Music.

Hello and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host, Tinisha Spain, and I'm joined by two of my friends here at Japan house in Urbana.

We've got a lot to discuss, so Introduce yourselves so we can get going on these show and tells.

We'll start with you.

I'm Jennifer Nelson.

You can find me online at Groton, atgrowing.com where I talk about all sorts of horticulture, and I also teach horticulture at U of I you'll find me teaching Hort 105 vegetable gardening.

We got to get her to a lab in about an hour.

So next, Hello.

I'm Dr Doug Williams, Doctor of landscape architecture, horticulturalist.

I work mostly in Chicago with the Hyde Park florist, along with a number of other organizations.

I'm a fellow with the landscape Foundation, and you can find me online if you Google Doug Williams and landscape architecture, have fun reading my dissertation.

All right, so let's talk about these tomatoes, because you gave me one of these plants at the beginning of the spring, and it took off like mine is going gangbusters.

And these are really cool brand new tomatoes.

So this is a brand new tomato.

This is called the purple tomato.

This is was put out as the first GMO for home gardeners, and so it has a gene for purple pigment that they transferred from Snapdragon.

I don't know if how you can see how bright purple it is.

It's purple all the way through, and it makes for a really beautiful salad.

I mixed it with red tomatoes and sun sugar, which are kind of yellow orange, and it was just gorgeous.

But one of the big things that's interesting to me, at least, having done my dissertation in genetics, is you can save the seed.

They want you to save the seed.

So that kind of a kind of a thing that has gotten GMOs a bad name, is that the thought that you have to go back and buy the seed every year, but they specifically bred this to be an open pollinated variety, and they want you to save you just can't sell the seed, but you can definitely save the seed and grow them for all your friends next year.

Yes, give you a plant next year too.

Line up.

I'll get you one too.

But how to save seed for tomatoes?

You need to do it a little bit special.

They when you have cut in tomatoes before, you know, the seeds have kind of a little gelatinous coating that kind of slimy.

And that's actually serves a purpose.

It has a germination inhibitor in there.

So that's so if you have tomatoes that are falling on the ground during the summer, they're not sprouting up right away.

They over the winter, if that stays there and you don't pick it up, that gelatinous part kind of wears away, and then that seed can germinate in the spring.

But if you want to save seed for next year, you got to get that coating off so that when you plant them next year, that they'll be ready to go.

So the way to do that is to cut them open and then just kind of get that pulp and put it in some water and get those seeds in there.

And you're gonna put however many you want in there, and you can still eat what's left if you want.

You're gonna let this get really funky and gross.

It needs to ferment.

Like, days, weeks, like, three months, no no.

Like, till exploring a week, like, like, you know, few days to a week, okay, you're gonna want to put something over the top, and it's just water.

It's just water.

It's just, you know, I probably put too much water in there, but you need something over the top, whether it's a cloth or I had a piece of screen put that over there's a canning jar.

So I'm just going to use the band.

You could use a rubber band too, but, but you would put that on there keep, that's just to keep air circulating and to keep fruit flies from taking up residence in there, because that would make it even worse.

But it's supposed to look it's supposed to look freak out.

When it looks freak out.

Put it outside, put it somewhere nice and warm, not necessarily in the straight sun, but put it and just forget about it for a few days.

You should see mold on the top.

You should see some, you know, funkified looking stuff.

And you will see the seeds will start to kind of fall away, interesting.

And then use, like a strainer or something, and rinse it out, get, keep the seeds and put, I put them on like a paper plate, and let them dry thoroughly, and then put them in a like a pill bottle is good or and if you save those, you know, like you get the little desiccant thing, like in with vitamins, or, yes, yeah, put one of those in there and keep it cool and dry, and they should be ready to go for next spring.

Now, I skipped a step.

I did not do the funky water step.

So the seeds that I saved from those purple tomatoes, I'm gonna throw those out and start over.

Yeah.

And you showed me how many tomatoes you're harvesting.

Okay, compost them.

Yes, that's yeah.

You showed me how much tomatoes you're harvesting.

You got plenty to plenty.

I got a lot to work with.

Yeah, this has been yielding.

This is going to be part of my regular, regular repertoire of tomatoes.

They were they produced so much.

My plant was in a container, and I have a ton you did yours in the ground, and have like, every day I get.

It bushels and bushels of tomatoes.

I made a pasta sauce last night.

It was really good, but it was strange eating a purple sauce on noodles, yeah, but it was cool to hold the purple.

It did, okay, it really did.

And it did, like this shimmery kind of unicorn thing.

It was kind of cool, kind of cool, kind of cool.

So thank you.

Jen, no problem.

All right, Doug, we're talking canopy trees, yeah.

Well, that sounds like a science experiment, which I encourage our elementary school students and high school students to try out.

Well, I'm all about trees for for the most part, I'm planting like hundreds of trees in the Chicagoland area with a number of programs.

One is our roots program with the city of Chicago.

But even here within the state of Illinois, particularly in Urbana and other places through the Cooperative Extension services and a number of other partners.

This is one of their manuals.

Is under the canopy, creating personal green space, and it is a guide to selecting plants.

And I'm trying to read upside down, caring for the trees in Illinois.

And I've used this for a number of years.

They've got the second edition.

It shows a typical residential space and how you need to be sure you look out for utilities and all those other types of things that are part of city infrastructure, and then the urban landscape, and has a little check box.

It's got all kinds of things to avoid in terms of having a purpose for shading on both the southwest and certainly the east side and the north side, you're going to have in this hemisphere, not too much to deal with in terms of having to shade.

Talks about pruning properly, not hedging, but pruning, even planting the root ball, how that should look and be accessible in the soil profile around it.

It's got a number of detailed notes.

But then this is the cool part, too.

Yes, because people like to see images and look at this, we love pictures.

The wind is taking us away.

We'll be your lovely assistant.

And if you look right here, it's got a number of different trees.

Is, of course, not the entire list of trees, but it shows a pretty good list of sort of larger trees, medium sized, as well as small trees, ones that have interest in terms of flowers, fall color, berries or some type of fruit structure, some of them that have fragrance I like down here, yeah, and it even shows the scale.

So that helps to get an idea.

There's a couple of evergreens that are part of this.

I actually have a frontier elm, which is this purple one.

It starts off, I think, in the spring, with a deeper purple color, maybe a little bit into the fall.

Mine is about that big.

Now.

It's been there for probably five or more years.

I think the zelkova is stunning, the Japanese Katsura, since we were at the Japan house.

And I don't know if they have a Japanese maple, they probably don't, because that's quite popular in general.

But they have a number of things, like even the service Berry, where you can actually eat the berries if you beat the birds to it.

So this is the blueprint.

You literally in this fold out everything you need to know about putting trees in your landscape, right?

I mean, it's a practical guidance if you want to go further.

A number of organizations, the extension services is one with the Master Gardeners program for any of our community members who want to not take on a university degree just yet, but really get that thorough involvement, much like we do try to present here on the Mid American gardener show.

And I know people at home are going to be itching to get their hands on one of these now.

So can you tell folks where to get one?

Yes, contact.

And of course, they're going to be like, Oh my god, we're going to be out of these the Illinois Extension services, which is part of the community, part of the land grant institutions, and that's something that was started some time ago since George Washington Carver credited Jessup wagon in Alabama to go around and talk with those agrarian individuals in the community who were doing a lot of agricultural based work.

Very nice.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right, Jen, we're back to you.

You have another I have another show and tell.

Okay, let's do it Sure.

This was just for fun.

This is actually an olive tree that I picked up and I had one years ago, and it got pretty big in indoors.

This is for totally house plant stuff.

Was this a checkout line impulse?

It kind of was it kind of what we love when you go to the grocery store.

And I did get it at the grocery store, and, you know, I know, but I had one years ago that had gotten quite big, and it was in a big, heavy pot, and it randomly died one winter.

One thing I couldn't really the only thing I could figure probably happened is because it was winter, and I may have over watered it, they could.

They do kind of slow down for the winter.

All of our house plants do so being really careful about how much water you put on it.

But I saw this as a sign from the universe that I should try again.

Yes.

And somebody asked me, oh, are you so is it gonna bloom?

Are you gonna have olives?

Are you gonna grow olives indoors, at home?

Like, oh, no, no, no, I don't.

I was gonna ask, yeah, no, I don't think I've never heard of anybody successfully doing something like that, but if you lived somewhere where you could plant it outside.

Might.

I'm just looking for something that looks a little different to put it in my sunroom at home, and something to annoy my husband exactly the ornamental values that kind of, oh, go ahead, Doug.

We used to have used the poplar tree, although they've gotten rid of because I think I can Russian olive Oh yeah, yeah.

I see a few of them still on.

I just noticed one.

I was like, I almost forgot that tree existed.

Yeah, we tore out some of those on our property.

Yeah, they're kind of weedy and junky because they make a little fruit that all the birds eat, and the drawers and everywhere, like a mole, yeah?

Like Mulberry, you mentioned, the leaves dropping, and that kind of rolls into one of the questions that we've got.

Let's see.

Kathy Barrett wrote in that she brought her Meyer lemon tree inside for the winter, and this just came in.

So this is new she brought in for the winter, and it's dropping leaves like crazy.

It's in a sunny location, and it's watered once a week.

What should she do?

That is pretty typical of a citrus tree coming in from being outdoors, where it's so bright and sunny as I'm splinting entering and as long as really watch the over watering on it once a week.

Might even be too much if it's not dried out, but it is normal for it to lose some leaves as it's adjusting to being indoors.

Mine have always done that when I've had citrus indoors.

All right.

All right.

Doug, we're going to go to you.

Let's see.

Carolyn Packard writes in I have a Wisteria vine that I planted three years ago and have not gotten a single bloom.

Should I move it somewhere else?

Currently, it's in front of the house.

We don't know which direction, unfortunately, but no blooms well for that one, for the Wisteria, which I've quite familiar with.

It likes full sun, so I don't know what the front of the house is.

Maybe it's north.

That's probably not the best location.

You may want to either have at the front, but further from the house so it actually gets some sunlight.

Or obviously south will be probably the most beneficial, or even the west side of your property, and then also, if you're watering it quite profusely, although they're pretty tough plants.

In terms of your fertilizer, you probably want to reduce the nitrogen and push for more potassium or phosphorus to help stimulate some more floral growth.

But usually it should take off.

You only had it for three years.

I don't know how small it is or how big it's gotten, it may lead some more time to mature.

And the flowers usually are on the is it the older growth?

I think is most often.

Sometimes you see it on the newer growth.

So if you do prune it or move it, it may be stressed out, but give it a little more time.

Okay, give it a little bit more time.

All right, Jim, we're gonna go back to you.

This one cracked me up.

I've never had a question like this before?

Elaine says, I want to plant nonhardy bulbs in pots so I don't have to dig them in the fall.

Is there a watering system I can use so that they can be watered once a week or so?

The self watering pots may work, but I've also heard about putting baby diapers in the bottoms of pots to retain water.

Haven't tried it, but someone said it works.

So what?

Well, a couple things I have done, what she's what she's doing in a couple ways.

I have planted things like dahlias in pots, because I never get around to digging up in time.

That is just like the typical like, everything's too busy, and you just forget, and you're like, I'll just buy more, but I will put things like dahlias.

I have a couple in pots now that I'll just throw that in the garage, where I know it's going to get cold, but it's not going to freeze, and I just don't water them all winter.

I just leave them be and then and they do fine.

Now the question that we were laughing about was the whole diaper situation.

And as crazy as it sounds, I've done it, and it works.

I heard about it from someone years ago when I worked in extension who had pots everywhere in her yard, and I couldn't understand how she kept up with the watering.

And she said, Oh, it's easy, honey diapers.

And she used every she said, anything from a premium preemie sized diaper to an adult the pen just depending on, and she would just put it in the bottom and put the potting mix on top.

And I said, it doesn't hold on to too much.

And she's like, No, and it's the same stuff that when if you buy those water absorbing crystals to add to potting mix, it's the same stuff that's in diapers.

So you're just kind of cutting out the middleman.

And I had, and I tried it.

I had some old, some diapers left from when my son was little, and we put them in in pots or hanging baskets where we're worried about, like it's his full sun surface of the sun location, and I don't have the time to stand out there three times a day watering.

It works.

Wow.

Did you open the diaper?

I just like, opened it up and laid it in the bottom.

Wow.

And it so if you try it, you have to let us know.

I mean, it only works for you.

It only works for that season.

You have to replace it.

And I got all fancy because some of the diapers I had left were compostable.

Cool down.

And I was feeling nice.

I was feeling all on the right side of the environment.

Yeah, nature with that one.

But it does work.

So it does interesting.

That is so funny.

I have to, we have to do that sometime.

Let's see.

We got a question about gold mop Cypress.

This is from Sandy.

She writes in I had the front of the house landscaped five or six years ago.

I liked yellow, so the contractor put in four gold mop Cypress among bloomstruck and Bobo hydrangeas.

Now the little weeping ones were very pretty.

However, she says they have exploded into weeping gold thugs and are turned over everything.

She's tried to reduce the size.

She's tried to thin them out, tried to prune them back.

Nothing is working, so it's only got to call the plant police or the thugs.

I think, well, this is my one of my favorite things is pruning.

Yeah, you're gonna have to prune.

I know you did a pass at it before.

Now is another time to go ahead and really approach a little bit more intensely, maybe not fully, pruning all the way back, because most Evergreens are a little problematic with rejuvenating if they don't have any leaves at all, or if they really severely cut back.

I've pruned some taxes and some other plants, and it's taken three to five years for them to kind of rejuvenate.

So you're going to have some some holes in the landscape in terms of what you do, but perennial should work, so give it a try.

Okay, all right, last question for Jen.

This is from Eva and Stanley white.

They've been growing cucumbers for years now, but this year they had an anomaly, an abundance of blooms, but no fruiting.

They want to know what's happening with the cucumbers.

And then on the other side, with the tomatoes, they have ripening, but they've got some rotting on the bottom.

Okay, so let's talk cucumbers first.

We can blame both problems are largely due to the weather.

So we can blame the weather.

We like you didn't do anything wrong.

You're so you're a, still a worthy gardener with cucumbers.

If we have too hot a weather, remember, with cucumbers, most of them will have male flowers and female flowers, and the male flowers produce the pollen for the female flowers.

When the weather is really hot, we get a lot, a lot of male flowers and not a lot of female flowers.

So we'll blame that one on the weather.

Any kind of stress with cucumbers water water stress can go hand in hand with that hot weather.

So you would still get more male flowers at the expense of female flowers.

Gotcha.

So they are kind of, they're kind of divas, that way of responding to stress by just not producing what we want them to produce.

And the tomato question, with the where you get that sort of black sunken spot on the bottom of the tomato that's blossom end rot, and that is caused by technically, it's a calcium deficiency within the fruit, but it's not that we don't have plenty of calcium in the soil, but the calcium has to be dissolved in water and be traveling to that part of the tomato while it's forming.

And if it's real hot and dry, and we're not doing it, we're not consistent in our watering.

The calcium is not there when it's needed by the plant, and that that area the tomato that was trying to grow and develop dies, and you get that sunken black there's lots of and there's lots of old wives tales out there on how to remedy it.

And I've heard eggshells, eggshells, eggshells.

One I've heard some people said powdered milk, and all of it involves watering it in.

And I'm like, the powdered milk thing, yeah, sounds like that would go really bad, really quickly, but all of them have as part of and there's some sprays that they want to, like, charge you a lot for at the garden center, but all of them involve watering in, so you're really solving your own problem by adding the water that needs to be there.

So Gotcha.

But keeping mulching so that you keep a consistent watering.

You don't want to have big swings and in soil moisture, okay?

And some varieties are just prone to it.

So if you keep having a problem, try a different switch to the switch to the purple one.

That's right, guys, we're out of time.

That was it.

Thank you so much for coming in thank and bringing show and tells and educating us on all things gardening.

And now we're going to talk to the folks here at Japan house and learn a little bit more about what they've got going on.

You and now I'm joined with Diana Liao here at Japan house, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do here.

Yeah.

So Hi everyone.

My name is Diana Liao.

I'm the Education and Engagement Specialist here at Japan house.

I help fulfill academic programming, but also run public community events as well, through both inside the building and outside, in our wonderful gardens.

So if someone is not familiar with Japan houses, this is the first time they've heard of it, because we've been here several times with the cherry trees.

How would you explain it to them?

What is Japan house?

Yeah.

So we're a very unique teaching facility, one of a kind in the United States, and we're part of the.

University of Illinois, within the College of Fine and Applied Arts, and primarily, we use our space, both inside and outside, as a classroom for teaching traditional Japanese arts and culture Excellent.

And so I know that you guys do tea ceremonies.

What other kind of things can folks learn here?

Yeah, folks can also come here to learn about flower arranging, about Japanese gardening, and so we're very much into nature, as you can see, on every week, twice a week, we do have gardening opportunities in the morning.

So for anyone who's curious, they can send us an email at japanhouse@illinois.edu and we can send them more information.

We also have visiting artists who come, and we'll do more intensive workshops, or more intensive like gardening workshops or professional development.

So that's another way to get involved, especially if so many people enjoy walking the gardens.

And you know, it takes a very special touch to be able to maintain them.

So Phil Nixon is one of our panelists on the show, and he comes to the annual bonsai I don't know if it's a festival or whatever, but he makes it a point every year to be here for that.

So how do folks learn about what upcoming events are?

How do you get engaged and get plugged into things here at the Japan house?

Yeah, well, if you want to learn about us, our history is all listed on our website at japanhouse.illinois.edu but all of our public events will always be listed on Eventbrite, and so follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, our email newsletter, and anytime we have fun news or upcoming, exciting events, we always try to share that as a way for people to be immersed in Japanese arts and culture in central Illinois.

Now, personal question, yes, what's your favorite tree or plant here at the gardens?

That's a hard I always hit people with this.

Okay, yeah, okay.

I think if I had a favorite tree or plant, I would have to say, in our dry rock garden, there has been the small bush that Mr. James buyer planted originally when the garden started, and it's been growing strong, and he's always maintained it.

It's always been pruned.

But to me, it's kind of like a slightly larger bonsai tree.

And I just love the shape of it.

Whenever I see old photos of it, you can definitely see how it's grown compared to today.

And I just feel like it's kind of like a wise old tree now, even though it's maybe like 25 ish years old, and I think that's my favorite tree.

Every day I look at it through the windows and I'm like, awesome.

And you're gonna have people now coming out looking for looking for that one specific tree.

Diana, thank you so much for talking to us.

Really appreciate it, and we hope people come out here and get more involved.

Yes, attend some of the events here.

Yeah, thank you.

You