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

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

Do you grow milkweed to help support the declining population of amazing monarch butterflies?

On today's show, we'll explain why the unfairly maligned milkweed bug may be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

And of course, we'll take lots of your inevitable phone call questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and rigorously redundant rock abilities.

So keep your ears and/or eyes right here, cats and kittens, because it's all coming up faster than you having a mess of monarchs because of those bugs.

Right after this.

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...

Welcome to a brand-new episode of You Bet Your Garden from the studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem PA/ I am your host, Mike McGrath.

And I am delighted to report that I finally found the notes I took from my visit to a great monarch watch garden, meaning the gardener there tags, butterflies to see which ones make it down to Mexico from the East Coast.

So we're going to talk about the so-called milkweed bug and explain why it is actually a part of the process that keeps those monarchs flying.

You won't want to miss it, and you won't, because it's coming up after a bunch of your fabulous phone calls.

Andrew, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Thank you very much.

- Well, thank you, Andrew.

How are you doing, sir?

- I'm doing fine, I'm doing fine, and yourself?

I am just Ducky.

Thanks for asking.

Actually, I'm freezing to death.

We're looking at snow.

It's cold, it's miserable.

What's it like where you are?

- Um, how about blue skies and 70 degrees?

You know, there's all those movies about trading places, you know, The Prince and The Pauper.

Um, you know, and of course, I would be the pauper because I'm on public radio.

You know, you want to just switch and see what it's like to shovel 80 lbs of wet snow?

- No, no, no.

I've got the odd visit to Philly, but that's about it.

I'll stick with my Hawaii.

That's good enough for me.

- Oh, my God, you're in Hawaii?

- Yeah, um, a little town on the northeast tip of the big island.

- Big island, OK, that was going to be my next question.

So, Andrew, what can we possibly do for you in the lush, tropical paradise?

- So I recently moved from one side of the island to the other and have taken on a two-acre smallholding, which I am in the process of raised-bed terracing and growing stuff.

And I've been binge listening to you for the last three months.

I've done every podcast that you've ever done in the last three months, so I can answer all the questions before...

I know all the answers.

So, but my one, the question that keeps coming up to me that I can't get a real answer to is how much is an inch of water?

You're always saying about the fact that people, the biggest thing that causes death of plants is people over-watering.

And I have...

So I purchased a rain gauge as I was starting to do all this.

I hung it on the Thursday.

By Saturday morning, it had two and a half inches of water in it.

- OK. - We had a hell of a storm, and it was my fault because I bought a rain gauge.

- Yes, yes.

- So I just want to apologize to everybody for that.

And so now I've got two and a half inches of water and a rain gauge.

I only need an inch a week Do I not water for a couple of weeks?

Do I...?

And then if I got half an inch of rain, I'm obviously only going to put half an inch of water in.

- So, when we talk about an inch of water a week, a lot of times we're talking about lawns, but we're also talking about vegetable gardens and flowers and shrubs and things like that.

Because if you water too frequently, your plants develop short roots.

You need them to go through a water-free period... ..and dry out completely at the roots before they get another bounce of water.

And it sounds like your soils are consistent with what I'm used to dealing with.

So if you have your rain gauge and you got two and a half inches, obviously, you know not to water right away.

Um, but two and a half, I would say you're probably good for two weeks unless you get a heat wave.

And obviously, you should always be looking at your plants and examining them.

he daily walk-through is the core of organic gardening.

- Yeah, I do that twice a day.

First thing when I get up and first thing when I get back.

So, yeah, at the moment, it's just pole beans.

So, but I'm about to sort of start setting other things - Mm hmm.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Um, so after two weeks from that drenching you got, if things are dry, and the best way to determine if things are dry is get something like a wooden dowel or actually like the kind of wooden stake a vampire would veer away from, and just hammer it into a little piece of soil somewhere and see if it's wet at the tip.

If it's wet at the tip, you don't water, because again, it is crucial to let those plant roots dry out in between waterings.

- Yeah, you're... - Yes, go ahead.

- You're talking about, like, root rot and stuff like that, which I've heard you talk about.

- Absolutely.

And your climate is at least humid, right?

- Uh, yeah, a little.

Not terribly humid, but consistent, it's always, like, it never varies much.

- Fog in the morning?

- Um, no, no, we don't.

- I'm in the right spot for not getting any of that.

- OK. Good, because fog waters plants, if you have enough fog, you don't ever have to water.

Plants can absorb... - That's the next town over to me.

- Yeah.

- It's about 3,000 feet and they have fog every morning.

- Yeah.

Um, and, you know, the giant redwood forests in California, you know, nobody watered them and it doesn't rain.

They get all their moisture from fog.

Can you imagine something growing that tall, as tall as a medium-sized building, and they get all their moisture from fog?

- And they trap it, don't they?

- Yeah, nature is very powerful.

So I think you're right.

It is more important not to water than to water.

So if you go a week without rain, then, yes, you should apply an inch of rain to your garden.

And it's easy to decide how.

What are you going to use?

Do you have a sprinkler or do you...?

- I was going to put soaker hoses in because you're always talking about keeping the leaves dry and all that kind of stuff, because I'm building from scratch, so I can put in what is best for what I want.

And I it appears to be that a soaker hose is a good way to go.

So I was going to add soaker hoses to my runs.

- OK, don't have the hoses too close to the stems of the plants.

- OK, that was one of the other questions.

- Yes.

You want to water the soil.

And let the plants pick it up, because a lot of times when people have these watering systems that water at the root, it washes any nutrients away very quickly and they think they're doing a good thing, but the ground becomes barren.

So,, you're going to have to first, you know, when you get your soaker hoses, check the website of the manufacturer, they may actually give you run times that will tell you how much water you're applying.

My old trick is to get a bunch of cat food cans or something like that and put them out.

Run your soaker hose for a couple of hours in the morning and see what you get.

You know, have some cans underneath the hoses and see how long it takes to fill that up to an inch.

- Thank you very much for all the information from your shows because it's been invaluable to me as a learning curve.

- Well, thank you.

We really do hear from people all over the world and it's just delightful.

So thank you very much for listening.

- No problem, and just keep up the podcast, so I've got something to listen to on the drives.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, yeah, I'm not going anywhere.

- Yeah, good.

- All right.

Pleasure.

Pleasure to speak with you, sir.

- You too sir.

Aloha.

- Aloha to you.

Michael, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi, thanks for having me.

- Well, thanks for being had, Michael.

How are you doing?

- Oh, well, I just got my Covid test.

- And?

- Well, we don't know yet.

- Oh, OK. - Hopefully soon.

Just a formality this time.

- Oh, OK. OK. You all vaxxed out?

- Yes, sir.

- OK, very good.

Where are you, Michael?

- Well, right now I'm in Wilmington, Delaware, but my question pertains to a piece of property we bought in the Allegheny Highlands in Virginia.

- Oh, OK, that's interesting.

All right.

Tell us your story, man.

- Well, my wife and I bought the land.

It's 25 acres, we bought it last year and it was a pretty tumultuous time.

But it was a good deal and it's near a family property down there.

So our hope is to, at some point, do some kind of homesteading or develop the land to work it in some way.

We're, you know, we love to use it as vacation.

But when I started to investigate the soil... ..and really look deeper into what the land might be useful for, we found that it's really...

It's mostly clay and shale.

You go down about an inch, and there's just not a whole lot there, and the surrounding farms, they all seem to have cattle and livestock, which is something we might be interested in.

But I'd really love to grow something there and I'd like to see if the land would produce at all.

But, you know, I've searched the internet, I've seen people like Mike or Mark Shepherd.

He talks about permaculture.

And Laura Ingham, she... She talks about soil regeneration and the use of nematodes and irrigation and certain ways that you can really build the soil health, but... ...with about four acres, maybe six acres of really useful pasture land with a nice big south-facing hill, I wonder if there's anything we can do as far as growing and producing a crop of any kind, other than grass.

My idea was maybe terrace farming, or at least building raised beds in terraces.

And I wonder if you know anything about that.

- Excuse me?!

I invented raised beds, young man!

Let's see.

Oh, first of all, what would you like to grow?

Well, I'd love to, and my wife and I, we agree that nut trees would be lovely.

There's a lot of black walnuts there, but maybe different nut trees and fruit trees would be nice.

- You really want to start... You really want to start at the top, don't you?

This is, you know, you want to go straight to college without kindergarten.

- Well, we tend to do that, actually, to ourselves quite a bit, so... That doesn't surprise me.

- Get personally acquainted with your local extension agent, and they can tell you what succeeds in that area, because it's one thing to be a successful farmer, but that's just the beginning.

Then you have to be a successful salesman, a successful marketer.

The only farm... - It's a business, it's not just... - The business is... What was the great Yogi Bear quote?

90% of the game is mental and the other half is physical.

But, you know, in some ways, 90% of farming is having a way to sell the crops that are guaranteed.

Most farmers sell their crops before they plant them.

They want to make sure there's going to be a good market for them.

And with you being newbies, um, what, uh, you know, you have... And you're going to live there full-time, right?

You can't do this over the phone.

- Sure.

Ideally, yes.

- The first thing I'm thinking of is chickens.

Um, because there's always a market for free range eggs.

But then again, you have to learn how to chicken-farm, you have to protect the birds from predators like hawks.

Cattle require a lot of attention, tremendous amount of attention, and, you know, environmentally, they're not the most popular beasts to have around.

I see a tremendous market in corn and soybeans that are not genetically modified.

Over 90% of the corn and soybeans in the United States are "roundup-ready".

They are bred to absorb massive amounts of herbicide without being harmed.

So there is a huge need for non-GMO corn and soybeans, and they're crops that really don't require a massive amount of daily attention.

If you could learn to grow those and have a successful harvest, it would be, to me, very easy to find a buyer.

So, that's for starters.

Um, we wish you luck.

Stay in touch.

And when you hit a roadblock, you know, turn around.

Don't drown.

- All right, thanks a lot, Mike, I really appreciate your help.

- All right, good luck, sir.

Once again, the time has come for the Question of the Week, which we're calling...

The question - Chase in Delaware City writes... Is pantry flour a real thing?

I'm just not sure.

Anyway... Let's start the answer a little bit off-topic.

Not unusual for me at all, right?

"Fogging for mosquitoes" the old-fashioned chemical way can be devastating to the life in your garden by killing the beneficial insects that keep pests like aphids in line much better than chemicals.

However, if your community is enlightened and sprays the mosquito-breeding preventer known as BTI - bacillus thuringiensis israelensis - mosquito numbers will be noticeably lower, and your pollinators and other beneficial insects will be unharmed.

So get in touch with your local municipality now and see what their plans are for the coming summer.

But if an old-school chemical is going to be in those sprayers, have professionally-made "no-spray zone" signs at the ready, using arrows and/or distance measurements like, "no-spray zone next "60 feet" to indicate start and stop points.

Be sure to inquire if precise legal language or a permit is required.

But if BTI will be in those sprayers, thank those in charge for making an intelligent decision.

Oh, and the wonderful organization Monarch Watch, which we will speak of at great length next week, provides milkweed seeds, information and lots of other useful and fun stuff.

But they also sell metal signs that identify your property as a monarch waystation, for 17 bucks apiece.

Put a few of these up around your property, and the sprayers should bow their heads in shame.

And I am happy to report that every state extension bulletin I checked advocated using sharp sprays of water against aphids and milkweed bugs.

Now, remember, kids, we're not talking about general soakings here.

Sharp sprays are sharp.

Use an adjustable nozzle that has multiple settings and choose laser beam, or turn the single setting on one of those old-school firemen hose nozzles until it delivers a stinging blast.

I can't say this enough.

Multiple research studies have found that sharp streams of water are more effective than pesticides in eliminating aphids, and it's emotionally satisfying to see the tiny sap-suckers go flying towards their final... Yeah.

Shall we say, destination?

Do this correctly, which means cradle the plants with one hand while administering a wicked wad of water with the other, and around 85% of these petite pests will meet their immediate doom and the others will be too depressed to go on.

It's fun for the entire family!

Put on bathing suits and spray the aphids and each other.

Now... ..about those "milkweed bugs" that show up mid to late in the season, they are incredibly distinctive in their orange and black, with the elongated adults having two black kind of triangles at the hind and the head, and a black stripe across the middle of their back, interposed with a charming shade of deep orange.

These bugs seem to go through as many in-stars as Diana Ross does costume changes, and are similar in color, but they're shaped more like a ladybug, right?

Come on, look it up.

OK?

They are true bugs in the world of entomology, and there are two versions defined the same way we define a Philadelphia hoagie.

Small and large.

The lesser milkweed bug is similar to the large milkweed bug, but it's smaller - duh!

- and it is less stylishly adorned.

In any case, this reporter feels that they could have been blessed with a more helpful common name, like milkweed seed bug, because like the beloved conifer seed bug that likes to sleep inside your house in the winter, these are seed eaters that do not ravage other plant parts.

That's why they only appear late in the season because, as Willy Loman famously said, that's where the seeds are.

All seriousness aside, this addition of a descriptive middle name would help growers of milkweed not to freak out when the bugs appear in large numbers on their milkweed plants.

They're only there for the seeds, and they have no effect on the actual plant or on monarch caterpillars that are either munching the milkweed or forming chrysalises, or even adults.

In fact, say the experts, they perform a valuable function as some varieties of milkweed can easily become invasive, Milkweed bugs eating most of those seeds helps normalize the situation and allows the plants to gently self-seed while preventing your stand of milkweed from becoming the new Day of the Triffids.

Gee!

Trust nature to strike a balance.

Where have I heard that before?

Hmm.

To sum up, milkweed plants provide the only known food for baby monarchs - that's the caterpillars - and everyone should be planting milkweed.

Milkweed seed bugs do not interfere with the process and may well prevent your garden from turning into a milkweed farm.

Seeing lots of the colorful bugs does not indicate a problem.

As with many such issues, all you need to do is let nature take her course.

Next week, we look at the different types of milkweed to see which one is best for you, just in time for seed and plant ordering season.

Well, that sure was a revealing look at so-called butterfly pests now, wasn't it?

Luckily for yous, the Question of the Week appears in print at the Gardens Alive website, to read it over in detail with links to lots of helpful sites.

In other words, they say I was right.

Just click the link for the Question of the Week at our website, which is still and will forever be... Gardens Alive supports the You Bet Your Garden Question of the Week, and you will always, always, 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 yours truly, Mike McGrath.

Mike McGrath was created when he discovered an atomic powered jet belt in an ancient Aztec temple, put it on and acquired the powers of a Jaguar, a skintight suit and a cute little pencil mustache.

Yikes!

My producer's threatening to maim my milkweed if I don't get out of this studio!

Oh!

We must be out of time, but you can call us any time at.... ..or send us your emails, your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse teeming towards our garden shore at... ..and, as always, 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 and our priceless podcast.

I'm your host Mike McGrath and I'm still cleaning up after Christmas, 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 can guarantee that I'll still be trying to do that when I see you again next week.