Speaker 1: Coming to you from the Iconic Studio a at proven
winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Podcast,
YouTube and radio show with Stacy Hervella me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: In the US trends and statistics show people are moving
to Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Georgia for domestic migration. The
leaders are by far Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee,
and Georgia. And I think they're getting a lot of
people from the bottom three Illinois, New York and California.
I'm going to guess it has less to do with
gardening and more to do with cost of living, winter, climate, taxation,
all those kinds of things. If it's about gardening and
the best year round weather, the top three states arguably
are California, Hawaii, and Florida. Now, Stacy, for me, I
really like a change of seasons, the change of pace.
But it's no wonder that plant breeders more and more
have focused on plants that are heat tolerant versus cold tolerance.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, heat tolerance is an issue. There are
many climates, even in the Midwest. I always like to say,
shout out to those people in Missouri. You've kind of
got the worst of both worlds. You get really cold
and it gets really really hot, and I can't imagine
gardening like that. I mean, it sounds like such a challenge.
So even if you live in what would be considered
like a mild or cool climate, you could definitely still
need plants that can easily tolerate you know, periods of
one hundred degree temperatures or more for several days. That's
not uncommon nowadays.
Speaker 2: Great point.
Speaker 1: Well, we have our issues in the Midwest like snowstorm winters,
road salt, and we have corn sweat in summer. A
lot of people have never heard of corn sweat before,
but when the corn is actively growing and it's transpiring
out in the fields, they say it really pumps out
the humidity in the Midwest and you can feel it
corn sweat.
Speaker 3: I've been hearing about that quite a bit lately. Yeah,
although it does not seem to be affecting us as
of late, the temperatures have plunged, has the humidity.
Speaker 1: It feels fall like all of a sudden here in Michigan.
But as Alan Armitage told us a few weeks ago,
he said, it's easier to garden in the north than
in the south.
Speaker 2: His opinion.
Speaker 1: So I thought I'd give us a quick limb a
rick to start us off today. And my limerick is
ballad of a northern transplant. I faced northern winters with accidity,
sold my house. Now I've got liquidity. I learned through
word of mouth to garden, you gotta go south and
put up with the heat and humidity. I long or
a cool, gentle breeze. I'm surrounded by drooping leaves. My
plants aren't the only thing wilting like me. They are
slightly tilting. It feels like a bajillion degrees. And I
put together that limerick for our guest on today's show,
Bri Arthur. She's joining us today on the show. She's
a best selling author and gardening personality. Brie is widely
known for her leadership with the National Foodscape movement, and
she has lively and informative packed presentations. I've attended a
number of them, and with the more than two decades
of professional horticultural experience, she's a long time contributor on
the Emmy award winning PBS television show.
Speaker 2: Growing a Greener World.
Speaker 1: So if you want to follow Bri as I do,
briegrows dot Com or her social media and YouTube channel
Breathe the Plant. Lady, Bri, thanks for joining us and
the Gardening Simplified Show and helping us with this conundrum
of comparing northern garden with gardening in the South.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for having me. It's always such a
treat that I was having to really not laugh out
loud during your limerick, but it's pretty accurate.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, and I stole that phrase from you, Bree,
because I do follow you on YouTube and many times
you'll be standing out there demonstrating something and you'll say
something like it's a bajillion degrees out here, and I
believe you.
Speaker 4: You know, We've had a few days where I thought
my skin was going to melt off my body.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, we want to get a little help from you
today and we'll be interviewing you in our fourth segment
about this comparison between gardening in the North and South.
Speaker 2: Stacy.
Speaker 1: We get comments and mail from people on this topic.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, a lot, because because of exactly so you described,
a lot of people are moving, they get a new home,
they're excited to landscape it, and then they find out,
oh my gosh, I can't grow my beloved lilacs, I
can't grow my beloved peonies, and they feel a bit
on moard. I mean, I've I've said it on the
show before, but I cannot tell you how many gardeners
I've heard from who moved to a hot climate and
we're just like, what do you mean, I can't grow lilacs?
Like what is even going on here now? To me,
it is definitely a question of the grass is always
greener on the other side, because I can enumerate a
number of plants that I would love to grow if
I lived in a warmer climate. To me, that would
be a very exciting opportunity. And I don't think I
would miss lilacs one bit. But it's very hard for
people to leave behind what's familiar and learn to face
these challenges, not just in plant selection, but also in
you know, dealing with humidity, dealing with drought, dealing with
prolonged periods of high tempers and especially high night time temperatures.
Speaker 1: So, Brie, you recently gave a talk at the J. C.
Ralston Arboretum at North Carolina State, which I believe is
just up the road from you. What I've learned as
a Southern transplant, are we on the right track here?
Speaker 4: You are one hundred percent hitting it, and you know
it's I've been here twenty two years. I did move
here for climate. I decided early on I didn't want
to have to do snow removal as part of my
career path. And we have such an influx of Northerners
moving here, and it's really important to have events like
what the Ralston just held to try and educate the
people so that they don't feel this crushing disappointment when
everything that they do sales and it's what they used
to do successfully in other climates. It really is like
moving to a different planet when you come to the South.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's that shocking to the system. Well, I noticed,
based on a description of your talk, you said, my
program covers a lot focusing on the importance of soil seasons,
which are dramatically different there plant selections, including annuals and perennials.
You know, when I follow you breed to try to
learn some things, I see you walk up to a
bed saying, well, I want to retro fit this bed
and dig up the plants and change things for next year.
But I'm going to wait until the weather gets cooler
in December. You want to know what I'm doing in December, breath,
I'm shoveling snow.
Speaker 4: It's so accurate, you know. And that's the absolute hardest
habit to break. I've recently gone through this with my parents,
who you know, retired from Michigan and relocated to ake
in South Carolina, and five years in and they still
can't break some of the northern habits.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Are the plant varieties that you grow in North Carolina,
Brie all that much different from what we grow in Michigan.
You know.
Speaker 4: It's not that they're that different, it's their performance might
be very different, or the plants here might not get
as large. Hosses are a great example. We don't have
enough cold till hours. They don't have proper dormancy in
the winter, so they don't get to be the size
of shrubs. In North Carolina. You have in a few years.
And I sort of dwindle away in part because of
deer and fowls and rabbits, but also just because the
ground doesn't freeze, and plants like hosses and peonies, they
appreciate that cold, dormant period that you get in the north.
Speaker 1: You know, that's really interesting. Brie on a show a
couple of weeks ago, we had doctor Allan Armitage on
the show, and he of course is from Quebec, Canada,
studied at Michigan State University. But he said gardening is
much easier in the North than the South because up
north the plants are either beautiful or dead one or
the other, whereas in the South they kind of linger
or hang on like your hostas we have.
Speaker 4: This you know, hope springs eternal, you never quite know.
I fully agree with Alan, having lived in both climates.
There's also a lot to be said for having that
rest period in the winter where you aren't actively transplanting
things and you know, working in your garden on a
regular basis. Here it's a twelve month cycle. In fact,
I've actually gone so far as to recommend to a
lot of people that they take June, July and August
off from gardening, and they really only garden from September May,
because the summers are becoming less and less enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Now that makes a lot of sense. Coming up in
our fourth segment, stick Around, Brie is going to give
us advice on gardening in the South, especially if you're
a transplant from a northern region. This is gonna be
great and we're looking forward to that. In segment four,
coming up next, we'll hear from Stacy in Plants on
Trial how she's going to tie it in this week.
Speaker 2: I can't wait.
Speaker 1: That's coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 3: Prooven 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 in
the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greening's
Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where the order of the day is the grass is
always greener. On the other side, you know that people
often do think if only I could grow this, I
would be happy, and I feel that. You know the
other day my husband said to me, if you could
grow an avocado tree, would you I was like, two,
I couldn't. You can't give me enough act because if
I could grow an avocado tree, I could grow lemons
and oranges and limes and all of these great things.
But of course all the people who can grow those
things are probably sitting around going, I really wish I
could grow blah blah blah. So whatever wherever you're at, no,
there is always someone who's wishing they could grow what
you take for granted, if that's any comfort whatsoever. I
know for me, I don't know if I'd want a
garden in a humid climate, but definitely like an arid
Californian Mediterranean climate, I think I would be very very happy.
Speaker 1: And you know, I love humidity, but I'm strange. Forgive me,
I'm only humid.
Speaker 3: Well, you have short hair, so you don't have to
worry about, you know, getting big hair from the humidity
and all that. But you know, obviously we're talking about
temperature and gardening in hot climates versus cold climates. And
I wanted today's plant on trial to be a plant
that is from a warm climate, or is commonly grown
in warm climates, but can actually be grown in cool
climates as well. And I think that with the advent
of the Internet, obviously that's been a while now, but
that it has really changed the way that people think
about a lot of plants, because you know, for many,
many years, garden centers aren't really going out of limb
and saying like, oh, hey, this is a cool plant,
maybe it will survive for you. But now there's all
of these discussion groups and Facebook groups and all of
that where people are sharing their experience and they're starting
to learn that things can be grown that maybe for
many many years it was just assumed that things weren't
as hardy. And one great example of that is crape myrtle.
Speaker 2: What a great choice.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say
about this because you've shown me crape myrtle in the
garden here and it is stunning.
Speaker 3: It is stunning. And you know, I was thinking that
a lot of people from the North when they travel
to the South, they see crape myrtles, but they don't
really understand what's so special about them, because they're not
usually in the South in the summer, and that is
when crate myrtles excel, and so if you're not familiar
with them, they are honestly one of the most floriferous
flowering shrubs or trees, and most of them are trees,
but there are shrubby varieties. In today's plant on trial
is a shrubby crape myrtle. But they are just I mean,
they'll take your breath away. They are just positively covered
in thousands and thousands of super vivid flowers, and I
mean you can't not notice them. They're just they take
all the attention, and they are They also have really
nice bark, so that's another great feature. That's what most
people will notice about them if they are traveling, you
know south in the winters. Beautiful smooth bark. But you know, overall,
their foliage is just kind of there. They do have
good folk color overall, but their foliage is just not
really their strong suit. So there has long been this
desire to have crape myrtles that have more interesting foliage,
and that's where the Center Stage series of crape myrtle
come in. They have black foliage, so I mean really
not kind of purply, it's really quite a true black.
And there are three different colors of the Center Stage
crape myrtles, each one with black foliage. So there's center
stage red, which we've already covered on the show. There's
center stage coral, which is kind of like a light
slightly orange pink, and then center stage pink, which is
today's plant on trial, which has vivid, bright fuchia flowers
that just absolutely pop against that dark black foliage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the flowers look fluorescent to me. And whenever I
fly south and get off the airplane and you go
hail a cab, usually that drive out of the airport
is usually lined with crape myrtle.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know they And that's that says so much
about how crape myrtles are so easy to grow, they're
so durable because they are extensively used as street trees.
You can go down to New Orleans and they line
the avenues in the parks down there, absolutely on airports,
and they're super popular as a home, you know, landscape
plant as well. Because they're very easy to grow, they
are very durable. As is common in the South, there
are some pests that specifically prey on crape myrtle, some
bark scales just because you don't have that killing frost
that we tend to get up here, but still they
shoulder that burden without problem, and every single year they
just bloom like crazy.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm anxious here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna jump ahead then, Stacy, because I'm sold on
center stage, pink crape myrtle. Tell me the USDA Hardiness
zone please, right.
Speaker 3: So most crape myrtles, for many, many years were thought
only to grow down to USDA Zone seven, okay, but
they actually most of them will easily grow in USDA
Zone six, some not center stage specifically, even down to
USDA Zone five, And so we're really starting to find
out that they are much more cold tolerant now. In
these colder areas, most of these crape myrtles are going
to die back to the ground, especially if you've had
a hard winter. But the thing is they're able to
come right back up despite the fact that they're woody plants.
They come right back up from their roots and grow
and flower because they flower on new woods. So having
that frost die back over winter doesn't It means you
still get all of that great color. And everybody in
your neighborhood is going to be like, oh my gosh,
what is that because they don't even know that they
can grow them in the first place. So we put
USDA Zone six B on center stage. Crape myrtle that
black foliage that makes them so unique and distinctive does
mean that they are a little less hardy than other
green leafed crape myrtles that are out there. So if
you are in zone five five or zone six A
and you want to try a crape myrtle, center stage
would not be the best one to start with. But
if you're in zone six B, as we are here
in West Michigan, we have had great survival. They will
go on to grow and flower even if they dive
back to the ground, which they actually don't do every year.
And again, these are shrubby crape myrtles, So if you're
trying a crate myrtle in a cool climate, you want
to go for these shrubby types rather than the tree types,
because the tree types will never be able to form
that trunk and grow into that tree. But the shrubby types,
they're multi stemmed, they are the ones that are more
capable of regenerating after really really harsh weather. In Center
stage is definitely one of those. Now, one of the
things that I think is really interesting about crate myrtles
When you see them, all you see is the color
and you just see this big, massive flowers. But when
you kind of zoom in, so to speak, and look
at an individual flower, they are so unique and so
intricate you really kind of can't believe your eyes when
you're actually looking at an individual flower. And these are
in the Lithraci family, so that is the loose strife family. Now,
don't panic. I know most people are going to a
panic when they hear that, especially in the Midwest, because
purple lue strife is such a terrible invasive plant for us.
But just because they're related does not mean they're a problem.
Crape myrtles very rarely set seed and grow even in
hot climates where they would be perfectly at home, so
you don't have to worry about this spreading. But it's
actually a pretty interesting plant family. So when you look
at this flower, of course, it's the flowers that group
plants into families. It is related to pomegranate, so pomegranate
is also in the lithrace as is another invasive but
very interesting plant, the water caltrop Trepa newtens, which is
an aquatic plant. It was very common in the Hudson
River in New York, and they make these really cool
seeds they're kind of charcoally black. They're really fun to
play with. Also in that same family, so it's kind
of a really unusual mix of plants. And when you
look at the flowers of all of them. I know,
I was reading the Wikipedia page on the THREEC today
and it said the petals often appear crumpled, and that
is kind of actually the case. And it's really cool
to see the crape myrtle flowers come. The way that
they are arranged in the bud and the way that
they open. It's just a really really unique plant. And
because this is a shrubby variety, the center stage series
is they're going to be down there where you can
actually see them because in those large trees like that
they use for street trees in the South, you don't
get to engage with the flowers because they're usually pretty
high up on the tree. So these shrubby ones allow
you to get up close to really enjoy how unique
they are. And will of course have pictures of those
in the show notes at Gardening Simplified on Air dot
Com as well as in the YouTube version. If you
are watching that, you'll see what I mean with these
really really unique flowers. Now we did. The Center Stage
series was developed by Megan Mattai, our breeder here at
Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, who has been on the
show before, and she spent a lot of time developing
these because she we needed them to be powdery mildew resistant,
and any other black foliage crape myrtles that have been
on the market previously were susceptible to powdery mildew. This
is something that's not uncommon for black foliage plants. Whether
it is that they are more susceptible in and of themselves,
or just that the powdery mildew really stands out on
that dark foliage, or a combination of both. I don't know,
but it was really important that these varieties be very,
very resistant to powdery mildew. So if you want to
try it, they are disease resistant, but you are going
to want to put them in full sun, so at
least six hours of bright sun every day.
Speaker 2: Full sun. Are they drought resistant?
Speaker 3: They are going to be very drought tolerant once they
are established. Of course, it's always you know, you got
to get them there, make sure they get that good
root system down. But yeah, I mean that's why they're
able to grow as urban street trees because they can
withstand long periods of drought.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating information, Stacy. I thought the water coltrup was
an Olympic sporting event, so I wrote it down here
and I'm going to look that up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look at it's a quite interesting plant and you
will never suspect it's related to today's plan on trial
center stage pink crape myrtle. So we're going to take
a little break right now and when we come back
and open up that garden mailed eggs, 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. Greetings, gardening friends,
and welcome come back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where
it's our time to help you in the garden. And
of course, as fall is coming, people have so many questions.
What do I do? What don't I do? And remember
the answer is always winning out. Don't just don't wait
until you know what to do to make a decision.
It's a lot easier to correct something you didn't do
usually than something that you shouldn't have done and did,
if that makes any sense. But we've all been there,
not just for gardening, but especially for gardenings. This is
how gardening informs every aspect of life. The things you
learn at growing plants can can make can make a
difference in all aspects of your life. But if you
do have a question, you are most welcome to reach
out to us at help HLP, at Gardenings Simplified on
air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified on air
dot com. We've got a contact form there, and you
can even ask us a question on YouTube by leaving
a comment and we'll make sure that we get back
to you if you have a question there. And what
do we got in the mail bag today?
Speaker 1: Well sage advice there, Stacey and I agree fall fabulous
time to be out there gardening. Karma writes, does zucchini
have a short life cycle? I planted six zucchini.
Speaker 2: You think I'm.
Speaker 1: Crazy, but I have had horrible squash vine borer kills
so many, so I planted a lot. To my surprise,
all lived and I supplied my neighborhood for a few weeks.
Then out of nowhere, approximately second week in August, four
of them stop producing turned yellow.
Speaker 2: I just took these pictures.
Speaker 1: They aren't dead. What do you think happened? I live
in zone five.
Speaker 2: Bet Okay.
Speaker 3: So she goes on to say a master gardener in
Utah said, we don't have squash vine borer in Utah
yet when I've seen a little moth that has the
same coloring as a squash vine borer, a moth, a
pumpkin or zucchini Wilson dies with in days, is the
squash vine bor this far west or not?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: Karma? I want you to know that I feel your pain,
because you know when people make those jokes about you know,
national sneak zukin me onto your neighbor's porch. Don't leave
your car unlocked or it's going to be full of zucchini.
I have had a similar experience to you, where I
always get squash vine bor, and I'm very jealous of
all these people who have more zucchini than they can
handle because my plants and you know, here in Michigan,
the squash vine borer hits just as they start producing,
so you don't even get like a little bit before
they destroy the plant. If you're not familiar with this,
it is a moth larva. So the little caterpillar they
lay the eggs, it goes into the squash vine and
it actually lives in those hollow stems, and it makes
its way down into the main stem of the plant
and can actually completely detach the plant from its roots,
in which case, of course, it doesn't produce anymore. So
good anya to not have that problem this year. I
actually did have a successful zucchini harvest this year, and
one of the reasons why, I think, is because I
planted it much later than I usually do, so instead
of planting, you know, in May when most people are
planting zucchini, just because my garden wasn't ready and we
were doing so much work in the yard, I didn't
plan until about the second week of June, and so
my zucchini harvest is actually just coming in now. But
I think I kind of missed that crime squash for
you know time. So Karma for your first question, Yes,
zucchini absolutely does have a short life cycle. It's nothing
that you're doing. It's not like you can keep watering
it or do something special to it to keep it growing.
It fruits. It's done. That's just how it is. And
if you want a continuous harvest of zucchini, the best
thing you can do is to continue to sow the
zucchini seeds through the season. So what you would do
is go ahead and make that first sewing, you know,
in early May, and then three to you know, four
or five weeks later, make a second sewing of zucchini,
and you can even probably do a third one three
to four weeks after that because it will you'll see
how many days takes from germination on your seed packet.
It will usually say like fifty four days, and that
will be you know, roughly when you can harvest after germination,
so you can kind of do the math based on
your season. But yeah, that's that's just the way that
zucchini is. But now, I did research about squash vine
bore in Utah, and it is true that it is
primarily a pest in the eastern half of the US
and Canada. However, I did read that the squash vine
bore is found in Mexico and Utah is not like
right next door to Mexico, but it's not far and
moths get around, so I don't think it's inconceivable for
squash vine bore to be present in your area. But
as I was researching this, I also discovered that there
are relatives of squash vine boor with very delightful names
pickle worm. Do you ever have a picklewormickle? Pickleworm?
Speaker 2: When the relatives come over, it's trouble.
Speaker 3: And this is so pickleworm. Pickleworm is a relative of
the squash vine board and now it does prey primarily
on cucumbers, but because cucumbers are closely related to squash,
it can prey on squash and melon worm, which again,
like the pickleworm, primarily a predator of melons, but can
absolutely grow on squash, and those are found out west.
So it is possible that what you're seeing is a relative,
or it's also possible that you do indeed have squash
vine or it sounds like from everything you describe, that's
what the problem is. But from the photos that you sent, yeah,
these plants are just they've you know, outlived their usefulness
and they just go dormant. And you can use that
as an opportunity to plant a fall crop, either of
squash or of greens, lettuces, carrots, radishes. There's lots of
different ways that you can then transform that space into
a fall crop to extend your season and gets you
a little bit more to harvest.
Speaker 1: And Karma says that she lives in Zone five B.
I can tell you from experience that when I gets
hot and humid in summer, any of the q kurbets
are also going to struggle with downy mildew or powdery mildew.
Something to watch for too. All of these types of
things Stacey can cause some wilt in short order.
Speaker 3: Yes, definitely. They are very disease prone plants. I have
to confess I'm growing them right now. Both my zucchini
and cucumbers have disease. I'm just living with it.
Speaker 2: Mine does too.
Speaker 1: Joe Anne writes, I'm a listener to the podcast learning
so much. Thank you well, thank you, Joeanne. And I'm
writing to ask for pruning advice. I have a winecraft
black smoke bush on its leap year. First year sleep,
second year creeps, third year leaps and it did some
funky wild growing. It's sent off tall branches that are
bare until the top where there is a poor of
there is a poor of small branches and leaves. It
looks ridiculous and it's top heavy and bends down in
the rain. My instinct is to cut the long branches off,
but I'm not sure where all right.
Speaker 3: So, smoke bush in general, whether it's winecraft black or
royal purple or one of the other many varieties that
are out there, they just do weird things. It is
just an inherent quality that this plant has. They have
some very unusual growth. And particularly no Joanne didn't say,
but particularly if these are plants that you purchased mail
order and there you started with a very small plant,
you're gonna have to do some heavy pruning on them
to try to get them into shape. Now, the good
news is that after they kind of go through this
like awkward teenage phase, you know, roughly in years two
to five they're done like they then they will grow
normal and you won't get this wild and crazy. I
don't even know how to explain it, like pom pom
like growths, funky funky fireworks. Yeah, they're funky, So yes,
I would say go ahead and prune them. You can
prune them any time. At this point it's you know,
it's September. I would probably wait until they are dormant
to prune, just so that they can take in the
energy in the foliage that's on the plant right now,
and then you can pretty much prune it wherever you want,
based on what you want the plant to look like.
So that might mean that you take off that funky
spray of growth and prune below that. It might mean
that you prune off all but one of the branches
in that funky spray of growth to try to get
it to do what you want it to do. Some
people like to grow smoke bush as a multi stem shrub,
some people like to grow it as a small tree.
So it all depends on what your goals are for it.
Just know that wherever you you know, if you cut
off that spray of branches, it is going to branch,
but those branches will then be within the plant. So
whenever this happens, you can feel free to prune it again.
At this point, let the plant take in that energy.
It's just the best practices kind of thing to do.
But then you go ahead and prune it. And we
have a video of a deal with this funny habit
of all smoke bushes. And I will link that in
the show notes for you, Joan, so you can read
and see how we recommend dealing with it.
Speaker 1: Tammy writes to us, my elderly parents take great pride
in their lawn care. They're currently using a service to
try and control weeds and dandelions. It's become a cost
burden to them. Is there something out there, tried and
true that you can recommend for weed control that won't
harm the grass? And I say yes, a multitude of things.
Number One, raise the deck on the lawnmower. You raise
the deck on the lawnmower to the top heyth, you
will naturally control weeds in your yard. Also, be out
there in the fall, feeding it and taking care of weeds.
Fall is the best time of the year for control,
and you're going to find comes spring you'll have far
less weeds if you pay attention to it in fall.
And then, Stacey, I'm a big proponent for corn gluten
on the lawn. I think it makes for a great
fertilizer and also is a great weed preventative. It doesn't
kill weeds, but it keeps weed seed from Germany.
Speaker 3: Right, and that will go out down in the spring.
The corn gluten meal would go down in the spring.
You know, I think the key. You know, those are
all great advice. You can also use a pre emergent
herbicide to prevent seeds from germinating, but of course then
you need to know if you're dealing with perennial weeds
or annual weeds. So it does take a little bit
of research to figure this out and plan what you
can do, but it's absolutely within the realm of do
it yourself. The other thing I would recommend is keep
that lawn growing vigorously, and it sounds like if it's a
point of pride for them, fertilize it, water it, and
the more thick and dense and vigorous your lawn is,
the better it can outcompete any weeds that attempt to
grow in that beautiful, lush carpet.
Speaker 2: Agree and raise that deck.
Speaker 3: And raise the deck. So some easy things that you
can do to hopefully keep the green lawn that they
love and a little bit more green in their pockets.
So thank you all so much for your questions. We're
going to take a little break and when we come
back We're going to have a conversation with Arthur about
gardening in the South, 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
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news and on today's show. As we mentioned in
the first segment in interview with Brie Arthur, now many
of you know of her as Breathe the Plant Lady.
Make sure to check out her YouTube channel, social media
and also go to bregrows dot com. She is an
author and just a wonderful personality who really promotes this
thing we love called gardening. And of course, Brie, you
used to live in Michigan, correct?
Speaker 4: Did I grew up in Monroe also known as fun Row.
It's spent a lot of time at Michigan State as
a foe Atuerat owed all the four hs for introducing
me to horticulture and Michigan is just such a special
place for agriculture, but specifically for ornamental horticulture. It's really
the state that leads the industry. It's really remarkable.
Speaker 1: Well, let's give some pointers to our southern gardeners here.
You you moved from Michigan to the well just south
of the Raleigh area, I believe, in North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Let's start with soil.
Speaker 1: What struck you as far as the soil is concerned,
and what are your recommendations for southern gardeners.
Speaker 4: Well, soil is the key to everything. And the biggest
disadvantage that Southern gardeners have is the fact that the
ground doesn't free and we get a lot of precipitation
in the winter and all all of your good organic
matter literally flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: So the number one thing as a gardener in the
South that you have to sort of adjust psychologically to
is the fact that you're never going to be finished
with soil prep. Every single year you need to add
more organic matter, particularly those fallen leaves that nature provides us.
You know, instead of blowing them away or raking them
or burning them, leave them in your beds. They are
there for a reason. And in the South in particular,
that is the fastest way to improve the ground that
you grow in. Now I find that leaves aren't quite enough,
you probably are still going to have to bring in
some off site substrate, especially if you're living in a
new subdivision where the builder has essentially scraped away anything
that might have been quality soil that's now that it's
sold to stop soil and has left you with something
that might be like the surface of Mars and heavily compacted.
It doesn't absorb water. Usually, it's hydrophobic, and it's a
nightmare to try to dig in, and you know, the
sooner that you can, you know, include organic matter into that.
And then my next recommendation for soil improvement is spending
just a few dollars on some really easy cover crops,
things like di conrads, crimson clover, buckwheat. You know, these
are plants that have more traditional roots literally and agriculture,
but work really quickly to improve hard pan clay, which
is typically what people in the South are dealing with.
And in one rotation with those cover crops, you'll see
an incredible improvement in the porosity and again the retention
of organic matter so that you can start to build
beds and successfully grow plants.
Speaker 1: That's a well grounded advice. What about the seasons, how
do you take advantage of the seasons being different than
what we experience here in the north. November December important
months to be in the garden.
Speaker 4: I would say, you don't plant anything in any time
before November, and it's so counterintuitive. You know, we often
don't have our first killing frost and filled Thanksgiving wow,
and you know, just to give you a reference of
how different the climate is, and you really don't want
to be putting in, particularly woody plants, trees and shrubs
that are in larger sized pops three gallon, five gallon,
seven gallon and larger, you don't want to install those
in the ground anytime before we've started having regular frosts.
And so we always say, you know, fall and winter
are for planting. Summer is just for barely getting by.
And it's the truth, because if you get your shrubs
and trees planted in late autumn early winter, they're much
easier to get established. They're still going to have to
give supplemental water through the spring and summer during that
first year, but far less than if you were to
wait until you know April or May, or god forbid June,
really don't ever plant anything larger than a one ballon
in the South after May.
Speaker 3: Now, bri just so our listeners have context, you are
in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina, right, I am, okay?
And what usc heartiness zone are you considered now?
Speaker 4: So with the recent change, we have now graduated to
zone eight. Okay, I don't trust it. I think, like
a lot of people are saying now, the zone map
that the East Coast uses in contrast to the sun
that map out west doesn't really take into account all
of the climactic information that we probably need to be
thinking about. Average cold temperature is one set of data.
But you know, it doesn't mean that we now can
just without hesitation plant things that were always that are
that are from the zone eight because establishment is so complicated.
We all have that holiday for you since two years
ago that really wiped out a huge portion of the
South with you know, tons of broadly evergreens that have
been in the ground thirty years and died to the
ground or died all together. And we're all very sensitive
now to the temperature fluctuation that the South is experiencing.
And so I worry now with the zone map that
it doesn't take into consideration enough information, and especially for
people in the North who are pretty used to knowing
like zone five is. That's sort of what our entire
gardening perspective is based off of, Like all of the
information on plant tags kind of revolving around zone five.
You know, I grew up with a zone five mafia.
It's quite accurate.
Speaker 2: Oh that's great.
Speaker 4: You know, here in the South, I think the bigger
challenge with figuring out plant establishment is just how unpredictable
the weather patterns can be through the winter season. You know,
we can be seventy degrees and then suddenly go to
fifteen degrees within eight hours, and the plants aren't harden off,
and that's really what causes so much damage. So at
Saint gardening is not for the saint of heart. When
you move to the South, you actually have to develop
bicker skins, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Brie.
Speaker 1: I've always told people there are three types of people
in the world. Those who make things happen, those who
watch things happen, and those who wonder what in the
world just happened? And that's what we're dealing with. As
far as these weather patterns are concerned. It sounds like
you have to be as creative in the South as
we have to be in the north. As a matter
of fact, Stacey, I watched with interest Bree in one
hundred degree weather picking up one of her favorite things,
cattle fence panels from Tractor Supply and using them in
her landscape, not only for deer control, but also to
create these really neat arches to grow your plants on.
Speaker 4: I'm addicted to galvanized steel. It doesn't us and the
termites don't eat it, you know. I always tell people like,
if you want to start with raised head gardening, like
maybe buya a like a feed tank, a galvanized speed
tank from Tractors Supply. It won't disappear into your time
from those horrible termites that are everywhere that you look.
And I have realized that I have a real affinity
for things that I don't have to replace with regularity.
Speaker 1: I hope Tractor Supply is paying you royalties for these commercials.
Speaker 4: You know they aren't, But I have to say I
do appreciate that they're located everywhere, so it's advice that
everyone can take.
Speaker 1: For our Southern gardeners. Down south, I see castor bean
plants growing as big as your house.
Speaker 2: I see egg.
Speaker 1: Plant taller than I am amazing. Do you have to
become a good pruner or make sure that you understand
good pruning practices if you're living in the South.
Speaker 4: I would say yes and no. With regard to vegetables,
we have a rule here tomato cages are for peppers
and eggplants, and tomatoes need cattle panels because they grow
so much bigger, often fifteen twenty foot tall. You know,
we have an April to November frost free season and
these vegetables grow that whole time. And then with pruning,
you know, particularly with shrubs, it's really important to look
and get information from local experts or local garden center
because you can't in the South always trust the information
that's on that plant tag.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we you know, we do plant tags,
and they're supposed to go all over the country, So
we do very much rely on local garden centers to
provide that specific information and that specific local insight. And
that's the value really of shopping locally. Is it's not
just that the plants probably didn't go as far and
all of that. But like that, local advice becomes more
and more important the less confident you are gardening there.
Speaker 4: That is exactly true, and you'll better be able to
understand where you should put the plants so then you
don't have to do excessive amounts of pruning. Let's face it,
watching something bloom and grow is more enjoyable than cutting
it down.
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, sure for our listeners, we've got just
a couple moments left here, Brie, can you share a
few plants that maybe struck you as being great plants
to use if you're in the south, particularly if you're
somebody who used the garden in the north now you've moved.
Speaker 2: To the south.
Speaker 1: What are three really good winners you should make sure
to have in your landscape.
Speaker 4: Oh I love this question so much. Okay, without hesitation,
if you are addicted to lilac, you have to grow
osmansis fragrance. Honestly, it's the plant that can justify the heat.
When osmanthis fragrance starts to bloom, which is starting to
right now, your whole life and perspective will change. It
is truly the most magnificent plant. And then, of course,
because I'm a camellia lady and I did not grow
up with camelias, I was introduced to them upon moving
to the South. You know, there are over twenty five
thousand registered Chamelia japonica over three hundred species of camellias.
You live in a warm climate, camellias are your best
option for residential screening that you will also get fabulous
flowers from all winter long. And then one other absolute
favorite beam of sunshine, ultra fragrant, wonderful plant that brings
you joy in January, edgeworthy of crysantha. And truly these
are three taxa that justify what we live through in
the summer, because when these plants bloom in the winter,
you forget about how hot July in August are.
Speaker 3: Well, those are definitely three plants that I personally would
love to grow. Despite the fact that I've been a
lifelong northern gardener. Cameilias are something that I could just
go bananas for. I could just fill my entire yard
with them. I'm crazy about them. So I am glad
to hear that you are taking full advantage of the
opportunities in North Carolina to and osmanthis, Oh my gosh,
just love it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: You can follow breeze gardening journey through her website bree
grows dot com so that's Burie grows dot com, or
her social media her YouTube channel Breath the Plant Lady.
Bree always a joy and a pleasure to talk to you.
Thank you for everything you do for the gardening industry
that we love and all the encouragement you give to people.
And thanks for joining us on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 4: You are so welcome. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Well, that was enlightening and inspiring. I don't think I'm
going to be moving to the South anytime soon, but
if I do, it's good to know what I need
to know to make sure that I am as successful
in gardening is as enjoyable as it is here. So
thank you so much to Brief for your time and
all that great insight. Thank you Rick, thank you Adriana,
and as always, thanks to all of you for listening.
Hope you have a wonderful week.
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