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♪ (Making it Grow opening music) ♪ Well, good evening and welcome to Making It Grow.

I'm Amanda McNulty, a Clemson Extension agent and our show is a collaboration between SCETV, and Clemson University, and we have some wonderful experts here tonight to answer your questions, but we're going to start with our Making It Grow crew member, Terasa Lott.

Terasa does so much for Clemson and a lot for Making It Grow, and she's going to always get us off to a good mood, because they're not problems.

Instead, they're wonderful, beautiful, or whimsical Gardens of the Week.

>> Thank you Amanda.

It has been so much fun adding the Gardens of the Week to our show on a weekly basis.

Let's go ahead and take a look, beginning with Bailey Slice, who sent in her echinacea, the particular variety is called Tres Amigos.

And you'll also see some Penstemons in the back.

A bees foraging on butterfly milkweed was sent in by Brian Province Frank and Tina Finders harvested a basket full of beans.

Tommy Reeves shared a 2-for-1, a treefrog nestled in a calla lily leaf.

And wrapping up, we have Shane Edge who sent in some magnificent looking Cherokee purple tomatoes.

Thank you everyone who submitted photos.

You are encouraged to go to our Making It Grow Facebook page and see all of the submissions and when we make a call, don't be shy.

Post your pictures to our page or send them to me in email T-E-R-A-S-A at Clemson.edu >> Thank you, Terasa, and in addition to putting that together, you collect questions that people send into our Facebook page or from other sources and I bet you've got one at the top of the stack that we can start with today.

>> I sure do.

This one comes in from Michelle in Greenwood who emailed one of our other Extension agents, Stephanie Turner and I believe she, in turn emailed it to Vicky.

She said, "I have a snake like creature "crawling over a paver and in my grass.

"What is it?"

<Amanda> My goodness.

Well, Vicky Bertagnolli, who's the horticulture agent and is an expert entomologist down in Aiken is with us.

Vicky, thanks for being part of the show.

And this is certainly a peculiar sounding organism.

>> It's really not, and I got two inquiries about the same critter right back to back, so it was really, really fun, and I try to get photos and videos, because this is one of the ones that I think is really, really cool.

I think all the insects are cool, but this one's really cool and what this is, is these are the larvae or the maggots a dark winged fungus gnats, and when you look at these they're not real big, maybe about three quarters of an inch, three eighths of an inch, and they're going to be clear, transparent and you can a lot of times see their gut contents.

They'll have a shiny head capsule.

They're legless, because they are maggots, but whenever we see them like Michelle has sent them to us, we see them in mass, and they travel like this to avoid predation, but fungus gnats, the larvae feed on fungus and organic plant matter in the soil and also in the thatch layer and what happens is is when they get ready to pupate, they'll migrate to the soil surface, and they walk off not walk off, because they're legless but they'll slither off in mass to go find someplace to pupate and then - they'll pupate, turn into adult flies.

We'll see them in areas that have a lot of moisture.

So, if we're outdoors, we might see them out in the lawn.

If we tend over water, we may see them in our potted plants.

If we over water the potted plants, we may see them near the air conditioner where the condensation comes out of there.

Could see them in low lying areas.

We can also see them in turf where the thatch layer is really thick or even in our planting beds, where the mulch is a little bit too deep.

>> So decaying organic matter is I'm kind of getting the feeling that's what they go for or soils high in organic matter.

So that's why thatch and things like that effect them.

>> Exactly.

And then we talk I think, so this is the same insect that we talk about when people sometimes call in and say they're having all this trouble with these tiny little flies in their house plants in the winter.

Is that correct?

>> Probably and usually it is, and so the advice that I give people for their potted plants, water a little bit less.

Let the planting media dry out and you don't have to spray anything.

These things will go away on their own.

>> Okay.

In this case people if they're going to be bring plants in sometimes people like to add extra organic matter to the potting to the potting mixture they buy, but if it's a good quality potting mixture they may not want to do that because that may encourage or increase the likelihood of their getting these fungus gnats in the soil and then having them emerge during the winter inside the house when it's no fun to have them flying around you.

>> Exactly, so a lot of folks like to add peat moss or sphagnum to their planting media and in their head, they're doing it for, to keep water to keep moisture levels more consistent, but the bad thing is that they do keep water moisture really consistent.

Sometimes, it's consistently wet and whenever that happens you can have a fungus gnat issue.

>> Okay, well that is an amazing thing that these creatures have enough sense to think that if there's a mass of them, that some of them may get picked off, but plenty of them will survive a pretty good strategy for survival, I guess.

>> I'd say so.

<Amanda> Okay, well thank you.

Well, Terasa as always, thank you for compiling these questions.

What's the next one we're going to tackle?

>> This one comes in from Edward in Spartanburg about Leyland cypress.

He says, "I have a row of Leyland "cypress and one died.

We took it down and we were "going to replace it but the HOA "said they'd prefer a similar sized tree "and the others are like over 30 feet.

"Do you have any advice?

<Amanda> Gracious.

Well, Drew Jeffers is the horticulture agent up in Spartanburg.

And Drew, I imagine, Spartanburg has homeowners associations and some of those nice communities they have there.

This sounds like a pretty tough situation.

That'd an awfully big tree to replace.

>> Yes, that would be a very big tree to replace and you would be very hard pressed to find a tree like that.

So, we don't really recommend Leyland cypress anymore.

At least that much, because of all the diseases, disease problems and insect problems, these guys get, these Leyland cypress get.

so what we try to recommend is mix screens and probably what happened with this Leyland cypress, I'll bet they're only about five to eight foot centers, which means they're planted too close together, because someone way back about 10, 15 years ago said I want a wall of green and they got what they wanted, but now, those trees were competing for nutrients, light and now they're stressed.

They probably got some kind of disease.

Now, they'll need to be taken out and replaced.

So, what we recommend now with Clemson Extension is to do mixed screens.

With mixed screens you plant several different things and we're actually a fact sheet on Clemson H.G.I.C about which trees and shrubs to use for those mixed greens.

And what's nice about that is you can create a nice variety.

So, that way when something like this happens and you have one tree die, you can just replace that one or change it with something else.

You don't have to worry about matching because the biggest tree you're probably going to be able to find is probably about 15 feet.

And that's pushing it, and that's going to be a costly endeavor.

Plus getting the hole right in between those plants is going be tough.

So, come out and see us at the Extension office.

We'd be more than happy to help you out and figure out a way to work the edgeway.

>> Drew, I heard that these very expensive trees, then are gone in and they've used that tree spade to get them out of the ground have lost so much of their root mass that they tend to, just kind of sit there for a couple of years, and that they're often if it's a really rough summer when you have to install it, which sometimes people have to in order to get the permit, you know, if it's a construction site or something, but I've heard that actually a smaller tree in a container maybe will in four or five years can catch up and maybe even outgrow one of those big super expensive trees.

>> Yes, exactly.

We've seen evidence that those trees especially with what we're seeing now with the research is that when you plant those containerized trees, it's better to bare root them in the hole, and that way you get more of a root expansion.

You get to untangle the roots.

So, you get less root circling and girdling of the stem.

So and yes given - younger trees in general tend to outperform some of your bigger, bigger stock that's planted.

The reason is, the main reason is because when those, like you said those root systems have been severely compromised.

So, now the trees basically go into shock and by the way if your are going to plant something, Edward, I would wait until fall, even if the HOA is stomping their feet, I would still recommend waiting until fall or winter, because if you try to plant something right now in July, you are asking for trouble.

[laughs] >> Drew, I think your suggestion about trying to plant it bare rooted, so even if it came in soil, we're now sometimes saying go ahead and pull that soil away, because that way we can actually find the root flare, which often gets covered up as they keep moving them up, I believe.

<Drew> Correct.

What happens in the nurseries is typically the root flares covered up, because these trees are usually planted very quickly and they're just - it's because they're having to produce plants, and usually by the time it gets to the to the landscape, it's usually not still covered up.

And it could be - I've seen root flares that are two to three inches deep.

<Amanda> Ooh!

>> So, once you do that ahead of time, you actually decrease the size, the depth of your planting hole, especially if you're in the upstate where we have that nice hard clay, to dig through, and you need a jack hammer.

So, well yes it's very, very advantageous to find the root flare, for sure.

>> And then if there are encircling roots, we can go ahead and cut them at that point?

>> Yes, you can go ahead and cut those, no problem and then just make sure - The shocking part to a lot of people if you do have to plant something this time of the year, which again we don't recommend, but you want to keep it watered and when we say water, you're looking at about anywhere from two to five gallons per week.

The rule is about an inch of water a week, which is equivalent to about half to three quarters of a gallon per square foot of area, per week, if nature does not provide.

So the simplest way to do that is to either use a tree gator.

You know, like one of those bag things that drip, or you can use a cheap five gal bucket, like I do, with a nail hole in it.

And just let it slowly drip over time.

>> That's what I do too and if you want to you can paint that bucket black and go ahead put a brick in it so that it won't you know if it gets empty, it won't blow over and if it's black, nobody will even notice if it's sitting out the yard really, I don't think, so.

All good advice, Drew.

Thanks so much.

Well, Terasa we've been getting some good questions and answers.

What's the next when you got for us?

<Terasa> This one comes in from Veronica in Salem and Veronica said, "My daughter was in school virtually "and wanted to make improvements to our yard "for wildlife.

She got really interested in birds.

"I'd like for her to continue to find ways "to keep her engaged.

Are there any 4-H programs "that focus on that?"

<Amanda> Well, aren't we lucky that Mallory Dailey who's the 4-H agent up in Oconee County is here.

And I think y'all have things that are far beyond sewing and cooking, so what if you got that might help this young lady?

>> Yes, so one of my favorite programs is the Wildlife Habitat Education Program and - what we call W.H.E.P.

And so, WHEP is all about hands on learning in the outdoors and the really cool thing about this program is it gives you the opportunity to act like wildlife biologists and so they learn all about game species, which are things by deer and turkey and also non-game species like songbirds and reptiles and amphibians, and they get the chance to make decisions that an actual wildlife biologists would make in the field - and we do this through a series of competitions and we're lucky to have some great partners, such as the Nemours Wildlife Foundation and we try to have a contest, the state contest each year.

This year, we had to be virtual, but it was still great opportunity.

We had some great videos from DNR and Clemson Extension agents and it was a really cool and we actually now have two teams that will be representing South Carolina at the national competition, will be taking place in mid July.

>> That's pretty exciting.

Well, give me an idea of one scenario that you might go through in this, if you don't mind.

>> So, my personal favorite and I think it's definitely a favorite for many of the kids, it's called the wildlife challenge, which the wildlife challenge, they are giving - it's basically a ID multiple choice exam type thing and so there might be skulls, or pelts, or calls from song birds or calls from the amphibians and they have to write it down to see if they can guess to see what it is.

So, it's really neat and it's great hands on and it just gives them an opportunity to learn about all the species that you might find in South Carolina and across the country.

<Amanda> Well, it seems like you need some training before you have any idea of how to get that right.

Are there videos they watch or different ages made presentations that they share with the kids?

How do they go about it?

<Mallory> So, we basically, we're trying to form different various partners throughout the state.

So we have a committee that is made up from Extension agents or DNR professionals or other professionals and we have them scattered across the state and then we also started having a lot of resources that involve 4-H volunteers, or FFA teachers or any other teachers they can use such as lessons, that they can teach their kids.

I know in Oconee, what we like to do is we like to have 4-H Club meetings and we focus on a couple of different species.

I was able to have one of my community partners help me out with that.

So, it's really great.

And we've also had various educational training.

>> You even include talking about food crops or things like that.

>> Yeah, so all about the management techniques that they might use or wildlife practices.

So, some of them might be planning a food plot, which is a great segue into the wildlife food plot project that 4-H offers, which registration should be opening here in August, so that'd be a great opportunity.

So, it all relates together, which is the great thing about 4-H, because there's so many different opportunities and avenues to go down, but it all has the same kind of, common, basically outcome, which it just getting kids outdoors.

>> So, is this one for older kids?

Or what's the age range of kids who can participate in this one Mallory?

>> So, this one the WHEP program is for kids ages 9 through 18.

And so, the seniors, like we call them, the older kids, they have the opportunity to go on to nationals and then the younger kids, their contest is formatted a little bit differently, but it basically prepares them to make the jump into the senior competition.

>> Well, that really sounds fun, and you know so many kids are in cities now, and so this is a way for them to really learn what's around them if they get out of the city, and I think people have, during this past year have going to lots of state parks and other sites that are open and it must really add a lot to their enjoyment, when they go to places, if they can recognize things, because it makes the world seem bigger, when you see things that you're familiar with.

>> Exactly.

It really does and it's such a neat opportunity, and even kids that live in cities, like the urban areas, the really unique thing is that at the national competition, this year, the kind of habitat that they're focusing on is actually an urban ecosystem.

So, they get to learn how to manage wildlife in one of those urban areas, like maybe like a park or in cities and kind of really highlighting that green area.

So, it's so neat that they're exposed to all spectrums of managing wildlife.

>> And that is important, because the rural area is kind of shrinking, and we do need to find ways that we can try to share, our urban environment with other animals, I think.

So, I think that's pretty important.

4-H last year, y'all really rose to the challenge, with just incredibly great programs, but I think, this coming fall, things are probably going to get back to more in-person meetings.

What are y'all expecting?

>> Oh, yeah!

I'm so excited!

Even, like right now that they have the spring, summer, we've had to go into a few schools and offer some day camp like workshop type things, but I know things like Junior Bee Round Up are happening in August.

So, I feel like we're full blown, full steam ahead, and it'll be great.

It might be a little bit different as far as some things, but the based off all the agents that I work with, we've been so creative, and it's so fun to hear what other agents have to come up with and kind of sharing ideas and really adapting to our new normal.

>> And I know that 4-H is - there are no restrictions on who can join, so home schoolers join, private school kids, public school kids.

I think that y'all find ways to encourage and embrace anyone who wants to be a member of 4-H. >> Oh yeah!

Yep and I definitely encourage you to reach out to their local agent, because we have so many new agents, even that we've hired throughout this whole past year, that are really excited to kind of get out, back out into their communities, and welcome new faces to 4-H. >> Well, Mallory, that's a wonderful synopsis of this program and I hope that a lot of people will take advantage of it, because it is to me, the world is so much larger when you can go out and recognize things, and it's not just a blur of green and when you see foot prints that you can associate them with animals.

And it sounds like y'all do a great job preparing kids for that.

Thanks for sharing this information with us.

>> You're welcome.

>> I went on a master naturalist field trip to see May white azaleas and met a wonderful fascinating woman, Gail Wagner, professor at the University of South Carolina and she is a paleoethnobotanist and you are going to be fascinated about what a paleoethnobotanist studies.

♪ (acoustic music) ♪ I'm speaking with Gail Wagner, who is a professor in a very unusual field.

Gail, I'm going to let you explain your specialty, because it's so broad and all encompassing.

>> Okay, Amanda.

I'm a paleoethnobotanist.

That means I'm an archaeologist with a specialty in botany and I look at the relationships between plants and peoples in the past.

Now, I also am an ethnobotanist.

So, I also studied modern day people and their relationships with plants.

>> Well, today we're going to focus on the past and I thought that American Indians ate squash, corn and beans, and I guess at some point they did, but that was not what, early people in our part of the world, used as their diet.

<Gail> That's correct.

I think everybody learned about the three sisters: corn, beans and squash, but archaeologists, like me, know that prior to that for thousands of years, as far back as 2300 BC, they were depending upon other domesticated, cultivated crops, ones that they domesticated from native weeds around them, and we're standing next to several of them, sunflower was domesticated by the Northern American Indians by 2,800 BC, and along with it, they domesticated another oily seeded crop, a similar seed called Sump weed, and that's a great story, because that's a story that was totally lost to history.

Nobody knew that anybody ate Sump weed, until archaeologists found the domesticated seed.

They also domesticated starchy seeds, and we're standing next to May grass, and Chenopod and these both have seeds that are starchy and they were the main source of carbohydrates, for thousands of years, prior to Mays.

So, when Mays came in, it came from Mexico to the southwest, to the eastern United States as did beans, and as did squash, the squash that we currently eat and when Mays came in it was added to this suite of native domesticates.

It only gradually, not until A.D. 900 did it become a major article in the diet.

>> Gail, besides the evidence of these being parts of diets from the work you've done collect through the flotation devices and all that kind of stuff, I believe that we have other examples that reinforce that, that have been found in some drier places or winter.

>> - Yes!

Fortunately, dry rock shelters and dry caves preserve these and we've seen how they've been stored, and so May grass, evidently, the stock's pull up, and you could take the stalks and tie them into a bundle and they're found like that in rock shelters.

<Amanda> And,... this we have lost in South Carolina or North America.

We've lost the domesticated variety of this, I believe.

>> Yes.

Several of these ancient domesticates are now extinct as domesticates.

So, the North American Chenopod domesticate is extinct.

All we have left is the weed.

<Amanda> But, tell me what's happening in South America.

>> Well, in South America they also domesticated it, also in Mexico, and that still continues, and today you can go to the health food store and buy quinoa.

and that is the seed of this, and this would have had similar looking seeds back then.

<Amanda> That's just amazing.

[laughing] And not even the health food store, everywhere now.

<Gail> Yes.

You can now buy it everywhere.

<Amanda> And you know this because there was a group of American Indians here that built mounds.

Why don't we know more about them?

What happened to the Mississippians?

<Gail> Well, when the Europeans came and here in South Carolina, the earliest Europeans were the French, along the coast, by 1520, the Spanish, and then later the British, and one of the first things they noticed, well the Spanish saw mounds in use.

So they were making earthened flattop mounds that had temples on top.

They were sacred places, and - What happened to those people?

Well, the all of those Europeans brought diseases that they had no way to survive, plus the British were selling them as slaves to work the tobacco fields up in Jamestown.

>> So, our Mississippians who were responsible for building the mound that you're studying, near Wateree, they disbursed, and so I guess the Catawba and Cherokees are some of those dispersed people.

<Gail> We believe that they became the Catawba, the Cherokee, the Muskogee.

So a number of groups are descended from these Mississippians.

>> But as you said, these were cultivated.

These people have settlements and towns and they grew - >> They were farmers.

They were farmers, and they also collected wild game or hunted wild game and fished and collected wild fruit and nuts.

So, they had a very, probably a more varied diet than we do today.

>> We know some of this because you and other archaeologists have received a grant to go and study and collect soil from around these areas, around these mounds and by an incredible process.

Explain this flotation, and how when it's all over, you under your microscope are finding some of this remarkable material.

>> Yes, so what kind of material does a paleoethnobotanist look at?

Some look at pollen.

Some look at phytoliths, which are little silica skeletons left by plants.

I look at seeds and nuts and wood, and they're preserved only when they've been charred at most open sites.

There are a few, you know they could be preserved in a dry rocks soak, and I take a bag of dirt from an archaeological context, like a pit or a heart, and I put it through a process called floatation, and in that I have a large container, a 50 gallon drum full of water, an insert with a very fine mesh screen, half the size of windows screen on the bottom, and then it's got a sleeve, and you dump in your dirt, The dirt goes through the screen in the bottom, collects in the bottom of the barrel.

Heavy things like hickory nut shells, pieces of ceramic pottery stones, collect in the screen, and the light stuff like the seeds, float out and get captured in a fine mesh cloth.

<Amanda> And then amazingly, you, although it wouldn't look like a seed if you just put it in my hand the charred seeds and the charred bits of wood and the charred bits of different things are identifiable.

You said there's enough of the little tale tell signs that make them, them, but you can pick them out.

>> Yes, So I do it based on comparative anatomy.

So, I have what's called a comparative collection, a modern day collection of seeds, fruits, nuts, wood, and I burn it, and then I look.

So, some things expand.

Some things pop, like popcorn, and some things shrink, and so then I'm able to look at the size, the shape, the seed coat pattern and I can tell you what it was.

<Amanda> One of them had a jigsaw like pattern.

<Gail> Yes.

The tobacco, one of my favorite seeds.

It looks like a jigsaw puzzle pattern on the seed coat.

>> But this flotation, I think y'all collected - how many bags?

>> This year we, in 2020 we collected, 131 bags of dirt.

Now, one of my sites that I worked at we collected 3,500 bags.

>> And I think you've had some good partners on this.

Just quickly tell me who was working with you.

>> Yes.

Well, Chris Judge from the Naive American Study Center has been instrumental in us getting our five year grant from Duke Energy, and then my Co-director is Adam King, from the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology.

>> Besides foods to eat, they needed clothing and it wasn't all deer skin, they needed bags.

They needed baskets.

What other plant fibers were essential, and how do you go from having a plant to having a piece of rope or a bag.

>> Well, making fibers would have been a daily constant occupation from little girls age four on up.

They would have been making fiber all the time.

And you could get fiber from three parts of the plant.

Seeds, like cotton, which is not native to North America, but that's a seed hair.

You can get it from the leaves, like yucca, or rattlesnake masters, >> Or for sandals, they like that.

>> Yes, they found sandals in a dry cave in Kentucky made out of rattlesnake master fiber, or from the stem, which is called bast fiber, and that for example milkweed later in the summer, we'll have a bass fiber and today I can show you Indian hemp, which later in the summer, when it hardens up also has a bass fiber, <Amanda> and although trying to make fiber is going to be, is difficult for me, with practice, these people, these young - just all day long, because you needed it for everything.

<Gail> You needed it for everything.

Net bags for tying a house together for everything.

They had no Walmart, you know.

You had to make everything yourself.

<Amanda> Isn't it remarkable that because of the Mississippians and their mounds and knowledge that people like you have, we know that their life was so rich and varied and we've really see that, although we want to sometimes use the word primitive people, but it was not.

That's really and completely incorrect.

>> They were never primitive.

>> It was a remarkably organized and diverse and rich society, and I want to thank you for scratching the surface, and giving us a peek into this fascinating topic.

>> You're very welcome.

♪ (bright music) ♪ ♪ ♪ (bright music concludes) ♪ >> Well, I hope that you learned as much from our visit to Gail Wagner, as I did.

It was one of the most interesting things I've done in a long, long time, and we certainly are lucky that she spent so many years doing this very important work in South Carolina.

Terasa, do you have another question that maybe we can get somebody who's here to help us with?

>> Well, I personally receive a fair number of questions regarding snake repellents, and I thought maybe we might speak to that, including any myths that might exist.

>> Goodness, well Mallory, I go to the store sometimes and see big bags of sulfur or different things like that and then you hear about moth balls, it's a pretty big world out there.

Can you really make a difference?

Any of those things work?

And is there any harm in using them?

>> I would say that those - a lot of times, they are kind of myths.

So things like mock balls and you see some kind of spray repellents.

They really don't work.

There's not enough science out there to prove anything about them, and if anything they cause more harm than good.

The biggest thing I'd say would be reducing snakes' habitat around your yard, but I know with going back to some of our 4-H programs, I love the opportunity to get a snake in a kid's hands and we really teach them all about snake safety, and their importance, and the coolest thing is they take what they learn in our 4-H programs and they tell their parents and their grandparents and all their relatives about it.

And so it all relates, and then hopefully what the kids learn, they can kind of rub off some good things and their parents will adapt some of those techniques for them in their yards, but really like I said, being cautious and aware of your surroundings and reducing snake habitat is your best bet.

>> Okay, and then I guess, also at the same time if somebody, if the kids says they want to and their parents say, "Well yeah, we got a big yard.

"We could have some snakes."

They could put a brush pile back in that area, and keep it pretty far away from the house and not have to worry about it.

>> Yep, exactly.

And even so, you might find that you and your kids might be a snake lover in the future, and then they can really start kind of being their snake advocate and kind of start in that next generation of snake stewards, <Amanda> Thank you, Mallory.

Well, Ms. Terasa.

I know that people are always asking questions.

So, let's find another one to help people with.

We can definitely do that Amanda.

How about Lee from North Augusta called and texted photographs saying, "This is "in my yard.

"It starts gray, but then it turns black.

"At church there are bigger areas that are "practically square and black.

"Am I going to have to replace my lawn?"

<Amanda> Oh my goodness!

Well, that would certainly be an awful thing to hear about.

Vicky, you are down there where people are trying to grow grass all the time in that sandy soil and you run into lots of things that you see.

Have you ever seen anything like this?

>> Yeah, this is one of the fun things that you get to see out in the landscape as far as a plant problem.

That it's not really a problem.

This is called slime mold.

And it's a fungus like organism that lives in like cool shady damp places, and they're in our organic mulches.

So, you'll see them in your bark mulch.

You'll see them in rotting logs.

You'll see them on the lawn, and with all the rain we've been getting, I'm not surprised that Lee is seeing this.

They come in all sorts of different colors.

There's brown ones.

There are salmon ones.

There's yellow ones.

There's orange ones.

There's red ones.

One of my very favorite ones is dog vomit slime mold, and it sounds exactly like the name.

I mean you look at it, and it looks like dog vomit, but this one that Lee has - this is.

It starts out white, and it'll turn like gray or purple or black charcoal colored, the older that it gets, and it's not going to hurt anything.

Sometimes the grass will turn a little bit yellow where the body of - where the fruiting bodies are sitting on the grass, but most of the time, it's fine.

Whenever things start to dry out, the slime mold will go away.

You don't have to treat it with anything.

It's a moisture.

It's tied with moisture.

Sometimes tied with shade, but typically it's a moisture issue.

>> Well, Vicky what is supporting it, what is it feeding upon, if it's not getting any nutrients from the grass?

It's feeding on the organic matter and bacteria and fungi from the soil.

>> Okay.

Okay.

So really not hurting the soil.

I mean not hurting the turf, whatsoever.

>> Nope, it's doing what fungi do.

Just being on stuff that's - the stuff that's already in the soil profile.

>> If your daughter were getting married or something at the church and you didn't want her to look so bad, can you get a hose and squirt it and kind of get rid of it?

>> That's one of the best treatments, because it doesn't require any kind of chemical treatment, and if it's unsightly, you can just take a strong stream of water, and we call it jetting.

You can jet the fruiting bodies off of the leaf material.

>> Okay.

Well boy.

Don't we wish everything would be that simple?

>> Don't we wish?

>> Terasa, the Gardens of The Week have become so popular, but now you're going to a garden kind of spotlighting that one garden and showing us more than just one beautiful part of it, I believe.

You are correct.

So, kind of a spin off of Gardens of the Week, so we'll call this our spotlight and today's feature is the yard and garden of Linda T. Smith.

The first few photographs showed different varieties of daylilies in absolutely gorgeous colors.

You might be surprised to know that daylilies actually have their own language to describe some of their various characteristics, like flower forms and color.

Linda's yard also features a tranquil sitting area, maybe read a book or just listen to the sounds of nature.

Here we see a flower bud forming on little gem magnolia, and finally a pot of Bat-Faced Cuphea named for the red and purple blooms that do actually resemble tiny little bat faces.

Thanks, Linda for sharing your photos.

It would be wonderful to just sit in that shady garden area and reflect on a day gone well.

>> Thank you so much for that Terasa and I hope that other people will consider sending in multiple pictures, photographs of their yard.

Maybe you'll, be the spotlight garden of the week too.

I was at my friend - thank goodness for Ann Nolte and Hank Stallworth and their beautiful garden, because I can go out there and find hat material and Ann so kindly shared these beautiful pink lilies, and some giant cone flower and then vitex.

Vitex is of course not a native, but it still is a pollinator magnet, and if you don't have a vitex in your yard, it really is a wonderful tree, small tree, or large shrub up to have there.

Terasa, let's see if we can't help somebody else with a problem.

>> I'm sure we can.

This one comes in from Steven in Greer.

Stephen says, "My soil test says my vegetable garden has excess nutrients, "phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

"what do I do to reduce this?"

>> Well, Terasa I think this is a good question for Drew.

Let's see if he can help this person out with all these excess nutrients.

Yeah, so that's a common problem we see with over- well, sometimes over-fertilization sometimes just nutrient rich soils.

So, one of the things you can do is make sure that your PH is correct, because that will allow more nutrients to be taken up.

The good news is, you're not going to need to add any fertilizers.

That's the good news.

You may just need to add some nitrogen.

So ammonium nitrate or urea or blood meal if you're going the organic route.

Another thing you can do is after your crops are done for the season, plant a cover crop, so like buckwheat, Crimson clover something like that, Austrian winter pea and what those do is you can allow those to grow, and then cut them and discard them put them in your compost pile.

That will help remove some of those nutrients.

That's not going to happen.

It's not going to drastically lower overnight and it's not going to happen over one season.

So you're probably going to need to re-test and make sure you're not adding any more excess nutrients.

The big key to this is don't fall victim to adding more nutrients.

So, you've already got nutrients in the soil.

So now, we're just going to make sure that those nutrients are available to the plants, so just making sure that can be done, but definitely I would look at using cover crops, for sure.

>> And from what we read now Drew, it sounds like the cover crops can be used in such a way that they increase that mycorrhizal fungi activity and really improve the texture of your soil, I believe.

<Drew> Yes.

That's correct.

Now, one thing if you were going to - if you don't think you have mycorrhizal in your soil, you can use some of the organic fertilizers now have mycorrhizic packages.

So you can use a small handful of that to get it started.

And yes, those cover crops are healthy to increase the mycorrhizal activity, which really helps to your soil, to improve your soil structure and improve your shoulder nutrient intake.

>> For people who haven't watched it, Buz Kloot, who's at the University of South Carolina, the Arnold School of Public Health has a NRCS soil health series, that I would encourage people to watch, because he talks about the remarkable improvements that some farmers are finding by following some of these new practices, including those cover crops.

Well, Terasa, I'm sure that this time of year everybody's gardening and everybody's got questions.

>> There is never a shortage of questions.

This one came in through Facebook Messenger from out of state, from John in Daphne, Alabama, who writes, "Hey, so this mustache is crawling across my deck.

Do they usually only move around at night, or is this just when I'm seeing it?

[laughing] >> Well, you know a lot of men decided to have pandemic mustaches.

I don't know if this is a function of the pandemic, but Vicky if it's something peculiar, I bet you might have an idea for us.

>> Actually this one is called a Giant woolly bear, and this is a caterpillar, and it turns into the giant leopard moth, and this is found throughout the eastern United States.

They feed on a whole bunch of different things, but when you're looking at this caterpillar it looks scary, because it's covered in the shiny black very stiff hairs that are called setae, and when you're looking at this caterpillar, overall it's black and there's going to be red inter-segmental rings, and the spiracles are also going to be red.

Those are diagnostic characteristics to know that you have giant woolly bear, and generally I tell folks, whenever you see a spiky or a hairy caterpillar don't touch it, but in this case, this one's not a stinging caterpillars, so you can pick it up.

I liken it to it feeling like whenever you pick up a hedgehog/ You pick it up and you're kind of careful with it, but whenever these things are threatened or feel threatened, they'll curl up into a tight little ball, and they'll stay like that and pretend like they're dead, until the threat goes away, and then they'll unfurl and start walking off again.

>> Have you ever picked up a hedgehog?

You certainly caught me off guard when you said that.

[laughing] >> Well, we don't normally talk about hedgehogs on this show.

I have friend that has some.

<Amanda> Okay.

All righty, and Vicky as I understand it, the caterpillars don't really sting you on purpose, it's just these hair like structures have compounds in them.

Is that correct?

>> Yeah whenever it comes to stinging caterpillars, the giant woolly bear is not one of them, but whenever it comes to stinging caterpillars, there's like 14 different types of stinging hairs, and the poison glands can be in different places in relation to the hair shaft.

Sometimes the hair will break off.

Sometimes the hair will break itself, and then venom comes out that way.

Sometimes it's emitted out of a pore or a gland.

And then sometimes, there's a barb on the end of the hair and there's all sorts of different methods that they use these hairs in order to protect themselves.

<Amanda> But it's not like a bee sting stinging your on purpose or something?

>> It's not like they have fangs where they're actively injecting you with venom.

It's not like a bee, where they're using a stinger or wasps where they're using a stinger.

It's a passive toxin.

>> Okay.

Well, thank you so much, and so, if I see the black shiny black hairs and the little red spiracles, which are, I think the places where the insects take in air to breathe then that one would be okay to pick up if I want to, but probably the best thing to do is just wait for you to find one and identify it for me and then I'll hold it.

How about that?

>> That would be the safest.

<Amanda> Okay, thanks a lot.

Well, Terasa, I think you must feel like everybody in the world is calling you with problems, after problem, after problem, but I bet you have another problem.

>> That's really what Extension is here for.

Right!

To help the citizens of South Carolina and beyond.

We do get questions from the other states, as well.

This one comes in from Candice in Greenville.

"My neighbor told me if I didn't clean "my lawn mower blades, I could spread disease "from my backyard, to my front yard.

Is that true?"

>> A huh.

Well, Drew, some people have home - cut their grass or get their kid to do it, and so their own lawnmowers and then some people have commercial companies coming in.

Is this something that we really should be concerned with?

>> Yeah, and I can't wait till Caroline's old enough where she can cut the grass.

[laughing] So, actually this is a very common thing.

Let's say your backyard has a disease, your back grass, the grass in your backyard.

If you were to cut that grass and then move to your front yard.

Yes, you could possibly contaminate it.

So what we tell people first is, cut you're healthy turf first and then go to your diseased turf and cut that.

Yes, during, after you cut, and usually people do it after they're done cutting their entire yard, they'll just rinse the lawn mower blades with water, let it dry in the sun for a few minutes, make sure it's nice and dry and then put the lawn mower up.

The reason is, is a lot of times, you can one, leave disease spores on that lawn mower blade.

Also, over time as that grass material cakes up you can really start to double your blades, and one other, speaking of which, you want to make sure that your lawn mower blades are razor sharp, and instead of trying to do it yourself, I would take it to a small engine shop that can sharpen those for you, because they'll make sure they're balanced, because that's one thing you have to make sure of, when you sharpen them, is that they're balanced.

Cause if they're not balanced, you can really cause some mechanical issues with your mowers.

If you have a lawn service, I am hearing about some lawn services that are rinsing their mowers between yards.

That is not always the case.

Unfortunately, they just don't have the time, but I am hearing about some that offer that.

They might have to just let them know that you have a disease in your yard, but that's one way, that diseases can spread.

So, it's a good idea to always just try to rinse off your mower blades after each use.

>> Okay.

So, just get a strong - I guess you could get one of those nozzles you put on that gives you a strong stream and just squirt it off real good.

>> Yeah, I have one of those dial a setting, <Amanda> Yeah.

>> hosing guns and I put it on the jet setting, and quickly rinse it off.

I don't really get to particular with it.

I just make sure it's good and rinsed off.

So - plus when you sort your garage, little creatures like to live in the dead clippings, so that's another reason I don't want to - you don't have that.

>> Well, I think that your mother who is helping you take care of this precious little girl is going to have something to say when you try to make her start cutting the grass, but we will see.

[laughing] All right.

Well, Terasa, let's see if we can get another one in before we have to say good night.

>> This one is about a common plant in South Carolina landscapes, azaleas.

Nell from Lexington asked when is the best time to prune azaleas.

<Amanda> Aha.

Well, Vicky, boy I don't think there's a home in South Carolina that doesn't have an azalea somewhere.

So, this is a good question, and what advice would you give them?

>> Yeah, I think it's indicative of when you moved here you're supposed to plant an azalea.

I think that means that your southern now, but really so there's two different ways that you can prune an azalea.

You can thin it or you can head it.

Thinning, you're going inside to the main trunk or to another branch, and pulling and pruning stuff out from the interior.

If you're heading it off that's more of like you're cutting it back not necessarily to like a side branch, but you were just lopping it off the top to reduce the size of the plant.

And these are two very different methods.

If you're trying to keep the same basic shape you'd want to thin it, but the best time to do this, is after it flowers.

Now, if you're not worried about flowers, you can prune anytime, but if you want to have the flowers, you should prune it right after it's finished flowering, so that when it puts on new growth that allows that new growth to harden off before winter comes, and then just like whenever you're mowing your lawn with your pruning equipment, you want to make sure that they're nice and sharp, and that they're clean, and that you're not spreading disease from one plant to another or from one part of the plant to another, so you can take your loppers, and you can clean the blades with a 10% bleach solution, or you can use alcohol wipes, or you can use alcohol.

Now, if you use bleach, you have to be careful, because that bleach solution can cause some pitting in the metal of your pruning equipment, and so sometimes you can trap fungus, you can trap diseases in there, you can trap bacteria, so it may not be the best thing to use a bleach solution.

It might be better to use alcohol, anyway, and then whenever you get finished with it, make sure that your oil them up, really well.

So, that your equipment doesn't rust.

>> Okay, and Vicky, well you know the traditional azaleas that we feel like we should plant to be southern are all from Asia, but we do have beautiful native azaleas, and it's been interesting to see in the last couple of years what a huge burst there has been of the availability of those, and they grow very differently, You usually let them kind of just take a natural shape if I'm not mistaken, and you get a lot of fragrance with many of them too.

Don't you?

>> They're gorgeous.

We visited Mike Creel in Lexington and he has this beautiful native collection and there are oranges and there are yellows and when you walk out there they have this beautiful open habit, and they smell.

They're aromatic and to me - I think they're more attractive than some of your Japonicas, but I mean, it's a preference that you know people have, but they really, the native ones, really are attractive.

>> And interestingly they are deci- mostly many of them are deciduous so the flowers come before the leaves, and you can just cut big beautiful bouquets, and bring them in the house, and enjoy that fragrance.

Can't you?

>> It's one of my - it really is one of my very favorite plants that we can have as a native.

>> Well, I hope that y'all have all had a good time tonight learning about gardening in South Carolina.

I sure have learned from these experts.

I appreciate the time they spend with us and Terasa for getting all these questions together for us, and we will be right here, next Tuesday.

I hope you'll join us then.

Night, night.

♪ (Making it Grow closing music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (Making it Grow closing music concludes) ♪ Making it Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture Certified South Carolina Grown helps consumers identify, find, and buy South Carolina products, Mcleod Farms in Mcbee, South Carolina.

This family farm offers seasonal produce including over 22 varieties of peaches, additional funding provided by International Paper and the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance.