(music) 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 the Jennifers.

It's been a while since we've seen you guys both in here, so we'll have you introduce yourself since it's been a while, and then off we go.

So Jennifer Fishburn, we'll start with you.

Hello.

Jennifer Fishburn, I am a Horticulture Educator with the University of Illinois Extension, and I just celebrated 28 years in my position, just a few and I can talk about all types of gardening.

My favorites are vegetable gardening and herb gardening, and I've really gotten kind of into natives lately.

28 years, that's a long time.

Is it still your passion?

Do you still wake up every day?

I do.

I love doing what I'm doing.

I love working with Master Gardener, Master Naturalist volunteers, and yes, well, we appreciate you.

You always bring a lot of knowledge to the program.

So thank you.

All right.

Ms Nelson, Hi, I'm Jennifer Nelson.

You can find me in a couple of different places, some of my writings online at grounded and growing.com and I am an instructor at University of Illinois in the Department of Crop sciences.

I teach mostly vegetable gardening, but some general horticulture stuff too.

Yeah, we can find you doing just about anything too.

Got a lot of hits.

We love that.

All right.

Let's jump in with a question that kind of goes along with the show and tell we're going to do question 51 this is from Jean flood.

She says, I'm worried about my asparagus.

Half of it looks like it does this time of year.

The other half is short and fuzzy.

Do I have a problem?

And what should I do?

So she's worried about fuzzy asparagus.

What are your thoughts there?

So based on the picture, what I see in that picture is a mature asparagus plant and a immature asparagus plant.

So one that's maybe probably started itself from seed in her garden patch there.

So it's just a little bitty one.

Some gardeners will leave that.

Some will take it out.

It will eventually become a full grown asparagus plant.

Generally, when we see those is when folks are planting a female such a type of asparagus, such as Martha Washington, or maybe you purchased a batch of Millennium or Jersey night asparagus and Martha Washington got in there somehow.

But it's a female form, so the female will produce fruits, and those will make seeds that will fall to the ground, and occasionally they'll form a new asparagus plant.

Most gardeners prefer to have the ones that are going to look like this, green frond here where you to grow one that looks like this.

So this is going to be a male form.

More recently, Millennium is the one that most everybody's planting.

There might be Jersey knights still around, and that's a male form.

The female forms, they'll produce not as not as much asparagus, because they're busy putting on the fruits.

Wow.

I don't think I've ever seen a female asparagus one, so you really want to, I personally strive for those.

This time of year is a great time to if you haven't already done it, they are high they like high fertility, so feed them with manures at this time of year would be good, and then that manure is decomposed by the time next spring comes.

So right now would be a good time to get out.

And for most of us, clean your asparagus patch.

You're supposed to, well, cut those do you might not have, yeah, mine might have a few weeds scattered for the asparagus.

Yes.

So asparagus is a perennial plant.

Asparagus, actually, once you plant it, you can keep it going for about 20 some years.

So you want to plant it somewhere in your yard where you know you want to keep it.

You're not going to be moving around at all, because you're planting those actually pretty deep, about six to eight inches deep in the ground.

So you want to keep those for those crowns.

So you're not going to be moving them around a whole lot, but they do need fertilizer to keep them going and keep them doing well.

So now would be a good time to do that.

Also, if you don't have asparagus, and you're looking to plant asparagus, this time of year, would be the great, great time to do that, to get that ground prepared.

So next spring you can plant those crowns in your garden, excellent.

So you can actually plant those berries, and you could, I probably wouldn't, because you're looking at instead of, if you plant crowns, we usually tell you the second year you can harvest a little bit.

The third year you can harvest more.

If you're going to plant seeds, you're probably looking at good five more year, more years or more, like really long time, not, not.

And everybody knows how I feel about a spirit.

Actually, this, this next year, the spring of 26 will be my year too.

So maybe I'll, I'll get to harvest a couple, and I would suggest, in January, start looking at the garden, see catalogs.

Let's see what they're carrying, and get those ordered right away, because it's.

Sometimes they sell out of the grounds.

Gotcha.

Now, do you have to have a male and a female?

Or is that?

No, you're just if I ordered them today, I would order just millennium.

Just millennium.

Okay, interesting.

That's Wow.

See, I learn something new every time I come to work.

Okay, Jen, where to you?

Marilyn says she's got two issues that have haunted her all summer long.

Very dramatic.

She's noticed a great infestation of aphids that have demolished what little milkweed that she had no caterpillars.

So I'm assuming she was trying to get some monarchs there, but she said she's washing them back, and they came back with a vengeance, and there's bind weed.

So her milkweed patch is just not having a really good summer.

So between the weeds and the insects, what advice will say, the bind weed can be a problem anywhere it shows up, because that just wraps around everything and every little bit that's left behind.

So trying to pull that out, and maybe if you see the the the stump of it, to put some non selective herbicide on it, would be good.

But we have to remember that milk weed is a weed, so it's going to it also, as a plant, will attract all sorts of insects to it.

The sample I brought today, of the seed pods that are starting to open had Oleander bugs all over it, and that's another insect that you see just people will get freaked out because it's just covering everything, but it's just one of part of the life of a milkweed, and aphids sometimes show up too.

I guarantee, if it's just common milkweed, it's not gonna it's gonna shrug it off and know it's gonna come back in spades next year, because I let, I let a couple of them come up in my garden, just because the butterflies, right?

We all want to promote the monarchs.

And it's everywhere now.

And it's easy, relatively easy to corral, yes, so you can pull it out, pretty easy.

But I thought it would be a good time to mention that when you see these, oh, look, there's an Oleander bug.

There's an Oleander bug coming out.

This is the time of year.

If you're going to collect seed, the seeds are on the on the bits of fluff coming out of the pods, and the seeds should be planted now.

They need to actually the winter time, the freezing, thawing, the stratification, the cool, wet conditions, to actually germinate in the spring.

So if you can't put them outside and just plant them where you intend to be.

You can put them in pots and put them in like the crisper drawer of a fridge, like if you have a garage fridge or whatever, and let them hang out there for the winter.

And I wanted to mention that the fluff from milkweed pods at one point in time was used for life jackets.

I haven't I didn't look it up before today, but in recent years, I found there was a company that is selling, like, comforters and stuff, like hypoallergenic comforters stuffed with milkweed fluff.

They were ridiculously expensive.

The last time I look good, I guess if you want like, a really fancy pants comforter, you could, somebody asked me, as I dabble around with spinning, like, making yarn, like, could you spin this and make some sort of it?

I don't think it would spin very well because it's too slick, but it is, if you're bored this winter.

Yeah, it is kind of a fiber that you could play around with.

But yeah, here's more Oleander bugs hanging out now.

We see these growing on the highway, pretty much anywhere.

But what are the best practices to get these to thrive in your landscape?

Plant them.

Plant them.

Like set it and forget it.

I literally if there were aphids on my plants, I did not notice it.

Yeah, like I said it, those plants that she's struggling with this year will probably come back like multiple numbers more than what she had this year.

I would not stress about it at all.

You know, oh, go ahead.

No, you were mentioning plant it and forget it.

The only note of not caution, but observation that I've seen is I prefer to plant swamp milkweed or rose milkweed.

It spreads, but not it's a much easier controlled spread.

But on that one, my key there is Wait, be patient, because it does not emerge until mid May or so most times in central Illinois.

It's one that I actually it didn't come up when the other plants came up the first year that I had it.

And I actually went and dug it up and found out it was still alive.

So it's a lady merger on the swamp milkweed, not necessarily on that.

Oh, really, yeah, is it doesn't need more, like, high moisture.

It likes a little bit more moisture, maybe, to get going.

But mine's been pretty it's well, have to try again.

Yeah, try try again.

So just be patient.

Will be the key.

With some of our native plants, they come up a little bit later than others.

Gotcha a little hack that I learned from Kelly.

Also, she was one of our panelists here.

I would put those in a bag or a bowl with some pennies.

Yeah?

And just shake, shake, shake, shake, all the seed falls to the bottom, and you open the bowl, or open the bag, the fluff flies off and you've got the seeds in the bottom.

So just, you know, a note, if you're wanting to store them and you didn't want to have all that floating through the house or the garage fridge.

Okay, wonderful.

Let's go on to your next show and tell So kind of going along with the asparagus bed.

But just in general, around my yard, you might find just a handful of weeds coming up right now or still up, I should say, at this time of year, if you were less than attentive to some of your weeds, I would highly recommend getting those pulled.

If you can see here, just on these, this one little bitty piece, how many hundreds of seeds are on that.

This is particular wheat.

Is lamb's quarter, and it can produce 1000s of seeds on just one plant.

So this is two, you know, that's one plant and that's the other.

You want to get a handle on those, because the old adage is, one year of seeds equals seven years of weeds, and in some cases, it can be more than that.

So, you know, if you've got a handful of these around, put them in a garbage sack.

Kind of get a get rid of them.

You don't want to be putting this in your compost pile.

You don't want that falling to the ground.

So if you're less than attentive, or, you know, it's just been a little bit too hot.

Now would be a great time to go out and collect those and not let them self.

Sow everywhere.

Catch back up, because I am.

I am one of the folks who have been less than attentive, I have to admit.

But it was just so dry.

Now, with weeds this year, did you have a better or worse year with weeds, with the drought and I think mine were the same.

They're just persistent, because we had a good July.

So as far as rainfall, so once they get up and going there, they get their roots in the ground.

They're perfectly fine.

There's no pulling them out right now.

I have to just chop them, yeah.

But like you said, get the seeds out of there.

Yes.

Good, good set of pruners.

If you can't pull a hand, pull them just, just particularly with these the lambs quarters an annual.

So it means that this plant is just going to grow this year, and then next year we'll see whatever is produced from its seeds coming up.

So to see with those, you don't have to get the roots out.

You just got to get the plant cut down.

Gotcha Okay?

All right.

Get back out there and catch up on those weeds.

All right, let's move to purple tomato.

All right.

So I'm starting the process of saving seeds from my purple tomato.

And like we said, that was the tomato that the only one really did well in both of our yards, yes, so it's still kind of the water is kind of purpley, and the rest of it kind of looks like cherries.

But I didn't think I had very many seeds, but they're collecting at the bottom of the jar.

So this is for collecting tomato seeds.

I only have the cap on it because it stinks.

I didn't want it to dump in my paint.

Yes, it's from did you have them?

I have them.

And just kind of squished the insides out and just dumped it in there with water.

I usually if I hit if I can find screen.

I didn't have any screening, so a paper towel, something that will let air in, but keep, like, flies out.

I used a cheesecloth, yeah, whatever you have.

But I didn't want to put this, like this in my car.

So I can't blame you the stench.

So you want it to get good and ripe and, you know, nice layer, mold would be fine, really stinky, like a forgotten tomato in August out in the garden, because the the pulp that's on the seeds is actually a germination inhibitor, and that's that's to the tomatoes advantage.

You don't want those seeds to start in August, when the tomatoes are rotting on the ground.

They have to weather that inhibitor away so that they can grow in the spring.

So once this is nice and moldy and gross, I will put this through a strainer, and I'll be able to retain the the seeds, and I'll rinse them off, and I'll put them, usually, I put them like on a paper plate, and just kind of spread them out and let them dry.

And then in class years, I put them in a pill bottle with I saved the like out of little dust kids, yeah, so.

And I kept thinking, Oh, I don't have enough seed.

I don't have enough seed, but there's way more in here than I and they saved really well from last year.

The ones I put away, like I said, they were the only ones that performed really well this summer in the garden.

And of course, they got enormous and fell over, and they're still fruiting.

And I'm like standing them up to pull tomatoes off.

Yeah, I just finally waved the white flag and yanked them.

I have them in a container, but everybody I know that put them in the ground.

They're gigantic, and I'm excited.

Supposedly, the company is coming out with a larger purple tomato for next spring, so I will be buying that, if that, if that shows us.

Post, yeah, because they're quite, quite fun.

Now, how long does it take for that to get the yuck and the mold and like, when do you know it's time to dump it and just kind of look at it, if I can, if I like, I. Scoop one out and you can feel that you've got, there's no goop on the seat anymore.

If it was hot out, I'd say like a week, 10 days, but it's, I don't know, this week the temperatures are a little lower.

Gotcha until I remember to, until I remember to do it.

Is that the reality?

And then just dump them in a strainer or something.

Yeah, if there's any big chunks on the top, I'll take that out, but then what's left, just put it through like a fine mesh strainer.

Gotcha?

Okay, wonderful.

All right, let's go to question 43 this is about rhubarb.

This is from Lois.

She says, I have two plants of rhubarb that are thinning out.

Some stalks are normal size, but some of them are only pencil size.

When is the best time to split the plants?

Is it fall or spring?

So what is the answer?

So to answer her question, the best time to divide rhubarb is in the spring.

I would say you could also sometimes do it in the fall, but this year, shovel in the ground.

So next spring would be the optimum time to do that.

The question I would have back to her, though, is, what are her fertility practices?

So again, rhubarb is, is a perennial plant that you plant it leave it alone.

It usually can stay in the same spot for for many, many years, pretty content, but you have to feed it.

So the best way to feed it is usually with composted manure.

So if you have access to composted horse manure, rabbit manure, cow manure, to put that on the ground.

Now, in the fall, to feed those roots, they do need heavy fertility.

So that could be the cause of the pencil thin also divide, you know, two crowded could as well, but a lot of times that's more of a fertility issue.

Interesting.

And some I've seen some.

I had a neighbor growing up that had an enormous rhubarb patch.

They can live, like you said, for years and years and years, as long as you take care of them, when you see them sort of start to die out.

Do they usually die out from the center, or, like, from the out the outer edges?

If you start to have trouble, like, when do you know?

I guess is a good time to divide them.

Will you start to have will you see some, some death in the center?

I don't know.

For the most part, I haven't been that lucky.

My, like, my plants will just gradually get a little bit bigger each year, and I've not divided them.

Oh, okay, the biggest problem I see is more when I don't feed them enough that you see that.

But, yeah, you'll, you'll know, but your patch, I mean, your your your crown itself, should, your plants should continually get a little bit bigger each year.

And if it's not, then it's more of a fertility than it is.

Gotcha being too big of a plant.

All right, all right, let's go to what you've got in the vase there.

Just quickly wanted to mention this is a good time of year if you've got some herbs growing outside to before you get a frost or a heavy freeze, to go out and cut some of those off, put them in a vase, change that water every couple days.

And if you're enjoy your fresh herbs, you could continue to use those in your cooking for several weeks, as long as you're changing this water out at least two or three times a week.

Just put new water in there.

Otherwise it can get a little slimy and they won't grow do as well.

But this is a great thing to do with basil.

I didn't have any to bring to show, but Basil is a really, really good example of how to keep that going.

And I know Jennifer's kept it going for months before, yeah, and basil will start to show cold damage even before we hit freezing.

So when we get down into the low 40s and high 30s, you'll start to see black on the basil.

It's kind of a diva.

So bring it in.

She does not like a chill, not like a chill, speaking of which, we can kind of get into that a little bit.

A little bit as we're sort of getting to the point where we need to be bringing our house plants back in.

So let's just talk about some housekeeping items.

Temperature wise, when do we need to worry about them?

Or just start deciding when it's time to bring them back in, usually about 50 degrees a night.

Anything pass below that you want to get your house plants indoors, thinking about it, at least, moving them into the garage for the for the for the evening, so it doesn't get too cool.

But the main thing with house plants is, if you've left them outside, is bringing them in and doing lots of inspecting before you take them very carefully.

That's I like the garage method of kind of staging it is like let those critters show themselves in the garage, not in your living room.

I once brought a gigantic praying mantis into the house this way.

Cat had a great time, I bet, I bet.

But I've heard, I've heard brought a frog in before I had a frog come in Toad, I'm sorry, I brought a frog to a program recently that I did with medical students.

It came from the greenhouse.

I did.

We had no idea there were frogs in the greenhouse.

Yeah, I've done it.

I've heard horror stories of people bringing mice in in big, giant pots.

I'm like, Oh, that would be the end of.

No, no, but I, I know the 50 degree rule, but my plants are right up next to the house, so I kind of push the edge on that, push the envelope a little I have left out like Christmas cactus until the bitter end, like until it's a frost warning, because that cold temperature and the shorter days is going to push more flower buds.

And I will tell you I've screwed that up, and I've lost gambled, I've gambled a little too hard on that, and I've lost plants.

But if you can leave those up, make those the last thing you bring in, usually, or rewards you.

But I think the key is inspection, of very careful inspection, I should use those at the end of the summer, I start to put in those granules, the Bonide just, you know, just because, I mean, if you've got a lot of plants, you don't want to get into a situation where, no, there's an infestation.

You can do like the yellow sticky cards too.

And that will kind of help if anything emerges while it's indoors.

Just again, keep pets and kids in mind, because my curious cat got one stuck to him, and that was an adventure.

Yes, and we've still got a few more minutes left.

I just want to chat with you guys about how your own gardens we're doing this year.

We talked about tomatoes being kind of lousy.

But Jennifer, is there anything that did well or not so well for you this summer?

And anything you may have learned okra did really well in my garden this year because okra likes the heat and it can tolerate the drought, so it did super well in my garden this year.

I mean, by about average.

Yeah, we'll leave it there.

The peppers did really well.

Had lots of jalapeno peppers.

We just haven't been very good at using them, but we had a lot of jalapeno peppers, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, not so much, because we live in the country and we're on a well, and you have to make the decision if you want to take a shower or water your plants sometimes.

So not quite that bad yet, but we're getting there.

We're going to getting in a dire strait situation here where I hope we get some rain soon, a lot of rain, this hard going in the winter.

We're going to lose a lot of stuff over the winter if we don't get rain.

Interesting.

So are we talking like established perennials, really?

Yes.

So okay, let's talk about that a little bit.

How will you know?

So will you see the damage going into the winter, or will you see it in the spring?

Whether or not it see it in the spring?

So the main thing is, if you got particularly any newer planted trees or shrubs, those are where I would start with my watering practices.

If you're limited, if we don't get some good, good rains, really good soaking rain, soaking you need to be watering your trees and shrubs going into the ground, freezing, particularly anything planted in the last three years, though, they will be hit the hardest, or anything.

Evergreens okay, because they're going to want, when we have those random warm days, warm ish days in the winter, they're going to be trying to photosynthesize and if they don't have water, and we're not talking about just kind of like how you water your annuals when you're watering trees.

This is like, 1520 minutes interesting.

I didn't know that it could affect, you know, something more established if we were fighting those conditions.

Wow.

Okay, well, ladies, thank you so much for coming in.

Oh, I didn't ask you about your garden.

Sorry, sorry.

How did your garden do?

How did you move on?

You must share your shame too, my shame.

So I built beautiful new raised beds this summer, which I was telling everyone about earlier, and the soil I ended up using is terrible.

And I had these ridiculous radishes that were in the ground for like two months.

And like, radishes normally are done in a month, right?

They were literally, like, this big I put, like my my garden glove next to them, like, it's just sad.

It was, like, Barbie size radish.

It was a bad the mix.

I just need to improve the soil.

I did.

I use the soil mix that the company recommended, and it just was not quite where it needs to be.

So, like a true gardener.

I'm going to say, wait till next year.

And gardener slash Cub fan.

See, we love when you guys have issues too, because it makes us feel better about ourselves.

When the experts make mistakes or have a bad growing year, there's hope for the rest of us.

Life happens to us too well.

Thank you, ladies, so much for coming in and everything that you brought.

I appreciate it, and thank you so much for watching.

If you've got questions for our panelists, you can send those in to yourgarden@gmail.com or you can look for us on socials.

Just search for MidAmerican gardener.

You can send your questions there.

Thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time.

Good night.

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