From the bird-loving studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, it is time for another high-flying hour of chemical-free horticultural hijinks, You Bet Your Garden.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

Do you feed birds bird seed unnecessarily in the summer?

Do you feed them much-needed suet in the winter?

On today's show, we will clarify why we advocate feeding birds in the winter and once again beg you to leave them alone in the summer.

And of course, we'll take lots of your fabulous phone call questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions, and in furiously irate iteration.

So keep your eyes and/or ears right here, cats and kittens, because it's all coming up faster than you having more birds than you know what to do with.

Right after this.

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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, a master gardener from western New York does not like my humor and does not like what she thinks was the advice I've been spouting about feeding birds.

We'll get to both of those daring and dangerous topics when we get to the Question of the Week.

In the meantime, first I have to explain my T-shirt for people who haven't seen it over the past two weeks.

All I need to say is if kryptonite is illegal, only criminals will have kryptonite.

I've really lost it.

Brian, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, Mike, how are you?

- I am just ducky, thank you for asking, Brian.

Ducky, as always, appreciative of that phrase.

How are you, sir?

- I'm good, I'm good.

Baffled.

- Yeah, well, we're all baffled, Brian.

That doesn't get you on the show.

Where are you?

- I'm in Emmaus, PA. What can we do you for?

Well, we got this yellow annual hibiscus back in 2019 from our dog-walker, when we helped our dog on his way.

- Right.

- It had special meaning to us and it was bright yellow the first year.

And having a special meaning, I decided to drag it inside, see if I could get another year out of it, and I did, so inside that year.

And then I did it again last year, and this year got down into the 30s in early November.

- And you hadn't brought it back in yet?

- I had not.

- OK, so I just want to stop you for one second and remind everybody out there in the future, cowards win.

Don't wait until it says it's going to be freezing outside.

Once nighttime temps dip below 50 degrees, bring all these sensitive tropical plants inside, and don't rush taking them outside in the spring.

I'm a June to September guy and I have a horde of pepper plants that are many years old.

Proceed, sorry.

- So it was going to drop down into the 30s in early November here, so I pulled it inside, and then the following week it went back up into the 60s.

So I took it outside because it still had a few blooms left on it.

- Wah-wah!

If you would simply put it... ..left it indoors and put it in a place with indirect light, it could have bloomed for a long time.

All right, back to you.

You got two strikes.

- So I dragged it back outside and I noticed the blooms were orange.

And of course, when they did open up in the 60 degree weather and they were a beautiful deep orange color, when they had been yellow all summer.

And then when it got cold again, I dragged it back inside into the indirect sunlight that you were talking about.

And it still blooms now and then.

I think the latest flower we had on there was the first week of December.

- OK, what color?

Still orange?

- Still orange.

- OK. - And for my third strike, I took it outside again, the last couple of days because it's been in the 50s here, hoping to get a few more blooms.

- But the nighttime temps have been around freezing.

- Oh, and I bring it inside at night.

- Oh, OK, well, you got time on your hands, man.

Early on, when I was still learning how to overwinter my peppers, I was overwhelmed by aphids.

And one plant seemed to be a complete loss.

And this was January.

But we had one of those crazy January days where it kissed 70 degrees.

So I took the plant outside, meaning to spray it off, you know, real sharp sprays of water to knock down some of the aphids.

But then I was distracted by a bright and shiny object and forgot about it till like three o'clock.

And then I realized, oh, damn, I missed my chance.

And I go outside and I see the plant is covered in little black insects.

So I check the temperature, it was still fine.

I let it go to like five o'clock and I brought it back in and there was not a single aphid on it.

And the small black insects were probably thrilled to find that much food in the winter.

So, yeah, I mean, if you're if you're going to be that consistent, you're doing fine.

Now, you're wondering why the color changes.

- Yes, - OK, there's a simple answer and a very complicated answer.

The simple answer is that hibiscus almost don't have a primary color.

They have a range of colors that is affected by temperature, by light, very much by the PH of the soil they're in, and other factors.

It is totally normal for, especially, an annual hibiscus and not the hardy ones, to change colors depending on their environment.

I researched this when we saw your e-mail because I didn't know what was going on.

So I'm going to give you a quote from gardeningknowhowcom - Three groups of pigments create the vibrant color displays of hibiscus flowers.

Anthocyanins produce blue, purple, red and pink.

Carotenoids create colors on the warm side of the spectrum - yellows, oranges and reds.

Flavonoids are responsible for pale yellow or white.

So within different ranges of temperature, sunlight, PH and nutrition, all of these pigments can appear.

But when they do, they're telling you something.

The article goes on to explain exactly what kind of conditions cause one of these...

These are all phytonutrients, by the way.

These are all super-powered foods.

You know, when they say eat foods in a range of colors, fresh fruits and vegetables.

That's exactly why, because these are all nutrition powerhouses, but they also occur in ornamental plants.

So if you want to go to Gardening Know How or just search, "Why does hibiscus change color?"

you'll learn how to perhaps artificially manipulate the pigments so you can get a full range of colors.

I'll tell you right now, PH has a lot to do with the PH of your soil.

But it is not unusual.

It is expected.

And how about that?

I didn't know it.

- I'll let you know what I work out.

- OK, send us pictures.

- I will, I will.

Thank you, Michael.

- My pleasure.

Thank you, sir.

Bye-bye.

Number to call... Amelia, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, Mike.

- Hello, Amelia.

How are you?

- I'm fine, but I do have a question for you, a big question, - I have a big question for you.

Where are you?

I live in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, which is in Berks County, it's a suburb of Reading.

- All right.

That's enough for the Chamber of Commerce.

What can we do you for?

- Well, I think it is relevant, because I have lived in this house since 1984, which is 37 years.

And over that time, my husband and I developed and also had helped to develop a very attractive, natural and perennial garden.

- OK. And these beds actually surround our entire property.

And as an aside, there is a fence around the entire back garden.

My special interest is hostas and ferns.

- Oh!

- You know what's coming.

- So you're growing deer candy.

- I love miniature hostas.

- So do the deer, that's like the small plates at a good restaurant.

That's got to be your problem.. - Since 1984, we have never had a problem.

Not one sighting of deer anywhere.

I just never even thought of it as a possibility.

It never, never occurred to me.

This is a very residential area where we live, and there are no open lots.

The houses are pretty close to each other.

There's no field right near us.

- But they got you this year?

- Right.

At the end of September, I had a visitor, and so has the entire block.

Many of the people here do have gardens, very nice gardens, with hostas and other ornamentals.

- So they got you this year, huh?

- Right.

Not until the season was almost over in September.

- Well, they're very active in the spring and the fall, because they can't hibernate.

So they're trying to put on as much weight as they can because when it snows, food for deer is difficult to find.

But I want to go back to your thing about, oh, we're a residential community, there's not a lot of room between houses.

They walk up people's driveways and start eating the vinyl off their car.

I mean, deer... My first job after college was as a park ranger in the Fairmount Park system in Philadelphia.

And we were out in northeast Philly at the environmental center.

And we actually did a little citizen science study.

And we found that the closer you got to people's homes, the deer were anywhere from 10% to 20% larger.

They were significantly healthier and they had developed street smarts.

So a deer in a suburban community is much more of a threat than a deer in the woods.

- Well, I have to agree with that, and I was so upset, because when I saw one standing right in the middle of my back garden, I was super upset.

I didn't think they went into enclosed places like that.

- Oh, God.

- I did go to a council meeting.

And frankly, I was told that it's a long-standing problem in the borough with no solution.

- Yeah.

- And the problem is the size of our park area where they do live and breed is not much more than, I think, 350 acres.

And there's a lot of... Everything else is built up.

There are no open building lots.

- Let me take you... Let me let me take you back, though.

You said you have a fence in the back.

How tall is the fence?

- It's just an ordinary split rail fence, but I still thought that would be something which would kind of inhibit their... - Oh, God, no, that would probably be much too low.

They can leap six feet without any trouble.

- I understand that, Mike.

But I guess my question revolves around the fact that the borough commissioner basically said that the Pennsylvania Game Commission had no practical solution for this.

- No, no, nobody does.

They are not native deer, they were imported here many years ago after hunters had killed off all of the Pennsylvania deer.

These are Virginia white tails that were brought here on trains.

Mated pairs were kicked off at every stop, and that was to replenish the supply for the hunters.

Being non-native, they tended to thrive.

Now, I'm going to drop back to a product I haven't spoken about for years, but that has always worked for me.

It is called, and you might want to write this down in case you don't remember it... - OK, I'm ready.

- It is called the wireless deer fence.

- Say that again, please, Mike.

- Wireless.

- Wireless... - Deer.

- Wireless deer... - Fence.

- Fence.

- OK, what it is, is you buy a set, they come in sets of three, they're stakes that go into the ground, they're not very tall and they have a bulging component in the middle that you put two AA batteries into.

Before you put the batteries in, however, they come with scent pellets that attract deer.

So you put a scent pellet on top, you put the batteries in and you put it around the plants that they have eaten in the past.

The deer will come into your garden, they'll lick the top of the scent pellet, and they'll get a low voltage electric shock, and they will run away and eat the neighbor's azaleas.

So you can buy as few or as many as you want.

They are still produced and sold by the original inventor, I believe, out of his garage, I believe in Ohio.

I've used these things for many, many years.

And when you can't do a fence, you can use this to protect certain areas of your home.

Now, the bonus round is if you put these things out in mass in the spring, the new deer, the young deer will come and they'll get a shock and then they'll make an imprint of your property.

And when they walk on to your property again, they will recognize that this is where they got that shock and they'll go someplace else.

So it's a wonderful invention.

The wireless deer fence.

You could look it up.

OK?

- Thank you very much.

I'll give it a try.

- All right.

Good luck to you.

Bye-bye.

- Thank you very much.

Bye.

- Yes, it is once again, time for the Question of the Week, which we're calling...

Sounds like a Clint Eastwood movie!

A master gardener, whose name I have withheld because sometimes I actually have some common sense, in western New York State writes...

Woo!

Don't hold back, oh name withheld Master Gardener!

How do you really feel?

Anyway, I'd like to add that yours is the first such email we've received in close to five years.

All the other listeners and viewers seem to realize that our show is a blend of organic gardening advice and attempted humor, which should be evident from the one-minute billboard that begins every TV, radio show and podcast.

A digression - when I was first starting out on NPR, the show was live, and as a result, much wackier than what I considered to be the tamer shows of today.

Back then, my executive producer would come into the studio after every show and say, "Mike, you gotta give up this comedy thing.

"It's a gardening show!"

My reply?

"If this was just a gardening show, it would close "on Saturday night."

Now, on to birds, specifically, the bluebirds our master gardener mentions - members of the thrush family.

My research shows that some eastern bluebirds migrate south, while some overwinter in their breeding grounds.

But they don't like freezing temperatures.

And because our master gardener is in a frigid area of the country, it is likely that those rescued bluebirds flew back north a little too early.

And I expect that our master gardener did a good amount of research on them because Cornell and other reliable sources specify mealworms as their top human-provided food.

So you did good, oh nameless one, and thank you.

I learned something when I researched the topic.

But that leans in to my correct stance on this issue.

I have long supported and heartily encouraged feeding birds high-protein, high-fat foods in the winter in areas that get really cold.

That's why I have long abdicated... No, I'm not abdicating!

Evocative... No, wait a minute.

That's why I...advocate?

No.

Is that the right word?

That's why I always urge you to hang suet feeders near your garden when temperatures drop.

But mealworms are also an excellent winter food for birds that eat insects most of the time.

However, I also recommend taking down those suet feeders in the spring so chickadees, woodpeckers, bluebirds, etc, will move on to eating overwintering garden pests.

No seed feeders - they spread disease by the unnatural, crowded congregations they cause.

The last two seasons have seen extremely problematic and rather nasty diseases traced back to bird feeders.

There is also the very real issue of training baby birds to rely on human feeding instead of learning to find food in the wild, which those birds have been doing for thousands of years without human intervention.

Hint, hint!

The Humane Society has been campaigning for years to at least stop feeding during the nesting baby bird season for this very reason.

Feeding bird seed in the spring, summer and fall is 100% for human amusement and may actually harm the birds.

I personally stopped feeding seed in the summer some 30 years ago and my place is lousy!

Lousy with birds!

Every morning and evening sounds like four symphony orchestras flung together.

You, all of yous, can do whatever you want here, but please think about the consequences of your feeding, and please take down your feeders if you see sick birds.

But again, I agree with our master gardener about water.

Natural food may be abundant in the summer, but natural water sources typically dry up for extended periods.

So place as many bird baths as possible and put them in the center of your garden so the birds will pass over your plants and dine on tomato hornworms on their way in and out.

And if you can swing it, heated bird baths in the winter are a great idea in colder regions.

Please be sure to empty, clean and re-flesh... Re-flesh?

I guess that's like flush, right?

Please be sure to empty, clean and REFRESH the water as often as possible, both to get rid of bird poop and to prevent mosquito breeding in the warmer months.

It now occurs to me that our master gardener and I are of the same mind.

Her use of mealworms for the bluebirds was snap-on, and her mention of water and shelter are also in line with my philosophy.

PS - If you still have a cut Christmas tree hanging around, stand it up in your backyard and hang suet feeders from it to provide both winter food and shelter.

The only issues I see are our master gardener mishearing that show, and her opinion of my humor.

All of you, please check your source material before you start typing.

That's for everything.

And as to the alleged humor, I do not want this show to close on Saturday night.

Well, that sure was a controversial take on the practice of feeding birds, 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 leisure, or your leh-sure, with links to helpful sites.

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 Carl Denham kidnapped him from Skull Island and tried to star him in a Broadway show that closed on opening night.

Yikes!

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

We must be out of time.

But you can call us any time at...

I'm a trained professional, kids.

Don't try this at home.

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You'll find all of our contact information at our website... ..where you'll also find the answers to how many hundreds now of your garden questions.

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I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

I'm your host, Mike McGrath, and I'm cleaning up after Christmas and still desperately trying to organize my comic books, baseball cards, CDs and a much too large collection of VHS tapes.

Hey, at least they're not Beta!

And I will still be trying to do all of that when I see you again next week.