Making It Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture Certified South Carolina Grown helps consumers identify, find and buy South Carolina products.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 22 varieties of peaches.

Additional funding provided by International Paper and the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance.

♪ <Amanda> Well, good evening and welcome to Making It Grow .

We're so glad that you can join us tonight.

I'm Amanda McNulty.

I'm a Clemson Horticulture agent, and our show is a collaboration between SCETV and Clemson University.

We have a great group of experts here to answer your questions, but before we do that, Terasa Lott, who is an indispensable member of our crew, usually starts us off instead of with a problem that needs an answer, with some beautiful pictures that some of our viewers have been kind enough to share with us.

Terasa, do we have some Gardens of the Week?

<Terasa> We do, Amanda.

This has become such a fun part of the show, getting to look at what's going on all across the state and even in some of our neighboring states.

We begin tonight with Todd Beckman, who shared a small area of flowers, a bird feeder and a bird bath.

Patsy Lupton has a beautiful coral bean, or some people might call it Cherokee bean that is attractive to hummingbirds.

Lee Anderson Cates shared his pink potted geranium.

Laura Killburn has a really interesting mix of hydrangeas and hostas.

I love the different colors going on here.

Cathy Land also has a wildlife habitat area, complete with several bird houses and a bird bath.

And we are wrapping things up with a photo of a Venus flytrap that is flowering.

And this was sent in by Alice Paidas.

And we learned that she was very surprised by the flowers.

I was, too.

I've seen Venus flytrap growing in the wild, but have never seen them in flower.

Thanks to everyone who submitted photos.

Please do visit our Facebook page.

There are far more submissions than we could ever share in one episode.

<Amanda> Well, thank you.

And Terasa, the other thing that you do for us that's such a help is you and Vicki and several other agents are always asked, answering and getting questions from people that are submitted in a variety of forms.

And I think you bring a group of them every time we film, that we get our experts to help us.

So let's start with the top of the stack.

How about it?

<Terasa> I think that's a plan.

Well, I know I love cooking with fresh herbs and like to dry them, too, for use when maybe they're not available fresh.

I think Alfonzo has the same idea.

He's from Ridge Spring, and he asks, "What herbs can I grow that can be used in the fall?"

<Amanda> Uh huh.

Well, we're so fortunate to have Rob Last with us.

Rob is an Extension agent who helps the people down on the Barnwell and surrounding areas.

And although he has a British accent and the British aren't necessarily known as the very best cooks except for baking with sugar.

Rob, I've got to tease you a little bit.

I think that you enjoy herbs, and maybe you can help us with this.

<Rob> Absolutely, I'll be thrilled to, Amanda, and yes, you did right.

We do enjoy baking with sugar, and I'm told that's one of my strong points.

So some really good options for herbs for the fall can be things like basil, parsley, cilantro.

You can certainly get oregano to go to grow, marjoram.

A lot of those big clusters of annuals, but you could also try things like rosemary's, thymes, and lavender as well for a different situation.

I do like my steaks grilled with lavender and rosemary.

It adds a really nice flavor.

<Amanda> Lavender and rosemary?

<Rob> Absolutely.

So those would be classed as the more perennial herbs.

The annual herbs, we can start to grow from seed round about the late summer, so late August, early September, when we want to start to get them to go.

We'd be looking at using a seed mix or seed germination compost mix.

Now with parsleys and coriander, particularly cilantro, they could be really tricky to get to germinate, so they require quite a lot of water to get through the thick, hard outer shell.

So there's an easy trick for this.

If you plant them, if you set the seeds into a pot and then cover it with a plastic bag, you keep the humidity inside the pot and it just keeps the moisture inside the pot available for seed germination.

Now, also, take the plastic bag off when it germinates because we don't want to increase any disease potential.

I usually grow my basil in a pot so I can bring it inside through the winter and extend its life.

That makes life a lot easier and gives me fresh basil for a much longer period into the fall and into the winter.

So there's some really good, really good options to go out into the yard.

And at the end of it, when they start to come into flower, we can always utilise the flowers for attracting pollinators into our yards and providing a food source for pollinators earlier on in the year when there may not be quite so many other things in flower.

So there are really good options to have in the landscape.

<Amanda> When I first moved to St. Matthews, Rob, a long time ago, a friend had, I believe, Laurus nobilis.

Is that what the bay leaves come from?

And they would freeze every year and come back, I mean, the leaves would turn yellow and it looked like it would pop back out.

But I have one now.

And with the differences that we're seeing in climate, mine stays green all year.

And that's another thing you can consider having, as you said, like rosemary, which is going to be with you all the time, a bush, a perennial.

I think people consider having a Laurus nobilis in their yard, too.

And it's so much fresher when you have it instead of in a jar from the store, don't you think?

<Rob> Oh, absolutely.

Fresh bay leaves have such a wonderful flavour and aroma.

<Amanda> And then I know that not everybody likes Easten Red cedars as much as I do, but the female Eastern Red cedar which gets that beautiful fruit on it.

I know it's not really a berry, but if you can beat the cedar waxwings with it, that's another very interesting thing to cook with sometimes too.

So I think sometimes we overlook some things that are just out there provided by nature.

How about it?

<Rob> Absolutely.

<Amanda> Well, I want you to pay us a visit in Sumter and bring us some something herby and also something that's sweet and very English in character.

How about it?

<Rob> I'll be sure to do that for you, Amanda.

<Amanda> Ok, thank you so much.

Our water resources team does a great job of educating people around the state on the importance of protecting all of our water sources.

And Katie Altman and Karen Jackson, two of our grand agents who fall under that category, went out and sampled several different water sources.

And by looking at the macro invertebrates that they found, could tell us about the purity of the water.

♪ <Katie> Hi, I'm Katie Altman, Clemson Extension Water Resources agent based in Sumter County, and today I'm joined by Karen Jackson, a fellow Water Resources agent.

Karen, tell us a little bit about the area of the state you cover.

<Karen> Hey, Katie.

I'm the Pee Dee area water resources agent with some statewide responsibilities, and I'm based out of the Richland County office.

>>I'm really excited because today we get to talk about one of our very favorite topics, and we've got some really cool clips and interesting facts, so let's jump right into it.

>> So in this video we're sampling for aquatic macro invertebrates, and we're doing this so we can figure out if the stream is healthy.

>> It might be difficult to tell if a stream or pond is healthy just by walking by and looking at it, right?

And you can sample some chemical conditions like pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and water clarity.

>> Another way to quickly assess water quality and habitat provided by the water body is by sampling for aquatic macro invertebrates.

These are organisms that lack an internal skeleton, and can be seen without a microscope.

"Aquatic" means they live in the water.

>> So the presence and diversity or number of different species of aquatic macro invertebrates can give us a pretty good idea of how healthy an aquatic habitat is.

>> Right, and the taxa or group of related organisms can also tell us about the health of our stream or pond, because some macro invertebrates are more sensitive to pollution than others.

It's also important to know that you don't have to identify these aquatic organisms all the way to genus or species to give you a sense of water quality.

A quick look to see what orders are present is enough to make a general assessment.

>> Today, we'll talk about several different macro invertebrates and we'll classify them as sensitive, somewhat sensitive or tolerant.

A tolerant species is able to live in a water body, even if it has been heavily impacted by human activity and pollution.

A somewhat sensitive species can handle somewhat impacted environments, and a sensitive species needs a very healthy aquatic environment to survive.

It's important to know that you might find tolerant species even in a healthy aquatic environment.

But you'll also see a diverse population of sensitive and somewhat sensitive species.

And if we only find tolerant species, that might suggest it may be impacted by pollution and nothing else can live there.

Let's take a look at three different water bodies and see what macro invertebrates we can find.

>> Our first dream is in the Pee Dee River basin.

This stream receives runoff from a mix of neighborhoods and wooded areas.

Runoff is water that runs over the ground and may pick up pollution along the way.

This is a crane fly larva from the family Tipulidae.

They're a somewhat sensitive family that feeds on leaf litter or dead leaves at the bottom of the stream.

This makes them a very important part of stream habitats as they break down leaves and prevent them from building up in the stream.

Crane fly larva spend anywhere from six weeks to several years in the water, but only survive for less than a month once they've emerged as an adult.

Many of the aquatic macro invertebrates we'll see today have really complicated life cycles and look real different as adults.

This is what an adult greenfly looks like.

>> We also found this freshwater clam in the sample.

It's a somewhat sensitive species with a fleshy body enclosed between two clamped shells.

In the video, you can see the clam moving across the tray with its foot.

>> Our next stream site is located in the Savannah River Basin.

It's surrounded by mostly forest and is unimpacted by human activity.

>> It might look like Karen's just holding a bunch of sticks, but there are actually macro invertebrates in there, this macro invertebrate is called a case-building caddisfly.

It's a sensitive order that builds a protective case using items found in the stream like leaves and sand.

Using these natural materials can help them camouflage and hide from predators by blending into the environment.

This is what an adult caddisfly looks like.

This is a flat headed mayfly nymph in the family Heptageniidae.

You can see that it's very flat, which helps it cling to rocks and fast moving water.

Here you can also see its gills moving.

It's a sensitive species that cannot tolerate pollution and requires plenty of oxygen.

>> We also found stone fly nymph in this stream.

Stone flies are among the most sensitive of aquatic insects and are generally only found in swift moving water with high levels of dissolved oxygen.

Here's an adult stone fly.

The last water bottle we sampled is a little different because it's a pond in the Catawba River basin.

We used a different sampling technique here.

In the streams we've seen so far, Karen used a D frame net to scoop leaf litter and macro invertebrates out of the stream.

But in the pond, we put out leaf packs, which are mesh bags full of leaves.

Aquatic macro invertebrates will crawl into the decaying leaves to hide or feed.

We tied the leaf packs to metal stakes so they wouldn't drift away and remain submerged.

After a few weeks, we came back to see if any macro invertebrates were present.

>> This is a midge fly larva.

It's a tolerant species that can live in polluted areas.

Large numbers of midge fly larva may be an indicator of poor stream health.

>> And this is a dragonfly nymph.

It looks a lot different than the adult dragonflies we see flying around, right?

Dragonflies start their lives in the water where they can stay for up to four years.

They have large mouthparts for catching prey and they can move around quickly by shooting water out of their rear ends.

>> This is an adult dragonfly that has just recently emerged from the water.

The dragonfly nymph had to crawl out of the water and shed its hard exoskeleton.

And you can see it here clinging to the mushroom it's sitting on.

This adult dragonfly will stay here for a little while to dry out and finish extending its new wings before it flies away.

>> That dragonfly was such a cool find, Karen.

Thanks for coming in and joining me to talk about aquatic macro invertebrates and how they can serve as indicators for aquatic habitat health.

>> Thanks, Katie.

This is always a really fun topic, so I'm always happy to go out to our local streams and see what we can find.

So I look forward to going out again.

<Amanda> It's fascinating to see that by examining the invertebrates, they can see the actual quality of the water and as homeowners, there's so many tips that we've gotten from the storm water and water resources team that we should be following to do our part as well, to try to make sure that clean drinking water is available for all of us.

And I want to say that we're so proud of them because they won a Telly award.

We just got notification not too long ago for that wonderful segment.

Teresa, I think you've got a question that you've been collecting, and this one is from a viewer.

What can we try to do?

Who can we try to help?

<Terasa> Well, hopefully we can help Samuel from Leesville.

Samuel says, "I grew up thinking that all gardenias looked like the ones in my grandmother's yard, but my friend just showed me one that looks more like a daisy.

Are there varieties that I might add to spice things up in my yard?"

<Amanda> Oh, well, we're so fortunate that Keith Mearns, the Director of Grounds at Historic Columbia is with us, because I don't know anybody who knows about new stuff more than Keith.

I don't see how he does it because he keeps all those properties looking so beautiful and then he has time to do research.

And every time I turn around, he's got something brand new that he's going to tell us about.

Keith, I bet you know something about some different varieties of gardenias.

<Keith> Absolutely.

We have a number of different gardenia cultivars, that is, cultivated variety, across our sites with the highest number of those being at the Hampton-Preston Mansion.

<Amanda> Well, tell us about gardenias and what they like and tell us what some of these new ones look like and if they're easier or about the same as far as care and requirements.

<Keith> Yes, I guess I wouldn't say that they're necessarily easier.

I think that all gardenias kind of, regardless of the cultivar, sort of require the same cultural issues.

And honestly, the largest issue that I encounter with the gardenias is that when you install them, you really need to remove any of that potting media that's not really tied up with the roots.

That's extremely important.

You know, most of our soils here, at least in the Piedmont South Carolina, are a clay.

Anything that's heavier than sand is going to interact with that potting media such that the plant has a difficult time.

The plant will dry out faster than the ground, and it's really important to remove that excess potting media for gardenias.

<Amanda> Well, and Keith, I guess when you're doing that at the same time, and so many people are so afraid to kind of wash the roots, but you can also then if you see any problems with roots that are encircling or have gotten wrapped around the stem, it's going to reveal all that, too, isn't it?

<Keith> Yes, if you happen to get a gardenia, maybe it's on sale.

Maybe it was on the on the discount rack at the nursery.

It may be pot bound.

So that may be something you want to correct.

And you can either tease those roots out, or sometimes you can just sever the ones in the outside to prevent that circling from continuing.

<Amanda> Well, do talk about some of the cultivars, please?

<Keith> Yeah, so the first one I'm going to mention is probably one that most people have seen.

It's called August Beauty.

The leaves are not the largest leaves you might see in a gardenia.

They're somewhere between what I call the standard size gardenia and the dwarf gardenia.

August Beauty is a tough plant.

And if you want to do sort of a hedge, an informal hedge of gardenias, this is a good one for that.

And we really don't use a hedge trimmer on them.

We actually go in and just sort of tip prune and head back the plants when they start to get a bit floppy.

But August Beauty is a great one.

Another good one that's closer to your standard size or large type gardenia is a neat one called Kaleidoscope, and it's a variegated one.

It has white and yellowish variegation and sort of a splashy, irregular pattern on the leaves.

And this is one of the ones that may have inspired the comment from the viewer about daisy shaped flowers.

This one has single flowers, which is something closer to what you might see in the wild species.

Most of the gardenias that you see are double flowered.

So your grandmother's gardenia probably has twice the number of petals actually that it would normally have.

But Kaleidoscope has the single row of petals, which is nice.

It has star shaped blooms.

<Amanda> Keith, sometimes you've told me that things that are variegated need a little more shade.

What kind of exposure do gardenias need?

I didn't mean to...

I know you've got a lot more to tell us, but just what kind of exposure do gardenias need in general?

And does this variegated one have any different requirements?

<Keith> Well, as it turns out, this variegated plant doesn't, probably just because I don't really recommend all day sun for any gardenias.

If they're going to get any sun, they really should get it in the first half of the day.

It really shouldn't be all day.

And the other thing to keep them healthy is to make sure there's really good air movement around the plants that sort of discourages the white flies and other pests that get on there and cause issues with the gardenias.

And so because of those requirements, the variegated leaf cultivars don't really need different from regular gardenias.

<Amanda> OK, well, tell us about some others.

<Keith> Another one is a Japanese cultivar called Ogon-no-hana.

And this one has chartreuse leaves.

So it's kind of a yellow color, but very bright, sort of luminescent, really, with a little bit of green variegation in there.

And this one does have the great big old double blooms that you might be used to, quite large.

Excellent.

We have a huge drift of these at Hampton-Preston Mansion.

And then the last gardenias I'll mention are the dwarf gardenias, and these ones you tend to see around not looking so great.

And the reason for that is in my mind, is that because they're a dwarf plant, they are chosen frequently for municipal landscapes because they do like a dwarf plant in those landscapes.

And those are very difficult landscapes for gardenias to survive in, especially the ones that are our bargain priced.

So, but really, they have the same requirements as the large ones.

And so the standard green leaf dwarf gardenia is usually called Radicans, jasminoides Radicans, and we do have those.

And kind of a neat one that I got from Nurseries Caroliniana in North Augusta is called Silver Lining.

And it really, you know, it has sort of the same ultimate size as Radicans, but it has this beautiful cream border on all the leaves, and it is a little bit slower than Radicans.

Maybe good for a container in the shade where you can see it nice and up close, but really a pretty little plant.

<Amanda> And that way, even when it's not in bloom, you get a little bit of drama and special effect in your garden.

<Keith> Yeah, you can even use the dwarf ones as a bonsai subject.

<Amanda> Oh, well, you're gettin' over my head now, Keith.

I'm going to try to keep mine alive.

Since you were talking about air circulation and all, do you ever think it's good to go in and actually make some pruning, thinning cuts in a gardenia that's really, really thick?

Is that ever suggested?

<Keith> Yes.

For whatever reason, they can tend to grow tall and flop a bit, flop over, get back down towards the ground.

And it's really good to get in there and go back a couple of nodes.

So, places where the leaves meet the stem.

Go back in there, you know, two or three or even four nodes and cut right above that, and do that in sort of randomly spaced intervals.

And I find when I do that, the plant doesn't look necessarily like it's been cut back too much.

You can kind of hide that.

<Amanda> And you say you have examples of these.

A good many of them are at the Hampton-Preston or the Robert Mills or which of the houses?

<Keith> The Hampton-Preston Mansion is where the majority of them are.

<Amanda> And I believe that admission to the gardens is free, is it not, Keith?

<Keith> It is, yeah.

We are open Tuesday to Sunday.

The weekend hours are a bit different, but during the week we're 10 to 4pm.

Thursday, actually, we're open until I want to say 7 o'clock on Thursday evenings.

Free and open to the public - the gardens.

<Amanda> Ok, so we can go to your Web site and find out about that.

And later in the day, parking might be easier too.

I don't know.

<Keith> Well, parking is great in our neighborhood, actually, there's a lot of parking that doesn't even have any meters.

So it's really never a problem for you.

<Amanda> Ok, well, that's certainly a nice thing to hear because I've never got a quarter on me.

I tell you.

It's kind of the credit card world, isn't it?

Well, thanks, Keith.

That was fascinating information.

I'm going to come and take a stroll one day and look at those beautiful plants that you've got established up there.

It's always fun to see new varieties, and y'all have never failed to entertain us and provide us with new materials when we come up there, and I know you've got that Web site too, that makes it easy.

Even if you're not standing there, I can go in and find out what something is, I believe.

<Keith> Yes, we have a garden database on our website that contains all the plants we have across our properties and we're working to add pictures to all of them.

But they're all in there.

<Amanda> Well, y'all are remarkable people.

My hat's off to you.

Terasa, I want to always remind people that if they want to get a question answered, they can reach out to you sometimes just through your email, isn't that right?

<Terasa> Sure, I think all Extension agents try to be as accessible as possible, so our Facebook page, Making It Grow Facebook page is a great way to reach out, but email is good as well.

<Amanda> Well, tell me one of the questions that you've gotten.

<Terasa> Well, this one is near and dear to my heart because I really enjoy baking apple pie.

And Michele in Florence would like to know which apples are the best for cooking.

<Amanda> So we're lucky that we have Kerrie Roach, who is an Extension agent in Oconee County.

And that's where we've got some of our apples, South Carolina apple growers.

Kerrie, are there certain apples that are better for making pies with, or even some people, I think, like to put applesauce up and then have it all all year?

What do you think?

<Kerrie> For sure, there are definitely different varieties that work better for even baking versus cooking.

<Amanda> Oh!

<Kerrie> Yeah.

So I think one of the ones that we always think of first is the Granny Smith, right?

That tart, real crisp bite in an apple.

So if you're looking for a real crisp taste of an apple, real strong apple taste, that would be one that I would go for.

As far as baking.

As far as applesauce, you're looking for that really high sugar content.

You want a sweet apple, right?

You want sweeter applesauce.

So you might be looking for something that's a little bit sweeter or mixed in some of those higher sugar content apples.

But in general, if we're baking or cooking, we're using a harder apple, like a Rome, an Arkansas Black, a Stayman, Winesap, even those Red Delicious that I know are kind of polarizing for some people.

You either love them or you hate them, right?

But those are going to be the ones that work really well for baking or cooking.

And then, you know, that Golden Delicious, Gala, those types of things are going to be more of those fresh fruit apples or fruit bowls, fruit salad type things that fresh fruit.

<Amanda> Kerrie, some people like to take little excursions with their families and head up towards the mountains in these hot days, and I've been up towards Hendersonville and I'll see these large apple distributors, I guess.

And I guess they have all kinds.

I would think if I went in and talked with them, they'd probably be able to make a suggestion to me from what they have, what they're picking and have available then.

I would think they'd be kind of experts on all that, don't you?

<Kerrie> Yeah, for sure.

I would always ask.

Don't just assume that whatever you pick up is going to be really great for what you want.

Ask the grower, ask whoever is there at the market stand.

They'll be able to give you some advice because, you know, if you pick a Golden Delicious later in the season, it's gonna be pretty soft.

<Amanda> Oh, okay.

<Kerrie> Instead of having those nice chunks of apple in your pie, you're going to have mush.

And that's important to know later on in the season.

But it's going to taste amazing as a fresh fruit because it's going to have such a high sugar content.

<Amanda> Oh, so I guess that just means it just goes to show you that that timing is going to affect the texture and the amount of sugar that the same apple could have.

<Kerrie> It does for sure.

And so if you're looking at trying to do some canning or food preservation, a great place to take, do all of your research for that is going to be that Home and Garden Information Center Web site, and they'll have good instructions on how to do that.

So when you decide, hey, I've got too many apples, I'm overwhelmed.

I want to add some that I can use later in the season.

That's a great place to look for those informational sheets.

<Amanda> Yeah, we forget that it's not just gardening and plant information.

And there's a lot of person that you can talk to there, too.

We have experts in food safety there as well as experts in plants.

Thank you, Kerrie.

That was really, really good information.

Terasa, you came up with the idea for Gardens of the Week .

It has gotten so popular that now we've expanded it to sometimes having more pictures of one person's garden.

And I believe you've got one of those for us tonight.

<Terasa> We sure do.

We are going to take an in-depth look at the Garden of Joanne Vines, which happens to be the neighbor of one of our Making It Grow family members.

So let's explore.

♪ <Amanda> Joanne certainly does have a lovely garden, and we appreciate her letting us take photographs of it and share all the hard work that she puts into it with you.

I know you enjoyed seeing it, too.

Oh, goodness.

It's kind of hard sometimes to find something for a hat, and this one didn't like being in the refrigerator too much, I don't think.

But it has some Crinum on it and a hydrangea that got a little bit droopy, but you have to forgive me because I have to bring 'em over here in water and then make them and put them in the refrigerator.

And I think it sat in the refrigerator longer than it wanted to.

But it is a hat.

Well, Teresa, I know you've got another question that's come to the top of the pile, so let's hear it.

<Katie> This one comes from Evelyn near me over in Society Hill, Evelyn says, "I have mums planted in the ground, and they always get tall and leggy.

What can I do to keep them looking fuller?

<Amanda> Oh, you know, some of the mums that are perennials are just beautiful in the garden, but not if they fall all over and lie on the ground.

Cory, have you ever grown these perennial mums and had any success with them?

How do you keep them looking nice?

<Cory> Oh, I certainly do, Amanda.

I love the old fashioned garden mums, kind of pass along plants that a lot of gardeners share amongst themselves, but they do tend to get a little out of control, which I kind of like.

You know, I don't need everything to be perfectly manicured.

But there's one simple thing that I do with my mums, and that's to give them a haircut midsummer.

Sometimes I do this twice in June and July.

We actually basically cut the plants back in half.

You know, they they bloom in the fall, of course.

And so you can do that to shorten the overall height and it will also cause branching.

So you'll get more blooms and you can make the stems a little bit sturdier that way so that they don't flop as bad.

They'll still flop a little bit, but that's ok.

But I like to do this in mid summer.

In fact, I've been doing it in my garden here recently, cutting back some of these mums.

Sometimes, depending on how they're growing, I might give them a little dose of fertilizer at the same time.

But remember, that'll encourage more growth as well, that may not be desirable.

So you just kind of have to pay attention and get to know your plants and how they grow.

And the great thing about garden mums, like I said earlier, is they're shareable.

So a lot of times in the in the fall, well actually in the spring of the year when they first start to reemerge after winter, it's a good time to dig sections of them and share them with your friends or moving them around in your own landscape through through division.

And they're also easy to propagate from stem cuttings as well before they bloom.

<Amanda> Goodness!

<Cory> Mums are great.

They're kind of a filler plant because most of the year they're just, they're just foliage.

But then you get that blast of color in the fall that's really amazing.

And also these old fashioned varieties of particularly the single types are really attractive to pollinators.

And in the fall, we don't always have a lot of options for our pollinators in the garden.

So these mums are a good pollen and nectar source for a lot of bees and other beneficial insects.

<Amanda> And will they go through pretty much 'til we have a hard frost, Cory?

<Cory> Usually you can easily get a month or more of bloom out of them, usually until you get a hard freeze, and they make great cut flowers as well.

So some of these older ones that have the really long stems are really good cut flower options.

<Amanda> So you might want to leave a certain number of them out there.

And I guess you could even get a piece of chicken wire or something and kind of put it over to let them go through.

If you wanted to get the long ones for a cut flower arrangement, if you knew that you had something coming up or you just like to do that, couldn't you?

<Cory> Sure.

And I use I use the cattle panels like you get from farm supply stores.

I use them for trellising in my vegetable garden for cucumbers and other vining vegetables.

But you can actually mount those little sections of those on some steaks over sloppy perennials like mums and that sort of thing.

And they'll grow up through that grid and that helps to support the stem so they don't fall over as much.

So that's another another tip.

<Amanda> Well, because, you know, I'm always looking for flowers that I can put in a hat.

And so I guess I need to start on those mums for you so that I'll have a little more variety in the future.

<Rob> I'm happy to share, Amanda.

<Amanda> Thank you so very, very, very much.

One of our Forestry and Wildlife agents, T.J. Savereno really has a great feel for wildlife in general.

And he's going to give us some tips on how to attract and provide benefits to wildlife right in your own yard.

<T.J.> Hello, this is T.J. Savereno.

I'm a Forestry and Wildlife Extension agent with Clemson Cooperative Extension.

And I wanted to talk to you today a little about my backyard here in Sardis, South Carolina, in the southern part of Florence County, and about some of the native plants that we have in and around our yard, some of which we planted, some of which volunteered, some of which continue to pop up thanks to birds and other species that are spreading the seeds.

All of these plants have some value to wildlife, and that's what I want to tell you about today.

A blue jay just flew into the red mulberry tree that we planted in the backyard.

I suspect that he or she as it may be, is feeding on some of the fruits.

Red mulberries are a fast growing native species that produce fruit early in the year.

And when it does have fruit on it, you can be sure that it will attract a lot of birds until all the fruit is gone.

One of the great plants that occur naturally in our landscape is the black cherry, and those fleshy fruits are irresistible to a lot of different birds.

We've had a really good crop this year.

The weather conditions must have been just perfect at the time, flowering and setting fruit.

Last year we hardly had any at all.

But the birds are going to be filling themselves with the fruits this year.

Black cherry has a very distinctive bark.

It's gray and tight bark when it's young, and as it gets older, the bark gets kind of flaky as you can see here.

Another plant that volunteers very readily is the wing sumac that you see here.

It produces clusters of hard red fruits later on in the year.

This plant hasn't flowered yet, but those fruits are persistent once they set.

They're a dry fruit, but still they're appealing to Eastern Bluebirds and a lot of other songbirds, and they stay on the plant a long time through the winter.

So they're available at a time when not a lot of other sources of food are available.

This is one of the brush piles that I've created on the edge of our yard.

Brush piles are important for wildlife as escape cover for species like rabbits, small rodents and sometimes songbirds.

This one has got an Eastern Red cedar that you can see right here coming up.

And a lot of these brush piles will be the places where you'll see some of these species that I'm talking about get their start.

And this is because birds like to use these areas for perches, and since birds like to eat fruits, of course they have to deposit their waste somewhere.

So they drop the seeds where they perch along with a nice little packet of fertilizer.

And before long, you've got a start of some new plants, whether you intended to have them there or not.

One of my favorite native plants and one that the birds love as well is poke weed.

It produces small white flowers followed by green berries.

And if you're familiar with poke weed, you'll know that later on in the year, these green berries will turn into very shiny deep purple berries that the birds will be flocking to.

When that happens, I'll expect to be seeing mockingbirds, brown thrashers, Eastern bluebirds, and cardinals coming to this plant when the fruits ripen.

And the thing is that not all the fruit always gets eaten and the berries after they dry later in the year will continue to drop seeds on the ground, which the mourning doves and other birds will be picking up.

As you can see, this poke weed is growing at the base of a fence line in our yard, and that's because the birds like to sit on these fence lines.

And poke weed is one of those plants that will spread through the distribution of seeds by the birds.

However, I like the plant.

A lot of people try to get rid of them, but I'll leave it where it grows.

I like to see the foliage and the fruits.

It's a very photogenic plant.

And because the birds love it so much, I just tend to leave them where they pop up.

There are probably a dozen or dozen and a half species in this garden, including some non-native things that have sprouted up.

But right now the showcase in this garden is Rudbeckia, and the pollinators are flocking to it.

It has a very showy flower.

It's a very pretty plant, also drought tolerant and does very well in poor soils.

But there are other things in this garden that will be blooming at different times throughout the year.

So that's important for pollinators, that they have a source of nectar and pollen throughout the season.

And here we have one of our woody native plants that we've got in our native garden.

This is beauty berry callicarpa, and you can see that it's flowering right now.

And later on in the year, it will have these whorls of fuchsia colored berries around the stem.

A lot of people see these on the edges of woods and the fruits are also eaten by songbirds.

This is a cluster of purple disc sunflowers.

They haven't put up their flowering scape yet, but when they do later on, they will have small sunflower type flowers.

And at that time, later in the year, the native pollinators will be swarming to them as well.

And we shouldn't forget about our native grasses.

This is Little Bluestem, one of several we planted in this garden.

And that makes a great alternative to some of the non-native invasive species that have been brought in over the years for landscaping such as Chinese Silvergrass or Miscanthus.

So consider using native grasses when you can.

They put down a very deep roots system which makes them drought tolerant and they do very well.

This plant is a chinquapin, a close relative of our American chestnut.

It's in the same genus Castanea, and it also produces a fruit similar to a chestnut except smaller, black, encased in a prickly burr, that's almost impossible to get through until it splits open.

Once it opens, the wildlife really zone in on it.

You can see some of the flowers on this chinquapin that have turned brown, and hopefully they've already been pollinated.

Some part of the top inflorescence is still white.

Well, thank you for taking the time to take a little tour of our yard.

I hope you found it informative and enjoyable.

And remember, if you've got any questions about landscaping for wildlife on your property, you can always give us a call at one of the Extension offices.

I'm in the Lee County office in Bishopville, and I'll be glad to talk with you any time.

Hope you have a great day.

<Amanda> I always want to thank T.J. for sharing such good information with us.

Rob, I understand that you have done something that is considered pretty difficult, and that is growing wasabi.

I just love to go to Columbia.

I live in a little town, and so when I go to the fancy grocery stores in Columbia that have a sushi area, I always get some and find someplace quiet to sit and eat it.

And I just love to get my nose all cleared out by that wonderful wasabi.

And I really don't know much about it as a plant.

I don't know what it looks like or how it grows.

And I understand you have a little bit of information and knowledge about it.

So explain it to me, please.

<Rob> That's correct, Amanda.

It's one of the more unusual crops I've had the opportunity or plants I've had the opportunity to work with.

True wasabi is known as Japanese horseradish.

So the bit we're actually eating, the white relish that you'd find as wasabi, is the grated root.

It can be added color to, and you've got a slightly different flavor from the leaf.

All of the plant is edible.

The leaf is a slightly sweeter, almost more mustardy flavor than the root, so the root really does taste like traditional horseradish, but there's some key points to growing wasabi.

It needs really cold water and the water temperature needs to be below 50 degrees.

It needs a lot of shade.

So a lot of people will be using 50 to 80 percent shade, and it needs really clean, mineral rich water.

So you're not putting a huge amount of fertilizer on.

It does grow as a semi aquatic plant, so it likes flowing water and shallow streambeds.

So you can grow it on stone, on a concrete basin and stones with flowing water running through the stones to supply nutrients.

So it's really quite an interesting plant to deal with.

<Amanda> Is it from... Where is it native to?

<Rob> It's native to Japan, so that's why it likes really cold water temperature, which we would struggle with in South Carolina unless you're potentially up in the Upstate.

<Amanda> Well, I think I'm just going to have to enjoy it when I go to the grocery store.

But thanks for telling me something about it that was interesting.

<Rob> My pleasure.

Thank you for the opportunity.

<Amanda> The damage that wild hogs can do to natural areas in our environment is just unbelievable and controlling them is necessary.

We're going to talk with Forestry and Wildlife Extension team member Ryan Bean on some of the ways to control these invasive animals.

Ryan Bean is a Clemson Extension agent who is on the Forestry, Wildlife and Natural Resources team.

Ryan, I have a question for you, because a lot of us have been going out and trying to take advantage of our beautiful national parks and state parks and heritage areas.

And sometimes I run into places where the wild hogs have been.

And it's just the most depressing, horrible looking mess I've ever seen in my life.

I mean, there's just nothing left but mud and destruction.

Can you tell me something about these wild hogs, and are they as bad as they seem?

And what's the situation of them in the in the country?

<Ryan> Yes, ma'am, hogs are definitely a common area of concern here in South Carolina.

One of the things we've got to keep in mind is our population here in South Carolina is somewhere around 150,000 pigs.

And we'll use terms, wild hogs, pigs, boars, you know, you hear all kinds of terms, but I'll just call them pigs because it's just easier.

It rolls off the tongue.

But here in South Carolina, when we see our maps of the populations pop up that DNR puts out or APHIS with USDA puts out, they color in counties and the county is completely shaded in.

The thing to keep in mind is that these animals will find themselves or confine themselves to areas along waterways.

So even when your county is completely shaded in, that doesn't necessarily mean your county is just completely covered up in 'em, so you will see them kind of stick to those waterways and those creeks and so on.

So don't get the idea that your county, once it is shown somewhere, is being infested with hogs or pigs, is they are in those wetter natured areas.

But you're absolutely right.

In these areas that they are, they do a large amount of destruction in a very short amount of time.

They're very detrimental to our row crops.

They do a lot of damage to corn and soybeans both, as well as peanuts.

They'll root in those crops as well.

As far as home gardens, if you've got pigs nearby, you have to know they're there and do appropriate measures to keep them out.

And that is not as hard as it may be.

<Amanda> Ryan, we're not talking about pigs that have escaped from farmers who are raising hogs.

This is a whole different situation, isn't it?

<Ryan> Yes, ma'am.

You're not talking about pigs that have escaped recently, but you're talking about pigs that escaped pens way back when the early explorers were here in the Americas.

You're talking about back in DeSoto timeframe.

Those pigs have just naturalized over time and returned back to their wild state.

<Amanda> Well, what is being done to control the situation?

What are the laws and regulations and what do a lot of property owners do to try to keep this destruction under control?

<Ryan> So there is no season on them.

They're open year round for control measures, and controls in South Carolina range from night shooting, day shooting, getting depredation permits to do so, to trapping.

You can use dogs.

You can pursue them.

There's even been people use GPS collars on a female pig to trap or to track the sounder and eliminate larger populations by following their movements.

But any way goes as long as it fits within the guidelines set forth by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

<Amanda> Sometimes people do, if it's a certain type, they can, after they dispatch them humanely, can take them to a process, or that's a legally allowed, to turn it into food.

And sometimes they're given to food banks and things like that.

So I wouldn't want people to think that people are just trying to just to not take advantage of them if there is any potential use for the meat on them.

<Keith> Yeah, and we do get some questions sometimes about getting them processed because we start talking about pigs.

It is a different type of processor.

So not every processor that does your deer processing or turkey processing is going to be able to do hog processing.

They do have a whole nother set of rules they have to follow, because once you start getting into the wild pigs, in order for them to do that, they do have to break down and clean their whole facility to move into that different type of meat.

<Amanda> Ryan, how many piglets does a female have and how many litters can she have within a year?

<Keith> So it varies, but a typical litter is somewhere around five to seven pigs, I believe, and a sow could have up to three litters a year.

So there are some figures out there that make it real obvious real quick how fast that population can expand.

If you imagine a male and a female at the beginning of the year, if they had an equal distribution of a male and female litter throughout the year, and then by the time that year rolls around, the pigs that were born the first of that year could already be producing their own offspring and doubling on their own.

So very quickly, two pigs, I believe, if the math works out, can turn into 40 pigs by the time of the next year rolls around.

<Amanda> Ryan, they really are a threat to recreational property in South Carolina and agricultural property.

And as you said, even home gardens and landscapes if you're near a boundary where they could come in.

But I understand that in Texas, our problem just seems minuscule compared to theirs.

How bad is it down there?

<Ryan> They've got it real bad.

If you think about the size of Texas and just the amount of Texas that is in contact with various water bodies and large rivers and where those drainages are coming from and the amount of agriculture as well, their population is somewhere around five million wild hogs, which in contrast, makes our population look really small.

But again, our state is much, much smaller than the state of Texas, but our population here is somewhere around 150,000.

And speaking of Texas, they've done a lot of studies down there, as you can imagine.

And one of theirs was really interesting in that it studied the amount of harvest that would have to take place and what amount of their population would grow or be controlled based on the amount of harvest.

In that study, if you look through it towards the end, it did indicate that 66 percent of them need to be removed or harvested just to maintain the population, not to reduce it, but just to maintain it.

<Amanda> Thank you, Ryan, for sharing a topic that isn't particularly happy to talk about, but we really should be aware of it and understand why people have to be proactive about keeping this population under control, don't we?

<Ryan> Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, through proper management techniques and active management more than anything.

Hopefully we can get it more under control.

<Amanda> Ok, well, thank you again for sharing more good information with us.

<Ryan> You're welcome.

<Amanda> I want to thank Ryan for that good information.

If you have problems with hogs on property that you manage, do contact a member of our Forestry and Wildlife team, and they will be more than happy to help you with that.

I want to thank you so much for joining us, for Making It Grow .

It's a great pleasure to be with you every Tuesday.

And we hope that you'll see us next week right here.

Night-night.

♪ Making It Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture Certified South Carolina Grown helps consumers identify, find and buy South Carolina products.

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