(soft music) - Hey, it's Tinisha Spain, host of Mid American Gardener.

And thanks so much for joining us for another show today.

We've got a lot to cover and if you're anything like me this warmer weather is making it very antsy and wanting to get outside.

So we've got our panelists here to discuss just that, you remember last week, we talked about not disturbing some of our beneficial pollinators and starting seeds.

And so continuing with that discussion, we're going to talk about planning, scheduling what goes where and learn a little bit more about the next step that we taking in the next few weeks.

So I'll stop talking and have our panelists introduce themselves and tell you about where you can find them in the garden.

So, Karen, we'll start with you first.

- Hi, I'm Karen Ruckle and I'm a gardener in the Peoria area and I love perennials and shrubs and just house plants in general.

- All right, wonderful, and Jennifer.

- Hi, I'm Jennifer Nelson.

I'm a horticulturalist and you can find me online@groundedingrowing.com.

My favorite things are really anything plant related but if I had to pick it would be vegetable gardening orchids and houseplants in general.

- Awesome.

Okay, nice cross section of talent here.

So Sean tells her always what we start with.

So Karen, what did you bring for us today?

- Well, in talking about things in the garden, trying to get a few things done before some heavy rains come or potentially come.

And so I'm having to dig out a tree that unfortunately, due to board damage die back.

It it's got to go, but underneath it I've got Virginia blue bones that are coming up.

And so right now, out in the garden, how easy it'll be to see this, but they're just barely peeking out of the ground.

They're just little purple purple starts.

And I had to dig it out or I would have trampled them but I've never dug up Virginia bluebells.

Cause there are long the perennial that you just leave alone.

I was just a really interesting, of course I chopped right through the, the whole root structure, but it was really interesting how thick and gnarly the root system as on this Virginia blue bell and, they come up in spring, the flower, they're so pretty.

And then they die back in mid summer.

And, and so I just really even think about how much structure was under the ground.

And so it was kind of fascinating chopping it apart and seeing how they're structured is.

- So what's next for that hunk?

- Well, I think I'm going to have to give a lot of it away and then I'll replant some of it.

Some of it I might have already put some into pots to hold.

Because now I've got to wait to find a new selection of a small tree or something to put back into this garden bed.

And then I'll put my perennials back around in that area by that new new selection.

- Thank you, Karen and John, I am so sorry.

I forgot to have you introduce yourself.

- I almost left.

No.

- My apologies.

So you're up next.

Go ahead and tell us your name and where we can find you.

And then we'll ask you.

- Okay, I'm John Bowden Steiner.

I'm a Romanian County master gardener and I like a lot of different things.

I'm into my new newest thing is a greenhouse.

And also I started to teach a little bit of straw bale gardening.

So this is at Sharman high school here in Danville.

And I, I, my, probably my favorite plant.

It was still hosta.

- Yes.

I was blown away.

When I first met you and found that you had hundreds of them in your yard, different varieties.

So yes, I would say you are the guy when it comes to hosta in the area.

So the question for you, John is this came in on our Facebook.

This is from Holly Bezner and it says what kind of soil should I use to replant or re pot affirm.

That's been in the same pot all winter starting to look kind of tired.

And so she'd wanting to freshen this up.

So what, what do you recommend for repot?

- Okay, this is one I just brought from the greenhouse.

It was a, it must've been, it must've been subliminal because this is one that has not been repotted yet.

And we are, are in the process of repotting them and not only repotting them, but if you, when you take that out of the pot, you're going to find that it's so root bound.

And so what I'm taking is my reciprocating.

Sorry, you could take a hands-off and cutting them in fourths or in sixths.

And that way you get six plants or four plants out of that one, and you may have to trim the underneath of it also just to get down into the ground where you want it, so that the, the, you can put the correct saw as far as the correct soil.

You want to use a very good potting soil, something that is a good mix.

You know, the, the, the one that I use is, you know it's a miracle in the bag, so to speak, I won't say the name, but - We get a million emails.

Now we have to know what that is.

John was talking about.

- There are, there are three different types that I like for for a plastic pot.

I would just go with the yellow bag.

There is a blue bag that has some water retaining crystals in it.

That is nice, especially if you're using a fiber pot or something like, or a a tile pot, but this is a plastic pot they can do hold the moisture a little bit better.

But if you're one of those that doesn't like the water then the blue bag might be a little bit better because it does have those water retaining crystals.

So like I said, we've done we've been over the last couple of weeks.

We've been dividing these, and I think we're up to 80 now that we've divided and they're really starting to look very nice.

This is a repotted one.

And it's almost gotten to be as big as the one that but it's so much fresher.

And one of the other things that the potting soil should have is some long acting fertilizer.

And if it doesn't I would still use a long acting fertilizer to incorporate into the soil, because anytime you put in pots and you're watering them, that water route reaches through and takes all the nutrients out of that soil.

So, but the potting soil is so important that you're not getting, you know I wouldn't go down to the garden and get, you know you're going to have weeds and you might have diseases in that where this is basically a soil mix and it just works so nice for pot.

- Okay.

So that's another segment we could do.

Another time.

John is people get a little gun shy present company included when it's time to putt, right?

I have a couple of plants.

My ZZ is like, they're a little lumps and bumps showing on the outside of the pot.

But when people talk about getting a saw or getting something and cutting the roots that is very nerve wracking.

So perhaps that's something we can visit you and learn a little bit more about so that we can all be a little bit more brave when exactly time is.

- Yeah.

If you're kind of squeamish your hand Saul works pretty good.

Cause you can kind of, I use my reciprocate a battery operated reciprocating saw with a long blade and I just zoomed and, and I've I usually don't let the kids take the saw they get the hands-off, but I get the electric and but they're doing their they've learned in there.

I don't even have to tell him now I just say go repot this.

And they're doing a wonderful job.

So after a couple, it just is easy.

- It's another skill onto your belt.

Gotcha.

Okay.

All right, Jen, we're onto you.

- Okay.

Well, I brought Kevin early spring house for March.

This is some people will call it a Shamrock.

This particular one has lavender flowers but I wanted to point out to people that this can be planted as a containing plant outside.

I've done some summer containers where you actually order their they're little tiny forms.

They look like pine cones and and they don't get planted very deeply, but some two things that will make you think that you've killed this plant.

When you have actually not killed it at all.

At night, the... it gets droopy.

The leaves kind of fold in on themselves in the and the first time I saw it happen I thought I killed it within 24 hours of purchasing it.

And it, I looked up the vocabulary word for it.

For those of you that are into the, into that knowing the like a term it's called photo nasty.

So yeah, there's a, there's a fun 25 cent word to drop around your friends and impress them.

But this will always, these will also go dormant.

And that's the other part later on in the season while you're thinking you're killed it.

After the temperatures get good and warm above 80 degrees it'll start to look droopy all the time.

And that's a good signal to just stop watering and let it dry, dry up, and all the greenery will die off.

And then just put it in a decent window inside and give it a little bit of water now, and then and watch for regrowth.

It'll eventually start growing again and then you can give it more water, but they're really fun.

They're not just for St. Patrick's day.

- I've got a purple one, two purple ones actually.

One of them ended up getting diseased.

And so I cut it all the way back, put it in the infirm you know, and I mean, it's funny how quickly they grow back the flood.

It set a flower up first, and then the foliage started to come back.

I didn't know that you could leave them outside.

I just always imagined them as a house plant.

So - Not all the time.

You can't leave them out out all the time but that you could put them in a container as the others.

I wouldn't leave them over the winter.

- Gotcha.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, Karen, I think we're back around to you now.

- Well, I was, I was also going to talk a little bit about a house plant and we just we just came off of what, over two, two and a half three weeks where we had pretty severe cold weather.

And so all of our furnaces were working pretty hard and that dried out the air.

And so I wanted to mention that this is a good time to be checking all your houseplants.

I've got a Calafia and it, I, I honestly I was getting ready for vacation so I wasn't really paying attention, but it was drooping.

And I thought, Oh, it must be a little dry.

And so I just threw water on it and walked away a couple of days later, I'm like, oh, you're still droopy.

And this plan, it was actually S spider mites that was causing the droopiness weeds.

And it, it still has a lot of damage on the old leaves, but it's, it's not drooping any more.

It's, it's standing up a little bit more erect.

The problem with spider mites is that they're they're easy or bad things.

They're easy to kill, but they're quick to come back.

So I've already sprayed this twice with just an insecticidal soap.

And then I made sure I got the tops and the bottoms of all the leaves, and then I've done it again.

And I'll probably do it again before I put it near other plants, just to be on the safe side that I've cleared all of them off.

- So Karen, when you found, when you found them this I'm assuming when you went back to, after you wanted it and realized, okay, you're still not looking great.

Did you look on leaves?

You know, how did you discover that it was in fact vitamins?

- Yes, I, I looked on the bottom side of the leaves and a lot of times it's, it's kind of a Sandy look or not quite right.

Look sanding this on the bottom of the leaves.

And then I got my handy-dandy phone and used the magnifier on the phone and quickly was able to see the spider mites.

- Gotcha.

That's great advice because a lot of people you know, we think, okay, you need water for non it doesn't work.

So what's the next step.

So I always appreciate what someone else's detective skills look like, what I'm trying to diagnose, what we've got going on over here.

Okay.

John, did you have another show in Cal or did you want to do a question from the viewers?

- No, I, I didn't.

I only have the first, so - Okay.

All right.

So let's, so this weekend I posted on our Facebook and just asked folks, you know, as we move into creating our visions, creating our dream guard and our dream beds, what are some questions that you have and what are some things that you've run into and what's worked and what hasn't worked.

So a couple of things, we had a couple of really big questions that I think we can boil down and help folks get some answers to.

So Barbara Bundy writes in, this is question number 16.

Last year was all about the flower beds at my house.

Now we're onto the turf.

I'm in Aurora.

The area is Western exposure with dappled sun.

What seed do you recommend?

And when should I plan it?

So John, you pointed out right away now that we're talking about turf, this sort of not limits but there are things to consider, you know, off the jumps.

So talk a little bit about that.

- Yeah.

Th th th the main thing I, I have read and under my experiences, you don't want just one type of seed you want to get, I usually use a mix of three.

Mainly because they, one may thrive under real hot sun.

Another one does better when it's a little bit wetter one does better when it's really, really dry.

It's the other two may fade.

So you always have one that looks pretty green in your yard.

You're, you know, when you walk really close you'll probably see some, some damage and maybe not looking real good, but at least it's great.

So there's three, three main grasses.

You have your perennial ride brass, your tall fescue and then you have your Kentucky bluegrass.

So you wanna mix.

And I would go to a I garden center and get a good quality mix - Again, that you want that perennial rye, grass the tall red fescue, and the Kentucky bluegrass.

You want those three or or at least types of show you there.

And there's a lots of variances in those three go to a local vendor because what's up in Aurora may be if you're going to be a little bit cooler up there than down here, or somebody down in Carbondale there's going to be, you know, we're going to vary quite a bit, cause we've got almost three zones there that we're working yet.

And so I would, I would go to a good quality vendor and the garden center and find out exactly what grasses of each of those types they would recommend.

But I would want at least three different varieties.

- Great.

Next question.

And this is just kind of for anybody.

And then we're going to spend the last few minutes talking about planning out our gardens but this is from Diana O'Connor.

And she says, is there a general guide or something out there with a timeline that you know how to follow your seedlings all the way from planting until blooming?

And so what does, what through trial and error I guess Karen and Jennifer jump in anywhere.

How, what do you suggest there?

- Yeah, I'll be honest.

I read that question.

And I said, there's just so much in that question but number one rule of thumb is consult your seed packet and know when your date of last frost is in your area.

Because if you know that like you're in central figure around mother's day or Mason's team is approximately the last frost.

You can count backwards and figure out approximately when to do that planting and whether you're going to do it inside or whatever but it will say on the back of the packet, generally speaking how long it will take, and you can plan from there.

And there's always going to be other issues that come up that will delay or otherwise get in the way of it's, you know, don't call me because it didn't adhere to exactly what the packet said.

I've had people say that over the years, like, well you said the last Ross' date was may 15 and you know, it wasn't, that's all a general guide.

- Okay.

And Karen, you know, you are, you're in Taswell County.

Is that where you are?

Am I right?

- Woodford.

- Okay.

So is there anything to say sweeping changes?

John mentioned that we, you know, our our show cover so many growing zones.

Is there a big difference between, let's say five a five B something that we would need to do differently than folks in another area, in your experience?

- Not really.

Just that the fun starts a little earlier in the champagne area than, than for me, but I would, I would say it, it just runs maybe a week behind.

- Okay, okay.

Too bad.

It's not like big sweeping differences.

So what that is like an eternity when you just want to get out there.

So, all right.

So we've got about eight minutes left and I just of want to open this up to general discussion for folks.

You know, let's say you've got this plot of, of ground but what are some things that newer folks may not think of?

We had another question that we can tackle another time about rotating crops and what sort of things to do there.

So I kinda just want to turn it over to open discussion.

John.

I know you've got some notes but what are some great, you know, rules of thumb in eight minutes or less that we can give people as they're starting out this design process.

So John, you kick it off cause you're kind of prepared for this discussion.

So where, you know, what are some good rules of thumb here?

- Okay.

First of all, you have to decide what kind of garden you want to grow.

Is it a vegetable garden or a flower garden, sun hours or it's going to be an important part of where you place this garden.

And another thing is where's there.

How, how are you going to water?

Where where's the closest spigot if you're way at the other end of your yard and you have to run a hose every time.

You're not probably going to do it every as often as you need.

So, and, and then how big we always, I think think too small because we're always, we go to the nursery and we come home with about 20 more plants than what we need for in that small space.

So, yeah - Jen's laughing.

So I think she's done this before.

- What's, what's great.

You know, I'm doing a presentation on hummingbirds and I found that kind of a sweeping you or or an angled garden is better because your birds and and just even, you can get more visual effects from your from, from the flood, from your flower beds.

And, and then if they're doing vegetables, it's not too bad to put some flowers in there because you're going to draw the pollinators in there.

And, and then you're going to have better, better fruit.

Are you going to have, maybe you're just going to do a container.

So you're going to need to make sure that that container is in, in sun.

And you're also going to need to make sure that that is big enough for what you're wanting to grow.

Tall plants on the North side, usually native or non-native.

They both have their, their advantages and disadvantages.

You want to kind of, if you're making a, a garden you want to have color for all seasons.

So there's, there's there's - So the height part, cause I, we touched on that I think a little bit before the show Jen or, or Karen can you give us an example of being mindful of the planting height or the mature plants height, or you know, some good information there - Pay attention to the label, no matter how much you want to no matter how much you want to put a certain plant in a certain area, it's not going to net, it's not going to necessarily follow the label completely.

I've had stuff where it says that it's only going to be three feet high and it's five feet high because you've got it in this great, perfect location.

And it's doing better than the label says it will.

But more often than that, I, I have learned over the years that I need early, do need to measure stuff.

I am completely the do, as I say, not as I do gardener horticulturalist, I have made every mistake in the book and I'm cramming plants into an area because you just really get there.

It doesn't get you to problems later on.

- Karen, as a nursery employee, when you... what's the most common thing.

- Well, maybe it's annoying thing that - Gardeners overlooked.

And then they come - Back in and they're freaked out about the purchase starting out.

- I think it's really that initial taking care of a plant because within that first month a plant potentially needs a little bit more attention with watering and watching with the weather.

Cause you get, you get a couple of days of really windy days and the temperature spikes like we're having right now and and things can dry out and you can kill a plant pretty quickly by drying it out.

And so I think that's the biggest thing is is when you do plant something, pay attention to it visit it every couple of days I always make fun of people that they came in and they didn't even know the name of the plant.

I'm like you had it or you didn't even learn its name.

So just be mindful that at the beginning just kind of visit from, from a couple of times a week and then you'll see what it needs or doesn't need.

And then once it roots in, you can start ignoring it.

- Gotcha.

Right?

Let it, let it get strong and then neglect it for awhile as we're marching into.

Well, the middle of March, no pun intended.

What cool season things, can we get ready to put outside?

What are some and you know, lettuce and spinach but are there any other cool season crops that you guys are going to be putting out soon?

- Broccoli?

As soon as I can get my hands on some broccoli.

I did not start it myself from seed but I don't need that much.

So I will go get myself a little six pack.

- Another one that you can do if you're going to plant onion sets and you can get those out horseradish, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, root barks.

Those are all things.

If you're getting the roots that's or plants that you get out as far as plants, radishes, peas, I get my pieces out.

As soon as I can work the soil, I I do sprout them inside, but then I I take them out and I can have peas up in three days.

So one of the other things I just wanted to mention, if, if if that gardener is wanting a new bed, it is so important that they make sure and amend the soils and get it right.

Test it.

Before you put the plants in you don't want to have all the plants in and find out your pH it's completely wrong.

And then you're trying to mend it with underneath all these plants.

So it's really important that you get that bed right before you even start to plant.

- Okay.

So I did not do garlic in the fall last year.

Like a good girl.

Can I do a spring planting now or whenever I can get my hands on some and have garlic for a fall harvest?

Is that an option?

- Yes, but there'll be small, right?

- Yes.

That would be my punishment for not doing it.

When I'm supposed to.

- You want, you can plant shallots in there too because I that's another one you can do in the fall or you should do in the fall, but you can plant shallots.

They're going to be small in the fall.

And... - Okay.

What, what you might do is when you, when you pick up your fall and you harvest your fall, garlic you might just break a couple open and put them put them in and you've got it planted.

- That's really a good idea.

And that'll kind of prompt me to plan it right away like I should.

So well guys, thank you so much.

That was, that always goes really fast.

We have great discussion and thank you so much for watching.

I hope you can tell that we are very eager just as eager as you are to, to get outside.

And we've already got some segments that are going to be scheduled for the spring or we're going to be visiting Ella's neck of the woods in the next couple of weeks she's going to teach us how to make staff.

So we are ready to get out and get moving and I'm ready to learn some things from these guys.

So I hope you are too.

Please reach out to us on our Facebook, on our Instagram or you can always send us an email to your garden@gmail.com.

So guys, thank you so much for coming and sharing with us and we'll see you next time.

And thank you so much for watching.

Good night.