- From the Pining for the Fjords Studios of Lehigh - Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, it is time for another magnificent mulching episode of chemical-free horticultural hijinks You Bet Your Garden.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

You always hear me denigrate the nastiness of dyed-wood mulch.

But what works and looks nicer?

On today's show, we'll explain how nature's finest mulch, Southern Pine Straw, is becoming more available above the Mason-Dixon line.

Plus, magical, mystical bees and your fabulous phone call questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and heroically heartfelt homogenicities.

So keep your eyes and/or ears right here, true believers, because it's all coming up faster than you having the best-looking mulch on the block right after this.

In life, we have many kinds of partners - school bus partners, business partners, even gardening partners.

Shouldn't you have one for the most important aspect of life, your health?

Lehigh Valley Health Network - your health deserves a partner.

- Support for You Bet Your Garden is provided by the Espoma company, offering a complete selection of natural organic plant foods and potting soils.

More information about Espoma and the Espoma natural gardening community can be found at espoma.com.

Welcome to another thrilling episode of You Bet Your Garden.

From the studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, I am your host, Mike McGrath.

Coming up later in the show, we are going to celebrate Earth Day with some charming new books for children that have just come out.

We're also going to explain how finally you don't have to buy that crappy wood mulch anymore because you can get Southern Pine Straw, the mulch of choice.

But first, your fabulous phone calls at... Butch.

Welcome to You.

Bet Your garden.

- Thanks, Mike.

- Well, thank you, Butch.

How you doing, man?

- I'm just living the dream.

OK!

That can mean a lot of different things.

And where is Butch living the dream?

- New Carlisle, Ohio.

All right.

What can we do for Butch in at least one of the New Carlisles?

- We just bought a house that was built in '79, decorated in '69, been doing a lot of work on the inside.

And now we're focusing on the outside.

We have a set of three apple trees that are in disrepair.

I think the last time that they were pruned were probably when they were about eight-feet high and they are about 30 feet high right now.

- Oh, so it's... - And I'm kind of lost.

- Yeah.

So they're standard trees, they're not dwarf?

- Correct.

Were you here in this new house last spring?

- We were.

- And how did they flower and fruit?

- They flowered and they fruited well.

The fruit itself, were...I would not say supermarket quality.

A lot of blemishes on them and deformities of the shape.

- Right.

But how'd they taste?

- Hm, they were just OK. our chickens liked them a lot.

- Oh, OK.

This is the time...

They should be getting ready... Well, you're in Ohio.

They should be getting ready to bloom right now.

- They are.

- OK. - So are you going to hire somebody to do this or are you going to get hurt by yourself?

- I'll just get hurt by myself.

- OK. - I'm good at that, make sure that you have a sturdy ladder, a companion.

And I seriously, I want you both to wear hard hats, because if a limb goes down where you don't expect it, it can it can break your pumpkin head open.

So get up as high as you can.

And when the trees are in full flower, that's the time when you can tell for sure about any branches that are dead or diseased or anything like that.

So take them down, but take them down in small sections.

Don't go right back to the tree to cut off a long branch.

Do it in five or six slices, because if you take down the whole branch at once, it could kill someone and also could just rip the side of the tree apart.

So remove a good third of the branches.

If you can't find enough diseased or damaged ones, then just open up the center of the tree.

And this should actually help this year quite a bit.

And if there's one section of the tree that's going higher than the others, you should definitely remove that and establish what's called the new central leader.

It's very safe to downsize apple trees and you're always going to want to, you know, cut away the tallest straight up branches.

And then then we see what happened... And by the way, any of the branches that have nice flowers on them, bring them inside and decorate your whole house.

Apple blossoms are absolutely beautiful, and they're free.

So keep an eye on the tree after that.

And if it starts putting out an enormous number of little apples, see what you can do to thin the crop.

You know, get up there with a five-gallon bucket and just pick away at least every other one.

That could help them have a better shape and a better flavor.

And this is just an experimental year.

So you're not going to go nuts with this, but prune off a third of the tree, take off at least one half of the little fruits, when they're the size of marbles, and see what happens at the end of the season.

You may be pleasantly surprised at how good they look and taste.

- This is the marathon, not the sprint?

- You got it.

All right, good luck to you, sir.

Larry, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Well, thank you.

I appreciate it very much.

- Well, thank you, Larry.

Where are you, man?

- I'm in Texarkana, which is really a twin city divided by the state line between Arkansas and Texas.

- What can we do you for, sir?

- Well, on April the 1st, you had a caller who discussed chiggers in New Jersey.

- Right.

- And I was intrigued because I didn't know they ranged that far north.

- Yeah, they can show up anywhere, apparently.

- Well, I went to bed crying many nights when I was a little boy because I was eaten up by them.

- Right.

- And on our little bitty farm... Go ahead.

- I was going to say, did you call them chiggers or did you call them red bugs or itch mites or...?

- We called them chiggers.

Some of the generation before me called them red bugs.

- Yeah.

I've never had the pleasure myself.

- So what can we do for you, sir?

- Well, I wanted to say that.. ..our little bitty farm was like a convention center for chiggers until there was a big flood on Red River in 1990.

And it scattered out fire ants.

And I know that correlation does not necessarily imply causation.

But once the fire ants were established on our place, the chiggers disappeared.

- I think that's a pretty good trade off because you can always try and avoid a fire ant mound.

But chiggers... - Yeah, you can see those.

- Yeah!

Chiggers are invisible.

Did you see the fire ants during the flood?

Because it's my understanding that they make a kind of a living raft and thousands of them are... Did you see it?

- I did and they do.

Yes.

- That's amazing.

- As much as three feet across that.

- That's whoa!

But that had to be scary!

- Oh, yes.

- You wouldn't want to brush up against that when you were swimming.

- Yeah, fire ants, once they're established, I mean then you have fire ants, which have a vicious sting, but they will destroy any other insect colonies that are close to the surface or underground.

Believe it or not, one of the best preventions for termites.

And in Texas, you have several species of termites, but fire ants will invade their colonies and eat every single termite.

That's one of their favorite foods.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Well, more power to them.

- Yeah.

So the cure for chiggers, and here we got it straight from the horse's mouth in Texas, is to invite fire ants onto your property.

- If anybody wants any I'll send them some.

- That would be a weird kind of ant farm, Larry!

- Right.

- All right, Larry.

Well, it's a pleasure to speak to you.

Thank you so much.

- Well, it's wonderful to talk to you.

I really enjoy your show.

- All right, it is my great pleasure to introduce our special guest, Tassia Schreiner, who has authored in the matter of one year three wonderful books.

So this is how we're going to kind of celebrate Earth Day a few days late.

It's Earth weekend, OK?

And Tassia's books are, I believe, geared to help people, to help children especially, understand gardening and to be creative in their own gardening way.

And we'll talk about all three of them.

But first, I have to say, welcome to the show.

- Thank you so much for having me here, Mike.

- Thank you for being had, as you'll find out.

- Now, the big book that you are promoting, so to speak, is your book about the Magical Mystical Bees, which is just for the title alone, is absolutely wonderful.

But the first thing I notice is it's printed backwards.

- It is.

- It's it's it's like a Jewish prayer book.

You start from the back and you go towards the front.

But it is a sad freaking story, girl!

- So there is a moment where the story is really sad.

- I was crying!

I was crying real tears.

- But I feel like that the beauty of children's books is it can bring complex issues down to a simplified version.

And I just wanted to give people a moment to pause with what could be our reality.

But it doesn't stay sad.

Did you turn to the next page?

- Yes, I did.

So I should explain what we're talking about.

And one of the things that struck me as I was reading this is this is not a Disney children's book.

This is a Hans Christian Andersen or Brothers Grimm children's book.

And as you know, fairy tales were not meant to entertain children.

They were meant to frighten them into behaving and, you know, not going into a witch's gingerbread house and things like that.

And I thought that that was really where you were coming from.

I mean, you're aiming for a very young audience but, spoiler alert, it begins In a world where there are no more bees, where they've all been eliminated.

And, of course, without bees, there are no flowers.

And I guess it's the grandmother trying to explain to the child what the world was like when there was color and fruit and everything like that.

- The motivation for this book was my grandmother and my daughter.

You know, grandparents pass on legacy to us and stories.

And after we lost my grandmother, it really got me thinking, what narrative, what story am I going to pass on to my daughter to pass on to her grandchildren?

So in this hypothetical future, the grandmother in the book is, you know, a child now, my daughter's age in the future, and this scenario of what happens if we don't steward everything that we've been given.

And of course, we know that we have power to change that ending.

And that's really what this book is about.

That's why the book was written backwards.

Can I open to the page that you're referring to?

- Sure, sure.

And I'll explain that when you get to the "end", which is also the beginning, then you read it forward-backward, and we're back in a world with bees and flowers and fruits.

- And that's exactly it - my aim here in reading it backwards was to make people think and to realize that we all have power in our actions.

You know, the book isn't meant to be a sad story because it ends with an invitation to the reader, to children and to families, individuals to do our part to change the end of the story.

- So it is a cautionary tale.

- Yes, that's just it.

I feel like it ends on a very hopeful note.

- What would you say the age range of the book is?

- The age range is definitely early elementary school.

But my hope in this is that it would gather people.

You know, that it would gather families to start discussing the plight of the bees and the plight of the pollinators and ways that we can help.

The back of the book is filled with simple ways that we can all work together to help create refuge and food for the bees.

I hope that the book can gather families around the issue and schools around the issue and communities.

Another reason I wrote it is because I feel like many children are afraid of bees.

And, you know, that's natural.

They, some of them, sting and bees have gotten a bad rap and we experienced that in my own family.

My children would panic and run away from bees.

So we just spent time, you know, taking deep breaths when the bees were around and talking about everything that bees do for us.

So that's my hope in the book, is that it will, you know, inspire children to be more curious about bees and to realize the magic that they actually provide us all with.

- Over this past year, you've also written two other books, and one of them is about the life of a sunflower seed.

- It is.

- Called Sunny.

And Sunny turns into a sunflower and then the sunflower, "dies", but not before it's produced like 100 more Sunnys.

And then the book starts over again.

And that's very sweet.

I think that's a perfect book to read to children so that they understand the process of seed to plant to seed.

But I'm going to take a cue from my old colleague, Terry Gross, who would almost always ask an author she liked to read something on the show.

And the third book you have is about houseplants and how you personally learn from them.

And it's a very short book in terms of reading.

So if you don't mind, I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you to read My Houseplants Whisper Wisdom.

- So My Houseplants Whisper Wisdom.

All my best friends are house plans.

They're always here for me.

They whisper words of wisdom and I know where they'll always be.

Hang in there, boo.

We're here for you.

Alleluia.

We will survive because friends like you help us thrive.

Even when things really suck... - Can I interrupt there and say that's short for succulent?

- Yes!

- If you look at the pictures on the page, you know.

- We stick together and we make our own luck.

Life is tough, but so are you.

With patience and prayer we'll make it through.

Those are... We may all be different shapes and sizes.

We may grow at a different rate.

But when we stop comparing, it's all cause to celebrate.

You have to bloom where you're planted.

Seek the light and share your gift.

There's always a day to brighten, there's always a spirit to lift.

You grow, girl, we beleaf in you.

We'll always be rooting you on.

Thank you for helping us grow.

Thank you for helping me grow.

So, yeah, that book, it was really written for a good friend of mine who took a lot of comfort in her house plants during 2020, as I know, so many people did.

- Well, and it's the great unifier of people who listen to or watch this show or dive into the podcast.

Anybody can have houseplants.

And I agree with you, if we pay attention and we're willing to learn, there's a lot to learn from our houseplants.

- Of course.

- OK, so, Tass, how do people encounter your books?

Are they in stores?

Are they on that website named after a great river, or are they available only through you?

- So they are on the great river website.

You can also find them at our local bookstore, Let's Play Books.

You can also find them on my website, which is CreativeKindnessCo.com.

- Your books are fabulous.

Once again they are Sunny, the story of a sunflower, the Magical Mythical Bees and My Houseplants Whisper Wisdom.

And once again, the website?

- CreativeKindnessCo.com.

- OK. Tassia Schreiner.

Thank you so much for helping us celebrate Earth Day.

- Thank you.

- For helping to start with the kids, because that's where all good things come out of.

And you owe me a book on native bees.

- OK, deal.

- Thank you, Mike.

- My pleasure.

Thank you.

It is inevitable, cats and kittens.

Yes, it is time once again for the Question of the Week, which we're calling Pine Needles, Pine Straw and Pine Fines.

Karen in Maryland writes...

..I would never have tried it without the knowledge and wisdom you shared.

Keep going, Karen!

No?

OK. Well, Karen, I'm afraid you would not have had the dubious honor of such an introduction, even if there were egg cases in those bags, as this invasive Asian planthopper is already in Maryland, specifically Cecil and Harford Counties, which are under quaran-tyne...quaran-teen... ..quarantine - you say one, I say the other - like most of eastern PA is.

And I doubt that your bags harbored any eggs as lantern flies lay their egg masses on large, solid objects like trees, firewood, vehicles, and the kind of decorative stone they originally used to enter the country illegally.

And after three years, I suspect that at least half of your pine needles have become a compost-like material called pine fines, which are a great soil amendment sold in bags, mostly in the DC area and South.

However, in a subsequent email exchange, you said that you felt the terms pine straw and pine needles were interchangeable.

They are not.

In a highly informative online article that we will link up with in the written version of this Question of the Week, Scott Satterfield of Four Seasons Pine Straw in Acworth, Georgia, explains that the pine straw that is the mulch of choice in the South is very different than the pine needles that decorate your living room floor after Christmas.

Those well-named needles are, what, a couple inches long at best?

And if they came from a blue spruce or a similar tree, they are sharp.

Southern short needle straw from loblolly pines averages four to six inches in length, while long-needle straw can be seven to nine inches in length, if it comes from the slash pine tree, or a whopping seven to 16 inches if it comes from the southern Longleaf Pine.

And while you could say that they are technically pine needles, the individual pieces of straw are as large or larger than the material found in a bag of straw or hay.

Which may be why pine straw also comes in bales.

Now, straw from the southern long-leaf pine is clearly the most desirable as it is thicker and more durable than the other types and has a beautiful reddish color, especially in the spring and fall.

I should know, as I have been the happy recipient of several bales every spring from one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Bill Strock, who has been making true Southern Pine Straw available to us Northerners for several years.

I spoke to him yesterday as he was heading home from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where he had delivered 200 bales of long-leaf pine straw to a neighborhood co-op whose green space is now the envy of all.

When last we spoke, his fledgling business was called Midatlantic Pine Straw, and he offered free delivery inside the Greater Philadelphia area with the purchase of a minimum number of bales.

He also shares a retail location with Maxwell's Hardware in Downingtown, PA, where you can grab and go - as long as you pay for it that is.

When I asked him what's new, he happily answered NEW England Pine Straw Mulch, a new business based in the town of Rutland, Massachusetts.

When I explained the invasive pest impetus for my call, he said, "That's an excellent question.

"We go to great lengths to ensure that our bales "are clean and safe.

"Pine straw drops naturally from the trees in the fall, "is collected sustainably by hand and then baled "in South Carolina, where every batch "is inspected for invasives "by Clemson University before it leaves the state.

"They're mostly looking for hitch-hiking fire ants, "but they are very thorough in their inspection."

I love this!

Many of you know that I despise the awful trend of mulching with chipped-up pallets from China spray painted the color of an abandoned Burger King.

But there weren't many alternatives in the North besides shredded fall leaves and compost.

Now, thanks to John and his lovely wife Catherine, and an increasing number of other people and companies making what I call nature's finest mulch more available, we may finally see the end of wood mulch volcano mulching.

Well, I can dream, can't I?

Well, that sure was some interesting information about my favorite good-looking garden mulch now, wasn't it?

Luckily for yous, the Question of the Week appears in print at the Gardens Alive website.

To read it over at your leezure or your leisure, with lots more pine straw info, just click the link for the Question of the Week at our website, which is still and will forever be YouBetYourGarden.org.

Gardens Alive supports the You Bet Your Garden Question of the Week and you will always find the latest Question of the Week at the Gardens Alive website.

You Bet Your Garden is a half-hour public television show, an hour-long public radio show and podcast, all produced and delivered to you weekly by Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA. Our radio show is distributed by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

You Bet Your Garden was created by Mike McGrath.

Mike McGrath was created when he saw an episode of The Twilight Zone about a ventriloquist dummy and never watched TV again.

Yikes!

My producer is threatening to sabotage my straw if I don't get out of this studio.

We must be out of time.

But you can call us any time at our brand new number... Or send us your email, your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse teeming towards our garden shore at...

Please include your location.

You'll find all of this contact information at our website.

YouBetYourGarden.org, where you'll also find the answers to all your garden questions.

Audio of this show, video of this show.

Audio and video of old shows!

What do you want, eggs in your beer?

Oh, and links to our internationally renowned podcast.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

I used to look like Eddie Munster but then I lost my hair and looked more like Howie Mandel on an especially bad day.

But bad hair or no hair, I will be back to howl at the moon and see you again next week.