- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

There are many plant   societies and garden clubs.

We'll talk about what they do,   and if joining one would help   make you a better gardener.

Also, squash are tasty, and a   great addition to any garden.

That's just ahead   on The Family Plot:   Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female narrator)   Production funding for   The Family Plot: Gardening in   the Mid-South is provided by:   the WKNO Production Fund,   the WKNO Endowment Fund,   and by viewers like   you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Suzy Askew.

Ms. Suzy is the president of the Memphis Hort Society.

And Walter Battle is here.

Walter Battle's a UT County director in Haywood County.

Thanks for joining us.

- My pleasure.

- Happy to be here.

- Alright, Ms. Suzy, let's talk about the benefits of plant societies.

Because there are many plant societies here in Shelby County.

And a lot of garden clubs as well.

- Right, there's an umbrella organization called The Memphis Horticultural Society, that's been around since about 1980, and that group sort of covers everything.

Their mission is to bring programming to the Mid-South area on gardening, lecture series is what it amounts to.

And there's no obligation other than paying your dues, or paying each time you attend a lecture.

It's the first Tuesday of every month, and each month the lecture changes.

But, below that are all the different plant societies where you concentrate on one type plant, and they go from hydrangea, to hosta, African violet, orchid.

I could almost name a plant group, and there's a group of people that get together and study just that one plant.

Ferns, for instance.

- (Chris) Okay, which is pretty impressive when you think about that.

- So, they meet every month, or every few months also, on a regular basis.

- Okay.

- And then you have garden clubs, and garden clubs are probably the most misunderstood of the group.

I've been in a garden club as long as I've been in a hort society.

There are two affiliations, one is National Garden Clubs, which is the biggest gardening organization in the world.

- (Chris) Wow.

- They actually have international affiliates.

- (Chris) Okay.

- And in that national garden clubs, there are programmings such as flower arranging, gardening, environmental and conservation groups, and also landscape design critics.

So, they have program schools that they offer in their membership, and they're also very much concerned with scholarship and the next generation.

And then there's Garden Club of America, which has two affiliates in Memphis.

And they too have programming that concerns gardening, flower arranging, conservation, scholarship.

They're having a flower show next month.

The National Garden Clubs is having a deep South meeting here next Monday, and they're having a flower show too.

So, most people think about 'em as flower show groups, but they actually have a broad interest in gardening.

- Okay, and many of them, I'm sure, have speakers as well.

- They do, and a lot of people think it's hard to get in.

It's not, [laughing] you just have to find the right fit.

- (Chris) Right, right.

- I'm in a club that meets at night, and I've been in it since 1980.

- (Chris) Wow.

- It's a small group, it's 12 women, because that's about how many you can fit in your living room.

Or cook for.

- (Chris) Right.

- But we don't have outside speakers, we just take the topic and study it for the whole year.

Last year we did trees, and we learned four new trees every month.

So, each club has a different bent according to what they're interested in.

And a lot of 'em are looking for members and need new members to re-supply, because we're an aging group.

- (Chris) Right.

We also have garden clubs that have men in 'em, which is a population which you now consider.

[laughing] - (Chris) Uh-huh, uh-huh.

- So, explore the garden club world.

It's a nice simple, easy study, but it's also a friendship you develop, just like in master gardeners.

You learn the basics, and you also make good friends.

And that's sort of what all of us are in gardening about.

- (Walter) That's right, that's right.

- (Chris) Right.

Now tell me this, how do you go about choosing though, one of these societies or garden clubs to actually be in?

- Well, I suggest with the Memphis Horticultural Society, you attend a few meetings.

On that first Tuesday of the month, the topic changes.

You're there for one hour, from seven to eight is the lecture, and you listen to nationally known speakers from all over the country that we bring in, on various subjects.

We just had Brie Arthur, who is a young horticulturalist who taught us things I didn't know were possible in gardening.

She gardens in her landscape.

In her foundation planting.

She plants tomatoes in her hydrangeas to grow up 'em.

So, she had a wonderful presentation about gardening and foodscaping.

- (Chris) Okay.

- But next month we have the head of the Birmingham Botanical Garden talking about growing their native plant society down there, and their native plant conference, 'cause next fall we're gonna sponsor a native plant conference.

- (Chris) Okay.

- So we're gonna learn how they do theirs so well, and what we might incorporate in ours.

- Okay.

Native plants, you know, big, popular subject these days, right?

- Isn't it though?

It's those plants, they're not necessarily easier to grow, but they were here once in abundance and we're losing 'em.

And when we lose those, we lose their population of pollinators, and we also sort of lose our identity as a sense of place.

- That's a good way to look at that.

- Yeah - Okay.

Now, how do we go about, you think, to attract some of the younger generation into these plant societies and garden clubs?

- Well, they need to feel a part of it, and we need to have topics that they're interested in.

In January we had ten young horticulturalists, gardeners, that were on a panel discussion, and their interests are really aligned with ours in a lot of ways.

They like to know more about native plants, and they're interested in foodscaping.

Those are two topics we are too.

Their time is very valuable, and they want to come out for quality program.

So, we gotta make sure what we're offering them is worth the time they take off to attend.

- (Chris) Okay.

- And we also need to listen to them about what they're interested in, and get them involved with the program in itself.

We need them as officers, we need them on committees.

Their involvement is vital for us to keep going.

- Wow, important stuff.

So, if you're in a hosta society, hydrangea society, or you're-- - I'm in both those too.

- And you're in both of those, I know, as well.

Do you actually become experts though?

- I don't think so, I think you garner a little bit every time you attend.

You get a different take on it.

I would never be able to learn all the botanical names.

- (Chris) I'm with you there, I'm with ya.

- And the hostas are just, [snapping] they're just coming on so fast, I can't keep up with 'em.

But what you learn to do, is like, I specialize now in miniature hostas.

I only grow the little ones, and I grow 'em in containers, and that's manageable because I'm thinking in my next stage of life, I may be in an apartment, and I can take 'em with me.

- (Chris) Okay.

- I can grow 'em on a patio if I have 'em in a container.

- (Chris) Okay.

- So, with hydrangeas, I just think they're beautiful and they're a great design plant, but I'm interested in those, and how you make space with 'em, and how you use them to the best of their attributes.

- Okay, now you mentioned briefly the master gardeners.

Walter knows a little bit about that.

Of course, I do.

- Mm-hm.

- So, what about being a master gardener?

How do you feel about that?

- I think it's really important for the people that are interested in learning, to get a basic course in everything, and master gardeners gives you the base.

- (Chris) Yes.

- After you finish the course, you then realize, well my interest is in this, or that, and you can follow that interest.

But it's a great introduction to the world of gardening, and if you've been gardening as long as I have, and were to take the course, then you find out all the things you've forgotten, or didn't know to begin with.

So, it's a great place to start, or to go back and refresh.

- Great endorsement for the master gardener program.

Thank you Ms. Suzy, we appreciate that good information, and we do hope that the younger generation comes in, and be a part of a lot of these plant societies as well, and garden clubs too.

- Thank you.

- So, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Variegated.

- Yeah, variegated.

- We hear that all the time.

- Yeah, that's a term that we use to describe coloration of the leaves.

And, a lot of people think variegated just means white, or cream-colored, but it could be other colors in the leaves as well.

It's usually a lack   or a lessening   of the chlorophyll,   or the green pigment.

You know, but typically it   means the white coloration,   you know of the leaves.

And that doesn't actually   commonly happen in nature,   so we manipulate things to make   the variegation come out.

And, a lot of times,   we lose the variegation of some plants when we bring them out in full sun, or shade.

It could be either one.

I've got some variegated bamboo-- - Wow.

- That only has the variegation in the sun.

If I grow it in the shade it loses its variegation.

Hostas are a big--   - Hostas, right.

- Yeah hostas have, you know,   really pretty variegation.

So many cultivars of hostas.

But, I had a plant one time that came out with, it was a variegated plant.

And, it came out with one stem that was purely white, and as long as it was on that plant, you know, it grew.

And I thought, "I'm gonna try to propagate that."

Well, you know what happened?

It died because there was no chlorophyll in the leaves.

- Ah, okay.

- So, it couldn't produce what it needed to root because there was no chlorophyll.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Walter, let's talk a little bit about squash, and I see you have some on the table for us to look at, right?

- Oh yes, you know, 'course everybody knows the yellow squash.

- (Chris) Right.

- I mean, it's been with us for a long, long time.

And basically, these yellow squash come basically in two different cultivars, I guess, if you wanna use that word.

You have what we call the summer crook neck, and also you have the yellow summer straight neck.

And as you can see, the difference is that this is obviously straight, and this has a little bit of curve.

Now, these used to really, the breeders have kinda bred the curve out, because think about it, in a store they would break, and it would be easy to break them.

So, really the crook neck is kind of getting straight, as you can see.

So, I guess somewhere, some plant breeder has crossed these in to these, and they're kind of getting that result, as well.

- Okay.

Oh, these plant breeders, huh?

[laughing] - Oh, they're comin' up with somethin' all the time.

- Yeah, exactly.

- And then of course, we have our zucchini squash.

You have these green zucchini, and you have a black zucchini which gets very, very, very dark green.

Now, one thing I would like to tell people about squash is this, you need to pick your squash when they are probably about, I guess about five inches, like this.

Because if you do not pick this plant when it's like this, come back two days later, and this thing is probably easily a foot long.

Therefore, it'll be tough and no one will wanna use it.

I think they make zucchini bread when it gets to that point.

Or you can feed it to the hogs, if you got some hogs.

[laughing] Hey, hogs love squash, trust me on that.

I like squash also.

And then there's another squash that we see a lot in the stores called a little white squash,   the little pattypan squash.

It's kinda round, and   some of 'em are kind of   shaped a little bit   like a sunflower,   you know--   - (Chris) I've seen those.

- With the little   ridges around it.

And they're fun to grow also.

They grow well here in our climate.

- Okay, and what about the winter squash?

- Yes, there are two different types, obviously today we're talking about the summer varieties.

But yes, you do have the winter squash, which would be your acorn squash,   your spaghetti squash,   your butternut squash,   I'm sure there's some others.

And those tend to grow well,   we plant them in the fall   of the season, and you know, those tend to be harvested in the fall.

But they are very delicious as well.

- Okay, so what type of squash grows best for us in West Tennessee?

- Well, pretty much the yellow squash, the yellow crook neck, the yellow straight neck, the zucchini squash grow well here in our climate, also the pattypan squash grows well, and those winter squashes I just mentioned, they grow alright in our climate, as well.

- Yeah, but if you're gonna grow 'em, you're gonna need what, Ms. Suzy?

Space.

- Yes you need space.

- Right, so what about that?

- Alright, well basically for squash, I like to have about a four foot apart on the rows.

- (Chris) Okay.

- Because they will put out, and just, you know, and just spread all over the place.

You have to remember, they are a member of the cucurbit family.

Which include pumpkins, and watermelons, and cantaloupes.

So, these things love to get out and put out vines.

- (Chris) Yes.

- That's what they love to do.

And I also plant them about two feet apart.

So, you have four feet wide, as far as your row ends, and then two feet apart per plant.

And you usually can do okay with 'em that way.

- Okay, alright, then when should they be planted?

- Okay, I like to plant them, basically, about May 1 throughout June, they'll be fine.

All the soils are good and warm to plant them.

Now obviously, you can plant 'em a little earlier if you use transplants.

You know, you can get them out there a little earlier, maybe.

And if you wanna cover them up with, you know, buckets and things like that.

Just in case we have some kind of late frost again, or something like that.

But basically, you can plant them all the way up through June, easily, June 30th, easily.

- Now, we always talk about crop rotation, right?

In our vegetable gardens.

So-- - Yes.

- What should the cucurbits, specifically the squash, follow in that crop rotation?

- Well, you really don't wanna follow a cucurbit crop with another cucurbit crop.

Because those diseases, I mean, if there's ever a family that will be attacked by the same diseases and insects, it's the cucurbit family.

So, if you had watermelons in the spot, you wouldn't wanna put squash there this year.

- (Chris) Right.

- But you would wanna plant your squash probably in a place where you may have had corn last year, or maybe you had your green beans last year, you might wanna put it there, where you had your sweet potatoes last year.

You just wanna put squash in those areas and you'll be fine.

- Okay, alright, well since you mentioned it, what about the major insects, pests, & diseases of the squash?

- Oh man, I will tell you, squash has its enemies.

The cucumber beetle, the   squash bug, the vine borer.

- (Chris)   We hear about that one a lot.

- Yes, and I would   probably call that the number one pest of squash.

And what you see there is, one day your squash vines will just be beautiful and gorgeous, and all of sudden you come back the next day and they just like, wilted.

- (Chris) Yeah, just collapsed.

- Fell to the ground, yes.

And that's just where the   squash borer has gotten   in there and he's just bored   all into that base of that   plant, and disrupted all those   nutrients and stuff goin' up,   and the plant dies.

Now, another pest would be also aphids.

And the reason that aphids are a big problem with your squash plants, is because they carry that mosaic virus.

So, if you see your squash   vines begin to look like,   what they call that, Zodiac?

Whatever, you know,   look real groovy.

[laughing]   The problem you have   there is really,   you have the mosaic virus,   is what you have.

- (Chris)   Right.

- And there's not   much you can do.

It will even make the squash   turn those colors as well,   the fruit of   the plant, as well.

So you have to really control your aphids to control that disease.

And another big disease that they get.

They will get powdery mildew,   and usually your   chlorothalonil   products will clean that   up and take care of it.

- But if the virus is there, there's not too much you can do about that virus, right?

- There's not much you can go about the virus, just unfortunately just pretty much pull 'em up, and better luck next time.

But that's why you have to control the aphids.

- (Chris) Right.

- Throughout your garden, and throughout your landscape.

- (Chris) Right.

- Because the aphid can be comin' from somewhere else, and transmit that virus to that squash.

- Okay, so you would even eat that squash if it, of course had a virus, would you?

- Oh, yes, I would definitely.

- (Chris) You would eat it?

- Oh yeah, I would eat that.

It would just be a psychedelic type squash.

[laughing] Probably prettier in the skillet.

- But it does look good when it has those little colors to 'em, right?

- Yes.

- Alright, so look, how long though, is the growing season for your squash?

- Well really, about six weeks.

- (Chris) That's not long.

- Once they start producing.

And they key to really having a good productive squash growin' season is, you really need to harvest them when they're really, again, like three or four inches.

You wanna just constantly pick 'em, and they'll put on those new blooms, and the pollinators will be takin' care of business, and you'll just have a pretty good supply of squash.

And look, let me tell ya, folks, it don't take much squash to grow a lot.

I mean, they're heavy producers if they're in the right area.

- Right, so just a couple plants, you think?

- Oh, easily.

I may say four, maybe four.

And also, if you do not pick them whenever they're small, they'll end up becoming those big squash, and that just makes that plant spend all that energy trying to keep up that big fruit.

- (Chris) Right.

- So, that's kind of knocking off time on your harvest as well.

- Alright Walter, we can tell you like squash.

- Oh yes, I love it.

You can fry it, whatever, or boil it, whatever.

I'll eat it.

- Alright, well appreciate your good information about squash.

- Yeah.

- Alright.

[gentle country music] At the end of the growing season, which is usually late fall or early winter, it's always a good idea to winterize your hose.

So what does that mean?

Well, number one, you want to make sure that you disconnect the hose, or detach it from the spigot.

Second thing you want to do is you want to make sure that you get all of the water out of the hose.

Because when water freezes,   of course it's gonna expand   and that may cause   your hose to burst.

So, the hump that   I am creating here   is allowing the water to   actually drain downhill.

So, once we get that done, then we can coil it.

We can bring it inside our garage, or our storage areas, for the winter.

[gentle country music] - Alright, this is our Q & A session.

Ms. Suzy, you help us out, alright?

Here's our first viewer, you know, which has a picture.

"My sister received this plant   "when her husband   passed recently.

"She loves plants, however   this plant had no tag,   "and we have no idea what it   is, or how to care for it.

Can it be planted outdoors?"

And this is from Ms. Joy.

So Ms. Suzy, what   do we think that is?

- Well, that plant is called China doll, and it's a tropical plant, and it's grown for its foliage.

It's got beautiful leaves, shiny.

So, it would need to be treated as a house plant.

- (Chris) Okay.

- It would need to be cared for just like you would any house plant.

Re-potted when it's too pot bound, put in indirect light, but good light, and water when it needs it with a reserve.

And also, we forget on house plants, we need to fertilize them.

A good balanced fertilizer.

And in this case, because it's grown for its foliage.

- (Chris) Right.

- It would need a particular foliage balanced fertilizer.

And she should be able to keep it for years, but you can't just leave it and water it, and expect it to be flourishing.

It needs to be cared for.

- Okay, how often should you fertilize, you think?

- I use a half solution, a real weak solution, so I can fertilize every week.

- (Chris) Oh, okay.

- And it depends on if it's a foliage grown plant, or if it's a flowering plant.

A simple thing to do is turn it every time you water it, so it keeps looking round rather than flat.

- That's something to think about.

Hadn't mentioned that before.

Okay, but definitely indoor.

- Indoor.

- Tropical.

I've seen it a lot in the florist trade, of course.

- (Suzy) Yeah.

- But it's a beautiful plant.

- (Suzy) Yeah.

You know, the glossy green leaves.

- It's a nice memorial plant too.

'Cause you can keep it alive for a long time.

- Okay, alright.

But indirect light, we wanna focus on that.

- (Suzy) Exactly.

- Indirect, right, okay.

So there you have it Ms. Joy, it's China doll.

How about that?

Beautiful, beautiful plant.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"I have common Bermuda grass.

"When is the best time   to scalp Bermuda grass?

"And how much of the existing   grass do you   recommend be removed?"

And this is from Richard   over in Collierville.

So, he has Bermuda grass.

When is the best time to scalp?

Or how do you feel about scalping Bermuda grass?

- Yes, you know, most turf grass people will tell you never to scalp it, but there are people who do it.

And obviously they do it with athletic fields sometimes, because it will force it to knit.

It'll make it, you know, have that tight knit So, obviously on the athletic field you would want that.

But I was always told you never take off more than a third of the grass, or the plant.

And that's just kind of the rule that I always used in my own yard, and also at the office.

Just never take off over a third.

- (Chris) Right.

- That's just kind of the rule that I kind of go with.

- Alright, so I know a couple of guys that actually will scalp their yard.

- Okay.

- At the beginning of the growing season.

And this is pretty much in April, the first couple of weeks in April.

They do it to remove the dead grass.

Actually makes a little sense, right?

- (Walter) Okay, yes.

- Because, okay, the sun will warm that soil up a little quicker, which helps that Bermuda green up quicker, okay?

You don't have to do that.

I don't do it on my own lawn.

I have a Bermuda lawn, it seems to do fine every year without being scalped.

But if you have to do it, again, of course, the first couple weeks in April to remove the dead grass.

- And I probably would fertilize it.

Also to make it kick up a little bit on the go, you know, after being scalped.

- And of course, this would be right after the green up transition period.

- Yes.

- So again, the soil gets warmed up, the Bermuda jumps up.

- Yes.

- It's gonna jump up anyway, it's Bermuda.

[laughing] - Yes, that's what it does.

- It's comin' anyway.

Alright, so there you have it Mr. Richard.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"Should forsythia be   pruned of dead branches,   or just tidied up   and fertilized?"

And this is from Ms.   Elizabeth, Byhalia, Mississippi So, Ms. Suzy, can we just prune out the dead branches and just tidy it up just a little bit?

- Sure, yeah.

Sure.

Prune out the dead branches every year.

That's just being good to the plant.

Then you need to decide what pruning shape you want.

Do you want the natural with the long weeping fronds that are really beautiful, or some people want it rounded and more controlled.

And it's your choice.

- (Chris) That's right.

- And you are in control of the pruners.

- (Chris) That's right.

- So, I've seen it used as hedges, I've seen a hole cut out so you could make a passageway through them, they were so thickly grown, and I've seem them as we call, meatballs, across the landscape.

- (Chris) Right.

(laughing) - So, that's just a personal preference, but be good to it by takin' out the dead branches.

- Takin' out the dead branches.

- They don't need those.

- Okay, anything that's crossing, maybe, rubbing?

- Crossing, rubbing, diseased.

Even though, I don't think it has too many enemies, it's pretty healthy.

- I don't think so, as well.

And as she mentioned pruning, when is the best time to prune forsythia?

- I would prune it after it blooms.

- (Chris) Ah, after, okay.

- It's such a tough plant, you can just about prune it anytime you want to.

- (Chris) Okay.

- You'll be removing the buds and the future bloom on it at some point, so you'll have to make that decision.

But it's such a harbinger of spring.

- (Chris) It is.

- It just signals to us all, it's coming, it'll be here soon.

- (Walter) Yes.

- (Chris) That's right, that's right.

- And it's a really tough, good plant.

- Right, and it's pretty much one of the first blooming shrubs that you see, in the early spring, for the most part.

- (Walter) Yes.

- Or late winter in Shelby County, just depends.

[laughter] Alright, Walter, anything to add to that?

- No, that's pretty much it.

I know I have it at my own house and I chose just to just let it go in its natural way and it is beautiful.

- I'm a flower arranger, so I love those arches.

And I cut those and bring 'em in to put in the vases.

- Oh, and it's good to see something else you can do with forsythia, Ms. Elizabeth.

So there you have it.

Alright, so Ms. Suzy, Walter, we're out of time, that was fun.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Remember, we love   to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is   familyplot@wkno.org,   and the mailing   address is Family Plot,   7151 Cherry Farms Road,   Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online   to FamilyPlotGarden.com That's all we have time for today.

If you'd like more information on squash, or help finding a local plant society, visit FamilyPlotGarden.com.

I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]