-Hi, thanks.

-Well, thank you, Laura.

How are you doing?

-Oh, doing pretty well.

It's about 34 degrees today.

-Okay.

Where is it 34 degrees?

-Well, I'm actually sitting in Norman, but I live in Goldsby.

-Oklahoma.

-Right.

-Okay.

I have had such good times when I have visited Oklahoma.

It is...

There's a lot of rabid gardeners down there.

-Well, I am one of them, and I have a question for you.

-I hope so.

Let's go.

-Okay, so hydrangeas are my favorite and especially if they can be blue, but I have not been able to successfully raise any myself, and so every year for my birthday which is the beginning of June, my best friend buys me a hydrangea, and I plant it in the place that I think is best, and every year it dies, and so some years I'll plant one before my birthday, and then she'll give me one, and I'll plant that one, and they both die.

-Huh.

-So I thought I would ask for some advice.

-Okay, well, your soil tends to be alkaline, and if you're going to grow the mophead variety, the most common variety of hydrangea, typically in your soil, the flowers would be reddish-pink.

If you want blue ones, you would add an acidifier to the soil like peat moss or because your soils tend to be extremely alkaline, I might go right to sulfur.

-I actually have added some sulfur chips, and I was afraid maybe that was part of the problem.

-Sulfur chips?

-Well, you know, it's real, almost looks like kitty litter or something.

-How festive.

I was going to think of, like, potato chips, sulfur chips.

I mean... -Well, no.

Tell me what you would recommend.

-Well, first, June is a little late.

-Okay.

-You want to get your hydrangeas in the ground before it starts to get really hot down there, and your hydrangeas of any type cannot take a late-afternoon, noon-day Sun.

They need to be planted in a spot where they're going to get morning Sun ideally only until around noon and then partial shade for the rest of the day.

-Okay.

-It's really easy to burn them up, especially in your kind of big-sky situation.

They are very shallow-rooted plants, and they are one of the first plants to beg for water.

Every time you plant a hydrangea, drag a hose over there and set it to drip and just let it drip, drip, drip like an annoying faucet literally for 24 hours.

Never use a sprinkler to water hydrangeas.

Never water them with a watering can.

They really don't like getting their leaves wet, but they love being watered down at the base.

-Okay.

-If you wanted to invest in those watering hoses, you know, the ones that either sweat or have little holes in them... -Yes.

-That's the best.

-Okay.

-And keep an eye on them.

Hydrangeas, when they start to get a little dry, hydrangeas are real drama queens.

-Mm-hmm.

-They will wilt, and it won't be hard to tell.

They'll go from...

Uh, you know?

So if they do that, you know, just water them.

Now, when you're watering them at the base, you can water them day or night.

It doesn't matter.

-Okay.

All right.

-But make sure...

But don't make it a short, big watering.

That's useless.

You want to water them slowly and for a long period of time.

-So tell me about the timing again.

If June is too late, I usually put my garden in around April 15th is kind of our frost-free date where I live, so... -Yeah, yeah.

I think that's good.

April 15th, May 1st, but, you know, the hours of daylight are advancing rapidly at that point, and the days are getting markedly hotter, and you want to put these plants in the ground before it starts to get really hot so they can get acclimated.

-Okay, I'll do it.

-All right.

Good luck to you.

-Thanks so much.

-Oh, my pleasure.

Take care, Laura.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

The number to call: 833-727-9588.

-Hi, Mike.

How are you?

-I am just ducky today, Tim.

Thank you for asking.

How are you, sir?

-I am doing very well.

It's a bit cold here in Oklahoma City.

-Oklahoma City, one of my favorite places, great gardening community there.

What can we do you for?

-All right.

So 2 years ago, I decided to build a raised bed for my tomato garden, and I built a 4-by-16 raised bed to about 1-foot-high bed, and the local garden center had suggested to fill that bed with a mix of two topsoil bags and one peat humus and one manure bag, and I did that, but that year, I didn't have any good crop.

I only had, like... -Yeah.

You should not have listened to them.

They should not have advised you.

Was this an independent garden center, like a family-run place?

-Well, it was actually the home improvement center.

-Yeah, you're... Yeah, you're never going to do well there.

You really... You're going to get your best advice.

You're going to get your best materials from family-run independent garden centers.

These places need your business, too.

The big-box stores are killing them, but when you go to a family-run independent garden center, those people have been working with plants for decades.

When you go to a big-box store, you know, I don't care if they've got a greenhouse outside.

The person telling you that could have been working in air conditioning ductwork the day before, so... -I learned that the hard way.

-Yeah, exactly.

Peat moss is not a universal soil amendment.

It's highly acidic, so it has to be tempered with lime or wood ash.

You never want to use any kind of manure around fruiting plants.

You need to find a good source of yard waste compost.

Now, yeah, Oklahoma City is actually, to many people's surprise, a real gardening Mecca.

Do you ever go to the botanic garden in the middle of town?

-Yes, yes.

-Why don't you go there and ask their advice on a great place to get yard waste compost, compost made mostly from shredded leaves, no wood or anything like that in it?

-Sure.

-You may be able to get it in bulk, they may have it there.

There may be a municipal program that you can buy it or get it for free, and then as much of your old junk as you're willing to take out, especially visible wood, you know, if you could get 4 to 6 inches of that out of there and replace it with compost, your tomatoes would thrive.

-Okay, and just to let you know that I have started my own compost.

I just built a little tumbler over the summer, actually over the fall, and I'm just now filling up and just waiting for the summer to start or spring to start to try and get some compost, but I need something between now and then to get my tomato going -- -Very few homeowners can make the kind of quantity that you're going to need.

The best compost is made by mixing shredded fall leaves and spent coffee grounds, which you can get from any coffee shop.

That'll give you magnificent compost.

-Sure.

I'll do that.

I'll do that.

-But find a good source of compost.

Again, the botanic garden in the middle of town is just absolutely stunningly beautiful.

You get good advice there and then call your local extension office, and maybe they have lists of places with reliable bulk compost.

But I'll tell you, next time you go to the home store, buy light bulbs.

That's... Buy light bulbs and batteries.

Find a good independent garden center and make a relationship with them.

-I will definitely do that.

Like I said, I learned the hard way, so I'm trying to fix it up now.

-Yeah, well, without mistakes, we would never progress.

-That is correct.

-I like that.

Did I just make that up?

All right, Tim.

Good luck to you, sir.

-Thank you.

You, too.

Take care.

Have a good day.

-You, too.

-Thanks.

-How are... -How are you today?

-I am just ducky today.

Hope, how are you doing?

-I'm fine, fine.

-And where is Hope fine, fine?

-I live just outside of Altoona, Pennsylvania, a little town called Coupon.

-Okay, very good.

I know Altoona.

-Yeah.

-What can we do for... You know, I got to say.

That's kind of "The Frozen North" up there.

-We still have 6 inches of snow which actually leads me to my first question, and that is that I have read for many years that snow cover is protective of plants in the wintertime.

-Absolutely.

-However, I had one plant in particular that seems to do strange things with that menace, Pieris japonica.

When it's covered...

I've noticed this a few times.

When it's covered with snow for several weeks, months maybe, and then the Sun finally comes out and melts all of the snow.

Within 10 days or 2 weeks, the plant looks horrible, and it starts getting very brown and loses all its leaves.

-And does it recover?

-I think.

You know, in the season, I think it eventually puts on more leaves.

-Okay, but the plant you're referring to, is that, like, the common name is the lily of the valley tree?

-It's a shrub.

-And it has flowers that look like lily of the valley.

-Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

Yeah, uh-huh.

-Yeah, okay.

Is it possible that it is near a gutter or some other form of water retaining area compared to the other plants around it?

If that area...

If a lot of snow melts... -Uh-huh.

-And the area doesn't drain well... -Uh-huh.

-That can really stress a plant and lead to root rot and even death.

-I see.

I thought about that, but that would be concurrent.

Yeah.

-Yeah, so... -That might be it.

-The answer there is just extend the gutter out, you know?

Get...

But in the past, I would tell people to get one of those rolly things that rolls out by water pressure... -Uh-huh, uh-huh.

-...and then rolls back up again, but we found that they're a great hiding place for mosquitoes in the summertime.

-Oh, okay.

-So I would just run a straight piece of gutter a little bit further out.

Okay.

You got something else?

-Yeah.

Do you have an organic solution for asparagus beetles?

-Yeah.

Now, you live on... Do you live on a big property or anything like that?

-Yes, yes.

-Yeah.

-About an acre.

-Do you have chickens?

-Uh, no.

-Would you like to have chickens?

-No because of what they...

I'd be calling you about questions about how to get rid of the chickens.

They're eating everything else.

-Not really, not really.

Chickens can be well-maintained, and there's this great technique called a chicken tractor where... -Mm-hmm.

Oh, I think I know what that is.

My friends had one of those.

You move it around everywhere.

-Exactly, and it has a lot of different forms.

It can either be a huge cage that you use to keep the chickens in one spot.

-Mm, mm.

-Or it can just be a big roll of welded wire fencing that you set up and then run the chickens inside.

-Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

-Chickens love asparagus beetles.

-Mm-hmm.

-So your asparagus comes up, and it looks good, and you stop harvesting it at a certain stage, and then you let some of the stalks turn into fronds, right?

-Right, and the worst damage I think is in the early season when there's fewer of them, and the little buggers, I think, are sucking the fronds dry, so as the season goes on, I seem to have less problems because there's more asparagus coming up, and they can't keep up with all of the asparagus.

-You know, once the fronds have done collecting solar energy in the fall... -Yeah, yeah.

-They're there really to keep snow in place... -Yeah.

-...because that does keep that snow covering.

The asparagus likes the insulation.

-Uh-huh.

-But as soon as your weather turns nice, I would suggest you go out and cut those fronds down.

-Uh-huh.

-And then the old school says to burn them to get rid of the eggs, and... -Yeah, uh-huh.

-You may not have any trouble after that.

-I've tried that.

Is it...

I don't have to worry too much about killing the asparagus or anything.

I mean, I can really fry the crowns kind of thing.

-Oh, no, no, no.

You cut the fronds and carry them away and burn them.

-Oh, oh.

Oh, I see.

I see.

No, I've done it in situ.

-No, no, no, no.

That would not be a good idea.

-Oh, okay.

Okay.

-All right?

-Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

-All right.

Good luck, Hope.

-Okay.

Bye now, Mike.

-Bye-bye.

1-833-727-9588.

-Good morning, Mike.

-Hello, Diana.

How are you?

-I'm fine.

Thank you.

How are you?

-I am just ducky.

Thank you for asking, and where is Diana fine?

-I am phoning from Powell River in British Columbia.

-Oh!

-It's a small coastal town.

-It's beautiful up there, isn't it?

-It's gorgeous, absolutely beautiful, paradise.

-Great.

What can we do you for?

-Well, I enjoyed your book on growing tomatoes very much.

-Well, thank you.

-And I'm saving up my eggshells as we speak.

-Good, good.

-So is everybody else in my family, but I grow my tomatoes in a greenhouse because we do get quite a bit of rain, and they're susceptible to the late blight, and I just was wondering if you could give me some advice on watering tomatoes in the greenhouse.

-Yes.

-I don't think I'm doing it right.

I'm watering every day.

-Oh, that's totally wrong.

Okay, so, how do you water now?

-I usually go out early every morning and water.

-But how specifically?

Walk me through.

-Oh, with a hose at the ground level.

-Okay.

-I don't let it touch the leaves.

-Well, you try not to.

-I try not to, yeah.

-So you can get a hose out to the greenhouse.

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

-So... -It's not that big.

-Why don't you make the next step then and invest in some drip irrigation lines?

You wouldn't have to bury them inside a greenhouse.

You could get the kind that either have little holes in them or that actually sweat the water out.

-Mm.

-And then there would be no possibility of any kind of splashing, and you'd get the most bang for your buck.

-Okay.

-Yeah.

-And I would just leave... How often would I run that?

-Well, how hot does the greenhouse get?

-Well, usually it's not too bad.

It's...

I'm thinking in Celsius now, so it's maybe in the 80s.

-Okay.

-But last summer was very hot, and it was well into the high 90s for a few weeks.

-Okay, and how can you vent your greenhouse?

What can you do to release that heat?

-Well, it has two vents in the roof, and it has a side vent, and I leave the door open.

-Okay, so that's good.

Are the roof vents automatic, or they work on a just a... -Yeah, they're automatic.

-Okay, so you're in really good shape.

I would... And the plants will tell you.

I would run the drip irrigation for a few hours twice a week.

-I see.

-That's what I would start at.

-Okay.

-If you're watering every day, you're going to have shallow root systems because the roots aren't trying to follow the water line into the ground, and you could be causing overwatering problems.

Your region is not dry.

There's a lot of moisture in the air, so overwatering would be a bigger problem than underwatering.

-Okay.

Great.

-All right.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Your book was great, one of the most practical ones I've read in ages.

-Oh.

-So thanks.

-You know, when I write my instructions so to speak, I try to walk myself through it.

I try to picture exactly what I'm doing, where my hands are and everything like that, and that's my goal is, is to make it really clear for people.

-Well, you did a good job.

Thank you.

-Well, thank you very much.

All right.

You have a good season.

-Yeah, thanks so much.

Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

All right.

As promised, it is time for the question of the week which we are calling, "There must be 50 ways to kill your sluggies!"

Carol in Chesapeake, Virginia, who listens to us on WHRV, writes, "I've been buying flowers and setting them outside in their original pots every spring, summer and fall for the past 25 years, including geraniums, verbena, pansies and zinnias.

The past 2 years, however, I've had a terrible problem with snails eating the plants.

I have tried nearly every remedy I could find on the Internet with no success, including beer, coffee grounds, Epsom salts, Sluggo, Vasoline around the tops of the pots, mothballs, garlic spray, eggshells and the balls from sweet gum trees.

We never saw snails previously and have not done anything significantly different in the areas around the pots."

Well, before we address your mollusk-ian marauders, we have to review your Internet list as a cautionary warning to others.

There's no reason to expect coffee grounds, Epsom salts or garlic spray to be effective against these pests, but at least they're safe.

Mothballs are not safe.

It's shocking that they're still for sale.

These little balls, of kidney cancer in a box are extremely dangerous to you, pets, wildlife and just about every living thing on the planet.

Whatever site recommended them should be ashamed of itself.

Now, let's take a closer look at your could-have-worked choices, starting with beer.

Beer can be highly effective, especially when used as a diagnostic tool when you aren't sure what's causing overnight damage to your plants.

Both snails and slugs work at night and thus often go undetected.

Now, to use beer effectively, bury some small containers near the affected plants, things like cat food cans and the little 1/2-pint containers from the deli.

Make them flush with the soil.

You want to make it easy for the pests to fall in.

Then as evening falls, crack a fresh can of yeasty beer and fill those containers.

Do not fill them during the day.

They'll be useless by the evening.

Do not use "stale beer."

Slugs and snail like stale beer about as much as you or I would.

If this tactic proves to be effective, buy a case of the cheapest beer you can find.

Empty the containers of their dead, drunken quarry every morning and refill your traps every evening.

Now, products like Sluggo and Escargot are pelletized yeast laced with iron phosphate.

The slugs go for the yeast and then are incapacitated by the iron.

A light sprinkling on the surface of the soil around your plants should be effective.

Don't pile it up.

Mist it slightly at dusk for optimum results.

Vasoline, that's really interesting.

I suspect the mollusks might actually find it comforting as it's a lot like their slime.

I can't see it hurting them.

That brings us to eggshells and itchy balls.

That's what we used to call those round, spiked sweetgum tree seed heads when we threw them at each other as kids.

Eggshells, there is some thought that slugs won't cross over a line of calcium, but for that to work, you'd have to crush the shells up very fine.

A commercial product known as diatomaceous earth, or just DE, would be a much better choice.

To us, it looks and feels like flour, but it's very sharp on a microscopic level.

It needs to be bone-dry to be effective, and if you surround the plants with enough itchy balls, I can't imagine snails trying to mollusk their way in.

Now, you say you put out store-bought containers of plants.

I suspect that because of their relatively small size, you're overwatering them, or watering them at night, which is the worst you can do, just before the slugs go to work.

Only water your plants in the morning, and don't water them every day.

Keep them a little bit on the dry side until this problem is taken care of.

You can also try capturing the pests underneath wooden boards.

The University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources suggests laying down the boards with little stones or something holding them up about an inch off the ground.

Slugs and snails will retreat to this easy protection at sunrise.

Later in the day, you'll go out and scrape your catch into a bucket with some soapy water in the bottom.

Taunt them as they drown.

Copper can be wildly effective.

Slugs and snails get electrocuted when they touch copper which is very cool to watch.

You can buy thin strips of copper flashing at hardware and home improvement stores and wrap it around the outside lip of your containers.

Wear good gloves, though.

Copper flashing can be very sharp.

Now, Martha Stewart once solved a similar problem by hot-gluing copper pennies around the tops of her containers which might be more workable if you transplanted into bigger pots to get a wider surface area to work with.

Another option is to place lettuce leaves and citrus rinds on the ground around the pots and then go out late at night or early in the morning and collect it as the beasts are still feeding.

Similarly, you can wet the plants down like blazes in the early evening and then go out at midnight with a flashlight and handpick the pests.

Now, be sure to check the undersides of your containers for snails in hiding and/or their eggs.

Snails and slugs love the moist, dark areas underneath pots.

And finally, don't pour salt on them.

Yeah, it makes them writhe and dissolve, and it's fun to watch, but it's also very bad for your plants.

A cautionary note on today's feature: Although it may seem like getting even, don't attempt to eat your garden snails.

The ones that France has made famous, and which are delicious, have been farm-raised on a special diet that prevents them from forming the toxins that are present in the ones that are eating your plants.