Speaker 1: Hello, my friends, coming to you from studio here at
Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening
Simplified Show with Stacey Hervella me, Rick weisst and our
engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, Stacey, it's a labor
Day weekend. Let's talk about some labor saving methods in
the garden. You know you're getting old when there are
less things to learn the hard way. We keep learning
no matter our age. We are always interns. And I
learned from my mistakes, and some of the mistakes I've
made in the garden have actually turned into labor's saving methods.
Speaker 2: Ooh like what?
Speaker 1: Well? For example, one of my favorite tools in the
garden is an onion hole. Oh, I love using an onion.
Speaker 2: What's wait, what's a difference between onion how in a
regular hole?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked. An onion ho is wider than
a typical hole, okay, but not nearly as tall. The
blade is not nearly as tall. So you're about one
and a half inch height on the blade, maybe as
much as six or seven inches across, and it's sharp
on three sides.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: This thing maneuvers around in the soil so beautifully, and
as I admitted on last week's show, I'm sorry. I'm
a tiller and onion hoes make weeding so much easier.
I view the onion hoe as a labor saving device
and I use it all the time.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think the important thing is to,
you know, when we're looking at ways to save labor,
understand that what works for someone isn't what necessarily will
work for you, and so you have to stay experimental.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: One of the best places, and I'm giving away a
huge secret here, but do it anyway. To find I
actually totally set it on the show before. To find
garden tools is a state sales and you're going to
find all sorts of crazy old tools of all different
configurations and much you would get, you know, at your
regular hardware store now. And if you see see something
that looks interesting to you, you might as well pick
it up for you know, two or three dollars and
it might just be your next great garden tools.
Speaker 1: Wow, two birds with one stone, labor saving and cheap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I gotta love that.
Speaker 1: I love that I can buy it, you know, talking
about labor savings, I guess falls a great time to
do that too, because I'm a huge proponent of fall
is for planting. I think it's one of the best
year times of the year to put plants in the
ground because plants are going to focus on root establishment,
not on top growth. But when it comes to weeds
and weed control and identifying both perennial and annual weeds
and controlling them now so that they don't become a
problem in spring. I think fall is one of the
best labor saving periods of the year to deal with
weed issues my opinion.
Speaker 2: And yeah, you're right, it does provide a lot of
opportunity for that. And you know, when we're talking about weeds,
one of my labor saving tips for the garden is
just a plant really close together so the weeds can't grow.
Speaker 1: I love that it looks great.
Speaker 2: I mean, I personally prefer the look. You know, some
people they don't like their plants to touch. I don't
get that. I mean, I understand that there are people
out there like that, and I've certainly heard from them,
and they look at that spacing and then they're just
gonna go ahead and add like another foot. Because plants
should never touch. They should all have a tidy little border.
I am the opposite. I want everything to be knitted together.
I want just an uninterrupted plant panorama. So you know,
when you plant that close together, one of the benefits
is that they shade out the weeds or you just
don't notice them because they're covered by the plants, which
is also okay with me.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. One of our most
popular shows in the past year was the show on
layering plants, and it's kind of along that concept. You
kind of mimic how nature behaves and you ensure a
balance system. And yes, it helps as far as weeds
are concerned. Not everybody has a tree canopy. If you
think layering, maybe tree canopy, then shrubs, and then perennials, groundcovers.
Not everybody has a tree canopy, but you could use
your home, your structure as that tree canopy, and then
of course apply the shrubs, the groundcovers and the perennials.
You could do that. Quick connects on my hoses is
a labors. I love quick I'm not a fan pop
on pop up Why not?
Speaker 2: They just never seem to work. I mean, well, that
would be a good ri This goes back to my
landscaping days when I was in college, so I am
going back quite a few years. But it seemed like,
you know, we like some hoses, would have them, and
then you couldn't get things to connect. You didn't have
the right parts. Now, if it's just your house and
even invested in quick connects, it might work. But I
have a pretty small yard, so I just have one
hose cart for my entire yard, so I don't really
need it. I have one hose hooked up. I can
go around my entire house with it. It's on a cart.
Now that's my labor saving device. We've talked many times
how we dislike watering. It is our least favorite gard
hoses because of the hoses. And this this little hose
cart that I have, so it's not one that like
connects to the house. It's on wheels, four wheels. You
can wheel it all around. Love that thing.
Speaker 1: Nice? Nice. Well, I'm the king, I'm the cannon King
and the king of quick connects.
Speaker 2: All right, good to know.
Speaker 1: There you have it. As a matter of fact, I'm
glad you brought that up because I prepared a labor
labor saving limb a rick for you today. Here it is.
I was watching my next door neighbor hacking weeds and
brush with a saber. I thought that looks sweaty and
not to be petty, but I'm not into that kind
of labor. I'm getting attention, headache. I just stepped on
my garden rake. Things aren't going well, so I'll sip
some Zinfidel and take the hydration break. I took a shot.
Speaker 2: You know, it's I think we're gonna, you know, give
all these is about labor saving, but I think one
of the really important aspects is to decide for yourself,
like what you're going to do, what's worth your time.
And it goes back to our conversation last week with
Debor Napke, where it's just like, you know, you are
the one in charge of your garden, and some tolerance
for things maybe not being you know, like our archetype
of a nineteen fifties household with the AstroTurf lawn and
everything edged and everything trimmed. If you like that, look
go for it. Know that it is going to be
a lot of work, but know that that is not
the only way in my garden. You know, people will
see it, say, oh so many plants. This must be
so much work. And honestly, the only place I work
in my garden in summer is a vegetable garden. Yeah, no,
I agree, and even that not that much.
Speaker 1: I agree. Yeah. And of course for us as humans
as opposed to plants, of course, everybody's looking for the
next great thing, the next pill to take or supplement
or whatever it may be, herbal supplement. But as far
as the landscape is concerned, I think two labor savers,
in my opinion, are the fertilizer prills that feed for
three or four months. Proven Winners has one osma code
is another one that you may recognize. I love those
continuous release fertilizers. And then also I wondered if you,
because both of us struggle with deer stacy, I wondered
if you've had any experience or heard anything on the
systemic repellent so systemic granular repellents where the actual repellent
becomes part of the plant so interesting.
Speaker 2: No, I have not, And I'm thinking, you know, is
this something I would try?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Maybe, I mean, normally my garden is at a point
right now where the deer, everything that the deer would
really eat is gone, like they've already destroyed it. I
had to replace it with something else. It's grown in.
I'm done. But this year I think when I were
talking to Laura Roblos a few years a few weeks ago,
I talked about how the deer have really done a
number on some of my semmarific high business, not all
of them. So you know, I miss those things in flower.
I would consider it in that particular batch.
Speaker 1: I gave a speech a few weeks ago and there
was a lady in the back during the question and
answer period who just went off on systemic deer repellence
and completely sold on them. So I'm like, well, maybe
maybe that's something I'm going to get into. I believe
part of also labor savings, especially as we get into fall,
is that Lasagna garden passive compost kind of approach. I
used to put newsprint down on grassy areas and then
leaves on top of that, soil on top of that,
let it cook all winter long. We have a picture
for you at our website and that and then the
following spring I tilled it up, and boy I had
a great planting bed or I didn't have to dig
up the turf, the weeds, the soil, that sort of thing.
I smothered them with the lasagna concept. To me, that's
a that's a labor Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately, good luck finding newsprints.
Speaker 1: Say the point so you use cardboard.
Speaker 2: Now untreated cardboard, and that is there was recently a
study that talked about how there was a bunch of
chemicals coming out in cardboard and discouraging people from using it.
But you know, I have always also struggled with making
gardening beds. I love to have a lot of beds,
but yeah, making them, you know, is a disposal issue.
It's a lot of work. So honestly I've said this before,
but having a company come and remove my lawn with
sod cutters best thing I ever done. Love it, So
don't be afraid to rent a sod cutter or have
someone come out. It was much less than I thought,
and I came home to no grass. It was lovely.
Speaker 1: Wow, and certainly labor say, very labor safe. And I
have no grass left either. But I took the I
took the I took the long way around. Exactly quick
labor saver, take a rake and stir the mulch in
your landscape. Mulch can become hydrophobic as far as watering
plants are concerned stirring the mulch. So there are many
different ways to save labor make things a little easier
on yourself. I'm going to be interested to see how
Stacey ties that in in plants on trial, and that's
coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Proven Winner's Color 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 in
the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's
gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where we are talking about saving labor and honestly, shrubs
in general our labor savers. I have heard from countless
gardeners over the years who have said, you know, I'm
getting old or had an injury and I'm switching my
garden to shrubs and bulbs. And if you want a
garden that provides a lot of visual impact without a
lot of work, especially repeatedly through the year, I don't
think you can do much better. I mean shrump's really,
you know, once you get them established, they don't need
hardly anything. And it always amazes me, you know when
people talk about gardening being work, and it's like, do
you have a lawn, because that lawn is work, and
all you're doing that work for is just to get
it to like a status quo. And you have to
keep repeating that, you know, you water it, God forbid,
you gotta water it. You got to mow it once
or twice a week sometimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I put in a swath of dear villa.
Oh nice, Qodiac orange?
Speaker 2: Is it yep?
Speaker 1: Drought resistant? Easy? Like you said, labor saving. So I'm
gonna guess that's your plant.
Speaker 2: It is not. That one is not my plant today.
Plants on trial is an ode to big shrubs.
Speaker 1: Oh awesome.
Speaker 2: And you know big shrubs, I have to confess. Our
new plant development team generally shies away from big shrubs.
They they are looking more for compact shrubs, which makes
sense because especially newer homes, they tend to have much
smaller yards and much smaller beds, and so there is
a place for small plants and in small shrubs. And
in a way they also have a lot of labor
saving because they're going to stay nice and compact, and
you won't have to worry about trimming them or make
worrying about them, you know, out growing their space and
growing over your dining, your windows, all of that kind
of stuff. But I am a huge fan of big shrubs.
Now I am not gonna wrap. I like big shrubs
and they cannot lie. But you know, I really want
to make the case for big shrubs because a big shrub,
and by big, I mean like at least six feet
tall and wide and very often much bigger than that
properly spaced from you know, all its surrounding, it's neighboring plants,
your home, your property line, whatever the thing surrounding it
is properly spaced. A big shrub is going to take
up so much space, and it is going to transform
whatever space it has from a high maintenance space to
a low maintenance space because you will not have to
do anything. So I combed through our plants. We have
a pretty good amount still of large shrubs. But the
one that we're highlighting today is today's plants on trial
is red Balloon Viburnum.
Speaker 1: Great choice, you get a great return on investment.
Speaker 2: You really do. So this is a large plant, six
to eight feet tall and wide. So if we look
at what I was just saying, as you know, when
you pick a large shrub, and again, proper sighting is
this is important for all maintenance really in the garden,
because if you don't cite something properly, whether that's spacing
or growing conditions, no, it won't be low maintenance because
you'll be working your buns off to try to get it,
you know, happy, and you won't be able to properly
spaced of red balloon viburnum. It's six to eight feet
tall and wide, is going to take up roughly sixty
four square feet of ground space. WHOA, so you can
take so it's eight by eight sixty four. Yeah, so
you can take sixty four square feet of your lawn
and transform it from an area that you have to
mow and maintain to a beautiful flowering shrub. And you know,
we have again a number of very large shrubs in
the line. But I picked red balloon because it's a
great plant for multi season interest.
Speaker 1: I love viburnums in general, I mean spring, summer, fall interest.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, So this is a hybrid viburnum. It is
known the common name is a lantana phylum Viburnum. H.
Speaker 1: So let's get to the botanical name. Yes, because you
know my method with Latin names. I just say I'm
real fast and pretend I know what I'm doing. But
the reality is it rolls off f your tongue. So
the botanical name is ripped to diffiloides.
Speaker 2: Right, for this is going to become a lot easier
once we break it down. Okay, So, like I said,
it is a hybrid viburnum. It's a hybrid of the
what's known as the wayfaring tree, which is a lovely
poetic common name Viburnum lantana. And you know, I was
thinking about that, and nowadays, if you say lantana in
the context of a garden, people are thinking of a
lantana plant which has those nice colorful flowers, look like
little chicklets in the middle, really different colors, terrible smell.
I don't personally care for the smell. But lantana was
actually the Latin term for viburnum. So this is one
of those really confusing situations where the species one of
the species of the parents of red bulloon. Viburnum is
Viburnum lantana, but the plant that we call antana nowadays
is not a viburnum. It is opposite leaf. So I
could see you know where the confusion might arise, and
that is known as lantana in and of itself. So
one of those just really confusing botanical nomenclature kind of thing.
So hybrid between Viburnum lantana and Viburnum right titiphylum, so
you know, viburnum rititaphylum. You wouldn't mispronounce that because that
is leatherleaf. Viburnum, Yes, a very popular landscape plant, and
I'm sure you sold lots of them in your career.
So you combine right to a phylum with lanana and
then you have right ta filoides. Wow, something like that.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you did the heavy lifting there, Thank you
very much.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so Viburnum right to aphylum is leatherly fiburnum.
This is just I mean, it's such a great plant
for year round interest. It has ever semi evergreen foliage.
They're big, they're elegant. I always think of them as
kind of giving, like a really beautiful woodland look to
a property. So basically, Red Balloon combines the best features
of both of them plants. So in spring you are going
to have these big clusters of white flowers. Now, I
do want to warn you on these viburnum flowers. They
are not one of the viburnums that smell good. Quite
the opposite. They are a little bit animally smelling. But
it's worth sticking through that. Planting it downwind of your bedroom,
for example.
Speaker 1: And does that make a deer resistant.
Speaker 2: I mean, viburnums in general are somewhat deer resistant. There's
you'll find a pretty wide range of resistance. And I
am telling you speaking from experience here what happens to
most I don't have Red Balloon in my yard, but
what happens to most of the viburnums that I grow
is that the deer love the flowers. Yes, they mostly
leave the plant alone, but they love the flowers. Now,
I would think that this particular viburnum is probably not
high on a deer pelatability list pelletability list because the folio,
the stems and foliage are quite flucked. They have like
a kind of hairy and that's comes through the leather
leaf parentage, so most likely pretty good dear resistance. So
you got those flowers in late spring and those are
without a pollinator, no pollinator required, going to develop into
red and black fruits in late summer and fall, and
then that will persist through winter. And if you live
in a mild climate, so red balloon and viburnum is
hardy down to USDA Zone four heat tolerant through zone eight.
If you live probably in like zone five or warmer,
it's less likely in zone four it will be semi evergreen.
So that's again going back to that leather leaf parentage,
so you'll have some leaves sticking around. So as Rick said,
you're getting that you know, coverage and interest and color
all the way from you know spring, all the way
to the following spring, and again transforming these areas of
your yard into something that was high maintenance into something
that was low maintenance, and I think that just makes
a huge, huge difference. They also outcompete weeds, so we
were talking about spacing out competing weeds, but a shrub
because they are branched to the ground, typically providing a
lot of shade in the interior there, so that weeds
can't grow. They're not going to grow, and you won't
see them even if they do. Another great benefit. And yeah,
so that makes it really simple too. And again they're
just easy and trees are also very low maintenance. But trees,
of course, you have to wait a lot longer for
them to do their thing. Sometimes that can be a
big commitment that we're maybe not ready to make, or
we're worried about the height that they will eventually maintain,
you know, causing issues for our house or a neighbor's
house or something like that. So yeah, overall, it's a
win win. People might say look at a shrub like
this and say, whoa, that's too big, But when you
really start thinking about what this means in your yard,
I think it really transforms your perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and along the lines of labor saving, boy, it
takes a lot of labor to move, to have to
pack and move out of your house. And if you
have a neighbor that you're really not keen about it,
this plant would make great screening.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a good great screen just make them go
away behind the viburnum. Yeah, so it's great as a specimen.
So when I'm talking about that eight by eight square
eight by sixty four square feet that it is taking up.
That would be if you just planted a single one.
But if you have the room and you're looking for
a hedge, and particularly if you're looking for a hedge
and you have a deer issue and arbivid's out of
the question, this is a great choice. It's not going
to be quite as fast growing, but it's going to
provide that coverage and be much more interesting too than
you know what everybody and their brother has planted in
their yard. And the other thing finally is that, as
with most flowering shrubs that flower and fruit, it makes
pruning almost impossible because if you prune it after it blooms,
it blooms on old wood, you'll be taking off the
possibility for fruit to form. If you prune it in fall,
after the fruit is formed, you'll be taking off the
flower buds. So no pruning required. And again, as long
as you're spacing it properly, you won't even have to
prune it. This plan is just going to sit around
and look gorgeous and take high maintenance areas and transform
them into low maintenance. So take a look at red
balloon viburnum on our website Gardening Simplified on Air dot com,
and you can decide if it's going to earn a
spot in your garden. We're gonna take a little break.
When we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bag,
so please stay tuned. 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 and 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. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show, where it's time for us to So
you're burning gardening questions, Maybe they're not burning, Maybe they're
just little curiosities you have. I mean, we can tell
you as much as anyone else that when you're out
in the garden, all sorts of crazy things can happen
and you wonder what's going on, and if so, we're
here for you. You can reach us at help HLP
at Gardening Simplified on Air dot com, or just go
to Gardening simplified on air dot com and send us
a message there. You can also leave a comment on
YouTube if you are a YouTube viewer, and Adriana will
let us know she needs some help answer your question.
We'll get back to you there as well. And this
first question, I'm glad that it came up because it
is one that I have heard many times in my
years here at proven Winner's Color.
Speaker 1: Choice, Jessica writes to us, I have a reoccurring issue
with my approximately ten year old blacklace elderberry. Every year
it starts getting droopy leaves and branches. I cut it
back and the branches have holes down the center like
there's a bor present. However, I never find a bore
despite cutting back to intact growth. Any thoughts, I ideas
or a suggestion, So, Jessica, is zone six B Southwest Ohio, Yes.
Speaker 2: Where elderberry grows native. In fact, elderberry grows native throughout
a great deal of the US. We have a lot
of native elderberry, both our native red elderberry and our
regular summer elderberry Sambucus canadensis. And since we do have
so much native elderberry growing around here in the US
and Canada, we have a native borer that finds the
European varieties like black lace just as appealing as they
find are native varieties, because actually the European variety Sambucus
nigra is by some taxon mis considered to be a
subspecies of Sambucus canadensis, so they're very very closely related.
Now the elderberry bor, there are actually two different elder borers.
One is a moth and one is a wasp. Whichever
one you have, it doesn't really matter all that much
because the treatment, if you want to treat them, is
the same. And the first thing I want to say though,
is that it's not necessary to treat them. I know,
especially on a big, beautiful, mature black lace like you
have here, Jessica, it can be very alarming to see
all of a sudden those parts of foliage start wilting
all over. But this is a plant that gets big.
So speaking of big shrubs, this was actually a second
place contender for today's Plants on Trial because it is
also big. It can I mean, I have seen black
lace get to be easily ten by ten. Elderberry is
a big shrub, so they can easily withstand some of
this damage. It looks very dramatic, but it's actually not
that bad for the plant. And the reason, Jessica, that
you're not finding the actual borders themselves is because by
the time you are seeing that wilting in the branch,
it's because the boer has left the building the elderberry
as it were. So basically what happens is the adults
will lay eggs in the plant, probably sometime in the
next month or so, and then those will hatch out.
The borers will feed in the plant. Feeding in the
plant isn't really that much of a problem, but come
next June, when they have pupaid it and are ready
to emerge, then they're going to chew a little hole
to get out of the stem, free themselves from inside
the stem, and that's what causes that wilting. So the
thing is that the borers cannot live in wood that
is two years old or younger because the stem diameter
is not large enough to accommodate their squishy bodies. And
so one thing that you can do is to simply
cut the plant back every year or every other year.
If you cut it back every year, the plant will
stay smaller. You'll have a lot of beautiful foliage, but
it won't flower. If you take the every other year approach,
then you will have flowers every other year, and that
will actually make sure that all of the growth on
the plant stays young enough that the borers can never
take up residence in it. Now, of course, you have
a ten year old plant. I don't necessarily think that
it is practical for you to think about cutting this
whole thing back to the ground. If you're willing to
do that, it will certainly recover. If you do decide
to cut back an elderberry for this reason or any reason,
the best time to do that is in spring. If
you cut it back basically anytime from June through November,
it's very very slow to recover. So you should not
prune elderberries in any severe way after spring. But overall,
even though it's a little bit disappointing and a little
bit alarming, it's not a cause for concern. Their populations
stay very small and controlled, and you don't necessarily need
to manage it. And if you want toup put some
resources in the show notes at Gardening Simplified on air
dot com. But overall, you know, most universities when they're
talking about the elderbors in terms. Unless you're growing elderberry
for commercial production of the fruit, they say, just tolerate it,
just live with.
Speaker 1: It, and it acts or has an effect on the
planet similar to a squash vine bore yea and squash
and causing that wilting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's much more detrimental in a squash from
you'll lose your entire zucchini in that case, whereas with
especially a very mature black lace, it's again it's it's
not a problem. You can just prune those little wilted
branches out and uh then call it a day.
Speaker 1: Elaine writes to us. Last year, I transplanted two rhubarb
plants from a shady spot into my sunny, fenced in garden.
They were growing beautifully up until the last two weeks.
One of the plants started to turn yellow, and now
many of the leaves are turning brown, and the second
plant is also starting to turn yellow. Any ideas what's
happening and how to prevent this from happening again next year?
And this is uh, this is a pretty common problem
that we see Stacey with the with rhubarb from time
to time.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I have I grow rhubarb, which is to say,
I have some rhubarb in my garden that struggles because
I don't water it enough. So I knew instantly when
I saw Elaine's photos of her big, beautiful robust rubarb,
watering was not the issue. So mine stay very small
because I don't water them. But yeah, this is a
leaf spot. It is known as rhubarb leaf spot or
asko kaita leaf spot. And you know, when it comes
to leaf spots with plants, I often tell people it
doesn't matter all that much what the exact leaf spot
you have is, because the way you deal with them
is always the same. If you don't want to use pesticides,
very simple solution. Of course, you don't want to use
pesticides on your rhubarb, very simple solution. When the foliage
dies back, and I think you can go ahead and
take the foliage it's very yellow now, and just cut that.
Make sure that you gather that all up and throw
it away in the garbage. Don't compost it, because what
happens is those fungal leaf spots. So think about a mushroom.
A mushroom grows opens its skills, those spores come out
and those make mush in the future. Well, even though
a leaf spot is not exactly like a mushroom, those
fruiting bodies, so which you're actually seeing when you see
the leaf spot, is the fungus itself having you know,
as a fruiting body. If you leave those under the plant,
all winter spring is going to come, the roobarb is
going to start to grow. Sure, that foliage is going
to be so soft, so tender, it's not going to
have a waxy cuticle yet, and those conditions are going
to be right for those sports just come right back
up onto the plant. Now, that doesn't always happen if
we have a dryer spring, or there's other factors that
maybe aren't as ideal for the fungus to grow, But
simply taking care of all of that foliage and discarding
it will make a huge, huge difference.
Speaker 1: The foliage is so pretty on rubierb. And in the
seventeenth century in England, when they decided, hey, let's eat
this plant, they made the mistake of eating the full
left first idea has the oxalic acid or whatever in it,
and people got very, very sick, and so it kind
of set back that plant about a century or so
until somebody came up with a great idea, let's use
the stalks and make pies out of rhubarb, and then
the plant regained its popular popularity. The plant, of course,
also can suffer from crown rot, so you want to
make sure. This is a classic example of one of
those plants where you want good humus in the soil,
good organic material, maybe side dressing with some manure, but
it's got to have good drainage too, or you run
into problems.
Speaker 2: And enough water or you will also run into problems,
as I can tell you because I have never gotten
a harvest off my roobarb. The poor thing just limps
along all season long, looking very sad. But that advice
that we gave to Elane that will work for any
plant that you have that has leaf spot. Just do
your best to get it out of there and that
will help a great deal and.
Speaker 1: Real quickly, Angie wrote to us, I just picked up
seven Brandon cedars arbor Viti to create a hedge in
our zone three yard, Alberta, Canada. Yes, it was a
great deal, so I jump on buying them before doing
much research. How can I ensure I'm successful and keep
them growing happy for years to come.
Speaker 2: So overall, arborvid are very easy to grow. They're very amenable.
In fact, they're probably native to Alberta, so don't have
to do a whole lot to keep them happy. I
would say average moisture, good drainage is important. They can
take short periods of wet soil, but you want them
to grow in the illustrious, moist yet well drained soil.
Mulch is super crucial because they do have very shallow,
fibrous roots, so mult will really help keep those roots
insulated in the winter and cool and growing well in
the summer, which is key to establishment and healthy growth.
And you know, probably the only issue that you're going
to have to worry about is potentially, I don't know
how bad the bagworm situation is up in Alberta, but
certainly down here in the US, especially in more urban areas,
the bagworms can be a huge problem and completely disfigure
the plant. So you're just going to want to, you know,
do some research. I can post some links in the
show notes on what to look for for bagworms, and
they're pretty easy to manage, but you just don't want
to let the they if they are there, let them
get away from you, because then they will really proliferate
and become very difficult to manage without chemicals.
Speaker 1: In such a beautiful area Alberta, Canada.
Speaker 2: That's where my grandmother was born.
Speaker 1: Wonderful. Yeah, I've been there a few times. What a
gorgeous yes.
Speaker 2: So anyway, thank you all so much for your questions.
If you have a question, you can reach us at
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. We need to take a
little break and when we come back, we're going to
be talking fall planting, so please stay tuned. The Gardening
Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners Color
Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have
been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy
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Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local
garden center.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Yardening Simplified Show and our labor
saving show. And what better thing to talk about in
the final segment than fall is for planting? Because I
have to be honest with you, Stacy, this is one
of my favorite topics. Maybe it's because for years I
was a garden center owner operator, and you were trying
to generate some business during the fall period. You know,
in spring, the business comes at you hot and heavy,
and it's a crazy time in fall. You know, both
you and I aren't the biggest fans of mums. Let's say,
am I correct in sack? Okay? But there are many
many alternatives that can be used to mums. But the
reality is that fall is a fabulous time of the
year to establish plants. Because the temperatures cool down, the
plant does not focus on top growth. Roots establish, and
even here in Michigan, Stacy, I believe that we get
root establishment well into November May. I even dare say December,
as the air temperature's plummet, the roots still have an
opportunity to grow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if the temperature is in the is
fifty or over, root growth will continue. And so there
is about, as I recall, don't quote me on this,
I think a three hour leg between air temperature and
soil temperature. So even if you have, you know, a
day where it's in the fifties for a short period
in sunny you're still going to have root growth. You know,
during that day and you know, a lot of people
will ask me they planted something, they're not happy with
how it's doing. Why isn't it flowering, Why isn't it growing?
I said, it is growing. It's just that the growth
is underground. Because when you plant something, whether you plant
it and fallow your planet in spring or summer, whatever,
what a planet is going to do is say, well, shoot,
I got to put roots down because roots are what
is going to get me through anything that is going
to come my way. I can't deal with any challenges
unless I have a good root system. And as we've
said before, a plant's roots grow directly determine how much
a plant is going to grow on top. This is
why we have bone side plants because if you restrict
the root room, you restrict the top growth. And similarly,
if the root growth starts to develop, it is then
able to respond with an equal amount of top growth. Now,
if you do that in spring, the plant is sitting
there going whoa, I got to put on root growth.
I also have to put on top growth because it's
spring and I'm growing, and the days are lengthening and
it's warm, and you know, and it has to spread
its energies over many more functions, whereas in fall it
really can put all of its energies into root growth
because it's still photosynthesizing with all of those nice sunny
fall days, taking all that energy storing it and it
doesn't have to worry about supporting all that flowers and
foliage and all of that other stuff through the coming months.
It's like, Hey, I'm an easy street, I'm just growing roots.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that. And you know, we've talked about
in the past that in urban settings, we go out
there in the fall and we're leaf blowing and bagging
and we're cleaning everything up, whereas in woodland areas, the
trees are benefiting from the leaves and the debris that
falls off of trees. I've always said that money grows
on trees. The leaves have nutrient value, they have organic
tilt value, and so something that I was taught years
ago and I've done it every year, Stacey, and that
is I have a number of arborist friends and my
son is also an arborist, and they are big proponents
of fertilizing shade trees and larger trees. In mid to
late October in the north as the leaves are falling
off the trees, fertilize the trees, and the tree roots
are able to take in those nutrients. Those nutrients are there,
and the tree is healthier and off to a better
start next spring. Would you buy into Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think, you know, the key to making
a fertilizer available to a plant is weathering. So weathering
can happen through rain and wind and the soil, but
having that extra you know, part of the leaf over
it that is really going to accelerate that weathering. And
you know, mid to late October is late enough that
you don't have to worry about late season fertilization pushing
any growth because the plant's already well on its way
to dormancy. So yeah, I mean I generally for most people,
for homeowners, in terms of fertilizing shrubs, I do recommend
more like late winter, early spring. But yeah, for trees
that's a totally different situation.
Speaker 1: And if you're a lawn person, you want to have
a nice green lawn, fall is the time of year
to care for it. And I think what I have
seen through the years is if you don't fertilize your
lawn at all, if there's one time of the year
you want to fertilize your lawn, and that is in fall.
You see people make the mistake in spring. They you know,
it's they're excited it's spring. They put a fertilizer down,
and now they're behind the lawnmower every other night after work.
It falls a great time to apply that fertilizer again
for root establishment with turf, and then more importantly, to
identify any weed issues you have, whether it's in your
turf or in your garden or in your landscape, because
many of your winter annual weeds create what we would
call rosettes in the fall, so harry bittercress or henbit.
If you teach yourself what these weeds look like, you
can identify them in fall and they're not going to
become a big problem in spring. And even perennial weeds
like dandelions. Again, if you were to use an herbicide,
it translocates into the root system because the weeds stacey
are doing the same thing the trees are doing, and
that is they're shutting down for winter. And the theory
is you do get good translocation into the root system
as opposed to just top kill right.
Speaker 2: And I think all of this points to a single idea,
and that is, if you go to the garden center
infall to buy your moms, to buy your pumpkins, your scarecrow,
what are your cornstocks, whatever it is, don't stop there.
Go into the garden center. Look for the fertilizers. You know,
it's exactly what you said is everybody thinks about it
in spring, but fall is a whole second opportunity and
a lot of us go to the garden center anyway,
whether it's a box store or an independent garden center.
So don't just stop there at the moms. Go in,
you know, look for shrubs, perennials, trees, look at the
fertilizer selection. There is so much opportunity that people are
missing out on. And you know, we've been talking about
labor throughout the episode today, and you know, I personally
believe and certainly our listeners can tell me if they disagree.
Planting stuff is labor that people don't mind. That is
labor they are happy to do because it's so rewarding,
it's fun. You feel like you're making a long term
investment in yourself, and so why would you miss out
on this? Whole season of you know, beautiful temperatures. Who
doesn't love being outside on a beautiful fall day. You can.
I have the World Series on the radio there and
some hot cider. It's win, win, win.
Speaker 1: And here's the beautiful little secret. Not only do you
get that benefit, and not only is it a great
time to put plants in the ground, perennial, shrubs, trees,
that sort of thing, the odds are you're going to
get a bargain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, I mean I wasn't going to go there,
but let's go there.
Speaker 1: I'll go there because having operated a garden center, you know,
I'm out there in September, October, and even November looking
for bargains. And you may pick up this plant which
looks very sad, and you feel bad for this plant,
and it looks awful. By next spring, that thing's going
to be gorgeous and it's going to look like you
bought it and it's in all its glory. Yeah, great
time of the year to buy plan.
Speaker 2: I mean, let's face it, any garden center owner will
tell you, especially with shrubs and perennials and trees, if
that stuff doesn't sell, they've got to deal with it.
That means they got to drag it into some you know,
quansit hut or something like that, or cover it. It's
more work for them. And trust me, by the time
fall rolls around, they are done with labor. You think
you're done with labor, and the garden garden center owners
are way done with labor. And so yeah, there are
really good deals to be had. And I think a
lot of people have some hesitation about planting in fall,
But honestly, that really, I feel like, goes back to
the olden days when everything was bald and burlapped and
you didn't dig a lot of stuff in fall. But
now that almost everything in our garden centers is contain
or grown, there is very little that you can't safely
plant in fall. The only exception I'm going to say,
especially for those of us who live in colder climates
a USDA Zone six or colder, avoid planting broad leaf evergreens. Now,
if you get a good deal, you're going to do it. Anyway.
I'm going to do the same thing. But it's not
you know, like boxwood, rhododendrons. Those are the kind of
things that I would say you generally want to shy
away from planting infall, because even though they're going to
have some times to put on roots, they're going to
have a lot of challenges because they do have those
broad leaves that they're going to have to withstand sun
and wind and all of those other things through winter
that you know, they aren't going to be able to
do if they don't have a good root system. So
those are the only things I would avoid. But even
then I feel like if you do that early enough
in September, it's probably not going to be an issue.
And conifers are not an issue because they are already
adapted to, you know, having lower water needs and with
standing winter.
Speaker 1: So instead, let me throw in a plug for my
Dutch family and friends in the Netherlands. Plant bulbs at least,
especially if you are in a northern or a central
US climate up into Canada, great time of the year
to plant bulbs, tulips, hyacinths, and of course if you
struggle with deer fritile areas, aliums and even Dutch bulb
iris are fantastic and when they pop up in spring
the deer we'll leave them alone.
Speaker 2: And you know what, no one ever regrets planting bulbs.
Doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Thanks for tuning in
the Gardening Simplified Show. Thanks for making it a habit.
Remember we're on YouTube. We also do a radio show
here and a podcast. It's three and one. Yep, bonus time,
just like fall planting exactly. Thanks Stacy, Thanks Adriana, and
thanks to you for your support of our show. Have
a great week.