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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Winter is hard on your lawn, but there are some things you can do to help it through dormancy.

Also, it's almost time to prune peaches, plums, and nectarines.

We'll show you how.

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. Booker T. Leigh.

Booker's a retired UT Extension agent and Mr. D will be joining me later.

All right, Booker.

So we're in winter now, right?

- Right.

- How do we need to take care of our lawn?

- One thing that we in the winter month, one thing we probably need to start doing now is just walking around our landscape and see, do have any standing water in our lawn?

'Cause we got standing water in our lawn now, you might not see the effect of it right now, but think in the springtime when that grass begin to come outta dormancy again, you might wonder why they're not coming out so good.

A lot of times those roots are very still active during the winter months, but they might be getting root rot 'cause they were standing water there, so you need to walk around your landscape and just look and see where water kind of standing.

If you have standing water, try to get it out of there some kind of way, you know, try to improve that area where the water standing.

You might need to add some sand to it or some kind of thing to build it up some for water won't stand there.

And it's a good time, we always tell in the wintertime, it is always a good time to do a soil test.

- I knew you were gonna say that.

[both laughing] - 'Cause you never, you never know.

We just can't guess at our soil and look at it and say, well, it look good, but the pH could be off in there.

So you might wanna do that too and now this is a good time to do that.

And your location Extension office has soil boxes and also, they have information sheet tell you how to do that soil test, and during the winter months, it might not take it long to get it back.

- That's right.

- You know, you need to add lime or whatever you need to add to it.

A lot of times people, they don't think about it.

You don't need no nitrogen fertilizer in your lawn this time of the year, but you still might need some phosphate and potassium in there, and this will be a good time to put that in there into your soil now.

You know, people might not wanna think about that.

And another thing when we're talking about standing water in your lawn, if we go through a real, real, real dry, winter, it don't happen too often, now.

It might happen every now and then.

Everything might happen, though.

Even though it might look kind funny out there, but that grass needs some water.

Those roots are very still active in the soil.

You know, the top part just dormant because of the weather, but the roots are still active.

- So do we have to water in the winter, is what you're saying?

It ain't like you water, like during in the summertime, but you might need to add, that's a real dry, that's hard to happen, though.

But it could happen, I'm saying.

You probably need to add a little water to it.

Need some water to it, just to keep that grass active in doing that.

- Okay.

So yeah, don't be ashamed to get out there with your water hose in the wintertime.

Your neighbor looking at you and saying, "what they doing?"

- Just gotta add a little water.

Give it some time.

- Yeah, little water in there.

So that'll be a good thing.

- So let's talk about the difference between the warm season grasses, which are dormant now, and then our cool season grasses.

So we're gonna take care of those differently, right?

- Yeah, you have to.

- Okay.

Your cool season grass, now, they begin to grow now.

- Right, and let's give an example of cool season grass.

- Something like fescue grass like that, and they beginning to grow, or Kentucky bluegrass beginning to grow now, that's another grass.

You might see, real pretty green.

And normally you'll see that somewhere up under like, especially with fescue grass, under a shade tree somewhere and they're beginning to grow in there.

And then you might need to get your lawn mower out, if it get real thick, or you got the Bermuda grass dormant and they've got two different types of grass in your lawn, you know, you might wanna cut it down a little bit in there and stuff in there.

- Would those cool season grasses need to be fertilized?

- It would need to be fertilized.

They'd be fertilized in there.

You know, they might need a little nitrogen fertilizer in there to get those to grow real good and do that.

The only thing about the cool season grass sometimes, it's really good and you might see it, might do a little color change sometimes, especially when we have a hard freeze or something, but it'll come back in everything in there.

So, but yeah, your cool season grass is beginning to grow now and we do have a lot of fescue lawns, people have a lot of fescue grass 'cause people like they shade trees and your Bermuda grass or zoysia grass, your warm season grass not gonna grow in under those shade trees, so you need to make sure that you have that in there.

And cutting your fescue lawn, too.

You need to cut it at the right height on that deal, cut it too low and everything in there.

- How about that?

- Yeah, yeah.

- See, I love my warm season grass 'cause I wanna go dormant.

- I mean, I wanna go dormant, yeah.

I like cutting my grass, but I like to get that rest too.

I like to kind of ease back off of something in there and don't cut it off all the time in there.

- I'm with you on that.

- But I do walk around my lawn now just to make sure there's no standing water and anything going on with my grass that I know going to cause a problem in the springtime.

- Got it.

That's good.

So what about controlling those winter weeds?

- Well the winter weeds, a lot of times you should already have put some of your pre-emerge down in there, but you can go out there and spot, if you see some weeds out in your lawn beginning to grow.

You probably not gonna have that many in there, that many weeds out there.

You can go ahead and pull those up.

A spot spray with some herbicide or something to kill those weeds outta there.

You don't need to spray your whole lawn in there.

So just spot spray it and pull those weeds outta there in there 'cause you don't want those weeds to take over in there, but you should have been put you a pre-emerge down already.

And now you might come back in the springtime and add your pre-emerge for those winter weeds, summer weeds from germinating.

- Okay, and always read and follow the label.

- Always read and follow the label directions.

That's the law.

You always tell that law, you work there, that's the law, make sure that you do that in there 'cause you don't want to go add too much in there in there.

So some people- And a lot of times some of what you put down and sometimes you might just need read the label might just need to water it in, not water it in.

- Right, 'cause there might be a granular or it might be a liquid.

- Yeah, liquid in there.

Check those grasses out in there and everything in there.

- So what else do we need to do in the wintertime to make sure that grass comes out in the spring?

- Make sure that you, like I said, do that soil test in there and everything there.

Make sure there's no standing water in there and this is not a good time now, maybe on your fescue lawn, if you're growing real good and growing real, there's no hard freeze expected coming in, you know, you might wanna just do kind of aerate in the lawn, but don't do it early, early in the year, but you might want to look in and see how to compact your grass in there.

But your warm season grass there, just make sure you're watching in there, watch for weeds and everything in there.

So it should be ready to come out in the springtime in there.

But you got that standing water and don't come out late.

A lot of times some of your zoysia grass might come out a little late and all Bermuda grass don't come out of dormancy at the same time, you know.

So some of 'em might come a little later than everything in there, so you might see your neighbor grass begin to grow a little, turning green, and your might be still in the dormant stage.

So don't get afraid about that.

Don't get scared and say, when am I getting-?

- Just know it's going to be all right.

- You know, it's gonna be all right in there.

- So when should we fertilize the grasses once they come out of winter?

Should we wait sometime in the spring?

- Yeah, you wanna wait until you start seeing that new growth in there.

When you start seeing some new growth come in there and then your zoysia grass, you don't want to fertilize it 'til at least the 1st of June, some time in there.

- Wow, that's a good little while.

- Yeah, you don't wanna do that, especially with no nitrogen fertilizer.

Like I said, your phosphorus and potassium in there, you need to fertilize that.

They need that like mostly in the wintertime.

But phosphorus and potassium can build up in the soil faster.

Your nitrogen grass, your nitrogen fertilizer normally leaches itself out, 'cause plants use a lot of that nitrogen fertilizer in there, 'cause it only do two things, make it grow and turn it green.

So they don't use that lots in there.

So a lot of the time on your soil test, they don't give you a recommendation for nitrogen fertilizer.

They give you for phosphorus and potassium and also your soil pH and your pH is so important to your lawn grasses 'cause it makes sure that it use the other nutrients in the soil.

And you get your, if your pH is off and you start adding a lot of nitrogen down there, phosphorus and potassium, and your pH is off, a lot of times they get tied up in the soil and don't be used up by the plant.

And that's why we always tell people to do a soil test 'cause you don't wanna add all that fertilizer to your lawn putting fertilizer down here and putting that there and you're sitting there, that's not just, just standing in the soil.

You want it for the plant and use it up.

And that's why for most lawn grass, when you do your soil test, for most lawn grass between 6.0 and 6.5 would be a good soil pH.

But that's for your warm season grasses and also your cool season grass.

- Work for both.

- Yeah, work for both, that soil pH.

And Chris, you need, you know, $15 is not bad.

- No, no, it's definitely worth it.

- It's worth the $15 for the soil test.

- It's definitely worth it.

- 'Cause you go and buy a bag of fertilizer gonna cost you way a lot more than $15 and you might not need it.

- That's right.

- You might need to keep putting it down and you might not need it.

- Might not need that lime, either.

- Might not need lime either.

- Got the soil test results.

- Normally your pH will stay there for at least three years.

Once you get where you want it, it'll stay there for three years.

So when you get it to 6.5, when you're in that area, in that range, it'll stay there for three years.

- So it'll be good.

- Be good.

Be good then.

So you all right then.

Fifteen dollars, it might cost you to take it and ship the boxes off, but the actual test is $15 per box, and that's not bad.

- It is definitely worth it.

Mr. Booker, we appreciate that good information.

- Thanks for having me.

- About, yeah, taking care of the grasses in the wintertime.

- In the wintertime, yes.

- So it can transition over into the spring.

So yeah, we definitely appreciate the information.

Again, if you need any soil test kits, you can stop by your local Extension office.

We have plenty in our office here at Shelby County.

Thank you much.

- Enjoyed it, thank you.

- All right.

[gentle country music] - Dessicate.

- Desiccate, yeah, desiccate.

Yeah, that means drying.

- That's right.

- If you're out in the Sahara Desert, you're gonna get desiccated.

[all laughing] - Right.

- Yeah.

You're gonna dry out like a prune.

But in plants, it usually means that, and usually, it's referred to in the wintertime on our evergreens.

If, for example, the soil is real cold or frozen a little bit, the roots cannot take up water because of the frozen soil and then if we get a really drying northwesterly wind that we get in the winter, it desiccates that foliage.

In other words, it's sapping the moisture, transpiration rates go up, and that's the loss of moisture from the leaves and that is a drying of the leaves for lack of moisture, that's desiccation, and it can be caused by a lot of different things.

Happen in the summertime with a dry wind blowing and it just dries out the leaves and it's lack of water in the soil, you know.

So in other words, you need to stay on top of the watering.

- Yeah, good examples of desiccate.

Good.

- Yeah, and once it happens, there's nothing you can do about it.

And it'll be on the north side of evergreens in the winter, you know?

You'll see that people say, what happened?

You know?

But it's those drying winter winds when the soil is cold.

A lot of people don't think about watering their plants in the winter.

- Not in the winter.

- You don't.

You really don't think about it and your evergreens definitely- We have dry spells in the winter.

- Sure.

And then if we get a really, really cold snap and the dry soil freezes, that's even worse, and the cold wind blows, you're gonna get damage.

Hollies, you know, things like that.

[gentle country music] - All right.

Mr. D, we definitely thank Mr. Henry Jones for allowing us to be out here today.

- Super, super nice guy.

And they do a great job with peaches.

- They do.

- And nectarines and apples and strawberries.

- All right, so what are we going to do here?

- This is a nectarine tree.

We treat nectarines, peaches, and plums the same way, we prune them to an open-centered system and this is the way we open up the center.

- Oh, boy.

- You see, this is trying to be a pear or an apple tree, has a strong central leader here.

[Chris laughing] Well, this is what we do with that.

- Oh man, we just gonna take it out like that?

- Kinda like that.

I'm gonna be gentle.

- Okay.

- 'Cause I don't want to injure any of these other scaffold limbs.

We used to say these trees, back in the old days, cost about $2 and they say you take out about a $1.80, leave about a dime's worth and you're kind of going in the right direction.

And so that's what we're doing.

Is it looking a little more open?

- Oh yeah, there's your dime's worth.

- It's a little low here, and we've got three scaffold limbs, which is really fine, really all you need.

And you know, I took off a lot of fruit.

On a young tree like this, it's much more important to develop the tree, the shape of the tree than it is to get fruit off of it.

You'll have plenty of time to get fruit later on if you take care of it.

There we are.

How about that?

- All right.

All right.

Mr. D, off to the next tree.

- Off to the next tree.

Let's do it.

- Okay.

- All right.

Mr. D, we have here about a 10-year-old nectarine tree.

- And when I walk up to a tree that's got this much age on it, the first thing I look at is, has it got any broken limbs?

And I see this limb right here has got some damage.

And so I'm gonna take care of that.

That's in my mind.

I also want to take off everything that's, you know, from a waist down.

We call 'em hanger-downers.

I want to take all the hanger-downers off and then I'm gonna take off everything growing back toward the center.

I want, ideally, I want every limb to have its shot at the sun and so I ideally, I won't have another limb shading another one.

I want to take out limbs that are crossing over.

And with that being said, I'm gonna get in here and go to work.

- Ah, he's pulling out the big gun.

- Yeah.

[Chris laughing] - Okay, this...

This limb has both of the broken limbs on it, I think.

Yeah, it does.

- That I saw.

- It does.

- So I'm gonna take that off and I really, think I can get to it from here.

Actually...

This is a little bit easier to handle.

Yeah, I'm gonna make a little cut on the bottom 'cause I don't wanna strip out this tree, and then I'm gonna go up again about a half inch.

This is about a half inch from the trunk.

[metal scratching] Okay, this right here, I wanna open up the center a little bit.

I'm gonna take it off.

- All right.

- Making these double cuts 'cause I don't wanna strip off this bark.

Grab it, Chris.

- Yeah, I got it.

I don't wanna damage the limbs that I'm leaving.

There you are.

- I got it.

Oh, yeah.

- And I like, the shears that I use are like the scissors-cut shears.

I don't like the anvil-type shearers.

They do more damage to the limbs.

And you need sharp shears, okay?

This is some, a hanger-downer right here.

I'm gonna take it off.

All right.

Now I'm looking at anything growing back toward me, toward the center of the tree.

I'm taking that out.

I wanna be where I can get into this tree from any direction and I'm really, really thinking about taking that tree, that limb out right there, but I'm gonna hold off on that right now.

I can always do it later.

I'm also gonna take out any dead limbs.

Like, that's a dead limb right there.

Quite a few dead limbs here.

Little dead limbs that were probably shaded out last year.

I'm gonna take those off.

All right.

I don't like to fight my way into a tree, so I'm gonna open it up here a little bit.

This is kind of growing back toward the center, taking that off.

This is growing straight up.

This limb is crossing over, invading this one's territory a little bit.

This one's growing a little bit more upright.

Got some damage on it.

I'm gonna leave a few of these because there's some nectarines right there I don't wanna cut off.

This is probably a little low and that's growing back toward the center, so I'm taking that off.

That's dead.

This is a hangar-downer right here, but there's some fruit right there, so I'm gonna take the hangar-downer off and let that produce a nectarine for me.

This is growing back toward the center, growing straight up.

Limbs that are growing straight up like these, I consider those water sprouts and they will not have any fruit.

They pretty much rob the tree of nutrition and they're trying to be the central leader, just like on an apple or a pear tree.

So I take the water sprouts out, anything growing straight up.

When you have a lot of small limbs on a branch, I'll go in and take every other one out to give 'em a little space.

And as I go up on these limbs, I'll pretty much take everything on the top part of the limb that has a tendency to grow straight up.

These trees were bred and designed to be pruned and if you don't prune these improved varieties, if you don't, Mother Nature will and Mother Nature sometimes doesn't make us clean a cut as I do.

She can be rather brutal at times.

This is kind of congested here.

We'll get all of these going straight up.

Ideally on a peach or nectarine, when you're out here to the side, you'd like all of your fruiting wood to be from about your waist to as high as you can reach.

Not much higher than as high as you can reach.

Keeping in mind that when the fruit are on the tree, the upper limbs are gonna come down some.

So you can let that, you know, you can be a little higher than you can reach.

You can do that.

But when you notice I'm, again, I'm making a cut above a limb that's growing in the direction that I want it to go.

[wood cracks] [Mr. D grunts] Okay, Chris, I could work on this all day.

You know, it's like a haircut or a clip of the show steer.

And you always see another limb you can take off, but got it opened up.

This tree is really, it started out, you can see all these trees are like peas in a pod.

When they started, they cut 'em off at 18 to 20 inches and that's how the scaffold limbs came out at the right height, so they've really done a good job with these fruit trees.

- All right, we definitely appreciate that pruning demonstration.

- All right, good deal.

- And again, you put in some work on that one.

- Yeah, I broke a sweat.

[Chris laughing] [gentle country music] - Okay, I'm gonna show you how to properly plant a hosta and hopefully protect it from voles at the same time.

And first thing, when you get a hosta, you want to dig your hole about twice as wide as the container.

Then loosen this.

You don't have to go deep, about three inches or so, and incorporate some good organic matter.

Hostas are not deep-rooted plants.

Then right in the center of your prepared area, you want to dig out just like a cone shape like this.

Okay?

Then we're gonna take a product.

This one, there's Soil Perfector, there's MoleGo, there's a whole bunch of products out there.

And just dump it right in the hole like that and make it, pack it up against the sides like this.

We're gonna get a little bit more there in there.

Now what this does gives you a protective barrier 'cause when the voles are in there, they don't have any place to push that.

So we're gonna make this cone like so, then we'll remove this hosta from the pot just like this, spread the roots out a little bit, force it down in the center, and then we're gonna come back again with a little more on the top of it, like so, to protect the pip.

Okay?

Then bring you a little light mulch on top of it, the hosta's done, and you got pretty good protection against voles.

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

Y'all ready?

- Ready.

- Ready.

- These are great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"What are these plants?

They grow to about 10 to 12 feet and are spreading."

And this is Ray.

Well, guess what, Ray?

That's what we call giant reed, giant reed.

Almost looks like bamboo.

- A bamboo?

Okay.

- Loves to grow in wet soils, loves warm climates.

It is a clump forming grass.

It grows by rhizomes.

Yeah, it has a plume-like flower cluster.

Can be very invasive.

- This one is invasive, yeah.

Can take over, huh?

- Right.

It can take over.

Again, wet soils.

- Okay.

- Right.

So you see it around a lot of pond areas, any area that's, you know, pretty much wet, it will take it over.

So beware, Ray.

But that's what it is called, giant reed.

So we appreciate that question.

Thank you much.

- Okay.

- All right, here's our next viewer email.

"I've just heard you say that all maple trees "have beautiful color during autumn, "but our 30-year-old maple tree's leaves "just shrivel up and turn brown.

"Our maple trees don't turn red in the fall.

"Should the pH of our soil be checked?

Please advise."

And this is Darlene.

So Mary, you have anything, any comments on that one?

- Yeah, you know, it could just be that the tree's getting old.

- It could be.

- Trees, like everything else, have a lifespan, and so sometimes as they get older, they're prone to developing some issues.

- I would agree with that.

- Yeah, like she said, maple trees, they lifespan is not, some of 'em might not as long.

That could be the problem that they're getting, just getting old, you know, just stop producing those on there.

And sometimes it maybe through a really drought, there might be some problem why they might not be able put on there and so around there, but the age of the tree and then, look around the tree, look at a lot of branch on your maple tree and see how how they begin to look.

- Right.

That's what I would advise doing as well because yeah, she said the leaves are shriveling up and they just turn brown, so I'm thinking, could it be a disease?

- Disease.

- Could it be wood borers?

It is a 30-year-old tree.

So yeah, age is something I'll be concerned about as well.

If you want to check the pH, I mean, we're not gonna say you can't.

I mean, you definitely can.

Go to your local Extension office and get a soil test kit.

But yeah, I'm thinking about that.

And usually when you think about leaves turning colors, that has more to do with the temperature, the weather.

So, yeah, again, it's a 30-year-old tree, so it could be some issues.

Could be some issues.

- Their lifespan, and the past lifespan, yeah.

- Yes, 30 years old.

- 30 years old.

- You got a lot out of that tree, Ms. Darlene.

So yeah, thank you for that question.

Good luck to you.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"Can you please recommend how to care for my winter pansies?

"This is my first time trying these.

"I live in southern New Jersey.

I planted them September 10th."

This is Glen on YouTube.

So congratulations, Glen.

Yeah, your first winter pansies.

All right Mr. Booker, how does he need to take care of those winter pansies?

- I like winter pansies.

I like pansies, normally they take care of themselves.

I know when I put them in my yard, they just, snow get on 'em, ice get on 'em, they'll survive.

They really want to make sure you got no standing water around your pansies.

That's all you wanna make sure there's no standing water and they should do well.

They should take care of themself and everything.

Every now and then, you might wanna give 'em just a little fertilizer around there, but that it for the pansy.

They do good.

The pansy and viola, they're really tough.

- They do good, you're exactly right.

Mary, anything you want to add to that?

- No, I think good luck.

- Yeah, good luck.

But yeah, you exactly right.

Yeah, just make sure it's not too moist.

- Moist, yeah.

- The roots will rot.

- They'll rot on you, yeah.

- Don't bury the crown or anything like that.

You can use a slow-release fertilizer.

- Osmocote or something like that, whatever you- - Mulch it, and it should be good.

- Should be good, yeah.

- So good luck to you, Glen.

We appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I planted a sweet bay magnolia two years ago "and it's doing great.

"This summer, we had a heat wave in Memphis and I'm curious, "how much watering I should do to keep a young sweet bay magnolia healthy?"

And this is Rick from YouTube.

So Mary, you have any thoughts about trying to keep that sweet bay magnolia healthy?

- I think it's a great tree.

- I think it's a great tree.

- Yeah, so great choice on the tree.

I think that it's still kind of young, so during droughts, you might wanna give it a little bit of water, just to help it get established.

- Okay, I can go with that.

- Yeah, I said the same thing.

Same question though.

Lot of time, your tree probably about an inch of water a week or something like that and try to do that one time and if you get run off, start back again.

But I like a sweet bay magnolia, too.

I had one in my yard.

- Good trees.

- Yeah, I like that.

- Definitely have to keep it watered during drought-like conditions since it's two years old here.

We did have a heat wave.

I heard recently, it's one of the second hottest summer in Shelby County, in Memphis.

So you definitely want to, you know, keep it watered during the drought.

And then sweet bay magnolia, another name for sweet bay magnolias are swamp magnolias.

It's all in the name, swamp.

So it likes moist soils, but those soils have to be well-drained at the same time.

So yeah, sweet bay magnolia, swamp magnolia.

So make sure it gets the water that it needs, it should be just fine.

I think we all enjoy sweet bay magnolias.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

So thank you for your question.

We appreciate that.

So Mr. Booker, Mary, we out of time.

Thank you much, it was fun.

- Enjoyed that.

- All right.

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.

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 anything we talked about today, 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]