- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South, I'm Chris Cooper.

It's hot, and mowing your lawn is hard work.

Today we're going to look at alternatives to grass.

Also, most insecticides don't kill all bugs.

You have to use the right one.

Which one is it?

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female narrator) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by The WKNO Production Fund, The WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond, Miss Joellen is the Director of Landscape at The University of Memphis, and Mr. D. is here.

- Howdy.

- Alright, thanks for joining us.

- Good to be here.

- Alright Joellen, let's talk about lawn alternatives.

Not everybody wants a nice, plush, beautiful zoysia or Bermuda lawn, right?

- No.

No, and we first we gotta find out what, what do you want to do with your yard.

I mean you've got all this space around your house.

How do you use it, what is it used for?

And maybe you can do something different with it.

Also, do you have kids?

Do they need to run around on something large and flat?

How about pets?

Now, dogs don't necessarily need grass all the time, so any surface, they'll run on.

They'll have fun.

So pets, you don't have to have a lawn, you say, "Oh well, I can't get rid of my lawn because I have a dog," no, they don't care.

[Chris laughs] They really don't care.

Also, you might have a steep slope that you don't want to mow anymore, and that would-- - (Chris) I can see that.

- Be nice to have something different on it.

Also, you might have a shady area under a tree.

Can't get grass to grow.

Or there might be small spaces on maybe the north side or a niche somewhere around your house that doesn't get a lot of sunlight, and grass doesn't grow.

All these zero-lot lines now, you know there's very small space, and on the north side sometimes grass doesn't, there's not enough light to grow because the building is there.

- (Chris) Exactly right.

- So we just got to think about how you're going to use the space first, or what the problem is that you're trying to solve.

Now one thing you do need to remember, I know, you don't have to do something every week with an alternative, but you still have to maintain it at some point.

- Still has to be maintained.

Right, that's the key thing.

- There is no such thing as a no maintenance landscape.

- That's right, I was waiting for you to say that.

- There is no sense, you might save your time every week, but you're going to have to work out there at some point.

- Good, good point.

- So let's go over the expensive things you can do.

- Alright.

[chuckles] Look at Mr. D. He knows.

- Put in a pool.

You know, it's hot outside, put in a pool.

- Put in a pool.

- Oh yeah.

- That's an expensive one.

How about a basketball court, or a volleyball court.

There's a lot of people that build up sand and make their own permanent volleyball courts out there.

Putting green, but made of artificial turf.

- Artificial turf, alright.

- (Mr. D.) Now you're talking.

- Yeah, and then, let's talk about artificial turf.

That's used a lot in the southwest, and in the zero-scaping.

'Cause they want the green lo ok but they can't grow grass, or they don't want to use the water for grass.

- Takes a lot less water.

- A lot less water.

- And mowing, right?

- But it still has to be maintained.

- Ok. - Wear it out.

- Yeah, it still has to be maintained.

- How 'bout that, ok. - How 'bout ponds?

To put fish in?

In fact, I remember seeing a whole backyard that was a series of ponds that were all connected, they had a lot of koi fish in them, they had paths over them with patio areas here and there and landscaping, and it was really nice.

But that's kind of expensive to do.

- Right.

And you gotta maintain the ponds.

- Gotta maintain those too, yeah.

- And you have to maintain that, yes.

Alright, so those are the expensive things.

- I like some of those.

- Some of these other things can be expensive, but they're not as expensive.

- Gravel?

- Like gravel, yes.

[Chris laughs] - We're going to talk about hard-scapes.

- Alright.

- You know, flagstones, all different kinds of Arkansas flagstone, there's blue flagstone, there's all kinds of stone out there that you can make paths with.

And you can either cement them together and make it nice and flat, or you can just set them on the ground, and then plant little dwarf plants around them.

So it's not solid landscaping.

- (Mr. D.) I like that.

- (Joellen) Then there is bricks, and brick pavers.

Concrete pavers that look like bricks that you put together.

There are rocks.

Rocks, there's mulch, there are sea shells.

- (Chris) Sea shells.

- But you know what?

I would highly recommend, and most places that have, especially rocks as part of the landscaping, they will put landscape fabric down first.

- (Chris) Ah-hah.

- Because our soil around here, if you step on those rocks, they're just going to end up in the soil then it's defeating the purpose.

But in the same token, you can do a lot of interesting things with different rocks, and I have seen that.

But, if you let the leaves and debris fall on that, and don't pick it up, it's going to just decompose and then you're going to have the same problem with your rocks where there's going to be organic matter for weeds to grow.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- So there's maintainence to all of these different things.

There is something called a porous concrete.

They're doing this a lot, you can pour water over the concrete, and it just goes right straight through it.

- (Chris) I've seen that.

- And so, it really, really nice, it's kind of expensive.

I've seen people put that on their driveway in strips.

Just where the tires go, and they'll plant low ground cover in between.

- Yeah, the 'ol Hollywood drive is what they call that.

- Yeah.

- (Mr. D.) Hmmm... - And so that's one way to use that, and then of course there's also polymers.

They'll put aggregate and polymers.

It's supposed to look like concrete.

And they make stepping stones out of that.

There's many more things out there that you can use, but hard-scapes, not a plant.

Then we gotta talk about plants.

So you say, I don't want to do any of those things, or I don't have enough area that I want to do, I want to do something else.

Ok, there are people that use meadows as their yard.

Now a lot of people have long amounts of turf to use with this.

Large properties, you know, they will get meadow mixes from different parts of the country, th at are formulated for different parts of the country.

So you can get a meadow mix and yo u can find ornamental grasses and plants that are native to your area, and then you plant those instead of grass.

- (Chris) I can see that, ok. - Alright, so that's one thing you can do, and that's kind of popular.

And I had an ornithologist friend of mine said he was going to do that with his yard-- - (Chris) Oh, the meadow?

- Yeah, the meadow because he thought it would attract more birds.

- So you don't mow it, you just kind of let it grow up?

- Yeah, because it's all native and it doesn't get real high or tall.

- I got some native stuff at my place that gets real tall.

[Chris laughs] - (Joellen) That gets tall?

[laughs] - Some of that stuff is mare's tail, and it will get 12 feet tall.

- Well, see, and that's one of the problems that we are going to have in this area with changing anything other than grass, even though we have the same problem with grass, is we have a lot of weed pressure here.

- (Chris) Yes we do.

- We are in a transition zone, so we get northern weeds, and southern weeds, and everything in between-- - Eastern weeds and western weeds.

[Chris laughs] - We have perennial weeds, and annual weeds, we have-- - We get them all.

- We have winter weeds and summer weeds.

So that is going to be the major problem in the Mid-South here with us trying to keep something else other than lawns.

'Cause the weeds, my lawn is mostly crab grass anyway, so-- - So is mine.

- And nut grass.

It wouldn't be green if it weren't those two.

- That's right.

- I can relate to that.

- So there's weeds everywhere, but another thing you might try is mass plantings.

You know, just a series of beds with your flagstone in between, and just have trees, shrubs, plants, perenniels, annuals, just mix it all up, and just have different areas and just mass kind of planting.

- Which would help cut down maybe on some of your weed pressure.

- It would.

- Just a canopy.

- If you've got shady area, moss.

- (Chris) Moss.

- Moss is really popular.

- (Chris) I've seen a lot of moss.

- And moss looks really, really good in the shade.

It really does more mimic lawn than anything else that I can think of.

And it's very easy to maintain, so, moss is a great alternative for a shady area.

Another thing that seems to be popular is clover.

Both Dutch clover and red clover, but I was thinking about that, and that can be a foot tall or so.

Or get up that way, and if you have animals and kids that are running around, that might be a little prohibitive for them to run around on.

- (Mr. D.) Right.

- But if you don't, that would be a great alternative.

- And you might, if you're running around barefooted you might get stung by a honey bee.

- You might.

- Speaking from experience, I've done that before.

- Oh, so you've done that.

- Might get stung by a bee, you never know.

And of course there's all kinds of plants that are used as groundcovers.

We've got mondo grasses, we've got vinca major, and vinca minor, we've got shrubs that are small.

Like junipers, there's a lot of ground hugging junipers that will do great in a sunny, or on a slope area.

We've got, good grief, nandinas that are dwarf.

Monkey grasses, creeping jenny, ajuga.

The list goes on and on and we're talking hostas, day lilies, shade, they've got stuff for shade, they've got stuff for partly shaded, they've got stuff for sunny, so, anything will work, you can plant something anywhere, just remember there is going to be some maintenance with it.

- There's going to be some maintenance.

Hear that Mr. D.?

- I hear that.

Some more than others.

- Some more than others, Joellen that was good stuff.

Thank you much, thank you much.

[cheerful country music] Let's talk a little bit about Kyllinga.

There's a lot of Kyllinga in this lawn here.

There's a little patch right here, there's some patches here, a little bitty patch that's coming up here, and this is what it looks like when it's full grown.

Kyllinga is considered to be a sedge.

A distinct characteristic of Kyllinga is this, you have the little seed head, okay a little seed ball here, and then right underneath that seed head will be three leaves, okay.

So again, seed head, three leaves.

That's a distinct characteristic of Kyllinga.

In a lawn situation, you can us e Image to controll Kyllinga.

Read and follow the label.

But in a situation like this where it's growing around some of your desirable plants, the best thing will be probably be to pull it out, right?

Because you definitely don't want to use a chemical here because you might get it on your desirable plant.

Here, it's a blueberry.

So again, I would just... pull as much of this Kyllinga out as possible.

[cheerful country music] Alright Mr. D., let's talk a little bit about insecticides, alright?

- Let's do.

- And let's start by talking about carbaryl.

- Carbaryl.

That's a carbamate.

1-naphthylmethylcarbamate is what carbaryl is, been around for a long time.

Developed by, I think Union Carbide in 1958.

- (Chris) Wow.

- I was three-years-old.

- Oh, how 'bout that.

- [laughs] I still remember it.

- You still remember?

How 'bout that.

- It is the third most used insecticide in the United States.

The trade name was Sevin.

- (Chris) Sevin, yeah.

- For years and years it was Sevin, and I saw, I found some Sevin somewhere a few years ago that wasn't carbaryl.

- Really.

- The nerve of them.

- The nerve of them.

- But anyway, most of the insecticides that I looked at were acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.

Which is acetylcholinesterase has something to do with the synapse, nerve endings allowing nerve impulses to work, and it inhibits that, so basically, it inhibits the nervous system of these critters.

And these things were derived from nerve gases.

- (Chris) Oh boy.

- Developed by the military organizations.

But they're not the same thing.

- (Chris) Sure.

- But it has the same mode of action.

Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.

But it is a, it can be absorbed or it can ingest it.

And so chewing insects, this is usually a pretty good product for chewing insects because they ingest it and then it does its thing.

But very, very widely used insecticide.

Insecticides are not immune to resistance, and I can remember back in my years as an extension agent, at one time this was the most widely recommended product to use for flea control.

And it got to the point where it took like ten times more carbaryl to kill a flea than it did when they originally started using it, and so I don't even think you see this recommended for flea control anymore, because I think fleas are pretty much resistant to it.

But for, it's not a restricted use pesticide, you know, you follow the label-- - (Chris) Follow the label.

- And it will take care, still commonly recommended for a lot of the chewing insects, I think squash bugs-- - (Chris) Mm-hmm.

Squash bugs, squash vine borer.

- Caterpillars that, it'll work.

It also works on a lot of the, well it works on the caterpillar that Bt takes care of too.

And so that's why it's important to identify the insects, because you would much rather use bacillus thuringiensis on a caterpillar that it's effective on than to use Sevin, because it is a non-selective.

It will kill most insects that it, including beneficials.

- Right, the bees are something that comes to mind.

- So be careful where you use it.

Right.

Follow the label, and target the pest that you want to kill.

- Ok. Yeah, but a lot of folks use that.

And it's highly recommended, there's no doubt about that.

So the next insecticide, let's talk about permethrin.

- Permethrin.

It's a synthetic pyrethroid, been around since 1973, and it is, it mimics the chemicals, the naturally occurring chemical that is derived from chrysanthemums, pyrethrum is a very toxic insecticide that's developed from mums.

But there are a lot of synthetic pyrethroids out there, permethrin is the one that I'll mention here, but there's also cypermethrin, there's alpha-cypermethrin, and there's a lot of synthetic pyrethroids out there.

They are also non-selective.

They will kill about anything you put on them, and so it's very important that you know what your beneficials are and try to avoid using them to avoid taking out your beneficial insects.

- (Chris) Right, good point.

- But very, very widely used pesticide.

- And I'm sure it attacks the nervous system?

Like the rest of your insecticides?

- Right, it is also a acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.

It was, when they first used it, when permethrin was first developed it was primarily used for humans to controls scabies, and lice.

NiX, it's a product for head lice, you know, N-I-X, that you used to take, it was commonly recommended.

Hunters use permethrin to spray on their clothes and boots and things like that to kill ticks.

And chiggers also, it keep chiggers from attacking them.

But in 1973, it's, ok I said it's been around since 1973, but permethrin made the list of the World Health Organization's, it's considered a list of essential medicines.

- (Chris) Wow.

- An insecticide that, the World Health Organization considers an essential medicine because of all the insect pests that carry life threatening diseases all over the world.

Insects will develop resistence to permethrin also.

It's a product, my first contact with permethrin was in insecticidal ear tags.

Flea collars.

And I did some work with the beef industry with insecticidal ear tags, I was running around and would use binoculars and count flies on cows, and it was really good for awhile, but after a few years the flies developed a resistance to it, and so they start using different products, and mix it up a little bit.

And that's important to do that.

If you go to the Red Book, UT's Red Book, and you look at that.

It's different insecticides that are listed.

Many times you'll see a carbamate and then a pyrethroid, and sometimes an organophosphate for the same insect.

Mix 'em up, you know.

It means you've got to have three products on the shelf, but mix them up a little bit, and that will help you not run into an insect resistence problem.

- Ok.

So the next insecticide, let's talk about is imidacloprid.

- Imidacloprid.

- Which is one that we're hearing a lot about, and which actually causes a little controversy.

- It does, it does.

It's a neonicotinoid, it's one of the neonicotinoids, and it resembles nicotene.

Fipronil is the trade name.

Transform is another trade name.

It is a systemic insecticide, it acts as an insect neurotoxin, which also prevents acetylcholine transmitting impulses between the nerve synapses.

And so it interferes with the nervous system, much like the other products that we talked about.

It is a contact insecticide, and ingestion insecticide.

So they can eat what you spray it on.

I know it's probably one of the few products that takes care of aphids in grain sorghum.

And so it's a very, there's some emergency use permits out there because of the, it is the only product that will work on some insects out there.

Now there are some controversy out there, it's been accused of being a part of the decline in naturally occurring, native honey bees.

- But there are no-- - Colony collapse disorder.

- Yeah, colony collapse disorder and all that from the bee producers.

But there are no native honey bees in this country, the honey bee we have is Apis mellifera, it's the European honey bee, and we brought it to this country.

And there's been some research, there's been quite a lot of research done, and some of the research I've seen is it's more of a, the research I've seen has not traced it directly to neonicotinoids.

It's been several things.

- Yeah, diet-- - Yeah, it's been hive beetles-- - (Joellen) Mites.

- A combination of mites, and things like that that have been part of the problem.

- Yeah, we actually had the Bartlett Bee Whisperer, David Glover was on here telling us that.

- Right, right.

So I think some of the negative press it's gotten is not deserved.

Follow the label and it's a very, very widely used.

I mean it's used for termite control in homes, and flea control, and it's just a very non-toxic to mammals, so it's safe as far as people are concerned.

- (Chris) Read the label.

- Read the label, follow the label.

- On all of these.

- That's right.

- So thanks Mr. D., that's good stuff.

[gentle country music] - Our blueberries have done really well this year, as a matter of fact, we've already begun harvesting them.

The Bermuda grass around the blueberries have done well also, and that's not good.

We don't like our blueberries to have to compete with Bermuda grass for water and nutrients.

So I have in this spray mixture a product that will kill Bermuda grass, it may take more than one application, but I'm going to treat it now, and maybe come back a little bit later if the Bermuda grass is not gone, and take it out.

Sethoxydim is the active ingredient, I also included a crop oil concentrate, methylated seed oil as a surefactent which is very important.

If you don't include that the herbicide won't work.

So I'm just going to try to do as good a job as I can, and I'm going to kill a pretty wide swath here, because I don't want this Bermuda grass to mess with my blueberries.

That ought to do the trick.

[gentle country music] - It's our Q & A segment, you all ready for these?

These are good questions, these are real good questions.

Alright, so here's our first viewer email.

"Do you know what this is?

"I think I grew it from seed, but the writing washed off.

Could it be Angel Trumpet?"

And this is from Ms. Kathleen, right here in Memphis.

Angel Trumpet, if you look at the leaves, right-- - (Joellen) They're kind of fuzzy looking.

- (Chris) Fuzzy.

Little purplish stems.

- (Joellen) Yeah, and you've got a kind of thick texture to them, little fuzzy on the leaves.

- (Chris) Makes me think.

- Yeah, I would think she's probably right.

- Yeah, I think that's what it is though, if you look at the leaves, it does look fuzzy, it has the purple stems.

I think that's what that is Ms. Kathleen, so that will be your Angel Trumpet, thanks for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Can you tell me if this is a fern, or a pretty weed?

I found it growing in a fence row on my property."

And this is from Ms. Sharon.

So.

Fern or pretty weed.

- (Joellen) It's a pretty fern.

- It's a pretty fern, right.

- Yeah.

- Alright, alright.

- Yeah, lucky, she's lucky.

There are native ferns around so-- - They call 'em Bracken ferns?

- There's so many, there's several different ones, but it's obviously growing there and it's doing well.

- There's a lot of it.

- And I think she's very fortunate that it's there.

That's a very nice fern.

I like that.

- That's not bad, so it is a fern, Ms. Sharon.

- Yeah, 'course now, her, a weed.

What is... - A weed is a plant growing out of place.

So if it's not where you want it-- - Then?

- It's considered a weed, but like you, I would want it.

- I would want that fern there.

- I would want the fern, yeah.

- It's pretty.

- Yeah, it seems like there was a lot of it, and it looked healthy to me.

- Yeah, it looked very healthy.

- I would encourage it.

- So obviously it likes the conditions that it's in.

- Might hand pull some of the others away and give it more room so it can spread.

It's good.

- Alright, so there you have it Ms. Sharon, pretty fern.

How 'bout that.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"Can you deadhead a knockout rose by cutting off a whole branchlet if every bloom on it is spent?"

And this is from Ms. Kathleen right here in Memphis.

So the 'ole knockout rose.

- Rose, oh wow.

- I have one at home.

So what do you think about that?

Do you think it's necessary to prune off a whole branchlet?

- You don't have to cut the whole, all roses you're supposed to cut back the branch after the spent bloom is gone to like the fifth or seventh leaf, and you want to cut to an outward, a leaf that is facing outward.

Because you want to get the plant to spread out for air circulation because of all the disease problems with roses.

Get them as much air circulation as possible.

So no, she doesn't have to do that.

But, I'm kind of curious-- - (Chris) Uh-Oh.

- As to why there's a whole bunch of them on that particular stem.

Because that reminds me of a problem that we have now called Rose Rosette.

And if that's the case, not with a picture, we don't know-- - (Chris) Right, we don't know.

- (Joellen) If it does have rose rosette, you might as well just take out the whole plant.

Because it's never going to go away.

And it's a mite that vectors that, so it will spread it around.

- (Chris) It's an an eriophyid mite.

- So I don't, if you like roses, and this one particular one has it-- - (Mr. D.) Better get it out of there quick.

- You might want to get rid of it faster so it doesn't affect the other roses you have if you have more roses.

- Right, and another thing too, about knockout roses, and of course again, I have one at home.

They're pretty much self-cleaning.

- Yeah, that's why I'm curious as to why, why does it look so bad that she wants to cut it off?

And that's what made me think of rose rosette.

- So there you have it Ms. Kathleen, a picture would help us out, but yeah we're thinking maybe rose rosette, or something else, huh.

But if it's rose rosette, it has to come out.

Alright, so Mr. D., Ms. Joellen, it's been fun.

- Yes it has.

- Remember we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is FamilyPlot@wkno.org.

And the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

That's all we have time for today, thanks for watching us.

Is the half hour show too short?

Every week we have extra videos we post online at FamilyPlotGarden.com.

Go watch them!

I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week, for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]