Coming up, Karen shows off her treasures from a trip across the pond earlier this spring, and how to pick and roast peppers from the garden to enjoy all winter long.

And Ella shows us an easy fall arrangement guaranteed to get your home ready for autumn.

That and more next on Mid American gardener 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 to talk about all things gardening are two of our panelists that you know and love Karen and Ella.

But before we get into all the stuff that they want to share with you, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about their specialty.

So Karen, we haven't seen you for a while welcome.

Thank you introduce yourself.

I'm Karen Ruckle.

And I live over in the Peoria area and I my qualification is I'm Ella's friend.

That gives us your ticket.

I love houseplants, perennials, shrubs, annuals, everything gardening gardening period.

All right, Miss Ella.

I'm Ella Maxwell.

I'm a master gardener and a horticulturist.

And I have a large yard and I like trees and shrubs and perennials.

Okay, a generalist, you too are kind of into everything really?

Right?

Yeah, we we Yeah.

We love everything, don't we?

Yes.

All right.

Let's definitely cooking related.

Cooking related.

Yes.

Okay.

So, Karen, we'll start with you.

You You took a trip.

I don't want to tell too much about it.

But go ahead and share about your travels.

And you've brought some pictures too.

Yeah, I brought just a couple of pictures.

But yes, I took a wonderful trip this spring with my husband, brother and sister in law and just wonderful trip over to England.

And then we got to see some different sites there and then went for a little bit over to Amsterdam.

But I have this elevated gardening vision of English gardens and the English countryside.

So for me, it was quite exciting.

And for years with my love affair of that I've years ago on a PBS gardening show, they would always have these gardening trugs and they would put all their gardening produce into them.

And so years ago, my husband mail ordered this from England.

And I just thought going over there, I would just see them all over the place.

And I guess it's kind of like you know, if we went outside and we tried to get some boiled peanuts on the side of the road around here, that's not going to happen that's down near Georgia.

And same for them.

It's more in the Sussex area.

But I would say my favorite part of the trip was Sissinghurst castle.

And just was beautiful.

And what what it also made it very special to me was I got to see a English trug in the garden being used, and I covet mine so much that it doesn't go outside.

I was just going to comment how clean and pristine it looks.

And I was like, I don't even think she's got that thing Dirty.

Dirty because I like it so much.

So at Sissinghurst Castle, I got to see an English drug and I picked it up, even though I probably shouldn't have been messing with their gardening things.

And then I sat at a table and pretended and looking out thinking, you know, this was my garden and the truck is down there on the ground.

And I contemplated that, you know, here's my estate.

And this is it.

This is where you'll retire and spend your days.

Yeah, so and the reality is that for my gardening, I use something like this for collecting sunlight, especially like my cherry tomatoes, because I can leave it outside and I don't have to worry about ruining it.

So instead I use a 25 cent store basket instead of my beloved handmade wood drug.

So it's just eye candy home it's just you're you're gonna where does it where does it sit at your house?

It does it have a home a very special coveted place.

I oh my gosh, kept in a closet because my cats like it as a bed.

So yeah.

It's the cats can't even sit in.

It's that beloved.

Yes.

All right.

Yes.

All right.

Well, very nice.

Thank you very much.

We'll come back to you in just a second.

All right, Ella, Were you okay?

My my very good friend Karen.

Brings me her beautiful basil.

This is Cardinal basil.

It's known for its late fall flowering.

Usually basil has small white flowers kind of extended on the stem and you want to pick those off so that you get more of the leaves that you want to use, but she brought me a beautiful container just like this.

More than a month and a half ago.

And so here's the new one.

Here's the one that I've been picking off, and it actually routed, so some of you that have basil, if it's conditioned properly, just cut it now before a freeze or frost would take it down.

And you can enjoy it inside and have it available still, you know for pesto's using it fresh with tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar, and just just Oh, yes, delicious.

So this is a very potent, kind of a little bit stronger.

And these little calyx is here in this flower are edible, but they're kind of strong, strong as an intense basil flavor.

Yes, strongly different ways.

I think basil flavor for sure.

But also just a little bit more bitter than than I care for.

So maybe it'd be perfect for someone.

It's beautiful, too.

That's really in that plan is really healthy.

So will you keep that and kind of munch on it all winter long until well, I would.

Well, you can see this one's kind of like a caterpillar ate it.

Well, that was us.

So I'm not sure how long it's really going to last inside for this late summer.

You know, we're probably still Capri salad, no, all kinds of things and eating it up.

Right away.

And so I'm hoping that we don't get a heavy frost.

And maybe Karen will bring me one more big jar of beautiful basil.

Just one more.

And yeah, in two weeks.

I'm putting in my order.

It's getting very specific.

At first it was maybe and now it's two weeks.

Yeah.

All right.

Are we go?

Excellent.

Okay, Karen, we're back to you.

And before we talk about your next pictures of your favorite plants, thank you so much for the cannas that you sent me.

They bloomed absolutely, I had the best time just watching them and the different colors and the heights.

And so thank you very much welcome.

I really really appreciate it.

And you've got some more photos of some arrangements that you really liked.

Yeah.

I wanted to talk about things that give you joy and and for me to plants this summer gave me lots of joy with with how they performed how beautiful they were and they were annuals, and I love annuals because I love the pop of color.

And so, in my yard, I've done in containers this son impatient, I've got two colors in this arrangement of red and kind of orangey and they are the series son and patients vigorous red and vigorous Corona and they just outperformed themselves.

I just loved how full they were.

I've got them in my yard they are under tree you'll see but they get good morning sun and they get late afternoon hot sun so they still get a lot of sun even though they are under a Japanese tree lilac.

And they just for the money I spent on them.

They were excellent.

I did have one planted in the ground.

I wouldn't say that they're overly happy with my heavy clay soil.

That plant is small.

These other guys in nice potting soil are huge.

Those very big blue.

Yeah, there they are.

They are very big bloom.

So the other plant that just gave me so much joy this summer it was the sun incredible Saturn, sunflower.

And it is a heliothis hybrid.

So it's not going to be a perennial but the flower power has been fantastic.

And this is a series that was brought out originally the original series that came out so unbelievable.

Oh my gosh, I spent such a premium on one plant for my mother in law one Mother's Day and thankfully this spring I found at a local Champaign Urbana nursery, they had some of this sun incredible in a four inch pot and I think it was just under $5 So I've got this huge beautiful blooming It's hard out through the whole summer plant so I'm just really thrilled with how those two annuals gave me so much joy and so much flower power and had to be watered but yes, they're beautiful, right especially this summer Holy smokes.

And with Karen's, you know love of this plant and seeing it in the garden center.

The Town and Country gardeners of Washington chose it for their planters on their square.

We have a square in town that you know you drive around.

And we have six planters and we planted one of these hybrid sunflowers so unbelievable are so incredible or whatever with I think some sweet potato vine so the sweet potato vine went over the side and cascaded down but this look literally filled the center.

No deadheading required.

No maintenance one plant.

Wow, it was amazing.

We had some land tannins in there and they kind of got over run.

Well, I do deadhead mine just because it when it's flowered a lot, there's a lot of brown buttons in there.

And I just want it to put its energy into more flowers.

So I do tidied up.

I bet with the sweet potato vines that was really striking.

Oh, I think it's been the best year ever.

And, and usually, we always rotate with choosing something different.

But maybe next year, we're going to do it again.

Since it did so well.

If it ain't broke, right, that's right.

Okay.

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

Um, so it's getting that time of the year with pumpkins.

And there's so many cute things with squashes and pumpkins.

And so a couple of things that I brought was.

This is a little decorated pumpkin.

It's a living pumpkin, and it has succulents.

These are some ground cover succulents and some also tropical succulents.

But what I did is I just took some container, and I just trimmed some tips off of different things, but you have to let them sit for about a day.

So the cut end will supervise.

Then you choose your pumpkin, whatever it might be.

And you put you just glue and the glue that I used is oh, if you have never bought this glue, you need this glue.

It does everything does.

It's called ie 6000.

So Brandon Smith, oh, yeah, maybe not.

Also, there's some clear gel, tacky glue too, you could use but this works really good.

And you just squirt a little, put this on top, if you want to give it just a little bit more some Spanish moss.

And then we're going to just start gluing things, you know, into the top here.

You know, when I first looked at that, I thought you would open it up, cleaned it out, filled it with potting soil, and then put the succulents in the know.

And then what you're going to do is After it's dried, it does need some water.

So at least once a week, you need to water it and I found the easiest way is to just put it in sync with your sprayer and then just let it sit out again.

So the moss here will hold some moisture.

These can sometimes actually route but this little pumpkin is a gift for you.

And it should last all the way to Thanksgiving That is gorgeous.

Now if you do set it outside, you have to be careful because sometimes Karen can attest, squirrels come and they just chew out a little hole because they want the seeds and pumpkin seeds, you know are edible.

So that's called up papito.

Right?

The Peto.

So these are shelled pumpkin seeds.

But there is a new pump.

Well, there are pumpkins that are homeless.

So this pumpkin right here is one that's grown commercially, for its seeds that doesn't require shelling they can be taken out and I opened, oop, there we go.

Open this up.

And here's our flesh and our seeds.

And these seeds can just be rinsed, salted and roasted.

And then you go down the hatch down the hatch.

So these right here are those kinds of seeds.

So there's only a couple of varieties that are homeless.

And it just makes it so convenient to roast and eat a raw pumpkin seed without the seed covering.

Oh, those pumpkins are absolutely gorgeous.

And now that I know that it's not you know, such an elaborate process.

Oh, it's not and they love as well.

Nice.

Yeah, that's the nice thing is you haven't cut it open so you're not going to have it molding or gluing down or the black mold coming out and fuzziness all over.

So yeah, very nice.

And it just takes a couple of cuttings from succulents you probably have at home anyway.

Right.

Exactly.

Very nice.

Okay.

All right, Karen, we are back to you.

Well, I know a lot of times we talked about the different stuff growing in your yard and growing vegetables.

We talked about growing it but You know, what do you do when you've got it all?

So I wanted to talk about poblano peppers because they're my favorite kind of pepper.

And I don't I don't like bell peppers.

I don't like the sweet bell peppers.

I don't like them in foods.

They don't like me.

But I found that I really like poblano pepper.

Where do they fall on the heat Oh meter?

Well, that's the problem with them.

They are all across the board.

They, I planted four different varieties this year.

And I didn't mean to but it happened.

I ordered from a company and a couple, a variety and I got a couple free packets with a bottle peppers, and like Oh, can't do more.

But they are all across the board with the Scoville range, which helps you understand the heat of the pepper.

And I've even found that whether or as I'm picking them, the heat seems to change.

So every pepper, I'm a little curious, and I'll taste it to see okay, how hot is this before I put it into a recipe but I want to talk about getting those peppers ready.

Or if you've gone to a farmers market and they've got some great looking peppers, and you're no you're not going to get them in winter locally like that.

Buy them get them prepped, put them in your freezer, and then you're going to have them all winter long to use in soups and other recipes.

So what I do is I pick I pick my peppers, and I do a charring method so that I get rid of the outside.

Again, skin, the echo carp, but turn off the skin.

It's kind of waxy.

And so I just do it right on my gas stove, and charged them up completely.

And I wish I wish I could do it outside because it does smell up the house.

It takes a day for the House to arrow.

Oh, I love that smell though.

I love noxious.

But anyway, I've tried other methods, my grill.

If I had a sideburn on the grill, that would be perfect.

But I didn't It's so much quicker on the gas range.

Right on gone there.

And I I am careful.

I do use tongs I don't use my bare hands.

I would practice use of bare hands.

I use tongs.

Try them up.

Once they're all charred, I'll take them and take all those skins off.

And some stuff I've said people say you know don't rinse it underwater.

Well, you know, it makes it easier.

Oh, well.

First I've after I've charted them, I put them in a plastic bag and actually let them sit and sweat so that the skin will slough off.

And then that way they're cooler to handle because right off off the fire of roasting them.

They're pretty hot.

So once I've removed all that skin, then I'll slit open the pepper, remove all the seeds, and then the little veining that's on the inside can be pretty intense and heat.

So I'll kind of peel that off.

And then I'll flatten it.

And then I will lay it flat and I'll layer it in a multipurpose ceiling wrap.

And he's thought but so this is this is the ceiling wrap.

And so I've squashed my peppers, so taking up not a lot of room in the freezer.

So then that way with recipes, I can just tear this open, chop the frozen pieces that I need off, let them fall a little bit.

But what I do and all my peppers you just never know the heat of them is I will always take a little piece of it.

My I don't even take a bite out first do a tongue test and just put on the end of my tongue and see where the heat is.

Then if it's not too bad, then I'll do a bite test and and try that out.

Because every every pepper is different.

It's good to know before it goes into the chili.

Yeah, what you're working with.

And when I'm doing them for the freezer anyway, I'll label them you know, this one is a little hotter, or like the one pepper.

This was ancho gigantica.

And it was too hot.

All of them went to my brother.

And I just picked them and took them to his house.

I got rid of them.

Oh, and then also I brought this tour I was gonna ask you, if you're a little unsure of the heat of your peppers or a little bit worried.

Go ahead and just put on gloves when you're working with them.

Because especially if they are a little bit hot and you have a tendency to touch your eyes.

That could be a little burning.

So just just a pair of disposable gloves and it'll be fine.

Okay, question so if you don't use the entire thing once it's thawed, let's say you make a dish and there's half or so left.

How long does it keep in the fridge or do you put it back in the freezer and pull it back out?

What do you do with the rest I actually put it back in the freezer so if if like I'm doing something and I only need half this pepper I would have taken him out frozen chopped off that part because it's not that thick so you can you can get through it with a up chopping knife pretty easily.

And then I'll just throw it back in the freezer gotcha with the bag of peppers.

And does this method work with other peppers?

All peppers do you find some are easier or tougher to handle when they're frozen or?

Well see that's that's the thing.

I only eat poblano pepper scratch.

Okay, so I've, I've never done it with the bell peppers, because they don't interest me and I can't eat them.

I, I saw a bell peppers, and I leave the skins on.

And then I just freeze them in individual bags or containers to have fresh peppers.

And usually I'll mix in with onions too.

So then we have peppers and onions for a fajitas or chili or whatever, especially if there's a big influx, but I love poblanos.

But they don't make that many peppers on a plant compared to some, of course, the smaller peppers and those you don't necessarily have to char because they're thinner skinned for something like a Serrano or and we do not grow hoppin arrows or any of the ghost peppers or those, you know, they're just too hot.

Yeah, I mean, well, NCI even cheat with my peppers, because I don't follow the rules where I know I'm going to put a cage for one pepper plant.

And you know, to skin your little one.

And so typically, I'll put three pepper plants quite close to each other.

Yeah, and so then I've got more of a cluster to try to get more fruiting and at I probably don't get as good of fruiting because I am crowding them, but I don't have a lot of rooms.

Yeah, yeah, last, like the gosh, now I can't remember the name of it, but it's more, it will turn red.

While these will turn red to as they they'd age to but there are several different kinds of hot peppers and that are and of course, jalapenos are really wonderful too.

And those that you can stuff them you don't have to necessarily take off the skin either, but poblanos and some of the others, and I charged them sometimes on the grill.

But most of the time after Karen's, you know, good results, some people put them under the broiler to Okay, and does that process the training process?

Is that just to get the skin off?

Or does that do something with for the flavor as well, it doesn't do anything for the flavor to me.

Some people say adds a smokiness to it, but I do it to just to get off that kind of wax your skin and then having it flattened and it's just it just doesn't take up any room in the freezer.

Right.

And and they're steamed and pretty much already pre cooked.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So then you don't have to worry about that process when you're trying to write things down.

Excellent.

Okay.

All right, Ella, we are to you your your lovely arrangement.

Right.

So I think that it's always important to use fresh flowers.

I love fresh flowers.

I want to buy fresh flowers, but my garden has fresh flowers and I don't really take advantage of them that often.

And so this is just around the counter or around the garden bouquet.

So I have some ornamental grasses and some plants that are still blooming this fall.

So again, I like some annuals I'd never used to but you can't beat some of the xenios for fall.

And then of course there's turtlehead blooming.

I have a try Certus you don't even have to pick a whole hydrangea you can just pick off the flower let it sit in some golden rods, some late blooming hosta obedient plant, and then of course dahlias, the dahlias are still looking really good.

And remember that this is a tender bulb that will have to be lifted like your can is that you're gonna dig up I'm gonna dig up and store my dahlias over the winter as well.

You know what?

That's very seasonal.

Very fall very autumn esque.

Right?

Right goes goes really well.

You know enjoy, enjoy what you grow, enjoy what you grow.

That's that's the quote for this show.

Before we go, we've got a minute or so left.

You went to a trivia night so I did.

Let's go.

Okay, so I went to a trivia night all the questions were with plants, arts and leisure for 50 what George Orwell novel has a houseplant in its title.

No one got it.

But it's keep the Aspen distro flying and what is an aspen distro it's the cast iron Land and evidently in the 1930s, in England in London, if you were a person of middle class lineage, yes, you might have.

You had one sitting in your front room in the window, and that was your status symbol.

Interesting.

So in the end, Joe, Gordon Comstock gets an aspen destra.

Okay, I'll see you read the book.

I read the first two chapters.

Just enough.

The middle part is it's very depressing.

George Orwell has a lot of social commentary and, and also a lot of literary references above my understanding.

Gotcha.

Well, you know what everyone's prepared now for their next round of trivia.

So that's right, ladies, we are out of time we went to England.

We went to your gardens.

We talked about fall.

We're all hungry.

Now.

The basil.

This was a really good show.

Thank you.

And again, proves the point that you guys are just excellent generalists who have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things.

So thank you for coming on and sharing your time and talent.

And thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time on the American gardener.

Good night.