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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Fresh herbs from the garden are a tasty addition to any dish.

Today we're going to check in on our herb garden.

Also, pressing flowers that should preserve their beauty all winter long.

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 Mr. John Peterson.

Mr. John Peterson is a Memphis area master gardener.

And Ms. Mary Heim will be joining me later.

How you doing Mr. John?

- I'm doing well thanks.

How are you?

- Good to see you, good to see you.

We're back in the herb garden, a garden that you helped to plant.

So what do you think?

- Well I think it's doing wonderfully and it's great to be able to come back and see-- - Sure.

- Just what happened because it's mostly really really nice.

- Oh it is, it is.

So now we're gonna talk about of course herb care.

So what do we need to look at?

- All right, we are in the middle of summer, these were planted in spring.

- Okay.

- And so there are some things that need to be cut back.

It's also a really stressful weather pattern, so I always feel funny about that.

[Chris laughs] Now here's dill.

Dill is an annual, it's making its seeds, there's nothing to do with that except gather the seeds.

- Okay.

- Oregano, a member of the mint family, here.

We could cut that back.

And actually and it gives me the willies to do this, but actually you can cut it to the ground and it will come back.

- Wow.

- As I say, I always.

- Make you cringe a little bit?

- Yeah I do.

[Chris laughs] And then what do you do with this oregano that you've picked, that you've cut off?

You strip it off the stem and you let it dry [John coughs] or let it dry first on the stem and then put it into jars and you know give it away as Christmas gifts.

- Okay.

- Or put it on your pizza in the middle of winter something like that.

- Oh that sounds better.

- We have a parsley plant here.

This is actually in its second year, there is nothing to do with this.

It's already made flowers ready to go to seed.

- Okay.

- Let's look at the mint.

And I'm gonna be careful with this one because it's flowering all over and there are many many stinging insects.

- Oh wow.

- And I really don't wanna get into a discussion with them.

[Chris laughs] They never say anything interesting.

But especially before the flowers bloom this can be cut back or it can be cut to the ground, again I cringe but it can be done.

When you cut back an herb, and I'll show this on the basil, cut it back to right above a leaf node.

- Okay and why do we wanna do that Mr. John?

- Because that's where the plant's energy is.

- All right.

- And so you it's got all that energy, is that the meristem?

- Oh look at you.

- And, well yeah I studied.

- Yeah there you go.

- So it has energy and it says, "Well, what am I gonna do with this energy?

Oh, I'm out in the air so I'm gonna make more leaves."

- Gotcha.

- Let me do this here on this basil.

Here are the... blooms that have started.

And yeah this one will be better.

- So did the basil grow pretty well to you?

- Oh yes this is beautiful.

- Yeah, it looks good.

- This is beautiful.

- Okay.

- I'm trying to find one that's easy to see.

But if I cut back to just above where the leaves come out right below this was another pair of leaves.

Sometimes people say, "Oh basil is going to seed," and they cut it off right below the flowers and it starts to go to seed again.

And that's because what gives the signal to basil to go to seed is the number of pairs of leaves that it has made.

- That's interesting.

- And unfortunately it's not the same for every variety, so it's not like you can say, "Oh eight leaves, I know that," no it's just.

[Chris laughs] It keeps you alert.

But at any rate, now where I have cut that meristem that encourages the formation of new leaves.

So that is something that we could do here.

And apparently the bees haven't found yet this morning haven't found the basil.

- Yeah I don't see any.

- So it's probably a little safer to cut this back.

- Okay.

- And maybe in the process shape it a little bit.

- So you okay doing that right, no cringing, you're fine?

- No cringing.

- Okay.

- This one doesn't bother me a bit.

- All right doesn't bother you okay.

- And then what do I do with all of this stuff?

- Yeah that's gonna be my next question.

- Okay, I knew that.

What I do with all this stuff is I can dry it, I can grind it up in the blender with olive oil and essentially make pesto or make the beginnings of pesto, I don't recommending just freezing it plain, the leaves tend to turn black and I don't know what the flavor is, but it doesn't look pleasant in any event.

- Now how long can we expect the basil to continue to grow?

- The basil will continue to grow until frost.

- Okay.

- And then it gets zapped just immediately.

- Okay, immediately, okay.

- Well and maybe even it doesn't even have to be 32, I think it can just be approaching that.

- Okay.

- It's fairly delicate that way.

Now these plants are pretty thick together here, and maybe they're protecting one another.

Sometimes I've seen basil, it hasn't frosted yet but it's just not putting out any more leaves, it's just kinda one here one there and it kind of looks unhappy.

But.

- So why do we need to cut back the flowers?

- Because that will encourage the plant to make more leaves.

The flower's kinda the end stage of its growth and if we want it to keep getting these nice flavorful things we need to cut back the flowers.

- Okay.

- Now we were talking about the parsley and that is... Parsley is a biennial, it makes flowers the second year.

And when it does that it makes fewer and fewer leaves, so it's not practical to keep it the second year.

I always save at least one because the flowers are beautiful.

[Chris laughs] They're a little bit past their prime at this point these, but you can see I mean they're related to Queen Anne's lace, all of those familiar plants.

- Right.

- With compound flowers.

- In the carrot family.

- In the carrot family.

- Right.

- Yes.

- So as we're looking at the basil and some of the other herbs in the garden, so what do you think about fertilizing?

'Cause I'm sure somebody's gonna ask that question right or thinking about that question.

- Well what I have always heard by people who know is that herbs don't give as good flavor if they are heavily fertilized.

- Okay.

- And that's the standard line, however, [Chris and John laugh] I have also read from someone whom I respect that they'll do just fine.

Now I don't know about really heavy fertilization but I don't think you need to be afraid to put some compost on when.

- Okay, so you prefer to compost?

- I would prefer the compost.

- Okay got it.

- All right well.

- All right now we're moving over to the thyme.

- Move onto the thyme, yes.

- Okay.

- I'm of two minds about cutting back thyme because I understand that cut off the flowers it helps it bloom, it helps it grow, it encourages it.

- Okay.

- On the other hand [Chris laughs] the bees love it.

And I can sit on my deck and look over at the herb garden, and I've got a border of thyme, and it almost vibrates from all the pollinating insects.

- How about that.

- It's just it's a beautiful thing to see.

And if I cut off those flowers I'm not gonna get to see that.

So I can't do both I don't know it's been so frustrating.

[Chris laughing] But all of these, these are making flowers.

Ideally I think I would've done this earlier in the season.

- Okay.

- But this'll come back.

- So it'll come back.

- Oh yeah.

- Right?

- Yeah herbs are very forgiving.

- Now it looks a little dried in the center there, is that okay, we need to be concerned about that?

- You know a couple of the other plants here look better from that standpoint.

- Okay.

- This is gonna be okay.

We have had extreme temperatures.

- Okay sure.

- And some of my thyme at home looks like this and some of it is happier.

- Okay.

- And you see a lot of that brown has green on the end so.

- It does, right.

- We could cut it back.

- It's just dryer down in the center.

- Right.

- Okay got it.

All right Mr. John, well we appreciate that.

Thank you again for helping us to plant this herb garden.

- Oh well it was great fun, it was great fun to see it again.

- It is, it is.

So thank you very much, we appreciate that.

- Thank you.

- All right.

[gentle country music] - There are two basic kinds of parsley, the flat leaf and the curly leaf.

And they both have the same growth habit.

This is a nice healthy parsley growing in its first year.

It is a biennial which means that the first year it makes usable leaves and the second year it flowers, and when it flowers it's putting its energy into those flowers so you get far fewer leaves.

That's why it's a good idea to just replant every spring.

Sometimes I plant new parsley in the fall because unless the weather gets really really cold it will survive, and it may even not realize that it's been through a winter if it's a fairly warm winter.

[gentle country music] - Hi, Ms. Mary.

- Hi.

I'm glad to be here.

- Flower-- - Yes.

- Pressing.

How about that?

- I started this years and years ago.

I saw this flower press in a catalog and I thought, "That'd be cool to try."

So I got this, I haven't found one since that is this nice, but they have them out there, they're usually smaller.

- Okay.

- And I try and pick flowers from all seasons and add them to my collection.

I have I just keep it all in a box but I pick 'em out and do things with 'em every once in a while.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna show you how, well this particular press the object of the press is to put pressure in a balanced way so that the whole page that your pressing will get the equal amounts of pressure.

And then your flowers are not don't have a pattern on 'em or they're not completely not pressed.

- Okay so you use the flowers in your yard?

- Yeah I use anything-- - Most of the time?

- In my yard.

- Okay.

- I try, pansies are an excellent thing to press, I've tried all kinds of things.

And that's part of the fun is to try something different, try the different kinds of flowers to see how it works.

So this part is you always have some kind of top pressure or bottom pressure.

Some of 'em you buy now will have screws on each end and you tighten those up.

- Okay.

- And that's the same premise her.

Now you would start with some cardboard.

- And that's just regular cardboard right?

- Yes, you can use any kinda cardboard.

And then you have two pieces of paper.

- And again regular?

- This you want-- - Is it a certain type of paper you need?

- Yeah you want some moisture absorbent paper.

Don't, some people use paper towels.

That's not good because paper towels have a little pattern to 'em and it will transfer to your plant.

- Okay good to know.

- So use any kind of, you can use even typing paper or something like that but or printer paper, but you can buy, go online and look for a paper that is moisture absorbent.

- Okay good.

- And you, here's some that have been done, I just put little petals.

- Neat though yeah.

- You have to pick 'em up either with some tweezers or gently lift them off.

And they will come off pretty easily.

See how brilliant that turned out?

- Wow.

- It's a little pansy.

- It almost doesn't look real.

- Isn't that pretty?

I know.

I know.

- Okay.

- And I kinda sort 'em by colors in a little tray here so that you can if you're gonna do something by color then you want 'em sorted out.

Let's see like these, I thought these would turn out really nice, it's a Coleus, you know how lovely those are?

- Yes.

- But it presses rather dull.

But that's like it's like Christmas morning you open it up and see what you got you know?

And that's part of the fun of it.

- I could see you having fun with this.

- Yeah I do I really like it.

- Christmas morning, all right okay.

- And these are little, I think it's a, oh I've forgotten the name of it, but you see how brilliant some of 'em are.

The thinner they are the better it presses.

- Okay.

- I have some here I could show you that if they have a thick center like for example on this particular thing, this is a plaque in like a zinnia.

It's so thick it ain't gonna press real solid.

So a lotta times I just take the petals off of it and just press the petals.

So these will either come off and I'll just store 'em.

You don't have to store 'em in any particular way.

And they'll usually peel off easily when you bend the page.

- Yeah 'cause you don't want those to get any moisture or anything like that when you dry 'em right?

- Right.

But you know I haven't really gotten into the storing of 'em.

They seem to do fine the way I've done them.

- Okay.

- But you see on the back of this?

I don't know if you can see it, but it did even pick up some pattern.

- Okay, I see it.

- From the paper and the cardboard, 'cause the cardboard has some lines inside it once you press it - Right.

- It can get on your flower.

- Okay.

- So now I thought we'd press something.

We got some Dusty Miller.

And you would have your cardboard, your two pieces of paper, and you just lay them on there.

And you can see why if it was thick it would be hard to press that, like a daisy or a zinnia.

It doesn't really matter how you lay 'em on there, try and get it-- - So there's no pattern or anything like that.

- Nah.

- You just put it down.

- Yeah.

And use up as much paper as you can 'cause this is made for a lot of flowers, you could press a lot in here.

And but if you've got a small one like I was talking about you could buy now, you just do a few things.

- Okay.

- But try and do it for the entire year.

Do some different kinds of items in there and see how they work.

Just put the other the piece on top, piece of cardboard.

- All right.

- I usually use two pieces of cardboard on the top because when you push this down it kind of there's a lot of pressure on it so I don't want it to dent or make a hole in there.

And put it back together and tighten it up.

Now you'd tighten it, leave it alone for a day or so, come back, and tighten it it'll more 'cause it'll loosen up as things press down, it'll loosen up so you'll just tighten it just a little bit more.

- Just a little bit more okay.

- So what you can do with these, for example these are some autumn leaves that I pressed last year.

- Oh beautiful.

- Not all of them will press real colorfully but the shapes and the design of the plant itself really, I mean this is a fatsia leaf.

Now if things are not real colorful more than what you not as much as you want then there's a spray paint you can get at Michael's and it's made for dried plants.

And you can spray them and give 'em a little punch.

- Okay.

- I do a lotta this spraying of the dried material.

Because I use 'em in flower arranging and flower designs.

There are I do participate in flower shows, competition.

- I could've figured that right?

[Chris laughs] - And so.

- I could tell Ms. Mary.

- So I have done several things.

As examples there is a section in flower show it's called botanical arts.

- Okay.

- And they have certain types of things that you can enter your design in.

This for example is a collage, it's just a mish mash of all kinds of flowers that I put together.

- That's cool, I can see the Dusty Miller in there.

- Yeah Dusty Miller in here.

These are hydrangeas.

- Yeah I see that hydrangeas.

- I have a lot of hydrangeas.

- Okay.

- A lot of pansy, like I said pansies are so pretty - Yeah those are nice.

- When you press them.

- This... is another collage.

Now this is Equisetum.

This is how it pressed, just as flat as it could.

- It looks cool pressed.

Almost like a knife.

- Isn't it cool?

It is.

And you can I sprayed it with a little of this green and you see how I made it pop out?

- Okay.

- So it doesn't you're not really doing anything bad to it I don't think.

I think it's fine to spray paint the dried material.

You don't spray paint the fresh but certainly the dried.

- Now before we run outta time do tell us about the shoes.

- Okay.

The shoes-- - Yes those are neat.

- Are I won a blue ribbon for this in a flower show, I used all dry materials.

I used lichen, moss, all kinds of pressed flowers, covered a pair of flip flops.

[Chris laughs] That was the category in the flower show, a pair of shoes.

- Pair of shoes.

- So I won a big blue ribbon on that, I was very happy.

- Well look Ms. Mary we appreciate this demonstration.

- Okay thank you.

- We hope other folks will get involved just like you have.

- Yeah I hope they enjoy it.

- I could tell you enjoy it though.

- I do.

- Thank you much.

- Thank you.

- All right.

[gentle country music] - Tucked down here in the middle of taller plants is a peppermint plant.

And was planted in a pot sunk in the ground to try to contain it, because the mints are notorious for just running like crazy.

You can even see these have got very long and have touched the ground, have started to make just the beginnings of little roots and they would root here if I didn't do something to prevent that.

So you can see this is already eight inches outside the pot.

And really it is prolific enough, I don't think you need to be ultra careful about how you prune it, it's really just a matter of containing it.

Now this that I have cut off I do not think I'm going to put in the compost heap because it might take over.

So either use it, make tea or whatever, or throw it away.

[gentle country music] - All right here is a Q and A segment, y'all ready?

- Yep.

- These are great questions.

All right her is our first viewer email.

"My neighbor once had a fragrant honeysuckle bush, "I love the smell.

"The neighbor decided to remove the bush.

"I have searched for years for a replacement.

"Do you have any suggestions for fragrant varieties of honeysuckle?"

And this is Kathy from Princeton, West Virginia.

So we have to think about that zone.

- Right.

Right.

- West Virginia.

There so what do you think about that, fragrant honeysuckle?

- Well the only one-- - Bush.

- Yeah the only one yeah and it being a shrub or a bush.

- A bush yeah.

- The only one that really comes to my mind is the winter honeysuckle.

And it's called Lonicera fragrantissima I believe is the scientific name.

And I have one in my kinda hedgerow.

- Okay.

- And it's hugely fragrant.

- Okay.

- And it flowers late winter, that's why I guess it's called the winter honeysuckle.

Because it flowers without any leaves on it.

- Right.

- And you can walk within 25 feet of it and you're gonna smell it.

- Oh wow.

- So that would be my guess that maybe that's the shrub she's talking about possibly.

- Possibly.

Something else I would suggest for Ms. Kathy to do is yeah your local Extension Office, maybe they have a publication - Sure.

- On flowers and such.

- That's right.

- They may have what she's looking for here.

- True.

- But after doing a little digging, so back in 2014 the flower of the year, the wildflower of the year for West Virginia, coral honeysuckle.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- And this is sempervirens.

- Well that's a beautiful.

- Is what that is, sempervirens.

So yeah.

- And that thing blooms off and on all year pretty much, all growing season.

Yeah it's a vine, a real aggressive vine yeah.

- Yeah it's a vine.

Right, right, but it was their 2014 wildflower of the year.

- Wow.

That's nice yeah, it is native.

It's native here too.

- Yep coral honeysuckle.

Yep native here as well.

So there you have it Ms. Kathy.

Yeah go to your local Extension Office, they may have a publication there that could help you out.

- And if she remembers what that thing looked like she could look up - That's right.

- The winter honeysuckle and see if that looks like it.

- Okay.

Good idea, good suggestion.

So thank you for that question Ms. Kathy.

All right here is our next viewer email.

"What is eating the foliage of my Brussels sprouts?

"I originally shredded Irish Spring soap "and that worked for a while.

"Last year we had beetles "but I don't think it's beetles this time as I only saw one of them."

And this is Marcia.

So again without having a picture.

- Right.

- We can only speculate.

So what I'm thinking is we're thinking Brussels sprouts right.

We know what family Brussels sprouts are in okay.

I'm thinking either the cabbage looper.

- Looper yeah.

- Something that comes to mind.

- Right, as a caterpillar.

- Right caterpillar right.

The cabbageworm is something else.

And then guess what else I just thought about just top of my head?

- Rabbits.

- So it could be rabbits or flea beetles.

- Oh that's true.

Yeah.

- Yeah flea beetles.

So without the seeing it though.

- Yeah we're not seeing an example of what the damage looks like.

- Right.

- It's kinda hard to diagnose and I don't know, I'd just say I would try to do some insecticide control maybe of some sort.

- Right, if it's the cabbage looper, cabbage worm Bt is something that would definitely go with.

- Right right.

- If it's flea beetles, flea beetles are tough, I'd go with the oils.

Neem oil is one that you can use.

And as far as the rabbits go.

[Chris laughs] - Yeah fence, a good fence.

- Yeah a good fence.

- I guess if that's what it is.

- If that's what it is.

But it would help to see the damage.

But I hope that helps you out Ms. Marcia.

Yeah, we're definitely thinking cabbage looper or cabbage worm and flea beetles.

- Flea beetles yeah.

- For sure.

- And those recommendations will help you out, so thank you much.

All right here's our next viewer email.

"How can I keep squirrels from eating my tomatoes?

They take a bite then throw it down ruining the fruit."

And this is Steve from Memphis, Tennessee.

So we'll start with you Mr. John, so how do you [Chris laughs] keep squirrels from eating the tomatoes?

- You know I wish I knew the answer to that question.

- Something that would be, not require some kinda military action.

- Yeah, right.

[everyone laughing] - Well and I have used, and I don't have squirrels, I have birds that peck mine.

- Oh really okay.

- Peck my tomatoes and just peck a hole in 'em and just leave 'em.

But squirrels you might could use that bird netting.

- See that's what I would do yeah.

- But it's aggravating as all get out 'cause then you gotta work around it to get your tomatoes.

- Right.

- But it would I think that would deter 'em somewhat, but that's a booger bear to have to deal with.

- Yeah I would go with it.

- I think it would keep 'em out.

- I think it would keep 'em out.

I would go with the netting, some type of cage.

Usually I hear about using repellents and things like that.

I'm not big on that because-- - Yeah, I'm not big on that either.

- I don't think it works.

- 'Cause it's out in an environment, and it rains, and washes it off and things like that.

So yeah I'm just used to netting yeah.

- And it's fairly cheap.

- It's cumbersome yeah.

- And it's fairly cheap.

Just buy that big old roll of bird netting.

It's not real staunch, it's real flimsy and light so.

- Right.

- So it's not gonna knock your plants down or something.

- Yeah it's probably gonna be your best bet there Mr. Steve, 'cause they will take a bite and just throw it down.

I've seen 'em-- - I don't like this one.

Maybe this one will be different.

- And birds will do the same, they'll peck 'em so many times they just fall off.

- It is so tough.

So good luck with that Mr. Steve and yeah, I hear Mr. D in my head, I know what he would say.

[everyone laughing] How to keep the squirrels out yeah.

So I definitely know that, so thank you for that question, Mr. Steve.

Appreciate that.

- Yeah, I've heard him say that.

- Oh yes you have, I'm sure you have.

So Dr. Keller, Mr. John we're outta time, it was fun.

- Yep.

- Thank you.

- It was.

- All right.

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 we have time for today, thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about herbs or preserving flowers go to 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]