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

I'm Chris Cooper.

It's spring, and time to plant the annual color.

Today, we are planting ageratum, sweet potato vine, and impatiens.

Also, there are many plant societies.

But are they right for you?

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 Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Susie Askew will be joining me later.

Alright, Joellen?

- Yeah?

- How are you doing today?

- Doing fine.

How about you?

- I am doing good.

I can't wait it to see what we're gonna put in the bed today, right?

- You know, look, we did Dusty Miller and violas this year.

- Mm-hmm.

So what do you think?

- I say the Dusty Miller did good.

- I think so.

- The violas, not so good.

- Not so good.

- So, but you know, we have done a segment where we've kept the Dusty Miller for several- - Yes, we have.

- Seasons, and we're not doing that this time.

[Chris chuckles] So, we need to dig it up.

And it's so nice that we're just gonna put it in some different place.

- Okay.

So we're gonna transplant.

- We're gonna transplant it, but you know something?

Dusty Miller are biannuals.

And as you can see, they're starting to bloom this year.

When you plant something in the fall, it thinks it's the first year, and when it goes through the cold of winter, and spring comes again, it thinks it's the second year and it starts blooming.

So that's why four of the, five of these are starting to bloom.

Now we wanna transplant these, but we need to get rid of the blooms so it will stop putting energy into blooms- - Got it.

- And put it into our transplanting of the roots.

- Okay.

- So we'll just cut off all of the blooms.

- And that's not gonna hurt the plant, right?

- Not gonna hurt the plant a bit.

- And I like the blooms.

They're beautiful yellow blooms.

- They're beautiful yellow blooms.

So if we wanna let 'em bloom later, we can.

And of course we will dig them up so we have some root system with them for transplanting.

- Alright.

- There you go.

- My, how about that?

Looks nice, huh?

- Looking great.

It's some good root system.

And we're gonna leave our bulbs to die down naturally.

Now we gotta get rid of what's left in the bed.

- Joellen, you know, this is always the hard part for me, right?

- Well, but they're almost dead.

They don't look that great this year.

- No, they don't.

- It's gotten warm, so they really are not gonna do any better than this.

[leaves rustling] Huh.

A few more.

[leaves rustling] Seem to have a lot of leaves in the bed.

- Yeah, we do.

- So, and we gotta do something with these daffodils.

So let's rake the leaves and the debris up a little bit.

Those Dusty Miller, just gathered 'em up.

- Alright.

[leaves rustling] - Got a few of these daffodil to tie up.

You just wanna leave 'em.

But sometimes they get in the way, and so I usually just divide 'em up, and give them a little knot.

To stay near the ground, so they don't look so bothersome until they finish getting the nutrients down to their roots.

- So it doesn't hurt to tie 'em up, huh?

- No.

The sun can get, and they can make chlorophyll whether they're straight or they're tied.

Well, we're gonna put a little fertilizer down.

- Okay.

- And because it's so dry, I hate putting new plants in dry soil.

So we'll sprinkle a little bit of our slow-release fertilizer down.

- Okay.

Just a little bit.

What did your mom say about the fertilizer?

- Yeah, well she said feed the chickens.

- Feed the chickens.

Let's feed the chickens.

- So, just a little bit to get 'em started.

[water spraying] If you put wet roots into a dry soil, it will suck the moisture out of the root system, [water spraying] and then your plant will wilt before it's even established.

- Ah.

- So it's just better to have the soil close to the temp, to the moisture level that you're planting from in their containers.

And we we're not trying to soak this, we're just trying to add a little bit of moisture to this dry soil.

We've got, we've done what, what is very pleasing to a lot of people.

We've used the three primary colors again this year.

- Yeah, I like that.

- We've got red, impatiens, SunPatiens, we've got yellow sweet potato vine.

- Nice.

- And we've got blue ageratum.

- Alright.

- So we'll set these out first.

Got five of them.

We can plant across the top of the bed.

- So is there a particular pattern that you like with five?

- Well, I like odd numbers.

- I know you do.

- And so, I usually space them out according to their odd number, and, and I like to put the sweet potatoes in between them to fill in.

And so we have five of those, and we have six of these.

- So the sweet potato vines are gonna spread pretty good for us?

- Oh, they'll spread.

Yes.

And we'll see how much they spread.

- Oh, we'll see.

- We'll see.

- We will, we'll determine, we've never planted these in here before, so we will see [Chris chuckles] which of these likes this area better.

- Ah, sounds like a true trial garden, right?

- Yes.

[Chris laughs] And there we go.

Now, we'll plant these, and we'll fill in with the ageratum.

- Okay.

- You gotta take the plant, and squish the bottom of it, and let the plant fall out in your hand.

And you look and you see, this is nicely rooted.

It's not too root bound or anything.

Just a little bit of spreading out of those roots, - Yeah.

- And it's ready to plant.

And we don't bury them in the ground either.

I like to put the soil surface of the plant just ever so slightly higher than the existing soil.

- So Joellen, looking at the SunPatiens, so is there anything we need to know about that?

Is that a concern?

- Oh, that's, that's definitely root bound.

- Okay.

- And, I'm sure when you take this off, part of that will rip off.

- Alright.

And that's okay, right?

- Yeah, that's okay.

But yeah, this is, if we had something, we need to stop this circling.

So you just pinch off the roots, and it stops that circling, and it will stop circling now and want to go away from the plants.

All root systems like to root away from a plant to anchor it.

- They do.

- And by taking that circling off, we will cause them to go out away from the plant.

- Is there a reason why you chose the SunPatiens?

- Yes, because we've got a lot of southern sun here, and I wanted to make sure that they would live in the sun that's gonna be here on them.

It's gonna be a hot sun in the summertime.

So, and SunPatiens do well in the sun.

- I think we got it.

Take that out.

- Now that we've got this row of plants in, we're gonna fill in with the other.

We took away a lot of the mulch.

So I would like to put a little bit of mulch on each side of this row, and we'll just spread it around a little bit.

- Alright.

Ah, look at that.

- And we don't need much.

We're just kind of dressing up.

[mulch bag rustling] - Alright.

- Ageratum are well rooted.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

Very well rooted.

- But Ageratum is a well-rooted annual.

And- - Okay.

- It does this a lot, but you know, we'll help it of course when we plant each one by stop that circling and squareness, and we'll plant them.

- Alright.

- Each one of these will get to be about 12 inches around.

So, we don't have a large space, mostly, like you would find in front of your home.

You just find a small little bed to look nice during the summer.

The ageratum can take sun, and a partly shady area, which is what we have here.

So, it should do fairly well.

- Okay.

- And they will get to be 12 inches around.

So.

- Wow.

That's pretty good.

- And so will the, the New Guinea impatiens.

So, I mean, we don't need a whole lot of plants - Right.

- To fill in this area.

I always lay things out before we plant, because you, it's just easier to move them instead of planting 'em first, then trying to move them.

[Chris laughs] We've got three rows now.

Blue on each side of the yellow and red.

And I think we're ready to plant.

- I think we're ready.

- Now since we have mulched, make sure you spread the mulch out of the way for when you dig your hole for your plant, so that you can put the mulch back over the top, and it will look like you were never there.

- Aha.

And somebody's probably wondering, "But you're tearing up the roots."

Well.

- Mm.

They've got plenty.

- Got plenty.

- It actually initiates more roots when you cut roots.

- Yeah, it does.

- When you tear 'em apart.

- We're doing them a favor.

- Right.

- There we go.

- We got 'em in.

- And that will be pretty.

- That's gonna be nice.

Grow Little ones.

Grow.

- Pretty nice.

- And now we'll water them in.

- We'll water them in.

[waterhose running] - Notice I have a nice water br eaker on the end of this hose.

This is the kind of water breaker that you use when you have flowers like this.

And that way you're not digging holes into the plants and around the plants.

You're gently putting water on, as mother nature would with rain.

And you wanna make sure you soak it deeply.

Once you go over it, you go back over it again.

And sometimes for a new planting, I'll go over the third time.

So the water seeps down into the ground, making the area wet for all of them.

And it takes all the air pockets out of the soil, and puts the soil up against each of the roots.

And then they'll be off to a good start.

- Alright, Joellen.

I can't wait to see what this is gonna look like later in the season, right?

- It's gonna be really pretty, I think.

- Yeah.

This is exciting stuff.

Thank you much.

I appreciate it.

- You're welcome.

- Alright.

[upbeat country music] - This is a great example of bolting.

That's what we call it.

It basically is getting ready to put on seed.

It's done all that it's supposed to do.

It has supplied us with a lot of delicious kale to eat over the winter months.

And so it's just ready to go to seed.

Can you still eat these leaves?

Yes, you can still eat 'em, but some people call think they're a little tough.

Some people, you know, think they're a little bitter at this point, but you can still eat it.

And of course, kale is not the only plant that will bolt.

Most of your Brassica plants, in that group, they will bolt.

Such as your broccoli, your turnip greens, your collards, all of those type of plants will bolt.

Even lettuce will bolt.

And of course, once a plant starts to bolt, you really can't stop it.

There's no, there's not any kind of chemical you can put out there to make it stop bolting or whatever.

Once this process starts, it's going to complete.

So at that point, that's when I pull 'em up in my garden, and send 'em over to the compost pile.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, Ms. Susie, let's talk about the benefits of plant societies.

- There's an umbrella organization called the Memphis Horticultural Society.

- Okay.

- 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.

You can almost name a plant group, and there's a group of people that get together and study just that one plant, ferns.

- Yeah.

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.

- Okay.

- They're two affiliations.

One is National Garden Clubs, which is the biggest gardening organization in the world.

- Wow.

- They actually have international affiliates.

- Okay.

- And in that national garden clubs, there are programming 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.

- Okay.

- And they're also much, 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 you have to, it's hard to get in.

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

- Right.

Right.

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

- Wow.

- It's a small group.

It's 12 women because that's about how many you can fit in your living room.

- Right.

- Or cook for.

- Right.

- So, but we study, we don't have outside speakers.

We just take a 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 bend according to what they're interested in.

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

- Right.

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

- Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

- And 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.

- That's right.

That's 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.

- Uh-huh.

- 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 that 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.

And so she, she had a wonderful presentation about gardening and foodscaping.

- Okay.

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

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

- Got it.

- In January, we had 10 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.

- Yeah.

- And those are two topics we are too.

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

- Sure.

- And so we've gotta make sure what we're offering them is worth the time they take off to attend.

- 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, a hydrangea society or what have you- - I'm in both those two.

- And you're 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.

- Oh, I'm with you there.

- And the hostas are just- - I'm with ya.

- They're just coming on so fast, I can't keep up with them.

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

- Okay.

- 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.

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

- Okay.

- So with hydrangeas, I just think they're beautiful, and they're great design plant, but I'm interested in those, and how you make space with them.

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.

So what, you know, 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.

- Ah.

- And Master Gardeners gives you the the base.

- Yes.

- And lets you, after you've finished 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, [Chris laughs] 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. Susie.

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] - When you're gardening, a lot of times you use granular fertilizer, but sometimes you want it in liquid form.

Well, most granular fertilizers can be dissolved in water.

So here I have my small onion patch that I need to fertilize, and I don't really want to use granular fertilizer because I don't know when it's gonna rain, and I want the fertilizer to get to the onion quickly.

So, I have here, I have my watering can that I have half filled with water, and I have my one ounce of fertilizer.

So I'm gonna go ahead and add that to the can.

And then I'm just gonna kind of mix it up.

So after about a minute of shaking this gently, the fertilizer is dissolved.

So I'm gonna go ahead and fill my watering can up the rest of the way just so I have a little bit more water here.

And, now I'm just going to water my onions.

Now I wanna make sure that I do not get it on the leaves, because just like fertilizer, granular fertilizer on the leaves will burn, well this will burn as well.

So there, now my onions have the fertilizer immediately that they need.

Now you can use most granular fertilizers and dissolve 'em in water just like that.

Just make sure that you figure out how much you need, and weigh it out and put it in the water.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, this is our Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Yes.

- These are great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"Should I top my red maple tree "to promote horizontal branch growth?

"Most of its growth has been vertical ever since some branches snapped off a few years ago."

And this is Sean from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

So what do you think about that one, Joellen?

- Well, you know, you're really never supposed to top trees.

- Ah, yeah.

- Because it takes away the apical dominance, and what you really want for a nice trunk structure, you want a central leader that goes up straight.

- Okay.

- Now looking at the, at the picture, I can see what he's saying.

The other branches fell off, and I know it's growing tall, but there's a lot of shade around there.

And when it's a shady condition, you've had, have a young tree, it is looking for light.

So it's growing as tall as it can, to be able to get to light.

- So it's stretching to that light.

- It's stretching to that light.

- And he did mention, yeah, it's about 15 to 20 feet tall.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

And that's normal for something...

Think about it in a forest.

The smaller trees, you know how tall and thin they are.

So that's what this tree is trying to do, is just get to some light.

- I would agree with that.

'Cause again, if you look at the picture, you can actually see the shadows around the snow on the ground.

So it let's you know that there's some shade there.

So it's looking for the light.

Walter, anything you wanna add to that?

- No, I was just gonna say, I was always told you never top a tree.

That's what they teach you.

- Right, right.

Right.

Alright.

So hope that helps you out, Sean.

Thank you for the question and the picture.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"What is this?

We found it last fall in the garden."

And this is Sarah.

So Walter, what is that?

- Well, I know I've seen it in my own yard, and I was told that it's a bird nest... - Yeah, bird nest fungus.

- Yeah, fungus.

Yes.

- Yeah.

And you can see why they call it that, you know?

- Yes, yes.

- Yeah, a little birds nest with some eggs in it.

That's what it almost looks like to me.

And the thing about it, it's not a bad thing.

It's actually decomposing organic matter.

So you usually see it in mulch that's excessively moist or wet.

But here's what you can do.

Just rake it up.

- Yeah.

- No need for chemicals or anything like that.

You can just rake it up and it'll be fine.

- Yeah.

- Alright.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Is it safe to build a raised bed garden out of 40-year-old treated lumber from an old fence?"

And this is Pya from Century, Alabama.

So Walt, what'd think about that one?

- Well, what concerns me here, is the 40-year-old- - 40-year-old.

- You know, 'cause I don't know what it's treated with.

- Right.

That's right.

- Me personally.

And typically though, let me bring this up to modern times.

- Okay.

- If you want to use a raised bed, I do advise people to get the treated landscape timbers at your local lumber yard or whatever, because they, you know, they will hold up better.

But getting back to that 40-year-old, I just don't know what it was treated with, and I'll be scared to, you know, advise you to do so.

- I would definitely agree with that.

And if you use the new treated wood, for the most part, if you look on the label, and actually saw this recently, it will say, "Treated for ground contact."

- Okay.

- Right.

- And it contains, of course, you know, copper, copper asol is one, or alkaline copper is another one, which is safe.

- Yes.

- Which is safe.

So, Joellen, you and I talked about this.

- Yeah.

- So, what's the difference between yeah, if we wanna do that in a, you know, plant our vegetables in that raised bed as opposed to flower beds.

- Right.

Now if you wanna use the 40-year-old wood to make a raised bed for flowers, - Right.

- That would be fine.

But if you're gonna be putting it for vegetables where you're gonna be eating it, no.

Don't do that, 'cause we don't know what it was treated with, and we want you to be safe.

So, and there's, and you know, that's why a lot of these pre-made raised gardens are made of cedar.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yes.

- And cypress, and things that rot slowly in the ground, and that's why they're made of that.

And of course you can buy alternatives.

We did blocks out here at The Family Plot, and there's metal containers.

There's all sorts of things besides wood that you can use for raised beds.

But if he's got it and he wants to use it, as long as it's not for vegetables that he's going to eat.

It can't be for that.

- Right.

Yeah.

'Cause again, going back to Walter's point, a lot of that treated wood from years ago, was treated with, you know that copper, chromium, copper arsenate.

- Yeah.

Arsenic.

- So, - No.

Yeah, and it doesn't go away.

- Yeah.

It doesn't go away.

Right.

But yeah, the new treated wood, be just fine.

Or, you have alternatives, like you mentioned before.

- Yes.

- So yeah, look into those.

So we appreciate that question, Pya.

- Thank you, much.

- Good one.

- Alright.

So Joellen, Walter, we're outta time.

That was good.

- That was good.

- Thank you much.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is qu estions@familyplotgarden.com, 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.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about the plants Joellen planted, or get information on plant socieites, visit familyplotgarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]