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Here we are a still a beautiful brand new studio.

We're kind of getting used to it and we hope that you're as pleased and like it as much as we do.

I'm Amanda McNulty and I'm a Clemson extension agent and I'm so fortunate because other agents help us.

We have several here tonight who are doing that.

Terasa Lott is a specialist or something like that.

Because she works with the master gardeners mostly.

But, Terasa, I declare you are so good about helping us out with Making It Grow and we just appreciate and was that a picture of that little beautiful two, two containers of flowers, was that from your beautiful little wildflower flower garden?

It was.

So I won't take the credit for growing all those things because you know my husband does a lot of the work in the yard, but I did arrange those and and brought a little bit of the outdoors inside.

And You're reminded us that you took the picture wrong which I thought was funny.

I did.

I didn't like the picture taken horizontally in my kitchen.

There were too many other things in the frame and I said hey, I can use this as an example of what not to do.

We'll get into that more later.

Thank you so much Terasa.

Oh gosh, Pete we're just so thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.

I guess it's still a big desk.

A wonderful professor, Dr. John Nelson Recently retired <Retired> at a very premature age I must add <Aww> from the herbarium at University of South Carolina.

And, John, I guess this means that you are free to botanize your little heart out.

I am and I've been trying to do as much as I can mostly in the coastal plain.

The only problem with, with botanizing in South Carolina in the summer is obviously the temperature.

I can handle the rain and, and even mosquitos, but once it gets too hot I start to wilt a little bit.

Yeah, well that's, so you have to get up at o'dark hundered, to try to get, Yeah.

In the morning that's pretty good.

Well good.

Well we're so happy that you took a break from it today.

Well I'm glad to be here.

Okay and Chase Smoak is a marvelous replacement for me in the Sumter office as the horticulture agent and he, his wealth is so deep and he also has a house full of little children.

It seems like a house full doesn't it?

Oh yeah.

One little three year old can go a long ways when she gets a little cranky.

I was going to remind you that of the burweed I think we were talking about that with Adam Gore not too long ago and I think the pre emergent needs to go down this fall.

So I want you to be sure that you don't have any burweed for that precious little Harlow's tiny little delicate painted toenails.

It might break my heart a little bit.

She does love going to mommy's nail salon.

That's what she calls it.

She's a diva.

Oh she is, she is too sweet.

And then I'll we're so happy that Zack Snipes is with us from the Lowcountry.

Zach if we think it's been muggy up here, I bet ya'll really had some muggy down there.

Oh yeah.

It's, those afternoon rainstorms everyday make it real hot and humid, you got to breath air through a straw sometimes, but, we were able to get up to Mills River, North Carolina last week.

We went up there, we go there every year to edit the vegetable crop handbook that all the commercial producers use, and so I was very jealous that there was no humidity and you know, 75 degrees up there.

So it is was nice to get away from it for awhile.

Well it also it means that they don't have to be fighting the fungal diseases every whip stitch like you do.

Yeah and we have a longer growing season, so we get more of those diseases and what not, but up there they get a different kind of host of diseases.

So you know you win some you lose some.

Ok, so they don't have a complete free pass.

That's right.

Ok, I'd like to welcome Dr. David Coyle.

David is a professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation and David, you've had a busy year.

They've been several things keeping you busy haven't there?

They're sure have.

We've been all over the state.

A lot of stuff.

The Bradford pear, Callery pear, Asian longhorned beetles.

They keep me running over here.

Oh goodness.

We can't erect a wall that keeps invasive species out and sometimes when they come, they really can be problems can't they?

They sure can but they add job security right?

Yes you do.

And with young children to educate, we're glad to hear that.

Well we're look forward to talking to you a little bit later.

Terasa, we usually try to start off since we often are answering questions about problems we usually try to start off with something kind of positive, which would be our Gardens of the Week.

Do we have something for this show?

We do.

It has become such a fun part of the show.

I like to call in our virtual field trip across the state to see what's going on in your yards and Gardens.

We begin today with some cherry tomatoes developing sent in by Sandra Hughes.

An unusual visitor to a bird feeder was sent in by Tom Proctor.

This appears to be a white winged dove that visited his feeder back in May.

Alexander Choate sent an arrangement of zinnias, dahlias and cosmos and an arrangement was also sent in by Sandra Hare McClendon.

These are limelight hydrangeas and she noted they made a bold statement for a family gathering.

Wrapping things up Michelle Loncon Dawkins sent in a dragonfly perched atop a Kalanchoe.

That's often called mother of millions.

Thanks so much for all of your submissions.

Don't be shy send in anytime you see a request and just remember to be sure to hold those cameras horizontally.

Now see you said that your kitchen was I don't know if it was emssy or what was going on over in the corner, but some people might have a big mess right next to the picture that they want to show.

So of so so they just have to maybe they can get a plant it's in a pot and move it hide that.

Sure be creative hide it or perhaps crop the photos that have ends up longer than tall.

Ok, thank you.

There's a way to solve every problem isn't there or at least we're going to try to.

Well Terasa you get questions people send them into making those Facebook page and not everybody uses Facebook so sometimes people actually send them to your email address and as I remind people it's Terasa like a ray of sunshine most of the time.

I don't know if Eddie always agrees that.

That's her husband, but remind people what your email is if they would rather reach you that way please.

Sure it's my entire first name terasa@clemson.edu and we get questions all sorts of ways.

all extension agents not just me, but I I think this question is pretty timely.

Jerry in Bowman writes; "I read an article in the newspaper that the sale of Bradford pear is going to be banned.

I have two and I just think they're beautiful.

Why are they being banned and will I have to remove them from my yard?"

Gosh well that makes it sound like the plant police are out there.

David I know that you and Chase Smoak right here even cooperated in a Bradford pear kind of replacement program and that you've done that as a way to try to get education out to the public about Bradford pears.

David why are they such a problem and what does this new ruling mean for people please?

Well let's start with the plant police.

No one's going to come and take your tree.

So if you have bradford pears growing in your yard.

You're free to keep those Bradford pears in your yard.

This new regulation simply means that as of October one twenty twenty four you can no longer buy any of these pyrus calleryana cultivars.

Which is Bradford pear Cleveland select aristocrat there's a whole bunch of them.

You won't be able to buy those in South Carolina anymore.

So that's what this means for not from a regulatory standpoint and the reason we're doing this is because those Bradford pears in your yard may seem great.

They're not going anywhere in your yard probably because you'er mowing around them all the time.

But what can happen and what has happened a Lott is once those Bradford pear flowers get pollenated with pollen from any other type of pear.

Whether it's a your fruit bearing eurasian pear or you know just a wild Callery pear those seeds become vital birds eat them they fly all over and poop and pretty soon we have Callery pear the wild ones growing all over the road sides in old fields.

It's pretty much all of those white flowers you see every spring those are wild Callery pears and those are extremely thorny.

Taking over native vegetation and pretty much crowding out everything except themselves.

So that's what we're trying to we're taking steps to try to get rid of these pears in the landscape.

We've got the Bradford pear bounty program.

Which Chase and I have worked on We're encouraging people to remove those trees in their yard and replace them with something native.

It's very difficult to farmers.

I mean they we're not talking about like a of going in trying to prune your rose bushes and get prickles and things.

Talk about no danger that these can pose to equipment to people and even to animals I believe.

Yeah once once these Callery pears are growing wild they have thorns.

So one of the characteristics Bradford has that particular cultivar doesn't have thorns that's why it's such a you know a tree that's used so much in yards but once they go wild they get thorns anywhere from a half inch up to almost three inches long.

We have seen these thorns punctured tires on all sorts of vehicles.

We've seen them injure livestock and any of us you know if you've ever worked with one either professionally or casually you know they will puncture skin quite quickly too.

So if someone did want to join in and we're removing them and replacing it with another tree and of course they could call Clemson HGIC or their local extension agent somebody like Chase to get ideas for replacements.

I guess it's kind of hard to you got to be careful when you're cutting them down because and and hauling the debris away because of those thorns.

If you have one of the ones that has those terrible thorns.

Yeah it's planted tree that's in your yard there probably are not thorns on it.

So the Bradfords don't have thorns you just wanna to be careful of those things get really brittle and anytime a storm rolls through we see a lot of branches following the break all the time.

This is one of the reasons I encourage people to get rid of them.

Because you're you know everyone is one storm away from the Bradford pear just falling apart.

You know on their yard on their vehicle whatever, but we do have the bradford pear program.

We're going to have one in Columbia this fall.

We're still finalizing details and then there will be two to three more next spring in various locations.

So keep checking the Clemson extension website.

We'll have more information as we get it set.

Ok well I want to thank you so much for that and so no one is going to come and tell you that you have to cut a tree down in your yard.

You can keep it as long as you want.

I think one reason David that they tend to fall apart is I believe that a good angle for limbs is kind of like this and the Bradford pears a more a erect and that makes them more susceptible to damage.

Is that correct in falling?

Yeah you're absolutely right the the branch angles are very very tight so it looks like a bunch of little fingers sticking up there in that lollipop type canopy.

The minute they get some weight on whether it's ice or snow a lot of them tend to snap and the wind as well.

But if people have them we're not going to come and do anything to you, but and although they will still be for sale in the nurseries I hope that when people are at the nursery that they will give the nursery business that they will still do business with the nursery but perhaps ask the nursery to professional to suggest another tree that might be might be better for the whole environment overall.

I hope so too.

I hope so too.

There's a lot of great natives that produce flowers in the spring in pretty foliage in the fall it's just a matter of finding out what is more appropriate for the area in which you live.

Yeah well thanks David we sure appreciate your your time and what you're trying to do to help us get rid of this.

I it this is really a noxious invasive species.

Thanks Amanda thanks everyone.

Check in with you later bye bye.

John I was gonna ask you if as you go out sometimes to kind of wild areas if you this what I'm hearing and sometimes I feel like I see in the spring time is it looks like also you just like it looks like almost a half acre sometimes of these.

Are you it caught do you encounter that sometimes?

Sure, along roadsides different kinds of habitats and frequently around agricultural settings and the thing about the Bradford pears or Callery pears.

Is that you a lot of times people are are don't even know they're there at unless it's spring when they do see the flowers.

Because once the flowers fall off they a lot of times they become sort of a big green blobs on the landscape and nobody pays any attention to them.

Until they start falling down in your yard or wherever and making a mess, and I recall on number of times.

Seeing these cultivated pears Bradford pear and since they do have these brittle limbs and brittle wood.

A lot of times you'd see them in somebody's yard after a storm and half, only half of it is fallen off and even though half of the tree is still there it is very unsightly.

So yeah yeah okay and then Chase you know but when we're trying to think about everybody's intrest in pollinators and those kind of things and so if you've got a half acre taken up with one tree.

I mean it might have some pollen at one time, but if it weren't there there might be a whole variety of things growing that would have pollen.

One thing would be pollinating want producing pollen one month and then more variety for our insects is that right?

Certainly it creates what we call a monoculture and it kind of becomes ecological dead zone after a while.

Not only for plant species diversity and Dr. John particularly speak about plant communities.

You know plant communities have a certain set up diversity of plant species and genus that fall in it.

You don't see that in those areas.

On top of that the ecological issues that come along with it in agricultural land.

You know I'm sorry.

Yeah a lot of problems associated with it.

Well and if you don't mind my saying so I just think they smell horrible and there's so many things that smell wonderful.

So okay well that was on quite a conversation and I hope that we put that person's mind to rest Terasa.

Well well answered I think and we have another kind of tree question although from a different angle.

Mitchell in Lake City Wrote in.

I pruned some low low hanging tree limbs should I seal the cuts with anything to promote healing?

Oh my goodness.

Well Chase I know you studied a lot about arboriculture with one of your favorite professors up at Clemson.

Some people do want to go out there and blot stuff all over things.

Thats right, it really just boils down who's outdated method of working with trees.

I have a nineteen thirty three extension manual horticulture manual up in my office of a wonderful client brought up and gave to me and if you read it you see were things really changed.

They used to plant a tree.

You would lopp off half the canopy.

Thinking that would compensate for the roots that were lost.

We know now you don't do that.

You cut back energy production.

Same thing with this you know covering fresh cut so the Shellacs and different types of things or tape I've even seen people try the use that covering these open wounds.

What that does it holds moisture to that you have exposed tissue on the tree and it ends up causing a lot more rot.

Trees don't really heal a spot.

They compartmentalize and box it off.

so as long as you're making your proper cut so the branch fork collar like you're supposed to on the tree.

We have a factsheet on that on HGIC as well.

If you make it the cut properly.

The tree will simply compartmentalize it.

Relatively fast.

I have, since I'm old I have a built in show and tell because this kind of elephant skin up here if you look on a tree where branch comes off that they have kind of a fold of skin there too.

and you and that's where that intersection of the branch and bart come together and you want to make it slightly on the exterior of that, is that correct?

That's correct not a flush cut.

That's right flush cut is not only a larger surface area but also does allow room for spy certain chemicals within the tree to be produced the help seal that area off, I wanted to mention because I wrote a magazine article recently Chase, in which I did cut a good bit of the canopy a good bit of the top of the the the shrub was planting back.

But I'll tell you why.

When I took it out of the container the I had woody encircling roots I had to cut so many of those away that I felt like I had really taken a huge amount of the root system away.

If I had a well rooted plant that I would I just tease the roots a little bit, but in this case they were so intertwined and I had to cut so many of those roots away that I did remove a little bit of the top just because I felt like the and really made it out of balance.

So I think sometimes it unfortunately sometimes we do get plants where the there you have to really cut up that root ball pretty seriously.

More than normal.

Yeah sometimes it's important as well but they pull that nutrients back from those leaves at the top back down to the root balls well.

Sometimes they can use at some plant species don't need as much as others so it's a pretty pretty tough species so certainly you can cut it back like that.

I'm hoping they grow.

I'm sure they'll do well.

Ok, Well Terasa so what do you think we should tackle next?

How about this question from Gidget Carter.

Gidget reached out to us on Facebook and submitted a photo.

Can someone tell me what this insect is that on my Roma tomatoes and how to get rid of it?

Ah well Zach I know you have a lot of tomato production that's going on down there and I guess the first thing for us to find out is is there some beneficial or harmful insect because not every insect is harmful.

So identification is important isn't it?

Yeah the first step in integrated pest management is correct identification of the pest.

So in this case this is a pest.

So this is a leaf footed bug.

So if you look at its back legs it kind of has without what I call like a little blade or something back on it on the backside they're very easy to identify once you recognize them and understand what that's what it is.

They're very similar to a stink bug I'm in the way they feed their actually very closely related.

The way they feed, they have a mouth part think of like a really sturdy straw, and they take that straw and put it inside of the developing plant tissue and they actually release toxins the basically turned the tissue of the plant around where their mouth part is into like a little sludge.

It breaks that down and they slurp it up, and so what you'll see on tomatoes and peppers and peaches and even blue, you know any type of soft fruit is you'll see little our what I collect pinpricks all over the the fruit itself and a lot of times will be off colored.

So it will be white or yellow.

If you cut into that tomato, you'll see like white areas inside of the tomato where it really didn't fully ripen they're perfectly okay to eat.

They're not really gonna have a off taste or anything.

They just won't be ripe in that area.

But if you have lots and lots of these leaf footed bugs or even stink bugs.

You can imagine hundreds or thousands of these little pin pricks that fruit is not gonna develop properly and it's gonna be a hard fruit and it's not gonna be the very appetizing.

When I had to had to peel some of those, sometimes I feel like I have to really peel away a good bit of the tomato if it's all the way around it.

It can be pretty damaging can't it?

Yes very damaging and you know in commercial tomato fields we really don't see them that much.

But I see him a lot on smaller farms and I see them a lot all the time in home Gardens and actually in my own garden.

I have a ton of them right now, and my neighbor came over and asked you know what you know the same question what are these and how can I kill them?

Typicaly we see them as the fruit develops.

So later in the season because they are feeding on that developing tissue, one thing we can do integrated pest management approach a lot of research is coming out of Alabama from this.

We can grow our flowering species such as our buckwheat or sorghum sunflowers.

The key is timing because they preferentially like the the developing buckwheat seed head, the sorghum seed head or the developing sunflower seed.

When it's in that milking or doughing stage.

So they would rather eat that then a tomato or pepper or a okra.

So the key is planting those things in your garden, but having them maturing come to that spot before the tomatoe does, and if you can do that you're gonna have a lot of them I mean you'll have a lot but chances are they're going to congregate together and hang out together on those crops.

We grew a test plot of these a few years ago beside some tomatoes, and we saw really cool fly looks like a house fly, but it lays an egg on the neck or the head of the leaf footed bug or stink bug and actually Boars into those and it develops and grows inside and parasitizes them.

So you know before you go pulling out the spray bottle make sure you looking if you see these little tiny you know clear or milky colored eggs no those are those are the good bugs are about to do a lot of pest control the crops.

But if you do want to spray for populations are high.

You know there's a lot of gardens sprays.

A lot of the pyrethroids are are gonna kill them and typically, because they're such a have a hard exoskeleton.

They're gonna be very tough to kill with you know softer type products like oils and you know soaps and stuff like that.

So you're gonna have to get out the little more harsher chemistries.

So in order to not harm the beneficial insects.

What time of day would you make those applications Zack?

Right, so they're gonna feed all day.

So you typically want to spray it late at night you know a lot of our bees you know I like to joke around they watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and they called it night.

So or they may they watch Making It Grow and call it a night.

So you know any time late in the afternoon, seven thirty onward at night especially in the summer most your bees and beneficial are gonna be in bed and your leaf footed and stink bugs would will still be out and about.

So get it on a lot of the chemistry's it you used to kill these are contact chemistry.

So you got to make sure that the pest is actually present before you spray.

Zach one, I can remember several times when I've been out with my tomatoes.

I feel like I see a hatching of them.

I see a lot of them.

I don't and and until I knew what they were.

I thought well gosh this your I didn't I don't know if I thought it was a beneficial stink bug but then I'm gonna learn what it was, I just kind of took my hands and because that you know there were yup they must come they must lay the eggs pretty close together because they were like a couple of dozen of them right kind of in one area of the plant and I just kind of squish them sort of I didn't think there was anything wrong with doing that they were soft bodied still.

Yeah the female lays eggs in clusters and when they hatch out will be they'll look like the adult like body shape wise but, will be a lot smaller, but they'll be orange.

Typically and they'll be ten or fifteen or maybe even fifty or more in the area when you approach them they kind of like run around to the backside of the plant try to hide.

Yes you can I mean they're really soft and easy to kill in that stage with your hands and there a lot more susceptible to pesticides at that stage to, because they don't have a hard exoskeleton yet more more chemical can get into their bodies.

So that's what we really should scout every day as much as we can.

To to test these things early.

Ok and that was interesting about so those other plants acted kind of like a trap crop almost and so can you plant those earlier than tomatoes generally and get on up and going Zack?

Yeah so that's where you know if you really want to do this, and I encourage folks to do this.

You know if you're planting buckwheat know that it's going to flower in twenty eight days to thirty five days.

Your sorghum is gonna to be you know closer to seventy or eighty and sun flowers are probably in the same range.

So look at your tomato maturity date you know what are they gonna we're going to what are they gonna start fruiting?

Not not become red but when are they gonna start fruiting and so kind of plan out your garden to plant these things you can even stage it by planting Buckwheat early and then come in behind it in planting another strip of buckwheat.

Yeah what we do is going to attract them until the sunflower the sorghum can become ready, and a lot of the organic growers they do this and then go in with sweep nets actually sweep the buckwheat or sorghum or sun flowers.

To catch the insects rather than spraying them.

So if you if you are opposed to spraying you could do that, to really knock your numbers down.

Then if I'm not mistaken the buckwheat has pollen to the the the little flowers just right for some of the beneficials and I support and I just buy it in a bag and throw it around in kind of waste areas and if I get a good rian it comes up easy.

It's not like I have to go to a whole lot of trouble to get it.

Yeah yeah I got a little coffee can and when I'm when I'm around irrigation riser or something I'll just throw out a handful help people out.

I was just fascinated that that that something related to the stink bug could be such an interesting topic we really appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Well John you I think we have brought some things from the herbarium.

Right.

You've been behaving when you go there.

They still allow me to come up to the herbarium and putter around.

Well and you are still taking wonderful when you and you want Chase go out sometimes and botanizing.

Yeah yeah the collection and so I think you've brought some things to share that are from the herbarium.

I have in fact this is a special kind of specimen and I know we've brought real sspecimens in here before.

But if you look closely you'll see that this is not a specimen at all it's actually a photograph.

It's completely flat.

Yes although it still has a certain aspect of three-d quality and this is all made possible by super photocopy camera whatever it is and Thomas Cooper library, and I didn't really have anything to do with this technology, but our current curator Herrick Brown, is the one who's kind of invented this, as a process.

So this is a really neat way for botanist at working under Herbarium to show their specimens without without having to take the real thing.

Yes.

Which can be pretty hazardous.

So tell people what this is.

I'm sure many of our native plants people will recognize it.

I'm sure that everybody in the viewing audience knows what this is.

This is Cone Flower and of course it's easy to grow plenty of gardens have it these days, and this blooming right now.

It's a magnet for all sorts of insects, pollinators.

The end of the summer or when it dries when this is completely dry.

I think the there's some little birds that'll come and eat the seeds if I'm not mistaken but also if you just spread your mulch back in scattered them around you'll have more corn flowers next year.

I think I think goldfinches.

I think it is goldfinches.

You are so smart John you want to look at another one.

Yeah Ok, here's one that Chase knows all about because it grows all over the family property and this is a real nightmare to try to control if you don't have a suit of armor on.

But this is another example of this photography, with a very much three-D plant with very very stout spines and you can see that on this the specimen had some fruits on this plant they look like little oranges.

They were sliced open and then dried and then added to the sheet.

This one is?

This is a poncirus trifoliata.

Although I will have to say that recent botanical science has suggested very strongly that we need to include this species in the genus citrus.

So it becomes citrus trifoliata.

Well and my husband has tried to make jelly out of those.

I've cut mine down.

Because first of all they, that has so many seeds, they scatter and can become invasive, as I'm sure it's happened on your Farm some Chase.

Yes and also makes terrible jelly.

Yes this is totally sour big old seeds all over the inside.

I'm kind of like the Callery pear we was talking about, that that thing if you bump into it'll really hurt you.

Yeah it's dangerous.

I must say it's beautiful to see in this way.

Well it's sort of a challenge to press sometihng.

Yeah let's look at another one.

Now these the next two I want to show you, came from a historic collection on the show I know we've talked about the mid nineteenth century collection of Henry William Ravenel.

Yes we have.

Who grew up in present day Berkeley county and he was quite the botanist before and after the civil war.

He was mostly famous for studing and fungi is one of the first mycologists of the southeast, but he also traded around specimens with other botanist and he collected his on as well.

So this one shows you can see the tags and all are different.

Right, yeah yeah, and this is a real period.

So you can see his handwriting on this thing and this is our state tree and we talk about another challenge is getting the US leaf of palmetto tree glued onto a piece of paper like this.

So again so much easier to carry around a photograph than the real thing.

Well it also it would be so brittle by now.

That just carrying it and moving it at all.

They tend to crack up some.

Well that's fascinating.

Now you often have the fruits with things.

Is that at another grouping when it's not there.

let me look at this thing.

Oh yeah well the fruits are if they're present are always a good thing to add to the specimen.

You can see them here.

There's a little cellophane envelope.

Did you know that there must've been some sorts of cellophane back at the time of the civil war, and so what Ravenel did was he put some of the a palmetto berries inside, and dried them out.

So the whole thing is survived all these years.

All righty.

How about the the last one.

Yeah let's see it.

Now this also comes from the Ravenel collection.

But it wasn't collected by Ravenel himself.

Like that palmetto was.

Did he trade this was somebody?

He did, or it was given to him as a gift and remember we've talked about insectivorous plants.

Making It Grow a good number of times and this is a an excellent example of a pitcher plant.

You can see that one of the leaves been opened up and dried and then the collector actually wrote on the leaf, and if you get a close up of that or something right probably see where there's a little bit of text.

Those of you who have really good vision can see that the man's name that collected this was Joseph Hinson Mellichamp, He was a a doctor and a botanist who lived in Bluffton.

He was born in 1829, I think he was also a contemporary of Ravenel's.

So Mellichamp was always collecting interesting stuff and sending it to his botany buddies, and he just happened to put a a little note on the leaf once it had been pressed.

I think this Mellichamp perhaps was a music teacher.

At heathwood hall back in the early days of when I was in the, I was a young girl.

That is just wonderful, and you know we saw some pitcher plants when you add up to that wonderful trip to Good All State Park.

Right.

And that'll be a show for people to be looking forward to seeing and I know that was a different species but this this is the one that would've grown in Jasper Because you said from down.

there by Bluffton.

Yeah and this one is, Sarracenia minor.

Yeah.

The hooded pitcher plant.

Ok, well I was just so much fun please thank him.

Yeah.

Ask him if he'll share some more with us.

I will.

All righty.

We sure do appreciate it.

Terasa I think that maybe now it's time for you to have something else to lift our hearts.

Yes I think we're calling it the spotlight Gardens.

So it's like Gardens of the week, except for we just focus on one particular yard or garden and get a little more in depth look.

Today we are featuring Perry Gaskins from Bonneau, South Carolina.

Now perry shared quite a few photos spotlighting different parts of his yard.

There's quite a diversity of plants from hydrangeas to sadium to foxglove and climbing roses.

Some of the unique features include an old stump which has been turned into a planter with pink petunias cascading down and an Old funnel that belonged to a grandfather, that was also converted into a planter.

Thanks Perry for allowing us a glimpse of your beautiful and creative yard.

Ok although I must say Terasa people who save everything because they might use it down the road.

I'm hoping my husband's not watching this part of the show.

We've got more stuff piled up here and there.

At least this he's actually using things well I was out looking for something to put in the hat today and I'm I was at the grocery store yesterday and I said you know it'ld be pretty easy just to get flowers and it was pouring down rain and so at they've had these green mums.

That I thought were pretty cool.

Everything else was really expensive and then I went home between showers and I had some peppers and and I had these peas.

These are white acre peas.

I get them every year at Bradley's market and I put them up.

So I'll show you these are dry.

They dry in the garden and they come up every where.

I mean it everything I planted would come up like these peas.

So I out there and I've got lots and lots of meals of peas.

I just have to go out there pick and shell the peas.

So I know it's kind of a crazy looking hat, but if you I there this is a, these are southern peas you know like our southern peas but thier kinda called cream peas.

They're a little bit smaller and if you haven't had white acre peas are pink eyed peas the little bitty ones and they really are delicious.

So if they have a mature local market you might wanna try some of them.

I did real good about that, that the ladies that are at HGIC tell us that we're supposed to blanch them.

You know before before you freeze them.

That's real import.

So I've been blanching the beans anyway but on and then we cook them with a little bit of ham hock and they sure are tasty.

Well Terasa, I bet you got another question that's just burning up the top of the pile.

Well this has to do with water.

So maybe flooding rather than burning.

So Robin Cantrell sent us a message on our Facebook page.

I was told that my septic tank leach field is right where I planted maple trees should I cut these maples down will they ruin the field?

They're away from the actual tank but possibly in the drain field.

Well I can tell you you don't want to have your septic field go bad.

Chase y'all, you grew up out in the country.

Y'all had septic tanks out there.

What do you think this person needs to do to preserve the integrity of the system?

This is definitely very important to preserve the integrity of that leach field or drain field, and every homeowner you know a lot of new homeowners move into a home and they may not even know where the septic tank is located.

So it's important to ask those questions up front.

Not about just where the septic tank is, but where that leach field is located as well.

Explain a little what the leach field is for.

So the job of a septic tank, I'm not a plumber so I'll do the best I can.

So it's to separate solid from liquid.

So that liquid effluent moves to the top and a lot of times what goes out to his corrugated pipe and somewhat of a I've seen them in different shapes but essentially it goes out and it filters and a lot beneficial microbes help break that down over that area.

So that's about the extent of my knowledge of they didn't in other words it's it's all reduced up to harmless compounds there aren't dangers or worry some or anything.

So it's supposed to overtime but any time like if you're digging with their hands in that area you definitely need to have on some type of protective gloves there could be harmful microbes in that area.

Harmful bacteria.

What about planting trees all over it?

It's a pretty big no no to have any type of trees so looking at route physiology on a tree.

Around ninety percent of the root system is within that like you know six to ten inch downrange in the soil.

So the corrugated pipes I was talking about earlier.

They can be shallow as six inches and as we all know tree roots Chase or roots in general Chase air and water nutrients.

They will find plenty of nutrients and plenty of water and air in those areas.

What they'll end up doing is going into that corrugated pipe clogging it up and then you're looking at a thousand dollar multi thousand dollar problem.

So reguardless of what tree species as a general rule of thumb is.

I always tell people you know as tall as the tree gets at maturity, so say we're talking about like a live oak or some thing like that.

So maybe forty fifty sixty feet at times.

That's how far away from that leach field it needs to be.

The roots are going to be at least as tall as the or extend at least as tall as the height of the tree.

That's correct.

On average most times shrubs are not quite as aggressive but still not something you want to have right up on top your leach field.

You know turf grasses preferential to have over the top of it it actually helps with some oxygen exchange purposes which is important in that microbial process that happens.

Ok.

Breaking down the bacteria if you want to plant some type of ground cover on it.

Herbaceous perennials are specifically those ones that do not have to be divided often.

Where you have to go in there and disturbed that soil.

You know the course if you go to add any type of top soil or mulch on to that area.

You need to be very very careful talking about maybe one two inches soil you don't want to add any unless it's a erroded off that area in the first place.

So you have to you know turf grass is your best bet if you're really dead set on putting some type of plant there other than turfgrass.

Some type of smaller herbaceous perennial that requires little water little nutrients.

Because you don't want standing water from irrigation in those areas either that can also cause a lot of problems.

Ok, so if this lady cuts the trees down should she just cut them to the ground?

Paint the stump and not and not bring a stump grinder or anything?

She shouldn't try to pull the stumps out or anything.

Thank you for mentioning that because cultivating in those areas is not a good idea either.

Like I said six inches down if you have like a really hardcore tiller and you're out there getting it you can go down six inches faster than you think.

Like I said you, not sure the upstate.

That's right but yeah removing that tree is a whole lot cheaper than repairing and that drain field for the septic tank.

Well Terasa I'm sure glad that we got that question and then I'm Chase could give us an advice she might have been in trouble not too many years down the road.

Yes a lot of people don't think about septic maintenance is kinda out of sight out of mind but it is really something that if that is the the way you are are disposing of your solid and and liquid waste that you need to make sure that it's functioning properly.

Ok, that was really good.

Thanks Chase.

Thanks.

Well Terasa that was.

I'm glad that that question came in I learned a lot from it, but I learned a lot from everybody.

So what we got next?

It appears we have a question from Courtney in Clarendon.

Courtney asks I try to observe my Gardens frequently but I'm not sure what to look for.

Is there a Clemson resource that might alert me to what to look for at specific times?

Well Zach we know we scout scouting is what y'all tell us to do.

Because as you tell us finding a problem early on is so much better than late but, if you don't know what to look for.

You know if you're new gardener just don't have a lot of and knowledge.

Is there a source or resource where people can possibly kind of figure out what in their part of the state might be happening or they might be on the lookout for?

Yeah absolutely.

So before COVID all of the commercial horticulture agent so I'm a commercial horticulture agent and there's about seven or eight others throughout the state and we work with the anybody growing fruits and vegetables are on a commercial scale or to sell.

You know and that's big farms and small farms so we had a lot of new agents come on we've lost a lot of agents to retirement.

So we thought to be a good idea to improve communication if we started a weekly what we're calling a blog.

But it's basically a website where we go in and we just kind of talk a little bit about the weather, the crops, what crops are coming in.

How things generally look.

The insects diseases weed pressure anything that's really pressing.

In our geographical area eras areas.

We write on the blog it's just a you know little paragraph from each Agent, but we have Agents chiming in from the coastal district from the Midlands from the Pee Dee from the ridge and even the upstate, and so internally is really helped our communication.

I've learned so much from my colleagues, because they work in other areas of the state.

They're working with crops, you know may not work on for example peaches.

You know we don't have too many peaches here on the coastal islands, but I love learning about what's happening in the peach fields and so there's been a lot of learning in communication between agents.

What we we started posting to this blog about two years ago during COVID it really took off.

The amount of people that were visiting this website and recently the HGIC or the Home and Garden Information Center on has started publishing our weekly crop report as well, and so even though our reports are really geared towards commercial farmers.

The things we're seeing out in the commercial fields are the same thing the homeowners are gonna to have to deal with as it pertains to fruit vegetables.

Now we don't do any you know ornamental type posting but you know when we're seeing downy mildew on cucumbers and Charleston.

If you're home gardener there's a good chance you're gonna get the same diseases and insects we do and so it's a really good way to kind of do a weekly check up.

To kind of see what we're seeing in the fields to go out in your garden and scout.

I heard somebody say one time that the best thing you can do your plants is cast your shadow over them.

So just reading up on what we're seeing going out in the field or your garden in casting your shadow over the plants.

It's a really good opportunity to learn for folks that are new gardeners even experienced gardeners.

Because we talk a lot about diseases and how to manage diseases and insects and weeds and maybe you're not familiar with the topic or something.

That's a really good opportunity to just go to the search bar the HGIC and type in tomatoe spoted wilt virus or squash vine boarer.

You know in in we have fact sheets on those things.

So you can educate yourself fairly quickly on these things and I think what folks will see is there's a lot of trends that happen year after year.

A lot of these insects and disease plant cycles are very sickly.

So you can use it as a predictive tool, the more you get on there and research overtime.

So how do people, can you we got HGIC it comes out once a week and is there a way you can be sure you get it?

How do you the best way to go about staying current with it?

Yes so our blog is scgrower.com but we post, we double post essentially to the HGIC and so if you subscribe to HGIC newsletter that comes out every Friday.

You'll get a fresh report from that week of what we're seeing in the field and again it just keeps you so abreast of the issues and things we are seeing in the field.

So make sure you sign up on HGIC website so you don't miss out on those updates.

Ok and I'm I hope that you won't have too many horror stories to be posted there Zach.

We try to keep it light sometimes.

Terasa you often have a pretty sandals and painted toenails but I think you've got something else under the under the desk today.

The suspense I hardly want to get out, but you're right I do you have a unique and interesting Item.

It's a Gourd and it was given to me by Amy Taylor of Taylor Gardens and gift shop in Florence.

I knew immediately when she presented it to me that we needed to bring it on the show and have a little show and tell.

We sure do now did she grow it?

She did not.

She said a customer brought it to her.

So somebody around here grew it.

It has some really unique markings on it I assume just from from laying out in the weather.

Probably if we wanted to preserve it we could add some shellac on the outside I would think.

Is a what happens if you shake it sounds like a rattle.

So if we were a little rough with it and use it as a weapon to bonk Chase.

It would probably break open Chase has been very well behaved today.

You want to take a closer look?

Yeah I was pretty big baseball player back in the day Amanda, so if you had a quick pick up game and grew some of these in the yard.

You know my kids might like this.

It's pretty light too it's not heavy for its' size pretty neat.

So it's all it's all dried out I guess.

It is.

Kind of hard.

It I mean I guess there's lots of gourds.

Tell me a little bit about well you know with some gourds are a wonderful group.

and of course they're within the same family that gives us water melons and squash.

Ok and anything you can think of that's in the the watermelon family.

They Cucurbitaceae pumpkins everything.

That means that the plants have male and female flowers?

In general the flowers are either male or female.

Depending on the spieces.

This came from a female plant I guess.

No no.

The flowers.

The flowers are female but not whole plant.

All right but so there are male flowers and thier are female flowers on the same plant.

Oh they are on the same plant.

Right.

Thank you.

They need to have bees to pollinate those things.

Which is another reason to have pollinators.

But yeah Terasa you're right about the markings.

This is a weathered Gourd and I've grown a few gourds myself.

He tries to say he dosen't have a green thumb.

Well I'm still looking for it.

But these little, you can see they're sort of concentric little blobby things.

Fungi do that, then of course they gave it a really kind of weathered wonderful natural look.

You couldn't pay somebody to paint that to be that beautiful.

It reminds me of the patina copper gets when you leave it out.

Yeah, well John what's the I've heard that gourds, a lot the gourds came across the ocean from Africa.

Well a lot of a lot of these plants that are economically useful didn't necessarily float over, but they were brought by human beings.

Now one of the things that I learned when I took economic botany class in graduate school.

Was that these kinds of fruits and these are fruits it would be very useful for nomadic people when they were traveling.

That's what nomads do.

One of the things you could do with this of course was like open it up maybe open up this end of it and shake all the seeds out, and then fill it up with water.

Could you sort of use it as a canteen and of course depending on the shape of the Gourd different kinds of gourds too.

They would have different utilities and you can imagine the big sqatty gourds like this one that's called a bushel gourd would be useful first just storing dry things.

You know maybe dried fruits or something yeah, or grains and then of course there are some some other kinds of gourds.

I think that I know you mentioned this in the past.

Oh that I, think those are called loofahs and John was telling me he had a lot of ticks on him one day when he came back.

Think that they would probably be pretty good for getting the top layer of dirt and debris and maybe the top layer of chiggers off.

What do you think?

Yeah absolutely so loofah is a really cool gourd species they grow just like most other gourds and they're green and hard at first but once they get finish with growing they kind of dry out and you have to peel the skin off.

you have to do some cleaning and you know possibly bleaching but it makes a really good scrub.

A lot of people think that's a marine animal but it's actually you know one of these gourds.

I have a good buddy Brian Wheat.

He started a company common joy and they grow these gourds or loofahs and they're really cool because you know they can clean you and it's a sustainable product so a lot of different things you can do with these you can even eat them you know they eat them in a lot of other countries.

Well that was a lot of fun and we had a lot of fun with everybody today.

Hope you did too.

See ya everybody.

♪ Closing music.

♪ ♪ Making It Grow is brought to you in part by The South Carolina Department of Agriculture certified South Carolina grown helps consumers identify, find and by South Carolina products.

McLeod Farms in McBee South Carolina.

This family Farm offers seasonal produce.

Including over twenty two varieties of peaches.

Additional funding provided by International Paper and the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance.