amazing.

Yes, I mean, and you do such a great job doing double duty tonight over there.

Here.

It's like magic.

We appreciate you being with us.

Always love to be on camera with you.

Even though you're way more professional than me.

You're doing well.

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Yes.

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So wonderful.

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Let's get some new members Yes, we'll be in that garden Walk is a great day by night event.

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All right, thank you, Steve.

Now we are talking about pirate pirate bird bugs.

Okay.

We had to we had to do it.

Now where can we find these lovely creatures, they're gonna be found just about anywhere during the summertime.

There, they are a mixed bag.

They're kind of like yellow jackets, they caterpillars and then they sting us.

This one's kind of similar in that this is one of the major major top natural enemies that's really rough on on aphids on thrips.

In fact, this picture was off the same Daisy that I've just showed you.

Because they were they're feeding on the thrips they're a natural enemy doing that.

They'll feed on small caterpillars, they're very tiny, they're about an eighth of an inch long.

So they're relatively small.

These are both adults, you can see wings on them.

At least I can and, and the the nymphs will be kind of yellowish like the thrips were.

But but but kind of triangular shaped.

So there are definitely different they have piercing mouthparts that will sub juices out.

And where we talked about the parasitic was having two small mouth parts to pierce human skin.

These do it very, very naturally, if you happen to have flowers around your house, or if you go outside during the summertime, anywhere in the Midwest, you're likely to have one of these land on your arm and give you a little nip.

They are quite common.

They are more common.

The more flowers you have around the house, the more other vegetation they don't just occur on flowers, but they will feed on nectar.

In fact, as I was taking pictures of these bears, every once in a while a woman take a nosedive down in in through that mass of yellow pistols There we go.

And Stevens and and get some nectar.

So they were they were feeding on nectar while I was photographing him yesterday.

So kind of camera do you have?

Because that is some Yeah, that definition is very good.

Very good.

I have a good one.

I have a Canon for which the they used to take.

They actually use video sides of that to take commercial movies.

Mad Max.

Yeah, you do the same go 1500 bucks without a lens.

So all right, well, some serious quality here is not a cell phone camera.

That's where all my pictures come from.

But they will bite bite you and they are not going to be repelled by repellents.

In fact, they may very well be attracted by repellents, realize these like flowers, and so they're going to be attracted to floral fragrances.

If you wear perfumes or or, or or fragrance to deodorants, this will tend to attract them to you.

And a lot of many of the programs and many of the insect repellents have fragrances in them to make them smell better to us.

Herbal repellents are going to be very fragrant as well and attract these.

So they will really attract to you.

I find them biting me most commonly on my arms or my wrist.

But there's just a little nip.

I have heard people that save a risk.

We respond to it in a little red bump, but most people don't.

But it's just one of those sayings that we put up with his gardeners.

And if you seem to get nipped, and then you look down in there's this itty bitty little bug or you can't see anything.

Chances are if that's what it was, you're outdoors, just shake my fist and cuss the pirate, but how did they get that name?

Do you know scenaries what they want from the peanut section?

My guess I don't really know.

But I would guess that because of a pirate flag is black and white and they are black and white.

That is probably where it is.

And and of course the other thing is is they're sneaky, you know, run up and nail you without realizing what's going on.

So they kind of act like pirates.

Okay, and I've never heard him say argh before, but not yet.

We're not gonna listen real well.

Okay, thank you.

That is our lesson on pirate bugs.

All right.

We're gonna do two questions with Marty.

She's got a couple of short ones.

This is from Mark lane.

He has a question about So earlier in the program.

We talked about Allium and Ella talked about spray painting them to kind of dress them up in the garden.

So we've had two questions come in and ask Will the seed still be viable if they have spray paint on them?

So The seeds are perfectly viable.

The issue is if the paints aren't thick enough that the little capsule that the seeds contained in can't break open.

So at the end of the season, you can just crush them up, you know, crush the heads up.

And you'll I mean, the seeds are pretty good size.

They're easy to see.

So you can just just scrunch them up and sprinkle that all around and Todd doll, your business, black things, round black things.

Bite, you know, those are flat pack.

Yes.

Okay, they do bind to their horrible.

Let's see Mandy Webster wrote in how do I keep squirrels from digging in my flowerpots, and I'm all ears because I'm going through it to chipmunks and squirrels in mine as well.

Yes.

I have heard people have great success, putting plastic forks upside down in the blank, prongs up, prongs up, see put the handle in there, like, try that?

To sit on, yeah, or begin Yeah, get out.

Obviously, you could put some sort of a fence wire grid over the top, you're gonna have to secure it somehow, but that would keep them from digging in your plants have to be able to go through it.

So that I mean, it's all it's all about barrier.

I don't, I don't think there's anything that will deter them that you can just kind of get creative.

Yeah, you can't.

Like you can't apply a deer repellent or something like that.

I don't know.

I don't know about human hair.

I don't know if they would be repelled by that, but I don't think they would.

I know people swore by capsaicin for a long time and bird fears.

And I had a big ol hackberry in our backyard before he passed away.

And the squirrels just lived in it.

There was it was a haven there was generations of squirrels living in the hackberry.

And I put capsaicin because they were just robbing all the seeds, you know, and they don't eat the seed now just they just pull it out and make a mess.

Want to look at it?

Yeah.

So there was plenty of pepper in there.

But the birds can't taste it.

So it doesn't bother them.

But mammals, that's a different story.

And I distinctly remember looking out the window, one of the upstairs Windows one day, and there's the squirrel, he runs back toward the tree on this big long branch.

And he turns around, he looks back down.

And then he just lays flat on the branch he goes.

And I thought, God, yeah, hope it burns your mouth here.

That's the best you're gonna be able to do that is by these bike mats to keep cats from digging in the gardens that I think would probably work for that.

pine cones too sometimes.

I've also heard that balls from sweet gum, the seedpods a little round spiky balls.

They can they can do an effective deterrent for rabbits in the garden because they don't like walking around and if you don't mind the look of the mulch and I wouldn't if they can.

Yes, yes.

Okay, well, you've got some options.

Let's see, we're going to John, this is question 216.

From Mary Dickinson.

She says this is a four year four or five year old Hardy fig that I just repotted into this large pot.

Should I prune it in?

If so, where should I make cuts on the tree?

And we do have a photo of this question to 16.

So do you you've said you have a food John, I have a I have one but it's outside in the soil.

Nature prunes it to the ground each winter.

Got it.

And then it comes back.

So I was gonna say yes, she can definitely prune it, she can cut it off to whatever height she wants, it's going to actually encourage more fruiting.

If she does that.

She wants to do it near a leaf mode so that where the leaves are and and that's going to, that's where the fruits actually come out.

The figs themselves are actually flowers.

Different flower, that there's a I believe a wasp that actually crawls in and Oh, fertilizers, learn your licenses.

And of course the wash doesn't occur in this part of the world.

Right but you don't need them fertilized to have no eggs because you don't have we're not producing seeds.

We're not gonna get fig seeds got pineapple.

You know, as you do that, if you top that off, don't throw that top away.

Go and get some written compound and put that in your wet bed and you're gonna get another whole fig tree.

As you you know, in they're gonna go dormant at certain times.

Being she's got hers in a pot if she does brings it in before it does go dormant.

She's not going to notice as much of a leaf drop, once it does go dormant, she could actually trim it to the ground, it may put up more shoots, you can have up to four or five shoots out of one routing route.

And, you know, the side shoots, if you're getting a lot of side shoots, you may want to trim some of those off because it's going to take away from the actual growth of the plant shares of close to five years old.

And it should be getting fixed because that three to five years is when you you start to get figs on your plant.

Okay.

Winter Summer pruning, there's difference, you know, you know, in the wintertime, you can give it a hard prune during the summer you just want to do the small side shoots the you know, like any kind of cleaning in tomatoes and things where you take the suckers and that thing, but they're fun too.

I love they're just so delicious to eat right off the plant.

Oh, okay, I'm gonna throw it back to Steve one more time.

Thanks, Tanisha.

I'm Steve Moore Q with you.

During Mid American gardener just asking for gifts of supports to wi ll and shows like men American gardener at 217-244-9455.

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It's 217-244-9455 online at will give.org Now Tanisha and Amanda to you.

Thanks Steve and thank you all for tuning in and American gardener it's a pleasure being here today.

We're gonna hear from the panelists one more time after this but we are wrapping up the end of our June fun drive this week.

And we'd love to hear from you love to get some new members even members who already give we see you we thank you.

Maybe if you're in a place we're able to increase a little bit we'd love that to every little bit we have these great gifts that we are always so happy to push on people but mug the book The combo for both that's $15 you get both of these our passport benefit so always so much to offer always so much going on here so give us a call 217-244-9455 You can go online to will give.org Absolutely.

And are you on we've talked before about your green gardening so my husband's amazing he just got everything planted this weekend you know I love it.

I appreciate it.

I respect it.

I'm scared of bugs.

Yes I am.

Phil comes on like there's an overbooked worry about the pirate bugs but Does it bite does it stay in what do I need to be ready for worms?

I know this yes so cliche I know they do amazing things for you.

They do they're just making me squeamish but I really do appreciate probably to go on we have these garden walk tickets to I should say for those who make donations tonight the first five donations you get a pair of these.

I should go and take notes.

I will call in to get one of these but I think that would just be a really fun trip to take pictures.

I have a lot to learn you though you are probably pro Tell me about your card not at home bro.

I'm still learning.

Yes.

What's your favorite garden sugarsnap peas are my absolute favorite and they are on the scene like over the weekend.

They all just popped in so my son my youngest not my teenage son because he can't but we just go out there and just pop them off the vine and they don't even make it into the house.

Wow.

So yeah.

Watermelon and green beans or Yes, I haven't pressed ours but yes we do a lot of food I always pictured like tomatoes too and then you make your own salsa like that.

Yeah, so cool in theory.

Martinez helped me baby with my tomato garden.

Don't give up don't give up.

There's hope for you.

Yes there is well if there's hope for you.

And you need some tips and you need to keep watching but American gardener it is because of viewer support from you that ensures that the future of the show and the lovely Tanisha stays on air.

So give us a call if you can 217-244-9455 you can text the word give to that Same number 217-244-9455 You can go online to will give.org.

We'd love to hear from new people today to those garden walks.

I mean when you see some of the work that folks put into their trash, I mean that requires constant attention.

Thanks something that won't have that kind of time ever.

But when your kid just makes such a fun time to just kind of stroll along and see some great things, beauty out there, so wonderful.

Well, we'd love to give those away give us a call 217-244-9455 or go online to will give.org And I think my neighbor's house is on that garden walk so you won't see my house on it.

This year, maybe eventually but shows like a Mid American gardener make the make it possible to learn about how to do those things.

And you can learn how to do different things like garden, make a garden part of garden walk, grow your own food, make sure you know what tree to trim, or how much of it to trim.

All right here from an American gardener.

You can do this oh and support it at 217-244-9455 also online at will give.org Maybe that $5 a month level which is a level I like to give it gives you access to wi ll passport and all the things that are available from wi ll TV, and so much more.

It's 217-244-9455 Or five, five online it will give.org your donations go to support all the local programming that we do here, including men, American gardener, it's 217-244-9455 online at will give.org.

And thank you.

Alright, thanks so much, Dave.

We've got a few minutes left and a couple of questions we'd like to tackle for you.

We're going to start with Phil.

Vicki PERRY ELLIS wants to know what is the best treatment for aphids on roses.

Right now she's using soapy water.

Well, soapy water is correct, whether it should be insecticidal soap, not anything that you're making up yourself.

We've had some I've had some peers around the country who have looked at various types of soaps and so on.

And, and some of them like Dawn and ivory are downright toxic to most plants will kill them very quickly.

But insecticidal soap which you can purchase as that at your garden center is formulated to kill bugs and not kill plants.

And they will work well.

Important thing is you would use them once a week a couple of times and then wait to see if he aphids build up.

Because when you're spraying out on there, you're also killing a little parasitic wasp that are the natural enemies that are killing your aphids for your friends and your friends.

And give them a chance.

Don't just kill them too.

So if the aphid start to build up, then you spray.

You don't want to do a calendar spray on roses or any other plant for aphids.

Okay, excellent.

All right, Marty, we're gonna go to you question 213 This is from Barbara Bundy.

She says my daughter's garden is overrun with this.

Unfortunately, we shared hostas and now we all have it.

What is it?

And how can we get rid of it?

I thought this was Jim evens.

It's it's like a non variegated type of Bishop's weed or snow on the mountain people call it sometimes it's the variegated kind, I can see planning it don't throw rocks, there are places that are tough enough to grow something in that that stuff will live and look nice.

But at the same time will not take over this the county, you know, but this is the green, it's a native plant is the green variety and it's just not attractive.

It has it'll have the same little stock with and with a little jumble of flowers on the end but they're just it's it does nothing.

Okay, so we got about a minute left.

I want to get one more question and pull it just waterwell and then pull it out water and pull it okay, this is the last one this is for John.

This is from Peggy is a biggie is it safe to plant veggies next to a womanizer wood fence I looked at I looked at the manufacturers and they said do not okay unless you have an impervious liner between the wood and the soil.

So I would not what you might do is plant some flowers in between to soak up any chemicals that are leaching and then put up a plastic liner and then plant your vegetables if that's where your garden is, but the manufacturer does not recommend planting edible vegetables or food plants next to that type of wood.

Okay, we are fresh out of time.

Thank you guys so much for coming in and staying with this far longer show and thank you so much for joining us tonight.

If you have any questions, send them into us at your garden@gmail.com or you can look for us on socials.

Just look for Mid American gardener and we will see you next time.

Good night.