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

I'm Chris Cooper.

The cool weather of early spring is perfect for growing broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.

Today, we're going to plant them.

Also, there are many kinds of trees to choose from at the nursery, but which is the right kind for your yard?

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

- (female announcer) 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 Walter Battle.

Walter is the UT County Director in Haywood County and Joellen Dimond will be joining us later.

All right Walt, cool weather crops, right?

- Yes!

- Ah, cauliflower?

- Yes.

- Broccoli?

- Yes.

All the good stuff.

- All the good stuff.

- Cabbage, my favorite.

- Cabbage.

- Yes.

- I like cabbage.

- Yes and you know, Chris, the wonderful thing about these crops, the Brassicas, is that they can take cold temperatures and that's why you can plant them, you know, in the spring as well as in the fall.

You know, there are fall planted ones as well.

And you know, when you look at Brassicas, over 50% of the leafy crops that's consumed in the world come from that family.

- How bout that?

- Yes.

- That's a pretty big percentage.

- Pretty good.

And you know, they're also a crop that don't really have a whole lot of issues.

They grow well in all types of conditions.

They can take soils that are high in clay.

They can take soils that are high in sand and of course, anything in between.

So, it's really a good crop for gardeners to grow, particularly beginning gardeners 'cause they're gon' pretty much have success growing 'em if they follow the dates.

- And that's what you want them to have, right?

- Yes, that's right.

- You want them to have success and you want them to succeed, right?

- That's right, that's right.

- To harvest, okay.

Cool, all right.

So, how do we go about planting Brassicas?

What do we need to know about the soil, you know, getting the soil ready?

- Sure, well, as far as getting the soil ready, like any other crop, they want a well-drained soil.

- Okay, well drained.

- That's what they want.

Also, they like to have what I would call a pre-plant fertilizer, something like 6-12-12 to go with them because they just tend to do better when they have that little boost of fertilization there to get started with.

That's been successful for me.

Now other people may you know, say something different.

But that works for me.

Also, I kinda like to, if I'm planting 'em in a field, I kinda like to have 'em wedged up a little bit.

You know, plant within the ridge but in a raised bed here, - Raised bed, right.

- we can work around that.

That's no problem to get started on that.

- Okay.

- So, I would like to show one thing about these plants is that I want people to kinda remember if you're planting 'em in the garden, I want you to remember 36-15.

- 36-15.

- Yes, 36-inch row, width between rows, and 15 inches apart.

That usually will take care of it 'cause here in the raised bed, we'll plant 'em a little closer 'cause we can kinda get things a little closer.

So here, we have some cabbage here and all you really wanna do is just kinda squeeze that out and I would like to make a comment here on this.

Notice how beautiful these roots are.

- Yeah, nice roots.

- Nice and white.

That's what you want when you buy any kinda transplant.

So, you look and that's really nice and I like to kinda tickle that a little bit to kinda get that going.

- Tickle it a little bit.

- And what I'll do, I just simply dig a spot here.

And I usually plant mine, I go about maybe two inches, I mean, maybe three inches deep.

Then I just kinda rake around it.

And that usually works pretty good.

I do kinda push it up a little bit when I've got a raised bed.

- That little ridge - you were talkin' about.

- So that they can have that little, ya know, flow, the drainage there.

I'll plant another one here as well.

Then you go.

- And while you're doing that, so, we do have some plants that have some, ya know, stems that are broken or anything like that.

What do we need to do?

We need to pinch that off or?

- Yes, you can pinch 'em off and that'll work good.

But basically, they'll do okay.

But I just usually - They'll do okay?

- break em on off.

- Just break em on off?

Okay.

- Yes and fine, again, here we go again.

We get here and again, I kinda pull it up a little bit so it can have some drainage.

Now, we also have some cauliflower.

- Okay, cauliflower.

- Yes and I mean cauliflower is just again, one of my favorites.

[Chris laughing] The same thing.

In this bed, I'm gonna go about 12 inches apart.

Put it down about three inches and there we go.

Again, just kinda-- - Make that little ridge you were talkin' about.

- Lift that up a little bit, get that good drainage.

Here's my cauliflower.

- Good root systems on those as well, right?

- Good root system.

I mean, that's really what-- - That's good there, there it is.

- I mean, that's what you want.

And like I said, I mean, they can take any kinda soil condition, pretty much.

Let me get this one straightened in here.

Straighten that one up a little bit.

- Now would you plant your broccoli the same way?

- Plant broccoli the same way.

Collards 'cause some people would plant the collards this way 'cause they actually do plant 'em in bunches instead of broadcasting.

Now, there are some people who plant radishes and radishes, what I like to do with them again is about a 36-inch row and I like to plant my radish seeds 'cause I direct seed plant those.

I'll go about maybe a inch deep maybe, maybe not that far, maybe a half inch and cover up and they'll be fine.

Plant 'em about three inches apart.

Now, in also dealing with these, you have the green crops as well.

Your turnip greens, your mustard greens, spinach, I tend to broadcast mine.

That's how I, I sow 'em, in other words, I'll sow 'em.

- So, when do we need to plant our cool season vegetables?

- Well, you wanna plant your broccoli and your cauliflower and your cabbage 30 days before your last frost.

- So how long before we get to harvest?

You know, like cabbage and-- - Well probably-- - Cauliflower.

- I would say you're probably looking at easily a good 60 day or so.

- Not too bad.

- You know, you can't beat that.

Have a cabbage in 60 days.

I'll take that anytime.

But it takes 'em about a good two months to grow and form the head.

Now, one of the problems that ya can get with them is in the event that you have these cool seasons, but then you have that extended warm period, they can bolt.

- They bolt, right.

- And by bolting, we mean that plant will try to flower.

It wants to produce a flower and so, you'll end up getting these little, ya know, the heads won't fill out correctly.

You'll have those kinda issues.

- And then the taste is, ya know, it's bitter to the taste.

- Exactly, exactly.

- For the most part, yeah.

- Now another thing as far as insects, now you're gonna get cabbage worms and you're gonna get the cabbage looper.

- Gonna get the cabbage worms.

- I'm just sorry, that's what you're gonna get.

Whenever you plant cabbage and broccoli, you're just gonna get those two.

But, don't panic, do not sweat.

Any product that contains Bt, ya know Bacillus, what's that, Bacillus-- - Thuringiensis.

- Okay, there you go.

- There you go, okay.

- Any product that contains that, you'll be fine.

Just spray it on there.

The worm'll eat that and that'll take care of the worm.

And it's safe for humans, - Yes, it's safe.

- You have no issues there.

It's even approved for organic growing.

So you have no problems there.

That's really the big one.

Another thing that you can get is some dampening off issues if you just water too much.

- Gotcha.

- You can get pythium or something like that but we know, really good gardeners will not do that.

They're gon' use that hand to measure to make sure it's moist and not real wet.

So they shouldn't have those issues.

- Well, we appreciate the demonstration.

- Yes sir, thank you for having us.

- Our cool season vegetables.

- Oh yes.

- We'll see how they do.

- Oh, they'll do fine.

- All right, thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - Now here's a term that we hear about all the time now, native plants.

- Oh, that's another one that there's a lot of confusion about when do we say it's a native, you know.

And, I can give you a whole bunch of definitions, but I think the one that is most reasonable, and the one that would make the most sense, would be a plant that grows naturally in a particular area, an ecosystem or a habitat or a region of a country, without indirect or direct human intervention.

It was there originally.

And, when we talk about the eastern United States, when we talk about native plants in the eastern part of the country, those are the plants that were here when the Europeans came.

And, that's sort of the standard definition of a native plant in the eastern part of our country, is what was here, growing here naturally when the Europeans first came.

- Okay.

- Unlike Kudzu, - Exactly.

- Which was brought over.

- Honeysuckle and privet.

- [Indistict] and the Japanese honeysuckle, and all these things that are invasive plants that were introduced into this country either indirectly, brought in on, you know, some kind of wooden pallets, or you know, whatever.

Seeds get hung in all kind of things, and can be brought in, you know, not intentionally.

And then, intentionally we have brought things in, you know, that we thought were going to be a good plant, like Kudzu.

I think the Corps of Engineers brought those in-- - Yeah, erosion control.

- For erosion control.

And now, they're, what do they call it, "The Plant That Ate the South"?

- That ate the South.

- Yeah.

[upbeat country music] - All right Joellen, let's talk about tree varieties to consider.

- Yes, for the homeowners.

- For the homeowner.

And we know you love trees.

- Oh, I love trees.

- And you like talkin' about trees.

- I do.

- So, these are again for the homeowner.

- These are for the homeowners, yes.

We're gonna start off with Amelanchier arborea, the Downy Serviceberry.

This is a zone four to nine, so it's a very large zone that it is available in.

It gets 15 to 25 feet tall, so a nice, small tree for someone's yard.

It has white blooms in the spring, which is nice, and it has good fall color.

Yellows, kind of reds, and a little bit of the oranges.

Loves full sun.

- Full sun.

- To partly shady areas.

And it does best in well-drained soil.

It's a really pretty tree, just small.

It's a nice tree for the home and it's not used as much as it could be, so a really good one to consider.

- Downy, let's see if we can get folks to start considering it.

- Downy Serviceberry, yeah.

Our next one is Carpinus caroliniana, the American hornbeam.

This tree is zoned three to nine, so it even has a larger range.

Of course, it's a native tree to the US.

Its height is 20 to 30 feet, so it's a little bit taller, but it's not a thick tree.

It's not a real full, full tree when it's not in the sun.

The trunk of this, it's very slow growing and the trunk of it, you could recognize it along the banks of rivers and stuff because it's got considered muscley wood.

It's really smooth bark that looks like it's got muscles on it.

- How bout that?

- So, very, very nice smooth, muscular looking tree trunk.

It can take wet soils because that's where it's found naturally is around stream beds and things like that, on hills.

Of course, it's usually on a incline, so that's why it likes well-drained soil.

- Makes sense.

- Mmhm.

Of course, partly shady area is best and in the fall, it has some nice fruiting.

They're two to four inches long and they hang down and it's called an infructescence that's two to four inches long.

- I've seen those.

- So, they're very very pretty and very showy in the fall.

Something nice to look forward to.

- Can you eat it?

- No, can not eat it.

- Okay, it's not edible.

- No, not edible.

Next is Cercis canadensis, the Eastern Redbud and there's a reason why this one's given away a lot because it's a native tree and it does very well.

Zones four to nine.

It gets 20 to 30 feet in average.

There are some that get taller than that, but ya know, it averages out across the Un ited States as 20 to 30 feet.

It's gonna have reddish-purple flowers in the spring.

It's one of the harbingers of spring.

You say, "Oh, you know, - Yes, love it.

- "Winter's over and spring is gonna be blooming."

And of course then, after it finishes blooming, it has these beautiful he art-shaped green leaves on it, just gorgeous, really outstanding.

In the fall, it will have little pea pods because it actually is part of the pea family.

- Right?

- Yeah, likes full sun to part shade.

And it does well in many soil types, which is another reason why it's very popular across the United States because it just isn't particular about the soil.

It just doesn't like standing water.

So, just don't put it in standing water soils.

There are many, many cultivars of this to choose from.

Flower colors, leaf colors, they even have weeping forms.

So, there's just all kinds of plants of this to choose from.

- Yeah, I have that in my backyard.

- Very nice.

- I love when it comes out in the spring.

- Very nice tree.

- And those pods are actually edible.

- Oh wow, no, I did not know that.

- Yeah, they're actually edible.

The only reason why I know that-- - Well, it's from the pea family.

- It's from the pea family.

We've gotta try it out and see.

- Our next one is the Cornus species.

I didn't put any specific one down because there are so many that do well and they're all kind of small trees, under 30 feet.

They live in zones 4b to 8, which is a large category.

They all have beautiful spring blooms.

Now, in the fall, they also have good color on their foliage and the fruit is also an attractive quality for the dogwoods.

Now, our native Cornus florida, fo und along the roadsides, that is probably the most, when people think dogwood, that's what they think of.

There are a lot of great varieties that are good, disease resistant and so, try to pick those.

There's one, there's a kousa, Cornus kousa.

It blooms after the leaves come out.

It's one of the few that do that.

The rest of 'em usually bloom before the leaves come out but these bloom after and they can take more sun than the other dogwoods.

Most of em, when you think of a dogwood, you think of it as kind of an understory tree, so that's why it needs a partly shady area because where it's found naturally is at the edge of the forest.

So, you've gotta think of that for your yard.

I mean, a building can shade it and be partly shady.

So, ya know, you've just gotta be aware that it does need some shade.

Then we have the Crataegus phaenopyrum, the Washington Hawthorn.

It is zones four through eight.

It gets 25 to 30 feet tall.

Beautiful white flowers in the spring and some varieties and cultivars of this have a spectacular red berries in the fall, so very, very nice for that.

Nice tree, good green color to it.

One thing you have to watch about the Hawthorn is that Haw-thorn, it has thorns on it.

- It has thorns.

- Yeah, they have thorns on them.

So you just kinda have to watch where you put it.

It is gorgeous in the landscape bu t you may not want it right up next to your house 'cause if the little branches fall off, it might have thorns on 'em, so just put it somewhere where you can view it and enjoy it in a sunny area.

Next, our famous Ginkgo biloba.

- Yeah, I like Ginkgo.

- The Ginkgo tree, this is a zone four to nine tree.

So, it grows in a large part of the United States.

It is extremely slow growing, but it will get tall.

It will get up to 50 feet or more.

- Wow, that's impressive.

- But you know, it does very well with the city and it tolerates soils and environmental conditions that most trees don't take.

But it's a very ancient tree and it has survived a long time and so, it can take our cities and the kind of environments that we have in the city.

- Which is good.

So we have to know - It's very good.

- the difference between the males and the female trees, right?

- You do.

Yeah, they usually are only selling the male trees these days and clones of them and what they'll do is they'll graft onto stalk, so they'll, you'll make sure you have a male tree 'cause you definitely don't want the female tree.

But all of that is edible though.

The berries of it, if you do have a female tree, they are edible and they're a delicacy in some parts of the US.

- Wow, really?

- Yeah.

- Just smell so bad.

- Yeah, it does.

But anyway, you can't beat the yellow fall foliage color for Ginkgo.

- Love it, absolutely love it.

- It's not a full tree.

That's why I recommend it for the city because it's not, it's a very loose fitting tree.

You wouldn't wanna have it for a shade tree.

- Gotcha.

I love it.

- That's why I recommend it.

Next we've got Magnolia virginiana, a native to the United States, the Sweetbay Magnolia.

It is zones five through nine, height of 20 to 30 feet.

Now, that's in its native habitat, which is very, some of the further south from here and the coastal states.

They can get 50 feet plus.

- Wow, pretty good size.

- It just depends on where it's at.

But they have beautiful, lemon-scented flowers when they bloom in the late spring or the early summer.

Nice to have near your patio or something to be able to smell them.

The leaves are green above and silvery below.

- Think that's cool.

- When the wind blows, that silver shows and it's a real pretty tree.

It can withstand very wet conditions, very, very wet, so if you have a area that needs a wet condition tree in it-- - This is it!

- This is it.

In fact, this is what's - This is the one!

- planted out front here at WKNO because it's very, very wet out there.

Very wet conditions, so this tree lives well there.

And in some areas, in some cultivars, it will stay evergreen but not all of 'em, just some cultivars will stay evergreen.

- All right Joellen, so tree varieties for the homeowner.

- For the homeowner.

- To consider.

We actually have a few of these trees in our own landscape.

- Yeah!

- Good deal, thank you much.

[gentle country music] - Were in late winter now, and a lot of the annual color that has been put in is starting to look ratty, so we're going to clean it up.

One way to revitalize the plants in your landscape after a hard winter is just to prune back the dead and the ratty-looking plants.

[pruners snipping] When you do prune an annual you want to go all the way to the base of the stem that looks ratty.

Leave the new foliage, a lot of the old foliage has been protecting the new growth that's coming out.

So, what I usually do is go back and take out any stem that has lost foliage off of it, or has a lot of brown and dead looking, and cut it all the way back to the base of the plant.

As you can see, this looks a whole lot better.

Just a little winter cleanup.

[gentle country music] - Here's our Q & A segment, you ready?

- Ready.

- These are good questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"I am renting a home that has three pecan trees, "all of which are infested with web worms.

"One of the trees so infested, the webbing encases the trunk "so the branches all the way down to the "main trunk of the tree.

"The trees are sickly.

"My landlord will not agree to remove the trees "nor will he treat them.

"What are my options for getting this infestation under control?"

This is Debbie right here in Memphis, Tennessee.

That's pretty bad.

- Wow.

I've never seen anything like that.

- That's a bad case.

- Yeah, that's a bad case of encasings.

Yeah, that's pretty bad.

So, what are we thinking here?

- Somehow we've got to get some systemics in the plant to maybe when the bugs are chewing on the leaves and they'll ingest that and be controlled that way.

Although, timing of year for that is gonna be interesting because the web worms don't usually come til the end of the fall.

So, you're gonna have to put it down during the summer when it's actively growing so it can take the chemical up.

- Ya know, since we're dealing with this, ya know, if it's a smaller case of it, if you can, you can remove the web.

But, you know, some people will stick holes, ya know, big stick, punch a hole in it and the birds will go in there and eat the worms.

That's kind of I guess a natural way to deal with it but a case like that would be pretty tough.

Now, they could also use a Bt product, ya know, that would work on taking care of the worms, maybe Sevin could be a product as well but, that one's pretty bad there.

- Yeah and they're pretty tall trees, so yeah, trying to get the spray up there is gonna be a problem.

- Yes, it is.

- Like she mentioned, the landlord, ya know, is not gonna do anything.

So yeah, probably treating it with a systemic.

- Yeah, that's probably your best option.

You would want imidacloprid would be a good choice.

- Right, right.

- Because once the webbing's on there, you can't get spray into the-- - Right, it has to be opened up.

That's what you mentioned.

- Has to be before they start with the webs.

- Wow.

- And the younger the caterpillars are, the better.

- All right, good luck to you, Ms. Debbie.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What is this plant?

"I have transplanted it from a friend's yard.

I don't know what it is."

And this is Doris from right here in Memphis, Tennessee.

So, Joellen, what is this plant?

- It's an Arum.

- It's an Arum.

It's beautiful.

- It's gorgeous.

And, they have that gorgeous foliage.

And in earlier, in different times of the year, then the stalk will come up and they'll have nice red-- - Yeah, the little red, I like that.

- Real pretty.

People plant them a lot.

- A bit in the spring, okay.

- Because it's a great plant for a shady area 'cause it does like shade.

- For a shady area, okay.

It has a beautiful leaf.

Yeah, I like the arrow-shaped leaf, okay.

All right, so thank you Ms. Doris for the question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"I have a small forest on my property in East Tennessee.

"I was hoping to plant some flowering shrub plants within.

"It consists of mostly hardwood trees.

"Do you have any recommendations?

"I was thinking of bluebells, but I'm not sure which variety to get and when to plant."

This is Ursula in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Beautiful picture, Ms. Ursula.

I like that picture.

God, that looks good!

Appreciate the picture.

So Ms. Ursula, we just happen to have Ms. Joellen with us today, right?

- Yes, yes.

- Who knows all about planting the annuals and perennials and things like that and these native plants.

So, what say you?

- She's right, the bluebells would be beautiful.

- Right, right.

- Mayapples would be nice.

- Mayapples, okay.

- All sorts of things that can grow in there.

Columbine and if you wanna do some trees, how bout some dogwoods, some redbuds, the Downy Serviceberry, Sweetbay Magnolia, the Buckeyes, oh get some hummingbird action with the red buckeyes.

So, all of that is understory and at the edge and it looks like there's enough sunlight there in the middle that she can plant a lot of that stuff just under some of the larger trees and they all look nice together.

- So there you have it Ursula, right here huh?

Ms. Joellen, okay.

Yeah, thank you again for that picture.

It's real nice.

- Really nice.

- All right, so Walter, Joellen, we are outta time.

It's been fun.

- It has been!

- It's been fun.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us a 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 the time we have for today.

Thanks for joining us.

To learn more about growing broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower or to find out more about the trees Joellen talked about, go to familyplotgarden.com.

We have links to Extension publications you can print and take it to your garden.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]