You're tuned in to the Gardening Simplified YouTube podcast and radio show coming to you
from Studio A. Here at proven winner's color choice shrubs. It's Stacy Hervella,
me, Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Yes,
folks, it's Adriana who makes this show blossom on your iPhones, iPads,
computers, car radio, whatever it may be. And we thank you very
mulch for listening and watching. Well, I don't like spiders and snakes,
but that's not what it takes to love me like I want to be loved
by you. Words from Jim Stafford, that famous nineteen seventy four song that
he wrote and released nineteen seventy four. I'm getting old. I can't believe
it, Stacey, you're telling me that's the year I was born. Well,
ask Jim Stafford, or you could ask Pat Wiggers. Pat Wiggers,
a wonder lady who stopped me this past weekend, said every week she never
misses the Gardening Simplified Show, watches it, listens to it, and Pat
was really proud of the fat fact that Pat Wiggers her name the initials were
p W p W and she liked that, and I like that too.
What a nice lady. And she told me she had an incredible climatis in
her backyard. She showed me a picture and she said one day she was
kind of working through that clematis with her hands and a big spider crawled out.
She also had a snake in her yard. She had to call her
husband, who picked up the snake and carried it off into the woods.
Stacy, snakes and spiders are reality in the garden, and I think what
we have to remember is that they need three main things to survive, shelter,
water, and food. And if the conditions are right providing those three
things, odds are you're gonna see snakes in your garden. Yeah. And
you know that food part. That is the really crucial thing, because as
much as people get a little bit freaked out when they see a spider or
a snake, what these animals are eating in the garden. What attracts them
are things that are worse for plants. You know, the snakes and the
spiders are totally benign for plants. They don't eat plants, They eat the
things that eat and damage your plants. So it's kind of one of those
things where you don't want the cure to be worse than the poison exactly,
And the best long term solution is habitat modification. If you have a rachnophobia,
is that what it's called, that's what they say, or you don't
like snakes, And personally I don't like snakes. I really don't. They
kind of creep me out. Now. I know that they're important in the
whole biodiversity of our gardens and our landscapes. But I found a novel way
to deal with snakes. I'm saving that for segment for today, the limerick.
I'll teach you what I do when it comes to snakes. But you
know, most snakes they're afraid of you. They quickly slither away when your
presence is known. Yeah, I mean here in North America are snakes.
We don't have a ton of very venomous or dangerous snakes. And even among
those, they tend to be very reclusive, and they don't want to be
They just want to be out there, you know, chowing down mice and
stuff, not messing with you. So the key is eliminating low shade.
I had a big snake in my garden A couple of years ago. Boy,
it freaked me out, but he was underneath a gigantic tomato plant that
had foliage all the way down to the ground, and so it was cool.
It was a great place to hide hang out. So you've got to
look for those areas of low shade or areas where they can quickly slither away,
whether they're firewood piles or rock walls or whatever they may be. You're
going to make it less hospital to snakes if you have there's no need for
hysteria, so to speak. But the snakes eat insects and rodents, I
mean they are providing a benefit in the landscape. Yeah, I mean a
lot of people have a really serious issue with voles and mice, especially if
you have a lot of shrubs hydranges. They love to eat hydrange of bark,
and so in that case, learning to live with a snake is ultimately
going to do you way more good than trying to eradicate the snake. But
I get it, you know, I don't have a problem with snakes.
I also have no snakes in my garden, so I can't speak to this
necessarily from personal experience, But I like hiking, and I have certainly taken
care of many gardens that did have snakes, and to me, I have
no problem with their presence, but they do rattle me when I see the
move. Good, oh, I didn't even like that. I do tend
to get rattled if if I see a move like I just if I see
a snake like slither before I've you know, identified that it's there, Like
I just have this sort of like you know, primal reaction of like oh
my gosh, you know, danger noodle, as they say. But I
do like them, and I do definitely understand the benefit that they have too
stains. If I'm concerned and it's a time when there's a lot of snakes
around, I'll carry a stick with me. In the garden, you can
kind of just rattle the bottoms of the bushes. I don't go in there
barefoot. I make sure that I have shoes on. You want to keep
grass mode regularly, keep shrubs pruned or pulled away from the house. There
are things you can do to deal with snakes. And then, of course
the notorious area underneath the deck. But that's where raccoons and possums and everybody
else hangs out too, So you may want to seal off the lower portion
of your deck. The snake repellence, I've found that they don't work.
They smell terrible like mothballs. But I think it's more snake oil salesman stuff
than it is look at the environment. As far as spiders are concerned.
Spiders, of course are good website developers, right. I've got a lot
of great spider puns. I'll let them go. You can look them up
on the web. But the King and Queen of garden predators are spiders.
I personally love spiders. I love the silk web that they weave, their
diversity venom to paralyze their prey. Of course, you've got garden black,
widow, brown recluse, wolf, crab jumping spiders. But that's you know.
I've read somewhere that about three to fifteen percent of people have a rechnofobia.
Oh that's pretty high. Yeah. Yeah. In the garden center the
other day, a lady came up to me. She says, can you
show me where the tarantulas are? I'm like, tarantula's We don't sell spiders.
She says, yeah, tarantulas, everybody's got them. So I walked
her over to the succulent. She said, yeah, there they are the
tarantulas. I thought it was interesting. Okay, yeah, she calls them
tarantulas. Anyhow, the biggest benefit of garden spiders is that they eat insects,
mostly the unwanted pests that you don't want in your flower beds like wasps,
beetles, mosquitoes, flies, mayflies, and tall plants help also attract
spiders to your garden. I've found that sunflower plants are a great plant for
attracting spiders to your garden. So if you don't want to attract spiders to
your garden. But you know, I don't think that it's not easy to
just sort of generalize about spider habitat because they will, as you said at
the beginning, they'll go anywhere where there's food, and as far as like
making a home, they have many options. Not all garden spiders spin webs
exactly, so you know, the orb they're called orb weavers, the ones
that make the beautiful sort of stereotypical spider web. But then there's hunting spiders
like wolf spiders, and they don't need a tall plant. They're just going
to be on the ground hunting around for you know, whatever they can find.
The simple fact is if there are insects in your garden, and there
are insects in your garden, spiders are going to be there because that's a
good food source for them. Absolutely. And you mentioned the wolf spider.
That thing is really spectacular. It's quite something to watch, and you're right.
They see a wolf spider, I believe burrows down into the ground or
has a little hole in the ground that it comes out of. So they're
fascinating. And because of their size, wolf spiders can be kind of intimidating
to people. But they're out there cleaning your landscape of some of the nasty
insects that you contend with, and they do a pretty good job of it.
Have you heard of the juro spiders. Oh yeah, lots of people
freaking out about these. Yeah. These are spiders that are native to Asia,
made their way to the US in recent years and they feel they're going
to infiltrate more states in twenty twenty four. They use a method called ballooning,
spinning that web. They get caught in the wind and they travel and
they move. It's they have a natural mechanism called ballooning. But jiuro spiders
have been confirmed in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maryland, and they figure it's going to continue
to move north. So familiarize yourself with this spider again. A spider using
venom to paralyze their prey, not necessarily to cause injury to you. And
spiders are just like the snakes. They really don't want to hang out with
you and many times will just scurry away when your presence is felt right,
and you know, a spider's venom is intended to paralyze prey. It's not
like they are malicious creatures that just are like, oh, who can I
go around and bite today? You know, they want to say it takes
energy, first of all, and they want to save that venom for doing
what counts, which is feeding themselves. So I understand people's fear of spiders.
I think it very much connects to the primal fear that I was talking
about with snakes and seeing them move. And there certainly are many areas of
the world where spiders can be extremely dangerous and extremely harmful. North America just
isn't really one of them. Well I'll tell you what if you do see
snakes or spiders in your garden or landscape, it's an indication and frogs,
bats that there is good biodiversity there and odds are you do have the healthy
landscape, but the case and plants simplified wolf crab. But that's uh.
You know, I've read proven winners. Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success
in the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for
eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market.
Look for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden centers and gardens.
The order of the day is spiders and snakes. And you know,
I think that if you do have a fear of either of these animals or
really anything in your garden or in life when it comes to animals, the
best thing you can do is to take the IPM approach, which is to
say, learn everything that you can about the animal, and then that helps
you understand their behavior. That helps you better understand. You know what the
issues are and what you can do, what you can change in your garden
to make it less friendly for them. And like you said, that's going
to be shelter. That's going to be water, and that's going to mostly
be food. Correct, So there you can't always, you know, stop
certainly insects from being in your garden. But for example, if you do
have snakes, that could indicate that you really have a bigger issue with voles,
with mice, with moles, with any number of small mammals. Chipmunks
is another good one, and in that case you could look at trying to
control those, maybe modifying the habit to make it less friendly for those,
rather than trying to modify the habit to be less friendly for the snake,
because that's that's going to be a much taller order. If there is food
there, they are going to be there. And this is why I've said
it on the show multiple times. If you have spiders in your house,
you need to be a lot more concerned about what they're eating than the spiders
themselves, because there is something in your house that is making it hospitable enough
for this spider to be well fed and happy in your home. Well said
exactly right on it. Do your research. It really helps. And it's
it's kind of like the old proverb to know your enemy, And I'm not
saying there are enemies or that the right approach is to think of them as
your enemy. But the more you learn, the more you can do to
you know, better, make your environment less friendly. And it just seems
a lot less scary. I use a unique i PM approach that I use
myself. We'll share it with you in segment four. In the business we
call this a radio tas So all right, I am eager to hear it
myself. So I did not, you said before, I can't wait to
hear how Stacey ties us into snakes, and I didn't. I'm not tying
today's plan on trial into snakes. If I could have thought of a way
to do that, I would have. But I'm tying it into spiders.
So you know, there are all sorts if you look online, all sorts
of websites and things telling you ten plants that you can plant to repel spiders,
and this all based on myth and superstition. You know, it made
me laugh because one of the plants that kept coming up in these articles was
lavender. Oh. Now, of course lavender has a strong fragrance, but
you know what, lavender also has a flower that attracts a ton of insects,
a lot of inserts like a lot a lot full of nectar. So
you know, if you're planting lavender in the hopes of deterring spiders, it's
not gonna work because all you're in this wall. You know, they bloom
fairly long, about a month, so in that period you're gonna have bees
and flies and moths and butterflies and all these things that spiders are going after.
So, uh, you know that that kind of mentality of like,
oh, ten plants to repel spiders, it almost makes these plants out like
they are spider kryptonite, Like, oh, they can't they can't cross the
lavender line. And that's just not how it works. Spiders do have somewhat
of a sense of smell. It's not like our sense of smell. It's
sort of just helping them distinguish between, you know, the things that they
encounter. But they're not like whoa lavender, better leave, you know.
And then and so many of these sites do kind of imply that that is
the case. Spiders just view it as clickbait on the World Wide Web.
They ignore it. You should, yeah, and again, whenever you see
these things, you do have to like ask yourself, is this a reputable
source. And when I search for plants that repel spiders with the command site
ste colon dot eedu, because that will limit your results to just university websites.
So you know, everything is reputable and reliable, not just you know,
some person just posting stuff on online to get clicks. Not a single
site said that these plants would would repel spiders. And if in the off
chance maybe essential oils or something might have a chance, it's only going to
be indoors. It's not going to work outside. I mean, the outside
is just it's just too big. So you have to if you want to
deter spiders in your garden, you have to deter insects. You have to
deter their prey. And then, of course is easier said than done,
because as we all know, plants and insects go hand in hand. That
is nature's way. But what you can do is to plant things that are
less attractive to insects and and maybe that will prevent the spiders from taking up
residents in your garden. And so my example of this, if you're thinking,
like, well, what are you talking about, just like ornamental grasses
or pines or something with no flowers, no I'm talking about a mophead hydrangea.
Really, yes, specifically gatsby moon mophead oak leaf hydrangea. Now why
would that be okay? So people are familiar with the concept that there are
oak leaf or sorry, that there are mophead and lace cap hydrangels. So
lace cap hydrangeas. Hydrangs have two different flower types, flourete types. They
have a steryl floret, which is the one that you see that's real showy.
That's what most people think of when they think of a hydrangea flower.
They're seeing the sterile florets, and then they have the fertile florets, which
are small, they're star like, and those are full of pollen and nectar
everything that in insects of pollinating insects would want. Now, in nature,
most hydrangeas are inherently lace cap because they exist for the pollen and nectar so
that they can set seed and reproduce and keep being you know, keep that
hydrange of population going. Well. Along comes humans and they're all like,
hey, these steril flourettes are pretty I want more of them. And so
they breed plants selectively and they've developed mophead versions and in a mophead hydrangea,
and this is true of any type of hydrangea, because mophead and lace cap
aren't specific types of hydrangea, they are specific types of hydrorange of flowers.
So an oak leaf hydrangea can be a mophead, A smooth hydrangea can be
a mophead piniculat as. All of them can be either or so in these
mophead when the sterile florets far far outnumber those fertile fluoret pollinators can't get to
them. Now that's interesting, And you know a programming note here. I
know Stacey, and she loves insects. She knows a lot about insects.
She enjoys attracting insects to her yard. So in this case, you're just
kind of painting a scenario for someone who maybe has arachnophobia and doesn't want as
many spiders in there yet, right, so oractophobia if you don't want as
many spiders. A lot of people are allergic to bees. A lot of
people are just plaint afraid of bees, and so planting mophead hydrangees can be
an effective strategy if you want to reduce you know, if you still have
hydranges, you still want summer color and all of that, it can be
an effective way to reduce pollinating insects in your garden. Now that is not
something I personally would want to do or would recommend, but I understand that
everybody is me, and so I wanted to speak about Gatsby moon. Oak
leaf hydrange specifically is today's plant on trial because generally speaking, oak leaf hydrangees,
as North American native shrubs, are very pollinator friendly. So I have
Gatsby pink in my garden. They've grown tall enough that the deer can't eat
them. So I do get some flowers, which is awesome, but yeah,
they are pollinator magnets. When they are in flower, they're fragrant,
they're just covered in those fertile florets. And so yeah, I get bees.
I see all sorts of really interesting insects, and that again, especially
those orb weaving spiders. They set up and they say, hey, this
is a hot spot for insects. I'm gonna I'm gonna weave a web right
here, and I've got a front row seat to the buffet. So when
you have these plants that don't attract them, is they don't attract those pollinating
insects. The spider is just gonna go elsewhere to where there is is better
fixings. As it were. So the Gatsby moon as a mophead oakly fydra
enge, which is not that common. Most oakly fighter anges are lace cap.
The flowers are big and full, and when you see one of these
flowers, and if you see it at a garden center, at a garden
or something, you just try to get in there. They're so densely packed
in the inflorescence that you can't even hardly like separate them with your hands to
get down to those fertile florets, and so neither can the insects. If
it's hard enough to do with your fingers, imagine how hard it would be
for a little bee trying to get in there. It's not worth the effort.
There's other things that it can do. So it's a good choice in
that way, and it's still a beautiful plant. And you know, I
always recommend oak leaf hydrangeas as one of my all time favorites because in my
opinion, they are the true four season hydrangea. A lot of other hydrangeas
they just don't look that great in winter. A lot of them don't have
fall color. Whereas the oak leaf Hydrangea has these beautiful oak shaped leaves that
come out with fuzzy white growth on them in spring flowering just starting to flower
here in Michigan right now in late June, and then the flowers persist through
summer. In fall amazing fall color, beautiful burgundy red. So you see,
for a deciduous plant to have four seasons of interest, that's pretty special.
Yeah, and especially for a hydrangea. Then in winter you get the
beautiful peeling bark. So it's kind of like a having your cake and eating
it to kind of plant. Now, it's not to say that you won't
get any in because I have seen some really interesting wool carter bees on my
oak leaf hydrangeas that harvest the fluff for their nests. So that's always a
fun thing to see. So, I mean, it's impossible to have a
plant without some insects. But again, you can do these things, make
these choices of you know, having a mophead versus a lace cap to try
to reduce the insects and to hopefully in turn reduce the spiders or you know,
like I said at the beginning, another alternative is just to learn everything
you can try to make peace with them, you know, and you know,
carry a stick. It works for the spiders and it works for the
snakes, so you can kind of, you know, go ahead and clear
the pass and scare the spiders and snakes. But even if you aren't concerned
about insects, Gatsby Moon is a beautiful addition to your hydrange collection. It
really is very very unique. There just aren't a lot of those big,
full mopheads that you see, especially when it comes to oak leaf, even
though they're way more popular in the big leaf and the mountain Hydrangeas you just
see how much with the with the oak leaf. It's true and boy gets
my stump of approval. That is a gorgeous plant, so gets by moon.
Oakleaf hydrange is hardy from USDA zones five heat tolerant to USDA Zone nine
six to eight feet tall and wide, so this is a bigger plant.
But if you have a large spot in your garden, you can't do much
better than this beautiful native oak leaf HYDRANGEA look for it at your local garden
center, or of course you can visit us at Gardening Simplified on air dot
com to find all the details and a link to find a direct if you
are so a lot of people are. People are just playing afraid effectively strategy.
If you know if you still have hydrangeas, you still have want summer
color and all of that, it can be an effective way to you.
At Proven Winner's Color Choice, we've got a shrub for every taste and every
space. Whether you're looking for an easy care rose, an unforgettable hydrangea,
or something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the
white containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at
your local garden center. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified Show, where it's, in my opinion, the best time of the
show because I love knowing what's going on out there. I know what's going
on in my garden. I know what's going on in the trial gardens here
around Proven Winner's Color Choice shrubs, but I don't know what's going on in
your garden. So I love reading people's questions and especially your garden celebrations and
your garden quandaries and conundrums, so we can help you resolve them. So
if you have a garden quandary, conundrum or celebration. We would love to
hear from you too. Gardening Simplified on Air dot Com is our website.
There's a contact form there, and you know, you can reach out to
us there with your pictures and tell us what's going on, because it's a
busy time in the garden. And you know, when we get into hydrange
season, which for some people have already started. If you live in a
warmer climate, ooh, that's when the questions really start rolling in. So
I believe that our first question today is home in fact hydrange question. Yes
it is, Tina writes to us, I would love a blue hydrange of
for my garden. My current you know, that's got to be one of
the most desired color plan chands down a garden, hands down. My current
macrophilla is pink despite my adding loads of soil acid of fire. Will the
blue Jangles variety remain blue even in my assuming higher pH soil? Thanks?
Okay, So great question, Tina. I'm going to try to answer this
as quickly and clearly as I can. So it is there's a big there's
a big fact of confusion out there with hydrange's changing their flower color. So
first of all, as Tina points out, only hydrange of Macrophylla, which
is also known as big leaf Hydrangea fluoris hydrangea will change their flower color based
on soil chemistry. Other flowers other hydrangeas will not. This is unique to
this species of Hydrangea, and the color change does not happen solely based on
soil pH A lot of people think that if it's in acidic soil, it'll
be blue, if it's an basic or alkaline or neutral soil, it'll be
pink. But that's not actually the whole story, greed, because you do
need it to be acidic for blue and alkaline for pink or red, but
you also need aluminum in the soil, and aluminum is a naturally occurring soil
mineral, so it's but it's more present in clay soils than in sandy soils.
So Here out in West Michigan, our hydrangeas definitely tend more to the
pink and red. Our soil is neutral to acidic, but we just because
it's so sandy out here, we just don't have the aluminum to get that
blue color. Now, to compound matters, the majority of color change products
that are out there on the market to change the color of your hydrangea are
simply soil acidifiers, so they will make your soil more acid But if the
issue with your hydrange or color change is that it doesn't have aluminum, they
will do nothing. And so you'll keep applying it and applying it and applying
it and making your soil more and more acidic without ever getting the color change
that you were hoping to get. Oh, very true and Stacey and the
garden center industry. I remember selling some product in a bright blue package and
it was called aluminium sulfate. Yes, is that something we're looking Yes,
aluminum right there, the name you got. I figured that I thought I'd
take a shot at you need aluminum sulfate. Now. I would not encourage
you to just go out there and apply STEPH willy nilly. This is a
great opportunity to get a soil test and find out what's really going on.
But if you have been applying a soil acidifier and it's not giving you results,
then chances are the aluminium is the issue, and you are going to
want to put down aluminum sulfate instead of just the soil acidifier, and then
that will add the aluminium ions that need to be there for the chemical reaction
to take place for the flowers to turn blue. No, so that tells
you what you need. But now as for the variety, let's stands blue
jangles, which is indeed a proven Winter's color choice variety. Not every hydrangea
is equally able to go from blue to pink to purple and morph through those
color changes. The more red a hydrange has in it inherently, the less
likely it will be to go blue. So when we put blue in the
name of one of our hydrange of varieties, what that means is that it
will go blue more easily. If conditions are right, it will be blue.
But that if the conditions are right is still important. So yes,
blue jangles will be blue in acidic soil that contains aluminum. But if you
have a soil that doesn't contain aluminum and or it's not acidic, it won't
be blue. That's just the way that it is. But it's to signify
that it can if conditions are right, but that those conditions are really really
crucial. So Tina, I would say, since you have been applying acidifier,
I would just switch to aluminum sulfate make sure that you are reading those
directions very carefully. An over application of aluminum sulfate can actually be very toxic
for plants, so you don't want that to happen. And you also need
to be patient because typically what needs to happen is that the aluminum sulfate needs
to be present when the flower buds are being made, when it blooms.
So it's not like you're going to be able to put aluin himself eight down
and then come out in a week in surprise it's blue. You might see
a little color change, but for those like deep, rich, true blues
that most people are after, it's going to take some time, and you're
going to need to keep applying it over the course of time, and you
will if you want to have a blue hydraena, you'll need to do it
in perpetuity because you're so I will just go back to its natural conditions without
it. So Tina and Blue Jangles, we have our eye on you.
Did you get that? I did? I like that. It's a good
one. Yeah, I thought that was pretty good too, right, I
feel very positive about that. All right, let's continue on here. Thanks
for the note, Tina, Roger writes, to us. I have a
semi dwarf peach tree that I got on Mother's Day. Since then, it's
been going downhill. I've been watering. Other than adding compost dirt around it
and a layer of wood chips over the top, I have added no other
fertilizers. And Roger sends us a picture in Stacey. I took a look
at that picture. One thing I want to note right off the bat is
something I see often, and that is the tree is staked with a steak
that they use in the nursery industry to ship these trees. But it's not
the proper way to steak a tree, so it's right up next to the
trunk. So I would pull that steak off. Initially, it's not causing
your problem, but I recommend pulling that steak off and getting that tree steaked
appropriately. What I saw in the picture Stacey, I commonly see with the
peaches. My personal opinion is it's peach scab. Do you agree or disagree
with me? I don't know that I disagree, But I also what I'm
seeing in this plant is just general stress, okay. And you know a
plant when a plant goes from the grower, which you just bought this recently.
As recently as may goes from the grower it goes to the garden center.
It makes a dramatic change in the conditions that it's experiencing. And the
leaves that a plant makes under a more shaded or protected environment are different than
the leaves that it's going to need when it's out in full sun and wind
and all of that. And so that's what a lot of people will see
happen after they plant something out in the full sun, out in the wind,
and the plant is just like you know, the leaves don't have the
right type of chlorophyll in them, and so a lot of times the plant
will really struggle. And that's what I feel like I'm seeing here is leaf
scorch from the sun. But it absolutely could be a fungus. I mean,
peach trees are, of all fruit trees you can grow at home,
the most notorious for all the crazy diseases that they can get notorious. And
if it's not peach scab, and I would understand that. The important thing
here is if you're irrigating, don't be irrigating over the top and soaking that
foliage or wet foliage into the evening hours, because that's when you're going to
start getting those diseases. Yep. So here's what I would recommend. Take
that steak out. Like Rick said, it's not really doing any good and
it could cause the could cause the bark to get injured and leave an opening
there. I would definitely scratch up the mulch so that water can penetrate a
little bit better. It looks fairly matted down and that can become hydrophobic and
make it difficult for water to reach the roots. And then I would just
continue to care for it as you have been. I would be hopeful that
in the next couple weeks the foliage that emerges is going to be adapted to
the outdoors and be just fine. But just to be on the safe side,
when autumn comes and the plant drops its foliage, make sure you clean
all that up and discard it. Don't compost it, just throw it away,
and that way any fungal spores that are on it will be hauled away
and less likely to harm your plant. But I don't think you have any
huge cause for concern. I'm not seeing welting, I'm not seeing water stress.
I'm just seeing a plant that's a little like WHOA. I've been through
some crazy stuff lately. Gillian writes to us Bonjour, Rick, and Stacy.
I love that I always had that phrase I've used through the years,
Bone Jour. My mom has been dealing with this groundcover for years. She
sends us a picture. Thank you, Jillian. A friend from my childhood
gave it to her. It seems to be spreading by runners and does not
want to take leaf of the area by spraying, cutting, or pulling.
Can you identify what this plant is how best to eliminate it? Thank you,
very mulch. She also mentions I enjoy listening to the show while with
my horse. I'd love for it to be longer, especially the details section
of the plants on trial segment. And Stacy, looking at that picture,
you nailed it right off the back. Yes, I did. And I
was laughing about this, Gillian, because this is a plant that just last
episode, Rick was talking about this plant and he said, I do not
recommend that you plant This is when we were talking about the plants that undergo
color changes. It is chameleon plant known as houtunia. And yeah, it
is a nightmare. Honestly, it's I don't know if you could call this
a friend. I'm sure they were well intentioned, permanent It is one of
the worst weeds, worse, most aggressive groundcovers, and worse weeds to try
to deal with in the garden because it does spread by runners, and those
runners are really thin and really fragile, and so you try to pull it
out in any little piece of those runners still in the soil is just going
to cause the plant to come back proper dated. So probably the easiest way
to try to control this is, if possible, make the soil dryer.
They cannot deal with dry soil. They love moist, wet conditions. So
if you have an irrigation system or other ways that this area is being watered,
try cutting back on that. That's not going to take care of it,
but that can certainly help the help it spread less aggressively. It is
even hard if you're willing to use an herbicide on it. It's hard to
control with an herbicide because it's really really waxy. If you are going to
try it, I have found that more of a two four D based herbicide
works better than a glyc of state herbicide on those plants. Where it's hard
for things to stick. But if you are going to try it, I
would actually try it in spring before that waxy coating comes off develops, because
then you should be able to get better contact. And hopefully it's going to
take repeated applications. This is one of those weeds that you can't just say,
Okay, I weeded and I'm good. It's going to take many seasons
of concerted effort, and I would say a variety of techniques to try to
control it. Karma chamelia yes, also known as chameleon plant, although yours,
for some reason it is all green instead of colorful, which so you're
not even getting color. You just have this obnoxious speed. So I will
put some resources for you on the show. Outes at Gardening Simplified on air
dot com. We got to take a break. When we come back,
we've got branching news. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven
Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed
and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look
for proven Winners color Choice shrubs in the distinct of white container at your local
garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching
News and Stacey. I threw this story in this week for Branching News.
A very nice lady by the name of Nary Brown was visiting the Walmart in
Pineville, Louisiana last week when she found an unexpected item in her shopping cart,
right where she normally stows her kids. In the cart, there was
a venomous snake. Yikes. Yes, this has made the rounds on Facebook.
Her Facebook post that she didn't even see the snake at first, an
other customer pointed it out to her. She says she's grateful she took her
kids to daycare instead of to the store with her. The snake appears to
be a juvenile cotton mouth snake. Wow, yikes, and that brings up
the point I mentioned in the first segment my IPM. Wait, wait,
they didn't say how it got there, No, they don't. She just
looked down in her cart and all of a sudden, cotton mouth. I'm
gonna guess that the cart was probably out in the parking lot, and then
when they collected it up, it kind of coiled up inside. That makes
sense. Yeah, that makes sense. There you have it. Surprise free
snake with every purchase. Like I said, hysteria at the wal Mart.
So there you go. Gave her quite a fright. It would me too.
So my IPM approach for dealing with snakes me personally is this. I'll
give it to you in the form this week of a limb a rick,
and that is how do I proceed with a level of class with reptiles.
I'll take a pass. I'm not much of a snake charmer. As a
matter of fact, I wear armor when faced with a snake in the grass.
Snakes aren't for everyone, so not to be outdone when faced with a
slithering serpent or any other intruding insurgent. I've trained myself to run, and
boy, Stacy, can I unfast? I know you, so running is
always an option. That's my IPM approach to dealing with snakes in the garden.
I've taught myself how to run, and you know, perhaps the impact
of your feet on the earth will make the snake go away. On the
cycle, I probably scare the snake away to that way. Hey, this
is a fabulous story. I love this. This is right in my wheelhouse.
And again, any of these stories we post them to Gardening Simplified on
air dot com. That's our website. You'll find links there and links to
stories, information, pictures, so make sure to visit Gardeningsimplified on air dot
com. A mechanic has built the fastest wheelburrow in the world in his garage.
Dylan Phillips has modified the wheelbarrow to fit an engine and a sled so
it can hit a top speed of more than fifty miles per hour. We
heard that right, a wheelburrow that's faster than fifty miles per hour. After
two years of tinkering, Phillips, who's thirty eight years old, has claimed
a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records after the wheelbarrow reached an average
of fifty two point five eight miles per hour and a high speed of fifty
six point eight two miles per hour. The previous record, held by Kevin
Nix was forty four point six miles per hour. He just did it for
fun. The videos fun to watch, the story's fun, and kudos to
him. I consider him a true entre manere. Dylan Phillips, the world's
fastest wheelbarrow. Well, so I'm taking at this is not a wheelbarrow that
you stand behind and and propel. He sits behind it. Okay. So
he made a little sled and he's said, okay, God, that's the
sled part. Okay. Because he doesn't run beyond then he is that when
I was installing all my mulch a few weeks ago, fifty miles an hour
would have been helpful. How about a story. Tolos out today's show in
VideA is a company led by CEO Jensen Huang. He says a Japanese gardener
taught him one of the most profound learnings of his life, and it's why
he can be on top of every detail of his three point two trillion dollar
chip Giant I mean amazing. Jensen is known in Silicon Valley for his meticulous
attention to detail, and it was a chance encounter with a Japanese gardener that
helped the CEO realize he has the time to be a perfectionist instead of racing
to the next project. He used to work in one of their overseas offices.
He learned this lesson while on vacation with his family. He was in
Kyoto, Japan, at the Silver Temple and the Mosque garden, and they
visited. He said, it was suffocatingly hot and humid. Sticky heat is
radiating from the ground. And along with the other tourists, they wandered through
this meticulously groomed moss garden. He noticed a loan gardener. Now, remember,
this moss garden is gigantic and it's exquisitely maintained. He noticed a loan
gardener squatting carefully picking at the moss with a bamboo tweezer and putting it into
a bamboo basket. Now he thought that what in the world is going on
here. He walks up to him, and he says, what are you
doing, he says, and the gardener says, I'm picking dead moss.
I'm taking care of my garden. Now, Jensen said, but your garden
is so big, and the gardener responded, I've cared for my garden for
twenty five years. I have plenty of time. Now that's really really something,
because Jensen Huang has twenty six thousand employees, and he he now feels
that he has the capacity to support them, that he's not too busy for
them. He used this in a graduation address, and I thought that that
was that was really neat the impact that this gardener at that mosque garden had
on this the CEO in his work, he was meticulous. Yeah, you
know, I have been to Japan and I've actually been to that garden,
and yeah, you see in any garden that you go to in the Kyoto
area, you will see gardeners, you know, crouching down and weeding areas
with tweezers. It's it is definitely an exercise in care and in patience.
But you know, I feel like gardening is so poignant like that. I
mean, have you ever read the book Being There by Jersey Kauz Escape or
seen the movie very much like The Gardener comes out with all these life insights
that completely change the financial world. Now, speaking of gardening the financial world,
I saw I was watching financial TV a couple days ago and I saw
this thing and it said so and so oh will now move to whatever company
after a period of gardening leave. And I stood right, I said,
gardening leave? Is this a real thing? And I but my instinct said
no. My instinct said no, this person did not take leave to work
on their garden as lovely as that would be, and as much as I
was thinking, well, gee, I could take some gardening leave to no.
It turns out gardening leave is a term for when someone leaves a company
but is under like a non disclosure because I have like a big project that's
going to be, you know, coming out. So the company still pays
them, but they don't have to work. And that is in financial sector
and probably tech as well known as gardening leave. Wow, I'd like that,
get I know. So whether this person actually did any gardening on their
gardening leave, I don't know, but I was extremely disappointed to find out
it was not, in fact a leave dedicated to horticulture. That's great,
you could add that to your investment horfolio, right, are you good?
Hey? Real quickly? You know how much I disliked garden hoses? Yeah,
oh yeah, So I was happy to see this story. A homeowner
uses his garden hose to save his house from serious fire damage. It happened
last week in Fargo, North Dakota. A Fargo homeowner's quick actions potentially saved
his home from significant damage. A fire started on his deck was spreading to
his home by the time the fire department got there he had put it out
with the garden hose. So garden hoses, you know, they have a
reputation of getting kinky and you trip on him and hoses frustrate me. But
in this case, this homeowner used his garden hose to do a good thing.
He did the work before the firefighters got there and saved his home.
I thought that was a good, feel good It is a feel good story.
I'm just shocked that he didn't have any kinks in the hose, that
it wasn't all knotted up, and that he was able to, you know,
quickly turn on the water and deliver it where it needed to be,
because that does not seem didn't get caught on the edge of the bed while
he's trying to go put out the fire exactly. So I'm glad that everything
worked out well and that for once, garden hoses did not live up to
their frustrating reputation. There you go. Thanks for watching and listening to the
Gardening Simplified Show. Remember we are a podcast, YouTube show, and radio
show. You can get more information at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, and
we'd love to have you send pictures and notes. We always love to hear
from you. Thank you, Stacy, thank you Rick, thank you Adriana,
and thanks to you for making the Gardening Simplified Show part of your weekly
habit. Take care,