Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A here at proven winners, Color Joy Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, Me,
Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well
today it's our just do It show. That's right, Just
do it suggestions of things you should do in your
garden or landscape. And I guess I'll say right off
the top. Subscribe to the Gardening Simplified Show podcast and
YouTube channel. And thanks for listening to the radio show
version of the show. Here's one for you. Stacy, use
mulch and groundcover under trees instead of grass. I was
looking at a Purdue University study about how much water
a large mature tree pulls out of the ground on
a daily basis in summer. Amazing. So trying to grow
grass under trees isn't good for the grass, isn't good
for the tree, and isn't good for you. It can
be frustrating.
Speaker 2: And your lawnmoweruse you got all those surface roots that
you're trying to go over and you're nicking it, and
that's not good for the blade. It's a lose lose situation.
I actually had a someone asked me the other day
what they should do because they had tree roots in
a lot of shade, which is already a combination for
you know, difficult to grow grass, but it had a
lot of traffic, and I sold her to just put
in a path of rocks and you know, like stepping
stones or something like that. It's it's a tough situation,
but yeah, definitely mulch parklike or groundcover if you can
put it. If you can, you know, plant them with
the tree roots, because sometimes the tree roots are so
surface heavy and so dominant that it's very difficult. But
it's a challenging situation. On the bright side, you have
a mature tree.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, so put mulch underneath it. It's healthier for the tree.
You don't want to grow grass right up to the
trunk damage it with lawn equipment. There's one there's a
difference in genetics of proven Winner's annuals compared to other,
let's say, non branded annuals grown in flats from seed.
There's a big difference. And when I'm working in the
greenhouse at this time of the year, I always tell
people Supertunias Salvia's verbena. Stacey just do it because there
is a big difference for me working in the garden
center industry, the typical garden center weekend customer. We like
to think that they're thinking about the new cultivars that
are out there and the various cultivars that they can
choose from. The reality is what's on their mind, and
when they verbalize it is one, will the deer eat it? Two?
How much is it? Three? Where's the restroom number? Four?
How late are you open?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, it's your people are always I feel like
most people are very overwhelmed at the garden center and
they just want simple answers. You know. I do think,
you know, having grown them and grown the knockoffs at
times when I couldn't find the proven winners that I wanted.
And a great example for any garden center who's listening,
I can't find Vermillionaire kufia anywhere this year. Yeah, my
favorite proven winner's plant far superior to the similar varieties
of kufia that one garden center was selling, just kind
of a generic. And I've grown that one for years
and it's not as good as Vermillionaire because it doesn't
have the investment in R and D. It's still a
good plant and by all means grow it. But know
that that extra cost with the proven winners has gone
into the R and D to make sure that you
have a better experience, that your plants last longer, bloom longer,
are lower maintenance. So it really is worth it, and
especially if you're not a confident gardener, it's kind of
a no brainer.
Speaker 1: I feel like, and you're so right. The R and
D behind these plants is what helps sure success in
your landscape. Assess the amount of time you're willing to
invest in caring for your garden. Choose plants and designs
that match your maintenance capabilities.
Speaker 2: Makes sense, Well, yes it does, except that your maintenance
capabilities largely depend on your plant selection capabilities. Because if
you're picking the right plants for your area, for your conditions,
sure they're generally pretty low maintenance. You know, some things
like you might say, oh, you know, Rosa Sharin for example,
drops a bunch of flowers, you know, after they're done,
and maybe that to you is maintenance. Personally, I just
leave them there to dry out and blow away. Don't
really lose any sleepover it. But some people they like
to keep a very tidy you know area and not
have all of those around. So to them, rosa share
might be a high maintenance plant, but it's all in
citing it properly. And I guess having reasonable expectations of
what you think is maintenance, because I'll tell you I
can let a lot of stuff slide in favor of
other garden tasks. That's just me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. Here's one for you. Just do it.
Get to know what the plant's habitat or native habitat
is like. Now, I'm not talking about identifying what country
or what state or what area of the country a
plant comes from, not the geographical place. I'm talking about
the habitat. I have often said this to people trying
to grow houseplants indoors. You have the dry air, indoors,
lack of light. Let's think about where this plant comes
from and what it likes. I'll throw a couple of
quick examples out there. We've received comments from viewers and
listeners about river birch. The tree likes to grow along
stream beds or river beds, and you put it out
in the middle of a yard grow grass right up
to the base. You may struggle with that plant or
another example I remember years ago, let's say early nineteen nineties,
in the garden center industry, Fraser fur became a super
popular Christmas tree. Yep, fragrant needle retention straight. Only about
three percent of the trees being grown, let's say in
our state here, Michigan, were Fraser furs. Now, these are
trees that like the if you think about the Appalachian Mountains,
you think Tennessee, North Carolina, humidity, some fog, moisture upper
levels of the mountains, plenty of rainfall, especially in summer,
let's say, and you put that out in the middle
of Michigan with a hot summer, it's going to be
difficult to grow. Growers had to adjust. Now Fraser fur,
many of them are grown in Michigan for the Christmas
tree industry. The point is understanding what the habitat or
environment of a plant is in order to better grow
at yourself in your yard.
Speaker 2: It gives you so much information. And I think this
is especially useful if there's a plant that you love
and it keeps dying and you keep trying to grow it,
you know, spend that extra time to look where it's from.
Not just again you know, you could say okay, you
know Fraser firs from Tennessee. Well, Tennessee actually has quite
a diversity of climate, so you need to know, you know,
what is it like where this plant grows native? So
it's not so much about oh it's native to Tennessee
there for whatever. In Michigan, you have to understand the humidity,
the temperature extremes, how long the winter lasts, how long
the summer lasts. And there's a lot of things that
I think you can use your imagination to extrapolate from
a little deep dive into that kind of information.
Speaker 1: You bet you, Okay, Stacey, just do it. Find ways
to make watering easier in your landscape. You're going to
have more fun and your plants are going to appreciate it.
And for our podcast and radio listeners and for our
YouTube viewers, I'm practice seeing what I preach because you
convinced me to get a hose link hose and I
did it.
Speaker 2: Oh nice. Well, you know what, I will take that
concept one step further and say that whatever your least
favorite garden shore to do is invest in making it easier. Yeah,
so it is for me watering as well. Fortunately, my
husband likes to water, so I'm winning there. But even
just having a hose reel made a huge difference, because
you know, dealing with hoses is not fun. So you know,
I love weating, but I still like to save weeding
for when it has just rained, so I'm not working
so hard at it. You know, good weather, you don't
want to be out there in the blazing sun. Any
job you dislike. Look for invest in tools, think about
ways that it can be easier and a little less
you know, punishing feeling.
Speaker 1: Sure, just do it. If you want to have some
turf area in your landscape, and that's fine, and that's great,
raise the deck on the lawn mower, sharpen the blade,
raise the deck, more leaf surface area, if you want
to use less inputs, chemicals, that sort of thing. Raise
the deck as high as you dare go on your
turf and it's going to make a world of difference.
Just do it. Be out there gardening in the fall,
not just spring. Yeah, we'd control putting plants in the ground,
caring for plants. I think it's so super important. I'm
one of these people who thinks the garden center should
be as busy in the fall as they are in
the spring. But that's not the case. Everybody's watching football.
Speaker 2: Well, they're a little busy in the mom section, but
outside of the mom section, there's a lot of good
use to be had out there that people are just
not even bothering to explore because they don't think it's
planting time.
Speaker 1: We have so much more coming up for you in
segment four. Just do it. Let me give you this
week's limb a rick things to do. They're legit, I do.
I'm no hypocrite. Experience is a cruel teacher. Not that
I want to feature mistakes. I don't want to admit.
So come on, just do it. There's nothing really to it.
Some plants I have killed, which in turn made me
skilled embarrassment. I outgrew it.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: We'll take a quick break on the other side, we'll
find out what Stacey has to say in this week's
plants on Trial. Here on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Ship, beautify your home and community with proven Winn's color
Choice shrubs. With over three hundred and twenty five unique
varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for
every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
white container, your local garden center, or learn more at
proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are
talking about what you should do just do it in
the garden. And we have not mentioned that this is
a part one of two show because next week we're
going to to be talking just don't do it.
Speaker 1: Don't do it. So Stacy's favorite phrase, I mean, I hope.
Speaker 2: It doesn't come across as too negative, but that's like
my general one, you know, one takeaway for gardening when
it comes to plant maintenance, pruning, especially when in doubt,
just don't.
Speaker 1: I got a bunch of them.
Speaker 2: Oh all right, I can't wait. So next week we're
talking just don't do it, but this week we're talking
just do it. So we're talking about the things that
maybe people hold back on doing in their garden, or
they're not sure if it's a good idea, or you know,
there's just there's a lot of trepidation out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So for example, as long as we're talking about
programming notes, the following week, we're going to talk about
deer Ooh.
Speaker 2: I cannot wait. I will try to control my rants.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some people, for example, feed the deer in your neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Please don't don't do it. Do not do it. I
see it all the time. Me crazy, But what can
you do? You would think that they were well fed
enough on my garden, but apparently not in any case.
So all of today we're Dohl. In this episode, we're
talking about things that you should do. And so when
it comes to plants on trial, I mean, of course,
the whole notion of plants on trial is that you
should plant them if they work for your situation. So
how would I pick just one? So instead I'm going
to share a tale of personal experience and some plants
suggestions on something that you should just do, and that
is plant a hedge.
Speaker 1: So this will be edal.
Speaker 2: Now you may not need a hedge, in which case,
of course, don't plant a hedge. But if you move
into a new house, or you have things change around
your house, which is happening a lot right now with
all of the crazy development, you can get maybe a
new neighbor to move in who doesn't maintain their home
as nicely as the previous one, and you suddenly want
to block out that view. I mean there's all sorts
of reasons why someone may need a hedge, but this
is specifically for people who are moving into new homes,
new construction, a new to you home. And that is,
if you think that you are going to want a
hedge at this house, do it sooner than later. And
I'm speaking from experience because when we moved into our house,
it was the first, our very first house we've ever purchased,
and you know, didn't have a lot of experience. Of course,
I had gardening experience, but I just didn't have this
kind of like living in one place for a long
time experience. And in my neighborhood a lot of people
have fences. So one side my yard was fenced. My
neighborhood put up a fence for his yard. Eventually, on
the other side, my neighbors put up a short fence
just enough to keep their dogs in, so not really
a privacy fence, but you know, delineates the space between
my yard and theirs and they can keep their dogs in.
But the back edge had nothing. And we knew when
we moved in that we were going to want something that,
you know, we were going to want some privacy from
there because it exposes us to actually three different neighbors
because of the way our block is built, and we
didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Oh, I should have been invested in a hedge fund.
Speaker 2: No, we did eventually do it. But this is eight
years into living in our house. And by the time
you're planting that hedge that you should have planted eight
years prior, you're like, well, gee, if only I had
planted the hedge when I knew I was going to
need a ding dang hedge, then I would already have
it and I'd have the privacy. What could I wanted
a ding dang hedge? I got that from my colleague Natalie.
That's her uh. It's her little Yes, that's her little oath,
her little uh. Yeah, And it's a fun one to say.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a hedge statement.
Speaker 2: Yes. So I wish that I would have just realized
that this would be such an important part of my yard,
and then I would have just done it early on,
because the earlier you plant this hedge right, the sooner
you're going to be able to get its benefits. Because
when you plant a hedge, it's typically shrubs, you know,
evergreens or deciduous and we'll get into some plant selection
ideas for hedging, but it takes time for them to grow,
and even if you're getting a fast growing hedge, you're
still looking at your standard. You know, first you got
to get through years one through three sleep creep leap.
So the first year it's just going to kind of
not do anything noticeable, just put roots down. Second year
it's going to creep grow a little tiny bit. By
the third year it's going to start leaping, but you're
not really going to get optimum growth rate until probably
year five, and you don't want to spend those five
years looking at whatever you're trying to screen off.
Speaker 1: Sure it's true the old Chinese proverb best time to
plant a tree was twenty years ago. Next best time.
Speaker 2: Is today, right, So if you haven't already, not just
do it now like I did. But you know it was.
It was a real lesson for me because there are
a lot of things that looking back, and of course hindsight,
it's always twenty twenty I wish I would have done now.
Of Course, the trick when it comes to hedging is
what to pick for your hedge plant, and a lot
of people automatically, I think when they think of hedges,
they're thinking of evergreens. They're thinking most likely of arborviting,
which of course is out of the question for people
like you and I with deer juniper, which I did
end up going with because I wanted an evergreen hedge
and I needed something that was deer resistant. But you've
got you, You've got boxwood, you've got hemlock. If you're
in a warmer climate, you can plant a bunch of
really cool broad leaf evergreen hedges like Photinia Camellia, rafaelepsis, raffaelepsis,
Japanese holly and get kind of the best of both worlds,
you know, flowers and that year round coverage. Now that
if you want to plant a deciduous hedge, a hedge
that's going to lose its foliage, this gives you the opportunity,
especially in a colder climate like this, to actually have
a flowering hedge. So what I think of when I
think of a deciduous hedge one of the most popular
hedging plants of all time limelight hydrangea, And what a
gorgeous hedge it makes. It is truly sunning. Now, of course,
the trade off here is that limelight Hydrangea is not
going to have any foliage in the winter. But you know,
if you live in a cool climate, that might not
be that big of a deal because you're not outside anyway.
Speaker 1: And it all goes back to determining what is the
purpose of the head. Now you go right and if
it's just to create a room a space for summer
when you're out there, Deciduous is great. If you're trying
to block out the neighbor next door.
Speaker 2: You need that evergreen type of hedge. So you know,
there's a number of options. So I think when you're
thinking about how you're going to plant this hedge, you
first of all need to think, what is it that
I want out of this hedge. Do I want the
fabulous limelight flowering hedge that looks amazing in you know,
July and August, but it's going to be kind of
bare and you know, maybe a little bit later to
leaf out in spring, so you have to consider that
spring cover as well. Or do you want to invest
in evergreen? Now, generally speaking, a lot of evergreens are
going to be more slow growing than a lot of
deciduous plants. Now, there are certainly some fast growing arborvid
like green giant, which will easily grow, like, you know,
almost four feet a year once it's established. But it
really lives up to the giant part of its name
in that it is taking up you know, a good
twelve to eighteen feet at the base, So that is
twelve to eighteen feet of your yard space that are
just being surrendered to this very fast growing evergreen.
Speaker 1: It's going to beautiful and deer resistant or more deep.
Speaker 2: Somewhat deer resistant. Yeah, and so that's something you need.
You know, you can't just go to the garden center
and say, okay, well here's an arborvity, it's cheap, it's
good for hedging. This is what I'm going to do,
because you do need to think about how is this
going to impact the overall space in the yard. Once
you've chosen your plants, figuring out the spacing is actually
very easy. You just look at the width that is
on the tag and if there is a range. I
always recommend going with a smaller range for a hedge,
especially if you live in a colder climate like this,
because they'll be closer together and they're gonna have a
shorter growing season, so they're not going to grow as
much during each year as they would in a warmer climate.
If you live in a warmer climate and or I
want to save a couple bucks, you can go with
a larger one, but just be aware that you're going
to be waiting a lot longer for it to fill in,
and it's not going to turn into a wall. Those
higher end estimates of width are actually going to kind
of just let the plants just touch, you know, so
you won't get that nice dense wall if that's what
you're going for. So you take that lower number, you
divide it in half. So let's say it's three feet,
and you take that one and a half feet that
you've divided it in half. You space your two end
shrubs either end one and a half feet from the
end of the bed one and a half feet in
from the edges of the bed on each sign. Then
you've got the middle pieces. You can me sure that
and see what you're dealing with. Now I will tell
you I kind of eyeball this part. I've been planning
a lot of hedges lately, so you know I know
this because you can't totally stick to the to the
spacing the math. Okay, okay, because it may not. Depending
on how much space you have, it may not work
out evenly. You can't plant half a shrub or a
quarter of a shrub. So I generally will go with
one extra plant position, one in the center, and then
I just kind of visually do the rest. I like
to plant hedges like I do most plants odd numbers
because that will give you kind of a more natural,
less formal looking hedge. I have a lot more tips
on planting hedges, but the main thing you need to
know about planting a hedge, if you're thinking about it,
just do it. All the information will be in our
show notes, along with a link to some proven Winter's
Color Choice shrubs that are perfect for hedging no matter
where you live. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we'll be opening up the garden
mail bag, so please stay tuned at proven Winner's Color
Choice shrubs. We know that a better landscape starts with
a better shrub. Our team of experts tests and evaluates
all of our flowering shrubs in evergreens for eight to
ten years to ensure they outperform what's already on the
market for easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home
and express your personal style. Look for Proven Winner's shrubs
in the distinctive white container at your local garden center,
or learn more at proven Winner's Color Choice dot com.
Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
While we were on break, Rick came up with a
very helpful tip that we wanted to share with you.
Speaker 1: I was just going to suggest that if you want
a new hedge in your yard, you just go in
the backyard and you make it a habit of gardening naked.
Eventually your neighbor will put the heads up.
Speaker 2: For you, if they haven't called the police first.
Speaker 1: Just a thought.
Speaker 2: So there's something, some wise words from Wrick that you
can consider if you've been wanting aheadge but don't want
to invest the time, energy, over money in doing so.
Before we get into the mailbag in today's theme of
just do It, I wanted to share a book recommendation. Okay,
not something we usually do, but I am really excited
about this. So the name may be familiar to Douglas Tallamy.
He is sort of the leader of the backyard environmentalism movement,
where you can actually use your garden and landscape and
yard to help conserve nature and wildlife, and his books
Bringing Nature Home and Nature's Best Hope have been best
sellers and gotten a lot of people into native plant gardening,
which is amazing. And he has a new book out
which I thought was perfect for just do It. It
is called how Can I Help Saving Nature with Your Yard?
And so I love that this is so action oriented
because he's a wonderful writer, very inspiring and definitely gives
a plan of action in his book. But I mean
a lot of people, you know, it's it can be
hard to get started questions and answers about how you
can manage your yard and garden to better support wildlife.
And if there is one thing that I would say
just do it, it would be to you know, as
you continue to grow your gardening hobby or you know,
change things in your landscape that you do make choices
that are more supportive of wildlife, of insects, of birds,
whatever that plant choice may be, whether it's a shrub
or a perennial or a tree, that we make choices
that are about something beyond ourselves. And it's not a
sacrifice because a lot of those plants are every bit
as beautiful as whatever left to your mind.
Speaker 1: First, Yeah, here here, I mean it's exciting when you're
working in the garden and hummingbirds are buzzing past you
and hear hear the birds, singing bees active on a plant.
There's nothing like it.
Speaker 2: It's my absolute favorite thing. So just do it. Douglas
Telemy's new book, How can I help?
Speaker 1: Great suggestion? Linus writes to us, I have a young
river birch tree that was planted in twenty twenty three.
I believe it's not doing well, lots of empty branches.
How would you approach this or is it too late?
And thank you well, thank you very mulch Linus for
your question. Yes, this is timely.
Speaker 2: This is very timely. And Linus did send some pictures
so you can check those out on YouTube or in
our show notes. And I think we've got a twofold
problem here number one. And you mentioned river birch in
segment one when we're talking about you know how it
is native to a very different kind of environment than
our average front or backyards, especially out here where it's
so sandy. I have heard people say, respected horticulturists say
you cannot overwater. A river birch, now this may be
one of the very few plants that that is actually
true of. But the thing that you need to know
about them is they need a a ton of water.
And I have seen one on my street out here
that was installed when they were doing a bunch of
street tree planting and they put those water gators on it.
You can zip a couple of them together if you
have a multi stem, because most river birches are multi stemmed.
And I do want to clarify here if people aren't familiar,
So a river birch is not that classic white birch
that everybody loved and went crazy for in the seventies
and eighties. A river birch is much more tolerant of
some of the diseases and cultural conditions that make growing
paper birches difficult for a lot of us. It is
still a native birch.
Speaker 1: Look for the botanical is it betula.
Speaker 2: Nigra yep, yep. And it has peeling bark that is,
the older it gets, the more peeling it gets, and
has all these layers with different colors and orange and cream.
It's just it's a very cool plant. But so it's
becoming it's increasingly replacing paper birch because paper birch gets
very stressed in residential situations. As things have gotten hotter,
it's gotten stressed. It gets the bronze birch, and if
it gets that, that's pretty much the end of it.
Whereas river birch is, you know, doesn't have all of
these liabilities.
Speaker 1: I believe heritage is the cultivar a.
Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the Fox Valley is another one that's
very very popular. Yeah, but this one on my street
is looking very much like Linuses in that all the
branches are dying because once they took off those gators,
those tree gaters to water it, it just did not
get any water and immediately started to suffer because they
didn't have any irrigation.
Speaker 1: So it is my neighbors and he planted it right
in the middle of the yard, and I told him
to water it because it was suffering. Yeah, And he
put a hose on it and ran a sprinkler under
it for days on end and it recovered.
Speaker 2: It's that's how serious it is. The Other thing about
Linus's tree though, and Linus, if a landscape company came
and planted this tree for you, I would definitely give
them a call because they did not plant this tree properly. So,
as you can see in the photos that Linus sent
this River birch, the bottom of the three trunk that
it has goes right into the ground like a phone
pole instead of flaring out gently like a tree ought to.
So this tree was also planted way too deeply. And
that's really a crucial thing because that area of the buttress,
that flared area at the base of the tree is
crucial for gas exchange, so it helps the tree exchange
carbon dioxide and oxygen, very very key for its survival.
So if you did not plant this, I would definitely
call the landscape company that planted it and tell them
that they planted it too deeply, because I'm sure that
that is contributing to the unhappiness of your tree. If
you planted it and you can't do anything about it,
then what I would do is just clear away the
mulch as much as you can and do your best
to try to expose that buttress. So you're probably be
digging down quite a bit. You might encounter some adventitious
roots that it has put out into the mulch. Just
keep going take that away. The sooner you can expose
that buttress to some good fresh air and get the
plant some supplemental water. The sooner you will have a
healthy river birch and it will recover. Just needs a
little TLC.
Speaker 1: Carol writes to us help. I had a terrible snail
infestation last year. It looks even worse now and summer
hasn't even begun. I live on a small lake in
central New York Zone five now zone six. Bees snails
are decimating everything from ligular area to hostas to my grasses.
They even crawl up my wicker patio furniture.
Speaker 2: Gross yikes.
Speaker 1: I picked off one hundred morning and night. We have
had days and days of rain, so I haven't been
able to use slug bait or die Tamacious Earth yet.
But they weren't that effective last year. Perhaps I'm not
applying them correctly. I also read that cocoa shells deter snails,
so I've stopped. I've topped my containers with that, but
it's very expensive. I try to use applications that won't
harm my pollinators. I'm desperate. I found you on YouTube
a month ago. I've learned so much. I'm confident you
will solve my dilemma. Ah, yes, Cara, you know I
want to mention right off the bat to Carol, right
off the top. A lot of people struggle with this.
You mention hostas in your note. First, take a look
at the mulch. If you have a lot of mulch
under these plants. In some cases, pulling the mulch away
from the neck of the plant let's say they're hostas,
will make a world of difference because you got to
think about where the snails are hiding out cool wet places.
And then Stacy, just real briefly, I'd like to mention
that I've had success with roofing shingles.
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to say too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she mentioned diotamacous earth. But roofing shingles just
strips of roofing shingles. You can get them a similar
color to the soil, so they're not ugly and they work.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So basically all you have to do is take
a roofing shingle. Another thing that works very very well
is like a cedar shake if you have if you
live in an area where they put in a lot
of cedar shape roofs so we're talking about, you know,
maybe at twelve by twelve ish piece of rough material,
whether that's wood. You don't want it to be smooth.
You wanted to have some crustiness on there that that
can attract the slugs. You put that down at night,
you come out in the morning, you just scrape off
all the slugs because they're gonna come up under there
for shelter. That's what they really really love. They actually
will prefer to spend the day on that over anywhere else,
So that will help you kind of get them all
in one place rather than pick them off one by one.
And you can also, of course try the time the
tried and true beer trap, which is just to say
you take like a tunicn or a small kind of
shallow dish like that, bury it even with the soil,
put some beer in there and then or flour and
water can also work because they layer was it yeast
in water? We talked about this on the show recently.
Speaker 1: Suggest Carol, just drink the beer forget them.
Speaker 2: Well, they only need a little bit, so you put
a little bit for the slug, a little bit for yourself.
Speaker 1: Right, and then crawl in there lose their car keys.
Speaker 2: And die, yes, and they drown in there, and you
can also just dump that out, so you can also
do both. But I do want to tell you another trick,
and it's a little bit too late for this, but
I've shared this before. The best time to manage slugs
is in late winter. That is when their eggs hatch
and the little baby slugs are coming out. And if
you can control those baby slugs, they will not be
able to get the foothold that they will otherwise. But
of course, you know, in upstate New York, I would
think that this is probably we're looking at, like late February,
not a time, you know, if there's no when the
snow melts, that is basically when those eggs are going
to start to hatch. So it's not the time when
people think about doing this kind of thing, so they
kind of miss that opportunity. So Carol, put a reminder
in your calendar so that next late February you get
some slug bait. Don't have to worry about the pollinators
because they won't be around. Nothing's going they be around
for another at least you know, six weeks or so,
except those slugs, and that will help you get the
control that makes the population much more manageable later in
the season.
Speaker 1: Right about now, Good luck with your slug fast Carol.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much to Linus and Carol for
their questions. If you want to reach out to us,
you can do that at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
or if you need to answer to a garden question
more quickly, visit Provenwinner's Color Choice dot com. We're gonna
take a little break when we come back or continue
our conversation on what you should just do in the garden.
Please stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast,
brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our
award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested
by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at
Proven Winners Color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Arning Simplified Show. Today for branching news,
we continue our talk about just do it, Stacey, just
do it debatable. I feed my plants in fall when
the leaves are falling off deciduous plants. The roots can
absorb the soil's warm enough, they can absorb nutrients. They
get off to a much better start the following spring,
I may overfeed, but I like to feed plants in fall.
Just do it. Get yourself comfortable clothes for your landscape
or your garden working out there. It makes a world
of difference.
Speaker 2: Oh and a hat. Hat is so important. I cannot
even tell you, fellow gardeners, if you are not a
hat where the future self that will thank you for
wearing a hat because we get a lot of sun exposure.
I mean, I'm super careful about it. I wear sunscreen
and a hat and gotta slather all up. And yes,
I know the dirt sticks to you and that's not fun,
but also probably skin cancer isn't for fun, so I'm
not going to risk it. So definitely invest in a hat.
A hat would be my Just do it. And if
you think, oh I don't like a hat, it'll be
in my way. Just go shopping for a hat and
find a hat that you love, and then you'll be
excited about wearing it.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, and I'm getting better about the sunscreen stuff.
I mean again, when we did the Garden Nostalgia Show,
we talked about the fact, you know, I was a
teenager in the seventies when we would slather on baby
oil and lay out on you know, a launch I mean,
really dumb.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why, I was a teenager in the nineties and
I did that.
Speaker 1: So I asked a friend of mine I work with
she bought a house three years ago, and I said, okay,
what's something everyone should do in their landscape? She said, oh,
take the time to amend your soil. Work the soil.
I said, what should you not do? She said, don't
plant and then said a naughty word, stuff that spreads. Mmmmm,
Now I asked, I asked Sue this question. She said,
grow edibles in your landscape and cut flowers in your landscape.
Just do it. I said, well, then, what shouldn't you do?
And she said don't plant prickly plants by the driveway
or the walkway. So there you have that. You want
to do a little speed round.
Speaker 2: Yes, so we're going to do a speed round. We're
going to do a just do it speed round. So
I have a list of various things in the garden,
and we're going to without too much forethought or explanation,
though of course a little bit will most likely be necessary,
share our thoughts. So speed round start. Now, Rick, what
is your just do it pruning tip or task.
Speaker 1: Prune right after plants are done flowering. That's the time
to prune. So if you have a lilac, don't be
afraid to prune and prune right after they're done blooming.
Speaker 2: I think my just do it for pruning is going
to be don't hesitate to take out tree branches, especially
small young trees that you've recently purchased, to give it
the shape and habit that you want. Tree pruning is
a little bit different than shrub pruning, but it is
better to make your cuts when those branches are smaller
and younger than when they get bigger. Not only will
the tree heal faster, but you won't need a chainsaw.
Speaker 1: You're here all right.
Speaker 2: Next one, what's your just do it? Go to tree
to plant?
Speaker 1: Definitely, Boy, that's a tough one. It's a tie between
juneberry and paper bark maple.
Speaker 2: Yeah, juneberry is a can't miss for sure. That is
a great choice. I'm gonna go with joonberry too. Service
I'm a link here. It is like that. What's the
perfect four season place? Yes, if you don't have deer
because they do eat it. So that's why I have
not just done it myself. Just do it shrub to plant.
Speaker 1: I'm going I've got to say panicled hydrangers. I can't
help it. I can't think of a better easier to
grow shrub in the landscape that is so beautiful.
Speaker 2: Mine is going to be for those who can grow it. It
does have a slightly limited heat tolerance range. Lemony lace
elderberry nice. That is a plant that I have completely
fallen in love with in my garden. It is stunning.
What about a perennial, Just do it perennial.
Speaker 1: For a just do it perennial. I'm going to say it.
I'm gonna say baptis You I.
Speaker 2: Will hold you to this. I mean, I know there's
multiple you know, answers to all of these.
Speaker 1: You go to say Baptisia.
Speaker 2: It just is Yeah, that's definitely a great choice. This
is a tougher one for me because a lot of
the plants that I like the most I don't think
other people would like. Like if I said, might just
do it is to plant Sophia. I'm like we talked
about in the Big Plants episode. I think a lot
of people would be like, that thing is way too
big and spreads way too much. My just do it,
I guess will then be milkweed.
Speaker 1: Nice. Okay, well if you get to then then I'm
gonna throw ornamental grasses.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, of course myses makes sense and peptisia's fabulous,
but you know I will. I'll give you that. The
ornamental grasses are going to give you probably a little
bit longer of a season of interest.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and the bet you're resistant. And don't get
me started on ornamental grasses, per seed.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe that Carol's slugs were even eating our grasses.
Grasses are not typically something that slugs are a problem on.
So that's when I knew that we had to help Carol.
If for slug infestation was that bad, I felt like
we really needed to throw or a line there. Just
do it thing for birds task or tip or whatever.
Speaker 1: Thing for birds. Boy, I'm gonna say, I'm going to
say anything that is hummingbird related. And for me again,
it's the rockin Salvia series, proven winners. Rockin Salvia because
the humming birds. They're covered in hummingbirds in summer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I love rock and deep purple. I love
that dark purple color. So that's when I'm growing this year,
my just do it for birds in the garden is
going to be have a bird bath. Oh you know,
it's a simple thing. Now, I will say for those
of you who are buying a bird bath in response
to this, a lot of the newer bird baths are
not very bird friendly. They are very deep, and so
the birds will come and perch on the rim and
drink from it, but they are not going to get
in there because it is not safe. And I have
a deep one like this, and I've tried to fix
it with rocks and making it a little shallower. It
doesn't work. So I have a beautiful old fashioned one
with a more shallow concrete bowl. The birds are constantly
bathing in it, and it's so much fun to watch.
Speaker 1: You know. What makes this really hard is that I
would say, just do it. Have diversity in your Landsln's
it's more entertaining for you. If a problem crops up,
it doesn't spread like wildfire. That's what makes this speed
round thing tough.
Speaker 2: You know. I saw an article the other day where
it was like, you know, five things a professional landscape
designer says you should never do. When it was all okay, whatever,
and one of them was don't plant too many plant species,
and I was like, you want to fight, yeah, because
you know, yes, you can absolutely have a minimalist landscape
with very few plant species. But why, I don't know,
what would be the point?
Speaker 1: Be so boring you Carol and me will get in there,
we'll have a slug fest.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I've got I couldn't even count how many
species I have. I would be very interested to know.
But diversity is always just do it. I agree, diversify,
just do it. Garden design feature.
Speaker 1: Most definitely planting in swaths or drifts as opposed to
just sticking a single plant in the ground. I like
swaths or.
Speaker 2: Drifts of yeah, odd numbers. It couldn't be any easier.
And that's the kind of thing that people don't realize
is such a good and simple back pocket planting tip.
I know it's not just us trying to get you
to buy more plants. It really is the best and
easiest way to get a professional look. And if you
look at professional landscapes no matter where you go around
the country, that's what they usually do.
Speaker 1: It's because if you stick a single plant in the ground,
sometimes it can look like it doesn't belong there but
a swath or a drift.
Speaker 2: It's like, that's how nature grows. Yeah, it's seeds, And okay,
my garden design feature or just do it would be
I mean most of the things I've done, I wouldn't
recommend the other people.
Speaker 1: Throw spacing out the door.
Speaker 2: There you go. Spacing is a recommendation only. It's an
educated it's a departure point for your garden. But also
do as I say, not as I do. What is
your just do it? All alarms on. Pull this weed
right now.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it is nuts edge.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, definitely, I'm with you on that one. When
I see nuts edge, I do you stop other weeds?
I'll be like, I can get to that later. When
I see that edge, I'm like, you're out right now.
Speaker 1: Oh. I helped the lady out the other day where
I saw the start of horsetail in a landscape. So
I'm going to say nuts edge slash horse tip.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you can't pull horseize.
Speaker 1: I know you can't.
Speaker 2: And if you are struggling with horsetail in your yard,
that's probably an indication that something's going wrong with your
sprinkler system or plumbing system or water system because they
only grow in wet soils. So if you have an
overly wet soil, you probably will get horsetail and you
will not get rid of it until you make that
soil dry and well drained. What is your just do
it mowing tip?
Speaker 1: Raise the deck on the moor. It makes all the
difference in the world. You want to cut back on fertilizer, chemicals,
weed controls all that, raise the deck on the mow
or don't scalp.
Speaker 2: Your lawn, might just do it. Mowing tip is getting
electricallywn more because then you can mow whenever you want,
because it's not just active. So it's Sunday morning, everybody's
still asleep. You got that electric mowerk no one will
hardly even know you're mowing. You can hold on a conversation.
You don't have that annoying pull cord where all your
neighbors are laughing at you as you struggle with it. So, yeah,
that's my just do it. It's all I got. Really well,
I have personal item, but I feel like we already
discussed that person. You're just do it gardening gear. Oh yeah,
but you know I'm in I'm firmly in hat camp.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The clothes, I mean, I love these pants. These
are Columbia lightweight.
Speaker 2: They look a little light for gardening.
Speaker 1: Color wise, oh colorwise, Yeah, I'm talking about the type
of Yes, yes, yes, I soiled my plants.
Speaker 2: All right. So that is our partial list of things
that you should just do in the garden without hesitating,
without delay, just because they are the right thing to
do and they will pay dividends in the long run.
So thank you so much for listening. Thank you Rick,
thank you cuator on up, and we hope you all
have a wonderful week ahead. H