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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Square foot gardening lets   you grow more in less space.

This year we're going   to put it to the test.

Today we're starting ours.

Also, onions are easy to grow   and add flavor to your food.

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 Peter Richards.

Peter is our local gardener.

And Walter Battle will be joining me later.

Alright Peter.

We're gonna talk about square foot gardening.

So here's the first question.

What is square foot gardening?

- Okay, square foot gardening is an idea that you can plant lots of food in a small space.

And so, you divide your garden into square foot chunks.

And then inside that chunk, you plant a certain number of plants.

And the idea is that, with this dense planting, it cuts down on weeds, it increases production.

And this year, we're gonna take that and we're gonna put it to the test.

Here we have a four foot by eight foot garden bed that we have previously put a fair amount of compost in.

And so, we're going to divide it out, and we are going to plant a few plants, and just get it ready to go for the whole year.

And throughout this year, we're gonna do updates on this.

And online at familyplotgarden.com, we'll keep a tally of, kind of a blog of what we've done, and a tally of what we've harvested out of it.

So, this is the first time I have actually done [Chris laughs] a square foot garden.

I've done similar ideas, but not like this.

And so I'm really curious to see how much we can get out of this little bed.

- I am too, I'm with you.

This is the first time for me too, so I'm kinda excited about it.

We're gonna see what it's gonna turn out to be.

All right, so where do we need to start?

- So the first thing we need to do is we have to divide our garden into square foot chunks.

So we're gonna do that with, we have some bailing twine here.

Now, you can do it with thin boards.

You can do it just basically however you want to.

But we're gonna use the twine.

- Okay.

- So we also have here, we have some landscape staples.

So if you want to, let's go ahead and measure out.

If you wanna take this, let's figure out where a foot away from this wall is here, down there, and you can stick a staple in to mark it.

- So we're going this way?

- Yeah, we can do that.

- All right.

- So.

- Okay, you got it?

- There we go, yep.

So a foot there.

Foot there.

There.

- Can you pass me a couple of those?

- Yep, there you go.

- Goin' a foot, okay.

This one here.

All right.

- Okay.

Now let's go do the other side, same thing.

- Same thing.

- Now let's do the short side.

- I can do the one down here.

You got it?

- Yep, I got that one.

Okay, so that should be all we need the tape measure for today.

So now we're gonna take what we've marked and string, here's the twine.

If you wanna just tie it.

- Does this have to be tight or-?

- No, just tight enough that it's not gonna wander.

All right.

Just move the staple back here and tighten it up.

Okay.

Let's do the next one.

- Yeah, it don't take much.

- Okay, I'll just go the other direction.

So now our bed is divided into one foot by one foot squares.

And a lot of times when you plant with traditional gardens, you might string off stuff and then you, if the string goes away, it doesn't really matter, 'cause you planted it.

Here though, you wanna keep the string the whole year.

'Cause what we're gonna do here is   I've made a plan   for this garden.

This plan is laid out   square foot by square foot.

And in some places,   I'm going to be planting   multiple crops   through the year.

So I've gone through,   I've tried to get, you know,   figure out that, for   instance, we have spinach.

And spinach will be done at   about April 15th where we are.

And so then, that will be   replaced by bush beans.

And that's gonna last   until about August 1st,   and it'll be replaced by   broccoli for the fall.

So I've planned this out to try and utilize the space as good as possible.

And then also here, there's some places, like, I'm gonna be growing cantaloupes, sweet potatoes, watermelons, tomatoes.

- Wow, so you can grow all of that in this bed?

- Well, I'm going to, but what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take advantage of this walkway where we are.

So like for instance, the cantaloupes are gonna be planted here, but I'm gonna have a run out.

You know, the watermelons are gonna be here, they're gonna run out.

- That's gonna be interesting.

- And then the tomatoes, which are gonna be tall, 'cause we have tomatoes and cucumbers, they're gonna be planted against this side here.

And we have to put the stakes in for 'em now.

But that's the north side of the garden.

So you kinda have to keep track, 'cause the north side's gonna have the tall plants so it doesn't shade anything in front.

So let's go ahead and put in the stakes for the tall plants here.

And we're gonna, rather than having them go straight up and down, we're actually gonna lean 'em out.

So that they go out over   the lawn here a little bit.

And that will help us   by making it so that   we're using space   that's not over the bed.

Yeah, and I'm not gonna put   up the trellis right now,   but it's just good to get   that in so it's ready to go.

Each square has a certain number of plants.

So, the big plants would have one square.

And the biggest plants actually might have four squares.

So something like a full-size cabbage plant might use four squares, because it gets, you know, it gets pretty big.

Yeah, but smaller plants use less.

So we're gonna plant onions and peas today, because it's February.

- And it's that time!

- It's that time to do that.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna plant nine onions in a square.

And we're gonna plant nine peas in a square.

So according to my plan here,   we're going to be planting   two squares of onions.

And we're gonna   plant nine each.

So what we wanna do is   space them in a grid   with a gap around it   to leave space between   it and the next square.

- Gotcha.

There's that.

- Okay.

And now, one of the advantages of the square foot garden here is because it is so dense, the plants'll shade out the weeds.

So, it is low maintenance.

- So you can actually have a low maintenance garden, huh?

- Yeah, a low maintenance garden.

- How 'bout that.

- And even if you do have weeds, you look at this, how big is this?

This won't take much to weed.

Also, it has all of this loose soil in it that you never walk on.

And because you never walk on, it never gets compacted.

So even if you do have to weed, it's just, you can go through quickly.

And then the other thing   we're going to do today   is we're gonna plant peas.

And those are gonna be in   these four spots over here.

And those are also nine per-   - So it's nine per square.

- Nine per square.

Your stereotypical   square foot garden bed   is four feet by four feet.

This one's four   feet by eight feet.

Because it is so small,   I can reach anywhere   in the garden bed   without ever stepping on it.

And you can grow   it on raised beds.

So, you know, even if you   can't bend over to the ground,   it gives you a place to,   you know, you can garden   even if you're not able   to bend over very far.

There we go.

And we're going in our square foot garden.

And as we move along here in a few weeks, we're gonna be planting lettuce, 'cause it's gonna get to that time.

And it'll slowly fill up and turn over as we go through the year.

- I'm looking forward to it.

- Yeah.

- Thank you much.

- Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Determinate versus indeterminate.

- Yeah, and you'd be surprised how many people really don't know what that means, and they grow a lotta tomatoes.

And they'll say, well, you know, my tomatoes just set all their fruit and then they were done.

Well, that's the determinate.

That means it set   a determined time   that it's going to produce,   and those are usually   commercial varieties, so everything gets ripe and harvests at one time.

And that's really a good thing for a commercial producer.

But see, for the home gardener, you know, if they have the room,   see, indeterminate varieties,   as long as they're   growing and flowering,   they're putting on fruit.

So they can wind up   being pretty darn big [Chris laughs]   by the end of the season.

You might need a   step ladder to get.

But, you know, some of the varieties that are determinate are Roma, Celebrity is a common one, but it's sorta semi-determinate.

And it can get a little bigger than what's, you know, the regular, just in varieties of determinate.

Mountain Spring, Mountain, there's some of those new ones in the commercial end that are determinate.

But for the indeterminate, they're like Better Boy, Big Boy, Early Girl.

All the little cherry tomatoes that just keep going, like Million.

What's that, Sweet Million.

- Yeah.

- You know, that thing can just cover up your house and go over and, you know.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Walter.

I could smell something on the table here.

- Yes.

[laughter] - It smells like onions a little bit, you know?

- Oh yes, yes.

And I'll tell you, Chris, I must say, I am an onion freak.

[Chris laughs] I just need to tell ya, I absolutely love 'em, I mean, they're just a very versatile vegetable that you can use, as far as cooking and all of that.

And since I have to do all the cooking at the house, I've just learned to love 'em.

I must tell you.

- Well, we have the right man for the job to talk about onions then, right?

- Hopefully, yes.

- All right.

Well, we have some questions for you about those onions there, Walter.

So, when are onions planted?

- Well, here in the Mid-South area, and I'm mainly talking about the Memphis area, I would say usually February and early March.

It's usually one of our very first vegetables that we put out there, you know, each year.

So, you go out there, it kinda gets me fired up for the growing season.

'Cause I'm like, hey, I can finally go out here, you know, and throw me up, as old folks say, throw me up some onion rows [laughter] and start planting.

So hey, I'm ready to go now.

You know, and I'm just looking forward for the weather to get warmer at that point.

But I know I have my onions.

- All right.

So what about frost, though?

Do we need to pay attention to frost dates?

You know, if somebody's watching this over in East Tennessee or?

- Well basically, since we plant 'em so early, they usually gonna come through most frost dates anyway.

Now, I know Dr. Kelly informed me before we came on air that, what, Zone 7 is?

- Is April 10th.

- April 10th.

- April 10th.

- Usually kind of the marginal.

After April the 10th in Zone 7, we should be frost free.

Based on prior, you know, data.

But we could always get something strange happening.

- Exactly, exactly.

[Lelia chuckles] Yes.

- Okay.

So does it matter how far apart you set the bulbs?

- Yes, now, if you're gonna, you know, grow your onions for what we call bunch onions or spring onions,   you wanna set them about two   inches apart from each other.

You know, 'cause obviously   we gonna get the little   small heads here.

But now, if you're gonna wait and grow 'em for dry onions or whatever, then you'll want to set them   probably about six to   eight inches apart.

Because some of these   can get kinda big.

And, you know, if I wanna   have a good hamburger,   [laughter]   I want me a nice, big onion on that hamburger.

But that's basically how you can plant them.

And also, even the onions that we grow for dry onions, you can pull them early as green onions.

It's just kinda, you know, up to you to do that as the gardener.

That's kinda your choice.

So, some people plant them kinda thick, and knowing that they're gonna pull some out and leave some there to grow later for, you know, the dry onions.

So it just kinda depends.

- Okay.

How long 'til harvest?

You know, that's what most folks wanna know, right?

- Yes.

Basically, if you're looking to harvest them for green onions, you're probably looking at about, I'm gonna say 60 days, probably what you're looking at.

So if you set 'em in March, what, you'll have, what, April, May, so you should be getting some green onions by then, to chop up and put in your turnip greens, [laughter] and all those good things.

And also to put in your salads.

I like slicing these green tops here just to, you know, put in my salads as well.

And now, of course, if you gonna wait a little later and have 'em grow for the dry onions, Then obviously you'll be pulling those around, I would say mid-June is probably when a lot of 'em come off around our area.

- Okay, so how can you tell when they're ready, though?

- Okay, as far as the, for the green onions, when you go out early in the spring and wanna pull some, you just basically kinda just pull 'em up.

And if you see that they're the size that you want, hey, start- - Pull it on out.

- You start gettin' 'em.

Now, if you're gonna wait 'til later in the summer, when you're growing 'em for the dry onions,   obviously, you know,   the green parts   will kinda fall   over and flip over.

And you can just kinda tell,   'cause they'll be pushed up   kinda near the soil edge.

And again, just pull   a few of them out.

It'll be probably around mid-June.

And you can just harvest them then and prepare to dry 'em out for cooking.

- All right, so how do you prepare dry onions for storage?

- Okay, well, once again, you know, you go out there, and you'll kinda see, they'll start, you know, obviously pushed up near the soil.

The green tops have fallen over.

So you pull 'em out.

And what I did, I saved an old patio circular table that has the, you know, the wire grid.

- Right, right.

- And I just, I put that in the garage, and I just pull them on there, and I just lay them on there.

And I'm gonna say I keep 'em there for about, I guess three or four weeks in the garage.

Seem like I got good air circulation in there, 'cause I always have my garage door up a lotta times.

- You don't wash 'em.

- No, don't wash them.

- Don't wash 'em.

- Please do not wash 'em.

[Lelia chuckles] And you'll just kinda see them, they'll begin to, you know, they'll tighten down, just like this one has, you know, tightened down.

And pretty much they're good to go.

Now at that point, you might say, well hey, how do I store 'em.

- Right.

- You know, I know that's usually a big question.

And I keep mine pretty much out there in the garage.

But those, when I bring them in, I put some up under the kitchen sink.

[laughter] Just throw 'em up under there.

But now the old timers, I remember my grandmother, she used to put them in stockings.

And you would just see stockings hanging all throughout.

- I've seen that before, okay.

- So, you know.

But the main thing is, you know, don't put them near water and moisture, 'cause you just gonna get those funguses on there.

- What about varieties?

Do you have a favorite variety?

- Not really.

I'll be honest with you, I just buy whatever they have at the garden center.

I don't know if it's just where I live, we just don't get a lotta different varieties in those stores.

You know, [chuckle] I don't know.

But I will say this.

When it comes to the dry varieties, I do like the Texas 1015.

I love that variety.

It's a sweet onion that grows well here in our climate.

And I mean, this is one right here.

And they're very, very good.

And I also get this question a lot.

I know that the Vidalia onion is known for its sweetness and all of that.

And a lotta people say hey, I go to the store and I bought some of those onion sets, but my Vidalias didn't turn out to be sweet, like the ones that I buy- - From Georgia.

- And I think it has something, and maybe Dr. Kelly or Dr. Cooper here can tell me, I think it has something to do with the soil type- - I would think so.

- Down there in that area.

- That's what I've always heard, yeah.

That's what, the true Vidalia onions from Georgia, they're not really, they say they're not really the real Vidalias unless they're grown in the soil of Georgia, in Vidalia, Georgia.

- Oh, okay, well I- - Definitely soil type.

- It's definitely soil type, so- - Apparently.

That's what they say, anyway.

- So, you know, I don't know.

[laughter] - Well, speaking of soil, what type of soils do onions prefer?

- Well, actually, from a pH standpoint, they like a seven, a neutral soil.

But it goes back even down to about 6.6, 6.5 to 7.

So slightly acidic to what we call, I guess, basic soil.

So, that's kinda what they like.

And they also like a good, they like to be raised up.

They don't like to be, you know, what we call wet feet or whatever.

You know, just planted where they get a lotta water.

You know, like to drain off.

And you want a soil with a good tilth.

You know, good organic matter in it.

And they'll do fine for you.

- Any fertilizer we need to put down?

- Usually with the ones I grow at home, I might go out there and put, like, a triple-10 or something like that on there but, I usually have pretty good success with growing them there at my home garden.

- Okay.

Must be some good soil down there in Haywood County.

[chuckling] Now, what about diseases or insects that we need to be concerned about?

- Well, I would say, as an Extension agent, I've never really ran up on any in our area.

But there is an onion maggot that I've read about, and they say it's pretty destructive.

But seem like I read more about it up in the east coast side, so.

- We don't tend to have that problem with the maggots.

- Yes, yes, yes.

We tend not to have anything here, so I haven't ran across it.

- I have not either.

- I think here in our area, we're fine.

- I think we're good.

Okay.

Walter, appreciate that good information about onions.

- Yes, well, like I say, it's- - We could tell you like onions.

- Oh, I love 'em.

I absolutely love them, yes.

- Good deal.

- Next time, bring onion dip.

[laughter] - Okay, you got it!

[laughter] [gentle country music] - I have just moved up this plant.

It's a Digitalis.

But I also have three or four different colors of Digitalis.

So in order to remember which color and cultivar this is, I use tags.

You can use, this is a plastic tag that can, it can be reused, or it can just move along with the plant.

This is also an option, a popsicle stick.

As long as you can write on it.

This, you might need to use a marker.

With these, I use a pencil.

And what I'll do is just write the scientific name on there.

You don't have to do that, but I do.

And then I'll put the common name.

This is Camelot Peach.

Most important to me, I like to keep information on my tag.

I will put the date that it was seeded, and then the date that I up-potted, which on the back, I will put a T for transplant.

And then will put today's date.

I also keep this tag.

It just kinda lives with the plant all the way through.

When I plant it in the ground, I will set it in the ground beside that plant, And then I will put a P on the tag, put the date it was planted, and then actually, you can keep these, and it gives me a record of how long it took from the plant to be seeded to when I actually planted it in the ground.

[gentle country music] - All right, here's Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Ready.

- Some great questions.

"This year, I put in   a raised bed garden   "with pressure-treated lumber.

"Is this safe for   growing vegetables,   "or is there a concern about   arsenic leaching into the soil   and getting into the veggies?"

This is Neal in Dublin, Ohio.

So Booker, what do you think about that?

- Well, I don't like to do treated wood in vegetable gardens.

A lotta thing can leak outta there into the soil.

If you wanna use some treated wood, you make sure that you may put some black plastic around it so that it can't leak into your bed.

And also, don't put the veggie real close to the edge, right close to those container that you have in there.

But use some black plastic and wrap those in there, and try to make sure they don't, and put the soil in there, but stay an inch from there.

Make sure that you don't- - Keep it in the middle.

Yeah, kinda out from the side, if it won't get close to there, in case something do leak out, come outta there.

But that black plastic should catch some of it.

- Okay.

Peter?

- So, yeah, arsenic is, if you just built your raised bed last year, arsenic's not gonna be an issue.

Because in 2004, the EPA banned arsenic from pressure-treated wood that homeowners can get.

- Right, and that's CCA.

- Right.

- That's chromated copper arsenate.

- Yeah, the chromium and the arsenic, which are both not good for us.

But if you've built a raised bed after 2004, a couple years later, which probably, if it's a wood raised bed, you're probably gonna have built it since then anyway, 'cause they don't last forever.

But anyway, so it's not a huge issue.

The copper can still leach into the soil, but something you can do is if you keep your pH where vegetables like it, so, you know, 6.5-ish, it tends to bond very tightly to the clay and organic matter in the soil, and it won't go into the plants.

As you get more and more acid, it becomes freer and freer.

And then the other interesting thing is that plants tolerate copper much less than humans do.

So, we need copper, just a little bit, to be healthy.

And plants need copper a little bit.

You know, it's a trace, it's a micronutrient.

But you're gonna find that the plants are not gonna do well, and gonna die before it would affect you as a person.

Because your body will just flush it out as you go.

So, but yeah, as Booker said, if you're concerned, that plastic, you know, lining your raised bed with plastic will, you know, keep the copper out of the soil.

- And you're right too, Peter, you know, since 2004, of course, you know, the treated wood is now treated with ACQ.

Alkaline copper quaternary.

Right, which is a lot safer, okay.

Or how about other alternatives?

Maybe don't wanna use treated wood.

You can use, we use, what, cinder block.

- Yeah, you can use block, or use a wood that is gonna hold up a little bit better.

You know, a redwood, or a cedar, or something like that.

- So there are other alternatives, you know, to wood, you know, raised beds.

But thank you for that question.

It was a good question.

Thank you much.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Would it be effective   "to spray my crape   myrtles with dormant oil?

"The last two seasons, I've   had problems with aphids.

"Do these pests winter over,   "or do the eggs   survive the winter,   "or am I wasting my time?

How about neem oil as   a proactive treatment?"

And this is Rick from   Corinth, Mississippi.

So, Peter, seems like aphids are everywhere.

For every plant species, there's an aphid species, seems like.

- And guess what, there is a crape myrtle aphid.

[laughter] - Yes, there's a crape myrtle aphid!

- And they only eat crape myrtles.

- God, how 'bout that.

- Yeah, so, crape myrtle   aphids are kinda interesting   'cause they do overwinter with   eggs on the small branches.

But during the growing   season, they give live birth.

So the last season of   the year it lays eggs.

I don't know how they know it's   the last season of the year, [laughter]   but they lay eggs.

So yes, horticulture oil would   take care of that problem.

I'd recommend spraying it towards the end of the winter, just as it starts to warm up, but before the crape myrtle leafs out.

And then you can do that.

If that doesn't completely take care of the problem, 'cause some of them do fly.

So if your crape myrtles are not the only crape myrtles that have this problem, if your neighbors' crape myrtles have the problem too, yes, you'll reduce the problem, but you're not gonna eliminate it, they're gonna be there during the growing season.

You could, during the growing season itself, you could use a systemic insecticide.

Or maybe you could go over to your neighbor and say, "Hey, we have this problem.

Can I spray horticultural oil on your trees too?"

But yeah, neem oil or horticultural oil, dormant oil.

[Chris laughs] That should take care of it.

- Yeah, you could definitely do that.

And you know, again, we're talking about the dormant oil.

Yes, you can use dormant oil.

Just make sure that you look at the temperature ranges, right.

- Read the label on it, yeah.

- Anything above 40 degrees, you can go ahead and spray.

- And one thing you wanna do, when the bark off, all the leaves aren't there, you can see the little crevices, you can get off in there too.

Make sure you get it all over the tree.

Gotta spray the entire tree up there when you can, in there, to get rid of 'em.

- Right, 'cause the oils are gonna smother.

- Smother, yeah- - Right, so that's what you're looking for, right.

And then I'd like to add this, too.

He asks about the neem oil.

You can use neem oil.

You can use that in the, you know, in the spring or in the summer.

You know, just read and follow the label on that.

And the thing with neem oil too is it's versatile.

Right, it has antifungal effects as well.

- Neem's two things.

- So yeah, I mean, that works.

Just in case you might have a fungus on your crape myrtles.

- Might get rid of that too, yeah.

- But Peter's right, the aphids are gonna be there.

You're not gonna get all of the eggs, right.

But yeah, just spraying those cracks and crevices, I think you'll be fine.

- Talk to your neighbor too, like Peter said.

[laughter] Talk to him, make sure you do the same thing.

- Aphids will be there, trust me.

- And if you see 'em again, just spray with neem oil during the summer.

- Yep, spray, yep.

- Yeah, but you have to get good coverage.

'Cause once again, something's gonna survive.

You just wanna reduce the number that do survive.

- Yeah, something's gonna survive.

But I do highly recommend, Mr. Rick, using dormant oil.

I definitely do.

All right.

So thank you for that question.

All right, so Peter and Booker, that was fun.

Thank y'all much.

- Thank you.

- 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.

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That's all we have time for today.

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[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]