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

I'm your host Tinisha Spain and Joining me in studio is the one and only Mamrtie Alanya.

And before we get into all of this spread that she brought, let's have her introduce herself and tell you a little bit about where you can find her outside.

Hello out there in TV land.

My name is Martie Alanya.

I'm retired landscaper.

Although my yard is really terrible.

And today, I retired from landscaping for mostly residential, a little bit of commercial but mostly residential.

So I kind of specialize in the small landscape.

Nobody ever called me to do you know, like the White House.

So it's gonna say the White House never called No, I'm hurt.

Unacceptable.

I think so.

Yeah.

I got skills.

Okay.

So, trees, shrubs, yeah.

trees, shrubs, perennials, mostly.

Vegetable Gardening is going to be somebody else on the panel.

Really?

You do it, but I do.

They're gonna cuss all the way through and not It's not pretty.

Okay.

It's not.

So fair enough.

Okay.

And so, spring, even though it's chilly and weird right now, spring is sprung.

And so we are seeing some bugs on our trees.

It's time to get out there and start pruning.

Like you said, your yard doesn't look great.

But it will soon everything starting to green up a little.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

So what are we gonna be doing today, we are going to talk about sharp things.

We're going to do some sharpening.

Because you should always prune with sharp tools.

And when in fact, you should use sharp shells as well.

This little fella here came to help me.

But I also have some other cutting things.

Cutting.

Okay.

So these are loppers.

I was working on a little bit before the show because they were pretty bad.

Are they bad?

What do you mean?

They were pretty dull though, and they ride around in the back of my truck.

Okay, so earlier here in studio, I was trying to get this this nut off right here.

Okay, and you take that off, then you can take these two pieces apart.

And then it's easier to sharpen this blade.

However, it's not.

It's rested tight.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's all right.

I have a colorful phrase for that.

But I probably shouldn't use it until probably not, probably not.

So, alternatively, you can do this.

Okay?

Okay, you can open this up.

I don't always have Tanisha here with me.

So I'm set my set my toolbox on here.

Take a plain flat file, it's just a flat file, you can see it's also rested, because that's my whole life.

And so, when you sharpen, I'm gonna turn this anybody to do anything?

Are you?

Okay, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna just stand back, I'm gonna put the waistband under here.

When you sharpen, you put the Okay, we took the supplement, where the edges you can see on your blade, there's a flat side and there's a beveled side where the bevel meets this is where you need to sharpen, okay, and you push the file into the cutting edge.

You don't start from this way and go like that.

You push the cutting edge into the file or vice versa.

Okay, this started out all black and rusty.

The blade is anodized.

But the rest, you know, that's all me.

True.

So yeah.

So when you get it here, I'm gonna pick it up a little bit.

When you get it to Wear app, sorry.

Okay, tighten up on that, again, if you can get it to where you see where this bevel is, where it's a little shine here.

And you can feel I mean, I wouldn't want to shave my legs with that, but it is a whole lot better one.

So, and also before I'm done, I always do this on the flat side.

I just because after you sharpen for a while, especially if your tools really dull like this one was you'll feel some little burrs on that flat side.

Right.

So and then you're back in Bay close.

Yeah, yeah, these will these will cut really well, as we may or may not see later.

I also do this with my hand printers.

Okay, I like these pretty well.

They're not Falco's.

They're not the, the, you know, the darling of the horticultural world, but I do like these.

They had handles on them, but they also make them like this with no cushion handle, which is fine, because eventually it wears out.

It gets a gummy.

It slides off.

Yes, ma'am.

Don't care.

So if you want to take these apart, you can, you can take that bolt out, you take the spring off.

But really, these open up widely enough that I can do this same thing without taking them apart.

So you, okay, that's the flat side, this is the bevel of face, go again, and you brandish this.

Yeah, you push the blade into the file, or the file into the blade face.

Where that bubble is, is where you're working.

And sometimes, if you keep your tools sharp, you can also buy small sharpening, like round little rat tail files.

They're a little easier to use than a flat file.

But I use a flat file because my tools get really crappy before.

And the old is tried and true, right?

Yeah, the second happens, your toes are lived in and loved, they certainly are.

So one thing you're doing seems to be working.

And then I've got a pair of Fiskars here, I just bought them at, I don't know, at Rural King or something, they come completely apart.

That makes it easier.

And again, this metal is anodized.

So it doesn't rust if you take any care of it at all.

So so you can take this completely apart and and sharpen it and then it's just a matter of a couple of couple of screws and the sliding lock and you put them back in just, you know kind of go backwards from where you took it apart.

So do you do this every spring?

Do you do this a couple of times throughout the season.

How often do we need to make sure the blades are sharp?

WAM professional, don't try this.

You know, I do it when I use the printer and I label ocean Aggie thing.

Yeah, and good.

Good.

So it's time gotta get file.

So, yes, and also shovels.

People don't think about this.

Sharpen your shovel.

It'll make life so much easier.

And I always thought, man, it's a shovel.

Yeah.

Oh, man was 200 pounds.

Bam.

You know, just driving.

No, no.

Okay, so, and if you have a little grind wheel, you can disregard everything I'm saying here.

Just go that way.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So much easier.

The cut that go through the soil so much faster, much faster.

You can see that shiny edge starting.

And you'll see where you're doing well.

So okay.

That is to get away.

So we'll just put that on.

Yeah.

Alright, got on there.

But yeah, you'll be amazed.

And you can do your spade fate.

This isn't all your cutting ground tools you think?

No, no, no.

So much easier.

I bet it makes easier.

Yeah.

Okay, so once we're all sharpened Alrighty, then we're ready to get outside and do some Yeah, damage or work depending on who you are.

Remember, if you don't kill it, it'll go back there.

Okay, so we're still live by Okay, I got this off of my golden mops.

Cami.

Tsipras.

This morning.

Golden ops Cami.

Tsipras.

Golden mops mops Cami.

Tsipras.

Yeah, Subarus got it.

Yeah.

So it even has a little bit of debt on it.

So we're just gonna pretend that this is a tree.

Okay.

Okay.

And you think it's too shaggy looking, which it sort of is, you know, it's a little Dr. Seuss character.

I love the way they look naturally.

So I don't share them.

In fact, I shared like nothing, unless I absolutely can't get out of it.

And even then I try hand clipping first.

So, because I don't, I don't like sharing.

So I'm gonna take my handy dandy version for me.

Yeah.

So can I do anything?

Ah, can I be useful?

I?

Yeah, you hold it up like that if you want just walking, so there's a little fingers.

Don't be such a wimp.

Okay.

All right.

So when you go to prune something, see this dead over here, I just take the dead out first, no matter how bad the plant will look when the dead is out, get rid of it, you take off the dead.

It's not helping at all.

And it is, in fact, harming.

So you take off the dead.

And then you stand back from the plant.

We were talking about this last time I was on the show.

And it was such a comprehensive subject.

It was a little hard to answer.

But a lady wrote in and she said her red bud was all one sided, and I presumed it was probably reaching for a light.

Okay, so this is out in full sunlight.

But of course one side is a little more sunny than the other because we curvature of the earth and whatnot, you know.

So if I was going to prune this back in this was it.

Let's just imagine this as a tree.

So the colorful part is out on the new growth, which is typical.

But that just sticks out too far.

This sticks out too far.

Can we back off a little bit there.

Tell us what you see at the top.

Okay, I would take this back to like here.

So instead of going ooh, and this is where you kind of step back and see see how looking sort of symmetrical.

See how it's shaped.

And when you you know, just step back.

Take your time when you're pruning a shrub for shape.

just kind of take off the sticky parts, you know, that's an industry term, feel free to use it.

Now, when you're starting, if this was if this was the actual shrub itself, would you still be using your hand?

Well, if this was a tree, I'd probably have to use loppers.

Yeah, you can do.

I can do like, about up to an inch with these if they're sharp, but if they're not so, okay, yeah.

So we'll just try to try to shape it up.

So it looks a little bit more like what you have in mind.

What are some don'ts?

What are some hard and fast don't some don'ts are?

Well, we're going to get to those in the middle.

Okay.

Okay, so we're just kind of just kind of cleaning this up a little bit.

So my take back like this one here is really land hanging way down.

Imagine if this were a tree, I would take that off all the way I would take it all the way back to the stem and take it out.

Because that will leave room for more of these to grow up.

Okay, some things you take completely off, but some things turn a little bit, please, like this, I would take back, see there's a stem and a stem.

I take the droopy part off.

And let the other grow up.

Because as it gets longer, it's going to drip down a little bit to the weight of the branches it grows, we'll pull it down.

So okay, that's the Evergreen tutorial we have not a whole lot of time.

I love to leave this as naturally looking as possible, but just kindly change the shape there.

No, but it we took quite a bit off and we took the you know, all that stuff off.

Nice.

So okay, there's a little bit on the bottom here.

But anyway, I'm just I just thought I'll take that.

Oh, yeah.

And when you're pruning, when this is on the shrub, okay.

It goes like this, it has a usually the characters like out and then up that it's this is not a weeping variety.

It's why it's green on the bottom.

And these pieces on the top are where they came out new.

So this is a little naked, right?

Let me show how you do this.

This is a little naked right here.

So I would probably head that back on my shrub, because I'm keeping them kind of low and spreading a little bit.

So I would take this back to here.

There's new growth coming on there.

I have a, you know, a couple inches of bear stem.

So I take it back to where these are growing.

And I didn't cut it far enough.

So well that then kind of I don't really I don't leave a stub.

So I don't know if you can see that or not.

But that little stub is like an eighth of an inch maybe.

That's all you do a lowball 30 degree angle.

And when you turn the shrub back, you know when you go like that, you can't see that cut mark and it's gone.

You go into the canopy, and you prune it.

When you come back out.

The plant shouldn't look like you hack something off of it.

It should look to sadder.

Just there we go.

Oh, yeah, that's better.

Yes.

So when you're pruning well, that also sort of force outward growth?

Fuller will the Yeah, the small, the small things that are growing there will have a chance to come out that are a little bit pushed back.

All these little guys will come out and take the place of the one I cut off.

But they're not growing like that.

Yes, they're growing out like I want them to.

So you know, they're not all crazy looking.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now for the big boys.

Wait, we've got Oh, not yet.

We've got a little branch of crab apple here.

So this is a blooming, this is okay.

It's got old fruit on it.

I'm just going to show you a couple things.

It's got old fruit on it.

And these are the old stems from the fruit the Cardinals haven't eaten yet that fell off.

And then they stagger around on the ground on me.

These are new little leaves.

You can see if I know if you see those, those are green.

All of these are flower buds, all these all these terminal buds are going to be blooms.

It's waking up.

Yes.

But for the sake of the education of Central Illinois, it was my obligation to sacrifice the sacrifice the six blossoms.

You're welcome.

Okay.

So okay.

Oh, also, when you're printing, okay, there's a flat side.

And there's the side with the piece you cut up against right?

You put the flat side toward the bark.

Put the flat side toward the branch you're cutting off from Okay, so it's nice and flat.

Like this one is a little dead guy.

So he comes off completely flush.

Don't think I'll leave a stub and it'll grow out.

It won't grow out.

Don't do that.

Okay.

This one is green.

It was on the bottom, but it's not doing very much and some of its dead.

So I'm going to take it off as well.

Take it off flat side toward the main branch, removing this dead guy.

Okay?

When you have growth like like this, I'm sorry, I'm not very good at this on camera here, okay, when you have growth like this, and you're thinking, this is sticking out too far, because it's just about to touch the house.

Or this is too low, because it's going to scratch on the top of my car, or whatever it is, look at this.

I mean, these three could stay just the way they are, if you were fine with them.

But if something's reaching too far, or something's hanging down too low, take it off, and don't take it off.

Don't take it off like it is no, take it off like that.

There we go.

Goodbye, grab apple.

Take it off back here.

All the rest, take it back off.

Okay.

And then and then.

So it's like, okay, that's not too long anymore.

But these seem a little straggly.

Well, you can head them back a little bit.

And like you said, Tanisha, it will encourage these little sprouts to grow out.

So you can do like, this is a little too long.

Got a long stick there with nothing on it.

You can take that back and make it look a little more compact.

See how sharp that is?

Right on the tip.

So you can cut that off.

Because you know, I'm a professional now.

So you take that off, and the branch looks fine.

Yes.

And you've again, again, you cut back, you leave about an eighth of an inch and I say that.

Yeah, you didn't leave just, you know, at a 30 degree angle.

Cut it back as close as you can.

There you go.

We can do the same thing with this branch.

So assuming it's growing like this.

Here's a branch going out this way.

Here's one don't go out this way.

Here's one coming down, which I would probably let bloom and then cut off later.

But I would take this probably back to here.

30 degree angle, lash cut.

Bottom.

There we go.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you can print up your little crab trees and and ornamentals like that Amelie anchor red bud.

All of those.

This is a stick that fell out of my river birch.

I love river birches, but they do have a tendency to get mad and break things.

So they just throw them off.

There you go.

You just have a yard full stick.

But like I've Tanisha and I were talking, I said mines over a hosta bed in the in a kind of a broad VI of evergreen trees.

I got some ARBs there.

So I don't care.

I don't care.

If they get big enough.

I'll pick them up taking the burn pile.

And other than that, not so much.

So this is growing, this would have been growing like this.

Because river birch go out and they were a little bit.

I had a tree that was growing like this, okay.

I didn't like these hanging down things because they were scratching the top of the car.

So I could take this whole branch off here ask if you were going to go here, I'm going to go up here, I'm going to go to the part of the branch that's going upward more.

So it's really just what you need it to do.

There's I mean, there is a right or wrong way.

This branch here is growing into the tree, it comes off.

This branch here is drooping down for no reason it comes off this one that I'm trying to encourage to grow out farther.

I want it to go up.

It's going down in two places.

I'm going to take those off.

Oh yeah.

Well encourage the growth that you want.

Yep.

And this, these, this, this branch has two leaders, but they're in there interfering with one another.

Okay, so this one's going up more.

I'm going to take that one off.

I hate to leave a long bear branch like that.

But the other the other growth was just not acceptable.

So and it's remember, this is a pretend tree.

So it's like, you know, you okay, it's all about what you want to work.

Yeah.

Works for your lands.

Yeah.

And what what goes where take off would be stuff.

Remember, flat side toward the trunk?

Maybe this guy, here's something.

This actually broke off.

But here's something somebody pruned before you.

And it looks crappy, and it's never going to do anything.

It's a stub.

So you take stubs off.

Come on, fella.

This is a dead stick.

It doesn't quite.

But you know, the point.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

You're just trying to hit me.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm just exuberant.

I can't have it hit me.

Okay, here's a perfect example on here about branch that's crossing.

Yes.

Okay, any crossing branch you take out, and you take out the one you like, well, this is curving, and this one straight, so we're gonna take out the curved one.

And these are just general, general rules for things.

But I hope you get the idea I was trying to trying to exhibit I mean, this whole trees don't usually grow like one sided except the lady with the redmont.

So, so I hope that helps the lady from the red bud from the red better.

Yes, yes.

Take out the ones and now that I've got this off completely.

I've got this pruned out the way I want it.

I really don't like it being that naked.

So, bye, bye.

I'm gonna take the whole thing off.

Because it's out of balance with the rest of the tree.

No, no, it's now it's better.

Yeah.

Now before we've got about five minutes or so left, and I want to get a couple questions in about okay, brace.

Because we're there.

Yeah.

So for fruit trees.

What I know, the big thing we always talk about on the show is read the label, read the label, read the label.

But is there an kind of standard practice for spray schedule?

That honest to God, if I I used to have fruit trees, and it's been a long time, because where I live the squirrels Rob every Yes, every apricot and cherry away from you and I, I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.

But if I would really I would contact your local Extension Service, okay, or look online for them.

And they'll have a spray schedule for everything you could possibly grow in your zone.

What you spray when you spray it, they'll have alternatives to different kinds of insecticide so you can go more organic, you know, if you just like, they must die at all cost.

They got stuff for that.

The big guns, whatever you're looking at.

Right?

So yeah, and then the other thing was, we've seen a lot about letting your garden or your beds sleep in not clearing right?

Are we still in that place it can we cut down our older ornamentals?

Is it okay to rake up some leaves, if you I would.

Our native ladybugs are the red ones, not the orange ones, the red with black spots on them.

They're about half the size of the Asian ladybugs that everybody hates because they come in your house because they overwinter in cracks and crevices are the ones that are native here.

overwinter in leaf litter and stuff like at the bottom of evergreen trees and wherever leaf leaves gathered usually in the base of a shrub or tree.

So I would it's a little bit cold yet for those those insects come out because when you wreck away I'm sure you've all seen this you right away.

It's like ladybugs, sorry guys here just asleep.

Yeah.

So if you want to know where where to be able to rake out, I would just pull a few out and then get all the way down to the ground where the leaves are.

And just see if there's anybody money in there.

Good advice.

Nobody in there.

Okay.

And there are other things that live in curled leaves or something.

But really, the beneficials are more ladybugs are just they're so important.

So yeah, just just kind of check.

And then a friend of mine asked me this the other day, she had cleaned her garden I posted something on my Facebook page about you know, leaving things stand because some beneficials live in Dead stem.

So you got you know, you got a you got to stand a coneflowers here.

Well, those and Black Eyed Susans and a lot of other things they get, they have spongy business on the inside of there.

And insects get in there.

And they burrow down and they spend the winter in the stick.

And then when it gets warm enough, they climb back out again.

So if you cut these off, and you throw them in the you know you send them in the compost or through the shredder or on the burn pile.

Well.

Adios.

Yes.

So I know this is more trouble than you probably want to go to.

But if you haven't done it yet, I'm going to do this.

It's cold.

I want to clean it off a little bit.

And it's cold, but I want to clean it off a little bit.

It's good looking ready.

I got some bigger I got got.

I got two lips coming to this to get out there.

Yeah, and there's pretty much can't see him for the bracket sir from last year.

So kind of, you know, just clip clip, clip, clip, gather him up in a bundle.

Put some twine around him, stand him up underneath and evergreen or in a corner of your yard or corner of the house.

It's not real conspicuous.

And when it gets good and warm outside like a consistently Yes, 60s, five during the day, maybe.

And more importantly, the night temperatures more like in the 50s at nine.

Then there'll be out.

Okay, there'll be all gone.

And you can go ahead and compost those or whatever you do with them.

But give those give them a beneficials yeah Give him a chance.

Yeah.

Okay.

So wonderful.

That's really well that was it.

That was the that was show show.

I didn't even need to be here today.

Honestly, I can't.

I mean, you could have done this one completely by yourself.

So, thank you for coming and for dragging in.

Thanks for trees and shrubs and branches and tools.

And thank you so much for watching and make sure if you have a question for Martie or any of our other panelists, you can email us at yourgarden@gmail.com or just search for us on Facebook at Mid American gardener and leave your questions and we will see you next time.