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

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in the studio today are two of our panelists that you will definitely recognize as friends of the show.

So before we get into all the goodies that they've brought to discuss and talk about, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about them.

So rusty, we'll start with you.

Sure.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Rusty Maulding.

I'm a horticulturist and for the vast part of, of the my career, I've been in the professional landscape contractor world, just in the last year or so, I transitioned over to public gardening and now work as a site superintendent at Lake of the Woods, part of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District so you get to play all day like like I do.

I do.

It's fun.

All right, John.

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

I like to dabble in a lot of things.

I volunteer at slobbering greenhouse, quiche that and just keep busy doing a lot of different I was gonna say it's hard to put a thumb on all the stuff that you guys have going on a generalist.

Once you get retired, then you get to do the things you really enjoy.

Yes, that calendar fills right back up, doesn't it?

But the alarm clock stays off.

I hear so no, no.

Okay, let's jump in.

You guys brought a lot of stuff.

So, Rusty, we'll start with you.

What would you like to discuss?

So I've got a couple of plant selections to talk about today.

And the first we're going to start with is this was up here in front just a little bit.

This is a Baptisia australis Some people may know it as a false blue indigo.

This is a perennial, and there's a lot of really cool attributes about this plant that it's not a widely known plant.

You can think of this a little bit like a peony in the garden.

So it sort of you plan it, you let it go and it kind of just does its thing.

A man shows me like that.

I mean, it's disease free, it's past free.

So in that case is better than a peony.

But so this blooms, sort of a light lavender bluish colors, hence the False Indigo name.

The flower you might be able to see is not quite coming yet, but it is this little piece up here on top is going to be that flower looks like is it like a really dainty sort of not really no, this guy will get out over time three, four feet wide, oh about three to four feet tall.

So it's a little bit bigger in stature than like a peony.

But the reason I love this is it kind of takes the place of a shrub.

And so you can kind of mix it in with your perennials, and it just fills this space.

The blue flower will come on a spike here within the next couple of weeks.

We actually have some at the botanical garden that are in bloom already.

It's a little early.

And that's a particular variety.

But this one it just like I said I can't talk enough about it.

It's a native disease free troublefree likes sort of likes full sun will do a little bit of light shade light parts on drier soils clay went into some sand.

So it's just like it's it's really versatile.

set it and forget it.

Yeah, we like the ones that are set it and forget it and can take a little neglect, you know actually prefers a little perfect.

Go get this one.

Yeah.

Excellent.

And does it need any type of trellising or import sure as as the branches get up, get wider, it does sort of open up a little bit.

It will produce it's in the P family so it's a nitrogen fixing plant and the branches will droop a little bit but I haven't found especially if you nestled in with other perennials, it works well in both sort of a cottage or more of a natural type setting with native grasses and coneflower.

And that sort of thing.

Excellent for cut flowers to people that like cut flowers.

In the fall.

It's going to have a black seed mod that is just it's really cool.

Really, really cool.

And, and the bees like it too.

If you don't want to watch the Starks, you you'll see the bees in dairy.

Okay, cool.

Okay, we'll have to look for this one.

All right.

Thank you.

Alright, John, what about you?

Okay, I'm going to I brought Madame Butterfly here.

I'm going to talk to her about her.

Firstly, Lady in the room, it says it says, or scotch broom, right, Rusty and I were looking and I guess it can be a little bit possibly invasive.

We'll find out.

I'm gonna plant it here in my yard.

It was something I found and I just thought, this is really gorgeous.

And you'll get to be about it twice this size.

From what I understand.

It takes full sun it's hearty from zone four to eight.

And I And it's easy to propagate.

So I thought when they said that, I thought it was that I could take cuttings, but I think it's from the seeds and oh, so but it's, it's, I just it's, and the bees do like this, they come in here, actually, we're crawling inside the flowers and, and it was just one of those plants I just, it's it's definitely a showstopper for sure.

Very nice.

Gosh, that's lovely.

So you're gonna use that full sun?

Yep, likes full sun.

Do you know, did it I wonder if it comes in any other color variations I'll have to google that.

They did show a couple of those when I looked that up that were similar and had kind of the same.

Very pretty.

Okay, thank you.

Alright, let's see, we've got grasses of some sort, almost grass, almost almost grasses.

So this next one is kind of a really cool thing.

So one of my folks at home, you may remember that one of my interests is sort of native landscapes.

i Yes, and this is actually a sedge.

And so it a little different than grasses, they do have a growing point, it's at the base, I'm gonna pop these guys out here to kind of see.

And they will have a triangular shaped stem, which is probably one of the best ID features.

But essentially, it acts like a grass, it fills in space.

And whenever you start talking about more of a native style landscape, we're talking about lots of things all happening together, planted very close on center.

The sedges are sort of like, you can think of them as a little bit like a ground cover or a filler material.

there though, they sort of do the heavy lifting of helping keep weeds at bay.

And they've sort of weave in between as a matrix, all these other plans and sort of just fill up all the gaps so the weeds aren't there.

Another added benefit of these is they're one of the first things to green up in the spring.

So when you're you're planning out, a lot of things are going to look fantastic and late summer.

sedges do a great job of adding some greenery to the space earlier in the season and are kind of a must to help weave their way through this.

Most people will have heard of ice dance, it's a character or sedge.

It's more of an ornamental plant that has been bred and has has a wider leaf and a white margin.

Most edges don't have those attributes.

But the great thing about sedges is that there's like a multitude of sizes, there's a great variation on what kind of habit they like, this one's going to prefer, this is Carrick's Brev your or plains ovals edge.

Okay?

As the common name suggests, it likes a little bit drier, it's a little bit shorter in stature, so 1218 inches or thereabouts.

Like full sun will take a little part sun.

And think this is sort of like in along the edges and just sort of weaving throughout a planting that has things like coneflower and Asclepias.

Your butterfly milkweed you can even replant this with grasses like Little Bluestem sort of the whole mixture you're thinking about when you think about a prairie planting.

Like I said, there are many other varieties sedges aren't particularly well known all the time.

And so you know, just look for something on a tag, it's going to have the attributes you're you're looking for.

So height, soil conditions, many sedges do really well in wet spaces as well.

How what's the maintenance like on these?

Do you trim them do you leave them you're the maintenance on these is like most most all your other perennials in the spring mix kind of back to about four to six inches.

I think last time I was on the show, I mentioned cutting back a little higher, something that's only 12 inches tall, you're still going to cut you know, probably half of the back.

Gotcha.

Okay.

All right.

And I do okay, in partial shade, there are certain sections that will do a little better.

In Park shade like ice dance, for instance, is kind of a very standard one it does very well in part shade.

There are probably 20 to 30 different stages that are commercially available, you're going to need to find a good garden center and it's going to have these in sort of the smaller packaging.

This is a flat and so it will come in these plugs so if I want to plant these on 12 to 15 inch centers it's a lot easier to do that with something this size and a lot more economical to show something this size than to buy gallons or quarts even and as you probably get better survival rate than than buying the big ones yeah yeah no the transplants right wrong thing.

So if you've got a spot in your yard that holds water or is kind of in a dip Yeah.

Would this be something that would their farewell many many sedges that work great fantastic at like rain garden situations.

So it's gonna hold water for maybe Oh 234 days and then go away.

There are a tremendous number of searches will do fill that niche.

Just fine.

Actually see this is doesn't misses the inflorescence right here.

Okay, that's sort of that's an I can't remember the name for it now, that always happens when the cameras roll right those little bit on top here that's actually the flower so the flower is not grown for that it's grown for the ecological niche that it has and is the filler in just making this whole system work any of them like full full shade there are some that will take her that's going to save those people that can't grow grass.

Expensive Anika and I can't think of the common name right off top of my head but it is one is is finer foliage, it actually looks like grass can be used in a fairly shade.

Not deep, deep shade.

And we're not talking under like Norway maples, but right fairly shady areas around some other trees that have filtered sun, then still use up some a lot of the moisture.

That might be like some of them like a little bit drier.

That might be something that Yep, absolutely.

Excellent.

All right.

Thank you.

All right, John, we're back to you.

Okay.

I've had a lot of questions or requests for hellebores.

Another name is Linton rose.

And I, they they put out a lot of babies underneath the plant.

But I have found it very difficult to dig them and keep and have them survive.

So I started to looking into the seeds, I said, they've got to, there's got to be some way, being there.

Putting all those seeds down, there's got to be seed pods.

So I started to look at this is this is one of them, the seed pod.

And you can see they're fairly, it's fairly good size, these are still green, what I'm going to have to wait for is they like to split open, and a lot of people will put like, if they're if they don't want to check them every day, they'll turn brown, and then they'll crack open and the seeds are there seven to nine seeds usually, and they will drop.

And I found out that the seeds do not store well that's so that's why Mother Nature drops them.

And immediately they are in the spring that it's the best time to pick up his late spring or early summer.

Okay, and so I've got some that are, you know, this one here is, is really got a lot of seeds in it.

I've got others like this is the newer one.

And this was really a real pretty pink and white at one time.

It's lost its color now.

But you can see there's very, very little as far as the seed pots go in there.

And then there's another one that's a, this is a real dark purple.

And again, it's it's got a different seed pot again.

So very, very small.

But have you had success with collecting the seeds and growing them, putting them in and they're, they're black shiny seeds, so it's easy to plant and put them in an individual pot.

And that way I don't have to dig them I'm going to have, they're not going to have that transplant shock, I always tell my students, you're going to notice whenever you transplant something, no matter even if you don't hardly damage any roots, you're going to have some transplant shock, especially now times when you get these 80 degree days, and the plants aren't used to it, you're going to get that.

And so you do want to do want to plant the seeds.

As soon as you collect them as soon as possible.

You can store them for a short period of time in a cool dark place.

But there's so many varieties, you know, there's the wedding series, there's a honeymoon series now, so I'm going to try to get as many of them as I can.

And these are not I've picked these just to show but what you would want to do is let these really they'll they'll they'll shrink as far as they're they're really swollen right now, unless the seed seeds grow bigger than they said sometimes you will think that they're, they're going the wrong way that they're they'll actually swell but most of the time, they're going to shrink and pop open and that but if you put a little they say muslin or cloth bag around each one and that way you can collect the seeds very easily but you have to still monitor because you don't want those seeds to to linger too long because again, they don't keep well okay, so as soon as you see him get them planted, but it's it's a it's a it's a it's a first I love these because they bloom in mid February, late February and at first one when we're just dying to see something.

Something the bees I've had honey bees and orchard bees, actually on them in early March, mid March when there's nothing else to buy even the dandelions and I've you know I was out there looking at clipping off old leaves.

And I heard buzzing I said what is that?

Here's here's a little orchard beat having a little snack I mean, they're they're, they're evergreen evergreen, yep, low stature.

They're just it's kind of a easy, they're no diseases that I know of.

They're just excellent.

So one of my favorite plants.

Very nice.

All right now we're into tools, tools.

And tools wouldn't be a show if I didn't bring a tool.

That is kind of your thing.

Well, there's tool for every job.

That's true, and in some are better known than others.

And so we're at that stage of spring, when maple seeds start falling like manna from heaven, the helicopter, the helicopter and tomorrow's.

They all start falling in and particularly from silver maples and red maples.

They will fall and then if we had the right conditions, they will germinate with reckless abandon.

Yes, I think one year I guesstimated that I had about 10,000 little seedlings in my yard.

And if you can catch them, when they're small, when they're just up, the first set of leaves is out.

This scuffle hoe is a great tool to be able to get those with Gotcha.

And it's a very simple technique, sort of his take it and get half inch right on right out of the soil surface.

And just push right through, just mow him down was mowed down, knocks him off, cuts him off and does a great job of making it so you're not back there just picking by hand and trying to chop with an actual hoe.

This just slides right over the earth.

Now, you know, it doesn't work in all situations, but certainly for new seedlings of really of any kind.

If you can get take him out with this.

And then we'll do a really nice job of making your weeding life a lot easier.

Okay, so, elm trees.

What I'm trying to think of some other ones that will used to be you get some ash, but any of those weed trees that distort or not weed trees all necessarily but do we have sometimes a neighbor gifts you or maybe you're playing maybe Madame Butterfly can be Madame Butterfly to this.

This will help make that life a little easier.

And tell us what that's called again, scuffle hoe golf, I heard it call to chef so I've heard it.

I always refer to it as sort of like a stirrup for a horse.

I've heard it called a stirrup hoe.

Yeah.

So just so you're not handpicking 10,000 seedlings in your yard?

Absolutely.

Excellent.

Okay.

All right, John, we're gonna go to you.

We've got a question that kind of goes in goes together with a showing tale.

This is from Tom Clark, he sent us an email in asking about how to grow potatoes in a straw bale.

So you've got some sweet potatoes and tell us how to do it.

Yeah.

I was kind of looking into doing I did I have done straw bale gardening at slavery, I taught the kids some of that.

And planting potatoes takes a little bit of planning.

If you're going to put them in bales, you have to treat your bales just like you would any other any planning and straw bale gardening.

And that entails the 1212 day prep, what you do is you dig a little holes in there, you put some fertilizer and a little bit of soil, you need the soil because the microbes in that soil, there's millions of microbes and each square inches of soil.

And that's what Britt starts to break that down composting that bale.

And so you need to treat that off and on water.

A little bit more fertilizer water the next day with a little bit of fertilizer for 12 days.

And that ended 12 days, your bale should be pretty much ready.

Now.

You're going to have your you're going to probably put your hand down there.

And if it's hot, if you put your potatoes down there, yes, you're going to have potatoes.

If it's over, you know, you want it under 100 degrees, you need to get a thermometer actually I'd like mine about 85 degrees, okay, if it's over 85 degrees, I usually will wait a little bit longer let it compost a little bit more, it'll cool down.

The one thing with straw bale gardening of any type is you have to, it's not going to be carefree because what it's going to be it's going to be weed free if you have gotten good straw bales where you don't have a lot of grain seed in it.

The other thing is you've dealt dry out very quickly.

So you need a I put an automatic watering system in my night had a drip hose on a timer and I had to re water six times a day.

I only did it five for five minutes.

But that way I knew that they would never dry out completely.

I had it at a low frequency it was just a very low drip.

But it's important that you do that now to eliminate this that process.

What you can do the year before the first year is prepare your your mail and then plant tomatoes peppers are other things in it.

And then by the following year, your, your Bale is already ready for potato and it's, it's kind of falling apart a little bit, you know, but as long as you those twine is still on there, and then you take the measure up, you know your Bale is probably 24 inches tall.

And you're going to take a two by two and stick it in there and kinda make a hole to about about two inches at the, to the bottom of the, and you can measure, you know, put it on your stick on the side and say, Oh, I gotta go to this much sticking Choi and you wiggle around, and then you just drop your potato in there.

And again, you need to decide, am I going to use this, this is one of our potatoes that we've got stuck in the corner, it's already sprouted.

So I don't have to worry about buying a seed, a seed, potato, because I know this one here didn't have enough chemical on it.

If you buy just potatoes at a grocery store, they put a chemical or a sprout retardant on so that they won't do this.

Well this, apparently we had washed this and it had washed off.

And so I could just drop this, you want at least two eyes, a lot of people will cut their potatoes.

And you I'd like to callus them off, which leaves me just cut them the day before and leave them on the cutter where they dry off.

And then you just drop these in, you do not fill the whole lid right away, you just let him drop in there until you see the top of the potato at the very top of the bail.

And then make sure that your bail your bail is in full sun.

You know, if you've planted something that liked last year, if it was a shea plant, you'll probably want to move this into into full sun.

But that the pre treating if you're going to use it and then the third year, you can actually get a third year out of your bales.

No most of the time two years is about the maximum.

But after you're going to harvest these, you're going to cut the string, the twine, and then the potatoes you're gonna get up to a bushel of potatoes out of each bale.

Wow, that's always the funnest time just watching it come out.

And usually two to three, two to three holes in each bale.

Spaced appropriately and but again two to three per bale, trying to think of anything else Oh, the sprout should start to show and then you can kind of push the bale together and fill it and then all those that sprout that has come up there going to be side shoots that are going to fill that hole bale with potatoes.

Again then at the third year what you do after you cut it you just pile your your straw that's leftover in a pile and then you just take your stick and work it down there.

And then the fourth year you put that all in your compost pile and you've got go cycle you've got black gold, you got gold.

So I think that was that's basically but the main thing is it's going to take a watering system water whether use the drip, or, or the other type of hose that and I would put it on a timer so that you don't forget.

All right, thank you, John.

Hopefully good luck with your potato growing out there.

We've got about two and a half minutes left question for you.

This is from Debbie in Chicago ridge.

She says My mom has a big yard on a corner lot and all of a sudden these Fern looking plants are coming up everywhere I Googled what type of plant it is and it looks like an invasive species called Tree of Heaven, what is the best way to kill or get rid of them?

I love common name don't you?

Because the Tree of Heaven is so not heaven.

It's not not at all and really it's one of the key ID characteristics I like to use is if you break a leaf off or crack the stem and you give it a little sniff it is a pretty repugnant smell really comes out of there.

Alright, so you will definitely know you've got a Tree of Heaven.

Easiest way if you already know you have a stand, there's actually a couple of different ways.

If they're, you know the size of my finger or this finger or something you know, somewhere in there.

I like to take a good sharp spade and just cut off the route about four to six inches below the surface and then that just takes care of it.

There's no pulling you just one one slice through if you got a good sharp spade, if they're a little bit bigger or if maybe you've got a lot and don't have can't don't have the right equipment.

The other option is you can you can put a fresh cut starting I would say this time of year I would wait until about mid June.

fresh cut fairly close to the ground and dab it was some some straight round up you have like a paintbrush, make sure you're wearing chemical gloves and if you're going to do that, but just straight undiluted glyphosate, and that that will also it will translate translocate down to the roots and take care of the trees.

So if you've got a bunch of those that might put some time aside, set some time aside for that.

Yeah, good, sharp loppers in and go to time.

Okay, all right.

Well, anything else for the good of the order?

I think we had one.

We had a got about 30 seconds, a 204 number to afford the rose question.

She had to knock out roses.

She had something he got the Bayer systemic rose food has three different things in it, it'll fight the fungus.

It'll fight the insects, and they'll also fertilize and systemic so it's going to draw it up into the rose and do three things that was that, you know, she was wondering if she could cut it out.

People have had really some problems with knockout roses.

Yes, that was Jan Hall.

She sent that picture in and she said if you look closely you can see that something was just chewing them up.

So rose looks awfully is what's happening right now this time of year.

Yeah, it's not a Japanese beetle.

Japanese beetles are going to be late, late June and early July.

Gotcha all the times you get those two completed, they just see something.

This is something that panics even something's eating.

All right, and a little eat little.

Oh my Geez.

Okay, a little bit.

But you know, we want to enjoy them too.

So all right.

Well, thank you guys for coming in and sharing your time and talent.

Thank you so much for watching.

If you have any questions, you can send them into us at yourgarden@gmail.com or you can search for us on Facebook and send us a message there.

We'll see you next time.